{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_24674/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_24674","id":"gutenberg_24674","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24674","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Ephesians -- Commentaries","Bible. Epistle of John, 1st -- Commentaries","Bible. Peter -- Commentaries","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"E-text prepared by Charles Franks, Colin Bell, and the Project Gutenberg\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)\n\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\n A number of typographical errors have been corrected, and two\n minor changes have been made to the book's formatting. There\n is a full list of emendations at the end. The book's inconsistent\n hyphenation has been preserved, with an educated guess made as\n to whether those hyphens appearing at ends of the line were\n intended by the author, or just added because the word was broken\n at that point.\n\n\n\n\n\nEXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE\n\nALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D.\n\n * * * * *\n\nEPHESIANS\nEPISTLES OF ST. PETER AND ST. JOHN\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNew York\nGeorge H. Doran Company\n\n\n\n\n_EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE_\n\nALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D.\n\nEPHESIANS\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n PAGE\nSAINTS AND FAITHFUL (Eph i. 1) 1\n\n'ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS' (Eph. i. 3) 8\n\n'ACCORDING TO'--I. (Eph. i. 5, 7) 18\n\n'ACCORDING TO'--II. (Eph. i. 7) 26\n\nGOD'S INHERITANCE AND OURS (Eph. i. 11, 14) 35\n\nTHE EARNEST AND THE INHERITANCE (Eph. i. 14) 43\n\nTHE HOPE OF THE CALLING (Eph. i. 18) 52\n\nGOD'S INHERITANCE IN THE SAINTS (Eph. i. 18) 62\n\nTHE MEASURE OF IMMEASURABLE POWER (Eph. i. 19, 20) 72\n\nTHE RESURRECTION OF DEAD SOULS (Eph. ii. 4, 5) 81\n\n'THE RICHES OF GRACE' (Eph. ii. 7) 91\n\nSALVATION: GRACE: FAITH (Eph. ii. 8, R.V.) 98\n\nGOD'S WORKMANSHIP AND OUR WORKS (Eph. ii. 10) 108\n\nTHE CHIEF CORNER-STONE (Eph. ii. 20, R.V.) 118\n\n'THE WHOLE FAMILY' (Eph. iii. 15) 128\n\nSTRENGTHENED WITH MIGHT (Eph. iii. 10) 132\n\nTHE INDWELLING CHRIST (Eph. iii. 17) 142\n\nLOVE UNKNOWABLE AND KNOWN (Eph. iii. 18, 19) 151\n\nTHE PARADOX OF LOVE'S MEASURE (Eph. iii. 18) 162\n\nTHE CLIMAX OF ALL PRAYER (Eph. iii. 19) 171\n\nMEASURELESS POWER AND ENDLESS GLORY (Eph. iii. 20, 21) 180\n\nTHE CALLING AND THE KINGDOM (Eph. iv. 1; Rev. iii. 4) 194\n\n'THE THREEFOLD UNITY' (Eph. iv. 5) 203\n\n'THE MEASURE OF GRACE' (Eph. iv. 7, R.V.) 207\n\nTHE GOAL OF PROGRESS (Eph. iv. 13, R.V.) 216\n\nCHRIST OUR LESSON AND OUR TEACHER (Eph. iv. 20, 21) 224\n\nA DARK PICTURE AND A BRIGHT HOPE (Eph. iv. 22) 233\n\nTHE NEW MAN (Eph. iv. 24) 247\n\nGRIEVING THE SPIRIT (Eph. iv. 30) 262\n\nGOD'S IMITATORS (Eph. v. 1) 270\n\nWHAT CHILDREN OF LIGHT SHOULD BE (Eph. v. 8) 277\n\nTHE FRUIT OF THE LIGHT (Eph. v. 9, R.V.) 286\n\nPLEASING CHRIST (Eph. v. 10) 295\n\nUNFRUITFUL WORKS OF DARKNESS (Eph. v. 11) 303\n\nPAUL'S REASONS FOR TEMPERANCE (Eph. v. 11-21) 313\n\nSLEEPERS AT NOONDAY (Eph. v. 14) 318\n\nREDEEMING THE TIME (Eph. v. 15, 16) 327\n\n'THE PANOPLY OF GOD' (Eph. vi. 13) 337\n\n'THE GIRDLE OF TRUTH' (Eph. vi. 14, R.V.) 343\n\n'THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS' (Eph. vi. 14) 350\n\nA SOLDIER'S SHOES (Eph. vi. 15) 353\n\nTHE SHIELD OF FAITH (Eph. vi. 16) 361\n\n'THE HELMET OF SALVATION' (Eph. vi. 17) 367\n\n'THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT' (Eph. vi. 17) 373\n\nPEACE, LOVE, AND FAITH (Eph. vi. 23) 381\n\nTHE WIDE RANGE OF GOD'S GRACE (Eph. vi. 24) 391\n\n\n\n\nSAINTS AND FAITHFUL\n\n 'The saints which are at Ephesus and the faithful in Christ\n Jesus.'--Eph. i. 1.\n\n\nThat is Paul's way of describing a church. There were plenty of very\nimperfect Christians in the community at Ephesus and in the other\nAsiatic churches to which this letter went. As we know, there were\nheretics amongst them, and many others to whom the designation of 'holy'\nseemed inapplicable. But Paul classes them all under one category, and\ndescribes the whole body of believing people by these two words, which\nmust always go together if either of them is truly applied, 'saints' and\n'faithful.'\n\nNow I think that from this simple designation we may gather two or three\nvery obvious indeed, and very familiar and old-fashioned, but also very\nimportant, thoughts.\n\nI. A Christian is a saint.\n\nWe are accustomed to confine the word to persons who tower above their\nbrethren in holiness and manifest godliness and devoutness. The New\nTestament never does anything like that. Some people fancy that nobody\ncan be a saint unless he wears a special uniform of certain conventional\nsanctities. The New Testament does not take that point of view at all,\nbut regards all true believers in Jesus Christ as being, therein and\nthereby, saints.\n\nNow, what does it mean by that? The word at bottom simply signifies\nseparation. Whatever is told off from a mass for a specific purpose\nwould be called, if it were a thing, 'holy.' But there is one special\nkind of separation which makes a person a saint, and that is separation\nto God, for His uses, in obedience to His commandment, that He may\nemploy the man as He will. So in the Old Testament the designation\n'holy' was applied quite as much to the high priest's mitre or to the\nsacrificial vessels of the Temple as it was to the people who used them.\nIt did not imply originally, and in the first place, moral qualities at\nall, but simply that this person or that thing belonged to God. But then\nyou cannot belong to God unless you are like Him. There can be no\nconsecration to God except the heart is being purified. So the ordinary\nmeaning of holiness, as moral purity and cleanness from sin, necessarily\ncomes from the original meaning, separation and devotion to the service\nof God.\n\nThus we get the whole significance of Christian holiness. We are to\nbelong to God, and to know that we do belong to Him. We are to be\nseparated from the mass of people and things that have no consciousness\nof ownership and do not yield themselves up to Him for His use. But we\ncannot belong to Him, and be devoted to His service, unless we are being\nmade day by day pure in heart, and like Him to whom we say that we\nbelong. A human being can only be God's by the surrender of heart and\nwill, and through the continual appropriation into his own character and\nlife, of righteousness and purity like that which belongs to God.\nHoliness is God's stamp upon a man, His 'mark,' by which He says--This\nman belongs to Me. As you write your name in a book, so God writes His\nname on His property, and the name that He writes is the likeness of His\nown character.\n\nNote, again, that in God's church there is no aristocracy of sanctity,\nnor does the name of saint belong only to those who live high above the\nordinary tumults of life and the secularities of daily duty. You may be\nas true a saint in a factory--ay! and a far truer one--than in a\nhermitage. You do not need to cultivate a mediaeval or Roman Catholic\ntype of ascetic piety in order to be called saints. You do not need to\nbe amongst the select few to whom it is given here upon earth, but not\ngiven without their own effort, to rise to the highest summits of holy\nconformity with the divine will. But down amongst all the troubles and\ndifficulties and engrossing occupations of our secular work, you may be\nliving saintly lives; for the one condition of being holy is that we\nshould know whose we are and whom we serve, and we can carry the\nconsciousness of belonging to Him into every corner of the poorest, most\ncrowded, and most distracted life, recognising His presence and seeking\nto do His will. The saint is the man who says, 'O Lord, truly I am Thy\nservant; Thou hast loosed my bonds.' Because He has loosed my bonds, the\nbonds that held me to my sins, He has therein fastened me with far more\nstringent bonds of love to the sweet and free service of His redeeming\nlove. All His children are His saints.\n\nThe Old Testament ritual had one sacrifice which carried this truth in\nit. It is the first prescribed in the Book of Leviticus, the ceremonial\nbook--namely, the burnt offering. Its especial meaning was this, that\nthe whole man is to be laid upon God's altar and there consumed in the\nfire of a divine love. It began with expiation, as all sacrifices must,\nand on the footing of expiation there followed the transformation, by\nthe fire of God, from gross earthliness into vapour and odour which\nwent up in wreaths of fragrance acceptable to God. So _we_ are to be\nlaid upon the divine altar. So, because we have been accepted in the\nBeloved, and have received the atonement for our sins through His great\nsacrifice, we are to be consecrated to His service and, touched by the\nfire which He sends down, we are to be changed into a sweet odour\nacceptable to Him as were 'the saints which are in Ephesus.'\n\nII. Further, Christian men are saints because they are believers.\n\n'The saints' and 'the faithful' are not two sets of people, but one. The\nApostle starts, as it were, on the surface, and goes down; takes off the\nuppermost layer and lets us see what is below it; begins with the\nflowers or the fruit, and then carries us to the root. The saints are\nsaints because they are first of all faithful. 'Faithful' here, of\ncourse, does not mean, as it usually does in our ordinary language,\n'true' and 'trusty,' 'reliable' and 'keeping our word,' but it means\nsimply 'believing'; having faith, not in the sense of _fidelity_, but in\nthe sense of _trust_.\n\nSo, then, here is Paul's notion--and it is not only Paul's notion, it is\nGod's truth--that the only way by which a man ever comes to realise that\nhe belongs to God, and to yield himself in glad surrender to His uses,\nand so to become pure and holy like Him whom He loves and aspires to, is\nby humble faith in Jesus Christ. If you want to talk in theological\nterminology, sanctification follows upon faith. It is when we believe\nand trust in Jesus Christ that all the great motives begin to tell upon\nlife and heart, which deliver us from our selfishness, which bind us to\nGod, which make it a joy to do anything for His service, which kindle in\nour hearts the flame of fructifying and consecrating and transforming\nlove. Faith, the simple reliance of a desperate and therefore trusting\nheart upon Jesus Christ for all that it needs, is the foundation of the\nloftiest elevation and attainment of the Christian character. We begin\ndown there that we may set the shining topstone of 'Holiness to the\nLord' upon the heaven-pointing summit of our lives.\n\nNote how here Paul sets forth the object of our faith and the\nblessedness of it. I do not think I am forcing too much meaning into his\nwords when I ask you to notice with what distinct emphasis and\nintentional fulness he employs the double name of our Lord here to\ndescribe the object upon which our faith fixes, 'Faithful in _Christ\nJesus_.' We must lay hold of the Manhood, and we must lay hold of the\noffice. We must rest our soul's salvation on Him as our brother, Jesus\nwho was incarnate in sinful flesh for us; and we must also rest it on\nHim as God's anointed, who came in human flesh to fulfil the divine\nloving-kindness and purposes, and in that flesh to die. A faith in a\nJesus who was not a Christ would not sanctify; a faith in a Christ who\nis not Jesus would be impalpable and impotent. We must take the two\ntogether, believing and feeling that we lay hold upon a loving Man, 'bone\nof our bone and flesh of our flesh'; and also upon Him who in His very\nhumanity is the Messenger and Angel of God's covenant; the Christ for\nwhom the way has been being prepared from the beginning, and who has\ncome to fulfil all the purposes of the divine heart.\n\nAnd notice, too, how there is suggested here also, the blessedness of\nthat faith, inasmuch as it is a faith _in_ Christ. The New Testament\nspeaks in diverse ways about the relation between the believing soul\nand Jesus Christ. It sometimes speaks of faith as being _towards_ Him,\nand that suggests the going out of a hand that, as it were, stretches\ntowards what it would lay hold of. It sometimes speaks of faith as being\n_on_ Him, which suggests the idea of a building on its foundation, or a\nhand leaning on a support. And it sometimes speaks, as here, of faith\nbeing '_in_ Him,' which suggests the folded wings of the dove that has\nfound its nest, the repose of faith, the quiet rest in the Lord, and\n'waiting patiently for Him.' Such trust so directed is the one condition\nof such tranquillity. Then, again, note a Christian is all that he is\nbecause he is 'in Christ.' That phrase 'in Him' is in some sense the\nkeynote of this Epistle to the Ephesians. If you will look over the\nletter, and pick out all the connections in which the expression 'in\nHim' occurs, I think you will be astonished to see how rich and full are\nits uses, and how manifold the blessings of which it is the condition.\nBut the use which Paul makes of it here is just this--everything in our\nChristian life depends upon our being rooted and grafted in Jesus. Dear\nbrethren, the main weakness, I believe, of what is called Evangelical\nChristianity has been that it has not always kept true to the\nproportionate prominence which the New Testament gives to the two\nthoughts, 'Christ for us,' and 'Christ in us.' For one sermon that you\nhave heard which has dwelt earnestly and believingly on the thought of\nthe indwelling Christ and the Christian indwelling in Him, you have\nheard a hundred about the Sacrifice on the Cross for sins, and the great\natonement that was made by it. Those of you, who have listened to me\nfrom Sunday to Sunday, know that I am not to be charged with minimising\nor neglecting that truth, but I want to lay upon all your hearts this\nearnest conviction, that a gospel which throws into enormous prominence\n'Christ for us,' and into very small prominence 'Christ in us,' is lame\nof one foot, is lopsided, untrue to the symmetry and proportion of the\nGospel as it is revealed in the New Testament, and will never avail for\nthe nourishment and maturity of Christian souls. 'Christ for us' by all\nmeans, and for evermore, but 'Christ _in_ us,' or else He will not be\n'_for_ us.'\n\nIII. Lastly, a Christian may be a saint, and a believer, and in Christ\nJesus, though he is in Ephesus.\n\nMany of you know that probably the words 'in Ephesus' are no part of the\noriginal text of this epistle, which was apparently a circular letter,\nin which the designation of the various churches to which it was sent\nwas left blank, to be filled in with the name of each little community\nto which Paul's messenger from Rome carried it. The copy from which our\ntext was taken had probably been delivered at Ephesus; and, at any rate,\none of the copies would go there. What was Ephesus? Satan's very\nheadquarters and seat in Asia Minor, a focus of idolatry, superstition,\nwealth, luxury springing from commerce, and moral corruption. 'Great is\nDiana of the Ephesians.' The books of Ephesus were a synonym for magical\nbooks. Many of us know how rotten to the core the society of that great\ncity was. And there, on the dunghill, was this little garden of fragrant\nand flowering plants. They were 'saints in Christ Jesus,' though they\nwere 'saints in Ephesus.'\n\nNever mind about surroundings. It is possible for us to keep ourselves\nin the love of God, and in the fellowship of His Son wherever we are,\nand whatever may lie around us. You and I have too to live in a big,\nwicked city, and to work out our religion in a society honeycombed with\ncorruption, because of commerce and other influences. Do not let us\nforget that these people whom Paul called 'saints' and 'faithful' had a\nharder fight to wage than we have, with less to hearten and strengthen\nthem in it. Only remember if the 'saints in Ephesus' are to be 'in\nChrist,' they need to keep themselves very straight up. The carbonic\nacid gas is heavy and goes down to the bottom of the cave, and if a man\nwill walk bolt upright, he will keep his nostrils above it; but if he\nstoops, he will get down into it. Walk straight up, with your head\nerect, looking to the Master, and your respiratory organs will be above\nthe poison. If we are to _be_ in Christ when we are in Ephesus, we need\nto keep ourselves separate and faithful, and to _keep ourselves_ in\nChrist. If the diver comes out of the diving-bell he is drowned. If he\nkeeps inside its crystal walls he may be on the bottom of the ocean, but\nhe is dry and safe. Keep in the fortress by loyal faith, by humble\nrealisation of His presence, by continual effort, and 'nothing shall by\nany means harm you,' but 'your lives shall be holy, being hid with\nChrist in God.'\n\n\n\n\n'ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS'\n\n 'Blessed be God ... who hath blessed us with all spiritual\n blessings in heavenly places in Christ.'--Eph. i. 3.\n\n\nIt is very characteristic of Paul's impetuous fervour and exuberant\nfaith that he begins this letter with a doxology, and plunges at once\ninto the very heart of his theme. Colder natures reach such heights by\nslow degrees. He gains them at a bound, or rather, he dwells there\nalways. Put a pen into his hand, and it is like tapping a blast furnace;\nand out rushes a fiery stream at white heat. But there is a great deal\nmore than fervour in the words. In the rush of his thoughts there is\ndepth and method. We come slowly after, and try by analysing and\nmeditation to recover some of the fervour and the fire of such\nutterances as this.\n\nNotice that buoyant, joyous, emphatic reiteration: 'Blessed,' 'blest,'\n'blessings.' That is more than the fascination exercised over a man's\nmind by a word; it covers very deep thoughts and goes very far into the\ncentre of the Christian life. God blesses us by gifts; we bless Him by\nwords. The aim of His act of blessing is to evoke in our hearts the love\nthat praises. We receive first, and then, moved by His mercies, we give.\nOur highest response to His most precious gifts is that we shall 'take\nthe cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord,' and in the\ndepth of thankful and recipient hearts shall say, 'Blessed be God who\nhath blessed us.'\n\nNow I think that I shall best bring out the deep meaning of these words\nif I simply follow them as they lie before us. I do not wish to say\nanything about our echo in blessing God. I wish to speak about the\noriginal sweet sound, His blessing to us.\n\nI. And I note, first of all, the character and the extent of these\nblessings which are the constituents of the Christian life.\n\n'All spiritual blessings,' says the Apostle. Now, I am not going to\nweary you with mere exegetical remarks, but I do want to lay stress upon\nthis, that, when the Apostle speaks about 'spiritual blessings,' he does\nnot merely use that word 'spiritual' as defining the region in us in\nwhich the blessings are given, though that is also implied; but rather\nas pointing to the medium by which they are conferred. That is to say,\nhe calls them 'spiritual,' not because they are, unlike material and\noutward blessings, gifts for the inner man, the true self, but because\nthey are imparted to the waiting spirit by that Divine Spirit who\ncommunicates to men all the most precious things of God. They are\n'spiritual' because the Holy Spirit is the medium of communication by\nwhich they reach men's spirits.\n\nAnd I may just pause for one moment--and it shall only be for a\nmoment--to point out to you how in-woven into the very texture of the\nwriter's thoughts, and all the more emphatic because quite incidental,\nand needing to be looked for to be found, is here the evidence of his\nbelieving that the name of God was God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.\nFor it is the Father who is the Giver, the Son who is the Reservoir, the\nSpirit who is the Communicator, of these spiritual gifts. And I do not\nthink that any man could have written these words of my text, the main\npurpose of which is altogether different to setting forth the mystery of\nthe divine nature, unless he had believed in God the Father, Son, and\nHoly Ghost.\n\nBut, apart altogether from that, let me remind you in one sentence of\nhow the gifts which thus come to men by that Divine Spirit derive their\ncharacteristic quality from their very medium of communication. There\nare many other blessings for which we have to say, 'Blessed be God'; for\nall the gifts that come from 'the Father of Lights' are light, and\neverything that the Fountain of sweetness bestows upon mankind is sweet,\nbut earthly blessings are but the shadow of blessing. They remain\nwithout us, and they pass. And if they were all for which we had to\npraise God, our praises had need to be often checked by sobs and tears,\nand often very doubtful and questioning. If there were none other but\nsuch, and if this poor life were all, then I do not think it would be\ntrue that it is\n\n 'better to have loved and lost,\n Than never to have loved at all.'\n\nIt is but a quavering voice of praise, with many a sob between, that\ngoes up to bless God for anything but spiritual blessings. Though it is\ntrue that all which comes from the Father of Lights is light, the\nsorrows and troubles that He sends have the light terribly muffled in\ndarkness, and it needs strong faith and insight to pierce through the\ncloud to see the gleam of anything bright beneath. But when we turn to\nthis other region, and think of what comes to every poor, tremulous,\nhuman heart, that likes to take it through that Divine Spirit--the\nforgiveness of sins, the rectification of errors, the purification of\nlusts and passions, the gleams of hope on the future, and the access\nwith confidence into the standing and place of children; oh, then surely\nwe can say, 'Blessed be God for spiritual blessings.'\n\nBut if the word which defines may thus seem to limit, the other word\nwhich accompanies it sweeps away every limit; for it calls upon us to\nbless God for _all_ spiritual blessings. That is to say, there is no gap\nin His gift. It is rounded and complete and perfect. Whatever a man's\nneeds may require, whatever his hopes can dream, whatever his wishes can\nstretch out towards, it is all here, compacted and complete. The\nspiritual gifts are encyclopaediacal and all-sufficient. They are not\nsegments, but completed circles. When God gives He gives amply.\n\nII. So much, then, for the first point; now, in the second place, note\nthe one divine act by which all these blessings have been bestowed.\n\n'Blessed be God who _has_ given'; or, still more definitely, pointing to\nsome one specific moment and deed in which the benefaction was\ncompleted, 'Blessed be God who gave.'\n\nWhen? Well, ideally in the depths of His own eternal mind the gift was\ncomplete or ever the recipients were created to receive it, and\nhistorically the gift was complete in the act of redemption when He\nspared not His Own Son, but gave Him up unto the death for us all. A man\nmay destine an estate for the benefit of some community which for\ngenerations long may continue to enjoy its benefits, but the gift is\ncomplete when he signs the deed that makes it over. Humphrey Chetham\ngave the boys in his school to-day their education when, centuries ago,\nhe assigned his property to that beneficent purpose. So, away back in\nthe mists of Eternity the gift was completed, and the signature was put\nto the deed when Jesus Christ was born, and the seal was added when\nJesus Christ died. 'Blessed be God who _hath_ given.'\n\nSo, then, we may not only draw the conclusion which the Apostle drew,\n'how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?' but we can\ndraw an even grander one, 'Has He not with Him also freely given us all\nthings?' And we possess them all to-day if our hearts are resting on\nJesus Christ. The limit of the gift is only in ourselves. All has been\ngiven, but the question remains how much has been taken.\n\nOh, Christian men and women, there is nothing that we require more than\nto have what we have, to possess what is ours, to make our own what has\nbeen bestowed. You sometimes hear of some beggar, or private soldier, or\nfarm labourer, who has come all at once into an estate that was his,\nyears before he knew anything about it. There is such a boundless wealth\nbelonging by right, and by the Giver's gift, to every Christian soul;\nand yet, here are we, many of us, like the paupers who sometimes turn up\nin workhouses, all in rags, and with deposit-receipts for L200 or L300\nstitched into the rags, that they get no good out of. Here are we, with\nall that wealth, paupers still. Be sure that you have what you have. Do\nyou remember the exhortation to a valiant effort in one of the stories\nin the Old Testament--'Know ye that Ramoth-gilead is _ours_, and we take\nit not?' And that is exactly what is true about hosts of professing\nChristians who have not, in any real sense, the possession of what God\nhas given them. It is well to ask, for our desires are the measures of\nour capacities. It is well to ask, but we very often ask when what is\nwanted is not that we should get more, but that we should utilise what\nwe have. And we make mistakes therein, as if God needed to be besought\nto give, when all the while it is we who need to be stirred up to grasp\nand keep the things that are freely given to us of God.\n\nIII. In the next place, notice the one place where all these blessings\nare kept.\n\n'Blessed be God who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in\nheavenly places.' 'In heavenly places.' Now that does not merely define\nthe region of origin, the locality where they originated or whence they\ncome. It does do that, but it does a great deal more. It does not\nmerely tell us, as we often are disposed to think that it does, that\n'every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh\ndown'--though that is perfectly true, but it means much rather that in\norder to get the gift we must go up. They are in the heavenly places,\nand they cannot live anywhere else. They have been sticking shrubs in\ntubs outside our public buildings this last week. How long will they\nkeep their leaves and their freshness? How soon will they need to be\nshifted and taken back again to the sweeter air, where they can\nflourish? God's spiritual gifts cannot grow in smoke and dirt and a\npolluted atmosphere. And if a professing Christian man lives his life on\nthe low levels he will have very few of the heavenly gifts coming down\nto him there. And that is the reason--_the_ reason above all\nothers--why, with such a large provision made for all possible\nnecessities and longings of all sorts, people who call themselves\nChristians go up and down the world feeble and poor, and with little\nenjoyment of their religion, and having verified scarcely anything of\nthe great promises which God has given them.\n\nBrother, according to the old word with which the Mass used to begin,\n'_Sursum corda_'--up with your hearts! The blessings are in the heavens,\nand if we want them we must go where they are. It is not enough to drink\nsparing draughts from the stream as it flows through the plain. Travel\nup to the headwaters, where the great pure fountain is, that gushes out\nabundant and inexhaustible. The gifts are heavenly, and there they\nabide, and thither we must mount if we would possess them.\n\nNow that this understanding of the words is correct I think is clearly\nshown by a verse in the next chapter, where we find the very same\nphrase employed. In this connection the Apostle says that 'God hath\nraised us up together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' That is to\nsay, the true ideal of the Christian life is that, even here and now, it\nis a life of such intimate union and incorporation with Jesus Christ as\nthat where He is we are, and that even whilst we tabernacle upon earth\nand move about amongst its illusions and changing scenes, in the depth\nof our true being we may be fixed, and sit at rest with Christ where He\nis.\n\nDo not dismiss that as mere pulpit rhetoric. Do not say that it is\nmystical and incomprehensible, and cannot be reduced into practice\namidst the distractions of daily life. Brethren, it is not so! Jesus\nChrist Himself said about Himself that He came down from heaven, and\nthat though He did, even whilst He wore the likeness of the flesh, and\nwas one of us, He was 'the Son of Man which _is_ in Heaven,' when He lay\nin the manger, when He worked at the carpenter's bench in Nazareth, when\nHe walked with weary feet those blessed acres, when He hung, for our\nadvantage, on the bitter Cross. And that was no incommunicable property\nof His mysterious nature, but it was the typical example of what it is\npossible for manhood to be. And you and I, if we are to possess in any\nmeasure corresponding with the gift of Christ the spiritual blessing\nwhich God bestows, must have our lives 'hid with Christ in God,' and sit\ntogether with Him in the heavenly places.\n\nIV. Lastly, note the one Person in whom all spiritual blessings are\nenshrined.\n\n'In the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' You cannot separate between\nHim and His gifts, neither in the way of getting Him without them, nor\nin the way of getting them without Him. They are Himself, and in the\ndeepest analysis all spiritual blessings are reducible to one--viz. that\nthe Spirit of Jesus Christ Himself shall dwell with us.\n\nNow, that union by which it is possible for poor, empty, sinful\ncreatures to be filled with His fulness, animated with His life,\nstrengthened with His omnipotence, and sanctified by His\nindwelling--that union is the very kernel of this Epistle to the\nEphesians.\n\nI dare say I have often drawn your attention to the singular emphasis\nand repetition with which that phrase 'in Christ' occurs throughout the\nletter. Just take the two or three instances of it that I gather as I\nspeak. In this first chapter we read, 'the faithful in Jesus Christ.'\nThen comes our text, 'blessings in heavenly places in Christ.' Then, in\nthe very next verse, we read, 'chosen us in Him.' Then, a verse or two\nafter, we have 'accepted in the Beloved,' which is immediately followed\nby, 'in whom we have redemption through His blood.' Then, again, 'that\nHe might gather together in one all things in Christ, in whom also we\nhave obtained the inheritance.' I need not make other quotations, but\nthroughout the letter every blessing that can gladden or sanctify the\nhuman spirit is regarded by the Apostle as being stored and shrined in\nJesus Christ: inseparable from Him, and therefore to be found by us only\nin union with Him.\n\nAnd that is the point of all which I want to say--viz. that, inasmuch as\nall spiritual blessings that a soul can need are hived in Him in whom is\nall sweetness, the way, and the only way, to get them is that we, too,\nshould pass into Him and dwell in Jesus Christ. It is His own teaching:\n'I am the Vine, ye are the branches. Abide in Me. Separate from Me ye\ncan do nothing,' and get nothing, and are nothing.\n\nOh, brethren! it is well that all our treasures should be in one place.\nIt is better that they should all be in One Person. And if only we will\nlay our poor emptiness by the side of His fulness there will pass over\nfrom that infinite abundance and sufficiency everything that we can\nrequire.\n\nWe abide in Him by faith, by meditation, by love, by submission, by\npractical obedience, and, if we are wise, the effort of our lives will\nbe to keep close to that Lord. As long as we keep touch with Him we have\nall and abound. Break the connection by wandering away, in thought and\ndesire, by indulgence in sin, by letting earthly passions surge in and\nseparate us from Him--break the connection by rebellion, by making\nourselves our own ends and lords, and it is like switching off the\nelectricity. Everything falls dead. You cannot have Christ's blessing\nunless you take Christ.\n\nAnd so, dear brethren, 'abide in Me and I in you.' There is nothing else\nthat will make us blessed; there is nothing else that will meet all the\ncircumference of our necessities; there is nothing else that will quiet\nour hearts, will sanctify our understandings. Christ is yours if 'ye are\nChrist's.' 'Of His fulness _have_ all we received,' for it all became\nours when we became His, and Christian growth on earth and heaven is but\nthe unfolding of the folded graces that are contained in Him. We possess\nthe whole Christ, but eternity is needed to disclose all the\nunsearchable riches of our inheritance in Him.\n\n\n\n\n'ACCORDING TO'--I.\n\n 'According to the good pleasure of His will, ... According to the\n riches of His grace.'--Eph. i. 5, 7.\n\n\nThat phrase, 'according to,' is one of the key-words of this profound\nepistle, which occurs over and over again, like a refrain. I reckon\ntwelve instances of it in three chapters of the letter, and they all\nintroduce one or other of the two thoughts which appear in the two\nfragments that I have taken for my text. They either point out how the\ngreat blessings of Christ's mission have underlying them the divine\npurpose, or they point out how the process of the Christian life in the\nindividual has for its source and measure the abundances, the wealth of\nthe grace and the power of God. So in both aspects the facts of earth\nare traced up to, and declared to be, the outcome of the heavenly\ndepths, and that gives solemnity, grandeur, elevation, to this epistle\nall its own. We are carried, as it were, away up into the recesses of\nthe mountains of God, and we look down upon the unruffled, mysterious,\ndeep lake, from which come the rivers that water all the plains beneath.\n\nNow of these two types of reference to the divine will and the divine\nwealth, I should like to gather together the instances, as they occur in\nthis letter, in so far as I can, in the course of a sermon, touching\nthem, it must be, very imperfectly. But I fear that it is impossible to\ndeal with both the phases of this 'according to,' in one discourse. So I\nconfine myself to that which is suggested by the first of our two texts,\nin the hope that some other day we may be able to overtake the other. So\nthen, we have set before us here the Christian thought of the divine\nwill which underlies, and therefore is manifest by, the work of Jesus\nChrist, in its whole sweep and breadth. And I just take up the various\ninstances in which this expression occurs in a great variety of forms,\nbut all retaining substantially the same meaning.\n\nI. Note that that divine will which underlies and is operative in, and\ntherefore is certified to us by the whole work of Jesus Christ, in its\nfacts and its consequences, is a 'good pleasure.'\n\nNow there are few thoughts which the history of the world has shown to\nbe more productive of iron and steel in the human character than that of\nthe sovereign will of God. That made Islam, and is the secret of its\npower to-day, amidst its many corruptions. Because these wild desert\ntribes were all stiffened, or I might say inflamed, by that profound\nconviction, the sovereign will of God, they came down like a hammer upon\nthat corrupt so-called Christian Church, and swept it off the face of\nthe earth, as it deserved to be swept. And the same thought of the\nsovereign will, of which we are but instruments--pawns on its\nchessboard--made the grand seventeenth century Puritanism in England,\nand its sister type of men and of religion in Holland. For this is a\nhistorically proved thesis, that there is nothing which so contributes\nto the formation, and valuation of, and the readiness to die for, civil\nliberty, as the firm grasp of that thought of the divine sovereignty.\nJust because a man realises that the will of God is supreme over all the\nearth, he rebels against all forms of human despotism.\n\nBut with all the good that is in that great thought--and the\nChristianity of this day sorely wants the strength that might be given\nit by the exhibition of that steel medicine--it wants another, 'the\ngood pleasure of His will.' And that word, 'good pleasure,' does not\nexpress, as I think, in Paul's usage of it, the simple notion of\nsovereignty, but always the notion of a benevolent sovereignty. It is\n'the good pleasure'--as it is put in another place by the same\nApostle--'of His goodness.' And that thought, let in upon the solemnity\nand severity of the other one, is all that it needs in order to make the\nman who grasps it not only a hero in conflict, and a patient martyr in\nendurance, but a child in his Father's house, rejoicing in the love of\nhis Father everywhere and always.\n\nPaul would have us believe that if we will take the work of Jesus Christ\nin the facts of His life, and its results upon humanity, as our\nhorn-book and lesson, we shall draw from that some conceptions of the\ngreat thing that underlies it, 'the good pleasure of His will.' We stand\nin front of this complex universe, and some of us say: 'Law'; and some\nof us say: 'A Lawgiver behind the law; a Person at the heart of all\nthings'; but unless we can say: 'And in the heart of the Person a will,\nwhich is the expression of a steadfast, omnipotent love,' then the world\nseems to me to be a place of unsolvable riddles and a torture-house.\nThere goes the great steam-roller along the road. Everybody can see that\nit crushes down, and makes its own path. Who drives it? The steam in the\nboiler, or is there a hand on the lever? And what drives the hand?\nChristianity answers, and answers with unfaltering lip, rising clear\nabove contradictions apparent and difficulties real, 'The good pleasure\nof His will,' and there men can rest.\n\nThen there is another step. Another form in which this 'according to'\nappears in this letter is, if we adopt the rendering, which I am\ndisposed to do in the present case, of the Authorised Version rather\nthan of the Revised, 'according to His good pleasure ... which He hath\npurposed in Himself.' The Revised Version says, 'Which He hath purposed\nin Him,' and that is a perfectly possible rendering. But to me the old\none is not only more eloquent, but more in accordance with the\nconnection. So I venture to accept it without further ado--'His good\npleasure which He hath purposed in Himself.'\n\nThat brings us into the presence of that same great thought, which in\nanother aspect is expressed in saying 'His name is Jehovah,' and in yet\nanother aspect is expressed in saying 'God is love,' viz. the thought\nwhich sounds familiar, but which has in it depths of strength and\nillumination and joy, if we rightly ponder it, that, to use human words,\nthe motive of the divine action is all found within the divine nature.\n\nWe love one another because we discern, or think we discern, lovable\nqualities in the being on whom our love falls. God loves because He is\nGod. That great artesian fountain wells up from the depths, by its own\nsweet impulse, and pours itself out; and 'the good pleasure of His\ngoodness' has no other explanation than that it is His nature and\nproperty to be merciful. And so, dear brethren, we get clean past what\nhas sometimes been the misapprehension of good people, and has oftener\nbeen the caricatured representation of Evangelical truth which its\nenemies have put forth--that God was made to love and pity by reason of\nthe sacrifice of the Son, whereas the very opposite is the case. God\nloves, therefore He sent His Son, 'that whosoever believeth in Him\nshould not perish but have everlasting life,' and the notion of the\nCross of Christ as changing the divine heart is as far away from\nEvangelical truth as it is from the natural conceptions that men form of\nthe divine nature. We shake hands with our so-called antagonists and\nsay, 'Yes! we believe as much as you do that God does not love us\nbecause Christ died, but we believe what perhaps you do not, that Christ\ndied because God loves us, and would save us.' 'The good pleasure which\nHe hath purposed in Himself.'\n\nThen, still further, there is another aspect of this same divine will\nbrought out in other parts of this letter, of which this is a specimen,\n'Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His\ngood pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the\ndispensation of the fulness of the times He might gather together in one\nall things in Christ,' which, being turned into more modern phraseology,\nis just this--that the great aim of that divine sovereign will,\nself-originated, full of loving-kindness to the world, is to manifest to\nall men what God is, that all men may know Him for what He is, and\nthereby be drawn back again, and grouped in peaceful unity round His\nSon, Jesus Christ. That is the intention which is deepest in the divine\nheart, the desire which God has most for every one of us. And when the\nOld Testament tells us that the great motive of the divine action is for\n'My own Name's sake,' that expression might be so regarded as to\ndisclose an ugly despot, who only wants to be reverenced by abject and\nsubmissive subjects. But what it really means is this, that the divine\nlove which hovers over its poor, prodigal children because it _is_ love,\nand, therefore, lovingly delights in a loving recognition and response,\ndesires most of all that all the wanderers should see the light, and\nthat every soul of man should be able to whisper, with loving heart, the\nname, 'Abba! Father!' Is not that an uplifting thought as being the\ndominant motive which puts in action the whole of the divine activity?\nGod created in order that He might fling His light upon creatures, who\nshould thereby be glad. And God has redeemed in order that in Jesus\nChrist we might see Him, and, seeing Him, be at rest, and begin to grow\nlike Him. This is the aim, 'That they might know Thee, the only true God\n... whom to know is eternal life.' And so self-communication and\nself-revelation is the very central mystery of the will.\n\nBut that is not all. Another of the forms in which this phrase occurs\ntells us that that great purpose, the eternal purpose which He purposed\nin Christ Jesus our Lord, was that, 'Now unto the principalities and\npowers in heavenly places might be known' by the Church 'the manifold\nwisdom of God.' And so we get another thought, that that whole work of\nredemption, operated by the Incarnation, and culminating in the\nCrucifixion and Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ, stands as\nbeing the means by which other orders of creatures, besides ourselves,\nlearn to know 'the manifold wisdom of God.' According to the grand old\nsaying, at Creation the 'morning stars sang together for joy.' All\nspiritual creatures, be they 'higher' or 'lower,' can only know God by\nthe observation of His acts.\n\n ''Twas great to speak a world from nought,\n 'Tis greater to redeem,'\n\nand the same angelic lips that sang these praises on the morning of\nCreation have learnt a new song that they sing; 'Glory and honour and\ndominion and power be unto the Lamb that was slain.'\n\nThus to principalities and powers, a diviner height in the loftiness,\nand a diviner depth in the condescension, and a diviner tenderness in\nthe love, and a diviner energy in the power, of the redeeming God have\nbeen made known, and this is the thought of His eternal purpose. And\nthat brings me to another point which is involved in the words that I\nhave just quoted, which stand in connection with those that I have\npreviously referred to. The phrase 'eternal purpose' literally rendered\nis, 'the purpose of the ages,' and that, no doubt, may mean 'eternal' in\nthe sense of running on through all the ages; or it may mean, perhaps,\nthat which we usually attach to the word 'eternal,' viz. unbeginning and\nunending. I take the former meaning as the more probable one, that the\nApostle contemplates that great will of God which culminates in Jesus\nChrist, as coming solemnly sweeping through all the epochs of time from\nthe beginning. In a deeper sense than the poet meant it, 'Through the\nages an increasing purpose runs,' and that binds the epochs of humanity\ntogether--'the purpose of God in Christ Jesus.' The philosophy of\nhistory lies there, and it is a true instinct that makes the cradle at\nBethlehem the pivot around which the world's chronology revolves. For\nthe deepest thing about all the ages on the further side of it is that\nthey are 'Before Christ,' and the formative fact for all the ages after\nit is that they are _Anno Domini_.\n\nAnd now the last thing that is suggested by yet another of these\neloquent expressions is deduced from another part of the same phrase.\nThe purpose of the ages is described as that which 'He purposed in\nChrist Jesus our Lord.' Now the word 'purposed' literally is 'made.'\nAnd it may be a question whether 'purposed' or 'accomplished' is the\nspecial meaning to be attached to the general word 'made.' Either is\nlegitimate. I take it that what the Apostle means here is that the\npurpose of God, which we have thus seen as sovereign, self-originated,\nhaving for its great aim the communication to all His creatures of the\nknowledge of Himself, and running through the ages, and binding them\ninto a unity, reaches its entire accomplishment in the Cradle, and the\nCross, and the Throne of Jesus Christ our Lord.\n\nHe fulfils the divine intention. There is that one life, and in that\nlife alone of humanity you have a character which is in entire sympathy\nwith the divine mind, which is in full possession of the divine truth,\nwhich never diverges or deviates by a hair's-breadth from the divine\nwill, which is the complete and perfect exponent to man of the divine\nheart and character; and that Christ is the fulfilment of all that God\ndesired in the depths of eternity, and the abysses of His being. Did He\nwill that men should know Him? Christ has declared Him. Did He will that\nmen should be drawn back to Him? Christ lifted on the Cross draws all\nmen unto Him. Was it 'according to the good pleasure of His goodness'\nthat we men should attain to the adoption of sons? By that Son we too\nbecame sons. Was it the purpose of His will that we should obtain an\n'inheritance'? We obtain it in Jesus Christ, 'being heirs of God, and\njoint-heirs with Christ.' All that God willed to do is done. And when we\nlook, on the one hand, up to that infinite purpose, and on the other, to\nthe Cross, we hear from the dying lips, 'It is finished!' The purpose\nof the ages is accomplished in Christ Jesus.\n\nIs it accomplished with you? I have been speaking about the divine\ncounsel which is a 'good pleasure,' which runs through the whole history\nof mankind. But it is a divine purpose that you can thwart as far as you\nare concerned. 'How often would I have gathered ... and ye would not,'\nand your 'would not' neutralises His 'would.' Do not stand in the way of\nthe steam-roller. You cannot stop it, but it can crush you. Do not have\nHim say about you, 'In vain have I smitten, in vain have I loved.' Bow,\naccept, recognise that all God's armoury is brought to bear upon each of\nus in that great Cross and Passion, in that great Incarnation and human\nlife. And I beseech you, in your hearts, let the will of God be done\neven as for a world it has been done by the sacrifice of Calvary.\n\n\n\n\n'ACCORDING TO'--II.\n\n 'According to the riches of His grace.'--Eph. i. 7.\n\n\nWe have seen, in a previous sermon, that a characteristic note of this\nletter is the frequent occurrence of that phrase 'according to.' I also\nthen pointed out that it was employed in two different directions. One\nclass of passages, with which I then tried to deal, used it to compare\nthe divine purpose in our salvation with the historical process of the\nsalvation. The type of that class of reference is found in a verse just\nbefore my text, 'according to the good pleasure of His will.' There is a\nsecond class of passages to which our text belongs, where the comparison\nis not between the purpose and its realisation, but between the stores\nof the divine riches and the experiences of the Christian life. The one\nset of passages suggests the ground of our salvation in the deep purpose\nof God; the other suggests the measure of the power which is working out\nthat salvation.\n\nThe instances of this second use of the phrase, besides the one in my\ntext, 'according to the riches of His grace,' are such as these:\n'According to the riches of His glory'; 'According to the power that\nworketh in us'; 'According to the measure of the gift of Christ';\n'According to the energy of the might of His power, which He wrought in\nChrist when He raised Him from the dead.'\n\nNow it is clear that all these are varying forms of the same thing. They\nvary in form, they are identical in substance. What a Jew calls a\n'cubit' an Englishman calls a 'foot,' but the result is pretty nearly\nthe same. Shillings, marks, francs, are various standards; they all come\nto substantially the same result. These varying measures of the divine\ngift which is at work in man's salvation, have this in common, that they\nall run out into God's immeasurable, unlimited power, boundless wealth.\nAnd so, if we gather them together, and try to focus them in a few\nwords, they may help to widen our conceptions of what we ought to expect\nfrom God, to bow us in contrition as to the small use that we have made\nof it, and to open our desires wide, that they may be filled.\n\nI only aspire, then, to deal with these four forms which I have already\nsuggested.\n\nI. The measure of our possible attainments is the whole wealth of God.\n\n'According to the riches of His grace.' Another angle at which the same\nthought is viewed appears in another part of the letter, where we have\nthis variation in the expression, 'According to the riches of His\nglory.' 'Grace' and 'Glory' are generally opposed antithetically; in\nthis epistle they are united, for in the verse before my text I read:\n'To the praise of the glory of His grace.' So the first thought is, the\nwhole wealth of God is available for every Christian soul.\n\nNow it seems to me that there are very few things that the popular\nChristianity of this day needs more than a furnishing up of the familiar\nold Christian terminology, which has largely lost the freshness and the\npower that it once had. They tell us that these incandescent burners,\nthat we are using nowadays, are very much more bright when they are\nfirst fixed than after the mantle gets a little worn. So it is with the\nterminology of Christianity. It needs to be re-stated, not in such a way\nas to take the pith out of it, which is what a great deal of the modern\ncraze for re-statement means, but in such a way as to brighten it up\nagain, and to invest it with something of the 'celestial light' with\nwhich it was 'apparelled' when it first came. Now that word 'grace,' I\nhave no doubt, sounds to you hard, theological, remote. But what does it\nmean? It gathers into one burning point the whole of the rays of that\nconception of God, with which it is the glory of Christianity to have\nflooded and drenched the world. It tells us that at the heart of the\nuniverse there is a heart; that God is Love, that that love is the\nmotive-spring of His activity, that it comes and bends over the lowliest\nwith a smile of amity on its lips, with healing and help in its hands,\nwith forgiveness for all sins against itself, with boundless wealth for\nthe poorest, and that the wealth of His self-communicating love is the\nmeasure of the wealth that each of us may possess.\n\nGod gives 'according to the riches of His grace.' You do not expect a\nmillionaire to give half-a-crown to a subscription fund; and God gives\nroyally, divinely, measuring His bestowments by the abundance of His\ntreasures, and handing over with an open palm large gifts of coined\nmoney, because there are infinite chests of uncirculated bullion in the\ndeep storehouses. 'How great is Thy goodness which Thou hast manifested\nbefore the sons of men for them that fear Thee. How much greater is Thy\ngoodness which Thou hast laid up in store.' But whilst He gives all, the\nquestion comes to be: What do I receive? The measure of His gift is His\nmeasureless grace; the measure of my reception is my--alas!\neasily-measured faith. What about the unearned increment? What about the\nunrealised wealth? Too many of us are like some man who has a great\nestate in another land. He knows nothing about it, and is living in\ngrimy poverty in a back street. For you have all God's riches waiting\nfor you, and 'the potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice'\nat your beck and call, and yet you are but poorly realising your\npossible riches. Alas, that when we might have so much we do have so\nlittle. 'According to the riches of His grace' He gives. But another\n'according to' comes in. 'According to thy faith be it unto thee.' So we\nhave to take these two measures together, and the working limit of our\npossession of God's riches comes out of the combination of them both.\n\nLet me remind you, before I pass on, of what I have already suggested is\nbut another phase of this same thought, Paul says in this epistle that\nGod gives not only 'according to the riches of His grace,' but\n'according to the riches of His glory,' and that the latter expression\nis substantially identical with the former, is plain from the\ncombination of the two in an earlier verse of this chapter: 'To the\npraise of the glory of His grace.' Thus we come to the blessed thought\nthat the glory of God is essentially the revelation of that stooping,\npitying, pardoning, enriching love. Not in the physical attributes, not\nin the characteristics of the divine nature which part Him off from men,\nand make Him remote, both from their conceptions and their affections,\nbut in the love that bends to them is the true glory of God. All these\nother things are but the fringes; the centre of glory is the Love, which\nis the mightiest and the divinest thing in the Might Divine. The\nsunshine is far stronger than the lightning, and there is more force\ndeveloped in the rain than in an earthquake. That truth is what\nChristianity has made the common possession of the world. It has thereby\nbroken the chains of dread; it has bridged over the infinite distance.\nIt has given us a God that can love and be loved, can stoop and can\nlift, can pardon and can purify. 'According to the good pleasure of His\ngoodness,'--there is the foundation of our salvation. 'According to the\nriches of His grace,'--there is the measure of our salvation.\n\nII. We have another form of the same measure in another set of verses\nwhich speak of the present working of God's power.\n\nThe Apostle speaks in regard to his own apostolic commission of its\nbeing given 'according to the working of His power'; and he speaks of\nall Christian men as receiving gifts 'according to the power that\nworketh in us.' So there we have a standard that comes, as it were, a\nlittle closer to ourselves. We do not need to travel up into the dim\nabysses above, or think of the sanctities and the secrecies of that\ndivine heart in the light which is inaccessible, but we have the measure\nin ourselves.\n\nThe standards of length are kept at Greenwich, the standards of capacity\nare kept in the Tower; but there are local standards distributed\nthroughout the land to which men may go and have their measures\ncorrected. And so besides all these lofty thoughts about the grace and\nthe glory which measures His gift, we can turn within, if we are\nChristian people, and say, 'According to the power that worketh in us.'\n\nAh, brethren! there are few things that we want more than to revive and\ndeepen the conviction that in every Christian man, by virtue of his\nfaith, and in proportion to his faith, there is in operation an actual,\nsuperhuman, divine power moulding his nature, guiding, quickening,\nennobling, lifting, confirming, and hallowing and shaping him into\nconformity with Jesus Christ. I would that we all believed not as a\ndogma, but realised as a personal experience, that irrefragable truth,\n'Know ye not that the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in you, except ye be\nreprobate?' The life of self is evil; the life of Christ in self is\ngood, and only good. And if you are Christian men, and in the\nproportion, as I have said, in which you are living by faith, you have\nworking in your spirits the very Spirit of Christ Himself.\n\nAnd that power is the measure of your possibilities. Obviously 'the\npower that worketh in us' is able to do a great deal more than it is\ndoing in any of us. And so with deep significance the Apostle, side by\nside with his adducing of this power as being the measure of our\npossible attainments, speaks about God as being 'able to do for us,\nexceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think.' 'The power\nthat works in us' transcends in its possibilities our present\nexperience, it transcends our conceptions, it transcends our desires. It\nis able to do everything; it actually does--well, you know what it does\nin you. And the responsibility of hampering and hindering that power\nfrom working out its only adequately corresponding results lies at our\nown doors. 'A rushing, mighty wind'--yes; and in myself a scarcely\nperceptible breathing, and often a dead calm, stagnant as in the\nlatitudes on either side of the Equator, where, for long, dreary days,\nno freshening motion in the atmosphere is perceptible. 'A fire?'--yes;\nthen why is my grate full of grey, cold ashes, and one little spark in\nthe corner? 'A fountain springing into everlasting life?'--yes; then why\nin my basin is there so much scum and ooze, mud and defilement, and so\nlittle of the flashing and brilliant water? 'The power that works in us'\nis sorely hindered by the weakness in which it works.\n\nIII. In the third place another form of this measure is stated by the\nApostle, 'According to the measure of the gift of Christ.'\n\nThat means, of course, the gift which Christ bestows. It is\nsubstantially the same idea as I have just been dealing with, only\nlooked at from rather a different point of view. Therefore, I need not\ndwell upon its parallelism with what has just been occupying our\nattention, but rather ask you simply to consider one point in reference\nto it, and that is that, side by side with the reference to the gift of\nChrist as being the measure of our possible attainments, the Apostle\nenlarges on the Infinite variety of the shapes which that one gift\ntakes in different people. 'He gave some apostles, some prophets,' etc.;\none man receiving according to this fashion, and another according to\nthat, and to each of us the distribution is made 'according to the\nmeasure of the gift of Christ.' That is to say, it takes us all, the\ncollective goodness and beauty of the whole community of saints, to\napproximate to the fulness of that gift, and all are needed in their\ndifferent types and forms of excellence, sanctity and beauty, in order\nto set forth, even imperfectly, the richness and the manifoldness of His\ngreat gift. And so 'we all come'--there is a multiplicity--'unto the\nperfect man, the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ'--there\nis a unity in which the multiplicity inheres.\n\nSo try to get a little more of some different type of excellence than\nthat to which you are naturally inclined. Seek, and consciously\nendeavour, to appropriate into your character uncongenial excellences,\nand be very charitable in your judgments of the different types of\nChristian conformity to Christ our Lord. The crystals that are set round\na light do not quarrel with each other as to whether green, or yellow,\nor blue, or red, or violet is the true colour to reflect. We need all\nthe seven prismatic tints to make the perfect white light. The gift of\nChrist is many-sided; try not to be one-sided in your reception of it.\n\nIV. And now the last form of this measure is 'according to the energy of\nthe might of His power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him\nfrom the dead.'\n\nWhen we gazed upon the riches of God's grace, they were high above us,\nwhen we looked upon 'the power that worketh in us,' we saw it working\namidst many hindrances and hamperings, but here there is presented to\nus in a concrete example, close beside us, of what God can make of a man\nwhen the man is wholly pliable to His will, and the recipient of His\ninfluences. And so there stands before us the guarantee and the pattern\nof immortal life, the Christ whose Manhood died and lives, who is\nclothed with a spiritual body, who wields royal authority in the Kingdom\nof the Most High. And that is the measure of what God can do with me,\nand wishes to do with me, if I will let Him. Christ is my pattern, and\nthe measure of my own possibilities.\n\nTo be with Him, where and what He is, is the only adequate result of the\npower that works in us, and of the process that is already begun in us,\nif we are Christian people. You are sometimes--there is one eminent\nexample of it in that great Medicean Chapel at Florence--a statue\nexquisitely finished in all its limbs, but one part left in the rough.\nThat is the best that Christian people come to here. Shall it always be\nso? Do not the very imperfections prophesy completion, and is it not\ncertain that the half-finished torso will be carried to the upper\nworkshop, and be there disengaged from the dead marble and made to stand\nout in perfect beauty and fullest completeness? Christ is the object of\nour hopes, and no hopes of the Christian life are adequate to the power\nthat works in us, or to the progress already made, which do not see in\nthe 'energy of the might of the power' which wrought in Christ, the\nexample and the guarantee of the exceeding greatness of 'His power which\nis to usward.'\n\nAnd now, one last word. Besides all these passages which have been\noccupying us, there is another use of this same phrase in this letter\nwhich presents a very solemn and grim contrast. I can do no better with\nit than simply read it: 'Ye were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein\nin time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according\nto the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now\nworketh'--mark the allusion to the other words that we have been\nreferring to--'in the children of disobedience.' So there you have the\nalternative, either 'dead in trespasses and sins,' whilst living the\nphysical and the intellectual life, or partaking of the life of Him 'who\nwas dead, and is alive for ever more'; either 'walking according to the\ncourse of this world,' which is 'disobedience' and 'wrath,' or walking\n'according to the power that worketh in us'; either 'putting on,' or\nrather continuing to wear, 'the old man which is corrupt according to\nthe lusts which deceive,' or 'putting on the new man, which according to\nGod is created in righteousness and holiness and truth.' The choice is\nbefore us. May God help us to choose aright!\n\n\n\n\nGOD'S INHERITANCE AND OURS\n\n 'In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, ... the earnest of\n our inheritance.'--Eph. i. 11, 14.\n\n\nA dewdrop twinkles into green and gold as the sunlight falls on it. A\ndiamond flashes many colours as its facets catch the light. So, in this\ncontext, the Apostle seems to be haunted with that thought of\n'inheriting' and 'inheritance,' and he recurs to it several times, but\nsets it at different angles, and it flashes back different beauties of\nradiance. For the words, which I have wrenched from their context in the\nfirst of these two verses, are more accurately rendered, as in the\nRevised Version, in 'whom also we were made,' _not_ 'have\nobtained'--'an inheritance.' Whose inheritance? God's! The Christian\ncommunity is God's possession. Then, in my second text, we have the\nconverse thought--'the earnest of _our_ inheritance.' What is the\nChristian's possession? The same God whose possession is the Christian.\nSo, then, there is a deep and a wonderful relation between the believing\nsoul and God, and however different must be the two sides of that\nrelation, the resemblance is greater than the difference. Surely that is\nthe deepest, most blessed, and most strength-giving conception of the\nChristian life. Other notions of it lay stress, and that rightly, upon\ncertain correspondence between us and God. My faith corresponds to His\nfaithfulness and veracity. My obedience corresponds to His authority. My\nweakness lays hold on His strength. My emptiness is replenished by His\nfulness. But here we rise above the region of correspondences into that\nof similarity. In these other aspects the convexity fits the concavity;\nin this aspect the two hemispheres go together and make the complete\nglobe. We possess God, and God possesses us, and it is the same set of\nfacts which are set forth in the two thoughts, 'We were made an\ninheritance, ... the earnest of our inheritance.'\n\nI. Now, then, let me ask you to look first at this mutual possession.\n\nWe possess God; God possesses us. What does that mean? Well, it means\nplainly and chiefly this, a mutual love. For we all know--and many of us\nthankfully can bear witness to the truth of it in our earthly\nrelationships,--that the one way by which a human spirit can possess a\nspirit is by the sweet mutual love which abolishes 'mine' and 'thine,'\nand all but abolishes 'me' and 'thee.' And so God sets little store by\nthe ownership which depends on divinity and creation, though, of\ncourse, that relation brings with it a duty. As the old psalm has it,\n'It is He that hath made us, and we are His'; still, such a relationship\nas this, based upon the connection that subsists between the Maker and\nthe work of His hands, is so purely external, and harsh, and\nsuperficial, that God does not reckon it to be a possession at all.\n\nYou perhaps remember how, in the great word which underlies all these\nNew Testament conceptions of God's ownership of His people, viz. the\ncharter that constituted Israel into a nation, He said, 'Ye shall be\nunto Me a people for a possession above all nations, for all the earth\nis Mine.' And yet, though that ownership and mastership extended over\neverything that His hands had made, He--if I might so say--contemned it,\nand relegated it to a secondary position, and told the people that His\nheart hungered for something deeper, more real, more vital than such a\npossession, and that therefore, just because all the earth was His, and\nthat was not enough to satisfy His heart, He took them and made them a\npeculiar treasure above all nations. We have, then, to think of that\ngreat Divine Love which possesses us when He loves us, and when we love\nHim.\n\nBut remember that of this sweet commerce and reverberation of love which\nconstitutes possession, the origination must be in His heart. 'We love\nHim because He first loved us.' The mirrors are set all round the great\nhall, but their surfaces are cold and lifeless until the great\ncandelabrum in the centre is lit, and then, from every polished sheet\nthere flashes back an echoing, answering light, and they repeat and\nrepeat, until you scarce can tell which is the original and which is\nthe reflection. But quench the centre-light, and the daughter-radiances\nvanish into darkness. The love on either side is on one side spontaneous\nand underived, and on the other side is secondary and evoked, but it\n_is_ love on both sides. His possession of us is, as it were, the upper\nside, and our possession of Him is, as it were, the underside of the one\ngolden bond. It matters not whether you look at the stream with your\nface to its source or with your face to its mouth, the silvery plain is\nthe same; and the deepest tie that knits men to God is the same as the\ntie that knits God to men. There is mutual possession because there is\nmutual love.\n\nThen again, in this same thought of mutual possession there lies a\nmutual surrender. For to give is the life-breath of all true love, and\nthere is nothing which the loving heart more desires than to be able to\npour _itself_ out--much rather than any subordinate gifts--on its\nobject. But that, if it is one-sided, is misery, and only when it is\nreciprocal, is it blessed. God gives Himself to us, as we know, most\nchiefly in that unspeakable gift of His Son, and we possess Him by\nvirtue of His self-communication which depends upon His love. And then\nwe possess Him, and He possesses us, not less by the answering surrender\nof ourselves, which is the expression of our love. No love subsists if\nit is only recipient; no love subsists if it is only communicated.\nExports and imports must both be realised in this sweet commerce, and we\nenrich ourselves far more by what we give to the Beloved than by what we\nkeep for ourselves.\n\nThe last, the hardest thing to surrender, is our own wills. To give them\nup by constraint is slavery that degrades. To give them up because we\nlove is a sacrifice which sanctifies, even in the lowest reaches of\ndaily life. And the love that knits us to God is not invested with all\nits blessed possession of Him, until it has surrendered its will, and\nsaid, 'Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.' The traveller in the old fable\ngathered his cloak around him all the more closely, and held it the more\ntightly, because of the tempest that blew, but when the warm sunbeams\nfell he dropped it. He that would coerce my will, stiffens it into\nrebellion; but when a beloved one says, 'Though I might be much bold to\nenjoin thee, yet for love's sake I rather beseech,' then yielding is\nblessedness, and the giving ourselves away is the finding of God and\nourselves.\n\nI need not touch, in more than a word, upon another aspect of this\nmutual possession, brought into view lovingly in many parts of\nScripture, and that is that there is in it not only mutual love and\nmutual surrender, but mutual indwelling, 'He that dwelleth in love\ndwelleth in God, and God in him.' Jesus Christ has said the same thing\nto us, 'I am the Vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me\nbringeth forth much fruit.' We dwell in God, possessing Him; He dwells\nin us, possessing us. We dwell in God, being possessed by Him. He dwells\nin us, being possessed by us. And He moves in the heart that loves, as\nthe Master walking through His house, as the divinity is present in the\ntemple, and as the soul permeates the body, and is sight in the eye and\ncolour in the cheek, and force in the arm, and deftness in the finger,\nand swiftness in the foot. So the indwelling God breathes through all\nthe capacities, and all the desires, and all the needs of the soul which\nHe inhabits, and makes them all blessed. The very same set of facts--the\npresence of a divine life in the life of the believing spirit--may\neither be looked at from the lower end, and then they are that I possess\nGod, and find in Him the nutriment and the stimulus for all my being, or\nmay be looked at from the upper end, that He possesses me and finds in\nme capacities and a nature the emptiness of which He fills, and organs\nwhich He uses. In both cases mutual love, mutual surrender, mutual\ninhabitation, make up God's possession of me and my possession of God.\n\nII. And now let me point you in a very few words to some of the plain,\npractical issues of this mutual possession. God's possession of us\ndemands our consecration. 'Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a\nprice,' therefore, to live for self is to fly in the face of the very\npurpose of Christ's mission and of God's communication of Himself to us.\nThere are slaves who run away from their masters and 'deny the Lord that\nbought them.' _We_ do that whenever, being God's slaves, we set up\nanything else than His will as our law, or anything else than His glory\nas the aim of our lives. To live for self is to die, to die to self is\nto live. And the solemn obligations of that most blessed possession by\nGod of us are as solemn as the possession is blessed, and can only be\ndischarged when we turn to Him, and yield the whole control of our\nnature to His merciful hand, believing that He has not only the right to\ndispose of us, but that His disposition of us will always coincide with\nour sanest conceptions of good, and our wisest desires for happiness.\nYield yourselves to God, for He has yielded Himself to you, and in the\nyielding we realise our largest and most blessed possession. It is a\ngood bargain to give myself and to get God.\n\nGod's possession of us not only demands consecration, but it ensures\nsafety. Remember that great word, 'No man is able to pluck them out of\nMy Father's hand.' God is not a careless owner who leaves His treasures\nto be blown by every wind, or filched by every petty robber. He is not\nlike the king of some decrepit monarchy, slices of whose territory his\nneighbours are for ever paring off and annexing. What God has God\npreserves. 'He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him\nagainst that day.' 'They are Mine, saith the Lord, My jewels in the day\nwhich I make.' But our security depends on our consecration. 'No man is\nable to pluck them out of My Father's hand.' No! But you can wriggle\nyourself out of your Father's hand, if you will. And the security avails\nonly so long as you realise that you belong to God, and are living not\nfor yourself.\n\nPossessing God we are rich. There is nothing that is truly our wealth\nwhich remains outside of us, and can be separated from us. 'Shrouds have\nno pockets,' says the Spanish proverb. 'His glory shall not descend\nafter him,' says the grim psalm. But if God possesses me He is not going\nto let His treasures be lost in the grave. And if I possess Him then I\nshall pass through death as a beam of light does through some denser\nmedium--a little refracted indeed, but not broken up; and I shall carry\nwith me all my wealth to begin another world with. And that is more than\nyou can do with the money that you make here. If you have God, you have\nthe capital to commence a new condition of things beyond the grave.\n\nAnd so that mutual possession is the real pledge of immortal life, for\nnothing can be more incredible than that a soul which has risen to have\nGod for its very own, and has bowed itself to accept God's ownership of\nit, can be affected by such a transient and physical incident as what we\ncall death. We rise to the assurance of immortality because we have an\ninheritance which is God Himself. And in that inexhaustible Inheritance\nthere lies the guarantee that we shall live while He lives, because He\nlives, and until we have incorporated into our lives all the majesty and\nthe purity and the wisdom and the power that belong to us because they\nare God's.\n\nBut we have to notice the two words that lie at the beginning of our\nfirst text--'_In whom_ we were made an inheritance.' That opens up the\nwhole question of the means by which this mutual possession becomes\npossible for us men. Jesus Christ has died. That breaks the bondage\nunder which the whole world is held. For the true slavery which\ninterferes with the free service and the full possession of God is the\nslavery of self and sin. Jesus Christ has died. 'If the Son make you\nfree ye shall be free indeed.' That great sacrifice not only 'breaks the\npower of cancelled sin,' but it also moves the heart, in the measure in\nwhich we truly accept it, to the love and the surrender which make the\nmutual possession of which we have been speaking. And so it is in Him\nthat we become an Inheritance, that God comes to His rights in regard to\neach of us. And it is in Him that we, trusting the Son, have the\ninheritance for ours, and 'are heirs with God, and joint heirs with\nChrist.' So, dear friends, if we would 'be meet for the inheritance of\nthe saints in light,' we must unite ourselves to that Lord by faith, and\nthrough Him and faith in Him, we shall receive 'the remission of sins\nand inheritance among all them that are sanctified.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE EARNEST AND THE INHERITANCE\n\n 'The earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the\n purchased possession.'--Eph. i. 14.\n\n\nI have dealt with a portion of this verse in conjunction with the\nfragment of another in this chapter. I tried to show you how much the\nidea of the mutual possession of God by the believing soul, and of the\nbelieving soul by God, was present to the Apostle's thoughts in this\ncontext. These two ideas are brought into close juxtaposition in the\nverse before us, for, as you will see if you use the Revised Version,\nthe latter clause is there rightly paraphrased by the addition of a\nsupplement, and reads 'until the redemption of God's own possession.' So\nthat in the first clause we have 'our inheritance,' and in the second we\nhave 'God's possession.' This double idea, however, has appended to it\nin this verse some very striking and important thoughts. The possession\nof both sides is regarded as incomplete, for what _we_ have is the\n'earnest' of the 'inheritance,' and '_God's_ own possession' has yet to\nbe 'redeemed,' in the fullest sense of that word, at some point in the\nfuture. An 'earnest' is a fraction of an inheritance, or of a sum\nhereafter to be paid, and is the guarantee and pledge that the whole\nshall one day be handed over to the man who has received the foretaste\nof it in the 'earnest.' The soldier's shilling, the ploughman's 'arles,'\nthe clod of earth and tuft of grass which, in some forms of transfer,\nwere handed over to the purchaser, were all the guarantee that the rest\nwas going to come. So the great future is sealed to us by the small\npresent and the experiences of the Christian life to-day, imperfect,\nfragmentary, defective as they are, are the best prophecy and the most\nglorious pledge of that great to-morrow. The same law of continuity\nwhich, in application to our characters, and our work, and our daily\nlife, makes 'to-morrow as this day, and much more abundant,' in its\napplication to the future life makes the life here its parent, and the\nlife yonder the prolongation and the raising to its highest power, of\nwhat is the main though often impeded tendency and direction of the\npresent. The earnest of the 'inheritance' is the pledge until the full\nredemption of 'God's own possession.' I wish, then, to draw attention to\nthese additional thoughts which are here attached to the main idea with\nwhich we were dealing in the last sermon.\n\nI. And I ask you to look with me, first, at the incompleteness of the\npresent possession.\n\nI tried to show in my last sermon how those great thoughts of God's\nhaving us, and our having God, rested upon the three ideas of mutual\nlove, mutual communication, and mutual indwelling. On His side the love,\nthe impartation, the indwelling, are all perfect. On our side they are\nincomplete, broken, defective; and, therefore, the incompleteness on our\nside hinders both God's possession of us, and our possession of Him; so\nthat we have but the 'earnest' and not the 'inheritance.' That is to\nsay, the ownership may be perfect in idea, but in realisation it is\nimperfect.\n\nAnd then, if we turn to the word in the other clause, 'the redemption of\nthe purchased possession,' that suggests the incompleteness with which\nGod as yet owns us. For though the initial act of redeeming is complete,\nyet redemption is a process, and not an act. And we 'are having' it, as\nthe Apostle says in another place very emphatically, in continual and\ngrowing experience. The estate has been acquired, but has not yet been\nfully subdued. For there are tribes in the jungles and in the hills who\nstill hold out against the reign of Him who has won it for Himself. And\nso seeing that the redemption in its fulness is relegated to some point\nin the future, towards which we are progressively approximating, and\nseeing that the best that can be said about the Christian experience\nhere is that we have an 'earnest of the inheritance,' we must recognise\nthe incompleteness to-day of our possession of God, and of God's\npossession of us.\n\nThat is a matter of experience. We know that only too well. 'I have\nGod'--have I? I have a drop at the bottom of a too often unsteadily held\nand spilling cup, and the great ocean rolls unfathomable and boundless\nat my feet. How partial, how fragmentary, how clouded with doubts and\nblank ignorance, how intermittent, and, alas! rare, is our knowledge of\nHim. We sometimes go down our streets between tall houses, walking in\ntheir shadow, and now and then there is a cross street down which a\nblaze of sunshine comes, and when we reach it, and the houses fall back,\nwe see the blue beyond. But we go on, and we are in the shadow again.\nAnd so our earthly lives are passed, to a large extent, beneath the\nshade of the grimy buildings that we ourselves have put up, and which\nshut out heaven from us, and only now and then a slanting beam comes\nthrough some opening, and carries wistful thoughts and longings into the\nEmpyrean beyond. And how feeble our faith, and how little of His power\ncomes into our hearts, and how little of the joy of the Lord is realised\nin our daily experience we all know, and it is sometimes good for us to\nforce ourselves to feel it is but an 'earnest' of the 'inheritance'\nthat the best of us has.\n\n'God has us.' Has He? Has He my will, which submits itself, and finds\njoy in submitting itself, to Him? How many competitors are there for my\nlove which come in in front of Him, and we 'cannot get at Him for the\npress'! How many other motives are dominant in our lives, and how often\nwe wrench ourselves away from our submission to Him, and try to set up a\nlittle dominion of our own, and say, 'Our lives are ours; who is lord\nover us?' Oh, brethren! we have God if we are Christians at all, and God\nhas us. But alas! surely all honest experience tells us that there are\nawful gaps in the circle, and that our possession of Him, and His\npossession of us, are wofully incomplete.\n\nNow, let me remind you that this incompleteness is mainly our own fault.\nOf course, I know that for the absolute completeness, either of my\npossession of God or of His of me, I must pass from out this world, and\nenter upon another stage and manner of being. But it is not being in the\nflesh, but it is being dominated by the flesh, that is the reason for\nthe incompleteness of our mutual possession. And it is not being in the\nworld, but it is being seduced and tyrannised over by the influx of\nworldly desires and thoughts, surging into our hearts, that drives God\nfrom out of our hearts, and draws us away from the sweet security of\nbeing possessed by, and living close to, Him. Death does a great deal\nfor a man in advancing him in the scale of being, and in changing the\ncentre of gravity, as it were, of this life. But there is no reason to\nbelieve that anything in death, or beyond it, will so alter the set and\ndirection of his soul as that it will lead him into that possession of\nGod, and being possessed by Him, which he has not here. There are many\nof us who, if we were to die this instant, would no more have God for\nours, or belong to God, than we do now. It is our fault if the circle is\nbroken into so many segments, if the moments of mutual love, communion,\nand indwelling are so rare and interrupted in our lives. The\nincompleteness which is due to our earthly condition is nothing as\ncompared with the incompleteness which is due to our own sin.\n\nBut this incompleteness is one which may be progressively diminished,\nand we may be tending moment by moment, and year by year, nearer and\nnearer, and ever nearer, to the unreachable ideal of the entire\npossession of, and being possessed by, our God. There is a continual\nprocess of redemption of 'God's own possession' going on if a Christian\nman is true to himself and to that Divine Spirit which is the 'earnest'\nof the 'inheritance.' Mark that in my text, as it stands in our Bibles,\nand reads 'until the redemption,' there seems to be merely a pointing\nonwards to a future epoch, but that, in the more accurate rendering\nwhich you will find in the Revised Version, instead of 'until' we have\n'_unto_,' and that teaches us that the Divine Spirit, which in one\naspect is the 'earnest of the inheritance,' is also operating upon men's\nhearts and minds so as to bring about the gradual completion of the\nprocess of redemption.\n\nSo, dear brethren, seeing that by our own faults the possession is\nincomplete, and seeing that in the incompleteness there is given to each\nof us, if we rightly use it, a mighty power which is working ever\ntowards the completion, it becomes us day by day to draw into our\nspirits more and more of that divine influence, and to let it work more\nfully upon the sins and faults which, far more than the body of flesh,\nor the connection with the world which it brings about, are the reasons\nfor the incompleteness of the possession. We have, if we are wise, the\ntask to discharge of daily enclosing, so to speak, more and more of the\nbroad land which is all given over to us for our inheritance, but of\nwhich only so much as we fence in and cultivate, and make our own, is\nour own.\n\nThe incompleteness is progressively completed, and it is our work as\nmuch as God's work to complete it. For though in our text that\nredemption is conceived of as a divine act, it is not an act in which we\nare but passive. The air goes into the lungs, and that oxygenates the\nblood, but the lung has to inflate if the air is to penetrate all its\nvesicles. And so the Spirit which seals us unto the redemption of the\npossession has to be received, held, diffused throughout, and utilised\nby our own effort.\n\nII. Now, secondly, notice the certainty of the completion of the\nincompleteness.\n\nAs I have already said, the clod of earth and the handful of grass, the\nservant's wages, the soldier's shilling, are all guarantees that the\nwhole of the inheritance or of the pay will be forthcoming in due time.\nAnd so there emerges from this consideration of the Divine Spirit as the\n'earnest,' the thought that the present experiences of a Christian soul\nare the surest proofs, and the irrefragable guarantees, of that perfect\nfuture. We ask for proofs of a future life. They may be very useful in\ncertain states of mind, and to certain phases of opinion, but as it\nseems to me, far deeper than the region of logical understanding, and\nfar more conclusive than anything that can be cast into the form of a\nsyllogism, is the experience of a soul which knows that God is its, and\nthat it is God's. 'I think, therefore, I am,' said the philosopher. 'I\nhave God; therefore I shall always be,' says the Christian. Whilst that\nevidence is available only for himself, it is absolutely conclusive for\nhimself. And the fact that it does spring in the hearts which are\npurest, because nearest God, is no small matter to be considered by men\nwho may be groping for proofs of a life to come. If the selected moments\nof the purest devotion here on earth bring with them inevitably the\nconfidence of the unending continuance of that communion, then those who\ndo not believe in that future have to account for the fact as best they\nmay. As for us who do know, though brokenly, and by reason of our own\nfaults very imperfectly, what it is to have God, and be had by Him, we\ndo not need to travel out to dim and doubtful analogies, nor do we even\ndepend entirely upon the fact of a risen Christ ascended to the heavens,\nand living evermore, but we can say, 'I am God's; God is mine, and death\nhas no power over such a mutual possession.'\n\nThe very incompleteness adds strength to the assurance, for the facts of\nthe Christian life are such as to demand, both by its greatness and by\nits littleness, by its loftiness and by its lapses into lowliness, by\nthe floodtide of devotion that sometimes sweeps rejoicingly over the\nmud-shoals and by the ebb that sometimes leaves them all black and\nfestering, a future life wherein what was manifestly meant to be, and\ncapable of being, dominant, supreme, but was hampered and hindered here,\nshall reach its full development, and where the plant that was dwarfed\nin this alien soil, transplanted into that higher house, shall blossom\nand bear immortal fruits. The new moon has a ragged edge, and each of\nthe protrusions and concavities are the prophecy of the perfect orb\nwhich shall ere long fill the night with calm light from its silvery\nshield. The incompleteness prophesies completion.\n\nAnd if the incompleteness is so blessed, what will the completeness be?\nA shilling to a million pounds, Knowledge which is partial and\nintermittent, like the twilight, as contrasted with the blaze of\nnoonday, Joy like winter sunshine as compared with the warmth and heat\nof the midday sun at the zenith on the Equator. The 'earnest' of the\n'inheritance' is wealth; the inheritance itself shall be unaccountable\ntreasure.\n\nIII. And so, lastly, a word about the completion of the possession.\n\nThe 'earnest' is always of the same nature as, and a part of the\n'inheritance.' Therefore, since the Holy Spirit is the earnest, the\nconclusion is plain, that the inheritance is nothing less than God\nHimself. Heaven is to possess God, and to be possessed by Him. That is\nthe highest conception that we can form of that future life. And it is\nsorely to be lamented that subsidiary conceptions, which are all useful\nin their subordinate places, have, by popular Christianity, been far too\nmuch elevated into being the central blessedness of that future heaven.\nIt is all right that we should cast the things which it is 'impossible\nfor men to utter' into the shape of symbols which may a little relieve\nthe necessary inarticulateness; but golden streets, and crystal\npavements, and white robes, and golden palms, and all such\nrepresentations, are but the dimmest shadows of that which they intend\nto express, and do often, as is the vice of all symbols, obscure. We can\nonly conceive of a condition of which we have had no experience, by the\ntwo ways of symbolism and of negation. We can say, 'There shall be no\nnight there; there shall be no curse there; they need no candle, neither\nlight of the sun; they rest not day nor night; there shall be no more\ndeath, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,\nfor the former things are passed away.' But all these negations, like\ntheir sister symbols, are but surface work, and we have to go deeper\nthan all of them.\n\nBut to possess God, and to be possessed by Him, and in either case\nfully, perfectly in degree, progressively in measure, eternal in\nduration, is the Heaven of heaven.\n\nIf that is the true conception of the inheritance, then it follows\nindubitably that such a Heaven is not for everybody. God would fain have\nus all for His there, as He would fain have each of us here and now, but\nit may not be. There are creatures which live beneath stones, and if you\nturn their coverings up, and let light fall on them, it kills them. And\nthere are men who have refused to belong to God here, and refused to\nclaim their portion in Him, and such cannot possess that true Heaven\nwhich is God Himself. Then, if its possession is not a mere matter of\ndivine volition, giving a man what he is not capable of receiving, it\nplainly follows that the preparation must begin now and here by the\nincomplete possession of which my text is discoursing. And the way of\nsuch preparation is plain. The context says: 'In whom, after that ye\nbelieved, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.' Faith in\nJesus Christ, and trust in Him and His work as my forgiveness, my\nacceptance, my changed nature and heart--is the condition of being\n'sealed' with that Spirit whose sealing of us is the condition of our\nlove, our surrender, and mutual indwelling, which are our possession of\nGod and being possessed by Him, and are the condition of our future\ncomplete possession of the 'inheritance.' We must begin with faith in\nChrist. Then comes the sealing, then comes the earnest, then comes the\ngrowing redemption, and in due time shall come the fulness of the\npossession. 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ' if thou wouldst have the\nearnest, whilst thou dost tabernacle in tents in the wilderness of Time,\nand if thou wouldst have the inheritance when thou crossest the flood\ninto the goodly land.\n\n\n\n\nTHE HOPE OF THE CALLING\n\n 'That ye may know what is the hope of His calling.'--Eph. i. 18.\n\n\nA man's prayers for others are a very fair thermometer of his own\nreligious condition. What he asks for them will largely indicate what he\nthinks best for himself; and how he asks it will show the firmness of\nhis own faith and the fervour of his own feeling. There is nothing\ncolder than the intercession of a cold Christian; and, on the other\nhand, in no part of the fervid Apostle Paul's writings do his words come\nmore winged and fast, or his spirit glow with greater fervour of\naffection and holy desire than in his petitions for his friends.\n\nIn that great prayer, of which my text forms a part, we have his\nresponse to the good news that had reached him of the steadfastness in\nfaith and abundance in love of these Ephesian Christians. As the best\nexpression of his glad love he asks for them the knowledge of three\nthings, of which my text is the first, and the other two are the\n'riches of the glory of the inheritance' and 'the exceeding greatness of\nGod's power.'\n\nNow if we take the 'hope' in my text, as is often done, as meaning the\nthing hoped for, there seems to be but a shadowy difference between the\nfirst and the second of these subjects of the apostolic petition.\nWhereas, if we take it as meaning, not the object on which the emotion\nis fixed, but the emotion itself, then all the three stand in a natural\ngradation and connection. We have, first, the Christian emotion; then\nthe object upon which it is fixed; 'the glory of the inheritance'; then\nthe power by which the latter is brought and the former is realised. We\nshall consider the second and third of these petitions in following\nsermons. For the present I confine myself to this first, the Apostle's\ngreat desire for Christians who had already made considerable progress\nin the Christian life, 'that they may know,' by experiencing it, 'what\nis the hope of His calling.'\n\nI. Now the first thought that these words suggest to me is this, that\nthe Christian hope is based upon the facts of Christian experience.\n\nWhat does the Apostle mean by naming it 'the hope of his calling'? He\nmeans this, that the great act of the divine mercy revealed to us in the\nGospel, by which God summons and invites men to Himself, will naturally\nproduce in those who have yielded to it a hope of immortal and perfect\nlife. Because God has called men, therefore the man who has yielded to\nthe call may legitimately, and must, if he is to do his duty, cherish\nsuch a hope. It is clear enough that this is so, inasmuch as, unless\nthere be a heaven of completeness for us who have yielded to the summons\nand obeyed the invitation of God in His Gospel, His whole procedure is\nenigmatical and bewildering. The fact of the call is inexplicable; the\ncost of it is no less so. It was not worth while for God to make the\nworld unless with respect to another which was to follow. It is still\nless worth His while to redeem the world if the results of that\nredemption, as they are exhibited here and now, and as they are capable\nof being exhibited in this present condition of things, are all that are\nto flow from it. It was not worth Christ's while to die, it was not\nworth God's while to send His Son, there was no sense or consistency in\nthat great voice that echoes from heaven, calling us to love and serve\nHim, unless, beyond the jangling contradictions, and imperfect\nattainments, and foiled aspirations, and fragmentary faith, and broken\nservices of earth, there be a region of completeness where all that was\ntendency here shall have become effect; and all that was but in germ\nhere, and sorely frostbitten by the ungenial climate, and shrivelled by\nthe foul vapours in the atmosphere, shall blossom and burgeon into\neternal life. The Christian life, as it is to-day, in its attainments\nand imperfections, is at once the witness of the reality of the power\nthat has produced it, and clamantly calls for a sphere and environment\nin which that power shall be able to produce the effects which it is\ncapable of producing.\n\nGod is 'not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should\nrepent.' Men begin grand designs which never get further than the paper\nthat they are drawn on; or they build a porch, and then they are\nbankrupt, or change their minds, or die, and the palace remains\nunrealised, and all that pass by mock and say, 'This man began to build\nand was not able to finish.' But God's designs are certain of\naccomplishment. Unless we are to be reduced to a state of utter\nintellectual bewilderment and confusion, and forgo our belief in His\nveracity and resources to execute His designs, the design that lies in\nthe calling must needs lead on to the realm of perfectness. If we\nconsider the agent by which it is effected, even the risen Christ; if we\nconsider the cost at which it was accomplished, even the death on the\nCross, the mission of His Son, and His assumption of the limitations of\nan incarnate life; if we consider the manifest potencies of the power\nthat He has brought into operation in the present Christian life; and if\nwe consider, side by side with these, the stark, staring contradictions\nand as manifest inevitable limitations of the effects of that power, His\ncalling carries in its depths the assurance that what He means shall be\ndone, that Jesus Christ has not died in vain, that He has not ascended\nto fill a solitary throne, but is the Firstfruits of a great harvest;\nand that we shall one day be all that it is in the gospel of our\nsalvation to make us, unhindered by the limitations and unthwarted by\nthe antagonisms of this poor human life of ours. Unless there be a\nheaven in which all desires shall be satisfied, all evils removed, all\ngood perfected, all ragged trees made symmetrical and full-grown, and\nall souls that love Him radiant with His own perfect image, then the\nlight that seemed a light from heaven is the most delusive of all the\nmarsh-fires of earth, and nothing in the illusions of sense or of men's\ncunning is so cruel or so tragic as the calling that seemed to be the\nvoice of God, and summoned us to a heaven which was only a dream.\n\nII. And so, secondly, notice how this hope of our text is in some sense\nthe very topstone of the Christian life.\n\nPaul has heard, concerning these people in Ephesus, of their faith and\nlove. And because he has heard of these, therefore he brings this\nprayer. These two--the faith which apprehends the manifestation of God\nin Jesus Christ, and the love which that faith produces in the heart\nthat accepts the revelation of the infinite love--are crowned by, and\nare imperfect without, and naturally lead on to the brightness of this\ngreat hope, Faith--the reliance of the spirit upon the veracity of the\nrevealing God--gives hope its contents; for the Christian hope is not\nspun out of your own imaginations, nor is it the mere making objective\nin a future life of the unfulfilled desires of this disappointing\npresent, but it is the recognition by the trusting spirit of the great\nand starry truths that are flashed upon it by the Word of God. Faith\ndraws back the curtain, and Hope gazes into the supernal abysses. My\nhope, if it be anything else than the veriest will-o'-the-wisp and\ndelusion, is the answer of my heart to the revealed truth of God.\n\nSimilarly the love which flows from faith not only necessarily leads on\nto the expectation of union being perfected with the object of its warm\naffection, but also so works upon the heart and character as that the\nfalse and seducing loves which draw away, like some sluice upon a river,\nthe current of life from its true channel, are all sanctified and no\nmore hinder hope. Loving, we hope for that which, unless we loved, would\nnot draw desires nor yield foretastes of sweetness which, like perfumed\noil, feed the pure flame of hope.\n\nThe triad of Christian graces is completed by Hope. Without her fair\npresence something is wanting to the completeness of her elder sisters.\nThe great Campanile at Florence, though it be inlaid with glowing\nmarbles, and fair sculptures, and perfect in its beauty, wants the\ngilded, skyward-pointing pinnacle of its topmost pyramid; and so it\nstands incomplete. And thus faith and love need for their crowning and\ncompletion the topmost grace that looks up to the sky, and is sure of a\nmansion there.\n\nBrethren, our Christianity is wofully imperfect unless faith and love\nfind their acme, their outstretching completion, in this Christian hope.\nDo you seek to complete your faith and love by a living hope full of\nimmortality?\n\nIII. Thirdly, notice how this hope is an all-important element in the\nChristian life.\n\nThe Apostle asks for it as the best thing that can befall these Ephesian\nChristians, as the one thing that they need to make them strong and good\nand blessed. There are many other aspects of desire for them which\nappear in other parts of this letter. But here all Christian progress is\nregarded as being held in solution and included in vigorous hope.\n\nWhy is the activity of hope thus important for Christian life? Because\nit stimulates effort, calms sorrows, takes the fascination out of\ntemptations, supplies a new aim for life and a new measure for the\nthings of time and sense.\n\nIf we lived, as we ought to live, in the habitual apprehension of the\ngreat future awaiting all real Christians, would it not change the whole\naspect of life? The world is very big when it is looked at from any\npoint upon its surface; but suppose it could be looked at from the\ncentral sun, how large would it appear then? We can shift our station in\nlike fashion, and then we get the true measure at once of the\ninsignificance and of the greatness of life. This world means nothing\nworthy, except as an introduction to another. Not that thereby there\nwill follow in any wise man contempt for the present, for the very same\nreference to the future which dwarfs the greatnesses and dwindles the\nsorrows, and almost extinguishes the dazzling lights of this present,\ndoes also lift it to its true significance and importance. It is the\nvestibule of that future, and that future is conditioned throughout by\nthe results of the few years that we live here. An apprenticeship may be\na very poor matter, looked at in itself; and the boy may say What is the\nuse of my working at all these trivial things? but, since it is\napprenticeship, it is worth while to attend to every trifle in its\ncourse, for attention to them will affect the standing of the man all\nhis days.\n\nHere and now we are getting ready for the great workshop yonder;\nlearning the trick of the tools, and how to use our fingers and our\npowers, and, when the schooling is done, we shall be set to nobler work,\nand receive ample wages for the years here. Because that great\n'to-morrow will be as this day' of earthly life, 'and much more\nabundant,' therefore it is no trifle to work amongst the trifles; and\nnothing is small which may tell on our condition yonder. The least\ndeflection from the straight line, however acute may be the angle which\nthe divergent lines enclose at the starting, and however small may seem\nto be the deviation from parallelism, will, if prolonged to infinity,\nhave room between the two for all the stars, and the distance between\nthem will be that the one is in heaven and the other is in hell. And so\nit is a great thing to live amongst the little things, and life gains\nits true significance when we dwarf and magnify it by linking it with\nthe world to come.\n\nIf we only kept that hope bright before us, how little discomforts and\nsorrows and troubles would matter! Life would become 'a solemn scorn of\nills.' It does not matter much what kind of cabin accommodation we have\nif we are only going a short voyage; the main thing is to make the port.\nIf we, as Christian people, cherish, as we ought to do, this great hope,\nthen we shall be able to control, and not to despise but to exalt this\nfleeting and transient scene, because it is linked inseparably with the\nlife that is to come.\n\nIV. Lastly, this hope needs enlightened eyes.\n\nThe Apostle prays that God may give to these Ephesians 'the spirit of\nwisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,' and then he adds, as the\nresult of that gift, the desire that the Ephesian believers may have\n'the eyes of their hearts enlightened.' That is a remarkable expression.\nIt does not mean, as an English reader might suppose it to mean, that\nthe affections are the agents by which this knowledge reaches us; but\n'heart' is here used, as it often is in Scripture, as a general\nexpression for the whole inward life, and all that the Apostle means is\nthat, by the gift of the Divine Spirit of wisdom, a man's inner nature\nmay be so touched as to be capable of perceiving and grasping the 'hope\nof the calling.'\n\nObserve, too, the language, 'that ye may know the hope.' How can you\n_know_ a hope? How do you know any kind of feeling? By having it. The\nonly way of knowing what is the hope is to hope, and this is only\npossible by dint of these eyes of the understanding being enlightened.\nFor our inward nature, as we have it, and as we use it, without the\ntouch of that Divine Spirit, is so engrossed with this present that the\nfar-off blessedness to which my text refers has no chance of entering\nthere. No man can look at something beside him with one eye, and at\nsomething half a mile off with the other. You have to focus the eye\naccording to the object; and he who is gazing upon the near is thereby\nmade blind to that which is afar off. If we go crawling along the low\nlevels with our eyes upon the dust, then of course we cannot see the\ncrown above.\n\nWe need more than the historical revelation of the light in order to\nenlighten the inward nature. There is many a man here now who knows all\nabout the immortality that is brought to light by Jesus Christ just as\nwell as the Christian man whose soul is full of the hope of it, and who\nyet, for all his knowledge, does not know the hope, because he has not\nfelt it. You have to get further than to the acceptance intellectually\nof the historical facts of a risen and ascended Saviour before there can\nbe, in your heart, any vital hope of immortality. The inward eye must be\ncleared and strengthened, cross lights must be shut out so that we may\ndirect the single eye of our hearts towards the great objects which\nalone are worthy of its fixed contemplation. And we cannot do that\nwithout a divine help, that Spirit of wisdom which will fill our hearts\nif we ask for it, which will fix our affections, which will clear our\neyesight, which will withdraw it from seeing vanity as well as give it\nreality to see.\n\nBut we must observe the conditions. Since this clearness of hope comes\nnot merely from the acceptance as a truth of the fact of Christ's\nResurrection and Ascension, but comes through the gift of that Divine\nSpirit, then to have it you must ask for it. Christian people, do you\nask for it? Do you ever pray--I do not mean in words, but in real\ndesire--that God would help you to keep steadily before you that great\nfuture to which we are all going so fast? If you do you will get the\nanswer. Seek for that Spirit; use it, and do not resist its touches. Do\nnot fix your gaze on the world when God is trying to draw you to fix it\nupon Himself. Think more about Jesus Christ, more about God's high\ncalling, live nearer to Him, and try more honestly, more earnestly, more\nprayerfully, more habitually, even amidst all the troubles and\ndifficulties and trivialities of each day, to cultivate that great\nfaculty of joyful and assured hope.\n\nSurely God did not endue us with the power of hoping that we might fling\nit all away on trivial, transient things. We are all far too\nshort-sighted; our fault is not that we do not hope, but that we hope\nfor such near things, for such small things, like the old mariners who\nhad no compass nor sextant, and were obliged to creep timidly along the\ncoasts, and steer from headland to headland. But we ought to launch\nboldly out into mid-ocean, knowing that we have before us that star that\ncannot guide us amiss. Do not set your hopes on the things that perish,\nfor if you do, hopes fulfilled and hopes disappointed will be equally\nbitter in your mouths. And you older people who, like myself, are\ndrawing near the end of your days, and have little else left to hope for\nin this world, do you see to it that your anticipations extend 'above\nthe ruinable skies.' _There_ is an object beyond experience, above\nimagination, without example, for which the creation wants a comparison,\nwe an apprehension, and the Word of God itself a sufficient revelation.\n'It doth not yet appear what we shall be.' God hath called us to His\neternal kingdom and glory; let us seek to walk in the light of the 'hope\nof His calling.'\n\n\n\n\nGOD'S INHERITANCE IN THE SAINTS\n\n 'That ye may know what is the riches of the glory of His\n inheritance in the saints.'--Eph. i. 18.\n\n\nThe misery of Hope is that it so often owes its materials to the\nstrength of our desires or to the activity of our imagination. But when\nmere wishes or fancies spin the thread, Hope cannot weave a lasting\nfabric. And so one of the old prophets, in speaking of the delusive\nhopes of man, says that they are like 'spiders' webs,' and 'shall not\nbecome garments.' Paul, then, having been asking for these Ephesian\nChristians that they might have hopes lofty and worthy, and such as\nGod's summons to them would inspire, passes on to ask that they might\nhave the material out of which they could weave such hope, namely, a\nsure and clear knowledge of the future blessings. The language in which\nhe describes that future is remarkable--'the riches of the glory of His\ninheritance in the saints.' He calls it God's inheritance, not as\nmeaning that God is the Inheritor, but the Giver. He speaks of it as\n'in the saints,' meaning that, just as the land of Canaan was\ndistributed amongst tribes and families, and each man got his own little\nplot, so that broad land is parted out amongst those who are 'partakers\nof the inheritance of the saints in light.'\n\nAnd so my text suggests to me three points to which I seek to call your\nattention. First, the inheritance; second, the heirs; and third, the\nheirs' present knowledge of their future possession.\n\nI. First, then, note the inheritance.\n\nNow we must discharge from the word some of its ordinary associations.\nThere is no reference to the thought of succession in it, as the mere\nEnglish reader is accustomed to think--to whom inheritance means\npossession by the death of another. The idea is simply that of\npossession. The figure which underlies the word is, of course, that of\nthe ancient partition of the land of Canaan amongst the tribes, but we\nmust go a great deal deeper than that in order to understand its whole\nsweep and fulness of meaning.\n\nWhat is the portion for a soul? God. God is Heaven, and Heaven is God.\nNo interpretation of 'the inheritance,' however it may run into cheap\nand vulgar sensuous descriptions of a future glory, has come within\nsight of the meaning of the word, unless it has grasped this as the\ncentral thought: 'Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon\nearth that I desire beside Thee.' Only God can be the portion of a human\nspirit. And none else can fill the narrowest and the smallest of man's\nneeds.\n\nSo, then, if there were realised all the accumulated changes of progress\nin blessedness, and the withdrawal of all external causes of disquiet\nand weariness and weeping, still the heart would hunger and be empty of\nits true possession unless God Himself had flowed into it. It were but a\npoor advancement and the gain of a loss, if yearnings were made\nimmortal, and the aching vacuity, which haunts every soul that is parted\nfrom God, were cursed with immortality. It would be so, if it be not\ntrue that the inheritance is nothing less than the fuller possession of\nGod Himself.\n\nAnd how do men possess God? How do we possess one another, here and now?\nBy precisely the same way, only indefinitely expanded and exalted, do we\npossess Him here, and shall we possess Him hereafter. Heart to heart is\njoined by love which is mutual and interpenetrating possession; where\n'mine' and 'thine' become blended, like the several portions of the one\nray of white light, in the blessed word 'ours.' Contemplation makes us\npossessors of God. Assimilation to His character makes us own and have\nHim. They who love and gaze, and are being changed by still degrees into\nHis likeness, possess Him. This is the central idea of man's future\ndestiny and highest blessedness, a union with God closer and more\nintimate in degree, but yet essentially the same in kind, as is here\npossible amidst the shows and vanities and wearinesses of this mortal\nlife. 'His servants shall serve Him, and see His face, and His name\nshall be on their foreheads.' Obedience, contemplation, transformation,\nthese are the hands by which we here lay hold on God; and they in the\nheavens grasp Him just as we here on earth may do. The 'inheritance' is\nGod Himself.\n\nSurely that is in accordance with the whole teaching of Scripture, and\nis but the expansion of plain words which tell us that we 'are heirs of\nGod.' If that be so, then all the other subsidiary blessings which have\nbeen, to the sore detriment of Christian anticipation and of Christian\nlife in a hundred ways, elevated into disproportionate importance, fall\ninto their right places, and are more when they are looked upon as\nsecondary than when they are looked upon as primary.\n\nAh, brethren! neither the sensuous metaphors which, in accommodation to\nour weakness, Scripture has used to paint that future so that we may, in\nsome measure, comprehend it, nor the translation of these, in so far as\nthey refer to circumstances and externals, are enough for us. It is\nblessed to know that 'there shall be no night there'--blessed to grasp\nall those sweet negatives which contradict the miseries of the world,\nand to think of no sin, no curse, no tears, no sighing nor sorrow,\nneither any more pain, 'because the former things have passed away.' It\nis sweet and ennobling to think that, when we are discharged of the load\nof this cumbrous flesh, we shall be much more ourselves, and able to see\nwhere now is but darkness, and to feel where now is but vacancy. It is\nblessed to think of the recognising of lost and loved ones. But all\nthese blessednesses, heaped together, as it seems to me, would become\nsickeningly the same if prolonged through eternity, unless we had God\nfor our very own. _Eternal_ is an awful word, even when the noun that\ngoes with it is _blessedness_. And I know not how even the redeemed\ncould be saved, as the long ages rolled on, from the oppression of\nmonotony, and the feeling, 'I would not live always,' unless God was\n'the strength of their hearts, and their portion for ever.' We must rise\nabove everything that merely applies to changes in our own natures and\nin our relations to the external universe, and to other orders of\ncreatures; and grasp, as the hidden sweetness that lies in the calyx of\nthe gorgeous flower, the possession of God Himself as the rapture of\nour joy and the heaven of our heaven.\n\nAnd if that be so, then these accumulated words with which the Apostle,\nin his fiery, impetuous way, tries to set forth the greatness of what he\nis speaking about, receive a loftier meaning than they otherwise would\nhave.\n\n'The riches of the glory of His inheritance'--now that word 'riches,' or\n'wealth,' is a favourite of Paul's; and in this single letter occurs, if\nI count rightly, five times. In addition to our text, it is used twice\nin connection with God's grace, 'the riches of His grace' once in\nconnection with Jesus, 'the unsearchable riches of Christ'; and once in\na similar connection to, though with a different application from, our\ntext, 'the riches of His glory.' Always, you see, it is applied to\nsomething that is special and properly divine. And here, therefore, it\napplies, not to the abundance of any creatural good, however exuberant\nand inexhaustible the store of it may be, but simply and solely to that\nunwearying energy, that self-feeding and ever-burning and never-decaying\nlight, which is God. Of Him alone it can be said that work does not\nexhaust, nor Being tend to its own extinction, nor expenditure of\nresources to their diminution. The guarantee for eternal blessedness is\nthe 'riches' of the eternal God, and so we may be sure that no time can\nexhaust, nor any expenditure empty, either His storehouse or our wealth.\n\nAnd again, the 'glory' is not the lustrous light, however dazzling to\nour feeble eyes that may be, of any creature that reflects the light of\nGod, but it is the far-flashing and never-dying radiance of His own\nmanifestation of Himself to the hearts and souls of them that love Him.\nAnd so the 'inheritance is incorruptible and undefiled, and fadeth not\naway'; not merely by reason of the communicated will of God operating\nupon creatures whom He preserves untarnished by corruption, and ungnawed\nby decay, but because He Himself is the 'inheritance,' and on Him time\nhath no power. On His wealth all His creatures may hang for ever; and it\nshall be as it was in the sweet parable of the miracle of old, the\nfragments that remain will be more than when the meal began. 'The riches\nof the glory of His inheritance.'\n\nII. Now notice, secondly, the heirs.\n\nThe words of my text receive, perhaps, their best commentary and\nexplanation in those words which the writer of them heard, on the\nDamascus road, when the voice from heaven spoke to him about men\n'obtaining an inheritance among them that are sanctified.' It almost\nsounds like an echo of that long past, but never-to-be-forgotten voice,\nwhen our Apostle writes as he does in our text.\n\nNow what does he mean by 'saints'? Who are these amongst whom the broad\nacres of that infinite prairie are to be parted out? The word has\nattracted to itself contemptuous meanings and ascetical meanings, and\nmeanings which really deny the true democracy of Christianity and the\nequality of all believers in the sight of God. But its scriptural use\nhas none of these narrowing and confusing associations adhering to it,\nnor does it even directly and at first mean, as we generally take it to\nmean, pure men, holy in the sense of clean and righteous. But something\ngoes before that phase of meaning, and it is this--a saint is a man\nseparated and set apart for God, as His property. That is the true\nmeaning of the word. It is its meaning as it is applied to the vessels\nof the Temple, the priests, the services, and the altar. It is its\nmeaning, only with the necessary substitution of spirit for body, as it\nis applied in the New Testament as a designation co-extensive with that\nof believers.\n\nHow does a man belong to God?\n\nWe asked a minute or two ago how God belonged to men. The answer to the\nconverse question is almost identical. A man belongs to God by the\naffection of his heart, by the submission of his will, by the reference\nof his actions to Him; and he who thus belongs to God, in the same act\nin which he gives himself to God, receives God as his possession. The\nthing must be reciprocal. 'All mine is Thine'; and God answers, 'And all\nMine is thine.' He ever meets our 'O Lord, I yield myself to Thee,' with\nHis 'And My child, I give Myself to thee.' It is so in regard of our\nearthly loves. It is so in regard of our relations to Him. And that\nbeing the case, purity, which is generally taken by careless readers as\nbeing the main idea of sanctity, will follow this self-surrender, which\nis the basis of all goodness, everywhere and always.\n\nIf that be true, and I do not think it can be effectively denied, then\nthe next step is a very plain one, and that is that for the perfect\npossession of God, which is heaven, the same thing is needed in its\nperfection which is required for the partial possession of Him that\nmakes the Christian life of earth. And just as here we get Him for ours\nin proportion as we give up ourselves to be His, so yonder the\ninheritance belongs, and can only belong to, 'the saints.' So, then, one\ncan see that there is nothing arbitrary in this limitation of a\npossession, which in its very nature cannot go beyond the bounds which\nare thus marked out for it. If heaven were the vulgar thing that some of\nyou think it, if that future life were desirable simply because you\nescaped from some external punishment and got all sorts of outward\nblessings and joys, felicities and advantages, hung round the neck, or\npinned upon the breast, as they do to successful fighters, why then, of\ncourse, there might be partiality in the distribution of the\ndecorations. But if that possession hinges upon our yielding ourselves\nto Him, then there is not an arbitrary link in the whole chain. Faith is\nset forth as the condition of heaven, because faith is the means of\nunion with Christ, by and from whom alone we draw the motives for\nself-surrender and the power for sanctity. You cannot have heaven unless\nyou have God. That is step number one. You cannot have God unless you\nhave 'holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.' That is step\nnumber two. You cannot have holiness without faith. That is step number\nthree. 'An inheritance among them that are sanctified'; and then there\nis added, 'by faith which is in Me.'\n\nIt is clear, too, what a fatal delusion some of us are under who think\nthat we shall, and fancy that we should like to, as we say, 'go to\nheaven when we die.' Why, heaven is here, round about you, a present\nheaven in the imitation of God, in the practice of righteousness, in the\ncultivation of dependence upon Him, in the yielding of yourselves up to\nHim. Heaven is here, and by your own choice you stop outside of it.\nThere must be a correspondence between environment and nature for\nblessedness. 'The mind is its own place,' as the great Puritan poet\ntaught us, 'and makes a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.' Fishes die on\nthe shore, and the man that drew them out dies in the water. Gills\ncannot breathe where lungs are useful, and lungs cannot, where gills\ncome into play. If you have not here and now the holiness which knits\nyou to God, and gives you possession of Him, you would not like\n'heaven,' if it were possible to carry you to that place, in so far as\nit is a place. It is rather strange, if you hope to go to heaven when\nyou die, that you should be very unwilling to spend a little time in it\nwhilst you are alive, and that you should expect blessedness then from\nthat presence of God which brings you no blessedness now.\n\nIII. Lastly, we have here the heirs' present knowledge of their future\nblessedness.\n\nThe Apostle asks that these men may know a thing that clearly seems\nunknowable. It is an impossible petition, we might be ready to say,\nbecause it is clear enough that there can be no true knowledge of the\nconditions and details of that future life. The dark mountains that lie\nbetween us and it hide their secret well, and few or no stray beams have\nreached us. An unborn babe, or a chrysalis in a hole in the ground or in\na chink of a tree, might think as wisely about its future condition as\nwe can do about that life beyond. There can be no knowledge until there\nis experience.\n\nWhat, then, does Paul mean by framing such a petition as this? The\nanswer is found in noticing that the knowledge which he is imploring\nhere is a consequence of a previous knowledge. For, in a former verse,\nhe prays that these men may have 'the spirit of wisdom in the knowledge\nof God'; and when they have got the knowledge of God he thinks that they\nwill have got the knowledge of 'the riches of the glory of His\ninheritance in the saints.' Now, turn that into other words, and it is\njust this, that the knowledge of God, which comes by faith and love\nhere, is in kind so identical with the fullest and loftiest riches of\nthe knowledge of Him hereafter, that, if we have the one, we are not\nwithout the other. The one is in germ, the other, no doubt, full blown;\nthe one is the twinkling of the rushlight, as it were, the other is the\nblaze of the sunshine. The two states of being are so correspondent that\nfrom the one we draw our clearest knowledge of the other. There are\ntelescopes, in using which you do not look up when you want to see the\nstars, but down on to a reflecting mirror, and there you see them. Such\na reflecting mirror, though it be sometimes muddied and dimmed and\nalways very small, are the experiences of the Christian soul here.\n\nSo, dear friends, if we want to know as much as may be known of the\nblessedness of heaven, let us seek to possess as much as may be\npossessed of the knowledge and love of God on earth. Then we shall know\nthe centre, at any rate; and that is light, though the circumference may\nbe very dark. Much will remain obscure. That is of very small\nconsequence to Hope, which does not need information half so much as it\nneeds assurance. Like some flower in the cranny of the rock, it can\nspread a broad bright blossom on little soil, if only it be firmly\nrooted.\n\nThe path for us all is plain. Come to Jesus Christ as sinful men, and\ntake what He has given, who has given Himself for us. Touched by His\nlove, let us love Him back again, and yield ourselves to Him, and He\nwill give Himself to us. They who can say, 'O Lord! I am Thine,' are\nsure to hear from heaven, 'I am thine.' And they who possess, in being\npossessed by, God Himself, do not need to die in order to go to heaven,\nbut are at least doorkeepers in the house of the Lord now, and stand\nwhere they can see into the inner sanctuary which they will one day\ntread. A life of faith brings Heaven to us, and thereby gives us the\nsurest and the clearest knowledge of what we shall be, and have, when we\nare brought to heaven.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MEASURE OF IMMEASURABLE POWER\n\n 'That ye may know ... what is the exceeding greatness of His power\n to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty\n power, which He wrought in Christ.'--Eph. i. 19, 20.\n\n\n'The riches of the glory of the inheritance' will sometimes quench\nrather than stimulate hope. He can have little depth of religion who has\nnot often felt that the transcendent glory of that promised future\nsharpens the doubt--'and can _I_ ever hope to reach it?' Our paths are\nstrewn with battlefields where we were defeated; how should we expect\nthe victor's wreath? And so Paul does not think that he has asked all\nwhich his friends in Ephesus need when he has asked that they may know\nthe hope and the inheritance. There is something more wanted, something\nmore even for our knowledge of these, and that is the knowledge of the\npower which alone can fulfil the hope and bring the inheritance. His\nlanguage swells and peals and becomes exuberant and noble with his\ntheme. He catches fire, as it were, as he thinks about this power that\nworketh in us. It is 'exceeding.' Exceeding what? He does not tell us,\nbut other words in this letter, in the other great prayer which it\ncontains, may help us to supply the missing words. He speaks of the\n'love of Christ which passeth knowledge,' and of God being 'able to do\nexceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think.' The power\nwhich is really at work in Christian men to-day is in its nature\nproperly transcendent and immeasurable, and passes thought and desire\nand knowledge.\n\nAnd yet it has a measure. 'According to the working of the strength of\nthe might which He wrought in Christ.' Is that heaping together of\nsynonyms or all but synonyms, mere tautology? Surely not. Commentators\ntell us that they can distinguish differences of meaning between the\nwords, in that the first of them is the more active and outward, and the\nlast of them is the more inward. And so they liken them to fruit and\nbranch and root; but we need simply say that the gathering together of\nwords so nearly co-extensive in their meaning is witness to the effort\nto condense the infinite within the bounds of human tongue, to speak the\nunspeakable; and that these reiterated expressions, like the blows of\nthe billows that succeed one another on the beach, are hints of the\nforce of the infinite ocean that lies behind.\n\nAnd then the Apostle, when he has once come in sight of his risen Lord,\nas is his wont, is swept away by the ardour of his faith and the\nclearness of his vision, and breaks from his purpose in order to dilate\non the glories of his King. We do not need to follow him into that. I\nlimit myself now to the words which I have read as my text, with only\nsuch reference to the magnificent passage which succeeds as may be\nnecessary for the exposition of this.\n\nI. So, then, I ask you to look, first, at the measure and example of the\nimmeasurable power that works in Christian men.\n\n'According to the working of the strength of the might which He wrought\nin Christ'--the Resurrection, the Ascension, the session at the right\nhand of God, the rule over all creatures, and the exaltation above all\nthings on earth or in the heavens--these are the facts which the Apostle\nbrings before us as the pattern-works, the _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of the\npower that is operating in all Christians. The present glories of the\nascended Christ are glories possessed by a Man, and, that being so, they\nare available as evidences and measures of the power which works in\nbelieving souls. In them we see the possibilities of humanity, the ideal\nfor man which God had when He created and breathed His blessing upon\nhim. It is one of ourselves who has strength enough to bear the burden\nof the glory, one of ourselves who can stand within the blaze of\nencircling and indwelling Divinity and be unconsumed. The possibilities\nof human nature are manifest there. If we want to know what the Divine\nPower can make of us, let us turn to look with the eye of faith upon\nwhat it has made of Jesus Christ.\n\nBut such a thought, glorious as it is, still leaves room for doubt as to\nmy personal attainment of such an ideal. Possibility is much, but we\nneed solid certainty. And we find it in the truth that the bond between\nChrist and those who truly love and trust Him is such as that the\npossibility must become a reality and be consolidated into a certainty.\nThe Vine and its branches, their Head and the members, the Christ and\nHis Church, are knit together by such closeness of union as that\nwheresoever and whatsoever the one is, there and that must the others\nalso be. Therefore, when doubts and fears, and consciousness of our own\nweakness, creep across us, and all our hopes are dimmed, as some star in\nthe heavens is, when a light mist floats between us and it, let us turn\naway to Him our brother, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, and\nthink that He, in His calm exaltation and regal authority and infinite\nblessedness, is not only the pattern of what humanity may be, but the\npledge of what His Church must be. 'Where I am, there shall also My\nservant be.' 'The glory that Thou gavest Me I have given them.'\n\nNor is that all. Not only a possibility and a certainty for the future\nare for us the measure of the power that worketh in us, but as this same\nletter teaches us, we have, as Christians, a present scale by which we\nmay estimate the greatness of the power. For in the next chapter, after\nthat glorious burst as to the dignity of his Lord, which we have not the\nheart to call a digression, the Apostle, recurring to the theme of my\ntext, goes on to say, 'And you hath He quickened,' and then, catching it\nup again a verse or two afterwards, he reiterates, clause by clause,\nwhat had been done on Jesus as having been done on us Christians. If\nthat Divine Spirit raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own\nright hand in the heavenly places, it is as true that the same power\nhath 'raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places\nin Christ Jesus.' And so not only the far-off, though real and\nbrilliant, and eye and heart-filling glories of the ascended Christ give\nus the measure of the power, but also the limited experience of the\npresent Christian life, the fact of the resurrection from the true\ndeath, the death of sin, the fact of union with Jesus Christ so real and\nclose as that they who truly experience it do live, as far as the roots\nof their lives and the scope and the aim of them are concerned, 'in the\nheavens,' and 'sit with Him in heavenly places'--these things afford us\nthe measure of the power that worketh in us.\n\nThen, because a Man is King of kings and Lord of lords; and because He\nwho is our Life 'is exalted high above all principalities and powers';\nand because from His throne He has quickened us from the death of sin,\nand has drawn us so near to Himself that if we are His we truly live\nbeside Him, even whilst we stumble here in the darkness, we may know the\nexceeding greatness of His power, according to the working of the\nstrength of the might which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from\nthe dead.\n\nII. Secondly, notice the knowledge of the unknowable power.\n\nWe have already come across the same apparent paradox, covering a deep\ntruth, in the former sections of this series of petitions. I need only\nremind you, in reference to this matter, that the knowledge which is\nhere in question is not the intellectual perception of a fact as\nrevealed in Scripture, but is that knowledge to which alone the New\nTestament gives the noble name, being knowledge verified by inward\nexperience, and the result of one's own personal acquaintance with its\nobject.\n\nHow do we know a power? By thrilling beneath its force. How are we to\nknow the greatness of the power but because it comes surging and\nrejoicing into our aching emptiness, and lifts us buoyant above our\ntemptations and weakness? Paul was not asking for these people\ntheological conceptions. He was asking that their spirits might be so\nsaturated with and immersed in that great ocean of force that pours from\nGod as that they should never, henceforth, be able to doubt the\ngreatness of that power which wrought in them. The knowledge that comes\nfrom experience is the knowledge that we all ought to seek. It is not\nmerely to be desired that we should have right and just conceptions, but\nthat we should have the vital knowledge which is, and which comes from,\nlife eternal.\n\nAnd that power, which thus we may all know by feeling it working upon\nourselves, though it be immeasurable, has its measure; though it be, in\nits depth and fulness, unknowable and inexhaustible, may yet be really\nand truly known. You do not need a thunderstorm to experience the\nelectric shock; a battery that you can carry in your pocket will do that\nfor you. You do not need to have traversed all the length and breadth\nand depth and height of some newly-discovered country to be sure of its\nexistence, and to have a real, though it may be a vague, conception of\nthe magnitude of its shores. And so, really, though boundedly, we have\nthe knowledge of God, and can rely upon it as valid, though partial; and\nsimilarly, by experience we have such a certified acquaintance with Him\nand His power as needs no enlargement to be trusted, and to become the\nsource of blessings untold. We may see but a strip of the sky through\nthe narrow chinks of our prison windows, and many a grating may further\nintercept the view, and much dust that might be cleared away may dim the\nglass but yet it _is_ the sky that we see, and we can think of the great\nhorizon circling round and round, and of the infinite depths above\nthere, which neither eye nor thought can travel unwearied. Though all\nthat we see be but an inch in breadth and a foot or two in height, yet\nwe do see. We know the unknowable power that passeth knowledge.\n\nAnd let me remind you of how large importance this knowledge of and\nconstant reference to the measureless power manifested in Christ is for\nus. I believe there can be no vigorous, happy Christian life without it.\nIt is our only refuge from pessimism and despair for the world. The old\npsalm said, 'Thou hast crowned Him with glory and honour, and hast given\nHim dominion over the works of Thy hands,' and hundreds of years\nafterwards the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews commented on it\nthus, 'We see not yet all things put under Him.' Was the old vision a\ndream, was it never intended to be fulfilled? Apparently so, if we take\nthe history of the past into account, and the centuries that have passed\nsince have done nothing to make it more probable, apart from Jesus\nChrist, that man will rise to the height which the Psalmist dreamed of.\nWhen we look at the exploded Utopias that fill the past; when we think\nof the strange and apparently fatal necessity by which evil is developed\nfrom every stage of what men call progress, and how improvement is\nperverted, almost as soon as effected, into another fortress of weakness\nand misery; when we look on the world as it is to-day, I know not whence\na man is to draw bright hopes, or what is to deliver him from pessimism\nas his last word about himself and his fellows, except the 'working of\nthe strength of the might which He wrought in Christ.' 'We see not yet\nall things put under Him'--be it so, 'but we see Jesus,' and, looking to\nHim, hope is possible, reasonable, and imperative.\n\nThe same knowledge is our refuge from our own consciousness of weakness.\nWe look up, as a climber may do in some Alpine ravine, upon the smooth\ngleaming walls of the cliff that rises above us. It is marble, it is\nfair, there are lovely lands on the summit, but nothing that has not\nwings can get there. We try, but slip backwards almost as much as we\nrise. What is to be done? Are we to sit down at the foot of the cliff,\nand say, 'We cannot climb, let us be content with the luscious herbage\nand sheltered ease below?' Yes! That is what we are tempted to say. But\nlook! a mighty hand reaches over, an arm is stretched down, the hand\ngrasps us, and lifts us, and sets us there.\n\n'No man hath ascended up into heaven save He that came down from\nheaven,' and having returned thither stoops thence, and will lift us to\nHimself. I am a poor, weak creature. Yes! I am all full of sin and\ncorruption. Yes! I am ashamed of myself every day. Yes! I am too heavy\nto climb, and have no wings to fly, and am bound here by chains\nmanifold. Yes! But we know the exceeding greatness of the power, and we\ntriumph in Him.\n\nThat knowledge should shame us into contrition, when we think of such\nforce at our disposal, and such poor results. That knowledge should\nwiden our conceptions, enlarge our desires, breathe a brave confidence\ninto our hopes, should teach us to expect great things of God, and to be\nintolerant of present attainments whilst anything remains unattained.\nAnd it should stimulate our vigorous effort, for no man will long seek\nto be better, if he is convinced that the effort is hopeless.\n\nLearn to realise the exceeding greatness of the power that will clothe\nyour weakness. 'Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created\nthese things, for that He is strong in might, not one faileth.' That is\nwonderful, but here is a far nobler operation of the divine power. It is\ngreat to 'preserve the ancient heavens' fresh and strong by His might,\nbut it is greater to come down to my weakness, to 'give power to the\nfaint,' and 'increase strength to them that have no might.' And that is\nwhat He will do with us.\n\nIII. Lastly, notice the conditions for the operations of the power.\n\n'To usward who believe,' says Paul. He has been talking to these\nEphesians, and saying 'ye,' but now, by that 'us,' he places himself\nbeside them, identifies himself with them, and declares that all his\ngifts and strength come to him on precisely the same conditions on which\ntheirs do to them; and that he, like them, is a waiter upon that grace\nwhich God bestows on them that trust Him.\n\n'To usward who believe.' Once more we are back at the old truth which we\ncan never make too emphatic and plain, that the one condition of the\nweakest among us being strong with the strength of the Lord is simple\ntrust in Him, verified, of course, by continuance and by effort.\n\nHow did the water go into the Ship Canal at Eastham last week? First of\nall they cut a trench, and then they severed the little strip of land\nbetween the hole and the sea, and the sea did the rest. The wider and\ndeeper the opening that we make in our natures by our simple trust in\nGod, the fuller will be the rejoicing flood that pours into us. There is\nan old story about a Christian father, who, having been torturing\nhimself with theological speculations about the nature of the Trinity,\nfell asleep and dreamed that he was emptying the ocean with a thimble!\nWell, you cannot empty it with a thimble, but you can go to it with one,\nand, if you have only a thimble in your hand, you will only bring away a\nthimbleful. The measure of your faith is the measure of God's power\ngiven to you.\n\nThere are two measures of the immeasurable power--the one is that\ninfinite limit, of 'the power which He wrought in Christ,' and the other\nthe practical limit. The working measure of our spiritual life is our\nfaith. In plain English, we can have as much of God as we want. We do\nhave as much as we want. And if, in touch with the power that can\nshatter a universe, we only get a little thrill that is scarcely\nperceptible to ourselves, and all unnoticed by others, whose fault is\nthat? If, coming to the fountain that laughs at drought, and can fill a\nuniverse with its waters, we scarcely bear away a straitened drop or\ntwo, that barely refreshes our parched lips, and does nothing to\nstimulate the growth of the plants of holiness in our gardens, whose\nfault is that? The practical measure of the power is for us the measure\nof our belief and desire. And if we only go to Him, as I pray we all\nmay, and continue there, and ask from Him strength, according to the\nriches that are treasured in Jesus Christ, we shall get the old answer,\n'According to your faith be it unto you.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE RESURRECTION OF DEAD SOULS\n\n 'God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved\n us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with\n Christ.'--Eph. ii. 4, 5.\n\n\nScripture paints man as he is, in darker tints, and man as he may\nbecome, in brighter ones, than are elsewhere found. The range of this\nportrait painter's palette is from pitchiest black to most dazzling\nwhite, as of snow smitten by sunlight. Nowhere else are there such sad,\nstern words about the actualities of human nature; nowhere else such\nglowing and wonderful ones about its possibilities. This Physician\nknows that He can cure the worst cases, if they will take His medicine,\nand is under no temptation to minimise the severity of the symptoms or\nthe fatality of the disease. We have got both sides in my text; man's\nactual condition, 'dead in trespasses'; man's possible condition, and\nthe actual condition of thousands of men--made to live again in Jesus\nChrist, and with Him raised from the dead, and with Him gone up on high,\nand with Him sitting at God's right hand. That is what you and I may be\nif we will; if we will not, then we must be the other.\n\nSo there are three things here to look at for a few moments--the dead\nsouls; the pitying love that looks down upon them; and the resurrection\nof the dead.\n\nI. First, here is a picture, a dogmatic statement if you like, about the\nactual condition of human nature apart from Jesus Christ--'Dead in\ntrespasses.'\n\nThe Apostle looks upon the world--many-coloured, full of activity, full\nof intellectual stir, full of human emotions, affections, joys, sorrows,\nfluctuations--as if it were one great cemetery, and on every gravestone\nthere were written the same inscription. They all died of the same\ndisease--'dead _through_ sin,' as the original more properly means.\n\nNow, I dare say many who are listening to me are saying in their hearts,\n'Oh! Exaggeration! The old gloomy, narrow view of human nature cropping\nup again.' Well, I am not at all unwilling to acknowledge that truths\nlike this have very often been preached both with a tone and in a manner\nthat repels, and which is rightly chargeable with exaggeration and undue\ngloom and narrowness. But let me remind you that it is not the\nEvangelical preacher nor the Apostle only who have to bear the\ncondemnation of exaggeration, if this representation of my text be not\ntrue to facts, but it is Jesus Christ too; for He says, 'Except ye eat\nthe flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, ye have no life in\nyou.' And I think that be He divine or not divine, His words about the\nreligious condition of men go so surely to the mark that a man must be\ntolerably impregnable in his self-conceit who charges _Him_ with\nnarrowness and exaggeration. At all events, I am content to say after\nHim, and I pray that you and I, when we accept Him as our Teacher, may\ntake not only His gracious, but His stern, words, assured that a deep\ngraciousness lies in these, too, if we rightly understand them.\n\nLet me remind you that the phrase of my text is by no means confined to\nChristian teachers, but that, in common speech, we hear from all high\nthinkers about the lower type of humanity being dead to the loftier\nthoughts in which they live and move and have their being. It has passed\ninto a commonplace of language to speak of men being 'dead to honour,'\n'dead to shame,' 'dead' to this, that, and the other good and noble and\ngracious thing. And the same metaphor, if you like, lies here in my\ntext--that men who have given their wills and inmost natures over to the\ndominion of self--and that is the definition of sin--that such men are,\n_ipso facto_, by reason of that very surrender of themselves to their\nworst selves, dead on what I may call the top side of their nature, and\nthat all that is there is atrophied and dwindling away.\n\nUnconsciousness is one characteristic of death. And oh! as I look round\nI know that there are tens, and perhaps hundreds, of men and women who\nare all but utterly unconscious of a whole universe in which are the\nonly realities, and to which it becomes them to have access. You live,\nin the physical sense, and move and have your being in God, and yet your\ninmost life would not be altered one hair's-breadth if there were no God\nat all. You pass the most resplendent instances and illustrations of His\npresence, His work, and you see nothing. You are blind on that side of\nyour natures; or, as my text says, dead to the whole spiritual realm.\nJust as if there were a brick wall run against some man's windows so\nthat he could see nothing out of them; so you, by your persistent\nadherence to the paltry present, the material, the visible, the selfish,\nhave reared up a wall against the windows of your souls that look\nheavenwards; and of God, and all the lofty starry realities that cluster\nround Him, you are as unconscious as the corpse upon its bier is of the\nsunshine that plays upon its pallid features, or of the dew that falls\non its stiffened limbs. Dead, because of sin--is that exaggeration? Is\nit exaggeration which charges all but absolute unconsciousness of\nspiritual realities upon worldly men like some of you?\n\nAnd, then, take another illustration. Another of the signatures of death\nis inactivity. And oh! what faculties in some of my friends listening to\nme now are shrivelled and all but extinct! They are dormant, at any\nrate, to use another word, for the death of my text is not so absolute a\ndeath but that a resurrection is possible, and so _dormant_ comes to\nexpress pretty nearly the same thing. Faculties of service, of\nenthusiasm, of life for God, of noble obedience to Him--what have you\ndone with them? Left them there until they have stiffened like an unused\nlock, or rusted like the hinges of an unopened door; and you are as\nlittle active in all the noblest activities of spirit, which are\nactivities in submission to and dependence upon Him, as if you were laid\nin your coffin with your idle hands crossed for evermore upon an\nunheaving breast.\n\nThere is another illustration that I may suggest for a moment. Decay is\nanother characteristic and signature of death. And your best self, in\nsome of you, is rotting to corruption by sin.\n\nAy! Dear brethren, when we think of these tragedies of suicide that are\ngoing on in thousands of men round about us to-day, it seems to me as if\nthe metaphor and the reality were reversed; and instead of saying that\nmy text is a violent metaphor, transferring the facts of material death\nand corruption to the spiritual realm, I am almost disposed to say it is\nthe other way about, and the real death is the death of the spirit; and\nthe outer dissolution and unconsciousness and inactivity of the material\nbody is only a kind of parable to preach to men what are the awful\ninvisible facts ever associated with the fact of transgression.\n\nThere are three lives possible for each of us; two of them involuntary,\nthe third requiring our consent and effort, but all of them sustained by\nthe same cause. The first of them is that which we call life, the\nactivity and the consciousness of the bodily frame; and that continues\nas long as the power of God keeps the body in life. When He withdraws\nHis hand there comes what the senses call death. Then there is the\nnatural life of thinking, loving, willing, enjoying, sorrowing, and the\nlike, and that continues as long as He who is the life and light of men\nbreathes into them the breath of that life. And these two are lived or\ndied largely without the man's own consent or choice.\n\nBut there is a third life, when all that lower is lifted to God, and\nthinking and willing and loving and enjoying and aspiring and trusting\nand obeying, and all these natural faculties find their home and their\nconsecration and their immortality in Him. That life is only lived by\nour own will and it is the true life, and the others are, as I said, but\nparables, and envelopes, and vehicles, as it were, in which this life is\ncarried, that is more precious than they. In the physical realm,\nseparate the body from God, and it dies. In the natural conscious life,\nseparate the soul, as we call it, from God, and it dies. And in the\nhigher region, separate the spirit, which is the man grasping God, from\nGod, and he dies; and that is the real death. Both the others are\nnothing in comparison with it.\n\nIt may co-exist with a large amount of intellectual and other forms of\nactivity, as we see all round about us, and that makes it only the more\nghastly and the sadder. You are full of energy in regard to all other\nsubjects, but smitten into torpor about the highest; ready to live, to\nwork, to enjoy, to think, to will, in all other directions, and utterly\nunconscious and unconcerned, or all but utterly unconscious and\nunconcerned, in regard to God.\n\nOh! a death which is co-existent with such feverish intensity of life as\nthe most of you are expending all the week at your business and your\ndaily pursuits is among the saddest of all the tragedies that angels are\ncalled upon to weep over, and that men are fools enough to enact.\nBrother! If the representation is a gloomy one, do not you think that it\nis better to ask the question--Is it a true one? than, Is it a cheerful\none? I lay it upon your hearts that he that lives to God and with God is\nalive to the centre as well as out to the finger tips and circumference\nof his visible being. He that is dead to God is dead indeed whilst he\nlives.\n\nII. Now, notice, in the second place, the pitying love that looks down\non the cemetery.\n\n'God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us.'\nThus the great truth that is taught us here, first of all, is that that\ndivine love of the Divine Father bends down over His dead children and\ncherishes them still. Oh! you can do much in separating yourselves from\nGod through selfishness, selfwill, sensuality, or other forms of sin,\nbut there is one thing you cannot do, you cannot prevent His loving you.\nIf I might venture without seeming irreverent, I would point to that\npathetic page in the Old Testament history where the king hears of the\ndeath, red-handed in treason, of his darling son, and careless of\nvictory and forgetful of everything else, and oblivious that Absalom was\na rebel, and only remembering that he was his boy, burst into that\nmonotonous wail that has come down over all the centuries as the deepest\nexpression of undying fatherly love. 'Oh! my son Absalom, my son, my son\nAbsalom! Oh! Absalom, my son, my son!' The name and the relationship\nwill well up out of the Father's heart, whatever the child's crime. We\nare all His Absaloms, and though we are dead in trespasses and in sins,\nGod, who is rich in mercy, bends over us and loves us with His great\nlove.\n\nThe Apostle might well expatiate in these two varying forms of speech,\nboth of them intended to express the same thing--'rich in mercy' and\n'great in love.' For surely a love which takes account of the sin that\ncannot repel it, and so shapes itself into mercy, sparing, and\ndeparting from the strict line of retribution and justice, is great. And\nsurely a mercy which refuses to be provoked by seventy times seven\ntransgressions in an hour, not to say a day, is rich. That mercy is\nwider than all humanity, deeper than all sin, was before all rebellion,\nand will last for ever. And it is open for every soul of man to receive\nif he will.\n\nBut there is another point to be noticed in reference to this wonderful\nmanifestation of the divine love looking down upon the myriads of men\ndead in sin, and that is that this love shapes the divine action. Mark\nthe language of our text, in which the Apostle attributes a certain line\nof conduct in the divine dealings with us to the fact of His great love.\nBecause 'He loved us' therefore He did so and so. Now about that I have\nonly two remarks to make, and I will make them very briefly. The one is,\nhere is a demonstration, for some of you people who do not believe in\nthe Evangelical doctrine of an Atonement by the sacrifice of Jesus\nChrist, that the true scriptural representation of that doctrine is not\nthat which caricaturists have represented it--viz. that the sacrifice of\nJesus Christ changed in any manner the divine heart and disposition. It\nis not as unfriendly critics (who, perhaps, are not to be so much blamed\nfor their unfriendliness as for their superficiality) would have us to\nbelieve, that the doctrine of Atonement says that God loves because\nChrist died. But the Apostle who preached that doctrine and looked upon\nit as the very heart and centre of his message to the world here puts as\nthe true sequence--Christ died because God loves. Jesus Christ said the\nsame thing, 'God so loved the world that He sent His Son, that whosoever\nbelieveth on Him should be saved.'\n\nAnd that brings me to the second of the remarks which I wish briefly to\nmake--viz. this, that the Divine Love, great, patient, wonderful,\nunrepelled by men's sin, as it is, has to adopt a process to reach its\nend. God by His love does not, because He cannot, raise these dead souls\ninto a life of righteousness without Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ\ncomes to be the channel and the medium through which the love of God may\nattain its end. God's pitying love, because 'He is rich in mercy,' is\nnot turned away by man's sin; and God's pitying love, because 'He is\nrich in mercy,' quickens men not by a bare will, but by the mission and\nwork of His dear Son.\n\nIII. And so that is the last thing on which I speak a word--viz. the\nresurrection of the dead souls.\n\nThey died of sin. That was the disease that killed them. They cannot be\nquickened unless the disease be conquered. Dear brethren, I have to\npreach--not to argue, but to preach--and to press upon each soul the\nindividual acceptance of the Death of Jesus Christ as being for each of\nus, if we will trust Him, the death of our death, and the death of our\nsin. By His great sacrifice and sufficient oblation He has borne the\nsins of the world and has taken away their guilt. And in Him the inmost\nreality of the spiritual death, and its outermost parable of corporeal\ndissolution, are equally and simultaneously overcome. If you will take\nHim for your Lord you will rise from the death of guilt, condemnation,\nselfishness, and sin into a new life of liberty, sonship, consecration,\nand righteousness, and will never see death.\n\nAnd, on the other hand, the life of Jesus Christ is available for all of\nus. If we will put our trust in Him, His life will pass into our\ndeadness; He Himself will vitalise our being, dormant capacities will\nbe quickened and brought into blessed activity, a new direction will be\ngiven to the old faculties, desires, aspirations, emotions of our\nnature. The will will tower into new power because it obeys. The heart\nwill throb with a better life because it has grasped a love that cannot\nchange and will never die. And the thinking power will be brought into\nliving, personal contact with the personal Truth, so that whatsoever\ndarknesses and problems may still be left, at the centre there will be\nlight and satisfaction and peace. You will live if you trust Christ and\nlet Him be your Life.\n\nAnd if thus, by simple faith in Him, knowing that the power of His\natoning death has destroyed the burden of our guilt and condemnation,\nand knowing the quickening influences of His constraining love as\ndrawing us to love new things and make us new creatures, we receive into\nour inmost spirits 'the law of the spirit of life' which was in Christ\nJesus, and are thereby made 'free from the law of sin and death,' then\nit is only a question of time, when the vitalising force shall flow into\nall the cracks and crannies of our being and deliver us wholly from the\nbondage of corruption in the outer as well as in the inner life; for\nthey who have learned that Christ is the life of their lives upon earth\ncan never cease their appropriation of the fulness of His quickening\npower until He has 'changed the body of their humiliation into the\nlikeness of the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He\nis able to subdue even all things unto Himself.'\n\nBrethren! He Himself has said, and His words I beseech you to remember\nthough you forget all mine, 'He that believeth in Me, though he were\ndead, yet shall he live, and he that liveth and believeth in Me shall\nnever die.' 'Believest thou this?'\n\n\n\n\n'THE RICHES OF GRACE'\n\n 'That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His\n grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.'--Eph. ii. 7.\n\n\nOne very striking characteristic of this epistle is its frequent\nreference to God's purposes, and what, for want of a better word, we\nmust call His motives, in giving us Jesus Christ. The Apostle seems to\nrise even higher than his ordinary height, while he gazes up to the\ninaccessible light, and with calm certainty proclaims not only what God\nhas done, but why He has done it. Through all the earlier portions of\nthis letter, the things on earth are contemplated in the light of the\nthings in heaven. The great work of redemption is illuminated by the\nthought of the will and meaning of God therein; for example, we read in\nChapter i. that He 'hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in\nChrist, according as He hath chosen us in Him,' and immediately after we\nread that He 'has predestinated us unto the adoption of children by\nJesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His will.' Soon after, we\nhear that 'He hath revealed to us the mystery of His will, according to\nHis good pleasure which He purposed in Himself'; and that our\npredestination to an inheritance in Christ is 'according to the purpose\nof Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.'\n\nNot only so, but the motive or reason for the divine action in the gift\nof Christ is brought out in a rich variety of expression as being 'the\npraise of the glory of His grace' (1-6), or 'that He might gather\ntogether in one all things in Christ' (1-10), or that 'we should be to\nthe praise of His glory' (1-12), or that 'unto the principalities and\npowers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold\nwisdom of God.'\n\nIn like manner our text follows a sublime statement of what has been\nbestowed upon men in Jesus, with an equally sublime insight into the\ndivine purpose of thereby showing 'the exceeding riches of His grace.'\nSuch heights are not for our unaided traversing; it is neither reverent\nnor safe to speculate, and still less to dogmatise, concerning the\nmeaning of the divine acts, but here, at all events, we have, as I\nbelieve, not a man making unwarranted assertions about God's purposes,\nbut God Himself by a man, letting us see so far into the depths of Deity\nas to know the very deepest meaning of His very greatest acts, and when\nGod speaks, it is neither reverent nor safe to refuse to listen.\n\nI. The purpose of God in Christ is the display of His grace.\n\nOf course we cannot speak of motives in the divine mind as in ours; they\nimply a previous state of indecision and an act of choice, from which\ncomes the slow emerging of a resolve like that of the moon from the sea.\nA given end being considered by us desirable, we then cast about for\nmeans to secure it, which again implies limitation of power. Still we\ncan speak of God's motives, if only we understand, as this epistle puts\nit so profoundly, that His 'is an eternal purpose which He purposed in\nHimself,' which never began to be formed, and was not formed by reason\nof anything external.\n\nWith that caution Paul would have us think that God's chiefest purpose\nin all the wondrous facts which make up the Gospel is the setting forth\nof Himself, and that the chiefest part of Himself, which He desires that\nall men should come to know, is the glory of His grace. Of course very\nmany and various reasons for these acts may be alleged, but this is the\ndeepest of them all. It has often been misunderstood and made into a\nvery hard and horrible doctrine, which really means little else than\nall-mighty selfishness, but it is really a most blessed one; it is the\nproclamation in tenderest, most heart-melting fashion of the truth that\nGod is Love, and therefore delights in imparting that which is His\ncreatures' life and blessedness; it bids us think that He, too, amidst\nthe blessedness of His infinite Being, knows the joy of communicating\nwhich makes so large a part of the blessedness of our finite selves, and\nthat He, too, is capable of being touched and gladdened by the joy of\nexpression. As an artist in his noblest work paints or chisels simply\nfor love of pouring out his soul, so, but in infinitely loftier fashion,\nthe great Artist delights to manifest Himself, and in manifesting to\ncommunicate somewhat of Himself. Creation is divine self-revelation, and\nwe might say, with all reverence, that God acts as birds sing, and\nfountains leap, and stars shine.\n\nBut our text leads us still farther into mysteries of glory, when it\ndefines what it is in God that he most desires to set forth. It is the\n'exceeding riches of Grace,' in which wonderful expression we note the\nApostle's passionate accumulation of epithets which he yet feels to be\naltogether inadequate to his theme. It would carry us too far to attempt\nto bring out the whole wealth contained in these words which glide so\neasily over unthinking lips, but we may lovingly dwell for a few moments\nupon them. Grace, in Paul's language, means love lavished upon the\nundeserving and sinful, a love which is not drawn forth by the\nperception of any excellence in its objects, but wells up and out like a\nfountain, by reason of the impulse in its subject, and which in itself\ncontains and bestows all good and blessing. There may be, as this very\nletter shows, other aspects of the divine nature which God is glad that\nman should know. His power and His wisdom have their noblest\nillustration in the work of Jesus, and are less conspicuously manifested\nin all His work; but His grace is shrined in Christ alone, and from Him\nflows forth into a thirsty world. That love, 'unmerited and free,' holds\nin solution power, wisdom and all the other physical or metaphysical\nperfections belonging to God with all their energies. It is the elixir\nin which they are all contained, the molten splendour into which have\nbeen dissolved gold and jewels and all precious things. When we look at\nChrist, we see the divinest thing in God, and that is His grace. The\nChrist who shows us and certifies to us the grace of God must surely be\nmore than man. Men look at Him and see it; He shows us that grace\nbecause He was full of grace and truth.\n\nBut Paul is here not propounding theological dogmas, but pouring out a\nheart full of personal experience, and so adds yet other words to\nexpress what he himself has found in the Divine Grace, and speaks of its\nriches. He has learned fully to trust its fulness, and in his own daily\nlife has had the witness of its inexhaustible abundance, which remains\nthe same after all its gifts. It 'operates unspent.' That continually\nself-communicating love pours out in no narrower stream to its last\nrecipient than to its first. All 'eat and are filled,' and after they\nare satisfied, twelve baskets full of fragments are taken up. These\nriches are exceeding; they surpass all human conception, all parallel,\nall human needs; they are properly transcendent.\n\nThis, then, is what God would have us know of Himself. So His love is at\nonce the motive of His great message to us in Jesus Christ, and is the\nwhole contents of the message, like some fountain, the force of whose\npellucid waters cleanses the earth, and rushes into the sunshine, being\nat once the reason for the flow and that which flows. God reveals\nbecause He loves, and His love is that which He reveals.\n\nII. The great manifestation of grace is God's kindness to us in Christ.\n\nAll the revelation of God in Creation and Providence carries the same\nmessage, but it is often there hard to decipher, like some\nhalf-obliterated inscription in a strange tongue. In Jesus the writing\nis legible, continuous, and needs no elaborate commentary to make its\nmeaning intelligible. But we may note that what the Apostle founds on\nhere is not so much Christ in Himself, as that which men receive in\nChrist. As he puts it in another part of this epistle, it is 'through\nthe Church' that 'principalities and powers in heavenly places' are made\nto 'know the manifold wisdom of God.' It is 'His kindness towards us' by\nwhich 'to the ages to come,' is made known the exceeding riches of\ngrace, and that kindness can be best estimated by thinking what we were,\nnamely, dead in trespasses and sins; what we are, namely, quickened\ntogether in Christ; raised up with Him, and with Him made to sit in\nheavenly places, as the immediately preceding clauses express it. All\nthis marvellous transformation of conditions and of self is realised 'in\nChrist Jesus.' These three words recur over and over again in this\nprofound epistle, and may be taken as its very keynote. It would carry\nus beyond all limits to deal with the various uses and profound meanings\nof this phrase in this letter, but we may at least point out how\nintimately and inseparably it is intertwined with the other aspect of\nour relations to Christ in which He is mainly regarded as dying for us,\nand may press upon you that these two are not, as they have sometimes\nbeen taken to be, antagonistic but complementary. We shall never\nunderstand the depths of the one Apostolic conception unless we bring it\ninto closest connection with the other. Christ is for us only if we are\nin Christ; we are in Christ only because He died for us.\n\nGod's kindness is all 'in Christ Jesus'; in Him is the great channel\nthrough which His love comes to men, the river of God which is full of\nwater. And that kindness is realised by us when we are 'in Christ.'\nSeparated from Him we do not possess it; joined to Him as we may be by\ntrue faith in Him, it is ours, and with it all the blessings which it\nbrings into our else empty and thirsting hearts. Now all this sets in\nstrong light the dignity and work of Christian men; the profundity and\nclearness of their religious character is the great sign to the world of\nthe love of God. The message of Christ to man lacks one chief evidence\nof its worth if they who profess to have received it do not, in their\nlives, show its value. The characters of Christian people are in every\nage the clearest and most effectual witnesses of the power of the\nGospel. God's honour is in their hands. The starry heavens are best seen\nby reflecting telescopes, which, in their field, mirror the brightness\nabove.\n\nIII. The manifestation of God through men 'in Christ' is for all ages.\n\nIn our text the ages to come open up into a vista of undefined duration,\nand, just as in another place in this epistle, Paul regards the Church\nas witnessing to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, so\nhere he regards it as the perennial evidence to all generations of the\never-flowing riches of God's grace. Whatever may have been the Apostle's\nearlier expectations of the speedy coming of the day of the Lord, here\nhe obviously expects the world to last through a long stretch of\nundefined time, and for all its changing epochs to have an unchanging\nlight. That standing witness, borne by men in Christ, of the grace which\nhas been so kind to them, is not to be antiquated nor superseded, but is\nas valid to-day as when these words gushed from the heart of Paul. Eyes\nwhich cannot look upon the sun can see it as a golden glory, tinging the\nclouds which lie cradled around it. And as long as the world lasts, so\nlong will Christian men be God's witnesses to it.\n\nThere are then two questions of infinite importance to us--do we show in\ncharacter and conduct the grace which we have received by reverently\nsubmitting ourselves to its transforming energy? We need to be very\nclose to Him for ourselves if we would worthily witness to others of\nwhat we have found Him to be. We have but too sadly marred our witness,\nand have been like dim reflectors round a lamp which have received but\nlittle light from it, and have communicated even less than we have\nreceived. Do we see the grace that shines so brightly in Jesus Christ?\nGod longs that we should so see; He calls us by all endearments and by\nloving threats to look to that Incarnation of Himself. And when we lift\nour eyes to behold, what is it that meets our gaze? Intolerable light?\nThe blaze of the white throne? Power that crushes our puny might? No!\nthe 'exceeding riches of grace.' The voice cries, 'Behold your God!' and\nwhat we see is, 'In the midst of the throne a lamb as it had been\nslain.'\n\n\n\n\nSALVATION: GRACE: FAITH\n\n 'By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of\n yourselves: it is the gift of God.'--Eph. ii. 8 (R.V.).\n\n\nHere are three of the key-words of the New Testament--'grace,' 'saved,'\n'faith.' Once these terms were strange and new; now they are old and\nthreadbare. Once they were like lava, glowing and cast up from the\ncentral depths; but it is a long while since the eruption, and the\nblocks have got cold, and the corners have been rubbed off them. I am\nafraid that some people, when they read such a text, will shrug the\nshoulder of weariness, and think that they are in for a dreary sermon.\n\nBut the more familiar a word is, the more likely are common ideas about\nit to be hazy. We substitute acquaintance with the sound for penetration\ninto the sense. A frond of sea-weed, as long as it is in the ocean,\nunfolds its delicate films and glows with its subdued colours. Take it\nout, and it is hard and brown and ugly, and you have to plunge it into\nthe water again before you see its beauty. So with these well-worn\nChristian terms; you have to put them back, by meditation and thought,\nespecially as to their bearing on yourself, in order to understand their\nsignificance and to feel their power. And, although it is very hard, I\nwant to try and do that for a few moments with this grand thought that\nlies in my text.\n\nI. Here we have the Christian view of man's deepest need, and God's\ngreatest gift.\n\n'Ye have been saved.' Now, as I have said, 'saved,' and 'salvation,' and\n'Saviour,' are all threadbare words. Let us try to grasp the whole\nthrobbing meaning that is in them. Well, to begin with, and in its\noriginal and lowest application, this whole set of expressions is\napplied to physical danger from which it delivers, and physical disease\nwhich it heals. So, in the Gospels, for instance, you find 'Thy faith\nhath made thee whole'--literally, '_saved thee_' And you hear one of the\nApostles crying, in an excess of terror and collapse of faith, 'Save!\nMaster! we perish!' The two notions that are conveyed in our familiar\nexpression 'safe and sound,' both lie in the word--deliverance from\ndanger, and healing of disease.\n\nThen, when you lift it up into the loftier region, into which\nChristianity buoyed it up, the same double meaning attaches to it. The\nChristian salvation is, on its negative side, a deliverance from\nsomething impending--peril--and a healing of something infecting us--the\nsickness of sin.\n\nIt is a deliverance; what from? Take, in the briefest possible language,\nthree sayings of Scripture to answer that question--what am I to be\nsaved _from_? 'His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His\npeople from their sins.' He 'delivers'--or saves--'us from the wrath to\ncome.' He 'saves a soul from death.' Sin, wrath death, death spiritual\nas well as physical, these are the dangers which lie in wait; and the\nenemies which have laid their grip upon us. And from these, as the\nshepherd drags the kid from the claws of the lion or the bear's hug, the\nsalvation of the Gospel wrenches and rescues men.\n\nThe same general conceptions emerge, if we notice, on the other\nside--what are the things which the New Testament sets forth as the\nopposites of its salvation? Take, again, a brief reference to Scripture\nwords: 'The Son of Man came _not to condemn_ the world, but that the\nworld through Him might be saved.' So the antithesis is between judgment\nor condemnation on the one hand, and salvation on the other. That\nsuggests thoughts substantially identical with the preceding but still\nmore solemn, as bringing in the prospect a tribunal and a judge. The\nGospel then reveals the Mighty Power that lifts itself between us and\njudgment, the Mighty Power that intervenes to prevent absolute\ndestruction, the Power which saves from sin, from wrath, from death.\n\nAlong with them we may take the other thought, that salvation, as the\nNew Testament understands it, is not only the rescue and deliverance of\na man from evils conceived to lie round about him, and to threaten his\nbeing from without, but that it is his healing from evils which have so\nwrought themselves into his very being, and infected his whole nature,\nas that the emblem for them is a sickness unto death for the healing\nfrom which this mighty Physician comes. These are the negative sides of\nthis great Christian thought.\n\nBut the New Testament salvation is more than a shelter, more than an\nescape. It not only trammels up evil possibilities, and prevents them\nfrom falling upon men's heads, but it introduces all good. It not only\nstrips off the poisoned robe, but it invests with a royal garb. It is\nnot only negatively the withdrawal from the power, and the setting above\nthe reach, of all evil, in the widest sense of that word, physical and\nmoral, but it is the endowment with every good, in the widest sense of\nthat word, physical and moral, which man is capable of receiving, or God\nhas wealth to bestow. And this positive significance of the Christian\nsalvation, which includes not only pardon, and favour, and purity, and\nblessedness here in germ, and sure and certain hope of an overwhelming\nglory hereafter--this is all suggested to us by the fact that in\nScripture, more than once, to 'have everlasting life,' and to 'enter\ninto the Kingdom of God,' are employed as equivalent and alternative\nexpressions for being saved with the salvation of God.\n\nAnd that leads me to another point--my text, as those of you who have\nused the Revised Version will observe, is there slightly modified in\ntranslation, and reads 'Ye _have been saved_,'--a past act, done once,\nand with abiding present consequences, which are realised progressively\nin the Christian life, and reach forward into infinitude. So the\nScripture sometimes speaks of salvation as past, 'He saved us by His\nmercy': sometimes of it as present and progressive, 'The Lord added to\nthe Church daily those that were (in process of) being saved': sometimes\nof it as future, 'now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.' In\nthat future all that is involved in the word will be evolved from it in\nblessed experience onwards through eternity.\n\nI have said that we should try to make an effort to fathom the depth of\nmeaning in this and other familiar commonplace terms of Scripture. But\nno effort prior to experience will ever fathom it. There was in the\npapers some time ago an account of some extraordinary deep-sea soundings\nthat have been made away down in the South Pacific, 29,400 feet and no\nbottom, and the wire broke. The highest peak of the Himalayas might be\nput into that abyss, and there would be hundreds of feet between it and\nthe surface. He 'casts all our sins,' mountainous as they are, behind\nHis back 'into the depths of the sea'; and no plummet that man can drop\nwill ever reach its profound abyss. 'Thy judgments are a great deep,'\nand deeper than the judgments is the depth of Thy salvation.\n\nAnd now, brethren, before I go further, notice the--I was going to say\ntheory, but that is a cold word--the facts of man's condition and need\nthat underlie this great Christian term of salvation--viz. we are all in\ndeadly peril; we are all sick of a fatal disease. 'Ah!' you say, 'that\nis Paul.' Yes! it is Paul. But it is not Paul only; it is Paul's Master,\nand, I hope, your Master; for He not only spoke loving, gentle words to\nand about men, and not only was grace poured into His lips, but there is\nanother side to His utterances. No one ever spoke sadder, sterner words\nabout the real condition of men than Jesus Christ did. Lost sheep, lost\ncoins, prodigal sons, builders of houses on the sand that are destined\nto be blown down and flooded away, men in danger of an undying worm and\nunquenchable fire--these are parts of Christ's representations of the\ncondition of humanity, and these are the conceptions that underlie this\ngreat thought of salvation as being man's deepest need.\n\nIt goes far deeper down than any of the superficial constructions of\nwhat humanity requires, which are found among non-Christian, social and\neconomical, and intellectual and political reformers. It includes all\nthat is true in the estimate of any of these people, and it supplies all\nthat they aim at. But it goes far beyond them. And as they stand\npottering round the patient, and administering--what shall I say? 'pills\nfor the earthquake,' as we once heard--it comes and brushes them aside\nand says, 'Physicians of no value! here is _the_ thing that is\nwanted--salvation that comes from God.'\n\nBrother! it is what you need. Do not be led away by the notion that\nwealth, or culture, or anything less than Christ's gift to men will meet\nyour necessities. If once we catch a glimpse of what we really are,\nthere will be no words wanted to enforce the priceless value of the\nsalvation that the Gospel offers. It is sure to be an uninteresting word\nand thing to a man who does not feel himself to be a sinner. It is sure\nto be of perennial worth to a man who does. Life-belts lie unnoticed on\nthe cabin-shelf above the berth as long as the sun is bright, and the\nsea calm, and everything goes well; but when the ship gets on the rocks\nthe passengers fight to get them. If you know yourself, you will know\nthat salvation is what you need.\n\nII. Here we have the Christian unfolding of the source of salvation.\n\n'By grace ye have been saved.' There is another threadbare word. It is\nemployed in the New Testament with a very considerable width of\nsignification, which we do not need to attend to here. But, in regard of\nthe present context, let me just point out that the main idea conveyed\nby the word is that of favour, or lovingkindness, or goodwill,\nespecially when directed to inferiors, and most eminently when given to\nthose who do not deserve it, but deserve its opposite. 'Grace' is love\nthat stoops and that requites, not according to desert, but bestows\nupon those who deserve nothing of the kind; so when the Apostle declares\nthat the source of salvation is 'grace.' he declares two things. One is\nthat the fountain of all our deliverance from sin, and of our healing of\nour sicknesses, lies in the deep heart of God, from which it wells up\nundrawn, unmotived, uncaused by anything except His own infinite\nlovingkindness. People have often presented the New Testament teaching\nabout salvation as if it implied that God's love was brought to man\nbecause Jesus Christ died, and turned the divine affections. That is not\nNew Testament teaching. Christ's death is not the cause of God's love,\nbut God's love is the cause of Christ's death. 'God so loved the world\nthat He gave His only begotten Son.'\n\nWhen we hear in the Old Testament, 'I am that I am,' we may apply it to\nthis great subject. For that declaration of the very inmost essence of\nthe divine nature is not merely the declaration, in half metaphysical\nterms, of a self-substituting, self-determining Being, high above\nlimitation and time and change, but it is a declaration that when He\nloves He loves freely and unmodified save by the constraint of His own\nBeing. Just as the light, because it is light and must radiate, falls\nupon dunghills and diamonds, upon black rocks and white snow, upon\nice-peaks and fertile fields, so the great fountain of the Divine Grace\npours out upon men by reason only of its own continual tendency to\ncommunicate its own fulness and blessedness.\n\nThere follows from that the other thought, on which the Apostle mainly\ndwells in our context, that the salvation which we need, and may have,\nis not won by desert, but is given as a gift. Mark the last words of my\ntext--'that not of yourselves it is the gift of God.' They have often\nbeen misunderstood, as if they referred to the faith which is mentioned\njust before. But that is a plain misconception of the Apostle's meaning,\nand is contradicted by the whole context. It is not faith that is the\ngift of God, but it is salvation by grace. That is plain if you will\nread on to the next verse. 'By grace are ye saved through faith, and\nthat not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works lest any man\nshould boast.' What is it that is 'not of works'? Faith? certainly not.\nNobody would ever have thought it worth while to say, 'faith is _not_ of\nworks,' because nobody would have said that it _was_. The two clauses\nnecessarily refer to the same thing, and if the latter of them must\nrefer to salvation by grace, so must the former. Thus, the Apostle's\nmeaning is that we get salvation, not because we work for it but because\nGod gives it as a free gift, for which we have nothing to render, and\nwhich we can never deserve.\n\nNow, I am sure that there are some of you who are saying to yourselves,\n'This is that old, threadbare, commonplace preaching again!' Well! shame\non us preachers if we have made a living Gospel into a dead theology.\nAnd shame no less on you hearers if by you the words that should be good\nnews that would make the tongue of the dumb sing, and the lame man leap\nas a hart, have been petrified and fossilised into a mere dogma.\n\nI know far better than you do how absolutely inadequate all my words\nare, but I want to bring it to you and to lay it not on your heads only\nbut on your hearts, as the good news that we all need, that we have not\nto buy, that we have not to work to get salvation, but that having got\nit we have to work thereafter. 'What shall we do that we might work the\nworks of God?' A whole series of diverse, long, protracted, painful\ntoils? Christ swept away the question by striking out the 's' at the end\nof the word, and answered, 'This is the _work_' (not 'works') 'of God,'\nthe one thing which will open out into all heroism and practical\nobedience, 'that ye believe on Him to whom He hath sent.'\n\nIII. That leads me to the last point--viz. the Christian requirement of\nthe condition of salvation.\n\nNote the precision of the Apostle's prepositions: 'Ye have been saved\n_by_ grace'; there is the source--'Ye have been saved by grace,\n_through_ faith'--there is the medium, the instrument, or, if I may so\nsay, the channel; or, to put it into other words, the condition by which\nthe salvation which has its source in the deep heart of God pours its\nwaters into my empty heart. 'Through faith,' another threadbare word,\nwhich, withal, has been dreadfully darkened by many comments, and has\nunfortunately been so represented as that people fancy it is some kind\nof special attitude of mind and heart, which is only brought to bear in\nreference to Christ's Gospel. It is a thousand pities, one sometimes\nthinks, that the word was not translated 'trust' instead of 'faith,' and\nthen we should have understood that it was not a theological virtue at\nall, but just the common thing that we all know so well, which is the\ncement of human society and the blessedness of human affection, and\nwhich only needs to be lifted, as a plant that had been running along\nthe ground, and had its tendrils bruised and its fruit marred might be\nlifted, and twined round the pillar of God's throne, in order to grow up\nand bear fruit that shall be found after many days unto praise, and\nhonour, and glory.\n\nTrust; that is the condition. The salvation rises from the heart of God.\nYou cannot touch the stream at its source, but you can tap it away down\nin its flow. What do you want machinery and pumps for? Put a yard of\nwooden pipe into the river, and your house will have all the water it\nneeds.\n\nSo, dear brethren, here is the condition--it is a condition only, for\nthere is no virtue in the act of trust, but only in that with which we\nare brought into living union when we do trust. When salvation comes,\ninto my heart by faith it is not my faith but God's grace that puts\nsalvation there.\n\nFaith is only the condition, ay! but it is the indispensable condition.\nHow many ways are there of getting possession of a gift? One only, I\nshould suppose, and that is, to put out a hand and take it. If salvation\nis _by_ grace it must be '_through_ faith.' If you will not accept you\ncannot have. That is the plain meaning of what theologians call\njustification by faith; that pardon is given on condition of taking it.\nIf you do not take it you cannot have it. And so this is the upshot of\nthe whole--trust, and you have.\n\nOh, dear friends! open your eyes to see your dangers. Let your\nconscience tell you of your sickness. Do not try to deliver, or to heal\nyourselves. Self-reliance and self-help are very good things, but they\nleave their limitations, and they have no place here. 'Every man his own\nRedeemer' will not work. You can no more extricate yourself from the\ntoils of sin than a man can release himself from the folds of a python.\nYou can no more climb to heaven by your own effort than you can build a\nrailway to the moon. You must sue _in forma pauperis_, and be content to\naccept as a boon an unmerited place in your Father's heart, an\nundeserved seat at His bountiful table, an unearned share in His wealth,\nfrom the hands of your Elder Brother, in whom is all His grace, and who\ngives salvation to every sinner if he will trust Him. 'By grace have ye\nbeen saved through faith.'\n\n\n\n\nGOD'S WORKMANSHIP AND OUR WORKS\n\n 'We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,\n which God hath before ordained that we should walk in\n them.'--Eph. ii. 10.\n\n\nThe metal is molten as it runs out of the blast furnace, but it soon\ncools and hardens. Paul's teaching about salvation by grace and by faith\ncame in a hot stream from his heart, but to this generation his words\nare apt to sound coldly, and hardly theological. But they only need to\nbe reflected upon in connection with our own experience, to become vivid\nand vital again. The belief that a man may work towards salvation is a\nuniversal heresy. And the Apostle, in the context, summons all his force\nto destroy that error, and to substitute the great truth that we have to\nbegin with an act of God's, and only after that can think about our\nacts. To work up towards salvation is, in the strict sense of the words,\n_preposterous_; it is inverting the order of things. It is beginning at\nthe wrong end. It is saying X Y Z before you have learnt to say A B C.\nWe are to work downwards from salvation because we have it, not that we\nmay get it. And whatever 'good works' may mean, they are the\nconsequences, not the causes, of 'salvation,' whatever that may mean.\nBut they are consequences, and they are the very purpose of it. So says\nPaul in the archaic language of my text--which only wants a little\nsteadfast looking at to be turned into up-to-date gospel--'We are His\nworkmanship, created unto good works'; and the fact that we are is one\ngreat reason for the assertion which he brings it in to buttress, that\nwe are saved by grace, not by works. Now, I wish, in the simplest\npossible way, to deal with these great words, and take them as they lie\nbefore us.\n\nI. We have, first, then, this as the root of everything, the divine\ncreation.\n\nNow, you will find that in this profound letter of the Apostle there are\ntwo ideas cropping up over and over again, both of them representing the\nfacts of the Christian life and of the transition from the unchristian\nto the Christian; and the one is Resurrection and the other is Creation.\nThey have this in common, that they suggest the idea that the great gift\nwhich Christianity brings to men--no, do not let me use the abstract\nword 'Christianity'--the great gift which _Christ_ brings to men--is a\nnew life. The low popular notion that salvation means mainly and\nprimarily immunity from the ultimate, most lasting future consequences\nof transgression, a change of place or of condition, infects us all, and\nis far too dominant in our popular notions of Christianity and of\nsalvation. And it is because people have such an unworthy, narrow,\nselfish idea of what 'salvation' is that they fall into the bog of\nmisconception as to how it is to be attained. The ordinary man's way of\nlooking at the whole matter is summed up in a sentence which I heard not\nlong since about a recently deceased friend of the speaker's, and the\nlike of which you have no doubt often heard and perhaps said, 'He is\nsure to be saved because he has lived so straight.' And at the\nfoundation of that confident epitaph lay a tragical, profound\nmisapprehension of what salvation was.\n\nFor it is something done in you; it is _not_ something that you get, but\nit is something that you become. The teaching of this letter, and of the\nwhole New Testament, is that the profoundest and most precious of all\nthe gifts which come to us in Jesus Christ, and which in their totality\nare summed up in the one word that has so little power over us, because\nwe understand it so little, and know it so well--'salvation'--is a\nchange in a man's nature so deep, radical, vital, as that it may fairly\nbe paralleled with a resurrection from the dead.\n\nNow, I venture to believe that it is something more than a strong\nrhetorical figure when that change is described as being the creation of\na new man within us. The resurrection symbol for the same fact may be\ntreated as but a symbol. You cannot treat the teaching of a new life in\nChrist as being a mere figure. It is something a great deal more than\nthat, and when once a man's eye is opened to look for it in the New\nTestament it is wonderful how it flashes out from every page and\nunderlies the whole teaching. The Gospel of John, for example, is but\none long symphony which has for its dominant theme 'I am come that they\nmight have life.' And that great teaching--which has been so vulgarised,\nnarrowed, and mishandled by sacerdotal pretensions and sacramentarian\nsuperstitions--that great teaching of Regeneration, or the new birth,\nrests upon this as its very basis, that what takes place when a man\nturns to Jesus Christ, and is saved by Him, is that there is\ncommunicated to him not in symbol but in spiritual fact (and spiritual\nfacts are far more true than external ones which are called real) a\nspark of Christ's own life, something of 'that spirit of life which was\nin Christ Jesus,' and by which, and by which alone, being transfused\ninto us, we become 'free from the law of sin and death.' I beseech you,\nbrethren, see that, in your perspective of Christian truth, the thought\nof a new life imparted to us has as prominent and as dominant a place as\nit obviously has in the teaching of the New Testament. It is not so\ndominant in the current notions of Christianity that prevail amongst\naverage people, but it is so in all men who let themselves be guided by\nthe plain teaching of Christ Himself and of all His servants. Salvation?\nYes! And the very essence of the salvation is the breathing into me of a\ndivine life, so that I become partaker of 'the divine nature.'\n\nNow, there is another step to be taken, and that is that this new life\nis realised in Christ Jesus. Now, this letter of the Apostle is\ndistinguished even amongst his letters by the extraordinary frequency\nand emphasis with which he uses that expression 'in Christ Jesus.' If\nyou will take up the epistle, and run your eye over it at your leisure,\nI think you will be surprised to find how, in all connections, and\nlinked with every sort of blessing and good as its condition, there\nrecurs that phrase. It is 'in Christ' that we obtain the inheritance; it\nis 'in Christ' that we receive 'redemption, even the forgiveness of\nsins'; it is in Him that we are 'builded together for a habitation of\nGod'; it is in Him that all fulness of divine gifts, and all blessedness\nof spiritual capacities, is communicated to us; and unless, in our\nperspective of the Christian life, that expression has the same\nprominence as it has in this letter, we have yet to learn the sweetest\nsweetness, and have yet to receive the most mighty power, of the Gospel\nthat we profess. 'In Christ'--a union which leaves the individuality of\nthe Saviour and of the saint unimpaired, because without such\nindividuality sweet love were slain, and there were no communion\npossible, but which is so close, so real, so vital, as that only the\nseparating wall of personality and individual consciousness comes in\nbetween--that is the New Testament teaching of the relation of the\nChristian to Christ. Is it your experience, dear brother? Do not be\nfrightened by talking about mysticism. If a Christianity has no\nmysticism it has no life. There is a wholesome mysticism and there is a\nmorbid one, and the wholesome one is the very nerve of the Gospel as it\nis presented by Jesus Himself: 'I am the Vine, ye are the branches.\nAbide in Me, and I in you.' If our nineteenth century busy Christianity\ncould only get hold of that truth as firmly as it grasps the\nrepresentative and sacrificial character of Christ's work, I believe it\nwould come like a breath of spring over 'the winter of our discontent,'\nand would change profoundly and blessedly the whole contexture of modern\nChristianity.\n\nAnd now there is another step to take, and that is that this union with\nChrist, which results in the communication of a new life, or, as my text\nputs it, a new creation, depends upon our faith. We are not passive in\nthe matter. There is the condition on which the entrance of the life\ninto our spirits is made possible. You must open the door, you must\nfling wide the casement, and the blessed warm morning air of the sun of\nrighteousness, with healing in its beams, will rush in, scatter the\ndarkness and raise the temperature. 'Faith' by which we simply mean the\nact of the mind in accepting and of the will and heart in casting one's\nself upon Christ as the Saviour--that act is the condition of this new\nlife. And so each Christian is 'God's workmanship, created in Christ\nJesus.'\n\nAnd now, says Paul--and here some of us will hesitate to follow\nhim--that new creation has to go before what you call 'good works.' Now,\ndo not let us exaggerate. There has seldom been a more disastrous and\nuntrue thing said than what one of the Fathers dared to say, that the\nvirtues of godless men were 'splendid vices.' That is not so, and that\nis not the New Testament teaching. Good is good, whoever does it. But,\nthen, no man will say that actions, however they may meet the human\nconception of excellence, however bright, pure, lofty in motive and in\naim they may be, reach their highest possible radiance and are as good\nas they ought to be, if they are done without any reference to God and\nHis love. Dear brethren, we surely do not need to have the alphabet of\nmorality repeated to us, that the worth of an action depends upon its\nmotive, that no motive is correspondent to our capacities and our\nrelation to God and our consequent responsibilities, except the motive\nof loving obedience to Him. Unless that be present, the brightest of\nhuman acts must be convicted of having dark shadows in it, and all the\ndarker because of the brightness that may stream from it. And so I\nventure to assert that since the noblest systems of morality, apart from\nreligion, will all coincide in saying that to be is more than to do, and\nthat the worth of an action depends upon its motive, we are brought\nstraight up to the 'narrow, bigoted' teaching of the New Testament, that\nunless a man is swayed by the love of God in what he does, you cannot,\nin the most searching analysis, say that his deed is as good as it ought\nto be, and as it might be. To be good is the first thing, to do good is\nthe second. Make the tree good and its fruit good. And since, as we have\nmade ourselves we are evil, there must come a re-creation before we can\ndo the good deeds which our relation to God requires at our hands.\n\nII. I ask you to look at the purpose of this new creation brought out in\nour text.\n\n'Created in Christ Jesus unto good works.' That is what life is given to\nyou for. That is why you are saved, says Paul. Instead of working\nupwards from works to salvation, take your stand at the received\nsalvation, and understand what it is for, and work downwards from it.\n\nNow, do not let us take that phrase, 'good works,' which I have already\nsaid came hot from the Apostle's heart, and is now cold as a bar of\niron, in the limited sense which it has come to bear in modern religious\nphraseology. It means something a great deal more than that. It covers\nthe whole ground of what the Apostle, in another of his letters, speaks\nof when he says, 'Whatsoever things are lovely and of good report, if\nthere be any virtue'--to use for a moment the world's word, which has\nsuch power to conjure in Greek ethics--'or if there be any praise'--to\nuse for a moment the world's low motive, which has such power to sway\nmen--'think of these things,' and these things do. That is the width of\nthe conception of 'good works'; everything that is 'lovely and of good\nreport.' That is what you receive the new life for.\n\nContrast that with other notions of the purpose of revelation and\nredemption. Contrast it with what I have already referred to, and so\nneed not enlarge upon now, the miserably inadequate and low notions of\nthe essentials of salvation which one hears perpetually, and which many\nof us cherish. It is no mere immunity from a future hell. It is no mere\nentrance into a vague heaven. It is not escaping the penalty of the\ninexorable law, 'Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap,' that\nis meant by 'salvation,' any more than it is putting away the rod, which\nthe child would be all the better for having administered to him, that\nis meant by 'forgiveness.' But just as forgiveness, in its essence,\nmeans not suspension nor abolition of penalty, but the uninterrupted\nflow of the Father's love, so salvation in its essence means, not the\ndeliverance from any external evil or the alteration of anything in the\nexternal position, but the revolution and the re-creation of the man's\nnature. And the purpose of it is that the saved man may live in\nconformity with the will of God, and that on his character there may be\nembroidered all the fair things which God desires to see on His child's\nvesture.\n\nContrast it with the notion that an orthodox belief is the purpose of\nrevelation. I remember hearing once of a man that 'he was a very shady\ncharacter, but sound on the Atonement.' What is the use of being 'sound\non the Atonement' if the Atonement does not make you live the Christ\nlife? And what is the good of all your orthodoxy unless the orthodoxy of\ncreed issues in orthopraxy of conduct? There are far too many of us who\nhalf-consciously do still hold by the notion that if a man believes\nrightly then that makes him a Christian. My text shatters to pieces any\nsuch conception. You are saved that you may be good, and do good\ncontinually; and unless you are so doing you may be steeped to the\neyebrows in the correctest of creeds, and it will only drown you.\n\nContrast this conception of the purpose of Christianity with the far too\ncommon notion that we are saved, mainly in order that we may indulge in\ndevout emotions, and in the outgoing of affection and confidence to\nJesus Christ. Emotional Christianity is necessary, but Christianity,\nwhich is mainly or exclusively emotional, lives next door to hypocrisy,\nand there is a door of communication between them. For there is nothing\nmore certain and more often illustrated in experience than that there is\na strange underground connection between a Christianity which is mainly\nfervid and a very shady life. One sees it over and over again. And the\ncure of that is to apprehend the great truth of my text, that we are\nsaved, not in order that we may know aright, nor in order that we may\nfeel aright, but in order that we may be good and do 'good works.' In\nthe order of things, right thought touches the springs of right feeling,\nand right feeling sets going the wheels of right action. Do not let the\nsteam all go roaring out of the waste-pipe in however sacred and blessed\nemotions. See that it is guided so as to drive the spindles and the\nshuttles and make the web.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, and only a word--here we have the field provided\nfor the exercise of the 'good works.'\n\n'Created unto good works which God has before prepared'--before the\nre-creation--'that we should walk in them.' That is to say, the true way\nto look at the life is to regard it as the exercising-ground which God\nhas prepared for the development of the life that, through Christ, is\nimplanted in us. He cuts the channels that the stream may flow. That is\nthe way to look at tasks, at difficulties. Difficulty is the parent of\npower, and God arranges our circumstances in order that, by wrestling\nwith obstacles, we may gain the 'thews that throw the world,' and in\norder that in sorrows and in joys, in the rough places and the smooth,\nwe may find occasions for the exercise of the goodness which is lodged\npotentially in us, when He creates us in Christ Jesus. So be sure that\nthe path and the power will always correspond. God does not lead us on\nroads that are too steep for our weakness, and too long for our\nstrength. What He bids us do He fits us for; what He fits us for He\nthereby bids us do.\n\nAnd so, dear brother, take heed that you are fulfilling the purpose for\nwhich you receive this new life. And let us all remember the order in\nwhich being and doing come. We must _be_ good first, and then, and only\nthen, shall we _do_ good. We must have Christ for us first, our\nsacrifice and our means of receiving that new life, and then, Christ in\nus, the soul of our souls, the Life of our lives, the source of all our\ngoodness.\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\n\n\n\n'THE CHIEF CORNER-STONE'\n\n 'Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ\n Jesus Himself being the chief corner-stone.'--Eph. ii. 20 (R.V.).\n\n\nThe Roman Empire had in Paul's time gathered into a great unity the\nAsiatics of Ephesus, the Greeks of Corinth, the Jews of Palestine, and\nmen of many another race, but grand and imposing as that great unity\nwas, it was to Paul a poor thing compared with the oneness of the\nKingdom of Jesus Christ. Asiatics of Ephesus, Greeks of Corinth, Jews of\nPalestine and members of many another race could say, 'Our citizenship\nis in heaven.' The Roman Eagle swept over wide regions in her flight,\nbut the Dove of Peace, sent forth from Christ's hand, travelled further\nthan she. As Paul says in the context, the Ephesians had been strangers,\n'aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,' wandering like the remnants of\nsome 'broken clans,' but now they are gathered in. That narrow community\nof the Jewish nation has expanded its bounds and become the\nmother-country of believing souls, the true 'island of saints.' It was\nnot Rome which really made all peoples one, but it was the weakest and\nmost despised of her subject races. 'Of Zion it shall be said,' 'Lo!\nthis and that man was born in her.'\n\nTo emphasise the thought of the great unity of the Church, the Apostle\nuses here his often-repeated metaphor of a temple, of which the Ephesian\nChristians are the stones, apostles and prophets the builders, and\nChrist Himself the chief corner-stone. Of course the representation of\nthe foundation, as being laid by apostles and prophets, refers to them\nas proclaiming the Gospel. The real laying of the foundation is the\nwork of the divine power and love which gave us Christ, and it is the\nDivine Voice which proclaims, 'Behold _I_ lay in Zion a foundation!' But\nthat divine work has to be made known among men, and it is by the making\nof it known that the building rises course by course. There is no\ncontradiction between the two statements, 'I have laid the foundation'\nand Paul's 'As a wise master-builder I have laid the foundation.'\n\nA question may here rise as to the meaning of 'prophets.' Unquestionably\nthe expression in other places of the Epistle does mean New Testament\nprophets, but seeing that here Jesus is designated as the foundation\nstone which, standing beneath two walls, has a face into each, and binds\nthem strongly together, it is more natural to see in the prophets the\nrepresentatives of the great teachers of the old dispensation as the\napostles were of the new. The remarkable order in which these two\nclasses are named, the apostles being first, and the prophets who were\nfirst in time being last in order of mention, confirms this explanation,\nfor the two co-operating classes are named in the order in which they\nlie in the foundation. Digging down you come to the more recent first,\nto the earlier second, and deep and massive, beneath all, to the\ncorner-stone on whom all rests, in whom all are united together.\nFollowing the Apostle's order we may note the process of building;\nbeneath that, the foundation on which the building rests; and beneath\nit, the corner-stone which underlies and unites the whole.\n\nI. The process of building.\n\nIn the previous clauses the Apostle has represented the condition of the\nEphesian Christians before their Christianity as being that of strangers\nand foreigners, lacking the rights of citizenship anywhere, a mob\nrather than in any sense a society. They had been like a confused heap\nof stones flung fortuitously together; they had become fellow-citizens\nwith the saints. The stones had been piled up into an orderly building.\nHe is not ignoring the facts of national, political, or civic\nrelationships which existed independent of the new unity realised in a\ncommon faith. These relationships could not be ignored by one who had\nhad Paul's experience of their formidable character as antagonists of\nhim and of his message, but they seemed to him, in contrast with the\nstill deeper and far more perfect union, which was being brought about\nin Christ, of men of all nationalities and belonging to mutually hostile\nraces, to be little better than the fortuitous union of a pile of stones\nhuddled together on the roadside. Measured against the architecture of\nthe Church, as Paul saw it in his lofty idealism, the aggregations of\nmen in the world do not deserve the name of buildings. His point of view\nis the exact opposite of that which is common around us, and which,\nalas! finds but too much support in the present aspects of the so-called\nchurches of this day.\n\nIt is to be observed that in our text these stones are, in accordance\nwith the propriety of the metaphor, regarded as _being_ built, that is,\nas in some sense the subjects of a force brought to bear upon them,\nwhich results in their being laid together in orderly fashion and\naccording to a plan, but it is not to be forgotten that, according to\nthe teaching, not of this epistle alone, but of all Paul's letters, the\nliving stones are active in the work of building, as well as beings\nsubject to an influence. In another place of the New Testament we read\nthe exhortation to 'build up yourselves on your most holy faith,' and\nthe means of discharging that duty are set forth in the words which\nfollow it; as being 'Praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping yourselves in\nthe love of God, and looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.'\n\nThroughout the Pauline letters we have frequent references to\n_edifying_, a phrase which has been so vulgarised by much handling that\nits great meaning has been all but lost, but which still, rightly\nunderstood, presents the Christian life as one continuous effort after\ndeveloping Christian character. Taking into view the whole of the\napostolic references to this continuous process of building, we cannot\nbut recognise that it all begins with the act of faith which brings men\ninto immediate contact and vital union with Jesus Christ, and which is,\nif anything that a man does is, the act of his very inmost self passing\nout of its own isolation and resting itself on Jesus. It is by the vital\nand individual act of faith that any soul escapes from the dreary\nisolation of being a stranger and a foreigner, wandering, homeless and\nsolitary, and finds through Jesus fellowship, an elder Brother, a\nFather, and a home populous with many brethren. But whilst faith is the\ncondition of beginning the Christian life, which is the only real life,\nthat life has to be continued and developed towards perfection by\ncontinuous effort. 'Tis a life-long toil till the lump be leavened.'\n\nOne of the passages already referred to varies the metaphor of building,\nin so far as it seems to represent 'your most holy faith' as the\nfoundation, and may be an instance of the doubtful New Testament usage\nof 'faith,' as meaning the believed Gospel, rather than the personal act\nof believing. But however that may be, context of the words clearly\nsuggests the practical duties by which the Christian life is preserved\nand strengthened. They who build up themselves do so, mainly, by keeping\nthemselves in the love of God with watchful oversight and continual\npreparedness for struggle against all foes who would drag them from that\nsafe fortress, and subsidiarily, by like continuity in prayer, and in\nfixing their meek hope on the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto\neternal life. If Christian character is ever to be made more Christian,\nit must be by a firmer grasp and a more vivid realisation of Christ and\nHis truth. The more we feel ourselves to be lapped in the love of God,\nthe more shall we be builded up on our most holy faith. There is no\nmystery about the means of Christian progress. That which, at the\nbeginning, made a man a Christian shapes his whole future course; the\nmeasure of our faith is the measure of our advance.\n\nBut the Apostle, in the immediately following words, goes on to pass\nbeyond the bounds of his metaphor, and with complete indifference to the\ncharge of mixing figures, speaks of the building as growing. That\nthought leads us into a higher region than that of effort. The process\nby which a great forest tree thickens its boles, expands the sweep of\nits branches and lifts them nearer the heavens, is very different from\nthat by which a building rises slowly and toilsomely and with manifest\nincompleteness all the time, until the flag flies on the roof-tree. And\nif we had not this nobler thought of a possible advance by the\nincreasing circulation within us of a mysterious life, there would be\nlittle gospel in a word which only enjoined effort as the condition of\nmoral progress, and there would be little to choose between Paul and\nPlato. He goes on immediately to bring out more fully what he means by\nthe growth of the building, when he says that if Christians are in\nChrist, they are 'built up for an habitation of God in the Spirit.'\nUnion with Christ, and a consequent life in the Spirit, are sure to\nresult in the growth of the individual soul and of the collective\ncommunity. That divine Spirit dwells in and works through every\nbelieving soul, and while it is possible to grieve and to quench It, to\nresist and even to neutralise Its workings, these are the true sources\nof all our growth in grace and knowledge. The process of building may be\nand will be slow. Sometimes lurking enemies will pull down in a night\nwhat we have laboured at for many days. Often our hands will be slack\nand our hearts will droop. We shall often be tempted to think that our\nprogress is so slow that it is doubtful if we have ever been on the\nfoundation at all or have been building at all. But 'the Spirit helpeth\nour infirmities,' and the task is not ours alone but His in us. We have\nto recognise that effort is inseparable from building, but we have also\nto remember that growth depends on the free circulation of life, and\nthat if we are, and abide in, Jesus, we cannot but be built 'for an\nhabitation of God in the Spirit.' We may be sure that whatever may be\nthe gaps and shortcomings in the structures that we rear here, none will\nbe able to say of us at the last, 'This man began to build and was not\nable to finish.'\n\nII. The foundation on which the building rests.\n\nIn the Greek, as in our version, there is no definite article before\n'prophets,' and its absence indicates that both sets of persons here\nmentioned come under the common _vinculum_ of the one definite article\npreceding the first named. So that apostles and prophets belong to one\nclass. It may be a question whether the foundation is theirs in the\nsense that they constitute it, an explanation in favour of which can be\nquoted the vision in the Apocalypse of the new Jerusalem, in the twelve\nfoundations of which were written the names of the twelve apostles of\nthe Lamb, or whether, as is more probable, the foundation is conceived\nof as laid by them. In like manner the Apostle speaks to the Corinthians\nof having 'as a wise master-builder laid the foundation,' and to the\nRomans of making it his aim to preach especially where Christ was not\nalready named, that he might 'not build upon another man's foundation.'\nFollowing these indications, it seems best to understand the preaching\nof the Gospel as being the laying of the foundation.\n\nFurther, the question may be raised whether the prophets here mentioned\nbelong to the Old Testament or to the New. The latter alternative has\nbeen preferred on the ground that the apostles are named first, but, as\nwe have already noticed, the order here begins at the top and goes\ndownwards, what was last in order of time being first in order of\nmention. We need only recall Peter's bold words that 'all the prophets,\nas many as have spoken, have told of the days' of Christ, or Paul's\nsermon in the synagogue of Antioch in which he passionately insisted on\nthe Jewish crime of condemning Christ as being the fulfilment of the\nvoices of the prophets, and of the Resurrection of Jesus as being God's\nfulfilment of the promise made unto the fathers to understand how here,\nas it were, beneath the foundation laid by the present preaching of the\napostles, Paul rejoices to discern the ancient stones firmly laid by\nlong dead hands.\n\nThe Apostle's strongest conviction was that he himself had become more\nand not less of a Jew by becoming a Christian, and that the Gospel which\nhe preached was nothing more than the perfecting of that Gospel before\nthe Gospel, which had come from the lips of the prophets. We know a\ngreat deal more than he did as to the ways in which the progressive\ndivine revelation was presented to Israel through the ages, and some of\nus are tempted to think that we know more than we do, but the true\nbearing of modern criticism, as applied to the Old Testament, is to\nconfirm, even whilst it may to some extent modify, the conviction common\nto all the New Testament writers, and formulated by the last of the New\nTestament prophets, that 'the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of\nprophecy.' Whatever new light may shine on the questions of the origin\nand composition of the books of the Old Testament, it will never obscure\nthe radiance of the majestic figure of the Messiah which shines from the\nprophetic page. The inner relation between the foundation of the\napostles and that of the prophets is best set forth in the solemn\ncolloquy on the Mount of Transfiguration between Moses and Elias and\nJesus. They 'were with Him' as witnessing to Him to whom law and ritual\nand prophecy had pointed, and they 'spake of His decease which He should\naccomplish at Jerusalem' as being the vital centre of all His work which\nthe lambs slain according to ritual had foreshadowed, and the prophetic\nfigure of the Servant of the Lord 'wounded for our transgressions and\nbruised for our iniquities' had more distinctly foretold.\n\nIII. The corner-stone which underlies and unites the whole.\n\nOf course the corner-stone here is the foundation-stone and not 'the\nhead-stone of the corner.' Jesus Christ is both. He is the first and\nthe last; the Alpha and Omega. In accordance with the whole context, in\nwhich the prevailing idea is that which always fired Paul's imagination,\nviz. that of reconciling Jew and Gentile in one new man, it is best to\nsuppose a reference here to the union of Jew and Gentile. The stone laid\nbeneath the two walls which diverge at right angles from each other\nbinds both together and gives strength and cohesion to the whole. In the\nprevious context the same idea is set forth that Christ 'preached peace\nto them that were afar off (Gentiles) and to them that were nigh\n(Jews).' By His death He broke down another wall, the middle wall of\npartition between them, and did so by abolishing 'the law of\ncommandments contained in ordinances.' The old distinction between Jew\nand Gentile, which was accentuated by the Jew's rigid observance of\nordinances and which often led to bitter hatred on both sides, was swept\naway in that strange new thing, a community of believers drawn together\nin Jesus Christ. The former antagonistic 'twain' had become one in a\nthird order of man, the Christian man. The Jew Christian and the Gentile\nChristian became brethren because they had received one new life, and\nthey who had common feelings of faith and love to the same Saviour, a\ncommon character drawn from Him, and a common destiny open to them by\ntheir common relation to Jesus, could never cherish the old emotions of\nracial hate.\n\nWhen we, in this day, try to picture to ourselves that strange new\nthing, the love which bound the early Christians together and buried as\nbeneath a rushing flood the formidable walls of separation between them,\nwe may well penitently ask ourselves how it comes that Jesus seems to\nhave so much less power to triumph over the divisive forces that part us\nfrom those who should be our hearts' brothers. In our modern life there\nare no such gulfs of separation from one another as were filled up\nunconsciously in the experience of the first believers, but the narrower\nchinks seem to remain in their ugliness between those who profess a\ncommon faith in one Lord, and who are all ready to assert that they are\nbuilt on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, and that Jesus\nChrist is from them the chief corner-stone.\n\nIf in reality He is so to us, and He is so if we have been builded upon\nHim through our faith, the metaphor of corner-stone and building will\nfail to express the reality of our relation to Him, for our corner-stone\nhas in it an infinite vitality which rises up through all the courses of\nthe living stones, and moulds each 'into an immortal feature of\nloveliness and perfection.' So it shall be for each individual, though\nhere the appropriation of the perfect gift is imperfect. So it shall be\nin reference to the history of the world. Christ is its centre and\nfoundation-stone, and as His coming makes the date from which the\nnations reckon, and all before it was in the deepest sense preparatory\nto His incarnation, all which is after it is in the deepest sense the\nappropriating of Him and the developing of His work. The multitudes\nwhich went before and that followed cried, saying, 'Blessed is He that\ncometh in the name of the Lord.'\n\n\n\n\n'THE WHOLE FAMILY'\n\n 'The whole family in heaven and earth.'--Eph. iii. 15.\n\n\nGrammatically, we are driven to recognise that the Revised Version is\nmore correct than the Authorised, when it reads 'every family,' instead\nof 'the whole family.' There is in the expression no reference to the\nthought, however true it is in itself, that the redeemed in heaven and\nthe believers on earth make up but one family. The thought rather is,\nthat, as has been said, 'the father makes the family,' and if any\ncommunity of intelligent beings, human, or angelic, bears the great name\nof family, the great reason for that lies 'in God's paternal\nrelationship.'\n\nBut my present purpose in selecting this text is not so much to speak of\n_it_ as to lay hold of the probably incorrect rendering in the\nAuthorised Version, as suggesting, though here inaccurately, the thought\nthat believers struggling here and saints and angels glorious above 'but\none communion make,' and in the light of that thought, to consider the\nmeaning of the Lord's Supper. I am, of course, fully conscious that in\nthus using the words, I am diverting them from their original purpose;\nbut possibly in this case, open confession, _my_ open confession, may\nmerit your forgiveness and at all events, it, in some degree, brings me\nmy own.\n\nI. Consider the Lord's Supper as a sign that the Church on earth is a\nfamily.\n\nThe Passover was essentially a family feast, and the Lord's Supper,\nwhich was grafted on it, was plainly meant to be the same. The domestic\ncharacter of the rite shines clearly out in the precious simplicity of\nthe arrangements in the upper room. When Christ and the twelve sat down\nthere, it was a family meal at which they sat. He was the head of the\nhousehold; they were members of His family. The early examples of the\nrite, when the disciples 'gathered together to break bread,' obviously\npreserved the same familiar character, and stand in extraordinary\ncontrast to the splendours of high mass in a Roman Catholic Cathedral.\nThe Church, as a whole, is a household, and the very form of the rite\nproclaims that 'we, being many, are one bread.' The conception of a\nfamily brings clearly into view the deepest ground of Christian unity.\nIt is the possession of a common life, just as men are born into an\nearthly family, not of their own will, nor of their own working, and\ncome without any action of their own into bonds of blood relationship\nwith brothers and sisters. When we become sons of God and are born\nagain, we become brethren of all His children. That which gives us life\nin Him makes us kindred with all through whose veins flows that same\nlife. It is the common partaking in the one bread which makes us one.\nThe same blood flows in the veins of all the children.\n\nHence, the only ground on which the Church rests is this common\npossession of the life of Christ, and that ground makes, and ought to be\nfelt to make, Christian union a far deeper, more blessed, and more\nimperative bond than can be found in any shallow similarities of aim--or\nidentities of opinion or feeling. The deepest fact of Christian\nconsciousness is the foundation fact of Christian brotherhood; each is\nnearer to every Christian than to any besides. A very solemn view of\nChristian duty arises from these thoughts, familiar as they are:\n\n 'No distance breaks the tie of blood,\n Brothers are brothers ever more.'\n\nand every tongue is loud in condemnation of any man who is ashamed or\nafraid to recognise his brother and stand by him, whatever may be the\ndifference in their worldly positions. 'Every one who loveth Him that\nbegat, loveth Him also that is begotten of Him.'\n\nII. The Lord's Supper as a prophecy of the family at home above.\n\nThe prophetic character was stamped on the first institution of the\nLord's Supper by Christ's own words 'until it be fulfilled in the\nkingdom of God,' and by His declaration that He appointed unto them a\nkingdom, that they might eat and drink at His table in His kingdom. We\nmay also recall the mysterious feast spread on the shore of the lake,\nwhere, with obvious allusion both to his earlier miracles and to the sad\nhour in the upper room, he came 'and taketh the bread and gave it to\nthem.' Blending these two together we get most blessed, though dim,\nthoughts of that future; they speak to us of an eternal home, an eternal\nfeast, and an eternal society. We have to reverse not a few of the\ncharacteristics of the upper room in order to reach those of the table\nin the kingdom. The Lord's Supper was followed for Him by Gethsemane and\nCalvary, and for them by going out to betray and to deny and to forsake\nHim. From that better table there is no more going out. The servant\ncomes in from the field, spent with toil and stained with many a splash,\nbut the Master Himself comes forth and serves His servant.\n\nIn the eternal feast, which is spread above, the bread as well as the\nwine is new, even whilst it is old, for there will be disclosed new\ndepths of blessing and power in the old Christ, and new draughts of joy\nand strength in the old wine which will make the feasters say, in\nrapture and astonishment, to the Master of the feast, 'Thou hast kept\nthe good wine until now.' There and then all broken ties will be\nre-knit, all losses supplied, and no shadow of change, nor fear of\nexhaustion, pass across the calm hearts.\n\nIII. The Lord's Supper is a token of the present union of the two.\n\nIf it thus prophesies the perfectness of heaven, it also shows us how\nthe two communities of earth and heaven are united. They, as we, live by\nderivation of the one life; they, as we, are fed and blessed by the one\nLord. The occupations and thoughts of Christian life on earth and of the\nperfect life of Saints above are one. They look to Christ as we do, when\nwe live as Christians, though the sun which is the light of both regions\nshows there a broader disc, and pours forth more fervid rays, and is\nnever obscured by clouds, nor ever sets in night. Whether conscious of\nus or not, they are doing there, in perfect fashion, what we imperfectly\nattempt, and partially accomplish.\n\n 'The Saints on earth and all the Dead\n But one communion make.'\n\nHeaven and earth are equally mansions in the Father's house.\n\nTo the faith which realises this great truth, death dwindles to a small\nmatter. The Lord's table has an upper and a lower level. Sitting at the\nlower, we may feel that those who have gone from our sides, and have\nleft empty places which never can be filled, are gathered round Him in\nthe upper half, and though a screen hangs between the two, yet the feast\nis one and the family is one. Singly our dear ones go, and singly we all\nshall go. The table spread in the presence of enemies will be left\nvacant to its last place, and the one spread above will be filled to\nits last place, and so shall we ever be with the Lord, and the unity\nwhich was always real be perfectly and permanently manifested at the\nlast.\n\n\n\n\nSTRENGTHENED WITH MIGHT\n\n 'That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory; to\n be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner\n man.'--Eph. iii. 16.\n\n\nIn no part of Paul's letters does he rise to a higher level than in his\nprayers, and none of his prayers are fuller of fervour than this\nwonderful series of petitions. They open out one into the other like\nsome majestic suite of apartments in a great palace-temple, each leading\ninto a loftier and more spacious hall, each drawing nearer the\npresence-chamber, until at last we stand there.\n\nRoughly speaking, the prayer is divided into four petitions, of which\neach is the cause of the following and the result of the\npreceding--'That He would grant you, according to the riches of His\nglory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner\nman'--that is the first. 'In order that Christ may dwell in your hearts\nby faith,' 'ye being rooted and grounded in love'--such is the second,\nthe result of the first, and the preparation for the third. 'That ye may\nbe able to comprehend with all saints ... and to know the love of Christ\nwhich passeth knowledge,' such is the third, and all lead up at last to\nthat wonderful desire beyond which nothing is possible--'that ye might\nbe filled with all the fulness of God.'\n\nI venture to contemplate dealing with these four petitions in successive\nsermons, in order, God helping me, that I may bring before you a fairer\nvision of the possibilities of your Christian life than you ordinarily\nentertain. For Paul's prayer is God's purpose, and what He means with\nall who profess His name is that these exuberant desires may be\nfulfilled in them. So let us now listen to that petition which is the\nfoundation of all, and consider that great thought of the divine\nstrength-giving power which may be bestowed upon every Christian soul.\n\nI. First, then, I remark that God means, and wishes, that all Christians\nshould be strong by the possession of the Spirit of might.\n\nIt is a miserably inadequate conception of Christianity, and of the\ngifts which it bestows, and the blessings which it intends for men, when\nit is limited, as it practically is, by a large number--I might almost\nsay the majority--of professing Christians to a simple means of altering\ntheir relation to the past, and to the broken law of God and of\nrighteousness. Thanks be to His name! His great gift to the world begins\nin each individual case with the assurance that all the past is\ncancelled. He gives that blessed sense of forgiveness, which can never\nbe too highly estimated unless it is forced out of its true place as the\nintroduction, and made to be the climax and the end, of His gifts. I do\nnot know what Christianity means, unless it means that you and I are\nforgiven for a purpose; that the purpose, if I may so say, is something\nin advance of the means towards the purpose, the purpose being that we\nshould be filled with all the strength and righteousness and\nsupernatural life granted to us by the Spirit of God.\n\nIt is well that we should enter into the vestibule. There is no other\npath to the throne but through the vestibule. But do not let us forget\nthat the good news of forgiveness, though we need it day by day, and\nneed it perpetually repeated, is but the introduction to and porch of\nthe Temple, and that beyond it there towers, if I cannot say a loftier,\nyet I may say a further gift, even the gift of a divine life like His,\nfrom whom it comes, and of which it is in reality an effluence and a\nspark. The true characteristic blessing of the Gospel is the gift of a\nnew power to a sinful weak world; a power which makes the feeble strong,\nand the strongest as an angel of God.\n\nOh, brethren! we who know how, 'if any power we have, it is to ill'; we\nwho understand the weakness, the unaptness of our spirits to any good,\nand our strength for every vagrant evil that comes upon them to tempt\nthem, should surely recognise as a Gospel in very deed that which\nproclaims to us that the 'everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the\nends of the earth,' who Himself 'fainteth not, neither is weary.' hath\nyet a loftier display of His strength-giving power than that which is\nvisible in the heavens above, where, 'because He is strong in might not\none faileth.' That heaven, the region of calm completeness, of law\nunbroken and therefore of power undiminished, affords a lesser and\ndimmer manifestation of His strength than the work that is done in the\nhell of a human heart that has wandered and is brought back, that is\nstricken with the weakness of the fever of sin, and is healed into the\nstrength of obedience and the omnipotence of dependence. It is much to\nsay 'for that He is strong in might, not one of these faileth;' it is\nmore to say 'He giveth power to them that have failed; and to them that\nhave no might He increaseth strength.' The Gospel is the gift of pardon\nfor holiness, and its inmost and most characteristic bestowment is the\nbestowment of a new power for obedience and service.\n\nAnd that power, as I need not remind you, is given to us through the\ngift of the Divine Spirit. The very name of that Spirit is the 'Spirit\nof Might.' Christ spoke to us about being 'endued with power from on\nhigh.' The last of His promises that dropped from His lips upon earth\nwas the promise that His followers should receive the power of the\nSpirit coming upon them. Wheresoever in the early histories we read of a\nman who was full of the Holy Ghost, we read that he was 'full of power.'\nAccording to the teaching of this Apostle, God hath given us the 'Spirit\nof power,' which is also the Spirit 'of love and of a sound mind.' So\nthe strength that we must have, if we have strength at all, is the\nstrength of a Divine Spirit, not our own, that dwells in us, and works\nthrough us.\n\nAnd there is nothing in that which need startle or surprise any man who\nbelieves in a living God at all, and in the possibility, therefore, of a\nconnection between the Great Spirit and all the human spirits which are\nHis children. I would maintain, in opposition to many modern\nconceptions, the actual supernatural character of the gift that is\nbestowed upon every Christian soul. My reading of the New Testament is\nthat as distinctly above the order of material nature as is any miracle,\nis the gift that flows into a believing heart. There is a direct passage\nbetween God and my spirit. It lies open to His touch; all the paths of\nits deep things can be trodden by Him. You and I act upon one another\nfrom without, He acts upon us within. We wish one another blessings; He\ngives the blessings. We try to train, to educate, to incline, and\ndispose, by the presentation of motives and the urging of reasons; He\ncan plant in a heart by His own divine husbandry the seed that shall\nblossom into immortal life. And so the Christian Church is a great,\ncontinuous, supernatural community in the midst of the material world;\nand every believing soul, because it possesses something of the life of\nJesus Christ, has been the seat of a miracle as real and true as when He\nsaid 'Lazarus, come forth!' Precisely this teaching does our Lord\nHimself present for our acceptance when He sets side by side, as\nmutually illustrative, as belonging to the same order of supernatural\nphenomena, 'the hour is coming when the dead shall hear the voice of the\nSon of God and they that hear shall live,' which is the supernatural\nresurrection of souls dead in sin,--and 'the hour is coming in the which\nall that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth,'\nwhich is the future resurrection of the body, in obedience to His will.\n\nSo, Christian men and women, do you set clearly before you this: that\nGod's purpose with you is but begun when He has forgiven you, that He\nforgives you for a design, that it is a means to an end, and that you\nhave not reached the conception of the large things which He intends for\nyou unless you have risen to this great thought--He means and wishes\nthat you should be strong with the strength of His own Divine Spirit.\n\nII. Now notice, next, that this Divine Power has its seat in, and is\nintended to influence the whole of, the inner life.\n\nAs my text puts it, we may be 'strengthened with might by His Spirit _in\nthe inner man_.' By the 'inner man' I suppose, is not meant the new\ncreation through faith in Jesus Christ which this Apostle calls 'the\nnew man,' but simply what Peter calls the 'hidden man of the heart' the\n'soul,' or unseen self as distinguished from the visible material body\nwhich it animates and informs. It is this inner self, then, in which the\nSpirit of God is to dwell, and into which it is to breathe strength. The\nleaven is hid deep in three measures of meal until the whole be\nleavened. And the point to mark is that the whole inward region which\nmakes up the true man is the field upon which this Divine Spirit is to\nwork. It is not a bit of your inward life that is to be hallowed. It is\nnot any one aspect of it that is to be strengthened, but it is the whole\nintellect, affections, desires, tastes, powers of attention, conscience,\nimagination, memory, will. The whole inner man in all its corners is to\nbe filled, and to come under the influence of this power, 'until there\nbe no part dark, as when the bright shining of a candle giveth thee\nlight.'\n\nThere is no part of my being that is not patent to the tread of this\nDivine Guest. There are no rooms of the house of my spirit into which He\nmay not go. Let Him come with the master key in His hand into all the\ndim chambers of your feeble nature; and as the one life is light in the\neye, and colour in the cheek, and deftness in the fingers, and strength\nin the arm, and pulsation in the heart, so He will come with the\nmanifold results of the one gift to you. He will strengthen your\nunderstandings, and make you able for loftier tasks of intellect and of\nreason than you can face in your unaided power; He will dwell in your\naffections and make them vigorous to lay hold upon the holy things that\nare above their natural inclination, and will make it certain that their\nreach shall not be beyond their grasp, as, alas! it so often is in the\nsadness and disappointments of human love. He will come into that\nfeeble, vacillating, wayward will of yours, that is only obstinate in\nits adherence to the low and the evil, as some foul creature, that one\nmay try to wrench away, digs its claws into corruption and holds on by\nthat. He will lift your will and make it fix upon the good and abominate\nthe evil, and through the whole being He will pour a great tide of\nstrength which shall cover all the weakness. He will be like some subtle\nelixir which, taken into the lips, steals through a pallid and wasted\nframe, and brings back a glow to the cheek and a lustre to the eye, and\nswiftness to the brain, and power to the whole nature. Or as some plant,\ndrooping and flagging beneath the hot rays of the sun, when it has the\nscent of water given to it, will, in all its parts, stiffen and erect\nitself, so, when the Spirit is poured out on men, their whole nature is\ninvigorated and helped.\n\nThat indwelling Spirit will be a power for suffering. The parallel\npassage to this in the twin epistle to the Colossians is--'strengthened\nwith all might unto all patience and long-suffering with gentleness.'\nAh, brethren! unless this Divine Spirit were a power for patience and\nendurance it were no power suited to us poor men. So dark at times is\nevery life; so full at times of discouragements, of dreariness, of\nsadness, of loneliness, of bitter memories, and of fading hopes does the\nhuman heart become, that if we are to be strong we must have a strength\nthat will manifest itself most chiefly in this, that it teaches us how\nto bear, how to weep, how to submit.\n\nAnd it will be a power for conflict. We have all of us, in the discharge\nof duty and in the meeting of temptation, to face such tremendous\nantagonisms that unless we have grace given to us which will enable us\nto resist, we shall be overcome and swept away. God's power given by the\nDivine Spirit does not absolve us from the fight, but it fits us for the\nfight. It is not given in order that, holiness may be won without a\nstruggle, as some people seem to think, but it is given to us in order\nthat in the struggle for holiness we may never lose 'one jot of heart or\nhope,' but may be 'able to withstand in the evil day, and having done\nall to stand.'\n\nIt is a power for service. 'Tarry ye in Jerusalem till ye be endued with\npower from on high.' There is no such force for the spreading of\nChrist's Kingdom, and the witness-bearing work of His Church, as the\npossession of this Divine Spirit. Plunged into that fiery baptism, the\nselfishness and the sloth, which stand in the way of so many of us, are\nall consumed and annihilated, and we are set free for service because\nthe bonds that bound us are burnt up in the merciful furnace of His\nfiery power.\n\n'Ye shall be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man'--a\npower that will fill and flood all your nature if you will let it, and\nwill make you strong to suffer, strong to combat, strong to serve, and\nto witness for your Lord.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, let me point you still further to the measure of\nthis power. It is limitless with the boundlessness of God Himself. 'That\nhe would grant you' is the daring petition of the Apostle, 'according to\nthe riches of His glory to be strengthened.'\n\nThere is the measure. There is no limit except the uncounted wealth of\nHis own self-manifestation, the flashing light of revealed divinity.\nWhatsoever there is of splendour in that, whatsoever there is of power\nthere, in these and in nothing on this side of them, lies the limit of\nthe possibilities of a Christian life. Of course there is a working\nlimit at each moment, and that is our capacity to receive; but that\ncapacity varies, may vary indefinitely, may become greater and greater\nbeyond our count or measurement. Our hearts may be more and more capable\nof God; and in the measure in which they are capable of Him they shall\nbe filled by Him. A limit which is always shifting is no limit at all. A\nkingdom, the boundaries of which are not the same from one year to\nanother, by reason of its own inherent expansive power, may be said to\nhave no fixed limit. And so we appropriate and enclose, as it were,\nwithin our own little fence, a tiny portion of the great prairie that\nrolls boundlessly to the horizon. But to-morrow we may enclose more, if\nwe will, and more and more; and so ever onwards, for all that is God's\nis ours, and He has given us His whole self to use and to possess\nthrough our faith in His Son. A thimble can only take up a thimbleful of\nthe ocean, but what if the thimble be endowed with a power of expansion\nwhich has no term known to men? May it not, then, be that some time or\nother it shall be able to hold so much of the infinite depth as now\nseems a dream too audacious to be realised?\n\nSo it is with us and God. He lets us come into the vaults, as it were,\nwhere in piles and masses the ingots of uncoined and uncounted gold are\nstored and stacked; and He says, 'Take as much as you like to carry.'\nThere is no limit except the riches of His glory.\n\nAnd now, dear friends, remember that this great gift, offered to each of\nus, is offered on conditions. To you professing Christians especially I\nspeak. You will never get it unless you want it, and some of you do not\nwant it. There are plenty of people who call themselves Christian men\nthat would not for the life of them know what to do with this great gift\nif they had it. You will get it if you desire it. 'Ye have not because\nye ask not.'\n\nOh! when one contrasts the largeness of God's promises and the miserable\ncontradiction to them which the average Christian life of this\ngeneration presents, what can we say? 'Hath His mercy clean gone for\never? Doth His promise fail for evermore?' Ye weak Christian people,\nborn weakling and weak ever since, as so many of you are, open your\nmouths wide. Rise to the height of the expectations and the desires\nwhich it is our sin not to cherish; and be sure of this, as we ask so\nshall we receive. 'Ye are not straitened in God.' Alas! alas! 'ye are\nstraitened in yourselves.'\n\nAnd mind, there must be self-suppression if there is to be the triumph\nof a divine power in you. You cannot fight with both classes of weapons.\nThe human must die if the divine is to live. The life of nature,\ndependence on self, must be weakened and subdued if the life of God is\nto overcome and to fill you. You must be able to say 'Not I!' or you\nwill never be able to say 'Christ liveth in me.' The patriarch who\novercame halted on his thigh; and all the life of nature was lamed and\nmade impotent that the life of grace might prevail. So crush self by the\npower and for the sake of the Christ, if you would that the Spirit\nshould bear rule over you.\n\nSee to it, too, that you use what you have of that Divine Spirit. 'To\nhim that hath shall be given.' What is the use of more water being sent\ndown the mill lade, if the water that does come in it all runs away at\nthe bottom, and none of it goes over the wheel? Use the power you have,\nand power will come to the faithful steward of what he possesses. He\nthat is faithful in a little shall get much to be faithful over. Ask and\nuse, and the ancient thanksgiving may still come from your lips. 'In the\nday when I cried, Thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with\nstrength in my soul.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE INDWELLING CHRIST\n\n 'That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; ye being rooted and\n grounded in love.'--Eph. iii. 17.\n\n\nWe have here the second step of the great staircase by which Paul's\nfervent desires for his Ephesian friends climbed towards that wonderful\nsummit of his prayers--which is ever approached, never reached,--'that\nye might be filled with all the fulness of God.'\n\nTwo remarks of an expository character will prepare the way for the\nlessons of these verses. The first is as to the relation of this clause\nto the preceding. It might appear at first sight to be simply parallel\nwith the former, expressing substantially the same ideas under a\nsomewhat different aspect. The operation of the strength-giving Spirit\nin the inner man might very naturally be supposed to be equivalent to\nthe dwelling of Christ in our hearts by faith. So many commentators do,\nin fact, take it; but I think that the two ideas may be distinguished,\nand that we are to see in the words of our text, as I have said, the\nsecond step in this prayer, which is in some sense a result of the\n'strengthening with might by the Spirit in the inner man.' I need not\nenter in detail into the reasons for taking this view of the connection\nof the clause, which is obviously in accordance with the climbing-up\nstructure of the whole verse. It is enough to point it out as the basis\nof my further remarks.\n\nAnd now the second observation with which I will trouble you, before I\ncome to deal with the thoughts of the verse, is as to the connection of\nthe last words of it. You may observe that in reading the words of my\ntext I omitted the 'that' which stands in the centre of the verse. I did\nso because the words, 'Ye being rooted and grounded in love,' in the\noriginal, do stand before the '_that_,' and are distinctly separated by\nit from the subsequent clause. They ought not, therefore, to be shifted\nforward into it, as our translators and the Revised Version have, I\nthink, unfortunately done, unless there were some absolute necessity\neither from meaning or from construction. I do not think that this is\nthe case; but on the contrary, if they are carried forward into the next\nclause, which describes the result of Christ's dwelling in our hearts by\nfaith, they break the logical flow of the sentence by mixing together\nresult and occasion. And so I attach them to the first part of this\nverse, and take them to express at once the consequence of Christ's\ndwelling in the heart by faith, and the preparation or occasion for our\nbeing able to comprehend and know the love of Christ which passeth\nknowledge. Now that is all with which I need trouble you in the way of\nexplanation of the meaning of the words. Let us come now to deal with\ntheir substance.\n\nI. Consider the Indwelling of Christ, as desired by the Apostle for all\nChristians.\n\nTo begin with, let me say in the plainest, simplest, strongest way that\nI can, that that dwelling of Christ in the believing heart is to be\nregarded as being a plain literal fact.\n\nTo a man who does not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, of course\nthat is nonsense, but to those of us who do see in Him the manifested\nincarnate God, there ought to be no difficulty in accepting this as the\nsimple literal force of the words before us, that in every soul where\nfaith, howsoever feeble, has been exercised, there Jesus Christ does\nverily abide.\n\nIt is not to be weakened down into any notion of participation in His\nlikeness, sympathy with His character, submission to His influence,\nfollowing His example, listening to His instruction, or the like. A dead\nPlato may so influence his followers, but that is not how a living\nChrist influences His disciples. What is meant is no mere influence\nderived but separable from Him, however blessed and gracious that\ninfluence might be, but it is the presence of His own self, exercising\ninfluences which are inseparable from His presence, and only to be\nrealised when He dwells in us.\n\nI think that Christian people as a rule do far too little turn their\nattention to this aspect of the Gospel teaching, and concentrate their\nthoughts far too much upon that which is unspeakably precious in itself,\nbut does not exhaust all that Christ is to us, viz. the work that He\nwrought for us upon Calvary; or to take a step further, the work that He\nis now carrying on for us as our Intercessor and Advocate in the\nheavens. You who listen to me Sunday after Sunday will not suspect me of\nseeking to minimise either of these two aspects of our Lord's mission\nand operation, but I do believe that very largely the glad thought of an\nindwelling Christ, who actually abides and works in our hearts, and is\nnot only for us in the heavens, or with us by some kind of impalpable\nand metaphorical presence, but in simple, that is to say, in spiritual\nreality is in our spirits, has faded away from the consciousness of the\nChristian Church.\n\nAnd so we are called 'mystics' when we preach Christ in the heart. Ah,\nbrother! unless your Christianity be in the good deep sense of the word\n'mystical,' it is mechanical, which is worse. I preach, and rejoice that\nI have to preach, a 'Christ that died, yea! rather that is risen again;\nwho is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for\nus.' Nor do I stop there, but I preach a Christ that is in us, dwelling\nin our hearts if we be His at all.\n\nWell, then, further observe that the special emphasis of the prayer here\nis that this 'indwelling' may be an unbroken and permanent one. Any of\nyou who can consult the original for yourselves will see that the\nApostle here uses a compound word which conveys the idea of intensity\nand continuity. What he desires, then, is not merely that these Ephesian\nChristians may have occasional visits of the indwelling Lord, or that at\nsome lofty moments of spiritual enthusiasm they may be conscious that He\nis with them, but that always, in an unbroken line of deep, calm\nreceptiveness, they may possess, and know that they possess, an\nindwelling Saviour.\n\nAnd this, I think, is one of the reasons why we may and must distinguish\nbetween the apparently very similar petition in the previous verse,\nabout which we spoke in the last sermon, and the petition which is now\noccupying us; for, as I shall have to show you, it is only as\n'strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man' that we are\ncapable of the continuous abiding of that Lord within us.\n\nOh! what a contrast to that idea of a perpetual unbroken inhabitation of\nJesus in our spirits and to our consciousness is presented by our\nordinary life! 'Why shouldst Thou be as a wayfaring man that turneth\naside to tarry for a night?' may well be the utterance of the average\nChristian. We might, with unbroken blessedness, possess Him in our\nhearts, and instead, we have only 'visits short and far between' Alas,\nalas, how often do we drive away that indwelling Christ, because our\nhearts are 'foul with sin,' so that He\n\n 'Can but listen at the gate\n And hear the household jar within.'\n\nChristian men and women! here is the ideal of our lives, capable of\nbeing approximated to (if not absolutely in its entirety reached) with\nfar more perfection than it ever has yet been by us. There might be a\nline of light never interrupted running all through our religious\nexperience. Instead of that there is a light point here, and a great gap\nof darkness there, like the straggling lamps by the wayside in the\nhalf-lighted squalid suburbs of some great city. Is that your Christian\nlife, broken by many interruptions, and having often sounding through it\nthe solemn words of the retreating divinity which the old profound\nlegend tells us were heard the night before the Temple on Zion was\nburnt:--'Let us depart?' 'I will arise and return unto My place till\nthey acknowledge their offences.' God means and wishes that Christ may\ncontinuously dwell in our hearts. Does He to your own consciousness\ndwell in yours?\n\nAnd then the last thought connected with this first part of my subject\nis that the heart, strengthened by the Spirit, is fitted to be the\nTemple of the indwelling Christ. How shall we prepare the chamber for\nsuch a guest? How shall some poor occupant of some wretched hut by the\nwayside fit it up for the abode of a prince? The answer lies in these\nwords that precede my text. You cannot strengthen the rafters and lift\nthe roof and adorn the halls and furnish the floor in a manner befitting\nthe coming of the King; but you can turn to that Divine Spirit who will\nexpand and embellish and invigorate your whole spirit, and make it\ncapable of receiving the indwelling Christ.\n\nThat these two things which are here considered as cause and effect may,\nin another aspects be considered as but varying phases of the same\ntruth, is only part of the depth and felicity of the teaching that is\nhere; for if you come to look more deeply into it, the Spirit that\nstrengtheneth with might is the Spirit of Christ; and He dwells in men's\nhearts by His own Spirit. So that the apparent confusion, arising from\nwhat in other places are regarded as identical being here conceived as\ncause and effect, is no confusion at all, but is explained and\nvindicated by the deep truth that nothing but the indwelling of the\nChrist can fit for the indwelling of the Christ. The lesser gift of His\npresence prepares for the greater measure of it; the transitory\ninhabitation for the more permanent. Where He comes in smaller measure\nHe opens the door and makes the heart capable of His own more entire\nindwelling. 'Unto him that hath shall be given.' It is Christ in the\nheart that makes the heart fit for Christ to dwell in the heart. You\ncannot do it by your own power; turn to Him and let Him make you temples\nmeet for Himself.\n\nII. So now, in the second place, notice the open door through which the\nChrist comes in to dwell--'that He may dwell in your hearts by faith.'\n\nMore accurately we may render 'through faith' and might even venture to\nsuppose that the thought of faith as an open door through which Christ\npasses into the heart, floated half distinctly before the Apostle's\nmind. Be that as it may, at all events faith is here represented as the\nmeans or condition through which this dwelling takes effect. You have\nbut to believe in Him and He comes, drawn from heaven, floating down on\na sunbeam, as it were, and enters into the heart and abides there.\n\nTrust, which is faith, is self-distrust. 'I dwell in the high and holy\nplace, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.' Rivers do\nnot run on the mountain tops, but down in the valleys. So the heart that\nis lifted up and self-complacent has no dew of His blessing resting upon\nit, but has the curse of Gilboa adhering to its barrenness; but the low\nlands, the humble and the lowly hearts, are they in which the waters\nthat go softly scoop their course and diffuse their blessings. Faith is\nself-distrust. Self-distrust brings the Christ.\n\nFaith is desire. Never, never in the history of the world has it been or\ncan it be that a longing towards Him shall be a longing thrown back\nunsatisfied upon itself. You have but to trust, and you possess. We open\nthe door for the entrance of Christ by the simple act of faith, and\nblessed be His name! He can squeeze Himself through a very little chink,\nand He does not require that the gates should be flung wide open in\norder that, with some of His blessings, He may come in.\n\nMystical Christianity of the false sort has much to say about the\nindwelling of God in the soul, but it spoils all its teaching by\ninsisting upon it that the condition on which God dwells in the soul is\nthe soul's purifying itself to receive Him. But you cannot cleanse your\nhearts so as to bring Christ into them, you must let Him come and\ncleanse them by the process of His coming, and fit them thereby for His\nown indwelling. And, assuredly, He will so come, purging us from our\nevil and abiding in our hearts.\n\nBut do not forget that the faith which brings Christ into the spirit\nmust be a faith which works by love, if it is to keep Christ in the\nspirit. You cannot bring that Lord into your hearts by anything that you\ndo. The man who cleanses his own soul by his own strength, and so\nexpects to draw God into it, has made the mistake which Christ pointed\nout when He told us that when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man he\nleaves his house empty, though it be swept and garnished. Moral\nreformation may turn out the devils, it will never bring in God, and in\nthe emptiness of the swept and garnished heart there is an invitation to\nthe seven to come back again and fill it.\n\nAnd whilst that is true, remember, on the other hand, that a Christian\nman can drive away his Master by evil works. The sweet song-birds and\nthe honey-making bees are said always to desert a neighbourhood before a\npestilence breaks out in it. And if I may so say, similarly quick to\nfeel the first breath of the pestilence is the presence of the Christ\nwhich cannot dwell with evil. You bring Christ into your heart by faith,\nwithout any work at all; you keep Him there by a faith which produces\nholiness.\n\nIII. And the last point is the gifts of this indwelling Christ,--'ye\nbeing,' or as the words might more accurately be translated, 'Ye having\nbeen rooted and grounded in love.'\n\nWhere He comes He comes not empty-handed. He brings His own love, and\nthat, consciously received, produces a corresponding and answering love\nin our hearts to Him. So there is no need to ask the question here\nwhether 'love' means Christ's love to me, or my love to Christ. From the\nnature of the case both are included--the recognition of His love and\nthe response by mine are the result of His entering into the heart. This\nlove, the recognition of His and the response by mine, is represented in\na lovely double metaphor in these words as being at once the soil in\nwhich our lives are rooted and grow, and the foundation on which our\nlives are built and are steadfast.\n\nThere is no need to enlarge upon these two things, but let me just touch\nthem for a moment. Where Christ abides in a man's heart, love will be\nthe very soil in which his life will be rooted and grow. That love will\nbe the motive of all service, it will underlie, as its productive cause,\nall fruitfulness. All goodness and all beauty will be its fruit. The\nwhole life will be as a tree planted in this rich soil. And so the life\nwill grow not by effort only, but as by an inherent power drawing its\nnourishment from the soil. This is blessedness. It is heaven upon earth\nthat love should be the soil in which our obedience is rooted, and from\nwhich we draw all the nutriment that turns to flowers and fruit.\n\nWhere Christ dwells in the heart, love will be the foundation upon which\nour lives are builded steadfast and sure. The blessed consciousness of\nHis love, and the joyful answer of my heart to it, may become the basis\nupon which my whole being shall repose, the underlying thought that\ngives security, serenity, steadfastness to my else fluctuating life. I\nmay so plant myself upon Him, as that in Him I shall be strong, and\nthen my life will not only grow like a tree and have its leaf green and\nbroad, and its fruit the natural outcome of its vitality, but it will\nrise like some stately building, course by course, pillar by pillar,\nuntil at last the shining topstone is set there. He that buildeth on\nthat foundation shall never be confounded.\n\nFor, remember that, deepest of all, the words of my text may mean that\nthe Incarnate Personal Love becomes the very soil in which my life is\nset and blossoms, on which my life is founded.\n\n 'Thou, my Life, O let me be\n Rooted, grafted, built in Thee.'\n\nChrist is Love, and Love is Christ. He that is rooted and grounded in\nlove has the roots of his being, and the foundation of his life fixed\nand fastened in that Lord.\n\nSo, dear brethren, go to Christ like those two on the road to Emmaus;\nand as Fra Angelico has painted them on his convent wall, put out your\nhands and lay them on His, and say, 'Abide with us. Abide with us!' And\nthe answer will come:--'This is my rest for ever; here'--mystery of\nlove!--'will I dwell, for I have desired it,' even the narrow room of\nyour poor heart.\n\n\n\n\nLOVE UNKNOWABLE AND KNOWN\n\n 'That ye ... may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the\n breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of\n Christ, which passeth knowledge.'--Eph. iii. 18, 19.\n\n\nThis constitutes the third of the petitions in this great prayer of\nPaul's, each of which, as we have had occasion to see in former sermons,\nrises above, and is a consequence of the preceding, and leads on to,\nand is a cause or occasion of the subsequent one.\n\nThe two former petitions have been for inward strength communicated by a\nDivine Spirit, in order that Christ may dwell in our hearts, and so we\nmay be rooted and grounded in love. The result of these desires being\nrealised in our hearts is here set forth in two clauses which are\nsubstantially equivalent in meaning. 'To comprehend' may be taken as\nmeaning nearly the same as 'to know,' only that perhaps the former\nexpresses an act more purely intellectual. And, as we shall see in our\nnext sermon, 'the breadth and length and depth and height' are the\nunmeasurable dimensions of the love which in the second clause is\ndescribed as 'passing knowledge.' I purpose to deal with these measures\nin a separate discourse, and, therefore, omit them from consideration\nnow.\n\nWe have, then, mainly two thoughts here, the one, that only the loving\nheart in which Christ dwells can know the love of Christ; and the other\nthat even that heart can _not_ know the love of Christ. The paradox is\nintentional, but it is intelligible. Let me deal then, as well as I can,\nwith these two great thoughts.\n\nI. First, we have this thought that only the loving heart can know\nChrist's love.\n\nNow the Bible uses that word _know_ to express two different things; one\nwhich we call mere intellectual perception; or to put it into plainer\nwords, mere head knowledge such as a man may have about any subject of\nstudy, and the other a deep and living experience which is possession\nbefore it is knowledge, and knowledge because it is possession.\n\nNow the former of these two, the knowledge which is merely the work of\nthe understanding, is, of course, independent of love. A man may know\nall about Christ and His love without one spark of love in his heart.\nAnd there are thousands of people who, as far as the mere intellectual\nunderstanding is concerned, know as much about Jesus Christ and His love\nas the saint who is closest to the Throne, and yet have not one trace of\nlove to Christ in them. That is the kind of people that a widely\ndiffused Christianity and a habit of hearing sermons produce. There are\nplenty of them, and some of us among them, who, as far as their heads\nare concerned, know quite as much of Jesus Christ and His love as any of\nus do, and could talk about it and argue about it, and draw inferences\nfrom it, and have the whole system of evangelical Christianity at their\nfingers' ends. Ay! It is at their fingers' _ends_, it never gets any\nnearer them than that.\n\nThere is a knowledge with which love has nothing to do, and it is a\nknowledge that for many people is quite sufficient. 'Knowledge puffeth\nup,' says the Apostle; into an unwholesome bubble of self-complacency\nthat will one day be pricked and disappear, but 'love buildeth up'--a\nsteadfast, slowly-rising, solid fabric. There be two kinds of knowledge:\nthe mere rattle of notions in a man's brain, like the seeds of a\nwithered poppy-head; very many, very dry, very hard; that will make a\nnoise when you shake them. And there is another kind of knowledge which\ngoes deep down into the heart, and is the only knowledge worth calling\nby the name; and that knowledge is the child, as my text has it, of\nlove.\n\nNow let us think about that for a moment. Love, says Paul, is the parent\nof all knowledge. Well, now, can we find any illustrations from similar\nfacts in other regions? Yes! I think so. How do we know, really know,\nany emotions of any sort whatever? Only by experience. You may talk for\never about feelings, and you teach nothing about them to those who have\nnot experienced them. The poets of the world have been singing about\nlove ever since the world began. But no heart has learned what love is\nfrom even the sweetest and deepest songs. Who that is not a father can\nbe taught paternal love by words, or can come to a perception of it by\nan effort of mind? And so with all other emotions. Only the lips that\nhave drunk the cup of sweetness or of bitterness can tell how sweet or\nhow bitter it is, and even when they, made wise by experience, speak out\ntheir deepest hearts, the listeners are but little the wiser, unless\nthey too have been scholars in the same school. Experience is our only\nteacher in matters of feeling and emotion, as in the lower regions of\ntaste and appetite. A man must be hungry to know what hunger is; he must\ntaste honey or wormwood in order to know the taste of honey or wormwood,\nand in like manner he cannot know sorrow but by feeling its ache, and\nmust love if he would know love. Experience is our only teacher, and her\nschool-fees are heavy.\n\nJust as a blind man can never be made to understand the glories of\nsunrise, or the light upon the far-off mountains; just as a deaf man may\nread books about acoustics, but they will not give him a notion of what\nit is to hear Beethoven, so we must have love to Christ before we know\nwhat love to Christ is, and we must consciously experience the love of\nChrist ere we know what the love of Christ is. We must have love to\nChrist in order to have a deep and living possession of love of Christ,\nthough reciprocally it is also true that we must have the love of Christ\nknown and felt by our answering hearts, if we are ever to love Him back\nagain.\n\nSo in all the play and counterplay of love between Christ and us, and in\nall the reaction of knowledge and love this remains true, that we must\nbe rooted and grounded in love ere we can know love, and must have\nChrist dwelling in our hearts, in order to that deep and living\npossession which, when it is conscious of itself, is knowledge, and is\nfor ever alien to the loveless heart.\n\n 'He must be loved, ere that to you\n He will seem worthy of your love.'\n\nIf you want to know the blessedness of the love of Christ, love Him, and\nopen your hearts for the entrance of His love to you. Love is the parent\nof deep, true knowledge.\n\nOf course, before we can love an unseen person and believe in his love,\nwe must know about him by the ordinary means by which we learn about all\npersons outside the circle of our sight. So before the love which is\nthus the parent of deep, true knowledge, there must be the knowledge by\nstudy and credence of the record concerning Christ, which supplies the\nfacts on which alone love can be nourished. The understanding has its\npart to play in leading the heart to love, and then the heart becomes\nthe true teacher. He that loveth, knoweth God, for God is love. He that\nis rooted and grounded in love because Christ dwells in his heart, will\nbe strengthened to know the love in which he is rooted. The Christ\nwithin us will know the love of Christ. We must first 'taste,' and then\nwe shall 'see' that the Lord is good, as the Psalmist puts it with deep\ntruth. First, the appropriation and feeding upon God, then the clear\nperception by the mind of the sweetness in the taste. First the\nenjoyment; then the reflection on the enjoyment. First the love; and\nthen the consciousness of the love of Christ possessed and the love to\nChrist experienced. The heart must be grounded in love that the man may\nknow the love which passeth knowledge.\n\nThen notice that there is also here another condition for this deep and\nblessed knowledge laid down in these words, 'That ye may be able to\ncomprehend _with all saints_.' That is to say, our knowledge of the love\nof Jesus Christ depends largely on our sanctity. If we are pure we shall\nknow. If we were wholly devoted to Him we should wholly know His love to\nus, and in the measure in which we are pure and holy we shall know it.\nThis heart of ours is like a reflecting telescope, the least breath upon\nthe mirror of which will cause all the starry sublimities that it should\nshadow forth to fade and become dim. The slightest moisture in the\natmosphere, though it be quite imperceptible where we stand, will be\ndense enough to shut out the fair, shining, snowy summits that girdle\nthe horizon and to leave nothing visible but the lowliness and\ncommonplaceness of the prosaic plain.\n\nIf you want to know the love of Christ, first of all, that love must\npurify your souls. But then you must keep your souls pure, assured of\nthis, that only the single eye is full of light, and that they who are\nnot 'saints' grope in the dark even at midday, and whilst drenched by\nthe sunshine of His love, are unconscious of it altogether. And so we\nget that miserable and mysterious tragedy of men and women walking\nthrough life, as many of you are doing, in the very blaze and focus of\nChrist's love, and never beholding it nor knowing anything about it.\n\nObserve again the beginning of this path of knowledge, which we have\nthus traced. There must be, says my text, an indwelling Christ, and so\nan experience, deep and stable, of His love, and then we shall know the\nlove which we thus experience. But how comes that indwelling? That is\nthe question for us. The knowledge of His love is blessedness, is peace,\nis love, is everything; as we shall see in considering the last stage of\nthis prayer. That knowledge arises from our fellowship with and our\npossession of the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ. How does that\nfellowship with, and possession of the love of God in Jesus Christ,\ncome? That is the all-important question. What is the beginning of\neverything? 'That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.' There is\nthe gate through which you and I may come, and by which we must come if\nwe are to come at all into the possession and perception of Christ's\ngreat love. Here is the path of knowledge. First of all, there must be\nthe simple historical knowledge of the facts of Christ's life and death\nfor us, with the Scripture teaching of their meaning and power. And then\nwe must turn these truths from mere notions into life. It is not enough\nto know the love that God has to us, in that lower sense of the word\n'knowledge.' Many of you know that, who never got any blessing out of it\nall your days, and never will, unless you change. Besides the 'knowing'\nthere must be the 'believing' of the love. You must translate the notion\ninto a living fact in your experience. You must pass from the simple\nwork of understanding the Gospel to the higher act of faith. You must\nnot be contented with knowing, you must trust. And if you have done that\nall the rest will follow, and the little, narrow, low doorway of humble\nself-distrusting faith, through which a man creeps on his knees,\nleaving outside all his sin and his burden, opens out into the temple\npalace--the large place in which Christ's love is imparted to the soul.\n\nBrethren, this doctrine of my text ought to be for every one of us a joy\nand a gospel. There is no royal road into the sweetness and the depth of\nChrist's love, for the wise or the prudent. The understanding is no more\nthe organ for apprehending the love of Christ than the ear is the organ\nfor perceiving light, or the heart the organ for learning mathematics.\nBlessed be God! the highest gifts are not bestowed upon the clever\npeople, on the men of genius and the gifted ones, the cultivated and the\nrefined, but they are open for all men; and when we say that love is the\nparent of knowledge, and that the condition of knowing the depths of\nChrist's heart is simple love which is the child of faith, we are only\nsaying in other words what the Master embodied in His thanksgiving\nprayer, 'I thank Thee, Father! Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou\nhast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them\nunto babes.'\n\nAnd that is so, not because Christianity, being a foolish system, can\nonly address itself to fools; not because Christianity, contradicting\nwisdom, cannot expect to be received by the wise and the cultured, but\nbecause a man's brains have as little to do with his trustful acceptance\nof the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a man's eyes have to do with his\ncapacity of hearing a voice. Therefore, seeing that the wise and\nprudent, and the cultured, and the clever, and the men of genius are\nalways the minority of the race, let us vulgar folk that are neither\nwise, nor clever, nor cultured, nor geniuses, be thankful that all that\nhas nothing to do with our power of knowing and possessing the best\nwisdom and the highest treasures, but that upon this path the wayfaring\nman though a fool shall not err, and all narrow foreheads and limited\nunderstandings, and poor, simple uneducated people as well as\nphilosophers and geniuses have to learn love by their hearts and not by\ntheir heads, and by a sense of need and a humble trust and a daily\nexperience have to appropriate and suck out the blessing that lies in\nthe love of Jesus Christ. Blessed be His name! The end of all\naristocracies of culture and superciliousness of intellect lies in that\ngreat truth that we possess the deepest knowledge and highest wisdom\nwhen we love and by our love.\n\nII. Now a word in the next place as to the other thought here, that not\neven the loving heart can know the love of Christ.\n\n'It passeth knowledge,' says my text. Now I do not suppose that the\nparadox here of knowing the love of Christ which 'passeth knowledge' is\nto be explained by taking 'know' and 'knowledge' in the two different\nsenses which I have already referred to, so as that we may experience,\nand know by conscious experience, that love which the mere understanding\nis incapable of grasping. That of course is an explanation which might\nbe defended, but I take it that it is much truer to the Apostle's\nmeaning to suppose that he uses the words 'know' and 'knowledge' both\ntimes in the same sense. And so we get familiar thoughts which I touch\nupon very briefly.\n\nOur knowledge of Christ's love, though real, is incomplete, and must\nalways be so. You and I believe, I hope, that Christ's love is not a\nman's love, or at least that it is more than a man's love. We believe\nthat it is the flowing out to us of the love of God, that all the\nfulness of the divine heart pours itself through that narrow channel of\nthe human nature of our Lord, and therefore that the flow is endless and\nthe Fountain infinite.\n\nI suppose I do not need to show you that it is possible for people to\nhave, and that in fact we do possess a real, a valid, a reliable\nknowledge of that which is infinite; although we possess, as a matter of\ncourse, no adequate and complete knowledge of it. But I only remind you\nthat we have before us in Christ's love something which, though the\nunderstanding is not by itself able to grasp it, yet the understanding\nled by the heart can lay hold of, and can find in it infinite treasures.\nWe can lay our poor hands on His love as a child might lay its tiny palm\nupon the base of some great cliff, and hold that love in a real grasp of\na real knowledge and certitude, but we cannot put our hands round it and\nfeel that we _com_prehend as well as _ap_prehend. Let us be thankful\nthat we cannot.\n\nHis love can only become to us a subject of knowledge as it reveals\nitself in its manifestations. Yet after even these manifestations it\nremains unuttered and unutterable even by the Cross and grave, even by\nthe glory and the throne. 'It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do?\ndeeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer\nthan the earth, and broader than the sea.'\n\nWe have no measure by which we can translate into the terms of our\nexperience, and so bring within the grasp of our minds, what was the\ndepth of the step, which Christ took at the impulse of His love, from\nthe Throne to the Cross. We know not what He forewent; we know not, nor\never shall know, what depths of darkness and soul-agony He passed\nthrough at the bidding of His all-enduring love to us. Nor do we know\nthe consequences of that great work of emptying Himself of His glory. We\nhave no means by which we can estimate the darkness and the depth of the\nmisery from which we have been delivered, nor the height and the\nradiance of the glory to which we are to be lifted. And until we can\ntell and measure by our compasses both of these two extremes of possible\nhuman fate, till we have gone down into the deepest abyss of a\nbottomless pit of growing alienation and misery, and up above the\nhighest reach of all unending progress into light and glory and\nGod-likeness, we have not stretched our compasses wide enough to touch\nthe two poles of this great sphere, the infinite love of Jesus Christ.\nSo we bow before it, we know that we possess it with a knowledge more\nsure and certain, more deep and valid, than our knowledge of ought but\nourselves; but yet it is beyond our grasp, and towers above us\ninaccessible in the altitude of its glory, and stretches deep beneath us\nin the profundity of its condescension.\n\nAnd, in like manner, we may say that this known love passes knowledge,\ninasmuch as our experience of it can never exhaust it. We are like the\nsettlers on some great island continent--as, for instance, on the\nAustralian continent for many years after its first discovery--a thin\nfringe of population round the seaboard here and there, and all the\nbosom of the land untraversed and unknown. So after all experiences of\nand all blessed participation in the love of Jesus Christ which come to\neach of us by our faith, we have but skimmed the surface, but touched\nthe edges, but received a drop of what, if it should come upon us in\nfulness of flood like a Niagara of love, would overwhelm our spirits.\n\nSo we have within our reach not only the treasure of creatural\naffections which bring gladness into life when they come, and darkness\nover it when they depart; we have not only human love which, if I may so\nsay, is always lifting its finger to its lips in the act of bidding us\nadieu; but we may possess a love which will abide with us for ever. Men\ndie, Christ lives. We can exhaust men, we cannot exhaust Christ. We can\nfollow other objects of pursuit, all of which have limitation to their\npower of satisfying and pall upon the jaded sense sooner or later, or\nsooner or later are wrenched away from the aching heart. But here is a\nlove into which we can penetrate very deep and fear no exhaustion; a sea\ninto which we can cast ourselves, nor dread that like some rash diver\nflinging himself into shallow water where he thought there was depth, we\nmay be bruised and wounded. We may find in Christ the endless love that\nan immortal heart requires. Enter by the low door of faith, and your\nfinite heart will have the joy of an infinite love for its possession,\nand your mortal life will rise transfigured into an immortal and growing\nparticipation in the immortal Love of the indwelling and inexhaustible\nChrist.\n\n\n\n\nTHE PARADOX OF LOVE'S MEASURE\n\n 'The breadth, and length, and depth, and height.'--Eph. iii. 18.\n\n\nOf what? There can, I think, be no doubt as to the answer. The next\nclause is evidently the continuation of the idea begun in that of our\ntext, and it runs: 'And to know the _love of Christ_ which passeth\nknowledge.' It is the immeasurable measure, then; the boundless bounds\nand dimensions of the love of Christ which fire the Apostle's thoughts\nhere. Of course, he had no separate idea in his mind attaching to each\nof these measures of magnitude, but he gathered them together simply to\nexpress the one thought of the greatness of Christ's love. Depth and\nheight are the same dimension measured from opposite ends. The one\nbegins at the top and goes down, the other begins at the bottom and goes\nup, but the distance is the same in either case. So we have the three\ndimensions of a solid here--breadth, length, and depth.\n\nI suppose that I may venture to use these expressions with a somewhat\ndifferent purpose from that for which the Apostle employs them; and to\nsee in each of them a separate and blessed aspect of the love of God in\nJesus Christ our Lord.\n\nI. What, then, is the breadth of that love?\n\nIt is as broad as humanity. As all the stars lie in the firmament, so\nall creatures rest in the heaven of His love. Mankind has many common\ncharacteristics. We all suffer, we all sin, we all hunger, we all\naspire, hope, and die; and, blessed be God! we all occupy precisely the\nsame relation to the divine love which lies in Jesus Christ. There are\nno step-children in God's great family, and none of them receives a more\ngrudging or a less ample share of His love and goodness than every\nother. Far-stretching as the race, and curtaining it over as some great\ntent may enclose on a festal day a whole tribe, the breadth of Christ's\nlove is the breadth of humanity.\n\nAnd it is universal because it is divine. No human mind can be stretched\nso as to comprehend the whole of the members of mankind, and no human\nheart can be so emptied of self as to be capable of this absolute\nuniversality and impartiality of affection. But the intellectual\ndifficulties which stand in the way of the width of our affections, and\nthe moral difficulties which stand still more frowningly and\nforbiddingly in the way, have no power over that love of Christ's which\nis close and tender, and clinging with all the tenderness and closeness\nand clingingness of a human affection and lofty and universal and\npassionless and perpetual, with all the height and breadth and calmness\nand eternity of a divine heart.\n\nAnd this broad love, broad as humanity, is not shallow because it is\nbroad. Our love is too often like the estuary of some great stream which\nruns deep and mighty as long as it is held within narrow banks, but as\nsoon as it widens becomes slow and powerless and shallow. The intensity\nof human affection varies inversely as its extension. A universal\nphilanthropy is a passionless sentiment. But Christ's love is deep\nthough it is wide, and suffers no diminution because it is shared\namongst a multitude. It is like the great feast that He Himself spread\nfor five thousand men, women, and children, all seated on the grass,\n'and they did all eat and were filled.'\n\nThe whole love is the property of each recipient of it. He does not love\nas we do, who give a part of our heart to this one and a part to that\none, and share the treasure of our affections amongst a multitude. All\nthis gift belongs to every one, just as all the sunshine comes to every\neye, and as every beholder sees the moon's path across the dark waters,\nstretching from the place where He stands to the centre of light.\n\nThis broad love, universal as humanity, and deep as it is broad, is\nuniversal because it is individual. You and I have to generalise, as we\nsay, when we try to extend our affections beyond the limits of\nhousehold and family and personal friends, and the generalising is a\nsign of weakness and limitation. Nobody can love an abstraction, but\nGod's love and Christ's love do not proceed in that fashion. He\nindividualises, loving each and therefore loving all. It is because\nevery man has a space in His heart singly and separately and\nconspicuously, that all men have a place there. So our task is to\nindividualise this broad, universal love, and to say, in the simplicity\nof a glad faith, 'He loved me and gave Himself for me.' The breadth is\nworld-wide, and the whole breadth is condensed into, if I may so say, a\nshaft of light which may find its way through the narrowest chink of a\nsingle soul. There are two ways of arguing about the love of Christ,\nboth of them valid, and both of them needing to be employed by us. We\nhave a right to say, 'He loves all, therefore He loves me.' And we have\na right to say, 'He loves me, therefore He loves all.' For surely the\nlove that has stooped to me can never pass by any human soul.\n\nWhat is the breadth of the love of Christ? It is broad as mankind, it is\nnarrow as myself.\n\nII. Then, in the next place, what is the length of the love of Christ?\n\nIf we are to think of Him only as a man, however exalted and however\nperfect, you and I have nothing in the world to do with His love. When\nHe was here on earth it may have been sent down through the ages in some\nvague way, as the shadowy ghost of love may rise in the heart of a great\nstatesman or philanthropist for generations yet unborn, which He dimly\nsees will be affected by His sacrifice and service. But we do not call\nthat love. Such a poor, pale, shadowy thing has no right to the warm\nthrobbing name; has no right to demand from us any answering thrill of\naffection. Unless you think of Jesus Christ as something more and other\nthan the purest and the loftiest benevolence that ever dwelt in human\nform, I know of no intelligible sense in which the length of His love\ncan be stretched to touch you.\n\nIf we content ourselves with that altogether inadequate and lame\nconception of Him and of His nature, of course there is no present bond\nbetween any man upon earth and Him, and it is absurd to talk about His\npresent love as extending in any way to me. But we have to believe,\nrising to the full height of the Christian conception of the nature and\nperson of Christ, that when He was here on earth the divine that dwelt\nin Him so informed and inspired the human as that the love of His man's\nheart was able to grasp the whole, and to separate the individuals who\nshould make up the race till the end of time; so as that you and I,\nlooking back over all the centuries, and asking ourselves what is the\nlength of the love of Christ, can say, 'It stretches over all the years,\nand it reached then, as it reaches now, to touch me, upon whom the ends\nof the earth have come.' Its length is conterminous with the duration of\nhumanity here or yonder.\n\nThat thought of eternal being, when we refer it to God, towers above us\nand repels us; and when we turn it to ourselves and think of our own\nlife as unending, there come a strangeness and an awe that is almost\nshrinking, over the thoughtful spirit. But when we transmute it into the\nthought of a love whose length is unending, then over all the shoreless,\nmisty, melancholy sea of eternity, there gleams a light, and every\nwavelet flashes up into glory. It is a dreadful thing to think, 'For\never, Thou art God.' It is a solemn thing to think, 'For ever I am to\nbe'; but it is life to say: 'O Christ! Thy love endureth from\neverlasting to everlasting; and because it lives, I shall live\nalso'--'Oh! give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy\nendureth for ever.'\n\nThere is another measure of the length of the love of Christ. 'Master!\nHow often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?--I say not\nunto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven.' So said the\nChrist, multiplying perfection into itself twice--two sevens and a\nten--in order to express the idea of boundlessness. And the law that He\nlaid down for His servant is the law that binds Himself. What is the\nlength of the love of Christ? Here is one measure of it--howsoever long\ndrawn out my sin may be, this is longer; and the white line of His love\nruns out into infinity, far beyond the point where the black line of my\nsin stops. Anything short of eternal patience would have been long ago\nexhausted by your sins and mine, and our brethren's. But the pitying\nChrist, the eternal Lover of all wandering souls, looks down from heaven\nupon every one of us; goes with us in all our wanderings, bears with us\nin all our sins, in all our transgressions still is gracious. His\npleadings sound on, like some stop in an organ continuously persistent\nthrough all the other notes. And round His throne are written the divine\nwords which have been spoken about our human love modelled after His:\n'Charity suffereth long and is kind; is not easily provoked, is not soon\nangry, beareth all things.' The length of the love of Christ is the\nlength of eternity, and outmeasures all human sin.\n\nIII. Then again, what is the depth of that love?\n\nDepth and height, as I said at the beginning of these remarks, are but\ntwo ways of expressing the same dimension. For the one we begin at the\ntop and measure down, for the other we begin at the bottom and measure\nup. The top is the Throne; and the downward measure, how is it to be\nstated? In what terms of distance are we to express it? How far is it\nfrom the Throne of the Universe to the manger of Bethlehem, and the\nCross of Calvary, and the sepulchre in the garden? That is the depth of\nthe love of Christ. Howsoever far may be the distance from that\nloftiness of co-equal divinity in the bosom of the Father, and radiant\nwith glory, to the lowliness of the form of a servant, and the sorrows,\nlimitations, rejections, pains and death--that is the measure of the\ndepth of Christ's love. We can estimate the depth of the love of Christ\nby saying, 'He came from above, He tabernacled with us,' as if some\nplanet were to burst from its track and plunge downwards in amongst the\nmist and the narrowness of our earthly atmosphere.\n\nA well-known modern scientist has hazarded the speculation that the\norigin of life on this planet has been the falling upon it of the\nfragments of a meteor, or an aerolite from some other system, with a\nspeck of organic life upon it, from which all has developed. Whatever\nmay be the case in regard to physical life, that is absolutely true in\nthe case of spiritual life. It all originates because this\nheaven-descended Christ has come down the long staircase of Incarnation,\nand has brought with Him into the clouds and oppressions of our\nterrestrial atmosphere a germ of life which He has planted in the heart\nof the race, there to spread for ever. That is the measure of the depth\nof the love of Christ.\n\nAnd there is another way to measure it. My sins are deep, my helpless\nmiseries are deep, but they are shallow as compared with the love that\ngoes down beneath all sin, that is deeper than all sorrow, that is\ndeeper than all necessity, that shrinks from no degradation, that turns\naway from no squalor, that abhors no wickedness so as to avert its face\nfrom it. The purest passion of human benevolence cannot but sometimes be\naware of disgust mingling with its pity and its efforts, but Christ's\nlove comes down to the most sunken. However far in the abyss of\ndegradation any human soul has descended, beneath it are the everlasting\narms, and beneath it is Christ's love. When a coalpit gets blocked up by\nsome explosion, no brave rescuing party will venture to descend into the\nlowest depths of the poisonous darkness until some ventilation has been\nrestored. But this loving Christ goes down, down, down into the\nthickest, most pestilential atmosphere, reeking with sin and corruption,\nand stretches out a rescuing hand to the most abject and undermost of\nall the victims. How deep is the love of Christ! The deep mines of sin\nand of alienation are all undermined and countermined by His love. Sin\nis an abyss, a mystery, how deep only they know who have fought against\nit; but\n\n 'O love! thou bottomless abyss,\n My sins are swallowed up in thee.'\n\n'I will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.' The depths of\nChrist's love go down beneath all human necessity, sorrow, suffering,\nand sin.\n\nIV. And lastly, what is the height of the love of Christ?\n\nWe found that the way to measure the depth was to begin at the Throne,\nand go down to the Cross, and to the foul abysses of evil. The way to\nmeasure the height is to begin at the Cross and the foul abysses of\nevil, and to go up to the Throne. That is to say, the topmost thing in\nthe Universe, the shining apex and pinnacle, glittering away up there in\nthe radiant unsetting light, is the love of God in Jesus Christ. Other\nconceptions of that divine nature spring high above us and tower beyond\nour thoughts, but the summit of them all, the very topmost as it is the\nvery bottommost, outside of everything, and therefore high above\neverything, is the love of God which has been revealed to us all, and\nbrought close to us sinful men in the manhood and passion of our dear\nChrist.\n\nAnd that love which thus towers above us, and gleams like the shining\ncross on the top of some lofty cathedral spire, does not flash up there\ninaccessible, nor lie before us like some pathless precipice, up which\nnothing that has not wings can ever hope to rise, but the height of the\nlove of Christ is an hospitable height, which can be scaled by us. Nay,\nrather, that heaven of love which is 'higher than our thoughts,' bends\ndown, as by a kind of optical delusion the physical heaven seems to do\ntowards each of us, only with this blessed difference, that in the\nnatural world the place where heaven touches earth is always the\nfurthest point of distance from us: and in the spiritual world the place\nwhere heaven stoops to me is always right over my head, and the nearest\npossible point to me. He has come to lift us to Himself, and this is the\nheight of His love, that it bears us, if we will, up and up to sit upon\nthat throne where He Himself is enthroned.\n\nSo, brethren, Christ's love is round about us all, as some sunny\ntropical sea may embosom in its violet waves a multitude of luxuriant\nand happy islets. So all of us, islanded on our little individual lives,\nlie in that great ocean of love, all the dimensions of which are\nimmeasurable, and which stretches above, beneath, around, shoreless,\ntideless, bottomless, endless.\n\nBut, remember, this ocean of love you can shut out of your lives. It is\npossible to plunge a jar into mid-Atlantic, further than soundings have\never descended, and to bring it up on deck as dry inside as if it had\nbeen lying on an oven. It is possible for men and women--and I have them\nlistening to me at this moment--to live and move and have their being in\nthat sea of love, and never to have let one drop of its richest gifts\ninto their hearts or their lives. Open your hearts for Him to come in,\nby humble faith in His great sacrifice for you. For if Christ dwell in\nyour heart by faith, then and only then will experience be your guide;\nand you will be able to comprehend the boundless greatness, the endless\nduration, and absolute perfection, and to know the love of Christ which\npasseth knowledge.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CLIMAX OF ALL PRAYER\n\n 'That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.'--Eph.\n iii. 19.\n\n\nThe Apostle's many-linked prayer, which we have been considering in\nsuccessive sermons, has reached its height. It soars to the very Throne\nof God. There can be nothing above or beyond this wonderful petition.\nRather, it might seem as if it were too much to ask, and as if, in the\necstasy of prayer, Paul had forgotten the limits that separate the\ncreature from the Creator, as well as the experience of sinful and\nimperfect men, and had sought to 'wind himself too high for mortal life\nbeneath the sky.' And yet Paul's prayers are God's promises; and we are\njustified in taking these rapturous petitions as being distinct\ndeclarations of God's desire and purpose for each of us; as being the\nend which He had in view in the unspeakable gift of His Son; and as\nbeing the certain outcome of His gracious working on all believing\nhearts.\n\nIt seems at first a paradoxical impossibility; looked at more deeply and\ncarefully it becomes a possibility for each of us, and therefore a duty;\na certainty for all the redeemed in fullest measure hereafter; and,\nalas! a rebuke to our low lives and feeble expectations. Let us look,\nthen, at the petition, with the desire of sounding, as we may, its\ndepths and realising its preciousness.\n\nI. First of all, think with me of the significance of this prayer.\n\n'The fulness of God' is another expression for the whole sum and\naggregate of all the energies, powers, and attributes of the divine\nnature, the total Godhead in its plenitude and abundance.\n\n'God is love,' we say. What does that mean, but that God desires to\nimpart His whole self to the creatures whom He loves? What is love in\nits lofty and purest forms, even as we see them here on earth; what is\nlove except the infinite longing to bestow one's self? And when we\nproclaim that which is the summit and climax of the revelation of our\nFather in the person of His Son, and say with the last utterances of\nScripture that 'God is love,' we do in other words proclaim that the\nvery nature and deepest desire and purpose of the divine heart is to\npour itself on the emptiness and need of His lowly creatures in floods\nthat keep back nothing. Lofty, wonderful, incomprehensible to the mere\nunderstanding as this thought may be, clearly it is the inmost meaning\nof all that Scripture tells us about God as being the 'portion of His\npeople,' and about us, as being by Christ and in Christ 'heirs of God,'\nand possessors of Himself.\n\nWe have, then, as the promise that gleams from these great words, this\nwonderful prospect, that the divine love, truth, holiness, joy, in all\ntheir rich plenitude of all-sufficient abundance, may be showered upon\nus. The whole Godhead is our possession; for the fulness of God is no\nfar-off remote treasure that lies beyond human grasp and outside of\nhuman experience. Do not we believe that, to use the words of this\nApostle in another letter, 'it pleased the Father that in Him should all\nthe fulness dwell'? Do we not believe that, to use the words of the same\nepistle, 'In Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily'? Is\nnot that abundance of the resources of the whole Deity insphered and\nincarnated in Jesus Christ our Lord, that it may be near us, and that we\nmay put out our hand and touch it? This may be a paradox for the\nunderstanding, full of metaphysical puzzles and cobwebs, but for the\nheart that knows Christ, most true and precious. God is gathered into\nJesus Christ, and all the fulness of God, whatever that may mean, is\nembodied in the Man Christ Jesus, that from Him it may be communicated\nto every soul that will.\n\nFor, to quote other words of another of the New Testament teachers, 'Of\nHis fulness have all we received, and grace for grace,' and to quote\nwords in another part of the same epistle, we may 'all come to a perfect\nman, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.' High\nabove us, then, and inaccessible though that awful thought, 'the fulness\nof God,' may seem, as the zenith of the unscaleable heavens seems to us\npoor creatures creeping here upon the flat earth, it comes near, near,\nnear, ever nearer, and at last tabernacles among us, when we think that\nin Him all the fulness dwells, and it comes nearer yet and enters into\nour hearts when we think that 'of His fulness have we all received.'\n\nThen, still further, observe another of the words in this\npetition:--'That ye may be filled.' That is to say, Paul's prayer and\nGod's purpose and desire concerning us is, that our whole being may be\nso saturated and charged with an indwelling divinity as that there shall\nbe no room in our present stature and capacity for more, and no sense of\nwant or aching emptiness.\n\nAh, brethren! when we think of how eagerly we have drunk at the stinking\npuddles of earth, and how after every draught there has yet been left a\nthirst that was pain, it is something for us to hear Him say:--'The\nwater that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up\ninto everlasting life,'--and 'he that drinketh of this water shall never\nthirst.' Our empty hearts, with their experiences of the insufficiency\nand the vanity of all earthly satisfaction, stand there like the\nwater-pots at the rustic marriage, and the Master says, 'Fill them to\nthe brim.' And then, by His touch, the water of our poor savourless,\nearthly enjoyments is transmuted and elevated into the new wine of His\nKingdom. We may be filled, satisfied with the fulness of God.\n\nThere is another point as to the significance of this prayer, on which I\nmust briefly touch. As our Revised Version will tell you, the literal\nrendering of my text is, 'filled _unto_' (not exactly _with_) 'all the\nfulness of God'; which suggests the idea not of a completed work but of\na process, and of a growing process, as if more and more of that great\nfulness might pass into a man. Suppose a number of vessels, according to\nthe old illustration about degrees of glory in heaven; they are each\nfull, but the quantity that one contains is much less than that which\nthe other may hold. Add to the illustration that the vessels can grow,\nand that filling makes them grow; as a shrunken bladder when you pass\ngas into it will expand and round itself out, and all the creases will\nbe smoothed away. Such is the Apostle's idea here, that a process of\nfilling goes on which may satisfy the then desires, because it fills us\nup to the then capacities of our spirits; but in the very process of so\nfilling and satisfying makes those spirits capable of containing larger\nmeasures of His fulness, which therefore flow into it. Such, as I take\nit, in rude and faint outline, is the significance of this great prayer.\n\nII. Now turn, in the next place, to consider briefly the possibility of\nthe accomplishments of this petition.\n\nAs I said, it sounds as if it were too much to desire. Certainly no wish\ncan go beyond this wish. The question is, can a sane and humble wish go\nas far as this; and can a man pray such a prayer with any real belief\nthat he will get it answered here and now? I say yes!\n\nThere are two difficulties that at once start up.\n\nPeople will say, does such a prayer as this upon man's lips not forget\nthe limits that bound the creature's capacity? Can the finite contain\nthe Infinite?\n\nWell, that is a verbal puzzle, and I answer, yes! The finite can contain\nthe Infinite, if you are talking about two hearts that love, one of them\nGod's and one of them mine. We have got to keep very clear and distinct\nbefore our minds the broad, firm line of demarcation between the\ncreature and the Creator, or else we get into a pantheistic region where\nboth creature and Creator expire. But there is a Christian as well as an\natheistic pantheism, and as long as we retain clearly in our minds the\nconsciousness of the personal distinction between God and His child, so\nas that the child can turn round and say, 'I love Thee' and God can look\ndown and say, 'I bless thee'; then all identification and mutual\nindwelling and impartation from Him of Himself are possible, and are\nheld forth as the aim and end of Christian life.\n\nOf course in a mere abstract and philosophical sense the Infinite cannot\nbe contained by the finite; and attributes which express infinity, like\nomnipresence and omniscience and omnipotence and so on, indicate things\nin God that we can know but little about, and that cannot be\ncommunicated. But those are not the divinest things in God. 'God is\nlove.' Do you believe that that saying unveils the deepest things in\nHim? God is light, 'and in Him is no darkness at all.' Do you believe\nthat His light and His love are nearer the centre than these attributes\nof power and infinitude? If we believe that, then we can come back to my\ntext and say, 'The love, which is Thee, can come into me; the light,\nwhich is Thee, can pour itself into my darkness; the holiness, which is\nThee, can enter into my impurity. The heaven of heavens cannot contain\nThee. Thou dwellest in the humble and in the contrite heart.'\n\nSo, dear brethren, the old legends about mighty forms that contracted\ntheir stature and bowed their divine heads to enter into some poor man's\nhut, and sit there, are simple Christian realities. And instead of\npuzzling ourselves with metaphysical difficulties which are mere\nshadows, and the work of the understanding or the spawn of words, let us\nlisten to the Christ when He says, 'We will come unto him and make our\nabode with him' and believe that it was no impossibility which fired the\nApostle's hope when he prayed, and in praying prophesied, that we might\nbe filled with all the fulness of God.\n\nThen there is another difficulty that rises before our minds; and\nChristian men say, 'How is it possible, in this region of imperfection,\ncompassed with infirmity and sin as we are, that such hopes should be\nrealised for us here?' Well, I would rather answer that question by\nretorting and saying: 'How is it possible that such a prayer should have\ncome from inspired lips unless the thing that Paul was asking might be?'\nDid he waste his breath when he thus prayed? Are we not as Christian men\nbound, instead of measuring our expectations by our attainments, to try\nto stretch our attainments to what are our legitimate expectations, and\nto hear in these words the answer to the faithless and unbelieving doubt\nwhether such a thing is possible, and the assurance that it is possible.\n\nAn impossibility can never be a duty, and yet we are commanded: 'Be ye\nperfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.' An impossibility can\nnever be a duty, and yet we are commanded to let Christ abide in our\nhearts.\n\nOh! if we believed less in the power of our sin it would have less power\nupon us. If we believed more in the power of an indwelling Christ He\nwould have more power within us. If we said to ourselves, 'It is\npossible,' we should make it possible. The impossibility arises only\nfrom our own weakness, from our own sinful weakness; and though it may\nbe true, and is true, that none of us will live without sin as long as\nwe abide here, it is also true that each moment of interruption of our\ncommunion with Christ and therefore each moment of interruption of that\nbeing 'filled with the fulness of God,' might have been avoided. We know\nabout every such time that we could have helped it if we had liked, and\nit is no use bringing any general principles about sin cleaving to men\nin order to break the force of that conviction. But if that conviction\nbe a real one, and if whenever a Christian man loses the consciousness\nof God in his heart, making him blessed, he is obliged to say: 'It was\nmy own fault and Thou wouldst have stayed if I had chosen,' then there\nfollows from this, that it is possible, notwithstanding all the\nimperfection and sin of earth, that we may be 'filled with all the\nfulness of God.'\n\nSo, dear brethren, take you this prayer as the standard of your\nexpectations; and oh! take it as we must all take it, as the sharpest of\nrebukes to our actual attainments in holiness and in likeness to our\nMaster. Set by the side of these wondrous and solemn words--'filled with\nthe fulness of God,' the facts of the lives of the average professing\nChristians of this generation, and of this congregation; their\nemptiness, their ignorance of the divine indwelling, their want of\nanything in their experience that corresponds in the least degree to\nsuch words as these. Judge whether a man is not more likely to be bowed\ndown in wholesome sense of his own sinfulness and unworthiness, if he\nhas before him such an ideal as this of my text, than if it, too, has\nfaded out of his life. I believe, for my part, that one great cause of\nthe worldliness and the sinfulness and mechanical formalities that are\neating the life out of the Christianity of this generation is the fact\nof the Church having largely lost any real belief in the possibility\nthat Christian men may possess the fulness of God as their present\nexperience. And so, when they do not find it in themselves they say:\n'Oh! it is all right; it is the necessary result of our imperfect\nfleshly condition.' No! It is all wrong; and His purpose is that we\nshould possess Him in the fulness of His gladdening and hallowing power,\nat every moment in our happy lives.\n\nIII. One word to close with, as to the means by which this prayer may be\nfulfilled.\n\nRemember, it comes as the last link in a chain. I shall have wasted my\nbreath for a month, as far as you are concerned, if you do not feel that\nthe preceding links are needful before this can be attained.\n\nBut I only touch upon the nearest of them and remind you that it must be\nChrist dwelling in our hearts, that fills them with the fulness of God.\nWhere He comes God comes. And where does He come? He comes where faith\nopens the door for Him. If you will trust Jesus Christ, if you will\ndistrust yourselves, if you will turn your thoughts and your hearts to\nHim, if you will let Him come into your souls, and not shut Him out\nbecause your souls are so full that there is no room for Him there, then\nwhen He comes He will not come empty-handed, but will bring the full\nGodhead with Him.\n\nThere must be the emptying of self, if there is to be the filling with\nGod. And the emptying of self is realised in that faith which forsakes\nself-confidence, self-righteousness, self-dependence, self-control,\nself-pleasing, and yields itself wholly to the dear Lord.\n\nThere is another condition that is required, and that is the previous\nlink in this braided chain. The conscious experience of the love which\nis in Christ will bring to us 'the fulness of God.' Love is power; love\nis God; and when we live in the sense and experience of God's love to us\nthen we have the power and we have the God. It is as in some of these\npetrifying streams, the water is charged with particles which it\ndeposits upon everything that is laid in its course. So, if we plunge\nour hearts into that fountain of the love of Christ, as it flows it will\nclothe us with all the divine energies which are held in solution in the\ndivinest thing in God--His own love. Plunged into the love we are filled\nwith the fulness.\n\nThen keep near your Master. It all comes to that. Meditate upon Him; do\nnot let days pass, as they do pass, without a thought being turned to\nHim. Do not go about your daily work without a remembrance of Him. Keep\nyourselves in Christ. Seek to experience His love, that love which\npasseth knowledge, and is only known by them who possess it. And then,\nas the old painters with deep truth used to paint the Apostle of Love\nwith a face like his Master, living near Christ and looking upon Him you\nwill receive of His fulness, and 'we all, with open face, beholding the\nglory, shall be changed into the glory.'\n\n\n\n\nMEASURELESS POWER AND ENDLESS GLORY\n\n 'Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all\n that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,\n 21. Unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all\n ages, world without end. Amen.'--Eph. iii. 20, 21.\n\n\nOne purpose and blessing of faithful prayer is to enlarge the desires\nwhich it expresses, and to make us think more loftily of the grace to\nwhich we appeal. So the Apostle, in the wonderful series of\nsupplications which precedes the text, has found his thought of what he\nmay hope for his brethren at Ephesus grow greater with every clause. His\nprayer rises like some songbird, in ever-widening sweeps, each higher in\nthe blue, and nearer the throne; and at each a sweeter, fuller note.\n\n'Strengthened with might by His Spirit'; 'that Christ may dwell in your\nhearts by faith'; 'that ye may be able to know the love of Christ';\n'that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.' Here he touches\nthe very throne. Beyond that nothing can be conceived. But though that\nsublime petition may be the end of thought, it is not the end of faith.\nThough God can give us nothing more than it is, He can give us more than\nwe think it to be, and more than we ask, when we ask this. Therefore the\ngrand doxology of our text crowns and surpasses even this great prayer.\nThe higher true prayer climbs, the wider is its view; and the wider is\nits view, the more conscious is it that the horizon of its vision is far\nwithin the borders of the goodly land. And as we gaze into what we can\ndiscern of the fulness of God, prayer will melt into thanksgiving and\nthe doxology for the swift answer will follow close upon the last words\nof supplication. So is it here; so it may be always.\n\nThe form of our text then marks the confidence of Paul's prayer. The\nexuberant fervour of his faith, as well as his natural impetuosity and\nardour, comes out in the heaped-up words expressive of immensity and\nduration. He is like some archer watching, with parted lips, the flight\nof his arrow to the mark. He is gazing on God confident that he has not\nasked in vain. Let us look with him, that we, too, may be heartened to\nexpect great things of God. Notice then--\n\nI. The measure of the power to which we trust.\n\nThis epistle is remarkable for its frequent references to the divine\nrule, or standard, or measure, in accordance with which the great facts\nof redemption take place. The 'things on the earth'--the historical\nprocesses by which salvation is brought to men and works in men--are\never traced up to the 'things in heaven'; the divine counsels from which\nthey have come forth. That phrase, 'according to,' is perpetually\noccurring in this connection in the epistle. It is applied mainly in two\ndirections. It serves sometimes to bring into view the ground, or\nreason, of the redemptive facts, as, for instance, in the expression\nthat these take place 'according to His good pleasure which He hath\npurposed in Himself' It serves sometimes to bring into view the measure\nby which the working of these redemptive facts is determined; as in our\ntext, and in many other places.\n\nNow there are three main forms under which this standard, or measure, of\nthe Redeeming Power is set forth in this epistle, and it will help us to\ngrasp the greatness of the Apostle's thought if we consider these.\n\nTake, then, first, that clause in the earlier portion of the preceding\nprayer, 'that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory.'\nThe measure, then, of the gift that we may hope to receive is the\nmeasure of God's own fulness. The 'riches of His glory' can be nothing\nless than the whole uncounted abundance of that majestic and far-shining\nNature, as it pours itself forth in the dazzling perfectness of its own\nSelf-manifestation. And nothing less than this great treasure is to be\nthe limit and standard of His gift to us. We are the sons of the King,\nand the allowance which He makes us even before we come to our\ninheritance is proportionate to our Father's wealth. The same stupendous\nthought is given us in that prayer, heavy with the blessed weight of\nunspeakable gifts, 'that ye might be filled with all the fulness of\nGod.' This, then, is the measure of the grace that we may possess. This\nlimitless limit alone bounds the possibilities for every man, the\ncertainties for every Christian.\n\nThe effect must be proportioned to the cause. And what effect will be\nadequate as the outcome of such a cause as 'the riches of His glory'?\nNothing short of absolute perfectness, the full transmutation of our\ndark, cold being into the reflected image of His own burning brightness,\nthe ceaseless replenishing of our own spirits with all graces and\ngladnesses akin to His, the eternal growth of the soul upward and\nGodward. Perfection is the sign manual of God in all His works, just as\nimperfection and the falling below our thought and wish is our 'token in\nevery epistle' and deed of ours. Take the finest needle, and put it\nbelow a microscope, and it will be all ragged and irregular, the fine,\ntapering lines will be broken by many a bulge and bend, and the point\nblunt and clumsy. Put the blade of grass to the same test, and see how\nregular its outline, how delicate and true the spear-head of its point.\nGod's work is perfect, man's is clumsy and incomplete. God does not\nleave off till He has finished. When He rests, it is because, looking on\nHis work, He sees it all 'very good.' His Sabbath is the Sabbath of an\nachieved purpose, of a fulfilled counsel. The palaces which we build\nare ever like that one in the story, where one window remains dark and\nunjewelled, while the rest blaze in beauty. But when God builds, none\ncan say, 'He was not able to finish.' In His great palace He makes her\n'windows of agates' and _all_ her 'borders of pleasant stones.'\n\nSo we have a right to enlarge our desires and stretch our confidence of\nwhat we may possess and become to this, His boundless bound--'The riches\nof glory.'\n\nBut another form in which the standard, or measure, is stated in this\nletter is: 'The working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ,\nwhen He raised Him from the dead' (i. 19, 20); or, as it is put with a\nmodification, 'grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ'\n(iv. 7). That is to say, we have not only the whole riches of the divine\nglory as the measure to which we may lift our hopes, but lest that\ncelestial brightness should seem too high above us, and too far from us,\nwe have Christ in His human-divine manifestation, and especially in the\ngreat fact of the Resurrection, set before us, that by Him we may learn\nwhat God wills we should become. The former phase of the standard may\nsound abstract, cloudy, hard to connect with any definite anticipations;\nand so this form of it is concrete, historical, and gives human features\nto the fair ideal. His Resurrection is the high-water mark of the divine\npower, and to the same level it will rise again in regard to every\nChristian. The Lord, in the glory of His risen life, and in the riches\nof the gifts which He received when He ascended up on high, is the\npattern for us, and the power which fulfils its own pattern. In Him we\nsee what man may become, and what His followers must become. The limits\nof that power will not be reached until every Christian soul is\nperfectly assimilated to that likeness, and bears all its beauty in its\nface, nor till every Christian soul is raised to participation in\nChrist's dignity and sits on His throne. Then, and not till then, shall\nthe purpose of God be fulfilled and the gift which is measured by the\nriches of the Father's glory, and the fulness of the Son's grace, be\npossessed or conceived in its measureless measure.\n\nBut there is a third form in which this same standard is represented.\nThat is the form which is found in our text, and in other places of the\nepistle: 'According to the power that worketh in us.'\n\nWhat power is that but the power of the Spirit of God dwelling in us?\nAnd thus we have the measure, or standard, set forth in terms\nrespectively applying to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. For\nthe first, the riches of His glory; for the second, His Resurrection and\nAscension; for the third, His energy working in Christian souls. The\nfirst carries us up into the mysteries of God, where the air is almost\ntoo subtle for our gross lungs; the second draws nearer to earth and\npoints us to an historical fact that happened in this everyday world;\nthe third comes still nearer to us, and bids us look within, and see\nwhether what we are conscious of there, if we interpret it by the light\nof these other measures, will not yield results as great as theirs, and\nopen before us the same fair prospect of perfect holiness and conformity\nto the divine nature.\n\nThere is already a Power at work within us, if we be Christians, of\nwhose workings we may be aware, and from them forecast the measure of\nthe gifts which it can bestow upon us. We may estimate what will be by\nwhat we know has been, and by what we feel is. That is to say, in other\nwords, the effects already produced, and the experiences we have already\nhad, carry in them the pledge of completeness.\n\nI suppose that if the mediaeval dream had ever come true, and an\nalchemist had ever turned a grain of lead into gold, he could have\nturned all the lead in the world in time, and with crucibles and\nfurnaces enough. The first step is all the difficulty, and if you and I\nhave been changed from enemies into sons, and had one spark of love to\nGod kindled in our hearts, that is a mightier change than any that\nremains to be effected in order to make us perfect. One grain has been\nchanged, the whole mass will be so in due time.\n\nThe present operations of that power carry in them the pledge of their\nown completion. The strange mingling of good and evil in our present\nnature, our aspirations so crossed and contradicted, our resolution so\nbroken and falsified, the gleams of light, and the eclipses that\nfollow--all these in their opposition to each other, are plainly\ntransitory, and the workings of that Power within us, though they be\noften overborne, are as plainly the stronger in their nature, and meant\nto conquer and to endure. Like some half-hewn block, such as travellers\nfind in long abandoned quarries, whence Egyptian temples, that were\ndestined never to be completed, were built, our spirits are but partly\n'polished after the similitude of a palace,' while much remains in the\nrough. The builders of these temples have mouldered away and their\nunfinished handiwork will lie as it was when the last chisel touched it\ncenturies ago, till the crack of doom; but stones for God's temple will\nbe wrought to completeness and set in their places. The whole threefold\ndivine cause of our salvation supplies the measure, and lays the\nfoundation for our hopes, in the glory of the Father, the grace of the\nSon, the power of the Holy Ghost. Let us lift up our cry: 'Perfect that\nwhich concerneth me, forsake not the works of thine own hands,' and we\nshall have for answer the ancient word, fresh as when it sounded long\nago from among the stars to the sleeper at the ladder's foot, 'I will\nnot leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.'\n\nII. Notice the relation of the divine working to our thoughts and\ndesires.\n\nThe Apostle in his fervid way strains language to express how far the\npossibility of the divine working extends. He is able, not only to do\nall things, but 'beyond all things'--a vehement way of putting the\nboundless reach of that gracious power. And what he means by this\n'beyond all things' is more fully expressed in the next words, in which\nhe labours by accumulating synonyms to convey his sense of the\ntranscendent energy which waits to bless: 'exceeding abundantly above\nwhat we ask.' And as, alas! our desires are but shrunken and narrow\nbeside our thoughts, he sweeps a wider orbit when he adds 'above what we\n_think_.' He has been asking wonderful things, and yet even his\nfarthest-reaching petitions fall far on this side of the greatness of\nGod's power. One might think that even it could go no further than\nfilling us 'with all the fulness of God.' Nor can it; but it may far\ntranscend our conceptions of what that is, and astonish us by its\nsurpassing our thoughts, no less than it shames us by exceeding our\nprayers.\n\nOf course, all this is true, and is meant to apply, only about the\ninward gifts of God's grace. I need not remind you that, in the outer\nworld of Providence and earthly gifts, prayers and wishes often surpass\nthe answers; that there a deeper wisdom often contradicts our thoughts\nand a truer kindness refuses our petitions, and that so the rapturous\nwords of our text are only true in a very modified and partial sense\nabout God's working _for_ us in the world. It is His work _in_ us\nconcerning which they are absolutely true.\n\nOf course we know that in all regions of His working He is _able_ to\nsurpass our poor human conceptions, and that, properly speaking, the\nmost familiar, and, as we insolently call them, 'smallest' of His works\nholds in it a mystery--were it none other than the mystery of\nBeing--against which Thought has been breaking its teeth ever since men\nbegan to think at all.\n\nBut as regards the working of God on our spiritual lives, this passing\nbeyond the bounds of thought and desire is but the necessary result of\nthe fact already dealt with, that the only measure of the power is God\nHimself, in that Threefold Being. That being so, no plummet of our\nmaking can reach to the bottom of the abyss; no strong-winged thought\ncan fly to the outermost bound of the encircling heaven. Widely as we\nstretch our reverent conceptions, there is ever something beyond. After\nwe have resolved many a dim nebula in the starry sky, and found it all\nablaze with suns and worlds, there will still hang, faint and far before\nus, hazy magnificences which we have not apprehended. Confidently and\nboldly as we may offer our prayers, and largely as we may expect, the\nanswer is ever more than the petition. For indeed, in every act of His\nquickening grace, in every God-given increase of our knowledge of God,\nin every bestowment of His fulness, there is always more bestowed than\nwe receive, more than we know even while we possess it. Like some gift\ngiven in the dark, its true preciousness is not discerned when it is\nfirst received. The gleam of the gold does not strike our eye all at\nonce. There is ever an unknown margin felt by us to be over after our\ncapacity of receiving is exhausted. 'And they took up of the fragments\nthat remained, twelve baskets full.'\n\nSo, then, let us remember that while our thoughts and prayers can never\nreach to the full perception, or reception either, of the gift, the\nexuberant amplitude with which it reaches far beyond both is meant to\ndraw both after it. And let us not forget either that, while the grace\nwhich we receive has no limit or measure but the fulness of God, the\nworking limit, which determines what we receive of the grace, is these\nvery thoughts and wishes which it surpasses. We may have as much of God\nas we can hold, as much as we wish. All Niagara may roar past a man's\ndoor, but only as much as he diverts through his own sluice will drive\nhis mill, or quench his thirst. God's grace is like the figures in the\nEastern tales, that will creep into a narrow room no bigger than a\nnutshell, or will tower heaven high. Our spirits are like the magic tent\nwhose walls expanded or contracted at the owner's wish--we may enlarge\nthem to enclose far more of the grace than we have ever possessed. We\nare not straitened in God, but in ourselves. He is 'able to do exceeding\nabundantly above what we ask or think.' Therefore let us stretch desires\nand thoughts to their utmost, remembering that, while they can never\nreach the measure of His grace in itself, they make the practical\nmeasure of our possession of it. 'According to thy faith' is the real\nmeasure of the gift received, even though 'according to the riches of\nHis glory' be the measure of the gift bestowed. Note, again,\n\nIII. The glory that springs from the divine work.\n\n'The glory of God' is the lustre of His own perfect character, the\nbright sum total of all the blended brilliances that compose His name.\nWhen that light is welcomed and adored by men, they are said to 'give\nglory to God,' and this doxology is at once a prophecy that the working\nof God's power on His redeemed children will issue in setting forth the\nradiance of His Name yet more, and a prayer that it may. So we have here\nthe great thought expressed in many places of Scripture, that the\nhighest exhibition of the divine character for the reverence and\nlove--of the whole universe, shall we say?--lies in His work on\nChristian souls, and the effect produced thereby on them. God takes His\nstand, so to speak, on this great fact in His dealings, and will have\nHis creatures estimate Him by it. He reckons it His highest praise that\nHe has redeemed men, and by His dwelling in them fills them with His own\nfulness. And this chiefest praise and brightest glory accrues to Him 'in\nthe Church in Christ Jesus.' The weakening of the latter word into _by_\nChrist Jesus,' as in the English version, is to be regretted, as\nsubstituting another thought, Scriptural no doubt and precious, for the\nprecise shade of meaning in the Apostle's mind here. As has been well\nsaid, 'the first words denote the outward province; the second, the\ninward and spiritual sphere in which God was to be praised.' His glory\nis to shine in the Church, the theatre of His power, the standing\ndemonstration of the might of redeeming love. By this He will be judged,\nand this He will point to if any ask what is His divinest work, which\nbears the clearest imprint of His divinest self. His glory is to be set\nforth by men on condition that they are 'in Christ,' living and moving\nin Him, in that mysterious but most real union without which no fruit\ngrows on the dead branches, nor any music of praise breaks from the dead\nlips.\n\nSo, then, think of that wonder that God sets His glory in His dealings\nwith us. Amid all the majesty of His works and all the blaze of His\ncreation, this is what He presents as the highest specimen of His\npower--the Church of Jesus Christ, the company of poor men, wearied and\nconscious of many evils, who follow afar off the footsteps of their\nLord. How dusty and toil-worn the little group of Christians that landed\nat Puteoli must have looked as they toiled along the Appian Way and\nentered Rome! How contemptuously emperor and philosopher and priest and\npatrician would have curled their lips, if they had been told that in\nthat little knot of Jewish prisoners lay a power before which theirs\nwould cower and finally fade! Even so is it still. Among all the\nsplendours of this great universe, and the mere obtrusive tawdrinesses\nof earth, men look upon us Christians as poor enough; and yet it is to\nHis redeemed children that God has entrusted His praise, and in their\nhands that He has lodged the sacred deposit of His own glory.\n\nThink loftily of that office and honour, lowly of yourselves who have it\nlaid upon you as a crown. His honour is in our hands. We are the\n'secretaries of His praise.' This is the highest function that any\ncreature can discharge. The Rabbis have a beautiful bit of teaching\nburied among their rubbish about angels. They say that there are two\nkinds of angels--the angels of service and the angels of praise, of\nwhich two orders the latter is the higher, and that no angel in it\npraises God twice, but having once lifted up his voice in the psalm of\nheaven, then perishes and ceases to be. He has perfected his being, he\nhas reached the height of his greatness, he has done what he was made\nfor, let him fade away. The garb of legend is mean enough, but the\nthought it embodies is that ever true and solemn one, without which life\nis nought--'Man's chief end is to glorify God.'\n\nAnd we can only fulfil that high purpose in the measure of our union\nwith Christ. 'In Him' abiding, we manifest God's glory, for in Him\nabiding we receive God's grace. So long as we are joined to Him, we\npartake of His life, and our lives become music and praise. The electric\ncurrent flows from Him through all souls that are 'in Him' and they glow\nwith fair colours which they owe to their contact with Jesus. Interrupt\nthe communication, and all is darkness. So, brethren, let us seek to\nabide in Him, severed from whom we are nothing. Then shall we fulfil the\npurpose of His love, who 'hath shined in our hearts' that we might give\nto others 'the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of\nJesus Christ' Notice, lastly,\n\nIV. The eternity of the work and of the praise.\n\nAs in the former clauses the idea of the transcendent greatness of the\npower of God was expressed by accumulated synonyms, so here the kindred\nthought of its eternity, and consequently of the ceaseless duration of\nthe resulting glory, is sought to be set forth by a similar aggregation.\nThe language creaks and labours, as it were, under the weight of the\ngreat conception. Literally rendered, the words are--'to all\ngenerations of the age of the ages'--a remarkable fusing together of two\nexpressions for unbounded duration, which are scarcely congruous. We can\nunderstand 'to all generations' as expressive of duration as long as\nbirth and death shall last. We can understand 'the age of the ages' as\npointing to that endless epoch whose moments are 'ages'; but the\nblending of the two is but an unconscious acknowledgment that the speech\nof earth, saturated, as it is, with the colouring of time, breaks down\nin the attempt to express the thought of eternity. Undoubtedly that\nsolemn conception is the one intended by this strange phrase.\n\nThe work is to go on for ever and ever, and with it the praise. As the\nages which are the beats of the pendulum of eternity come and go, more\nand more of God's power will flow out to us, and more and more of God's\nglory will be manifested in us. It must be so; for God's gift is\ninfinite, and man's capacity of reception is indefinitely capable of\nincrease. Therefore eternity will be needful in order that redeemed\nsouls may absorb all of God which He can give or they can take. The\nprocess has no limits, for there is no bound to be set to the possible\napproaches of the human spirit to the divine, and none to the exuberant\nabundance of the beauty and glory which God will give to His child.\nTherefore we shall live for ever: and for ever show forth His praise and\nblaze out like the sun with the irradiation of His glory. We cannot die\ntill we have exhausted God. Till we comprehend all His nature in our\nthoughts, and reflect all His beauty in our character; till we have\nattained all the bliss that we can think, and received all the good that\nwe can ask; till Hope has nothing before her to reach towards, and God\nis left behind: we 'shall not die, but live, and declare the works of\nthe Lord.'\n\nLet His grace work on you, and yield yourselves to Him, that His fulness\nmay fill your emptiness. So on earth we shall be delivered from hopes\nwhich mock and wishes that are never fulfilled. So in heaven, after\n'ages of ages' of growing glory, we shall have to say, as each new wave\nof the shoreless, sunlit sea bears us onward, 'It doth not yet appear\nwhat we shall be.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE CALLING AND THE KINGDOM\n\n 'I beseech you, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye\n are called.'--Eph. iv. 1.\n\n 'They shall walk with Me in white; for they are worthy.'--Rev.\n iii. 4.\n\n\nThe estimate formed of a centurion by the elders of the Jews was, 'He is\nworthy for whom Thou shouldst do this' and in contrast therewith the\nestimate formed by himself was, 'I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come\nunder my roof.' From these two statements we deduce the thought that\nmerit has no place in the Christian's salvation, but all is to be traced\nto undeserved, gracious love. But that principle, true and all-important\nas it is, like every other great truth, may be exaggerated, and may be\nso isolated as to become untrue and a source of much evil. And so I\ndesire to turn to the other side of the shield, and to emphasise the\nplace that worthiness has in the Christian life, and its personal\nresults both here and hereafter. To say that character has nothing to do\nwith blessedness is untrue, both to conscience and to the Christian\nrevelation; and however we trace all things to grace, we must also\nremember that we get what we have fitted ourselves for.\n\nNow, my two texts bring out two aspects which have to be taken in\nconjunction. The one of them speaks about the present life, and lays it\nas an imperative obligation on all Christian people to be worthy of\ntheir Christianity, and the other carries us into the future and shows\nus that there it is they who are 'worthy' who attain to the Kingdom. So\nI think I shall best bring out what I desire to emphasise if I just take\nthese two points--the Christian calling and the life that is worthy of\nit, and the Christian heaven and the life that is worthy of it.\n\nI. The Christian calling and the life that is worthy of it.\n\n'I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are\ncalled.' Now, that thought recurs in other places in the Apostle's\nwritings, somewhat modified in expression. For instance, in one passage\nhe speaks of 'walking worthily of the God who has called us to His\nkingdom and glory,' and in another of the Christian man's duty to 'walk\nworthily of the Lord unto all pleasing.' There is a certain vocation to\nwhich a Christian man is bound to make his life correspond, and his\nconduct should be in some measure worthy of the ideal that is set before\nit. Now, we shall best understand what is involved in such worthiness if\nwe make clear to ourselves what the Apostle means by this 'calling' to\nwhich he appeals as containing in itself a standard to which our lives\nare to be conformed.\n\nSuppose we try to put away the technical word 'calling' and instead of\n'calling' say 'summons,' which is nearer the idea, because it conveys\nthe notions more fully of the urgency of the voice, and of the\nauthority of the voice, which speaks to us. And what is that summons?\nHow do we hear it? One of the other Apostles speaks of God as calling us\n'by His own glory and virtue,' that is to say, wherever God reveals\nHimself in any fashion, and by any medium, to a man, the man fails to\nunderstand the deepest meaning of the revelation unless his purged ear\nhears in it the great voice saying, 'Come up hither.' For all God's\nself-manifestation, in the creatures around us, in the deep voice of our\nown souls, in the mysteries of our own personal lives, and in the slow\nevolution of His purpose through the history of the world, all these\nrevelations of God bear in them the summons to us that hear and see them\nto draw near to Him, and to mould ourselves into His likeness. And thus,\njust as the sun by the effluence of its beams gathers all the\nministering planets, as it were, round its feet, and draws them to\nitself, so God, raying Himself out into the waste, fills the waste with\nmagnetic influences which are meant to draw men to nobleness, goodness,\nGod-pleasingness, and God-likeness.\n\nBut in another place in this Apostle's writings we read of 'the high\ncalling of God in Christ Jesus.' Yes, there, as focussed into one strong\nvoice, all the summonses are concentrated and gathered. For in Jesus\nChrist we see the possibilities of humanity realised, and we have the\npattern of what we ought to be, and are called thereby to be. And in\nChrist we get the great motives which make this summons, as it comes\nmended from His lips, no longer the mere harsh voice of an authoritative\nlegislator, but the gentle invitation, 'Come unto Me, ... and ye shall\nfind rest unto your souls.' The summons is honeyed, sweetened, and made\ninfinitely mightier when we hear it from His gracious lips. It is the\nblessed peculiarity of the Christian ideal, that the manifestation of\nthe ideal carries with it the power to realise it. And just as the\nincreasing strength of the spring sunshine summons the buds from out of\ntheir folds, and the snowdrops hear the call and force themselves\nthrough the frozen soil, so when Christ summons He inclines the ears\nthat hear, and enables the men that own them to obey the summons, and to\nbe what they are commanded. And thus we have 'the high calling of God in\nChrist Jesus.'\n\nNow, if that is the call, if the life of Christ is that to which we are\nsummoned, and the death of Christ is that by which we are inclined to\nobey the summons, and the Spirit of Christ is that by which we are\nenabled to do so, what sort of a life will be worthy of these? Well, the\ncontext supplies part of the answer. 'I beseech you that ye walk worthy\nof the vocation ... with all meekness and lowliness, with\nlong-suffering, forbearing one another in love.' That is one side of the\nvocation, and the life that is worthy of it will be a life emancipated\nfrom the meanness of selfishness, and delivered from the tumidities of\npride and arrogance, and changed into the sweetness of gentleness and\nthe royalties of love.\n\nAnd then, on the other side, in one of the other texts where the same\ngeneral set of ideas is involved, we get a yet more wondrous exhibition\nof the life which the Apostle considered to be worthy. I simply\nsignalise its points of detail without venturing to dwell upon them.\n'Unto all pleasing'; the first characteristic of life that is 'worthy of\nour calling' and to which, therefore, every one of us Christian people\nis imperatively bound, is that it shall, in all its parts, please God,\nand that is a large demand. Then follow details: 'Fruitful in every good\nwork'--a many-sided fruitfulness, an encyclopaediacal beneficent\nactivity, covering all the ground of possible excellence; and that is\nnot all; 'increasing in the knowledge of God,'--a life of progressive\nacquaintance with Him; and that is not all:--'strengthened with all\nmight unto all patience and long-suffering'; nor is that all, for the\ncrown of the whole is 'giving thanks unto the Father.' So, then, 'ye see\nyour calling, brethren.' A life that is 'worthy of the vocation\nwherewith ye are called' is a life that conforms to the divine will,\nthat is 'fruitful in all good,' that is progressive in its acquaintance\nwith God, that is strengthened for all patience and long-suffering, and\nthat in everything is thankful to Him. That is what we are summoned to\nbe, and unless we are in some measure obeying the summons, and bringing\nout such a life in our conduct, then, notwithstanding all that we have\nto say about unmerited mercy, and free grace, and undeserved love, and\nsalvation being not by works but by faith, we have no right to claim the\nmercy to which we say we trust.\n\nNow, this necessity of a worthy life is perfectly harmonious with the\ngreat truth that, after all, every man owes all to the undeserved mercy\nof God. The more nearly we come to realise the purpose of our calling,\nthe more 'worthy' of it we are, the deeper will be our consciousness of\nour unworthiness. The more we approximate to the ideal, and come closer\nup to it, and so see its features the better, the more we shall feel how\nunlike we are to it. The law for Christian progress is that the sense of\nunworthiness increases in the precise degree in which the worthiness\nincreases. The same man that said, 'Of whom (sinners) I am chief,' said\nto the same reader, 'I have kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up\nfor me a crown of righteousness.' And so the two things are not\ncontradictory but complementary. On the one side 'worthy' has nothing to\ndo with the outflow of Christ's love to us; on the other side we are to\n'walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called.'\n\nII. And now, let us turn to the other thought, the Christian heaven and\nthe life that is worthy of it.\n\nSome of you, I have no doubt, would think that that was a tremendous\nheresy if there were not Scriptural words to buttress it. Let us see\nwhat it means. My text out of the Revelation says, 'They shall walk with\nMe in white, for they are worthy.' And the same voice that spake these,\nto some of us, astounding, words, said, when He was here on earth, 'They\nwhich shall be counted worthy to attain to the life of the resurrection\nfrom the dead,' etc. The text brings out very clearly the continuity and\ncongruity between the life on earth and the life in heaven. Who is it of\nwhom it is said that 'they are worthy' to 'walk in white'? It is the\n'few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments.' You\nsee the connection; clean robes here and shining robes hereafter; the\ntwo go together, and you cannot separate them. And no belief that\nsalvation, in its incipient germ here, and salvation in its fulness\nhereafter, are the results 'not of works of righteousness which we have\ndone, but of His mercy,' is to be allowed to interfere with that other\ntruth that they who are worthy attain to the Kingdom.\n\nI must not be diverted from my main purpose, tempting as the theme would\nbe, to say more than just a sentence about what is included in that\ngreat promise, 'They shall walk with Me in white' And if I do touch\nupon it at all, it is only in order to bring out more clearly that the\nvery nature of the heavenly reward demands this worthiness which the\ntext lays down as the condition of possessing it. 'They shall\nwalk'--activity on an external world. That opens a great door, but\nperhaps we had better be contented just with looking in. 'They shall\nwalk'--progress; 'with me'--union with Jesus Christ; 'in\nwhite'--resplendent purity of character. Now take these four\nthings--activity on an outward universe, progress, union with Christ,\nresplendent purity of character, and you have almost all that we know of\nthe future; the rest is partly doubtful and is mostly symbolical or\nnegative, and in any case subordinate. Never mind about 'physical\ntheories of another life'; never mind about all the questions--to some\nof us how torturing they sometimes are!--concerning that future life.\nThe more we keep ourselves within the broad limits of these promises\nthat are intertwined and folded up together in that one saying, 'They\nshall walk with Me in white,' the better, I think, for the sanity and\nthe spirituality of our conception of a future life.\n\nThat being understood, the next thing clearly follows, that only those\nwho in the sense of the word as it is used here, are 'worthy,' can enter\nupon the possession of such a heaven. From the nature of the gift it is\nclear that there must be a moral and religious congruity between the\ngift and the recipient, or, to put it into plainer words, you cannot get\nheaven unless your nature is capable of receiving these great gifts\nwhich constitute heaven. People talk about the future state as being 'a\nstate of retribution.' Well! that is not altogether a satisfactory form\nof expression, for retribution may convey the idea, such as is\npresented in earthly rewards and punishments, of there being no natural\ncorrespondence between the crime and its punishment, or the virtue and\nits reward. A bit of bronze shaped into the form of a cross may be the\nretribution 'For Valour,' and a prison cell may be the retribution by\nlegal appointment for a certain crime. But that is not the way that God\ndeals out rewards and punishments in the life which is to come. It is\nnot a case of retribution, meaning thereby the arbitrary bestowment of a\ncertain fixed gift in response to certain virtues, but it is a case of\n_outcome_, and the old metaphor of sowing and reaping is the true one.\nWe sow here and we reap yonder. We pass into that future, 'bringing our\nsheaves with us,' and we have to grind the corn and make bread of it,\nand we have to eat the work of our own hands. They drink as they have\nbrewed. 'Their works do follow them,' or they go before them and\n'receive them into everlasting habitations.' Outcome, the necessary\nresult, and not a mere arbitrary retribution, is the relation which\nheaven bears to earth.\n\nThat is plain, too, from our own nature. We carry ourselves with us\nwherever we go. The persistence of character, the continuity of personal\nbeing, the continuity of memory, the _unobliterable_--if I may coin a\nword--results upon ourselves of our actions, all these things make it\ncertain that what looks to us a cleft, deep and broad, between the\npresent life and the next, is to those that have passed it, and see it\nfrom the other side, but a little crack in the soil scarcely observable,\nand that we carry on into another world the selves that we have made\nhere. Whatever death does--and it does a great deal that we do not know\nof--it does not alter, it only brings out, and, as I suppose,\nintensifies, the main drift and set of a character. And so they who\n'have not defiled their garments shall walk with Me in white, for they\nare worthy.'\n\nAh, brethren! how solemn that makes life; the fleeting moment carries\nEternity in its bosom. It passes, and the works pass, but nothing human\never dies, and we bear with us the net results of all the yesterdays\ninto that eternal to-day. You write upon a thin film of paper and there\nis a black leaf below it. Yes, and below the black leaf there is another\nsheet, and all that you write on the top one goes through the dark\ninterposed page, and is recorded on the third, and one day that will be\ntaken out of the book, and you will have to read it and say, 'What I\nhave written I have written.'\n\nSo, dear friends, whilst we begin with that unmerited love, and that\nsame unmerited love is the sole ground on which the gates of the kingdom\nof heaven are by the Death and Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus\nChrist opened to believers, their place there depends not only on faith\nbut on the work which is the fruit of faith. There is such a thing as\nbeing 'saved yet so as by fire,' and there is such a thing as 'having an\nentrance ministered abundantly unto us'; we have to make the choice.\nThere is such a thing as the sore punishment of which they are thought\nworthy who have rejected the Son of God, and counted the blood of the\nCovenant an unholy thing; and there is such a thing as a man saying, 'I\nam not worthy that Thou shouldest come unto me,' and Christ answering,\n'He shall walk with Me in white, for he is worthy' and we have to make\nthat choice also.\n\n\n\n\nTHE THREEFOLD UNITY\n\n 'One Lord, one faith, one baptism.'--Eph. iv. 5.\n\n\nThe thought of the unity of the Church is very prominent in this\nepistle. It is difficult for us, amidst our present divisions, to\nrealise how strange and wonderful it then was that a bond should have\nbeen found which drew together men of all nations, ranks, and\ncharacters. Pharisee and philosopher, high-born women and slaves, Roman\npatricians and gladiators, Asiatic Greeks and Syrian Jews forgot their\nfeuds and sat together as one in Christ. It is no wonder that Paul in\nthis letter dwells so long and earnestly on that strange fact. He is\nexhorting here to a unity of spirit corresponding to it, and he names a\nseven-fold oneness--one body and one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one\nfaith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. The outward institution\nof the Church, as a manifest visible fact, comes first in the catalogue.\nOne Father is last, and between these there lie the mention of the one\nSpirit and the one Lord. The 'body' is the Church. 'Spirit, Lord, God,'\nare the triune divine personality. Hope and faith are human acts by\nwhich men are joined to God; Baptism is the visible symbol of their\nincorporation into the one body. These three clauses of our text may be\nconsidered as substantially including all the members of the series. We\ndeal with them quite simply now, and consider them in the order in which\nthey stand here.\n\nI. The one Lord.\n\nThe deep foundation of Christian unity is laid in the divine Christ.\nHere, as generally in the New Testament, the name 'Lord' designates\nChrist in His authority as ruler of men and in His divinity as\nIncarnation of God. It would not be going too far to suggest that we\nhave in the name, standing as it does, for the most part, in majestic\nsimplicity, a reference to the Old Testament name of Jehovah, which in\nthe Greek translation familiar to Paul is generally rendered by this\nsame word. Nor can we ignore the fact that in this great catalogue of\nthe Christian unities the Lord stands in the centre of the three\npersonalities named, and is regarded as being at once the source of the\nSpirit and the manifestation of the Father. The place which this name\noccupies in relation to the Faith which is next named suggests that the\nliving personal Christ is the true uniting principle amongst men. The\none body realises its oneness in its common relation to the one Lord. It\nis one, not because of identity in doctrine, not because of any of the\nbonds which hold men together in human associations, precious and sacred\nas many of these are, but 'we being many are one bread, for we are all\npartakers of that one bread.' The magnet draws all the particles to\nitself and holds them in a mysterious unity.\n\nII. One faith.\n\nThe former clause set forth in one great name all the objective elements\nof the Church's oneness; this clause sets forth, with equally\nall-comprehending simplicity, the subjective element which makes a\nChristian. The one Lord, in the fulness of His nature and the\nperfectness of His work, is the all-inclusive object of faith. He, in\nHis own living person, and not any dogmas about Him, is regarded as the\nstrong support round which the tendrils of faith cling and twine and\ngrow. True, He is made known to us as possessing certain attributes and\nas doing certain things which, when stated in words, become doctrines,\nand a Christ without these will never be the object of faith. The\nantithesis which is so often drawn between Christ's person and Christian\ndoctrines is by no means sound, though the warning not to substitute the\nlatter for the former is only too necessary at all times.\n\nThe subjective act which lays hold of Christ is faith, which in our text\nhas its usual meaning of saving trust, and is entirely misconceived if\nit is taken, as it sometimes is, to mean the whole body of beliefs which\nmake up the Christian creed. That which unites us to Jesus Christ is an\ninfinitely deeper thing than the acceptance of any creed. A man may\nbelieve thirty-nine or thirty-nine hundred articles without having any\nreal or vital connection with the one Lord. The faith which saves is the\noutgoing of the whole self towards Christ. In it the understanding, the\nemotions, and the will are all in action. The New Testament _faith_ is\nabsolutely identical with the Old Testament _trust_, and the prophet who\nexhorted Israel, 'Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah\nis everlasting strength,' was preaching the very same message as the\nApostle who cried, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be\nsaved.'\n\nThat 'saving faith' is the same in all Christians, however different\nthey may be in condition and character and general outlook and opinion\nupon many points of Christian knowledge. The things on which they differ\nare on the surface, and sometimes by reason of their divergencies\nChristians stand like frowning cliffs that look threateningly at one\nanother across a narrow gorge, but deep below ground they are continuous\nand the rock is unbroken. In many and melancholy ways 'the unity of\nfaith and knowledge' is contradicted in the existing organisations of\nthe Church, and we are tempted to postpone its coming to the day of the\nnew Jerusalem which is compact together; but the clarion note of this\ngreat text may encourage us to hope, and to labour in our measure for\nthe fulfilment of the hope, that all, who by one faith have been joined\nto the one Lord, may yet know themselves to be one in Him, and present\nto the world the fair picture of one body animated by one spirit.\n\nIII. One baptism.\n\nObviously in Paul's mind baptism here means, not the baptism with the\nSpirit, but the rite, one and the same for all, by which believers in\nChrist enter into the fellowship of the Church. It was then a perpetual\nrite administered as a matter of course to all who professed to have\nbeen joined to the one Lord by their one faith. The sequence in the\nthree clauses of our text is perfectly clear. Baptism is the expression\nand consequence of the faith which precedes it. Surely there is here a\nmost distinct implication that it is a declaration of personal faith.\nWithout enlarging on the subject, I venture to think that the order of\nthe Apostle's thought negatives other conceptions of Christian baptism,\nsuch as, that it is a communication of Grace, or an expression of the\nfeelings and desires of parents, or a declaration of some truth about\nredeemed humanity. Paul's order is Christ's when He said, 'He that\nbelieveth and is baptized shall be saved.'\n\nIt is very remarkable and instructive that whilst thus our text shows\nthat baptism was a matter of course and universally practised, the\nreferences to it in the epistles are so few. The inference is not that\nit was neglected, but that, as being a rite, it could not be as\nimportant as were Christian truths and Christian character. May we, in a\nword, suggest the contrast between the frequency and tone of the\nApostolic references to baptism and those which we find in many quarters\nto-day?\n\nIt is remarkable that here the Lord's Supper is not mentioned, and all\nthe more so, that in Paul's letter to the Corinthians, the passage which\nwe have already quoted does put emphasis upon it as a token of Christian\nunity. The explanation of the omission may be found in the fact that, in\nthese early days, the Lord's Supper was not a separate rite, but was\ncombined with ordinary meals, or perhaps more probably in the\nconsideration that baptism was what the Lord's Supper was not--an\ninitial rite which incorporated the possessors of one faith into the one\nbody.\n\n\n\n\n'THE MEASURE OF GRACE'\n\n 'But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the\n measure of the gift of Christ.'--Eph. iv. 7 (R.V.).\n\n\nThe Apostle here makes a swift transition from the thought of the unity\nof the Church to the variety of gifts to the individual. 'Each' is\ncontrasted with 'all.' The Father who stands in so blessed and gracious\na relationship to the united whole also sustains an equally gracious and\nblessed relationship to each individual in that whole. It is because\neach receives His individual gift that God works in all. The Christian\ncommunity is the perfection of individualism and of collectivism, and\nthis rich variety of the gifts of grace is here urged as a reason\nadditional to the unity of the one body, for the exhortation to the\nendeavour to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.\n\nI. Each Christian soul receives grace through Christ.\n\nThe more accurate rendering of the Revised Version reads '_the_ grace,'\nand the definite article points to it as a definite and familiar fact in\nthe Ephesian believers to which the Apostle could point with the\ncertainty that their own consciousness would confirm his statement. The\nwording of the Greek further implies that the grace was given at a\ndefinite point in the past, which is most naturally taken to have been\nthe moment in which each believer laid hold on Jesus by faith. It is\nfurther to be noted that the content of the gift is the grace itself and\nnot the graces which are its product and manifestation in the Christian\nlife. And this distinction, which is in accordance with Paul's habitual\nteaching, leads us to the conclusion, that the essential character of\nthe grace given through the act of our individual faith is that of a new\nvital force, flowing into and transforming the individual life. From\nthat unspeakable gift which Paul supposed to be verifiable by the\nindividual experience of every Christian, there would follow the graces\nof Christian character in which would be included the deepening and\npurifying of all the natural capacities of the individual self, and the\ncasting out from thence of all that was contrary to the transforming\npower of the new life.\n\nSuch an utterance as this, so quietly and confidently taking for granted\nthat the experience of every believer verifies it in his own case, may\nwell drive us all to look more earnestly into our own hearts, to see\nwhether in them are any traces of a similar experience. If it be true,\nthat to every one of us is given _the_ grace, how comes it that so many\nof us dare not profess to have any vivid remembrance of possessing it,\nof having possessed it, or of any clear consciousness of possessing it\nnow? There may be gifts bestowed upon unconscious receivers, but surely\nthis is not one of these. If we do not know that we have it, it must at\nleast remain very questionable whether we do have it at all, and very\ncertain that we have it in scant and shrivelled fashion.\n\nThe universality of the gift was a startling thing in a world which, as\nfar as cultivated heathenism was concerned, might rightly be called\naristocratic, and by the side of a religion of privilege into which\nJudaism had degenerated. The supercilious sarcasm in the lips of\nPharisees, 'This people which knoweth not the law are cursed,' but too\ntruly expresses the gulf between the Rabbis and the 'folk of the earth'\nas the masses were commonly and contemptuously designated by the former.\nInto the midst of a society in which such distinctions prevailed, the\nproclamation that the greatest gift was bestowed upon all must have come\nwith revolutionary force, and been hailed as emancipation. Peter had\npenetrated to grasp the full meaning and wondrous novelty of that\nuniversality, when on Pentecost he pointed to 'that which had been\nspoken by the prophet Joel' as fulfilled on that day, 'I will pour forth\nof my Spirit upon all flesh ... Yea, and on my servants and handmaidens\n... will I pour forth of my Spirit.' The rushing, mighty wind of that\nday soon dropped. The fiery tongues ceased to quiver on the disciples'\nheads, and the many voices that spoke were silenced, but the gift was\npermanent, and is poured out now as it was then, and now, as then, it is\ntrue that the whole company of believers receive the Spirit, though\nalas! by their own faults it is not true that 'they are all _filled_\nwith the Holy Spirit.'\n\nChrist is the giver. He has 'power over the Spirit of Holiness' and as\nthe Evangelist has said in his comment on our Lord's great words, when\n'He stood and cried,' 'If any man thirst let him come unto Me and\ndrink,' 'This spake He of the Spirit which they that believed on Him\nwere to receive.' We cannot pierce into the depth of the mutual\nrelations of the three divine Persons mentioned in the context, but we\ncan discern that Christ is for us the self-revealing activity of the\ndivine nature, the right arm of the Father, or, to use another metaphor,\nthe channel through which the else 'closed sea' of God flows into the\nworld of creatures. Through that channel is poured into believing hearts\nthe river of the water of life, which proceeds out of the one 'throne of\nGod and of the Lamb.' This gift of the Spirit of Holiness to all\nbelievers is the deepest and truest conception of Christ's gifts to His\nChurch. His past work of sacrifice for the sins of the world was\nfinished, as with a parting cry He proclaimed on Calvary, and the power\nof that sacrifice will never be exhausted, but the taking away of the\nsins of the world is but the initial stage of the work of Christ, and\nits further stages are carried on through all the ages. He 'worketh\nhitherto,' and His present work, in so far as believers are concerned,\nis not only the forthputting of divine energy in regard to outward\ncircumstances, but the imparting to them of the Divine Spirit to be the\nvery life of their lives and the Lord of their spirits. Christian people\nare but too apt to give undue prominence to what Christ did for them\nwhen He died, and to lose sight, in the overwhelming lustre of His\nunspeakable sacrifice, of what He is doing for them whilst He lives. It\nwould tend to restore the proportions of Christian truth and to touch\nour hearts into a deeper and more continuous love to Him, if we more\nhabitually thought of Him, not only as the Christ who died, but also as\nthe Christ who rather is risen again, who is even at the right hand of\nGod, who also maketh intercession for us.\n\nII. The gift of this grace is in itself unlimited.\n\nOur text speaks of it as being according to the measure of the gift of\nChrist, and that phrase may either mean the gift which Christ receives\nor that which He gives. Probably the latter is the Apostle's meaning\nhere, as seems to be indicated by the following words that 'when He\nascended on high, He gave gifts unto men,' but what He gives is what He\npossesses, and the Apostle goes on to point out that the ultimate issue\nof His giving to the Church is that it attains to the measure of the\nstature of the fulness of Christ.\n\nIt may cast some light on this point if we note the remarkable variety\nof expressions in this epistle for the norm or standard or limit of the\ngift. In one place the Apostle speaks of the gift bestowed upon\nbelievers as being according to the riches of the Father's glory; then\nit has no limit short of a participation in the divine fulness. God's\nglory is the transcendent lustre of His own infinite character in its\nself-manifestation. The Apostle labours to flash through the dim medium\nof words the glory of that light by blending incongruously, but\neffectively, the other metaphor of riches, and the two together suggest\na wonderful, though vague thought of the infinite wealth and the\nexhaustless brightness which we call Abba, Father. The humblest child\nmay lift longing and confident eyes and believe that he has received in\nvery deed, through his faith in Jesus Christ, a gift which will increase\nin riches and in light until it makes him perfect as his Father in\nheaven was perfect. It was an old faith, based upon insight far inferior\nto ours, which proclaimed with triumph over the frowns of death. 'I\nshall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.' Would that those\nwho have so much more for faith to build on, built as nobly as did\nthese!\n\nThe gift has in itself no limit short of participation in the likeness\nof Christ. In another place in this letter the measure of that might\nwhich is the guarantee of Christian hope is set forth with an abundance\nof expression which might almost sound as an unmeaning accumulation of\nsynonyms, as being 'according to the working of the strength of His\nmight which He wrought in Christ'; and what is the range of the working\nof that might is disclosed to our faith in the Resurrection of Jesus,\nand the setting of Him high above all rule and authority and power and\nlordship and every creature in the present or in any future. Paul's\ncontinual teaching is that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was wrought\nin Him, not as a mere human individual but as our head and\nrepresentative. Through Him we rise, not only from an ethical death of\nsin and separation from God, but we shall rise from physical death, and\nin Him the humblest believer possessing a vital union with the Lord of\nlife has a share in His dominion, and, as His own faithful word has\npromised, sits with Him on His throne, even as He is set down with the\nFather on His throne.\n\nThat gift has in itself no limit short of its own energy. In another\npart of this epistle the Apostle indicates the measure up to which our\nbeing filled is to take effect, as being 'all the fulness of God' and in\nsuch an overwhelming vision breaks forth into fervent praise of Him who\nis able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, and\nthen supplies us with a measure which may widen and heighten our\npetitions and expectations when He tells us that we are to find the\nmeasure of God's working for us, not in the impoverishment of our\npresent possessions, but in the exceeding riches of the power that\nworketh in us--that is to say, that we are to look for the limit of the\nlimitless gift in nothing short of the boundless energy of God Himself.\nIn the Epistle to the Colossians Paul uses the same illustration with an\nindividual reference to his own labours. In our text he associates with\nhimself all believers, as being conscious of a power working in them,\nwhich is really the limitless power of God, and heartens them to\nanticipate that whatever limitless power can effect in them will\ncertainly be theirs. God does not leave off till He has done and till He\ncan look upon His completed work and pronounce it very good.\n\nIII. This boundless grace is in each individual case bounded for the\ntime by our own faith.\n\nWhen I lived near the New Forest I used to hear much of what they called\n'rolling fences.' A man received or took a little piece of Crown land on\nwhich he built a house and put round it a fence which could be\njudiciously and silently pushed outwards by slow degrees and enclosed,\nyear by year, a wider area. We Christian people have, as it were, our\nown small, cultivated plot on the boundless prairie, the extent of which\nwe measure for ourselves and which we can enlarge as we will. We have\nbeen speaking of the various aspects under which the boundlessness of\nthe gift is presented by the Apostle, but there is another 'according\nto' in Christ's own words, 'According to your faith be it unto you,' and\nthat statement lays down the practical limits of our present possession\nof the boundless gift. We have as much as we desire; we have as much as\nwe take; we have as much as we use; we have as much as we can hold. We\nare admitted into the treasure house, and all around us lie ingots of\ngold and vessels full of coins; we ourselves determine how much of the\ntreasure should be ours, and if at any time we feel like empty-handed\npaupers rather than like possible millionaires, the reason lies in our\nown slowness to take that which is freely given to us of God. His word\nto us all is, 'Ye are not straitened in Me, ye are straitened in\nyourselves.' It is well for us to keep ever before us the boundlessness\nof the gift in itself and the working limit in ourselves which\nconditions our actual possession of the riches. For so, on the one hand,\nshould we be encouraged to expect great things from God, and, on the\nother hand, be humbled by the contrast between what we might be and what\nwe are. The river that rushes full of water from the throne can send but\na narrow and shallow trickle through the narrow channel choked with much\nrubbish, which we provide for it. It is of little avail that the sun in\nthe heavens pours down its flood of light and warmth if the windows of\nour hearts are by our own faults so darkened that but a stray beam,\nshorn of its brightness and warmth, can find its way into our darkness.\nThe first lesson which we have to draw from the contrast between the\nboundlessness of the gift and the narrow limits of our individual\npossession and experience of it, is the lesson of penitent recognition\nand confession of the unbelief which lurks in our strongest faith. 'Lord\nI believe, help Thou mine unbelief,' should be the prayer of every\nChristian soul.\n\nNot less surely will the recognition that the form and amount of the\ngrace of God, which is possessed by each, is determined by the faith of\neach, lead to tolerance of the diversity of gifts. We have received our\nown proper gift of God, that which the strength and purity of our faith\nis capable of possessing, and it is not for us to carp at our brethren,\neither at those in advance of us or at those behind us. We have to\nremember that as it takes all sorts of people to make up a world, so it\ntakes all varieties of Christian character to make a church. It is the\nbody and not the individual members which represents Christ to the\nworld. The firmest adherence to our own form of the universal gift will\ncombine with the widest toleration of the gifts of others. The white\nlight appears when red, green, and blue blend together, not when each\ntries to be the other. 'Every man hath his own proper gift of God, one\nafter this fashion and another after that,' and we shall be true to the\nboundlessness of the gift and to the limitations of our own possession\nof it, in the measure of which we combine obedience to the light which\nshines in us, with thankful recognition of that which is granted to\nothers.\n\nThe contrast between these two must be kept vivid if we would live in\nthe freedom of the hope of the glory of God, for in the contrast lies\nthe assurance of endless growth. A process is begun in every Christian\nsoul of which the only natural end is the full possession of God in\nChrist, and that full possession can never be reached by a finite\ncreature, but that does not mean that the ideal mocks us and retreats\nbefore us like the pot of gold, which the children fancy is at the end\nof the rainbow. Rather it means a continuous succession of our\nrealisations of the ideal in ever fuller and more blessed reality. In\nthis life we may, on condition of our growth in faith, grow in the\npossession of the fulness of God, and yet at each moment that possession\nwill be greater, though at all moments we may be filled. In the\nChristian life to-morrow may be safely reckoned as destined to be 'as\nyesterday and much more abundant,' and when we pass from the\nimperfections of the most perfect earthly life, there will still remain\never before us the glory, which, according to the measure of our\ncapacity, is also in us, and we shall draw nearer and nearer to it, and\nbe for ever receiving into our expanding spirits more and more of the\ninfinite fulness of God.\n\n\n\n\nTHE GOAL OF PROGRESS\n\n 'Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the\n knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the\n measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.'--Eph. iv. 13\n (R.V.).\n\n\nThe thought of the unity of the Church is much in the Apostle's mind in\nthis epistle. It is set forth in many places by his two favourite\nmetaphors of the body and the temple, by the relation of husband and\nwife and by the family. It is contemplated in its great historical\nrealisation by the union of Jew and Gentile in one whole. In the\npreceding context it is set forth as already existing, but also as lying\nfar-off in the future. The chapter begins with an earnest exhortation to\npreserve this unity and with an exhibition of the oneness which does\nreally exist in body, spirit, hope, lord, faith, baptism. But the\nApostle swiftly passes to the corresponding thought of diversity. There\nare varieties in the gifts of the one Spirit; whilst each individual in\nthe one whole receives his due portion, there are broad differences in\nspiritual gifts. These differences do not break the oneness, but they\nmay tend to do so; they are not causes of separation and do not\nnecessarily interfere with unity, but they may be made so. Their\nexistence leaves room for brotherly helpfulness, and creates a\nnecessity for it. The wiser are to teach; the more advanced are to lead;\nthe more largely gifted are to encourage and stimulate the less richly\nendowed. Such outward helps and brotherly impartations of gifts is, on\nthe one hand, a result of the one gift to the whole body, and is on the\nother a sign of, because a necessity arising from, the imperfect degree\nin which each individual has received of Christ's fulness; and these\nhelps of teaching and guidance have for their sole object to make\nChristian men able to do without them, and are, as the text tells us, to\ncease when, and to last till, we all attain to the fulness of Christ. To\nPaul, then, the manifest unity of the Church was to be the end of its\nearthly course, but it also was real, though incomplete, in the present,\nand the emphasis of our text is not so much laid on telling us when this\noneness was to be manifested as in showing us in what it consists. We\nhave here a threefold expression of the true unity, as consisting in a\noneness of relation to Christ, a consequent maturity of manhood and a\nperfect possession of all which is in Christ.\n\nI. The true unity is oneness of relation to Christ.\n\nThe Revised Version is here to be preferred, and its 'attain unto'\nbrings out the idea which the Authorised Version fails to express, that\nthe text is intended to point to the period at which Christ's provision\nof helpful gifts to the growing Church is to cease, when the individuals\ncomposing it have come to their destined unity and maturity in Him. The\nthree clauses of our text are each introduced by the same preposition,\nand there is no reason why in the second and third it should be rendered\n'unto' and in the first should be watered down to 'in.'\n\nThere are then two regions in which this unity is to be realised. These\nare expressed by the great words, 'the unity of the faith and knowledge\nof the Son of God.' These words are open to a misunderstanding, as if\nthey referred to a unity as between faith and knowledge; but it is\nobvious to the slightest reflection that what is meant is the unity of\nall believers in regard to their faith, and in regard to their\nknowledge. It is to be noted that the Apostle has just said that there\nis one faith, now he points to the realisation of that oneness as the\nvery end and goal of all discipline and growth. I suppose that we have\nto think here of the manifold and sad differences existing in Christian\nmen, in regard to the depth and constancy and formative power of their\nfaith. There are some who have it so strong and vigorous that it is a\nvision rather than a faith, a trust, deep and firm and settled, to which\nthe present is but the fleeting shadow, and the unseen the eternal and\nonly reality; but, alas! there are others in whom the light of faith\nburns feebly and flickers. Nor are these differences the attributes of\ndifferent men, but the same man varies in the power of his faith, and we\nall of us know what it is to have it sometimes dominant over our whole\nselves, and sometimes weak and crushed under the weight of earthly\npassions. To-day we may be all flame, to-morrow all ice. Our faith may\nseem to us to be strong enough to move mountains, and before an hour is\npast we may find it, by experience, to be less than a grain of mustard\nseed. 'Action and reaction are always equal and contrary,' and that law\nis as true in reference to our present spiritual life as it is true in\nregard to physical objects. We have, then, the encouragement of such a\nword as that of our text for looking forward to and straining towards\nthe reversal of these sad alterations in a fixed and continuous faith\nwhich should grasp the whole Christ and should always hold Him. There\nmay still be diversities and degrees, but each should have his measure\nalways full. 'Thy Sun shall no more go down'; there will no longer be\nthe contrast between the flashing waters of a flood-tide and the dreary\nmud-banks disclosed at low water. We shall stand at different points,\nbut the faces of all will be turned to Him who is the Light of all, and\nevery face will shine with the likeness of His, when we see Him as He\nis.\n\nBut our text points us to another form of unity--the oneness of the\nknowledge of the Son of God.\n\nThe Apostle uses an emphatic term which is very familiar on his lips to\ndesignate this knowledge. It means not a mere intellectual apprehension,\nbut a profound and vital acquaintance, dependent indeed upon faith, and\nrealised in experience. It is the knowledge for which Paul was ready to\n'count all things but loss' that he might know Jesus, and winning which\nhe would count himself to 'have apprehended.' The unity in this deep and\nblessed knowledge has nothing to do with identity of opinion on the\npoints which have separated Christians. It is not to be sought by\noutward unanimity, nor by aggregation in external communities. The\nApostle's great thought is made small and the truth of it is falsified\nwhen it is over-hastily embodied in institutions. It has been sought in\na uniformity which resembles unity as much as a bundle of faggots, all\ncut to the same length, and tied together with a rope, resemble the tree\nfrom which they were chopped, waving in the wind and living one life to\nthe tips of its furthest branches. Men have made out of the Apostle's\ndivine vision of a unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God 'a\nstaunch and solid piece of framework as any January could freeze\ntogether,' and few things have stood more in the way of the realisation\nof his glowing anticipations than the formation of the great\nCorporation, imposing from its bulk and antiquity, to part from which\nwas branded as breaking the unity of the spirit.\n\nPaul gives no clear definition here of the time when the one body of\nChristian believers should have attained to the unity of the faith and\nknowledge of the Son of God, and the question may not have presented\nitself to him. It may appear that in view of the immediate context he\nregards the goal as one to be reached in our present life, or it may be\nthat he is thinking rather of the Future, when the Master 'should bring\ntogether every joint and member and mould them into an immortal feature\nof loveliness and perfection.' But the time at which this great ideal\nshould be attained is altogether apart from the obligation pressing upon\nus all, at all times, to work towards it. Whensoever it is reached it\nwill only be by our drawing 'nearer, day by day, each to his brethren,\nall to God,' or rather, each to God and so all to his brethren. Take\ntwenty points in a great circle and let each be advanced by one half of\nits distance to the centre, how much nearer will each be to each? Christ\nis our unity, not dogmas, not polities, not rituals: our oneness is a\noneness of life. We need for our centre no tower with a top reaching to\nheaven, we have a living Lord who is with us, and in Him, we being many,\nare one.\n\nII. Oneness in faith and knowledge knits all into a 'perfect man.'\n\n'Perfect,' the Apostle here uses in opposition to the immediately\nfollowing expression in the next verse, of 'children.' It therefore\nmeans not so much moral perfection as maturity or fulness of growth. So\nlong as we fall short of the state of unity we are in the stage of\nimmaturity. When we come to be one in faith and knowledge we have\nreached full-grown manhood. The existence of differences belongs to the\ninfancy and boyhood of the Church, and as we grow one we are putting\naway childish things. What a contrast there is between Paul's vision\nhere and the tendency which has been too common among Christians to\nmagnify their differences, and to regard their obstinate adherence to\nthese as being 'steadfastness in the faith'! How different would be the\nrelations between the various communities into which the one body has\nbeen severed, if they all fully believed that their respective\nshibboleths were signs that they had not yet attained, neither were\nalready perfect! When we began to be ashamed of these instead of\nglorying in them we should be beginning to grow into the maturity of our\nChristian life.\n\nBut the Apostle speaks of 'a perfect man' in the singular and not of\n'men' in the plural, as he has already described the result of the union\nof Jew and Gentile as being the making 'of twain one new man.' This\nremarkable expression sets forth, in the strongest terms, the vital\nunity which connects all members of the one body so closely that there\nis but one life in them all. There are many members, but one body. Their\nfunctions differ, but the life in them all is identical. The eye cannot\nsay to the hand, 'I have no need of thee,' nor again the head to the\nfeet, 'I have no need of you.' Each is necessary to the completeness of\nthe whole, and all are necessary to make up the one body of Christ. It\nis His life which manifests itself in every member and which gives\nclearness of vision to the eye, strength and deftness to the hand. He\nneeds us all for His work on the world and for His revelation to the\nworld of the fulness of His life. In some parts of England there are\nbell-ringers who stand at a table on which are set bells, each tuned to\none note, and they can perform most elaborate pieces of music by swiftly\ncatching up and sounding each of these in the right place. All Christian\nsouls are needed for the Master's hand to bring out the note of each in\nits place. In the lowest forms of life all vital functions are performed\nby one simple sac, and the higher the creature is in the scale the more\nare its organs differentiated. In the highest form of all, 'as the body\nis one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being\nmany, are one body, so also is Christ.'\n\nIII. This perfect manhood is the possession of all who are in Christ.\n\nThe fulness of Christ is the fulness which belongs to Him, or that of\nwhich He is full. All which He is and has is to be poured into His\nservants, and when all this is communicated to them the goal will be\nreached. We shall be full-grown men, and more wonderful still, we all\nshall make one perfect man, and individual completenesses will blend\ninto that which is more complete than any of these, the one body, which\ncorresponds to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.\n\nThis is the goal of humanity in which, and in which alone, the dreams of\nthinkers about perfectibility will become facts, and the longings that\nare deeply rooted in every soul will find their fulfilment. By our\npersonal union with Jesus Christ through faith, our individual\nperfection, both in the sense of maturity and in that of the realisation\nof ideal manhood, is assured, and in Him the race, as well as the\nindividual, is redeemed, and will one day be glorified. The Utopias of\nmany thinkers are but partial and distorted copies of the kingdom of\nChrist. The reality which He brings and imparts is greater than all\nthese, and when the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven, and is\nplanted on the common earth, it will outvie in lustre and outlast in\npermanence all forms of human association. The city of wisdom which was\nAthens, the city of power which was Rome, the city of commerce which is\nLondon, the city of pleasure which is Paris, 'pale their ineffectual\nfires' before the city in the light whereof the nations should walk.\n\nThe beginning of the process, of which the end is this inconceivable\nparticipation in the glory of Jesus, is simple trust in Him. 'He that is\njoined to the Lord is one spirit,' and he who trusts in Him, loves Him,\nand obeys Him, is joined to Him, and thereby is started on a course\nwhich never halts nor stays so long as the faith which started him\nabides, till he 'grows up into Him in all things which is the head, even\nChrist.' The experience of the Christian life as God means it to be, and\nby the communication of His grace makes it possible for it to become, is\nlike that of men embarked on some sun-lit ocean, sailing past shining\nheadlands, and ever onwards, over the boundless blue, beneath a calm sky\nand happy stars. The blissful voyagers are in full possession at every\nmoment of all which they need and of all of His fulness which they can\ncontain, but the full possession at every moment increases as they, by\nit, become capable of fuller possession. Increasing capacity brings\nwith it increasing participation in the boundless fulness of Him who\nfilleth all in all.\n\n\n\n\nCHRIST OUR LESSON AND OUR TEACHER\n\n 'But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard\n Him, and have been taught in Him.'--Eph. iv. 20, 21.\n\n\nThe Apostle has been describing in very severe terms the godlessness and\ncorruption of heathenism. He reckons on the assent of the Ephesian\nChristians when he paints the society in which they lived as alienated\nfrom God, insensible to the restraints of conscience, and foul with all\nuncleanness. That was a picture of heathenism drawn from the life and\nsubmitted to the judgment of those who knew the original only too well.\nIt has been reserved for modern eulogists to regard such statements as\nexaggerations. Those who knew heathenism from the inside knew that they\nwere sober truth. The colonnades of the stately temple of Ephesus stank\nwith proofs of their correctness.\n\nOut of that mass of moral putridity these Ephesian Christians had been\ndragged. But its effects still lingered in them, and it was all about\nthem with its pestilential miasma. So the first thing that they needed\nwas to be guarded against it. The Apostle, in the subsequent context,\nwith great earnestness gives a series of moral injunctions of the most\nelementary kind. Their very simplicity is eloquent. What sort of people\nmust they have formerly been who needed to be bade not to steal and not\nto lie?\n\nBut before he comes to the specific duties, he lays down the broad\ngeneral principle of which all these are to be but manifestations--viz.\nthat they and we need, as the foundation of all noble conduct and of\nall theoretical ethics, the suppression and crucifixion of the old self\nand the investiture with a new self. And this double necessity, says the\nApostle in my text, is the plain teaching of Jesus Christ to all His\ndisciples.\n\nNow the words which I have selected as my text are but a fragment of a\nclosely concatenated whole, but I may deal with them separately at this\ntime. They are very remarkable. They lay, as it seems to me, the basis\nfor all Christian conduct; and they teach us how there is no real\nknowledge of Jesus Christ which does not effloresce into the practice of\nthese virtues and graces which the Apostle goes on to describe.\n\nI. First, Christ our Lesson and Christ our Teacher.\n\nMark the singular expression with which this text begins. 'Ye have not\nso learned _Christ_.' Now, we generally talk about learning a subject, a\nlanguage, a science, or an art; but we do not talk about learning\npeople. But Paul says we are Christ's disciples, not only in the sense\nthat we learn of Him as Teacher--which follows in the next clause--but\nthat we learn Him as the theme of our study.\n\nThat is to say, the relation of the person of Jesus Christ to all that\nHe has to teach and reveal to the world is altogether different from\nthat of all other teachers of all sorts of truth, to the truth which\nthey proclaim. You can accept the truths and dismiss into oblivion the\nmen from whom you got them. But you cannot reject Christ and take\nChristianity. The two are inseparably united. For, in regard to all\nspiritual and to all moral truth--truth about conduct and\ncharacter--Jesus Christ _is_ what He teaches. So we may say, turning\nwell-known words of a poet in another direction: 'My lesson is in\nThee.'\n\nBut that is not all. My text goes on to speak about another thing: 'Ye\nhave learned Christ if so be that ye have _heard Him_ and been taught.'\nNow that 'If so be' is not the 'if' of uncertainty or doubt, but it is\nequivalent to 'if, as I know to be the case,' or '_since_ ye have heard\nHim.' Away there in Ephesus, years and years after the crucifixion,\nthese people who had never seen Christ in the flesh, nor heard a word\nfrom the lips 'into which grace was poured,' are yet addressed by the\nApostle as those who had listened to Him and heard Him speak. They had\n'heard Him and been taught.' So He was Lesson and He was Teacher. And\nthat is as true about us as it was about them. Let me say only a word or\ntwo about each of these two thoughts.\n\nI have already suggested that the underlying truth which warrants the\nfirst of them is that Jesus Christ's relation to His message and\nrevelation is altogether different from that of other teachers to what\nthey have to communicate to the world. Of course we all know that, in\nregard to the wider sphere of religious and Christian truth, it is not\nonly what Christ said, but even more what He did and was, that makes His\nrevelation of the Father's heart. Precious as are the words which drop\nfrom His lips, which are spirit and are life, His life itself is more\nthan all His teachings; and it is when we learn, not _from_ Him, but\nwhen we _learn_ Him, that we see the Father. But my text has solely\nreference to conduct, and in that aspect it just implies this thought,\nthat the sum of all duty, the height of all moral perfectness, the\nrealised ideal of humanity, is in Christ, and that the true way to know\nwhat a man or a nation ought to do is to study Him.\n\nHow strange it is, when one comes to consider it, that the impression\nof absolute perfection, free from all limitations of race or country or\nepoch or individual character--and yet not a vague abstraction but a\ntrue living Person--has been printed upon the minds and hearts of the\nworld by these four little pamphlets which we call gospels! I do not\nthink that there is anything in the whole history of literature to\ncompare with the impression of veracity and historical reality and\nindividual personality which is made by these fragmentary narratives.\nAnd although it has nothing to do with my present subject, I may just\nsay in a sentence that it seems to me that the character of Jesus Christ\nas painted in the Gospels, in its incomparable vividness and vitality,\nis one of the strongest evidences for the simple faithfulness as\nbiographies, of these books. Nothing else but the Man seen could have\nresulted in such compositions.\n\nBut apart altogether from that, how blessed it is that we have not to\nenter upon any lengthened investigations, far beyond the power of\naverage minds, in order to get hold of the fundamental laws of moral\nconduct! How blessed it is that all the harshness of 'Obey this law or\ndie' is by His life changed into 'Look at Me, and, for My love's sake,\nstudy Me and be like Me!' This is the blessed peculiarity which gives\nall its power and distinctive characteristic to the morality of the\nGospel, that law is changed from a statuesque white ideal, pure as\nmarble and cold and lifeless as it, into a living Person with a\nthrobbing heart of love, and an outstretched hand of help, whose word\nis, 'If ye love Me, keep My commandments, and be like Me.'\n\nChristian men and women! study Jesus Christ. That is the Alpha and Omega\nof all right knowledge of duty and of all right practice of it. Learn\nHim, His self-suppression, His self-command, His untroubled calmness,\nHis immovable patience, His continual gentleness, His constant reference\nof all things to the Father's will. Study these. To imitate Him is\nblessedness; to resemble Him is perfection. 'Ye have learned Christ' if\nyou are Christians at all. You have at least begun the alphabet, but oh!\nin Him 'are hid all the treasures,' not only 'of wisdom and knowledge,'\nbut of 'whatsoever things are lovely and of good report'; and 'if there\nis any virtue, and if there is any praise,' we shall find them in Him\nwho is our Lesson, our perfect Lesson.\n\nBut that is not all. Lessons are very well, but--dear me!--the world\nwants something besides lessons. It has had plenty of teaching. The\ntrouble is not that we are not instructed, but that we do not take the\nlessons that are laid before us. And so my text suggests another thing\nbesides the wholly inadequate conception, as it would be if it stood\nalone, of a mere exhibition of what we ought to be.\n\n'If so be that ye have _heard_ Him.' As I said, these Ephesian\nChristians, far away in Asia Minor, with seas and years between them and\nthe plains of Galilee and the Cross of Calvary, are yet regarded by the\nApostle as having listened to Jesus Christ. We, far away down the ages,\nand in another corner of the world, as really, without metaphor, in\nplain fact, may have Jesus Christ speaking to us, and may hear His\nvoice. These Ephesians had heard Him, not only because they had heard\nabout Him, nor because they had heard Him speaking through His servant\nPaul and others, but because, as Paul believed, that Lord, who had\nspoken with human lips words which it was possible for a man to utter\nwhen He was here on earth, when caught up into the third heaven was\nstill speaking to men, even according to His own promise, which He gave\nat the very close of His career, 'I have declared Thy name unto My\nbrethren, and _will_ declare it.' So, though 'He began both to do and to\nteach' before He was taken up, after His Ascension He continues both the\ndoing and the tuition. And, in verity, we all may hear His voice\nspeaking in the depths of our hearts; speaking through the renewed\nconscience; speaking by that Spirit who will guide us into all the truth\nthat we need; speaking through the ages to all who will listen to His\nvoice.\n\nThe conception of Christ as a Teacher, which is held by many who deny\nHis redeeming work and dismiss as incredible His divinity, seems to me\naltogether inadequate, unless it be supplemented by the belief that He\nnow has and exercises the power of communicating wisdom and knowledge\nand warning and stimulus to waiting hearts; and that when we hear within\nthe depth of our souls the voice saying to us, 'This is the way, walk ye\nin it,' or saying to us, 'Pass not by, enter not into it,' if we have\nwaited for Him, and studied His example and character, and sought, not\nto please ourselves, but to be led by His wisdom, we may be sure that it\nis Christ Himself who speaks. Reverence the inward monitor, and when He\nwithin thy heart, by His Spirit, calls thee, do thou answer, 'Speak,\nLord! Thy servant heareth.' 'Ye have learned Christ if so be that ye\nhave hearkened to Him.'\n\nII. Secondly, mark the condition of learning the Lesson and hearing the\nTeacher.\n\nOur Authorised Version, in accordance with its very frequent practice,\nhas evacuated the last words of my text of their true force by the\nsubstitution of the more intelligible '_by_ Him' for what the Apostle\nwrites--'_in_ Him.' The true rendering gives us the condition on which\nwe learn our Lesson and hear our Teacher. '_In_ Him,' is no mere\nsurplusage, and is not to be weakened down, as this translation of ours\ndoes, into a mere '_by_ Him' but it declares that, unless we keep\nourselves in union with Jesus Christ, His voice will not be heard in our\nhearts, and the lesson will pass unlearned.\n\nYou know, dear brother, how emphatically and continually in the New\nTestament this doctrine of the dwelling of the believing soul in Christ,\nand the reciprocal dwelling of Christ in the believing soul, is insisted\nupon. And I, for my part, believe that one great cause of the\nunsatisfactory condition of the average Christianity of this day is the\nslurring over and minimising of these twin great and solemn truths. I\nwould fain bring you back to the Master's words, as declaring the\ndeepest truths in relation to the connection between the believing soul\nand the Christ in whom it believes:--'Abide in Me, and I in you.' I wish\nyou would go home and take this Epistle to the Ephesians and read it\nover, putting a pencil mark below each place in which occurs the words\n'in Christ Jesus.' I think you would learn something if you would do it.\n\nBut all that I have to say at present is that, if we would keep\nourselves, by faith, by love, by meditation, by aspiration, by the\nsubmission of the will, and by practical obedience, in Jesus Christ,\nenclosed in Him as it were--then, and then only, should we learn His\nlesson, and then, and then only, should we hear Him speak. Why! if you\nnever think about Him, how can you learn Him? If you seldom, or\nsleepily, take up your Bibles and read the Gospels, of what good is His\nexample to you? If you wander away into all manner of regions of thought\nand enjoyment instead of keeping near to Him, how can you expect that He\nwill communicate Himself to you? If we keep ourselves in touch with that\nLord, if we bring all our actions to Him, and measure our conduct by His\npattern, then we shall learn His lesson. What does a student in a school\nof design do? He puts his feeble copy of some great picture beside the\noriginal, and compares it touch for touch, line for line, shade for\nshade, and so corrects its errors. Take your lives to the Exemplar in\nthat fashion, and go over them bit by bit. Is _this_ like Jesus Christ;\nis _that_ what He would have done? Then '_in_ Him,' thus in contact with\nHim, thus correcting our daubs by the perfect picture, we shall learn\nour lesson and listen to our Teacher.\n\nStill your passions, muzzle your inclinations, clap a bridle on your\nwill, and, as some tumultuous crowd would be hushed into silence that\nthey might listen to the king speaking to them, make a great silence in\nyour hearts, and you will 'hear Him' and be taught 'in Him'.\n\nIII. Lastly, the test and result of having learned the Lesson and\nlistened to the Teacher is unlikeness to surrounding corruption.\n\n'Ye have _not so_ learned Christ.' Of course the hideous immoralities of\nEphesus are largely, but by no means altogether, gone from Manchester.\nOf course, nineteen centuries of Christianity have to a very large\nextent changed the tone of society and influenced the moral judgments\nand practices even of persons who are not Christians. But there still\nremains a _world_, and there still remains unfilled up the gulf between\nthe worldly and the godly life. And I believe it is just as needful as\never it was, though in different ways, for Christians to exhibit\nunlikeness to the world. 'Not so,' must be our motto; or, as the Jewish\npatriot said, 'So did not I, because of the fear of the Lord.'\n\nI do not wish you to make yourselves singular; I do not wish you to wear\nconventional badges of unlikeness to certain selected evil habits. A\nChristian man's unlikeness to the world consists a great deal more in\ndoing or being what it does not do and is not than in not doing or being\nwhat it does and is. It is easy to abstain from conventional things; it\nis a great deal harder to put in practice the unworldly virtues of the\nChristian character.\n\nThere are wide regions of life in which all men must act alike, be they\nsaints or sinners, be they believers, Agnostics, Mohammedans, Turks,\nJews, or anything else. There are two ways of doing the same thing. If\ntwo women were sitting at a grindstone, one of them a Christian and the\nother not, the one that pushed her handle half round the circle for\nChrist's sake would do it in a different fashion from the other one who\ntook it from her hand and brought it round to the other side of the\nstone, and did it without reference to God.\n\nBrethren, be sure of this, that if you and I do not find in ourselves\nthe impulse to abstain from coarse enjoyments, to put our feet upon\npassions and desires, appetites and aims, which godless men recognise\nand obey without qualm or restraint, we need to ask ourselves: 'In what\nsense am I a Christian, or in what sense have I heard Christ?' It is a\npoor affair to fling away our faithful protest against the world's evils\nfor the sake of receiving the world's smile. Modern Christianity is\noften not vital enough to be hated by a godless world; and it is not\nhated because it only deserves to be scorned. Keep near Jesus Christ,\nlive in the light of His face, drink in the inspiration and instruction\nof His example, and the unlikeness will come, and no mistake. Dwell near\nHim, keep in Him, and the likeness will come, as it always comes to\nlovers, who grow to resemble that or those whom they love. 'It is enough\nfor the disciple to be as his Teacher, and for the slave to be like his\nLord.'\n\n\n\n\nA DARK PICTURE AND A BRIGHT HOPE\n\n 'That ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man,\n which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.'--Eph. iv. 22.\n\n\nIf a doctor knows that he can cure a disease he can afford to give full\nweight to its gravest symptoms. If he knows he cannot he is sorely\ntempted to say it is of slight importance, and, though it cannot be\ncured, can be endured without much discomfort.\n\nAnd so the Scripture teachings about man's real moral condition are\ncharacterised by two peculiarities which, at first sight, seem somewhat\nopposed, but are really harmonious and closely connected. There is no\nbook and no system in the whole world that takes such a dark view of\nwhat you and I are; there is none animated with so bright and confident\na hope of what you and I may become. And, on the other hand, the common\nrun of thought amongst men minimises the fact of sin, but when you say,\n'Well, be it big or little, can I get rid of it anyhow?' there is no\nanswer to give that is worth listening to. Christ alone can venture to\ntell men what they are, because Christ alone can radically change their\nwhole nature and being. There are certain diseases of which a constant\nsymptom is unconsciousness that there is anything the matter. A\ndeep-seated wound does not hurt much. The question is not whether\nChristian thoughts about a man's condition are gloomy or not, but\nwhether they are true. As to their being gloomy, it seems to me that the\npeople who complain of our doctrine of human nature, as giving a\nmelancholy view of men, do really take a far more melancholy one. We\nbelieve in a fall, and we believe in a possible and actual restoration.\nThe man to whom evil is not an intrusive usurper can have no confidence\nthat it will ever be expelled. Which is the gloomy system--that which\npaints in undisguised blackness the facts of life, and over against\ntheir blackest darkness, the radiant light of a great hope shining\nbright and glorious, or one that paints humanity in a uniform monotone\nof indistinguishable grey involving the past, the present, and the\nfuture--which, believing in no disease, hopes for no cure? My text,\ntaken in conjunction with the grand words which follow, about 'The new\nman, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness,'\nbrings before us some very solemn views (which the men that want them\nmost realise the least) with regard to what we are, what we ought to be\nand cannot be, and what, by God's help, we may become. The old man is\n'corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,' says Paul. _There_ are a set\nof characteristics, then, of the universal sinful human self. Then there\ncomes a hopeless commandment--a mockery--if we are to stop with it, 'put\nit off.' And then there dawns on us the blessed hope and possibility of\nthe fulfilment of the injunction, when we learn that 'the truth in\nJesus' is, that we put off the old man with his deeds. Such is a\ngeneral outline of the few thoughts I have to suggest to you.\n\nI. I wish to fix, first of all, upon the very significant, though brief,\noutline sketch of the facts of universal sinful human nature which the\nApostle gives here.\n\nThese are three, upon which I dilate for a moment or two. 'The old man'\nis a Pauline expression, about which I need only say here that we may\ntake it as meaning that form of character and life which is common to us\nall, apart from the great change operated through faith in Jesus Christ.\nIt is universal, it is sinful. There is a very remarkable contrast,\nwhich you will notice, between the verse upon which I am now commenting\nand the following one. The old man is set over against the new. One is\ncreated, the other is corrupted, as the word might be properly rendered.\nThe one is created after God, the other is rotting to pieces under the\ninfluence of its lusts. The one consists of righteousness and holiness,\nwhich have their root in truth; the other is under the dominion of\npassions and desires, which, in themselves evil, are the instruments of\nand are characterised by deceit.\n\nThe first of the characteristics, then, of this sinful self, to which I\nwish to point for a moment is, that every Christless life, whatsoever\nthe superficial differences in it, is really a life shaped according to\nand under the influence of _passionate desires_. You see I venture to\nalter one word of my text, and that for this simple reason; the word\n'lusts' has, in modern English, assumed a very much narrower\nsignification than either that of the original has, or than itself had\nin English when this translation was made. It is a very remarkable\ntestimony, by the by, to the weak point in the bulk of men--to the side\nof their nature which is most exposed to assaults--that this word,\nwhich originally meant strong desire of any kind, should, by the\nobservation of the desires that are strongest in the mass of people,\nhave come to be restricted and confined to the one specific meaning of\nstrong animal, fleshly, sensuous desires. It may point a lesson to some\nof my congregation, and especially to the younger portion of the men in\nit. Remember, my brother, that the part of your nature which is closest\nto the material is likewise closest to the animal, and is least under\ndominion (without a strong and constant effort) of the power which will\nsave the flesh from corruption, and make the material the vehicle of the\nspiritual and divine. Many a young man comes into Manchester with the\natmosphere of a mother's prayers and a father's teaching round about\nhim; with holy thoughts and good resolutions beginning to sway his heart\nand spirit; and flaunting profligacy and seducing tongues beside him in\nthe counting-house, in the warehouse, and at the shop counter, lead him\naway into excesses that banish all these, and, after a year or two of\nriot and sowing to the flesh, he 'of the flesh reaps corruption,' and\nthat very literally--in sunken eye, and trembling hand, and hacking\ncough, and a grave opened for him before his time. Ah, my dear young\nfriends! 'they promise them liberty.' It is a fine thing to get out of\nyour father's house, and away from the restrictions of the society where\nyou are known, and loving eyes--or unloving ones--are watching you. It\nis a fine thing to get into the freedom and irresponsibility of a big\ncity! 'They promise them liberty,' and 'they themselves become the bond\nslaves of corruption.'\n\nBut, then, that is only the grossest and the lowest form of the truth\nthat is here. Paul's indictment against us is not anything so\nexaggerated and extreme as that the animal nature predominates in all\nwho are not Christ's. That is not true, and is not what my text says.\nBut what it says is just this: that, given the immense varieties of\ntastes and likings and desires which men have, the point and\ncharacteristic feature of every godless life is that, be these what they\nmay, they become the dominant power in that life. Paul does not, of\ncourse, deny that the sway and tyranny of such lusts and desires are\nsometimes broken by remonstrances of conscience; sometimes suppressed by\nconsiderations of prudence; sometimes by habit, by business, by\ncircumstances that force people into channels into which they would not\nnaturally let their lives run. He does not deny that often and often in\nsuch a life there will be a dim desire for something better--that high\nabove the black and tumbling ocean of that life of corruption and\ndisorder, there lies a calm heaven with great stars of duty shining in\nit. He does not deny that men are a law to themselves, as well as a\nbundle of desires which they obey; but what he charges upon us, and what\nI venture to bring as an indictment against you, and myself too, is\nthis: that apart from Christ it is not conscience that rules our lives;\nthat apart from Christ it is not sense of duty that is strongest; that\napart from Christ the real directing impulse to which the inward\nproclivities, if not the outward activities, do yield in the main and on\nthe whole, is, as this text says, the things that we like, the\npassionate desires of nature, the sensuous and godless heart.\n\nAnd you say, 'Well, if it is so, what harm is it? Did not God make me\nwith these desires, and am not I meant to gratify them?' Yes, certainly.\nThe harm of it is, first of all, this, that it is an inversion of the\ntrue order. The passionate desires about which I am speaking, be they\nfor money, be they for fame, or be they for any other of the gilded\nbaits of worldly joys--these passionate dislikes and likings, as well as\nthe purely animal ones--the longing for food, for drink, for any other\nphysical gratification--these were never meant to be men's guides. They\nare meant to be impulses. They have motive power, but no directing\npower. Do you start engines out of a railway station without drivers or\nrails to run upon? It would be as reasonable as that course of life\nwhich men pursue who say, 'Thus I wish; thus I command; let my desire\nstand in the place of other argumentation and reason.' They take that\npart of their nature that is meant to be under the guidance of reason\nand conscience looking up to God, and put it in the supreme place, and\nso, setting a beggar on horseback, ride where we know such equestrians\nare said in the end to go! The desires are meant to be impelling powers.\nIt is absurdity and the destruction of true manhood to make them, as we\nso often do, directing powers, and to put the reins into their hand.\nThey are the wind, not the helm; the steam, not the driver. Let us keep\nthings in their right places. Remember that the constitution of human\nnature, as God has meant it, is this: down there, under hatches, under\ncontrol, the strong impulses; above them, the enlightened understanding;\nabove that, the conscience, which has a loftier region than that of\nthought to move in, the moral region; and above that, the God, whose\nface, shining down upon the apex of the nature thus constituted,\nirradiates it with light which filters through all the darkness, down to\nthe very base of the being; and sanctifies the animal, and subdues the\nimpulses, and enlightens the understanding, and calms and quickens the\nconscience, and makes ductile and pliable the will, and fills the heart\nwith fruition and tranquillity, and orders the life after the image of\nHim that created it.\n\nI cannot dwell any longer on this first point; but I hope that I have\nsaid enough, not to show that the words are true--that is a very poor\nthing to do, if that were all that I aimed at--but to bring them home to\nsome of our hearts and consciences. I pray God to impress the conviction\nthat, although there be in us all the voice of conscience, which all of\nus more or less have tried at intervals to follow; yet in the main it\nabides for ever true--and it is true, my dear brethren, about you--a\nChristless life is a life under the dominion of tyrannous desires. Ask\nyourself what I cannot ask for you, Is it I? My hand fumbles about the\nhinges and handle of the door of the heart. You yourself must open it\nand let conviction come in!\n\nStill further, the words before us add another touch to this picture.\nThey not only represent the various passionate desires as being the real\nguides of 'the old man' but they give this other characteristic--that\nthese desires are in their very nature the instruments of deceit and\nlies.\n\nThe words of my text are, perhaps, rather enfeebled by the form of\nrendering which our translators have here, as in many cases, thought\nproper to adopt. If, instead of reading 'corrupt according to the\ndeceitful lusts,' we read 'corrupt according to the desires of deceit,'\nwe should have got not only the contrast between the old man and the new\nman, 'created in righteousness and holiness of truth'--but we should\nhave had, perhaps, a clearer notion of the characteristic of these\nlusts, which the Apostle meant to bring into prominence. These desires\nare, as it were, the tools and instruments by which deceit betrays and\nmocks men; the weapons used by illusions and lies to corrupt and mar the\nsoul. They are strong, and their nature is to pursue after their objects\nwithout regard to any consequences beyond their own gratification; but,\nstrong as they are, they are like the blinded Samson, and will pull the\nhouse down on themselves if they be not watched. Their strength is\nexcited on false pretences. They are stirred to grasp what is after all\na lie. They are 'desires of deceit.'\n\nThat just points to the truth of all such life being hollow and\nprofitless. If regard be had to the whole scope of our nature and\nnecessities, and to the true aim of life as deduced therefrom, nothing\nis more certain than that no man will get the satisfaction that his\nruling passions promise him, by indulging them. It is very sure that the\nway never to get what you need and desire is always to do what you like.\n\nAnd that for very plain reasons. Because, for one thing, the object only\nsatisfies for a time. Yesterday's food appeased our hunger for the day,\nbut we wake hungry again. And the desires which are not so purely animal\nhave the same characteristic of being stilled for the moment, and of\nwaking more ravenous than ever. 'He that drinketh of this water shall\nthirst again.' Because, further, the desire grows and the object of it\ndoes not. The fierce longing increases, and, of course, the power of the\nthing that we pursue to satisfy it decreases in the same proportion. It\nis a fixed quantity; the appetite is indefinitely expansible. And so,\nthe longer I go on feeding my desire, the more I long for the food; and\nthe more I long for it, the less taste it has when I get it. It must be\nmore strongly spiced to titillate a jaded palate. And there soon comes\nto be an end of the possibilities in that direction. A man scarcely\ntastes his brandy, and has little pleasure in drinking it, but he cannot\ndo without it, and so he gulps it down in bigger and bigger draughts\ntill delirium tremens comes in to finish all. Because, for another\nthing, after all, these desires are each but a fragment of one's whole\nnature, and when one is satisfied another is baying to be fed. The grim\nbrute, like the watchdog of the old mythology, has three heads, and each\ngaping for honey cakes. And if they were all gorged, there are other\nlongings in men's nature that will not let them rest, and for which all\nthe leeks and onions of Egypt are not food. So long as these are unmet,\nyou 'spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for\nthat which satisfieth not.'\n\nSo we may lay it down as a universal truth, that whoever takes it for\nhis law to do as he likes will not for long like what he does; or, as\nGeorge Herbert says,\n\n 'Shadows well mounted, dreams in a career,\n Embroider'd lies, nothing between two dishes--\n These are the pleasures here.'\n\nDo any of you remember the mournful words with which one of our greatest\nmodern writers of fiction closes his saddest, truest book: 'Ah! _vanitas\nvanitatum_! Which of us is happy in this world? which of us has his\ndesire? or, having it, is satisfied?' No wonder that with such a view of\nhuman life as that the next and last sentence should be, 'Come,\nchildren, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for the play is played\nout.' Yes! if there be nothing more to follow than the desires which\ndeceive, man's life, with all its bustle and emotion, is a subject for\ncynical and yet sad regard, and all the men and women that toil and fret\nare 'merely players.'\n\nThen, again, one more point in this portraiture of 'the old man,' is\nthat these _deceiving desires corrupt_. The language of our text conveys\na delicate shade of meaning which is somewhat blurred in our version.\nProperly, it speaks of 'the old man which is _growing_ corrupt,' rather\nthan 'which is corrupt,' and expresses the steady advance of that inward\nprocess of decay and deterioration which is ever the fate of a life\nsubordinated to these desires. And this growing evil, or rather inward\neating corruption which disintegrates and destroys a soul, is contrasted\nin the subsequent verse with the 'new man which is _created_ in\nrighteousness.' There is in the one the working of life, in the other\nthe working of death. The one is formed and fashioned by the loving\nhands and quickening breath of God; the other is gradually and surely\nrotting away by the eating leprosy of sin. For the former the end is\neternal life; for the latter, the second death.\n\nAnd the truth that underlies that awful representation is the familiar\none to which I have already referred in another connection, that, by the\nvery laws of our nature, by the plain necessities of the case, all our\nmoral qualities, be they good or bad, tend to increase by exercise. In\nwhatever direction we move, the rate of progress tends to accelerate\nitself. And this is preeminently the case when the motion is downwards.\nEvery day that a bad man lives he is a worse man. My friend! you are on\na sloping descent. Imperceptibly--because you will not look at the\nlandmarks--but really, and not so very slowly either; convictions are\ndying out, impulses to good are becoming feeble, habits of neglect of\nconscience are becoming fixed, special forms of sin--avarice, or pride,\nor lust--are striking their claws deeper into your soul, and holding\ntheir bleeding booty firmer. In all regions of life exercise strengthens\ncapacity. The wrestler, according to the old Greek parable, who began by\ncarrying a calf on his shoulders, got to carry an ox by and by.\n\nIt is a solemn thought this of the steady continuous aggravation of sin\nin the individual character. Surely nothing can be small which goes to\nmake up that rapidly growing total. Beware of the little beginnings\nwhich 'eat as doth a canker.' Beware of the slightest deflection from\nthe straight line of right. If there be two lines, one straight and the\nother going off at the sharpest angle, you have only to produce both far\nenough, and there will be room between them for all the space that\nseparates hell from heaven! Beware of lading your souls with the weight\nof small single sins. We heap upon ourselves, by slow, steady accretion\nthrough a lifetime, the weight that, though it is gathered by grains,\ncrushes the soul. There is nothing heavier than sand. You may lift it by\nparticles. It drifts in atoms, but heaped upon a man it will break his\nbones, and blown over the land it buries pyramid and sphynx, the temples\nof gods and the homes of men beneath its barren solid waves. The leprosy\ngnaws the flesh off a man's bones, and joints and limbs drop off--he is\na living death. So with every soul that is under the dominion of these\nlying desires--it is slowly rotting away piecemeal, 'waxing corrupt\naccording to the lusts of deceit.'\n\nII. Note how, this being so, we have here the hopeless command to put\noff the old man.\n\nThat command 'put it off' is the plain dictate of conscience and of\ncommon sense. But it seems as hopeless as it is imperative. I suppose\neverybody feels sometimes, more or less distinctly, that they ought to\nmake an effort and get rid of these beggarly usurpers that tyrannise\nover will, and conscience, and life. Attempts enough are made to shake\noff the yoke. We have all tried some time or other. Our days are full of\nfoiled resolutions, attempts that have broken down, unsuccessful\nrebellions, ending like the struggles of some snared wild creature, in\nwrapping the meshes tighter round us. How many times, since you were a\nboy or a girl, have you said--'Now I am _determined_ that I will never\ndo that again. I have flung away opportunities. I have played the fool\nand erred exceedingly--but I now turn over a new leaf!' Yes, and you\nhave turned it--and, if I might go on with the metaphor, the first gust\nof passion or temptation has blown the leaf back again, and the old page\nhas been spread before you once more just as it used to be. The history\nof individual souls and the tragedy of the world's history recurring in\nevery age, in which the noblest beginnings lead to disastrous ends, and\neach new star of promise that rises on the horizon leads men into\nquagmires and sets in blood, sufficiently show how futile the attempt in\nour own strength to overcome and expel the evils that are rooted in our\nnature.\n\nMoralists may preach, 'Unless above himself he can erect himself, how\nmean a thing is man'; but all the preaching in the world is of no avail.\nThe task is an impossibility. The stream cannot rise above its source,\nnor be purified in its flow if bitter waters come from the fountain.\n'Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?' There is no power in\nhuman nature to cast off this clinging self. As in the awful vision of\nthe poet, the serpent is grown into the man. The will is feeble for\ngood, the conscience sits like a discrowned king issuing empty mandates,\nwhile all his realm is up in rebellion and treats his proclamations as\nso much waste paper. How can a man re-make himself? how cast off his own\nnature? The means at his disposal themselves need to be cleansed, for\nthemselves are tainted. It is the old story--who will keep the\nkeepers?--who will heal the sick physicians? You will sometimes see a\nwounded animal licking its wounds with its own tongue. How much more\nhopeless still is our effort by our own power to stanch and heal the\ngashes which sin has made! 'Put off the old man'--yes--and if it but\nclung to the limbs like the hero's poisoned vest, it might be possible.\nBut it is not a case of throwing aside clothing, it is stripping oneself\nof the very skin and flesh--and if there is nothing more to be said than\nsuch vain commonplaces of impossible duty, then we must needs abandon\nhope, and wear the rotting evil till we die.\n\nBut that is not all. 'What the law could not do, in that it was weak\nthrough the flesh,' God sending His own Son did--He condemned sin in the\nflesh. So we come to\n\nIII. The possibility of fulfilling the command.\n\nThe context tells us how this is possible. The law, the pattern, and the\npower for complete victory over the old sinful self, are to be found,\n'as the truth is--in Jesus.' Union with Christ gives us a real\npossession of a new principle of life, derived from Him, and like His\nown. That real, perfect, immortal life, which hath no kindred with evil,\nand flings off pollution and decay from its pure surface, will wrestle\nwith and finally overcome the living death of obedience to the\ndeceitful lusts. Our weakness will be made rigorous by His inbreathed\npower. Our gravitation to earth and sin will be overcome by the yearning\nof that life to its source. An all-constraining motive will be found in\nlove to Him who has given Himself for us. A new hope will spring as to\nwhat may be possible for us, when we see Jesus, and in Him recognise the\ntrue Man, whose image we may bear. We shall die with Him to sin, when,\nresting by faith on Him who has died for sin, we are made conformable to\nHis death, that we may walk in newness of life. Faith in Jesus gives us\na share in the working of that mighty power by which He makes all things\nnew. The renovation blots out the past, and changes the direction of the\nfuture. The fountain in our hearts sends forth bitter waters that cannot\nbe healed. 'And the Lord showed him a tree,' even that Cross whereon\nChrist was crucified for us, 'which, when he had cast into the waters,\nthe waters were made sweet.'\n\nI remember a rough parable of Luther's, grafted on an older legend, on\nthis matter, which runs somewhat in this fashion: A man's heart is like\na foul stable. Wheelbarrows and shovels are of little use, except to\nremove some of the surface filth, and to litter all the passages in the\nprocess. What is to be done with it? 'Turn the Elbe into it,' says he.\nThe flood will sweep away all the pollution. Not my own efforts, but the\ninflux of that pardoning, cleansing grace which is in Christ will wash\naway the accumulations of years, and the ingrained evil which has\nstained every part of my being. We cannot cleanse ourselves, we cannot\n'put off' this old nature which has struck its roots so deep into our\nbeing; but if we turn to Him with faith and say--Forgive me, and\ncleanse, and strip from me the foul and ragged robe fit only for the\nswine-troughs in the far-off land of disobedience, He will receive us\nand answer all our desires, and cast around us the pure garment of His\nown righteousness. 'The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus shall\nmake us free from the law of sin and death.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE NEW MAN\n\n 'And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in\n righteousness and true holiness.'--Eph. iv. 24.\n\n\nWe had occasion to remark in a former sermon that Paul regards this and\nthe preceding clauses as the summing up of 'the truth in Jesus'; or, in\nother words, he considers the radical transformation and renovation of\nthe whole moral nature as being the purpose of the revelation of God in\nChrist. To this end they have 'heard Him.' To this end they have\n'learned Him.' To this end they have been 'taught in Him,' receiving, by\nunion with Him, all the various processes of His patient discipline.\nThis is the inmost meaning of all the lessons in that great school in\nwhich all Christians are scholars, and Christ is the teacher and the\ntheme, and union to Him the condition of entrance, and the manifold\nworkings of His providence and His grace the instruments of training,\nand heaven the home when school time is over--that we should become new\nmen in Christ Jesus.\n\nThis great practical issue is set forth here under three aspects--one\nnegative, two positive. The negative process is single and simple--'put\noff the old man.' The positive is double--a spiritual 'renewal' effected\nin our spirits, in the deep centre of our personal being, by that\nDivine Spirit who, dwelling in us, is 'the spirit of our minds'; and\nthen, consequent upon that inward renewal, a renovation of life and\ncharacter, which is described as being the 'putting on,' as if it were a\ngarment, of 'the new man,' created by a divine act, and consisting in\nmoral and spiritual likeness to God. It is not necessary to deal, except\nincidentally, with the two former, but I desire to consider the last of\nthese--the putting on of the new man--a little more closely, and to try\nto bring out the wealth and depth of the Apostle's words in this\nwonderful text.\n\nThe ideas contained seem to me in brief to be these--the great purpose\nof the Gospel is our moral renewal; that moral renewal is a creation\nafter God's image; that new creation has to be put on or appropriated by\nus; the great means of appropriating it is contact with God's truth. Let\nus consider these points in order.\n\nI. The great purpose of the Gospel is our moral renewal; 'the new man\n... created in righteousness and ... holiness.'\n\nNow, of course, there are other ways of stating the end of the Gospel.\nThis is by no means an exhaustive setting forth of its purpose. We may\nsay that Christ has come in order that men may know God. We may say that\nHe comes in order that the Divine Love, which ever delights to\ncommunicate, may bestow itself, and may conceive of the whole majestic\nseries of acts of self-revelation from the beginning as being--if I may\nso say--for the gratification of that impulse to impart itself, which is\nthe characteristic of love in God and man. We may say that the purpose\nof the whole is the deliverance of men from the burden and guilt of sin.\nBut whether we speak of the end of the Gospel as the glory of God, or\nthe blessedness of man, or as here, as being the moral perfection of\nthe individual or of the race, they are all but various phrases of the\none complete truth. The Gospel is the consequence and the manifestation\nof the love of God, which delights to be known and possessed by loving\nsouls, and being known, changes them into its own likeness, which to\nknow is to be happy, which to resemble is to be pure.\n\nThe first thing that strikes me about this representation of our text is\nthe profound sense of human sinfulness which underlies it.\n\nThe language is utterly unmeaning--or at all events grossly\nexaggerated--unless all have sinned, and the nature which belongs to men\nuniversally, apart from the transforming power of Christ's Spirit, be\ncorrupt and evil. And that it is so is the constant view of Scripture.\nThe Bible notion of what men need in order to be pure and good is very\ndifferent from the superficial notions of worldly moralists and\nphilanthropists. We hear a great deal about 'culture,' as if all that\nwere needed were the training and strengthening of the nature, as if\nwhat was mainly needed was the development of the understanding. We hear\nabout 'reformation' from some who look rather deeper than the\nsuperficial apostles of culture. And how singularly the very word\nproclaims the insufficiency of the remedy which it suggests!\n'Re-formation' affects form and not substance. It puts the old materials\ninto a new shape. Exactly so--and much good may be expected from that!\nThey are the old materials still, and it matters comparatively little\nhow they are arranged. It is not re-formation, but re-novation, or, to\ngo deeper still, re-generation, that the world needs; not new forms, but\na new life; not the culture and development of what it has in itself,\nbut extirpation of the old by the infusion of something now and pure\nthat has no taint of corruption, nor any contact with evil. 'Verily, I\nsay unto you, ye must be born again.'\n\nAll slighter notions of the need and more superficial diagnoses of the\ndisease lead to a treatment with palliatives which never touch the true\nseat of the mischief, The poison flowers may be plucked, but the roots\nlive on. It is useless to build dykes to keep out the wild waters.\nSomewhere or other they will find a way through. The only real cure is\nthat which only the Creating hand can effect, who, by slow operation of\nsome inward agency, can raise the level of the low lands, and lift them\nabove the threatening waves. What is needed is a radical transformation,\ngoing down to the very roots of the being; and that necessity is clearly\nimplied in the language of this text, which declares that a nature\npossessing righteousness and holiness is 'a new man' to be 'put on' as\nfrom without, not to be evolved as from within.\n\nIt is to be further noticed what the Apostle specifies as the elements,\nor characteristics of this new nature--righteousness and holiness.\n\nThe proclamation of a new nature in Christ Jesus, great and precious\ntruth as it is, has often been connected with teaching which has been\nmystical in the bad sense of that word, and has been made the stalking\nhorse of practical immorality. But here we have it distinctly defined in\nwhat that new nature consists. There is no vague mystery about it, no\ntampering with the idea of personality. The people who put on the new\nman are the same people after as before. The newness consists in moral\nand spiritual characteristics. And these are all summed up in the\ntwo--righteousness and holiness. To which is added in the substantially\nparallel passage in Colossians, 'Renewed in knowledge after the image of\nHim that created Him,' where, I suppose, we must regard the 'knowledge'\nas meaning that personal knowledge and acquaintance which has its\ncondition in love, and is the foundation of the more purely moral\nqualities of which our text speaks.\n\nIs there, then, any distinction between these two? I think there is very\nobviously so. 'Righteousness' is, I suppose, to be understood here in\nits narrower meaning of observance of what is right, the squaring of\nconduct according to a solemn sovereign law of duty. Substantially it is\nequivalent to the somewhat heathenish word 'morality,' and refers human\nconduct and character to a law or standard. What, then, is 'holiness'?\nIt is the same general conduct and character, considered, however, under\nanother aspect, and in another relation. It involves the reference of\nlife and self to God, consecration to, and service of Him. It is not a\nmere equivalent of purity, but distinctly carries the higher reference.\nThe obedience now is not to a law but to a Lord. The perfection now does\nnot consist in conformity to an ideal standard, but in likeness and\ndevotion to God. That which I ought to do is that which my Father in\nheaven wills. Or, if the one word may roughly represent the more secular\nword 'morality,' the other may roughly represent the less devout phrase,\n'practical religion.'\n\nThese are 'new,' as actually realised in human nature. Paul thinks that\nwe shall not possess them except as a consequence of renovation. But\nthey are not 'new' in the sense that the contents of Christian morality\nare different from the contents of the law written on men's hearts. The\nGospel proclaims and produces no fantastic ethics of its own. The\nactions which it stamps in its mint are those which pass current in all\nlands--not a provincial coinage, but recognised as true in ring, and of\nfull weight everywhere. Do not fancy that Christian righteousness is\ndifferent from ordinary 'goodness,' except as being broader and deeper,\nmore thorough-going, more imperative. Divergences there are, for our law\nis more than a republication of the law written on men's hearts. Though\nthe one agrees with the other, yet the area which they cover is not the\nsame. The precepts of the one, like some rock-hewn inscriptions by\nforgotten kings, are weathered and indistinct, often illegible, often\nmisread, often neglected. The other is written in living characters in a\nperfect life. It includes all that the former attempts to enjoin, and\nmuch more besides. It alters the perspective, so to speak, of heathen\nmorals, and brings into prominence graces overlooked or despised by\nthem. It breathes a deeper meaning and a tenderer beauty into the words\nwhich express human conceptions of virtue, but it does take up these\ninto itself. And instead of setting up a 'righteousness' which is\npeculiar to itself, and has nothing to do with the world's morality,\nChristianity says, as Christ has taught us, 'Except your righteousness\n_exceed_ the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not\nenter into the kingdom of God.' The same apostle who here declares that\nactual righteousness and holiness are new things on the earth, allows\nfull force to whatsoever weight may be in the heathen notion of\n'virtue,' and adopts the words and ideas which he found ready made to\nhis hands, in that notion--as fitly describing the Christian graces\nwhich he enjoined. Grecian moralists supplied him with the names true,\nhonest, just, and pure. His 'righteousness' accepted these as included\nwithin its scope. And we have to remember that we are not invested with\nthat new nature, unless we are living in the exercise of these common\nand familiar graces which the consciences and hearts of all the world\nrecognise for 'lovely' and 'of good report,' hail as 'virtue,' and crown\nwith 'praise.'\n\nSo, then, let me pause here for a moment to urge you to take these\nthoughts as a very sharp and salutary test. You call yourselves\nChristian people. The purpose of your Christianity is your growth and\nperfecting in simple purity, and devotion to, and dependence on, our\nloving Father. Our religion is nothing unless it leads to these.\nOtherwise it is like a plant that never seeds, but may bear some feeble\nblossoms that drop shrunken to the ground before they mature. To very\nmany of us the old solemn remonstrance should come with awakening\nforce--'Ye did run well, what did hinder you?' You have apprehended\nChrist as the revealer and bringer of the great mercy of God, and have\nso been led in some measure to put your confidence in Him for your\nsalvation and deliverance. But have you apprehended Him as the mould\ninto which your life is to be poured, that life having been made fluent\nand plastic by the warmth of His love? You have apprehended Him as your\nrefuge; have you apprehended Him as your inward sanctity? You have gone\nto Him as the source of salvation from the guilt and penalties of sin;\nhave you gone to Him, and are you daily growing in the conscious\npossession of Him, as the means of salvation from the corruption and\nevil of sin? He comes to make us good. What has He made you? Anything\ndifferent from what you were twenty years ago? Then, if not, and in so\nfar as you are unchanged and unbettered, the Gospel is a failure for\nyou, and you are untrue to it. The great purpose of all the work of\nChrist--His life, His sorrows, His passion, His resurrection, His glory,\nHis continuous operation by the Spirit and the word is to make new men\nwho shall be just and devout, righteous and holy.\n\nII. A second principle contained in these words, is that this moral\nRenewal is a Creation in the image of God.\n\nThe new man is 'created after the image of God'--that is, of course,\naccording to or in the likeness of God. There is evident reference here\nto the account of man's creation in Genesis, and the idea is involved\nthat this new man is the restoration and completion of that earlier\nlikeness, which, in some sense, has faded out of the features and form\nof our sinful souls. It is to be remembered, however, that there is an\nimage of God inseparable from human nature, and not effaceable by any\nobscuring or disturbance caused by sin. Man's likeness to God consists\nin his being a person, possessed of a will and self-consciousness, and\nthat mysterious gift of personality abides whatever perishes. But beyond\nthat natural image of God, as we may call it, there is something else\nwhich fades wholly with the first breath of evil, like the reflexion of\nthe sky on some windless sea. The natural likeness remains, and without\nit no comparison would be possible. We should not think of saying that a\nstone or an eagle were unlike God. But while the personal being makes\ncomparison fitting, what makes the true contrast? In what respect is man\nunlike God? In moral antagonism. What is the true likeness? Moral\nharmony. What separates men from their Father in heaven? Is it that His\n'years are throughout all generations,' and 'my days are as an\nhandbreadth'? Is it that His power is infinite, and mine all thwarted by\nother might and over tending to weakness and extinction? Is it that His\nwisdom, sunlike, waxes not nor wanes, and there is nothing hid from its\nbeams, while my knowledge, like the lesser light, shines by reflected\nradiance, serves but to make the night visible, and is crescent and\ndecaying, changeful and wandering? No. All such distinctions based upon\nwhat people call the sovereign attributes of God--the distinctions of\ncreator and created, infinite and finite, omnipotent and weak, eternal\nand transient--make no real gulf between God and man. If we have only to\nsay, 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are' His 'ways higher\nthan' our 'ways,' that difference is not unlikeness, and establishes no\nseparation; for low and flat though the dull earth be, does not heaven\nbend down round it, and send rain and sun, dew and blessing? But it is\nbecause 'your ways are not _as_ my ways'--because there is actual\nopposition, because the _directions_ are different--that there is\nunlikeness. The image of God lies not only in that personality which the\n'Father of Lies' too possesses, but in 'righteousness and holiness.'\n\nBut besides this reference to the original creation of man, there is\nanother reason for the representation of the new nature as being a work\nof divine creative power. It is in order to give the most emphatic\nexpression possible to the truth that we do not make our righteousness\nfor ourselves, but receive it as from Him. The new man is not our work,\nit is God's creation. As at the beginning, the first human life is\nrepresented as not originated in the line of natural cause and effect,\nbut as a new and supernatural commencement, so in every Christian soul\nthe life which is derived from God, and will unfold itself in His\nlikeness, comes from His own breath inbreathed into the nostrils. It too\nis out of the line of natural causes. It too is a direct gift from God.\nIt too is a true supernatural being--a real and new creation.\n\nMay I venture a step further? 'The new man' is spoken of here as if it\nhad existence ere we 'put it on.' I do not press that, as if it\nnecessarily involved the idea which I am going to suggest, for the\npeculiar form of expression is probably only due to the exigencies of\nthe metaphor. Still it may not be altogether foreign to the whole scope\nof the passage, if I remind you that the new man, the true likeness of\nGod, has, indeed, a real existence apart from our assumption of it. Of\ncourse, the righteousness and holiness which make that new nature in me\nhave no being till they become mine. But we believe that the\nrighteousness and holiness which we make ours come from another, who\nbestows them on us. 'The new man' is not a mere ideal, but has a\nhistorical and a present existence. The ideal has lived and lives, is a\nhuman person, even Jesus Christ the express image of the Father, who is\nthe beginning of the new creation, who of God is made unto us wisdom and\nrighteousness. That fair vision of a humanity detached from all\nconsequences of sin, renewed in perfect beauty, stainless and Godlike,\nis no unsubstantial dream, but a simple fact. He ever liveth. His word\nto us is, 'I counsel thee to buy of me--white raiment.' And a full\nparallel to the words of our text, which bid us 'put on the new man,\ncreated after God in righteousness and holiness,' is found in the other\nwords of the same Apostle--'Let us cast off the works of darkness, and\nlet us put on the armour of light. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.'\n\nIn accordance with this--\n\nIII. It is further to be noticed that this new creation has to be put on\nand appropriated by us.\n\nThe same idea which, as I have already remarked, is conveyed by the\nimage of a new creation, is reiterated in this metaphor of putting on\nthe new nature, as if it were a garment. Our task is not to weave it,\nbut to wear it. It is made and ready.\n\nAnd that process of assumption or putting on has two parts. We are\nclothed upon with Christ in a double way, or rather in a double sense.\nWe are 'found in Him not having our own righteousness,' but invested\nwith His for our pardon and acceptance. We are clothed with His\nrighteousness for our purifying and sanctifying.\n\nBoth are the conditions of our being like God. Both are the gifts of\nGod. The one, however, is an act; the other a process. Both are\nreceived. The one is received on condition of simple faith; the other is\nreceived by the medium of faithful effort. Both are included in the wide\nconception of salvation, but the law for the one is 'Not by works of\nrighteousness which we have done, but by His mercy He saved us'; and the\nlaw for the other is--'Work out your own salvation with fear and\ntrembling.' Both come from Christ, but for the one we have the\ninvitation, 'Buy of Me white raiment that thou mayest be clothed'; and\nfor the other we have the command, 'Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and\nmake not provision for the flesh.' There is the assumption of His\nrighteousness which makes a man a Christian, and has for its condition\nsimple faith. There is the assumption of His righteousness sanctifying\nand transforming us which follows in a Christian course, as its\nindispensable accompaniment and characteristic, and that is realised by\ndaily and continuous effort.\n\nAnd one word about the manner, the effort as set forth here; twofold, as\nI have already pointed out--a negative and positive. We are not\nconcerned here with the relations of these amongst themselves, but I may\nremark that there is no growth in holiness possible without the constant\naccompanying process of excision and crucifixion of the old. If you want\nto grow purer and liker Christ, you must slay yourselves. You cannot\ngird on 'righteousness' above the old self, as some beggar might buckle\nto himself royal velvet with its ermine over his filthy tatters. There\nmust be a putting off in order to and accompanying the putting on. Strip\nyourselves of yourselves, and then you 'shall not be found naked,' but\nclothed with the garments of salvation, as the bride with the robe which\nis the token of the bridegroom's love, and the pledge of her espousals\nto him.\n\nAnd let nobody wonder that the Apostle here commands us, as by our own\nefforts, to put on and make ours what is in many other places of\nScripture treated as God's gift. These earnest exhortations are\nperfectly consistent with the belief that all comes from God. Our\nfaithful adherence to our Lord and Master, our honest efforts in His\nstrength to secure more and more of His likeness, determine the extent\nto which we shall possess that likeness. The new nature is God's gift,\nand it is given to us according to His own fulness indeed, but also\naccording to the measure of our faith. Blessed be His name! we have\nnothing to do but to accept His gift. The garment with which He clothes\nour nakedness and hides our filth is woven in no earthly looms. As with\nthe first sinful pair, so with all their children since, 'the Lord God\nmade them' the covering which they cannot make for themselves. But we\nhave to accept it, and we have by daily toil, all our lives long, to\ngather it more and more closely around us, to wrap ourselves more and\nmore completely in its ample folds. We have by effort and longing, by\nself-abnegation and aspiration, by prayer and work, by communion and\nservice, to increase our possession of that likeness to God which lives\nin Jesus Christ, and from Him is stamped ever more and more deeply on\nthe heart. For the strengthening of our confidence and our gratitude, we\nhave to remember with lowly trust that it is true of us, 'If any man be\nin Christ he is a new creature.' For the quickening of our energy and\nfaithful efforts we have to give heed to the command, and fulfil it in\nourselves--'Be ye renewed in the Spirit of your minds, and put on the\nnew man.'\n\nIV. And, finally, the text contains the principle that the means of\nappropriating this new nature is contact with the truth.\n\nIf you will look at the margins of some Bibles you will see that our\ntranslators have placed there a rendering, which, as is not unfrequently\nthe case, is decidedly better than that adopted by them in the text.\nInstead of 'true holiness,' the literal rendering is 'holiness of\ntruth'--and the Apostle's purpose in the expression is not to\nparticularise the quality, but the origin of the 'holiness.' It is 'of\ntruth,' that is, produced by the holiness which flows from the truth as\nit is in Jesus, of which he has been speaking a moment before.\n\nAnd we come, therefore, to this practical conclusion, that whilst the\nagent of renovation is the Divine Spirit, and the condition of\nrenovation is our cleaving to Christ, the medium of renovation and the\nweapon which transforming grace employs is 'the word of the truth of the\nGospel' whereby we are sanctified. There we get the law, and there we\nget the motive and the impulse. There we get the encouragement and the\nhope. In it, in the grand simple message--'God was in Christ,\nreconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto\nthem,' lie the germs of all moral progress. And in proportion as we\nbelieve that--not with the cold belief of our understandings, but with\nthe loving affiance of our hearts and our whole spiritual being--in\nproportion as we believe that, in that proportion shall we grow in\n'knowledge,' shall we grow in 'righteousness,' in the 'image of Him that\ncreated us.' The Gospel is the great means of this change, because it is\nthe great means by which He who works the change comes near to our\nunderstandings and our hearts.\n\nSo let us learn how impossible are righteousness and holiness, morality\nand religion in men, unless they flow from this source. It is the truth\nthat sanctifies. It is the Spirit who wields that truth who sanctifies.\nIt is Christ who sends the Spirit who sanctifies. But, brethren, beyond\nthe range of this light is only darkness, and that nature which is not\ncleansed by His priestly hand laid upon it remains leprous, and he who\nis clothed with any other garment than His righteousness will find 'the\ncovering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.' And let us\nlearn, on the other hand, the incompleteness and monstrosity of a\nprofessed belief in 'the truth' which does not produce this\nrighteousness and holiness. It may be real--God forbid that we should\nstep into His place and assume His office of discerning the thoughts of\nthe heart, and the genuineness of Christian professions! But, at any\nrate, it is no exaggeration nor presumption to say that a professed\nfaith which is not making us daily better, gentler, simpler, purer, more\ntruthful, more tender, more brave, more self-oblivious, more loving,\nmore strong--more like Christ--is wofully deficient either in reality or\nin power--is, if genuine, ready to perish--if lit at all, smouldering to\nextinction. Christian men and women! is 'the truth' moulding you into\nChrist's likeness? If not, see to it whether it be the truth which you\nare holding, and whether you are holding the truth or have unconsciously\nlet it slip from a grasp numbed by the freezing coldness of the world.\n\nAnd for us all, let us see that we lay to heart the large truths of this\ntext, and give them that personal bearing without which they are of no\navail. _I_ need renovation in my inmost nature. Nothing can renew _my_\nsoul but the power of Christ, who is _my_ life. _I_ am naked and foul.\nNothing can cleanse and clothe _me_ but He. The blessed truth which\nreveals Him calls for _my_ individual faith. And if _I_ put _my_\nconfidence in that Lord, He will dwell in _my_ inmost spirit, and so\nsway _my_ affections and mould _my_ will that _I_ shall be transformed\nunto His perfect likeness. He begins with each one of us by bringing the\nbest robe to cast over the rags of the returning prodigal. He ends not\nwith any who trust Him, until they stand amid the hosts of the heavens\nwho follow Him, clothed with fine linen clean and white, which is the\nrighteousness of His Holy ones.\n\n\n\n\nGRIEVING THE SPIRIT\n\n 'Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the\n day of redemption.'--Eph. iv. 30.\n\n\nThe miracle of Christianity is the Incarnation. It is not a link in a\nchain, but a new beginning, the entrance into the cosmic order of a\nDivine Power. The sequel of Bethlehem and Calvary and Olivet is the\nupper room and the Pentecost. There is the issue of the whole mission\nand work of Christ--the planting in the heart of humanity of a new and\ndivine life. All Christendom is professing to commemorate that fact\nto-day, [Preached on Whitsunday] but a large portion of us forget that\nit was but a transient sign of a perpetual reality. The rushing mighty\nwind has died down into a calm; the fiery tongues have ceased to flicker\non the disciples' heads, but the miracle, which is permanent, and is\nbeing repeated from day to day, in the experience of every believing\nsoul, is the inrush of the very breath of God into their lives, and the\nplunging of them into a fiery baptism which melts their coldness and\nrefines away their dross. Now, my text brings before us some very\nremarkable thoughts as to the permanent working of the Divine Spirit\nupon Christian souls, and upon this it bases a very tender and\npersuasive exhortation to conduct. And I desire simply to try to bring\nout the fourfold aspect in those words. There is, first, a wondrous\nrevelation; second, a plain lesson as to what that Divine Spirit chiefly\ndoes; third, a solemn warning as to man's power and freedom to thwart\nit; and, lastly, a tender motive for conduct. 'Grieve not the Holy\nSpirit, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.'\n\nNow let us look briefly at these four thoughts: Here we have--\n\nI. A wonderful revelation.\n\nWonderful to all, startling to some. If you can speak of grief, you must\nbe speaking of a person. An influence cannot be sorry, whatever may\nhappen to it. And that word of my text is no more violent metaphor or\nexaggeratedly strong way of suggesting a motive, but it keeps rigidly\nwithin the New Testament limits, in reference to that Divine Spirit,\nwhen to Him it attributes this personal emotion of sorrow with its\ncorrelation of possible joy.\n\nNow, I do not need to dwell upon the thought here, but I do desire to\nemphasise it, especially in view of the strangely hazy and defective\nconceptions which so many Christian people have upon this matter. And I\ndesire to remind you that the implied assumption of a personal Spirit,\ncapable of being 'grieved,' which is in this text, is in accordance with\nall the rest of the New Testament teaching.\n\nWhat did Jesus Christ mean when He spoke of one who 'will guide you into\nall truth'; of one who 'whatsoever He shall hear, those things shall He\nspeak'? What does the book of the Acts mean when it says that the Spirit\nsaid to the believers in Antioch, 'Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the\nwork whereunto I have called them'? What did Paul mean when he said, 'In\nevery city the Holy Ghost testifieth that bonds and afflictions await\nme'? What does the minister officiating in baptism mean when he says, 'I\nbaptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy\nGhost'? That form presents, according to many interpretations, a Divine\nPerson, a Man, and an Influence. Why are these bracketed together? And\nwhat do we mean when, at the end of every Christian service, we invoke\n'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and\nthe fellowship of the Holy Spirit'? A Man, and God, and an Influence--is\nthat the interpretation? You cannot get rid from the New Testament\nteaching, whether you accept it or not--you cannot eliminate from it\nthis, that the divine causality of our salvation is threefold and one,\nthe Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.\n\nNow, brethren, I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that\npractically the average orthodox believer believes in a duality, and not\na Trinity, in the divine nature. I do not care about the scholastic\nwords, but what I would insist upon is that the course of Christian\nthinking has been roughly this. First of all, in the early Church, the\nquestion of the Divine nature came into play, mainly in reference to the\nrelation of the Eternal Word to the Eternal Father, and of the\nIncarnation to both. And then, when that was roughly settled, there came\ndown through many ages, and there still subsists, the endeavour to cast\ninto complete and intelligible forms the doctrine, if I must use the\nword, of Christ's nature and work. And now, as I believe, to a very\nlarge extent, the foremost and best thinking of the Christian Church is\nbeing occupied with that last problem, the nature and work of that\nDivine Spirit. I believe that we stand on the verge of a far clearer\nperception of, and of a far more fervent and realising faith in, the\nSpirit of God, than ever the Churches have seen before. And I pray you\nto remember that however much your Christian thought and Christian\nfaith may be centred upon, and may be drawing its nourishment and its\njoy from, the work of Jesus Christ who died on the Cross for our\nsalvation, and lives to be our King and Defender, there is a gap--not\nonly in your Christian Creed, but also in your Christian experiences and\njoys and power, unless you have risen to this thought, that the Divine\nSpirit is not only an influence, a wind, a fire, an oil, a dove, a dew,\nbut a Divine Person. We have to go back to the old creed--'I believe in\nGod the Father Almighty ... and in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord\n... I believe in the Holy Ghost.'\n\nBut further, this same revelation carries with it another, and to some\nof us a startling thought. 'Grieve not the Holy Spirit': that Divine\nPerson is capable of grief. I do not believe that is rhetorical\nexaggeration. Of course I know that we should think of God as the\never-blessed God, but we also in these last days begin to think more\nboldly, and I believe more truly, that if man is in the image of God,\nand there is a divine element in humanity, there must be a human element\nin divinity. And though I know that it is perilous to make affirmations\nabout a matter so far beyond our possibility of verification by\nexperience, I venture to think that perhaps the doctrine that God is\nlifted up high above all human weaknesses and emotions does not mean\nthat there can be no shadow cast on the divine blessedness by the dark\nsubstance of human sin. I do not venture to assert: I only suggest; and\nthis I know, that He who said to us, 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the\nFather,' had His eyes filled with tears, even in His hour of triumph, as\nHe looked across the valley and saw the city sparkling in the rays of\nthe morning sun. May we venture to see there an unveiling of the divine\nheart? Love has an infinite capacity of sorrow as of joy. But I leave\nthese perhaps too presumptuous and lofty thoughts, to turn to the other\npoints involved in the words before us.\n\nI said, in the second place, there was--\n\nII. A plain lesson here, as to the great purpose for which the Divine\nSpirit has been lodged in the heart of humanity.\n\nI find that in the two words of my text, 'the Holy Spirit,' and 'ye were\nthereby sealed unto the day of redemption.' If the central\ncharacteristic which it imports us to know and to keep in mind is that\nimplied by the name, 'the Holy Spirit' then, of course, the great work\nthat He has to perform upon earth is to make men like Himself. And that\nis further confirmed by the emblem of the seal which is here; for the\nseal comes in contact with the thing sealed, and leaves the impression\nof its own likeness there. And whatever else--and there is a great deal\nelse that I cannot touch now--may be included in that great thought of\nthe sealing by the Divine Spirit, these things are inseparably connected\nwith, and suggested by it, viz. the actual contact of the Spirit of God\nwith our spirits, which is expressed, as you may remember, in the other\nmetaphors of being baptized in and anointed with, and yet more\nimportant, the result purposed by that contact being mainly to make us\nholy.\n\nNow, I pray you to think of how different that is from all other notions\nof inspiration that the world has ever known, and how different it is\nfrom a great many ideas that have had influence within the Christian\nChurch. People say there are not any miracles now, and say we are worse\noff than when there used to be. That Divine Spirit does not come to give\ngifts of healing, interpretations of tongues, and all the other abnormal\nand temporary results which attended the first manifestations. These,\nwhen they were given, were but means to an end, and the end subsists\nwhilst the means are swept away. It is better to be made good than to be\nfilled with all manner of miraculous power. 'In this rejoice, not that\nthe spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names\nare written in heaven.' All the rest is transient. It is gone; let it\ngo, we are not a bit the poorer for want of it. This remains--not\ntongues, nor gifts of healing, nor any other of these miraculous and\nextraordinary and external powers--but the continual operation of a\ndivine influence, moulding men into its own likeness.\n\nChristianity is intensely ethical, and it sets forth, as the ultimate\nresult of all its machinery, changing men into the likeness of God.\nHoliness is that for which Christ died, that for which the Divine Spirit\nworks. Unless we Christian people recognise the true perspective of the\nSpirit's gifts, and put at the base the extraordinary, and higher than\nthese, but still subordinate, the intellectual, and on top of all the\nspiritual and moral, we do not understand the meaning of the central\ngift and possible blessing of Christianity, to make us holy, or, if you\ndo not like the theological word, let us put it into still plainer and\nmore modern English, to make you and me good men and women, like God.\nThat is the mightiest work of that Divine Spirit.\n\nWe have here--\n\nIII. A plain warning as to the possibility of thwarting these\ninfluences.\n\nNothing here about irresistible grace; nothing here about a power that\nlays hold upon a man, and makes him good, he lying passive in its hands\nlike clay in the hands of the potter! You will not be made holy without\nthe Divine Spirit, but you will not be made holy without your working\nalong with it. There is a possibility of resisting, and there is a\npossibility of co-operating. Man is left free. God does not lay hold of\nany one by the hair of his head, and drag him into paths of\nrighteousness whether he will or no. But whilst there is the necessity\nfor co-operation, which involves the possibility of resistance, we must\nalso remember that that new life which comes into a man, and moulds his\nwill as well as the rest of his nature, is itself the gift of God. We do\nnot get into a contradiction when we thus speak, we only touch the edge\nof a great ocean in which our plummets can find no bottom. The same\nunravellable knot as to the co-operation of the divine and the creatural\nis found in the natural world, as in the experiences of the Christian\nsoul. You have to work, and your work largely consists in yielding\nyourselves to the work of God upon you. 'Work out your own salvation\nwith fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you.' Brethren!\nIf you and I are Christian people, we have put into our hearts and\nspirits the talent. It depends on us whether we wrap it in a napkin, and\nstow it away underground somewhere, or whether we use it, and fructify\nand increase it. If you wrap it in a napkin and put it away underground,\nwhen you come to take it out, and want to say, 'Lo! there Thou hast that\nis Thine,' you will find that it was not solid gold, which could not\nrust or diminish, but that it has been like some volatile essence, put\naway in an unventilated place, and imperfectly secured: the napkin is\nthere, but the talent has vanished. We have to work with God, and we can\nresist. Ay, and there is a deeper and a sadder word than that applied by\nthe same Apostle in another letter to the same subject. We can 'quench'\nthe light and extinguish the fire.\n\nWhat extinguishes it? Look at the catalogue of sins that lie side by\nside with this exhortation of my text! They are all small\nmatters--bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, evil-speaking, malice,\nstealing, lying, and the like; very 'homely' transgressions, if I may so\nsay. Yes, and if you pile enough of them upon the spark that is in your\nhearts you will smother it out. Sin, the wrenching of myself away from\nthe influences, not attending to the whispers and suggestions, being\nblind to the teaching of the Spirit through the Word and through\nProvidence: these are the things that 'grieve the Holy Spirit of God.'\n\nAnd so, lastly, we have here--\n\nIV. A Tender Motive, a dissuasive from sin, a persuasive to yielding and\nto righteousness.\n\nMany a man has been kept from doing wrong things by thinking of a sad\npale face sitting at home waiting for him. Many a boy has been kept from\nyouthful transgressions which war against his soul here, on the streets\nof Manchester, full as they are of temptations, by thinking that it\nwould grieve the poor old mother in her cottage, away down in the\ncountry somewhere. We can bring that same motive to bear, with\ninfinitely increased force, in regard to our conduct as Christian\npeople. 'Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.' A father feels a pang if he\nsees that his child makes no account of some precious gift that he has\nbestowed upon him, and leaves it lying about anywhere. A loving friend,\nstanding on the margin of the stream, and calling to his friends in a\nboat when they are drifting to the rapids, turns away sad if they do not\nattend to his voice. That Divine Spirit pleads with us, and proffers its\ngifts to us, and turns away--I was going to use too strong a word,\nperhaps--sick at heart, not because of wounded authority, but because of\nwounded love and baffled desire to help, when we, in spite of It, will\ntake our own way, neglect the call that warns us of our peril, and leave\nuntouched the gifts that would have made us safe.\n\nDear brethren, surely such a dissuasive from evil, and such a persuasive\nto good, is mightier than all abstractions about duty and conscience and\nright, and the like. 'Do it rightly' says Paul, 'and you will please Him\nthat hath called you'; leave the evil thing undone, 'and my heart shall\nbe glad, even mine.' You and I can grieve the Christ whose Spirit is\ngiven to us. You and I can add something to 'the joy of our Lord.'\n\n\n\n\nGOD'S IMITATORS\n\n 'Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children'--Eph. v. 1.\n\n\nThe Revised Version gives a more literal and more energetic rendering of\nthis verse by reading, 'Be ye, therefore, _imitators_ of God, _as\nbeloved_ children.' It is the only place in the Bible where that bold\nword 'imitate' is applied to the Christian relation to God. But, though\nthe expression is unique, the idea underlies the whole teaching of the\nNew Testament on the subject of Christian character and conduct. To be\nlike God, and to set ourselves to resemble Him, is the sum of all duty;\nand in the measure in which we approximate thereto, we come to\nperfection. So, then, there are here just two points that I would\nbriefly touch upon now--the one is the sublime precept of the text, and\nthe other the all-sufficient motive enforcing it. 'Be ye imitators of\nGod as'--because you are, and know yourselves to be--'beloved children,'\nand it therefore behoves you to be like your Father.\n\nI. First, then, this sublime precept.\n\nNow notice that, broad as this precept is, and all-inclusive of every\nkind of excellence and duty as it may be, the Apostle has a very\ndefinite and specific meaning in it. There is one feature, and only one,\nin which, accurately speaking, a man may be like God. Our limited\nknowledge can never be like the ungrowing perfect wisdom of God. Our\nholiness cannot be like His, for there are many points in our nature and\ncharacter which have no relation or correspondence to anything in the\ndivine nature. But what is left? Love is left. Our other graces are not\nlike the God to whom they cleave. My faith is not like His faithfulness.\nMy obedience is not like His authority. My submission is not like His\nautocratic power. My emptiness is not like His fulness. My aspirations\nare not like His gratifying of them. They correspond to God, but\ncorrespondence is not similarity; rather it presupposes unlikeness. Just\nas a concavity will fit into a convexity, for the very reason that it is\nconcave and not convex, so the human unlikenesses, which are\ncorrespondent to God, are the characteristics by which it becomes\npossible that we should cleave to Him and inhere in Him. But whilst\nthere is much in which He stands alone and incomparable, and whilst we\nhave all to say, 'Who is like unto Thee, O Lord?' or what likeness shall\nwe compare unto Him? we yet can obey in reference to one thing,--and to\none thing only, as it seems to me--the commandment of my text, 'Be ye\nimitators of God.' We can be _like_ Him in nothing else, but our love\nnot only corresponds to His, but is of the same quality and nature as\nHis, howsoever different it may be in sweep and in fervour and in\ndegree. The tiniest drop that hangs upon the tip of a thorn will be as\nperfect a sphere as the sun, and it will have its little rainbow on its\nround, with all the prismatic colours, the same in tint and order and\nloveliness, as when the bow spans the heavens. The dew-drop may imitate\nthe sun, and we are to be imitators of God; knit to Him by the one thing\nin us which is kindred to Him in the deepest sense--the love that is the\nlife of God and the perfecting of man.\n\nWell, then, notice how the Apostle in the context fastens upon a certain\ncharacteristic of that divine love which we are to imitate in our lives;\nand thereby makes the precept a very practical and a very difficult one.\nGodlike love will be love that gives as liberally as His does. What is\nthe very essence of all love? Longing to be like. And the purest and\ndeepest love is love which desires to impart itself, and that is God's\nlove. The Bible seems to teach us that in a very mysterious sense, about\nwhich the less we say the less likely we are to err, there is a quality\nof giving up, as well as of giving, in God's love; for we read of the\nFather that 'spared not His Son,' by which is meant, not that He did not\nshrink from inflicting something upon the Son, but that He did not\ngrudgingly keep that Son for Himself. 'He spared not His own Son, but\ndelivered Him up to the death for us all.' And if we can say but little\nabout that surrender on the part of the infinite Fountain of all love,\nwe can say that Jesus Christ, who is the activity of the Father's love,\nspared not Himself, but, as the context puts it, 'gave Himself _up_ for\nus.'\n\nAnd that is the pattern for us. That thought is not a subject to be\ndecorated with tawdry finery of eloquence, or to be dealt with as if it\nwere a sentimental prettiness very fit to be spoken of, but impossible\nto be practised. It is the duty of every Christian man and woman, and\nthey have not done their duty unless they have learned that the bond\nwhich unites them to men is, in its nature, the very same as the bond\nwhich unites men to God; and that they will not have lived righteously\nunless they learn to be 'imitators of God,' in the surrender of\nthemselves for their brother's good.\n\nAh, friend, that grips us very tight--and if there were a little more\nreality and prose brought into our sentimental talk about Christian\nlove, and that love were more often shown in action, in all the\nself-suppression and taking a lift of a world's burdens, which its great\nPattern demands, the world would be less likely to curl a scornful lip\nat the Church's talk about brotherly love.\n\nYou say that you are a Christian--that is to say a child of God. Do you\nknow anything, and would anybody looking at you see that you knew\nanything, about the love which counts no cost and no sacrifice too great\nto be lavished on the unworthy and the sinful?\n\nBut that brings me to another point. The Apostle here, in the context,\nnot for the sake of saying pretty things, but for the sake of putting\nsharp points on Christian duty, emphasises another thought, that Godlike\nlove will be a forgiving love. Why should we be always waiting for the\nother man to determine our relations to him, and consider that if he\ndoes not like us we are absolved from the duty of loving him? Why should\nwe leave him to settle the terms upon which we are to stand? God has\nlove, as the Sermon on the Mount puts it, 'to the unthankful and the\nevil,' and we shall not be imitating His example unless we carry the\nsame temper into all our relationships with our fellows.\n\nPeople sit complacently and hear all that I am now trying to enforce,\nand think it is the right thing for me to say, but do you think it is\nthe right thing for you to do? When a man obviously does not like you,\nor perhaps tries to harm you, what then? How do you meet him? 'He maketh\nHis sun to shine, and sendeth His rain, on the unthankful and the evil.'\n'Be ye imitators of God, as beloved children.'\n\nNow note the all-sufficient motive for this great precept.\n\nThe sense of being loved will make loving, and nothing else will. The\nonly power that will eradicate, or break without eradicating, our\nnatural tendency to make ourselves our centres, is the recognition that\nthere, at the heart, and on the central throne of the universe, and the\ndivinest thing in it, there sits perfect and self-sacrificing Love,\nwhose beams warm even us. The only flame that kindles love in a man's\nheart, whether it be to God or to man, is the recognition that he\nhimself stands in the full sunshine of that blaze from above, and that\nGod has loved him. Our hearts are like reverberating furnaces, and when\nthe fire of the consciousness of the divine love is lit in them, then\nfrom sides and roof the genial heat is reflected back again to intensify\nthe central flame. Love begets love, and according to Paul, and\naccording to John, and according to the Master of both of them, if a man\nloves God, then that glowing beam will glow whether it is turned to\nearth or turned to heaven.\n\nThe Bible does not cut love into two, and keep love to God in one\ndivision of the heart and love to man in another, but regards them as\none and the same; the same sentiment, the same temper, the same attitude\nof heart and mind, only that in the one case the love soars, and in the\nother it lives along the level. The two are indissolubly tied together.\n\nIt is because a man knows himself to be beloved that therefore he is\nstimulated and encouraged to be an 'imitator of God' and, on the other\nhand, the sense of being God's child underlies all real imitation of\nHim. Imitation is natural to the child. It is a miserable home where a\nboy does not imitate his father, and it is the father's fault in nine\ncases out of ten if he does not. Whoever feels himself to be a beloved\nchild is thereby necessarily drawn to model himself on the Father that\nhe loves, because he knows that the Father loves him.\n\nSo I come to the blessed truth that Christian morality does not say to\nus, 'Now begin, and work, and tinker away at yourselves, and try to get\nup some kind of excellence of character, and then come to God, and pray\nHim to accept you.' That is putting the cart before the horse. The order\nis reversed. We are to begin with taking our personal salvation and\nGod's love to us for granted, and to work from that. Realise that you\nare beloved children, and then set to work to live accordingly. If we\nare ever to do what is our bounden duty to do, in all the various\nrelations of life, we must begin with recognising, with faithful and\ngrateful hearts, the love wherewith God has loved us. We are to think\nmuch and confidently of ourselves as beloved of God, and that, and only\nthat, will make us loving to men.\n\nThe Nile floods the fields of Egypt and brings greenness and abundance\nwherever its waters are carried, because thousands of miles away, close\nup to the Equator, the snows have melted and filled the watercourses in\nthe far-off wilderness. And so, if we are to go out into life, living\nillustrations and messengers of a love that has redeemed even us, we\nmust, in many a solitary moment, and in the depths of our quiet hearts,\nrealise and keep fast the conviction that God hath loved us, and Christ\nhath died for us.\n\nBut a solemn consideration has to be pressed on all our consciences, and\nthat is that there is something wrong with a man's Christian confidence\nwhose assurance that he himself possesses a share in the love of God in\nChrist, is not ever moving him to imitation of the love in which he\ntrusts. It is a shame that any one without Christian faith and love\nshould be as charitable, as open to pity and to help, as earnest in any\nsort of philanthropic work, as Christian men and women are. But godless\nand perfectly secular philanthropy treads hard on the heels of Christian\ncharity to-day. The more shame to us if we have been eating our morsels\nalone, and hugging ourselves in the possession of the love which has\nredeemed us; and if it has not quickened us to the necessity of copying\nit in our relations to our fellows. There is something dreadfully wrong\nabout such a Christian character. 'He that loveth not his brother whom\nhe hath seen, how shall he love God whom he hath not seen?'\n\nTake these plain principles, and honestly fit them to your characters\nand lives, and you will revolutionise both.\n\n\n\n\nWHAT CHILDREN OF LIGHT SHOULD BE\n\n 'Walk as children of light.'--Eph. v. 8.\n\n\nIt was our Lord who coined this great name for His disciples. Paul's use\nof it is probably a reminiscence of the Master's, and so is a hint of\nthe existence of the same teachings as we now find in the existing\nGospels, long before their day. Jesus Christ said, 'Believe in the\nlight, that ye may be the children of light'; and Paul gives\nsubstantially the same account of the way by which a man becomes a Son\nof the Light when he says, in the words preceding my text, 'Ye were\nsometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.'\n\nUnion with Him makes light, just as the bit of carbon will glow as long\nas it is in contact with the electric force, and subsides again into\ndarkness when that is switched off. To be in Christ is to be a child of\nlight, and to believe in Christ is to be in Him.\n\nBut the intense moral earnestness of our Apostle is indicated by the\nfact that on both occasions in which he uses this designation he does\nso, not for the purpose of heightening the sense of the honour and\nprerogative attached to it, but for the sake of deducing from it plain\nand stringent moral duties, and heightening the sense of obligation to\nholy living.\n\n'Walk as children of light.' Be true to your truest, deepest self.\nManifest what you are. Let the sweet, sacred secrets of inward communion\ncome out in the trivialities of ordinary conduct; make of your every\nthought a deed, and see to it that every deed be vitalised and purified\nby its contact with the great truths and thoughts that lie in this name.\nThese are various ways of putting this one all-sufficient directory of\nconduct.\n\nNow, in the context, the Apostle expands this concentrated exhortation\nin three or four different directions, and perhaps we may best set forth\nits meaning if we shape our remarks by these, I venture to cast them,\nfor the sake of emphasis, into a hortatory form.\n\nI. Aim at an all-round productiveness of the natural fruits of the\nlight.\n\nThe true reading is, 'Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the\nlight' (not _spirit_, as the Authorised Version reads it) 'is in all\ngoodness and righteousness and truth.' Now, it is obvious that the\nalteration of 'light' instead of 'spirit' brings the words into\nconnection with the preceding and the following. The reference to the\n'fruits of the spirit' would be entirely irrelevant in this place; a\nreference to the 'fruit of the _light_,' as being every form of goodness\nand righteousness and truth, is altogether in place.\n\nThere is, then, a natural tendency in the light to blossom out into all\nforms and types of goodness. 'Fruit' suggests the idea of natural,\nsilent, spontaneous, effortless growth. And, although that is by no\nmeans a sufficient account of the process by which bad men become good\nmen, it is an inseparable element, in all true moral renovation, that it\nbe the natural outcome and manifestation of an inward principle;\notherwise it is mere hypocritical adornment, or superficial appearance.\nIf we are to do good we must first of all _be_ good. If from us there\nare to come righteousness and truth, and all other graces of character,\nthere must, first of all, be the radical change which is involved in\npassing from separateness in the darkness to union with Jesus Christ in\nthe light. The Apostle's theory of moral renovation is that you must\nbegin with the implantation in the spirit of the source of all moral\ngoodness--viz. Jesus Christ--brought into the heart by the uniting power\nof humble faith. And then there will be lodged in our being a vital\npower, of which the natural outcome will be all manner of fair and pure\nthings. Effort is needed, as I shall have to say; but prior to effort\nthere must be union with Jesus Christ.\n\nThis wide, general commandment of our text is sufficiently definite,\nthinks Paul; for if the light be in you it will naturally effloresce\ninto all forms of beauty. Light is the condition of fruitfulness.\nEverywhere the vital germ is only acted upon by the light. No sunshine,\nno flowers; darkness produces thin, etiolated, whitened, and feeble\nshoots at the best. Let the light blaze in, and the blanched feebleness\nbecomes vigorous and unfolds itself. How much more will light be the\ncondition of fruitfulness when the very light itself is the seed from\nwhich all fruit is developed.\n\nBut, still further, mark how there must be an all-round completeness in\norder that we shall fairly set forth the glory and power of the light of\nwhich our faith makes us children and partakers. The fruit 'is in all\ngoodness and righteousness and truth.' These three aspects--the good,\nthe right, the true--may not be a scientific, ethical classification,\nbut they give a sufficiently plain and practical distinction. Goodness,\nin which the prevailing idea is beneficence and the kindlier virtues;\nrighteousness, which refers to the sterner graces of justice; truth, in\nwhich the prevalent idea is conformity in action with facts and the\nconditions of man's life and entire sincerity--these three do cover,\nwith sufficient completeness, the whole ground of possible human\nexcellence. But the Apostle widens them still further by that little\nword _all_.\n\nWe all tend to cultivate those virtues which are in accordance with our\nnatural dispositions, or are made most easy to us by our circumstances.\nAnd there is nothing in which we more need to seek comprehensiveness\nthan in the effort to educate ourselves into, and to educe from\nourselves, kinds of goodness and forms of excellence which are not\nnaturally in accordance with our dispositions, or facilitated by our\ncircumstances. The tree planted in the shrubbery will grow all lopsided;\nthe bushes on the edge of the cliff will be shorn away on the windward\nside by the teeth of the south-western gale, and will lean over\nnorthwards, on the side of least resistance. And so we all are apt to\ncontent ourselves with doing the good things that are easiest for us, or\nthat fit into our temperament and character. Jesus Christ would have us\nto be all-round men, and would that we should seek to aim after and\npossess the kinds of excellence that are least cognate to our\ncharacters. Are you strong, and do you pride yourself upon your\nfirmness? Cultivate gentleness. Are you amiable, and pride yourself,\nperhaps, upon your sympathetic tenderness? Try to get a little iron and\nquinine into your constitution. Seek to be the man that you are least\nlikely to be, and aim at a comprehensive development of '_all_\nrighteousness and goodness and truth.'\n\nFurther, remember that this all-round completeness is not attained as\nthe result of an effortless growth. True, these things are the fruits of\nthe light, but also true, they are the prizes of struggle and the\ntrophies of warfare. No man will ever attain to the comprehensive moral\nexcellence which it is in his own power to win; no Christian will ever\nbe as all-round a good man as he has the opportunities of being, unless\nhe makes it his business, day by day, to aim after the conscious\nincrease of gifts that he possesses, and the conscious appropriation and\npossession of those of which he is still lacking. 'Nothing of itself\nwill come,' or very little. True, the light will shine out in variously\ntinted ray if it be in a man, as surely as from the seed come the blade\nand the ear and the full corn in the ear, but you will not have nor keep\nthe light which thus will unfold itself unless you put forth appropriate\neffort. Christ comes into our hearts, but we have to bring Him there.\nChrist dwells in our hearts, but we have to work into our nature, and\nwork out in action, the gifts that He bestows. They will advance but\nlittle in the divine life who trust to the natural unfolding of the\nsupernatural life within them, and do not help its unfolding by their\nown resolute activity. 'Walk as children of the light.' There is your\nduty, for 'the fruit of the light is all righteousness.' One might have\nsupposed that the commandments would be, 'Be passive as children of the\nlight, for the light will grow.' But the Apostle binds together, as\nalways, the two things, the divine working and the human effort at\nreception, retention, and application of that divine work, just as he\ndoes in the great classical passage, 'Work out your own salvation, for\nit is God that worketh in you.'\n\nII. Secondly, the general exhortation of my text widens out itself into\nthis--test all things by Christ's approval of them.\n\n'Proving what is well pleasing unto the Lord.' That, according to the\nnatural construction of the Greek, is the main way by which the Apostle\nconceives that his general commandment of 'walking as children of the\nlight' is to be carried out. You do it if, step by step, and moment by\nmoment, and to every action of life, you apply this standard--Does\nChrist like it? Does it please Him? When that test is rigidly applied,\nthen, and only then, will you walk as becomes the children of the light.\n\nSo, then, there is a standard--not what men approve, not what my\nconscience, partially illuminated, may say is permissible, not what is\nrecognised as allowable by the common maxims of the world round about\nus, but Christ's approval. How different the hard, stern, and often\nunwelcome prescriptions of law and rigidity of some standards of right\nbecome when they are changed into that which pleases the Divine Lord and\nLover! Surely it is something blessed that the hard, cold, and to such a\nlarge extent powerless conceptions of duty or obligation shall be\nchanged into pleasing Jesus Christ; and that so our hearts shall be\nenlisted in the service of our consciences, and love shall be glad to do\nthe Beloved's will. There are many ways by which the burden of life's\nobligations is lightened to the Christian. I do not know that any of\nthem is more precious than the fact that law is changed into His will,\nand that we seek to do what is right because it pleases the Master.\nThere is the standard.\n\nIt will be easy for us to come to the right appreciation of individual\nactions when we are living in the light. Union with Jesus Christ will\nmake us quick to discern His will. We have a conscience;--well, that\nneeds educating and enlightening, and very often correcting. We have the\nWord of God;--well, that needs explanation, and needs to be brought\nclose to our hearts. If we have Christ dwelling in us, in the measure\nin which we are in sympathy with Him, we shall be gifted with clear\neyes, not indeed to discern the expedient--that belongs to another\nregion altogether--but we shall be gifted with very clear eyes to\ndiscern right from wrong, and there will be an instinctive recoil from\nthe evil, and an instinctive attachment of ourselves to the good. If we\nare in the Lord we shall easily be able to prove what is acceptable and\nwell-pleasing to Him.\n\nWe shall never walk as the children of the light, unless we have the\nhabit of referring everything, trifles and great things, to His\narbitrament, and seeking in them all to do what is pleasing in His\nsight. The smallest deed may be brought under the operation of the\nlargest principles. Gravitation influences the microscopic grain of sand\nas well as planets and sun. There is nothing so small but you can bring\nit into this category--it either pleases or displeases Jesus Christ. And\nthe faults into which Christian men fall and in which they continue are\nvery largely owing to their carelessness in applying this standard to\nthe small things of their daily lives. The sleepy Custom House officers\nlet the contraband article in because it seems to be of small bulk.\nThere are old stories about how strong castles were taken by armed men\nhidden in an innocent-looking cart of forage. Do you keep up a rigid\ninspection at the frontier, and see to it that everything vindicates its\nright to enter because it is pleasing to Jesus Christ.\n\nIII. Thirdly, we have here another expansion of the general command, and\nthat is--keep well separate from the darkness.\n\nHave no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather\nreprove them.' Now, your time will not allow me to dwell, as I had hoped\nto do, upon the considerations to be suggested here. The very briefest\npossible mention of them is all that I can afford.\n\n'The unfruitful works of darkness';--well, then, the darkness has its\nworks, but though they be works they are not worth calling fruit. That\nis to say, nothing except the conduct which flows from union with Jesus\nChrist so corresponds to the man's nature and relations, or has any such\npermanence about it as to entitle it to be called fruit. Other acts may\nbe 'works' but Paul will not dishonour the great word 'fruit' by\napplying it to such rubbish as these, and so he brands them as\n'unfruitful works of darkness.'\n\nKeep well clear of them, says the Apostle. He is not talking here about\nthe relations between Christians and others, but about the relations\nbetween Christian men and the _works_ of darkness. Only, of course, in\norder to avoid fellowship with the works you will sometimes have to keep\nyourselves well separate from their doers. Much association with such\nmen is forced upon us by circumstances, and much is the imperative duty\nof Christian beneficence and charity. But I venture to express the\nstrong and growing conviction that there are few exhortations that the\nsecularised Church of this generation needs more than this commandment\nof my text: 'Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness'\n'What communion hath light with darkness?' Ah! we see plenty of it,\nunnatural as it is, in the so-called Church of to-day. 'What concord\nhath Christ with Belial? What part hath he that believeth with an\ninfidel? Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate.'\n\nAnd, brethren, remember, a part of the separation is that your light\nshall be a constant condemnation of the darkness. 'But rather reprove\nthem,' says my text; that is a work that devolves upon all Christians.\nIt is to be done, no doubt, by the silent condemnation of evil which\never comes from the quiet doing of good. As an old preacher has it, 'The\npresence of a saint hinders the devil of elbow-room for doing his\ntricks.' The old legend told us that the fire-darting Apollo shot his\nradiant arrows against the pythons and 'dragons of the slime.' The sons\nof light have the same office--by their light of life to make the\ndarkness aware of itself, and ashamed of itself; and to change it into\nlight.\n\nBut silent reproving is not all our duty. The Christian Church has\nwofully fallen beneath its duty, not only in regard to its complicity\nwith the social crimes of each generation, but in regard to its cowardly\nsilence towards them; especially when they flaunt and boast themselves\nin high places. What has the Church said worthy of itself in regard to\nwar? What has the Church said worthy of itself in regard to impurity?\nWhat has the Church said worthy of itself in regard to drunkenness? What\nhas the Church said worthy of itself in regard to the social vices that\nare honeycombing society and this city to-day? If you are the sons of\nlight, walk as the sons of light, and have 'no fellowship with the\nunfruitful works of darkness'; but set the trumpet to your lips, and\n'declare unto My people their transgressions, and to the house of Israel\ntheir sin.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE FRUIT OF THE LIGHT\n\n 'The fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and\n truth.'--Eph. v. 9 (R.V.).\n\n\nThis is one of the cases in which the Revised Version has done service\nby giving currency to an unmistakably accurate and improved reading.\nThat which stands in our Authorised Version, 'the fruit of the Spirit'\nseems to have been a correction made by some one who took offence at the\nviolent metaphor, as he conceived it, that 'light' should bear 'fruit'\nand desired to tinker the text so as to bring it into verbal\ncorrespondence with another passage in the Epistle to the Galatians,\nwhere 'the fruits of the Spirit' are enumerated. But the reading, 'the\nfruit of the _light_,' has not only the preponderance of manuscript\nauthority in its favour, but is preferable because it preserves a\nstriking image, and is in harmony with the whole context.\n\nThe Apostle has just been exhorting his Ephesian friends to walk as\n'children of the light' and before he goes on to expand and explain that\ninjunction he interjects this parenthetical remark, as if he would say,\nTo be true to the light that is in you is the sum of duty, and the\ncondition of perfectness, '_for_ the fruit of the light is in all\ngoodness and righteousness and truth' That connection is entirely\ndestroyed by the substitution of 'spirit.' The whole context, both\nbefore and after my text, is full of references to the light as working\nin the life; and a couple of verses after it we read about 'the\nunfruitful works of darkness' an expression which evidently looks back\nto my text.\n\nSo please do understand that our text in this sermon is--'The fruit of\nthe _light_ consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth.'\n\nI. Now, first of all, I have just a word to say about this light which\nis fruitful.\n\nNote--for it is, I think, not without significance--a minute variation\nin the Apostle's language in this verse and in the context. He has been\nspeaking of 'light,' now he speaks of '_the_ light'; and that, I think,\nis not accidental. The expression, 'walk as children of light,' is more\ngeneral and vague. The expression, 'the fruit of _the_ light,' points to\nsome specific source from which all light flows. And observe, also, that\nwe have in the previous context, 'Ye were sometime darkness, but now are\nye light _in the Lord_,' which evidently implies that the light of which\nmy text speaks is not natural to men, but is the result of the entrance\ninto their darkness of a new element.\n\nNow I do not suppose that we should be entitled to say that Paul here is\nformally anticipating the deep teaching of the Apostle John that Jesus\nChrist is '_the_ Light of men,' and especially of Christian men. But he\nis distinctly asserting, I think, that the light which blesses and\nhallows humanity is no diffused glow, but is all gathered and\nconcentrated into one blazing centre, from which it floods the hearts of\nmen. Or, to put away the metaphor, he is here asserting that the only\nway by which any man can cease to be, in the doleful depths of his\nnature, darkness in its saddest sense is by opening his heart through\nfaith, that into it there may rush, as the light ever does where an\nopening--be it only a single tiny cranny--is made, the light which is\nChrist, and without whom is darkness.\n\nI know, of course, that, apart altogether from the exercise of faith in\nJesus Christ, there do shine in men's hearts rays of the light of\nknowledge and of purity; but if we believe the teaching of Scripture,\nthese, too, are from Christ, in His universally-diffused work, by which,\napart altogether from individual faith, or from a knowledge of\nrevelation, He is 'the light that lighteth every man coming into the\nworld.' And I hold that, wheresoever there is conscience, wheresoever\nthere is judgment and reason, wheresoever there are sensitive desires\nafter excellence and nobleness, _there_ is a flickering of a light which\nI believe to be from Christ Himself. But that light, as widely diffused\nas humanity, fights with, and is immersed in, darkness. In the physical\nworld, light and darkness are mutually exclusive: where the one is the\nother comes not; but in the spiritual world the paradox is true that the\ntwo co-exist. Apart from revelation and the acceptance of Jesus Christ's\nperson and work by our humble faith, the light struggles with the\ndarkness, and the darkness obstinately refuses to admit its entrance,\nand 'comprehendeth it not.' And so, ineffectual but to make restless and\nto urge to vain efforts and to lay up material for righteous judgment,\nis the light that shines in men whose hearts are shut against Christ.\nThe fruitful light is Christ within us, and, unless we know and possess\nit by the opening of heart and mind and will, the solemn words preceding\nmy text are true of us: 'Ye were sometime darkness.' Oh, brother! do you\nsee to it that the subsequent words are true of you: 'Now are ye light\nin the Lord.' Only if you are in Christ are you truly light.\n\nII. Now, secondly, notice the fruitfulness of this indwelling light.\n\nOf course the metaphor that light, like a tree, grows and blossoms and\nputs forth fruit, is a very strong one. And its very violence and\nincongruity help its force. Fruit is generally used in Scripture in a\ngood sense. It conveys the notion of something which is the natural\noutcome of a vital power, and so, when we talk about the light being\nfruitful, we are setting, in a striking image, the great Christian\nthought that, if you want to get right conduct, you must have renewed\ncharacter; and that if you have renewed character you will get right\nconduct. This is the principle of my text. The light has in it a\nproductive power; and the true way to adorn a life with all things\nbeautiful, solemn, lovely, is to open the heart to the entrance of Jesus\nChrist.\n\nGod's way is--first, new life, then better conduct. Men's way is,\n'cultivate morality, seek after purity, try to be good.' And surely\nconscience and experience alike tell us that that is a hopeless effort.\nTo begin with what should be second is an anachronism in morals, and\nwill be sure to result in failure in practice. He is not a wise man that\ntries to build a house from the chimneys downwards. And to talk about\nmaking a man's doings good before you have secured a radical change in\nthe doer, by the infusion into him of the very life of Jesus Christ\nHimself, is to begin at the top story, instead of at the foundation.\nMany of us are trying to put the cart before the horse in that fashion.\nMany of us have made the attempt over and over again, and the attempt\nalways has failed and always will fail. You may do much for the mending\nof your characters and for the incorporation in your lives of virtues\nand graces which do not grow there naturally and without effort. I do\nnot want to cut the nerves of any man's stragglings, I do not want to\ndarken the brightness of any man's aspirations, but I do say that the\npeople who, apart from Jesus Christ, and the entrance into their souls\nby faith of His quickening power, are seeking, some of them nobly, some\nof them sadly, and all of them vainly, to cure their faults of\ncharacter, will never attain anything but a superficial and fragmentary\ngoodness, because they have begun at the wrong end.\n\nBut 'make the tree good' and its fruit will be good. Get Christ into\nyour heart, and all fair things will grow as the natural outcome of His\nindwelling. The fruitfulness of the light is not put upon its right\nbasis until we come to understand that the light is Christ Himself, who,\ndwelling in our hearts by faith, is made _in_ us as well as '_unto_ us\nwisdom, and righteousness, and salvation, and redemption.' The beam that\nis reflected from the mirror is the very beam that falls on the mirror,\nand the fair things in life and conduct which Christian people bring\nforth are in very deed the outcome of the vital power of Jesus Christ\nwhich has entered into them. 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in\nme,' is the Apostle's declaration in the midst of his struggles; and the\nperfected saints before the throne cast their crowns at His feet, and\nsay, 'Not unto us! not unto us, but unto Thy name be the glory.' The\ntalent is the Lord's, only the spending of it is the servant's. And so\nthe order of the Divine appointment is, first, the entrance of the\nlight, and then the conduct that flows from it.\n\nNote, too, how this same principle of the fruitfulness of the light\ngives instruction as to the true place of effort in the Christian life.\nThe main effort ought to be to get more of the light into ourselves.\n'Abide in Me, and I in you.' And so, and only so, will fruit come.\n\nAnd such an effort has to take in hand all the circumference of our\nbeing, and to fix thoughts that wander, and to still wishes that\nclamour, and to empty hearts that are full of earthly loves, and to\nclear a space in minds that are crammed with thoughts about the\ntransient and the near, in order that the mind may keep in steadfast\ncontemplation of Jesus, and the heart may be bound to Him by cords of\nlove that are not capable of being snapped, and scarcely of being\nstretched, and the will may in patience stand saying, 'Speak, Lord! for\nThy servant heareth'; and the whole tremulous nature may be rooted and\nbuilt up in and on Him. Ah, brother! if we understand all that goes to\nthe fulfilment of that one sweet and merciful injunction, 'Abide in Me,'\nwe shall recognise that there is the field on which Christian effort is\nmainly to be occupied.\n\nBut that is not all. For there must be likewise the effort to\nappropriate, and still more to manifest in conduct, the fruit-bringing\nproperties of that indwelling light. 'Giving all diligence add to your\nfaith.' 'Having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all\nfilthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the\nLord.' We are often told that just as we trust Christ for our\nforgiveness and acceptance, so we are to trust Him for our sanctifying\nand perfecting. It is true, and yet it is not true. We are to trust Him\nfor our sanctifying and our perfecting. But the faith which trusts Him\nfor these is not a substitute for effort, but it is the foundation of\neffort. And the more we rely on His power to cleanse us from all evil,\nthe more are we bound to make the effort in His power and in dependence\non Him, to cleanse ourselves from all evil, and to secure as our own the\nnatural outcomes of His dwelling within us, which are 'the fruits of the\nlight.'\n\nIII. And so, lastly, notice the specific fruits which the Apostle here\ndwells upon.\n\nThey consist, says he, in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Now\n'goodness' here seems to me to be used in its narrower sense, just as\nthe same Apostle uses it in the Epistle to the Romans, in contrast with\n'righteousness,' where he says, 'for a good man some would even dare to\ndie.' There he means by 'good,' as he does here by 'goodness,' not the\ngeneral expression for all forms of virtue and gracious conduct, but the\nspecific excellence of kindliness, amiability, or the like.\n'Righteousness' again, is that which rigidly adheres to the strict law\nof duty, and carefully desires to give to every man what belongs to him,\nand to every relation of life what it requires. And 'truth' is rather\nthe truth of sincerity, as opposed to hypocrisy and lies and shams, than\nthe intellectual truth as opposed to error.\n\nNow, all these three types of excellence--kindliness, righteousness,\ntruthfulness--are apt to be separated. For the first of\nthem--amiability, kindliness, gentleness--is apt to become too soft, to\nlose its grip of righteousness, and it needs the tonic of the addition\nof those other graces, just as you need lime in water if it is to make\nbone. Righteousness, on the other hand, is apt to become stern, and\nneeds the softening of goodness to make it human and attractive. The\nrock is grim when it is bare; it wants verdure to drape it if it is to\nbe lovely. Truth needs kindliness and righteousness, and they need\ntruth. For there are men who pride themselves on 'speaking out,' and\ntake rudeness and want of regard for other people's sensitive feelings\nto be sincerity. And, on the other hand, it is possible that amiability\nmay be sweeter than truth is, and that righteousness may be hypocritical\nand insincere. So Paul says, 'Let this white light be resolved in the\nprism of your characters into the threefold rays of kindliness,\nrighteousness, truthfulness.'\n\nAnd then, again, he desires that each of us should try to make our own a\nfully developed, all-round perfection--_all_ goodness and righteousness\nand truth; of every sort, that is, and in every degree. We are all apt\nto cultivate graces of character which correspond to our natural\ndisposition and make. We are all apt to become _torsos_, fragmentary,\none-sided, like the trees that grow against a brick wall, or those which\nstand exposed to the prevailing blasts from one quarter of the sky. But\nwe should seek to appropriate types of excellence to which we are least\ninclined, as well as those which are most in harmony with our natural\ndispositions. If you incline to kindliness, try to brace yourselves with\nrighteousness; if you incline to righteousness, to take the stern,\nstrict view of duty, and to give to every man what he deserves, remember\nthat you do not give men their dues unless you give them a great deal\nmore than their deserts, and that righteousness does not perfectly allot\nto our fellows what they ought to receive from us, unless we give them\npity and indulgence and forbearance and forgiveness when it is needed.\nThe one light breaks into all colours--green in the grass, purple and\nred in the flowers, flame-coloured in the morning sky, blue in the deep\nsea. The light that is in us ought, in like manner, to be analysed\ninto, and manifested in, 'whatsoever things are lovely and of good\nreport.'\n\nAnd so, dear friends, here is a test for us all. Devout emotion,\northodox creed, practical diligence in certain forms of benevolence and\nphilanthropic work, are all very well; but Jesus Christ came to make us\nlike Himself, and to turn our darkness into light that betrays its\nsource by its resemblance, though it be a weakened one, to the sun from\nwhich it came. We have no right to call ourselves Christ's followers\nunless we are, in some measure, Christ's pictures.\n\nHere is a message of cheer and hope for us all. We have all tried, and\ntried, and tried, over and over again, to purge and mend these poor\ncharacters of ours. How long the toil, how miserable and poor the\nresults! A million candles will not light the night; but when God's\nmercy of sunrise comes above the hills, beasts of prey slink to their\ndens and birds begin to sing, and flowers open, and growth resumes\nagain. We cannot mend ourselves except partially and superficially; but\nwe can open will, heart, and mind, by faith, for His entrance; and where\nHe comes, there He slays the evil creatures that live in and love the\ndark, and all gracious things will blossom into beauty. If we are in the\nLord we shall be light; and if the Lord, who is the Light, is in us, we,\ntoo, shall bear fruits of 'all righteousness and goodness and truth.'\n\n\n\n\nPLEASING CHRIST\n\n 'Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.'--Eph. v. 10.\n\n\nThese words are closely connected with those which precede them in the\n8th verse--'Walk as children of light.' They further explain the mode by\nwhich that commandment is to be fulfilled. They who, as children of\nlight, mindful of their obligations and penetrated by its brightness,\nseek to conform their active life to the light to which they belong, are\nto do so by making experiment of, or investigating and determining, what\nis 'acceptable to the Lord.' It is the sum of all Christian duty, a\nbrief compendium of conduct, an all-sufficient directory of life.\n\nThere need only be two remarks made by way of explanation of my text.\nOne is that the expression rendered 'acceptable' is more accurately and\nforcibly given, as in the Revised Version, by the plainer word\n'well-pleasing.' And the other is that 'the Lord' here, as always in the\nNew Testament--unless the context distinctly forbids it--means Jesus\nChrist. Here the context distinctly demands it. For only a sentence or\ntwo before, the Apostle has been speaking about 'those who were sometime\ndarkness having been made light in the Lord'--which is obviously in\nJesus Christ.\n\nAnd here, therefore, what pleases _Christ_ is the Christian's highest\nduty, and the one prescription which is required to be obeyed in order\nto walk in the light is, to do that which pleases Him.\n\nI. So, then, in these brief words, so comprehensive, and going so deep\ninto the secrets of holy and noble living, I want you to notice that we\nhave, first, the only attitude which corresponds to our relations to\nChrist.\n\nHow remarkable it is that this Apostle should go on the presumption that\nour conduct affects Him, that it is possible for us to please, or to\ndisplease Jesus Christ now. We often wonder whether the beloved dead are\ncognisant of what we do; and whether any emotions of something like\neither our earthly complacency or displeasure, can pass across the\nundisturbed calm of their hearts, if they are aware of what their loved\nones here are doing. That question has to be left very much in the dark,\nhowever our hearts may sometimes seek to enforce answers. But this we\nknow, that that loving Lord, not merely by the omniscience of His\ndivinity, but by the perpetual knowledge and sympathy of His perfect\nmanhood, is not only cognizant of, but is affected by, the conduct of\nHis professed followers here on earth. And since it is true that He now\nis not swept away into some oblivious region where the dead are, but is\nclose beside us all, cognizant of every act, watching every thought, and\ncapable of having something like a shadow of a pang passing across the\nDivine depth of His eternal joy and repose at the right hand of God,\nthen, surely, the only thing that corresponds to such a relationship as\nat present subsists between the Christian soul and the Lord is that we\nshould take as our supreme and continual aim that, 'whether present or\nabsent, we should be well-pleasing to Him.' Nor does that demand rest\nonly upon the realities of our present relation to that Lord, but it\ngoes back to the past facts on which our present relation rests. And the\nonly fitting response to what He has been and done for us is that we\nshould, each of us, in the depth of our hearts, and in the widest\ncircumference of the surface of our lives, enthrone Him as absolute\nLord, and take His good pleasure as our supreme law. Jesus Christ is\nKing because He is Redeemer. The only adequate response to what He has\ndone for me is that I should absolutely submit myself to Him, and say to\nHim, 'O Lord! truly I am Thy servant! Thou hast loosed my bonds.' The\none fitting return to make for that Cross and Passion is to enthrone His\nwill upon my will, and to set Him as absolute Monarch over the whole of\nmy nature. Thoughts, affections, purposes, efforts, and all should crown\nHim King, because He has died for me. The conduct which corresponds to\nthe relations which we bear to Christ as the present Judge of our work,\nand the Redeemer of our souls by His mighty deed in the past, is this of\nmy text, to make my one law His will, and to please Him that hath called\nme to be His soldier.\n\nThe meaning of being a Christian is that, in return for the gift of a\nwhole Christ, I give my whole self to Him. 'Why call ye me Lord! Lord!\nand do not the things which I say?' If He is what He assuredly is to\nevery one of us, nothing can be plainer than that we are thereby bound\nby obligations which are not iron, but are more binding than if they\nwere, because they were woven out of the cords of love and the bands of\na man, bound to serve Him supremely, Him only, Him always, Him by the\nsuppression of self, and the making His pleasure our law.\n\nII. Now, secondly, let me ask you to notice that we have here the\nall-sufficient guide for practical life.\n\nIt sounds very mystical, and a trifle vague, to say, Do everything to\nplease Jesus Christ. It is all-comprehensive; it is mystical in the\nsense that it goes down below the mere surface of prescriptions about\nconduct. But it is not vague, and it is capable of immediate application\nto every part, and to every act, of every man's life.\n\nFor what is it that pleases Jesus Christ? His own likeness; as,\naccording to the old figure--which is, I suppose, true to spiritual\nfacts, whether to external facts or not--the refiner knows that the\nmetal is ready to flow when he can see his own face in it. Jesus Christ\ndesires most that we should all be like Him. That we are to bear His\nimage is as comprehensive, and at the same time as specific, a way of\nsetting forth the sum of Christian duty, as are the words of my text.\nThe two phrases mean the same thing.\n\nAnd what is the likeness to Jesus Christ which it is thus our supreme\nobligation and our truest wisdom and perfection to bear? Well! we can\nput it all into two words--self-suppression and continual consciousness\nof obedience to the Divine will. The life of Jesus Christ, in its brief\nrecords in Scripture, is felt by every thoughtful man to contain within\nits narrow compass adequate direction for, and to set forth the ideal\nof, human life. That is not because He went through all varieties of\nearthly experience, for He did not. The life of a Jewish peasant\nnineteen centuries ago was extremely unlike the life of a Manchester\nmerchant, of a college professor, of a successful barrister, of a\nstruggling mother, in this present day. But in the narrow compass of\nthat life there are set forth these two things, which are the basis of\nall human perfection--the absolute annihilation of self-regard, and the\nperpetual recognition of a Divine will. These are the things which every\nChristian man and woman is bound by the power of Christ's Cross to\ntranslate into the actions correspondent with their particular\ncircumstances. And so the student at his desk and the sailor on his\ndeck, the miner in his pit, the merchant on 'Change, the worker in\nvarious handicrafts, may each be sure that they are doing what is\npleasing to Christ if, in their widely different ways, they seek to do\nwhat they can do in all the varieties of life--crucify self, and commune\nwith God.\n\nThat is not easy. Whatever may be the objections to be brought against\nthis summary of Christian duty, the objection that it is vague is the\nlast that can be sustained. Try it, and you will find out that it is\nanything but vague. It will grip tight enough, depend upon it. It will\ngo deep enough down into all the complexities of our varying\ncircumstances. If it has a fault (which it has not) it is in the\ndirection of too great stringency for unaided human nature. But the\nstringency is not too great when we depend upon Him to help us, and an\nimpossible ideal is a certain prophet of its own fulfilment some day.\n\nSo, brethren, here is the sufficient guide, not because it cumbers us\nwith a mass of wretched little prescriptions such as a martinet might\ngive, about all sorts of details of conduct. That is left to profitless\ncasuists like the ancient rabbis. But the broad principles will\neffloresce into all manner of perfectnesses and all fruits. He that has\nin his heart these thoughts, that the definition of virtue is pleasing\nJesus Christ, that the concrete form of goodness is likeness to Him, and\nthat the elements of likeness to Him are these two, that I should never\nthink about myself, and always think about God, needs no other guide or\ninstructor to fill his life with 'whatsoever things are lovely and of\ngood report,' and to make his own all that the world calls virtue, and\nall which the consciences of good men have conspired to praise.\n\nBut not only does this guide prove its sufficiency by reason of its\ncomprehensiveness, but also because there is no difficulty in\nascertaining what at each moment it prescribes. Of course, I know that\nsuch a precept as this cannot contain in itself guidance in matters of\nmere practical expediency. But, apart from these--which are to be\ndetermined by the ordinary exercise of prudence and common sense--in\nregard to the right and the wrong of our actions, I believe that if a\nman wants to know Christ's will, and takes the way of knowing it which\nChrist has appointed, he shall not be left in darkness, but shall have\nthe light of life.\n\nFor love has a strange power of divining love's wishes, as we all know,\nand as many a sweetness in the hearts and lives of many of us has shown\nus. If we cherish sympathy with Jesus Christ we shall look on things as\nHe looks on them, and we shall not be left without the knowledge of what\nHis pleasure is. If we keep near enough to Him the glance of His eye\nwill do for guidance, as the old psalm has it. They are rough animal\nnatures that do not understand how to go, unless their instructors be\nthe crack of the whip or the tug of the bridle. 'I will guide thee with\nMine eye.' A glance is enough where there are mutual understanding and\nlove. Two musical instruments in adjoining rooms, tuned to the same\npitch, have a singular affinity, and if a note be struck on the one the\nother will vibrate to the sound. And so hearts here that love Jesus\nChrist and keep in unison with Him, and are sympathetic with His\ndesires, will learn to know His will, and will re-echo the music that\ncomes from Him. And if our supreme desire is to know what pleases Jesus\nChrist, depend upon it the desire will not be in vain, 'If any man wills\nto do His will he shall know of the doctrine.' Ninety per cent. of all\nour perplexities as to conduct come from our not having a pure and\nsimple wish to do what is right in His sight, clearly supreme above all\nothers. When we have that wish it is never left unsatisfied.\n\nAnd even if sometimes we do make a mistake as to what is Christ's\npleasure, if our supreme wish and honest aim in the mistake have been to\ndo His pleasure, we may be sure that He will be pleased with the deed.\nEven though its body is not that which He willed us to do, its spirit is\nthat which He does desire. And if we do a wrong thing, a thing in itself\ndispleasing to Him, whilst all the while we desired to please Him, we\nshall please Him in the deed which would otherwise have displeased Him.\nAnd so two Christian men, for instance, who take opposite sides in a\ncontroversy, may both of them be doing what is well-pleasing in His\nsight, whilst they are contradicting one another, if they are doing it\nfor His sake. And it is possible that the inquisitor and his victim may\nboth have been serving Christ. At all events, let us be sure of this,\nthat whensoever we desire to please Him, He will help us to do it, and\nordinarily will help us by making clear to us the path on which His\nsmile rests.\n\nIII. Again, notice that we have here an all-powerful motive for\nChristian life.\n\nThe one thing which all other summaries of duty lack is motive power to\nget themselves carried into practice. But we all know, from our own\nhappy human experience, that no motive which can be brought to bear upon\nmen is stronger, when there are loving hearts concerned, than this\nsimple one, 'Do it to please me.' And that is what Jesus Christ really\nsays. That is no piece of mere sentiment, brethren, nor of mere pulpit\nrhetoric. That is the deepest thought of Christian morality, and is the\ndistinctive peculiarity which gives the morality of the New Testament\nits clear supremacy over all other. There are precepts in it far nobler\nand loftier than can be found elsewhere. The perspective of virtues and\ngraces in it is different from that which ordinarily prevails amongst\nmen. But I do not think that it is in the details of its precepts so\nmuch as in the communication of power to obey them, and in the\nsuggestion of the motive which makes them all easy, that the difference\nof Christ's ethics from all the teaching of the world beside is most\ntruly to be found.\n\nAnd here lies the excellence thereof. It is a poor, cold thing to say to\na man, 'Do this because it is right.' It is a still more powerless thing\nto say to him, 'Do this because it is expedient' 'Do this because, in\nthe long run, it leads to happiness.' It is all different when you say,\n'Do this to please Jesus Christ, to please that Christ who pleased not\nHimself but gave Himself for you.' That is the fire that melts the ore.\nThat is the heat that makes flexible the hard, stiff material. That is\nthe motive which makes duty delight, which makes 'the rough places\nplain' and 'the crooked things straight.' It does not abolish natural\ntastes, it does not supersede natural disinclinations, but it does\nsmooth and soften unwelcome and hard tasks, and it invests service with\na halo of glory, and changes the coldness of duty into rosy light; as\nwhen the sunrise strikes on the peaks of the frozen mountains. The one\nmotive which impels men, and can be trusted to secure in them whatsoever\nthings are noble, is to please Him.\n\nSo we have the secret of blessedness in these words. For self-submission\nand suppression are blessedness. Our miseries come from our unbridled\nwills, far more than from our sensitive organisations. It is because we\ndo not accept providences that providences hurt. It is because we do not\naccept the commandments that the commandments are burdensome. Those who\nhave no will, except as it is vitalised by God's will, have found the\nsecret of blessedness, and have entered into rest. In the measure in\nwhich we approximate to that condition, our wills will be strengthened\nas well as our hearts set at ease.\n\nAnd blessedness comes, too, because the approbation of the Master, which\nis the aim of the servant, is reflected in the satisfaction of an\napproving conscience, which points onwards to the time when the Master's\napproval shall be revealed in the servant's glory.\n\nI was reading the other day about a religious reformer who arose in\nEastern lands a few years since, and gathered many disciples. He and his\nprincipal follower were seized and about to be martyred. They were\nsuspended by cords from a gibbet, to be fired at by a platoon of\nsoldiers. And as they hung there, the disciple turned to his teacher,\nand as his last word on earth said, 'Master! are you satisfied with me?'\nHis answer was a silent smile; and the next minute a bullet was in his\nheart. Dear brethren, do you turn to Jesus Christ with the same\nquestion, 'Master! art Thou satisfied with me?' and you will get His\nsmile here; and hereafter, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.'\n\n\n\n\nUNFRUITFUL WORKS OF DARKNESS\n\n 'And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but\n rather reprove them.'--Eph. v. 11.\n\n\nWe have seen in a former sermon that 'the fruit,' or outcome, 'of the\nLight' is a comprehensive perfection, consisting in all sorts and\ndegrees of goodness and righteousness and truth. Therefore, the\ncommandment, 'Walk as children of the light,' sums up all Christian\nmorality. Is there need, then, for any additional precept? Yes; for\nChristian people do not live in an empty world. If there were no evil\nround them, and no proclivity to evil within them, it would be amply\nsufficient to say to them, 'Be true to the light which you behold.' But\nsince both these things are, the commandment of my text is further\nnecessary. We do not work _in vacuo_, and therefore friction and\natmosphere have to be taken account of; and an essential part of\n'walking as children of the light' is to know how to behave ourselves\nwhen confronted with 'the works of darkness.'\n\nThese Ephesian Christians lived in a state of society honeycombed with\nhideous immorality, the centre of which was the temple, which was their\ncity's glory and shame. It was all but impossible for them to have\nnothing to do with the works of evil, unless, indeed, they went out of\nthe world. But the difficulty of obedience does not affect the duty of\nobedience, nor slacken in the smallest degree the stringency of a\ncommand. This obligation lies upon us as fully as it did upon them, and\nthe discharge of it by professing Christians would bring new life to\nmoribund churches.\n\nI. Let me ask you to note with me, first, the fruitlessness inherent in\nall the works of darkness.\n\nYou may remember that I pointed out, in a former discourse on the\ncontext, that the Apostle, here and elsewhere, draws a very significant\ndistinction between 'works' and 'fruit,' and that distinction is put\nvery strikingly in the words of my text. There are works which are\nbarren. It is a grim thought that there may be abundant activity which,\nin the eyes of God, comes to just nothing; and that pages and pages of\nlaborious calculations, when all summed up, have for result a great\nround 0. Men are busy, and hosts of them are doing what the old fairy\nstories tell us that evil spirits were condemned to do--spinning ropes\nout of sea-sand; and their life-work is nought when they come to reckon\nit up.\n\nI have no time to dwell upon this thought, but I wish, just for a moment\nor two, to illustrate it.\n\nAll godless life is fruitless, inasmuch as it has no permanent results.\nPermanent results of a sort, indeed, follow everything that men do, for\nall our actions tend to make character, and they all have a share in\nfixing that which depends upon character--viz. destiny, both here and\nyonder. And thus the most fleeting of our deeds, which in one aspect is\nas transitory as the snow upon the great plains when the sun rises,\nleaves everlasting traces upon ourselves and upon our condition. But yet\nacts concerned with transitory things may have permanent fruit, or may\nbe as transient as the things with which they are concerned. And the\ndifference depends on the spirit in which they are done. If the roots\nare only in the surface-skin of soil, when that is pared off the plant\ngoes. A life that is to be eternal must strike its roots through all the\nsuperficial _humus_ down to the very heart of things. When its roots\ntwine themselves round God then the deeds which blossom from them will\nblossom unfading for ever.\n\nThink of men going empty-handed into another world, and saying, 'O Lord!\nI made a big fortune in Manchester when I lived there, and I left it all\nbehind me'; or, 'I mastered a science, and one gleam of the light of\neternity has antiquated it'; or, 'I gained prizes, won my aims, and they\nhave all dropped from my hands, and here I stand, having to say in the\nmost tragic sense: Nothing in my hands I bring.' And another man dies in\nthe Lord, and his 'works do follow' him. It is not every vintage that\nbears exportation. Some wines are mellowed by crossing the ocean; some\nare turned into vinegar. The works of darkness are unfruitful because\nthey are transient.\n\nAnd they are unfruitful because, whilst they last, they yield no real\nsatisfaction. The Apostle could say to another Church with a certainty\nas to what the answer would be, 'What fruit had ye _then_'--when ye were\ndoing them--'in the things whereof ye are now ashamed?' And the answer\nis 'None!' Of course, it is true that men do bad things because they\nlike them better than good. Of course, it is true that the misery of\nmankind is that they have no appetite in the general for the only real\nsatisfaction. But it is also true that no man who feeds his heart and\nmind on anything short of God is really at rest in anything that he does\nor possesses. Occasional twinges of conscience, dim perceptions that\nafter all they are walking in a vain show; glimpses of nobler\npossibilities, a vague unrest, an unwillingness to reflect and look the\nfacts of their condition in the face, like men that will not take stock\nbecause they half suspect that they are insolvent--these are the\nconditions that attach to all godless men's lives. There is no real\nfruit for their thirsty lips to feed upon. The smallest man is too large\nto be satisfied with anything short of Infinity, The human heart is like\nsome narrow opening on a hill-side, so narrow that it looks as if a\nglassful of water would fill it. But it goes away down, down, down into\nthe depths of the mountain, and you may pour in hogsheads and no effect\nis visible. God, and God alone, brings to the thirsty heart the fruit\nthat it needs.\n\nAnother solemn thought illustrates the unfruitfulness of a godless life.\nThere is no correspondence between what such a man does and what he is\nintended to do. Think of what the most degraded and sensuous wretch that\nshambles about the slums of a city, sodden with beer and rotten with\nprofligacy, could be. Think of the raptures of devout contemplation and\nthe energies of holy work which are possible for that soul, and then\nsay--though it is an extreme case, the principle holds in less extreme\ncases--Are these things that men do apart from God, however shining,\nnoble, illustrious they may be in the eyes of the world, and trumpeted\nforth by the mouthpieces of popular opinion, are these things worth\ncalling fruits fit to be borne by such a tree? No more than the cankers\non a rose-bush or the galls on an oak-tree are worthy of being called\nfruit are these works that some of you have as the only products of a\nlife's activity. 'Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth\ngrapes, brought it forth wild grapes?'\n\nII. And now, secondly, notice the plain Christian duty of abstinence.\n\n'Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.' Now, the\ntext, as it stands in our version, seems to suggest that these dark\nworks are personified as companions whom a good man ought to avoid; and\nthat, therefore, the bearing of the exhortation is, 'Have nothing to do,\nin your own individual lives, with evil things that one man can commit.'\nBut I take it that, important as that injunction and prohibition is,\nthe Apostle's meaning is somewhat different, and that my text would\nperhaps be more accurately translated if another word were substituted\nfor 'have no fellowship with.' The original expression seems rather to\nmean, 'Do not go partners with other people in works of darkness, which\nit takes more than one to commit.' Or, to put it into another language,\nthe Apostle is regarding Christian people here as members of society,\nand exhorting them to a certain course of conduct in reference to plain\nand palpable existing evils around them. And such an exhortation to the\nduty of plain abstinence from things that the opinion of the world\naround us has no objection to, but which are contrary to the light, is\naddressed to all Christian people.\n\nThe need of it I do not require to illustrate at any length. But let me\nremind you that the devil has no more cunning way of securing a long\nlease of life for any evil than getting Christian people and Christian\nChurches to give it their sanction. What was it that kept slavery alive\nfor centuries? Largely, that Christian men solemnly declared that it was\na divine institution. What is it that has kept war alive for all these\ncenturies? Largely, that bishops and preachers have always been ready to\nbless colours, and to read a Christening service over a man-of-war--and,\nI suppose, to ask God that an eighty-ton gun might be blessed to smash\nour enemies to pieces, and not to blow our sailors to bits. And what is\nit that preserves the crying evils of our community, the immoralities,\nthe drunkenness, the trade dishonesty, and all the other things that I\ndo not need to remind you of in the pulpit? Largely this, that\nprofessing Christians are mixed up with them. If only the whole body of\nthose who profess and call themselves Christians would shake their hands\nclear of all complicity with such things, they could not last.\nIndividual responsibility for collective action needs to be far more\nsolemnly laid to heart by professing Christians than ever it has been.\n\nNor need I remind you, I suppose, with what fatal effects on the Gospel\nand the Church itself all such complicity is attended. Even the\ncompanions of wrongdoers despise, whilst they fraternise with, the\nprofessing Christian who has no higher standard than their own. What was\nit that made the Church victorious over the combined forces of imperial\npersecution, pagan superstition, and philosophic speculation? I believe\nthat among all the causes that a well-known historian has laid down for\nthe triumph of Christianity, what was as powerful as--I was going to say\neven more than--the Gospel of peace and love which the Church proclaimed\nwas the standard of austere morality which it held up to a world rotting\nin its own filth. And sure I am that wherever the Church says, 'So do\nnot I, because of the fear of the Lord,' it will gain a power, and will\nbe regarded with a possibly reluctant, but a very real, respect which no\neasy-going coming down to the level of popular moralities will ever\nsecure for a silver-slippered Christianity. And so, brethren, I would\nsay to you, Do not be afraid of the old name _Puritan_. Ignorant people\nuse it as a scoff. It should be a crown of glory. 'Have no fellowship\nwith the unfruitful works of darkness.'\n\nBut how is this to be done? Well, of course, there is only one way of\nabstaining, and that is, to abstain. But there are a great many\ndifferent ways of abstaining. Light is not fire. And the more that\nChristian people feel themselves bound to stand aloof from common evils,\nthe more are they bound to see that they do it in the spirit of the\nMaster, which is meekness. It is always an invidious position to take\nup. And if we take it up with any heat and temper, with any lack of\nmoderation, with any look of ostentation of superior righteousness, or\nwith any trace of the Boanerges spirit which says, 'Let us call down\nfire from heaven and consume them,' our testimony will be weakened, and\nthe world will have a right to say to us, 'Jesus we know, and Paul we\nknow; but who are ye?' 'Who made this man a judge and a divider over\nus?' 'In meekness instructing them that oppose themselves.'\n\nIII. Lastly, note the still harder Christian duty of vigorous protest.\n\nThe further duty beyond abstinence which the text enjoins is\ninadequately represented by our version, 'but rather reprove them.' For\nthe word rendered in our version 'reprove' is the same which our Lord\nemployed when He spoke of the mission of the Comforter as being to\n'convince (or convict) the world of sin.' And it does not merely mean\n'reprove,' but so to reprove as to produce the conviction which is the\nobject of the reproof.\n\nThis task is laid on the shoulders of all professing Christians. A\n_silent_ abstinence is not enough. No doubt, the best way, in some\ncircumstances, to convict the darkness is to shine. Our holiness will\nconvict sin of its ugliness. Our light will reveal the gloom. The\npresentation of a Christian life is the Christian man's mightiest weapon\nin his conflict with the world's evil. But that is not all. And if\nChristian people think that they have done all their duty, in regard to\nclamant and common iniquities, by simply abstaining from them and\npresenting a nobler example, they have yet to learn one very important\nchapter of their duty. A dumb Church is a dying Church, and it ought to\nbe; for Christ has sent us here in order, amongst other things, that we\nmay bring Christian principles to bear upon the actions of the\ncommunity; and not be afraid to speak when we are called upon by\nconscience to do so.\n\nNow I am not going to dwell upon this matter, but I want just to point\nout to you how, in the context here, there are two or three very\nimportant principles glanced at which bear upon it. And one of them is\nthis, that one reason for speaking out is the very fact that the evils\nare so evil that a man is ashamed to speak about them. Did you ever\nnotice this context, in which the Apostle, in the next verse to my text,\ngives the reason for his commandment to 'reprove' thus--'_For_ it is a\nshame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret'?\nDid you ever hear of a fantastic tenderness for morality so very\nsensitive that it is not at all shocked when the immoral things are\n_done_, but glows with virtuous indignation when a Christian man speaks\nout about them? There are plenty of people nowadays who tell us that it\nis 'indelicate' and 'indecent' and 'improper,' and I do not know how\nmuch else, for a Christian teacher or minister to say a word about\ncertain moral scandals. But they do not say anything about the\nimmorality and the indelicacy and the indecency of doing them. Let us\nhave done with that hypocrisy, brethren. I am arguing for no disregard\nfor proprieties; I want all fitting reticence observed, and I do not\nwish indiscriminate rebukes to be flung at foul things; but it is too\nmuch to require that, by reason of the very inky cloud of filth that\nthey fling up like cuttlefish, they should escape censure. Let us\nremember Paul's exhortation, and reprove _because_ the things are too\nbad to be spoken about.\n\nFurther, note in the context the thought that the conviction of the\ndarkness comes from the flashing upon it of the light. 'All things when\nthey are reproved are made manifest by the light.' Which, being\ntranslated into other words, is this:--Be strong in your brave protest,\nbecause it only needs that the thing should be seen as it is, and called\nby its right name, in order to be condemned.\n\nThe Assyrians had a belief that if ever, by any chance, a demon saw\nhimself in a mirror, he was frightened at his own ugliness and\nincontinently fled. And if Christian people would only hold up the\nmirror of Christian principle to the hosts of evil things that afflict\nour city and our country, they would vanish like ghosts at sunrise. They\ncannot stand the light, therefore let us cast the light upon them.\n\nAnd do not forget the other final principle here, which is imperfectly\nrepresented by our translation. We ought to read, 'Whatever is made\nmanifest is light.' Yes. In the physical world when light falls upon a\nthing, you see it because there is on it a surface of light. And in the\nmoral world the intention of all this conviction is that the thing\ndisclosed to be darkness should, in the very disclosure, cease to be\ndark, should forsake its nature and be transformed into light. Such\ntransformation is not always the case. Alas! There are evil deeds on\nwhich the light falls, and it does nothing. But the purpose in all cases\nshould be, and the issue in many will be, that the merciful conviction\nby the light will be followed by the conversion of darkness into light.\n\nAnd so, dear brethren, I bring this text to your hearts, and lay it upon\nyour consciences. We may not all be called upon to speak; we are all\ncalled upon to _be_. You can shine, and by shining show how dark the\ndarkness is. The obligation is laid upon us all; the commandment still\ncomes to every Christian which was given to the old prophet, 'Declare\nunto My people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their\nsin.' A quaint old writer says that the presence of a saint 'hinders the\ndevil of elbow room to do his tricks.' We can all rebuke sin by our\nrighteousness, and by our shining reveal the darkness to itself. We do\nnot walk as children of the light unless we keep ourselves from all\nconnivance with works of darkness, and by all means at our disposal\nreprove and convict them. 'Come out from among them, and be ye separate,\nand touch no unclean thing, saith the Lord.'\n\n\n\n\nPAUL'S REASONS FOR TEMPERANCE\n\n 'And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but\n rather reprove them. 12. For it is a shame even to speak of those\n things which are done of them in secret. 13. But all things that\n are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth\n make manifest is light. 14. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that\n sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee\n light. 15. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but\n as wise, 16. Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17.\n Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the\n Lord is. 18. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be\n filled with the Spirit; 19. Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and\n hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart\n to the Lord; 20. Giving thanks always for all things unto God and\n the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; 21. Submitting\n yourselves one to another in the fear of God.'--Eph. v. 11-21.\n\n\nThere are three groups of practical exhortations in this passage, of\nwhich the first deals with the Christian as a reproving light in\ndarkness; the second, with the Christian life as wisdom in the midst of\nfolly; and the third with Christian sobriety and inspiration as the true\nexhilaration in contrast with riotous drunkenness. Probably such\nintoxication was prevalent in Ephesus in connection with the worship of\n'Diana of the Ephesians,' for Paul was not the man to preach vague\nwarnings against vices to which his hearers were not tempted. An\nunder-current of allusion to such orgies accompanying the popular cult\nmay be discerned in his words.\n\nThese two preceding sets of precepts can only be briefly touched on now.\nThey lead up to the third, and the second is built on the first by a\n'therefore' (ver. 15). The Apostle has just been saying that Christians\nwere 'darkness, but are now light in the Lord,' and thence drawing the\nlaw for their life, to walk as 'children of light.' A very important\npart of such walk is recoiling from all share in 'the unfruitful works\nof darkness,'--a significant expression branding such deeds as being\nboth bad in their source and in their results. Dark doings have\nconsequences tragic enough and certain enough, but they are barren of\nall such issues as correspond to men's obligations and capacities. Their\noutcome is like the growths on a tree, which are not fruit, but products\nof disease. There is no fruit grown in the dark; there is no worthy\nproduct from us unless Christ is our light. If He is, and we are\ntherefore 'light in the Lord,' we shall 'reprove' or 'convict' the\nChristless life. Its sinfulness will be shown by the contrast with the\nChrist-life. A thunder-cloud never looks so lividly black as when\nsmitten by sunshine.\n\nOur lives ought to make evil things ashamed to show their ugly faces.\nChristians should be, as it were, the incarnate conscience of a\ncommunity. The Apostle is not thinking so much of words as of deeds,\nthough words are not to be withheld when needful. The agent of reproof\nis 'the light,' which here is the designation of character as\ntransformed by Jesus, and the process of reproof or conviction is simply\nthe manifestation of the evil in its true nature, which comes from\nsetting it in the beams of the light. To show sin as it is, is to\ncondemn it; 'for everything that is made manifest is light.' Observe\nthat Paul here speaks of 'light,' not 'the light,'--that is, he is\nspeaking now not of Christian character, which he had likened to light,\nbut of physical light to which he had likened it, and is backing up his\nfigurative statement as to the reproving and manifesting effects of the\nformer, by the plain fact as to the latter, that, when daylight shines\non anything, it is revealed, and, as it were, becomes light. He clenches\nhis exhortation by quoting probably an early Christian hymn, which\nregards Christ as the great illuminator, ready to shine on all drowsy,\ndark souls as soon as they stir and rouse themselves from drugged and\nfatal sleep.\n\nThe second set of exhortations here is connected with the former by a\n'therefore,' which refers to the whole preceding precept. Because the\nChristian is to shake himself free from complicity with works of\ndarkness, and to be their living condemnation, he must take heed to his\ngoings. A climber on a glacier has to look to his feet, or he will slip\nand fall down a crevasse, perhaps, from which he will never be drawn up.\nHeedlessness is folly in such a world as this. '\"Don't care\" comes to\nthe gallows.' The temptation to 'go as you please' is strong in youth,\nand it is easy to scoff at 'cold-blooded folks who live by rule,' but\nthey are the wise people, after all. A great element in that heedfulness\nis a quick insight into the special duty and opportunity of the moment,\nfor life is not merely made up of hours, but each has its own particular\nerrand for us, and has some possibility in it which, neglected, may be\nlost for ever.\n\nThe mystic solemnity of time is that it is made up of 'seasons.' We\nshall walk heedfully in the degree in which we are awake to the moment's\nmeaning, and grasp opportunity by the forelock, or, as Paul says, 'buy\nup the opportunity.' But wise heed to our walk is not enough, unless we\nhave a sure standard by which to regulate it. A man may take great care\nof his watch, but unless he can compare it with a chronometer, or, as\nthey do in Edinburgh, pull out their watches when the one o'clock gun is\nfired on a signal from Greenwich, he may be far out and not know it. So\nthe Apostle adds the one way to keep our lives right, and the one source\nof true, practical wisdom--the 'understanding what the will of the Lord\nis.' He will not go far wrong whose instinctive question, as each new\nmoment, with its solemn, animating possibilities, meets him, is, 'What\nwilt Thou have me to do?' He will not be nearly right who does not first\nof all ask that.\n\nThen Paul comes to his precept of temperance. It naturally flows from\nthe preceding, inasmuch as a drunken man is as sure to be incapable of\ntaking heed to his conduct as of walking straight. He reels in both. He\nis stone-blind to the meaning of the moments. He hears no call, though\nthe 'voice of the trumpet' may be 'exceeding loud,' and as for\nunderstanding what the will of the Lord is, that is far beyond him. The\nintoxication of an hour or the habit of drinking makes obedience to the\nforegoing precepts impossible. This master vice carries all other vices\nin its pocket.\n\nPaul makes a daring, and, as some would think, an irreverent,\ncomparison, when he proposes being 'filled with the Spirit' as the\nChristian alternative or substitute to being 'drunken with wine.' But\nthe daring comparison suggests deep truth. The spurious exhilaration,\nthe loosening of the bonds of care, the elevation above the pettiness\nand monotony of daily life, which the drunkard seeks, and is degraded\nand deceived in proportion as he momentarily finds, are all ours,\ngenuinely, nobly, and to our infinite profit, if we have our empty\nspirits filled with that Divine Life. That exhilaration does not froth\naway, leaving bitter dregs in the cup. That loosening of the bonds of\ncare, and elevation above life's sorrows, does not flow from foolish\noblivion of facts, nor end in their being again roughly forced on us.\n'Riot' bellows itself hoarse, and is succeeded by corresponding\ndepression; but the calm joys of the Spirit-filled spirit last, grow,\nand become calmer and more joyful every day.\n\nThe boisterous songs of boon companions are set in contrast with the\nChristian 'psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,' which were already in\nuse, and a snatch from one of which Paul has just quoted.\nGood-fellowship tempts men to drink together, and a song is a\nshoeing-horn for a glass; but the _camaraderie_ is apt to end in blows,\nand is a poor caricature of the bond knitting all who are filled with\nthe Spirit to one another, and making them willing to serve one another.\nThe roystering or maudlin geniality cemented by drink generally ends in\nquarrels, as everybody knows that the truculent stage of intoxication\nsucceeds the effusively affectionate one. But they who have the Spirit\nin them, and not only 'live in the Spirit,' but 'walk in the Spirit,'\nesteem each the other better than themselves. In a word, to be filled\nwith the Spirit is the way to possess all the highest forms of the good\nwhich men are tempted to intoxication to secure, and which in it they\nfind only for a moment, and which is coarse and unreal.\n\n\n\n\nSLEEPERS AT NOONDAY\n\n 'Wherefore He saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the\n dead, and Christ shall give thee light,'--Eph. v. 14.\n\n\nThis is the close of a short digression about 'light.' The 'wherefore'\nat the beginning of my text seems to refer to the whole of the verses\nthat deal with that subject. It is as if the Apostle had said, 'I have\nbeen telling you about light and its blessed effects. Now I tell you how\nyou may win it for yours. The condition on which it is to be received by\nmen is that they awake and arise from the dead.'\n\n'_He saith._' Who? The speaker whose words are quoted is not named, but\nthis is the common formula of quotation from the _Old Testament_. It is,\ntherefore, probable that the word 'Creator' or 'God' is to be supplied.\nBut there is no Old Testament passage which exactly corresponds to the\nwords before us; the nearest approach to such being the ringing\nexhortation of the prophet to the Messianic Church, 'Arise! Shine, for\nthy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.' And it\nis probable that the Apostle is here quoting, without much regard either\nto the original connection or the primary purpose of the word, a\nwell-known old saying which seemed to him appropriately to fall in with\nthe trend of his thoughts. Like other writers he often adorns his own\nwords with the citation of those of others without being very careful\nas to whether he, in some measure, diverts these from their original\nintention. But the words of my text fairly represent the prophetic\nutterance, in so far as they echo the call to the sleepers to wake, and\nshare the prophet's confidence that light is streaming out for all those\nwhose eyes are opened.\n\nThe want of precise correspondence between our text and the prophetic\npassage has led some to suppose that we have here the earliest recorded\nfragment of a Christian hymn. It would be interesting if that were so,\nbut the formula of citation seems to oblige us to look to Scripture for\nthe source from which my text is taken. However, let us leave these\nthoughts, and come to the text itself. It is an earnest call from God.\nIt describes a condition, peals forth a summons, and gives a promise.\nLet us listen to what 'He saith' in all these regards.\n\nI. First of all, then, the condition of the persons addressed.\n\nThe two sad metaphors, _slumberers_ and _dead_, are applied to the same\npersons. There must, therefore, be some latitude in the application of\nthe figures and they must be confined in their interpretation to some\none or more points in which sleep and death are alike.\n\nNow we all know that, as the proverb says, 'sleep is the image of\ndeath.' And what is the point of comparison? Mainly this, that the\nsleeper and the corpse are alike unconscious of an external world,\nunable to receive impressions from it, or to put forth action on it; and\nthere, as I take it, is especially the point which is in the Apostle's\nview.\n\nThe sleeper and the dead man alike are in the midst of an order of\nthings of which they are all unaware. And you and I live in two worlds,\none, this low, fleeting, material one; and the other the white, snowy\npeaks that girdle it as do the Alps the Lombard plains; and men live all\nunconscious of that which lies on their horizon. But the metaphor of a\nlevel ground encircled by mountains does not fully represent the\ncloseness of the connection between these two worlds, of both of which\nevery one of us is a denizen. For on all sides, pressing in upon us,\nenfolding us like an atmosphere, penetrating into all the material,\nunderlying all which is visible, all of which has its roots in the\nunseen, is that world which the mass of men are in a conspiracy to\nignore and forget. And just as the sleeper is unconscious of all around\nhim in his chamber, and of all the stir and beauty of the world in which\nhe lives, so the bulk of us go blind and darkling through life, absorbed\nin the things seen, and never lift even a momentary and lack-lustre\nglance to the august realities which lie behind these, and give them all\ntheir significance and beauty.\n\nYes; and just as in a dream men are busy with baseless phantoms that\nvanish and are forgotten, and seem to themselves to be occupied, whilst\nall the while they are lying prone and passive, so the mass of us are\nsleep-walkers. What are many men who will be hurrying on to the\nManchester Exchange on Tuesday? What are they but men who are dreaming\nthat they are at work, but are only at work on dreams which will vanish\nwhen the eyes are opened? Practical men, who are busy and absorbed with\naffairs and with the things of this present, curl their lips about\n'idealists' of all sorts, be they idealists of thought, or of art, or of\nbenevolence, or of religion, and call them dreamers. The boot is on the\nother leg. It is the idealists that are awake, and it is you people that\nlive for to-day, and have not learned that to-day is a little fragment\nand sliver of eternity--it is you who are dreamers, and all these things\nround about us--the solid-seeming realities--are illusions, and\n\n 'Like the bubbles on a river,\n Sparkling, bursting, borne away,'\n\nthey will disappear. There is only one reality, and that is God, and the\nonly lives that lay hold of the substance are those which grasp Him. The\nrest of you are shadows hunting for shadows.\n\nThe two metaphors of my text coincide in suggesting another thing, and\nthat is the awful contrast in the average life between what is in a man\nand what comes out of him. 'Dormant power,' we talk about. Ah, how\ntragically the true man is dormant in all the work of worldly hearts!\nGod has made a great mistake in making you what you are, if there is no\nplace for you to exercise your powers in but this present world, and\nnothing to exercise them on except the things that pass and perish.\nTravellers in lands where civilisation used to be, and barbarism now is,\nfind sculptured stones from temples turned into fences for cattle-sheds\nand walls round pigstyes. And that is something like what men do with\nthe faculties that God has given them. Why, the best part of you,\nbrother, if you are not a Christian, and living a Christian life--the\nbest part of you is asleep, and it is only the lower nature of you that\nis awake! Sometimes the sleepers stir uneasily. It used to be said that\nearthquakes were caused by a giant rolling himself from side to side in\nhis troubled slumber. And there are earthquakes in your heart and\nspirit caused by the half-waking of the dormant self, the true man, who\nis immersed and embruted in sense and the things of time. Some of you by\nearthly lusts, some of you by over-indulgence in fleshly appetites,\neating and drinking and the like; some of you by absorption in the mere\nexternals of trade and profession and occupation to the entire neglect\nof the inward thing which would glorify and exalt these--but all of us\nsomehow, unless we are living for God, have lulled our best, true,\ncentral self into slumber, and lie as if dead.\n\nNow, brethren, do not forget that this exhortation of my text, and\ntherefore this description, is addressed to a community of professing\nChristians. I hope you will not misunderstand me as if I thought that\nsuch a picture as I have been trying to draw applies only to men that\nhave no religion in them at all. It applies in varying degrees to men\nthat have, as--I was going to say the bulk, but perhaps that is\nexaggeration, let me say a tragically large number--of professing\nChristians, and a proportionate number of the professing Christians in\nthis audience have, a little life and a great circumference of death.\nDear brethren, you may call yourselves, and may be Christian people, and\nhave somewhat shaken off the torpor, and roused yourself from the\nslumbering death of which I have been speaking. Remember that it still\nhangs to you, and that it was of Christians that the Master said:\n'Whilst the Lord was away they all slumbered and slept'; and that it was\nof a Christian Church, and not of a pagan world, that the same voice\nfrom heaven said: 'Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.' And\nso I beseech you, bear with me, and do not think I am scolding, or\nflinging about wild words at random, when I make a very earnest appeal\nto each individual professing, and real, Christian in this congregation,\nand ask them to consider, each for themselves, how much of sleep is\nstill in their drowsy eyes, and how far it is true that the quickening\nlife of Jesus Christ has penetrated, as the sunbeams into the darkness,\ninto the heavy mass of their natural death.\n\nII. Secondly, let me ask you to look at the summons to awake.\n\nIt comes like the morning bugle to an army, 'Awake, thou that sleepest,\nand arise from the dead.' Now, I am not going to waste your time by\ntalking about the old, well-worn, interminable, and unprofitable\ncontroversy as to God's part and man's in this awaking, but I do wish to\ninsist upon this plain fact, that the command here presupposes upon our\nparts, whether we be Christian people or not, the ability to obey. God\nwould not mock a man by telling him to do what he cannot do. And it is\nperfectly clear that the one attitude in which we may be sure of God's\nhelp to keep any of His commandments, and this amongst the rest, is when\nwe are trying to keep them. 'Stretch out thy hand,' said Christ to the\nman whose disease was that he could not stretch it out. 'Arise and\nwalk,' said Christ to the man whose lifelong sadness it was that his\nlimbs had no power. 'Lazarus, come forth,' said Christ unto the dull,\ncold ear of death. And Lazarus heard, wherever he was, and, though his\nfeet were tangled with the graveclothes, he came stumbling out, because\nthe power to do what he was bid had come wrapped in the command to do\nit. And if these other two men had turned to Jesus and said, 'What is\nthe use of telling me to stretch out my hand, or me to move my limbs?\nThou knowest that I can not,' they would have lain there paralysed till\nthey died. But when they heard the command there came a tingling sense\nof new ability into the withered limb. 'And he stretched forth his hand,\nand it was restored whole as the other.' Ay, but the process of\nrestoration began when he willed to stretch it out in obedience to the\ncommand, which was a promise as much as a command. So we need not\ntrouble ourselves with the question how the dead man can arise, or how\nthe sleeper can wake himself.\n\nThis, at all events, is clear, that if what I have been saying is true\nas to the main point in view in both the metaphors, viz. the\nunconsciousness of the unseen world, and the slumbering powers that we\nhave within us, then the remedy for that _is_ in our own hands. There\nare scarcely any limits to be put to a man's capacity of determining for\nhimself what shall be the object of his thought, his interest, his\naffection, or his pursuits. You can withdraw your desires and\ncontemplations from the intrusive and absorbing present. You can coerce\nyourselves to concentrate more thought than you do, more interest,\naffection, and effort than you have ever done, upon the things that are\nunseen. You can turn your gaze thither. You cannot directly and\nimmediately regulate your feelings, but you can settle the thoughts\nwhich shall guide the feelings, and you can, and you _do_, fix for\nyourselves, though not consciously, the things which shall be uppermost\nin your regard, and supreme in the ordering of your life.\n\nAnd so the commandment of my text is but this, 'Wake from the illusions;\nrouse yourselves to the contemplation of the things unseen and eternal.\nLet the Lord always be before your face.' And you will be awake and\nalive.\n\nIII. And so my last point is the promise of the morning light which\ngladdens the wakeful eye. 'Christ shall give thee light.'\n\nNow, if the words of my text are an allusion to the prophecy to which I\nhave already referred, it is striking to observe, though I cannot dwell\nupon the thought, that Paul here unhesitatingly ascribes to Jesus Christ\nan action which, in the source of his quotation, is ascribed to Jehovah.\n'Arise, shine, for thy light has come, and the glory of _Jehovah_ is\nrisen upon thee,' says the prophet. 'Arise! thou that sleepest,' says\nPaul, 'and _Christ_ shall give thee light.' As always, he regards his\nLord as possessed of fully divine attributes; and he has learned the\ndepth of the Master's own saying, 'Whatsoever things the Father doeth,\nthese also doeth the Son _likewise_.' But I turn from that to the main\npoint to be insisted upon here, that the Apostle is setting forth this\nas a certainty, that if a man will open his eyes he will have light\nenough. The sunshine is flooding the world. It falls upon the closed\neyelids of the sleepers, and would fain gently lift them, that it might\nenter. A man needs nothing more than to shake off the slumber, and bring\nhimself into the conscious presence of the unseen glories that surround\nus, in order to get light enough and to spare--whether you mean by light\nknowledge for guidance on the path of life, or whether you mean by it\npurity that shall scatter the darkness of evil from the heart, or\nwhether you mean by it the joy that comes in the morning, radiant and\nfresh as the sunrise over the Eastern hills. 'Awake, and Christ _shall_\ngive thee light.'\n\nThe miracle of Goshen is reversed, in the case of many of us, the land\nis flashing in the sunshine, but within our houses there is midnight\ndarkness, not because there is not light around, but because the\nshutters are shut. Oh, brethren, it is a solemn thing to choose the\ndarkness rather than the light. And you do that--though not consciously,\nand in so many words, making your election--by indifference, by neglect,\nby the direction of the main current of your thoughts and desires and\naims to perishable things, and by the deeds that follow from such a\ndisposition. These choose for you, and you, in effect, choose by them.\n\nI beseech you, do not let Christ's own trumpet-call fall upon your ears,\nas if faint and far away, like the unwelcome summons that comes to a\ndrowsy man in the morning. You know that if, having been called, he\nmakes up his mind to lie a little longer, he is almost sure to fall more\ndead asleep than he was before. And if you hear, however dim, distantly,\nand through my poor words, Christ's voice saying to you, 'Awake! thou\nthat sleepest,' do not neglect it. The only safe course is to spring up\nat once. If thou dost, 'Christ shall give thee light,' never fear. The\nlight is all about you. You only need to open your eyes, and it will\npour in. If you do not, you surround yourself with darkness that may be\nfelt here, and ensures for yourself a horror of great darkness in the\ndeath hereafter.\n\n\n\n\nREDEEMING THE TIME\n\n 'See, then, that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,\n redeeming the time, because the days are evil.'--Eph. v. 15, 16.\n\n\nSome of us have, in all probability, very little more 'time' to\n'redeem.' Some of us have, in all probability, the prospect of many\nyears yet to live. For both classes my text presents the best motto for\nanother year. The most frivolous among us, I suppose, have some thoughts\nwhen we step across the conventional boundary that seems to separate the\nunbroken sequence of moments into periods; and as you in your business\ntake stock and see how your accounts stand, so I would fain, for you and\nmyself, make this a moment in which we may see where we are going, what\nwe are doing, and how we are using this great gift of life.\n\nMy text gives us the true Christian view of time. It tells us what to do\nwith it, and urges by implication certain motives for the conduct.\n\nI. We have, first, what we ought to think about 'the time.'\n\nThere are two words in the New Testament, both of which are translated\n_time_, but they mean very different things. One of them, the more\ncommon, simply implies the succession of moments or periods; the other,\nwhich is employed here, means rather a definite portion of time to which\nsome definite work or occurrence belongs. It is translated sometimes\n_season_, sometimes _opportunity_. Both these renderings occur in\nimmediate proximity in the Epistle to the Galatians, where the Apostle\nsays: 'As we have therefore opportunity let us do good to all men, for\nin due season we shall reap, if we faint not....' And, again, it is\nemployed side by side with the other word to which I have referred, in\nthe Acts of the Apostles, where we read, 'It is not for you to know the\ntimes or the seasons'--the former word simply indicating the succession\nof moments, the latter word indicating epochs or crises to which special\nwork or events belong.\n\nAnd so here 'redeeming the _time_' does not merely mean making the most\nof moments, but means laying hold of, and understanding the special\nsignificance of, life as a whole, and of each succeeding instant of it\nas the season for some specific duty. It is not merely 'time,' it is\n'_the_ time'; not merely the empty succession of beats of the pendulum,\nbut these moralised, as it were, heightened, and having significance,\nbecause each is apprehended as having a special mission, and affording\nan opportunity for a special work.\n\nNow, there are two aspects of that general thought, on each of which I\nwould touch. The Apostle here uses the singular number, and speaks not\nof the times, but of 'the time'; as if the whole of life were an\nopportunity, a season for some one clear duty which manifestly belongs\nto it, and is meant to be done in it.\n\nWhat is that? There are a great many ways of answering that question,\nbut even more important perhaps than the way of answering is the mood of\nmind which asks it. If we could only get into this, as our habitual\ntemper and disposition, asking ourselves what life is for, then we\nshould have conquered nine-tenths of our temptations, and all but\nsecured that we shall aim at the purpose which thus clearly and\nconstantly shines before us. Oh! if I could get some of my friends here\nthis morning, who have never really looked this solemn question in the\nface, to rise above the mere accidents of their daily occupations, and\nto take their orders, not from circumstances, or from the people whom\nthey admire and imitate, but at first hand from considering what they\nreally are here for, and why their days in their whole sweep are given\nthem, I should not have spoken in vain. The sensualist answers the\nquestion in one way, the busy Manchester man in another, the careful,\nburdened mother in another, the student in another, the moralist in\nanother. But all that is good in each answer is included in the wider\none, that the end of life, the purpose for which 'the season' is granted\nus, is that 'we should glorify God and enjoy Him for ever.'\n\nI do not care whether you say that the end for which we live is the\nsalvation of our souls, or whether you put it in other words, and say\nthat it is the cultivation and perfecting of a Christ-like and\nGod-pleasing character, or whether you admit still another aspect, and\nsay that it is the intention of time to prepare us for that which lies\nbeyond time. Time is the lackey of eternity, and the chamberlain that\nopens the gates of the Kingdom of God. All these various answers are at\nbottom one. Life is ours mainly in order that, by faith in Jesus Christ,\nwe should struggle, and do, and by struggles, by sorrows, and by all\nthat befalls us, should grow liker Him, and so fitter for the calm joys\nof that place where the throb of the pendulum has ceased, and the hours\nare stable and eternal. We live here in order to get ready for living\nyonder. And we get ready for living yonder, when here we understand that\nevery moment of life is granted us for the one purpose, which can be\npursued through all life--viz. the becoming liker our dear Lord, and the\ndrinking in to our own hearts more of His Spirit, and moulding our\ncharacters more in conformity with His image. That is what my life and\nyours are given us for. If we succeed in that, we succeed all round. If\nwe fail in that, whatever else we succeed in, we have failed altogether.\n\nBut then, remember, still further, the other aspect in which we can look\nat this thought. That ultimate, all-embracing end is reached through a\nmultitude of nearer and intermediate ones. Whilst life, as a whole, is\nthe season for learning to know and for possessing God, life is broken\nup into smaller portions and periods, each of which has some special\nduty appropriate to it and a 'lesson for the day.'\n\nNow many of us, who entirely agree, theoretically, in saying that all\nlife is granted for this highest purpose, go wrong here and fail to\ndiscern the significance of single moments. To-day is always\ncommonplace; it is yesterday that is beautiful, and to-morrow that is\nfull of possibilities, to the vulgar mind. But to-day is common and low.\nThere are mountains ahead and mountains behind, purple with distance and\nradiant with sunshine, and the sky bends over them and seems to touch\ntheir crests. But here, on the spot where we stand, life seems flat and\nmean, and far away from the heavens. We admit the meaning of life taken\naltogether, but it is very hard to break up that recognition into\nfragments, and to feel the worth of these fleeting moments which, just\nbecause they are here, seem to be of small account. So we forget that\nlife is only the aggregate of small present instants, and that the hour\nis sixty times sixty insignificant seconds, and the day twenty-four\nbrief hours, and the year 365 commonplace days, and the life threescore\nyears and ten. Brethren, carry your theoretical recognition of the\ngreatness and solemnity of the purposes for which life has been given\nhere into each of the moments of the passing day, and you will find that\nthere is nothing so elastic as time; and that you can crowd into a day\nas much as a languid thousand years do sometimes hold, of sacrifice and\nservice, of holy joys, and of likeness to Jesus Christ. He who has\nlearned that all the moments are heavy with significance, and pregnant\nwith immortal issues, he, too, in some measure may share in the\nprerogative of the timeless God, and to Him 'one day may be as a\nthousand years, and a thousand years as one day.' It is not the beat of\nthe pendulum or the tick of the clock that measure time, but it is the\ndeeds which we crowd into it, and the feelings and thoughts which it\nministers to us. This passing life draws all its importance from the\nboundless eternal issues to which it leads. Every little puddle on the\npaving-stones this morning, a quarter of an inch broad and a film deep,\nwill be mirroring bright sunshine, and blue with the reflected heaven.\nAnd so we may make the little drop of our lives radiant with the image\nof God, and bright with the certainties of immortality.\n\nII. Now, note secondly, how to make the most of the season.\n\n'Redeeming the time,' says the Apostle. The figure is very simple and\nnatural, and has only been felt to be difficult and obscure, because\npeople have tried to ride the metaphor further than it was meant. The\nquestions of who is the seller and what is the price do not enter into\nthe Apostle's mind at all. Metaphors are not to be driven so far as\nthat. We have to confine ourselves to the simple thought that there is a\nneed for making the opportunity which is given truly our own; and that\nthat can only be done by giving something in exchange for it. That is\nthe notion of purchase, is it not? Acquisition, by giving something\nelse. Thus, says Paul, you have to buy the opportunity which time\naffords us.\n\nThat is to say, to begin with, life gives us opportunities and no more.\nWe _may_, in and through it, become wise, good, pure, happy, noble,\nChrist-like, or we may not. The opportunity is there, swinging, as it\nwere, _in vacuo_. Lay hold of it, says he, and turn it into more than an\nopportunity--even an actuality and a fact.\n\nAnd how is that to be done? We have to give something away, if we get\nthe opportunity for our very own. What have we to give away? Well,\nmainly the lower ends for which the moment might serve. These have to be\nsurrendered--sometimes abandoned altogether, always rigidly restricted\nand kept in utter subordination to the highest purposes. To-day is given\nus mainly that we may learn to know God better, and to love Him more,\nand to serve Him more joyfully. Our daily duties are given us for the\nsame purpose. But if we go about them without thinking of God or the\nhighest ends which life is meant to serve, then we shall certainly lose\nthe highest ends, and an opportunity will go past us unimproved. But if,\non the other hand, whilst we follow our daily business for the sake of\nlegitimate temporal gain, we see, above that, the aspect of daily life\nas educating in all Christian nobleness and lofty thoughts and purposes,\nthen we shall have given away the lower ends for the sake of attaining\nthe higher. You live, suppose, to found a business, to become masters of\nyour trade, to gain wisdom and knowledge, to establish for yourselves a\nposition amongst your fellow-men, to cultivate your character so as to\ngrow in wisdom and purity, apart from God. Or you live in order to win\naffection and move thankfully in the heaven of loving associations in\nyour home, amongst your children. Or you live for the sake of carrying\nsome lower but real good amongst men. Many of these ends are beautiful\nand noble, and necessary for the cultivation and discharge of the\nvarious duties and relationships of life; but unless they are all kept\nsecondary, and there towers above them this other, life is wasted. If\nlife is not to be wasted, they must be bartered for the higher, and we\nmust recognise that to give all things for the sake of Christ and His\nlove is wise merchandise and good exchange. 'What things were gain to\nme, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea! doubtless, and I count all\nthings but loss that I may win Him and be found of Him.' You must barter\nthe lower if you are to secure the higher ends for which life is the\nappointed season.\n\nAnd then, still more minutely, my text gives us another suggestion about\nthis 'redeeming the time.' 'See, then,' says the Apostle, 'that ye walk\ncircumspectly.' The word rendered circumspectly might better, perhaps,\nbe translated in some such way as 'strictly,' 'rigidly,' 'accurately,'\n'punctiliously.' As I take it, it is to be connected with the 'walk,'\nand not with the 'see, then,' as the Revised Version does.\n\nSo here is a practical direction, walk strictly, accurately, looking to\nyour feet; as a man would do who was upon what they call in the Alps an\n_arrete_. Suppose a narrow ridge of snow piled on the top of a ledge of\nrock, with a precipice of 5000 feet on either side, and a cornice of\nsnow hanging over empty space. The climber puts his alpenstock before\nhis foot, he tests with his foot before he rests his weight, for a false\nstep and down he goes!\n\n'See that you walk circumspectly,' rigidly, accurately, punctiliously.\nLive by law--that is to say, live by principles which imply duties; for\nto live by inclination is ruin. The only safety is, look to your feet\nand look to your road, and restrain yourselves, 'and so redeem the\ntime.'\n\nThere is something else to look to. Feet? Yes! Road? Yes! But also look\nto your guide. Tread in Christ's footsteps, 'follow the Lamb\nwhithersoever He goeth.' Make Him the pattern and example, and then you\nshall walk safely; and the path will carry you right into 'His presence\nwhere there is fulness of joy.' No great, noble, right, blessed life is\nlived without rigid self-control, self-denial, and self-crucifixion. Do\nnot fancy that that means the absence of joy and spontaneity. 'I will\nwalk at liberty for I keep Thy precepts.' Hedges are blessings when, on\nthe other side, there are bottomless swamps of poisonous miasma, into\nwhich if a man ventures he will either drown or be plague-stricken. The\nnarrow way that leads to life is the way of peace, just because it is a\nway of restrictions. Better to walk on the narrowest path that leads to\nthe City than to be chartered libertines, wandering anywhere at our own\nbitter wills, and finding 'no end, in devious mazes lost.' Freedom\nconsists in obeying from the heart the restriction of love; and walking\npunctiliously.\n\nIII. Lastly, note the motives for this course.\n\nThe Apostle says, 'see that ye walk strictly, not as fools but as wise.'\nThat is to say, such limitation, which buys the opportunity and uses it\nfor the highest purposes, is the only true wisdom. If you take the mean,\nmiserable, partial, fleeting purposes for which some of us, alas, are\nsquandering our lives, and contrast these with the great, perfect,\nall-satisfying, blessed, and eternal end for which it was given us, how\ncan we escape being convicted of folly? One day, dear friends, it will\nbe found out that the virgins that were not ready when the Lord came\nwere the foolish ones. One day it will be asked of you and of me, 'What\ndid you do with the life which I gave you, that you might know Me?' And\nif we have only the answer, 'O Lord! I founded a big business in\nManchester--I made a fortune--I wrote a clever book, that was most\nfavourably reviewed--I brought up a family'--the only thing fit to be\nsaid to us is, 'Thou fool!' The only wisdom is the wisdom that secures\nthe end for which life was given.\n\nThen there is another motive here. 'Redeeming the time _because_ the\ndays are evil.' That is singular. 'The days' are 'the time,' and yet\nthey are 'evil' days, which being translated into other words is just\nthis--we are to make a definite effort to keep in view, and to effect,\nthe purposes for which all the days of our lives are given us, because\nthese days have in themselves a tendency to draw us away from the true\npath and to blind us as to their real meaning. The world is full of\npossibilities of good and evil, and the same day which, in one aspect,\nis the 'season' for serving God is, in another aspect, an 'evil' day\nwhich may draw us away from Him. And if we do not put out manly effort,\nit certainly will do so. The ocean is meant to bear the sailor to his\nport, but from the waves rise up fair forms, siren voices, with sweet\nharps and bright eyes that tempt the weary mariner to his destruction.\nAnd the days which may be occasions for our getting nearer God, if we\nlet them work their will upon us, will be evil days which draw us away\nfrom Him.\n\nLet me add one last motive which is not stated in my text, but is\ninvolved in the very idea of _opportunity_ or _season_--viz. that the\ntime for the high and noble purposes of which I have been speaking is\nrigidly limited and bounded; and once past is irrevocable. The old, wise\nmythological story tells us that Occasion is bald behind, and is to be\ngrasped by the forelock. The moment that is past had in it wonderful\npossibilities for us. If we did not grasp them with promptitude and\ndecision they have gone for ever. You may as well try to bring back the\nwater that has been sucked over Niagara, and churned into white foam at\nits base, as to recall the wasted opportunities. They stand all along\nthe course of our years, solemn monuments of our unfaithfulness, and\nnone of them can ever return again. Life is full of too-lates; that sad\nsound that moans through the roofless ruins of the past, like the wind\nthrough some deserted temple. 'Too late, too late; ye cannot enter now.'\n'The sluggard will not plough by reason of the cold, therefore he shall\nbeg in harvest and have nothing.' Oh! let us see to it that we wring out\nof the passing moments their highest possibilities of noblest good. Let\nus begin to live; for only he who lives to God really lives. Life is\ngiven to us that we may know Jesus Christ--trust Him, love Him, serve\nHim, be like Him. That is the pearl which, if we bring up from the sea\nof time, we shall not have been cast in vain into its stormy waves. Do\nyou take care that this new year which is dawning upon us go not to join\nthe many wasted years that lie desolate behind us, but let us all see to\nit that the flood which sweeps us and it away bears us straight to God,\nWho is our home. 'Now is the accepted time, now is the day of\nsalvation.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE PANOPLY OF GOD\n\n 'Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to\n withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to\n stand.'--Eph. vi. 13.\n\n\nThe military metaphor of which this verse is the beginning was obviously\ndeeply imprinted on Paul's mind. It is found in a comparatively\nincomplete form in his earliest epistle, the first to the Thessalonians,\nin which the children of the day are exhorted to put on the breastplate\nof faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. It reappears,\nin a slightly varied form, in the Epistle to the Romans, where those\nwhose salvation is nearer than when they believed, are exhorted, because\nthe day is at hand, to cast off, as it were, their night-gear, and to\nput on the 'armour of light'; and here, in this Epistle of the\nCaptivity, it is most fully developed. The Roman legionary, to whom Paul\nwas chained, here sits all unconsciously for his portrait, every detail\nof which is pressed by Paul into the service of his vivid imagination;\nthe virtues and graces of the Christian character, which are 'the armour\nof light,' are suggested to the Apostle by the weapon which the soldier\nby his side wore. The vulgarest and most murderous implements assume a\nnew character when looked upon with the eyes of a poet and a Christian.\nOur present text constitutes the general introduction to the great\npicture which follows, of 'the panoply of God.'\n\nI. We must be ready for times of special assaults from evil.\n\nMost of us feel but little the stern reality underlying the metaphor,\nthat the whole Christian life is warfare, but that in that warfare there\nare crises, seasons of special danger. The interpretation which makes\nthe 'evil day' co-extensive with the time of life destroys the whole\nemphasis of the passage: whilst all days are days of warfare, there will\nbe, as in some prolonged siege, periods of comparative quiet; and again,\ndays when all the cannon belch at once, and scaling ladders are reared\non every side of the fortress. In a long winter there are days sunny and\ncalm followed, as they were preceded, by days when all the winds are let\nloose at once. For us, such times of special danger to Christian\ncharacter may arise from temporal vicissitudes. Joy and prosperity are\nas sure to occasion them as are sorrows, for to Paul the 'evil day' is\nthat which especially threatens moral and spiritual character, and these\nmay be as much damaged by the bright sunshine of prosperity as by the\nmidwinter of adversity, just as fierce sunshine may be as fatal as\nkilling frost. They may also arise, without any such change in\ncircumstances, from some temptation coming with more than ordinary\nforce, and directed with terrible accuracy to our weakest point.\n\nThese evil days are ever wont to come on us suddenly; they are heralded\nby no storm signals and no falling barometer. We may be like soldiers\nsitting securely round their camp fire, till all at once bullets begin\nto fall among them. The tiger's roar is the first signal of its leap\nfrom the jungle. Our position in the world, our ignorance of the future,\nthe heaped-up magazines of combustibles within, needing only a spark,\nall lay us open to unexpected assaults, and the temptation comes\nstealthily, 'as a thief in the night.' Nothing is so certain as the\nunexpected. For these reasons, then, because the 'evil day' will\ncertainly come, because it may come at any time, and because it is most\nlikely to come 'when we look not for it,' it is the dictate of plain\ncommon sense to be prepared. If the good man of the house had known at\nwhat hour the thief would have come, he would have watched; but he would\nhave been a wiser man if he had watched all the more, because he did\n_not_ know at what hour the thief would come.\n\nII. To withstand these we must be armed against them before they come.\n\nThe main point of the exhortation is this previous preparation. It is\nclear enough that it is no time to fly to our weapons when the enemy is\nupon us. Aldershot, not the battlefield, is the place for learning\nstrategy. Belshazzar was sitting at his drunken feast while the Persians\nwere marching on Babylon, and in the night he was slain. When great\ncrises arise in a nation's history, some man whose whole life has been\npreparing him for the hour starts to the front and does the needed work.\nIf a sailor put off learning navigation till the wind was howling and a\nreef lay ahead, his corpse would be cast on the cruel rocks. It is well\nnot to be 'over-exquisite,' to cast the fashion of 'uncertain evils,'\nbut certain ones cannot be too carefully anticipated, nor too sedulously\nprepared for.\n\nThe manner in which this preparation is to be carried out is distinctly\nmarked here. The armour is to be put on before the conflict begins. Now,\nwithout anticipating what will more properly come in considering\nsubsequent details, we may notice that such a previous assumption\nimplies mainly two things--a previous familiarity with God's truth, and\na previous exercise of Christian virtues. As to the former, the\nsubsequent context speaks of taking the sword of the Spirit, which is\nthe word of God, and of having the loins girt with truth, which may be\nobjective truth. As to the latter, we need not elaborate the Apostle's\nmain thought that resistance to sudden temptations is most vigorous when\na man is accustomed to goodness. One of the prophets treats it as being\nall but impossible that they who have been accustomed to evil shall\nlearn to do well, and it is at least not less impossible that they who\nhave been accustomed to do well shall learn to do evil. Souls which\nhabitually walk in the clear spaces of the bracing air on the mountains\nof God will less easily be tempted down to the shut-in valleys where\nmalaria reigns. The positive exercise of Christian graces tends to\nweaken the force of temptation. A mind occupied with these has no room\nfor it. Higher tastes are developed which makes the poison sweetness of\nevil unsavoury, and just as the Israelites hungered for the strong,\ncoarse-smelling leeks and garlic of Egypt, and therefore loathed 'this\nlight bread,' so they whose palates have been accustomed to manna will\nhave little taste for leeks and garlic. The mental and spiritual\nactivity involved in the habitual exercise of Christian virtues will go\nfar to make the soul unassailable by evil. A man, busily occupied, as\nthe Apostle would have us to be, may be tempted by the devil, though\nless frequently the more he is thus occupied; but one who has no such\noccupations and interests tempts the devil. If our lives are inwardly\nand secretly honeycombed with evil, only a breath will be needed to\nthrow down the structure. It is possible to become so accustomed to the\ncalm delights of goodness, that it would need a moral miracle to make a\nman fall into sin.\n\nIII. To be armed with this armour, we must get it from God.\n\nThough it consists mainly of habitudes and dispositions of our own\nminds, none the less have we to receive these from above. It is 'the\npanoply of God,' therefore we are to be endued with it, not by exercises\nin our own strength, but by dependence on Him. In old days, before a\nsquire was knighted, he had to keep a vigil in the chapel of the castle,\nand through the hours of darkness to watch his armour and lift his soul\nto God, and we shall never put on the armour of light unless in silence\nwe draw near to Him who teaches our hands to war and our fingers to\nfight. Communion with Christ, and only communion with Christ, receives\nfrom Him the life which enables us to repel the diseases of our spirits.\nWhat He imparts to those who thus wait upon Him, and to them only, is\nthe Spirit which helps their infirmities and clothes their undefended\nnakedness with a coat of mail. If we go forth to war with evil, clothed\nand armed only with what we can provide, we shall surely be worsted in\nthe fray. If we go forth into the world of struggle from the secret\nplace of the Most High, 'no weapon that is formed against us shall\nprosper,' and we shall be more than conquerors through Him that loved\nus.\n\nBut waiting on God to receive our weapons from Him is but part of what\nis needful for our equipment. It is we who have to gird our loins and\nput on the breastplate, and shoe our feet, and take the shield of faith,\nand the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. The cumbrous\narmour of old days could only be put on by the help of another pulling\nstraps, and fixing buckles, and lifting and bracing heavy shields on\narms, and fastening helmets upon heads; but we have, by our own effort,\nto clothe ourselves with God's great gift, which is of no use to us, and\nis in no real sense ours, unless we do. It takes no small effort to\nkeep ourselves in the attitude of dependence and receptivity, without\nwhich none of the great gifts of God come to us, and, least of all, the\nhabitual practice of Christian virtues. The soldier who rushed into the\nfight, leaving armour and arms huddled together on the ground, would\nsoon fall, and God's giving avails nothing for our defence unless there\nis also our taking. It is the woful want of taking the things that are\nfreely given to us of God, and of making our own what by His gift is our\nown, that is mainly responsible for the defeats of which we are all\nconscious. Looking back on our own evil days, we must all be aware that\nour defeats have mainly come from one or other of the two errors which\nlie so near us all, and which are intimately connected with each\nother--the one being that of fighting in our own strength, and the other\nbeing that of leaving unused our God-given power.\n\nIV. The issue of successful resistance is increased firmness of footing.\n\nIf we are able to 'withstand in the evil day,' we shall 'stand' more\nsecurely when the evil day has stormed itself away. If we keep erect in\nthe shock of battle, we shall stand more secure when the wild charge has\nbeen beaten back. The sea hurls tons of water against the slender\nlighthouse on the rock, and if it stands, the smashing of the waves\nconsolidates it. The reward of firm resistance is increased firmness. As\nthe Red Indians used to believe that the strength of the slain enemies\nwhom they had scalped passed into their arms, so we may have power\ndeveloped by conflict, and we shall more fully understand, and more\npassionately believe in, the principles and truths which have served us\nin past fights. David would not wear Saul's armour because, as he said,\n'I have not proved it,' and the Christian who has come victoriously\nthrough one struggle should be ready to say, 'I have proved it'; we have\nthe word of the Lord, which is _tried_, to trust to, and not we only,\nbut generations, have tested it, and it has stood the tests. Therefore,\nit is not for us to hesitate as to the worth of our weapons, or to doubt\nthat they are more than sufficient for every conflict which we may be\ncalled upon to wage.\n\nThe text plainly implies that all our life long we shall be in danger of\nsudden assaults. It does contemplate victory in the evil day, but it\nalso contemplates that after we have withstood, we have still to stand\nand be ready for another attack to-morrow. Our life here is, and must\nstill be, a continual warfare. Peace is not bought by any victories;\n'There is no discharge in that war.' Like the ten thousand Greeks who\nfought their way home through clouds of enemies from the heart of Asia,\nwe are never safe till we come to the mountain-top, where we can cry,\n'The Sea!' But though all our paths lead us through enemies, we have\nJesus, who has conquered them all, with us, and our hearts should not\nfail so long as we can hear His brave voice encouraging us: 'In the\nworld ye have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the\nworld.'\n\n\n\n\n'THE GIRDLE OF TRUTH'\n\n 'Stand, therefore, having girded your loins with truth.'--Eph.\n vi. 14 (R.V.).\n\n\nThe general exhortation here points to the habitual attitude of the\nChristian soldier. However many conflicts he may have waged, he is still\nto be ever ready for fresh assaults, for in regard to them he may be\nquite sure that to-morrow will bring its own share of them, and that the\nevil day is never left behind so long as days still last. That general\nexhortation is followed by clauses which are sometimes said to be\ncotemporaneous with it, and to be definitions of the way in which it is\nto be accomplished, but they are much rather statements of what is to be\ndone before the soldier takes his stand. He is to be fully equipped\nfirst: he is to take up his position second. We may note that, in all\nthe list of his equipment, there is but one weapon of offence--the sword\nof the Spirit; all the rest are defensive weapons. The girdle, which is\nthe first specified, is not properly a weapon at all, but it comes first\nbecause the belt keeps all the other parts of the armour in place, and\ngives agility to the wearer. Having girded your loins (R.V.) is better\nthan having your loins girded (A.V.), as bringing out more fully that\nthe assumption of the belt is the soldier's own doing.\n\nI. We must be braced up if we are to fight.\n\nConcentration and tension of power is an absolute necessity for any\neffort, no matter how poor may be the aims to which it is directed, and\nwhat is needed for the successful prosecution of the lowest transient\nsuccesses will surely not be less indispensable in the highest forms of\nlife. If a poor runner for a wreath of parsley or of laurel cannot hope\nto win the fading prize unless all his powers are strained to the\nuttermost, the Christian athlete has still more certainly to run, so as\nthe racer has to do, 'that he may obtain.' Loose-flowing robes are\ncaught by every thorn by the way, and a soul which is not girded up is\nsure to be hindered in its course. 'This one thing I do' is the secret\nof all successful doing, and obedience to the command of Jesus, 'let\nyour loins be girded about,' is indispensable, if we would avoid\npolluting contact with evil. His other command associated with it will\nnever be accomplished without it. The lamps will not be burning unless\nthe loins are girt. The men who scatter their loves and thoughts over a\nwide space, and to whom the discipline which confines their energies\nwithin definite channels is distasteful, are destined to be failures in\nthe struggle of life. It is better to have our lives running between\nnarrow banks, and so to have a scour in the stream, than to have them\nspreading wide and shallow, with no driving force in all the useless\nexpanse. Such concentration and bracing of oneself up is needful, if any\nof the rest of the great exhortations which follow are to be fulfilled.\n\nIt may be that Paul here has haunting his memory our Lord's words which\nwe have just quoted; and, in any case, he is in beautiful accord with\nhis brother Peter, who begins all the exhortations of his epistle with\nthe words, 'Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, be sober, and\nset your minds perfectly upon the grace that is to be brought unto you\nat the revelation of Jesus Christ.' Peter, indeed, is not thinking of\nthe soldier's belt, but he is, no doubt, remembering many a time when,\nin the toils of the fishing-boat, he had to tighten his robes round his\nwaist to prepare for tugging at the oar, and he feels that such\nconcentration is needful if a Christian life is ever to be sober, and to\nhave its hope set perfectly on Christ and His grace.\n\nII. The girdle is to be truth.\n\nThe question immediately arises as to whether truth here means objective\ntruth--the truth of the Gospel, or subjective truth, or, as we are\naccustomed to say, truthfulness. It would seem that the former\nsignification is rather included in the sword of the Spirit, which is\nthe word of God, and it is best to regard the phrase 'with (literally\n\"in\") truth' here as having its ordinary meaning, of which we may take\nas examples the phrases, 'the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth';\n'love rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth';\n'whom I love in truth.' Absolute sincerity and transparent truthfulness\nmay well be regarded as the girdle which encloses and keeps secure every\nother Christian grace and virtue.\n\nWe do not need to go far to find a slight tinge of unreality marring the\nChristian life: we have only to scrutinise our own experiences to detect\nsome tendency to affectation, to saying a little more than is quite\ntrue, even in our sincerest worship. And we cannot but recognise that in\nall Christian communities there is present an element of conventionalism\nin their prayers, and that often the public expression of religious\nemotions goes far beyond the realities of feeling in the worshippers. In\nfact, terrible as the acknowledgment may be, we shall be blind if we do\nnot recognise that the average Christianity of this day suffers from\nnothing more than it does from the lack of this transparent sincerity,\nand of absolute correspondence between inward fact and outward\nexpression. Types of Christianity which make much of emotion are, of\ncourse, specially exposed to such a danger, but those which make least\nof it are not exempt, and we all need to lay to heart, far more\nseriously than we ordinarily do, that God 'desires truth in the outward\nparts.' The sturdy English moralist who proclaimed 'Clear your mind of\ncant' as the first condition of attaining wisdom, was not so very far\nfrom Paul's point of view in our text, but his exhortation covered but\na small section of the Apostle's.\n\nThis absolute sincerity is hard to attain, and still harder to retain.\nHideous as the fact of posing or attitudinising in our religion may be,\nit is one that comes very easily to us all, and, when it comes, spreads\nfast and spoils everything. Just as the legionary's armour was held in\nits place by the girdle, and if that worked loose or was carelessly\nfastened, the breastplate would be sure to get out of position, so all\nthe subsequent graces largely depend for their vigorous exercise on the\nprime virtue of truthfulness. Righteousness and faith will be weakened\nby the fatal taint of insincerity, and, on the other hand, conscious\ntruthfulness will give strength to the whole man. Braced up and\nconcentrated, our powers for all service and for all conflict will be\nincreased. 'The bond of perfectness' is, no doubt, 'Love,' but that\nperfect bond will not be worn by us, unless we have girded our loins\nwith truthfulness.\n\nIt may be that in Paul's memory there is floating Isaiah's great vision\nof the 'Branch' out of the stock of Jesse, on whom the Spirit of the\nLord was to rest, and on whom it was proclaimed that faithfulness (or as\nit is rendered in the Septuagint, by the same phrase which the Apostle\nhere employs, 'in truth') was to be the girdle of his reins; but, at all\nevents, that which the prophet saw to be in the ideal Messiah, the\nApostle sees as essential to all the subjects of that King.\n\nIII. Our truthfulness is the work of God's truth.\n\nWe have already pointed out that the expression in the text may either\nbe taken as referring to the subjective quality of truthfulness, or to\nthe objective truth of God as contained in the Gospel, but these two\ninterpretations may be united, for the main factor in producing the\nformer is the faithful use of the latter and an honest submission to its\noperation. The Psalmist of old had learned that the great safeguard\nagainst sin was the resolve, 'Thy word have I hid in my heart.' That\nword brings to bear the mightiest motives that can sway life. It moves\nby love, by fear, by hope: it proposes the loftiest aim, even to imitate\nGod as dear children; it gives clear directions, and draws straight and\nplain the pilgrim's path; it holds out the largest promises, and in a\nmeasure fulfils them, even in the narrowest and most troubled lives. If\nwe have made God's truth our own, and are faithfully applying it to the\ndetails of daily life and submitting our whole selves to its operation,\nwe shall be truthful and shall instinctively shrink from all unreality.\nIf we know the truth as it is in Jesus, and walk in it, that 'truth will\nmake us free,' and if thus 'we are in Him that is true, even in His Son,\nJesus Christ,' that truth abiding in us, and with us, for ever, will\nmake us truthful. In a heart so occupied and filled there is no room for\nthe make-believes which are but too apt to creep into religious\nexperience. Such a soul will recoil with an instinct of abhorrence from\nall that savours of ostentation, and will feel that its truest treasure\ncannot be shown. It is our duty not to hide God's righteousness within\nour hearts, but it is equally our duty to hide His word there. We have\nto seek to make manifest the 'savour of His knowledge in every place,'\nbut we have also to remember that in our hearts there is a secret place,\nand that 'not easily forgiven are they who draw back the curtains,' and\nlet a careless world look in. It is not for others to pry into the\nhidden mysteries of the fellowship of a soul with the indwelling\nChrist, however it may be the Christian duty to show to all and sundry\nthe blessed and transforming effects of that fellowship.\n\nBut God's truth must be received and its power submitted to, if it is to\nimplant in us the supreme grace of perfect truthfulness. Our minds and\nhearts must be saturated with it by many an hour of solitary reflection,\nby meditation which will diffuse its aroma like a fragrant perfume\nthrough our characters, and by the habit of bringing all circumstances,\nmoods, and desires to be tested by its infallible criterion, and by the\nunreluctant acceptance of its guidance at every moment of our lives.\nThere are many of us who, in a real though terribly imperfect sense,\nhold the truth, but who know nothing, or next to nothing, of its power\nto make us truthful. If it is to be of any use to us, we must make it\nours in a far deeper sense than it is ours now; for many of us the\ngirdle has been but carelessly fastened and has worked loose, and\nbecause, by our own faults, we have not 'abode in the truth,' it has\ncome to pass that there is 'no truth in us.' We have set before us in\nthe text the one condition on which all Christian progress depends, and\nif by any slackness we loosen the girdle of truthfulness, and admit into\nour religious life any taint of unreality, if our prayers say just a\nlittle more than is quite true, and our penitence a little less, we\nshall speedily find that hypocrisy and trivial insincerity are separated\nby very narrow limits. God's truth in the Gospel cleanses the inner man,\nbut not without his own effort, and, therefore, we are commanded to\n'cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting\nholiness, in the fear of the Lord.'\n\n\n\n\n'THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS'\n\n 'Having put on the breastplate of righteousness.'--Eph. vi. 14.\n\n\nThere can be no doubt that in this whole context the Apostle has in mind\nthe great passage in Isaiah lix. where the prophet, in a figure of\nextreme boldness, describes the Lord as arming Himself to deliver the\noppressed faithful, and coming as a Redeemer to Zion. In that passage\nthe Lord puts on righteousness as a breastplate--that is to say, God, in\nHis manifestation of Himself for the deliverance of His people, comes\nforth as if arrayed in the glittering armour of righteousness. Paul does\nnot shrink from applying the same metaphor to those who are to be\n'imitators of God as beloved children,' and from urging upon them that,\nin their humble degree and lowly measure, they too are to be clothed in\nthe bright armour of moral rectitude. This righteousness is manifested\nin character and in conduct, and as the breastplate guards the vital\norgans from assault, it will keep the heart unwounded.\n\nWe must note that Paul here gathers up the whole sum of Christian\ncharacter and conduct into one word. All can be expressed, however\ndiversified may be the manifestations, by the one sovereign term\n'righteousness,' and that is not merely a hasty generalisation, or a too\nrapid synthesis. As all sin has one root and is genetically one, so all\ngoodness is at bottom one. The germ of sin is living to oneself: the\ngerm of goodness is living to God. Though the degrees of development of\neither opposite are infinite, and the forms of its expression\ninnumerable, yet the root of each is one.\n\nPaul thinks of righteousness as existent before the Christian soldier\nputs it on. In this thought we are not merely relying on the metaphor of\nour text, but bringing it into accord with the whole tone of New\nTestament teaching, which knows of only one way in which any soul that\nhas been living to self, and therefore to sin, can attain to living to\nGod, and therefore can be righteous. We must receive, if we are ever to\npossess, the righteousness which is of God, and which becomes ours\nthrough Jesus Christ. The righteousness which shines as a fair but\nunattainable vision before sinful men, has a real existence, and may be\ntheirs. It is not to be self-elaborated, but to be received.\n\nThat existent righteousness is to be put on. Other places of Scripture\nfigure it as the robe of righteousness; here it is conceived of as the\nbreastplate, but the idea of assumption is the same. It is to be put on,\nprimarily, by faith. It is given in Christ to simple belief. He that\nhath faith thereby has the righteousness which is through faith in\nChrist, for in his faith he has the one formative principle of reliance\non God, which will gradually refine character and mould conduct into\nwhatsoever things are lovely and of good report. That righteousness\nwhich faith receives is no mere forensic treating of the unjust as just,\nbut whilst it does bring with it pardon and oblivion from past\ntransgressions, it makes a man in the depths of his being righteous,\nhowever slowly it may afterwards transform his conduct. The faith which\nis a departure from all reliance on works of righteousness which we have\ndone, and is a single-eyed reliance on the work of Jesus Christ, opens\nthe heart in which it is planted to all the influences of that life\nwhich was in Jesus, that from Him it may be in us. If Christ be in us\n(and if He is not, we are none of His), 'the spirit is life because of\nrighteousness,' however the body may still be 'dead because of sin.'\n\nBut the putting on of the breastplate requires effort as well as faith,\nand effort will be vigorous in the measure in which faith is vivid, but\nit should follow, not precede or supplant, faith. There is no more\nhopeless and weary advice than would be the exhortation of our text if\nit stood alone. It is a counsel of despair to tell a man to put on that\nbreastplate, and to leave him in doubt where he is to find it, or\nwhether he has to hammer it together by his own efforts before he can\nput it on. There is no more unprofitable expenditure of breath than the\ncry to men, Be good! Be good! Moral teaching without Gospel preaching is\nlittle better than a waste of breath.\n\nThis injunction is continuously imperative upon all Christian soldiers.\nThey are on the march through the enemy's country, and can never safely\nlay aside their armour. After all successes, and no less after all\nfailures, we have still to arm ourselves for the fight, and it is to be\nremembered that the righteousness of which Paul speaks differs from\ncommon earthly moralities only as including and transcending them all.\nIt is, alas, too true that Christian righteousness has been by\nChristians set forth as something fantastic and unreal, remote from\nordinary life, and far too heavenly-minded to care for common virtues.\nLet us never forget that Jesus Himself has warned us, that except our\nrighteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, we\nshall in no wise enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The greater orbit encloses\nthe lesser within itself.\n\nThe breastplate of righteousness is our defence against evil. The\nopposition to temptation is best carried on by the positive cultivation\nof good. A habit of righteous conduct is itself a defence against\ntemptation. Untilled fields bear abundant weeds. The used tool does not\nrust, nor the running water gather scum. The robe of righteousness will\nguard the heart as effectually as a coat of mail. The positive\nemployment with good weakens temptation, and arms us against evil. But\nso long as we are here our righteousness must be militant, and we must\nbe content to live ever armed to meet the enemy which is always hanging\nround us, and watching for an opportunity to strike. The time will come\nwhen we shall put off the breastplate and put on the fine linen 'clean\nand white,' which is the heavenly and final form of the righteousness of\nSaints.\n\n\n\n\nA SOLDIER'S SHOES\n\n 'Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.'--Eph.\n vi. 15.\n\n\nPaul drew the first draft of this picture of the Christian armour in his\nfirst letter. It is a finished picture here. One can fancy that the\nRoman soldier to whom he was chained in his captivity, whilst this\nletter was being written, unconsciously sat for his likeness, and that\neach piece of his accoutrements was seized in succession by the\nApostle's imagination and turned to a Christian use. It is worth\nnoticing that there is only one offensive weapon mentioned--'the sword\nof the Spirit.' All the rest are defensive--helmet, breastplate, shield,\ngirdle, and shoes. That is to say, the main part of our warfare consists\nin defence, in resistance, and in keeping what we have, in spite of\neverybody, men and devils, who attempt to take it from us. 'Hold fast\nthat thou hast; let no man take thy crown.'\n\nNow, it seems to me that the ordinary reader does not quite grasp the\nmeaning of our text, and that it would be more intelligible if, instead\nof 'preparation,' which means the process of getting a thing ready, we\nread 'preparedness,' which means the state of mind of the man who is\nready. Then we have to notice that the little word 'of' does duty to\nexpress two different relations, in the two instances of its use here.\nIn the first case--'the preparedness of the Gospel'--it states the\norigin of the thing in question. That condition of being ready comes\nfrom the good news of Christ. In the second case--'the Gospel of\npeace'--it states the result of the thing in question. The good news of\nChrist gives peace. So, taking the whole clause, we may paraphrase it by\nsaying that the preparedness of spirit, the alacrity which comes from\nthe possession of a Gospel that sheds a calm over the heart and brings a\nman into peace with God, is what the Apostle thinks is like the heavy\nhob-nailed boots that the legionaries wore, by which they could stand\nfirm, whatever came against them.\n\nI. The first thing that I would notice here is that the Gospel brings\npeace.\n\nI suppose that there was ringing in Paul's head some echoes of the music\nof Isaiah's words, 'How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him\nthat bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good\ntidings of good!' But there is a great deal more than an unconscious\nquotation of ancient words here; for in Paul's thought, the one power\nwhich brings a man into harmony with the universe and to peace with\nhimself, is the power which proclaims that God is at peace with him. And\nJesus Christ is our peace, because He has swept away the root and bitter\nfountain of all the disquiet of men's hearts, and all their chafing at\nprovidences--the consciousness that there is discord between themselves\nand God. The Gospel brings peace in the deepest sense of that word, and,\nprimarily, peace with God, from out of which all other kinds of\ntranquillity and heart-repose do come--and they come from nothing\nbesides.\n\nBut what strikes me most here is not so much the allusion to the blessed\ntruth that was believed and experienced by these Ephesian Christians,\nthat the Gospel brought peace, and was the only thing that did, as the\nsingular emergence of that idea that the Gospel was a peace-bringing\npower, in the midst of this picture of fighting. Yes, it brings both. It\nbrings us peace first, and then it says to us, 'Now, having got peace in\nyour heart, because peace with God, go out and fight to keep it.' For,\nif we are warring with the devil we are at peace with God; and if we are\nat peace with the devil we are warring with God. So the two states of\npeace and war go together. There is no real peace which has not conflict\nin it, and the Gospel _is_ 'the Gospel of peace,' precisely because it\nenlists us in Christ's army and sends us out to fight Christ's battles.\n\nSo, then, dear brother, the only way to realise and preserve 'the peace\nof God which passes understanding' is to fling ourselves manfully into\nthe fight to which all Christ's soldiers are pledged and bound. The two\nconditions, though they seem to be opposite, will unite; for this is the\nparadox of the Christian life, that in all regions it makes compatible\napparently incompatible and contradictory emotions. 'As sorrowful'--and\nPaul might have said 'therefore' instead of 'yet'--'as sorrowful yet\nalways rejoicing; as having nothing yet'--therefore--'possessing all\nthings'; as in the thick of the fight, and yet kept in perfect peace,\nbecause the soul is stayed on God. The peace that comes from friendship\nwith Him, the peace that fills a heart tranquil because satisfied, the\npeace that soothes a conscience emptied of all poison and robbed of all\nits sting, the peace that abides because, on all the horizon in front of\nus nothing can be seen that we need to be afraid of--that peace is the\npeace which the Gospel brings, and it is realised in warfare and is\nconsistent with it. All the armies of the world may camp round the\nfortress, and the hurtling noise of battle may be loud in the plains,\nbut up upon the impregnable cliff crowned by its battlements there is a\ncentral citadel, with a chapel in the heart of it; and to the\nworshippers there none of the noise ever penetrates. The Gospel which\nlaps us in peace and puts it in our hearts makes us soldiers.\n\nII. Further, this Gospel of peace will prepare us for the march.\n\nA wise general looks after his soldiers' boots. If they give out,\nnothing else is of much use. The roads are very rough and very long, and\nthere need to be strong soles and well-sewed uppers, and they will be\nnone the worse for a bit of iron on the heels and the toes, in order\nthat they may not wear out in the midst of the campaign. 'Thy shoes\nshall be iron and brass,' and these metals are harder than any of the\nrock that you will have to clamber over. Which being translated into\nplain fact is just this--a tranquil heart in amity with God is ready for\nall the road, is likely to make progress, and is fit for anything that\nit may be called to do.\n\nA calm heart makes a light foot; and he who is living at peace with God,\nand with all disturbance within hushed to rest, will, for one thing, be\nable to see what his duty is. He will see his way as far as is needful\nfor the moment. That is more than a good many of us can do when our eyes\nget confused, because our hearts are beating so loudly and fast, and our\nown wishes come in to hide from us God's will. But if we are weaned from\nourselves, as we shall be if we are living in possession of the peace of\nGod which passes understanding, the atmosphere will be transparent, as\nit is on some of the calm last days of autumn, and we shall see far\nahead and know where we ought to go.\n\nThe quiet heart will be able to fling its whole strength into its work.\nAnd that is what troubled hearts never can do, for half their energy is\ntaken up in steadying or quieting themselves, or is dissipated in going\nafter a hundred other things. But when we are wholly engaged in quiet\nfellowship with Jesus Christ we have the whole of our energies at our\ncommand, and can fling ourselves wholly into our work for Him. The\nsteam-engine is said to be a very imperfect machine which wastes more\npower than it utilises. That is true of a great many Christian people;\nthey have the power, but they are so far away from that deep sense of\ntranquillity with God, of which my text speaks, that they waste much of\nthe power that they have. And if we are to have for our motto 'Always\nReady.' as an old Scottish family has, the only way to secure that is by\nhaving 'our feet shod with the preparedness' that comes from the Gospel\nthat brings us peace. Brethren, duty that is done reluctantly, with\nhesitation, is not done. We must fling ourselves into the work gladly\nand be always 'ready for all Thy perfect will.'\n\nThere was an English commander, who died some years ago, who was sent\nfor to the Horse Guards one day and asked, 'How long will it take for\nyou to be ready to go to Scinde?' 'Half an hour,' said he; and in\nthree-quarters he was in the train, on his road to reconquer a kingdom.\nThat is how we ought to be; but we never shall be, unless we live\nhabitually in tranquil communion with God, and in the full faith that we\nare at peace with Him through the blood of His Son. A quiet heart makes\nus ready for duty.\n\nIII. Again, the Gospel of peace prepares us for combat.\n\nIn ancient warfare battles were lost or won very largely according to\nthe weight of the masses of men that were hurled against each other; and\nthe heavier men, with the firmer footing, were likely to be the victors.\nOur modern scientific way of fighting is different from that. But in the\nold time the one thing needful was that a man should stand firm and\nresist the shock of the enemies as they rushed upon him. Unless our\nfooting is good we shall be tumbled over by the onset of some unexpected\nantagonist. And for good footing there are two things necessary. One is\na good, solid piece of ground to stand on, that is not slippery nor\nmuddy, and the other is a good, strong pair of soldier's boots, that\nwill take hold on the ground and help the wearer to steady himself.\nChrist has set our feet on the rock, and so the first requisite is\nsecured. If we, for our part, will keep near to that Gospel which brings\npeace into our hearts, the peace that it brings will make us able to\nstand and bear unmoved any force that may be hurled against us. If we\nare to be 'steadfast, unmovable,' we can only be so when our feet are\nshod with the preparedness of the Gospel of peace.\n\nThe most of your temptations, most of the things that would pluck you\naway from Jesus Christ, and upset you in your standing will come down\nupon you unexpectedly. Nothing happens in this world except the\nunexpected; and it is the sudden assaults that we were not looking for\nthat work most disastrously against us. A man may be aware of some\nspecial weakness in his character, and have given himself carefully and\npatiently to try to fortify himself against it, and, lo! all at once a\ntemptation springs up from the opposite side; the enemy was lying in\nhiding there, and whilst his face was turned to fight with one foe, a\nfoe that he knew nothing about came storming behind him. There is only\none way to stand, and that is not merely by cultivating careful\nwatchfulness against our own weaknesses, but by keeping fast hold of\nJesus Christ manifested to us in His Gospel. Then the peace that comes\nfrom that communion will itself guard us.\n\nYou remember what Paul says in one of his other letters, where he has\nthe same beautiful blending together of the two ideas of peace and\nwarfare: 'The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall\ngarrison your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.' It will be, as it were,\nan armed force within your heart which will repel all antagonism, and\nwill enable you to abide in that Christ, through whom and in whom alone\nall peace comes. So, because we are thus liable to be overwhelmed by a\nsudden rush of unexpected temptation, and surprised into a sin before we\nknow where we are, let us keep fast hold by that Gospel which brings\npeace, which will give us steadfastness, however suddenly the masked\nbattery may begin to play upon us, and the foe may steal out of his\nambush and make a rush against our unprotectedness. That is the only\nway, as I think, by which we can walk scatheless through the world.\n\nNow, dear brethren, remember that this text is part of a commandment. We\nare to put on the shoes. How is that to be done? By a very simple way: a\nway which, I am afraid, a great many Christian people do not practise\nwith anything like the constancy that they ought. For it is the Gospel\nthat brings the peace, and if its peace brings the preparedness, then\nthe way to get the preparedness is by soaking our minds and hearts in\nthe Gospel of Jesus Christ.\n\nYou hear a good deal nowadays about deepening the spiritual life, and\npeople hold conventions for the purpose. All right; I have not a word to\nsay against that. But, conventions or no conventions, there is only one\nthing that deepens the spiritual life, and that is keeping near the\nChrist from whom all the fulness of the spiritual life flows. If we will\nhold fast by our Gospel, and let its peace lie upon our minds, as the\nnegative of a photograph lies upon the paper that it is to be printed\nupon, until the image of Jesus Christ Himself is reproduced in us, then\nwe may laugh at temptation. For there will be no temptation when the\nheart is full of Him, and there will be no sense of surrendering\nanything that we wish to keep when the superior sweetness of His grace\nfills our souls. It is empty vessels into which poison can be poured. If\nthe vessel is full there will be no room for it. Get your hearts and\nminds filled with the wine of the kingdom, and the devil's venom of\ntemptation will have no space to get in. It is well to resist\ntemptation; it is better to be lifted above it, so that it ceases to\ntempt. And the one way to secure that is to live near Jesus Christ, and\nlet the Gospel of His grace take up more of our thoughts and more of\nour affections than it has done in the past. Then we shall realise the\nfulfilment of the promise: 'He will not suffer thy foot to be moved.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE SHIELD OF FAITH\n\n 'Above all, taking the shield of faith, whereby ye shall be able to\n quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.'--Eph. vi. 16.\n\n\nThere were two kinds of shields in use in ancient warfare--one smaller,\ncarried upon the arm, and which could be used, by a movement of the arm,\nfor the defence of threatened parts of the body in detail; the other\nlarge, planted in front of the soldier, fixed in the ground, and all but\ncovering his whole person. It is the latter which is referred to in the\ntext, as the word which describes it clearly shows. That word is\nconnected with the Greek word meaning 'door,' and gives a rough notion\nof the look of the instrument of defence--a great rectangular oblong,\nbehind which a man could stand untouched and untouchable. And that is\nthe kind of shield, says Paul, which we are to have--no little defence\nwhich may protect some part of the nature, but a great wall, behind\nwhich he who crouches is safe.\n\n'Above all' does not mean here, as superficial readers take it to mean,\nmost especially and primarily, as most important, but it simply means\n_in addition to_ all these other things. Perhaps with some allusion to\nthe fact that the shield protected the breastplate, as well as the\nbreastplate protected the man, there may be a reference to the kind of\ndouble defence which comes to him who wears that breastplate and lies\nbehind the shelter of a strong and resolute faith.\n\nI. Now, looking at this metaphor from a practical point of view, the\nfirst thing to note is the missiles, 'the fiery darts of the wicked.'\n\nArchaeologists tell us that there were in use in ancient warfare javelins\ntipped with some kind of combustible, which were set on fire, and flung,\nso that they had not only the power of wounding but also of burning; and\nthat there were others with a hollow head, which was in like manner\nfilled, kindled, and thrown into the ranks of the enemy. I suppose that\nthe Apostle's reason for specifying these fiery darts was simply that\nthey were the most formidable offensive weapons that he had ever heard\nof. Probably, if he had lived to-day, he would have spoken of\nrifle-bullets or explosive shells, instead of fiery darts. But, though\nprobably the Apostle had no further meaning in the metaphor than to\nsuggest that faith was mightier than the mightiest assaults that can be\nhurled against it, we may venture to draw attention to two particulars\nin which this figure is specially instructive and warning. The one is\nthe action of certain temptations in setting the soul on fire; the other\nis the suddenness with which they assail us.\n\n'The fiery darts.' Now, I do not wish to confine that metaphor too\nnarrowly to any one department of human nature, for our whole being is\ncapable of being set on fire, and 'set on fire of hell,' as James says.\nBut there are things in us all to which the fiery darts do especially\nappeal: desires, appetites, passions; or--to use the word which refined\npeople are so afraid of, although the Bible is not, '_lusts_--which war\nagainst the soul,' and which need only a touch of fire to flare up like\na tar-barrel, in thick foul smoke darkening the heavens. There are fiery\ndarts that strike these animal natures of ours, and set them all aflame.\n\nBut, there are other fiery darts than these. There are plenty of other\ndesires in us: wishes, cowardices, weaknesses of all sorts, that, once\ntouched with the devil's dart, will burn fiercely enough. We all know\nthat.\n\nThen there is the other characteristic of suddenness. The dart comes\nwithout any warning. The arrow is invisible until it is buried in the\nman's breast. The pestilence walks in darkness, and the victim does not\nknow until its poison fang is in him. Ah! yes! brethren, the most\ndangerous of our temptations are those that are sprung upon us unawares.\nWe are going quietly along the course of our daily lives, occupied with\nquite other thoughts, and all at once, as if a door had opened, not out\nof heaven but out of hell, we are confronted with some evil thing that,\nunless we are instantaneously on our guard, will conquer us almost\nbefore we know. Evil tempts us because it comes to us, for the most\npart, without any beat of drum or blast of trumpet to say that it is\ncoming, and to put us upon our guard. The batteries that do most harm to\nthe advancing force are masked until the word of command is given, and\nthen there is a flash from every cannon's throat and a withering hail of\nshot that confounds by its unexpectedness as well as kills by its blow.\nThe fiery darts that light up the infernal furnace in a man's heart, and\nthat smite him all unawares and unsuspecting, these are the weapons that\nwe have to fear most.\n\nII. Consider next, the defence: 'the shield of faith.'\n\nNow, the Old Testament says things like this: 'Fear not, Abraham; I am\nthy Shield.' The psalmist invoked God, in a rapturous exuberance of\nadoring invocations, as his fortress, and his buckler, and the horn of\nhis salvation, and his high tower. The same psalm says, 'The Lord is a\nshield to all them that put their trust in Him'; and the Book of\nProverbs, which is not given to quoting psalms, quotes that verse.\nAnother psalm says, 'The Lord God is a sun and shield.'\n\nAnd then Paul comes speaking of 'the shield of _faith_.' What has become\nof the other one? The answer is plain enough. My faith is nothing except\nfor what it puts in front of me, and it is God who is truly my shield;\nmy faith is only called a shield, because it brings me behind the bosses\nof the Almighty's buckler, against which no man can run a tilt, or into\nwhich no man can strike his lance, nor any devil either. God is a\ndefence; and my trust, which is nothing in itself, is everything because\nof that with which it brings me into connection. Faith is the condition,\nand the only condition, of God's power flowing into me, and working in\nme. And when that power flows into me, and works in me, then I can laugh\nat the fiery darts, because 'greater is He that is with us than all they\nthat are with them.'\n\nSo all the glorification which the New Testament pours out upon the act\nof faith properly belongs, not to the act itself, but to that with which\nthe act brings us into connection. Wherefore, in the first Epistle of\nJohn, the Apostle, who recorded Christ's saying, 'Be of good cheer; I\nhave overcome the world,' translates it into, 'This is the victory that\novercometh the world'--_not_, our Christ, but--'even our faith.' And it\novercomes because it binds us in deep, vital union with Him who has\novercome; and then all His conquering power comes into us.\n\nThat is the explanation and vindication of the turn which Paul gives to\nthe Old Testament metaphor here, when he makes our shield to be faith.\nSuppose a man was exercising trust in one that was unworthy of it, would\nthat trust defend him from anything? Suppose you were in peril of some\ngreat pecuniary loss, and were saying to yourself, 'Oh! I do not care.\nSo-and-so has guaranteed me against any loss, and I trust to him,' and\nsuppose he was a bankrupt, what would be the good of your trust? It\nwould not bring the money back into your pocket. Suppose a man is\nleaning upon a rotten support; the harder he leans the sooner it will\ncrumble. So there is no defence in the act of trust except what comes\ninto it from the object of trust; and my faith is a shield only because\nit grasps the God who is the shield.\n\nBut, then, there is another side to that thought. My faith will quench,\nas nothing else will, these sudden impulses of fiery desires, because my\nfaith brings me into the conscious presence of God, and of the unseen\nrealities where He dwells. How can a man sin when God's eye is felt to\nbe upon him? Suppose conspirators plotting some dark deed in a corner,\nshrouded by the night, as they think; and suppose, all at once, the day\nwere to blaze in upon them, they would scatter, and drop their designs.\nFaith draws back the curtain which screens off that unseen world from so\nmany of us, and lets in the light that shines down from above and shows\nus that we are compassed about by a cloud of witnesses, and the Captain\nof our Salvation in the midst of them. Then the fiery darts fizzle out,\nand the points drop off them. No temptation continues to flame when we\nsee God.\n\nThey have contrivances in mills that they call 'automatic sprinklers.'\nWhen the fire touches them it melts away a covering, and a gas is set\nfree that puts the fire out. And if we let in the thought of God, it\nwill extinguish any flame. 'The sun puts out the fire in our grates,'\nthe old women say. Let God's sun shine into your heart, and you will\nfind that the infernal light has gone out. The shield of faith quenches\nthe fiery darts of the 'wicked.'\n\nYes! and it does it in another way. For, according to the Epistle to the\nHebrews, faith realises 'the things hoped for,' as well as 'unseen.' And\nif a man is walking in the light of the great promises of Heaven, and\nthe great threatenings of a hell, he will not be in much danger of being\nset on fire, even by 'the fiery darts of the wicked.' He that receives\ninto his heart God's strength; he that by faith is conscious of the\ndivine presence in communion with him; he that by faith walks in the\nlight of eternal retribution, will triumph over the most sudden, the\nsharpest, and the most fiery of the darts that can be launched against\nhim.\n\nIII. The Grasp of the Shield.\n\n'_Taking_ the shield,' then, there is something to be done in order to\nget the benefit of that defence. Now, there are a great many very good\npeople at present who tell Christian men that they ought to exercise\nfaith for sanctifying, as they exercise it for justifying and\nacceptance. And some of them--I do not say all--forget that there is\neffort needed to exercise faith for sanctifying; and that our energy has\nto be put forth in order that a man may, in spite of all resistance,\nkeep himself in the attitude of dependence. So my text, whilst it\nproclaims that we are to trust for defence against, and victory over,\nrecurring temptations, just as we trusted for forgiveness and\nacceptance at the beginning, proclaims also that there must be effort to\ngrasp the shield, and to realise the defence which the shield gives to\nus.\n\nFor to trust is an act of the heart and will far more than of the head,\nand there are a great many hindrances that rise in the way of it; and to\nkeep behind the shield, and not depend at all upon our own wit, our\nwisdom, or our strength, but wholly upon the Christ who gives us wit and\nwisdom, and strengthens our fingers to fight--that will take work! To\noccupy heart and mind with the object of faith is not an easy thing.\n\nSo, brethren, effort to compel the will and the heart to trust; effort\nto keep the mind in touch with the verities and the Person who are the\nobjects of our faith; and effort to keep ourselves utterly and wholly\nensconced behind the Shield, and never to venture out into the open,\nwhere our own arm has to keep our own heads, but to hang wholly upon\nHim--these things go to 'taking' the shield of faith. And it is because\nwe fail in these, and not because there are any holes or weak places in\nthe shield, that so many of the fiery darts find their way through, and\nset on fire and wound us. The Shield is impregnable, beaten as we have\noften been. 'This is the victory that overcometh the world'--and the\ndevil and his darts--'even our faith.'\n\n\n\n\n'THE HELMET OF SALVATION'\n\n 'Take the helmet of salvation.'--Eph. vi. 17.\n\n\nWe may, perhaps, trace a certain progress in the enumeration of the\nvarious pieces of the Christian armour in this context. Roughly\nspeaking, they are in three divisions. There are first our graces of\ntruth, righteousness, preparedness, which, though they are all conceived\nas given by God, are yet the exercises of our own powers. There is next,\nstanding alone, as befits its all-comprehensive character, faith which\nis able to ward against and overcome not merely this and that\ntemptation, but all forms of evil. That faith is the root of the three\npreceding graces, and makes the transition to the two which follow,\nbecause it is the hand by which we lay hold of God's gifts. The two\nfinal parts of the Christian armour are God's gifts, pure and\nsimple--salvation and the word of God. So the progress is from\ncircumference to centre, from man to God. From the central faith we have\non the one hand that which it produces in us; on the other, that which\nit lays hold of from God. And these two last pieces of armour, being\nwholly God's gift, we are bidden with especial emphasis which is shown\nby a change in construction, to take or receive these.\n\nI. The Salvation.\n\nOnce more Old Testament prophecy suggests the words of this exhortation.\nIn Isaiah's grand vision of God, arising to execute judgment which is\nalso redemption, we have a wonderful picture of His arraying Himself in\narmour. Righteousness is His flashing breastplate: on His head is an\nhelmet of salvation. The gleaming steel is draped by garments of\nretributive judgment, and over all is cast, like a cloak, the ample\nfolds of that 'zeal' which expresses the inexhaustible energy and\nintensity of the divine nature and action. Thus arrayed He comes forth\nto avenge and save. His redeeming work is the manifestation and issue of\nall these characteristics of His nature. It flames with divine fervour:\nit manifests the justice which repays, but its inmost character is\nrighteousness, and its chief purpose is to save. His helmet is\nsalvation; the plain, prose meaning of which would appear to be that His\ngreat purpose of saving men is its own guarantee that His purpose should\nbe effected, and is the armour by which His work is defended.\n\nThe Apostle uses the old picture with perfect freedom, quoting the words\nindeed, but employing them quite differently. God's helmet of salvation\nis His own purpose; man's helmet of salvation is God's gift. He is\nstrong to save because He wills to save; we are strong and safe when we\ntake the salvation which He gives.\n\nIt is to be further noticed that the same image appears in Paul's rough\ndraft of the Christian armour in Thessalonians, with the significant\ndifference that there the helmet is 'the hope of salvation,' and here it\nis the salvation itself. This double representation is in full accord\nwith all Scripture teaching, according to which we both possess and hope\nfor salvation, and our possession determines the measure of our hope.\nThat great word negatively implies deliverance from evil of any kind,\nand in its lower application, from sickness or peril of any sort. In its\nhigher meaning in Scripture the evil from which we are saved is most\nfrequently left unexpressed, but sometimes a little glimpse is given, as\nwhen we read that 'we are saved from wrath through Him' or 'saved from\nsin.' What Christ saves us from is, first and chiefly, from sin in all\naspects, its guilt, its power, and its penalty; but His salvation\nreaches much further than any mere deliverance from threatening evil,\nand positively means the communication to our weakness and emptiness of\nall blessings and graces possible for men. It is inward and properly\nspiritual, but it is also outward, and it is not fully possessed until\nwe are clothed with 'salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.'\n\nHence, in Scripture our salvation is presented as past, as present, and\nas future. As past it is once for all received by initial faith in\nChrist; and, in view of their faith, Paul has no scruples as to saying\nto the imperfect Christians whose imperfections he scourges, 'Ye have\nbeen saved,' or in building upon that past fact his earnest exhortations\nand his scathing rebukes. The salvation is present if in any true sense\nit is past. There will be a daily growing deliverance from evil and a\ndaily growing appropriation and manifestation of the salvation which we\nhave received. And so Paul more than once speaks of Christians as 'being\nsaved.' The process begun in the past is continued throughout the\npresent, and the more a Christian man is conscious of its reality even\namidst flaws, failures, stagnation, and lapses, the more assured will be\nhis hope of the perfect salvation in the future, when all that is here,\ntendency often thwarted, and aspirations often balked, and sometimes\nsadly contradicted, will be completely, uninterruptedly, and eternally\nrealised. If that hope flickers and is sometimes all but dead, the\nreason mainly lies in its flame not being fed by present experience.\n\nII. The helmet of salvation.\n\nThis salvation in its present form will keep our heads in the day of\nbattle. Its very characteristic is that it delivers us from evil, and\nall the graces with which Paul equips his ideal warrior are parts of the\npositive blessings which our salvation brings us. The more assured we\nare in our own happy consciousness of possessing the salvation of God,\nthe more shall we be defended from all the temptations that seek to stir\ninto action our lower selves. There will be no power in our fears to\ndraw us into sin, and the possible evils that appeal to earthly passions\nof whatever sort will lose their power to disturb us, in the precise\nmeasure in which we know that we are saved in Christ. The consciousness\nof salvation will tend to damp down the magazine of combustibles that we\nall carry within us, and the sparks that fall will be as innocuous as\nthose that light on wet gunpowder. If our thoughts are occupied with the\nblessings which we possess they will be guarded against the assaults of\nevil. The full cup has no room for poison. The eye that is gazing on the\nfar-off white mountains does not see the filth and frivolities around.\nIf we are living in conscious possession and enjoyment of what God gives\nus, we shall pass scatheless through the temptations which would\notherwise fall on us and rend us. A future eagerly longed for, and\nalready possessed in germ, will kill a present that would otherwise\nappeal to us with irresistible force.\n\nIII. Take the helmet.\n\nWe might perhaps more accurately read _receive_ salvation, for that\nsalvation is not won by any efforts of our own, but if we ever possess\nit, our possession is the result of our accepting it as a gift from God.\nThe first word which the Gospel speaks to men and which makes it a\nGospel, is not Do this or that, but Take this from the hands that were\nnailed to the Cross. The beginning of all true life, of all peace, of\nall self-control, of all hope, lies in the humble and penitent\nacceptance by faith of the salvation which Christ brings, and with which\nwe have nothing to do but to accept it.\n\nBut Paul is here speaking to those whom he believes to have already\nexercised the initial faith which united them to Christ, and made His\nsalvation theirs, and to these the exhortation comes with special\nforce. To such it says, 'See to it that your faith ever grasps and feeds\nupon the great facts on which your salvation reposes--God's changeless\nlove, Christ's all-sufficient sacrifice and ascended life, which He\nimparts to us if we abide in Him. Hold fast and prolong by continual\nrepetition the initial act by which you received that salvation. It is\nsaid that on his death-bed Oliver Cromwell asked the Puritan divine who\nwas standing by it whether a man who had once been in the covenant could\nbe lost, and on being assured that he could not, answered, 'I know that\nI was once in it'; but such a building on past experiences is a building\non sand, and nothing but continuous faith will secure a continuous\nsalvation. A melancholy number of so-called Christians in this day have\nto travel far back through the years before they reach the period when\nthey took the helmet of salvation. They know that they were far better\nmen, and possessed a far deeper apprehension of Christ and His power in\nthe old days than is theirs now, and they need not wonder if God's great\ngift has unnoticed slipped from their relaxed grasp. A hand that clings\nto a rock while a swollen flood rushes past needs to perpetually be\ntightening its grip, else the man will be swept away; and the present\nsalvation, and, still more, the hope of a future salvation, are not ours\non any other terms than a continual repetition of the initial act by\nwhich we first received them. But there must also be a continually\nincreased appropriation and manifestation in our lives of a progressive\nsalvation that will come as a result of a constantly renewed faith; but\nit will not come unless there be continuous effort to work into our\ncharacters, and to work out in our lives, the transforming and\nvitalising power of the life given to us in Jesus Christ. If our\npresent experience yields no sign of growing conformity to the image of\nour Saviour, there is only too abundant reason for doubting whether we\nhave experienced a past salvation or have any right to anticipate a\nperfect future salvation.\n\nThe last word to be said is, Live in frequent anticipation of that\nperfect future. If that anticipation is built on memory of the past and\nexperience of the present, it cannot be too confident. That hope maketh\nnot ashamed. In the region of Christian experience alone the weakest of\nus has a right to reckon on the future, and to be sure that when that\ngreat to-morrow dawns for us, it 'shall be as this day and much more\nabundant.' With this salvation in its imperfect form brightening the\npresent, and in its completeness filling the future with unimaginable\nglory, we can go into all the conflicts of this fighting world and feel\nthat we are safe because God covers our heads in the day of battle.\nUnless so defended we shall go into the fight as the naked Indians did\nwith the Spanish invaders, and be defeated as they were. The plumes may\nbe shorn off the helmet, and it may be easily dinted, but the head that\nwore it will be unharmed. And when the battle and the noise of battle\nare past, the helmet will be laid aside, and we shall be able to say, 'I\nhave fought a good fight, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of\nrighteousness.'\n\n\n\n\n'THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT'\n\n 'The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.'--Eph. vi. 17.\n\n\nWe reach here the last and only offensive weapon in the panoply. The\n'of' here does not indicate apposition, as in the 'shield of faith,' or\n'the helmet of salvation,' nor is it the 'of' of possession, so that\nthe meaning is to be taken as being the sword which the Spirit wields,\nbut it is the 'of' expressing origin, as in the 'armour of God'; it is\nthe sword which the Spirit supplies. The progress noted in the last\nsermon from subjective graces to objective divine facts, is completed\nhere, for the sword which is put into the Christian soldier's hand is\nthe gift of God, even more markedly than is the helmet which guards his\nhead in the day of battle.\n\nI. Note what the word of God is.\n\nThe answer which would most commonly and almost unthinkingly be given\nis, I suppose, the Scriptures; but while this is on the whole true, it\nis to be noted that the expression employed here properly means a word\nspoken, and not the written record. Both in the Old and in the New\nTestaments the word of God means more than the Bible; it is the\nauthentic utterance of His will in all shapes and applying to all the\nfacts of His creation. In the Old Testament 'God said' is the expression\nin the first chapter of Genesis for the forthputting of the divine\nenergy in the act of creation, and long ages after that divine poem of\ncreation was written a psalmist re-echoed the thought when he said 'For\never, O Lord, Thy word is settled in the heavens. Thou hast established\nthe earth and it abideth.'\n\nBut, further, the expression designates the specific messages which\nprophets and others received. These are not in the Old Testament spoken\nof as a unity: they are individual words rather than a word. Each of\nthem is a manifestation of the divine will and purpose; many of them are\ncommandments; some of them are warnings; and all, in some measure,\nreveal the divine nature.\n\nThat self-revelation of God reaches for us in this life its permanent\nclimax, when He who 'at sundry times and in divers manner spake unto the\nfathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by a\nSon.' Jesus is the personal 'word of God' though that name by which He\nis designated in the New Testament is a different expression from that\nemployed in our text, and connotes a whole series of different ideas.\n\nThe early Christian teachers and apostles had no hesitation in taking\nthat sacred name--the word of the Lord--to describe the message which\nthey spoke. One of their earliest prayers when they were left alone was,\nthat with all boldness they might speak Thy word; and throughout the\nwhole of the Acts of the Apostles the preached Gospel is designated as\nthe word of God, even as Peter in his epistle quotes one of the noblest\nof the Old Testament sayings, and declares that the 'word of the Lord'\nwhich 'abideth for ever' is 'the word which by the gospel is preached\nunto you.'\n\nClearly, then, Paul here is exhorting the Ephesian Christians, most of\nwhom probably were entirely ignorant of the Old Testament, to use the\nspoken words which they had heard from him and other preachers of the\nGospel as the sword of the Spirit. Since he is evidently referring to\nChristian teaching, it is obvious that he regards the old and the new as\none whole, that to him the proclamation of Jesus was the perfection of\nwhat had been spoken by prophets and psalmists. He claims for his\nmessage and his brethren's the same place and dignity that belonged to\nthe former messengers of the divine will. He asserts, and all the more\nstrongly, because it is an assertion by implication only, that the same\nSpirit which moved in the prophets and saints of former days is moving\nin the preachers of the Gospel, and that their message has a wider\nsweep, a deeper content, and a more radiant light than that which had\nbeen delivered in the past. The word of the Lord had of old partially\ndeclared God's nature and His will: the word of God which Paul preached\nwas in his judgment the complete revelation of God's loving heart, the\ncomplete exhibition to men of God's commandments of old; longing eyes\nhad seen a coming day and been glad and confidently foretold it, now the\nmessage was 'the coming one has come.'\n\nIt is as the record and vehicle of that spoken Gospel, as well as of its\nearlier premonitions, that the Bible has come to be called the word of\nGod, and the name is true in that He speaks in this book. But much harm\nhas resulted from the appropriation of the name exclusively to the book,\nand the forgetfulness that a vehicle is one thing and that which it\ncarries quite another.\n\nII. The purpose and power of the word.\n\nThe sword is the only offensive weapon in the list. The spear which\nplayed so great a part in ancient warfare is not named. It may well be\nnoted that only a couple of verses before our text we read of the Gospel\nof peace, and that here with remarkable freedom of use of his metaphors,\nPaul makes the word of God, which as we have seen is substantially\nequivalent to the preached Gospel, the one weapon with which Christian\nmen are to cut and thrust. Jesus said 'I come not to send peace, but a\nsword,' but Paul makes the apparent contradiction still more acute when\nhe makes the very Gospel itself the sword. We may recall as a parallel,\nand possibly a copy of our text, the great words of the Epistle to the\nHebrews which speak of the word of God as 'living and active and sharper\nthan any two-edged sword.' And we cannot forget the magnificent\nsymbolism of the Book of Revelation which saw in the midst of the\ncandlestick one like unto a Son of Man, and 'out of His mouth proceeded\na sharp, two-edged sword.' That image is the poetic embodiment of our\nLord's own words which we have just quoted, and implies the penetrating\npower of the word which Christ's gentle lips have uttered. Gracious and\nhealing as it is, a Gospel of peace, it has an edge and a point which\ncut down through all sophistications of human error, and lay bare the\n'thoughts and intents of the heart.' The revelation made by Christ has\nother purposes which are not less important than its ministering of\nconsolation and hope. It is intended to help us in our fight with evil,\nand the solemn old utterance, 'with the breath of His mouth He will slay\nthe wicked,' is true in reference to the effect of the word of Christ on\nmoral evil. Such slaying is but the other side of the life-giving power\nwhich the word exercises on a heart subject to its influence. For the\nChristian soldier's conflict with evil as threatening the health of his\nown Christian life, or as tyrannising over the lives of others, the\nsword of the Spirit is the best weapon.\n\nWe are not to take the rough-and-ready method, which is so common among\ngood people, of identifying this spirit-given sword with the Bible. If\nfor no other reason, yet because it is the Spirit which supplies it to\nthe grasp of the Christian soldier, our possession of it is therefore a\nresult of the action of that Spirit on the individual Christian spirit;\nand what He gives, and we are to wield, is 'the _engrafted_ word which\nis able to save our souls.' That word, lodged in our hearts, brings to\nus a revelation of duty and a chart of life, because it brings a loving\nrecognition of the character of our Father, and a glad obedience to His\nwill. If that word dwell in us richly, in all wisdom, and if we do not\ndull the edge of the sword by our own unworthy handling of it, we shall\nfind it pierce to the 'dividing asunder of joints and marrow,' and the\nevil within us will either be cast out from us, or will shrivel itself\nup, and bury itself deep in dark corners.\n\nLove to Christ will be so strong, and the things that are not seen will\nso overwhelmingly outweigh the things that are seen, that the solemn\nmajesty of the eternal will make the temporal look to our awed eyes the\ncontemptible unreality which it really is. They who humbly receive and\nfaithfully use that engrafted word, have in it a sure touchstone against\nwhich their own sins and errors are shivered. It is for the Christian\nconsciousness the true Ithuriel's spear, at the touch of which 'upstarts\nin his own shape the fiend' who has been pouring his whispered poison\ninto an unsuspicious ear. The standard weights and measures are kept in\ngovernment custody, and traders have to send their yard measures and\nscales thither if they wish them tested; but the engrafted word,\nfaithfully used and submitted to, is always at hand, and ready to\npronounce its decrees, and to cut to the quick the evil by which the\nunderstanding is darkened and conscience sophisticated.\n\nIII. The manner of its use.\n\nHere that is briefly but sufficiently expressed by the one commandment,\n'take,' or perhaps more accurately, 'receive.' Of course, properly\nspeaking, that exhortation does not refer to our manner of fighting with\nthe sword, but to the previous act by which our hand grasps it. But it\nis profoundly true that if we take it in the deepest sense, the\npossession of it will teach the use of it. No instruction will impart\nthe last, and little instruction is needed for the first. What is needed\nis the simple act of yielding ourselves to Jesus Christ, and looking to\nHim only, as our guide and strength. Before all Christian warfare must\ncome the possession of the Christian armour, and the commandment that\nhere lies at the beginning of all Paul's description of it is '_Take_.'\nOur fitness for the conflict all depends on our receiving God's gift,\nand that reception is no mere passive thing, as if God's grace could be\npoured into a human spirit as water is into a bucket. Hence, the\ntranslation of this commandment of Paul's by 'take' is better than that\nby 'receive,' inasmuch as it brings into prominence man's activity,\nthough it gives too exclusive importance to that, to the detriment of\nthe far deeper and more essential element of the divine action. The two\nwords are, in fact, both needed to cover the whole ground of what takes\nplace when the giving God and the taking man concur in the great act by\nwhich the Spirit of God takes up its abode in a human spirit. God's gift\nis to be received as purely His gift, undeserved, unearned by us. But\nundeserved and unearned as it is, and given 'without money and without\nprice,' it is not ours unless our hand is stretched out to take, and our\nfingers closed tightly over the free gift of God. There is a dead lift\nof effort in the reception; there is a still greater effort needed for\nthe continued possession, and there is a life-long discipline and effort\nneeded for the effective use in the struggle of daily life of the sword\nof the Spirit.\n\nIf that engrafted word is ever to become sovereign in our lives, there\nmust be a life-long attempt to bring the tremendous truths as to God's\nwill for human conduct which it plants in our minds into practice, and\nto bring all our practice under their influence. The motives which it\nbrings to bear on our evils will be powerless to smite them, unless\nthese motives are made sovereign in us by many an hour of patient\nmeditation and of submission to their sweet and strong constraint. One\nsometimes sees on a wild briar a graft which has been carefully inserted\nand bandaged up, but which has failed to strike, and so the strain of\nthe briar goes on and no rosebuds come. Are there not some of us who\nprofess to have received the engrafted word and whose daily experience\nhas proved, by our own continual sinfulness, that it is unable to 'save\nour souls'?\n\nThere are in the Christian ranks some soldiers whose hands are too\nnerveless or too full of worldly trash to grasp the sword which they\nhave received, much less to strike home with it at any of the evils that\nare devastating their own lives or darkening the world. The feebleness\nof the Christian conflict with evil, in all its forms, whether\nindividual or social, whether intellectual or moral, whether heretical\nor grossly and frankly sensual, is mainly due to the feebleness with\nwhich the average professing Christians grasp the sword of the Spirit.\nWhen David asked the priests for weapons, and they told him that\nGoliath's sword was lying wrapt in a cloth behind the ephod, and that\nthey had none other, he said, 'There is none like that, give it me.' If\nwe are wise, we will take the sword that lies in the secret place, and,\narmed with it, we shall not need to fear in any day of battle.\n\nWe do well that we take heed to the word of God, 'as unto a lamp shining\nin a dark place until the day dawn,' when swords will be no more needed,\nand the Word will no longer shine in darkness but be the Light that\nmakes the Sun needless for the brightness of the New Jerusalem.\n\n\n\n\nPEACE, LOVE, AND FAITH\n\n 'Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith.'--Eph. vi. 23.\n\n\nThe numerous personal greetings usually found at the close of Paul's\nletters are entirely absent from this Epistle. All which we have in\ntheir place is this entirely general good wish, and the still more\ngeneral and wider one in the subsequent verse.\n\nThere is but one other of the Apostle's letters similarly devoid of\npersonal messages, viz. the Epistle to the Galatians, and their absence\nthere is sufficiently accounted for by the severe and stern tone of that\nletter. But it is very difficult to understand how they should not\nappear in a letter to a church with which the Apostle had such prolonged\nand cordial relations as he had with the church at Ephesus. And hence\nthe absence of these personal greetings is a strong confirmation of the\nopinion that this Epistle was not originally addressed to the church at\nEphesus, but was a kind of circular intended to go round the various\nchurches in Asia Minor, and only sent first to that at Ephesus. That\nopinion is further confirmed by the fact known to many of you that in\nsome good ancient manuscripts the words 'at Ephesus' are omitted from\nthe first verse of the letter; which thus stands without any specific\naddress.\n\nBe that as it may, this trinity of inward graces is Paul's highest and\nbest wish for his friends. He has no earthly prosperity to wish for\nthem. His ambition soars higher than that; he desires for them peace,\nlove, faith.\n\nNow, will you take the lesson? There is no better test of a man than the\nthings that he wishes for the people that he loves most. He desires for\nthem, of course, his own ideal of happiness. What do you desire most for\nthose that are dearest to you? You parents, do you train up your\nchildren, for instance, so as to secure, or to do your best to secure,\nnot outward prosperity, but these loftier gifts; and for yourselves,\nwhen you are forming your wishes, are these the things that you want\nmost? 'Set your affections on things above,' and remember that whoso has\nthat trinity of graces, peace, love, faith, is rich and blessed,\nwhatsoever else he has or needs. And whoso has them not is miserable and\npoor.\n\nBut I wish especially to look a little more closely at these three\nthings in themselves and in their relation to one another. I take it\nthat the Apostle is here tracking the stream to its fountain; that he is\nbeginning with effects and working backwards and downwards to causes; so\nthat to get the order of nature and of time we must reverse the order\nhere, and begin where he ends and end where he begins. The Christian\nlife in its higher vigour and excellence is rooted in faith. That faith\nassociates to itself, and is inseparably connected with love, and the\nfaith and love together issue in a deep restful tranquillity which\nnothing can break.\n\nNow, let us look at these three things as the three greatest blessings\nthat any can bear in their hearts, and wring out of time, sorrow, and\nchange.\n\nI. First, the root of everything is a continuous and growing trust.\n\nRemember that this prayer or wish of my text was spoken in reference to\nbrethren; that is to say, to those who, by the hypothesis, already\npossessed Christian faith. And Paul wishes for them, and can wish for\nthem, nothing better and more than the increase and continuousness of\nthat which they already possess. The highest blessing that the brethren\ncan receive is the enlargement and the strengthening of their faith.\n\nNow we talk so much in Christian teaching about this 'faith' that, I\nfancy, like a worn sixpence in a man's pocket, its very circulation from\nhand to hand has worn off the lettering. And many of us, from the very\nfamiliarity of the word, have only a dim conception of what it means. It\nmay not be profitless, then, to remind you, first of all, that this\nfaith is neither more nor less than a very familiar thing which you are\nconstantly exercising in reference to one another--that is to say,\nsimple confidence. You trust your husband, your wife, your child, your\nparent, your friend, your guide, your lawyer, your doctor, your banker.\nTake that very same emotion and attitude of the mind by which you put\nyour well-being, in different aspects and provinces, into the hands of\nmen and women round about you; lift the trailing flowers that go all\nstraggling along the ground, and twine them round the pillars of God's\nthrone, and you get the confidence, the trust, of the praises and\nglories of which the New Testament is full. There is nothing mysterious\nin it, it is simply the exercise of confidence, the familiar cement that\nbinds all human relationship together, and makes men brotherly and\nkindred with their kind. Faith is trust, and trust saves a man's soul.\n\nThen, remember further that the faith which is the foundation of\neverything is essentially personal trust reposing upon a person, upon\nJesus Christ. You cannot get hold of a man in any other way than by\nthat. The only real bond that binds people together is the personal bond\nof confidence, manifesting itself in love. And it is no mere doctrine\nthat we present for a man's faith, but it is the person about whom the\ndoctrine speaks. We say, indeed, that we can only know the person on\nwhom we must trust by the revelation of the truths concerning Him which\nmake the Christian doctrines; but a man may believe the whole of them,\nand have no faith. And what is the step in advance which is needed in\norder to turn credence into faith--belief in a doctrine into trust? In\none view it is the step from the doctrine to the person. When you grasp\nChrist, the living Christ, and not merely the doctrine, for yours, then\nyou have faith.\n\nOnly remember, my brother, if you say you trust Christ, the question has\nimmediately to be asked: What Christ is it that you are trusting? Is it\nthe Christ that died for your sins on the Cross, or is it a Christ that\ntaught you some great moral truths and set you a lovely example of life\nand conduct? Which of the two is it? for these two Christs are very\ndifferent, and the faith that grasps the one is extremely unlike the\nfaith that grasps the other. And so I press upon you this question: What\nChrist is it to Whom your confidence turns, and for what is it that you\nare looking to Him? Is it for help and guidance of some vague kind; is\nit for pattern or example, or is it for the salvation of your sinful\nsouls, by the might of His great sacrifice?\n\nThen, remember still further, that this personal outgoing of confidence,\nwhich is the action both of a man's will and of a man's intellect, to\nthe person revealed to us in the great doctrines of the Gospel--that\nthis faith, if it is to be worth anything, must be continuous. Paul\ncould desire nothing better for his Ephesian friends than that they\nshould have that which they had--faith; that they should continue to\nhave it, and that it should be perennial and increasing all through\ntheir lives. You can no more get present good from past faith than the\nbreath you drew yesterday into your lungs will be sufficient to\noxygenate your blood at this moment. As soon as you break the electric\ncontact, the electric light goes out, and no matter how long a man has\nbeen living a life of faith, that past life will not in the smallest\ndegree help him at the present moment unless the faith is continuous.\nRemember this, then, a broken faith is a broken peace; a broken faith is\na broken salvation; and so long, and only so long, as you are knit to\nJesus Christ by the conscious exercise of a faith realised at the\nmoment, are you in the reception of blessing from Him at the moment.\n\nAnd, still further, this faith ought to be progressive. So Paul desired\nit to be with these people. If there is no growth, do you think there is\nmuch life? I know I am speaking to plenty of people who call themselves\nChristians, whose faith is not one inch better to-day than it was when\nit was born--perhaps a little less rather than more. Oh! the hundreds\nand thousands of professing Christians, average Christians, that clog\nand weaken all churches, whose faith has no progressive element in it,\nand is not a bit stronger by all the discipline of life and by their\nexperience of its power. Brethren! is it so with us? Let us ask\nourselves that; and let us ask very solemnly this other question: If my\nfaith has no growth, how do I know that it has got any life?\n\nAnd so let me remind you further that this faith, the personal outgoing\nof a man's intellect and will to the personal Saviour revealed in the\nScriptures as the sacrifice for our sins, and the life of our spirits,\nwhich ought to be continuous and progressive, is the foundation of all\nstrength, blessedness, goodness, in a human character; and if we have it\nwe have the germ of all possible excellence and growth, not because of\nwhat it is in itself, for in itself it is nothing more than the opening\nof the heart to the reception of the celestial influences of grace and\nrighteousness that He pours down. And, therefore, this is the thing that\na wise man will most desire for himself, and for those that are dearest\nto him.\n\nDepend upon it, whether it is what we want most or not, it is what God\nwants most for us. He does not care nearly so much that our lives should\nbe joyful as that they should be righteous and full of faith; and He\nsubjects us to many a sorrow and loss and disappointment in order that\nthe life of nature may be broken and the life of faith may be strong. If\nwe rightly understand the relative value of outward and of inward\nthings, we shall be thankful for the storms that drive us nearer to Him;\nfor the darkening earth that may make the pillar of cloud glow at the\nheart into a pillar of fire, and for all the discipline, painful though\nit may be, with which God answers the prayer, 'Lord, increase our\nfaith.'\n\nII. And now, next, notice how inseparably associated with a true faith\nis love.\n\nThe one is effect that never is found without its cause; the other is\ncause which never but produces its effect. These two are braided\ntogether by the Apostle as inseparable in reality and inseparable in\nthought. And that it is so is plain enough, and there follow from it\nsome practical lessons that I desire to lay upon your hearts and my own.\n\nThere are, then, here two principles, or rather two sides of one\nthought; no faith without love, no love without faith.\n\nNo faith is genuine and deep which does not at once produce in the heart\nwhere it is lodged an answering love to God. That is clear enough. Faith\nis, as I have said, the recognition and the reception of the divine love\ninto the heart; and we are so constituted as that if a man once knows\nand believes in any real sense the love that God has to him, he answers\nit back again with his love as certainly as an echo which gives back the\nsound that reaches it.\n\nOur faith is, if I may so say, like a burning-glass, which concentrates\nthe rays of the divine love upon our hearts, and focuses them into a\npoint that kindles our hearts into flame. If we have the confidence that\nGod loves us, in any real depth, we shall answer by the gush of our love\nto Him.\n\nAnd so here is a test for men's faith. You call yourselves Christians.\nIf I were to come to you and ask you, 'Do you believe in the Lord Jesus\nChrist?' most of you would say, 'Yes!' Try your faith, my friend, by\nthis test: Does it make you love Him at all? If it does not, it is more\nwords than anything else; and it needs a wonderful deepening before it\ncan have any real power in your hearts. There is no faith worthy the\nname unless its child, all but as old as itself, be the answer of the\nheart to Him, pouring itself out in thankful gratitude.\n\nNo love without faith; 'we love Him because He first loved us.' God must\nbegin, we can only come second. Man's natural selfishness is only\novercome by the clearest demonstration of the love of God to him; and\nuntil that love, in its superbest because its lowliest form, the form of\nthe sacrifice on the Cross, has penetrated into a man's heart through\nhis faith, there will be no love.\n\nSo then, dear friends, there is a test for your love. We hear a great\ndeal said nowadays, as there has always been a great deal said, about\nthe essence of all religion consisting in love to God; and about men\n'rejecting the cumbrous dogmas of the New Testament, and falling back\nupon the great and simple truths, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with\nall thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with\nall thy strength; and thy neighbour as thyself,' and saying 'that is\ntheir religion.' Well, I venture to say that without the faith of the\nheart in, not the cumbrous dogmas, but the central fact of the New\nTestament, that Christ died on the Cross for me, you will never get the\nold commandment of love to God with heart and soul and strength and mind\nreally kept and carried out; and that if you want men to have their\nhearts and wills bound into loving fellowship with God, it is only by\nthe path of faith in Him who is the sacrifice for sin that such\nfellowship is reached. Hence there follows a very plain, practical\nadvice. Do you want your heart's love to be increased? Learn the way to\ndo it. You cannot work yourselves into a fervour of religious emotion of\nany valuable kind. A man cannot get to love more by saying, 'I am\ndetermined I will.' We have no direct control over our affections in\nthat fashion. You cannot make water boil except by one way, and that is\nby putting plenty of fire under it; and you cannot make your affections\nmelt and flow except by heating them by the contemplation of the truth\nwhich is intended to bring them out. That is to say, the more we\nexercise our minds on the contemplation of Christ's great love to us,\nand the more we put forth the energies of our souls in the act of\nsimple self-distrust and reliance upon Him, the more will our love be\nfervent and strong. You can only increase love by increasing the faith\nfrom which it comes. So do you see to it, if you call yourselves\nChristians, that you try to deepen all your Christian affections by an\nhonest, meditative, prayerful contemplation and grasp of the great love\nof God in Jesus Christ. And do not wonder if your Christian life be, as\nit is in so many of us, stunted, not progressive, bringing no blessing\nto ourselves and little good to anybody else. The explanation is easy\nenough. You do not look at the Cross of Christ, nor live in the\ncontemplation and reception of His great grace.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, these two inseparably associated graces of faith\nand love bring with them, and lead to, the third--peace.\n\nIt seems to be but a very modest, sober-tinted wish which the Apostle\nhere has for his brethren that the highest and best thing he can ask for\nthem is only quiet. Very modest by the side of joy and excitement, in\ntheir coats of many colours, and yet the deepest and truest blessing\nthat any of us can have--peace. It comes to us by one path, and that is\nby the path of faith and love.\n\nThese two bring peace with God, peace in our inmost spirits, the peace\nof self-annihilation and submission, the peace of obedience, the peace\nof ceasing from our own works, and entering, therefore, into the rest of\nGod. Trust is peace. There is no tranquillity like that of feeling 'I am\nnot responsible for this: He is; and I rest myself on Him.'\n\nLove is peace. There is no rest for our hearts but on the bosom of some\none that is dear to us, and in whom we can confide. But ah, brother!\nevery tree in which the dove nestles is felled down sooner or later, and\nthe nest torn to pieces, and the bird flies away. But if we turn\nourselves to the undying Christ, the perpetual revelation of the eternal\nGod, then, then our love and our faith will bring us rest. There will be\npeace in trusting Him whom we never can trust and be put to shame. There\nwill be peace in loving Him who is more than worthy of and able to repay\nthe deep and perennial love of all hearts.\n\nSelf-surrender is peace. It is our wills that trouble us. Disturbance\ncomes, not from without, but from within. When the will bows, when I\nsay, 'Be it then as Thou wilt,' when in faith and love I cease to\nstrive, to murmur, to rebel, to repine, and enter into His loving\npurposes, then there is peace.\n\nObedience is peace. To recognise a great will that is sovereign, and to\nbow myself to it, not because it is sovereign, but because it is sweet,\nand sweet because I love it, and love Him whose it is--that is peace.\nAnd then, whatever may be outward circumstances, there shall be 'peace\nsubsisting at the heart of endless agitation'; and deep in my soul I may\nbe tranquil, though all about me may be the hurly-burly of the storm.\n\nThe Christian peace is an armed peace, paradoxical as it appears; and\naccording to the great word of the Apostle, is a sentry which garrisons\nthe beleaguered heart and mind, surrounded by many foes, and keeps them\nin Christ Jesus.\n\n'There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked,' he is 'as a troubled\nsea which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt'; but over the\nwildest commotion one Voice, low, gentle, omnipotent, says: 'Peace! be\nstill!' and the heart quiets itself, though there may be a ground\nswell, and the weather clears. He is your peace, trust Him, love Him,\nand you cannot but possess the 'peace of God which passeth\nunderstanding.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE WIDE RANGE OF GOD'S GRACE\n\n 'Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in\n sincerity.'--Eph. vi. 24.\n\n\nIn turning to the great words which I have read as a text, I ask you to\nmark their width and their simplicity. They are wide; they follow a very\ncomprehensive benediction, with which, so to speak, they are concentric.\nBut they sweep a wider circle. The former verse says, 'Peace be to the\nbrethren.' But beyond the brethren in these Asiatic churches (as a kind\nof circular letter to whom this epistle was probably sent) there rises\nbefore the mind of the Apostle a great multitude, in every nation, and\nthey share in his love, and in the promise and the prayer of my text.\nMark its simplicity: everything is brought down to its most general\nexpression. All the qualifications for receiving the divine gift are\ngathered up in one--love. All the variety of the divine gifts is summed\nup in that one comprehensive expression--'grace.'\n\nI. So then, note, first, the comprehensive designation of the recipients\nof grace.\n\nThey are 'all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption.' Little\nneed be said explanatory of the force of this general expression. We\nusually find that where Scripture reduces the whole qualification for\nthe reception of the divine gift, and the conditions which unite to\nJesus Christ, to one, it is faith, not love, that is chosen. But here\nthe Apostle takes the process at the second stage, and instead of\nemphasising the faith which is the first step, he dwells upon the love\nwhich is its uniform consequence. This love rests upon the faith in\nJesus Christ our Lord.\n\nThen note the solemn fulness of the designations of the object of this\nfaith-born love. 'Jesus Christ our Lord'--the name of His humanity; the\nname of His office; the designation of His dominion. He is Jesus the\nMan. Jesus is the Christ, the Fulfiller of all prophecy; the flower of\nall previous revelation; the Anointed of God with the fulness of His\nDivine Spirit as Prophet, Priest, and King. Jesus Christ is the\nLord--which, at the lowest, expresses sovereignty, and if regard be had\nto the Apostolic usage, expresses something more, even participation in\nDeity. And it is this whole Christ, the Jesus, the Christ, the Lord; the\nlove to whom, built upon the faith in Him in all these aspects and\ncharacteristics, constitutes the true unity of the true Church.\n\nThat Church is not built upon a creed, but it is built upon a whole\nChrist, and not a maimed one. And so we must have a love which answers\nto all those sides of that great revealed character, and is warm with\nhuman love to Jesus; and is trustful with confiding love to the Christ;\nand is lowly with obedient love to the Lord. And I venture to go a step\nfurther, and say,--and is devout with adoring love to the eternal Son of\nthe Father. This is the Apostle's definition of what makes a Christian:\nFaith that grasps the whole Christ and love that therefore flows to Him.\nIt binds all who possess it into one great unity. As against a spurious\nliberalism which calls them Christians who lay hold of a fragment of the\none entire and perfect chrysolite, we must insist that a Christian is\none who knows Jesus, who knows Christ, who knows the Lord, and who\nloves Him in all these aspects. Only we must remember, too, that many a\ntime a man's heart outruns his creed, and that many a soul glows with\ntruer, deeper, more saving devotion and trust to a Christ whom the\nintellect imperfectly apprehends, than are realised by unloving hearts\nthat are associated with clearer heads. Orchids grow in rich men's\ngreenhouses, fastened to a bit of stick, and they spread a fairer\nblossom that lasts longer than many a plant that is rooted in a more\nfertile soil. Let us be thankful for the blessed inconsistencies which\nknit some to the Christ who is more to them than they know.\n\nThere is also here laid down for us the great principle, as against all\nnarrowness and all externalism, and all so-called ecclesiasticism, that\nto be joined to Jesus Christ is the one condition which brings a man\ninto the blessed unity of the Church. Now it seems to me that, however\nthey may be to be lamented on other grounds, and they are to be lamented\non many, the existence of diverse Churches does not necessarily\ninterfere with this deep-seated and central unity. There is a great deal\nsaid to-day about the reunion of Christendom, by which is meant the\ndestruction of existing communions and the formation of a wider one. I\ndo not believe, and I suppose you do not, that our existing\necclesiastical organisations are the final form of the Church of the\nliving God. But let us remember that the two things are by no means\ncontradictory, the belief in, and the realising of, the essential unity\nof the Church, and the existence of diverse communions. You will see on\nthe side of many a Cumberland hill a great stretch of limestone with\nclefts a foot or two deep in it--there are flowers in the clefts, by the\nbye--but go down a couple of yards and the divisions have all\ndisappeared, and the base-rock stretches continuously. The separations\nare superficial; the unity is fundamental. Do not let us play into the\nhands of people whose only notion of unity is that of a mechanical\njuxtaposition held together by some formula or orders; but let us\nrecognise that the true unity is in the presence of Jesus Christ in the\nmidst, and in the common grasp of Him by us all.\n\nThere is a well-known hymn which was originally intended as a High\nChurch manifesto, which thrusts at us Nonconformists when it sings:\n\n '_We_ are not divided,\n All one body _we_.'\n\nAnd oddly enough, but significantly too, it has found its way into all\nour Nonconformist hymn-books, and we, 'the sects,' are singing it, with\nperhaps a nobler conception of what the oneness of the body, and the\nunity of the Church is, than the writer of the words had. 'We are not\ndivided,' though we be organised apart. 'All one body we,' for we all\npartake of that one bread, and the unifying principle is a common love\nto the one Jesus Christ our Lord.\n\nII. Mark the impartial sweep of the divine gifts.\n\nMy text is a benediction, or a prayer; but it is also a prophecy, or a\nstatement, of the inevitable and uniform results of love to Jesus\nChrist. The grace will follow that love, necessarily and certainly, and\nthe lovers will get the gift of God because their love has brought them\ninto living contact with Jesus Christ; and His life will flow over into\ntheirs. I need not remind you that the word 'grace' in Scripture means,\nfirst of all, the condescending love of God to inferiors, to sinners, to\nthose who deserved something else; and, secondly, the whole fulness of\nblessing and gift that follow upon that love. And, says Paul, these\ngreat gifts from heaven, the one gift in which all are comprised, will\nsurely follow the opening of the heart in love to Jesus Christ.\n\nAh, brethren! God's grace makes uncommonly short work of ecclesiastical\ndistinctions. The great river flows through territories that upon men's\nmaps are painted in different colours, and of which the inhabitants\nspeak in different tongues. The Rhine laves the pine-trees of\nSwitzerland, and the vines of Germany, and the willows of Holland; and\nGod's grace flows through all places where the men that love Him do\ndwell. It rises, as it were, right over the barriers that they have\nbuilt between each other. The little pools on the sea-shore are separate\nwhen the tide is out, but when it comes up it fills all the pot-holes\nthat the pebbles have made, and unifies them in one great flashing,\ndancing mass; and so God's grace comes to all that love Him, and\nconfirms their unity.\n\nSurely that is the true test of a living Church. 'When Barnabas came,\nand saw the grace of God, he was glad.' It was not what he had expected,\nbut he was open to conviction. The Church where he saw it had been very\nirregularly constituted; it had no orders and no sacraments, and had\nbeen set a-going by the spontaneous efforts of private Christians, and\nhe came to look into the facts. He asked for nothing more when he saw\nthat the converts had the life within them. And so we, with all our\nfaults--and God forbid that I should seem to minimise these--with all\nour faults, we poor Nonconformists, left to the uncovenanted mercies,\nhave our share of that gift of grace as truly, and, if our love be\ndeeper, more abundantly, than the Churches that are blessed with orders\nand sacraments, and an 'unbroken historical continuity.' And when we\nare unchurched for our lack of these, let us fall back upon St.\nAugustine's 'Where Christ is, there the Church is'; and believe that to\nus, even to us also, the promise is fulfilled, 'Lo! I am with you\nalways, even to the end of the world.'\n\nIII. Lastly, note the width to which our sympathies should go.\n\nThe Apostle sends out his desires and prayers so as to encircle the same\narea as the grace of God covers and as His love enfolds. And we are\nbound to do the same.\n\nI am not going to talk about organic unity. The age for making new\ndenominations is, I suppose, about over. I do not think that any sane\nman would contemplate starting a new Church nowadays. The rebound from\nthe iron rigidity of a mechanical unity that took place at the\nReformation naturally led to the multiplication of communities, each of\nwhich laid hold of something that to it seemed important. The folly of\necclesiastical rulers who insisted upon non-essentials lays the guilt of\nthe schism at _their_ doors, and not at the doors of the minority who\ncould not, in conscience, accept that which never should have been\ninsisted upon as a condition. But whilst we must all feel that power is\nlost, and much evil ensues from the isolation, such as it is, of the\nvarious Churches, yet we must remember that re-union is a slow process;\nthat an atmosphere springs up round each body which is a very subtle,\nbut none the less a very powerful, force, and that it will take a very,\nvery long time to overcome the difficulties and to bring about any\nreconstruction on a large scale. But why should there be three\nPresbyterian Churches in Scotland, with the same creed, confessions of\nfaith, and ecclesiastical constitution? Why should there be half a dozen\nMethodist bodies in England, of whom substantially the same thing may\nbe said? Will it always pass the wit of man for Congregationalists and\nBaptists to be one body, without the sacrifice of conviction upon either\nside? Surely no! You young men may see these fair days; men like me can\nonly hope that they will come and do a little, such as may be possible\nin a brief space, to help them on.\n\nPutting aside, then, all these larger questions, I want, in a sentence\nor two, to insist with you upon the duty that lies on us all, and which\nevery one of us may bear a share in discharging. There ought to be a far\ndeeper consciousness of our fundamental unity. They talk a great deal\nabout 'the rivalries of jarring sects.' I believe that is such an\nenormous exaggeration that it is an untruth. There is rivalry, but you\nknow as well as I do that, shabby and shameful as it is, it is a kind of\ncommercial rivalry between contiguous places of worship, be they chapels\nor churches, be they buildings belonging to the same or to different\ndenominations. I, for my part, after a pretty long experience now, have\nseen so little of that said bitter rivalry between the Nonconformist\nsects, _as sects_, that to me it is all but non-existent. And I believe\nthe most of us ministers, going about amongst the various communities,\ncould say the same thing. But in the face of a cultivated England\nlaughing at your creed of Jesus, the Christ, the Lord; and in the face\nof a strange and puerile recrudescence of sacerdotalism and\nsacramentarianism, which shoves a priest and a rite into the place where\nChrist should stand, it becomes us Nonconformists who believe that we\nknow a more excellent way to stand shoulder to shoulder, and show that\nthe unities that bind us are far more than the diversities that\nseparate.\n\nIt becomes us, too, to further conjoint action in social matters. Thank\nGod we are beginning to stir in that direction in Manchester--not before\nit was time. And I beseech you professing Christians, of all Evangelical\ncommunions, to help in bringing Christian motives and principles to bear\non the discussion of social and municipal and economical conditions in\nthis great city of ours.\n\nAnd there surely ought to be more concert than we have had in aggressive\nwork; that we should a little more take account of each other's action\nin regulating our own; and that we should not have the scandal, which we\ntoo often have allowed to exist, of overlapping one another in such a\nfashion as that rivalry and mere trade competition is almost inevitable.\n\nThese are very humble, prosaic suggestions, but they would go a long\nway, if they were observed, to sweeten our own tempers, and to make\nvisible to the world our true unity. Let us all seek to widen our\nsympathies as widely as Christ's grace flows; to count none strangers\nwhom He counts friends; to discipline ourselves to feel that we are\ngirded with that electric chain which makes all who grasp it one, and\nsends the same keen thrill through them all. If a circle were a mile in\ndiameter, and its circumference were dotted with many separate points,\nhow much nearer each of these would be if it were moved inwards, on a\nstraight line, closer to the centre, so as to make a circle a foot\nacross. The nearer we come to the One Lord, in love, communion, and\nlikeness, the nearer shall we be to one another.\n\n\n\n\n _EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE_\n\n ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D.\n\n FIRST AND SECOND PETER\n AND FIRST JOHN\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nTHE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER\n\n PAGE\nSOJOURNERS OF THE DISPERSION (1 Peter i. 1) 1\n\nBY, THROUGH, UNTO (1 Peter i. 5) 7\n\nSORROWFUL, YET ALWAYS REJOICING (1 Peter i. 6) 17\n\nTHE TRUE GOLD AND ITS TESTING (1 Peter i. 7) 27\n\nJOY IN BELIEVING (1 Peter i. 8) 34\n\nCHRIST AND HIS CROSS THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE\n (1 Peter i. 10, 11, 12) 41\n\nHOPE PERFECTLY (1 Peter i. 13) 51\n\nTHE FAMILY LIKENESS (1 Peter i. 15) 61\n\nFATHER AND JUDGE (1 Peter i. 17) 69\n\nPURIFYING THE SOUL (1 Peter i. 22) 76\n\nLIVING STONES ON THE LIVING FOUNDATION STONE (1 Peter ii. 4, 5) 86\n\nSPIRITUAL SACRIFICES (1 Peter ii. 5) 92\n\nMIRRORS OF GOD (1 Peter ii. 9) 101\n\nCHRIST THE EXEMPLAR (1 Peter ii. 21) 107\n\nHALLOWING CHRIST (1 Peter iii. 14, 15) 116\n\nCHRISTIAN ASCETICISM (1 Peter iv. 1-8) 123\n\nTHE SLAVE'S GIRDLE (1 Peter v. 5) 130\n\nSYLVANUS (1 Peter v. 12, R.V.) 138\n\nAN APOSTOLIC TESTIMONY AND EXHORTATION (1 Peter v. 12) 146\n\nTHE CHURCH IN BABYLON (1 Peter v. 13) 154\n\nMARCUS, MY SON (1 Peter v. 13) 161\n\n\nTHE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER\n\nLIKE PRECIOUS FAITH (2 Peter i. 1) 170\n\nMAN SUMMONED BY GOD'S GLORY AND ENERGY (2 Peter i. 3) 178\n\nPARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE (2 Peter i. 4) 189\n\nTHE POWER OF DILIGENCE (2 Peter i. 5) 198\n\nGOING OUT AND GOING IN (2 Peter i. 11, 15) 206\n\nTHE OWNER AND HIS SLAVES (2 Peter ii. 1) 215\n\nBE DILIGENT (2 Peter iii. 14) 224\n\nGROWTH (2 Peter iii. 18) 234\n\n\nTHE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN\n\nTHE MESSAGE AND ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS (1 John i. 5-ii. 6) 247\n\nWALKING IN THE LIGHT (1 John i. 7) 253\n\nTHE COMMANDMENT, OLD YET NEW (1 John ii. 7, 8) 261\n\nYOUTHFUL STRENGTH (1 John ii. 14) 269\n\nRIVER AND ROCK (1 John ii. 17) 279\n\nTHE LOVE THAT CALLS US SONS (1 John iii. 1) 289\n\nTHE UNREVEALED FUTURE OF THE SONS OF GOD (1 John iii. 2) 301\n\nTHE PURIFYING INFLUENCE OF HOPE (1 John iii. 3) 310\n\nPRACTICAL RIGHTEOUSNESS (1 John iii. 7) 320\n\nCHRIST'S MISSION THE REVELATION OF GOD'S LOVE (1 John iv. 10) 329\n\nTHE SERVANT AS HIS LORD (1 John iv. 17) 338\n\nLOVE AND FEAR (1 John iv. 18) 347\n\nTHE RAY AND THE REFLECTION (1 John iv. 19) 355\n\n\n\n\nI. PETER\n\n\n\n\nSOJOURNERS OF THE DISPERSION\n\n 'Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers\n scattered ...'--1 Peter i. 1.\n\n\nThe words rendered 'strangers scattered' are literally 'sojourners of\nthe Dispersion,' and are so rendered in the Revised Version. The\nDispersion was the recognised name for the Jews dwelling in Gentile\ncountries; as, for instance, it is employed in John's Gospel, when the\npeople in Jerusalem say, 'Whither will this man go that we shall not\nfind Him? Will he go to the Dispersion amongst the Greeks?' Obviously,\ntherefore the word here may refer to the scattered Jewish people, but\nthe question arises whether the letter corresponds to its apparent\naddress, or whether the language which is employed in it does not almost\noblige us to see here a reference, not to the Jew, but to the whole body\nof Christian people, who, whatever may be their outward circumstances,\nare, in the deepest sense, in the foundations of their life, if they be\nChrist's, 'strangers of the Dispersion.'\n\nNow if we look at the letter we find such words as these--'The times of\nyour ignorance'--'your vain manner of life handed down from your\nfathers'--'in time past were not a people'--'the time past may suffice\nto have wrought the will of the Gentiles'--all of which, as you see, can\nonly be accommodated to Jewish believers by a little gentle violence,\nbut all of which find a proper significance if we suppose them\naddressed to Gentiles, to whom they are only applicable in the higher\nsense of the words to which I have referred. If we understand them so,\nwe have here an instance of what runs all through the letter; the taking\nhold of Jewish ideas for the purpose of lifting them into a loftier\nregion, and transfiguring them into the expression of Christian truth.\nFor example, we read in it: 'Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a\nholy nation'; and again: 'Ye are built up a spiritual house, to be a\nholy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices.' These and other\nsimilar passages are instances of precisely the same transference of\nJewish ideas as I find, in accordance with many good commentators, in\nthe words of my text.\n\nSo, then, here is Peter's notion of--\n\nI. What the Christian Life is.\n\nAll those who really have faith in Jesus Christ are 'strangers of the\nDispersion'; scattered throughout the world, and dwelling dispersedly in\nan order of things to which they do not belong, 'seeking a city which\nhath foundations.' The word 'strangers' means, originally, persons for a\ntime living in an alien city. And that is the idea that the Apostle\nwould impress upon us as true for each of us, in the measure in which\nour Christianity is real. For, remember, although all men may be truly\nspoken of as being 'pilgrims and sojourners upon the earth' by reason of\nboth the shortness of the duration of their earthly course and the\ndisproportion between their immortal part and the material things\namongst which they dwell, Peter is thinking of something very different\nfrom either the brevity of earthly life or the infinite necessities of\nan immortal spirit when he calls his Christian brethren strangers. Not\nbecause we are men, not because we are to die soon, and the world is to\noutlast us; not because other people will one day live in our houses and\nread our books and sit upon our chairs, and we shall be forgotten, but\nbecause we are Christ's people are we here sojourners, and must regard\nthis as not our rest. Not because our immortal soul cannot satisfy\nitself, however it tries, upon the trivialities of earth any more than a\nhuman appetite can on the husks that the swine do eat, but because new\ndesires, tastes, aspirations, affinities, have been kindled in us by the\nnew life that has flowed into us; therefore the connection that other\nmen have with the world, which makes some of them altogether 'men of the\nworld, whose portion is in this life,' is for us broken, and we are\nstrangers, scattered abroad, solitary, not by reason of the inevitable\nloneliness in which, after all love and companionship, every soul lives;\nnot by reason of losses or deaths, but by reason of the contrariety\nbetween the foundation of our lives, and the foundation of the lives of\nthe men round us; therefore we stand lonely in the midst of crowds;\nstrangers in the ordered communities of the world.\n\nAh, there is no solitude so utter as the solitude of being the only man\nin a crowd that has a faith in his heart, and there is no isolating\npower like the power of rending all ties that true attachment with Jesus\nChrist has. 'Think not that I am come to bring peace on earth, but a\nsword'--to set a man against his own household, if they be not of the\nhousehold of faith. These things are the inevitable issues of\nreligion--to make us strangers, isolated in the midst of this world.\n\nAnd now let us think of--\n\nII. Some of the plain consequent duties that arise from this\ncharacteristic of the Christian Life.\n\nLet me put them in the shape of one or two practical counsels. First let\nus try to keep up, vivid and sharp, a sense of separation. I do not mean\nthat we should withdraw ourselves from sympathies, nor from services,\nnor from the large area of common ground which we have with our fellows,\nwhether they be Christians or no--with our fellow-citizens; with those\nwho are related to us by various bonds, by community of purpose, of aim,\nof opinion, or of affection. But just as Abraham was willing to go down\ninto the plain and fight for Lot, though he would not go down and live\nin Sodom, and just as he would enter into relations of amity with the\nmen of the land, and yet would not abandon his black camels'-hair tent,\npitched beneath the terebinth tree, in order to go into their city and\nabide with them, so one great part of the wisdom of a Christian man is\nto draw the line of separation decisively, and yet to keep true to the\nbond of union. Unless Christian people do make a distinct effort to keep\nthemselves apart from the world and its ways, they will get confounded\nwith these, and when the end comes they will be destroyed with them.\n\nSometimes voyagers find upon some lonely island an English castaway, who\nhas forgotten home, and duty, and everything else, to luxuriate in an\neasy life beneath tropical skies, and has degraded himself to the level\nof the savage islanders round him. There are professing\nChristians--perhaps in my audience--who, like that poor castaway, have\n'forgotten the imperial palace whence they came,' and have gone down and\ndown and down, to live the fat, contented, low lives of the men who\nfind their good upon earth and not in heaven. Do you, dear brethren, try\nto keep vivid the sense that you belong to another community. As Paul\nputs it, with a metaphor drawn from Gentile instead of from Jewish life,\nas in our text, 'Our citizenship is in heaven.' Philippi, to the\nChristian Church of which that was said, was a Roman colony; and the\ncharacteristics of a Roman colony were that the inhabitants were\nenrolled as members of the Roman tribes, and had their names on the\nregister of Rome, and were governed by its laws. So we, living here in\nan outlying province, have our names written in the 'Golden Book' of the\ncitizens of the new Jerusalem. Do not forget, if I might use a very\nhomely illustration, what parish your settlement is in; remember what\nkingdom you belong to.\n\nAgain, if we are strangers of the Dispersion, let us live by our own\ncountry's laws, and not by the codes that are current in this foreign\nland where we are settled for a time. You remember what was the\ncomplaint of the people in Persia to Esther's king? 'There is a people\nwhose laws are different from all the peoples that be upon the earth.'\nThat was an offence that could not be tolerated in a despotism that\nground everything down to the one level of a slavish uniformity. It will\nbe well for us Christian people if men look at us, and say, 'Ah, that\nman has another rule of conduct from the one that prevails generally. I\nwonder what is the underlying principle of his life; it evidently is not\nthe same as mine.'\n\nLive by our King's law. People in our colonies, at least the officials,\nset wonderful store by the approbation of the Colonial Office at home.\nIt does not matter what the colonial newspapers say, it is 'what will\nthey say in Downing Street?' And if a despatch goes out approving of\ntheir conduct, neighbours may censure and sneer as they list. So we\nChristians have to report to Home, and have so to live 'that whether\npresent or absent'--in a colony or in the mother country--'we may be\nwell pleasing unto Him.'\n\nKeep up the honour and advance the interests of your own country. You\nare here, among other reasons, to represent your King, and people take\ntheir notions of Him very considerably from their experience of you. So\nsee to it that you live like the Master whom you say you serve.\n\nThe Russian Government sends out what are called military colonies,\nstudded along the frontier, with the one mission of extending the\nempire. We are set along the frontier with the same mission. The\nstrangers are scattered. Congested, they would be less useful;\ndispersed, they may push forward the frontiers. Seed in a seed-basket is\nnot in its right place; but sown broadcast over the field, it will be\nwaving wheat in a month or two. 'Ye are the salt of the earth'--salt is\n_sprinkled_ over what it is intended to preserve. You are the strangers\nof the Dispersion, that you may be the messengers of the Evangelisation.\n\nLastly, let us be glad when we think, and let us often think, of--\n\nIII. The Home in Glory.\n\nThat is a beautiful phrase which pairs off with the one in my text, in\nwhich another Apostle speaks of the ultimate end as 'our gathering\ntogether in Christ.' All the scattered ones, like chips of wood in a\nwhirlpool, drift gradually closer and closer, until they unite in a\nsolid mass in the centre. So at the last the 'strangers' are to be\nbrought and settled in their own land, and their lonely lives are to be\nfilled with happy companionship, and they to be in a more blessed unity\nthan now. 'Fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God.'\nIf we, dwelling in this far-off land, were habitually to talk, as\nAustralians do of coming to England of 'going home,' though born in the\ncolony, it would be a glad day for us when we set out on the journey. If\nChristian people lived more by faith, as they profess to do, and less by\nsight, they would oftener think of the home-coming and the union; and\nwould be happy when they thought that they were here but for awhile, and\nwhen they realised these two blessed elements of permanence and of\ncompanionship, which another Apostle packs into one sentence, along with\nthat which is greater than them both, 'so shall we ever be with the\nLord.'\n\n\n\n\nBY, THROUGH, UNTO\n\n '... Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to\n be revealed in the last time.'--1 Peter i. 5.\n\n\nThe Revised Version substitutes 'guarded' for 'kept,' and the\nalteration, though slight, is important, for it not only more accurately\npreserves the meaning of the word employed, but it retains the military\nmetaphor which is in it. The force of the expression will appear if I\nrefer, in a sentence, to other cases in which it is employed in the New\nTestament. For instance, we read that the governor of Damascus '_kept_\nthe city with a garrison,' which is the same word, and in its purely\nmetaphorical usage Paul employs it when he says that 'the peace of God\nshall keep'--guard, garrison--'your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.'\nWe have to think of some defenceless position, some unwalled village out\nin the open, with a strong force round it, through which no assailant\ncan break, and in the midst of which the weakest can sit secure. Peter\nthinks that every Christian has assailants whom no Christian by himself\ncan repel, but that he may, if he likes, have an impregnable ring of\ndefence drawn round him, which shall fling back in idle spray the\nwildest onset of the waves, as a breakwater or a cliff might do.\n\nThen there is another very beautiful and striking point to be made, and\nthat is the connection between the words of my text and those\nimmediately preceding. The Apostle has been speaking about 'the\ninheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,' and\nhe says 'it is reserved in Heaven for you who are kept.' So, then, the\nsame power is working on both sides of the veil, preserving the\ninheritance for the heirs, and preserving the heirs for the inheritance.\nIt will not fail them, and they will not miss it. It were of little\navail to care for either of the two members separately, but the same\nhand that is preparing the inheritance and making it ready for the\nowners is round about the pilgrims, and taking care of them till they\nget home.\n\nSo, then, our Apostle is looking at this keeping in three aspects,\nsuggested by his three words 'by,' 'through,' 'unto,' which respectively\nexpress the real cause or power, the condition or occasion on which that\npower works, and the end or purpose to which it works. So these three\nlittle words will do for lines on which to run our thoughts now--'by,'\n'through,' 'for.'\n\nI. In the first place, what are we guarded for?\n\n'Guarded ... unto salvation.' Now that great word 'salvation' was a new\nand strange one to Peter's readers--so new and strange that probably\nthey did not understand it in its full nobleness and sweep. Our\nunderstanding of it, or, at least, our impression of it, is weakened by\nprecisely the opposite cause. It has become so tarnished and\nsmooth-rubbed that it creates very little definite impression. Like a\nbit of seaweed lifted out of the sunny waves which opened its fronds and\nbrightened its delicate colours, it has become dry and hard and sapless\nand dim. But let me try for one moment to freshen it for our conceptions\nand our hearts. Salvation has in it the double idea of being made safe,\nand being made sound. Peril threatening to slay, and sickness unto\ndeath, are the implications of the conditions which this great word\npresupposes. The man that needs to be saved needs to be rescued from\nperil and needs to be healed of a disease. And if you do not know and\nfeel that that is _you_, then you have not learned the first letters of\nthe alphabet which are necessary to spell 'salvation.' You, I, every\nman, we are all sick unto death, because the poison of self-will and sin\nis running hot through all our veins, and we are all in deadly peril\nbecause of that poison-peril of death, peril arising from the weight of\nguilt that presses upon us, peril from our inevitable collision with the\nDivine law and government which make for righteousness.\n\nAnd so salvation means, negatively, the deliverance from all the evils,\nwhether they be evils of sorrow or evils of sin, which can affect a man,\nand which do affect us all in some measure. But it means far more than\nthat, for God's salvation is no half-and-half thing, contented, as some\nbenevolent man might be, in a widespread flood or disaster, with\nrescuing the victims and putting them high up enough for the water not\nto reach them, and leaving them there shivering cold and starving. But\nwhen God begins by taking away evils, it is in order that He may clear a\npath for flooding us with good. And so salvation is not merely what some\nof you think it is, the escape from a hell, nor only what some of you\nmore nobly take it to be, a deliverance from the power of sin in your\nhearts; but it is the investiture of each of us with every good and\nglory, whether of happiness or of purity, which it is possible for a man\nto receive and for God to give. It is the great word of the New\nTestament, and they do a very questionable service to humanity who\nweaken the grandeur and the greatness of the Scriptural conception of\nsalvation, by weakening the darkness and the terribleness of the\nScriptural conception of the dangers and the sicknesses from which it\ndelivers.\n\nBut, then, there is another point that I would suggest raised by the\nwords of my text in their connection. Peter is here evidently speaking\nabout a future manifestation of absolute exemption from all the ills\nthat flesh and spirit are heir to, and radiant investure with all the\ngood that humanity can put on, which lies beyond the great barrier of\nthis mortal life. And that complete salvation, in its double aspect, is\nobviously the end for which all that guarding of life is lavished upon\nus, as it is the end for which all the discipline of life is given to\nus, and as it is the end for which the bitter agony and pain of the\nChrist on the Cross were freely rendered. But that ultimate and\nsuperlative perfection has its roots and its beginning here. And so in\nScripture you find salvation sometimes regarded as a thing in the past\nexperience of every Christian man which he received at the very\nbeginning of his course, and sometimes you have it treated as being\nprogressive, running on continually through all his days; and sometimes\nyou have it treated, as in my text, as laid up yonder, and only to be\nreached when life is done with. But just a verse or two after my text we\nread that the Christian man here, on condition of his loving Jesus\nChrist and believing in Him, rejoices because he here and now 'receives\nthe end of his faith, even the salvation of his soul.' And so there are\nthe two things--the incipient germ to-day, the full-foliaged\nfruit-bearing tree planted in the higher house of the Lord.\n\nThese two things are inseparably intertwined. The Christian life in its\nimperfection here, the partial salvation of to-day demands, unless the\nuniverse is a chaos and there is no personal God the centre of it, a\nfuture life, in which all that is here tendency shall be realised\npossession, and in which all that here but puts up a pale and feeble\nshoot above the ground, shall grow and blossom and bear fruit unto life\neternal. 'Like the new moon with a ragged edge, e'en in its\nimperfections beautiful,' all the characteristics of Christian life on\nearth prophesy that the orb is crescent, and will one day round itself\ninto its pure silvery completeness. If you see a great wall in some\npalace, with slabs of polished marble for most of its length, and here\nand there stretches of course rubble shoved in, you would know that that\nwas not the final condition, that the rubble had to be cased over, or\ntaken out and replaced by the lucent slab that reflected the light, and\nshowed, by its reflecting, its own mottled beauty. Thus the very\ninconsistencies, the thwarted desires, the broken resolutions, the\naspiration that never can clothe themselves in the flesh of reality,\nwhich belong to the Christian life, declare that this is but the first\nstage of the structure, and point onwards to the time when the\nimperfections shall be swept away, 'and for brass He will bring gold,\nfor iron He will bring silver,' and then the windows shall be set 'in\nagates, and the gates in carbuncles, and all the borders in pleasant\nstones.' Perfect salvation is obviously the only issue of the present\nimperfect salvation.\n\nThat is what you are 'kept' for. That is what Christ died to bring you.\nThat is what God, like a patient workman bringing out the pattern in his\nloom by many a throw of a sharp-pointed shuttle, and much twisting of\nthe threads into patterns, is trying to make of you, and that is what\nChrist on the Cross has died to effect. Brethren, let us think more than\nwe do, not only of the partial beginnings here, but of that perfect\nsalvation for which Christian men are being 'kept' and guarded, and\nwhich, if you and I will observe the conditions, is as sure to come as\nthat X, Y, Z follow A, B, C. That is what we are kept for.\n\nII. Notice what we are guarded by.\n\n'The _power_ of God,' says Peter, laying hold of the most general\nexpression that he can find, not caring to define ways and means, but\npointing to the one great force that is sure to do it.\n\nNow if we were to translate with perfect literality, we should read, not\n_by_ the power of God, but _in_ the power of God. And whilst it is quite\nprobable that what Peter meant was 'by,' I think it adds great force and\nbeauty to the passage, and is entirely accordant with the military\nmetaphor, which I have already pointed out, if we keep the simple local\nsense of the word, and read, 'guarded _in_ the power of God.' And that\nsuggests a whole stream of Scriptural representations, both in the Old\nand in the New Testament. Let me recall one or two. 'The name of the\nLord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it and is safe.' 'He\nthat dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the\nshadow of the Almighty.' 'Israel shall dwell safely,' says one of the\nold prophets, 'in unwalled villages, for I will be a wall of fire round\nabout her.' The psalmist said, 'The Angel of the Lord encampeth round\nabout them that fear Him.' And all these representations concur in this\none thought, that we are safe, enclosed in God, and that He, by His\npower, compasses us about. And so no foe can get at us who cannot break\ndown or climb over the encircling wall of defence. An army in an enemy's\ncountry will march in hollow square, and put its most precious\ntreasures, or its weaker members, its sick, its women, its children, its\nfootsore, into the middle there, and with a line of lances on either\nside, and stalwart arms to wield them, the feeblest need fear no foe. We\n'are kept in the power of God unto salvation.'\n\nBut do not forget how, far beyond the psalmist and prophet, and in\nsomething far more sublime and wonderful than a poetic figure, the New\nTestament catches up the same phrase, and gives us, as the condition of\nvitality, as the condition of fertility, as the condition of\ntranquillity, as the condition of security, the same thing--'in Christ.'\nRemember His very last words prior to His great intercessory prayer, in\nwhich He spoke about keeping those that were given Him in His name. And\njust before that He said to them, 'In the world ye shall have\ntribulation, but in Me ye shall have peace.' Kept, guarded as behind the\nbattlements of some great fort, which has in its centre a quiet,\narmoured chamber into which no noise of battle, nor shout of foeman, can\never come. 'In Christ,' though the world is all in arms without, 'ye\nshall have peace.' 'Guarded in the power of God unto salvation.'\n\nIII. Lastly, what we are kept through.\n\n'Through faith.' Now there we come across another of the words which we\nknow so well that we do not understand them. You all think that it is\nthe right thing for me to preach about 'faith.' I daresay some of you\nhave never tried to apprehend what it means. And I daresay there are a\ngreat many of you to whom the utterance of the word suggests that I am\nplunging into the bathos and commonplaces of the pulpit. Perhaps, if you\nwould try to understand it, you would find it was a bigger thing than\nyou fancied. What is faith? I will give you another expression that has\nnot so many theological accretions sticking to it, and which means\nprecisely the same thing--trust. And we all know that we do not trust\nwith our heads, but with our hearts and wills. You may believe\nundoubtedly, and have no faith at all, for it is the heart and the will\nthat go forth, and clutch at the thing trusted; or, as I should rather\nsay, at the person trusted; for, at bottom, what we trust is always a\nperson, and even when we 'trust to nature,' it is because, more or less\nclearly, we feel that somehow or other at the back of nature there is a\nWill and an Intelligence that are working and trustworthy. However, that\nis a subject that I do not need to touch upon here. Faith is trust,\ntrust in a Person, trust that, like the fabled goddess rising, radiant\nand aspiring to the heavens, out of the roll of the tempestuous ocean,\nsprings from the depths of absolute self-distrust and diffidence. There\nis a spurious kind of faith which has no good in it, just because it\ndid not begin with going down into the depths of one's own heart, and\nfinding out how rotten and hopeless everything was there. My friend, no\nman has a vigorous Christian faith who has not been very near utter\ndespair. 'Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee.' The zenith, which\nis the highest point in the sky above us, is always just as far aloft as\nthe nadir, which is the lowest point in the sky at the Antipodes, is\nbeneath us. Your faith is measured by your self-despair.\n\nFurther, why is it that I must have faith in order to get God's power at\nwork in me? Many people seem to think that faith is appointed by God as\nthe condition of salvation out of mere arbitrary selection and caprice.\nNot at all. If God could save you without your faith, He would do it. He\ndoes not, because He cannot. Why must I have faith in order that God's\npower may keep me? Why must you open your window in order to let the\nfresh air in? Why must you pull up the blind in order to let the light\nin? Why must you take your medicine or your food if you want to be cured\nor nourished? Why must you pull the trigger if your revolver is to go\noff? Unless I trust God, distrusting myself, and the spark of faith is\nstruck out of the rock of my heart by the sharp steel in the midst of\nthe darkness of despair, God cannot pour out upon me His power. There is\nnothing arbitrary about it. It is inseparable from the very nature of\nthe case. If you do not want Him, you cannot have Him. If you do not\nknow that you need Him, you cannot have Him. If you do not trust that He\nwill come to you and help you, you will not have Him.\n\nSo then, brother, your faith, my faith, anybody's faith is nothing of\nitself. It is only the valve that opens and lets the steam rush in. It\nis only the tap you turn to let Thirlmere come into your basins. It is\nnot you that saves yourself. It is not your faith that keeps you, any\nmore than it is the outstretched hand with which a man, ready to\nstumble, grasps the hand of a stalwart, steadfast man on the pavement by\nhis side that keeps him up. It is the other man's hand that holds you\nup, but it is your hand that lays hold of him. It is God that saves, it\nis God that guards, it is God that is able to keep us from falling, and\nto give us an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. He will do\nit if we turn to Him, and ask and expect Him to do it. If you will\ncomply with the conditions and not else, He will fulfil His promise and\naccomplish His purpose. But my unbelief can thwart Omnipotence, and\nhinder Christ's all-loving purpose, just as on earth we read that 'He\ncould there do no mighty works because of their unbelief.' I am sure\nthat there are people here who all their lives long have been thus\nhampering Omnipotence and neutralising the love of Christ, and making\nHis sacrifice impotent and His wish to save them vain. Stretch out your\nhands as this very Peter once did, crying, 'Lord, save, or I perish';\nand He will answer, not by word only, but by act: 'According to thy\nfaith be it unto thee.' Salvation, here and hereafter, is God's work\nalone. It cannot be exercised towards a man who has not faith. It will\ncertainly be exercised towards any man who has.\n\nHelp us, O Lord, we beseech Thee, to live the lives which we live in the\nflesh by the faith of the Son of God. And may we know what it is to be\nin him, strengthened within the might of His spirit.\n\n\n\n\nSORROWFUL, YET ALWAYS REJOICING\n\n 'Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be,\n ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.'--1 Peter i. 6.\n\n\nYou will remember the great saying of our Lord's in the Sermon on the\nMount, in which He makes the last of the beatitudes, that which He\npronounces upon His disciples, when men shall revile them and persecute\nthem, and speak all manner of evil falsely against them for His sake,\nand bids them rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is their reward\nin Heaven.\n\nNow it seems to me that in the words of my text there is a distinct echo\nof that saying of Christ's. For not only is the whole context the same,\nbut a somewhat unusual and very strong word which our Lord employs is\nalso employed here by Peter. 'Rejoice and be _exceeding glad_,' said\nChrist. 'Ye _rejoice greatly_,' said the Apostle, and he is echoing his\nMaster's word. Then with regard to the context; Christ proposes to His\nfollowers this exceeding gladness as evoked in their hearts by the very\nthing that might seem to militate against it--viz., men's antagonism.\nSimilarly, Peter, throughout this whole letter, and in my text, is\nheartening the disciples against impending persecution, and, like his\nLord, he bids them face it, if not 'with frolic welcome' at all events\nwith undiminished and undimmed serenity and cheerfulness. Christ based\nthe exhortation on the thought that great would be their reward in\nHeaven. Peter points to the salvation ready to be revealed as being the\nground of the joy that he enjoined. So in the words and in the whole\nstrain and structure of the exhortation the servant is copying his\nMaster.\n\nBut, of course, although the immediate application of these words is to\nChurches fronting the possibility and probability of actual persecution\nand affliction for the sake of Jesus Christ, the principle involved\napplies to us all. And the worries and the sorrows of our daily life\nneed the exhortation here, quite as much as did the martyr's pains.\nWhite ants will pick a carcass clean as soon as a lion will, and there\nis quite as much wear and tear of Christian gladness arising from the\nsmall frictions of our daily life as from the great strain and stress of\npersecution.\n\nSo our Apostle has a word for us all. Now it seems to me that in this\ntext there are three things to be noticed: a paradox, a possibility, a\nduty. 'In which ye rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are\nin heaviness through manifold temptations.' Look at these three points.\n\nI. This paradox.\n\nTwo emotions diametrically opposed are to be contained within the narrow\nroom of one disposition and temper. 'Ye greatly rejoice.... Ye are in\nheaviness.' Can such a thing be? Well! let us think for a moment. The\nsources of the two conflicting emotions are laid out before us; they may\nbe constantly operative in every life. On the one hand, 'in which ye\ngreatly rejoice.' Now that 'in which' does not point back only to the\nwords that immediately precede, but to the whole complex clause that\ngoes before. And what is the 'which' that is there? These things; the\npossession of a new life--'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord\nJesus Christ who hath begotten us again!'--the springing up in a man's\nheart of a strange new hope, like a new star that swims into the sky,\nand sheds a radiance all about it--'Begotten unto a lively hope by the\nresurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead'; a new wealth--an\n'inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away; a new\nsecurity--guarded by the power of God through faith unto salvation.'\nThese things belong, _ipso facto_, and in the measure of his faith, to\nevery Christian man, a new life, a new hope, a new wealth, and a new\nsecurity; and in their conjoint action, all four of them brought to bear\nupon a man's temper and spirit, will, if he is realising them, make him\nglad.\n\nThen, on the other hand, we have other fountains pouring their streams\ninto the same reservoir. And just as the deep fountains which are open\nto us by faith will, if we continue to exercise that faith, flood our\nspirits with sweet waters, so these other fountains will pour their\nbitter floods over every heart more or less abundantly and continually.\n'Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold\ntemptations.' There are confluent streams that one has sometimes seen,\nwhere a clear river joins, and flows in the same bed with, one all foul\nwith half-melted ice, and the two run side by side for a space, scarcely\nmingling their waters. Thus the paradox of the Christian life is that\nwithin the same narrow banks may flow the sunny and the turbid, the\nclear and the dark, the sorrow that springs from earthly fountains, the\njoy that pours from the heavenly heights.\n\nNow notice that this is only one case of the paradox of the whole\nChristian life. For the peculiarity of it is that it owns two;--it\nbelongs to, and is exposed to, all the influences of the forces and\nthings of time, whilst in regard to its depths, it belongs to, and is\nunder the influence of, 'the things that are unseen and eternal'; so\nthat you have the external life common to the Christian and to all\nother people, and then you have the life 'hid with Christ in God,' the\nroots of it going down through all the superficial soil, and grappling\nthe central rock of all things. Thus a series of paradoxes and perennial\ncontradictions describes the twofold life that every believing spirit\nlives, 'as unknown and yet well known, as dying and, behold we live, as\nsorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making rich, as having\nnothing and yet possessing all things.'\n\nRemember, too, that according to Peter's conception neither of these two\nsources pours out a flood which obliterates or dams back the other. They\nare to co-exist. The joy is not to deprive the heaviness of its weight,\nnor the sorrow of its sting. There is no artificial stoicism about\nChristianity, no attempt to sophisticate one's self out of believing in\nthe reality of the evils that assail us, or to forbid that we shall feel\ntheir pain and their burden. Many good people fail to get the good of\nlife's discipline, because they have somehow come to think that it is\nwrong to weep when Christ sends sorrows, and wrong to feel, as other men\nfeel, the grip and bite of the manifold trials of our earthly lives.\n'Weep for yourselves,' for the feeling of the sorrow is the precedent\ncondition to the benefit from the sorrow, and it yields 'the peaceable\nfruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby.'\n\nBut, on the other hand, the black stream is not to bank up the sunny\none, or prevent it from flowing into the heart, ay! and flowing over,\nthe other. And so the co-existence of the joys that come from above, and\nthe sorrows that spring from around, and some of them from beneath, is\nthe very secret of the Christian life.\n\nII. Further, consider the blessed possibility of this paradox.\n\nCan two conflicting emotions live in a man's heart at once? Rather, we\nmight ask, are there ever emotions in a man's heart that are not hemmed\nin by conflicting ones? Is there ever such a thing in the world's\nexperience as a pure joy, or as a confidence which has no trace of fear\nin it? Are there any pictures without shadows? They are only daubs if\nthey are. Instead of wondering at this co-existence of joy and sorrow,\nwe must recognise that it is in full accord with all our experience,\nwhich never brings a joy, but, like the old story of the magic palace,\nthere is one window unlighted, and which never brings a sorrow so black\nand over-arching so completely the whole sky, but that somewhere, if the\neye would look for it, there is a bit of blue. The possibility of the\nparadox is in accordance with all human experience.\n\nBut then, you say, 'my feelings of joy or sorrow are very largely a\nmatter of temperament, and still more largely a matter of responding to\nthe facts round about me. And I cannot pump up emotions to order; and if\nI could they would be factitious, artificial, insincere, and do me more\nharm than good.' Perfectly true. There are a great many ugly names for\nmanufactured emotions, and none of them a bit too ugly. Peter does not\nwish you to try to get up feeling to order. It is the bane of some type\nof Christianity that that is done. You cannot thus manufacture emotion.\nNo; but I will tell you what you can do. You can determine what you will\nthink about most, and what you will look at most, and if you settle\nthat, that will settle what you feel. And so, though it is by a\nroundabout way, we can regulate our emotions. A man travelling in a\nrailway train can choose which side of the carriage he will look out\nat, either the one where the sunshine is falling full on the front of\neach grass-blade and tree, or the side where it is the shadowed side of\neach that is turned to him. If he will look out of the one window, he\nwill see everything verdant and bright, and if he will look out at the\nother, there will be a certain sobriety and dulness over the landscape.\nYou can settle which window you are going to look out at. If the\none--'in which ye greatly rejoice.' If the other--'ye are in heaviness\nthrough manifold temptations.' You have seen patterns wrought in black\nand white, you may focus your eye so as to get white on a black ground,\nor black on a white ground, just as you like. You can do that with your\nlife, and either fix upon the temptations and the heaviness as the main\nthing, or you can fix upon the new life, and the new wealth, and the new\nhope, and the new security as the main things. If you do the one, down\nyou will go into the depths of gloom, and if you do the other, up you\nwill spring into the ethereal heights of sober and Christian gladness.\n\nSo then, brethren, this possibility depends on these things, the choice\nof our main object of contemplation, and that breaks up into two\nthoughts about which I wish to say a word. The reason why so many\nChristian people have only religion enough to make them gloomy, or to\nweight them with a sense of burdens and unfulfilled aspirations and\nbroken resolutions, and have not enough to make them glad, is mainly\nbecause they do not think enough about the four things in which they\nmight 'greatly rejoice.' I believe that most of us would be altogether\ndifferent people, as professing Christians, if we honestly tried to keep\nthe mightiest things uppermost, and to fill heart and mind far more than\nwe do with the contemplation of these great facts and truths which,\nwhen once they are beheld and cleaved to, are certain to minister\ngladness to men's souls. These great truths which you and I say we\nbelieve, and which we profess to live by, will only work their effect\nupon us, so long as they are present to our minds and hearts. You can no\nmore expect Christian verities to keep you from falling, or to\nstrengthen you in weakness, or to gladden you in sorrow, if you are not\nthinking about them, than you can expect the most succulent or most\nnutritive food to nourish you if you do not eat it. As long as Christ\nand His grace are present in our hearts and minds by thought, so long,\nand not one moment longer, do they minister to us the joy of the Lord.\nYou switch off from the main current, and out go all the lights, and\nwhen you switch off from Christ out goes the gladness.\n\nThen another thing I would point out is that the possibility of this\nco-existence of joy and of heaviness depends further on our taking the\nright point of view from which to look at the sources of the heaviness.\nNotice how beautifully, although entirely incidentally, and without\ncalling attention to it, Peter here minimises the 'manifold temptations'\nwhich he does expect, however minimised, will make men heavy. He calls\nthem 'temptations.' Now that is rather an unfortunate word, because it\nsuggests the idea of something that desires to drag a man into sin. But\nsuppose, instead of 'temptations,' with its unfortunate associations,\nyou were to substitute a word that means the same thing, and is free\nfrom that association--viz.,'trial,'--you would get the right point of\nview. As long as I look at my sorrows mainly in regard to their power to\nsadden me, I have not got to the right point of view for them. They\n_are_ meant to sadden me, they are meant to pain, they are meant to\nbring the tears, they are meant to weight the heart and press down the\nspirits, but what for? To test what I am made of, and by testing to\nbring out and strengthen what is good, and to cast out and destroy what\nis evil. We shall never understand, even so much as it is possible for\nus to understand, and that is not very much, of the mystery of pain\nuntil we come to recognise that its main purpose is to help in making\ncharacter. And when you think of your sorrows, disappointments, losses,\nwhen you think of your pains and sickness, and all the ills that flesh\nis heir to, principally as being 'trials,' in the deep sense of that\nword--viz., a means of testing you, and thereby helping you, bettering\nyou, and building up character--then it is more possible to blend the\nsorrow that they produce with the joy to which they may lead. The\nApostle adds the other thought of the transitoriness of sorrow, and yet\nfurther, the other of its necessity for the growth of humanity. So they\nare not only to be felt, not only to be wept over, not only to make us\nsad, but they are to be accepted, and used as means by which we may be\nperfected. And when once you get occupied in trying to get all the good\nthat is in it out of a grief, you will be astonished to find how the\nbitterness that was in it was diminished.\n\nWe may have the oil on the water, calming, though not ending, its\nagitation. We may carry our own atmosphere with us, and like the diver\nthat goes down into depths of the sea, and cannot be reached by the\nhungry water around his crystal bell, and has communication with the\nupper air, where the light of the sun is, so you and I, down at the\nslimy bottom, and with the waste of water all around us, which if it\ncould get at us would choke us, may walk at liberty, in peace and\ngladness. And so, 'though the labour of the olive shall fail and the fig\ntree not blossom, though the flocks be cut off from the folds and the\nherd from the stalls,' we may joy in the Lord, and 'rejoice in the God\nof our salvation.'\n\nIII. Now lastly, we have here a duty.\n\nPeter takes it for granted that these good people, who had persecution\nhanging over them, were still rejoicing greatly in the Lord. He does not\nfeel it necessary to enjoin it upon them. It is a matter of course in\ntheir Christian life. And you will find that all through the New\nTestament this same tone is adopted which recognises gladness as being,\non the one hand, an inseparable characteristic of the Christian\nexperience, and on the other hand as being a thing that is a Christian\nman's duty to cultivate. Now I do not believe that the most of Christian\npeople have ever looked at the thing in that light at all. If joy has\ncome to them, they have been thankful for it, but they have very, very\nseldom felt that, if they are not glad, there is something wrong. And a\ngreat many of us, I am sure, have never recognised the fact that it is\nour duty to 'rejoice in the Lord always.' Have you realised it? I do not\nmean have you tried to get up, as I have been saying, factitious\nemotions, but have you felt that if you are doing what, as Christian men\nor women, it is your plain duty to do, there will come into your hearts\nthis joy of the Lord. I have told you why you are not happier\nChristians, why so many of us have, as I said, only got religion enough\nto make you gloomy and burdened. It is because you do not think enough\nabout Jesus Christ, and what He has given you, and what He is doing for\nyou and in you. It is because you have not the new life in strong\nexperience and possession, and because you have not the new hope\nspringing in your hearts, and because you have not the new wealth\nrealised often in present possession, and because you have not the new\nsecurity which He is ready to give you. It is your duty, Christian man\nand woman, to be a joyful Christian, and if you are not, then the\nnegligence is sin.\n\nIt is a hard duty. It is not easy to turn away from that which is\ntorturing flesh or sense or natural desires or human affections, and to\nrealise the unseen. It is not easy, but it is possible. And, like all\nother difficult things, it is worth doing. For there is nothing more\nhelpful, more recommendatory, of our Christianity to other people, and\nmore certain to tell on the vigour and efficiency of our Christian\nservice, than that we should be rejoicing in the Lord, and living in the\npossession of the experience of Christ's joy which He has left for us.\n\nThere is one other thing I must say. I have been talking about the\nco-existence of joy and sorrows. In one form or another that\nco-existence is universal. The difference is this. A Christian man has\nsuperficial sorrows and central gladness, and other men have superficial\ngladness and central sorrow. 'Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful.'\nMany of you know what that means--the black aching centre, full of\nunrest, grimly unparticipant of the dancing delights going on about it,\nlike some black rock that stands up in the midst of a field flooded with\nsunshine, and gay with flowers. 'The end of that mirth is heaviness.'\nBetter a surface sadness and a core of joy than the opposite, a skin of\nverdure over the scarcely cold lava. Better a transient sorrow with an\neternal joy than the opposite, mirth, 'like the crackling of thorns\nunder a pot,' which dies down into a doleful ring of black ashes in the\npathless desert. Choose whether you will have joy dwelling with and\nconquering sorrow, or unrest and sorrow, darkening and finally\nshattering your partial and fleeting joys.\n\n\n\n\nTHE TRUE GOLD AND ITS TESTING\n\n 'That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of\n gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found\n unto praise and honour and glory ...'--1 Peter i. 7.\n\n\nThe Apostle is fond of that word 'precious.' In both his letters he uses\nit as an epithet for diverse things. According to one translation, he\nspeaks of Christ as 'precious to you which believe.' He certainly speaks\nof 'the precious blood of Christ,' and of 'exceeding great and precious\npromises,' and here in my text, as well as in the Second Epistle, he\nspeaks about 'precious faith.' It is a very wide general term, not\nexpressing anything very characteristic beyond the one notion of value.\nBut in the text, according to our Authorised Version, it looks at first\nsight as if it were not the faith, but the _trial_ of the faith that the\nApostle regards as thus valuable. There are difficulties of rendering\nwhich I need not trouble you with. Suffice it to say that, speaking\nroughly and popularly, the 'trial of your faith' here seems to mean\nrather the _result of_ that trial, and might be fairly represented by\nthe slightly varied expression, 'your faith having been tried, might be\nfound,' etc.\n\nI must not be tempted to discourse about the reasons why such a\nrendering seems to express the Apostle's meaning more fully, but, taking\nit for granted, there are just three things to notice--the true wealth,\nthe testing of the wealth, and the discovery at last of the preciousness\nof the wealth.\n\nI. Peter pits against each other faith that has been tried, and 'gold\nthat perisheth'; he puts away all the other points of comparison and\npicks out one, and that is that the one lasts and the other does not.\nNow I must not be seduced into going beyond the limits of my text to\ndilate upon the other points of contrast and pre-eminence; but I would\njust notice in a sentence that everybody admits, yet next to nobody acts\nupon, the admission that inward good is far more valuable than outward\ngood. 'Wisdom is more precious than rubies,' say people, and yet they\nwill choose the rubies, and take no trouble to get the wisdom. Now the\nvery same principles of estimating value which set cultivated\nunderstandings and noble hearts above great possessions and large\nbalances at the bankers, set the life of faith high above all others.\nAnd the one thought which Peter wishes to drive into our heads and\nhearts is that there is only one kind of wealth that will never be\nseparated from its possessor. Nothing is truly ours that remains outside\nof us.\n\n ''Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands.'\n\nNothing that is there whilst I am here is really mine. I do not own it\nif it is possible that I shall lose it. And so with profound meaning our\nLord speaks about 'that which is another's' in comparison with 'that\nwhich is your own.' It is another's because it passes, like quicksilver\nunder pressure, from hand to hand, and no man really holds it, but it\nleaps away from his grasp. And if a man retains it all his days, still,\naccording to the grim old proverb, 'shrouds have no pockets,' and when\nhe dies his hands open, or sometimes they clutch together, but there is\nnothing inside the palms, and they only close upon themselves. Dear\nbrethren, if there is anything that can be filched away from us,\nanything about which it is true that, on the one hand, 'moth and\nrust'--natural processes--'do corrupt' it, on the other hand, 'thieves\nbreak through and steal'--accidents of human conduct can deprive us of\nit, then we may _call_ it ours, but it is not ours. It possesses us, if\nwe are devoted to it as our best good, and fighting and toiling, and\nsometimes lying and cheating, and flinging the whole fierce energy of\nour nature into first gripping and then holding it; it possesses us; we\ndo not possess it. But if there is anything that can become so\ninterwoven and interlaced with the very fibres of a man's heart that\nthey and it cannot be parted, if there is anything that empty hands will\nclasp the closer, because they _are_ emptied of earth's vanities, then\nthat is truly possessed by its possessor. And our faith, which will not\nbe trodden in the grave, but will go with us into the world beyond, and\nthough it be lost in one aspect, in sight, it will be eternal as trust,\nwill be ours, imperishable as ourselves, and as God. Therefore, do not\ngive all the energy of your lives to amassing the second-best riches.\nSeek the highest things most. 'Covet earnestly the best gifts,' and let\nthe coveting regulate your conduct. And do not be put off with wealth\nthat will fail you sooner or later.\n\nII. Note, again, the testing of the wealth.\n\nI need not dwell upon that very familiar metaphor of the furnace for\ngold, and the fining-pot for silver, only remember that there are two\npurposes for which metallurgists apply fire to metals. The one is to\ntest them, and the other is to cleanse them, or, to use technical words,\none is for the purpose of assaying them, and the other is for the\npurpose of refining them. And so, linking the words of my text with the\nwords of the previous verse, we find that the Apostle lays it down that\nthe purpose of all the diverse trials, or 'temptations' as he calls\nthem, that come to us, is this one thing, that our faith should be\n'tried,' and 'found, unto praise and honour and glory.' The fire carries\naway the dross; it makes the pure metal glow in its lustre. It burns up\nthe 'wood, hay, stubble'; it makes the gold gleam and the precious\nstones coruscate and flash.\n\nAnd so note this general notion here of the intention of all life's\nvarious aspects being to test character is specialised into this, that\nit is meant to test faith, first of all. Of course it is meant to test\nmany other things. A man's whole character is tested by the experiences\nof his daily life, all that is good and all that is evil in him, and we\nmight speak about the effect of life's discipline upon a great many\ndifferent sides of our nature. But here the whole stress is put upon the\neffect of life in testing and clarifying and strengthening one part of a\nChristian's character, and that is his faith. Why does Peter pick out\nfaith? Why does he not say 'trial of your hope,' of your 'love,' of your\n'courage,' of half a dozen other graces? Why 'the trial of your\n_faith_?' For this reason, because as the man's faith is, so is the man.\nBecause faith is the tap-root, in the view of the New Testament, of all\nthat is good and strong and noble in humanity. Because if you strengthen\na man's trust you strengthen everything that comes from it. Reinforce\nthe centre and all is reinforced. Your faith is the vital point from\nwhich your whole life as Christians is developed, and whatever\nstrengthens that strengthens you. And, therefore, although everything\nthat befalls you calls for the exercise of, and therefore tests, and\ntherefore, rightly undergone, strengthens a great many various virtues\nand powers and beauties in a human character, the main good of it all is\nthat it deepens, if the man is right, his simple trust in God manifested\nby his trust in and love to Jesus Christ: and so it reinforces the faith\nwhich works by love, and thus tends to make all things in life good and\nfair.\n\nNow if thus the main end of life is to strengthen faith, let us remember\nthat we have to give a wider meaning to the word 'trials' than\n'afflictions.' Ah! there is as sharp a trial of my faith in prosperity\nas in any adversity. People say, 'It is easy to trust God when things\nare going well with us.' That is quite true. But it is a great deal\neasier to stop trusting God, or thinking about Him, when things are\ngoing well with us, and we do not seem to need Him so much, as in the\nhours of darkness. You remember the old story about the traveller, when\nthe sun and the wind tried which could make him take off his cloak; and\nthe sun did it. Some of us, I daresay, have found out that the faith\nwhich gripped God when we felt we needed Him, because we had not\nanything else but Him, is but too apt to lose hold of Him when fleeting\ndelights and apparent treasures come and whisper invitations in our\nhearts. There are diseases that are proper to the northern, dark,\nice-bound regions of the earth. Yes! and there are a great many more\nthat belong to the tropics; as there is such a thing as sunstroke, which\nis, perhaps, as dangerous as the cramping cold from the icebergs of the\nnorth. Some of us should understand what that Scripture means: 'Because\nthey have no changes, therefore they fear not God.' Prosperity,\nuntroubled lives, lives even as the lives of those of the majority of\nmankind now, have their own most searching trials of faith.\n\nBut on the other hand, if there are 'ships that have gone down at sea,\nwhen heaven was all tranquillity,' there come also dark and nights of\nwild tempest when we have to lay to and ride out the gale with a\ntremendous strain on the cable. Our sorrows, our disappointments, our\npetty annoyances, and the great irrevocable griefs that sooner or later\ndarken the very earth, are all to be classified under this same purpose,\n'that the trial of your faith ... might be found unto praise and honour\nand glory.' And so, I beseech you, open your eyes to the meaning of\nlife, and do not suppose that you have found the last word to say about\nit when you say 'I am afflicted,' or 'I am at ease.' The affliction and\nthe ease, like two wheels in some great machine working in opposite\ndirections, fit with their cogs into one another and move something\nbeyond them in one uniform direction. And affliction and ease cooperate\nto this end, that we might be partakers of His holiness.\n\nI believe experience teaches the most of us, if we will lay its lessons\nto heart, that the times when Christian people grow most in the divine\nlife is in their times of sorrow. One of the old divines says, 'Grace\ngrows best in winter'; and there are edible plants which need a touch of\nfrost before they are good to eat. So it is with our faith. Only let us\ntake care that the fire does not burn it up, as 'wood, hay, stubble,'\nbut irradiates it and glorifies it, as 'gold, silver, and precious\nstones.'\n\nIII. Now a word, lastly, about the ultimate discovery.\n\n'Might be found unto praise and honour and glory.' Note these three\nwords, which I think are often neglected, and sometimes\nmisunderstood--'praise, honour, glory.' Whose? People sometimes say\n'God's,' since His people's ultimate salvation redounds to His praise;\nbut it is much better to understand the praise as given to the\nChristians whose faith has stood the testing fires. 'Well done, good and\nfaithful servant'--is not that praise from lips, praise from which is\npraise indeed? As Paul says, 'then shall every man have praise of God.'\nWe are far too much afraid of recognising the fact that Jesus Christ in\nHeaven, like Jesus Christ on earth, will praise the deeds that come from\nlove to Him, though the deeds themselves may be very imperfect. Do you\nremember 'She hath wrought a good work on Me,' said about a woman that\nhad done a perfectly useless thing, which was open to a great many very\nshrewd objections? But Jesus Christ accepted it. Why? Because it was the\npure utterance of a loving heart. And, depend upon it, though we have to\nsay 'Unclean! unclean! We are unprofitable servants,' He will say 'Come!\nye blessed of My Father.' Praise from Christ is praise indeed.\n\n'Honour.' That suggests bystanders, a public opinion, if I may so say;\nit suggests 'have thou authority over ten cities,' and that men will\nhave their deeds round them as a halo, in that other world. As 'praise'\nsuggests the redeemed man's relation to his Lord, so 'honour' suggests\nthe redeemed man's relation to the fellow-citizens of the New Jerusalem.\n'Glory' speaks of the man himself as transfigured and lifted up into\nthe light and lustre of communion with, and conformity to, the image of\nthe Lord. 'Then shall we appear with Him in glory. Then shall the\nrighteous blaze forth like the sun in My heavenly Father's Kingdom.'\n\n'Shall be found.' Ah! there will be many surprises yonder. Do you\nremember that profound revelation of our Master when He represents those\non whom He lavishes His eulogies as the Judge, as turning to Him and\nsaying, 'Lord! when saw we Thee in ... prison and visited thee?' They do\nnot recognise themselves or their acts in Christ's account of them. They\nhave found that their lives were diviner than they knew. There will be\nsurprises there. As one of the prophets represents the ransomed Israel,\nto her amazement, surrounded by clinging troops of children, and asking,\n'These! Where have they been? I was left alone,' so many a poor, humble\nsoul, fighting along in this world, having no recognition on earth, and\nthe lowliest estimate of all its own actions, will be astonished at the\nlast when it receives 'praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing\nof Jesus Christ.'\n\n\n\n\nJOY IN BELIEVING\n\n 'In Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with\n joy unspeakable and full of glory.'--1 Peter i. 8.\n\n\nThe Apostle has just previously been speaking about the great and\nglorious things which are to come to Christians on the appearing of\nJesus Christ, and that naturally suggests to him the thought of the\ncondition of believing souls during the period of the Lord's absence and\ncomparative concealment. Having lifted his readers' hopes to that great\nFuture, when they would attain to 'praise and honour and glory' at\nChrist's appearing, he drops to the present and to earth, and recalls\nthe disadvantages and deprivations of the present Christian experience\nas well as its privileges and blessings. 'Whom having not seen, ye\nlove,' that is a very natural thought in the mind of one whose love to\nJesus rested on the ever-remembered blessed experience of years of happy\ncompanionship, when addressing those who had no such memories. It points\nto an entirely unique fact. There is nothing else in the world parallel\nto that strange, deep personal attachment which fills millions of hearts\nto this Man who died nineteen centuries ago, and which is utterly unlike\nthe feelings that any men have to any other of the great names of the\npast. To love one unseen is a paradox, which is realised only in the\nrelation of the Christian soul to Jesus Christ.\n\nThen the Apostle goes on with what might at first seem a mere repetition\nof the preceding thought, but really brings to view another strange\nanomaly. 'In Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice\nwith joy unspeakable and full of glory.' Love longs for the presence of\nthe beloved, and is restless and defrauded of its gladness so long as\nabsence continues. But this strange love, which is kindled by an unseen\nMan, does not need His visible presence in order to be a fountain of joy\nunspeakable and full of glory. Thus the Apostle takes it for granted\nthat every one who believes knows what this joy is. It is a large\nassumption, contradicted, I am afraid, by the average experience of the\npeople that at this day call themselves Christians.\n\nWe notice--\n\nI. The All-sufficient Ground or Source of this Glad Emotion.\n\n'In whom,' with all the disabilities and pains and absence, 'yet\nbelieving,' you can put out a long arm of faith across the gulf that\nlies, not only between to-day and eighteen centuries ago, but the deeper\nand more impassible gulf that lies between earth and heaven, and clasp\nChrist with a really firm grasp, which will fill the hand, and which we\nshall feel has laid hold of something, or rather has laid hold of a\nliving person and a loving heart. That is faith. The Apostle uses a very\nstrong form of expression here, which is only very partially represented\nby our English version. He does not say only '_in_ whom believing,' but\n'_towards_ whom'; putting emphasis upon the effort and direction of the\nfaith, rather than upon the repose of the heart when it has found its\nobject and rests upon Him. And so the conception of the true Christian\nattitude is that of a continual outgoing of Trust and its child Love; of\nDesire and its child Possession; and of Expectation and its child\nFruition towards that unseen Christ. It is much to believe Him, it is\nmore to believe in Him; it is--I was going to say--most of all to\nbelieve towards Him. For in this region, quite as much as, and I think\nmore than, in the one to which the saying was originally applied,\n'search is better than attainment.' Our condition must always be that of\n'forgetting the things that are behind'; and however much we may realise\nthe union with the unseen Christ in the act of resting upon Him, that\nmust never be suffered to interfere with the longing for the larger\npossession of myself, and fuller consequent likeness to Him, which is\nexpressed in that great though simple phrase of my text 'believing\ntowards Him.' Such a continual outgoing of effort, as well as the rest\nand blessedness of reposing on Him, is indispensable for all true\ngladness. For the intensest activity of our whole being is essential to\nthe real joy of any part of it, and we shall never know the rapture of\nwhich humanity, even here and now, is capable until we gather our whole\nselves, heart, will, and all our practical, as well as our intellectual,\npowers in the effort to make more of Christ our own, and to minimise the\ndistance between us to a mere vanishing point, 'Believing towards whom\nye rejoice.'\n\nThat act of trust, however inadequate the object upon which it rests,\nand however mistaken may be our conceptions of that on which we lean,\nalways brings a gladness which is real, until disappointment\ndisillusionises and saddens us. There is nothing that so sheds peace\nover the heart as reliance, absolute and quiet, upon some object worthy\nof trust. It is blessed to trust one another until, as is too often the\ncase, we find that what we thought to be an oak against which we leaned\nis but a broken reed that has no pith in it, and no possibility of\nsupport. So far as it goes, all trust is blessed, but the most blessed\nis simple reliance upon, and aspiration after, Jesus Christ. Ever to\nyearn for Him, not with the yearning of those who have no possession,\nbut with that of those who, having a little, desire to have more, is to\nbring into our lives the one solid and sufficient good without which\nthere is no gladness, and with which there can be no unmingled sorrow,\nwrapping the whole man in its ebon folds. For this Christ is enough for\nall my nature and for the satisfaction of every desire. In Him my mind\nfinds the truth; my will the law; my love the answering love; my hope\nits object; my fears their dissipation; my sins their forgiveness; my\nweaknesses their strength; and, to all that I am, what He is answers, as\nfulness to emptiness, and as supply to need. So, 'believing towards Him,\nwe rejoice.'\n\nBut note that the joy is strictly contemporaneous with the faith. Tear\naway electric wire from the source of energy, and the light goes out\ninstantly. It is as another Apostle says, '_in believing_' that we have\n'joy and peace.' And that is why so many of us know little of it.\nYesterday's faith will not contribute to to-day's gladness, any more\nthan yesterday's meals will satisfy to-day's hunger. Present joy depends\nupon present faith, and the measure of the one is the measure of the\nother.\n\nNotice again--\n\nII. The Characteristics of the Christian Gladness.\n\n'Unspeakable,' and, as the word ought to be rendered, not 'full of\nglory' but 'glorified.' Unspeakable. Still waters run deep. It is poor\nwealth that can be counted; it is shallow emotion that can be crammed\ninto the narrow limits of any human vocabulary. Fathers and mothers,\nparents and children, husbands and wives, know that. And the depths of\nthe joy that a believing soul has in Jesus Christ are not to be spoken.\nPerhaps it is better that it should not be attempted to speak them.\n\n 'Not easily forgiven\n Are those, who, setting wide the doors that bar\n The secret bridal chambers of the heart,\n Let in the day.'\n\nIt is in shallow streams that the sunlight gleams on the pebbles at the\nbottom. The abysses of ocean are dark, and have never been searched by\nits light. I suspect the depth of the emotion which bubbles over into\nwords, and finds no difficulty in expressing itself. The joy which can\nbe manifested in all its extent has a very small extent. Christian joy\nis unspeakable, too, because just as you cannot teach a blind man what\ncolour is like, and cannot impart to anybody the blessedness of wedded\nlove, or parental affection, by ever so much talking--and, therefore,\nthe poetry of the world is never exhausted--so there is only one way of\nconveying to a man what is the actual joy of trusting in Christ, and\nthat is, that he himself should trust Him. We may talk till Doomsday,\nand then, as the Queen of Sheba said, when she came to Solomon, 'the\nhalf hath not been told.'\n\n 'He must be loved ere that to you\n He will seem worthy of your love.'\n\nIt is unspeakable gladness springing from the possession of an\nunspeakable gift.\n\n'Glorified.' There is nothing more ignoble than the ordinary joys of\nmen. They are too often like the iridescent scum on a stagnant pond,\nfruit and proof of corruption. They are fragile and hollow, for all the\nplay of colour on them, like a soap bubble that breaks of its own\ntenuity, and is only a drop of dirty water. Joy is too often ignoble,\nand yet, although it is by no means the highest conception of what\nChrist's Gospel can do for us, it is blessed to think that it can take\nthat emotion, so often shameful, so often frivolous, so often lowering\nrather than elevating, and can lift it into loftiness, and transfigure\nit, and glorify it and make it a power, a power for good and for\nrighteousness, and for 'whatsoever things are lovely and of good report'\nin our lives. And that is what trusting towards Christ will do for our\ngladnesses.\n\nLastly, in one word, let me lay upon your consciences, as Christian\npeople\n\nIII. The Obligation of Gladness.\n\nPeter takes it for granted that all these brethren to whom he is writing\nhave experience of this deep and ennobled joy. He does not say, 'You\nought to rejoice,' but he says, 'You do rejoice.' And yet a verse or two\nbefore he said, 'Ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.' So,\nthen, he was not blinking the hard, painful facts of anybody's troubled\nlife. He was not away upon the heights serenely contemptuous of the grim\npossibilities that lurk down in the dark valleys. He took in all the\nburdens and the pains and the anxieties and the harassments, and the\nlosses, and the bleeding hearts and the cares that can burden any of us.\nAnd he said, in spite of them all, 'Ye rejoice.'\n\nDo you? I am afraid there is no more irrefragable proof of the unreality\nof an enormous proportion of the Christian profession of this day than\nthe joyless lives--in so far as their religion contributes to their\njoy--of hosts of us. We have religion enough to make us miserable, we\nhave religion enough to make us uncomfortable about doing things that we\nwould like to do. We are always haunted by the feeling that we are\nfalling so far below our professions, and we are either miserable when\nwe bethink ourselves, or, more frequently, indifferent, accordingly. And\nthe whole reason of such experience lies here, we have not an adequately\nstrong and continued trust in Jesus Christ working righteousness in our\nlives, nobleness in our characters, and so lifting us above the regions\nwhere mists and malaria lie. Let us get high enough up, and we shall\nfind clear sky.\n\nYou call yourselves Christians. Does your religion bring any gladness\nto you? Does it burn brightest in the dark, like the pillar of cloud\nbefore the Israelites? 'Greek fire' burned below the water, and so was\nin high repute. Our gladness is a poor affair if it is at the mercy of\ntemperaments or of circumstances. Jesus Christ comes to cure\ntemperaments, and to enable us to resist circumstances. So I venture to\nsay that, whatever may be our condition in regard to externals, or\nwhatever may be our tendencies of disposition, we are bound, as a piece\nof Christian duty, to try to cultivate this joyful spirit, and to do it\nin the only right way, by cultivating the increase of our faith in Jesus\nChrist. 'Rejoice in the Lord always'; the man who said that was a\nprisoner, with death looking into his eyeballs. As he said it, he felt\nthat his friends in Philippi might think the exhortation overstrained,\nand so he repeated it, to show that he recognised the apparent\nimpossibility of obeying it, and yet deliberately enjoined it; 'and\nagain I say, rejoice.'\n\n\n\n\nCHRIST AND HIS CROSS THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE\n\n 'Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched\n diligently ... the things which are now reported unto you ... which\n things the angels desire to look into.'--1 Peter i. 10, 11, 12.\n\n\nI have detached these three clauses from their surroundings, not because\nI desire to treat them fragmentarily, but because we thereby throw into\nstronger relief the writer's purpose to bring out the identity of the\nOld and the New Revelation, the fact that Christ and His sufferings are\nthe centre of the world's history, to which all that went before points,\nfrom which all that follows after flows; and that not only thus does He\nstand in the midst of humanity, but that from Him there ran out\ninfluences into other orders of beings, and angels learn from Him\nmysteries hitherto unknown to them. The prophets prophesy of the grace\nwhich comes in the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should\nfollow, and the same Spirit which taught them teaches the preachers of\nthe Gospel of Jesus Christ. They that went before had for their deepest\nmessage the proclamation, 'He will come'; they that follow after have\nfor their deepest message, 'He has come.' And angels listen to, and\necho, the chorus, from all the files that march in front, and all that\nbring up the rear, 'Hosanna! Blessed be Him that cometh in the name of\nthe Lord.'\n\nMy purpose, then, is just to try to bring before you the magnificent\nunity into which these texts bind all ages, and all worlds, planting\nJesus Christ and His Cross in the centre of them all. There are four\naspects here in which the writer teaches us to regard this unity: Jesus\nand the Cross are the substance of prophecy, the theme of Gospel\npreaching, the study of angels, and presented to each of us for our\nindividual acceptance. Now, let us look briefly at these four points.\n\nI. First, then, Christ and His Cross is the substance of prophecy.\n\nNow, of course, we have to remember that general statements have to be\ninterpreted widely, and without punctilious adherence to the words; and\nwe have also to remember that great mischief has been done, and great\ndiscredit cast, on the whole conception of ancient revelation by the\nwell-meaning, but altogether mistaken, attempts of good people to read\nthe fully developed doctrine of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice into\nevery corner of the ancient revelation. But whilst I admit all that,\nand would desire to emphasise the fact, I think that in this\ngeneration, and to-day, there is a great deal more need to insist upon\nthe truth that the inmost essence and deepest purpose of the whole Old\nTestament system is to create an attitude of expectance, and to point\nonwards, with ever-growing distinctness, to one colossal and mysterious\nfigure in which the longings of generations shall be fulfilled, and the\npromises of God shall be accomplished. The prophet was more than a\nforeteller, as is being continually insisted upon nowadays. There were\nprophets who never uttered a single prediction. Their place in Israel\nwas to be the champions of righteousness, and--I was going to say--the\nknights of God, as against law and ceremonial and externalism. But,\nbeyond that, there underlie the whole system of prophecy, and there come\nsparkling and flashing up to the surface every now and then, bright\nanticipations, not only of a future kingdom, but of a personal King, and\nnot only of a King, but a sufferer. All the sacrifices, almost all the\ninstitutions, the priesthood and the monarchy included, had this\nonward-looking aspect, and Israel as a whole, in the proportion in which\nit was true to the spirit of its calling, stood a-tiptoe, as it were,\nlooking down the ages for the coming of the Hope of the Covenant that\nhad been promised to the fathers. The prophets, I might say, were like\nan advance-guard sent before some great monarch in his progress towards\nhis capital, who rode through the slumbering villages and called, 'He\ncomes! He comes! The King cometh meek and having salvation,' and then\npassed on.\n\nNow, all that is to be held fast to-day. I would give all freedom to\ncritical research, and loyally accept the results of it, so far as these\nare established, and are not mere hypotheses, with regard to the date\nand the circumstances of the construction of the various elements of\nthat Old Testament. But what I desire especially to mark is that, with\nthe widest freedom, there must be these two things conserved which Peter\nhere emphasises, the real inspiration of the prophetic order, and its\nfunction to point onwards to Jesus. And so long as you keep these\ntruths, as long as you believe that God spoke through prophets, as long\nas you believe that the very heart of their message was the proclamation\nof Jesus Christ, and that to bear witness to Him was the function, not\nonly of prophet, but of priest and king and nation, then you are at\nliberty to deal as you like with mere questions of origin and of date.\nBut if, in the eagerness of the chase after the literary facts of the\norigin of the Old Testament, we forget that it is a unity, that it is a\ndivine unity, that it is a progressive revelation, and that 'the\ntestimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy' then I venture to say that\nthe most uncritical, old-fashioned reader of the Old Testament that\nfound Jesus Christ in the Song of Solomon, and in the details of the\nTabernacle, and in all the _minutiae_ of worship and sacrifice, was\nnearer to the living heart of the thing than the most learned scholar\nthat has been so absorbed in the inquiries as to how and when this,\nthat, and the other bit of the Book was written, that he fails to see\nthe one august figure that shines out, now more and now less dimly, and\ngives unity to the whole. 'To Him gave all the prophets witness.' And\nwhen Peter declared, as he did in my text, that ancient Israel, by its\nspokesmen and its organs, testified beforehand of the sufferings of\nChrist, he is but echoing what he had learned from his Master, who turns\nto some of us with the same rebuke with which He met His disciples\nafter the Resurrection: 'O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that\nthe prophets have spoken.' The Old and the New are a unity, and Christ\nand His Cross are the substance and the centre of both.\n\nII. Note here Christ and His Cross, the theme of Gospel preaching.\n\nIf you will glance at your leisure over the whole context from which I\nhave picked these clauses as containing its essence, you will find that\nthe Apostle speaks of the things which the prophets foretold as being\nthe same as 'those which are now reported unto you by them that have\npreached the Gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from\nheaven.' I must not take for granted that you are all referring to your\nBibles, but I should like to point out, as the basis of one or two\nthings that I wish to say, the remarkable variety of phrase employed in\nthe text to describe the one thing. First, Peter speaks of it as\n'salvation,' then he speaks of it in the next clause as 'the grace that\nshould come unto you.' Then, in the next phrase, he designates it more\nparticularly as 'the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should\nfollow.' Now, if we put these designations together--salvation, grace,\nChrist's sufferings, the subsequent glory--we come to this, that the\nfacts of Christ's life, death, resurrection, and ascension are the great\nvehicle which brings to men God's grace, that that grace has for its\npurpose and its effect man's salvation, and that these facts are the\nGospel which Christian preachers have to proclaim.\n\nNow notice what follows from such thoughts as these. To begin with, the\nGospel is not a speculation, is not a theology, still less a morality,\nnot a declaration of principles, but a history of fact, things that were\ndone on this earth of ours, and that the Apostle's Creed which is\nworked into the service of the Anglican Church is far nearer the\nprimitive conception of the Gospel than are any of the more elaborate\nand doctrinal ones which have followed. For we have to begin with the\nfacts that Christ lived, died, was buried, rose again from the dead ...\nascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God. Whatever\nelse the Gospel is, that is the kernel and the basis of it all. Out of\nthese facts will come all manner of doctrines, philosophies of religion,\ntheologies, revelations about God and man. Out of them will come all\nethics, the teaching of duty, the exhibition of a pattern of conduct,\ninspiration to follow the model that is set before us. Out of them will\ncome, as I believe, guidance and light for social and economical and\npolitical questions and difficulties. But what we have to lay hold of,\nand what we preachers have to proclaim, is the story of the life, and\neminently the story of the death.\n\nWhy does Peter put in the very centre here 'the sufferings of Christ'?\nThat suggests another thought, that amongst these facts which, taken\ntogether, make the Gospel, the vital part, the central and the\nindispensable part, is the story of the Cross. Now what Christ said, not\nwhat Christ did, not what Christ was, beautiful and helpful as all that\nis, but to begin with what Christ bore, is the fact that makes the life\nof the Gospel. And just as He is the centre of humanity, so the Cross is\nthe centre of His work. Why is that? Because the deepest need of all of\nus is the need to have our sins dealt with, both as guilt and as power,\nand because nothing else in the whole story of Christ's manifestation\ndeals with men's sins as the fact of His death on the Cross does,\ntherefore the sacrifice and sufferings are the heart of the Gospel.\n\nAnd so, brethren, we have to mark that the presentation of Christian\ntruth which slurs over that fact of the Sacrifice and Atonement of Jesus\nChrist, has parted with the vital power which makes the story into a\ngospel. It is no gospel to tell a man that Jesus Christ died, unless you\ngo on to say He 'died for our sins according to the Scriptures.' And it\nis no gospel to talk about the beauty of His life, and the perfectness\nof His example, and the sweetness of His nature, and the depth, the\nwisdom, and the tenderness of His words, unless you can say this is 'the\nLamb of God,' 'the Word made flesh,' 'who bare our sins, and carried our\nsicknesses and our sorrows.' Strike out from the gospel that you preach\n'the sufferings of Christ,' and you have struck out the one thing that\nwill draw men's hearts, that will satisfy men's needs, that will bind\nmen to Him with cords of love. 'I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men\nunto Me.' So, wherever you get what they call an ethical gospel which\ndeals with moralities, and does not impart the power that will vitalise\nmoralities, and make them into thankful service and sacrifices, in\nreturn for the great Sacrifice; wherever you get a gospel that falters\nin its enunciation of the sufferings of Christ, and wherever you get a\ngospel that secularises the Christian service of the Sabbath, and will\nrather discuss the things that the newspapers discuss, and the new books\nthat the reviewers are talking about, and odds and ends of that sort\nthat are thought to be popular and attractive, you get a gospel _minus_\nthe thing that, in the Old Testament and in the New alike, stands forth\nin the centre of all. 'We preach Christ crucified'; it is not enough to\npreach Christ. Many a man does that, and might as well hold his tongue.\n'We preach Christ crucified.' And the same august Figure which loomed\nbefore the vision of prophets, and shines through many a weary age,\nstands before us of this generation; ay! and will stand till the end of\nthe world, as the centre, the pivot of human history, the Christ who has\ndied for men. The Christ that will stand in the centre of the\ndevelopment of humanity is the Christ that died on the Cross. If your\ngospel is not that, you have yet to learn the deepest secret of His\npower.\n\nIII. Once more, here we have Christ and His Cross as the study of\nangels.\n\n'Which things the angels desire to look into.' Now, the word that Peter\nemploys there is an unusual one in Scripture. Its force may, perhaps, be\nbest conveyed by referring to one of the few instances in which it is\nemployed. It is used to describe the attitude of Peter and John when\nthey stooped down and looked into the sepulchre. Perhaps there may be a\nreference in Peter's mind to that incident, when he saw the 'two angels\n... sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the\nbody of Jesus had lain.' Perhaps, also, there floats in his mind some\nkind of reference to the outspread wings and bended heads of the\nbrooding cherubim who sat above the Mercy-seat, gazing down upon the\nmiracle of love that was manifested beneath them there. But be that as\nit may, the idea conveyed is that of eager desire and fixed attention.\n\nNow I am not going to enlarge at all upon the thought that is here\nconveyed, except just to make the one remark that people have often\nsaid, 'Why should a race of insignificant creatures on this little globe\nof ours be so dignified in the divine procedure as that there should be\nthe stupendous mystery of the Incarnation, and the Death for their\nsakes?' _Not_ for their sakes only, for the New Testament commits itself\nto the thought that whilst sinful men are the only subjects of the\nredeeming grace of Jesus Christ, other orders of creatures do benefit\nthereby, and do learn from it what else they would not have known, of\nthe mystery and the miracle and the majesty of the Divine love. 'To the\nprincipalities and the powers in heavenly places He hath made known by\nthe Church the manifold wisdom of God.' And we can understand how these\nother orders--what we call higher orders, which they may be or they may\nnot--of being, learn to know God as we learn to know Him, by the\nmanifestation of Himself in His acts, and how the crown of all\nmanifestations consists in this, that He visits the sinful sons of men,\nand by His own dear Son brings them back again. The elder brethren in\nthe Father's house do not grudge the ring and the robe given to the\nprodigals; rather they learn therein more than they knew before of the\nloving-kindness of God.\n\nNow all that is nowadays ignored, and it is not fashionable to speak\nabout the interest of angels in the success of Redemption, and a good\nmany 'advanced' Christians do not believe in angels at all, because they\n'cannot verify' the doctrine. I, for my part, accept the teaching, which\nseems to me to be a great deal more reasonable than to suppose that the\nrest of the universe is void of creatures that can praise and love and\nknow God. I accept the teaching, and think that Peter was, perhaps, not\na dreamer when he said, 'The angels desire to look into these things.'\nThey do not share in the blessings of redemption, but they can behold\nwhat they do not themselves experience. The Seer in the Revelation was\nnot mistaken, when he believed that he heard redeemed men leading the\nchorus to Him that had redeemed them by His blood out of all nations,\nand then heard the thunderous echo from an innumerable host of angels\nwho could not say 'Thou hast redeemed us,' but who could bring praise\nand glory to Him because He had redeemed men.\n\nIV. And now my last point is that Christ and His Cross is, by the\nGospel, offered to each of us.\n\nNotice how emphatically in this context the Apostle gathers together his\nwider thoughts, and focusses them into a point. 'The prophets have\ninquired and searched diligently ... of the grace that should come to\n_you_.... To them it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but _unto\nus_ they did minister the things, which are now reported _unto you_ by\nthem that have preached the Gospel _unto you_.' And so he would take his\nwide thoughts, as it were, and gather all together, to a point, and\npress the point against each man's heart.\n\nDear brethren, these wide views are of no avail to us unless we realise\nthe individual relation which Christ bears to each one of us. He bears a\nrelation, as I have been saying, to all humanity. All the ages belong to\nHim. 'He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.' From His\nCross there flash up rays of light into the heavens above, and out over\nthe whole rolling series of the centuries, from the beginning to the\nend. Yes; but from His Cross there comes a beam straight to your heart,\nand the Christ whom angels desire to look into, of whom prophets\nprophesy and Apostles proclaim His advent, who is the Lord of all the\nages, and the Lover of mankind, comes to thee and says 'I am thy\nSaviour,' and to thee this wide message is brought. Every eye has the\nwhole sunshine, and each soul may have the whole Christ. His universal\nrelations in time and space matter little to you, unless He has a\nparticular relation to yourself.\n\nAnd He will never have that in its atoning power, unless you do for\nyourself and by yourself the most individual and solitary act that a\nhuman soul can do, and that is, lay your hand on the head of 'the Lamb\n... that takes away the sin of the world,' and put your sins there. You\nmust begin with 'my Christ,' which you can do only by personal faith.\nAnd then afterwards you can come to 'our Christ,' the Christ of all the\nworlds, the Christ of all the ages. Go to Him by yourself. You must do\nit as if there were not any other beings in the whole universe but you\ntwo, Jesus and you. And when you have so gone, then you will find that\nyou have 'come to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of\nangels, to the general assembly, and Church of the first born.' Christ\nand His Cross are the substance of prophecy, the theme of the Gospel,\nthe study of the angels. What are they to me?\n\n\n\n\nHOPE PERFECTLY\n\n 'Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to\n the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the\n revelation of Jesus Christ.'--1 Peter i. 13.\n\n\nChristianity has transformed hope, and given it a new importance, by\nopening to it a new world to move in, and supplying to it new guarantees\nto rest on. There is something very remarkable in the prominence given\nto hope in the New Testament, and in the power ascribed to it to order a\nnoble life. Paul goes so far as to say that we are saved by it. To a\nChristian it is no longer a pleasant dream, which may be all an\nillusion, indulgence in which is pretty sure to sap a man's force, but\nit is a certain anticipation of certainties, the effect of which will be\nincreased energy and purity. So our Apostle, having in the preceding\ncontext in effect summed up the whole Gospel, bases upon that summary a\nseries of exhortations, the transition to which is marked by the\n'wherefore' at the beginning of my text. The application of that word is\nto be extended, so as to include all that has preceded in the letter,\nand there follows a series of practical advices, the first of which, the\ngrace or virtue which he puts in the forefront of everything, is not\nwhat you might have expected, but it is 'hope perfectly.'\n\nI may just remark, before going further, in reference to the language of\nmy text, that, accurately translated, the two exhortations which precede\nthat to hope are subsidiary to it, for we ought to read, 'Wherefore,\ngirding up the loins of your mind, and being sober, hope.' That is to\nsay, these two are preliminaries, or conditions, or means by which the\ndesired perfecting of the Christian hope is to be sought and attained.\n\nAnother preliminary remark which I must make is that what is enjoined\nhere has not reference to the duration but to the quality of the\nChristian hope. It is not 'to the end,' but, as the Margin of the\nAuthorised and the Revised Version concurs in saying, it is 'hope\nperfectly.'\n\nSo, then, there are three things here--the object, the duty, and the\ncultivation of Christian hope. Let us take these three things in order.\n\nI. The object of the Christian hope.\n\nNow, that is stated, in somewhat remarkable language, as 'the grace that\nis to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.' We\ngenerally use that word 'grace' with a restricted signification to the\ngifts of God to men here on earth. It is the earnest of the inheritance,\nrather than its fulness. But here it is quite obvious that by the\nexpression the Apostle means the very same thing as he has previously\ndesignated in the preceding context by three different phrases--'an\ninheritance incorruptible and undefiled,' 'praise and honour and glory\nat the revelation of Jesus Christ,' and 'the end of your faith, even the\nsalvation of your souls.' The 'grace' is not contrasted with the\n'glory,' but is another name for the glory. It is not the earnest of the\ninheritance, but it is the inheritance itself. It is not the means\ntowards attaining the progressive and finally complete 'salvation of\nyour souls,' but it is that complete salvation in all its fulness.\n\nNow, that is an unusual use of the word, but that it should be employed\nhere, as describing the future great object of the Christian hope,\nsuggests two or three thoughts. One is that that ultimate blessedness,\nwith all its dim, nebulous glories, which can only be resolved into\ntheir separate stars, when we are millions of leagues nearer to its\nlustre, is like the faintest glimmer of a new and better life in a soul\nhere on earth, purely and solely the result of the undeserved,\ncondescending love of God that stoops to sinful men, and instead of\nretribution bestows upon them a heaven. The grace that saved us at\nfirst, the grace that comes to us, filtered in drops during our earthly\nexperience, is poured upon us in a flood at last. And the brightest\nglory of heaven is as much a manifestation of the Divine grace as the\nfirst rudimentary germs of a better life now and here. The foundation,\nthe courses of the building, the glittering pinnacle on the summit,\nwith its golden spire reaching still higher into the blue, is all the\nwork of the same unmerited, stooping, pardoning love. Glory is grace,\nand Heaven is the result of God's pardoning mercy.\n\nThere is another suggestion here to be made, springing from this\neloquent use of this term, and that is not merely the identity of the\nsource of the Christian experience upon earth and in the future, but the\nidentity of that Christian experience itself in regard of its essential\ncharacter. If I may so say, it is all of a piece, homogeneous, and of\none web. The robe is without seam, woven throughout of the same thread.\nThe life of the humblest Christian, the most imperfect Christian, the\nmost infantile Christian, the most ignorant Christian here on earth, has\nfor its essential characteristics the very same things as the lives of\nthe strong spirits that move in light around the Throne, and receive\ninto their expanding nature the ever-increasing fulness of the glory of\nthe Lord. Grace here is glory in the bud; glory yonder is grace in the\nfruit.\n\nBut there is still further to be noticed another great thought that\ncomes out of this remarkable language. The words of my text, literally\nrendered, are 'the grace that is being brought unto you.' Now, there\nhave been many explanations of that remarkable phrase, which I think is\nnot altogether exhausted by, nor quite equivalent to, that which\nrepresents it in our version--viz. 'to be brought unto you.' That\nrelegates it all into the future; but in Peter's conception it is, in\nsome sense, in the present. It is 'being brought.' What does that mean?\nThere are far-off stars in the sky, the beams from which have set out\nfrom their home of light millenniums since, and have been rushing\nthrough the waste places of the universe since long before men were,\nand they have not reached our eyes yet. But they are on the road. And so\nin Peter's conception, the apocalypse of glory, which is the crowning\nmanifestation of grace, is rushing towards us through the ages, through\nthe spheres, and it will be here some day, and the beams will strike\nupon our faces, and make them glow with its light. So certain is the\narrival of the grace that the Apostle deals with it as already on its\nway. The great thing on which the Christian hope fastens is no\n'peradventure,' but a good which has already begun to journey towards\nus.\n\nAgain, there is another thought still to be suggested, and that is, the\nrevelation of Jesus Christ is the coming to His children of this grace\nwhich is glory, of this glory which is grace. For mark how the Apostle\nsays, 'the grace which is being brought to you in the revelation of\nJesus Christ.' And that revelation to which he here refers is not the\npast one, in His incarnate life upon earth, but it is the future one, to\nwhich the hope of the faithful Church ought ever to be steadfastly\nturned, the correlated truth to that other one on which its faith rests.\nOn these two great pillars, rising like columns on either side of the\ngulf of Time, 'He has come,' 'He will come,' the bridge is suspended by\nwhich we may safely pass over the foaming torrent that else would\nswallow us up. The revelation in the past cries out for the revelation\nin the future. The Cross demands the Throne. That He has come once, a\nsacrifice for sin, stands incomplete, like some building left unfinished\nwith rugged stones protruding which prophesy an addition at a future\nday; unless you can add 'unto them that look for Him will He appear the\nsecond time without sin unto salvation.' In that revelation of Jesus\nChrist His children shall find the glory-grace which is the object of\ntheir hope.\n\nSo say all the New Testament writers. 'When Christ, who is our life,\nshall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory' says Paul.\n'The grace that is to be brought unto you in the revelation of Jesus\nChrist,' chimes in Peter. And John completes the trio with his 'We know\nthat when He shall appear we shall be like Him.' These three things,\nbrethren--with Christ, glory with Him, likeness to Him--are all that we\nknow, and blessed be God! all that we need to know, of that dim future.\nAnd the more we confine ourselves to these triple great certainties, and\nsweep aside all subordinate matters, which are concealed partly because\nthey could not be revealed, and partly because they would not help us if\nwe knew them, the better for the simplicity and the power and the\ncertainty of our hope. The object of Christian hope is Christ, in His\nrevelation, in His presence, in His communication to us for glory, in\nHis assimilating of us to Himself.\n\n 'It is enough that Christ knows all,\n And we shall be with Him.'\n\n'The grace that is being brought unto you in the revelation of Jesus\nChrist.'\n\nII. And now notice the duty of the Christian hope.\n\nHope a duty? That strikes one as somewhat strange. I very much doubt\nwhether the ordinary run of good people do recognise it as being as\nimperative a duty for them to cultivate hope as to cultivate any other\nChristian excellence or virtue. For one man that sets himself\ndeliberately and consciously to brighten up, and to make more operative\nin his daily life, the hope of future blessedness, you will find a\nhundred that set themselves to other kinds of perfecting of their\nChristian character. And yet, surely, there do not need any words to\nenforce the fact that this hope full of immortality is no mere luxury\nwhich a Christian man may add to the plain fare of daily duty or leave\nuntasted according as he likes, but that it is an indispensable element\nin all vigorous and life-dominating Christian experience.\n\nI do not need to dwell upon that, except just to suggest that such a\nvividness and continuity of calm anticipation of a certain good beyond\nthe grave is one of the strongest of all motives to the general\nrobustness and efficacy of a Christian life. People used to say a few\nyears ago, a great deal more than they do now, that the Christian\nexpectation of Heaven was apt to weaken energy upon earth, and they used\nto sneer at us, and talk about our 'other worldliness' as if it were a\nkind of weakness and defect attached to the Christian experience. They\nhave pretty well given that up now. Anti-Christian sarcasm, like\neverything else, has its fashions, and other words of reproach and\ncontumely have now taken the place of that. The plain fact is that no\nman sees the greatness of the present, unless he regards it as being the\nvestibule of the future, and that this present life is unintelligible\nand insignificant unless beyond it, and led up to by it, and shaped\nthrough it, there lies the eternal life beyond. The low flat plain is\ndreary and desolate, featureless and melancholy, when the sky above it\nis filled with clouds. But sweep away the cloud-rack, and let the blue\narch itself above the brown moorland, and all glows into lustre, and\nevery undulation is brought out, and tiny shy forms of beauty are found\nin every corner. And so, if you drape Heaven with the clouds and mists\nborn of indifference and worldliness, the world becomes mean, but if\nyou dissipate the cloud and unveil heaven, earth is greatened. If the\nhope of the grave that is to be brought onto you at the revelation of\nJesus Christ shines out above all the flatness of earth, then life\nbecomes solemn, noble, worthy of, demanding and rewarding, our most\nstrenuous efforts. No man can, and no man will, strike such effectual\nblows on things present as the man, the strength of whose arm is derived\nfrom the conviction that every stroke of the hammer on things present is\nshaping that which will abide with him for ever.\n\nMy text not only enjoins this hope as a duty, but also enjoins the\nperfection of it as being a thing to be aimed at by all Christian\npeople. What is the perfection of hope? Two qualities, certainty and\ncontinuity. Certainty; the definition of earthly hope is an anticipation\nof good less than certain, and so, in all the operations of this great\nfaculty, which are limited within the range of earth, you get blended as\nan indistinguishable throng, 'hopes and fears that kindle hope,' and\nthat too often kill it. But the Christian has a certain anticipation of\ncertain good, and to him memory may be no more fixed than hope, and the\npast no more unalterable and uncertain than the future. The motto of our\nhope is not the 'perhaps,' which is the most that it can say when it\nspeaks the tongue of earth, but the 'verily! verily!' which comes to its\nenfranchised lips when it speaks the tongue of Heaven. Your hope,\nChristian man, should not be the tremulous thing that it often is, which\nexpresses itself in phrases like 'Well! I do not know, but I tremblingly\nhope,' but it should say, 'I know and am sure of the rest that\nremaineth, not because of what I am, but because of what He is.'\n\nAnother element in the perfection of hope is its continuity. That hits\nhome to us all, does it not? Sometimes in calm weather we catch a sight\nof the gleaming battlements of 'the City which hath foundations,' away\nacross the sea, and then mists and driving storms come up and hide it.\nThere is a great mountain in Central Africa which if a man wishes to see\nhe must seize a fortunate hour in the early morning, and for all the\nrest of the day it is swathed in clouds, invisible. Is that like your\nhope, Christian man and woman, gleaming out now and then, and then again\nswallowed up in the darkness? Brethren! these two things, certainty and\ncontinuity, are possible for us. Alas! that they are so seldom enjoyed\nby us.\n\nIII. And now one last word. My text speaks about the discipline or\ncultivation of this Christian hope.\n\nIt prescribes two things as auxiliary thereto. The way to cultivate the\nperfect hope which alone corresponds to the gift of God is 'girding up\nthe loins of your mind, and being sober.' Of course, there is here one\nof the very few reminiscences that we have in the Epistles of the\n_ipsissima verba_ of our Lord. Peter is evidently referring to our\nLord's commandment to have 'the loins girt and the lamps burning, and ye\nyourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.' I do not need to\nremind you of the Eastern dress that makes the metaphor remarkably\nsignificant, the loose robes that tangle a man's feet when he runs, that\nneed to be girded up and belted tight around his waist, as preliminary\nto all travel or toil of any kind. The metaphor is the same as that in\nour colloquial speech when we talk about a man 'pulling himself\ntogether.' Just as an English workman will draw his belt a hole tighter\nwhen he has some special task to do, so Peter says to us, make a\ndefinite effort, with resolute bracing up and concentration of all your\npowers, or you will never see the grace that is hurrying towards you\nthrough the centuries. There are abundance of loose, slack-braced people\nup and down the world, in all departments, and they never come to any\ngood. It is a shame that any man should have his thoughts so loosely\ngirt and vagrant as that any briar by the roadside can catch them and\nhinder his advance. But it is a tenfold shame for Christian people, with\nsuch an object to gaze upon, that they should let their minds be\ndissipated all over the trivialities of Time, and not gather them\ntogether and project them, as I may say, with all their force towards\nthe sovereign realities of Eternity. A sixpence held close to your eye\nwill blot out the sun, and the trifles of earth close to us will prevent\nus from realising the things which neither sight, nor experience, nor\ntestimony reveal to us, unless with clenched teeth, so to speak, we make\na dogged effort to keep them in mind.\n\nThe other preliminary and condition is 'being sober,' which of course\nyou have to extend to its widest possible signification, implying not\nmerely abstinence from, or moderate use of, intoxicants, or material\ngood for the appetites, but also the withdrawing of one's self sometimes\nwholly from, and always restraining one's self in the use of, the\npresent and the material. A man has only a given definite quantity of\nemotion and interest to expend, and if he flings it all away on the\nworld he has none left for Heaven. He will be like the miller that\nspoils some fair river, by diverting its waters into his own sluice, in\norder that he may grind some corn. If you have the faintest film of dust\non the glass of the telescope, or on its mirror, if it is a reflecting\none, you will not see the constellations in the heavens; and if we have\ndrawn over our spirits the film of earthly absorption, all these bright\nglories above will, so far as we are concerned, cease to be.\n\nSo, brethren, there is a solemn responsibility laid upon us by the gift\nof that great faculty of looking before and after. What did God make you\nand me capable of anticipating the future for? That we might let our\nhopes run along the low levels, or that we might elevate them and twine\nthem round the very pillars of God's Throne; which? I do not find fault\nwith you because you hope, but because you hope so meanly, and about\nsuch trivial and transitory things. I remember I once saw a sea-bird\nkept in a garden, confined within high walls, and with clipped wings,\nset to pick up grubs and insects. It ought to have been away out,\nhovering over the free ocean, or soaring with sunlit wing to a height\nwhere earth became a speck, and all its noises were hushed. That is what\nsome of you are doing with your hope, degrading it to earth instead of\nletting it rise to God; enter within the veil, and gaze upon the glory\nof the 'inheritance incorruptible and undefiled.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE FAMILY LIKENESS\n\n 'As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy, in all manner\n of conversation.'--1 Peter i. 15.\n\n\nThat is the sum of religion--an all-comprehensive precept which includes\na great deal more than the world's morality, and which changes the\ncoldness of that into something blessed, by referring all our purity to\nthe Lord that called us. One may well wonder where a Galilean fisherman\ngot the impulse that lifted him to such a height; one may well wonder\nthat he ventured to address such wide, absolute commandments to the\nhandful of people just dragged from the very slough and filth of\nheathenism to whom he spoke. But he had dwelt with Christ, and they had\nChrist in their hearts. So for him to command and for them to obey, and\nto aim after even so wide and wonderful an attainment as perfecting like\nGod's was the most natural thing in the world. 'Be ye holy as He that\nhath called you is holy, and that in all manner of conversation.' The\nmaximum of possible attainment, the minimum of imperative duty!\n\nSo, then, there are three things here--the pattern, the field, and the\ninspiration or motive of holiness.\n\nI. The Pattern of Holiness.\n\n'As He that hath called you is holy.' God's holiness is the very\nattribute which seems to separate Him most from the creatures; for its\ndeepest meaning is His majestic and Divine elevation above all that is\ncreatural. But here, of course, the idea conveyed by the word is not\nthat, if I may so say, metaphysical one, but the purely moral one. The\nholiness of God which is capable of imitation by us is His separation\nfrom all impurity. There is a side of His holiness which separates Him\nfrom all the creatures, to which we can only look up, or bow with our\nfaces in the dust; but there is a side of His holiness which, wonderful\nas it is, and high above all our present attainment as it is, yet is not\nhigher than the possibilities which His indwelling Spirit puts within\nour reach, nor beyond the bounds of the duty that presses upon us all.\n'As He which hath called you is holy.' Absolute and utter purity is His\nholiness, and that is the pattern for us.\n\nReligion is imitation. The truest form of worship is to copy. All\nthrough heathenism you find that principle working. 'They that make them\nare like unto them.' Why are heathen nations so besotted and sunken and\nobstinate in their foulnesses? Because their gods are their examples,\nand they, first of all, make the gods after the pattern of their own\nevil imaginations, and then the evil imaginations, deified, react upon\nthe maker and make him tenfold more a child of hell than themselves.\nWorship is imitation, and there is no religion which does not\nnecessarily involve the copying of the example or the pattern of that\nBeing before whom we bow. For religion is but love and reverence in the\nsuperlative degree, and the natural operation of love is to copy, and\nthe natural operation of reverence is the same. So that the old Mosaic\nlaw, 'Be ye holy as I am holy,' went to the very heart of religion. And\nthe New Testament form of it, as Paul puts it in a very bold word, 'Be\nye _imitators_ of God, as beloved children,' sets its seal on the same\nthought that we are religious in the proportion in which we are\nconsciously copying and aspiring after God.\n\nBut then, says somebody or other, 'it is not possible.' Well, if it were\nnot possible, try it all the same. For in this world it is aim and not\nattainment that makes the noble life; and it is better to shoot at the\nstars, even though your arrow never reaches them, than to fire it along\nthe low levels of ordinary life. I do not see that however the\nunattainableness of the model may be demonstrated, that has anything to\ndo with the duty of imitation. Because, though absolute conformity\nrunning throughout the whole of a life is not possible here on earth, we\nknow that in each individual instance in which we came short of\nconformity the fault was ours, and it might have been otherwise. Instead\nof bewildering ourselves with questions about 'unattainable' or\n'attainable,' suppose we asked, at each failure, 'Why did I not copy God\n_then_; was it because I could not, or because I would not?' The answer\nwould come plain enough to knock all that sophisticated nonsense out of\nour heads, and to make us feel that the law which puts an unattainable\nideal before the Christian as his duty is an intensely practical one,\nand may be reduced to practice at each step in his career. Imitation of\nthe Father, and to be perfect, 'as our Father in heaven is perfect,' is\nthe elementary and the ultimate commandment of all Christian morality.\n'Be ye holy as He that hath called you is holy.'\n\nThen let me remind you that the unattainableness is by no means so\ndemonstrable as some people seem to think. A very tiny circle may have\nthe same centre as one that reaches beyond the suburbs of the universe,\nand holds all stars and systems within its great round. And the tiniest\ncircle will have the same geometrical laws applied to it as the\ngreatest. The difference between finite and infinite has nothing to do\nwith the possibility of our becoming like God, if we believe that 'in\nthe image of God created He him'; and that men who have been not only\nmade by original creation in the Divine image, but have been born again\nby the incorruptible seed of the Word into a kindred life with His, and\nderived from Him, can surely grow like what they have got, and unfold\ninto actually possessed and achieved resemblance to their Father the\nkindred life that is poured into their veins.\n\nSo every way it is better indefinitely to approximate to that great\nlikeness, though with many flaws and failures, than to say it cannot be\nreached, and so I will content myself down here, in my sins and my\nmeannesses. No! dear brethren, 'we are saved by hope,' and one prime\ncondition of growth in nobleness is to believe it possible that, by His\nblessing we may be like Him here on earth in the measure of our\nperception of His beauty and reception of His grace.\n\nII. Again, notice the field of this Godlike holiness.\n\n'In all manner of conversation.' Of course I do not need to remind you\nthat the word 'conversation' does not mean _talk_, but _conduct_; that\nit applies to the whole of the outward life. Peter says that every part\nof the Christian man's activity is to be the field on which his\npossession of the holiness derived from and like God's is to be\nexhibited. It is to be seen in all common life. Here is no cloistered\nand ascetic holiness which tabooes large provinces of every man's\nexperience, and says 'we must not go in there, for fear of losing our\npurity,' but rather wherever Christ has trod before we can go. That is a\nsafe guide, and whatever God has appointed there we can go and that we\ncan do. 'On the bells of the horses shall be written _Holiness to the\nLord_.' The horse-bells that make merry music on their bridles are not\nvery sacred things, but they bear the same inscription as flamed on the\nfront of the high priest's mitre; and the bowls in every house in\nJerusalem, as the prophet says, shall bear the same inscription that was\nwritten on the sacrificial vessels, and all shall belong to Him.\n\nOnly, whilst thus we maintain the possibility of exhibiting Godlike\nholiness in all the dusty fields of common life, let us remember the\nother side.\n\nIn this day there is very little need to preach against an ascetic\nChristianity. There has been enough said of late years about a Christian\nman being entitled to go into all fields of occupation and interest, and\nthere to live his Christianity. I think the time is about come for a\ncaution or two to be dropped on the other side, 'Blessed is he that\ncondemneth not himself in the thing which he alloweth.' Apply this\ncommandment vigorously and honestly to trade, to recreation--especially\nto recreation--to social engagements, to the choice of companions, to\nthe exercise of tastes. Ask yourselves 'Can I write _Holiness to the\nLord_ on them?' If not, do not have anything to do with them. I wonder\nwhat the managers of theatres and music-halls would say if anybody\nproposed that motto to be put upon the curtain for the spectators to\nread before it is drawn up for the play. Do you think it would fit?\nDon't you, Christian men and women, don't you go into places where it\nwould not fit. And remember that 'in all manner of conversation' has two\nsides to it, one declaring the possibility of sanctifying every creature\nof God, and one declaring the impossibility of a Christian man going,\nwithout dreadful danger and certain damage, into places where he cannot\ncarry that consecration and purity with him.\n\nAgain the field is all trivial things. 'In all manner of conversation.'\nThere is nothing that grows so low but that this scythe will travel near\nenough to the ground to harvest it. There is nothing so minute but it is\nbig enough to mirror the holiness of God. The tiniest grain of mica,\nupon the face of the hill, is large enough to flash back a beam; and the\nsmallest thing we can do is big enough to hold the bright light of\nholiness. 'All'! Ah! If our likeness to God does not show itself in\ntrifles, what in the name of common sense is there left for it to show\nitself in? For our lives are all made up of trifles. The great things\ncome three or four of them in the seventy years; the little ones come\nevery time the clock ticks. And as they say, 'Take care of the pence,\nand the pounds will take care of themselves.' If we keep the little\nthings rigidly under the dominion of this principle, no doubt the big\nthings will fall under it too, when they emerge. And if we do not--as\nthe old Jewish book says:--'He that despiseth little things shall fall\nby little and little.' Whosoever has not a Christianity that sanctifies\nthe trifles has a Christianity that will not sanctify the crises of his\nlife. So, dear brother, this motto is to be written over every portal\nthrough which you and I go; and whatsoever we can put our hands to, in\nit we may magnify and manifest the holiness of God.\n\nIII. Now, lastly, note the motive or inspiration of holiness.\n\nThe language of my text might read like 'the Holy One who hath called\nyou.' Peter would stir his hearers to the emulation of the Divine\nholiness by that thought of the bond that unites Him and them. 'He hath\ncalled you.' In which word, I suppose, he includes the whole sum of the\nDivine operations which have resulted in the placing of each of his\nauditors within the circle of the Christian community as the subjects of\nChrist's grace, and not only the one definite act to which the\ntheologians attach the name of 'calling.' In the briefest possible way\nwe may put the motive thus--the inspiration of imitation is to be found\nin the contemplation of the gifts of God. What He has said and done to\nme, calling me out of my darkness and alienation and lavishing the\ntokens of His love, the voice of His beseechings, the monitions of His\nSpirit, the message of His Son, the Incarnate Word, and invitation of\nGod--all these things are included in His call. And all of them are the\nreasons why, bound by thankfulness, overcome by his forbearance,\nresponding to His entreaties, and glued to Him by the strength of the\nhand that holds us, and the tenacity of His love, we should strive to\n'walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called.'\n\nAnd not only so, but in the thought of the Divine calling there lies a\nfountain of inspiration when we remember the purpose of the calling. As\nPaul puts it in one of his letters: 'God has not called us to\nuncleanness but to holiness.' That to which He summons, or invites (for\nyou may use either word), is holiness like His own. That is the crown of\nall His purposes for men, the great goal and blessed home to which He\nwould lead us all.\n\nAnd so, if in addition to the fact of His 'gift and calling' and all\nthat is included within it, if in addition to the purpose of that\ncalling we further think of the relation between us and Him which\nresults from it, so as that we, as the next verse says, call Him who\nhath called us, 'Our Father,' then the motive becomes deeper and more\nblessed still. Shall we not try to be like the Father of our spirits,\nand seek for His grace, to bear the likeness of sons?\n\nMy text speaks only of effort, let us not forget that the truest way to\nbe partakers of His holiness is to open our hearts for the entrance of\nthe Spirit of His Son, and possessing that--having these promises and\nthat great fulfilment of them--then to perfect holiness in the fear and\nlove of the Lord.\n\n\n\n\nFATHER AND JUDGE\n\n 'If ye call on Him as Father, who without respect of persons\n judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your\n sojourning here in fear.'--1 Peter i. 17.\n\n\n'If ye call on Him as Father,' when ye pray, say, 'Our Father which art\nin heaven.' One can scarcely help supposing that the Apostle is here, as\nin several other places in his letter, alluding to words that are\nstamped ineffaceably upon his memory, because they had dropped from\nChrist's lips. At all events, whether there is here a distinct allusion\nto what we call the Lord's Prayer or no, it is here recognised as the\nuniversal characteristic of Christian people that their prayers are\naddressed to God in the character of Father. So that we may say that\nthere is no Christianity which does not recognise and rejoice in\nappealing to the paternal relationship.\n\nBut, then, I suppose in Peter's days, as in our days, there were people\nthat so fell in love with one aspect of the Divine nature that they had\nno eyes for any other; and who so magnified the thought of the Father\nthat they forgot the thought of the Judge. That error has been committed\nover and over again in all ages, so that the Church as a whole, one may\nsay, has gone swaying from one extreme to the other, and has rent these\ntwo conceptions widely apart, and sometimes has been foolish enough to\npit them against each other instead of doing as Peter does here,\nbraiding them together as both conspiring to one result, the production\nin the Christian heart of a wholesome awe. If ye call on Him as Father\n'who, without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's\nwork, pass the time of your sojourning in fear.'\n\nSo then, look at this twofold aspect of God's character.\n\nBoth these conceptions ought to be present, flamingly and vividly,\nburning there before him, to every Christian man. 'Ye call Him Father,'\nbut the Father is the Judge. True, the Judge is Father, but Peter\nreminds us that whatever blessed truths may be hived in that great Name\nof Father, to be drawn thence by devout meditation and filial love,\nthere is not included in it the thought of weak-minded indulgence to His\nchildren, in any of their sins, nor any unlikelihood of inflicting penal\nconsequences on a rebellious child. 'Father' does not exclude 'Judge,'\n'and without respect of persons He judg_eth_.'\n\n'Without respect of persons'--the word is a somewhat unusual New\nTestament one, but it has special appropriateness and emphasis on\nPeter's lips. Do you remember who it was that said, and on what occasion\nhe said it: 'Now I perceive that God is no respecter of persons'? It was\nPeter when he had learned the lesson on the housetop at Joppa, looking\nout over the Mediterranean, and had it enforced by Cornelius' message.\nThe great thought that had blazed upon him as a new discovery on that\nnever-be-forgotten occasion, comes before him again, and this unfamiliar\nword comes with it, and he says, 'without respect of persons He judges.'\nMountains are elevated, valleys are depressed and sunken, but I fancy\nthat the difference between the top of Mount Everest and the gorge\nthrough which the Jordan runs would scarcely be perceptible if you were\nstanding on the sun. Thus, 'without respect of persons,' great men and\nlittle, rich men and poor, educated men and illiterate, people that\nperch themselves on their little stools and think themselves high above\ntheir fellows: they are all on one dead level in the eye of the Judge.\nAnd this question is as to the quality of the work and not as to the\ndignity of the doer. 'Without respect of persons' implies universality\nas well as impartiality. If a Christian man has been ever so near God,\nand then goes away from Him, he is judged notwithstanding his past\nnearness. And if a poor soul, all crusted over with his sins and leprous\nwith the foulness of long-standing iniquity, comes to God and asks for\npardon, he is judged according to his penitence, 'without respect of\npersons.' That great hand holds an even balance. And though the\nstrictness of the judicial process may have its solemn and its awful\naspect, it has also its blessed and its comforting one.\n\nNow, do not run away with the notion that the Apostle is speaking here\nof that great White Throne and the future judgment that for many of us\nlies, inoperative on our creeds, on the other side of the great cleft of\ndeath. That is a solemn thought, but it is not Peter's thought here. If\nany of you can refer to the original, you will see that even more\nstrongly than in our English version, though quite sufficiently strongly\nthere, the conception is brought out of a continuous Divine judgment\nrunning along, all through a man's life, side by side with his work. The\njudgment here meant is not all clotted together, as it were, in that\nfinal act of judgment, leaving the previous life without it, but it runs\nall through the ages, all through each man's days. I beseech you to\nponder that thought, that at each moment of each of our lives an\nestimate of the moral character of each of our deeds is present to the\nDivine mind.\n\n'Of course we believe that,' you say. 'That is commonplace; not worth\ntalking about.' Ah! but because we believe it, as of course, we slip out\nof thinking about it and letting it affect our lives. And what I desire\nto do for you, dear friends, and for myself, is just to put emphasis on\nthe one half of that little word 'judgeth' and ask you to take its three\nlast letters and lay them on your minds. Do we feel that, moment by\nmoment, these little spurs of bad temper, these little gusts of\nworldliness, that tiny, evanescent sting of pride and devildom which has\npassed across or been fixed in our minds, are all present to God, and\nthat He has judged them already, in the double sense that He has\nappraised their value and estimated their bearing upon our characters,\nand that He has set in motion some of the consequences which we shall\nhave to reap?\n\nOh! one sometimes wishes that people did not so much believe in a future\njudgment, in so far as it obscures to them the solemn thought of a\npresent and a continuous one. 'Verily, there is a God that _judgeth_ in\nthe earth,' and, of course, all these provisional decisions, which are\nlike the documents that in Scotch law are said to 'precognosce the\ncase,' are all laid away in the archives of heaven, and will be\nproduced, docketed and in order, at the last for each of us. Christian\npeople sometimes abuse the doctrine of justification by faith as if it\nmeant that Christians at the last were not to be judged. But they are,\nand there is such a thing as 'salvation yet so as by fire,' and such a\nthing as salvation in fulness. Do not let filial confidence drive out\nlegitimate fear.\n\nHe 'judges according to every man's work.' I do not think it is\nextravagant attention to niceties to ask you to notice that the Apostle\ndoes not say 'works,' but 'work'; as if all the separate actions were\ngathered into a great whole, as indeed they are, because they are all\nthe products of one mind and character. The trend and drift, so to\nspeak, of our life, rather than its isolated actions and the underlying\nmotives, in their solemn totality and unity, these are the materials of\nthis Divine judgment.\n\nNow, let me say a word about the disposition which the Apostle enjoins\nupon us in the view of these facts.\n\nThe Judge is the Father, the Father is the Judge. The one statement\nproclaims the merciful, compassionate, paternal judgment, the other the\njudicial Fatherhood. And what comes from the combination of these two\nideas, which thus modify and illuminate one another? 'Pass the time of\nyour sojourning here in fear.' What a descent that sounds from the\nearlier verses of the letter: 'In whom, though now ye see Him not, yet\nbelieving, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving\nthe end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.' Down from\nthose heights of 'joy unspeakable,' and 'already glorified,' the apostle\ndrops plump into _this_ dungeon: 'Pass the time of your sojourning here\nin fear.' Of course, I need not remind you that the 'fear' here is not\nthe 'fear which hath torment'; in fact, I do not think that it is a fear\nthat refers to God at all. It is not a sentiment or emotion of which God\nis the object. It is not the reverent awe which often appears in\nScripture as 'the fear of God,' which is a kind of shorthand expression\nfor all modes of devout sentiment and emotion; but it is a fear, knowing\nour own weakness and the strong temptations that are round us, of\nfalling into sin. That is the one thing to be afraid of in this world.\nIf a man rightly understood what he is here for, then the only thing\nthat he would be terrified for would be that he should miss the purpose\nof his being here and lose his hold of God thereby. There is nothing\nelse worth being afraid of, but that _is_ worth being afraid of. It is\nnot slavish dread, nor is it cowardice, but the well-grounded emotion of\nmen that know themselves too well to be confident and know the world too\nwell to be daring and presumptuous.\n\nDon't you think that Peter had had a pretty rough experience in his life\nthat had taught him the wisdom of such an exhortation? And does it not\nstrike you as very beautiful that it should come, of all people in the\nworld, from his lips? The man that had said, 'Though all should forsake\nThee, yet will not I.' 'Why cannot I follow Thee now?' 'Bid me come to\nThee on the water.' 'This be far from Thee, Lord, it shall not be unto\nThee'--the man that had whipped out his sword in the garden, in a spasm\nof foolish affection, now, in his quiet old age, when he has learnt the\nlesson of failures and follies and sins and repentance, says in effect:\n'Remember me, and do not you be presumptuous.' 'Pass the time of your\nsojourning here in fear.' 'If I had known myself a little better, and\nbeen a little more afraid of myself, I should not have made such a fool\nof myself or such shipwreck of my faithfulness.'\n\nDear friends, no mature Christian is so advanced as that he does not\nneed this reminder, and no Christian novice is so feeble as that,\nkeeping obedient to this precept, he will not be victorious over all his\nevils. The strongest needs to fear; the weakest, fearing, is safe. For\nsuch fearfulness is indispensable to safety. It is all very well to go\nalong with sail extended and a careless look-out. But if, for instance,\na captain keeps such when he is making the mouth of the Red Sea where\nthere are a narrow channel and jagged rocks and a strong current, if he\nhas not every man at his quarters and everything ready to let go and\nstop in a moment, he will be sure to be on the reefs before he has tried\nthe experiment often. And the only safety for any of us is ever to be on\nthe watch, and to dread our own weakness. 'Blessed is the man that\nfeareth always.'\n\nSuch carefulness over conduct and heart is fully compatible with all the\nblessed emotions to which it seems at first antagonistic. There is no\ndiscord between the phrase that I have quoted about 'joy unspeakable and\nfull of glory,' and this temper, but rather the two help one another.\nAnd such blended confidence and fear are the parents of courage. The man\nthat is afraid that he will do wrong and so hurt himself and grieve his\nSaviour, is the man that will never be afraid of anything else. Martyrs\nhave gone to the stake 'fearing not them that kill the body, and after\nthat have no more that they can do,' because they were so afraid to sin\nagainst God that they were not afraid to die rather than to do it. And\nthat is the temper that you and I should have. Let that one fear, like\nMoses' rod, swallow up all the other serpents and make our hearts\nimpervious to any other dread.\n\n'Pass the time of your _sojourning_.' You do not live in your own\ncountry, you are in an alien land. You are passing through it. Troops on\nthe march in an enemy's country, unless they are led by an idiot, will\nsend out clouds of scouts in front and on the wings to give timeous\nwarning of any attempted assault. If we cheerily and carelessly go\nthrough this world as if we were marching in a land where there were no\nfoes, there is nothing before us but defeat at the last. Only let us\nremember that sleepless watchfulness is needed only in this time of\nsojourning, and that when we get to our own country there is no need\nfor such patrols and advance guards and rearguards and men on the flank\nas were essential when we were on the march. People that grow exotic\nplants here in England keep them in glass houses. But when they are\ntaken to their native soil the glass would be an impertinence. As long\nas we are here we have to wear our armour, but when we get yonder the\narmour can safely be put off and the white robes that had to be tucked\nup under it lest they should be soiled by the muddy ways can be let\ndown, for they will gather no pollution from the golden streets. The\ngates of that city do not need to be shut, day nor night. For when sin\nhas ceased and our liability to yield to temptation has been exchanged\nfor fixed adhesion to the Lord Himself, then, and not till then, is it\nsafe to put aside the armour of godly fear and to walk, unguarded and\nunarmed, in the land of perpetual peace.\n\n\n\n\nPURIFYING THE SOUL\n\n '... ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the\n Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren.'--1 Peter i. 22.\n\n\nNote these three subsidiary clauses introduced respectively by 'in,'\n'through,' 'unto.' They give the means, the Bestower, and the issue of\nthe purity of soul. The Revised Version, following good authorities,\nomits the clause, 'through the Spirit.' It may possibly be originally a\nmarginal gloss of some scribe who was nervous about Peter's orthodoxy,\nwhich finally found its way into the text. But I think we shall be\ninclined to retain it if we notice that, throughout this epistle, the\nwriter is fond of sentences on the model of the present one, and of\nsurrounding a principal clause with subsidiary ones introduced by a\nsimilar sequence of prepositions. For instance, in this very chapter, to\npass over other examples, we read, 'Kept by' (or in) 'the power of God\nthrough faith unto salvation.' So, for my present purpose, I take the\ndoubtful words as part of the original text. They unquestionably convey\na true idea, whether they are genuine here or no.\n\nOne more introductory remark--'Ye have purified your souls'--a bold\nstatement to make about the vast multitude of the 'dispersed' throughout\nall the provinces of Asia Minor whom the Apostle was addressing. The\nform of the words in the original shows that this purifying is a process\nwhich began at some definite point in the past and is being continued\nthroughout all the time of Christian life. The hall-mark of all\nChristians is a relative purity, not of actions, but of soul. They will\nvary, one from another; the conception of what is purity of soul will\nchange and grow, but, if a man is a Christian, there was a moment in his\npast at which he potentially, and in ideal, purified his spirit, and\nthat was the moment when he bowed down in obedience to the truth. There\nare suggestions for volumes about the true conception of soul-purity in\nthese words of my text. But I deal with them in the simplest possible\nfashion, following the guidance of these significant little words which\nintroduce the subordinate clauses.\n\nFirst of all, then, we have here the great thought that\n\nI. Soul purity is in, or by, obedience.\n\nNow, of course, 'the truth'--truth with the definite article--is the sum\nof the contents of the Revelation of God in Jesus Christ, His life, His\ndeath, His Glory. For to Peter, as to us He should be, Jesus Christ was\nTruth Incarnate. 'In Him were hid all the treasures of wisdom and\nknowledge.' The first thought that is suggested to me from this\nexpression--obedience to the truth--is that the revelation of God in\nJesus Christ is, as its ultimate intention, meant to be obeyed. There\nare plenty of truths which have no influence on life and conduct, for\nwhich all is done that they can demand when they are accepted. But _the_\ntruth is no inert substance like the element which recent chemical\ndiscoveries have found, which is named 'argon,' the do-nothing: _the_\ntruth is, as physiologists say, a ferment. It is intended to come into\nlife, and into character, and into the inmost spirit of a man, and grip\nthem, and mould them, and transform them, and animate them, and impel\nthem. The truth is to be 'obeyed.'\n\nNow that altogether throws over two card-castles which imperfect\nChristians are very apt to build. One which haunted the thoughts of an\nearlier generation of Christians more than it does the present, is that\nwe have done all that 'the truth' asks of us when we have intellectually\nendorsed it. And so you get churches which build their membership upon\nacceptance of a creed and excommunicate heretics, whilst they keep\ndo-nothing and uncleansed Christians within their pale. But God does not\ntell us anything that we may know. He tells us in order that, knowing,\nwe may be and do. And right actions, or rather a character which\nproduces such, is the last aim of all knowledge, and especially of all\nmoral and religious truth. So 'the truth' is not 'argon', it is a\nferment. And if men, steeped to the eyebrows in orthodoxy, think that\nthey have done enough when they have set their hands to a confession of\nfaith, and that they are Christians because they can say, 'all this I\nsteadfastly believe,' they need to remember that religious truth which\ndoes not mould and transform character and conduct is a king dethroned;\nand for dethroned kings there is a short step between the throne from\nwhich they have descended and the scaffold on which they die.\n\nBut there is another--what I venture to call a card-castle, which more\nof us build in these days of indifference as to creed--and that is that\na great many of us are too much disposed to believe that 'the truth as\nit is in Jesus' has received from us all which it expects when we trust\nto it for what we call our 'salvation,' meaning thereby forgiveness of\nsins and immunity from punishment. These are elements of salvation\nunquestionably, but they are only part of it. And the very truths on\nwhich Christian people rest for this initial salvation, which is\nforgiveness and acceptance, are meant to be the guides of our lives and\nthe patterns for our imitation. Why, in this very letter, in reference\nto the very parts of Christ's work, on which faith is wont to rest for\nsalvation,--the death on the Cross to which we say that we trust, and\nwhich we are so accustomed to exalt as a unique and inimitable work that\ncannot be reproduced and needs no repetition, world without end--Peter\nhas no hesitation in saying that Christ was our 'Pattern,' and that,\neven when He went to the Cross, He died 'leaving us an example that we\nshould follow in His steps.' So, brethren, the truth needs to be known\nand believed: the truth needs not only to be believed but to be trusted\nin; the truth needs not only to be believed and to be trusted in, but to\nbe obeyed.\n\nStill further, another thought following upon and to some extent\nmodifying the preceding one, is suggested here, and that is that the\nfaith, which I have just been saying is sometimes mistakenly regarded as\nbeing all that truth calls for from us, is itself obedience. As I have\nsaid, the language in the original here implies that there was a given\ndefinite moment in the past when these dispersed strangers obeyed, and,\nby obeying the truth, purified their souls. What was that moment? Some\npeople would say the moment when the rite of baptism was administered. I\nwould say the moment when they bowed themselves in joyful acceptance of\nthe great Word and put out a firm hand of faith to grasp Jesus Christ.\nThat _is_ obedience. For, in the very act of thus trusting, there is\nself-surrender, is there not? Does not a man depart from himself and bow\nhimself humbly before his Saviour when he puts his trust in Him? Is not\nthe very essence of obedience, not the mere external act, but the\nmelting of the will to flow in such directions as His master-impulse may\nguide it? Thus, faith in its depth is obedience; and the moment when a\nman believes, in the deepest sense of the word, that moment, in the\ndeepest realities of his spirit, he becomes obedient to the will and to\nthe love of his Saviour Lord, Who is the Truth as He is the Way and the\nLife. We find, not only in this Epistle, but throughout the Epistles,\nthat the two words 'disobedience' and 'unbelief,' are used as\nequivalents. We read, for instance, of those that 'stumble at the word,\nbeing disobedient,' and the like. So, then, faith is obedience in its\ndepth, and, if our faith has any vitality in it, it carries in it the\nessence of all submission.\n\nBut then, further, my text implies that the faith which is, in its\ndepth, obedience, in its practical issues will produce the practical\nobedience which the text enjoins. It is no mere piece of theological\nlegerdemain which counts that faith is righteousness. But, just as all\nsin comes from selfishness, so, and therefore, all righteousness will\nflow from giving up self, from decentralising, as it were, our souls\nfrom their old centre, self, and taking a new centre, God in Christ.\nThus the germ of all practical obedience lies in vital faith. It is, if\nI might so say, the mother-tincture which, variously combined, coloured,\nand perfumed, makes all the precious things, the virtues and graces of\nhumanity, which the believing soul pours out as a libation before its\nGod. It is the productive energy of all practical goodness. It is the\nbottom heat in the greenhouse which makes all the plants grow and\nflourish. Faith is obedience, and faith produces obedience. Does my\nfaith produce obedience? If it does not, it is not faith.\n\nThen, with regard to this first part of my subject, comes the final\nthought that practical obedience works inwards as well as outwards, and\npurifies the soul which renders it. People generally turn that round the\nother way, and, instead of saying that to do right helps to make a man\nright within, they say 'make the tree good, and its fruit good'--first\nthe pure soul, and then the practical obedience. Both statements are\ntrue. For every act that a man does reacts upon the doer, just as,\nwhether the shot hits the target or not, the gun kicks back on the\nshoulder of the man that fired it. Conduct comes from character, but\nconduct works back upon character, and character is largely the deposit\nfrom the vanished seas of actions. So, then, whilst the deepest thought\nis, be good and you will do good, it is not to be forgotten that the\nother side is true--do good, and it will tend to make you good.\nObedience purifies the soul, while, on the other hand, a man that lives\nill comes to think as he lives, and to become tenfold more a child of\nevil. 'The dyer's hand is subdued to what it works in.' 'Ye have\npurified your souls,' ideally, in the act of faith, and continuously, in\nthe measure in which you practically obey the truth.\n\nWe have here\n\nII. Purifying through the Spirit.\n\nI have already said that these words are possibly no part of the\noriginal text, but that they convey a true Christian idea, whether the\nwords are here genuine or no. I need not enlarge upon this part of my\nsubject at any length. Let me just remind you how the other verse in\nthis chapter, to which I have already referred as cast in the same mould\nas our text, covers, from a different point of view, the same ground\nexactly as our text. Here there is put first the human element: 'Ye have\npurified your souls in obeying the truth,' and secondly the Divine\nelement; 'through the Spirit.' The human part is put in the foreground,\nand God's part comes in, I was going to say, subordinately, as a\ncondition. The reverse is the case in the other text, which runs: 'Kept\n_in_ the power of God _through_ faith'--where the Divine element is in\nthe foreground, as being the true cause, and the human dwindles to being\nmerely a condition--'Kept by' (or in) 'the power of God through faith.'\nBoth views are true; you may take the vase by either handle. When the\npurpose is to stimulate to action, man's part is put in the foreground\nand God's part secondarily. When the purpose is to stimulate to\nconfidence, God's part is put in the foreground and the man's is\nsecondary. The two interlock, and neither is sufficient without the\nother.\n\nThe true Agent of all purifying is that Divine Spirit. I have said that\nthe moment of true trust is the moment of initial obedience, and of the\nbeginning of purity. And it is so because, in that moment of initial\nfaith, there enters into the heart the communicated Divine life of the\nSpirit, which thenceforward is lodged there, except it be quenched by\nthe man's negligence or sin. Thence, from that germ implanted in the\nmoment of faith, the germ of a new life, there issue forth to ultimate\ndominion in the spirit, the powers of that Divine Spirit which make for\nrighteousness and transform the character. Thus, the true cause and\norigin of all Christian nobility and purity of character and conduct\nlies in that which enters the heart at the moment that the heart is\nopened for the coming of the Lord. But, on the other hand, this Divine\nSpirit, the Source of all purity, will not purify the soul without the\nman's efforts. '_Ye_ have purified your souls.' You need the Spirit\nindeed. But you are not mere passive recipients. You are to be active\nco-operators. In this region, too, we are 'labourers together with God.'\nWe cannot of ourselves do the work, for the very powers with which we do\nit, or try to do it, are themselves in need of cleansing. And for a man\nto try to purify the soul by his own effort alone is to play the part of\nthe sluttish house-wife who would seek to wipe a dish clean with a dirty\ncloth. You need the Divine Spirit to work in you, and you need to use,\nby your own effort, the Divine Spirit that does work in you. He is as\n'rushing, mighty wind'; but, unless the sails are set and the helm\ngripped, the wind will pass the boat and leave it motionless. He is\nDivine fire that burns up the dross and foulness; but, unless we 'guard\nthe holy fire' and feed it, it dies down into grey cold ashes. He is the\nwater of life; but, unless we dig and take heed to keep clear the\nchannels, no refreshing will permeate to the roots of the wilting\nflowers, and there will be dryness, thirst, and barrenness, even on the\nriver's banks.\n\nSo, brethren, neither God alone nor man alone can purify the soul. We\nneed Him, else we shall labour in vain. He needs us, else He will bestow\nHis gift, and we shall receive 'the grace of God in vain.'\n\nLastly, we have here--\n\nIII. Purifying ... unto ... love.\n\nThe Apostle was speaking to men of very diverse nationalities who had\nbeen rent asunder by deep gulfs of mutual suspicion and conflicting\ninterests and warring creeds, and a great mysterious, and, as it would\nseem to the world then, utterly inexplicable bond of unity had been\nevolved amongst them, and Greek and barbarian, bond and free, male and\nfemale, had come together in amity. The 'love of the brethren' was the\ncreation of Christianity, and was the outstanding fact which, more than\nany other, amazed the beholders in these early days. God be thanked!\nthere are signs in our generation of a closer drawing together of\nChristian people than many past ages, alas, have seen.\n\nBut my text suggests solemn and great thoughts with regard to Christian\nlove and unity. The road to unity lies through purity, and the road to\npurity lies through obedience. Yes; what keeps Christian people apart is\ntheir impurities. It is not their creeds. It is not any of the\ndifferences that appear to separate them. It is because they are not\nbetter men and women. Globules of quicksilver will run together and make\none mass; but not if you dust them over. And it is the impurities on the\nquicksilver that keep us from coalescing.\n\nSo then we have to school ourselves into greater conformity to the\nlikeness of our Master, to conquer selfishness, and to purify our souls,\nor else all this talk about Christian unity is no better than sounding\nbrass, and more discordant than tinkling cymbals. Let us learn the\nlesson. 'The unfeigned love of the brethren' is not such an easy thing\nas some people fancy, and it is not to be attained at all on the road by\nwhich some people would seek it. Cleanse yourselves, and you will flow\ntogether.\n\nHere, then, we have Peter's conception of a pure soul and a pure life.\nIt is a stately building, based deep on the broad foundation of the\ntruth as it is in Jesus; its walls rising, but not without our effort,\nbeing builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit, and\nhaving as the shining apex of its heaven-pointing spire 'unfeigned love\nto the brethren.' The measure of our obedience is the measure of our\npurity. The measure of our purity is the measure of our brotherly love.\nBut that love, though it is the very aim and natural issue of purity,\nstill will not be realised without effort on our part. Therefore my\ntext, after its exhibition of the process and issues of the purifying\nwhich began with faith, glides into the exhortation: 'See that ye love\none another with a pure heart'--a heart purified by obedience--and that\n'fervently.'\n\n\n\n\nLIVING STONES ON THE LIVING FOUNDATION STONE\n\n 'To Whom coming, as unto a living stone ... ye also, as living\n stones, are built up.'--1 Peter ii. 4, 5.\n\n\nI wonder whether Peter, when he wrote these words, was thinking about\nwhat Jesus Christ said to him long ago, up there at Caesarea Philippi. He\nhad heard from Christ's lips, 'Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will\nbuild My Church.' He had understood very little of what it meant then.\nHe is an old man now, years of experience and sorrow and work have\ntaught him the meaning of the words, and he understands them a great\ndeal better than his so-called successors have done. For we may surely\ntake the text as the Apostle's own disclaimer of that which the Roman\nCatholic Church has founded on it, and has blazoned it, in gigantic\nletters round the dome of St. Peter's, as meaning. It is surely\nlegitimate to hear him saying in these words: 'Make no mistake, it is\nJesus Himself on whom the Church is built. The confession of Him which\nthe Father in heaven revealed to me, not I, the poor sinner who\nconfessed it--the Christ whom that confession set forth, He is the\nfoundation stone, and all of you are called and honoured to ring out the\nsame confession. Jesus is the one Foundation, and we all, apostles and\nhumble believers, are but stones builded on Him.' Peter's relation to\nJesus is fundamentally the same as that of every poor soul that 'comes\nto' Him.\n\nNow, there are two or three thoughts that may very well be suggested\nfrom these words, and the first of them is this:--\n\nI. Those that are in Christ have perpetually to make the effort to come\nnearer Christ.\n\nRemember that the persons to whom the Apostle is speaking are no\nstrangers to the Saviour. They have been professing Christians from of\nold. They have made very considerable progress in the Divine life; they\nare near Jesus Christ; and yet Peter says to them, 'You can get nearer\nif you try,' and it is your one task and one hope, the condition of all\nblessedness, peace, and joy in your religious life that you should\nperpetually be making the effort to come closer, and to keep closer, to\nthe Lord, by whom you say that you live.\n\nWhat is it to come to Him? The context explains the figurative\nexpression, in the very next verse or two, by another and simpler word,\nwhich strips away the figure and gives us the plain fact--'in Whom\nbelieving.' The act of the soul by which I, with all my weakness and\nsin, cast myself on Jesus Christ, and grapple Him to my heart, and bind\nmyself with His strength and righteousness--that is what the Apostle\nmeans here. Or, to put it into other words, this 'coming,' which is here\nlaid as the basis of everything, of all Christian prosperity and\nprogress for the individual and for the community, is the movement\ntowards Christ of the whole spiritual nature of a man--thoughts, loves,\nwishes, purposes, desires, hopes, will. And we come near to Him when day\nby day we realise His nearness to us, when our thoughts are often\noccupied with Him, bring His peace and Himself to bear as a motive upon\nour conduct, let our love reach out its tendrils towards, and grasp, and\ntwine round Him, bow our wills to His commandment, and in everything\nobey Him. The distance between heaven and earth does part us, but the\ndistance between a thoughtless mind, an unrenewed heart, a rebellious\nwill, and Him, sets between Him and us a greater gulf, and we have to\nbridge that by continual honest efforts to keep our wayward thoughts\ntrue to Him and near Him, and to regulate our affections that they may\nnot, like runaway stars, carry us far from the path, and to bow our\nstubborn and self-regulating wills beneath His supreme commandment, and\nso to make all things a means of coming nearer the Lord with whom is our\ntrue home.\n\nChristian men, there are none of us so close to Him but that we may be\nnearer, and the secret of our daily Christian life is all wrapped up in\nthat one word which is scarcely to be called a figure, 'coming' unto\nHim. That nearness is what we are to make daily efforts after, and that\nnearness is capable of indefinite increase. We know not how close to His\nheart we can lay our aching heads. We know not how near to His fulness\nwe may bring our emptiness. We have never yet reached the point beyond\nwhich no closer union is possible. There has always been a film--and,\nalas! sometimes a gulf--between Him and us, His professing servants. Let\nus see to it that the conscious distance diminishes every day, and that\nwe feel ourselves more and more constantly near the Lord and intertwined\nwith Him.\n\nII. Those who come near Christ will become like Christ.\n\n'To Whom coming, as unto a living stone, ye also as living stones.' Note\nthe verbal identity of the expressions with which Peter describes the\nMaster and His servants. Christ is the Stone--that is Peter's\ninterpretation of 'on this _rock_ will I build My Church.' There is a\nreference, too, no doubt, to the many Old Testament prophecies which\nare all gathered up in that saying of our Lord's. Probably both Jesus\nand Peter had in mind Isaiah's 'stone of stumbling,' which was also a\n'sure corner-stone, and a tried foundation.' And words in the context\nwhich I have not taken for consideration, 'disallowed indeed of men, but\nchosen of God and precious,' plainly rest upon the 118th Psalm, which\nspeaks of 'the stone which the builders rejected' becoming 'the head of\nthe corner.'\n\nBut, says Peter, He is not only the foundation Stone, the corner Stone,\nbut a _living_ Stone, and he does not only use that word to show us that\nhe is indulging in a metaphor, and that we are to think of a person and\nnot of a thing, but in the sense that Christ is eminently and\nemphatically the living One, the Source of life.\n\nBut, when he turns to the disciples, he speaks to them in exactly the\nsame language. They, too, are 'living stones,' because they come to the\n'Stone' that is 'living.' Take away the metaphor, and what does this\nidentity of description come to? Just this, that if we draw near to\nJesus Christ, life from Him will pass into our hearts and minds, which\nlife will show itself in kindred fashion to what it wore in Jesus\nChrist, and will shape us into the likeness of Him _from_ whom we draw\nour life, because _to_ Him we have come. I may remind you that there is\nscarcely a single name by which the New Testament calls Jesus Christ\nwhich Jesus Christ does not share with us His younger brethren. By that\nSon we 'receive the adoption of sons.' Is He the Light of the world? We\nare lights of the world. And if you look at the words of my text, you\nwill see that the offices which are attributed to Christ in the New\nTestament are gathered up in those which the Apostle here ascribes to\nChrist's servants. Jesus Christ in His manhood was the Temple of God.\nJesus Christ in His manhood was the Priest for humanity. Jesus Christ in\nHis manhood was the sacrifice for the world's sins. And what does Peter\nsay here? 'Ye are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to\noffer up spiritual sacrifices.' You draw life from Jesus Christ if you\nkeep close to Him, and that life makes you, in derived and subordinate\nfashion, but in a very real and profound sense, what Jesus Christ was in\nthe world. The whole blessedness and secret of the gifts which our Lord\ncomes to bestow upon men may be summed up in that one thought, which is\nmetaphorically and picturesquely set forth in the language of my text,\nand which I put into plainer and more prosaic English when I say--they\nthat come near Christ become as Christ. As 'living stones' they, too,\nshare in the life which flows from Him. Touch Him, and His quick Spirit\npasses into our hearts. Rest upon that foundation-stone and up from it,\nif I may so say, there is drawn, by strange capillary attraction, all\nthe graces and powers of the Saviour's own life. The building which is\nreared upon the Foundation is cemented to the Foundation by the\ncommunication of the life itself, and, coming to the living Rock, we,\ntoo, become alive.\n\nLet us keep ourselves near to Him, for, disconnected, the wire cannot\ncarry the current, and is only a bit of copper, with no virtue in it, no\npower. Attach it once more to the battery and the mysterious energy\nflashes through it immediately. 'To Whom coming,' because He lives, 'ye\nshall live also.'\n\nIII. Lastly:\n\nThey who become like Christ because they are near Him, thereby grow\ntogether.\n\n'To whom coming, as unto a living stone, ye also, as living stones, are\nbuilt up.' That building up means not only the growth of individual\ngraces in the Christian character, the building up in each single soul\nof more and more perfect resemblance to the Saviour, but from the\ncontext it rather refers to the welding together, into a true and\nblessed unity, of all those that partake of that common life. Now, it is\nvery beautiful to remember, in this connection, to whom this letter was\nwritten. The first words of it are: 'To the strangers _scattered abroad_\nthroughout,' etc. etc. All over Asia Minor, hundreds of miles apart,\nhere one there another little group, were these isolated believers, the\nscattered stones of a great building. But Peter shows them the way to a\ntrue unity, notwithstanding their separation. He says to them in effect:\n'You up in Bithynia, and you others away down there on the southern\ncoast, though you never saw one another, though you are separated by\nmountain ranges and weary leagues; though you, if you met one another,\nperhaps could not understand what you each were saying, if you \"come\nunto the living Stone, ye as living stones are built up\" into one.'\nThere is a great unity into which all they are gathered who, separated\nby whatever surface distinctions, yet, deep down at the bottom of their\nbetter lives, are united to Jesus Christ.\n\nBut there may be another lesson here for us, and that is, that the true\nand only secret of the prosperity and blessedness and growth of a\nso-called Christian congregation is the individual faithfulness of its\nmembers, and their personal approximation of Jesus Christ. If we here,\nknit together as we are nominally for Christian worship, and by faith in\nthat dear Lord, are true to our profession and our vocation, and keep\nourselves near our Master, then we shall be built up; and if we do not,\nwe shall not.\n\nSo, dear friends, all comes to this: _There_ is the Stone laid; it does\nnot matter how _close_ we are lying to it, it will be nothing to us\nunless we are _on_ it. And I put it to each of you. Are you built on the\nFoundation, and from the Foundation do you derive a life which is daily\nbringing you nearer to Him, and making you liker Him? All blessedness\ndepends, for time and for eternity, on the answer to that question. For\nremember that, since that living Stone is laid, it is _something_ to\nyou. Either it is the Rock on which you build, or the Stone against\nwhich you stumble and are broken. No man, in a country evangelised like\nEngland--I do not say Christian, but evangelised--can say that Jesus\nChrist has no relation to, or effect upon, him. And certainly no people\nthat listen to Christian preaching, and know Christian truth as fully\nand as much as you do, can say it. He is the Foundation on which we can\nrear a noble, stable life, if we build upon Him. If He is not the\nFoundation on which I build, He is the Stone on which I shall be broken.\n\n\n\n\nSPIRITUAL SACRIFICES\n\n '... Spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus\n Christ.'--1 Peter ii. 5.\n\n\nIn this verse Peter piles up his metaphors in a fine profusion,\nperfectly careless of oratorical elegance or propriety. He gathers\ntogether three symbols, drawn from ancient sacrificial worship, and\napplies them all to Christian people. In the one breath they are\n'temples,' in the next 'priests,' in the third 'sacrifices.' All the\nthree are needed to body out the whole truth of the relationship of the\nperfect universal religion--which is Christianity--to the fragmentary\nand symbolical religion of ancient time.\n\nChristians individually and collectively are temples, inasmuch as they\nare 'the habitation of God through the Spirit.' They are priests by\nvirtue of their consecration, their direct access to God, their function\nof representing God to men, and of bringing men to God. They are\nsacrifices, inasmuch as one main part of their priestly function is to\noffer themselves to God.\n\nNow, it is very difficult for us to realise what an extraordinary\nanomaly the Christian faith presented at its origin, surrounded by\nreligions which had nothing to do with morality, conduct, or spiritual\nlife, but were purely ritualistic. And here, in the midst of them,\nstarted up a religion bare and bald, and with no appeal to sense, no\ntemple, no altar, no sacrifice. But the Apostles with one accord declare\nthat they had all these things in far higher form than those faiths\npossessed them, which had only the outward appearance.\n\nNow, this conception of the sacrificial element in the Christian life\nruns through the whole New Testament, and is applied there in a very\nremarkable variety of forms. I have taken the words of my text, not so\nmuch to discourse upon them especially. My object now is rather to\ngather together the various references to the Christian life as\nessentially sacrificial, and to trace the various applications which\nthat idea receives in the New Testament. There are four classes of\nthese, to which I desire especially to refer.\n\nI. There is the living sacrifice of the body.\n\n'I beseech you, by the mercies of God, that ye _present_'--which is a\ntechnical word for a priest's action--'your bodies a living sacrifice,'\nin contrast with the slaying, which was the presentation of the animal\nvictim. Now, that 'body' there is not equivalent to self is distinctly\nseen when we notice that Paul goes on, in the very next clause, to say,\n'and be transformed by the renewing of your _mind_.' So that he is\nspeaking, not of the self, but of the corporeal organ and instrument of\nthe self, when he says 'present your _bodies_ a living sacrifice.'\n\nOf course, the central idea of sacrifice is surrender to God; and, of\ncourse, the place where that surrender is made is the inmost self. The\nwill is the man, and when the will bows, dethroning self and enthroning\nGod, submitting to His appointments, and delighting to execute His\ncommandments, then the sacrifice is begun. But, inasmuch as the body is\nthe organ of the man's activity, the sacrifice of the will and of self\nmust needs come out into visibility and actuality in the aggregate of\ndeeds, of which the body is the organ and instrument. But there must\nfirst of all be the surrender of my inmost self, and only then, and as\nthe token and outcome of that, will any external acts, however religious\nthey may seem to be, come into the category of sacrifice when they\nexpress a conscious surrender of myself to God. 'The flesh profiteth\nnothing,' and yet the flesh profiteth much. But here is the order that\nanother of the Apostles lays down: 'Yield _yourselves_ to God,' and\nthen, 'your members as instruments of righteousness to Him.'\n\nTo speak of the sacrifice of the body as a living sacrifice suggests\nthat it is not the slaying of any bodily appetite or activity that is\nthe true sacrifice and worship, but the hallowing of these. It is a\ngreat deal easier, and it is sometimes necessary, to cut off the\noffending right hand, to pluck out the offending right eye, or, putting\naway the metaphor, to abstain rigidly from forms of activity which are\nperfectly legitimate in themselves, and may be innocuous to other\npeople, if we find that they hurt us. But that is second best, and\nthough it is better in the judgment of common sense to go into life\nmaimed than complete to be cast into hell-fire, it is better still to go\ninto life symmetrical and entire, with no maiming in hand or organ. So\nyou do not offer the living sacrifice of the body when you annihilate,\nbut when you suppress, and direct, and hallow its needs, its appetites,\nand its activities.\n\nThe meaning of this sacrifice is that the whole active life should be\nbased upon, and be the outcome of, the inward surrender of self unto\nGod. 'On the bells of the horses shall be written, Holiness to the Lord,\nand every pot and vessel in Jerusalem shall be holy as the bowls upon\nthe altar'--in such picturesque and yet profound fashion did an ancient\nprophet set forth the same truth that lies in this declaration of our\nApostle, that the body, the instrument of our activities, should be a\nliving sacrifice to God. Link all its actions with Him; let there be\nconscious reference to Him in all that I do. Let foot and hand and eye\nand brain work for Him, and by Him, and in constant consciousness of His\npresence; suppress where necessary, direct always, appetites and\npassions, and make the body the instrument of the surrendered spirit.\nAnd then, in the measure in which we can do so, the greatest cleft and\ndiscord in human life will be filled, and body, soul, and spirit will\nharmonise and make one music of praise to God.\n\nAh! brethren, these bad principles have teeth to bite very close into\nour daily lives. How many of us, young and old, have 'fleshly lusts\nwhich war against the soul'? How many of you young men have no heart for\nhigher, purer, nobler things, because the animal in you is strong! How\nmany of you find that the day's activities blunt you to God! How many of\nus are weakened still under that great antagonism of the flesh lusting\nagainst the spirit, so that we cannot do the things that we would!\nSensuality, indulgence in animal propensities, yielding to the clamant\nvoices of the beast that is within us--these things wreck many a soul;\nand some of those that are listening to me now. Let the man govern and\ncoerce the animal, and let God govern the man. 'I beseech you that you\nyield your bodies a living sacrifice.'\n\nII. There is the sacrifice of praise.\n\nOf course, logically and properly, this, and all the others that I am\ngoing to speak about, are included within that to which I have already\ndirected attention. But still they are dealt with separately in\nScripture, and I follow the guidance. We read in the Epistle to the\nHebrews: 'By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise unto God\ncontinually--that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks unto His\nname.' There, then, is another of the regions into which the notion of\nsacrifice as the very essence of Christian life is to be carried.\n\nThere is nothing more remarkable in Scripture than the solemn importance\nthat it attaches to what so many people think so little about, and that\nis _words_. It even sometimes seems to take them as being more truly the\noutcome and revelation of a man's character than his deeds are. And that\nis true, in some respects. But at all events there is set forth, ever\nrunning all through the Scripture, that thought, that one of the best\nsacrifices that men can make to God is to render up the tribute of\ntheir praise. In the great psalm which lays down with clearness never\nsurpassed in the New Testament the principles of true Christian worship,\nthis is declared: 'Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me.' The true\noffering is not the slaying of animals or the presentation of any\nmaterial things, but the utterance of hearts welling up thankfulness. In\nthe ancient ritual there stood within the Holy place, and after the\naltar of burnt-offering had been passed, three symbols of the relation\nof the redeemed soul to God. There was the great candlestick, which\nproclaimed 'Ye are the light of the world.' There was the table on which\nthe so-called shewbread was laid, and in the midst there was the altar\nof incense, on which, day by day, morning and evening, there was kindled\nthe fragrant offering which curled up in wreaths of blue smoke aspiring\ntowards the heavens. It lay smouldering all through the day, and was\nquickened into flame morning and evening. That is a symbol representing\nwhat the Christian life ought to be--a continual thank-offering of the\nincense of prayer and praise.\n\nNor that only, brethren, but also there is another shape in which our\nwords should be sacrifices, and that is in the way of direct utterances\nto men, as well as of thanksgiving to God. What a shame it is, and what\na confession of imperfect, partial redemption and regeneration on the\npart of professing Christians it is, that there are thousands of us who\nnever, all our lives, have felt the impulse or necessity of giving\nutterance to our Christian convictions! You can talk about anything\nelse; you are tongue-tied about your religion. Why is that? You can make\nspeeches upon political platforms, or you can discourse on many subjects\nthat interest you. You never speak a word to anybody about the Master\nthat you say you serve. Why is that? 'What is bred in the bone comes\nout in the flesh.' What is deep in the heart sometimes lies there\nunuttered, but more often demands expression. I venture to think that if\nyour Christianity was deeper, it would not be so dumb. You strengthen\nyour convictions by speech. A man's belief in anything grows\nincalculably by the very fact of proclaiming it. And there is no surer\nway to lose moral and spiritual convictions than to huddle them up in\nthe secret chambers of our hearts. It is like a man carrying a bit of\nice in his palm. He locks his fingers over it, and when he opens them it\nhas all run out and gone. If you want to deepen your Christianity,\ndeclare it. If you would have your hearts more full of gratitude, speak\nyour praise. There used to be in certain religious houses a single\nfigure kneeling on the altar-steps, by day and by night, ever uttering\nforth with unremitting voice, the psalm of praise. That perpetual\nadoration in spirit, if not in form, ought to be ours. The fruit of the\nlips should continually be offered. Literally, of course, there cannot\nbe that unbroken and exclusive utterance of thanksgiving. There are many\nother things that men have to talk about; but through all the utterances\nthere ought to spread the aroma--like some fragrance diffused through\nthe else scentless air from some unseen source of sweetness--of that\nname to which the life is one long thanksgiving.\n\nIII. There is the sacrifice of help to men.\n\nThe same passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews, to which I have already\nreferred, goes on to bracket together the sacrifice of praise and of\ndeeds. It continues thus:--'But to do good and to communicate forget\nnot.' Again I say, logically this comes under the first division. But\nstill it may be treated separately, and it just carries this\nthought--your praying and singing praises are worse than useless unless\nyou go out into the world an embodiment and an imitation of the love\nwhich you hymn. True philanthropy has its roots in true religion. The\nservice of man is the service of God.\n\nThat principle cuts two ways. It comes as a sharp test of their prayers\nand psalm-singing to emotional Christians, who are always able to gush\nin words of thankfulness, and it confronts them with the question, What\ndo you do for your brother? That is a question that comes very close to\nus all. Do not talk about being the priests of the Most High God unless\nyou are doing the priestly office of representing God to men, and\ncarrying to them the blessings that they need. Your service to God is\nworthless unless it is followed by diligent, fraternal, wise,\nself-sacrificing service for men.\n\nThe same principle points in another direction. If, on the one hand, it\ncrushes as hypocrisy a religion of talk, on the other hand it declares\nas baseless a philanthropy which has no reference to God. And whilst I\nknow that there are many men who, following the dictates of their\nhearts, and apart altogether from any reference to higher religious\nsanctions, do exercise pity and compassion and help, I believe that for\nthe basing of a lasting, wide, wise benevolence, there is nothing solid\nand broad except Christ and Him crucified, and the consciousness of\nhaving been--sinful and needy as we are--received and blessed by Him.\nLet the philanthropists learn that the surrender of self, and the fruit\nof the lips giving thanks to His name, must precede the highest kind of\nbeneficence. Let the Christian learn that benevolence is the garb in\nwhich religion is dressed. 'True worship and undefiled ... is this, to\nvisit the widow and the fatherless in their affliction.' Morality is the\ndress of Religion; Religion is the body of Morality.\n\nIV. Lastly, there is the sacrifice of death.\n\n'I am ready to be offered,' says the Apostle--to be _poured out_, as a\nlibation. And again, 'If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of\nyour faith, I rejoice with you all.' And so may\n\n 'Death the endless mercies seal,\n And make the sacrifice complete.'\n\nIt may become not a reluctant being dragged out of life whilst we cling\nto it with both our hands. It may be not a reluctant yielding to\nnecessity, but a religious act, in which a man resignedly and trustfully\nand gratefully yields himself to God; and says, 'Father! into Thy hands\nI commit my spirit.'\n\nAh! brethren, is not that a better way to die than to be like some poor\nwretch in a stream, that clutches at some unfixed support on the bank,\nand is whirled away down, fiercely resisting and helpless? We may thus\nmake our last act an act of devotion, and go within the veil as priests\nbearing in our hands the last of our sacrifices. The sacrifice of death\nwill only be offered when a life of sacrifice has preceded it. And if\nyou and I, moved by the mercies of God, yield ourselves living\nsacrifices, using our lips for His praise and our possessions for man's\nhelp, then we may die as the Apostle expected to do, and feel that by\nChrist Jesus even death becomes 'an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice\nacceptable, well-pleasing unto God.'\n\n\n\n\nMIRRORS OF GOD\n\n '... That ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called\n you out of darkness ...'--1 Peter ii. 9.\n\n\nThe _Revised Version_, instead of 'praises,' reads _excellencies_--and\neven that is but a feeble translation of the remarkable word here\nemployed. For it is that usually rendered 'virtues'; and by the word, of\ncourse, when applied to God, we mean the radiant excellencies and\nglories of His character, of which our earthly qualities, designated by\nthe same name, are but as shadows.\n\nIt is, indeed, true that this same expression is employed in the Greek\nversion of the Old Testament in Isaiah xliii. in a verse which evidently\nwas floating before Peter's mind. 'This people have I formed for Myself;\nthey shall show forth My praise.'\n\nBut even while that is admitted, it is to be observed that the\nexpression here does not merely mean that the audible praise of God\nshould be upon the lips of Christian people, but that their whole lives\nshould, in a far deeper sense than that, be the manifestation of what\nthe Apostle here calls 'excellencies of God.'\n\nI. Here we get a wonderful glimpse into the heart of God.\n\nNote the preceding words, in which the writer describes all God's\nmercies to His people, making them 'a chosen generation, a royal\npriesthood, a holy nation'; a people 'His own possession.' All that is\ndone for one specific purpose--'that ye should show forth the praises of\nHim who hath called you out of darkness.' That is to say, the very aim\nof all God's gracious manifestations of Himself is that the men who\napprehend them should go forth into the world and show Him for what He\nis.\n\nNow that aim may be, and often has been, put so as to present an utterly\nhard and horrible notion. That God's glory is His only motive may be so\nstated as to mean nearly an Almighty Selfishness, which is far liker the\ndevil than God. People in old days did not always recognise the danger\nthat lay in such a representation of what we call God's motive for\naction. But if you think for a moment about this statement, all that\nappears hard and repellent drops clean away from it, and it turns out to\nbe another way of saying, 'God is Love.' Because, what is there more\ncharacteristic of love than an earnest desire to communicate itself and\nto be manifested and beheld? And what is it that God reveals to the\nworld for His own glory but the loftiest and most wondrous compassion,\nthat cannot be wearied out, that cannot be provoked, and the most\nforgiving Omnipotence, that, in answer to all men's wanderings and\nrebellions, only seeks to draw them to itself? That is what God wants to\nbe known for. Is _that_ hard and repellent? Does that make Him a great\ntyrant, who only wants to be abjectly worshipped? No; it makes Him the\nvery embodiment and perfection of the purest love. Why does He desire\nthat He should be known? for any good that it does to Him? No; except\nthe good that even His creatures can do to Him when they gladden His\npaternal heart by recognising Him for what He is, the Infinite Lover of\nall souls.\n\nBut the reason why He desires, most of all, that the light of His\ncharacter may pour into every heart is because He would have every heart\ngladdened and blessed for ever by that received and believed light. So\nthe hard saying that God's own glory is His supreme end melts into 'God\nis Love.' The Infinite desires to communicate Himself, that by the\ncommunication men may be blessed.\n\nII. There is another thing here, and that is, a wonderful glimpse of\nwhat Christian people are in the world for.\n\n'This people have I formed for Myself,' says the fundamental passage in\nIsaiah already referred to, 'they shall show forth My praise.' It was\nnot worth while forming them except for that. It was still less worth\nwhile redeeming them except for that.\n\nBut you may say, 'I am saved in order that I may enjoy all the blessings\nof salvation, immunities from fear and punishment, and the like.' Yes!\nCertainly! But is that all? Or is it the main thing? I think not. There\nis not a creature in God's universe so tiny, even although you cannot\nsee it with a microscope, but that it has a claim on Him that made it\nfor its well-being. That is very certain. And so my salvation--with all\nthe blessedness for me that lies wrapped up and hived in that great\nword--my salvation is an adequate end with God, in all His dealing, and\nespecially in His sending of Jesus Christ.\n\nBut there is not a creature in the whole universe, though he were\nmightier than the archangels that stand nearest God's throne, who is so\ngreat and independent that his happiness and well-being is the sole aim\nof God's gifts to him. For every one of us the Apostle means the word,\n'No man liveth to himself'--he could not if he were to try--'and no man\ndieth to himself.' Every man that receives anything from God is thereby\nmade a steward to impart it to others. So we may say--and I speak now\nto you who profess to be Christians--'you were not saved for your own\nsakes.' One might almost say that that was a by-end. You were\nsaved--shall I say?--for God's sake; and you were saved for man's sake?\nJust as when you put a bit of leaven into a lump of dough, each grain of\nthe lump, as it is leavened and transformed, becomes the medium for\npassing on the mysterious transforming influence to the particle beyond,\nso every one of us, if we have been brought out of darkness into\nmarvellous light, have been so brought, not only that we may recreate\nand bathe our own eyes in the flooding sunshine, but that we may turn to\nour brothers and ask them to come too out of the doleful night into the\ncheerful, gladsome day. Every man that Jesus Christ conquers on the\nfield He sends behind Him, and says, 'Take rank in My army. Be My\nsoldier.' Every yard of line in a new railway when laid down is used to\ncarry materials to make the next yard; and so the terminus is reached.\nEven so, Christian people were formed for Christ that they might show\nforth His praise.\n\nLook what a notion that gives us of the dignity of the Christian life,\nand of the special manifestation of God which is afforded to the world\nin it. You, if you love as you ought to do, are a witness of something\nfar nobler in God than all the stars in the sky. You, if you set forth\nas becomes you His glorious character, have crowned the whole\nmanifestation that He makes of Himself in Nature and in Providence. What\npeople learn about God from a true Christian is a better revelation than\nhas ever been made or can be made elsewhere. So the Bible talks about\nprincipalities and powers in heavenly places who have had nobody knows\nhow many millenniums of intercourse with God, nobody knows how deep and\nintimate, learning from Christian people the manifold wisdom which had\nfolds and folds in it that they had never unfolded and never could have\ndone. 'Ye are My witnesses,' saith the Lord. Sun and stars tell of\npower, wisdom, and a whole host of majestic attributes. We are witnesses\nthat 'He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He\nincreaseth strength.' Who was it that said\n\n ''Twas great to speak a world from naught,\n 'Tis greater to redeem?'\n\n'Ye are saved that ye may show forth the praise of Him who hath called\nyou out of darkness into His marvellous light.'\n\nIII. Lastly, we have here a piece of stringent practical direction.\n\nAll that I have been saying thus far refers to the way in which the very\nfact of a man's being saved from his sin is a revelation of God's mercy,\nlove, and restoring power. But there are two sides to the thought of my\ntext; and the one is that the very existence of Christian people in the\nworld is a standing witness to the highest glory of God's name; and the\nother is that there are characteristics which, as Christian men, we are\nbound to put forth, and which manifest in another fashion the\nexcellencies of our redeeming God.\n\nThe world takes its notions of God, most of all, from the people who say\nthat they belong to God's family. They read us a great deal more than\nthey read the Bible. They _see_ us; they only _hear_ about Jesus Christ.\n'Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image' nor any likeness of\nthe Divine, but thou shalt make _thyself_ an image of Him, that men\nlooking at it may learn a little more of what He is. If we have any\nright to say that we are a royal priesthood, a chosen nation, God's\n'possession,' then there will be in us some likeness of Him to whom we\nbelong stamped more or less perfectly upon our characters; and just as\npeople cannot look at the sun, but may get some notion of its power when\nthey gaze upon the rare beauty of the tinted clouds that lie round about\nit, if, in the poor, wet, cold mistiness of our lives there be caught,\nas it were, and tangled some stray beams of the sunshine, there will be\ncolour and beauty there. A bit of worthless tallow may be saturated with\na perfume which will make it worth its weight in gold. So our poor\nnatures may be drenched with God and give Him forth fragrant and\nprecious, and men may be drawn thereby. The witness of the life which is\nGodlike is the duty of Christian men and women in the world, and it is\nmainly what we are here for.\n\nNor does that exclude the other kind of showing forth the praises, by\nword and utterance, at fit times and to the right people. We are not all\ncapable of that, in any public fashion; we are all capable of it in some\nfashion. There is no Christian that has not somebody to whom their\nwords--they may be very simple and very feeble--will come as nobody\nelse's words can. Let us use these talents and these opportunities for\nthe Master.\n\nBut, above all, let us remember that none of these works--either the\ninvoluntary and unconscious exhibition of light and beauty and\nexcellencies caught from Him; or the voluntary and vocal proclamations\nof the name of Him from whom we have caught them--can be done to any\ngood purpose if any taint of self mingles with it. 'Let your light so\nshine before men that they may behold your good works and\nglorify'--whom? you?--'your _Father_ which is in heaven.'\n\nThe harp-string gives out its note only on condition that, being\ntouched, it vibrates, and ceases to be visible. Be you unseen,\ntransparent, and the glory of the Lord shall shine through you.\n\n\n\n\nCHRIST THE EXEMPLAR\n\n 'For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for\n us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His\n steps.'--1 Peter ii. 21.\n\n\nThese words are a very striking illustration of the way in which the\nGospel brings Christ's principles to bear upon morals and duty. The\nApostle is doing nothing more than exhorting a handful of slaves to the\nfull and complete and patient acceptance of their hard lot, and in order\nto teach a very homely and lowly lesson to the squalid minds of a few\ncaptives, he brings in the mightiest of all lessons by pointing to the\nmost beautiful, most blessed, and most mysterious fact in the world's\nhistory--the cross of Christ. It is the very spirit of Christianity that\nthe biggest thing is to regulate the smallest duties of life. Men's\nlives are made up of two or three big things and a multitude of little\nones, and the greater rule the lesser; and, my friends, unless we have\ngot a religion and a morality that can and will keep the trifles of our\nlives right there will be nothing right; unless we can take those\ndeepest truths, make them the ruling principles, and lay them down side\nby side with the most trivial things of our lives, we are something\nshort. Is there nothing in your life or mine so small that we cannot\nbring it into captivity and lift it into beauty by bringing it into\nconnection with saving grace? Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an\nexample. This is the first thing that strikes me, and I intend it also\nby way of introduction. Look how the Apostle has put the points\ntogether, as though there are two aspects which go together and cannot\nbe rendered apart, like the under side and the upper side of a coin.\n'Christ also suffered for us,' and so for us says all the orthodox.\n'Leaving us an example'--there protests all the heretics. Yes, but we\nknow that there is a power in both of them, and the last one is only\ntrue when we begin with the first. He suffered for us. There, there, my\nfriends, is the deepest meaning of the cross, and if you want to get\nChrist for an example, begin with taking Him as the sacrifice, for He\ngave His life for you. Don't part the two things. If you believe Him to\nbe Christ, then you take Him at the cross: if you want to see the\nmeaning of Christ as an example, begin with Him as your Saviour.\n'Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye\nshould follow His steps.' These are the words, and what God hath joined\ntogether let no man put asunder. With these few remarks I shall deal\nwith the words a little more exhaustively, and I see in them three\nthings--the sufferings of Christ our gain, the sufferings of Christ our\npattern, and the suffering of Christ our power to imitate.\n\nAnd first of all that great proclamation which underlies the whole\nmatter--Christ also suffered for us. The sufferings of Christ are\nthereby our gain. I shall not dwell on the larger questions which these\nwords naturally open for us, and I shall content myself with some of the\nangles and side views of thought, and one to begin with is this: It is\nvery interesting to notice how, as his life went on, and his inspiration\nbecame more full, this Apostle got to understand, as being the very\nliving and heart centre of his religion, the thing which at first was a\nstumbling-block and mystery to him. You remember when Christ was here on\nearth, and was surrounded by all His disciples, the man who actually led\nantagonism to the thought of a saving Messiah, was this very Apostle\nPeter. How he displayed his ignorance in the words, 'This shall not be\nunto Thee, O Lord'; and you remember also how his audacity rose to the\nheight of saying, 'Why cannot I follow Thee now, Lord? I will lay down\nmy life for Thy sake,' so little did he understand the purposes of\nChrist's suffering and Christ's death. And even after His resurrection\nwe don't find that Peter in his early preaching had got as far as he\nseems to have got in this letter from which my text is taken. You will\nnotice that in this letter he speaks a great deal about the sufferings\nof Christ, which he puts side by side and in contrast with God's\nglorifying of His Son. Christ's cross, which at first had come to him as\na rejection, has now come to him in all its reality, and to him there\nwas the one grand thing, 'He suffered for us,' as though he realises\nChrist in all His beauty and purity, and not only as a beautiful teacher\nand dear friend. That which at first seemed to him as an astounding\nmystery and perfect impossibility, he now comes to understand. With\nthose two little words, 'for us,' where there was before impossibility,\ndisappointment, and anomaly, the anomaly vanishes, although the mystery\nbecomes deeper. In one sense it was incomprehensible; in another sense\nit was the only explanation of the fact. And, my friends, I want you to\nbuild one thought on this. Unless you and I lay hold of the grand truth\nthat Jesus Christ died for us, it seems to me that the story of the\nGospel and the story of the cross is the saddest and most depressing\npage of human history. That there should have been a man possessed of\nsuch a soul, such purity, such goodness, such tenderness, such\ncompassion, and such infinite mercy--if there were all this to do\nnothing but touch men's hearts and prick and irritate them into bitter\nenmity--if the cross were the world's wages to the world's best Teacher,\nand nothing more could be said, then, my friends, it seems to me that\nthe hopes of humanity have, in the providence of God, suffered great\ndisaster, and a terrible indictment stands against both God and man. Oh,\nyes, the death of Jesus Christ, and the whole history of the world's\ntreatment of Him, is an altogether incomprehensible and miserable\nthing--a thing to be forgotten, and a thing to be wept over in tears of\nblood, and no use for us unless we do as Peter did, apply all the warmth\nof the heart to this one master key, 'for us,' and then the mystery is\nonly an infinitude of love and mercy. What before we could not\nunderstand we now begin to see, and to understand the love of God which\npasseth all understanding. Oh, my friends, I beseech you never think of\nthe cross of Christ without taking those two words. It is a necessary\nexplanation to make the picture beautiful: 'for us,' 'for us'; 'for me,\nfor me.' And then notice still further that throughout the whole of this\nEpistle the comparative vagueness of the words 'for me' is interpreted\ndefinitely. So far as the language of my text is concerned there can be\nnothing more expressive, more outspoken, or more intelligible, 'Christ\nalso suffered for us,' for our realm. But that is not all that Peter\nwould have us learn. If you want to know the nature of the work, and\nwhat the Saviour suffered on the cross for our behalf, advantage, and\nbenefit, here is the definition in the following verse, 'Who His own\nself bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to\nsins should live unto righteousness.' 'For us,' not merely as an\nexample; 'for us,' not merely for His purity, His beautiful life and\ncalm death; no, better than all that, though a glorious example it is.\nHe has taken away our sins, we are sprinkled with the blood of Jesus\nChrist; 'for us' in the sense of the words in another part of the\nEpistle, 'Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with\ncorruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of\nChrist, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,' and if so, we\nare living examples of what Christ our Saviour has done for the whole\nworld.\n\nThere is another point I want to speak about in dwelling on the first\npart of the text. If you will read this Epistle of Peter at your\nleisure, you will see that while with Paul both make the cross of Christ\nthe centre of their teaching, Paul speaks more about His death, and\nPeter more about His sufferings. Throughout the letters of Peter the\nphrase runs, and the phrase has come almost entirely into modern\nChristian usage from this Apostle. Paul speaks about the death, Peter\nspeaks of the sufferings. The eye-witness of a Loving Friend, the man\nwho had stood by His side through much of His sufferings (though he fled\nat last), a vivid imagination of His Master's trials, and a warm heart,\nled Peter to dwell not only on the one fact of the death, but also on\nthe accompaniments of that awful death, of the mental and physical pain,\nand especially the temper of the Saviour. I shall not dwell on this,\nexcept to make one passing remark on it, viz., that there is a kind of\npreaching which prevails among the Roman Catholic Church, and is not\nuncommon to many of the Protestant churches, which dwells unduly on the\nphysical fact of Christ's death and sufferings. I think, for my part, we\nare going to the other extreme, and a great many of us are losing a very\ngreat source of blessing to ourselves and to those whom we influence,\nbecause we don't realise and don't dwell sufficiently on the physical\nand mental sorrows and agony He went through with the death on the\ncross; and one bad effect of all this is that Christ's atonement has\nbecome to be a kind of theological jungle, and I don't know that the\npopular mind can have in the ordinary way any better means of the\ndeliverance of Christ's cross from this theological maze than a little\nmore frankness and honesty in dwelling on the sorrows and pain of our\ndear Lord.\n\nNow a word about the second part. The sufferings of Christ as\nrepresented here in the text are not only for our gain but our pattern,\nleaving us an example that we should follow His steps. We are not\nconcerned here about the general principles of Christian ethics, and I\ndon't think I need dwell on them at all as being great blessings to us;\nand passing from that I would rather dwell on the one specific thought\nbefore us--on the beautiful life, the gracious words, the gentle deeds,\nthe wisdom, the rectitude, the tenderness, the submission to the Father\nand the oblivion to Himself, which characterises the whole life of Jesus\nChrist, from the very first up to the agony on the cross. We have looked\nto Him as our gain, and as the head and beginning of our salvation, and\nnow we have to turn from that mysterious and solemn thought and look to\nHim as an ideal pattern by which our life should be moulded and shaped.\n'Leaving us an example.' Just as Elijah's mantle dropped from him as he\nrose, so Christ in going up to the Father fluttered down on the world a\npattern which He had in His sufferings. He goes away, but the pattern\nabides with us. 'Leaving us an example.' The word used here is\ntranslated quite correctly. The word example is a very remarkable and\nunusual one; it means literally a thing to be retained. You put a\ncopyhead before a child, and tell him to copy it, and trace it over till\nhe retains it; or, to come to modern English, you put the copyhead on\nthe top of a page. What blots, pothooks, and angles you and I make as we\nare trying to write on the top of the page of life. See, there is the\npattern. Lo, another man hath written above, and you are asked to make\nyour life exactly the same, the same angles and the same corners--to\nmake your life in all respects coincide with that. My friends, we shall\nall have to take our copybooks to the Master's desk some day. There will\nbe a headline there which Christ hath written, and one which we have\nwritten, and how do you think we shall like to put the two side by side?\nMy friends, we had better do it to-day than have to do it then. There is\nthe pattern life; the copy is plain. I don't think I need say any more\nabout the other metaphor contained here. The Divine Exemplar has left us\nthe headline that we should follow His footsteps, and it is a blessed\nthought to know that we are to follow in His own steps. 'What, cannot I\nfollow Thee now?' said Peter once, and you remember when the Apostle had\nbeen restored to his office, the words of the Saviour were--'Feed My\nlambs; feed My sheep; feed My lambs, follow thou Me.' This is also our\nprivilege. As a guide going across a wet moor with a traveller calls\nout, 'Step where I step, or else you will be bogged,' so we must tread\nin the steps of the Saviour, and then we shall come safe on the other\nside. Tread in His steps, aye, in the steps which are marked with\nbleeding feet, for 'He suffered and left us an example.' I will just add\none word, dear friends, to deepen the thought in its impressiveness,\nthat the cross of Christ it to be the pattern of our lives. It stands\nalone, thank God, for mighty power in its relation to the salvation of\nthe world, and it stands alone in awful terror. You and I are, at the\nvery worst, but at the edge of the storm which broke in all its dreadful\nfury over His head; we love to go but a little way down the hillside,\nwhile He descended to the very bottom; we love to drink but very little\nof the cup which He drained the last drop of and held it up empty and\nreversed, showing that nothing trickled from it, and exclaimed, 'The cup\nwhich My Father hath given Me have I drunk.' But although alone in all\nits mighty power, and though alone in all its awful terror, it may be\ncopied by us in two things--perfect submission to our Maker, and\nnon-resistance and meekness with regard to man. There is only one way of\ncarrying the cross of Christ, which God lays on us all, and that is\nbowing our back. If we resist, it will crush us, and if we yield we have\nsomething to endure; and there is but one thing which enables a man to\npatiently bear the sorrows and griefs which come to us all, and that is\nthe simple secret, 'Father, not as I will, but Thy will be done.' Christ\nsuffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in His\nfootsteps, and when we patiently do this the rod becomes a guiding\nstaff, and the crown of thorns a crown of glory.\n\nBut my text reminds me that the sufferings of Christ are not only our\ngain and our pattern, but they are also our power to imitate--the power\nto fight the battle for Christ. Example is not all. The world wants more\nthan that. The reason for men's badness is not because they have not\nplenty of patterns of good. If a copyhead could save the world it would\nhave been saved long ago. Patterns of good are plenty; the mischief is\nwe don't copy them. There are footsteps in abundance, but then our legs\nare lame, and we cannot tread in them, and what is the use of copies if\nwe have a broken pen, muddy ink, and soiled paper? So we want a great\ndeal more than that. No, my friends, the world is not to be saved by\nexample. You and I know that the weakness and the foolishness of men\nknow a great deal better than the wisest of men ever did, so we want\nsomething more. Examples don't give the power nor the wish to get it. Is\nnot that true about you? Don't you feel that if this is all which\nreligion has given you it stops short? The gospel comes and says, 'If\nyou love Christ Jesus because you know that He died for you,' then there\nwill be something else than the copybook. That copy and pattern will be\nlaid to your heart and transferred there. You will not have to go on\ntrying to make a bungling imitation; you will get it photographed on\nyour spirit, and on your character more distinctly and more clearly down\nto the very minutest shade of resemblance to the Master, and with simple\nloving trust you will go on from strength to strength glorifying God in\nyour life. They that begin with the cross of Christ, and make the\nsacrifice their all in all, will advance heavenward joyously; the cross\nand the sacrifice will be the pattern of your pilgrimage here, and the\nperfectness of your characters unto the likeness of the Son. The cross\nis the agency of sanctification as well as the means of\nforgiveness--saving grace to save us from the world, saving grace to\nhelp us everywhere and in everything for our salvation, and saving grace\nto help us to conquer our self-will, and saving grace to bind us to Him,\nwhose abundant goodness and gratitude no man can tell. If we love Him we\nshall keep His commandments; if we love them we shall grow in grace, and\nnot else. None else, my brother, my sister, but the Eternal Exemplar\nstands there as our refuge; and if you want to be filled with this\nall-saving grace, deep down to the bottom of His tender heart, if you\nwant to be good, and of pure mind, then you have to begin with that\nSaviour who died for you, and trust to the cross for your forgiveness.\nThen listen to Him saying, 'Any man who comes after Me, let him take up\nMy cross'--take it up, mark--'and follow Me.'\n\n\n\n\nHALLOWING CHRIST\n\n 'Be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify\n the Lord God in your hearts.'--1 Peter iii. 14, 15.\n\n\nThese words are a quotation from the prophet Isaiah, with some very\nsignificant variations. As originally spoken, they come from a period of\nthe prophet's life when he was surrounded by conspirators against him,\neager to destroy, and when he had been giving utterance to threatening\nprophecies as to the coming up of the King of Assyria, and the voice of\nGod encouraged him and his disciples with the ringing words: 'Fear not\ntheir fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of Hosts Himself, and let\nHim be your fear, and let Him be your dread, and He shall be for a\nsanctuary.' Peter was in similar circumstances. The gathering storm of\npersecution of the Christians as Christians seems to have been rising on\nhis horizon, and he turns to his brethren, and commends to them the old\nword which long ago had been spoken to and by the prophet. But the\nvariations are very remarkable. The Revised Version correctly reads my\ntext thus: 'Fear not their fear, neither be troubled, but sanctify in\nyour hearts Christ as Lord.'\n\nI. We have first to note the substitution, as a matter of course,\nwithout any need for explanation or vindication, of Jesus Christ in\nplace of the Jehovah of the Old Testament.\n\nThere is no doubt that the reading adopted in the Revised Version is the\ntrue one, as attested by weighty evidence in the manuscripts, and in\nitself more probable by reason of its very difficulty. The other reading\nadopted in Authorised Versions is likely to have arisen from a marginal\nnote which crept into the text, and was due to some copyist who was\nstruck by Peter's free handling of the passage, and wished to make the\nquotations verbally accurate.\n\nNow, if we think for a moment of the Jew's reverence for the letter of\nScripture, and then think again of the Jew's intense monotheism and\ndread of putting any creature into the place of God, we shall understand\nhow saturated with the belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ, and how\nconvinced that it was the vital centre of all Christian teaching, this\nApostle must have been when, without a word of explanation, he took his\npen, and, as it were, drew it through 'Lord God' in Isaiah's words, and\nwrote in capitals over it, 'Christ as Lord.'\n\nWhat does that mean? Some of us would, perhaps, hesitate to say that it\nmeans that He who was all through the growing ages of brightening\nrevelation of old, named 'Jehovah,' is now named Jesus Christ. I believe\nthat from the beginning He whom we call, according to the teaching of\nthe great prologue of John's Gospel, the 'Word of God,' was the Agent of\nall Divine revelation. But whether that be so or no, whether we have the\nright to say that the same Person who was revealed as 'Jehovah' is now\nrevealed as 'Jesus Christ,' the 'Word made flesh,' or no, we distinctly\nfail to apprehend who and what Jesus Christ was to the writer of this\nepistle, and fail to sanctify Him in our hearts, unless we say: 'To Thee\nbelongeth all that belongs to God.' That is the first great truth that\ncomes out of these words, and I would commend it to any of you who may\nbe hesitating about that Christian fact of the true divinity of Jesus\nChrist. You cannot strike it out of the New Testament, and if you try to\ndo so you tear the book to pieces, and reduce it to rags and tatters.\n\nFurther, mark here what the Apostle means by the Christian sanctifying\nof Christ.\n\nThat is a strange expression. How am I to sanctify Jesus Christ? Well,\nit is the same word that is used in the Lord's Prayer, and perhaps its\nuse there may throw light on Peter's meaning here. 'Hallowed be Thy\nname'--explains the meaning of _hallowing_ Christ as Lord in our hearts.\nWe sanctify or hallow one who is holy already, when we recognise the\nholiness, and honour what we recognise. So that the plain meaning of the\ncommandments here is: set Christ in your hearts on the pedestal and\npinnacle that belongs to Him, and then bow down before Him with all\nreverence and submission. Be sure that you give Him all that is His\ndue, and in the love of your hearts, as well as in the thinkings of your\nminds, recognise Him for what He is, the Lord. Let us take care that our\nthoughts about Jesus Christ are full of devout awe and reverence. I\nventure to think that a great deal of modern and sentimental\nChristianity is very defective in this respect. You cannot love Jesus\nChrist too much, but you can love Him with too little reverence. And if\nyou take up some of our luscious modern hymns that people are so fond of\nsinging, I think you will find in them a twang of unwholesomeness, just\nbecause the love is not reverent enough, and the approaching confidence\nhas not enough of devout awe in it. This generation looks at the half of\nChrist. When people are suffering from indigestion, they can only see\nhalf of the thing that they look at, and there are many of us that can\nonly see a part of the whole Christ: and so, forgetting that He is\njudge, and forgetting that He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and\nforgetting that whilst He is manifested in the flesh our brother He is\nalso _God_ manifest in the flesh, our Creator as well as our Redeemer,\nand our Judge as well as our Saviour, some do not enough hallow Him in\ntheir hearts as Lord.\n\nPeter had heard Jesus say that 'all men should honour the Son as they\nhonoured the Father.' I beseech you, embrace the whole Christ, and see\nto it that you do not dethrone Him from His rightful place, or take from\nHim the glory that is due to His name. For your love will suffer, and\nbecome a mere sentiment, inoperative and sometimes unwholesome, unless\nyou keep in mind Peter's injunction.\n\nBut, further, there is included in this commandment, not only what\nIsaiah said, 'Let Him be your fear and your dread,' but also a reverent\nlove and trust. For we do not hallow Christ as we ought, unless we\nabsolutely confide in every word of His lips. Did you ever think that\nnot to trust Jesus Christ is to blaspheme and profane that holy name by\nwhich we are called; and that to hallow Him means to say to Him, 'I\nbelieve every word that Thou speakest, and I am ready to risk my life\nupon Thy veracity'? Distrust is dishonouring the Master, and taking from\nHim the glory that is due unto His name.\n\nThen there is another point to be noted: 'Sanctify in your hearts Christ\nas Lord.' That is Peter's addition to Isaiah's words, and it is not a\nmere piece of tautology, but puts great emphasis into the exhortation.\nWhat is a man's heart, in New Testament and Old Testament language? It\nis the very centre-point of the personal self. And when Peter says,\n'Hallow Him in your hearts,' he means that, deep down in the very midst\nof your personal being, as it were, there should be, fundamental to all,\nand interior to all, this reverential awe and absolute trust in Jesus\nChrist--an habitual thought, a central emotion, an all-dominant impulse.\n'Out of the heart are the issues of life.' Put the healing agent into\nit, the fountain-head, and all the streams that pour out thence will be\npurified and sweetened. Deep in the heart put Christ, and life will be\npure.\n\nNow, in another part of this letter the Apostle says, 'Ye are a\nspiritual house.' I think some notion of the same sort is running in his\nmind here. He thinks of each man's heart as being a shrine in which the\ngod is enthroned, and in which worship is rendered. And if we have\nChrist in our hearts, then our hearts are temples; and if we 'hallow'\nthe Christ that dwells within us, we shall take care that there are no\nfoul things in that sanctuary. We dishonour the indwelling Deity when\ninto that same heart we allow to come lusts, foulnesses, meannesses,\nworldlinesses, passions, sins, and all the crew of reptiles and wild\nbeasts that we sometimes admit there. If we hallow Christ in our hearts,\nin any true fashion, He will turn out the money-changers and overturn\nthe tables. And if we desire to hallow Him in our hearts, we too, must\nby His Spirit's help, purge the temple that He may enter and abide.\n\nAnd so I come to the next point, and that is the Christian courage and\ncalmness that ensue from hallowing Christ in the heart.\n\nThe Apostle first puts his exhortation: 'Be not afraid of their terror,\nneither be troubled,' and then he presents us an opposite injunction,\nobedience to which is the only means of obeying the first exhortation.\nIf you do not sanctify Christ in your hearts, you cannot help being\nafraid of their terror, and troubled. If you do, then there is no fear\nthat you will fall into that snare. That is to say, the one thing that\ndelivers men from the fears that make cowards of us all is to have\nChrist lodged within our hearts. Sunshine puts out culinary fires. They\nwho have the awe and the reverent love that knit them to Jesus Christ,\nand who carry Him within their hearts, have no need to be afraid of\nanything besides. Only he who can say, 'The Lord is the strength of my\nlife' can go on to say, 'Of whom shall I be afraid?' There is nothing\nmore hopeless than to address to men, ringed about with dangers, the\nfoolish exhortations: 'Cheer up! do not be frightened,' unless you can\ntell them some reason for not being frightened. And the one reason that\nwill carry weight with it, in all circumstances, is the presence of\nJesus.\n\n 'With Christ in the vessel\n I smile at the storm.'\n\nThe world comes to us and says: 'Do not be afraid, do not be afraid; be\nof good courage; pluck up your heart, man.' The Apostle comes and says:\n'Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts; and then, and only then, will\nyou be bold.' The boldness which fronts the certain dangers and\ncalamities and the possible dangers and calamities of this life, without\nChrist, is not boldness, but foolhardiness. 'The simple passeth on, and\nis punished,' says the book of Proverbs. It is easy to whistle when\ngoing through the churchyard, and to say, 'Who's afraid?' But the ghosts\nrise all the same, and there is only one thing that lays them, and that\nis--the present Christ.\n\nIn like manner the sanctifying of Jesus Christ in the heart is the\nsecret of calmness. 'Fear not their fear, neither be troubled.' I wonder\nif Peter was thinking at all of another saying: 'Let not your heart be\ntroubled; neither let it be afraid.' Perhaps he was. At any rate, his\nthought is parallel with our Lord's when He said, 'Let not your heart be\ntroubled. Believe in God, and believe in Me.' The two alternatives are\npossible; we shall have either troubled hearts, or hearts calmed by\nfaith in Christ. The ships behind the breakwater do not pitch and toss.\nThe little town up amongst the hills, with the high cliffs around it,\nlies quiet, and 'hears not the loud winds when they call.' And the heart\nthat has Christ for its possession has a secret peace, whatever strife\nmay be raging round it.\n\n'Be not troubled; sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.' Peter leaves\nout a clause of Isaiah's, though he conveys the idea without reiterating\nthe words. But Isaiah had added a sweet promise which means much the\nsame thing as I have now been saying, when he went on to declare that to\nthose who sanctify the Lord God in their hearts, He shall be for a\nsanctuary. 'The sanctuary was an asylum where men were safe. And if we\nhave made our hearts temples in which Christ is honoured, worshipped,\nand trusted, then we shall dwell in Him as in the secret place of the\nMost High'; and in the inner chamber of the Temple it will be quiet,\nwhatever noises are in the camp, and there is light coming from the\nShekinah, whatever darkness may lie around. If we take Christ into our\nhearts, and reverence and love Him there, He will take us into His\nheart, and we shall dwell in peace, because we dwell in Him.\n\n\n\n\nCHRISTIAN ASCETICISM\n\n 'Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm\n yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered\n in the flesh hath ceased from sin. 2. That he no longer should live\n the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the\n will of God. 3. For the time past of our life may suffice us to\n have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in\n lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and\n abominable idolatries: 4. Wherein they think it strange that ye run\n not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: 5.\n Who shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and\n the dead. 6. For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to\n them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in\n the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. 7. But the end\n of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto\n prayer. 8. And, above all things, have fervent charity among\n yourselves; for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.'--1 Peter\n iv. 1-8.\n\n\nChristian morality brought two new things into the world--a new type of\nlife in sharp contrast with the sensuality rife on every side, and a new\nset of motives powerfully aiding in its realisation. Both these\nnovelties are presented in this passage, which insists on a life in\nwhich the spirit dominates the flesh, and is dominated by the will of\nGod, and which puts forward purely Christian ideas as containing the\nmotives for such a life. The facts of Christ's life and the prospect of\nChrist's return to judge the world are here urged as the reason for\nliving a life of austere repression of 'the flesh' that we may do God's\nwill.\n\nI. We have, first, in verses 1 and 2, a general precept, based upon the\nbroad view of Christ's earthly history. 'Christ hath suffered in the\nflesh.' That is the great fact which should shape the course of all His\nfollowers. But what does suffering in the flesh mean here? It does not\nrefer only to the death of Jesus, but to His whole life. The phrase 'in\nthe flesh' is reiterated in the context, and evidently is equivalent to\n'during the earthly life.' Our Lord's life was, in one aspect, one\ncontinuous suffering, because He lived the higher life of the spirit.\nThat higher life had to Him, and has to us, rich compensations; but it\nsets those who are true to it at necessary variance with the lower types\nof life common among men, and it brings many pains, all of which Jesus\nknew. The last draught from the cup was the bitterest, but the\nbitterness was diffused through all the life of the Man of Sorrows.\n\nThat life is here contemplated as the pattern for all Christ's servants.\nPeter says much in this letter of our Lord's sufferings as the atonement\nfor sin, but here he looks at them rather as the realised ideal of all\nworthy life. We are to be 'partakers of Christ's sufferings' (v. 13),\nand we shall become so in proportion as His own Spirit becomes the\nspirit which lives in us. If Jesus were only our pattern, Christianity\nwould be a poor affair, and a gospel of despair; for how should we\nreach to the pure heights where He stood? But, since He can breathe\ninto us a spirit which will hallow and energise our spirits, we can rise\nto walk beside Him on the high places of heroic endurance and of holy\nliving. Very beautifully does Peter hint at our sore conflict, our\npersonal defencelessness, and our all-sufficient armour, in the\npicturesque metaphor 'arm yourselves.' The 'mind of Christ' is given to\nus if we will. We can gird it on, and if we do, it will be as an\nimpenetrable coat-of-mail, which will turn the sharpest arrows and\nresist the fiercest sword-cuts.\n\nThe last clause of verse 1 is a parenthesis, and, if it is for the\nmoment omitted, the sentence runs smoothly on, especially if the Revised\nVersion's reading is adopted. The purpose of arming us with the same\nmind is that, whilst we live on earth, we should live according to the\nwill of God, and should renounce 'the lusts of men,' which are in us as\nin all men, and which men who are not clad in the armour which Christ\ngives to us yield to.\n\nBut what of the parenthetical statement? Clearly, the words which follow\nit forbid its being taken to mean that dead men do not sin. Rather the\nApostle's thought seems to be that such suffering in daily life after\nChrist's pattern, and by His help, is at once a sign that the sufferer\nhas shaken off the dominion of sin, and is a means of further\nemancipating him from it.\n\nBut the two great thoughts in this paragraph are, that the Christian\nlife is one in which God's will, and not man's desires, is the\nregulating force, and that the pattern of that life and the power to\ncopy the pattern are found in Christ, the sufferer for righteousness'\nsake.\n\nII. More specific injunctions, entering into the details of the higher\nlife, follow, interwoven, as in the preceding verses, with a statement\nof the motives which make obedience to them possible to our weakness.\nThe sins in view are those most closely connected with 'the flesh' in\nits literal meaning, amongst which are included 'abominable idolatries,'\nbecause gross acts of sensual immorality were inseparably intertwined\nwith much of heathen worship. These sins of flesh were especially\nrampant among the luxurious Asiatic lands, to which this letter was\naddressed, but they flooded the whole Roman empire, as the works of\npoets like Martial and of moralists like Epictetus equally show. But New\nYork or London could match the worst scenes in Rome or Ephesus, and\nperhaps would not be far behind the foul animalism of Sodom and\nGomorrah. Lust and drunkenness are eating out the manhood of our race on\nboth sides of the Atlantic, and, if we have 'the same mind' as the\nsuffering Christ, we shall put on the armour for war to the knife with\nthese in society, and for the rigid self-control of our own animal\nnature.\n\nObserve the strong motives which Peter just touches without expanding. A\nsad irony lies in his saying that the time past may suffice. The flesh\nhad had enough of time given to it,--had not God a right to the rest?\nThe flesh should have had none; it had had all too much. Surely the\nreaders had had enough of the lower life, more than enough. Were they\nnot sick of it, 'satisfied' even to disgust? Let us look back on our\nwasted years, and give no more precious moments to serve the corruptible\nflesh. Further, the life of submission to the animal nature is\ncharacteristic of 'the Gentiles,' and in sharp contrast, therefore, to\nthat proper to Christ's followers. That is as true to-day, in America\nand England, as ever it was. Indeed, as wealth has increased, and\nso-called 'civilisation' has diffused material comforts, senseless\nluxury, gluttony, drunkenness, and still baser fleshy sins, have become\nmore flagrantly common in society which is not distinctively and\nearnestly Christian; and there was never more need than there is to-day\nfor Christians to carry aloft the flag of self-control and temperance in\nall things belonging to 'the flesh.'\n\nIf we have the mind of Christ, we shall get the same treatment from the\nworld which Peter says that the primitive Christians did from the\nidolaters round them. We shall be wondered at, just as a heathen stared\nwith astonishment at this strange, new sect, which would have nothing to\ndo with feasts and garlands and wine-cups and lust disguised as worship.\nThe spectacle, when repeated to-day, of Christians steadfastly refusing\nto share in that lower life which is the only life of so many, is,\nperhaps, less wondered at now, because it is, thank God! more familiar;\nbut it is not less disliked and 'blasphemed.' A total abstainer from\nintoxicants will not get the good word of the distiller or brewer or\nconsumer of liquor. He will be called faddist, narrow, sour-visaged, and\nso on and so on. 'You may know a genius because all the dunces make\ncommon cause against him,' said Swift. You may know a Christian after\nChrist's pattern because all the children of the flesh are in league to\nlaugh at him and pelt him with nicknames.\n\nFurther, the thought of Christ as the judge should both silence the\nblasphemers and strengthen the blasphemed to endure. That judgment will\nvindicate the wisdom of those who sowed to the spirit and the folly of\nthose who sowed to the flesh. The one will reap corruption; the other,\nlife everlasting.\n\nThe difficult verse 6 cannot be adequately dealt with here, but we may\nnote that introductory 'for' shows that it, too, contains a motive\nurging to life, 'to the will of God,' and that no such motive appears in\nit if it is taken to mean, as by some, that the gospel is preached after\ndeath to the dead. Surely to say that 'the gospel was preached also (or,\neven) to them that are dead' is not to say that it was preached to them\nwhen dead.\n\nPeter's letter is of late enough date to explain his looking back to a\ngeneration now passed away, who had heard it in their lifetime. Nor does\none see how the meaning of 'in the flesh,' which belongs to the phrase\nin the frequent instances of its occurrence in this context, can be\npreserved in the clause 'that they might be judged according to men in\nthe flesh,' unless that means a judgment which takes place during the\nearthly life.\n\nWe note, too, that the antithesis between being judged 'according to men\nin the flesh,' and living 'according to God in the spirit' recalls that\nin verse 2 between living in the flesh to the lusts of men and to the\nwill of God. It would appear, therefore, that the Apostle's meaning is\nthat the very aim of the preaching of the gospel to those who are gone\nto meet the Judge was that they might by it be judged while here in the\nflesh, in regard to the lower life 'according to men' (or, as verse 2\nhas it, 'to the lusts of men'), and, being so judged, and sin condemned\nin their flesh, might live according to God in their spirits. That is\nbut to say in other words that the gospel is meant to search hearts, and\nbring to light and condemn the lusts of the flesh, and to impart the new\nlife which is moulded after the will of God.\n\nIII. The reference to Christ as the judge suggests a final motive for a\nlife of suppression of the lower nature,--the near approach of the end\nof all things. The distinct statement by our Lord in Acts i. 7 excludes\nthe knowledge of the time of the end from the revelation granted to the\nApostles, so that there need be no hesitation in upholding their\nauthority, and yet admitting their liability to mistake on that point.\nBut the force of the motive is independent of the proximity of the\njudgment. Its certainty and the indefiniteness of the time when we each\nshall have to pass into the other state of being are sufficient to\npreserve for each of us the whole pressure of the solemn thought that\nfor us the end is at hand, and to enforce thereby Peter's exhortation,\n'Be ye therefore of sound mind.'\n\nThe prospect of that end will sweep away many illusions as to the worth\nof the enjoyments of sense, and be a bridle on many vagrant desires.\nSelf-control in all regions of our nature is implied in the word. Our\nvarious faculties are meant to be governed by a sovereign will, which is\nitself governed by the Divine will; and, if we see plain before us the\ndawning of the day of the Lord, the vision will help to tame the\nsubordinate parts of ourselves, and to establish the supremacy of the\nspirit over the flesh. One special form of that general self-control is\nthat already enjoined,--the suppression of the animal appetites,\nespecially the abstinence from intoxicants. That form of self-control is\nespecially meant by the second of these exhortations, 'Be sober.' How\ncould a man lift the wine cup to his lips, and drown his higher nature\nin a flood of drunken riot, if the end, with its solemnities of\njudgment, blazed before his inner eye? But this self-command is\ninculcated that we may be fit to pray. These lower appetites will take\nall desire for prayer and all earnestness in it out of us, and only\nwhen we keep the wings of appetites close clipped will the pinions grow\nby which we can mount up with wings as eagles. A praying drunkard is an\nimpossible monster.\n\nBut exhortations to self-control are not all. We have to think of\nothers, as well as of our own growth in purity and spirituality.\nTherefore Peter casts one swift glance to the wider circle of the\nbrethren, which encompasses each of us, and gives the all-embracing\ndirection, which carries in itself everything. 'Fervent love' to our\nfellow-Christians is the counterpoise to earnest government of\nourselves. There is a selfishness possible even in cultivating our\nreligion, as many a monk and recluse has shown. Such love as Peter here\nenjoins will save us from the possible evils of self-regard, and it will\n'cover the multitude of sins,'--by which is not meant that, having it,\nwe shall be excused if we in other respects sin, but that, having it, we\nshall be more desirous of veiling than of exposing our brother's faults,\nand shall be ready to forgive even when our brother offends against us\noften. Perhaps Peter was remembering the lesson which he had once had\nwhen he was told that 'seventy times seven' was not too great a\nmultitude of sins against brotherly love to be forgiven by it in one\nday.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SLAVE'S GIRDLE\n\n '... Be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and\n giveth grace to the humble.'--1 Peter v. 5.\n\n\nThe Apostle uses here an expression of a remarkable kind, and which\nnever occurs again in Scripture. The word rendered in the Authorised\nVersion 'be clothed,' or better in the Revised Version, 'gird yourselves\nwith,' really implies a little more than either of those renderings\nsuggests. It describes a kind of garment as well as the act of putting\nit on, and the sort of garment which it describes was a remarkable one.\nIt was a part of a slave's uniform. Some scholars think that it was a\nkind of white apron, or overall, or something of that sort; others think\nthat it was simply a scarf or girdle; but, at all events, it was a\ndistinguishing mark of a slave, and he put it on when he meant work.\nAnd, says Peter, 'Do you strap round you the slave's apron, and do it\nfor the same reason that He did it, to serve.'\n\nSo, then, there are three points in my text, and the first is what we\nhave to wear; second, what we have to wear it for; and, third, why we\nshould wear it.\n\nI. What we have to wear.\n\n'Gird yourselves with the slave's apron of humility.' Humility does not\nconsist in being, or pretending to be, blind to one's strong points.\nThere is no humility in a man denying that he can do certain things if\nhe can do them, or even refusing to believe he can do them well, if God\nhas given him special faculties in any given direction. That is not\nhumility at all. But to know whence all my strength comes, and to know\nwhat a little thing it is, after all; not to estimate myself highly,\nand, still further, not to be always insisting upon other people\nestimating me highly, and to think a great deal more about their claims\non me than fretfully to insist upon my due modicum of respect and\nattention from others, that is the sort of temper that Peter means here.\n\nNow, that temper which may recognise fully any gift that God has given\nme, its sweep and degree, but that nevertheless takes a true, because a\nlowly, measure of myself, and does not always demand from other people\ntheir regard and assistance, that temper is a thing that we can\ncultivate. We can increase it, and we are all bound to try specifically\nand directly to do so. Now, I believe that a great part of the feeble\nand unprogressive character of so many Christian people amongst us is\ndue to this, that they do not definitely steady their thoughts and focus\nthem on the purpose of finding out the weak points to which special\nattention and discipline should be directed. It is a very easy thing to\nsay, 'Oh, I am a poor, weak, sinful creature!' It would do you a great\ndeal more good to say, 'I am a very passionate one, and my business is\nto control that quick temper of mine,' or, 'I am a great deal too much\ndisposed to run after worldly advantage, and my business is to subdue\nthat,' or, 'I am afraid I am rather too close-fisted, and I ought to\ncrucify myself into liberality.' It would be a great deal better, I say,\nto apply the general confession to specific cases, and to set ourselves\nto cultivate individual types of goodness, as well as to seek to be\nfilled with the all-comprehensive root of it all, which lies in union\nwith Jesus Christ. We have often to preach, dear brethren, that the way\nof self-improvement is not by hammering at ourselves, but by letting God\nmould us, and to keep the balance right. We have also to insist upon the\nother side of the truth, and to press the complementary thought that\nspecific efforts after the cultivation of specific virtues and all the\nmore if they are virtues that are not natural to us, for the gospel is\ngiven to us to mend our natural tempers--is the duty of all Christian\npeople that would seek to live as Christ would have them.\n\nAnd how is this to be done? How am I to gird upon myself and to keep--if\nI may transpose the metaphor into the key of modern English--tightly\nbuckled around me this belt which may hold in place a number of fine\narticles of clothing?\n\nWell, there are three things, I think, that we may profitably do. Go\ndown deep enough into yourself if you want to cure a lofty estimate of\nyourself. The top storeys may be beautifully furnished, but there are\nsome ugly things and rubbish down in the cellar. There is not one of us\nbut, if we honestly let the dredge down into the depths, as far down as\nthe _Challenger's_ went, miles and miles down, will bring up a pretty\ncollection of wriggling monstrosities that never have been in the\ndaylight before, and are ugly enough to be always shrouded in their\nnative darkness. Down in us all, if we will go deep enough, and take\nwith us a light bright enough, we shall discover enough to make anything\nbut humility ridiculous, if it were not wicked. And the only right place\nand attitude for a man who knows himself down to the roots of his being\nis the publican's when 'he stood afar off, and would not so much as lift\nup his eyes to heaven, and said, God be merciful to me a sinner.' Ah,\ndear friends, it will put an end to any undue exaltation of ourselves if\nwe know ourselves as we are.\n\nFurther, let us try to cultivate this temper, by looking at God, and\nhaving communion with Him. Think of Him as the Giver of anything in us\nthat is good, and that annihilates our pride. Think of Jesus as our\npattern; how that kills our satisfaction in little excellences! If you\nget high enough up the mountainside, the undulating country which when\nyou were down amongst the knolls showed all variations of level, and\nwhere he who lived on the top of one little mound thought himself in a\nfine, airy situation as compared with his neighbour down in the close\nvalley, is smoothed down, and brought to one uniform level; and from\nthe hilltop the rolling land is a plateau.\n\nI have heard of a child who, when she was told that the sun was\nninety-five millions of miles off, asked if that was from the top or the\nbottom storey of the house! There is about as much difference between\nthe great men and the little, between heroes and the unknown men, as\nmeasured against the distance to God, as there is difference in the\ndistance to the sun from the slates and from the cellar. Let us live\nnear God, and so aspiration will come in the place of satisfaction, and\nthe unattained will gleam before us, and beckon us not in vain, and the\nman that sees what an infinite stretch there is before him will be\ndelivered from the temptations of self-conceit, and will say, 'Not as\nthough I had already attained, either were already perfected, but I\nfollow after.'\n\nBut there is another advice to be given--cultivate the habit of thinking\nabout other people, their excellences, their claims on you. To be always\ntrying to get a footing in a social grade above our own is a poor\neffort, but there is a sense in which it is good advice--live with your\n_betters_. We can all do that. A man writes a bit of a book, preaches a\nsermon, makes a speech--all the newspapers pat him on the back, and say\nwhat a clever fellow he is. But let him steep his mind and his heart in\nthe great works of the _great_ men, and he finds out what a poor little\ndwarf he is by the side of them. And so all round the circle. Live with\nbigger men, not with little ones. And learn to discount--and you may\ntake a very liberal discount off--either the praises or the censures of\nthe people round you. Let us rather say, 'With me it is a very small\nmatter to be judged of man's judgment. He that judgeth me is the Lord.'\n\nThere are plenty of hands, foremost among them a black one that is not\nso much a hand as a claw, ready to snatch the girdle of humility off\nyou! Buckle it tight about you, brother; and in an immovable temper of\nlowly estimate of yourself live and work.\n\nII. The second thought here is, What we are to wear the apron or girdle\nfor?\n\nThe Revised Version makes a little alteration in the reading as well as\nin the translation of our text, the previous words to which, in the\nAuthorised Version stand, 'Yea, all of you be subject one to another.'\nThere is another reading which strikes out that clause, and adds a\nportion of it to the first part of my text, which then runs thus: 'Yea,\nall of you gird yourselves with humility to serve one another.' That is\nwhat Christian humility is for. The slave put on his garment, whatever\nit was, when he had work to do.\n\nBut perhaps there is a deeper thought here. I wonder if it is fanciful\nto see in the text one of the very numerous allusions in this epistle to\nthe events in our Lord's Passion. You remember that Jesus laid aside His\ngarments, and took a towel, and girded Himself, and washed the\ndisciples' feet, and then said, 'The servant is not above His master. I\nhave given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.'\nProbably, I think, there floated before the memory of the man who had\nsaid, 'Lord, Thou shalt never wash my feet,' and then, with the swift\nrecoil to the opposite pole which makes us love Him so much, hurried to\nsay, 'Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head'--some\nreminiscence of that upper chamber, and of how the Master had girded\nHimself with the slave's apron, or towel, in order that He might serve\nthe disciples; and then had told them that that was the pattern for all\nChristian men, and for all Christian living till the very end.\n\nService coming from humility, and humility manifested in service, are\nthe requirements laid down in the text. Humility is the preparation for\nservice; and service is the test of humility. If a man does not feel\nhimself to be needy and low, he will never be able, and he will never be\nwilling, to help those that are. You must go down if you would lift up.\nLaces and velvets and the fine feathers that the peacocks of\nself-conceit in this world strut about in are terribly in the way of\nChristian work. Rough work needs rough dress; and the only garb in which\nwe shall be able to do the deeds of self-sacrifice that are needed in\norder to help our brethren is humility, the preparation for all service.\n\nBut, further, service is the test of humility. Plenty of people will\nsay, 'I know that I have nothing to boast of,' and so forth; but they\nnever do any work. And there is a still more spurious kind of humility,\nthat of a great many professing Christians (I wonder of how many of us)\nwho, when we ask them for any kind of Christian service, say, 'I do not\nfeel myself at all competent. I am sure I could not take a class in the\nSunday School. I do not feel sufficiently master of the subject. I\ncannot talk. I have no facilities for influencing other people,' and so\non. Too many of us are very humble when there is anything to be done,\nand never at any other time as far as anybody can see; and that sort of\nhumility the Apostle does not commend. It is unfortunately very frequent\namongst professing Christians. Christian humility is not particular\nabout the sort of work it does for Jesus. Never mind whether you are on\nthe quarter-deck, with gold lace on your coat and epaulettes on your\nshoulders as an officer, or whether you are a cabin-boy doing the\nhumblest duties, or a stoker working away down fifty feet below\ndaylight. As long as the work is done for the great Admiral, that is\nenough; and whoever does any work for Him will never want for a reward.\nThere are some of us who like to be officers, but do not like carrying a\nmusket in the ranks. Humility is the preparation for service, and\nservice is the test of humility.\n\nIII. Lastly, why we should wear this girdle.\n\nThere is one reason given in my text, which Peter quotes from the Old\nTestament. 'God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.'\nThat is often true even in regard to outward life. Providence and man\noften seem to be in league together to lift up the lowly ones and thwart\nthe proud. If a man walks with his head very high, in this low-roofed\nworld, he is pretty sure to get it knocked against the rafters before he\nhas done. But it is the spiritual region that the Apostle is thinking\nabout, in which the one condition of receiving God's grace is a lowly\nsense of my own character and nature, which is conscious of sin and\nweakness, and waits before Him. And the one condition of not receiving\nany of that grace is to keep a stiff upper lip and a high head. If I\nthink that I am rich, 'and increased with goods, and have need of\nnothing,' that 'nothing' is exactly what I shall get from God, and if I\nhave need of everything, and know that I have, that 'everything' is what\nI shall get from Him. 'He resisteth the proud, and He giveth grace to\nthe humble.' On the high barren mountain-tops the dew and the rain slide\noff and find their way down to the lowly valleys, where they run as\nfertilising rivers. And the man that is humble and of a contrite heart,\n'with that man will I dwell, saith the Lord.' If we gird ourselves with\nthe slave's dress of humility, then we shall one day have to say, 'My\nsoul shall rejoice in the Lord, for He hath clothed me with the garments\nof salvation; and He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness; as\na bridegroom decketh himself with his ornaments, and as a bride adorneth\nherself with her jewels.'\n\n\n\n\nSYLVANUS\n\n 'By Sylvanus, our faithful brother, as I account him, I have\n written unto you briefly.'--1 Peter v. 12 (R.V).\n\n\nI adopt the Revised Version because, in one or two small points, it\nbrings out more clearly the Apostle's meaning. This Sylvanus is, beyond\nall reasonable doubt, the same man who is known to us in the Acts of the\nApostles by the name of Silas. A double name was very common amongst\nJews, whose avocations brought them into close connection with Gentiles.\nYou will find other instances of it amongst the Apostles: in _Paul_\nhimself, whose Hebrew name was _Saul_; _Simon_ and _Peter_; and probably\nin _Bartholomew_ and _Nathanael_. And there is no reasonable doubt that\na careful examination of the various places in which Silas and Sylvanus\nare mentioned shows that they were borne by one person.\n\nNow let me put together the little that we know about this man, because\nit will help us to some lessons. He was one of the chief men in the\nchurch at Jerusalem when the dispute arose about the necessity for\ncircumcision for the Gentile Christians. He was despatched to Antioch\nwith the message of peace and good feeling which the church at Jerusalem\nwisely sent forth to heal the strife. He remained in Antioch, although\nhis co-deputy went back to Jerusalem; and the attraction of Paul--the\ngreat mass of that star--drew this lesser light into becoming a\nsatellite, moving round the greater orb. So, when the unfortunate\nquarrel broke out between Paul and Barnabas, and the latter went sulkily\naway by himself with his dear John Mark, without his brethren's\nblessing, Paul chose Silas and set out upon his first missionary tour.\nHe was Paul's companion in the prison and stripes at Philippi, and in\nthe troubles at Thessalonica; and, though they were parted for a little\nwhile, he rejoined the Apostle in the city of Corinth. From thence Paul\nwrote the two letters to the Thessalonians, both of which are sent in\nthe name of himself and Silas or Sylvanus. There is one more reference\nto Sylvanus in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, which mentions him\nas having been associated with Paul in the evangelisation of the church\nthere.\n\nThen he drops out of the book altogether, and we never hear anything\nmore about him, except this one passing reference, which shows us to him\nin an altogether new relation. He is no longer attached to Paul, but to\nPeter. Paul was probably either in prison, or, possibly, martyred. At\nall events, Sylvanus now stood to Peter in a relationship similar to\nthat in which he formerly stood to Paul. He was evidently acquainted\nwith and known to the churches to whom this letter was addressed, and,\ntherefore, is chosen to carry Peter's message to them.\n\nNow I would suggest, in passing, how Sylvanus' relations to the two\nApostles throws light upon the perfectly cordial alliance between them,\nand how it shatters into fragments the theory which was thought to be\nsuch a wonderful discovery some years ago, as to the 'great schism' in\nthe early church between one section, led by Peter, and the more liberal\nparty, headed by Paul. Instead of that, we find the two men working\ntogether, and the only division between them was not as to the sort of\ngospel they preached, but as to the people to whom they preached. This\nlittle incident helps us to realise how natural it was for a man steeped\nin Paul's teaching to attach himself, if circumstances suggested it, to\nthe person who has been said to have been antagonistic in the whole\ndrift of his conceptions of Christianity to that Apostle.\n\nBut I do not wish to speak about that now. I take this figure of a man\nwho so contentedly and continually took such a subordinate place--played\nsecond fiddle quite willingly all his days, and who toiled on without\nany notice or record, and ask whether it does not teach one or two\nthings.\n\nI. First, then, I think we may see here a hint as to the worth and\nimportance of subordinate work.\n\nNot a syllable that Silas ever said is recorded in Scripture. He had\nbeen a chief man among the brethren when he was in Jerusalem, but, like\nsome other chief men in little spheres, he came to be anything but a\nchief man when he got alongside of Paul, and found his proper work. He\ndid not say: 'I have always pulled the stroke oar, and I am not going to\nbe second. I do not intend to be absorbed in this man's brilliant\nlustre. I would rather have a smaller sphere where my light may not\nsuffer by comparison than be overshone by him.' By no means! He could\nnot do Paul's work, but he could endure stripes along with him in the\nprison at Philippi, and he took them. He could not write as Peter\ncould; it was not his work to do that. But he could carry one of\nPeter's letters. And so, 'by Sylvanus, a faithful brother, I have\nwritten to you.' Perhaps Sylvanus was amanuensis as well as\nletter-carrier, for I daresay Peter was no great hand with a pen; he was\nbetter accustomed to haul nets. At all events, subordinate work was what\nGod had set him to do, and so he found joy in it.\n\nWell, then, is not that a pattern for us? People in the world or in the\nChurch who can do prominent work are counted by units; and those who can\ndo valuable subordinate work are counted by thousands--by millions.\n'Those members which seem to be more feeble are the more necessary,'\nsays Paul. It is a great truth, which it would do us all good to lay\nmore to heart.\n\nIt is hard to tell what is superior and what is subordinate work. I\nsuppose that in a steam engine the smallest rivet is quite as essential\nas the huge piston, and that if the rivet drops out the piston-rod is\nvery likely to stop rising and falling. So it is a very vulgar way of\ntalking to speak about A.'s work being large and B.'s work being small,\nor to assume that we have eyes to settle which work is principal and\nwhich subordinate.\n\nThe Athenians, who deemed themselves wisest in the world, thought there\nwere few people of less importance than the fanatical Jew who was\npreaching a strange story about what they knew so little of that they\ntook Jesus and Resurrection to be the names of a pair of gods, one male\nand one female. But in the eyes that see truly--the eyes of God--the\nrelative importance of Apostle and Stoic was otherwise appraised.\n\nWe cannot tell, as the book of Ecclesiastes has it, 'which shall\nprosper--this or that.' And if we begin to settle which is important\nwork, we shall be sure to make mistakes, both in our judgment about\nother people, and in our sense of the obligations laid upon ourselves.\nLet us remember that when a thing is to be done by the co-operation of a\ngreat many parts, each part is as important as the other, and each is\nindispensable. Although more glory may come to the soldiers who go to\nthe front and do the fighting, the troops miles in the rear, that are\nquietly in camp looking after the stores and keeping open the lines of\ncommunication, are quite as essential to the success of the campaign.\nTheir names will not get into the gazette; there will probably not be\nany honours at the conclusion of the war showered upon them; but, if\nthey had not been doing their subordinate work, the men at the front\nwould never have been able to do theirs. Therefore, the old wise law in\nIsrael was: 'As his part is that goeth down into the battle, so shall\nhis part be that tarrieth by the stuff; they shall part alike.'\n\nAnd so it is good for people that have only one talent, and cannot do\nmuch, and must be contented to help somebody else that can do more, to\nremember this pretty little picture of Sylvanus, 'the faithful brother,'\ncontented all his life to be a satellite of somebody; first of all\nhelping Paul, and then helping Paul's brother Peter. Let us not be too\nlazy, or too proud with the pride that apes humility, to do the little\nthat we can do because it is little.\n\nII. Another lesson which is own sister to that first one, but which may\nbe taken for a moment separately, is, the importance and obligation of\npersistently doing our task, though nobody notices it.\n\nAs I remarked, there is not one word of anything that Sylvanus said, or\nof anything that he did apart from Paul or Peter, recorded. And for all\nthe long stretch of years--we do not know how many, but a very large\nnumber--that lie between this text of mine, where we find him in\nconjunction with Peter, and that day at Corinth, where we left him with\nPaul, the Acts of the Apostles does not think it worth while to mention\nhis name. Was he sitting with his hands in his pockets all the while, do\nyou think, doing no Christian work? Did he say, as some good people are\napt to say now, 'Well, I went to teach in Sunday School for a while, and\nI took an interest in this, that, or the other thing for a bit, but\nnobody took any notice of me; and I supposed I was not wanted, and so I\ncame away!'\n\nNot he. That is what a great many of us do. Though we sometimes are not\nhonest enough to say it to ourselves, yet we do let the absence of\n'recognition' (save the mark) influence us in the earnestness of our\nChristian work to far too great an extent. And I dare say there are good\nfriends among us who, if they would be quite honest with themselves,\nwould take the hint, and, if I may use such a word, the rebuke, to\nthemselves.\n\nDear brethren, all the work that any of us do has to become unnoticed\nafter a little while. It will not last. Nobody will know about you or me\nthirty years after we are dead. What does it matter whether they know\nanything about us, or say anything about us, or pat us on the back for\nanything that we do, or recognise our service whilst we live? Surely, if\nwe are Christian men and women, we have a better reason for working than\nthat. '_I_ will never forget any of their works.' That ought to be\nenough for us, ought it not? Whoever forgets, He remembers; and if He\nremembers, He will not remain in our debt for anything that we have\ndone.\n\nSo let us keep on, noticed or unnoticed; it matters very little which it\nis. There is a fillip, no doubt--and we should not be men and women if\nwe did not feel it--in the recognition of what we have tried to do. And\nsometimes it comes to us; but the absence of it is no reason for\nslackening our work. And this man, so patiently and persistently\n'pegging away' at his obscure task during all these years which have\nbeen swallowed up in oblivion, may preach a sermon to us all.\n\nOnly let us remember that he also shows us that unnoticed work is\nnoticed, and that unrecorded services are recorded. Here are you and I,\nnineteen centuries after he is dead, talking about him, and his name\nwill live and last as long as the world, because, though written in no\nother history, it has been recorded here. Jesus Christ's record, the\nBook of Life, contains the names of 'fellow-labourers' whose names have\ndropped out of every other record; and that should be enough for us.\nSylvanus did no work that Christ did not see, and no work that Christ\ndid not remember, and no work of which he did not, eighteen hundred\nyears since, enter into the enjoyment of the fruit, and which he enjoys\nup there, whilst we are thinking about him down here.\n\nIII. The last thing that I would suggest is--here is an example to us of\na character which we can all earn, and which will be the best that any\nman can get.\n\nA great genius, a wise philosopher, an eloquent preacher, a statesman, a\nwarrior, poet, painter? No! 'A faithful brother.' He may have been a\ncommonplace one. We do not know anything about his intellectual\ncapacity. He may have had very narrow limitations and very few powers,\nor he may have been a man of large faculty and acquirements. But these\nthings drop out of sight; and this remains--that he was _faithful_. I\nsuppose the eulogium is meant in both senses of the word. The one of\nthese is the root of the other; for a man that is full of faith is a man\nwho may be trusted, is reliable, and will be sure to fulfil all the\nobligations of his position, and to do all the duties that are laid upon\nhim.\n\nYou and I, whether we are wise or not, whether we are learned or not,\nwhether we have large faculties or not, whether we have great\nopportunities or very small ones, can all equally earn that name if we\nlike. If the perfect judgment, the clear eye, of Jesus Christ beholds in\nus qualities which will permit Him to call us by that name, what can we\nwant better? 'A faithful brother.' Trust in Christ; let that be the\nanimating principle of all that we do, the controlling power that\nrestrains and limits and stimulates and impels. And then men will know\nwhere to have us, and will be sure, and rightly sure, that we shall not\nshirk our obligations, nor scamp our work, nor neglect our duties. And\nbeing thus full of faith, and counted faithful by Him, we need care\nlittle what men's judgments of us may be, and need desire no better\nepitaph than this--a faithful brother.\n\n\n\n\nAN APOSTOLIC TESTIMONY AND EXHORTATION\n\n '... I have written briefly, exhorting, and testifying that this is\n the true grace of God wherein ye stand.'--1 Peter v. 12.\n\n\n'I have written briefly,' says Peter. But his letter, in comparison with\nthe other epistles of the New Testament, is not remarkably short; in\nfact, is longer than many of them. He regards it as short when measured\nby the greatness of its theme. For all words which are devoted to\nwitnessing to the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ, must be narrow\nand insufficient as compared with that, and after every utterance the\nspeaker must feel how inadequate his utterance has been. So in that word\n'briefly' we get a glimpse of the Apostle's conception of the\ntranscendent greatness of the Gospel which he had to proclaim. This\nverse seems to be a summary of the contents of the Epistle. And if we\nobserve the altered translation of the latter portion of my text which\nis given in the Revised Version, we shall see that the verse is itself\nan example of both 'testifying' and exhorting. For the last clause is\nnot, as our Authorised Version renders it, 'Wherein ye stand'--a\nstatement of a fact, however true that may be--but a commandment, 'In\nwhich stand fast.' And so we have here the Apostle's all-sufficient\nteaching, and this all-comprehensive exhortation. He 'witnesses' that\nthis is the true grace of God, and because it is, he exhorts, 'stand\nfast therein.' Let us look at these two points.\n\nI. Peter's testimony.\n\nNow there is a very beautiful, though not, to superficial readers,\nobvious, significance in this testimony. 'This is the true grace of\nGod.' What is meant by '_this_'? Not merely the teaching which he has\nbeen giving in the preceding part of the letter, but that which somebody\nelse had been giving. Now these churches in Asia Minor, to whom this\nletter was sent, were in all probability founded by the Apostle Paul, or\nby men working under his direction: and the type of doctrine preached in\nthem was what people nowadays call Pauline. And here Peter puts his seal\non the teaching that had come from his brother Apostle, and says: 'The\nthing that you have learned, and that I have had no part in\ncommunicating to you, _this_ is the true grace of God.' If such be the\nprimary application of the words (and I think there can be little doubt\nthat it is), then we have an interesting evidence, all the stronger\nbecause unobtrusive, of the cordial understanding between the two great\nleaders of the Church in apostolic times; and the figments that have\nbeen set forth, with great learning and little common sense, about the\ndifferences that divided these great teachers of Christianity, melt away\ninto thin air. Their division was only a division of the field of\nlabour. 'They would that I should go unto the Gentiles, and they unto\nthe circumcision.' All the evidence confirms what Paul says, 'Whether it\nwere they or I, so we preach, and so' all the converts 'believed.' Thus\nit is not without significance and beauty that we here see dimly through\nthe ages Peter stretching out his hands to Paul's convert, and saying,\n'This--which my beloved brother Paul taught you--this is the true grace\nof God.'\n\nBut, apart altogether from that thought, note two things; the one, the\nsubstance of this witness-bearing; and the other, Peter's right to bear\nit. As to the substance of the testimony; 'grace' which has become a\nthreadbare word in the minds of many people, used with very little\nconception of its true depth and beauty of meaning, is properly love in\nexercise towards inferior and sinful creatures who deserve something\nelse. Condescending, pardoning, and active love, is its proper meaning.\nAnd, says Peter, the inmost significance of the gospel is that it is the\nrevelation of such a love as being in God's heart.\n\nAnother meaning springs out of this. That same message is not only a\nrevelation of love, but it is a communication of the gifts of love. And\nthe 'true grace of God' is shorthand for all the rich abundance and\nvariety and exuberant manifoldness and all-sufficiency of the sevenfold\nperfect gifts for spirit and heart which come from faith in Jesus\nChrist. The truths that lie here in the Gospel, the truths which glow\nand throb in this letter of Peter's, are the revelation and the\ncommunication to men of the rich gifts of the Divine heart, which will\nall flow into that soul which opens itself for the entrance of God's\nword. And what are these truths? The main theme of this letter is Jesus\nChrist, the Lamb of God, that was slain. 'Ye were as sheep going astray,\nbut are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.' He\ndwells upon Christ's innocence, upon Christ's meekness; but most of all\nupon the Christ that died, 'whom, having not seen, we love, and in whom,\nthough unseen, we, believing, receive the end of our faith'--and the end\nof the gospel--'even the salvation of our souls.'\n\nThus, dear brethren, this gospel, the gospel of the Divine Christ that\ndied for our sins, and lives to give His Spirit to all waiting hearts;\nthis is the true grace of God. It is very needful for us to keep in view\nalways that lofty conception of what this gospel is, that we may not\nbring it down to the level of a mere theory of religion; nor think of it\nas a mere publication of dry doctrines; that we may not lose sight of\nwhat is the heart of it all, but may recognise this fact, that a gospel\nout of which are struck, or in which are diminished, the truths of the\nsacrifice of Christ and His ever-living intercession for us, is not the\ntrue grace of God, and is neither a revelation of His love to inferior\nand sinful men, nor a communication of His gifts to our weakness. Let us\nremember Peter's witness. This--the full gospel of incarnation,\nsacrifice, resurrection, ascension, and reign in glory, and return as\nJudge--this, and nothing else, 'is the true grace of God.' And this\ngospel is not exalted to its highest place unless it is regarded as such\nby our waiting and recipient hearts.\n\nFurther, what right had this man to take this position and say, 'I\ntestify that this is the true grace of God'? He was no great genius; he\ndid not know anything about comparative religion, which is nowadays\nsupposed to be absolutely essential to understanding any one religion.\nHe was not a scholar or a philosopher. What business had he to bring in\nhis personality thus, as if he were an authority, and say, '_I_ testify\nthat this is the true grace of God'?\n\nWell there are two or three answers: one peculiar to him and others\ncommon to all Christian people. The one peculiar to him is, as I\nbelieve, that he was conscious, and rightly conscious, that Jesus Christ\nhad bestowed upon him the power to witness, and the authority to impose\nhis testimony upon men as a word from God. In the most inartificial and\nmatter-of-course way Peter here lets us see the apostolic conception of\napostolic authority. He had a right--not because of what he was\nhimself, but because of the authority which Christ had conferred on\nhim--to say to men, 'I do not ask you to give heed to me, Peter. I\nmyself also am a man (as he said to Cornelius), but I call on you to\naccept Christ's word, spoken through me, His commissioned messenger,\nwhen _I_ testify, and through me Christ testifies, that this is the true\ngrace of God.'\n\nNow no one but an apostle has the right to say that; but we Christian\npeople have a right to say something like it, and if we have not\napostolic authority, we may have what is very nearly as good, and\nsometimes as powerful in its effect upon other people, and that is\nauthority based on personal experience. If we have plunged deep into the\nsecrets of God, and lived closely and faithfully in communion with Him,\nand for ourselves have found the grace of God, His love and the gifts of\nHis love, coming into our lives, and ennobling, calming, elevating each\nof us; then we, too, have a right to go to men and say, 'Never mind\nabout me; never mind about whether I am wise or foolish, I do not argue,\nbut I tell you I have tasted the manna, and it is sweet. I have drunk of\nthe water, and it comes cool and fresh from the rock. One thing I know,\nthat whereas I was blind, now I see. I believed, and therefore have I\nspoken, and on the strength of my own tasting of it, I testify that\nthis, which has done so much for me, is the true grace of God.' If we\ntestify thus, and back up our witness with lives corresponding, some who\nare wholly untouched by a preacher's eloquence and controversialists'\narguments, will probably be led by our attestation to make the\nexperiment for themselves. 'Ye are My witnesses,' says God. He did not\nsay, 'Ye are my advocates.' He did not bid us argue for Him, but He bid\nus witness for Him.\n\nII. Further, notice Peter's exhortation.\n\nAccording to the right rendering the last clause is, as I have already\nsaid, 'in which stand fast.' The translation in the Authorised Version,\n'in which ye stand,' gives a true thought, though not the Apostle's\nintention here. For, as a matter of fact, men cannot stand upright and\nfirm unless their feet are planted on the rock of that true grace of\nGod. If our heels are well fixed on it, then our goings will be\nestablished. It is no use talking to men about steadfastness of purpose,\nstability of life, erect independence, resistance to antagonistic\nforces, and all the rest, unless you give them something to stand upon.\nIf you talk so to a man who has his foot upon shifting sands or slippery\nclay; the more he tries the deeper will he sink into the one, or slide\nthe further upon the other. The best way to help men to stand fast is to\ngive them something to stand upon. And the only standing ground that\nwill never yield, nor collapse, nor, like the quicksand with the tide\nround it, melt away, we do not know how, from beneath our feet, is 'the\ngrace of God.' Or, as Dr. Watts says, in one of his now old-fashioned\nhymns:--\n\n 'Lo! on the solid Rock I stand,\n And all beside is shifting sand.'\n\nHowever, that is not what the Apostle Peter meant. He says, 'See that\nyou keep firmly your position in reference to this true grace of God.'\nNow I am not going to talk to you about intellectual difficulties in the\nway of hearty and whole-souled acceptance of the gospel\nrevelation--difficulties which are very real and very widespread in\nthese days, but which possibly very slightly affect us; at least I hope\nso.\n\nBut whilst these slay their thousands, the difficulties that affect us\nall in the way of keeping a firm hold on, or firm standing in (for the\ntwo metaphors coalesce) the gospel, which is the true grace of God, are\nthose that arise from two causes working in combination. One is our own\npoor weak hearts, wavering wills, strong passions, unbridled desires,\nforgetful minds; and the other is all that army and babel of seductions\nand inducements, in occupations legitimate and necessary, in enjoyments\nwhich are in themselves pure and innocent, in family delights, in home\nengagements, in pursuits of commerce or of daily business--all that\ncrowd of things that tempt us to forget the true grace and to wander\naway in a foolish and vain search after vain and foolish substitutes.\n\nDear brethren, it is not so much because there are many adversaries in\nthe intellectual world as because we are such weak creatures ourselves,\nand the world around us is so strong against us, that we need to say to\none another and to ourselves, over and over again, 'Stand ye fast\ntherein.' You cannot keep hold of a rope even, without the act of\ngrasping tending to relax, and there must be a conscious and repeated\ntightening up of the muscles, or the very cord on which we hang for\nsafety will slip through our relaxed palms. And however we may be\nconvinced that there are no hope and no true blessedness for us except\nin keeping hold of God, we need that grasp to be tightened up by daily\nrenewed efforts, or else it will certainly become slack, and we shall\nlose the thing that we should hold fast. So my text exhorts us against\nourselves, and against the temptations of the world, which are always\npresent with us, and are far more operative in bringing down the\ntemperature of the Christian Church, and of its individual members,\nthan any chilling that arises from intellectual doubts.\n\nAnd how are we to obey the exhortation? Well, plainly, if 'this' is the\nrevelation of God in Jesus Christ, 'the true grace of God' which alone\nwill give stability to our feet, then we 'shall not stand fast' in it\nunless we make conscious efforts to apprehend, and comprehend, and keep\nhold of it in our minds as well as in our hearts. May I say one very\nplain word? I am very much afraid that people do not read their Bibles\nvery much now (or if they do read them, they do not study them), and\nthat anything like an intelligent familiarity with the whole sweep of\nthe great system (for it is a system) of Divine truth, evolved 'at\nsundry times and in divers manners' in this Word, is a very rare thing\namongst even good people. They listen to sermons, with more or less\nattention; they read newspapers, no doubt; they read good little books,\nand magazines, and the like; and volumes that profess to be drawn from\nScripture. These are all right and good in their place. But sure I am\nthat a robust and firm grasp of the gospel, 'which is the grace of God,'\nis not possible with a starvation diet of Scripture. And so I would say,\ntry to get hold of the depth and width of meaning in the Word.\n\nAgain, try to keep heart and mind in contact with it amidst distractions\nand daily duties. Try to bring the principles of the New Testament\nconsciously to bear on the small details of everyday life. Do you look\nat your day's work through these spectacles? Does it ever occur to you,\nas you are going about your business, or your profession, or your\ndomestic work, to ask yourselves what bearing the gospel and its truths\nhave upon these? If my ordinary, so-called secular, avocations are\nevacuated of reference to, and government by, the Word of God, I want\nto know what of my life is left as the sphere in which it is to work.\nThere is no need that religion and daily life should be kept apart as\nthey are. There is no reason why the experience of to-day, in shop, and\ncounting-house, and kitchen, and study, should not cast light upon, and\nmake more real to me, 'the true grace of God.' Be sure that you desire,\nand ask for, and put yourself in the attitude of receiving, the gifts of\nthat love, which are the graces of the Christian life. And when you have\ngot them, apply them, 'that you may be able to withstand in the evil\nday; and, having done all, to stand.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHURCH IN BABYLON\n\n 'The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth\n you ...'--1 Peter v. 13.\n\n\nWe have drawn lessons in previous addresses from the former parts of the\nclosing salutations of this letter. And now I turn to this one to see\nwhat it may yield us. The Revised Version omits 'the church,' and\nsubstitutes 'she'; explaining in a marginal note that there is a\ndifference of opinion as to whether the sender of the letter is a\ncommunity or an individual. All the old MSS., with one weighty\nexception, follow the reading 'she that is in Babylon.' But it seems so\nextremely unlikely that a single individual, with no special function,\nshould be bracketed along with the communities to whom the letter was\naddressed, as 'elected together with' them, that the conclusion that the\nsender of the letter is a church, symbolically designated as a 'lady,'\nseems the natural one.\n\nThen there is another question--where was Babylon? An equal diversity\nof opinion has arisen about that. I do not venture to trouble you with\nthe arguments _pro_ and _con_, but only express my own opinion that\n'Babylon' means Rome.\n\nWe have here the same symbolical name as in the Book of Revelation,\nwhere, whatever further meanings are attached to the designation, it is\nintended primarily as an appellation for the imperial city, which has\ntaken the place filled in the Old Testament by Babylon, as the\nconcentration of antagonism to the Kingdom of God.\n\nIf these views of the significance of the expression are adopted we have\nhere the Church in Rome, the proud stronghold of worldly power and\nhostility, sending its greetings to the scattered Christian communities\nin the provinces of what is now called Asia Minor. The fact of such\ncordial communications between communities separated by so many\ncontrarieties as well as by race and distance, familiar though it is,\nmay suggest several profitable considerations, to which I ask your\nattention.\n\nI. We have here an object lesson as to the uniting power of the gospel.\n\nJust think of the relations which, in the civil world, subsisted between\nRome and its subject provinces; the latter, with bitter hatred in their\nhearts to everything belonging to the oppressing city, having had their\nfreedom crushed down and their aspirations ruthlessly trampled upon; the\nformer, with the contempt natural to metropolitans in dealing with\nfar-off provincials. The same kind of relationship subsisted between\nRome and the outlying provinces of its unwieldly empire as between\nEngland, for instance, and its Indian possessions. And the same uniting\nbond came in which binds the Christian converts of these Eastern lands\nof ours to England by a far firmer bond than any other. There was\nspringing up amidst all the alienation and hatred and smothered\nrebellion a still incipient, but increasing, and even then strong bond\nthat held together Roman Christians and Cappadocian believers. They were\nboth 'one in Christ Jesus.' The separating walls were high, but,\naccording to the old saying, you cannot build walls high enough to keep\nout the birds; and spirits, winged by the common faith, soared above all\nearthly-made distinctions and met in the higher regions of Christian\ncommunion. When the tide rises it fills and unifies the scattered pools\non the beach. So the uniting power of Christian faith was manifest in\nthese early days, when it bound such discordant elements together, and\nmade 'the church that was in Babylon' forget that they were to a large\nextent Romans by birth, and stretch out their hands, with their hearts\nin them, to the churches to whom this letter was sent.\n\nNow, brethren, our temptation is not so much to let barriers of race and\nlanguage and distance weaken our sense of Christian community, as it is\nto let even smaller things than these do the same tragical office for\nus. And we, as Christian people, are bound to try and look over the\nfences of our 'denominations' and churches, and recognise the wider\nfellowship and larger company in which all these are merged. God be\nthanked! there are manifest tokens all round us to-day that the age of\nseparation and division is about coming to an end. Yearnings for unity,\nwhich must not be forced into acts too soon, but which will fulfil\nthemselves in ways not yet clear to any of us, are beginning to rise in\nChristian hearts. Let us see to it, dear friends, that we do our parts\nto cherish and to increase these, and to yield ourselves to the uniting\npower of the common faith.\n\nII. We note, further, the clear recognition here of what is the strong\nbond uniting all Christians.\n\nPeter would probably have been very much astonished if he had been told\nof the theological controversies that were to be waged round that word\n'elect.' The emphasis here lies, not on 'elect,' but on 'together.' It\nis not the thing so much as the common possession of the thing which\nbulks largely before the Apostle. In effect he says, 'The reason why\nthese Roman Christians that have never looked you Bithynians in the face\ndo yet feel their hearts going out to you, and send you their loving\nmessages, is because they, in common with you, have been recipients of\nprecisely the same Divine act of grace.' We do not now need to discuss\nthe respective parts of man and God in it, nor any of the interminable\ncontroversies that have sprung up around the word. God had, as the fact\nof their possession of salvation showed, chosen Romans and Asiatics\ntogether to be heirs of eternal life. By the side of these transcendent\nblessings which they possessed in common, how pitiably small and\ninsignificant all the causes which kept them apart looked and were!\n\nAnd so here we have a partial parallel to the present state of\nChristendom, in which are seen at work, on one hand, superficial\nseparation; on the other, underlying unity. The splintered peaks may\nstand, or seem to stand, apart from their sister summits, or may frown\nat each other across impassable gorges, but they all belong to one\ngeological formation, and in their depths their bases blend\nindistinguishably into a continuous whole. Their tops are miles apart,\nbut beneath the surface they are one. And so the things that bind\nChristian men together are the great things and the deepest things; and\nthe things that part them are the small and superficial ones. Therefore\nit is our wisdom--not only for the sake of the fact of our unity and for\nthe sake of our consciousness of unity, but because the truths which\nunite are the most important ones--that they shall bulk largest in our\nhearts and minds. And if they do, we shall know our brother in every man\nthat is like-minded with us towards them, whatever shibboleth may\nseparate us. I spoke a moment ago about the separate pools on the beach,\nand the tide rising. When the tide goes down, and the spiritual life\nebbs, the pools are parted again. And so ages of feeble spiritual\nvitality have been ages of theological controversy about secondary\nmatters; and ages of profound realisation by the Church of the great\nfundamentals of gospel truth have been those when its members were drawn\ntogether, they knew not how. Hence they can say of and to each other,\n'Elect together with you.'\n\nBrethren, for the sake of the strength of our own religious life, do not\nlet us fix our attention on the peculiarities of our sects, but upon the\ncatholic truths believed everywhere, always, by all. Then we shall 'walk\nin a large place,' and feel how many there are that are possessors of\n'like precious faith' with ourselves.\n\nIII. Then, lastly, we may find here a hint as to the pressing need for\nsuch a realisation of unity.\n\n'The church that is in Babylon' was in a very uncongenial place. Thank\nGod, no Babylon is so Babylonish but that a Church of God may be found\nplanted in it. No circumstances are so unfavourable to the creation and\ndevelopment of the religious life but that the religious life may grow\nthere. An orchid will find footing upon a bit of stick, because it draws\nnourishment from the atmosphere; and they who are fed by influx of the\nDivine Spirit may be planted anywhere, and yet flourish in the courts of\nour God. So 'the church that is in Babylon' gives encouragement as to\nthe possibility of Christian faith being triumphant over adverse\nconditions.\n\nBut it also gives a hint as to the obligation springing from the\ncircumstances in which Christian people are set, to cultivate the sense\nof belonging to a great brotherhood. Howsoever solitary and surrounded\nby uncongenial associations any Christian man may be, he may feel that\nhe is not alone, not only because his Master is with him, but because\nthere are many others whose hearts throb with the same love, whose lives\nare surrounded by the same difficulties. It is by no means a mere piece\nof selfish consolation which this same Apostle gives in another part of\nhis letter, when he bids the troubled so be of good cheer, as\nremembering that the 'same afflictions were accomplished in the\nbrotherhood which is in the world.' He did not mean to say, 'Take\ncomfort, for other people are as badly off as you are,' but he meant to\ncall to the remembrance of the solitary sufferer the thousands of his\nbrethren who were 'dreeing the same weird' in the same uncongenial\nworld.\n\nIf thus you and I, Christian men, are pressed upon on all sides by such\nworldly associations, the more need that we should let our hearts go out\nto the innumerable multitude of our fellows, companions in the\ntribulation, and patience, and kingdom of Jesus Christ. Precisely\nbecause the Roman believers were in Babylon, they were glad to think of\ntheir brethren in Asia. Isolated amidst Rome's splendours and sins, it\nwas like a breath of cool air stealing into some banqueting house heavy\nwith the fumes of wine, or some slaughter-house reeking with the smell\nof blood, to remember these far-off partakers of a purer life.\n\nBut if I might for a moment diverge, I would venture to say that in the\nconditions of thought, and the tendencies of things in our own and other\nlands, it is more than ever needful that Christian people should close\ntheir ranks, and stand shoulder to shoulder. For men who believe in a\nsupernatural revelation, in the Divine Christ, in an atoning Sacrifice,\nin an indwelling Spirit, are guilty of suicidal folly if they let the\ncomparative trivialities that part them, separate God's army into\nisolated groups, in the face of the ordered battalions that are\nassaulting these great truths.\n\nBecause persecution was beginning to threaten and rumble on the horizon,\nlike a rising thundercloud, it was the more needful, in Peter's time,\nthat Christians parted by seas, by race, language, and customs, should\ndraw together. And for us, fidelity to our testimony and loyalty to our\nMaster, to say nothing of common sense and the instinct of\nself-preservation, command Christian men in this day to think more, and\nto speak more, and to make more, of the great verities which they all\npossess in common.\n\nThus, brethren, living in Babylon, we should open our windows to\nJerusalem; and though we dwell here as aliens, we may say, 'We are come\nunto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; to an\ninnumerable company of angels; to the spirits of just men made perfect;\nand to the Church of the first-born whose names are written in Heaven.'\n\n\n\n\nMARCUS, MY SON\n\n '... So doth Marcus, my son.'--1 Peter v. 13.\n\n\nThe outlines of Mark's life, so far as recorded in Scripture, are\nfamiliar. He was the son of Mary, a woman of some wealth and position,\nas is implied by the fact that her house was large enough to accommodate\nthe 'many' who were gathered together to pray for Peter's release. He\nwas a relative, probably a cousin (Col. iv. 10, Revised Version), of\nBarnabas, and possibly, like him, a native of Cyprus. The designation of\nhim by Peter as 'my son' naturally implies that the Apostle had been the\ninstrument of his conversion. An old tradition tells us that he was the\n'young man' mentioned in his Gospel who saw Christ arrested, and fled,\nleaving his only covering in the captor's hands. However that may be, he\nand his relatives were early and prominent disciples, and closely\nconnected with Peter, as is evident from the fact that it was to Mary's\nhouse that he went after his deliverance. Mark's relationship to\nBarnabas made it natural that he should be chosen to accompany him and\nPaul on their first missionary journey, and his connection with Cyprus\nhelps to account for his willingness to go thither, and his\nunwillingness to go further into less known ground. We know how he left\nthe Apostles, when they crossed from Cyprus to the mainland, and\nretreated to his mother's house at Jerusalem. We have no details of the\ninglorious inactivity in which he spent the time until the proposal of a\nsecond journey by Paul and Barnabas. In the preparations for it, the\nfoolish indulgence of his cousin, far less kind than Paul's wholesome\nseverity, led to a rupture between the Apostles, and to Barnabas\nsetting off on an evangelistic tour on his own account, which received\nno sympathy from the church at Antioch, and has been deemed unworthy of\nrecord in the Acts.\n\nThen followed some twelve years or more, during which Mark seems to have\nremained quiescent; or, at all events, he does not appear to have had\nany work in connection with the great Apostle. Then we find him\nreappearing amongst Paul's company when he was in prison for the first\ntime in Rome; and in the letters to Colossae he is mentioned as being a\ncomfort to the Apostle then. He sends salutations to the Colossians, and\nis named also in the nearly contemporaneous letter to Philemon.\nAccording to the reference in Colossians, he was contemplating a journey\namongst the Asiatic churches, for that in Colossae is bidden to welcome\nhim. Then comes this mention of him in the text. The fact that Mark was\nbeside Peter when he wrote seems to confirm the view that Babylon here\nis a mystical name for Rome; and that this letter falls somewhere about\nthe same date as the letters to Colossae and Philemon. Here again he is\nsending salutations to Asiatic churches. We know nothing more about him,\nexcept that some considerable time after, in Paul's last letter, he asks\nTimothy, who was then at Ephesus, the headquarters of the Asiatic\nchurches, to 'take Mark,' who, therefore, was apparently also in Asia,\n'and bring him' with him to Rome; 'for,' says the Apostle, beautifully\nreferring to the man's former failure, 'he is profitable to me for'--the\nvery office that he had formerly flung up--'the ministry.'\n\nSo, possibly, he was with Paul in his last days. And then, after that,\ntradition tells us that he attached himself more closely to the Apostle\nPeter; and, finally, at his direction and dictation, became the\nevangelist who wrote the 'Gospel according to Mark.'\n\nNow that is his story; and from the figure of this 'Marcus, my son,' and\nfrom his appearance here in this letter, I wish to gather two or three\nvery plain and familiar lessons.\n\nI. The first of them is the working of Christian sympathy.\n\nMark was a full-blooded Jew when he began his career. 'John, whose\nsurname was Mark,' like a great many other Jews at that time, bore a\ndouble name--one Jewish, 'John,' and one Gentile, 'Marcus.' But as time\ngoes on we do not hear anything more about 'John,' nor even about 'John\nMark,' which are the two forms of his name when he is first introduced\nto us in the Acts of the Apostles, but he finally appears to have cast\naside his Hebrew and to have been only known by his Roman name. And that\nchange of appellation coincides with the fact that so many of the\nallusions which we have to him represent him as sending messages of\nChristian greeting across the sea to his Gentile brethren. And it\nfurther coincides with the fact that his gospel is obviously intended\nfor the use of Gentile Christians, and, according to an old and reliable\ntradition, was written in Rome for Roman Christians. All of which facts\njust indicate two things, that the more a man has real operative love to\nJesus Christ in his heart, the more he will rise above all limitations\nof his interests, his sympathy, and his efforts, and the more surely\nwill he let himself out, as far as he can, in affection towards and\ntoils for all men.\n\nThis change of name, though it is a mere trifle, and may have been\nadopted as a matter of convenience, may also be taken as reminding us\nof a very important truth, and that is, that if we wish to help people,\nthe first condition is that we go down and stand on their level, and\nmake ourselves one with them, as far as we can. And so Mark may have\nsaid, 'I have put away the name that parts me from these Gentiles, for\nwhom I desire to work, and whom I love; and I take the name that binds\nme to them.' Why, it is the very same principle, in a small\ninstance--just as a raindrop that hangs on the thorn of a rose-bush is\nmoulded by the same laws that shape the great sphere of the central\nsun--it is a small instance of the great principle which brought Jesus\nChrist down into the world to die for us. You must become like the\npeople that you want to help. 'Forasmuch as the children were partakers\nof flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same, that\nHe might deliver them.' And so, not only the duty of widening our\nsympathies, but one of the supreme conditions of being of use to\nanybody, are set forth in the comparatively trifling incident, which we\npass by without noticing it, that this man, a Jew to his finger-tips,\nfinally found himself--or, rather, finally was carried, for it was no\ncase of unconscious drifting--into the position of a messenger of the\nCross to the Gentiles; and for the sake of efficiency in his work, and\nof getting close by the side of people whom he wanted to influence,\nflung away deliberately that which parted him from them. It is a small\nmatter, but a little window may show a very wide prospect.\n\nII. The history of Mark suggests the possibility of overcoming early\nfaults.\n\nWe do not know why he refused to bear the burden of the work that he had\nso cheerily begun. Probably the reason that I have suggested may have\nhad something to do with it. When he started he did not bargain for\ngoing into unknown lands, in which there were many toils to be\nencountered. He was willing to go where he knew the ground, and where\nthere were people that would make things easy for him; but when Paul\nwent further afield, Mark's courage ebbed out at his finger ends, and he\nslunk back to the comfort of his mother's house in Jerusalem. At all\nevents, whatever his reason, his return was a fault; or Paul would not\nhave been so hard upon him as he was. The writer of the Acts puts Paul's\nview of the case strongly by the arrangement of clauses in the sentence\nin which he tells us that the Apostle 'thought not good to take him with\nthem who withdrew from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to\nthe work.' If he thus threw down his tools whenever he came to a little\ndifficulty, and said, 'As long as it is easy work, and close to the base\nof operations, I am your man, but if there is any sacrifice wanted you\nmust look out for somebody else,' he was not precisely a worker after\nPaul's own heart. And the best way to treat him was as the Apostle did;\nand to say to Barnabas' indulgent proposal, 'No! he would not do the\nwork before, and now he shall not do it.' That is often God's way with\nus. It brings us to our senses, as it brought Mark to his.\n\nWe do not know how long it took to cure Mark of his early fault, but he\nwas thoroughly cured. The man that was afraid of dangers and\ndifficulties and hypothetical risks in Asia Minor became brave enough to\nstand by the Apostle when he was a prisoner, and was not ashamed of his\nchain. And afterwards, so much had he won his way into the Apostle's\nconfidence, and made himself needful for him by his services and his\nsweetness, that the lonely prisoner, with the gibbet or headsman's\nsword in prospect, feels that he would like to have Mark with him once\nmore, and bids Timothy bring him with himself, for 'he is profitable to\nme for the ministry.' 'He can do a thousand things that a man like me\ncannot do for himself, and he does them all for love and nothing for\nreward.' So he wants Mark once more. And thus not only Paul's\ngenerosity, but Mark's own patient effort had pasted a clean sheet over\nthe one that was inscribed with the black story of his desertion, and he\nbecame 'profitable for' the task that he had once in so petulant and\ncowardly a way, flung up.\n\nWell, translate that from the particular into the general and it comes\nto this. Let no man set limits to the possibilities of his own\nrestoration, and of his curing faults which are most deeply rooted\nwithin himself. Hope and effort should be boundless. There is nothing\nthat a Christian man may not reach, in the way of victory over his worse\nself, and ejection of his most deeply-rooted faults, if only he will be\ntrue to Jesus, and use the gifts that are given to him. There are many\nof us whose daily life is pitched in a minor key; whose whole landscape\nis grey and monotonous and sunless; who feel as if yesterday must set\nthe tune for to-day, and as if, because we have been beaten and baffled\nso often, it is useless to try again. But remember that the field on\nwhich the Stone of Help was erected, to commemorate the great and\ndecisive victory that Israel won, was the very field on which the same\nfoes had before contended, and _then_ Israel had been defeated.\n\nSo, brethren, we may win victories on the very soil where formerly we\nwere shamefully put to the rout; and our Christ with us will make\nanything possible for us, in the way of restoration, of cure of old\nfaults, of ceasing to repeat former sins. I suppose that when a spar is\nsnapped on board a vessel, and lashed together with spun yarn and\nlanyards, as a sailor knows how to do, it is stronger at the point of\nfracture than it was before. I suppose that it is possible for a man to\nbe most impregnable at the point where he is naturally weakest, if he\nchooses to use the defences that Jesus Christ has given.\n\nIII. Take another lesson--the greatness of little service.\n\nWe do not hear that this John Mark ever tried to do any work in the way\nof preaching the gospel. His business was a very much humbler one. He\nhad to attend to Paul's comfort. He had to be his factotum, man of all\nwork; looking after material things, the commissariat, the thousand and\none trifles that some one had to see to if the Apostle's great work was\nto get done. And he did it all his life long. It was enough for him to\ndo thoroughly the entirely 'secular' work, as some people would think\nit, which it was in his power to do. That needed some self-suppression.\nIt would have been so natural for Mark to have said, 'Paul sends Timothy\nto be bishop in Crete; and Titus to look after other churches;\nEpaphroditus is an official here; and Apollos is a great preacher there.\nAnd here am I, grinding away at the secularities yet. I think I'll\n\"strike,\" and try and get more conspicuous work.' Or he might perhaps\ndeceive himself, and say, 'more directly religious work,' like a great\nmany of us that often mask a very carnal desire for prominence under a\nvery saintly guise of desire to do spiritual service. Let us take care\nof that. This 'minister,' who was not a minister at all, in our sense of\nthe word, but only in the sense of being a servant, a private attendant\nand valet of the Apostle, was glad to do that work all his days.\n\nThat was self-suppression. But it was something more. It was a plain\nrecognition of what we all ought to have very clearly before us, and\nthat is, that all sorts of work which contribute to one end are one sort\nof work; and that at bottom the man who carried Paul's books and\nparchments, and saw that he was not left without clothes, though he was\nso negligent of cloaks and other necessaries, was just as much helping\non the cause of Christ as the Apostle when he preached.\n\nI wonder if any of you remember the old story about an organist and his\nblower. The blower was asked who it was that played that great sonata of\nBeethoven's, or somebody's. And he answered, 'I do not know who played,\nbut I blew it.' There is a great truth there. If it had not been for the\nunknown man at the bellows, the artist at the keys would not have done\nmuch. So Mark helped Paul. And as Jesus Christ said, 'He that receiveth\na prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward.'\n\nIV. Take as the last lesson the enlarged sphere that follows\nfaithfulness in small matters.\n\nWhat a singular change! The man who began with being a servant of Paul\nand of Barnabas ends by being the evangelist, and it is to him, under\nPeter's direction, that we owe what is possibly the oldest, and, at all\nevents, in some aspects, an entirely unique, narrative of our Lord's\nlife. Do you think that Peter would ever have said to him: 'Mark! come\nhere and sit down and write what I tell you,' if there had not been\nbeforehand these long years of faithful service? So is it always, dear\nfriends, 'He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also\nin much.' That is not only a declaration that faithfulness is one in\nkind, whatever be the diameter of the circle in which it is exercised,\nbut it may also be taken as a promise, though that was not the original\nintention of the saying.\n\nFor quite certainly, in God's providence, the tools do come to the hand\nthat can wield them, and the best reward that we can get for doing well\nour little work is to have larger work to do. The little tapers are\ntempted, if I may use so incongruous a figure, to wish themselves set up\non loftier stands. Shine your brightest in your corner, and you will be\n'exalted' in due time. It is so, as a rule, in this world; sometimes too\nmuch so, for, as they say is the case at the English bar, so it is\nsometimes in God's Church, 'There is no medium between having nothing to\ndo and being killed with work.' Still the reward for work is more work.\nAnd the law will be exemplified most blessedly when Christ shall say,\n'Well done! good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a\nfew things, I will make thee ruler over many things.'\n\nSo this far-away figure of the minister-evangelist salutes us too, and\nbids us be of good cheer, notwithstanding all faults and failures,\nbecause it is possible for us, as he has proved, to recover ourselves\nafter them all. God will not be less generous in forgiveness than Paul\nwas; and even you and I may hear from Christ's lips, 'Thou art\nprofitable to Me for the ministry.'\n\n\n\n\nII. PETER\n\n\n\n\nLIKE PRECIOUS FAITH\n\n '... Them that have obtained like precious faith with us through\n the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.'--2 Peter\n i. 1.\n\n\nPeter seems to have had a liking for that word 'precious.' It is not a\nvery descriptive one; it does not give much light as to the quality of\nthe things to which it is applied; but it is a suggestion of one-idea\nvalue. It is interesting to notice the objects to which, in his two\nletters--for I take this to be his letter--he applies it. He speaks of\nthe trial of faith as being 'precious.' He speaks (with a slight\nmodification of the word employed) of Jesus Christ as being 'to them\nthat believe, precious.' He speaks of the 'precious' blood of Christ.\nThese instances are in the first epistle. In this second epistle we have\nthe words of my text, and a moment after, 'exceeding great and precious\npromises.' Now look at Peter's list of valuables; 'Christ, Christ's\nblood, God's promises, our Faith, and the discipline to which that faith\nis subjected.' These are things that the old man had found out to be of\nworth.\n\nBut then there is another word in my text that must be noted, 'like\nprecious.' It brings into view two classes, to one of which Peter\nhimself belongs--'us' and 'they.' Who are these two classes? It may be\nthat he is thinking of the immense difference between the intelligent\nand developed faith of himself and the other Apostles, and the\nrudimentary and infantile faith of the recent believers to whom he may\nbe speaking. And, if so, that would be beautiful, but I rather take it\nthat he is tacitly contrasting in his own mind the difference between\nthe Gentile converts as a whole, and the members of the Jewish community\nwho had become believers in Jesus Christ, and that he is repeating the\nlesson that he had learned on the housetop at Joppa, and had had further\nconfirmed to him by the experience of Caesarea, and that he is really\nsaying exactly what he said when he defended himself before the Council\nin Jerusalem: 'Seeing that God had given unto them the like gift that he\ndid unto us, who was I, that I should withstand God?' And so he looks\nout over all the Christian community, and ignores 'the middle wall of\npartition,' and says, 'Them that have obtained like precious faith with\nus.' I wish very simply to try to draw out the thoughts that lie in\nthese words, and cluster round that well-worn and threadbare theological\nexpression and Christian verity of 'faith' or 'trust.'\n\nI. And the first thing that I would desire to point you to is, what we\nlearn here as to the object of faith.\n\nNow those of you who are using the Revised Version will notice that\nthere is a very slight, but important, alteration there, from the\nrendering in the old translation. We read in the latter: 'Like precious\nfaith with us _through_ the righteousness, ...' and that is a meaning\nthat might be defended. But the Revised Version says, and says more\naccurately as far as the words go, and more truly as far as Christian\nthought goes, 'them that have obtained like precious faith with us _in_\nthe righteousness.' Now, I daresay, it will occur to us all that that is\na departure from the usual form in which faith is presented to us in the\nNew Testament, because there, thank God! we are clearly taught that the\none thing which faith grapples is not a thing but a Person. Christian\nfaith is only human trust turned in a definite direction. Just as our\ntrust lays hold on one another, so the object of faith is, in the\ndeepest analysis, no doctrine, no proposition, not even a Divine fact,\nnot even a Divine promise, but the Doer of the fact, and the Promiser of\nthe promise, and the Person, Jesus Christ. When you say, 'I trust\nso-and-so's word!' what you mean is, 'I trust _him_, and so I put\ncredence in his word.' And Christianity would have been delivered from\nmountains of misconception, and many a poor soul would have felt that a\nblaze of light had come in upon it, if this had been clearly proclaimed,\nand firmly apprehended by preachers and by hearers, that the object of\ntrust is the living Person, Jesus Christ, and that the trust which\ngrapples us to Him is essentially a personal relation entered into by\nour wills and hearts far more than by our heads.\n\nAll that is being apprehended by the Christian Church to-day a great\ndeal more clearly than it used to be when some of us were young. But we\nhave the defects of our qualities. And this generation is accustomed far\ntoo lightly and superficially to say 'Oh! I do not care about doctrines.\nI cleave to the living Christ!' Amen! say I. But there is another\nquestion--What Christ is it that you are cleaving to? For our only way\nof knowing a person with whom we have no external acquaintance is by\nwhat we are told about him, and believe about him. And so, while we\ncannot assert too strongly that faith or trust in the living Christ, and\nnot in a dogma, is the basis of real Christian life, we have need to be\nvery definite and sure as to what Christ--which Christ--it is that we\nare trusting to? And there my text comes in, and tells us that faith is\nto grasp Christ as our righteousness; and another saying of the Apostle\nPaul's comes in, who for once speaks of faith as being faith not only in\nthe Christ, but in 'His blood':--\n\n 'Jesus! Thy blood and righteousness,\n My beauty are, my glorious dress.'\n\nBrethren! you will not get beyond that. The Christ, trusting in whom we\nhave life and salvation, is the Christ whose blood cleanses, whose\nrighteousness clothes us poor, sinful men. So, while proclaiming with\nall emphasis, and rejoicing to press it upon all my brethren, that\nsalvation comes by personal trust in the Person, I supplement and fill\nout, not contradict, that proclamation, when I further say that the\nPerson by trusting in whom we are saved, is the Jesus whose blood\ncleanses and whose righteousness becomes ours. That righteousness is, in\nour text, contemplated as God's, as being embodied in Christ's, that\nfrom Him it may be imparted to us, if we will fulfil the condition on\nwhich alone it can be ours, viz., faith. It becomes ours, by no mere\nimputation which has not a reality at the back of it, but because faith\nbrings us into such a vital union with Jesus Christ as that His\nrighteousness, or at least a spark from the central flame, becomes ours,\nnot only in reference to our exemption from the burden of our guilt, but\nin reference to our becoming conformed to the image of His dear Son, and\ncreated anew in righteousness and holiness. The object of faith is\nChrist, the Christ whose blood and righteousness cleanses and clothes\nsinful souls.\n\nII. Let me ask you to look, in the next place, to what this text\nsuggests to us about the worth of Christian faith.\n\nPeter calls it precious. Consider its worth as a channel. There is a\nvery remarkable expression used in the Acts of the Apostles, 'The door\nof faith.' A door is of little value in itself, worth a few shillings at\nthe most, but if it opens the way into a palace then it is worth\nsomething. And all the preciousness that there is in faith comes, not\nfrom its intrinsic value, but from the really precious things which it\ngives into our hands. Just as the dyer's hand may be tinged with royal\npurple, if he has been working in it, or a woman's hand may be scented\nand made fragrant if she has been handling perfumes, so the hand of\nfaith takes tint and fragrance from that with which it is conversant. It\nis precious because it is the channel by which all precious things flow\ninto our hearts and lives. If Ladysmith is, as I suppose it is,\ndependent for its water supply on one lead pipe, the preciousness of\nthat pipe is not measured by what it would fetch if it were put up to\nauction for its lead, but by that which flows through it, and without\nwhich Death would come. And my faith is the pipe by which all the water\nof life comes sparkling and rejoicing into my thirsty soul. It is the\nopening of the door 'that the King of Glory may come in'; it is the\ntaking down of the shutters that the sunshine may blaze into the\ndarkened chamber; it is the grasping of the electric wire that the\ncircuit may be completed. God puts out His hand, and we lay hold of it.\nIt is not the outstretched hand from earth, but the down-stretched hand\nfrom heaven that makes the tottering man stand. So, dear friends, let us\nunderstand that salvation does not come as the reward of faith, but that\nthe salvation is _in_ the faith, because faith is the channel by which\nall God's salvation pours into us. So there is nothing arbitrary in the\nway of salvation, as some shallow thinkers seem to propose, and there is\nno reason in the question, 'Why does God make salvation depend upon\nfaith?' God could not but make salvation depend upon faith, because\nthere is no other possible way by which the blessings which are gathered\ntogether into that one great pregnant word 'salvation' could find their\nway into a man's heart but through the channel of his trust. Have you\nopened that channel? If you have not, you need not wonder it cannot be\notherwise--that salvation does not come unto you.\n\nConsider its worth as a defence. The Apostle in one place speaks about\n'the shield of faith.' But there is nothing in the belief that I am safe\nto make me safe. It is very often a fatal blunder. All depends upon that\nor Him, to which or whom I am trusting for my safety. Put yourself\nbeneath the true Shield--'The Lord God is a sun and shield'--and then\nyou will be safe. Your way of running into the strong tower which alone,\nwith its massive walls, protects us from all danger and from all sin, is\nby trusting Him.\n\nJust as light things on a ship's deck have to be lashed in order to be\nsecured and lie still, you and I have to lash ourselves to Jesus Christ;\nthen, not by reason of the lashings, but by reason of Him, we are\nfastened and secured.\n\nConsider the worth of faith as a means of purifying. This very Apostle,\nin his great speech in Jerusalem, when vindicating the reception of the\nGentiles into the Church, spoke of God as having 'purified their hearts\nby faith.' And here again, I say, there is no cleansing power in the\nact of trust. Cleansing power is in that which, by the act of trust,\ncomes into my heart. Faith is not simple receptivity, not mere passive\nabsorbing of what is given, but it is the active taking by desire as\nwell as by confidence. And when we trust in Jesus Christ, His blood and\nrighteousness, there flows into our hearts that Divine life which, like\na river turned into a dung-heap, will sweep all the filth before it. You\nhave to get the purifying power by faith. Ay! and you have to utilise\nthe purifying power by effort and by work. 'What God hath joined\ntogether, let not men put asunder.'\n\nIII. Now, lastly, note the identity of faith.\n\n'_Like_ precious,' says Peter, and, as I said, there may be defended a\ndouble application of the word, and two sets of pairs of classes may be\nsupposed to have been in his mind. I do not discuss which of these may\nbe the case, only I would suggest to you that from this beautiful\ngathering together of all the diversities of the Christian character,\nconception, and development into one great whole, we are taught that the\none thing that makes a Christian is this trust. That is the universal\ncharacteristic; that is uniform, whatever may differ. Ah! how much and\nhow little it takes to make a Christian. 'Only faith?' you say. Yes,\nthank God! not this, or that, not rites, not anything that a priest can\ndo to you. Not orthodoxy; not morality; these will come, but trust in\nChrist and His blood and righteousness. England is a Christian country;\nis it? This is a Christian congregation; is it? You are a Christian; are\nyou? Are you trusting in that Christ? If you are not; no! though you be\northodox up to the eyebrows, and though seven or seven hundred\nsacraments may have been given to you, and though you be a clean living\nman--all that does not make a Christian, but _this_ does--'Like precious\nfaith with us in the righteousness of God and our Saviour.'\n\nAgain, this great thought of the identity or uniformity of the one\ncharacteristic may suggest to us how Christian faith is one, under all\nvarieties of form. There never has been in the Christian Church again,\nnotwithstanding all our deplorable divisions and schisms, such a\ntremendous cleft as there was in the primitive Church between the Jewish\nand Gentile components thereof. But Peter flings this flying bridge\nacross that abyss, and knits the two sides together, because he knows\nthat away out yonder, amongst the Gentiles, and here in the little\ncircle of the Jewish believers, there was the one faith that unifies\nall.\n\nSo, dear friends, there should be the widest charity, but no vagueness;\nfor the Christian faith in Him which unifies and bridges over all\ndifferences, mental and theological, is the Christ by whose blood we are\ncleansed, with whose righteousness we are made righteous.\n\nAgain, from the same thought flows the other, of the identity of the\nuniform characteristic, at all stages of development or maturity. The\nmustard-seed and the tree, 'which is greater than all herbs,' have the\nsame life in them. And the feeblest, tremulous little spark in some\nheart, just kindled, and scarcely capable of sustaining itself, is one\nwith the flame leaping heaven-high, which lights up and cleanses the\nwhole soul. So for those in advance, humility, and for those in the\nrear, hope. And something more than hope, for if you have the feeblest\nbeginning of tremulous trust, you have that which only needs to be\nfostered to make you like Jesus Christ. Look at what follows our text:\n'Add to your faith, virtue, and to virtue, knowledge,' and so on,\nthrough the whole linked series of Christian graces. They all come out\nof that trust which knits us to Him who is the source of them all. So\nyou and I are responsible for bringing our faith to the highest\ndevelopment of which it is capable.\n\nAlas! alas! are we not all like this very Apostle, who, in an ecstasy of\ntrust and longing, ventured himself on the wave, and as soon as he felt\nthe cold water creeping above his knees lost his trust, and so lost his\nbuoyancy, and was ready to go down like a stone? He had so little faith,\nthat he was beginning to sink; he had so much that he put out his\nhand--a desperate hand it was--and cried, 'Lord, save me!' And the hand\ncame, and that steadied him, and bore him up till the water was beneath\nthe soles of his feet again. 'Lord! I believe; help Thou my unbelief!'\n\n\n\n\nMAN SUMMONED BY GOD'S GLORY AND ENERGY\n\n '... His Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain\n unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath\n called us to glory and virtue.'--2 Peter i. 3.\n\n\n'I knew thee,' said the idle servant in our Lord's parable, 'that thou\nwert an austere man, reaping where thou didst not sow, and gathering\nwhere thou hadst not strewed. I was afraid, and went and hid my talent\nin the earth.' Our Lord would teach us all with that pregnant word the\ngreat truth that if once a man gets it into his head that God's\nprincipal relation to him is to demand, and to command, you will get no\nwork out of that man; that such a notion will paralyse all activity and\ncut the nerve of all service. And the converse is as true, namely, that\nthe one thought about God, which is fruitful of all blessing, joy,\nspontaneous, glad activity, is the thought of Him as giving, and not of\ndemanding, of bestowing, and not of commanding. Teach a man that he is,\nas the book of James has it,'the giving God,' and let that thought soak\ninto the man's heart and mind, and you will get any work out of him. And\nonly when that thought is deep in the spirit will there be true service.\n\nNow that is the connection in which the words of my text come; for they\nare laid as the broad foundation of the great commandment that follows:\n'Beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to\nyour virtue knowledge,' and so on, all the round of the ladder by which\nthe Apostle represents us as climbing up to God. The foundation of this\ninjunction is--God has given you everything. You have got it to begin\nwith, and so do you set yourselves to work, and see that you make the\nthing that is yours your own, and incorporate into your being and into\nthe very substance of your soul, and work out in all the blessed\nactivities of a Christian life, the gifts that His royal and kingly hand\nhas bestowed upon you. Take for granted that God loves you and gives you\nHis whole self, and work on in the fulness of His possessed gift.\n\nThat is the connection of the words before us. I take them just as they\nlie in our passage, dealing first of all with this question--God's call\nto you and me; how it is done. Now I do not know if I can venture to\nindulge any remarks about Biblical criticism, but you will perhaps bear\nwith me just for a moment whilst I say that the people who know a great\ndeal more about such subjects than either you or I, agree with one\nconsent that the proper way of reading this verse of my text is not as\nour Bible has it; 'Him that has called us _to_ glory and virtue,' but\n'Him that hath called us _by_--by his own glory and virtue.' Do you see\nthe difference? In one case the language expresses the things in\nimitation of the Divine nature to which God summons you and me when He\ncalls us. That is how our Bible has taken it; but the deeper thought\nstill is the things in that Divine nature and activity itself which\nconstitute His great summons and invitation of men to His side; and\nthese are the two, whatever they might be, which the Apostle here\ndescribes in that rather peculiar and unusual language for Scripture,\n'Who has called us by His own glory and His own virtue.' I venture to\ndwell on these two points for a moment or two.\n\nNow, first of all, God's glory. Threadbare and consequently vague as the\nexpression is in the minds of a great many people who have heard it with\ntheir ears ever since they were little children, God's glory has a very\ndistinct and definite meaning in Scripture, and all starts, as I think,\nfrom the Old Testament use of the expression, which was the distinct\nspecific name for the supernatural light that lay between the cherubim,\nand brooded over the ark on the mercy-seat. The word signifies\nspecifically and originally the glory of God, and irradiation of a\nmaterial, though supernatural, symbol of His Divine and spiritual\npresence. Very well, lay hold of that material picture, for God teaches\nus as we do our children, with pictures. Take the symbol and lift it up\ninto the spiritual region, and it is just this: the glory of God in its\ndeepest meaning is the irradiation and the perpetual pouring out and out\nand out from Himself, as the rays of the sun stream out from its great\norb, pouring out from Himself the light and the perfectness and the\nbeauty of His own self revelation. And I think we may fairly translate\nand paraphrase the first words of my text into this: God's great way of\nsummoning men to Himself is by laying out His love upon them and letting\nthe fulness of that ineffable and uncreated light, in which is no\ndarkness at all, stream into the else blinded and hopeless lives and\nhearts of men. Then the other side of the Apostle's thought seems to\nme--if we will only strip it of the threadbare technicalities associated\nwith it--as great and wonderful, God's glory and God's virtue. A\nheathenish kind of smack lingers about that word, both as applied to men\nand as applied to God, and so seldom found in the New Testament; but\nmeaning here, as I venture to say, without stopping to show it--meaning\nhere substantially the same thing that we mean by that word energy or\npower. You know old women in country places talk about the virtues of\nplants. They do not mean by this the goodness of plants, but they mean\nthe occult powers which they suppose them able to put forth. We read in\none of the gospels that our Lord Himself said at one singular period of\nHis life that virtue had gone out of Him, meaning thereby not goodness\nbut energy. So I think we get a sufficient equivalent to the Apostle's\nmeaning if for the second two words of my text we read, 'He hath called\nus by the glory, the raying out of his love, and He hath called us by\nthe activity and the energy, the power in action of His great and\nillustrious Spirit.' So you see these two things, the light that streams\nout of an energy which is born of the streaming light. These two things\nare really at bottom but one, various aspects of one idea. Modern\nphysicists tell us that all the activity in the system comes from the\nsun, and in the higher region all the activity comes from the sun, and\nthere is no mightier force in the physical universe than the sunlight.\nLightnings are vulgar, noisy, and limited in contrast. The\nall-conquering force is the light that streams out, and so says Peter in\nhis vivid picturesque way--not meaning the mere talk of philosophy or\ntheology--the manifestation of the glory of God is the mightiest force\nin the whole universe. It is not like the play of the moonbeam upon an\niceberg, ineffectual, cold, merely touching the death without melting or\nwarming it, but it rays out like the sun in the heavens, and the work\ndone by the light is mightier than all our work. By His glory, and by\nthe transcendent energies which reside in that illustrious manifestation\nof the uncreated light, God summons men to Himself. Well, if that is\nanything like fair exposition of the words before us, let me just ask\nyou before I go further to stop on them for one moment. If I may venture\nto say so, put off your theological spectacles for a minute, and do not\nlet us harden this thought down with any mere dogma that can be selected\nin the language of the creeds. Let us try and put it into words a little\nless hackneyed. Suppose, instead of talking about calling, you were to\ntalk about inviting, summoning, beckoning; or I might use tenderer words\nstill--beseeching, wooing, entreating; for all that lies in the thought.\nGod summoning and calling, in that sense, men to Himself, by the raying\nout of His own perfect beauty, and the might with which the beams go\nforth into the darkness. Ah! is not that beautiful, dear brethren; that\nthere is nothing more, indeed, for God to do to draw us to Himself than\nto let us see what He is? So perfectly fair, so sweet, so tender, so\nstrong, so absolutely corresponding to all the necessities of our\nbeings and the hunger of our hearts, that when we see Him we cannot\nchoose but love Him, and that He can do nothing more to call wandering\nhearts back to the light and sweetness of His own heart than to show\nthem Himself. And so from all corners of His universe, and in every\nactivity of His hand and heart and spirit, we can hear a voice saying,\n'Son, give me thine heart.' 'Oh! taste and see that God is good.'\n'Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace; thereby good shall come\nunto thee.'\n\nBut great and wonderful as such a thought seems to be when we look at it\nin the freshness which belongs to it, do you suppose that that was all\nthat Peter was thinking about? Do you think that a wide, general, and if\nyou leave it by itself, vague utterance like that which I have been\nindulging in, would give all the specific precision and fulness of the\nmeaning of the word before us? I think not. I fancy that when this\nApostle wrote these words he remembered a time long, long ago, when\nsomebody stood by the little fishing-cobble there, and as the men were\nup to their knees in slush and dirt, washing their nets, said to them,\n'Follow Me.' I think that was in Peter's estimate God's call to him by\nGod's glory and by God's virtue. And so I pause there for a moment to\nsay that all the lustrous pouring out of light, all that transcendent\nenergy of active love, is not diffused nebulous through a universe; it\nis not even spread in that sense over all the deeds of His hand; but\nwhilst it is everywhere, it has a focus and a centre and a fire. The\nfire is gathered into the Son, Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ in His manhood\nand in His Deity; Jesus Christ in His life, passion, death,\nresurrection, ascension, and kingly reign. The whole creation, as this\nNew Testament proclaims Him to us, is God's glory and God's virtue,\nwhereby He draws men to Himself. I cannot stay to dwell on that thought\nas I should be glad to do. Let me just remind you of the two parts into\nwhich it splits itself up; and I commend it, dogmatically as I have to\nstate it in such an audience as this--I commend it to the multitudes of\nyoung men here present. The highest form of the Divine glory is Jesus\nChrist, not the attributes with which men clothe the Divinity, not those\nabstractions which you find in books of theology. All that is but the\nfringe of the glory. And I tell you, dear friends, the living white\nlight at the centre and heart of all the radiance of the flame is the\nlight of life which is conveyed into the gentle Christ. As the Apostle\nJohn has it, 'We beheld His glory.' Yes, and taking and binding together\nthe two words which people have so often treated against each other, 'We\nbeheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full\nof grace and truth,' the highest light in Him that says, 'I am the light\nof the world'--very light of very light. As a much maligned document has\nit,'very light of very light,' the brightness of His glory, the\nirradiation of His splendour, and the express image of His person. And\nas the light so the power. Christ the power; power in its highest,\nnoblest form, the power of patient gentleness and Divine suffering;\npower in its widest sweep, 'unto every one that believeth'; power in its\nmost wondrous operation, 'the power of God unto salvation.' So I come to\nyou, I hope, with one message on my lips and in my heart. If you want\nlight, look to Christ. If you want to behold that unveiled face, the\nglory of the Lord, turn to Him, and let His sunshine smite you on the\nface as the light smote Stephen, and then you can say, 'He that hath\nseen Him hath seen the Father.' My brother, the highest, noblest,\nperfect, and, as I believe, final form in which all God's glory, all\nGod's energy, are gathered together, and make their appeal to you and\nme, was when a Galilean peasant stood up in a little knot of forgotten\nJews and said to them, and through them to you and me, 'Come unto Me all\nye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' He calls\nby His glory and by His virtue.\n\nNow still further. Confining myself as before to the words as they lie\nhere in this text, let me ask you to think, and that for a moment or two\nonly, on the great and wondrous purpose which this Divine energy and\nlight had in view in summoning us to itself. His Divine power hath given\nunto us all things that pertain to life and all things that pertain to\ngodliness. Look at that! One of the old Psalms says: 'Gather my saints\ntogether unto me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice;\nassemble them all before my throne, and I will judge my people.' Is that\nthe last and final revelation of God's purpose of drawing men to Him? Is\nthat why He sends out His heralds and summons through the whole\nintelligent creation? Nay, something better. Not to judge, not to\nscourge, not to chastise, not to avenge. To give. This is the meaning of\nthat summons that comes out through the whole earth, 'Come up hither,'\nthat when we get there we may be flooded with the richness of His mercy,\nand that He may pour His whole soul out over us in the greatness of His\ngifts. This is God, and the perpetual activity summoning men to Himself\nthat there He may bless them. He makes our hearts empty that He may fill\nthem. He shapes us as we are that we may need Him and may recreate\nourselves in Him. He says, 'Bring all your vessels and I will fill them\nfull.' Now look in this part of my subject at what I may venture to call\nthe magnificent confidence that this Peter has in the--what shall I\nsay?--the encyclopaedical--if I may use a long word--and universal\ncharacter of God. All things that pertain to life, all things that\npertain to godliness. And somebody says, 'Yes, that is tautology, that\nis saying the same thing twice over in different language.' Never mind,\nsays Peter, so much the better, it will help to express the exuberant\nabundance and fulness. He takes a leaf out of his brother Paul's book.\nHe is often guilty when he speaks of God's gifts of that same sin of\ntautology, as for instance, 'Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding,\nabundantly, above all'--there are four of them--'all that we can ask or\nthink.' Yes, in all forms language is but faint and feeble, weak and\npoor in the presence of that great miracle of a love that passeth\nknowledge and that we may know the heights and depths. And so says our\nApostle, 'All things that pertain to life, all things that pertain to\ngodliness.' The whole circle all round, all the 360 degrees of it, God's\nlove will come down and lie on the top of it as it were, superimposed,\nso that there should not be a single gift where there is a flaw or a\ndefect. Everything you want of life, everything you want for godliness.\nYes, of course, the gift must bear some kind of proportion to the giver.\nYou do not expect a millionaire to put down half a crown to a\nsubscription list if he gives anything at all. And God says to you and\nme, 'Come and look at My storehouses, count if you can those golden\nvases filled with treasure, look at those massive ingots of bullion,\ngaze into the vanishing distances of the infiniteness of My nature and\nof My possessions, and then listen to Me. I give thee Myself--Myself,\nthat ye may be filled with all the fulness of God. All things that\npertain to life, all things that pertain to godliness. But I cannot pass\non from this part of my subject without venturing one more remark. It is\nthis: I do not suppose it is too minute, verbal criticism. This great\nencyclopaediacal gift is represented in my text, not as a thing that you\nare going to get, Christian men and women, but as a thing that you have\ngotten. And any of you that are able to test the correctness of my\nassertion will see I have thought the form of language used in the\noriginal is such as to point still more specifically than in our\ntranslation, to some one definite act in the past in which all that\nfulness of glory and virtue of life and godliness was given to us men.\nIs there any doubt as to what that is? We talk sometimes as if we had to\nask God to give us more. God cannot give you any more than He gave you\nnineteen hundred years ago. It was all in Christ. Get a very vulgar\nillustration which is altogether inadequate for a great many purposes,\nbut may serve for one. Suppose some man told you that there was a\nthousand pounds paid to your credit at a London bank, and that you were\nto get the use of it as you drew cheques against it. Well, the money is\nthere, is it not? The gift is given, and yet for all that you may be\ndying, and half-dead, a pauper. I was reading a book only the other day\nwhich contained a story that comes in here. An Arctic expedition, some\nyears ago, found an ammunition chest that Commander Parry had left fifty\nyears ago, safe under a pile of stones. The wood of the chest had not\nrotted yet; the provisions inside of it were perfectly sweet, and good,\nand eatable. There it had lain all those years. Men had died of\nstarvation within arm's length of it. It was there all the same. And\nso, if I might venture to vulgarise the great theme that I try to speak\nabout, God has given us His Son, and in Him, all that pertains to life\nand all that pertains to godliness. My brother, take the things that are\nfreely given to you of God.\n\nAnd so that leads me to one last word, and it shall only be a word, in\nregard to what our text tells us of the way by which on our side we can\nyield to this Divine call, and receive this Divine fulness of gifts,\nthrough the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory. Through the\nknowledge! Yes, well there are two kinds of knowledge, are there not?\nThere is the knowledge by which you know a book, for instance, on the\nsubject of study, and there is the knowledge by which you know one\nanother; and the kind of thing I mean when I say, 'I know mathematics,'\nis entirely different to what I mean when I say, 'I know John, Thomas,'\nor whoever he may be. And I venture to say that the knowledge, which is\nthe condition of receiving the whole fulness of the glory and the whole\nfulness of the light, is a great deal more like the thing we mean when\nwe talk of knowing one another than when we talk of knowing a book. That\nis to say, a man may have all the creeds and confessions of faith clear\nin his head, and yet none of the life, none of the light, none of the\npower, and none of the godliness. But if we know Him as our brother,\nknow Him as our friend, our sacrifice, our Redeemer, Lord, all in all;\nknow Him as our heaven, our righteousness, and our strength; if we know\nHim with the knowledge which is possession; if we know Him with the\nknowledge which, as the profoundest of the Apostles says, 'hath the\ntruth in life'; if we know Him, see then, 'This is life eternal, to\nknow Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.'\n\nNow, friends, my words are done. God is calling you. No, let us put it a\nlittle more definitely than that--God is calling _thee_. There is no\nspeech nor language where His voice is not heard. His words are gone out\nto the end of the world, and have reached even thyself. He calls thee,\noh! brother, sister, friend, that you and I may turn round to Him and\nsay, 'When Thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy\nface, Lord, will I seek.' Amen.\n\n\n\n\nPARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE\n\n 'He hath given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that\n by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped\n the corruption that is in the world through lust.'--2 Peter i. 4.\n\n\n'Partakers of the Divine nature.' These are bold words, and may be so\nunderstood as to excite the wildest and most presumptuous dreams. But\nbold as they are, and startling as they may sound to some of us, they\nare only putting into other language the teaching of which the whole New\nTestament is full, that men may, and do, by their faith, receive into\ntheir spirits a real communication of the life of God. What else does\nthe language about being 'the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty'\nmean? What else does the teaching of regeneration mean? What else mean\nChrist's frequent declarations that He dwells in us and we in Him, as\nthe branch in the vine, as the members in the body? What else does 'he\nthat is joined to the Lord in one spirit' mean? Do not all teach that in\nsome most real sense the very purpose of Christianity, for which God\nhas sent His Son, and His Son has come, is that we, poor, sinful, weak,\nlimited, ignorant creatures as we are, may be lifted up into that solemn\nand awful elevation, and receive in our trembling and yet strengthened\nsouls a spark of God? 'That ye may be partakers of the Divine nature'\nmeans more than 'that you may share in the blessings which that nature\nbestows.' It means that into us may come the very God Himself.\n\nI. So I want you to look with me, first, at this lofty purpose which is\nhere presented as being the very aim and end of God's gift in the\ngospel.\n\nThe human nature and the Divine are both kindred and contrary. And the\nwhole Bible is remarkable for the emphasis with which it insists upon\nboth these elements of the comparison, declaring, on the one hand, as no\nother religion has ever declared, the supreme sovereign, unapproachable\nelevation of the infinite Being above all creatures, and on the other\nhand, holding forth the hope, as no other religion has ever ventured to\ndo, of the possible union of the loftiest and the lowest, and the\nlifting of the creature into union with God Himself. There are no gods\nof the heathen so far away from their worshippers, and there are none so\nnear them, as our God. There is no god that men have bowed before, so\nunlike the devotee; and there is no system which recognises that, as is\nthe Maker so are the made, in such thorough-going fashion as the Bible\ndoes. The arched heaven, though high above us, it is not inaccessible in\nits serene and cloudless beauty, but it touches earth all round the\nhorizon, and man is made in the image of God.\n\nTrue, that divine nature of which the ideal man is the possessor has\nfaded away from humanity. But still the human is kindred with the\ndivine. The drop of water is of one nature with the boundless ocean that\nrolls shoreless beyond the horizon, and stretches plumbless into the\nabysses. The tiniest spark of flame is of the same nature as those\nleaping, hydrogen spears of illuminated gas that spring hundreds of\nthousands of miles high in a second or two in the great central sun.\n\nAnd though on the one hand there be finiteness and on the other\ninfinitude: though we have to talk, in big words, of which we have very\nlittle grasp, about 'Omniscience,' and 'Omnipresence,' and 'Eternity,'\nand such like, these things may be deducted and yet the Divine nature\nmay be retained; and the poor, ignorant, finite, dying creature, that\nperishes before the moth, may say, 'I am kindred with Him whose years\nknow no end; whose wisdom knows no uncertainty nor growth; whose power\nis Omnipotence; and whose presence is everywhere.' He that can say, 'I\nam,' is of the same nature as His whose mighty proclamation of Himself\nis 'I AM THAT I AM.' He who can say 'I will' is of the same nature as He\nwho willeth and it is done.\n\nBut that kindred, belonging to every soul of man, abject as well as\nloftiest, is not the 'partaking' of which my text speaks; though it is\nthe basis and possibility of it; for my text speaks of men as\n'_becoming_ partakers,' and of that participation as the result, not of\nhumanity, but of God's gift of 'exceeding great and precious promises.'\nThat creation in the image and likeness of God, which is represented as\ncrowned by the very breath of God breathed into man's nostrils implies\nnot only kindred with God in personality and self-conscious will, but\nalso in purity and holiness. The moral kindred has darkened into\nunlikeness, but the other remains. It is not the gift here spoken of,\nbut it supplies the basis which makes that gift possible. A dog could\nnot become possessor of the Divine nature, in the sense in which my text\nspeaks of it. Any man, however bad, however foolish, however degraded,\nabject and savage, can become a partaker of it, and yet no man has it\nwithout something else than the fact of his humanity.\n\nWhat, then, is it? No mere absorption, as extravagant mystics have\ndreamed, into that Divine nature, as a drop goes back into the ocean and\nis lost. There will always be 'I' and 'thou,' or else there were no\nblessedness, nor worship, nor joy. We must so partake of the Divine\nnature as that the bounds between the bestowing God and the partaking\nman shall never be broken down. But that being presupposed, union as\nclose as is possible, the individuality of the giver and the receiver\nbeing untampered with is the great hope that all Christian men and women\nought consciously to cherish.\n\nOnly mark, the beginning of the whole is the communication of a Divine\nlife which is manifested mainly in what we call moral likeness. Or to\nput it into plain words, the teaching of my text is no dreamy teaching,\nsuch as an eastern mystic might proclaim, of absorption into an\nimpersonal Divine. There is no notion here of any partaking of these\ngreat though secondary attributes of the Divine mind which to many men\nare the most Godlike parts of His nature. But what my text mainly means\nis, you may, if you like, become 'holy as God is holy.' You may become\nloving as God is loving, and with a breath of His own life breathed into\nyour hearts. The central Divinity in the Divine, if I may so say, is the\namalgam of holiness and love. That is God; the rest is what belongs to\nGod. God _has_ power; God _is_ love. That is the regnant attribute, the\nspring that sets everything agoing. And so, when my text talks about\nmaking us all, if we will, partakers of a Divine nature, what it means,\nmainly, is this--that into every human spirit there may pass a seed of\nDivine life which will unfold itself there in all purity of holiness, in\nall tenderness and gentleness of love. 'God is love; and he that\ndwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.' Partakers we shall be\nin the measure in which by our faith we have drawn from Him the pure and\nthe hearty love of whatever things are fair and noble; the measure in\nwhich we love righteousness and hate iniquity.\n\nAnd then remember also that this lofty purpose which is here set forth\nis a purpose growingly realised in man. The Apostle puts great stress\nupon that word in my text, which, unfortunately, is not rendered\nadequately in our Bible, 'that by these ye might _become_ partakers of\nthe Divine nature.' He is not talking about a _being_, but about a\n_becoming_. That is to say, God must ever be passing, moment by moment,\ninto our hearts if there is to be anything godly there. No more\ncertainly must this building, if we are to see, be continually filled\nwith light-beams that are urged from the central sun by its impelling\nforce than the spirit must be receiving, by momentary communication, the\ngift of life from God if it is to live. Cut off the sunbeam from the sun\nand it dies, and the house is dark; cut off the life from the root and\nit withers, and the creature shrivels. The Christian man lives only by\ncontinual derivation of life from God; and for ever and ever the secret\nof his being and of his blessedness is not that he has become a\npossessor, but that he has become a partaker, of the Divine nature.\n\nAnd that participation ought to, and will, be a growing thing. By daily\nincrease we shall be made capable of daily increase. Life is growth; the\nDivine life in Him is not growth, but in us it does grow, and our\ninfancy will be turned into youth; and our youth into maturity; and,\nblessed be His name, the maturity will be a growing one, to which grey\nhairs and feebleness will never come, nor a term ever be set. More and\nmore of God we may receive every day we live, and through the endless\nages of eternity; and if we have Him in our hearts, we shall live as\nlong as there is anything more to pass from God to us. Until the\nfountain has poured its whole fulness into the cistern, the cistern will\nnever be broken. He who becomes partaker of the Divine nature can never\ndie. So as Christ taught us the great argument for immortality is the\npresent relation between God and us, and the fact that He is the God of\nAbraham points to the resurrection life.\n\nII. Look, in the second place, at the costly and sufficient means\nemployed for the realisation of this great purpose. 'He hath given to us\nexceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might become\npartakers,' etc.\n\nOf course the mere words of a promise will not communicate this Divine\nlife to men's souls. 'Promises' here must necessarily, I think, be\nemployed in the sense of fulfilment of the promises. And so we might\nthink of all the great and wondrous words which God has spoken in the\npast, promises of deliverance, of forgiveness, and the like; but I am\nrather disposed to believe that the extreme emphasis of the epithets\nwhich the Apostle selects to describe these promised things now\nfulfilled suggests another interpretation.\n\nI believe that by these 'exceeding great and precious promises' is\nmeant the unspeakable gift of God's own Son, and the gift therein and\nthereafter of God's life-giving Spirit. For is not this the meaning of\nthe central fact of Christianity, the incarnation--that the Divine\nbecomes partaker of the human in order that the human may partake of the\nDivine? Is not Christ's coming the great proof that however high the\nheavens may stretch above the flat, sad earth, still the Divine nature\nand the human are so kindred that God can enter into humanity and be\nmanifest in the flesh? Contrariety vanishes; the difference between the\ncreature and the Creator disappears. These mere distinctions of power\nand weakness, of infinitude and finiteness, of wisdom and of ignorance,\nof undying being and decaying life, vanish, as of secondary consequence,\nwhen we can say, 'the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.' There can\nbe no insuperable obstacle to man's being lifted up into a union with\nthe Divine, since the Divine found no insuperable obstacle in descending\nto enter into union with the human.\n\nSo then, because God has given us His Son it is clear that we may become\npartakers of the Divine nature; inasmuch as He, the Divine, has become\npartaker of the children's flesh and blood, and in that coming of the\nDivine into the human there was brought the seed and the germ of a life\nwhich can be granted to us all. Brethren! there is one way, and one way\nonly, by which any of us can partake of this great and wondrous gift of\na share in God, and it is through Jesus Christ. 'No man hath ascended up\ninto Heaven,' nor ever will either climb or fly there, 'save He that\ncame down from Heaven; even the Son of man which is in Heaven.' And in\nHim we may ascend, and in Him we may receive God.\n\nChrist is the true Prometheus, if I may so speak, who brings to earth in\nthe fragile reed of his humanity the sacred and immortal fire which may\nbe kindled in every heart. Open your hearts to Him by faith and He will\ncome in, and with Him the rejoicing life which will triumph over the\ndeath of self and sin, and give to you a share in the nature of God.\n\nIII. Let me say, lastly, that this great text adds a human accompaniment\nof that Divine gift: 'Having escaped the corruption that is in the world\nthrough lust.'\n\nThe only condition of receiving this Divine nature is the opening of the\nheart by faith to Him, the Divine human Christ, who is the bond between\nmen and God, and gives it to us. But that condition being presupposed,\nthis important clause supplies the conduct which attends and attests the\npossession of the Divine nature.\n\nNotice, here is human nature without God, described as 'the corruption\nthat is in the world in lust.' It is like a fungus, foul-smelling,\nslimy, poisonous; whose growth looks rather the working of decay than of\nvitality. And, says my text, that is the kind of thing that human nature\nis if God is _not_ in it. There is an 'either' and 'or' here. On the one\nhand we must have a share in the Divine nature, or, on the other, we\nhave a share in the putrescence 'that is in the world through lust.'\n\nCorruption is initial destruction, though of course other forms of life\nmay come from it; destruction is complete corruption. The word means\nboth. A man either escapes from lust and evil, or he is destroyed by\nit.\n\nAnd the root of this rotting fungus is 'in lust,' which word, of course,\nis used in a much wider meaning than the fleshly sense in which we\nemploy it in modern times. It means 'desire' of all sorts. The root of\nthe world's corruption is my own and my brothers' unbridled and godless\ndesires.\n\nSo there are two states--a life plunged in putridity, or a heart touched\nwith the Divine nature. Which is it to be? It cannot be both. It must be\none or the other. Which?\n\nA man that has got the life of God, in however feeble measure, in him,\nwill flee away from this corruption like Lot out of Sodom. And how will\nhe flee out of it? By subduing his own desires; not by changing\nposition, not by shirking duty, not by withdrawing himself into\nunwholesome isolation from men and men's ways. The corruption is not\nonly 'in the world,' so that you could get rid of it by getting out of\nthe world, but it is 'in the world in lust,' so that you carry the\nfountain of it within yourself. The only way to escape is by no outward\nflight, but by casting out the unclean thing from our own souls.\n\nDepend upon it, the measure in which a man has the love of God in him\ncan be very fairly estimated by the extent to which he is doing this.\nThere is a test for you Christian people. There have been plenty of men\nand women in all ages of the Church, and they abound in this generation,\nwho will make no scruple of declaring that they possess a portion of\nthis Divine Spirit and a spark of God in their souls. Well then, I say,\nhere is the test, bring it all to this--does that life within you cast\nout your own evil desires? If it does, well; if it does not, the less\nyou say about Christ in your hearts the less likely you will be to\nbecome either a hypocrite, or a self-deceiver.\n\nAnd so, brethren, remember, one last word, viz., that whilst on the one\nhand whoever has the life of God in his heart will be fleeing from this\ncorruption, on the other hand you can weaken--ay! and you can kill the\nDivine life by not so fleeing. You have got it, if you have it, to\nnourish, to cherish, and to do that most of all by obeying it. If you do\nnot obey, and if habitually you keep the plant with all its buds picked\noff one after another as they begin to form, you will kill it sooner or\nlater. You Christian men and women take warning. God has given you Jesus\nChrist. It was worth while for Christ to live; it was worth while for\nChrist to die, in order that into the souls of all sinful,\nGod-forgetting, devil-following men there might pass this Promethean\nspark of the true fire.\n\nYou get it, if you will, by simple faith. You will not keep it unless\nyou obey it. Mind you do not quench the Holy Spirit, and extinguish the\nvery life of God in your souls.\n\n\n\n\nTHE POWER OF DILIGENCE\n\n 'Giving all diligence, add to your faith ...'--2 Peter i. 5.\n\n\nIt seems to me very like Peter that there should be so much in this\nletter about the very commonplace and familiar excellence of diligence.\nHe over and over again exhorts to it as the one means to the attainment\nof all Christian graces, and of all the blessedness of the Christian\nlife. We do not expect fine-spun counsels from a teacher whose natural\nbent is, like his, but plain, sturdy, common sense, directed to the\nhighest matter, and set aglow by fervent love to his Lord. The Apostle\npaints himself, and his own way of Christian living, when he thus\nfrequently exhorts his brethren to 'give all diligence.' He says in this\nsame chapter that he himself will 'give diligence [_endeavour_, in\nAuthorised Version] that they may be able after his decease to have\nthese things always in remembrance.' We seem to see Peter, not much\naccustomed to wield a pen, sitting down to what he felt a somewhat\ndifficult task, and pointing the readers to his own example as an\ninstance of the temper which they must cherish if they are to make\nanything of their Christian life. 'Just as I labour for your sakes at\nthis unfamiliar work of writing, so do you toil at perfecting your\nChristian graces.'\n\nNow it strikes me that we may gain some instruction if we throw together\nthe various objects to which in Scripture, and especially in this\nletter, we are exhorted to direct this virtue of diligence, and mark how\ncomprehensive its range, and how, for all beauty of character and\nprogress in the Divine life, it is regarded as an indispensable\ncondition. Let us then look, first, at the homely excellence that is the\nmaster-key to all Christian maturity and grace, and then at the various\nfields in which we are to apply it.\n\nI. Now as to the homely virtue itself, 'giving all diligence.'\n\nWe all know what 'diligence' means, but it is worth while to point out\nthat the original meaning of the word is not so much _diligence_ as\n_haste_. It is employed, for instance, to describe the eager swiftness\nwith which the Virgin went to Elizabeth after the angel's salutation and\nannunciation. It is the word employed to describe the murderous hurry\nwith which Herodias came rushing in to the king to demand John the\nBaptist's head. It is the word with which the Apostle, left solitary in\nhis prison, besought his sole trusty companion Timothy to 'make haste so\nas to come to him before winter.' Thus, the first notion in the word is\nhaste, which crowds every moment with continuous effort, and lets no\nhindrances entangle the feet of the runner. Wise haste has sometimes to\nbe content to go slowly. 'Raw haste' is 'half sister to delay.' When\nhaste degenerates into hurry, and becomes agitation, it is weakness, not\nstrength; it turns out superficial work, which has usually to be pulled\nto pieces and done over again, and it is sure to be followed by reaction\nof languid idleness. But the less we hurry the more should we hasten in\nrunning the race set before us.\n\nBut with this caution against spurious haste, we cannot too seriously\nlay to heart the solemn motives to wise and well-directed haste. The\nmoments granted to any of us are too few and precious to let slip\nunused. The field to be cultivated is too wide and the possible harvest\nfor the toiler too abundant, and the certain crop of weeds in the\nsluggard's garden too poisonous, to allow dawdling to be considered a\nvenial fault. Little progress will be made if we do not work as feeling\nthat 'the night is far spent, the day is at hand,' or as feeling the\napparently opposite but really identical conviction, 'I must work the\nworks of Him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man\ncan work.' The day of full salvation, repose, and blessedness is near\ndawning. The night of weeping, the night of toil, is nearly past. By\nboth aspects of this brief life we should be spurred to haste.\n\nThe first element, then, in Christian diligence is economy of time as of\nmost precious treasure, and the avoidance, as of a pestilence, of all\nprocrastination. 'To-morrow and to-morrow' is the opiate with which\nsluggards and cowards set conscience asleep, and as each to-morrow\nbecomes to-day it proves as empty of effort as its predecessors, and,\nwhen it has become yesterday, it adds one more to the solemn company of\nwasted opportunities which wait for a man at the bar of God. 'All their\nyesterdays have lighted' such idlers 'to dusty death,' because in each\nthey were saying, 'to-morrow we will begin the better course,' instead\nof beginning it to-day. 'Now is the accepted time.' 'Wherefore, giving\nall haste, add to your faith.'\n\nAnother of the phases of the virtue, which Peter here regards as\nsovereign, is represented in our translation of the word by\n'earnestness,' which is the parent of diligence. Earnestness is the\nsentiment, of which diligence is the expression. So the word is\nfrequently translated. Hence we gather that no Christian growth is\npossible unless a man gives his mind to it. Dawdlers will do nothing.\nThere must be fervour if there is to be growth. The heated bar of iron\nwill go through the obstacle which the cold one will never penetrate. We\nmust gather ourselves together under the impulse of an all-pervading and\nnoble earnestness, too deep to be demonstrative, and which does not\nwaste itself in noise, but settles down steadily to work. The engine\nthat is giving off its steam in white puffs is not working at its full\npower. When we are most intent we are most silent. Earnestness is dumb,\nand therefore it is terrible.\n\nAgain we come to the more familiar translation of the word as in the\ntext. 'Diligence' is the panacea for all diseases of the Christian\nlife. It is the homely virtue that leads to all success. It is a great\nthing to be convinced of this, that there are no mysteries about the\nconditions of healthy Christian living, but that precisely the same\nqualities which lead to victory in any career to which a man sets\nhimself do so in this; that, on the one hand, we shall never fail if in\nearnest and saving the crumbs of moments, we give ourselves to the work\nof Christian growth; and that on the other hand, no fine emotions, no\nselect moments of rapture and communion will ever avail to take the\nplace of the dogged perseverance and prosaic hard work which wins in all\nother fields; and wins, and is the only thing that does win, in this one\ntoo. If you want to be a strong Christian--that is to say, a happy\nman--you must bend your back to the work and 'give all diligence.'\nNobody goes to heaven in his sleep. No man becomes a vigorous Christian\nby any other course than 'giving all diligence.' It is a very lowly\nvirtue. It is like some of the old wives' recipes for curing diseases\nwith some familiar herb that grows at every cottage door. People will\nnot have that, but if you bring them some medicine from far away, very\nrare and costly, and suggest to them some course out of the beaten rut\nof ordinary, honest living, they will jump at that. Quackery always\ndeals in mysteries and rare things. The great physician cures diseases\nwith simples that grow everywhere. A pennyworth of some familiar root\nwill cure an illness that nothing else will touch. It is a homely\nvirtue, but if in its homeliness we practised it, this Church and our\nown souls would wear a different face from what it and they do to-day.\n\nII. Note the wide field of action for this homely grace.\n\nI can do nothing more--nor is it necessary that I should--than put\nbefore your mind, in a sentence or two, the various applications of it\nwhich our letter gives.\n\nFirst, note that in our text, 'giving all diligence, add to your faith.'\nThat is to say, unless you work with haste, with earnestness, and\ntherefore with much putting forth of strength, your faith will not\nevolve the graces of character which is in it to bring forth. If, on the\nother hand, we set ourselves to our tasks, then out of faith will come,\nas the blossoms mysteriously and miraculously do out of an apparently\ndead stump, virtue, manliness, and knowledge, and temperance, and\npatience, and godliness, and brotherly mindedness, and charity. All that\ngalaxy of light and beauty will shine forth on the one condition of\ndiligence, and it will not appear without that. Without it, the faith,\nthough it may be genuine, which lies in a man who is idle in cultivating\nChristian character, will bear but few and shrivelled fruits. The\nApostle uses a very remarkable expression here, which is rendered in our\nBible imperfectly 'giving all diligence.' He has just been saying that\nGod has 'given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, and\nexceeding great and precious promises.' The Divine gift, then, is\neverything that will help a man to live a high and godly life. And, says\nPeter, on this very account, because you have all these requisites for\nsuch a life already given you, see that you 'bring besides into' the\nheap of gifts, as it were, that which you and only you can bring,\nnamely, 'all diligence.' The phrase implies that diligence is our\ncontribution. And the very reason for exercising it is the completeness\nof God's gift. 'On this very account'--because He has given so much--we\nare to lay 'all diligence' by the side of His gifts, which are useless\nto the sluggard.\n\nOn the one hand there are all great gifts and boundless possibilities as\nto life and godliness, and on the other diligence as the condition on\nwhich all these shall actually become ours, and, passing into our lives,\nwill there produce all these graces which the Apostle goes on to\nenumerate. The condition is nothing recondite, nothing hard either to\nunderstand or to practise, but it is simply that commonplace, humdrum\nvirtue of diligence. If we will put it forth, then the gifts that God\nhas given, and which are not really ours unless we put it forth, will\npass into the very substance of our being, and unfold themselves\naccording to the life that is in them; even the life that is in Jesus\nChrist Himself, in all forms of beauty and sweetness and power and\nblessedness. 'Diligence' makes faith fruitful. Diligence makes God's\ngifts ours.\n\nThen, again, the Apostle gives an even more remarkable view of the\npossible field for this all-powerful diligence when he bids his readers\nexercise it in order to 'make their calling and election sure.' Peter's\nfirst letter shows that he believed that Christians were 'chosen\naccording to the foreknowledge of God the Father.' But for all that he\nis not a bit afraid of putting the other side of the truth, and saying\nto us in effect. 'We cannot read the eternal decrees of God nor know the\nnames written in the Book of Life. These are mysteries above us. But if\nyou want to be sure that you are one of the called and chosen, work and\nyou will get the assurance.' The confirmation of the 'call,' of the\n'election,' both in fact and in my consciousness depends upon my action.\nThe 'diligence,' of which the Apostle thinks such great things, reaches,\nas it were, a hand up into heaven and binds a man to that great\nunrevealed, electing purpose of God. If we desire that upon our\nChristian lives there shall shine the perpetual sunshine of an\nunclouded confidence that we have the love and the favour of God, and\nthat for us there is no condemnation, but only 'acceptance in the\nbeloved,' the short road to it is the well-known and trite path of toil\nin the Christian life.\n\nStill further, one of the other writers of the New Testament gives us\nanother field in which this virtue may expatiate, when the author of the\nEpistle to the Hebrews exhorts to diligence, in order to attain 'the\nfull assurance of hope.' If we desire that our path should be brightened\nby the clear vision of our blessed future beyond the grave, and above\nthe stars, and within the bosom of God, the road to that happy assurance\nand sunny, cloudless confidence in a future of rest and fellowship with\nGod lies simply here--work! as Christian men should, whilst it is called\nto-day.\n\nThe last of the fields in which this virtue finds exercise is expressed\nby our letter, when Peter says, 'Seeing that we look for such things,\nlet us _be diligent_, that we may be found of Him in peace without spot,\nand blameless.' If we are to be 'found in peace,' we must be 'found\nspotless,' and if we are to be 'found spotless' we must be 'diligent.'\n'If that servant begin to say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;\nand to be slothful, and to eat and drink with the drunken, the lord of\nthat servant will come in an hour when he is not aware.' On the other\nhand, 'who is that faithful servant whom his lord hath set ruler over\nhis household? Blessed is that servant whom his lord when he cometh\nshall find so doing?' Doing so, and diligently doing it, 'he shall be\nfound in peace.'\n\nWhat a beautiful ideal of Christian life results from putting together\nall these items. A fruitful faith, a sure calling, a cloudless hope, a\npeaceful welcome at last! The Old Testament says, 'The hand of the\ndiligent maketh rich'; the New Testament promises unchangeable riches to\nthe same hand. The Old Testament says, 'Seest thou a man diligent in his\nbusiness, he shall stand before kings.' The New Testament assures us\nthat the noblest form of that promise shall be fulfilled in the\nChristian man's communion with his Lord here, and perfected when the\ndiligent disciple shall 'be found of Him in peace,' and stand before the\nKing in that day, accepted and himself a king.\n\n\n\n\nGOING OUT AND GOING IN\n\n 'An entrance ... my decease.'--2 Peter i. 11, 15.\n\n\nI do not like, and do not often indulge in, the practice of taking\nfragments of Scripture for a text, but I venture to isolate these two\nwords, because they correspond to one another, and when thus isolated\nand connected, bring out very prominently two aspects of one thing. In\nthe original the correspondence is even closer, for the words, literally\nrendered, are 'a going in' and 'a going out.' The same event is looked\nat from two sides. On the one it is a departure; on the other it is an\narrival. That event, I need not say, is Death.\n\nI note, further, that the expression rendered, 'my decease,' employs the\nword which is always used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament\nto express the departure of the Children of Israel from bondage, and\nwhich gives its name, in our language, to the Second Book of the\nPentateuch. 'My exodus'--associations suggested by the word can scarcely\nfail to have been in the writer's mind.\n\nFurther, I note that this expression for Death is only employed once\nagain in the New Testament--viz., in St. Luke's account of the\nTransfiguration, where Moses and Elias spake with Jesus 'concerning His\ndecease--the exodus--which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.' If you\nlook on to the verses which follow the second of my texts, you will see\nthat the Apostle immediately passes on to speak about that\nTransfiguration, and about the voice which He heard then in the holy\nmount. So that I think we must suppose that in the words of our second\ntext he was already beginning to think about the Transfiguration, and\nwas feeling that, somehow or other, his 'exodus' was to be conformed to\nhis Master's.\n\nNow bearing all these points in mind, let us just turn to these words\nand try to gather the lessons which they suggest.\n\nI. The first of them is this, the double Christian aspect of death.\n\nIt is well worth noting that the New Testament very seldom condescends\nto use that name for the mere physical fact of dissolution. It reserves\nit for the most part for something a great deal more dreadful than the\nseparation of body and soul, and uses all manner of periphrases, or what\nrhetoricians call euphemising, that is, gentle expressions which put the\nbest face upon a thing instead of the ugly word itself. It speaks, for\ninstance, as you may remember, in the context here about the 'putting\noff' of a tent or 'a tabernacle,' blending the notions of stripping off\na garment and pulling down a transitory abode. It speaks about death as\na sleep, and in that and other ways sets it forth in gracious and gentle\naspects, and veils the deformity, and loves and hopes away the\ndreadfulness of it.\n\nNow other languages and other religions besides Christianity have done\nthe same things, and Roman and Greek poets and monuments have in like\nmanner avoided the grim, plain word--death, but they have done it for\nexactly the opposite reason from that for which the Christian does it.\nThey did it because the thing was so dark and dismal, and because they\nknew so little and feared so much about it. And Christianity does it for\nexactly the opposite reason, because it fears it not at all, and knows\nit quite enough. So it toys with leviathan, and 'lays its hand on the\ncockatrice den,' and my text is an instance of this.\n\n'My decease ... an entrance.' So the terribleness and mystery dwindled\ndown into this--a change of position; or if locality is scarcely the\nright class of ideas to apply to spirits detached from the body--a\nchange of condition. That is all.\n\nWe do not need to insist upon the notion of change of place. For, as I\nsay, we get into a fog when we try to associate place with pure\nspiritual existence. But the root of the conviction which is expressed\nin both these phrases, and most vividly by their juxtaposition, is this,\nthat what happens at death is not the extinction, but the withdrawal, of\na person, and that the man _is_, as fully, as truly as he was, though\nall the relations in which he stands may be altered.\n\nNow no materialistic teaching has any right to come in and bar that\nclear faith and firm conclusion. For by its very saying that it knows\nnothing about life except in connection with organisation, it\nacknowledges that there is a difference between them. And until science\ncan tell me how it is that the throb of a brain or the quiver of a\nnerve, becomes transformed into morality, into emotion, I maintain that\nit knows far too little of personality and of life to be a valid\nauthority when it asserts that the destruction of the organisation is\nthe end of the man. I feel myself perfectly free--in the darkness in\nwhich, after all investigation, that mysterious transformation of the\nphysical into the moral and the spiritual lies--I feel perfectly free to\nlisten to another voice, the voice which tells me that life can subsist,\nand that personal being can be as full--ay, fuller--apart altogether\nfrom the material frame which here, and by our present experience, is\nits necessary instrument. And though accepting all that physical\ninvestigation can teach us, we can still maintain that its light does\nnot illumine the central obscurity; and that, after all, it still\nremains true that round about the being of each man, as round about the\nbeing of God, clouds and darkness roll,\n\n 'Life and thought have gone away,\n Side by side,\n Leaving door and window wide.'\n\nThat, and nothing more, is death--'My decease ... an entrance.'\n\nThen, again, the combination of these two words suggests to us that the\none act, in the same moment, is both departure and arrival. There is not\na pin-point of space, not the millionth part of a second of time,\nintervening between the two. There is no long journey to be taken. A man\nin straits, and all but desperation, is recorded in the old Book to have\nsaid: 'There is but a step between me and death.' Ah, there is but a\nstep between death and the Kingdom; and he that passes out at the same\nmoment passes in.\n\nI need not say a word about theories which seem to me to have no basis\nat all in our only source of information, which is Revelation; theories\nwhich would interpose a long period of unconsciousness--though to the\nman unconscious it be no period at all--between the act of departure and\nthat of entrance. Not so do I read the teaching of Scripture: 'This day\nthou shalt be with Me in Paradise.' We pass out, and as those in the\nvestibule of a presence-chamber have but to lift the curtain and find\nthemselves face to face with the king, so we, at one and the same\nmoment, depart and arrive.\n\nFriends stand round the bed, and before they can tell by the undimmed\nmirror that the last breath has been drawn, the saint is 'with Christ,\nwhich is far better.' To depart _is_ to be with Him. There is a moment\nin the life of every believing soul in which there strangely mingle the\nlights of earth and the lights of heaven. As you see in dissolving\nviews, the one fades and the other consolidates. Like the mighty angel\nin the Apocalypse, the dying man stands for a moment with one foot on\nthe earth and the other already laved and cleansed by the waters of that\n'sea of glass mingled with fire which is before the Throne,' 'Absent\nfrom the body; present with the Lord.'\n\nFurther, these two words suggest that the same act is emancipation from\nbondage and entrance into royalty.\n\n'My exodus.' Israel came out of Egyptian servitude and dropped chains\nfrom wrists and left taskmasters cracking their useless whips behind\nthem, and the brick kilns and the weary work were all done when they\nwent forth. Ah, brethren, whatever beauty and good and power and\nblessedness there may be in this mortal life, there are deep and sad\nsenses in which, for all of us, it is a prison-house and a state of\ncaptivity. There is a bondage of flesh; there is a dominion of the\nanimal nature; there are limitations, like high walls, cribbing,\ncabining, confining us--the limitations of circumstance. There is the\nslavery of dependence upon this poor, external, and material world.\nThere are the tyranny of sin and the subjugation of the nobler nature to\nbase and low and transient needs. All these fetters, and the scars of\nthem, drop away. Joseph comes out of prison to a throne. The kingdom is\nnot merely one in which the redeemed man is a subject, but one in which\nhe himself is a prince. 'Have thou authority over ten cities.' These are\nthe Christian aspects of death.\n\nII. Now note, secondly, the great fact on which this view of death\nbuilds itself.\n\nI have already remarked that in one of my texts the Apostle seems to be\nthinking about Jesus Christ and His decease. The context also refers to\nanother incident in his own life, when our Lord foretold to him that the\nputting off his tabernacle was to be 'sudden,' and added: 'Follow thou\nMe.'\n\nTaking these allusions into account, they suggest that it is the death\nof Jesus Christ--and that which is inseparable from it, His\nResurrection--that changes for a soul believing on Him the whole aspect\nof that last experience that awaits us all. It is His exodus that makes\n'my exodus' a deliverance from captivity and an entrance upon royalty.\n\nI need not remind you, how, after all is said and done, we are sure of\nlife eternal, because Jesus Christ died and rose again. I do not need to\ndepreciate other imperfect arguments which seem to point in that\ndirection, such as the instincts of men's natures, the craving for some\nretribution beyond, the impossibility of believing that life is\nextinguished by the fact of physical death. But whilst I admit that a\ngood deal may be said, and strong probabilities may be alleged, it seems\nto me that however much you may argue, no words, no considerations,\nmoral or intellectual, can suffice to establish more than that it would\nbe a very good thing if there were a future life and that it is probable\nthat there is. But Jesus Christ comes to us and says, 'Touch Me, handle\nMe; a spirit hath not flesh and bones as I have. Here I am. I _was_\ndead; I _am_ alive for evermore.' So then _one_ life, that we know\nabout, _has_ persisted undiminished, apart from the physical frame, and\nthat one Man has gone down into the dark abyss, and has come up the same\nas when He descended. So it is His exodus--and, as I believe, His death\nand Resurrection alone--on which the faith in immortality impregnably\nrests.\n\nBut that is not the main point which the text suggests. Let me remind\nyou how utterly the whole aspect of any difficulty, trial, or sorrow,\nand especially of that culmination of all men's fears--death itself--is\naltered when we think that in the darkest bend of the dark road we may\ntrace footsteps, not without marks of blood in them, of Him that has\ntrodden it all before us. 'Follow thou Me,' He said to Peter; and it\nshould be no hard thing for us, if we love Him, to tread where He trod.\nIt should be no lonely road for us to walk, however the closest clinging\nhands may be untwined from our grasp, and the most utter solitude of\nwhich a human soul is capable may be realised, when we remember that\nJesus Christ has walked it before us.\n\nThe entrance, too, is made possible because He has preceded us. 'I go to\nprepare a place for you.' So we may be sure that when we go through\nthose dark gates and across the wild, the other side of which no man\nknows, it is not to step out of 'the warm precincts of the cheerful day'\ninto some dim, cold, sad land, but it is to enter into His presence.\n\nIsrael's exodus was headed by a mummy case, in which the dead bones of\ntheir whilom leader were contained. Our exodus is headed by the Prince\nof Life, who was dead and is alive for evermore.\n\nSo, brethren, I beseech you, treasure these thoughts more than you do.\nTurn to Jesus Christ and His resurrection from the dead more than you\ndo. I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that the Christianity of this\nday is largely losing the habitual contemplation of immortality which\ngave so much of its strength to the religion of past generations. We are\nall so busy in setting forth and enforcing the blessings of Christianity\nin its effects in the present life that, I fear me, we are largely\nforgetting what it does for us at the end, and beyond the end. And I\nwould that we all thought more of our exodus and of our entrance in the\nlight of Christ's death and resurrection. Such contemplation will not\nunfit us for any duty or any enjoyment. It will lift us above the\nabsorbed occupation with present trivialities, which is the bane of all\nthat is good and noble. It will teach us 'a solemn scorn of ills.' It\nwill set on the furthest horizon a great light instead of a doleful\ndarkness, and it will deliver us from the dread of that 'shadow feared\nof man,' but not by those who, listening to Jesus Christ, have been\ntaught that to depart is to be with Him.\n\nIII. Now I meant to have said a word, in the close of my sermon, about a\nthird point--viz., the way of securing that this aspect of death shall\nbe our experience, but your time will not allow of my dwelling upon\nthat as I should have wished. I would only point out that, as I have\nalready suggested, this context teaches us that it is His death that\nmust make our deaths what they may become; and would ask you to notice,\nfurther, that the context carries us back to the preceding verses. 'An\nentrance shall be _ministered_ unto you _abundantly_.' We have just\nbefore read, 'If these things be in you and _abound_, they make you that\nye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord\nJesus Christ'; and just before is the exhortation, 'giving all\ndiligence, minister to your faith virtue.'\n\nSo the Apostle, by reiterating the two words which he had previously\nbeen using, teaches us that if death is to be to us that departure from\nbondage and entrance into the Kingdom, we must here and now bring forth\nthe fruits of faith. There is no entrance hereafter, unless there has\nbeen a habitual entering into the Holy Place by the blood of Jesus\nChrist even whilst we are on earth. There is no entrance by reason of\nthe fact of death, unless all through life there has been an entrance\ninto rest by reason of the fact of faith.\n\nAnd so, dear brethren, I beseech you to remember that it depends on\nyourself whether departing shall be arrival, and exodus shall be\nentrance. One thing or other that last moment must be to us all--either\na dragging us reluctant away from what we would fain cleave to, or a\nglad departure from a foreign land and entrance to our home. It may be\nas when Peter was let out of prison, the angel touched him, and the\nchains fell from his hands, and the iron gate opened of its own accord,\nand he found himself in the city. It is for you to settle which of the\ntwo it shall be. And if you will take Him for your King, Companion,\nSaviour, Enlightener, Life here, 'the Lord shall bless your going out\nand coming in from this time forth and even for evermore.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE OWNER AND HIS SLAVES\n\n 'Denying the Lord that bought them.'--2 Peter ii. 1.\n\n\nThe institution of slavery was one of the greatest blots on ancient\ncivilisation. It was twice cursed, cursing both parties, degrading each,\nturning the slave into a chattel, and the master, in many cases, into a\nbrute. Christianity, as represented in the New Testament, never says a\nword to condemn it, but Christianity has killed it. 'Make the tree good\nand its fruit good.' Do not aim at institutions, change the people that\nlive under them and you change _them_. Girdle the tree and it will die,\nand save you the trouble of felling it. But not only does Christianity\nnever condemn slavery, though it was in dead antagonism to all its\nprinciples, and could not possibly survive where its principles were\naccepted, but it also takes this essentially immoral relation and finds\na soul of goodness in the evil thing, which serves to illustrate the\nrelation between God and man, between Christ and us. It does with\nslavery as it does with war, uses what is good in it as illustrating\nhigher truths, and trusts to the operation, the slow operation of its\ndeepest principles for its destruction.\n\nSo, then, we have one Apostle, in his letters, binding on his forehead\nas a crown the designation, 'Paul,' a _slave_ of 'Jesus Christ,' and we\nhave in my text an expanded allusion to slavery. The word that is here\nrendered rightly enough, 'Lord,' is the word which has been transferred\ninto English as 'despot,' and it carries with it some suggestion of the\nroughness and absoluteness of authority which that word suggests to us.\nIt does not mean merely 'master,' it means 'owner,' and it suggests an\nunconditional authority, to which the only thing in us that corresponds\nis abject and unconditional submission. That is what Christ is to you\nand me; the Lord, the Despot, the Owner.\n\nBut we have not only owner and slave here; we have one of the ugliest\nfeatures of the institution referred to. You have the slave-market, 'the\nLord that _bought_ them,' and because He purchased them, owns them.\nThink of the hell of miseries that are connected with that practice of\nbuying and selling human flesh, and then estimate the magnificent\nboldness of the metaphor which Peter does not scruple to take from it\nhere, speaking of the owner who acquired them by a price. And not only\nthat, but slaves will run away, and when they are stopped, and asked who\nthey belong to, will say they know nothing about him. And so here is the\nrunaway's denial, 'denying the Lord that bought them.' Now I ask you to\nthink of these three points.\n\nI. Here we have the Owner of us all.\n\nI do not need, I suppose, to spend a moment in showing you that this\nrelationship, which is laid down in our text, subsists between Jesus\nChrist and men, and it subsists between Jesus Christ and all men. For\nthe people about whom the Apostle is saying that they have 'denied the\nLord that bought them' can, by no construction, be supposed to be true\nChristians, but were enemies that had crept into the Church without any\nreal allegiance to Jesus Christ, and were trying to wreck it, and to\ndestroy His work. So there is no reference here to a little elected\ngroup out of the midst of humanity, who especially belonged to Jesus\nChrist, and for whom the price has been paid; but the outlook of my text\nin its latter portion is as wide as humanity. The Lord--that is, Jesus\nChrist--owns all men.\n\nLet me expand that thought in one or two illustrations which may help to\nmake it perhaps more vivid. The slave's owner has absolute authority\nover him. You remember the occasion when a Roman officer, by reflecting\nupon the military discipline of the legion, and the mystical power that\nthe commander's word had to set all his men in obedient activity, had\ncome to the conclusion that, somehow or other, this Jesus whom he\ndesired to heal his servant had a similar power in the material\nuniverse, and that just as he, subordinate officer though he was, had\nyet--by reason of the fact that he was 'under authority,' and an organ\nof a higher authority--the power to say to his servant, 'Go,' and he\nwould go; and to another one, 'Come,' and he would come; so this Christ\nhad power to say to disease, 'Depart,' and it would depart; and to\nhealth, 'Come,' and it would come; and to all the material forces of the\nuniverse, 'Do this,' and obediently they would do it. That is the\npicture, in another region, of the relation which Jesus Christ bears to\nmen, though, alas, it is not the picture of the relation which men bear\nto Christ. But to all of us He has the right to say, wherever we are,\n'Come,' the right to say, 'Go,' the right to say, 'Do,' the right to\nsay, 'Be this, that, and the other thing.'\n\nAbsolute authority is His; what should be yours? Unconditional\nsubmission. My friend, it is no use your calling yourself a Christian\nunless that is your attitude. My sermon to-night has something else to\ndo than simply to present truths to you. It has to press truths on you,\nand to appeal not only to your feelings, not only to your\nunderstandings, but to your wills. And so I come with this question: Do\nyou, dear friend, day by day, yield to the absolute Master the absolute\nsubmission? And is that rebellious will--which is in you, as it is in us\nall--tamed and submitted so as that you can say, 'Speak, Lord! Thy\nservant heareth'? Is it?\n\nFurther, the owner has the right, as part of that absolute authority of\nwhich I have been speaking, to settle without appeal each man's work. In\nthose Eastern monarchies where the king was surrounded, not by\nconstitutional ministers, but by his personal slaves, he made one man a\nshoeblack or a pipe-bearer, and the man standing next to him his prime\nminister. And neither the one nor the other had the right to say a word.\nJesus Christ has the right to regulate your life in all its details, to\nset you your tasks. Some of us will get what the world vulgarly calls\n'more important duties'; some will get what the world ignorantly calls\nmore 'insignificant' ones. What does that matter? It was our Owner that\nset us to our work, and if He tells us to black shoes, let us black them\nwith all the pith of our elbows, and with the best blacking and brushes\nwe can find; and if He sets us to work, which people think is more\nimportant and more conspicuous, let us do that too, in the same spirit,\nand for the same end.\n\nAgain, the owner has the absolute right of possession of all the slave's\npossessions. He gets a little bit of land in the corner of his master's\nplantation, and grows his vegetables, yams, pumpkins, a leaf of tobacco\nor two, or what not, there. And if his master comes along and says,\n'These are mine,' the slave has no recourse, and is obliged to accept\nthe conditions and to give them up. So Jesus Christ claims ours as well\nas us--ours because He claims us--and whilst, on the other hand, the\nsurrender of external good is incomplete without the surrender of the\ninward will, on the other hand the abandonment and surrender of the\ninward life is incomplete, if it be not hypocritical, without the\nsurrender of external possessions. All the slave's goods belonged to the\nowner.\n\nAnd the owner has another right. He can say, 'Take that man's child and\nsell him in the market!' and he can break up the family ties and\nseparate husband and wife, and parent and child, and not a word can be\nsaid. Our Master comes, not with rough authority, but with loving,\nthough absolute authority, and He sometimes untwines the hands that are\nmost closely clasped, and says to the one of the two that have grown\ntogether in love and blessedness, 'Come!' and he cometh, and to the\nother 'Go!' and she goeth. Blessed they who can say, 'It is the Lord!\nLet Him do what seemeth Him good.'\n\nNow, dear friends, this absolute authority cannot be exercised by any\nman upon another man, and this unconditional submission, which Jesus\nChrist asks from us all, ought not to be rendered by any man to a man.\nIt is a degradation when a human creature is put even in the external\nrelation of slavery and servitude to another human creature, but it is\nan honour when Jesus Christ says to me, 'Thou art Mine,' and I say to\nHim, 'I am Thine, O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; Thou hast loosed my\nbonds.' In the old Saxon monarchies, some antiquarians tell us, the\nfoundation of our modern nobility or aristocracy is found in that the\nking's servants became nobles. Jesus Christ's slave is everybody else's\nmaster. And it is the highest honour that a man can have to bow himself\nbefore that Lord, and to take His yoke upon him and learn of Him. So\nmuch, then, for my first point; now a word with regard to the second.\n\nII. The sale, and the price.\n\n'The Lord that bought them.' You perhaps remember other words which say,\n'Ye are bought with a price; be not the servants of men'; also other\nwords of this Apostle himself, in which he speaks, in his other letter,\nof being 'bought with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without\nblemish and without spot.' Now notice, Christ's ownership of us does not\ndepend on Christ's Divinity, which I suppose most of us believe, but on\nChrist's sacrifice for us. It is perfectly true that creation gives\nrights to the Creator. It is perfectly true that if we believe, as I\nthink the New Testament teaches, that He, who before His name was Jesus\nwas the Eternal Word of God, was the Agent of all Creation, and\ntherefore has rights. But Christ's heart does not care for rights of\nthat sort. It wants something far deeper, far tenderer, far closer than\nany such. And He comes to us with the language that is the language of\nlove over all the universe, as between man and woman, as between man and\nman, as between man and God, as between God and man, upon His lips, and\nsays, 'Thou must love Me, for I have died for thee.' Yes, brother; the\nonly ground upon which absolute possession of a man can be rested is the\nground of prior absolute surrender to Him. Christ must give Himself to\nme before He can ask me to give myself to Him. So all that was\napparently harsh in the relationship, as I have been trying to set it\nforth to you, melts away and disappears. No owner ever owned a slave as\ntruly as a loving woman owns her husband, or a loving husband his wife,\nbecause the ownership is the expression of perfect love on both sides.\nAnd that is the golden bond that binds men's souls to Christ in a\nsubmission which, the more abject it is, the more elevating it is, just\nbecause 'He loved me, and gave Himself for me.'\n\nI do not dwell upon any cold theological doctrine of an Atonement, but I\nwish you to feel that deep in this great metaphor of our text there lie\nthe two things; first, the price that was paid, and, second, the bondage\nfrom which the slave was delivered. He belonged to another master before\nChrist bought him for Himself. 'He that committeth sin is the slave of\nsin.' Some of you are your own despots, your own tyrants. The worse half\nof you has got the upper hand. The mutineers that ought to have been\ndown under hatches, and shackled, have taken possession of the deck and\nclapped the captain and the officers, and all the sextants and\nlog-books, away into a corner, and they are driving the ship--that is,\nyou--on to the rocks, as hard as they can. A man that is not Christ's\nslave has a far worse slavery in submitting to these tyrant sins that\nhave tempted him with the notion of how fine it is to break through\nthese old-womanly restraints and conventional fads of a narrow morality,\nand to have his fling, and do as he likes and follow nature. Ay, some of\nyou have been doing that, and could write a far better commentary than\nany preacher ever wrote, out of your own experience, on the great words,\n'Whilst they promised them liberty, they themselves are the slaves of\ncorruption!' Young men, is that true about any of you--that you came\nhere into Manchester to a situation, and lonely lodgings, comparatively\ninnocent, and that somebody said, 'Oh, do not be a milksop! come along\nand see life,' and you thought it was fine to shake off the shackles\nthat your poor old mother used to try to put upon your limbs? And what\nhave you made of it? I will tell you what a great many young men have\nmade of it--I have seen scores of them in the forty years that I have\nbeen preaching here: 'His bones are full of the iniquity of his youth,\nwhich shall lie down with him in the dust.'\n\nThere is a slavery which is blessedness, and there is a slavery which at\nfirst is delightsome to the worst part of us, and afterwards becomes\nbitter and deadly. And it is the bondage of sin, the bondage to my worst\nself, the bondage to my indulged passions, the bondage to other men, the\nbondage to the material world. Jesus Christ speaks to each of us in His\ngreat sacrifice, by which He says to us, 'The Son will make you free,\nand you shall be free indeed.' The Lord has bought us. Have you let Him\nemancipate you from all your bondage? Dear friends, bear with me if I\npress again upon you, I pray God that it may ring in your ears till you\ncan answer that question, Jesus Christ having bought me, do I belong to\nHim?\n\nIII. And now, lastly, notice the runaways.\n\nDid it ever occur to you what a pathetic force there is in Peter's\npicking out that word 'denying' as the shorthand expression for all\nsorts of sins? Who was it that thrice denied that he knew Him? That\nexperience went very deep into the Apostle; and here, as I take it, is a\nmost significant illustration of his penitent remembrance of his past\nlife, all the more significant because of its reticence. The allusion is\none that nobody could catch that did not know his past, but which to\nthose who did know it was full of meaning and of pathos:--'Denying the\nLord, as _I_ did on that dismal morning, in the High Priest's palace. I\nam speaking about it, for I know what it comes to, and the tears that\nwill follow after.'\n\nBut what I desire to press upon you, dear friends, is just this: That in\nthat view of the lives of people who are not Christians there is\nsuggested to us the essential sinfulness, the black ingratitude, and the\nabsolute folly of refusing to acknowledge the claims of Him to whom we\nbelong, and who has bought us at such a price. You can do it by word,\nand perhaps some of us are not guiltless in that respect. You can do it\nby paring down the character and office of Jesus Christ, and minimising\nthe importance of His sacrifice from the world's sins, and thinking of\nHim, not as the Owner that bought us, but as the Master that teaches us.\nYou can do it by cowardly hiding of your colours and being too\nshamefaced, too sensitive to the curled lip of the man that works at the\nnext bench, or sits at the next desk, or the student that is beside you,\nor somebody else whose opinion you esteem, which prevents you from\nsaying like a man, 'I belong to Jesus Christ, and whomsoever other\npeople serve, as for me, I am going to serve Him.' And you can do it,\nand many of you are doing it, by simply ignoring His claims, refusing to\nturn to Him, not yielding up your will to Him, not turning your heart to\nHim, not setting your dependence upon Him. Is it not a shame that men,\nwhose hearts will glow with thankfulness when another man, especially if\nhe is a superior, comes to them with some gift, valuable, but nothing as\ncompared with the transcendent gift that Christ brings, will yet let Him\ndie for them and not care anything about Him? I can understand the\nvehement antagonism that some people have to Christ and Christianity,\nbut what I cannot understand is the attitude of the immense mass of\npeople that come to services like this, who profess to believe that\nJesus Christ's love for them brought Him to the cross, and yet will not\neven pay the poor tribute of a little interest and a momentary\ninclination of heart towards Him. 'Is it nothing to you, all ye that\npass by,' that Jesus Christ died for you? He bought you for His own. Let\nme beseech you to 'yield yourselves' servants, slaves of Christ, and\nthen you will be free, and you will hear Him say in the very depth of\nyour hearts, 'Henceforth I call you not slaves, but friends.'\n\n\n\n\nBE DILIGENT\n\n 'Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be\n diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and\n blameless.'--2 Peter iii. 14.\n\n\nAs we pass the conventional boundary of another year, most of us, I\nsuppose, cast glances into the darkness ahead. To those of us who have\nthe greater part of our lives probably before us, the onward look will\ndisclose glad possibilities. To some of us, who have life mostly behind\nus, the prospect will take 'a sober colouring from an eye that hath kept\nwatch over man's mortality,' and there will be little on the lower\nlevels to attract. My text falls in with the mood which the season\nfosters. It directs our onward look to a blessed certainty instead of a\nperadventure, and it deduces important practical consequences from the\nhope. These three things are in the words of our text: a clear vision\nthat should fill the future; a definite aim for life, drawn from the\nvision; and an earnest diligence in the pursuit of that aim, animated\nby that hope.\n\nNow these three--a bright hope, a sovereign purpose, and a diligent\nearnestness--are the three conditions of all noble life. They themselves\nare strength, and they will bring us buoyancy and freshness which will\nprolong youth into old age, and forbid anything to appear uninteresting\nor small.\n\nSo I ask you to look at these three points, as suggested by my text.\n\nI. First, then, the clear hope which should fill our future.\n\n'Seeing that ye look for such things.' What things? Peter has been\ndrawing a very vivid and solemn picture of the end, in two parts, one\ndestructive, the other constructive. Anticipating the predictions of\nmodern science, which confirm his prophecy, he speaks of the dissolution\nof all things by fervent heat, and draws therefrom the lesson: 'What\nmanner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and\ngodliness?'\n\nBut that dissolution by fire is not, as people often call it, the 'final\nconflagration.' Rather is it a regenerating baptism of fire, from which\n'the heavens and the earth that now are'--like the old man in the fable,\nmade young in the flame--shall emerge renewed and purified. The lesson\nfrom that prospect is the words of our text.\n\nNow I am not going to dwell upon that thought of a new heaven and a new\nearth renewed by means of the fiery change that shall pass upon them,\nbut simply to remark that there is a great deal in the teaching of both\nOld and New Testaments which seems to look in that direction. It is, at\nleast, a perfectly tenable belief, and in my humble judgment is\nsomething more, that this earth, the scene of man's tragedy and crime,\nthe theatre of the display of the miracle of redeeming love, emancipated\nfrom the bondage of corruption, shall be renewed and become the seat of\nthe blessed. They who dwell in it, and it on which they dwell pass\nthrough analogous changes, and as for the individuals, the 'new\ncreation' is the old self purified by the fire of the Divine Spirit into\nincorruption and righteousness, so the world in which they live shall,\nin like manner, be 'that new world which is the old,' only having\nsuffered the fiery transformation and been glorified thereby.\n\nBut passing from that thought, which, however interesting it may be as a\nmatter of speculation, is of very small practical importance, notice,\nstill further, the essential part of the hope which the Apostle here\nsets forth--viz., that that order of things towards which we may look is\none permeable only for feet that have been washed and made clean.\n'Therein dwelleth righteousness.' _Righteousness_ there, of course, is\nthe abstract for the concrete; the quality is put for the persons that\nexhibit it. And just as the condition of being at home in this present\nmaterial world is the possession of flesh and blood, which puts\ncreatures into relationships therewith, and just as it is impossible for\na finite, bodyless spirit to move amongst, and influence, and be\ninfluenced by, the gross materialities of the heavens and the earth that\nnow are, so is it impossible for anything but purity to be at rest in,\nor even to enter into that future world. 'The gates' of the New\nJerusalem 'shall not be closed day nor night'; but through the ever-open\ngates none can pass except they who have washed their robes and made\nthem white in the blood of the Lamb. There stand at the gates of that\nParadise unseen, the repulsions of the angel with the flaming sword,\nand none can enter except the righteous. Light kills the creatures of\nthe darkness.\n\n 'How pure that soul must be\n Which, placed within Thy piercing sight,\n Shall shrink not, but with calm delight\n Can live, and look on Thee!'\n\nThus, then, brethren, an order of things free from all corruption, and\ninto which none can pass but the pure, should be the vision that ever\nflames before us. Peter takes it for granted that the anticipation of\nthat future is an inseparable part of the Christian character. The word\nwhich he employs, by its very form, expresses that that expectance is\nhabitual and continuous. I am afraid that a great many so-called\nChristians very seldom send their thoughts, and still less frequently\ntheir desires, onwards to that end. In all your dreams of the future,\nhow much space has been filled by this future which is no dream? Have\nyou, in these past days, and do you, as a matter of habitual and\nfamiliar occupation of your mind, let your eyes travel on beyond and\nabove the low levels of earth and peradventures, to fix them on that\ncertainty?\n\nOpticians make glasses with three ranges, and write upon a little bar\nwhich shifts their eyepieces, 'Theatre,' 'Field,' 'Marine.' Which of the\nthree is your glass set to? The turn of a button determines its range.\nYou can either look at the things close at hand, or, if you set the\neyepiece right and use the strongest, you can see the stars. Which is it\nto be? The shorter range shows you possibilities; the longer will show\nyou certainties. The shorter range shows you trifles; the longer, all\nthat you can desire. The shorter range shows you hopes that are destined\nto be outgrown and left behind; the longer, the far-off glories, a\npillar of light which will move before you for ever. Oh, how many of the\nhopes that guided our course, and made our objective points in the past,\nare away down below the backward horizon! How many hopes we have\noutgrown, whether they were fulfilled or disappointed. But we may have\none which will ever move before us, and ever draw our desires. The\ngreater vision, if we were only wise enough to bring our lives\nhabitually under its influence, would at once dim and ennoble all the\nnear future.\n\nLet us then, dear friends, not desecrate that wondrous faculty of\nlooking before as well as after which God has given to us, by wasting it\nupon the nothings of this world, but heave it higher, and anchor it more\nfirmly in the very Throne of God Himself. And for us let one solemn,\nblessed thought more and more fill with its substance and its light the\nelse dim and questionable and insufficient future, and walk evermore as\nseeing Him who is invisible, and as hasting unto the coming of the day\nof the Lord.\n\nII. Then, secondly, note the definite aim which this clear hope should\nimpress upon life.\n\nIf you knew that you were going to emigrate soon, and spend all your\nlife on the other side of the world, in circumstances the outlines of\nwhich you knew, you would be a fool if you did not set yourself to get\nready for them. The more clearly we see and the more deeply we feel that\nfuture hope, which is disclosed for us in the words of my text, the more\nit will prescribe a dominant purpose which will give unity, strength,\nbuoyancy, and blessedness to any life. 'Seeing that ye look for such\nthings, be diligent.' For what? 'That ye may be found of Him in peace,\nwithout spot, and blameless.'\n\nNow mark the details of the aim which this great hope impresses upon\nlife, as they are stated in the words of my text. Every word is weighty\nhere. 'That ye may be _found_.' That implies, if not search, at least\ninvestigation. It suggests the idea of the discovery of the true\ncondition, character, or standing of a man which may have been hidden or\npartially obscured before--and now, at last, is brought out clearly.\nWith the same suggestion of investigation and discovery, the same phrase\nis employed in other places; as, for instance, when the Apostle Paul\nspeaks about being 'found naked,' or as when he speaks about being\n'found in Him, not having mine own righteousness.' So, then, there is\nsome process of examination or investigation, resulting in the\ndiscovery, possibly for the first time, of what a man really is.\n\nThen note, 'Found _in Him_,' or as the Revised Version reads it, 'in His\nsight.' Then Christ is the Investigator, and it is before 'those pure\neyes and perfect judgment' that they have to pass, who shall be admitted\ninto the new heavens and the new earth, 'wherein dwelleth\nrighteousness.'\n\nThen mark what is the character which, discovered on investigation by\nJesus Christ, admits there: 'without spot and blameless.' There must be\nthe entire absence of every blemish, stain, or speck of impurity. The\npurer the white the more conspicuous the black. Soot is never so foul as\nwhen it lies on driven snow. They who enter there must have nothing in\nthem akin to evil. 'Blameless' is the consequence of 'spotless.' That\nwhich in itself is pure attracts no censure, whether from the Judge or\nfrom the assessors and onlookers in His court.\n\nBut, further, these two words, in almost the same identical form--one of\nthem absolutely the same, and the other almost so--are found in Peter's\nother letter as a description of Jesus Christ Himself. He was a Lamb\n'without blemish and without spot.' And thus the character that\nqualifies for the new heavens is the copy of us in Jesus Christ.\n\nStill further, only those who thus have attained to the condition of\nabsolute, speckless purity and conformity to Jesus Christ will meet His\nsearching eye in calm tranquillity and be 'found of Him _in peace_.'\n\nThe steward brings his books to his master. If he knows that there has\nbeen trickery with the figures and embezzlement, how the wretch shakes\nin his shoes, though he may stand apparently calm, as the master's keen\neye goes down the columns! If he knows that it is all right, how calmly\nhe waits the master's signature at the end, to pass the account! The\nsoldiers come back with victory on their helmets, and are glad to look\ntheir captain in the face. But if they come back beaten, they shrink\naside and hide their shame. If we are to meet Jesus Christ with quiet\nhearts, and we certainly shall meet Him, we must meet Him 'without spot\nand blameless.' The discovery, then, of what men truly are will be like\nthe draining of the bed of a lake. Ah, what ugly, slimy things there are\ndown in the bottom! What squalor and filth flung in from the houses, and\ncovered over many a day by the waters! All that surface work will be\ndrained off from the hearts of men. Shall we show slime and filth, or\nshall we show lovely corals and silver sands without a taint or a speck?\n\nThese are the details of the life's aim of a Christian man. And they may\nall be gathered up into one. The end which we should seek as sovereign\nand high above all others is the conformity of our character to Jesus\nChrist our Lord. Never mind about anything else; let us leave all in\nGod's hands. He will do better for us than we can do for ourselves. Let\nus trust Him for the contingent future; and let us set ourselves to\nsecure this, that, whether joy or sorrow, whether wealth or poverty,\nwhether success or failure, whether sweet companionship or solitary\ntears be our lot for the rest of our lives, we may grow in grace, and in\nthe knowledge and likeness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Make\nthat your aim, and freshness, buoyancy, enthusiasm, the ennobling of\neverything in this world, and the bending of all to be contributory of\nit, will gladden your days. Make anything else your aim, and you fail of\nyour highest purpose, and your life, however successful, will be dreary\nand disappointed, and its end will be shame.\n\nIII. Lastly, notice the earnest diligence with which that aim should be\npursued, in the light of that hope.\n\nPeter is fond of using the word which is here translated 'be diligent.'\nHard work, honest effort, continuous and persevering, is His simple\nrecipe for all nobleness. You will find He employs it, for instance, at\nleast three times in this letter, in such connections as, 'Besides this,\ngiving all diligence, add to your faith virtue,' and so on through the\nwhole glorious series; and again, 'Wherefore the rather, brethren, give\ndiligence to make your calling and election sure.' So, then, there is no\nmystery about the way of securing the aim; work towards it, and you will\nget it.\n\nNow, of course, there are a great many other considerations to be\nbrought in in reference to the Christian man's means of becoming\nChristlike. We should have to speak of the gifts of a Divine Spirit, of\nthe dependence upon God for it, and the like; but for the present\npurpose we may confine ourselves to Peter's own prescription, 'be\ndiligent,' and that will secure it. But then the word itself opens out\ninto further meanings than that. It not only implies diligence: there\nmay be diligence of a very mechanical and ineffective sort. The word\nalso includes in its meaning earnestness, and it very frequently\nincludes that which is the ordinary consequence of earnestness--viz.,\nhaste and economy of time.\n\nSo I venture, in closing, just to throw my remarks into three simple\nexhortations. Be in earnest in cultivating a Christlike character.\nHalf-and-half Christians, like a great many of us, are of no use either\nto God or to men or to themselves. Dawdling and languid, braced up and\ninformed by no earnestness of purpose, and never having had enthusiasm\nenough to set themselves fairly alight, they do no good and they come to\nnothing. 'I would thou wert cold or hot.' One thing sorely wanted in the\naverage Christianity of this day is that professing Christians should\ngive the motives which their faith supplies for earnest consecration due\nweight and power. Nothing else will succeed. You will never grow like\nChrist unless you are in earnest about it any more than you could pierce\na tunnel through the Alps with a straw. It needs an iron bar tipped with\ndiamond to do it. Unless your whole being is engaged in the task, and\nyou gather your whole self together into a point, and drive the point\nwith all your force, you will never get through the rock barrier that\nrises between you and the fair lands beyond. Be in earnest, or give it\nup altogether.\n\nThen another thing I would venture to say is, Make it your _business_ to\ncultivate a character like that of Jesus Christ. If you would go to the\nwork of growing a Christ-like spirit one-hundredth part as\nsystematically as you will go to your business to-morrow, and stick at\nit, there would be a very different condition of things in most of our\nhearts. No man becomes noble and good and like the dear Lord 'by a\njump,' without making a systematic and conscious effort towards it.\n\nI would say, lastly, Make haste about cultivating a Christlike\ncharacter. The harvest is great, the toil is heavy, the sun is drawing\nto the west, the evening shadows are very long with some of us, the\nreckoning is at hand, and the Master waits to count your sheaves. There\nis no time to lose, brother; set about it as you have never done before,\nand say, 'This one thing I do.'\n\nAnd so let us not fill our minds with vain hopes which, whether they be\nfulfilled or not, will not satisfy us, but lift our eyes to and stay our\nanticipations on those glories beyond, as real as God is real, and as\ncertain as His word is true. Let these hopes concentrate and define for\nus the aims of our life; and let the aims, clearly accepted and\nrecognised, be pursued with earnestness, with 'diligence,' with haste,\nwith the enthusiasm of which they, and they only, are worthy. Let us\nlisten to our Master, 'I must work the works of Him that sent Me while\nit is day; the night cometh.' And let us listen to the words of the\nservant, which reverse the metaphor, and teach the same lesson in a\ntrumpet call which anticipates the dawn and rouses the sleeping\nsoldiers: 'The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us cast off\nthe works of darkness and put on the armour of light.'\n\n\n\n\nGROWTH\n\n 'But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour\n Jesus Christ....'--2 Peter iii. 18.\n\n\nThese are the last words of an old man, written down as his legacy to\nus. He was himself a striking example of his own precept. It would be an\ninteresting study to examine these two letters of the Apostle Peter, in\norder to construct from them a picture of what he became, and to\ncontrast it with his own earlier self when full of self-confidence,\nrashness, and instability. It took a lifetime for Simon, the son of\nJonas, to grow into Peter; but it was done. And the very faults of the\ncharacter became strength. What he had proved possible in his own case\nhe commands and commends to us, and from the height to which he has\nreached, he looks upwards to the infinite ascent which he knows he will\nattain when he puts off this tabernacle; and then downwards to his\nbrethren, bidding them, too, climb and aspire. His last word is like\nthat of the great Roman Catholic apostle to the East Indies: 'Forward!'\nHe is like some trumpeter on the battlefield who spends his last breath\nin sounding an advance. Immortal hope animates his dying injunction:\n'Grow! grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.'\n\nSo I think we may take these words, dear friends, as the starting-point\nfor some very plain remarks about what I am afraid is a neglected duty,\nthe duty of growth in Christian character.\n\nI. I begin, first, with a word or two about the direction which\nChristian growth ought to take.\n\nNow those of you who use the Revised Version will see in it a very\nslight, but very valuable alteration. It reads there: 'Grow in the grace\nand knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.' The effect of that alteration\nbeing to bring out more clearly that whilst the direction of the growth\nis twofold, the process is one. And to bring out more clearly, also,\nthat both the grace and the knowledge have connection with Jesus Christ.\n\nHe is the Giver and the Author of the grace. He is the Object of the\nknowledge. The one is more moral and spiritual; the other, if we may so\nsay, more intellectual; but both are realised by one act of progress,\nand both inhere in, and refer to, and are occupied with, and are derived\nfrom, Jesus Christ Himself.\n\nLet us look a little more closely at this double direction, this\nbifurcation, as it were, of Christian growth. The tree, like some of our\nforest trees, in its normal progress, diverges into two main branches at\na short distance upwards from the root.\n\nFirst, we have growth in the 'grace' of Christ. Grace, of course, means,\nfirst, the undeserved love and favour which God in Jesus Christ bears to\nus sinful and inferior creatures; and then it means the consequence of\nthat love and favour in the manifold spiritual endowments which in us\nbecome 'graces,' beauties, and excellences of Christian character. So\nthen, if you are a Christian, you ought to be continually realising a\ndeeper and more blessed consciousness of Christ's love and favour as\nyours. You ought to be, if I may so say, nestling every day nearer and\nnearer to His heart, and getting more and more sure, and more and more\nhappily sure, of more and more of His mercy and love to you.\n\nAnd if you are a Christian you ought not only thus to be realising\ndaily, with increasing certitude and power, the fact of His love, but\nyou ought to be drinking in and deriving more and more every day of the\nconsequences of that love, of the spiritual gifts of which His hands are\nfull. There is open for each of us in Him an inexhaustible store of\nabundance. And if our Christian life is real and vigorous there ought to\nbe in us a daily increasing capacity, and therefore a daily increasing\npossession of the gifts of His grace. There ought to be, in other words,\nalso a daily progressive transformation into His likeness. It is 'the\ngrace of our Lord Jesus,' not only in the sense that He is the Author\nand the Bestower of it to each of us, but also in the sense that He\nHimself possesses and exemplifies it. So that there is nothing mystical\nand remote from the experience of daily life in this exhortation: 'Grow\nin grace'; and it is not growth in some occult theological virtue, or\ntranscendent experience, but a very plain, practical thing, a daily\ntransformation, with growing completeness and precision of resemblance,\ninto the likeness of Jesus Christ; the grace that was in Him being\ntransferred to me, and my character being growingly irradiated and\nrefined, softened and ennobled by the reflection of the lustre of His.\n\nThis it is to 'grow into the grace of our Lord and Saviour'; a deeper\nconsciousness of His love creeping round the roots of my heart every\nday, and fuller possession of His gifts placed in my opening hand every\nday; and a continual approximation to the beauty of His likeness, which\nnever halts nor ceases.\n\n'Grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.' The knowledge of a\nperson is not the same as the knowledge of a creed or of a thought or of\na book. We are to grow in the knowledge of Christ, which includes but\nis more than the intellectual apprehension of the truths concerning Him.\nHe might turn the injunction into--'Increase your acquaintance with your\nSaviour.' Many Christians never get to be any more intimate with Him\nthan they were when they were first introduced to Him. They are on a\nkind of bowing acquaintance with their Master, and have little more than\nthat. We sometimes begin an acquaintance which we think promises to\nripen into a friendship, but are disappointed. Circumstances or some\nwant of congeniality which is discovered prevent its growth. So with not\na few professing Christians. They have got no nearer Jesus Christ than\nwhen they first knew Him. Their friendship has not grown. It has never\nreached the stage where all restraints are laid aside and there is\nperfect confidence. 'Grow in the knowledge of your Lord and Saviour\nJesus Christ.' Get more and more intimate with Him, nearer to Him, and\nfranker and more cordial with Him day by day.\n\nBut there is another side to the injunction besides that. We are to grow\nin the grasp, the intellectual grasp and realisation of the truths which\nlie wrapped up and enfolded in Him. The first truths that a man learns\nwhen he becomes a Christian are the most important. The lesson that the\nlittle child learns contains the Omega as well as the Alpha of all\ntruth. There is no word in all the gospel that is an advance on that\ninitial word, the faith of which saves the most ignorant who trusts to\nit. We begin with the end, if I may say so, and the highest truth is the\nfirst truth that we learn. But the aspect which that truth bears to the\nman when, first of all, it dawns upon him, and he sees in it the end of\nhis fears, the cleansing of his heart, the pardoning of his sins, his\nacceptance with God, is a very different thing from the aspect that it\nought to wear to him, after, say forty years of pondering, of growing up\nto it, after years of experience have taught him. Life is the best\ncommentary upon the truths of the gospel, and the experience teaches\ntheir depths and their power, their far-reaching applications and\nharmonies. So our growth in the knowledge of Jesus Christ is not a\ngrowing away from the earliest lessons, or a leaving them behind, but a\ngrowing up to and into them. So as to learn more fully and clearly all\ntheir infinite contents of grace and truth. The treasure put into our\nhands at first is discovered in its true preciousness as life and trial\ntest its metal and its inexhaustibleness. The child's lesson is the\nman's lesson. All our Christian progress in knowledge consists in\nbringing to light the deep meaning, the far-reaching consequences of the\nfact of Christ's incarnation, death, and glory. 'God so loved the world\nthat He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him\nshould not perish, but have everlasting life.' The same truth which\nshone at first a star in a far-off sky, through a sinful man's night of\nfear and agony, grows in brilliance as we draw nearer to it, until at\nlast it blazes, the central Sun of the Universe, the hearth for all\nvital warmth, the fountain of all guiding light, the centre of all\nenergy. Christ in His manhood, in His divinity, Christ in His cross,\nresurrection, and glory, is the object of all knowledge, and we grow in\nthe knowledge of Him by penetrating more deeply into the truths which we\nhave long ago learned, as well as by following them as they lead us into\nnew fields, and disclose unsuspected issues in creed and practice.\n\nThat growth will not be one-sided; for grace and knowledge will advance\nside by side--the moral and spiritual keeping step with the\nintellectual, the practical with the theoretical. And that growth will\nhave no term. It is growth towards an infinite object of our aspiration,\nimitation, and affection. So we shall ever approach and never surpass\nJesus Christ. Such endless progress is the very salt of life. It keeps\nus young when physical strength decays. It flames, an immortal hope, to\nlight the darkness of the grave when all other hopes are quenched in\nnight.\n\nII. Now, for a moment, look at another thought, viz., the obligation.\n\nIt is a command, that is to say, the will is involved. Growth is to be\ndone by effort, and the fact that it is a command teaches us this, that\nwe are not to take this one metaphor as if it exhausted the whole of the\nfacts of the case in reference to Christian progress.\n\nYou would never think of telling a child to grow any more than you would\nthink of telling a plant to grow, but Peter does tell Christian men and\nwomen to grow. Why? Because they are not plants, but men with wills,\nwhich can resist, and can either further or hinder their progress.\n\n 'Lo! in the middle of the wood,\n The folded leaf is wooed from out the bud,\n ... and there\n Grows green and broad, and takes no care.'\n\nBut that is not how we grow. 'In the sweat of thy brow,' with pain and\nperil, with effort and toil, and not otherwise, do men grow in\neverything but stature. And especially is it so in the Christian\ncharacter. There are other metaphors that need to be taken into\nconsideration as well as this of growth, with all its sweet suggestions\nof continuous, effortless, spontaneous advance.\n\nThe Christian progress is not only growth, it is warfare. The Christian\nprogress is not only growth, it is a race. The Christian progress is not\nonly growth, it is mortifying the old man. The Christian progress is not\nonly growth, it is putting off the old man with his deeds and putting on\nthe new! 'First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the\near,' was never meant for a complete account of how the Christian life\nis perfected.\n\nWe are bidden to grow, and that command points to hindrances and\nresistance, to the need for effort and the governing action of our own\nwills.\n\nThe command is one sorely needed in the present state of our average\nChristianity. Our churches are full of monsters, specimens of arrested\ngrowth, dwarfs, who have scarcely grown since they were babes, infants\nall their lives. I come to you with a very plain question: Have you any\nmore of Christ's beauty in your characters, any more of His grace in\nyour hearts, any more of His truth in your minds than you had a year\nago, ten years ago, or at that far-off period when some of you\ngreyheaded men first professed to be Christians? Have you experienced so\nmany things in vain? Have the years taught you nothing? Ah, brethren!\nfor how many of us is it true: 'When for the time ye ought to be\nteachers ye have need that one teach you which be the first principles\nof the oracles of God'? 'Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord\nand Saviour.'\n\nAnd we need the command because all about us there are hindrances. There\nis the hindrance of an abuse of the evangelical doctrine of conversion,\nand the idea that springs up in many hearts that if once a man has\n'passed from death unto life,' and has managed to get inside the door\nof the banqueting-hall, that is enough. And there are numbers of people\nin our Nonconformist communities especially, where that doctrine of\nconversion is most distinctly preached, whose growth is stopped by the\nabuse that they make of it in fancying if they have once exercised faith\nin Jesus Christ they may safely and sinlessly stand still. 'Conversion'\nis turning round. What do we turn round for? Surely, in order that we\nmay travel on in the new direction, not that we may stay where we are.\nThere is also the hindrance of mere indolence, and there is the\nhindrance arising from absorption in the world and its concerns.\n\nIf all your strength is going thither, there is none left to grow with.\nMany professing Christians take such deep draughts of the intoxicating\ncup of this world's pleasures that it stunts their growth. People\nsometimes give children gin in order to keep them from growing. Some of\nyou do that for your Christian character by the deep draughts that you\ntake of the Circean cup of this world's pleasures and cares.\n\nAnd not unfrequently, some one favourite evil, some lust or passion, or\nweakness, or desire, which you have not the strength to cast out, will\nkill all aspirations and destroy all possibilities of growth; and will\nbe like an iron band round a little sapling, which will confine it and\nutterly prevent all expansion. Is that the case with any of us? We all\nneed--and I pray you suffer--the word of exhortation.\n\nIII. Now, again, consider the method of growth.\n\nThere are two things essential to the growth of animal life. One is\nfood, the other is exercise; and your Christian character will grow by\nno other means.\n\nNow as to the first. The true means by which we shall grow in Christian\ngrace is by holding continual intercourse and communion with Jesus\nChrist. It is from Him that all come. He is the Fountain of Life; He\ngives the life, He nourishes the life, He increases the life. And whilst\nI have been saying, in an earlier part of this discourse, that we are\nnot to expect an effortless growth, I must here say that we shall very\nmuch mistake what Christian progress requires if we suppose that the\neffort is most profitably directed to the cultivation of specific and\nsingle acts of goodness and purity. Our efforts are best when directed\nto keeping ourselves in union with our Lord. The heart united to Him\nwill certainly be advancing in all things fair and lovely and of good\nreport. Keep yourselves in touch with Christ; and Christ will make you\ngrow. That is to say, occupy heart and mind with Him, let your thoughts\ngo to Him. Do you ever, from morning to night, on a week-day, think\nabout your Master, about His truth, about the principles of His Gospel,\nabout His great love to you? Keep your heart in union with Him, in the\nmidst of the rush and hurry of your daily life. Are your desires turning\nto Him? Do they go out towards Him and feel after Him? It will take an\neffort to keep up the union with Him, but without the effort there will\nbe no contact, and without the contact there will be no growth. As soon\nmay you expect a plant, wrenched from the soil and shut out from the\nsunshine to grow, as expect any Christian progress in the hearts which\nare disjoined from Jesus Christ. But rooted in that soil, smiled upon by\nthat sun, watered by the perpetual dew from His Heaven, we shall 'grow\nlike the lily, and cast forth our roots like Lebanon. The secret of real\nChristian progress and the direction in which the effort of Christian\nprogress can most profitably and effectually be made, is simply in\nkeeping close to our Lord and Master. He is the food of the Spirit. 'I\nam come that they might have life, and that they might have it more\nabundantly.'\n\nCommunion with Christ includes prayer. Desire to grow will help our\ngrowth. We tend to become what we long to be. Desire which impels to\neffort will not be in vain if it likewise impels to prayer. We may have\nthe answer to our petition for growth in set ways; we may be but\npartially conscious of the answer, nor know that our faces shine when we\ngo among men. But certainly if we pray for what is in such accordance\nwith His will as 'growth in grace' is, we shall have the petition that\nwe desire. That longing to know Him better and to possess more of His\ngrace, like the tendrils of some climbing plant, will always find the\nsupport round which it may twine, and by which it may ascend.\n\nThe other condition of growth is exercise. Use the grace which you have,\nand it increases. Practice the truth which you know, and many things\nwill become clearer. The blacksmith's muscles are strengthened by\nwielding the forge-hammer, but unused they waste. The child grows by\nexercise. To him that hath--truly possesses with that possession which\nonly use secures--shall be given.\n\nCommunion with Christ, including prayer, and exercise are the means of\ngrowth.\n\nIV. Lastly, observe the solemn alternative to growth.\n\nIt is not a question of either growing or not growing, and there an end;\nbut if you will look at the context you will see that the exhortation of\nmy text comes in in a very significant connection. 'Behold! beware, lest\nbeing led away ... ye fall from your own steadfastness.' 'But grow in\ngrace.' That is to say, the only preventive of falling away from\nsteadfastness is continual progress. The alternative of advance is\nretrogression. There is no standing still upon the inclined plane. If\nyou are not going up, gravity begins to act, and down you go. There must\neither be continual advance or there will be certain decay and\ncorruption. As soon as growth ceases in this physiology _disintegration_\ncommences. Just as the graces exercised are strengthened, so the graces\nunexercised decay. The slothful servant wraps his talent in a napkin,\nand buries it in the ground. He may try to persuade his Master and\nhimself with 'There Thou hast that is Thine'; but He will not take up\nwhat you buried. Rust and verdigris will have done their work upon the\ncoin; the inscription will be obliterated and the image will be marred.\nYou cannot bury your Christian grace in indolence without diminishing\nit. It will be like a bit of ice wrapped in a cloth and left in the sun,\nit will all have gone into water when you come to take it out. And the\ntruth that you do _not_ live by, whose relations and large harmonies and\ncontrolling power are not being increasingly realised in your lives;\nthat truth is becoming less and less real, more and more shadowy, and\nghostlike to you. Truth which is not growing is becoming fossilised.\n'The things most surely believed' are often the things which have least\npower. Unquestioned truth too often lies 'bedridden in the dormitory of\nthe soul side by side with exploded error.' The sure way to reduce your\nknowledge of Jesus Christ to that inert condition is to neglect\nincreasing it and applying it to your daily life. There are men, in all\nchurches, and there are some whole communions whose creeds are the most\northodox, and also utterly useless, and as near as possible\nnonentities, simply because the creed is accepted and shelved. If your\nbelief is to be of any use to you, or to be held by you in the face of\ntemptations to abandon it, you must keep it fresh, and oxygenated, so to\nsay, by continual fresh apprehension of it and closer application of it\nto conduct. As soon as the stream stands, it stagnates; and the very\nmanna from God will breed worms and stink. And Christian truth\nunpractised by those who hold it, corrupts itself and corrupts them.\n\nSo Peter tells us that the alternative is growth or apostasy. This decay\nmay be most real and unsuspected. There are many, many professing\nChristians all ignorant that, like the Jewish giant of old, their\nstrength is gone from them, and the Spirit of God departed. My brother,\nI beseech you, rouse yourself from your contented slothfulness. Do not\nbe satisfied with merely having come within the Temple. Count nothing as\nwon whilst anything remains to be won. There is a whole ocean of\nboundless grace and truth rolling shoreless there before you. Do not\ncontent yourselves with picking up a few shells on the beach, but launch\nout into the deep, and learn to know more and more of the grace and\ntruth and beauty of your Saviour and your God.\n\nBut remember dead things do not grow. You cannot grow unless you are\nalive, and you are not alive unless you have Jesus Christ.\n\nHave you given yourselves to Him? have you taken Him as yours? given\nyourselves to Him as His servants, subjects, soldiers? taken Him for\nyours as your Saviour, Sacrifice, Pattern, Inspirer, Friend? If you\nhave, then you have life which will grow if you keep it in union with\nHim. Joined to Him, men are like a 'tree that is planted by the rivers\nof water,' which spreads its foliage and bears its fruit, and year after\nyear flings a wider shadow upon the grass, and lifts a sturdier bole to\nthe heavens. Separated from Him they are like the chaff, which has\nneither root nor life, and which cannot grow.\n\nWhich, my friend, are you?\n\n\n\n\nI. JOHN\n\n\n\n\nTHE MESSAGE AND ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS\n\n 'This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare\n unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. 6.\n If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we\n lie, and do not the truth: 7. But if we walk in the light, as He is\n in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of\n Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8. If we say that\n we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.\n 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us\n our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10. If we say\n that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in\n us.'\n\n 'My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin\n not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus\n Christ the righteous: 2. And He is the propitiation for our sins:\n and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 3.\n And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His\n commandments. 4. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His\n commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5. But whoso\n keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected:\n hereby know we that we are in Him. 6. He that saith he abideth in\n Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.'--1 John\n i. 5-ii. 6.\n\n\nJohn is the mystic among the New Testament writers. He dwells much on\nthe immediate union of the soul with God, and he has little to say about\ninstitutions and rites. His method is not to argue, but to utter deep,\nsimple propositions which convince by their own light. But he is also\nintensely eager for plain, practical morality, and in that respect sets\nthe example which, unfortunately, too many of the more mystical types of\nChristian teaching have failed to follow. To him the outcome and test of\nall deep hidden union with God is righteousness in life.\n\nThe blending of these two elements, which is the very keynote of this\nletter, is wonderfully set forth in this passage. They would require\nmuch more space than we command for their treatment, for every clause is\nweighty as gold. We can but skim the surface, and try to bring out the\nsalient points.\n\nI. We have, first, a wonderful gathering up of the whole gospel message\ninto one utterance as to the essential nature of God. Light is in all\nlanguages the symbol of knowledge, of joy, of purity. It is the source\nof life. Its very nature is to ray itself out into and conquer darkness.\nIts splendor dazzles every eye; all things rejoice in its beams.\nDarkness is the type of ignorance, of sorrow, of sin. But, whilst the\nsymbol is thus rich in manifold revelations, probably purity and\nself-communication are the predominating ideas here.\n\nJohn has been honoured to give the world the three great revelations\nthat God is spirit, is light, is love. And this profound saying in some\nsense includes both the others, inasmuch as light, which to the popular\nmind is most widely apart from matter, may well stand for the emblem of\nspirit, and, since to radiate is its inseparable quality, does represent\nin symbol the delight in imparting Himself, which is the very heart of\nthe declaration that God is love. If, then, we grasp these two thoughts\nof absolute purity and of self-impartation as the very nature and\nproperty of God, John tells us that we grasp the kernel of the Gospel.\n\nAnd he thinks that men never will grasp them certainly unless a\n'message' from God, a definite revelation in historical fact, certifies\nthem. We may hope or doubt, or desire, but we cannot be sure that God is\nlight unless he tells us so by unmistakable act. John knew what act that\nwas--the sending of His only-begotten Son. To the positive statement\nJohn, in his usual manner, appends an emphatic negative one: 'Darkness\nis not in him, no, not in any way.' He is light, all light, only light.\n\nII. With characteristic moral earnestness, John passes at once to the\npractical effects which the message is meant to have. We are not told\nwhat God is simply that we may know, but that, knowing, we may do and\nbe. If He is light, two things will follow in those who are in union\nwith Him--they will walk in light, and they will in His light see their\nown evil. John deals with these two consequences in verses 6-10--the\nformer in verses 6 and 7; the latter in verses 8-10. The parallelism in\nthe construction of these two sets of verses is striking:\n\n VERSES 6, 7. VERSES 8, 9.\n\n If we say If we say\n\n that we have fellowship with that we have no sin\n Him, and walk in darkness,\n we lie, and do not the truth. we deceive ourselves, and the\n truth is not in us.\n\n But if we walk in the light, If we confess our sins,\n as He is in the light,\n\n we have fellowship one with He is faithful and righteous to\n another. forgive us our sins,\n\n and the blood of Jesus His Son and to cleanse us from all\n cleanseth us from all sin. unrighteousness.\n\nAs to the former of these two paragraphs, the underlying thought is that\nfellowship with God necessarily involves moral likeness to Him. Worship\nis always aspiration after, and conformity to, the character of the god\nworshipped, and there can be no true communion with a God who is light\nunless the worshipper walks in light. In plain language, all high-flying\npretensions to communion with God must verify themselves by practical\nrighteousness. That cuts deep into an emotional religion, which has much\nto say about raptures and the like, but produces little purifying effect\non the humble details of daily life.\n\nThere are always professing Christians who talk of their blessed\nexperiences, and woefully fail in prosaic virtues. It is a pity that a\nman should hold his head so high that he does not look to keep his feet\nout of the mud. Such a profession is for the most part tainted with more\nor less conscious falsehood, and is always a proof that the truth--the\nsum of God's revelation--is not operative in the man; that he is not\nturning his belief into act, as all belief should be. On the other hand,\nthe true relation resulting from the message is that we should walk in\nthe light, as He is in it.\n\nVerse 10 seems to be simply a reiteration of the preceding idea, with\nsome intensifying, and that chiefly in the description of the true\ncharacter of the denial of sin. To make God a liar is worse than to lie\nor to deceive ourselves; and all ignoring of sin does that, because not\nonly has God declared its universality by the words of revelation, but\nall His dealings with men are based upon the fact that they are all\nsinners, and we fly in the face of all His words and works if we deny\nthat which we ourselves are. Therefore the Apostle further varies his\nexpression, and says 'His word' instead of 'the truth,' thus bringing\ninto prominence the thought that 'the truth' is made accessible to us\nbecause God has spoken.\n\nIII. Chapter ii. 1-6 is in structure analogous to the preceding section.\nAs there, so here, the 'message' is summed up in one great\nfact,--Christ's work as advocate for believers and as propitiation for\nthe world. As there, so here, two practical consequences follow, which\nare drawn out on corresponding lines. Observe the repetition in verses 3\nand 5 _b_, of 'hereby know we,' and in verses 4 and 6 of 'He that\nsaith.'\n\nNote, too, the reappearance of 'is a liar' and of 'the truth is not in\nhim' in verse 4. The drift of the section may be briefly put as follows.\nJohn's heart melts as he thinks of the possibilities of holiness open to\nbelievers, and of the sad actualities of their imperfect lives, and he\naddresses them by the tender name, 'my little children.' The impelling\nand guiding motive of his letter is that they may not sin. Practical\nrighteousness is the end of revelation, and its complete attainment\nshould be the aim of every believer.\n\nBut the sad experience of 'saints' is that they are not yet wholly\ndelivered from its power. Therefore 'the message' is not only 'God is\nlight without blending of darkness,' but, 'we Christians have an\nAdvocate with the Father.' Jesus is to-day carrying on His mighty work\nof prevalent intercession for all His servants, and that intercession\nsecures forgiveness for their inconsistencies and lapses, because it\nrests upon Christ's finished work of 'propitiation,' which is for the\nwhole world, even though it actually avails only for believers.\n\nSuch being the power of Christ's work in its twofold aspect of\npropitiation and of intercession, the same practical issues as in the\npreceding section were shown to flow from the revealed nature of God are\nhere, in somewhat different form, linked with that work. First, keeping\nhis commandments (which is equivalent to 'walking in the light') is the\ntest to ourselves, as well as to others, of our really knowing Him with\na knowledge which is not mere head work, but the acquaintance of\nsympathy and friendship, or, in the words of the previous paragraph,\nhaving fellowship with Him.\n\nClearly, the scope of this section requires that 'His commandments'\nshould here mean Christ's, not the Father's. All professions of knowing\nJesus which are not verified by obedience to Him are false. If we do\nkeep His word--not merely the individual 'commandments,' but the word as\none great whole--our love to God reaches its perfection, for it is no\nmere emotion of the heart, but the force which is to mould and actuate\nall our acts.\n\nVerse 5 _b_ should be separated from the preceding words, for it is\nreally the beginning of the second issue from the work of Christ, and is\nparallel with 'hereby know we,' etc., in verse 3. Observe the progress\nin thought from the assurance that we _know_ (ver. 3) to the assurance\nthat we _are in_ Him. The Christian's relation to Jesus is not only that\nof acquaintance, however intimate, loving, and transforming, but that of\nactual dwelling in Him. That great truth shines on every page of the New\nTestament, and is not to be weakened down into metaphor or rhetoric. It\nis the very heart of the Christian life, and the test that we have\nattained to it, and that not merely as an occasional, but as a\npermanent, condition (note that '_are_ in Him' is strengthened to\n'_abideth_ in Him') is that our outward life, in its manifold\nactivities, shall be conformed to the pattern of all holiness in the\nlife of Jesus. To walk as He walked is to walk in the light. Profession\nis nothing, conduct is everything, and we shall only be clear of sin in\nthe measure in which we have Him who is the light of men for the very\nlife of our lives.\n\n\n\n\nWALKING IN THE LIGHT\n\n 'If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship\n one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth\n us from all sin.'--1 John i. 7.\n\n\nJohn was the Apostle of love, but he was also a 'son of thunder.' His\nintense moral earnestness and his very love made him hate evil, and\nsternly condemn it; and his words flash and roll as no other words in\nScripture, except the words of the Lord of love. In the immediate\ncontext he has been laying down what is to him the very heart of his\nmessage, that 'God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.' There\nare spots in the sun, great tracts of blackness on its radiant disc; but\nin God is unmingled, perfect purity. That being so, it is clear that no\nman can be in sympathy or hold communion with Him, unless he, too, in\nhis measure, is light.\n\nSo, with fiery indignation, John turns to the people, of whom there were\nsome, even in the primitive Church, who made claims to a lofty\nspirituality and communion with God, and all the while were manifestly\nliving in the darkness of sin. He will not mince matters with them. He\nroundly says that they are lying, and the worst sort of lie--an acted\nlie: 'They do not the truth.' Then, with a quick turn, he opposes to\nthese pretenders the men who really are in fellowship with God, and in\nmy text lays down the principle that walking in the light is essential\nto fellowship with God. Only, in his usual fashion, he turns the\nantithesis into a somewhat different form, so as to suggest another\naspect of the truth, and instead of saying, as we might expect for the\nverbal accuracy of the contrast, 'If we walk in the light, as He is in\nthe light, we have fellowship with God,' he says, 'we have fellowship\none with another.' Then he adds a still further result of that walk,\n'the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin.'\n\nNow there are three things: walking in the light, which is the only\nChristian walk; the companions of those who walk in the light; and the\nprogressive cleansing which is given.\n\nI. Note this 'Walking in the light,' which is the only Christian walk.\n\nIn all languages, light is the natural symbol for three things:\nknowledge, joy, purity. The one ray is broken into its three constituent\nparts. But just as there are some surfaces which are sensitive to the\nviolet rays, say, of the spectrum, and not to the others, so John's\nintense moral earnestness makes him mainly sensitive to the symbolism\nwhich makes light the expression, not so much of knowledge or of joy, as\nof moral purity. And although that is not exclusively his use of the\nemblem, it is predominately so, and it is so here. To 'walk in the\nlight' then, is, speaking generally, to have purity, righteousness,\ngoodness, as the very element and atmosphere in which our progressive\nand changeful life is carried on.\n\nNote, too, before I go further, that very significant antithesis: we\n'walk'; He _is_--God _is_ in the light essentially, changelessly,\nundisturbedly, eternally; and the light in which He is, His 'own calm\nhome, His habitation from eternity,' is light which has flowed out from\nHimself as a halo round the midnight moon. It is all one in substance to\nsay God is in light, or, as the Psalmist has it, 'He covered Himself\nwith light as with a garment,' and to say, 'God is light.'\n\nBut, side by side with that changeless abiding in the perfect purity,\nwhich is inaccessible, the Apostle ventures to put, not in contrast\nonly, but in parallel (_as_ He is), our changing, effortful, active,\nprogressive life in the light (God is); we walk.\n\nSo, then, the essential of a Christian character is that the light of\npurity and moral goodness shall be as the very orb, in the midst of\nwhich it stands and advances. That implies effort, and it implies\nactivity, and it implies progress. And we are only Christians in the\nmeasure in which the conscious activities of our daily lives, and the\ndeepest energies of our inward being, are bathed and saturated with this\nlove of, and effort after, righteousness. It is vain, says John, to talk\nabout fellowship with God, unless the fellowship is rooted in sympathy\nwith Him in that which is the very heart of his Being, the perfect light\nof perfect holiness. Test your Christianity by that.\n\nThen, still further, there is implied in this great requirement of\nwalking in the light, not only activity and effort, and progress and\npurity, but also that the whole of the life shall be brought into\nrelation with, and shall be moulded after, the pattern of the God in\nwhom we profess to believe. Religion, in its deepest meaning, is the\naspiration after likeness to the god. You see it in heathenism. Men make\ntheir gods after their own image, and then the god makes the worshippers\nafter his image. Mars is the god of the soldier, and Venus goddess of\nthe profligate, and Apollo god of the musical and the wise, etc., and in\nChristianity the deepest thing in it is aspiration and effort after\nlikeness to God. Love is imitation; admiration, especially when it is\nraised to the highest degree and becomes adoration, is imitation. And\nthe man that lies before God, like a mirror in the sunshine, receives\non the still surface of his soul--but not, like the mirror, on the\nsurface only, but down into its deepest depths--the reflected image of\nHim on Whom he gazes. 'We all with unveiled face, mirroring glory, are\nchanged into the same image.' So to walk in the light is only possible\nwhen we are drawn into it, and our feeble feet made fit to tread upon\nthe radiant glory, by the thought that He is in the light. To imitate\nHim is to be righteous. So do not let us forget that a correct creed,\nand devout emotions, ay! and a morality which has no connection with\nHim, are all imperfect, and that the end of all our religion, our\northodox creed and our sweet emotions and inward feelings of acceptance\nand favour and fellowship, are meant to converge on, and to produce\nthis--a life and a character which lives and moves and has its being in\na great orb of light and purity.\n\nBut another thing is included in this grand metaphor of my text. Not\nonly does it enjoin upon us effort and activity and progress in the\nlight and the linking of all our purity with God, but also, it bids us\nshroud no part of our conduct or our character either from ourselves or\nfrom Him. Bring it all out into the light. And although with a penitent\nheart, and a face suffused with blushes, we have sometimes to say, 'See,\nFather, what I have done!' it is far better that the revealing light\nshould shine down upon us, and like the sunshine on wet linen, melt away\nthe foulness which it touches, than that we should huddle the ugly thing\nup in a corner, to be one day revealed and transfixed by the flash of\nthe light turned into lightning. 'He that doeth the truth cometh to the\nlight, that his deeds may be made manifest.'\n\nII. So much, then, for my first point; the second is: The companions of\nthe men that walk in the light.\n\nI have already pointed out that the accurate, perhaps pedantically\naccurate, form of the antithesis would have been: 'If we walk in the\nlight as He is in the light, we have fellowship with God.' But John\nsays, first, 'we have fellowship one with another.' Underlying that, as\nI shall have to say in a moment, there is the other thought: 'We have\nfellowship with God.' But he deals with the other side of the truth\nfirst. That just comes to this, that the only cement that perfectly\nknits men to each other is their common possession of that light, and\nthe consequent fellowship with God. There are plenty of other bonds that\ndraw us to one another; but these, if they are not strengthened by this\ndeepest of all bonds, the affinity of souls, that are moving together in\nthe realm of light and purity, are precarious, and apt to snap. Sin\nseparates men quite as much as it separates each man from God. It is the\nwedge driven into the tree that rends it apart. Human society with its\nvarious bonds is like the iron hoop that may be put around the barrel\nstaves, giving them a quasi-unity. The one thing that builds men\ntogether into a whole is that each shall be, as it were, embedded in the\nrock which is the foundation, and the building will rise into a holy\ntemple in the Lord. Sin separates; as the prophet confessed, 'All we\nlike sheep have gone astray, every one to _his own way_,' and the flock\nis broken up into a multitude of scattered sheep. Social enthusiasts may\nlearn the lesson that the only way by which brotherhood among men can\nbecome anything else than a name, and probably end, as it did in the\ngreat French Revolution, in 'brothers' making hecatombs of their\nbrethren under the guillotine, is that it shall be the corollary from\nthe Fatherhood of God. If we walk in the light, not otherwise, we have\n'fellowship one with another.'\n\nThen, still further, in this fellowship one with another, John\npresupposes the fellowship with God for each, which makes the\npossibility and the certainty of all being drawn into one family. He\ndoes not think it necessary to state, what is so plain and obvious,\nviz., that unless we are in sympathy with God, in our aspiration and\neffort after the light which is His home and ours, we have no real\ncommunion with Him. I said that sin separated man from man, and\ndisrupted all the sweet bonds of amity, so that if men come into\ncontact, being themselves in the darkness, they come into collision\nrather than into communion. A company of travellers in the night are\nisolated individuals. When the sun rises on their paths they are a\ncompany again. And in like manner, sin separates us from God, and if our\nhearts are turned towards, and denizens of, the darkness of impurity,\nthen we have no communion with Him. He cannot come to us if we love the\ndarkness. He\n\n 'Can but listen at the gate,\n And hear the household jar within.'\n\nThe tide of the Atlantic feels along the base of iron-bound cliffs on\nour western shores, and there is not a crevice into which it can come.\nSo God moves about us, but is without us, so long as we walk in\ndarkness. So let us remember that no union with Him is possible, except\nthere be this common dwelling in the light. Two grains of quicksilver\nlaid upon a polished surface will never unite if their surfaces be\ndusted over with minute impurities, or if the surface of one of them be.\nClean away the motes, and they will coalesce and be one. A film of sin\nseparates men from God. And if the film be removed the man dwells in\nGod, and God in him.\n\nIII. That brings me to my last point: The progressive cleansing of those\nwho dwell in the light.\n\n'The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.' Now if you will\nnotice the whole context, and eminently the words a couple of verses\nafter my text, you will see that the cleansing here meant is not the\ncleansing of forgiveness, but the cleansing of purifying. For the two\nthings are articulately distinguished in the ninth verse: 'He is\nfaithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all\nunrighteousness.' So, to use theological terms, it is not justification,\nbut sanctification that is meant here.\n\nThen there is another thing to be noticed, and that is that when the\nApostle speaks here about the blood of Christ, he is not thinking of\nthat blood as shed on the Cross, the atoning sacrifice, but of that\nblood as transfused into the veins, the source there of our new life.\nThe Old Testament says that 'the blood is the life.' Never mind about\nthe statement being scientifically correct; it conveys the idea of the\ntime, which underlies a great deal of Old and New Testament teaching.\nAnd when John says the blood of Jesus cleanses from 'all sin,' he says\njust the same thing as his brother Paul said, 'the law of the spirit of\nlife in Jesus Christ makes me free from the law of sin and death.' That\nis to say, a growing cleansing from the dominion and the power of sin is\ngranted to us, if we have the life of Jesus Christ breathed into our\nlives. The metaphor is a very strong one. They tell us--I know nothing\nabout the truth of it--that sometimes it has been possible to revive a\nmoribund man by transfusing into his veins blood from another. That is\na picture of the only way by which you and I can become free from the\ntyranny that dominates us. We must have the life of Christ as the\nanimating principle of our lives, the spirit of Jesus emancipating us\nfrom the power of sin and death.\n\nSo you see, there are two aspects of Christ's great work set before us\nunder that one metaphor of the blood in its two-fold form, first, as\nshed for us sinners on the Cross; second, as poured into our veins day\nby day. That works progressive cleansing. It covers the whole ground of\nall possible iniquity. Pardon is much, purifying is more. The sacrifice\non the Cross is the basis of everything, but that sacrifice does not\nexhaust what Christ does for us. He died for our sins, and lives for our\nsanctifying. He died for us, He lives in us. Because He died, we are\nforgiven; because He lives, we are made pure. Only remember John's 'if.'\nThe 'blood of Jesus will progressively cleanse us until it has cleansed\nus from _all_ sin,' on condition that we 'walk in the light,' not\notherwise. If the main direction of our lives is towards the light; if\nwe seek, by aspiration and by effort, and by deliberate choice, to live\nin holiness, then, and not else, will the power of the life of Jesus\nChrist deliver us from the power of sin and death.\n\nNow, my text presupposes that the people to whom it is addressed, and\nwhom it concerns, have already passed from darkness into light, if not\nwholly, yet in germ. But for those who have not so passed, there is\nsomething to be said before my text. And John says it immediately; here\nit is, 'If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ\nthe righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for our\nsins only, but for the whole world.' So we have to begin with the blood\nshed for us, the means of our pardon, and then we have the advance of\nthe blood sprinkled on us, the means of our cleansing. If by humble\nfaith we take the dying Lord for our Saviour, and the channel of our\nforgiveness, we shall have the pardon of our sins. If we listen to the\nvoice that says, 'Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the\nLord. Walk as children of the light,' we shall have fellowship with the\nliving Lord, and daily know more and more of the power of His cleansing\nblood, making us 'meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints\nin light.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE COMMANDMENT, OLD YET NEW\n\n 'I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which\n ye had from the beginning.... Again, a new commandment I write unto\n you, which thing is true in him and in you.'--1 John ii. 7, 8.\n\n\nThe simplest words may carry the deepest thoughts. Perhaps angels and\nlittle children speak very much alike. This letter, like all of John's\nwriting, is pellucid in speech, profound in thought, clear and deep,\nlike the abysses of mid-ocean. His terms are such as a child can\nunderstand; his sentences short and inartificial: he does not reason, he\ndeclares; he has neither argument nor rhetoric, but he teaches us the\ndeepest truths, and shows us that we get nearer the centre by insight\nthan by logic.\n\nNow the words that I have taken for my text are very characteristic of\nthis Apostle's manner. He has a great, wide-reaching truth to proclaim,\nand he puts it in the simplest, most inartificial manner, laying side by\nside two artless sentences, and stimulates us by the juxtaposition,\nleading us to feel after, and so to make our own, the large lessons that\nare in them. Let me, then, try to bring these out.\n\nI. And the first one that strikes me is--'the word' is 'a commandment.'\n\nNow, by 'the word' here the Apostle obviously means, since he speaks\nabout it as that which these Asiatic Christians 'heard from the\nbeginning,' the initial truth which was presented for their acceptance\nin the story of the life and death of Jesus Christ. That was 'the word'\nand, says he, just because it was a history it is a commandment; just\nbecause it was the Revelation of God it is a law. God never tells us\nanything merely that we may be wise. The purpose of all divine speech,\nwhether in His great works in nature, or in the voices of our own\nconsciences, or in the syllables that we have to piece together from out\nof the complicated noises of the world's history, or in this book, or in\nthe Incarnate Word, where all the wandering syllables are gathered\ntogether into one word--the purpose of all that God says to men is\nprimarily that they may know, but in order that, knowing, they may do;\nand still more that they may be. And so, inasmuch as every piece of\nreligious knowledge has in it the capacity of directing conduct, all\nGod's word is a commandment.\n\nAnd, if that is true in regard to other revelations and manifestations\nthat he has made of Himself, it is especially true in regard to the\nsumming-up of all in the Incarnate Word, and in His words, and in the\nwords that tell us of His life and of His death. So whatever truths\nthere may be, and there are many, which, of course, have only the\nremotest, if any, bearing upon life and conduct, every bit of Christian\ntruth has a direct grip upon a man's life, and brings with it a\nstringent obligation.\n\nNow, the Revelation of God in Jesus Christ, 'the Word which ye heard\nfrom the beginning,' which, I suppose, would roughly correspond with\nwhat is told us in our four Gospels; the word which these Asiatic\nChristians heard at first, the good news that was brought to them in the\nmidst of their gropings and peradventures, commanded, in the first\nplace, absolute trust, the submission of the will as well as the assent\nof the understanding. But also it commanded imitation, for Jesus Christ\nwas revealed to them, as He is revealed to us, as being the Incarnate\nrealisation of the ideal of humanity; and what He is, the knowledge that\nHe is that, binds us to try to be in our turn.\n\nAnd more than that, brethren, the Cross of Christ is a commandment. For\nwe miserably mutilate it, and sinfully as well as foolishly limit its\napplication and its power, if we recognise it only--I was going to say\nmainly--as being the ground of our hope and of what we call our\nsalvation, and do not recognise it as being the obligatory example of\nour lives, which we are bound to translate into our daily practice.\nJesus Christ Himself has told us that in many a fashion, never more\ntouchingly and wondrously than when in response to the request of a\nhandful of Greeks to see Him, He answered with the word which not only\ndeclared what was obligatory upon Him, but what was obligatory upon us\nall, and for the want of which all the great endowments of the Greek\nmind at last rotted down into sensuousness, when He said, 'Except a corn\nof wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die\nit bringeth forth much fruit' and then went on to say, 'he that loveth\nhis life shall lose it.'\n\nSo, then, brethren, 'the word which ye heard at the beginning,' the\nstory of Christ, His life and His death, is a stringent commandment.\nNow, this is one of the blessings of Christianity, that all which was\nhard and hopeless, ministering to despair sometimes, as well as stirring\nto fierce effort at others, in the conception of law or duty as it\nstands outside us, is changed into the tender word, 'if ye love Me, keep\nMy commandments.' If any man serve Me, let him ... 'follow Me.' It is a\nlaw; it is 'the law of liberty.' So you have not done all that is\nneedful when you have accepted the teaching of Christ in the Scriptures\nand the teaching of the Scriptures concerning Christ. Nor have you done\nall that is needful when clasping Him, and clinging simply to His Cross,\nyou recognise in it the means and the pledge of your acceptance with\nGod, and the ground and anchor of all your hope. There is something more\nto be done. The Gospel is a commandment, and commandments require not\nonly assent, not only trust, but practical obedience. The 'old\ncommandment' is the 'word which ye heard from the beginning.'\n\nII. The old Christ is perpetually new.\n\nThe Apostle goes on, in the last words of my text, to say, 'Which thing'\n(viz., this combination of the old and the new) 'is true in Him and in\nyou.' 'True in Him'--that is to say, Christ, the old Christ that was\ndeclared to these Asiatic Christians as they were groping amidst the\nillusions of their heathenism, is perpetually becoming new as new\ncircumstances emerge, and new duties are called for, and new days come\nwith new burdens, hopes, possibilities, or dangers. The perpetual\nnewness of the old Christ is what is taught here.\n\nSuppose one of these men in Ephesus heard for the first time the story\nthat away in Judea there had lived the manifestation of God in the\nflesh, and that He, in His wonderful love, had died for men, that they\nmight be saved from the grip of their sins. And suppose that man barely\nable to see, had yet seen that much, and clutched at it. He was a\nChristian, but the Christ that he discerned when he first discerned Him\nthrough the mists, and the Christ that he had in his life and in his\nheart, after, say, twenty years of Christian living, are very different.\nThe old Christ remained, but the old Christ was becoming new day by day,\naccording to the new necessities and positions. And that is what will be\nour experience if we have any real Christianity in us. The old Christ\nthat we trusted at first was able to do for us all that we asked Him to\ndo, but we did not ask Him at first for half enough, and we did not\nlearn at first a tithe of what was in Him. Suppose, for instance, some\ngreat ship comes alongside a raft with ship-wrecked sailors upon it, and\nin the darkness of the night transfers them to the security of its deck.\nThey know how safe they are, they know what has saved them, but what do\nthey know compared with what they will know before the voyage ends of\nall the reservoirs of power and stores of supplies that are in her?\nChrist comes to us in the darkness, and delivers us. We know Him for our\nDeliverer from the first moment, if we truly have grasped Him. But it\nwill take summering and wintering with Him, through many a long day and\nyear, before we can ever have a partially adequate apprehension of all\nthat lies in Him.\n\nAnd what will teach us the depths of Christ, and how does He become new\nto us? Well, by trusting Him, by following Him, and by the ministry of\nlife. Some of us, I have no doubt, can look back upon past days when\nsorrow fell upon us, blighting and all but crushing; and then things\nthat we had read a thousand times in the Bible, and thought we had\nbelieved, blazed up into a new meaning, and we felt as if we had never\nunderstood anything about them before. The Christ that is with us in the\ndarkness, and whom we find able to turn even it, if not into light, at\nleast into a solemn twilight not unvisited by hopes, that Christ is more\nto us than the Christ that we first of all learnt so little to know. And\nlife's new circumstances, its emerging duties, are like the strokes of\nthe spade which clears away the soil, and discloses the treasure in all\nits extent which we purchased when we bought that field. We buy the\ntreasure at once, but it takes a long time to count it. The old Christ\nis perpetually the new Christ.\n\nSo, brethren, Christian progress consists not in getting away from the\noriginal facts, the elements of the Gospel, but it consists in\npenetrating more deeply into these, and feeling more of their power and\ntheir grasp. All Euclid is in the definitions and axioms and postulates\nat the beginning. All our books are the letters of the alphabet. And\nprogress consists, not in advancing beyond, but in sinking into, that\ninitial truth, 'God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.'\n\nI might say a word here as to another phase of this perpetual newness of\nthe old Christ--viz., in His adaptation to deal with all the\ncomplications and perplexities and problems of each successive age. It\nhas taken the Church a long, long time to find out and to formulate,\nrightly or wrongly, what it has discovered in Jesus. The conclusions to\nbe drawn from the simple Gospel truth, the presuppositions on which it\nrests, require all the efforts of all the Church through all the ages,\nand transcend them all. And I venture to say, though it may sound like\nunsupported dogma, that for this generation's questionings, social,\nmoral, and political, the answer is to be found in Him. He, and He only,\nwill interpret each generation to itself, and will meet its clamant\nneeds. There is none other for the world to-day but the old Christ with\nthe new aspect which the new conditions require.\n\nDid it ever strike you how remarkable it is, and, as it seems to me, of\nhow great worth as an argument for the truth of Christianity it is, that\nJesus Christ comes to this, as to every generation, with the air of\nbelonging to it? Think of the difference between the aspect which a\nPlato or a Socrates presents to the world to-day, and the aspect which\nthat Lord presents. You do not need to strip anything off Him. He\ncommitted Himself to no statements which the progress of thought or\nknowledge has exploded. He stands before the world to-day fitting its\nneeds as closely as He did those of the men of His own generation. The\nold Christ is the new Christ.\n\nIII. Lastly, in the Christian life the old commandment is perpetually\nnew.\n\n'Which thing is true ... in you.' That is to say, 'the commandment which\nye received at the beginning,' when ye received Christ as Saviour, has\nin itself a power of adapting itself to all new conditions as they may\nemerge, and will be felt increasingly to grow stringent, and\nincreasingly to demand more entire conformity, and increasingly to sweep\nits circle round the whole of human life. For this is the result of all\nobedience, that the conception of duty becomes more clear and more\nstringent. 'If any man will do His will' the reward shall be that he\nwill see more and more the altitude of that will, the length and breadth\nand depth and height of the possible conformity of the human spirit to\nthe will of God. And so as we advance in obedience we shall see\nunreached advances before us, and each new step of progress will declare\nmore fully how much still remains to be accomplished. In us the 'old\ncommandment' will become ever new.\n\nAnd not only so, but perpetually with the increasing sweep and\nstringency of the obligation will be felt an increasing sense of our\nfailure to fulfil it. Character is built up, for good or for evil, by\nslow degrees. Conscience is quickened by being listened to, and stifled\nby being neglected. A little speck of mud on a vestal virgin's robe, or\non a swan's plumage, will be conspicuous, while a splash twenty times\nthe size will pass unnoticed on the rags of some travel-stained\nwayfarer. The purer we become, the more we shall know ourselves to be\nimpure.\n\nThus, my brother, there opens out before us an endless course in which\nall the blessedness that belongs to the entertaining and preservation of\nancient convictions, lifelong friends, and familiar truths, and all the\nantithetical blessedness that belongs to the joy of seeing, rising upon\nour horizon as some new planet with lustrous light, will be united in\nour experience. We shall at once be conservative and progressive;\nholding by the old Christ and the old commandment, and finding that both\nhave in them endless novelty. The trunk is old; every summer brings\nfresh leaves. And at last we may hope to come to the new Jerusalem, and\ndrink the new wine of the Kingdom, and yet find that the old love\nremains, and that the new Christ, whose presence makes the new heavens\nand the new earth, is 'the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,' the\nold Christ whom, amid the shadows of earth, we tried to love and copy.\n\n\n\n\nYOUTHFUL STRENGTH\n\n 'I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the\n word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked\n one.'--1 John ii. 14.\n\n\n'What am I going to be?' is the question that presses upon young people\nstepping out of the irresponsibilities of childhood into youth. But,\nunfortunately, the question is generally supposed to be answered when\nthey have fixed upon a trade or profession. It means, rightly taken, a\ngreat deal more than that. 'What am I going to make of myself?' 'What\nideal have I before me, towards which I constantly press?' is a question\nthat I would fain lay upon the hearts of all that now hear me. For the\nmisery and the reason of the failure of so many lives is simply that\npeople have never fairly looked that question in the face and tried to\nanswer it, but drift and drift, and let circumstances determine them.\nAnd, of course, in a world like this, such people are sure to turn out\nwhat such an immense number of people do turn out, failures as far as\nall God's purposes with humanity are concerned. The absence of a clear\nideal is the misery and the loss of all young people who do not possess\nit.\n\nSo here in my text is an old man's notion of what young men ought to be\nand may be. 'Ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye\nhave overcome the wicked one.'\n\nSo said the aged John to some amongst his hearers in these corrupt\nAsiatic cities. It was not merely a fair ideal painted upon vacancy, but\nit was a portrait of actual young Christians in these little Asiatic\nchurches. And I would fain have some of you take this realised ideal for\nyours and see to it that your lives be conformed to it.\n\nThere are three points here. The Apostle, first of all, lays his finger\nupon the strength, which is something more than mere physical strength,\nproper to youth. Then he lets us see the secret source of that strength:\n'Ye have the word of God abiding in you.' And then he shows the field on\nwhich it should be exercised, and the victory which it secures: 'And ye\nhave overcome the wicked one.' Now let me touch upon these three points\nbriefly in succession.\n\nI. First, then, note here the strength which you young people ought to\ncovet and to aim at.\n\nIt is not merely the physical strength proper to their age, nor the mere\nunworn buoyancy and vigour which sorrows and care and responsibilities\nhave not thinned and weakened. These are great and precious gifts. We\nnever know how precious they are until they have slipped away from us.\nThese are great and precious gifts, to be preserved as long as may be,\nby purity and by moderation, and to be used for high and great purposes.\nBut the strength that is in thews and muscles is not the strength that\nthe Apostle is speaking about here, nor anything that belongs simply to\nthe natural stage of your development, whether it be purely physical or\npurely mental. Samson was a far weaker man than the poor little Jew\n'whose bodily presence was weak and his speech contemptible,' and who\nall his days carried about with him that 'thorn in the flesh.' It is not\nyour body that is to be strong, but yourselves.\n\nNow the foundation of all true strength lies here, in a good, strong\nwill. In this world, unless a man has learned to say 'No!' and to say it\nvery decidedly, and to stick to it, he will never come to any good. Two\nwords contain the secret of noble life: '_Resist!_' and '_Persist!_' And\nthe true strength of manhood lies in this mainly, that, in spite of all\nantagonisms, hindrances, voices, and things that array themselves\nagainst you, having greatly resolved, you do greatly do what you have\nresolved, and having said 'I will!' let neither men nor devils lead you\nto say, 'I will not.' Depend upon it, that to be weak in this direction\nis to be weak all through. Strong passions make weak men. And a strong\nwill is the foundation, in this wicked and antagonistic world in which\nwe live, of all real strength.\n\nBut then the strength that I would have you seek, and strive to\ncultivate, must be a strength of will founded upon strong reason.\nDetermination unenlightened is obstinacy, and obstinacy is weakness. A\nmule can beat you at that: 'Be ye not as the mule, which have no\nunderstanding.' A determination which does not take into its view all\nthe facts of the case, nor is influenced by these, has no right to call\nitself strength. It is only, to quote a modern saying--I know not\nwhether true of the person to whom it was originally applied or no--is\n'only a lath painted to look like iron.' Unintelligent obstinacy is\nfolly, like the conduct of some man who sticks to his pick and his task\nin a quarry after the bugle has warned him of an impending explosion,\nwhich will blow him to atoms.\n\nBut that is not all. A strong will, illuminated by a strong beam of\nlight from the understanding, must be guided and governed by a strong\nhand put forth by Conscience. 'I should like' is the weakling's motto.\n'I will' may be an obstinate fool's motto. 'I ought, therefore, God\nhelping me, and though the devil hinders me, I will,' is a man's.\nConscience is king. To obey it is to be free; to neglect it is to be a\nslave.\n\nIs not this a better ideal for life than gathering any outward\npossessions, however you may succeed therein? A thousand things will\nhave to be taken into account, and may help or may hinder outward\nprosperity and success. But nobody can hinder you working at your\ncharacter and succeeding in making it what it ought to be; and to form\ncharacter is the end of life. 'To be weak is miserable, doing or\nsuffering.' Ay! that is true, though Milton put it into the devil's\nmouth. And there is only one strength that will last, 'for even the\nyouths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fail.'\nBut the strength of a fixed and illuminated and conscience-guided will,\nwhich governs the man and is governed by God, shall never faint or grow\nweak. This is the strength which we should seek, and which I ask you to\nmake the conscious aim of your lives.\n\nII. Now note, secondly, how to get it.\n\n'Ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you.' Those young Asiatic\nChristians, that John had in his eye, had learned the secret and the\nconditions of this strength; and not only in limb and sinew, or in\nspringy and elastic buoyancy of youthful, mental, and spiritual vigour\nwere they strong, but they were so because 'the Word of God abode in\nthem.' Now, there are two significations of that great expression, both\nof them frequent in John's Gospel, and both of them, I think,\ntransferred to this Epistle, each of which may yield us a word of\ncounsel. By 'the Word of God,' as I take it, is meant--perhaps I ought\nto say _both_, but, at all events, _either_--the revelation of God's\ntruth in Holy Scripture, or the personal revelation of the will and\nnature of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Whichever of these two\nmeanings--and at bottom they come to be one--we attach to this\nexpression, we draw from them an exhortation. Let me put this very\nbriefly.\n\nLet me say to you, then, if you want to be strong, let Scripture truth\noccupy and fill and be always present to your mind. There are powers to\nrule and to direct all conduct, motive powers of the strongest character\nin these great truths of God's revelation. They are meant to influence a\nman in all his doings, and it is for us to bring the greatest and\nsolemnest of them to bear on the smallest things of our daily life.\nSuppose, now, that you go to your work, and some little difficulty\nstarts up in your path, or some trivial annoyance ruffles your temper,\nor some lurking temptation is suddenly sprung upon you. Suppose your\nmind and heart were saturated with God's truth, with the great thoughts\nof His being, of His love, of His righteousness, of Christ's death for\nyou, of Christ's presence with you, of Christ's guardianship over you,\nof Christ's present will that you should walk in His ways, of the bright\nhopes of the future, and the solemn vision of that great White Throne\nand the retribution that streams thence, do you think it would be\npossible for you to fall into sin, to yield to temptation, to be annoyed\nby any irritation or bother, or overweighted by any duty? No! Whosoever\nlives with the thoughts that God has given us in His Word familiar to\nHis mind and within easy reach of His hand, has therein an armlet\nagainst all possible temptation, a test that will unveil the hidden\ncorruption in the sweetest seductions, and a calming power that will\nkeep his heart still and collected in the midst of agitations. If the\nWord of God in that lower sense of the principles involved in the gospel\nof Jesus Christ, dwell in your hearts, the fangs are taken out of the\nserpent. If you drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt you, and you\nwill 'be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.'\n\nBring the greatest truths you can find to bear on the smallest duties,\nand the small duties will grow great to match the principles by which\nthey are done. Bring the laws of Jesus Christ down to the little things,\nfor, in the name of common sense, if our religion is not meant to\nregulate trifles, what is it meant to regulate? Life is made up of\ntrifles. There are half a dozen crises in the course of your life, but\nthere are a thousand trivial things in the course of every day. It would\nbe a poor kind of regulating principle that controlled the crises, and\nleft us alone to manage with the trifles the best way we could.\n\nBut in order that there shall be this continual operation of the motives\nand principles involved in the gospel upon our daily lives, we must have\nthem very near our hand, ready to be laid hold of. The soldier that\nwould march through an enemy's country, having left his gun in the hands\nof some camp follower, would be very likely to be shot before he got his\ngun. I remember going through the Red Sea; at the mouth of it where the\nentrance is narrow, and the currents run strong, when the ship\napproaches the dangerous place, the men take their stations at appointed\nplaces, and the ponderous anchors are loosened and ready to be dropped\nin an instant if the swirl of the current sweeps the ship into dangerous\nproximity to the reef. It is no time to cut the lashings of the anchors\nwhen the keel is grating on the coral rocks. And it is no time to have\nto look about for our weapons when the sudden temptation leaps upon us\nlike a strong man armed. You must have them familiar to you by devout\nmeditation, by frequent reflection, prayer, study of God's Word, if they\nare to be of any use to you at all. And I am afraid that about the last\nbook in the world that loads of young men and women think of sitting\ndown to read, systematically and connectedly, is the Bible. You will\nread sermons and other religious books; you will read newspapers,\npamphlets, novels; but the Scripture, in its entirety, is a strange book\nto myriads of men who call themselves Christians. And so they are weak.\nIf you want to be strong, 'let the Word of God abide in your hearts.'\n\nAnd then if we take the other view, which at bottom is not another, of\nthe meaning of this phrase, and apply it rather to the personal word,\nJesus Christ Himself, that will yield us another exhortation, and that\nis, let Jesus Christ into your hearts and keep Him there, and He will\nmake you strong. I believe that it is no piece of metaphor or an\nexaggerated way of putting the continuance of the influence of Christ's\nexample and Christ's teaching upon men's hearts and minds, when He tells\nus that 'if any man open the door He will come in and sup with him.' I\nwant to urge the one thought on you that it is possible, in simple\nliteral fact, for that Divine Saviour, who was 'in Heaven' whilst He\nwalked on earth, and walks on earth to-day when He has returned to His\nnative Heaven, to enter into my spirit and yours, and really to abide\nwithin us, the life of our lives, 'the strength of our hearts, and our\nportion for ever.' The rest of us can render help to one another by\nstrength ministered from without; Jesus Christ will come into your\nhearts, if you let Him, in His very sweetness and omnipotence of power,\nand will breathe His own grace into your weakness, strengthening you as\nfrom within. Others can help you from without, as you put an iron band\nround some over-weighted, crumbling brick pillar in order to prevent it\nfrom collapsing, but He will pass into us as you may drive an iron rod\nup through the centre of the column, and make it strong inside, and we\nshall be strong if Jesus Christ dwells within us. Open the door, dear\nyoung friends; let Christ come into your hearts, which He will do if you\ndo not hinder Him, and if you ask Him. Trust Him with simple reliance\nupon Him for everything. Faith is 'the door'; the door is nothing of\nitself, but when it is opened it admits the guest. So do you let that\nMaster come and abide, and you will hear Him say to you, as He said of\nold, 'Child! My grace is sufficient.' How modest He is. Sufficient!--an\nocean _enough_ to fill a thimble! 'My grace is sufficient for thee; and\nMy strength is made perfect in weakness.'\n\nIII. Now, lastly, notice the field on which the strength is to be\nexercised, and the victory which it secures. 'Ye have overcome the\nwicked one.'\n\nThere is a battle for us all, on which I need not dwell, the conflict\nwith evil around and with evil within, and with the prince of the\nembattled legions of the darkness, whom the New Testament has more\nclearly revealed to us. You young people have many advantages in the\nconflict; you have some special disadvantages as well. You have strong\npassions, you have not much experience, you do not know how bitter the\ndregs are of the cup whose foaming bubbles look so attractive, and whose\nupper inch tastes so sweet. But on the other hand you have not yet\ncontracted habits that it is misery to indulge in, and, as it would\nseem, impossible to break, and the world is yet before you.\n\nYou cannot begin too soon to choose your side. And here is the side on\nwhich alone victory is possible for a man--the side of Jesus Christ, who\nwill teach your hands to war and your fingers to fight.\n\nNotice that remarkable phrase, 'Ye have overcome the wicked one.' He is\ntalking to young Christians before whom the battle may seem to lie, and\nyet He speaks of their conquest as an accomplished fact, and as a thing\nbehind them. What does that mean? It means this, that if you will take\nservice in Christ's army, and by His grace resolve to be His faithful\nsoldier till your life's end, that act of faith, which enrols you as\nHis, is itself the victory which guarantees, if it be continued, the\nwhole conquest in time.\n\nThere used to be an old superstition that--\n\n 'Who sheds the foremost foeman's life\n His party conquers in the strife';\n\nand whosoever has exercised, however imperfectly and feebly, the faith\nin Jesus Christ the Lord has therein conquered the devil and all his\nworks, and Satan is henceforth a beaten Satan, and the battle, in\nessence, is completed even in the act of its being begun.\n\n'This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith'; not\nonly because our confidence in Jesus Christ is the blowing of the bugle\nthat summons to warfare and shakes off the tyrant's yoke, but it is\nalso the means by which we join ourselves to Him who has overcome, and\nmake His victory ours. He has fought our antagonist in the wilderness\nonce, in Gethsemane twice, on the Cross thrice; and the perfect conquest\nin which Jesus bound the strong man and spoiled his goods may become,\nand will become, your conquest, if you wed yourselves to that dear Lord\nby simple faith in Him.\n\nWhat a priceless thing it is that you may begin your independent manhood\nwith a conquest that will draw after it ultimate and supreme victory.\nYou will still have to fight, but you will have only to fight\ndetachments. If you trust yourselves to Jesus Christ you have conquered\nthe main body of the army, and it is only the stragglers that you will\nhave to contend with hereafter. He that loves Jesus, and has given\nhimself to Him, has pinned the dragon to the ground by its head, and\nthough it may 'swinge the scaly horror of its folded tail,' and twine\nits loathly coils around him, yet he has conquered, and he is\nconquering, and he will conquer. Only let him hold fast by the hand\nwhich brings strength into him by its touch.\n\nWill you, dear young friends, take service in this army? Do you want to\nbe weak or strong? Do you want your lives to be victorious whatever may\nhappen to them in the way of outward prosperity or failure? Then give\nyourselves to this Lord. His voice calls you to be His soldiers. He will\ncover your heads in the day of battle. He will strengthen you 'with\nmight by His Spirit in the inner man.' He will hide His Word in your\nheart that you offend not against Him. He will dwell Himself within you\nto make you strong in your extremest weakness and victorious over your\nmightiest foe; and in that sign you will conquer and 'be more than\nconquerors through Him that loved you.'\n\nOh, I pray that you may ask yourselves the question, 'What am I going to\nbe?' and may answer it, 'I am going to be strong in the Lord and in the\npower of His might'; and to overcome, as He also hath overcome, the\nworld and the flesh and the devil.\n\n\n\n\nRIVER AND ROCK\n\n 'The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth\n the will of God abideth for ever.'--1 John ii. 17.\n\n\nJohn has been solemnly giving a charge not to love the world, nor the\nthings that are in it. That charge was addressed to 'children,' 'young\nmen,' 'fathers.' Whether these designations be taken as referring to\ngrowth and maturity of Christian experience, or of natural age, they\nequally carry the lesson that no age and no stage is beyond the danger\nof being drawn away by the world's love, or beyond the need of the\nsolemn dehortation therefrom.\n\nMy text is the second of the reasons which the Apostle gives for his\nearnest charge. We all, therefore, need it, and we always need it;\nthough on the last Sunday of another year, it may be more than usually\nappropriate to turn our thoughts in its direction. 'The world passeth\naway, and the lust thereof.' Let us lay the handful of snow on our\nfevered foreheads and cool our desires.\n\nNow there are but two things set forth in this text, which is a great\nand wonderful antithesis between something which is in perpetual flux\nand passage and something which is permanent. If I might venture to\ncast the two thoughts into metaphorical form, I should say that here are\na river and a rock. The one, the sad truth of sense, universally\nbelieved and as universally forgotten; the other, the glad truth of\nfaith, so little regarded or operative in men's lives.\n\nI ask you, then, to look with me for a few moments at each of these\nthoughts.\n\nI. First, then, the river, or the sad truth of sense.\n\nNow you observe that there are two things in my text of which this\ntransiency is predicated, the one 'the world,' the other 'the lust\nthereof'; the one outside us, the other within us. As to the former, I\nneed only, I suppose, remind you in a sentence that what John means by\n'the world' is not the material globe on which we dwell, but the whole\naggregate of things visible and material, together with the lives of the\nmen whose lives are directed to, and bounded by, that visible and\nmaterial, and all considered as wrenched apart from God. That, and not\nthe mere external physical creation, is what he means by 'the world,'\nand therefore the passing away of which he speaks is not only (although,\nof course, it includes) the decay and dissolution of material things,\nbut the transiency of things which are or have to do with the visible,\nand are separated by us from God. Over all these, he says, there is\nwritten the sentence, 'Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.'\nThere is a continual flowing on of the stream. As the original implies\neven more strongly than in our translation, 'the world' is in the act of\n'passing away.' Like the slow travelling of the scenes of some moveable\npanorama which glide along, even as the eye looks upon them, and are\nconcealed behind the side flats before the gazer has taken in the whole\npicture, so equably, constantly, silently, and therefore unnoticed by\nus, all is in a state of continual motion. There is no _present_ time.\nEven whilst we name the moment it dies. The drop hangs for an instant on\nthe verge, gleaming in the sunlight, and then falls into the gloomy\nabyss that silently sucks up years and centuries. There is no present,\nbut all is movement.\n\nBrethren, that has been the commonplace of moralists and poets and\npreachers from the beginning of time; and it would be folly for me to\nsuppose that I can add anything to the impressiveness of the thought.\nAll that I want to do is to wake you up to preach it to yourselves, for\nthat is the only thing that is of any use.\n\n 'So passeth, in the passing of an hour\n Of mortal life, the leaf, the bud, the flower.'\n\nBut besides this transiency external to us, John finds a corresponding\ntransiency within us. 'The world passeth, and the lust thereof.' Of\ncourse the word 'lust' is employed by him in a much wider sense than in\nour use of it. With us it means one specific and very ugly form of\nearthly desire. With him it includes the whole genus--all desires of\nevery sort, more or less noble or ignoble, which have this for their\ncharacteristic, that they are directed to, stimulated by, and fed or\nstarved on, the fleeting things of this outward life. If thus a man has\nanchored himself to that which has no perpetual stay, so long as the\ncable holds he follows the fate of the thing to which he has pinned\nhimself. And if it perish he perishes, in a very profound sense, with\nit. If you trust yourselves in the leaky vessel, when the water rises in\n_it_ it will drown _you_, and you will go to the bottom with the craft\nto which you have trusted yourselves. If you embark in the little ship\nthat carries Christ and His fortunes, you will come with Him to the\nhaven.\n\nBut these fleeting desires, of which my text speaks, point to that sad\nfeature of human experience, that we all outgrow and leave behind us,\nand think of very little value, the things that once to us were all but\nheaven. There was a time when toys and sweetmeats were our treasures,\nand since that day how many burnt-out hopes we all have had! How little\nwe should know ourselves if we could go back to the fears and wishes and\ndesires that used to agitate us ten, twenty, thirty years ago! They lie\nbehind us, no longer part of ourselves; they have slipped away from us,\nand\n\n 'We all are changed, by still degrees,\n All but the basis of the soul.'\n\nThe self-conscious same man abides, and yet how different the same man\nis! Our lives, then will zig-zag instead of keeping a straight course,\nif we let desires that are limited by anything that we can see guide and\nregulate us.\n\nBut, brethren, though it be a digression from my text, I cannot help\ntouching for a moment upon a yet sadder thought than that. There are\ndesires that _remain_, when the gratification of them has become\nimpossible. Sometimes the lust outlasts the world, sometimes the world\noutlasts the lust; and one knows not whether is the sadder. There is a\nhell upon earth for many of us who, having set our affections upon some\ncreatural object, and having had that withdrawn from us, are ready to\nsay, 'They have taken away my gods! And what shall I do?' And there is a\nhell of the same sort waiting beyond those dark gates through which we\nhave all to pass, where men who never desired anything, except what the\nworld that has slipped out of their reluctant fingers could give them,\nare shut up with impossible longings after a for-ever-vanished good.\n'Father Abraham! a drop of water; for I am tormented in this flame.'\nThat is what men come to, if the fire of their lust burn after its\nobjects are withdrawn.\n\nBut let me remind you that this transiency of which I have been speaking\nreceives very strange treatment from most of us. I do not know that it\nis altogether to be regretted that it so seldom comes to men's\nconsciousness. Perhaps it is right that it should not be uppermost in\nour thoughts always; but yet there is no vindication for the entire\noblivion to which we condemn it. The march of these fleeting things is\nlike that of cavalry with their horses' feet wrapped in straw, in the\nnight, across the snow, silent and unnoticed. We cannot realise the\nrevolution of the earth, because everything partakes in it. We talk\nabout standing still, and we are whirling through space with\ninconceivable rapidity. By a like illusion we deceive ourselves with the\nnotion of stability, when everything about us is hastening away. Some of\nyou do not like to be reminded of it, and think it a killjoy. You try to\nget rid of the thought, and hide your head in the sand, and fancy that\nthe rest of your body presents no mark to the archer's arrow. Now surely\ncommon sense says to all, that if there be some fact certain and plain\nand applying to you, which, if accepted, would profoundly modify your\nlife, you ought to take it into account. And what I want you to do, dear\nfriends, now, is to look in the face this fact, which you all\nacknowledge so utterly that some of you are ready to say, 'What was the\nuse of coming to a chapel to hear that threadbare old thing dinned into\nmy ears again?' and to take it into account in shaping your lives. Have\nyou done so? Have you? Suppose a man that lived in a land habitually\nshaken by earthquakes were to say, 'I mean to ignore the fact; and I am\ngoing to build a house just as if there was not such a thing as an\nearthquake expected'; he would have it toppling about his ears very\nsoon. Suppose a man upon the ice-slopes of the Alps was to say, 'I am\ngoing to ignore slipperiness and gravitation,' he would before long find\nhimself, if there was any consciousness left in him, at the bottom of a\nprecipice, bruised and bleeding. And suppose a man says, 'I am not going\nto take the fleetingness of the things of earth into account at all, but\nintend to live as if all things were to remain as they are'; what would\nbecome of him do you think? Is he a wise man or a fool? And is he _you_?\nHe _is_ some of you! 'So teach us to number our days that we may apply\nour hearts unto wisdom.'\n\nThen let me say to you, see that you take noble lessons out of these\nundeniable and all-important facts. There is one kind of lesson that I\ndo not want you to take out of it. 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow\nwe die,' or, to put it into a more vulgar formula, 'A short life and a\nmerry one.' The mere contemplation of the transiency of earthly things\nmay, and often does, lend itself to very ignoble conclusions, and men\ndraw from it the thought that, as life is short, they had better crowd\ninto it as much of sensual enjoyment as they can.\n\n'Gather ye roses while ye may' is a very common keynote, struck by poets\nof the baser sort. And it is a thought that influences some of us, I\nhave little doubt. Or there may be another consideration. 'Make hay\nwhilst the sun shines.' 'Hurry on your getting rich, because you have\nnot very long to do it in'; or the like.\n\nNow all that is supremely unworthy. The true lesson to be drawn is the\nplain, old one which it is never superfluous to shout into men's ears,\nuntil they have obeyed it--viz., 'Set not thine heart on that which is\nnot; and which flieth away as an eagle towards heaven.' Do you, dear\nbrother, see to it, that your roots go down through the gravel on the\nsurface. Do you see to it that you dig deeper than that; and thrusting\nyour hand, as it were, through the thin, silk-paper screen that stands\nbetween you and the Eternal, grasp the hand that you will find on the\nother side, waiting and ready to clasp you, and to hold you up.\n\nWhen they build a new house in Rome they have to dig down through\nsometimes sixty or a hundred feet of rubbish that runs like water, the\nruins of old temples and palaces, once occupied by men in the same flush\nof life in which we are now. We too have to dig down through ruins,\nuntil we get to the Rock and build there, and build secure. Withdraw\nyour affections and your thoughts and your desires from the fleeting,\nand fix them on the permanent. If a captain takes anything but the\npole-star for his fixed point he will lose his reckoning, and his ship\nwill be on the reefs. If we take anything but God for our supreme\ndelight and desire we shall perish.\n\nThen let me say, too, let this thought stimulate us to crowd every\nmoment, as full as it can be packed, with noble work and heavenly\nthoughts. These fleeting things are elastic, and you may put all but\ninfinite treasure into them. Think of what the possibilities, for each\nof us, of this dying year were on the 1st of January; and of what the\nrealisation has been by the 28th of December. So much that we could have\ndone! so little that we have done! So many ripples of the river have\npassed, bearing no golden sand to pile upon the shore! 'We have been' is\na sad word; but oh, the one sad word is, 'We might have been!' And, so,\ndo you see to it that you fill time with that which is kindred to\neternity, and make 'one day as a thousand years' in the elastic\npossibilities and realities of consecration and of service.\n\nFurther, let the thought help us to the conviction of the relative\ninsignificance of all that can change. That will not spoil nor shade any\nreal joy; rather it will add to it poignancy that prevents it from\ncloying or from becoming the enemy of our souls. But the thought will\nwondrously lighten the burden that we have to carry, and the tasks which\nwe have to perform. 'But for a moment,' makes all light. There was an\nold rabbi, long ago, whose real name was all but lost, because everybody\nnick-named him 'Rabbi Thisalso.' The reason was because he had\nperpetually on his lips the saying about everything as it came, 'This\nalso will pass.' He was a wise man. Let us go to his school and learn\nhis wisdom.\n\nII. Now let me say a word, and it can only be a word, about the second\nof the thoughts here, which I designated as the Rock, or the glad truth\nof Faith.\n\nWe might have expected that John's antithesis to the world that passeth\nwould have been the God that abides. But he does not so word his\nsentence, although the thought of the divine permanence underlies it.\nRather over against the fleeting world he puts the abiding man who does\nthe will of God.\n\nOf course there is a very solemn sense in which all men, even they who\nhave most exclusively lived for what they call the present, do last for\never, and in which their deeds do so too. After death is the judgment,\nand the issues of eternity depend upon the actions of time; and every\nfleeting thought comes back to the hand that projected it, like the\nAustralian savage's boomerang that, flung out, returns and falls at the\nfeet of the thrower. But that is not what John means by 'abiding for\never.' He means something very much more blessed and lofty than that;\nand the following is the course of his thought. There is only one\npermanent Reality in the universe, and that is God. All else is shadow\nand He is the substance. All else was, is, and is not. He is the One who\nwas, is, and is to come, the timeless and only permanent Being. The will\nof God is the permanent element in all changeful material things. And\nconsequently he who does the will of God links himself with the Divine\nEternity, and becomes partaker of that solemn and blessed Being which\nlives above mutation.\n\nObedience to God's will is the permanent element in human life.\nWhosoever humbly and trustfully seeks to mould his will after the divine\nwill, and to bring God's will into practice in his doings, that man has\npierced through the shadows and grasped the substance, and partakes of\nthe Immortality which he adores and serves. Himself shall live for ever\nin the true life which is blessedness. His deeds shall live for ever\nwhen all that lifted itself in opposition to the Divine will shall be\ncrushed and annihilated. They shall live in His own peaceful\nconsciousness; they shall live in the blessed rewards which they shall\nbring to the doers. His habits will need no change.\n\nWhat will you do when you are dead? You have to go into a world where\nthere are no gossip and no housekeeping; no mills and no offices; no\nshops, no books; no colleges and no sciences to learn. What will you do\nthere? 'He that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.' If you have\ndone your housekeeping, and your weaving and spinning, and your\nbook-keeping, and your buying and selling, and your studying, and your\nexperimenting with a conscious reference to God, it is all right. That\nhas made the act capable of eternity, and there will be no need for such\na man to change. The material on which he works will change, but the\ninner substance of his life will be unaffected by the trivial change\nfrom earth to heaven. Whilst the endless ages roll he will be doing just\nwhat he was doing down here; only here he was playing with counters, and\nyonder he will be trusted with gold, and dominion over ten cities. To\nall other men the change that comes when earth passes from them, or they\nfrom it, is as when a trench is dug across a railway, into which the\nexpress goes with a smash, and there is an end. To the man who, in the\ntrifles of time, has been obeying the will of God, and therefore\nsubserving eternity and his interests there, the trench is bridged, and\nhe will go on after he crosses it just as he did before, with the same\npurpose, the same desires, the same submission, and the same drinking\ninto himself of the fulness of immortal life.\n\nBrother, John tells us that obedience to the will of God brings\npermanence into our fleeting years. But how are we to obey the will of\nGod? John tells us that the only way is by love. But how are we to love\nGod? John tells us that the only way to love--which love is the only way\nto obedience--is by knowing and believing the love that God hath to us.\nBut how are we to know that God hath love to us? John tells us that the\nonly way to know the love of God, which is the only way of our loving\nHim, which in its turn is the only way to obedience, which again is the\nonly way to permanence of life, is to believe in Jesus Christ and His\npropitiation for our sins. The river flows on for ever, but it sweeps\nround the base of the Rock of Ages. And in Him, by faith in His blood,\nwe may find our sure refuge and eternal home.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LOVE THAT CALLS US SONS\n\n 'Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that\n we should be called the sons of God....'--1 John iii. 1.\n\n\nOne or two points of an expository character will serve to introduce\nwhat else I have to say on these words.\n\nThe text is, I suppose, generally understood as if it pointed to the\nfact that we are called the sons of God as the great exemplification of\nthe wonderfulness of His love. That is a perfectly possible view of the\nconnection and meaning of the text. But if we are to translate with\nperfect accuracy we must render, not 'that we should be called,' but\n'_in order that_ we should be called the sons of God.' The meaning then\nis that the love bestowed is the means by which the design that we\nshould be called His sons is accomplished. What John calls us to\ncontemplate with wonder and gratitude is not only the fact of this\nmarvellous love, but also the glorious end to which it has been given to\nus and works. There seems no reason for slurring over this meaning in\nfavour of the more vague 'that' of our version. God gives His great and\nwonderful love in Jesus Christ, and all the gifts and powers which live\nin Him like fragrance in the rose. All this lavish bestowal of love,\nunspeakable as it is, may be regarded as having one great end, which God\ndeems worthy of even such expenditure, namely, that men should become,\nin the deepest sense, His children. It is not so much to the\ncontemplation of our blessedness in being sons, as to the devout gaze on\nthe love which, by its wonderful process, has made it possible for us to\nbe sons, that we are summoned here.\n\nAgain, you will find a remarkable addition to our text in the Revised\nVersion--namely, 'and such we are.' Now these words come with a very\ngreat weight of manuscript authority, and of internal evidence. They are\nparenthetical, a kind of rapid 'aside' of the writer's, expressing his\njoyful confidence that he and his brethren are sons of God, not only in\nname, but in reality. They are the voice of personal assurance, the\nvoice of the spirit 'by which we cry Abba, Father,' breaking in for a\nmoment on the flow of the sentence, like an irrepressible, glad answer\nto the Father's call. With these explanations let us look at the words.\n\nI. The love that is given.\n\nWe are called upon to come with our little vessels to measure the\ncontents of the great ocean, to plumb with our short lines the infinite\nabyss, and not only to estimate the quantity but the quality of that\nlove, which, in both respects, surpasses all our means of comparison and\nconception.\n\nProperly speaking, we can do neither the one nor the other, for we have\nno line long enough to sound its depths, and no experience which will\ngive us a standard with which to compare its quality. But all that we\ncan do, John would have us do--that is, look and ever look at the\nworking of that love till we form some not wholly inadequate idea of it.\n\nWe can no more 'behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on\nus' than we can look with undimmed eyes right into the middle of the\nsun. But we can in some measure imagine the tremendous and beneficent\nforces that ride forth horsed on his beams to distances which the\nimagination faints in trying to grasp, and reach their journey's end\nunwearied and ready for their task as when it began. Here are we, ninety\nodd millions of miles from the centre of the system, yet warmed by its\nheat, lighted by its beams, and touched for good by its power in a\nthousand ways. All that has been going on for no one knows how many\naeons. How mighty the Power which produces these effects! In like manner,\nwho can gaze into the fiery depths of that infinite Godhead, into the\nardours of that immeasurable, incomparable, inconceivable love? But we\ncan look at and measure its activities. We can see what it does, and so\ncan, in some degree, understand it, and feel that after all we have a\nmeasure for the Immeasurable, a comparison for the Incomparable, and can\n_thus_ 'behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us.'\n\nSo we have to turn to the work of Christ, and especially to His death,\nif we would estimate the love of God. According to John's constant\nteaching, that is the great proof that God loves us. The most wonderful\nrevelation to every heart of man of the depths of that Divine heart lies\nin the gift of Jesus Christ. The Apostle bids me 'behold what manner of\nlove.' I turn to the Cross, and I see there a love which shrinks from no\nsacrifice, but gives 'Him up to death for us all.' I turn to the Cross,\nand I see there a love which is evoked by no lovableness on my part,\nbut comes from the depth of His own Infinite Being, who loves because He\nmust, and who must because He is God. I turn to the Cross, and I see\nthere manifested a love which sighs for recognition, which desires\nnothing of me but the repayment of my poor affection, and longs to see\nits own likeness in me. And I see there a love that will not be put away\nby sinfulness, and shortcomings, and evil, but pours its treasures on\nthe unworthy, like sunshine on a dunghill. So, streaming through the\ndarkness of eclipse, and speaking to me even in the awful silence in\nwhich the Son of Man died there for sin, I 'behold,' and I hear, the\n'manner of love that the Father hath bestowed upon us,' stronger than\ndeath and sin, armed with all power, gentler than the fall of the dew,\nboundless and endless, in its measure measureless, in its quality\ntranscendent--the love of God to me in Jesus Christ my Saviour.\n\nIn like manner we have to think, if we would estimate the 'manner of\nthis love,' that through and in the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ\nthere comes to us the gift of a divine life like His own. Perhaps it may\nbe too great a refinement of interpretation; but it certainly does seem\nto me that that expression 'to bestow His love upon' us, is not\naltogether the same as 'to love us,' but that there is a greater depth\nin it. There may be some idea of that love itself being as it were\ninfused into us, and not merely of its consequences or tokens being\ngiven to us; as Paul speaks of 'the love of God shed abroad in our\nhearts' by the spirit which is given to us. At all events this\ncommunication of divine life, which is at bottom divine love--for God's\nlife is God's love--is His great gift to men.\n\nBe that as it may, these two are the great tokens, consequences, and\nmeasures of God's love to us--the gift of Christ, and that which is the\nsequel and outcome thereof, the gift of the Spirit which is breathed\ninto Christian spirits. These two gifts, which are one gift, embrace all\nthat the world needs. Christ for us and Christ in us must both be taken\ninto account if you would estimate the manner of the love that God has\nbestowed upon us.\n\nWe may gain another measure of the greatness of this love if we put an\nemphasis--which I dare say the writer did not intend--on one word of\nthis text, and think of the love given to '_us_,' such creatures as we\nare. Out of the depths we cry to Him. Not only by the voice of our\nsupplications, but even when we raise no call of entreaty, our misery\npleads with His merciful heart, and from the heights there comes upon\nour wretchedness and sin the rush of this great love, like a cataract,\nwhich sweeps away all our sins, and floods us with its own blessedness\nand joy. The more we know ourselves, the more wonderingly and thankfully\nshall we bow down our hearts before Him, as we measure His mercy by our\nunworthiness.\n\nFrom all His works the same summons echoes. They all call us to see\nmirrored in them His loving care. But the Cross of Christ and the gift\nof a Divine Spirit cry aloud to every ear in tones of more beseeching\nentreaty and of more imperative command to 'behold what manner of love\nthe Father hath bestowed upon us.'\n\nII. Look next at the sonship which is the purpose of His given Love.\n\nIt has often been noticed that the Apostle John uses for that expression\n'the sons of God,' another word from that which his brother Paul uses.\nJohn's phrase would perhaps be a little more accurately translated\n'children of God,' whilst Paul, on the other hand, very seldom says\n'children,' but almost always says 'sons.' Of course the children are\nsons and the sons are children, but still, the slight distinction of\nphrase is characteristic of the men, and of the different points of view\nfrom which they speak about the same thing. John's word lays stress on\nthe children's kindred nature with their father and on their immature\ncondition.\n\nBut without dwelling on that, let us consider this great gift and\ndignity of being children of God, which is the object that God has in\nview in all the lavish bestowment of His goodness upon us.\n\nThat end is not reached by God's making us men. Over and above that He\nhas to send this great gift of His love, in order that the men whom He\nhas made may become His sons. If you take the context here you will see\nvery clearly that the writer draws a broad distinction between 'the sons\nof God' and 'the world' of men who do not comprehend them, and so far\nfrom being themselves sons, do not even know God's sons when they see\nthem. And there is a deeper and solemner word still in the context. John\nthinks that men (within the range of light and revelation, at all\nevents) are divided into two families--'the children of God and the\nchildren of the devil.' There _are_ two families amongst men.\n\nThank God, the prodigal son in his rags amongst the swine, and lying by\nthe swine-troughs in his filth and his husks, and his fever, _is_ a son!\nNo doubt about that! He has these three elements and marks of sonship\nthat no man ever gets rid of: he is of a divine origin, he has a divine\nlikeness in that he has got mind and will and spirit, and he is the\nobject of a divine love.\n\nThe doctrine of the New Testament about the Fatherhood of God and the\nsonship of man does not in the slightest degree interfere with these\nthree great truths, that all men, though the features of the common\nhumanity may be almost battered out of recognition in them, are all\nchildren of God because He made them; that they are children of God\nbecause still there lives in them something of the likeness of the\ncreative Father; and, blessed be His name! that they are all children of\nGod because He loves and provides and cares for every one of them.\n\nAll that is blessedly and eternally true; but it is also true that there\nis a higher relation than that to which the name 'children of God' is\nmore accurately given, and to which in the New Testament that name is\nconfined. If you ask what that relation is, let me quote to you three\npassages in this Epistle which will answer the question. 'Whoever\nbelieveth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God,' that is the first;\n'Every one that doeth righteousness is born of God,' that is the second;\n'Every one that loveth is born of God,' that is the third. Or to put\nthem all into one expression which holds them all, in the great words of\nhis prologue in the first chapter of John's Gospel you find this: 'To as\nmany as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God.'\nBelieving in Christ with loving trust produces, and doing righteousness\nand loving the brethren, as the result of that belief, prove the fact of\nsonship in its highest and its truest sense.\n\nWhat is implied in that great word by which the Almighty gives us a name\nand a place as of sons and daughters? Clearly, first, a communicated\nlife, therefore, second, a kindred nature which shall be 'pure as He is\npure,' and, third, growth to full maturity.\n\nThis sonship, which is no mere empty name, is the aim and purpose of\nGod's dealings, of all the revelation of His love, and most especially\nof the great gift of His love in Christ. Has that purpose been\naccomplished in you? Have you ever looked at that great gift of love\nthat God has given you on purpose to make you His child? If you have,\nhas it made you one? Are you trusting to Jesus Christ, whom God has sent\nforth that we might receive the standing of sons in Him? Are you a child\nof God because a brother of that Saviour? Have you received the gift of\na divine life through Him? My friend, remember the grim alternative! A\nchild of God or a child of the devil! Bitter words, narrow words,\nuncharitable words--as people call them! And I believe, and therefore I\nam bound to say it, _true_ words, which it concerns _you_ to lay to\nheart.\n\nIII. Now, still further, let me ask you to look at the glad recognition\nof this sonship by the child's heart.\n\nI have already referred to the clause added in the Revised Version, 'and\nsuch we are.' As I said, it is a kind of 'aside,' in which John adds the\nAmen for himself and for his poor brothers and sisters toiling and\nmoiling obscure among the crowds of Ephesus, to the great truth. He\nasserts his and their glad consciousness of the reality of the fact of\ntheir sonship, which they know to be no empty title. He asserts, too,\nthe present possession of that sonship, realising it as a fact, amid all\nthe commonplace vulgarities and carking cares and petty aims of life's\nlittle day. 'Such we are' is the 'Here am I, Father,' of the child\nanswering the Father's call, 'My Son.'\n\nHe turns doctrine into experience. He is not content with merely having\nthe thought in his creed, but his heart clasps it, and his whole nature\nresponds to the great truth. I ask you, do you do that? Do not be\ncontent with hearing the truth, or even with assenting to it, and\nbelieving it in your understandings. The truth is nothing to you, unless\nyou have made it your very own by faith. Do not be satisfied with the\northodox confession. Unless it has touched your heart and made your\nwhole soul thrill with thankful gladness and quiet triumph, it is\nnothing to you. The mere belief of thirty-nine or thirty-nine thousand\nArticles is nothing; but when a man has a true heart-faith in Him, whom\nall articles are meant to make us know and love, then dogma becomes\nlife, and the doctrine feeds the soul. Does it do so with you, my\nbrother? Can _you_ say, 'And such we are?'\n\nTake another lesson. The Apostle was not afraid to say 'I know that I am\na child of God.' There are many very good people, whose tremulous,\ntimorous lips have never ventured to say 'I know.' They will say, 'Well,\nI hope,' or sometimes, as if that was not uncertain enough, they will\nput in an adverb or two, and say, 'I humbly hope that I am.' It is a far\nrobuster kind of Christianity, a far truer one, ay, and a humbler one\ntoo, that throws all considerations of my own character and merits, and\nall the rest of that rubbish, clean behind me, and when God says, 'My\nson!' says 'My Father;' and when God calls us His children, leaps up and\ngladly answers, 'And we are!' Do not be afraid of being too confident,\nif your confidence is built on God, and not on yourselves; but be afraid\nof being too diffident, and be afraid of having a great deal of\nself-righteousness masquerading under the guise of such a profound\nconsciousness of your own unworthiness that you dare not call yourself a\nchild of God. It is not a question of worthiness or unworthiness. It is\na question, in the first place, and mainly, of the truth of Christ's\npromise and the sufficiency of Christ's Cross; and in a very subordinate\ndegree of anything belonging to you.\n\nIV. We have here, finally, the loving and devout gaze upon this\nwonderful love. 'Behold,' at the beginning of my text, is not the mere\nexclamation which you often find both in the Old and in the New\nTestaments, which is simply intended to emphasise the importance of what\nfollows, but it is a distinct command to do the thing, to look, and ever\nto look, and to look again, and live in the habitual and devout\ncontemplation of that infinite and wondrous love of God.\n\nI have but two remarks to make about that, and the one is this, that\nsuch a habit of devout and thankful meditation upon the love of God, as\nmanifested in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the consequent gift of\nthe Divine Spirit, joined with the humble, thankful conviction that I am\na child of God thereby, lies at the foundation of all vigorous and happy\nChristian life. How can a thing which you do not touch with your hands\nand see with your eyes produce any effect upon you, unless you think\nabout it? How can a religion which can only influence through thought\nand emotion do anything in you, or for you, unless you occupy your\nthoughts and your feelings with it? It is sheer nonsense to suppose it\npossible. Things which do not appeal to sense are real to us, and indeed\nwe may say, _are_ at all for us, only as we think about them. If you had\na dear friend in Australia, and never thought about him, he would even\ncease to be dear, and it would be all one to you as if he were dead. If\nhe were really dear to you, you _would_ think about him. We may say\n(though, of course, there are other ways of looking at the matter) that,\nin a very intelligible sense, the degree in which we think about Christ,\nand in Him behold the love of God, is a fairly accurate measure of our\nChristianity.\n\nNow will you apply that sharp test to yesterday, and the day before, and\nthe day before that, and decide how much of your life was pagan, and how\nmuch of it was Christian? You will never make anything of your professed\nChristianity, you will never get a drop of happiness or any kind of good\nout of it; it will neither be a strength nor a joy nor a defence to you\nunless you make it your habitual occupation to 'behold the manner of\nlove'; and look and look and look until it warms and fills your heart.\n\nThe second remark is that we cannot keep that great sight before the eye\nof our minds without effort. You will have very resolutely to look away\nfrom something else if, amid all the dazzling gauds of earth, you are to\nsee the far-off lustre of that heavenly love. Just as timorous people in\na thunder-storm will light a candle that they may not see the lightning,\nso many Christians have their hearts filled with the twinkling light of\nsome miserable tapers of earthly care and pursuits, which, though they\nbe dim and smoky, are bright enough to make it hard to see the silent\ndepths of Heaven, though it blaze with a myriad stars. If you hold a\nsixpence close enough up to the pupil of your eye, it will keep you from\nseeing the sun. And if you hold the world close to mind and heart, as\nmany of you do, you will only see, round the rim of it, the least tiny\nring of the overlapping love of God. What the world lets you see you\nwill see, and the world will take care that it will let you see very\nlittle--not enough to do you any good, not enough to deliver you from\nits chains. Wrench yourselves away, my brethren, from the absorbing\ncontemplation of Birmingham jewellery and paste, and look at the true\nriches. If you have ever had some glimpses of that wondrous love, and\nhave ever been drawn by it to cry, 'Abba, Father,' do not let the\ntrifles which belong not to your true inheritance fill your thoughts,\nbut renew the vision, and by determined turning away of your eyes from\nbeholding vanity, look off from the things that are seen, that you may\ngaze upon the things that are not seen, and chiefest among them, upon\nthe love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.\n\nIf you have never looked on that love, I beseech you now to turn aside\nand see this great sight. Do not let that brightness burn unnoticed\nwhile your eyes are fixed on the ground, like the gaze of men absorbed\nin gold digging, while a glorious sunshine is flushing the eastern sky.\nLook to the unspeakable, incomparable, immeasurable love of God, in\ngiving up His Son to death for us all. Look and be saved. Look and live.\n'Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on you,' and,\nbeholding, you will become the sons and daughters of the Lord God\nAlmighty.\n\n\n\n\nTHE UNREVEALED FUTURE OF THE SONS OF GOD\n\n 'Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear\n what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall\n be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.'--1 John iii. 2.\n\n\nI have hesitated, as you may well believe, whether I should take these\nwords for a text. They seem so far to surpass anything that can be said\nconcerning them, and they cover such immense fields of dim thought, that\none may well be afraid lest one should spoil them by even attempting to\ndilate on them. And yet they are so closely connected with the words of\nthe previous verse, which formed the subject of my last sermon, that I\nfelt as if my work were only half done unless I followed that sermon\nwith this.\n\nThe present is the prophet of the future, says my text: 'Now we are the\nsons of God, _and_' (not 'but') 'it doth not yet appear what we shall\nbe.' Some men say, 'Ah! _now are_ we, but we shall be--nothing!' John\ndoes not think so. John thinks that if a man is a son of God he will\nalways be so. There are three things in this verse, how, if we are God's\nchildren, our sonship makes us quite sure of the future; how our sonship\nleaves us largely in ignorance of the future, but how our sonship flings\none bright, all-penetrating beam of light on the only important thing\nabout the future, the clear vision of and the perfect likeness to Him\nwho is our life. 'Now are we the sons of God,' therefore we shall be. We\nare the sons; we do not know what we shall be. We are the sons, and\ntherefore, though there be a great circumference of blank ignorance as\nto our future, yet, blessed be His name, there is a great light burning\nin the middle of it! 'We know that when He shall appear we shall be like\nHim, for we shall see Him as He is.'\n\nI. The fact of sonship makes us quite sure of the future.\n\nI am not concerned to appraise the relative value of the various\narguments and proofs, or, it may be, presumptions, which may recommend\nthe doctrine of a future life to men, but it seems to me that the\nstrongest reasons for believing in another world are these two:--first,\nthat Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and has gone up there; and,\nsecond, that a man here can pray, and trust, and love God, and feel that\nhe is His child. As was noticed in the preceding sermon, the word\nrendered 'sons' might more accurately be translated 'children.' If so,\nwe may fairly say, 'We are the _children_ of God now--and if we are\nchildren now, we shall be grown up some time.' Childhood leads to\nmaturity. The infant becomes a man.\n\nThat is to say, he that here, in an infantile way, is stammering with\nhis poor, unskilled lips the name 'Abba! Father!' will one day come to\nspeak it fully. He that dimly trusts, he that partially loves, he that\ncan lift up his heart in some more or less unworthy prayer and\naspiration after God, in all these emotions and exercises, has the great\nproof in himself that such emotions, such relationship, can never be put\nan end to. The roots have gone down through the temporal, and have laid\nhold of the Eternal. Anything seems to me to be more credible than that\na man who can look up and say, 'My Father,' shall be crushed by what\nbefalls the mere outside of him; anything seems to me to be more\nbelievable than to suppose that the nature which is capable of these\nelevating emotions and aspirations of confidence and hope, which can\nknow God and yearn after Him, and can love Him, is to be wiped out like\na gnat by the finger of Death. The material has nothing to do with these\nfeelings, and if I know myself, in however feeble and imperfect a\ndegree, to be the son of God, I carry in the conviction the very pledge\nand seal of eternal life. That is a thought 'whose very sweetness\nyieldeth proof that it was born for immortality.' 'We are the sons of\nGod,' therefore we shall always be so, in all worlds, and whatsoever may\nbecome of this poor wrappage in which the soul is shrouded.\n\nWe may notice, also, that not only the fact of our sonship avails to\nassure us of immortal life, but that also the very form which our\nreligious experience takes points in the same direction.\n\nAs I said, infancy is the prophecy of maturity. 'The child is father of\nthe man'; the bud foretells the flower. In the same way, the very\nimperfections of the Christian life, as it is seen here, argue the\nexistence of another state, where all that is here in the germ shall be\nfully matured, and all that is here incomplete shall attain the\nperfection which alone will correspond to the power that works in us.\nThink of the ordinary Christian character. The beginning is there, and\nevidently no more than the beginning. As one looks at the crudity, the\ninconsistencies, the failings, the feebleness of the Christian life of\nothers, or of oneself, and then thinks that such a poor, imperfect\nexhibition is all that so divine a principle has been able to achieve in\nthis world, one feels that there must be a region and a time where we\nshall be all which the transforming power of God's spirit can make us.\nThe very inconsistencies of Christians are as strong reasons for\nbelieving in the perfect life of Heaven as their purities and virtues\nare. We have a right to say mighty principles are at work upon Christian\nsouls--the power of the Cross, the power of love issuing in obedience,\nthe power of an indwelling Spirit; and is this all that these great\nforces are going to effect on human character? Surely a seed so precious\nand divine is somewhere, and at some time, to bring forth something\nbetter than these few poor, half-developed flowers, something with more\nlustrous petals and richer fragrance. The plant is clearly an exotic;\ndoes not its obviously struggling growth here tell of warmer suns and\nricher soil, where it will be at home?\n\nThere is a great deal in every man, and most of all in Christian men and\nwomen, which does not fit this present. All other creatures correspond\nin their capacities to the place where they are set down; and the world\nin which the plant or the animal lives, the world of their surroundings,\nstimulates to activity all their powers. But that is not so with a man.\n'Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests.' They fit exactly, and\ncorrespond to their 'environment.' But a man!--there is an enormous\namount of waste faculty about him if he is only to live in this world.\nThere are large capacities in every nature, and most of all in a\nChristian nature, which are like the packages that emigrants take with\nthem, marked 'Not wanted on the voyage.' These go down into the hold,\nand they are only of use after landing in the new world. If I am a son\nof God I have much in me that is 'not wanted on the voyage,' and the\nmore I grow into His likeness, the more I am thrown out of harmony with\nthe things round about me, in proportion as I am brought into harmony\nwith the things beyond.\n\nThat consciousness of belonging to another order of things, because I am\nGod's child, will make me sure that when I have done with earth, the tie\nthat binds me to my Father will not be broken, but that I shall go home,\nwhere I shall be fully and for ever all that I so imperfectly began to\nbe here, where all gaps in my character shall be filled up, and the\nhalf-completed circle of my heavenly perfectness shall grow like the\ncrescent moon, into full-orbed beauty. 'Neither life, nor death, nor\nthings present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other\ncreature' shall be able to break that tie, and banish the child from the\nconscious grasp of a Father's hand. Dear brother and sister, can you\nsay, 'Now am I a child of God!' Then you may patiently and peacefully\nfront that dim future.\n\nII. Now I come to the second point, namely, that we remain ignorant of\nmuch in that future.\n\nThat happy assurance of the love of God resting upon me, and making me\nHis child through Jesus Christ, does not dissipate all the darkness\nwhich lies on that beyond. 'We are the sons of God, _and_,' just because\nwe are, 'it does not yet appear what we shall be.' Or, as the words are\nrendered in the Revised Version, 'it is not yet made manifest what we\nshall be.'\n\nThe meaning of that expression, 'It doth not yet appear,' or, 'It is not\nmade manifest,' may be put into very plain words. John would simply say\nto us, 'There has never been set forth before men's eyes in this earthly\nlife of ours an example, or an instance, of what the sons of God are to\nbe in another state of being.' And so, because men have never had the\ninstance before them, they do not know much about that state.\n\nIn some sense there has been a manifestation through the life of Jesus\nChrist. Christ has died; Christ is risen again. Christ has gone about\namongst men upon earth after Resurrection. Christ has been raised to the\nright hand of God, and sits there in the glory of the Father. So far it\nhas been manifested what we shall be. But the risen Christ is not the\nglorified Christ, and although He has set forth before man's senses\nirrefragably the fact of another life, and to some extent given glimpses\nand gleams of knowledge with regard to certain portions of it, I suppose\nthat the 'glorious body' of Jesus Christ was not assumed by Him till the\ncloud 'received Him out of their sight,' nor, indeed, could it be\nassumed while He moved among the material realities of this world, and\ndid eat and drink before them. So that, while we thankfully recognise\nthat Christ's Resurrection and Ascension have 'brought life and\nimmortality to light,' we must remember that it is the fact, and not the\nmanner of the fact, which they make plain; and that, even after His\nexample, it has not been manifested what is the body of glory which He\nnow wears, and therefore it has not yet been manifested what we shall be\nwhen we are fashioned after its likeness.\n\nThere has been no manifestation, then, to sense, or to human experience,\nof that future, and, therefore, there is next to no knowledge about it.\nYou can only know facts when the facts are communicated. You may\nspeculate and argue and guess as much as you like, but that does not\nthin the darkness one bit. The unborn child has no more faculty or\nopportunity for knowing what the life upon earth is like than man here,\nin the world, has for knowing that life beyond. The chrysalis' dreams\nabout what it would be when it was a butterfly would be as reliable as a\nman's imagination of what a future life will be.\n\nSo let us feel two things:--Let us be thankful that we do not know, for\nthe ignorance is the sign of the greatness; and then, let us be sure\nthat just the very mixture of knowledge and ignorance which we have\nabout another world is precisely the food which is most fitted to\nnourish imagination and hope. If we had more knowledge, supposing it\ncould be given, of the conditions of that future life, it would lose\nsome of its power to attract. Ignorance does not always prevent the\noccupation of the mind with a subject. Blank ignorance does; but\nignorance, shot with knowledge like a tissue which, when you hold it one\nway seems all black, and when you tilt it another, seems golden,\nstimulates desire, hope, and imagination. So let us thankfully acquiesce\nin the limited knowledge.\n\nFools can ask questions which wise men cannot answer, and will not ask.\nThere are questions which, sometimes, when we are thinking about our own\nfuture, and sometimes when we see dear ones go away into the mist,\nbecome to us almost torture. It is easy to put them; it is not so easy\nto say: 'Thank God, we cannot answer them yet!' If we could it would\nonly be because the experience of earth was adequate to measure the\nexperience of Heaven; and that would be to bring the future down to the\nlow levels of this present. Let us be thankful then that so long as we\ncan only speak in language derived from the experiences of earth, we\nhave yet to learn the vocabulary of Heaven. Let us be thankful that our\nbest help to know what we shall be is to reverse much of what we are,\nand that the loftiest and most positive declarations concerning the\nfuture lie in negatives like these:--'I saw no temple therein.' 'There\nshall be no night there.' 'There shall be no curse there.' 'There shall\nbe no more sighing nor weeping, for the former things are passed away.'\n\nThe white mountains keep their secret well; not until we have passed\nthrough the black rocks that make the throat of the pass on the summit,\nshall we see the broad and shining plains beyond the hills. Let us be\nthankful for, and own the attractions of, the knowledge that is wrapt in\nignorance, and thankfully say, 'Now are we the sons of God, and it doth\nnot appear what we shall be!'\n\nIII. Now I must be very brief with the last thought that is here, and I\nam the less unwilling to be so because we cannot travel one inch beyond\nthe revelations of the Book in reference to the matter. The thought is\nthis, that our sonship flings one all-penetrating beam of light on that\nfuture, in the knowledge of our perfect vision and perfect likeness. 'We\nknow that when He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him, for we\nshall see Him as He is.'\n\n'When He shall be manifested'--to what period does that refer? It seems\nmost natural to take the manifestation here as being the same as that\nspoken of only a verse or two before. 'And now, little children, abide\nin Him, and when He shall _be manifested_, we may have confidence, and\nnot be ashamed before Him at His coming' (ii. 28). That 'coming' then,\nis the 'manifestation' of Christ; and it is at the period of His coming\nin His glory that His servants 'shall be like Him, and see Him as He\nis.' Clearly then it is Christ whom we shall see and become like, and\nnot the Father invisible.\n\nTo behold Christ will be the condition and the means of growing like\nHim. That way of transformation by beholding, or of assimilation by the\npower of loving contemplation, is the blessed way of ennobling\ncharacter, which even here, and in human relationships, has often made\nit easy to put off old vices and to clothe the soul with unwonted grace.\nMen have learned to love and gaze upon some fair character, till some\nimage of its beauty has passed into their ruder natures. To love such\nand to look on them has been an education. The same process is\nexemplified in more sacred regions, when men here learn to love and look\nupon Christ by faith, and so become like Him, as the sun stamps a tiny\ncopy of its blazing sphere on the eye that looks at it. But all these\nare but poor, far-off hints and low preludes of the energy with which\nthat blessed vision of the glorified Christ shall work on the happy\nhearts that behold Him, and of the completeness of the likeness to Him\nwhich will be printed in light upon their faces.\n\nIt matters not, though it doth not yet appear what we shall be, if to\nall the questionings of our own hearts we have this for our\nall-sufficient answer, 'We shall be like Him.' As good old Richard\nBaxter has it:--\n\n 'My knowledge of that life is small,\n The eye of faith is dim;\n But, 'tis enough that Christ knows all,\n And I shall be like Him!'\n\n'It is enough for the servant that he be as his Lord.'\n\nThere is no need to go into the dark and difficult questions about the\nmanner of that vision. He Himself prayed, in that great intercessory\nprayer, 'Father, I will that these whom Thou hast given Me be with Me\nwhere I am, that they may behold My glory.' That vision of the glorified\nmanhood of Jesus Christ--certain, direct, clear, and worthy, whether it\ncomes through sense or through thought--to behold that vision is all\nthe sight of God that men in Heaven ever will have. And through the\nmillenniums of a growing glory, Christ as He is will be the manifested\nDeity. Likeness will clear sight, and clearer sight will increase\nlikeness. So in blessed interchange these two will be cause and effect,\nand secure the endless progress of the redeemed spirit towards the\nvision of Christ which never can behold all His Infinite Fulness, and\nthe likeness to Christ which can never reproduce all his Infinite\nBeauty.\n\nAs a bit of glass when the light strikes it flashes into sunny glory, or\nas every poor little muddy pool on the pavement, when the sunbeams fall\nupon it, has the sun mirrored even in its shallow mud, so into your poor\nheart and mine the vision of Christ's glory will come, moulding and\ntransforming us to its own beauty. With unveiled face reflecting as a\nmirror does, the glory of the Lord, we 'shall be changed into the same\nimage.' 'We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.'\n\nDear brethren, all begins with this, love Christ and trust Him and you\nare a child of God! 'And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and\njoint heirs with Christ.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE PURIFYING INFLUENCE OF HOPE\n\n 'And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even\n as He is pure.'--1 John iii. 3.\n\n\nThat is a very remarkable 'and' with which this verse begins. The\nApostle has just been touching the very heights of devout contemplation,\nsoaring away up into dim regions where it is very hard to follow,--'We\nshall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.'\n\nAnd now, without a pause, and linking his thoughts together by a simple\n'and,' he passes from the unimaginable splendours of the Beatific Vision\nto the plainest practical talk. Mysticism has often soared so high above\nthe earth that it has forgotten to preach righteousness, and therein has\nbeen its weak point. But here is the most mystical teacher of the New\nTestament insisting on plain morality as vehemently as his friend James\ncould have done.\n\nThe combination is very remarkable. Like the eagle he rises, and like\nthe eagle, with the impetus gained from his height, he drops right down\non the earth beneath!\n\nAnd that is not only a characteristic of St. John's teaching, but it is\na characteristic of all the New Testament morality--its highest\nrevelations are intensely practical. Its light is at once set to work,\nlike the sunshine that comes ninety millions of miles in order to make\nthe little daisies open their crimson-tipped petals; so the profoundest\nthings that the Bible has to say are said to you and me, not that we may\nknow only, but that knowing we may _do_, and _do_ because we _are_.\n\nSo John, here: 'We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.'\n'And'--a simple coupling-iron for two such thoughts--'every man that\nhath this hope in Him'--that is, in Christ, not in himself, as we\nsometimes read it--'every man that hath this hope,' founded on Christ,\n'purifies himself even as He is pure.'\n\nThe thought is a very simple one, though sometimes it is somewhat\nmistakenly apprehended. Put into its general form it is just this:--If\nyou expect, and expecting, hope to be like Jesus Christ yonder, you will\nbe trying your best to be like Him here. It is not the mere purifying\ninfluence of hope that is talked about, but it is the specific influence\nof this one hope, the hope of ultimate assimilation to Christ leading to\nstrenuous efforts, each a partial resemblance of Him, here and now. And\nthat is the subject I want to say a word or two about now.\n\nI. First, then, notice the principle that is here, which is the main\nthing to be insisted upon, namely, If we are to be pure, we must purify\n_ourselves_.\n\nThere are two ways of getting like Christ, spoken about in the context.\nOne is the blessed way, that is more appropriate for the higher Heaven,\nthe way of assimilation and transformation by beholding--'If we see Him'\nwe shall be 'like Him.' That is the blessed method of the Heavens. Yes,\nbut even here on earth it may to some extent be realised! Love always\nbreeds likeness. And there is such a thing, here on earth and now, as\ngazing upon Christ with an intensity of affection, and simplicity of\ntrust, and rapture of aspiration, and ardour of desire which shall\ntransform us in some measure into His own likeness. John is an example\nof that for us. It was a true instinct that made the old painters always\nrepresent him as like the Master that he sat beside, even in face. Where\ndid John get his style from? He got it by much meditating upon Christ's\nwords. The disciple caught the method of the Master's speech, and to\nsome extent the manner of the Master's vision.\n\nAnd so he himself stands before us as an instance of the possibility,\neven on earth, of this calm, almost passive process, and most blessed\nand holiest method of getting like the Master, by simple gazing, which\nis the gaze of love and longing.\n\nBut, dear brethren, the law of our lives forbids that that should be the\nonly way in which we grow like Christ. 'First the blade, then the ear,\nthen the full corn in the ear,' was never meant to be the exhaustive,\nall-comprehensive statement of the method of Christian progress. You and\nI are not vegetables; and the Parable of the Seed is only one side of\nthe truth about the method of Christian growth. The very word 'purify'\nspeaks to us of another condition; it implies impurity, it implies a\nprocess which is more than contemplation, it implies the reversal of\nexisting conditions, and not merely the growth upwards to unattained\nconditions.\n\nAnd so growth is not all that Christian men need; they need excision,\nthey need casting out of what is in them; they need change as well as\ngrowth. 'Purifying' they need because they are impure, and growth is\nonly half the secret of Christian progress.\n\nThen there is the other consideration, viz., if there is to be this\npurifying it must be done by myself. 'Ah!' you say, 'done by yourself?\nThat is not evangelical teaching.' Well, let us see. Take two or three\nverses out of this Epistle which at first sight seem to be contradictory\nof this. Take the very first that bears on the subject:--'The blood of\nJesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin' (i. 7). 'If we confess\nour sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse\nus from all unrighteousness' (i. 9). 'He that abideth in Him sinneth\nnot' (iii. 6). 'This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our\nfaith' (v. 4).\n\nNow if you put all these passages together, and think about the general\neffect of them, it comes to this: that our best way of cleansing\nourselves is by keeping firm hold of Jesus Christ and of the cleansing\npowers that lie in Him. To take a very homely illustration--soap and\nwater wash your hands clean, and what you have to do is simply to rub\nthe soap and water on to the hand, and bring them into contact with the\nfoulness. You cleanse yourselves. Yes! because without the friction\nthere would not be the cleansing. But is it you, or is it the soap, that\ndoes the work? Is it you or the water that makes your hands clean? And\nso when God comes and says, 'Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil\nof your doings, your hands are full of blood,' He says in effect, 'Take\nthe cleansing that I give you and rub it in, and apply it: and your\nflesh will become as the flesh of a little child, and you shall be\nclean.'\n\nThat is to say, the very deepest word about Christian effort of\nself-purifying is this--keep close to Jesus Christ. You cannot sin as\nlong as you hold His hand. To have Him with you;--I mean by that to have\nthe thoughts directed to Him, the love turning to Him, the will\nsubmitted to Him, Him consciously with us in the day's work. To have\ncommunion with Jesus Christ is like bringing an atmosphere round about\nus in which all evil will die. If you take a fish out of water and bring\nit up into the upper air, it writhes and gasps, and is dead presently;\nand our evil tendencies and sins, drawn up out of the muddy depths in\nwhich they live, and brought up into that pure atmosphere of communion\nwith Jesus Christ, are sure to shrivel and to die, and to disappear. We\nkill all evil by fellowship with the Master. His presence in our lives,\nby our communion with Him, is like the watchfire that the traveller\nlights at night--it keeps all the wild beasts of prey away from the\nfold.\n\nChrist's fellowship is our cleansing, and the first and main thing that\nwe have to do in order to make ourselves pure is to keep ourselves in\nunion with Him, in whom inhere and abide all the energies that cleanse\nmen's souls. Take the unbleached calico and spread it out on the green\ngrass, and let the blessed sunshine come down upon it, and sprinkle it\nwith fair water; and the grass and the moisture and the sunshine will do\nall the cleansing, and it will glitter in the light, 'so as no fuller on\nearth can white it.'\n\nSo cleansing is keeping near Jesus Christ. But it is no use getting the\nmill-race from the stream into your works unless you put wheels in its\nway to drive. And our holding ourselves in fellowship with the Master in\nthat fashion is not all that we have to do. There have to be distinct\nand specific efforts, constantly repeated, to subdue and suppress\nindividual acts of transgression. We have to fight against evil, sin by\nsin. We have not the thing to do all at once; we have to do it in\ndetail. It is a war of outposts, like the last agonies of that\nFranco-Prussian war, when the Emperor had abdicated, and the country was\nreally conquered, and Paris had yielded, but yet all over the face of\nthe land combats had to be carried on.\n\nSo it is with us. Holiness is not feeling; it is character. You do not\nget rid of your sins by the act of divine amnesty only. You are not\nperfect because you say you are, and feel as if you were, and think you\nare. God does not make any man pure in his sleep. His cleansing does not\ndispense with fighting, but makes victory possible.\n\nThen, dear brethren, lay to heart this, as the upshot of the whole\nmatter: First of all, let us turn to Him from whom all the cleansing\ncomes; and then, moment by moment, remember that it is our work to\npurify ourselves by the strength and the power that is given to us by\nthe Master.\n\nII. The second thought here is this: This purifying of ourselves is the\nlink or bridge between the present and the future.--'Now are we the sons\nof God,' says John in the context. That is the pier upon the one side of\nthe gulf. 'It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when He is made\nmanifest we shall be like Him.' That is the pier on the other. How are\nthe two to be connected? There is only one way by which the present\nsonship will blossom and fruit into the future perfect likeness, and\nthat is,--if we throw across the gulf, by God's help day by day here,\nthat bridge of our effort after growing likeness to Himself, and purity\ntherefrom.\n\nThat is plain enough, I suppose. To speak in somewhat technical terms,\nthe 'law of continuity' that we hear so much about, runs on between\nearth and Heaven; which, being translated into plain English, is but\nthis--that the act of passing from the limitations and conditions of\nthis transitory life into the solemnities and grandeurs of that future\ndoes not alter a man's character, though it may intensify it. It does\nnot make him different from what he was, though it may make him more of\nwhat he was, whether its direction be good or bad.\n\nYou take a stick and thrust it into water; and because the rays of light\npass from one medium to another of a different density, they are\nrefracted and the stick seems bent; but take the human life out of the\nthick, coarse medium of earth and lift it up into the pure rarefied air\nof Heaven, and there is no refraction; it runs straight on. Straight on!\nThe given direction continues; and in whatever direction my face is\nturned when I die, thither my face will be turned when I live again.\n\nDo not you fancy that there is any magic in coffins and graves and\nshrouds to make men different from their former selves. The continuity\nruns clean on, the rail goes without a break, though it goes through the\nMont Cenis tunnel; and on the one side is the cold of the North, and on\nthe other the sunny South. The man is the same man through death and\nbeyond.\n\nSo the one link between sonship here and likeness to Christ hereafter is\nthis link of present, strenuous effort to become like Him day by day in\npersonal purity. For there is another reason, on which I need not dwell,\nviz., unless there be this daily effort on our part to become like Jesus\nChrist by personal purity, we shall not be able to 'see Him as He is.'\nDeath will take a great many veils off men's hearts. It will reveal to\nthem a great deal that they do not know, but it will not give the\nfaculty of beholding the glorified Christ in such fashion as that the\nbeholding will mean transformation. 'Every eye shall see Him,' but it is\nconceivable that a spirit shall be so immersed in self-love and in\ngodlessness that the vision of Christ shall be repellent and not\nattractive; shall have no transforming and no gladdening power. And I\nbeseech you to remember that about that vision, as about the vision of\nGod Himself, the principle stands true; it is 'the pure in heart that\nshall see God' in Christ. And the change from life to the life beyond\nwill not necessarily transform into the image of His dear Son. You make\na link between the present and the future by cleansing your hands and\nyour hearts, through faith in the cleansing power of Christ, and direct\neffort at holiness.\n\nIII. Now I must briefly add finally: that this self-cleansing of which I\nhave been speaking is the offspring and outcome of that 'hope' in my\ntext. It is the child of hope. Hope is by no means an active faculty\ngenerally. As the poets have it, she may 'smile and wave her golden\nhair'; but she is not in the way of doing much work in the world. And it\nis not the mere fact of hope that generates this effort; it is, as I\nhave been trying to show you, a certain kind of hope--the hope of being\nlike Jesus Christ when 'we see Him as He is.'\n\nI have only two things to say about this matter, and one of them is\nthis: of course, such strenuous effort of purity will only be the result\nof such a hope as that, because such a hope will fight against one of\nthe greatest of all the enemies of our efforts after purity. There is\nnothing that makes a man so down-hearted in his work of self-improvement\nas the constant and bitter experience that it seems to be all of no use;\nthat he is making so little progress; that with immense pains, like a\nsnail creeping up a wall, he gets up, perhaps, an inch or two, and then\nall at once he drops down, and further down than he was before he\nstarted.\n\nSlowly we manage some little, patient self-improvement; gradually, inch\nby inch and bit by bit, we may be growing better, and then there comes\nsome gust and outburst of temptation; and the whole painfully reclaimed\nsoil gets covered up by an avalanche of mud and stones, that we have to\nremove slowly, barrow-load by barrow-load. And then we feel that it is\nall of no use to strive, and we let circumstances shape us, and give up\nall thoughts of reformation.\n\nTo such moods then there comes, like an angel from Heaven, that holy,\nblessed message, 'Cheer up, man! \"We shall be like Him, for we shall see\nHim as He is.\"' Every inch that you make now will tell then, and it is\nnot all of no use. Set your heart to the work, it is a work that will be\nblessed and will prosper.\n\nAgain, here is a test for all you Christian people, who say that you\nlook to Heaven with hope as to your home and rest.\n\nA great deal of the religious contemplation of a future state is pure\nsentimentality, and like all pure sentimentality is either immoral or\nnon-moral. But here the two things are brought into clear juxtaposition,\nthe bright hope of Heaven and the hard work done here below. Now is that\nwhat the gleam and expectation of a future life does for you?\n\nThis is the only time in John's Epistle that he speaks about hope. The\ngood man, living so near Christ, finds that the present, with its\n'abiding in Him' is enough for his heart. And though he was the Seer of\nthe Apocalypse, he has scarcely a word to say about the future in this\nletter of his, and when he does it is for a simple and intensely\npractical purpose, in order that he may enforce on us the teaching of\nlabouring earnestly in purifying ourselves.\n\nMy brother, is that your type of Christianity? Is that the kind of\ninspiration that comes to you from the hope that steals in upon you in\nyour weary hours, when sorrows, and cares, and changes, and loss, and\ndisappointments, and hard work weigh you down, and you say, 'It would be\nblessed to pass hence'? Does it set you harder at work than anything\nelse can do? Is it all utilised? Or if I might use such an illustration,\nis it like the electricity of the Aurora Borealis, that paints your\nwinter sky with vanishing, useless splendours of crimson and blue? or\nhave you got it harnessed to your tramcars, lighting your houses,\ndriving sewing-machines, doing practical work in your daily life? Is the\nhope of Heaven, and of being like Christ, a thing that stimulates and\nstirs us every moment to heroisms of self-surrender and to strenuous\nmartyrdom of self-cleansing?\n\nAll is gathered up into the one lesson. First, let us go to that dear\nLord whose blood cleanseth from all sin, and let us say to Him, 'Purge\nme and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.' And\nthen, receiving into our hearts the powers that purify, in His love and\nHis sacrifice and His life, 'having these promises' and these\npossessions, 'Dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all\nfilthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the\nLord.'\n\n\n\n\nPRACTICAL RIGHTEOUSNESS\n\n 'Little children, let no man deceive you; he that doeth\n righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.'--1 John\n iii. 7.\n\n\nThe popular idea of the Apostle John is strangely unlike the real man.\nHe is supposed to be the gentle Apostle of Love, the mystic amongst the\nTwelve. He _is_ that, but he was the 'son of thunder' before he was the\nApostle of Love, and he did not drop the first character when he\nattained the second. No doubt his central thought was, 'God is Love'; no\ndoubt that thought had refined and assimilated his character, but the\nlove which he believed and the love which he exercised were neither of\nthem facile feebleness, but strong and radiant with an awful purity.\nNone of the New Testament writers proclaims a more austere morality than\ndoes John. And just because he loved the Love and the Light, he hated\nand loathed the darkness. He can thunder and lighten when needful, and\nhe shows us that the true divine love in a man recoils from its\nopposite as passionately as it cleaves to God and good.\n\nAgain, John is, _par excellence_, the mystic of the New Testament,\nalways insisting on the direct communion which every soul may have with\nGod, which is the essence of wholesome mysticism. Now that type of\nthinking has often in its raptures forgotten plain, pedestrian morality;\nbut John never commits that error. He never soars so high as to lose\nsight of the flat earth below; and whilst he is always inviting us and\nenjoining us to dwell in God and abide in Christ, with equal persistence\nand force he is preaching to us the plainest duties of elementary\nmorality.\n\nHe illustrates this moral earnestness in my text. The 'little children'\nfor whom he was so affectionately solicitous were in danger, either from\nteachers or from the tendencies native in us all, to substitute\nsomething else for plain, righteous conduct; and the Apostle lovingly\nappeals to them with his urgent declaration, that the only thing which\nshows a man to be righteous--that is to say, a disciple of Christ--is\nhis daily life, in conformity with Christ's commands. The errors of\nthese ancient Asiatics live to-day in new forms, but still substantially\nthe same. And they are as hard to kill amongst English Nonconformists\nlike us as they were amongst Asiatic Christians nineteen centuries ago.\n\nI. So let me try just to insist, first of all, on that thought that\ndoing righteousness is the one test of being a Christian.\n\nNow that word 'righteousness' is a theological word, and by much usage\nthe lettering has got to be all but obliterated upon it; and it is worn\nsmooth like sixpences that go from pocket to pocket. Therefore I want,\nbefore I go further, to make this one distinct point, that the New\nTestament righteousness is no theological, cloistered, peculiar kind of\nexcellence, but embraces within its scope, 'whatsoever things are\nlovely, whatsoever things are fair, whatsoever things are of good\nreport'; all that the world calls virtue, all which the world has\ncombined to praise. There are countries on the earth which are known by\ndifferent names to their inhabitants and to foreigners. The\n'righteousness' of the New Testament, though it embraces a great deal\nmore, includes within its map all the territories which belong to\nmorality or to virtue. The three words cover the same ground, though one\nof them covers more than the other two. The New Testament\n'righteousness' differs from the moralist's morality, or the world's\nvirtue, in its scope, inasmuch as it includes our relations to God as\nwell as to men; it differs in its perspective, inasmuch as it exalts\nsome types of excellence that the world pooh-poohs, and pulls down some\nthat the world hallelujahs and adulates; it strips the fine feathers of\napproving words off some vices which masquerade as virtues. It casts\nround the notion of duty, of morality, of virtue, a halo, and it touches\nit with emotion. Christianity does with the dictates of the natural\nconscience what we might figure as being the leading out of some captive\nvirgin in white, from the darkness into the sunshine, and the turning of\nher face up to heaven, which illuminates it with a new splendour, and\ninvests her with a new attractiveness. But all that any man rightly\nincludes in his notion of the things that are 'of good report' is\nincluded in this theological word, righteousness, which to some of you\nseems so wrapped in mists, and so far away from daily life.\n\nI freely confess that in very many instances the morality of the\nmoralist has outshone the righteousness of the Christian. Yes! and I\nhave seen canoe-paddles carved by South Sea Islanders with no better\ntools than an oyster-shell and a sharp fish-bone, which in the\nminuteness and delicacy of their work, as well as in the truth and taste\nof their pattern, might put to shame the work of carvers with better\ntools. But that is not the fault of the tools; it is the fault of the\ncarvers. And so, whilst we acknowledge that Christian people have but\npoorly represented to the world what Christ and Christ's apostles meant\nby righteousness, I reiterate that the righteousness of the gospel is\nthe morality of the world _plus_ a great deal more.\n\nThat being understood, let me remind you of two or three ways in which\nthis great truth of the text is obscured to us, and in some respects\ncontradicted, in the practice of many professing Christians. First, let\nme say my text insists upon this, that the conduct, not the creed, makes\nthe Christian. There is a continual tendency on our part, as there was\nwith these believers in Asia Minor long ago, to substitute the mere\nacceptance, especially the orthodox acceptance, of certain great\nfundamental Christian truths for Christianity. A man may believe\nthirty-nine or thirty-nine thousand Articles without the smallest\nintellectual drawback, and not be one whit nearer being a Christian than\nif he did not believe one of them. For faith, which is the thing that\nmakes a man a Christian to begin with, is not assent, but trust. And\nthere is a whole gulf, wide enough to drown a world in, between the two\nattitudes of mind. On the one side of the gulf is salvation, on the\nother side of the gulf there may be loss. Of course, I know that it is\nhard, though I do not believe it is impossible, to erect the structure\nof a saving faith on a very, very imperfect intellectual apprehension\nof Scripture truth. That has nothing to do with my present point. What I\nam saying is that, unless you erect that structure of a faith which is\nan act of your will and of your whole nature, and not the mere assent of\nyour understanding, upon your belief, your belief is impotent, and is of\nno use at all, and you might as well not have it.\n\nWhat is the office of our creed in regard to our conduct? To give us\nprinciples, to give us motives, to give us guidance, to give us weapons.\nIf it does these things then it does its work. If it lies in our heads a\nmere acceptance of certain propositions, it is just as useless and as\ndead as the withered seeds that rattle inside a dried poppy-head in the\nautumn winds. You are meant to begin with accepting truth, and then you\nare meant to take that truth as being a power in your lives that shall\nshape your conduct. To know, and there an end, is enough in matters of\nmere science, but in matters of religion and in matters of morality or\nrighteousness knowing is only the first step in the process, and we are\nmade to know in order that, knowing, we may do.\n\nBut some professing Christians seem to have their natures built, like\nocean-going steamers, with water-tight compartments, on the one side of\nwhich they keep their creed, and there is no kind of communication\nbetween that and the other side where their conduct is originated.\n'Little children, let no man deceive you; he that doeth righteousness is\nrighteous.'\n\nAgain, my text suggests conduct and not emotion.\n\nNow there is a type of Christian life which is more attractive in\nappearance than that of the hard, fossilised, orthodox believer--viz.,\nthe warmly emotional and fervent Christian. But that type, all\nexperience shows, has a pit dug close beside it into which it is apt to\nfall. For there is a strange connection between emotional Christianity\nand a want of straightforwardness in daily business life, and of\nself-control and government of the appetites and the senses. That has\nbeen sadly shown, over and again, and if we had time one could easily\npoint to the reasons in human nature, and its strange contexture, why it\nshould be so. Now I am not disparaging emotion--God forbid--for I\nbelieve that to a very large extent the peculiarity of Christian\nteaching is just this, that it does bring emotion to bear upon the hard\ngrind of daily duty. But for all that, I am bound to say that this is a\ndanger which, in this day, by reason of certain tendencies in our\npopular Christianity, is a very real one, and that you will find people\ngushing in religious enthusiasm, and then going away to live very\nquestionable, and sometimes very mean, and sometimes even very gross and\nsensual lives. The emotion is meant to spring from the creed, and it is\nmeant to be the middle term between the creed and the conduct. Why, we\nhave learnt to harness electricity to our tramcars, and to make it run\nour messages, and light our homes, and that is like what we have to do\nwith the emotion without which a man's Christianity will be a poor,\nscraggy thing. It is a good servant; it is a bad master. You do not show\nyourselves to be Christians because you gush. You do not show yourselves\nto be Christians because you can talk fervidly and feel deeply. Raptures\nare all very well, but what we want is the grind of daily righteousness,\nand doing little things because of the fear and the love of the Lord.\n\nMay I say again, my text suggests conduct, and not verbal worship. You\nand I, in our adherence to a simpler, less ornate and aesthetic form of\ndevotion than prevails in the great Episcopal churches, are by no means\nfree from the danger which, in a more acute form, besets them, of\nsubstituting participation in external acts of worship for daily\nrighteousness of life _Laborare est orare_--to work is to pray. That is\ntrue with explanations, commentaries, and limitations. But I wonder how\nmany people there are who sing hymns which breathe aspirations and\nwishes that their whole daily life contradicts. And I wonder how many of\nus there are who seem to be joining in prayers that we never expect to\nhave answered, and would be very much astonished if the answers came,\nand should not know what to do with if they did come. We live in one\nline, and worship in exactly the opposite. Brethren, creed is necessary;\nemotion is necessary; worship is necessary! But that on which these\nthree all converge, and for which they are, is daily life, plain,\npractical righteousness.\n\nII. Now let me say, secondly, that being righteous is the way to do\nrighteousness.\n\nOne of the great characteristics of New Testament teaching of morality,\nor rather let me say of Christ's teaching of morality, is that it\nshifts, if I may so put it, the centre of gravity from acts to being,\nthat instead of repeating the parrot-cry, 'Do, do, do' or 'Do not, do\nnot, do not,' it says, 'Be, and the doing will take care of itself. Be;\ndo not trouble so much about outward acts, look after the inward\nnature.' Character makes conduct, though, of course, conduct reacts upon\ncharacter. 'As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,' and the way to set\nactions right is to set the heart right.\n\nSome of us are trying to purify the stream by putting in disinfectants\nhalf-way down, instead of going up to the source and dealing with the\nfountain. And the weakness of all the ordinary, commonplace morality of\nthe world is that it puts its stress upon the deeds, and leaves\ncomparatively uncared for the condition of the person, the inward self,\nfrom whom the deeds come. And so it is all superficial, and of small\naccount.\n\nIf that be so, then we are met by this experience: that when we honestly\ntry to make the tree good that its fruit may be good we come full front\nup to this, that there is a streak in us, a stain, a twist--call it\nanything you like--like a black vein through a piece of Parian marble,\nor a scratch upon a mirror, which streak or twist baffles our effort to\nmake ourselves righteous. I am not going, if I can help it, to\nexaggerate the facts of the case. The Christian teaching of what is\nunfortunately called total depravity is not that there is no good in\nanybody, but that there is a diffused evil in everybody which affects in\ndifferent degrees and in different ways all a man's nature. And that is\nno mere doctrine of the New Testament, but it is a transcript from the\nexperience of every one of us.\n\nWhat then? If I must be righteous in order that I may do righteousness,\nand if, as I have found out by experience (for the only way to know\nmyself is to reflect upon what I have done)--if I have found out that I\nam not righteous, what then? You may say to me, 'Have you led me into a\nblind alley, out of which I cannot get? Here you are, insisting on an\nimperative necessity, and in the same breath saying that it is\nimpossible. What is left for me?' I go on to tell you what is left.\n\nIII. Union with Jesus Christ by faith makes us 'righteous even as He is\nrighteous.'\n\nThere is the pledge, there is the prophecy, there is the pattern; and\nthere is the power to redeem the pledge, to fulfil the prophecy, to make\nthe pattern copyable and copied by every one of us. Brethren, this is\nthe very heart of John's teaching, that if we will, not by the mere\nassent of our intellect, but by the casting of ourselves on Jesus\nChrist, trust in Him, there comes about a union between us and Him so\nreal, so deep, so vital, so energetic, that by the touch of His life we\nlive, and by His righteousness breathed into us, we, too, may become\nrighteous. The great vessel and the tiny pot by its side may have a\nconnecting pipe, and from the great one there shall flow over into the\nlittle one as much as will fill it brim full. In Him we too may be\nrighteous.\n\nMy friend, there are men and women who are ready to set to their seals\nthat that is true, and who can say, 'I have found it so. By union with\nJesus Christ in faith, I have received new tastes, new inclinations, a\nnew set to my whole life, and I have been able to overcome\nunrighteousnesses which were too many and too mighty for myself.' It is\nso; and some of us to our own consciences and consciousness are\nwitnesses to it, however imperfectly. God forgive us! We may have\nmanifested the renewing power of union with Christ in our daily lives.\n\n'Even as He is righteous'--the water in the great vessel and the little\none are the same, but the vase is not the cistern. The beam comes from\nthe sun, but the beam is not the sun. 'Even as' does not mean equality,\nbut it does mean similarity. Christ is righteous, eternally,\nessentially, completely; we may be 'even as He is' derivatively,\npartially, and if we put our trust in Him we shall be so, and that\ngrowingly through our daily lives. And then, after earth is done with,\n'we know that, when He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him, for\nwe shall see Him as He is.'\n\nMay we each, dear brethren, 'be found in Him, not having our own\nrighteousness which is of the law, but that which is through faith in\nChrist, the righteousness which is of God by faith.'\n\n\n\n\nCHRIST'S MISSION THE REVELATION OF GOD'S LOVE\n\n 'Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and\n sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.'--1 John iv. 10.\n\n\nThis is the second of a pair of twin verses which deal with\nsubstantially the same subject under two slightly different aspects. The\nthought common to both is that Christ's mission is the great revelation\nof God's love. But in the preceding verse the point on which stress is\nlaid is the manifestation of that love, and in our text the point mainly\nbrought out is its essential nature. In the former we read, 'In this was\n_manifested_ the love of God,' and in the present verse we read, 'Herein\n_is_ love.' In the former verse John fixes on three things as setting\nforth the greatness of that manifestation--viz., that the Christ is the\nonly begotten Son, that the manifestation is for the world, and that its\nend is the bestowment of everlasting love. In my text the points which\nare fixed on are that that Love in its nature is self-kindled--'not that\nwe loved God, but that He loved us'--and that it lays hold of, and casts\nout of the way that which, unremoved, would be a barrier between God and\nus--viz., our sin: 'He hath sent His Son to be the propitiation for our\nsins.'\n\nNow it is interesting to notice that these twin verses, like a double\nstar which reflects the light of a central sun, draw their brightness\nfrom the great word of the Master, 'God so loved the world, that He gave\nHis only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not\nperish, but have everlasting life.' Do you not hear the echo of His\nvoice in the three expressions in the verse before the text--'only\nbegotten' 'world' 'live'? Here is one more of the innumerable links\nwhich bind together in indissoluble union the Gospel and the Epistle.\nSo, then, the great thought suggested by the words before us is just\nthis, that in the Incarnation and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ we have the\ngreat revelation of the love of God.\n\nI. Now there are three questions that suggest themselves to me, and the\nfirst is this, What, then, does Christ's mission say about God's love?\n\nI do not need to dwell on the previous question whether, apart from that\nmission, there is any solid revelation of the fact that there is love in\nHeaven, or whether we are left, apart from it, to gropings and\nprobabilities. I need not refer you to the ambiguous oracles of nature\nor to the equally ambiguous oracles of life. I need not, I suppose, do\nmore than just remind you that even the men whose faith grasps the\nthought of the love of God most intensely, know what it is to be brought\nto a stand before some of the dreadful problems which the facts of\nhumanity and the facts of nature press upon us, nor need I remind you\nhow, as we see around us to-day, in the drift of our English literature\nand that of other nations, when men turn their backs upon the Cross,\nthey look upon a landscape all swathed in mists, and on which darkness\nis steadily settling. The reason why the men of this generation, some\nof them very superficially, and for the sake of being 'in the swim' and\nsome of them despairingly and with bleeding hearts, are turning\nthemselves to a reasoned pessimism, is because they will not see what\nshines out from the Cross, that God is love.\n\nNor need I do more than remind you, in a word, of the fact that, go\nwhere we will through this world, and consult all the conceptions that\nmen have made to themselves of gods many and lords many, whilst we find\nthe deification of power, and of vice, and of fragmentary goodnesses, of\nhopes and fears, of longings, of regrets, we find nowhere a god of whom\nthe characteristic is love. And amidst that Pantheon of deities, some of\nthem savage, some of them lustful, some of them embodiments of all\nvices, some of them indifferent and neutral, some of them radiant and\nfair, none reveals this secret, that the centre of the universe is a\nheart. So we have to turn away from hopes, from probability dashed with\nmany a doubt, and find something that has more solid substance in it, if\nit is to be enough to bear up the man that grasps it and to yield before\nno tempests. For all that Bishop Butler says, probabilities are _not_\nthe guide of life, in its deepest and noblest aspects. They may be the\nguide of practice, but for the anchorage of the soul we want no shifting\nsand-bank, but that to which we may make fast and be sure that, whatever\nshifts, it remains immovable. You can no more clothe the soul in\n'perhapses' than a man can make garments out of a spider's web. Religion\nconsists of the things of which we are sure, and not of the things which\nare probable. 'Peradventure' is not the word on which a man can rest the\nweight of a crushed, or an agonising, or a sinking soul; he must have\n'Verily! verily!' and then he is at rest.\n\nHow do we know what a man is? By seeing what a man does. How do we know\nwhat God is? By knowing what God does. So John does not argue with\nlogic, either frosty or fiery, but he simply opens his mouth, and in\ncalm, pellucid utterances sets forth the truths and leaves them to work.\nHe says to us, 'I do not relegate you to your intuitions; I do not argue\nwith you; I simply say, Look at Him; look, and see that God is love.'\n\nWhat, then, does the mission of Christ say to us about the love of God?\nIt says, first, that it is a love independent of, and earlier than,\nours. We love, as a rule, because we recognise in the object to which\nour heart goes out something that draws it, something that is loveable.\nBut He whose name is 'I am that I am' has all the reasons of His actions\nwithin Himself, and just as He\n\n 'Sits on no precarious throne,\n Nor borrows leave to be,'\n\nnor is dependent on any creature for existence, so He is His own motive,\nHe is His own reason. Within that sacred circle of the Infinite Nature\nlie all the energies which bring that Infinite Nature into action; and\nlike some clear fountain, more sparkling than crystal, there wells up\nfor ever, from the depths of the Divine Nature, the love which is\nHimself. He loves, not because we love Him, but because He is God. The\nvery sun itself, as some astronomers believe, owes its radiant\nbrightness and ever-communicated warmth to the impact on, and reception\ninto, it of myriads of meteors and of matter drawn from the surrounding\nsystem. So when the fuel fails, that fire will go out, and the sun will\nshrivel into a black ball. But this central Sun of the universe has all\nHis light within Himself, and the rays that pour out from Him owe their\nbeing and their motion to nothing but the force of that central fire,\nfrom which they rush with healing on their wings.\n\nIf, then, God's love is not evoked by anything in His creatures, then it\nis universal, and we do not need anxiously to question ourselves whether\nwe deserve that it shall fall upon us, and no conscious unworthiness\nneed ever make us falter in the least in the firmness with which we\ngrasp that great central thought. The sun, inferior emblem as it is of\nthat Light of all that is, pours down its beams indiscriminately on\ndunghill and on jewel, though it be true that in the one its rays breed\ncorruption and in the other draw out beauty. That great love wraps us\nall, is older than our sins, and is not deflected by them. So that is\nthe first thing that Christ's mission tells us about God's love.\n\nThe second is--it speaks to us of a love which gives its best. John\nsays, 'God _sent_ His Son,' and that word reposes, like the rest of the\npassage, on many words of Christ's--such as, for instance, when He\nspeaks of Himself as 'sanctified and sent into the world,' and many\nanother saying. But remember how, in the foundation passage to which I\nhave already referred, and of which we have some reflection in the words\nbefore us, there is a tenderer expression--not merely 'sent,' but\n'gave.' Paul strengthens the word when he says, 'gave _up_ for us all.'\nIt is not for us to speculate about these deep things, but I would\nremind you of what I dare say I have had occasion often to point out,\nthat Paul seems to intend to suggest to us a mysterious parallel, when\nhe further says, 'He that _spared_ not His own Son, but freely gave Him\nup to death for us all.' For that emphatic word 'spared' is a distinct\nallusion to, and quotation of, the story of Abraham's sacrifice of\nIsaac: 'Seeing thou hast not _withheld_ from Me thine only son.' And so,\nmysterious as it is, we may venture to say that He not only sent, but He\ngave, and not only gave, but gave up. His love, like ours, delights to\nlavish its most precious gifts on its objects.\n\nNow there arises from this consideration a thought which I only mention,\nand it is this. Christian teaching about Christ's work has often, both\nby its friends and its foes, been so presented as to lead to the\nconception that it was the work of Christ which made God love men. The\nenemies of evangelical truth are never tired of talking in that sense;\nand some of its unwise friends have given reason for the caricature. But\nthe true Christian teaching is, 'God so loved ... that He gave.' The\nlove is the cause of the mission, and not the mission that which evokes\nthe love. So let us be sure that, not because Christ died does God love\nus sinful creatures, but that, because God loves us, Christ died for us.\n\nThe third thing which the mission of Christ teaches us about the love of\nGod is that it is a love which takes note of and overcomes man's sin. I\nhave said, as plainly as I can, that I reject the travesty of\nChristianity which implies that it was Christ's mission which originated\nGod's love to men. But a love that does not in the slightest degree care\nwhether its object is good or bad--what sort of a love do you call that?\nWhat do you name it when a father shows it to his children? Moral\nindifference; culpable and weak and fatal. And is it anything nobler, if\nyou transfer it to God, and say that it is all the same to Him whether a\nman is living the life of a hog, and forgetting all that is high and\nnoble, or whether he is pressing with all his strength towards light\nand truth and goodness? Surely, surely they who, in the name of their\nreverence for the supreme love of God, cover over the fact of His\nrighteousness, are mutilating and killing the very attribute that they\nare trying to exalt. A love that cares nothing for the moral character\nof its object is not love, but hate; it is not kindness, but cruelty.\nTake away the background because it is so black, and you lower the\nbrilliancy of whiteness of that which stands in front of it. There is\nsuch a property in God as is fittingly described by that tremendous word\n'wrath.' God cannot, being what He is, treat sin as if it were no sin;\nand therefore we read, 'He sent His son to be the _propitiation_ for our\nsins.' The black dam, which we build up between ourselves and the river\nof the water of life, is to be swept away; and it is the death of Jesus\nChrist which makes it possible for the highest gift of God's love to\npour over the ruined and partially removed barrier and to flood a man's\nsoul. Brethren, no God that is worthy the name can give Himself to a\nsinful soul. No sinful soul that has not the habit, the guilt, the\npenalty of its sins swept away, is capable of receiving the life, which\nis the highest gift of the love. So our twin texts divide what I may\ncall the process of redemption between them; and whilst the one says,\n'He sent His Son that we should have life through Him,' the other tells\nus of how the sins which bar the entrance of that life into our hearts,\nas our own consciences tell us they do, can be removed. There must first\nbe the propitiation for our sins, and then that mighty love reaches its\npurpose and attains its end, and can give us the life of God to be the\nlife of our souls. So much for my first and principle question.\n\nII. Now I have to ask, secondly, how comes it that Christ's mission says\nanything about God's love?\n\nThat question is a very plain one, and I should like to press the answer\nto it very emphatically. Take any other of the great names of the\nworld's history of poet, thinker, philosopher, moralist, practical\nbenefactor; is it possible to apply such a thought as this to\nthem--except with a hundred explanations and limitations--that they,\nhowever radiant, however wise, however beneficent, however fruitful\ntheir influence, make men sure that God loves them? The thing is\nridiculous, unless you are using language in a very fantastic and\nartificial fashion.\n\nChrist's mission reveals God's love, because Christ is the Son of God.\nIf it is true, as Jesus said, that 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the\nFather,' then I can say, 'In Thy tenderness, in Thy patience, in Thy\nattracting of the publican and the harlot, in Thy sympathy with all the\nerring and the sorrowful, and, most of all, in Thy agony and passion, in\nThy cross and death, I see the glory of God which is the love of God.'\nBrother, if you break that link, which binds the man Christ Jesus with\nthe ever-living and the ever-loving God, I know not how you can draw\nfrom the record of His life and death a confidence, which nothing can\nshake, in the love of the Father.\n\nThen there is another point. Christ's mission speaks to us about God's\nlove, if--and I was going to say _only_ if--we regard it as His mission\nto be the propitiation for our sins. Strike out the death as the\nsacrifice for the world's sin, and what you have left is a maimed\nsomething, which may be, and I thankfully recognise often is, very\nstrengthening, very helpful, very calming, very ennobling, even to men\nwho do not sympathise with the view of that work which I am now setting\nforth, but which is all that to them, very largely, because of the\nunconscious influence of the truths which they have cast away. It seems\nto me that those who, in the name of the highest paternal love of God,\nreject the thought of Christ's sacrificial death, are kicking away the\nladder by which they have climbed, and are better than their creeds, and\nhappily illogical. It is the Cross that reveals the love, and it is the\nCross as the means of propitiation that pours the light of that blessed\nconviction into men's hearts.\n\nIII. My last question is this: what does Christ's mission say about\nGod's love to me?\n\nWe know what it ought to say. It ought to carry, as on the crest of a\ngreat wave, the conviction of that divine love into our hearts, to be\nfruitful there. It ought to sweep out, as on the crest of a great wave,\nour sins and evils. It ought to do this; does it? On some of us I fear\nit produces no effect at all. Some of you, dear friends, look at that\nlight with lack-lustre eyes, or, rather, with blind eyes, that are dark\nas midnight in the blaze of noonday. The voice comes from the Cross,\nsweet as that of harpers harping with their harps, and mighty as the\nvoice of many waters, and you hear nothing. Some of us it slightly moves\nnow and then, and there an end.\n\nBrethren, you have to turn the world-wide generality into a personal\npossession. You have to say, 'He loved _me_, and gave Himself for _me_.'\nIt is of no use to believe in a universal Saviour; do you trust in your\nparticular Saviour? It is of no use to have the most orthodox and clear\nconceptions of the relation between the Cross of Christ and the\nrevelation to men of the love of God; have you made that revelation the\nmeans of bringing into your own personal life the conviction that Jesus\nChrist is _your_ Saviour, the propitiation for _your_ sins, the Giver to\n_you_ of life eternal? It is faith that does that. Note that, in the\ngreat foundation passage to which I have made frequent reference, there\nare two conditions put in between the beginning and the end. Some of us\nare disposed to say, 'God so loved the world that every man might have\neternal life.' That is not what Christ said, 'God so loved the world\nthat'--and here follows the first condition--'He _gave His Son_\nthat'--and here follows the second--'he that _believeth on Him_ should\nnot perish, but have everlasting life.' God has done what it is needful\nfor Him to do. His part of the conditions has been fulfilled. Fulfil\nyours--'He that believeth on Him.' And if you can say, not He is the\npropitiation for our sin, but for _my_ sin, then you will live and move\nand have your being in a heaven of love, and will love Him back again\nwith an echo and reflection of His own, and nothing shall be able to\nseparate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SERVANT AS HIS LORD\n\n '... As He is, so are we in this world.'--1 John iv. 17.\n\n\nLarge truths may be spoken in little words. Profundity is often supposed\nto be obscurity, but the deepest depth is clear. John, in his gospel and\nepistles, deals with the deepest realities, and with all things in their\neternal aspects, but his vocabulary is the simplest in the New\nTestament. God and the world, life and death, love and hate, light and\ndarkness, these are the favourite words round which his thoughts\ngather. Here are nine little monosyllables. What can be simpler than,\n'As He is, so are we in this world?' And what can go beyond the thought\nthat lies in it, that a Christian is a living likeness of Christ?\n\nBut the connection of my text is quite as striking as its substance.\nJohn has been dwelling upon his favourite thought that to abide in love\nis to abide in God, and God in us. And then he goes on to say that\n'Herein'--that is, in such mutual abiding in love--'is love made perfect\nwith us'; and the perfection of that love, which is thus communion, is\nin order that, at the great solemn day of future trial, men may lift up\ntheir faces and meet His glance--which is _not_ strange to them, nor met\nfor the first time--with open-hearted and open-countenanced 'boldness.'\nBut 'love' and 'abiding' are the source of confidence in the Day of\nJudgment, because love and abiding are the source of assimilation to\nChrist's life. We have boldness, 'because as He is, so are we in this\nworld'; and we are as He is, because we love and abide in Him. So here\nare three thoughts, the assimilation of the Christian man to Christ; the\nfrank confidence which it begets; and the process by which it is\nsecured.\n\nI. A Christian is Christ's living likeness.\n\nThat is a startling thing to say, and all the more startling if you\nnotice that John does not say 'As He _was_,' in this earthly life of\nhumiliation and filial obedience, but 'as He _is_,' in His heavenly life\nand reign and glory. That might well repel us from all thought of\npossible resemblance, but the light, however brilliant it may be, is not\nblinding, and it is the Christ as He _is_, and not only--true as that\nis--the Christ as He _was_, who is the original of which Christian men\nare copies.\n\nNow _there_ is the difference between the teaching of such classes of\nreligionists as represent Christ's humanity as all in all, and preach to\nus that He, in His earthly life is the pattern to whom we are to seek to\nconform our lives, and the true evangelical teaching. That dead Man is\nliving, and His present life has in it elements which we can grasp, and\nto which every Christian life is to be conformed.\n\nIs there anything, then, within the glory to which I, in my poor,\nstruggling, hampered, imperfect life here on earth, can feel that my\ncharacter is being shaped? Yes, surely there is. I have no doubt that,\nin the words of my text, the Apostle is remembering the solemn ones of\nour Lord's high-priestly prayer as recorded in the seventeenth chapter\nof his gospel, where the same antithesis of our being in the world, and\nHis not being there, recurs; and where the analogy and resemblance are\ndistinctly stated--'I in Thee, and Thou in Me, that they also may be in\nus.'\n\nSo, then, when we stand with our letter-writer in his Patmos island, and\nsee the countenance 'as the sun shining in his strength, and the eyes as\na flame of fire,' and the many crowns upon the head, and the many stars\nin the hand, though we may feel as if all resemblance was at an end, and\naspiration after likeness could only fall at His feet and cover its\nface, yet there is within the glory something which may be repeated and\nreproduced in our lives, and that is, the indissoluble union of a Son\nwith a Father, in all loving obedience, in all perfect harmony, in all\nmutual affection and outgoing of heart and thoughts. This is the centre\nof the life, alike of the Christ when He is glorified, and of the Christ\nwhen He was upon earth. So the very secret heart of the mysterious\nbeing of the Son is to be, and necessarily is, repeated in all those who\nin Him have received the adoption of sons.\n\nOr to put the whole thing into plainer words, it is the religious and\nthe moral aspects of Christ's being, and not any one particular detail\nthereof; and these, as they live and reign on the Throne, just as truly\nas these, as they suffered and wept upon earth--it is these to which it\nis our destiny to be conformed. We are like Him, if we are His, in\nthis,--that we are joined to God, that we hold fellowship with Him, that\nour lives are all permeated with the divine, that we are saturated with\nthe presence of God, that we have submitted ourselves to Him and to His\nwill, that 'not my will, but Thine, be done' is the very inmost meaning\nof our hearts and our lives. And thus 'we,' even here, 'bear the image\nof the heavenly, as we have borne the images of the earthly.' Now I am\nnot going to dwell upon details; all these can be filled in by each of\nus for himself. The centre-point which I insist upon is this--the filial\nunion with God, the filial submission to Him, and the consequent purity\nas Christ is pure, righteousness as Christ is righteous, and walking\neven as Christ walked, for ever in the light.\n\nBut then there is another point that I desire to refer to. I have put an\nemphasis upon the 'is' instead of the 'was,' as it applies to Jesus\nChrist. I would further put an emphasis upon the 'are,' as it applies to\nus--'So _are_ we.'\n\nJohn is not exhorting, he is affirming. He is not saying what Christian\nmen ought to strive to be, but he is saying what all Christian men, by\nvirtue of their Christian character, _are_. Or, to put it into other\nwords, likeness to the Master is certain. It is inevitably involved in\nthe relation which a Christian man bears to the Lord. There may be\ndegrees in the likeness, there may be differences of skill and\nearnestness in the artist. We have to labour like a portrait painter,\nslowly and tentatively approaching to the complete resemblance. It is 'a\nlife-long task ere the lump be leavened.' This likeness does not reach\nits completeness by a leap. It is not struck, as the image of a king is,\nupon the blank metal disc, by one stroke, but it is wrought out by long,\nlaborious, and, as I said, approximating and tentative touches. My text\nsuggests that to us by its addition, 'So are we, _in this world_.' The\n'world'--or, to use modern phraseology, 'the environment'--conditions\nthe resemblance. As far as it is possible for a thing encompassed with\ndust and ashes to resemble the radiant sun in the heavens, so far is the\nresemblance carried here. Some measure of it, and a growing measure, is\ninseparable from the reality of a Christian life.\n\nNow, you Christian people, does that plain statement touch you anywhere?\n'So _are_ we.' Well! you would be quite easy if John had said: 'So _may_\nwe be; so _should_ we be; so _shall_ we be.' But what about the 'so\n_are_ we'? What a ghastly contradiction the lives of multitudes of\nprofessing Christians are to that plain statement! 'Like Jesus\nChrist'--would anybody say that about anything in me? 'So are we'--no\nwords of mine, dear brethren, can make the statement more searching,\nmore impressive; but, I pray you, lay this to heart: 'If any man have\nnot the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.' You may take sacraments\nand profess Christianity, or, as we Nonconformists have it, 'join\nchurches,' and do all manner of outward work for ever and a day; but if\nyou have not the likeness of Christ, at least in germ, and growing to\nsomething more than a germ, in your characters, you had better revise\nyour position, and ask whether, after all, you have not been walking in\na vain show, and fancied yourselves the servants of Christ, while you\nbear the image of Christ's enemy.\n\nA very tiny gully on a hillside, made by showers of rain, may fall into\nthe same slopes, and has been created by the very same forces, working\naccording to the same laws, as have scooped out valleys miles broad,\nbordered by mountains thousands of feet high. And in my little life,\npoor as it is, limited as it is, environed as it is by the world, and\ntherefore often hampered and stained, as well as helped and brightened,\nby its environment, there may be, and there will be, in some degree, if\nI am a Christian man, the very same power at work by which Jesus Christ,\nthe Son of the Father shines as the sun on the throne of the universe.\n\nBut then, notice further, how that limitation to which I have referred\nin this world carries with it another message. _There_ is Christ in the\nheavens, veiled and unseen. Here are you on earth, his representative.\nThere is a rage at present for putting pictures into all books, and folk\nwill scarcely read unless they get illustrated literature. The world has\nfor its illustrations of the gospel the lives of us Christian people. In\nthe book there are principles and facts, and readers should be able to\nturn the page and see all pictured in us.\n\nThat is what you are set to do in this world. 'As the Father sent Me,\neven so send I you.' 'As He is, so are we in this world.' It may be our\nantagonist, but it is our sphere, and its presence is necessary to evoke\nour characters. Christ has entrusted His reputation, His honour, to us,\nand many a man that never cares to look at _Him_ as He is revealed in\nScripture, would be wooed and won to look at Him and love Him, if we\nChristian people were more true to our vocation, and bore more\nconspicuously on our faces and in our characters the image of the\nheavenly.\n\nII. Look for a moment at the second thought that is here: such a\nlikeness to Jesus Christ is the only thing that will enable a man to\nlift up his head in the Day of Judgment.\n\n'We have boldness,' says John, _because_ 'as He is, so are we.' Now that\nis a very strong statement of a truth that popular, evangelical theology\nhas far too much obscured. People talk about being, at the last,\n'accepted in the beloved.' God be thanked, it is true. A sweet old hymn\nthat a great many of us learned when we were children, though it is not\nso well known in these days, says:--\n\n 'Bold shall I stand in that great day,\n For who aught to my charge shall lay,\n While through Thy blood absolved I am\n From sin's tremendous curse and shame?'\n\nI believe that, and I try to preach it. But do not let us forget the\nother side. My text is in full accordance with the principles of our\nLord's own teaching; and who knows the principles of His own words so\nwell as the judge, who tells us, in His pictures of that great day, that\nthe question put to every man will be, not what you _believe_, but what\ndid you _do_, and what _are_ you?\n\nBut this truth of my text has been not only wounded in the house of the\nfriends of Christianity, but it has been overlooked by one of the very\nfrequent objections that we hear made to evangelical teaching, that,\naccording to it, a man is judged according to his belief and not\naccording to his deeds. A man is judged according to his--not\n_belief_--but according to his _faith_. But he is judged according also\nto--not his _work_--but according to his _character_.\n\nAnd I wish, dear friends, to lay this upon your hearts, because many of\nus are too apt to forget it, that whilst unquestionably the beginning of\nsalvation, and the condition of forgiveness here, and of acceptance\nhereafter, are laid in trust in Jesus Christ, that trust is sure to work\nout a character which is in conformity with His requirements and moulded\nafter the likeness of Himself. 'The judgment of God is according to\ntruth,' and what a man is determines where a man shall be, and what he\nshall receive through all eternity. Remember Christ's own teaching.\nRemember the teaching of that other apostle than John, according to\nwhich the 'wood, hay, stubble,' built by a man upon the foundation shall\nbe burned up, and the builder himself be saved, yet so as by fire. And\nlay this to heart, that it is only when faith works in us, through love\nand communion, characters like Jesus Christ's, that we shall be able to\nstand--though even then we shall have to trust to divine and infinite\nmercy, and to the sprinkling of His blood--before the Throne of God. Lay\nup in store for yourselves a good foundation unto eternal life. And take\nthis as the preaching of my text; character, and character alone, will\nstand the judgment of that great day.\n\nThere is no real antagonism between such truths and the widest preaching\nof salvation by faith. It is the same man who, in his gospel, says, as\nfrom the lips of the Lord Himself, 'He that believeth is not judged,'\nand in his letter says, 'We may have boldness in that day, because, as\nHe is, so are we in this world.'\n\nIII. One word about the last point; the process by which this likeness\nis secured.\n\nThat is contained, as I tried to show in my introductory remarks, in the\nearlier part of the verse. Our love is made perfect by dwelling in God,\nand God in us; in order that we may be thus conformed to Christ's\nlikeness, and so have boldness in that great day. To be like Jesus\nChrist, what is needed is that we love Him, and that we keep in touch\nwith Him. What is it to 'abide' in Him?--to direct the continual flow of\nmind and love and will and practical obedience to Him, to bear Him ever\nin the secret place of my heart whilst my hands are occupied with daily\nbusiness, and my feet are running the sometimes rough race that is set\nbefore me. Think of Him ever, love Him ever. Let His name be like a\nperfume breathed through the whole atmosphere of your lives. Keep your\nwills in the attitude of submission, of acceptance, of indecision when\nnecessary, and of absolute dependence upon Him. Let your outward acts be\nsuch as shall not bring a film of separation between Him and you. When\nthus our whole being is steeped and drenched with Christ, then it cannot\nbut be that we shall be like Him. Even 'clouds themselves as suns\nappear, when the sun pierces them with light.' 'Abide in Me, and I in\nyou.' You cannot make yourselves like Christ, but you can fasten\nyourselves to Christ, and He will give you power which shall make you\nlike Him.\n\nBut, remember, such abiding is no idle waiting, no passive confidence.\nIt is full of energy, full of suppression, when necessary, of what is\ncontrary to your truest self, and full of strenuous cultivation of that\nwhich is in accord with the will of the Father, and with the likeness of\nthe 'first-born among many brethren.'\n\nDear friends, lie in the light and you will become light. Abide in\nChrist, and you will get like Christ; and, being like Him, you will be\nable to lift up your heads, and rejoice when you front Him on the\nThrone, and you are at the bar. Then, when you are no more in the world,\nthe likeness will be perfected, because the communion is complete. 'We\nshall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.'\n\n\n\n\nLOVE AND FEAR\n\n 'There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear:\n because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in\n love.'--1 John iv. 18.\n\n\nJohn has been speaking of boldness, and that naturally suggests its\nopposite--fear. He has been saying that perfect love produces courage in\nthe day of judgment, because it produces likeness to Christ, who is the\nJudge. In my text he explains and enlarges that statement. For there is\nanother way in which love produces boldness, and that is by its casting\nout fear. These two are mutually exclusive. The entrance of the one is\nfor the other a notice to quit. We cannot both love and fear the same\nperson or thing, and where love comes in, the darker form slips out at\nthe door; and where Love comes in, it brings hand in hand with itself\nCourage with her radiant face. But boldness is the companion of love,\nonly when love is perfect. For, inconsistent as the two emotions are,\nlove, in its earlier stages and lower degrees, is often perturbed and\ndashed by apprehension and dread.\n\nNow John is speaking about the two emotions in themselves, irrespective,\nso far as his language goes, of the objects to which they are directed.\nWhat he is saying is true about love and fear, whatever or whosoever\nmay be loved or dreaded. But the context suggests the application in his\nmind, for it is 'boldness before him' about which he has been speaking;\nand so it is love and fear directed towards God which are meant in my\ntext. The experience of hosts of professing Christians is only too\nforcible a comment upon the possibility of a partial Love lodging in the\nheart side by side with a fellow-lodger, Fear, whom it ought to have\nexpelled. So there are three things here that I wish to notice--the\nempire of fear, the mission of fear, and the expulsion of fear.\n\nI. The empire of fear.\n\nFear is a shrinking apprehension of evil as befalling us, from the\nperson or thing which we dread. My text brings us face to face with that\nsolemn thought that there are conditions of human nature, in which the\nGod who ought to be our dearest joy and most ardent desire becomes our\nghastliest dread. The root of such an unnatural perversion of all that a\ncreature ought to feel towards its loving Creator lies in the simple\nconsciousness of discordance between God and man, which is the shadow\ncast over the heart by the fact of sin. God is righteous; God\nrighteously administers His universe. God enters into relations of\napproval or disapproval with His responsible creature. Therefore there\nlies, dormant for the most part, but present in every heart, and active\nin the measure in which that heart is informed as to itself, the\nslumbering, cold dread that between it and God things are _not_ as they\nought to be.\n\nI believe, for my part, that such a dumb, dim consciousness of discord\nattaches to all men, though it is often smothered, often ignored, and\noften denied. But there it is; the snake hibernates, but it is coiled in\nthe heart all the same; and warmth will awake it. Then it lifts its\ncrested head, and shoots out its forked tongue, and venom passes into\nthe veins. A dread of God is the ghastliest thing in the world, the most\nunnatural, but universal, unless expelled by perfect love.\n\nArising from that discomforting consciousness of discord there come,\nlikewise, other forms and objects of dread. For if I am out of harmony\nwith Him, what will be my fate in the midst of a universe administered\nby Him, and in which all are His servants? Oh! I sometimes wonder how it\nis that godless men front the facts of human life and do not go mad. For\nhere are we, naked, feeble, alone, plunged into a whirlpool, from the\nawful vortices of which we cannot extricate ourselves. There foam and\nswirl all manner of evils, some of them certain, some of them probable,\nany of them possible, since we are at discord with Him who wields all\nthe forces of the universe, and wields them all with a righteous hand.\n'The stars in their courses fight against' the man that does not fight\nfor God. Whilst all things serve the soul that serve Him, all are\nembattled against the man that is against, or not for, God and His will.\n\nThen there arises up another object of dread, which, in like manner,\nderives all its power to terrify and to hurt from the fact of our\ndiscordance with God; and that is 'the shadow feared of man,' that\nstands shrouded by the path, and waits for each of us.\n\nGod; God's universe; God's messenger, Death--these are facts with which\nwe stand in relation, and if our relations with Him are out of gear,\nthen He and all of these are legitimate objects of dread to us.\n\nBut now there is something else that casts out fear than perfect love,\nand that is--perfect levity. For it is the explanation of the fact that\nso many of us know nothing of this fear of which I speak, and fancy that\nI am exaggerating, or putting forward false views. There is a type of\nman, and I have no doubt there are some of its representatives among my\nhearers, who are below both fear and love as directed towards God; for\nthey never think about Him, or trouble their heads concerning either Him\nor their relations to Him or anything that flows therefrom. It is a\nstrange faculty that we all have, of forgetting unwelcome thoughts and\nshutting our eyes to the things that we do not want to see, like Nelson\nwhen he puts the telescope to his blind eye at Copenhagen, because he\nwould not obey the signal of recall. But surely it is an ignoble thing\nthat men should ignore or shuffle out of sight with inconsiderateness\nthe real facts of their condition, like boys whistling in a churchyard\nto keep their spirits up, and saying, 'Who's afraid?' just because they\nare so very much afraid. Ah, dear friends, do not rest until you face\nthe facts, and having faced them, have found the way to reverse them!\nSurely, surely it is not worthy of men to turn away from anything so\ncertain as that between a sin-loving man and God there must exist such a\nrelation as will bring evil and sorrow to that man, as surely as God is\nand he is. I beseech you, take to heart these things, and do not turn\naway from them with a shake of your shoulders, and say, 'He is preaching\nthe narrow, old-fashioned doctrine of a religion of fear.' No! I am not.\nBut I am preaching this plain fact, that a man who is in discord with\nGod has reason to be afraid, and I come to you with the old exhortation\nof the prophet, 'Be troubled, ye careless ones.' For there is nothing\nmore ignoble or irrational than security which is only made possible by\ncovering over unwelcome facts. 'Be troubled'; and let the trouble lead\nyou to the Refuge.\n\nII. That brings me to the second point--viz., the mission of fear.\n\nJohn uses a rare word in my text when he says 'fear hath torment.'\n'Torment' does not convey the whole idea of the word. It means\nsuffering, but suffering for a purpose; suffering which is correction;\nsuffering which is disciplinary; suffering which is intended to lead to\nsomething beyond itself. Fear, the apprehension of personal evil, has\nthe same function in the moral world as pain has in the physical. It is\na symptom of disease, and is intended to bid us look for the remedy and\nthe Physician. What is an alarm bell for but to rouse the sleepers, and\nto hurry them to the refuge? And so this wholesome, manly dread of the\ncertain issue of discord with God is meant to do for us what the angels\ndid for Lot--to lay a mercifully violent hand on the shoulder of the\nsleeper, and shake him into aroused wakefulness, and hasten him out of\nSodom, before the fire bursts through the ground, and is met by the fire\nfrom above. The intention of fear is to lead to that which shall\nannihilate it by taking away its cause.\n\nThere is nothing more ridiculous, nothing more likely to destroy a man,\nthan the indulgence in an idle fear which does nothing to prevent its\nown fulfilment. Horses in a burning stable are so paralysed by dread\nthat they cannot stir, and get burnt to death. And for a man to be\nafraid--as every one ought to be who is conscious of unforgiven sin--for\na man to be afraid and there an end, is absolute insanity. I fear; then\nwhat do I do? Nothing. That is true about hosts of us.\n\nWhat ought I to do? Let the dread direct me to its source, my own\nsinfulness. Let the discovery of my own sinfulness direct me to its\nremedy, the righteousness and the Cross of Jesus Christ. He, and He\nalone, can deal with the disturbing element in my relation to God. He\ncan 'deliver me from my enemies, for they are too strong for me.' It is\nChrist and His work, Christ and His sacrifice, Christ and His indwelling\nSpirit that will grapple with and overcome sin and all its consequences,\nin any man and in every man; taking away its penalty, lightening the\nheart of the burden of its guilt, delivering from its love and\ndominion--all three of which things are the barbs of the arrows with\nwhich fear riddles heart and conscience. So my fear should proclaim to\nme the merciful 'Name that is above every name,' and drive me as well as\ndraw me to Christ, the Conqueror of sin, and the Antagonist of all\ndread.\n\nBrethren, I said I was not preaching the religion of Fear. But I think\nwe shall scarcely understand the religion of Love unless we recognise\nthat dread is a legitimate part of an unforgiven man's attitude towards\nGod. My fear should be to me like the misshapen guide that may lead me\nto the fortress where I shall be safe. Oh, do not tamper with the\nwholesome sense of dread! Do not let it lie, generally sleeping, and now\nand then waking in your hearts, and bringing about nothing. Sailors that\ncrash on with all sails set--stunsails and all--whilst the barometer is\nrapidly falling, and boding clouds are on the horizon, and the line of\nthe approaching gale is ruffling the sea yonder, have themselves to\nblame if they founder. Look to the falling barometer, and make ready for\nthe coming storm, and remember that the mission of fear is to lead you\nto the Christ who will take it away.\n\nIII. Lastly, the expulsion of fear.\n\nMy text points out the natural antagonism, and mutual exclusiveness, of\nthese two emotions. If I go to Jesus Christ as a sinful man, and get His\nlove bestowed upon me, then, as the next verse to my text says, my love\nsprings in response to His to me, and in the measure in which that love\nrises in my heart will it frustrate its antagonistic dread.\n\nAs I said, you cannot love and fear the same person, unless the love is\nof a very rudimentary and imperfect character. But just as when you pour\npure water into a bladder, the poisonous gases that it may have\ncontained will be driven out before it, so when love comes in, dread\ngoes out. The river, turned into the foul Augean stables of the heart,\nwill sweep out all the filth and leave everything clean. The black,\ngreasy smoke-wreath, touched by the fire of Christ's love, will flash\nout into ruddy flames, like that which has kindled them; and Christ's\nlove will kindle in your hearts, if you accept it and apprehend it\naright, a love which shall burn up and turn into fuel for itself the now\nuseless dread.\n\nBut, brethren, remember that it is '_perfect_ love' which 'casts out\nfear.'\n\nInconsistent as the two emotions are in themselves, in practice, they\nmay be united, by reason of the imperfection of the nobler. And in the\nChristian life they are united with terrible frequency. There are many\nprofessing Christian people who live all their days with a burden of\nshivering dread upon their shoulders, and an icy cold fear in their\nhearts, just because they have not got close enough to Jesus Christ, nor\nkept their hearts with sufficient steadfastness under the quickening\ninfluences of His love, to have shaken off their dread as a sick man's\ndistempered fancies. A little love has not mass enough in it to drive\nout thick, clustering fears. There are hundreds of professing Christians\nwho know very little indeed of that joyous love of God which swallows up\nand makes impossible all dread, who, because they have not a loving\npresent consciousness of a loving Father's loving will, tremble when\nthey front in imagination, and still more when they meet in reality, the\nevils that must come, and who cannot face the thought of death with\nanything but shrinking apprehension. There is far too much of the old\nleaven of selfish dread left in the experiences of many Christians. 'I\nfeared thee, because thou wert an austere man, and so, because I was\nafraid, I went and hid my talent, and did nothing for thee' is a\ntranscript of the experience of far too many of us. The one way to get\ndeliverance is to go to Jesus Christ and keep close by Him.\n\nAnd my last word to you is, see that you resort only to the sane, sound\nway of getting rid of the wholesome, rational dread of which I have been\nspeaking. You can ignore it; and buy immunity at the price of leaving in\nfull operation the _causes_ of your dread--and that is stupid. There is\nonly one wise thing to do, and that is, to make sure work of getting rid\nof the occasion of dread, which is the fact of sin. Take all your sin to\nJesus Christ; He will--and He only can--deal with it. He will lay His\nhand on you, as He did of old, with the characteristic word that was so\noften upon His lips, and which He alone is competent to speak in its\ndeepest meaning. 'Fear not, it is I,' and He will give you the courage\nthat He commands.\n\n'God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love,\nand of a sound mind.' 'Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again\nto fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry\nAbba, Father,' and cling to Him, as a child who knows his father's heart\ntoo well to be afraid of anything in his father, or of anything that his\nfather's hand can send.\n\n\n\n\nTHE RAY AND THE REFLECTION\n\n 'We love Him, because He first loved us.'--1 John iv. 19.\n\n\nVery simple words! but they go down into the depths of God, lifting\nburdens off the heart of humanity, turning duty into delight, and\nchanging the aspect of all things. He who knows that God loves him needs\nlittle more for blessedness; he who loves God back again offers more\nthan all burnt offering and sacrifices. But it is to be observed that\nthe correct reading of my text, as you will find in the Revised Version,\nomits 'Him' in the first clause, and simply says 'we love,' without\nspecifying the object. That is to say, for the moment John's thought is\nfixed rather on the inward transformation effected, from self-regard to\nlove--than on considering the object on which the love is expended. When\nthe heart is melted, the streams flow wherever there is a channel. The\nriver, as he goes on to show us, parts into two heads, and love to God\nand love to man are, in their essence and root-principle, one thing.\n\nSo my text is the summary of all revelation about God, the ultimate word\nabout all our relations to Him, and the all-inclusive directory as to\nour conduct to one another. To know that God loves, and to love\nagain--there is a little pocket encyclopaedia in two volumes, which\ncontains the smelted-down essence of all theology and of all morality.\nLet us look at these three points.\n\nI. The ultimate word about God.\n\n'He first loved us.' Properly and strictly speaking, that 'first' only\ndeclares the priority of the divine love towards us over ours towards\nHim. But we may fairly give it a wider meaning, and say--first of all,\nere Creation and Time, away back in the abysmal depths of an everlasting\nand changeless heart, changeless in the sense that its love was eternal,\nbut not changeless in the sense that love could have no place within\nit--first of all things was God's love; last to be discovered because\nmost ancient of all. The foundation is disclosed last when you come to\ndig, and the essence is grasped last in the process of analysis.\n\nSo one of the old psalms, with wondrous depth of truth, traces up\neverything to this, 'For His mercy endureth for ever.' Therefore, there\nwas time; therefore, there were creatures--'He made great lights, for\nHis mercy endureth for ever.' Therefore, there were judgments--'He slew\nfamous kings ... for His mercy endureth for ever.' And so we may pass\nthrough all the works of the divine energy, and say, 'He first loved\nus.'\n\nIt is no accident that there are but foregleams of this great thought\nbrightening the words and the thoughts of psalmist and prophet, saint\nand sage, from the beginning onwards, while the articulate utterance of\nthe simple sentence was first heard from the lips of Him who declared\nthe Father, and stands in that part of the Book which, both in its\nposition there, and in its date of composition is the last of the\nApostolic utterances. 'God is love';--that is in one aspect the\nfoundation of His being, and in another aspect the shining ruby set on\nthe very sky-piercing summit of the completed process of the revelation\nof that Being to man. 'He first loved us'; and thence, from that centre\nand germinal point, streams out the whole train of consequences in the\ndivine activity, and in the divine self-revelation.\n\nI need not ask you to contrast with this infinitely simple and\ninfinitely deep utterance all other thoughts of a divine Being--the cold\nabstractions of Theism, the dim dreads of popular apprehension, the\nvague utterances of any mythology, the clouds that men's thoughts have\ncovered over the face of this great truth--and then, to set by the side\nof all these groping, these peradventures, these fears, these narrow,\nunworthy ideas, the clear simplicity, the infinite depth of 'He first\nloved us.'\n\nBut I may ask you to consider, but for a moment, the relation which all\nthe other perfection of the divine nature have to this central and\nfoundation one. There are all those pompous names, 'Omnipresence' and\n'Omniscience' and the like, which are but the negations of the\nlimitations of humanity or of finite creatures. There are the more\nspiritual and moral thoughts of Wisdom and Righteousness and the like.\nThese are but the fringes of the glory: I was going to venture to say\nthat the divinest thing in God is love. There is the central blaze; the\nrest is but the brilliant periphery that encloses it. And that infinite\nlove stands to all these other attributes in the relation of being their\nmaster and motive spring. They are Love's instrument, and in the divine\nnature Love is Lord of all. They give it majesty; it gives them\ntenderness. We may reverently say, in regard to the divine nature, what\nthe Apostle says about our humanity, that love is the 'bond of\nperfectness'--the girdle which, braced round all the garments, keeps\nthem in their place. For round these infinite, innumerable, unnameable,\nand named divine perfections, is that which brings them all into\nsymmetry and keeps them all in harmonious action--Love. He has wisdom,\nand power, and eternal being, but He is Love.\n\nBut do not let us forget that whilst thus my text proclaims the ultimate\ntruth, these other attributes, as they are called, are all smelted down,\nas it were, into, and present in, the love which is their crown. The\nsame Apostle, who has thus the honour of ringing out to the world the\ngood news that God is Love, declares that 'this is the message' which he\nhas to tell, that 'God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.' So\nthe light of righteousness, as well as the lambent flame of love, burn\ntogether on that central fire of the universe. We must not so conceive\nof the love of God, as to darken the radiance of His righteousness, or\nto obscure the brilliancy of that pure light which tolerates no\nadmixture of darkness.\n\nMay I venture a step further, and ask whether we are not warranted in\nbelieving that in that which we call the love of God there do abide the\nsame elements as characterise the thing that bears the same name in our\nhuman experience? The spectrum has told us that the constituents of the\nmighty sun in the heavens are the same as the constituents of this\nlittle darkened earth. And there are the same lines in the divine\nspectrum that there are in ours. So if we can venture to say of Him, He\nis Love, do not let us shrink from saying that then, like us, He\ndelights in the companionship of His beloved; that, like us, He rejoices\nin giving Himself to His beloved; that, like us, but infinitely, He\ndesires the good of His beloved; and that, like us, He seeks only for\nthe requital of an answering love. All these things, the joy of the Lord\nin man, the yielding of the Lord to man, the beneficent desire of the\nLord for the good of man, and the hunger of the Lord for the response of\nlove from man--all these things are affirmed when we affirm that God is\nLove.\n\nOur Apostle would concur heartily in the great text which was the theme\nof a recent sermon. Paul said, 'God establishes His love towards us, in\nthat while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' John says, 'Herein\nis love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son\nto be the propitiation for our sins.'\n\nSo the Cross of Christ is the one demonstration that God loved us.\nLooking to it we can say, with a great modern teacher:--\n\n 'So the All-great were the All-loving too,\n So through the thunder comes a human voice,\n Saying \"Oh! heart I made; a heart beats here,\n Face, My hands fashioned, see it in Myself;\n Thou hast no power, nor mayest conceive of Mine;\n But love I gave thee, with Myself to love,\n And thou must love Me, who have died for thee.\"'\n\nII. Here we have the ultimate word as to our religion.\n\n'We love Him, because He first loved us.' There is a bridge wanted\nbetween these two, and the bridge is supplied abundantly in this letter,\nin entire harmony with the teaching of the rest of the New Testament.\nMuch has been said, and profitably said, with reference to the\nmodification of the general type of Christian teaching in the writings\nrespectively of Paul, Peter, James, and John. I thankfully recognise the\ndiversities. They are not divergencies; they are perfectly\ncomplementary, and may all be made to harmonise. This Apostle of love\nhas also declared to us how it comes that the love which burns at the\ncentre of things, where there is a heart, kindles a responding love away\nout on the circumference of things, where there are men with hearts; and\nthe bridge is--'We have known and believed the love that God hath to\nus.' So says John. And Paul, the Apostle of faith, who sometimes seems\nas if his only conception of the link of union between God and man was,\non the part of man, faith, responds when he speaks of a faith which\nworketh, comes to energetic operation, through the love which it has\nkindled.\n\nSo we come to this, that a simple trust in the love of God, as\nmanifested in Jesus Christ, our Lord, is the only thing which will so\ndeal with man's natural self-regard and desire to make himself his own\nobject and centre, as to substitute for that the victorious love to God.\nYou cannot love God, unless you believe that He loves you. You will\nnever be absolutely sure of that, unless you have learned it from the\nCross of Christ. You will not respond with the love that He desires, but\nthere will be a film between your ice and the fire that could melt it,\nuntil that is swept away by the simple act of confidence in God\nmanifested to you in Jesus Christ. This is Christianity; this, nothing\nless, is religion--to love God, because I believe that in Jesus Christ\nGod has loved me.\n\nAnd that is the only thing that He desires or accepts. The Religion of\nFear; what is it? 'Thou wert an austere man ... and I was afraid.' Yes!\nand what did you do when you were afraid? 'I hid my talent in the\nground,' and was utterly idle. Here rise, on either side of the valley,\ntwo mountains--Ebal and Gerazim. From the one were thundered the curses,\nfrom the other broke the benediction of the blessings; the one is\nbarren, the other is verdant--'which thing is an allegory.' The Religion\nof Fear does nothing, the Religion of Love does all. The Religion of\nSelf-interest is narrow, poor, mostly inoperative of any lofty\nenthusiasm or high nobleness of character. The Religion of Duty; 'I\nought to worship, I am bidden to do this, that, or the other thing,\nwhich I do not a bit like to do. I am forbidden to do this, that, and\nthe other thing which I should very much like to do, if I durst'--that\nreligion is the religion of a slave; and there are hosts of us that know\nnothing better. And so our Christianity is a feeble and an uncomfortable\nthing; and there are little joy, and little subjugation of the will, and\nlittle leaping up of the heart in glad obedience in it. I was talking to\na good, aged man, not long ago, whose religion was of a very gloomy\ntype. He said to me, 'As to love, I know next to nothing about it.' Ah!\nbrethren, I am afraid that is true about a good many of us who call\nourselves Christians.\n\nThen let me say, too, that if we love Him, it will be the motive power\nand spring of all manner of obediences and glad services. Love is the\nmother-tincture, so to speak, which you can colour, and to which you can\nadd in various ways, and produce variously tinted and tasted and\nperfumed commixtures. Love lies at the foundation of all Christian\ngoodness. It will lead to the subjugation of the will; and that is the\nthing that is most of all needed to make a man righteous and pure. So\nSt. Augustine's paradox, rightly understood, is a magnificent truth,\n'Love! and do what you will.' For then you will be sure to will what God\nwills, and you ought.\n\nIf this be the summing-up of all religion, a practical conclusion\nfollows. When we feel ourselves defective in the glow and operative\ndriving power of love to God, what is the right thing to do? When a man\nis cold, he will not warm himself by putting a clinical thermometer\ninto his mouth, and taking his temperature, will he? Let him go into the\nsunshine and he will be warmed up. You can pound ice in a mortar, and\nexcept for the little heat generated by the impact of the pestle, it\nwill keep ice still. But float the iceberg south into the tropics, and\nwhat has become of it? It has all run down into sweet, warm water, and\nmingled with the warm ocean that has dissolved it. So do not think about\nyourselves and your own loveless hearts so much, but think about God,\nand the infinite welling up of love in His heart to you, a great deal\nmore. 'We love Him, because He first loved us'; therefore, to love Him\nmore, we must feel more that He does love us.\n\nIII. Lastly, here is the ultimate word about our conduct to men.\n\nI said that John, by leaving out any specification of the object of\nlove, as well as by the verses that immediately follow, shows that he\nregards the emotion as one, though its direction is two-fold. That just\ncomes to the plain truth, that the only victorious antagonist to the\nself-regarding temperament of average men, and the only power which will\nchange philanthropy from a sentiment into a self-denying and active\nprinciple of conduct, is to be found in the belief of the love of God in\nJesus Christ, and in answering love to Him.\n\nThat is a lesson for many sorts of people to-day. What they call\naltruism is no discovery of Christianity, but its practice is. I freely\nadmit that there is much honest and self-sacrificing beneficence and\nbenevolence which are not connected, in the men who practice them, with\nfaith in Jesus Christ. But I question very much whether these would have\nexisted if the story of the Cross had been unknown. And sure I am that\nthe history of non-Christian attempts to promote the brotherhood of man,\nand to diffuse a wide and operative love of mankind, teaches us, on the\none side, that the emotion is not strong enough to last, and to work,\nunless it is based on God's love in Jesus Christ. And the history of\nChristianity, on the other side, though with many defects and things to\nbe ashamed of, teaches us, conversely, that wherever there is a genuine\nlove of God, its exterior form, so to say, the outside of it which is\npresented to the world, will be true love to man.\n\nChristian people, lay this to heart; you are to be mirrors of the love\nto which you turn for all blessedness and peace. It is of no use to say,\n'My religion is the love of God' unless the love of God is manifested in\nthe love of man. If you love God, you will love those that God loves,\nthose for whom Christ died, those who are just like what _you_ were when\nyou learned that God loved you. The service of God is the service of\nman.\n\nOne last word, 'We love Him, because He first loved us.' Do you? Or is\nit rather true of you: 'I do not love God, though He has loved me'? I\nsaw not long since, up on the flank of a mountain, an obstinate patch of\nsnow, that had fronted, in unmelted cold, months of the summer sun.\nThere are some of us who lift a broad shield of thick-ribbed ice between\nourselves and the radiance of the warm heart of God. Oh! brother; do not\nshut that love out of your heart; for if you do, you shut out peace and\ngoodness, and shut in all manner of poisonous creatures and doleful\nshapes, whose companionship will be misery and death.\n\n\n\n\n * * * * *\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\nList of corrections and amendments made:\n\nEphesians:\n\n Page\n 36: added closing quote after \"the event of our inheritance\"\n (line 3)\n 102: \"gentle words _ot_\" to \"_to_\"\n 154: \"it\" added in \"what it is to hear\"\n 263: [Preached on Whitsunday] was a footnote.\n 286: (R.V.) to (R.V.). for consistency with other references.\n 286: \"please _to_ understand\" to \"_do\"\n 287: \"we _shoud_ be entitled\" to \"should\"\n 391: added -- and changed Ephes. to Eph. for consistency with\n other headings\n 391: added colon after \"Mark its simplicity\" (for grammar, and\n there was a large space in the book)\n\nPeter and John:\n\n 8: \"_ordisaster_\" to \"_or disaster_\"\n 28: added close quote after \"that which is another's\"\n 34: added close quote after \"My heavenly Father's Kingdom.\"\n 39: \"to _y_\" -> \"to you\" in poetry\n 66: added -- after \"especially to recreation\" (for sense, and\n there was a large space in the book)\n 86: \"_Caesarae_ Philippi\" to \"_Caesarea_ Philippi\"\n 88: \"bow _or_ stubborn\" to \"bow _our_ stubborn\"\n 99: \"dicattes\" to \"dictates\"\n 107: \"ever\" to \"even\" in quotation from 1 Peter ii. 21\n 116: added opening quote before \"Any man who\"\n 146: \"inadeqate\" to \"inadequate\"\n 170: \"It may be that he he\". Duplicate word deleted\n 173: \"_Whose_ righteousness clothes\" to \"_whose_\"\n 210: added open quote before sea of glass (by reference to\n Rev 15:2)\n 219: \"slave has no _resource_\" -> \"_recourse_\"\n 219: added opening quote before \"Take that man's child\"\n 242: added closing quote after \"like Lebanon.\"\n 260: added closing quote after \"all sin.\"\n 297: added closing quote after \"My Father;\"\n 308: added closing quote after \"at His coming\"\n 313: corrected 1 John iv. 9 to 1 John i. 9 (the verse being\n quoted)","title":"Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":240661}