{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_44053/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_44053","id":"gutenberg_44053","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44053","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Sermons"],"text":"\"_WORK TOO FAIR TO DIE._\"\n\n                     SERMONS\n\n            SELECTED FROM THE PAPERS\n                OF THE LATE REV.\n               CLEMENT BAILHACHE.\n\n\n                  EDITED BY THE\n               REV. J. P. BARNETT.\n\n\n  THE HOLY CAUTIONS THAT HE GAVE,\n    THE PRAYERS HE BREATHED, THE TEARS HE WEPT,\n  YET LINGER HERE, THOUGH IN THE GRAVE,\n    THROUGH MANY A YEAR THE SAINT HAS SLEPT.\n\n\n                     London:\n       ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW.\n                   MDCCCLXXX.\n\n\n\n\n  [Illustration: {Portrait of Clement Bailhache}\n    Photographed by S. S. Priestley, Huddersfield.]\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n  Introduction by the Editor                             vii\n\n  SERMON                                                PAGE\n      I. Salvation.--_Titus_ i. 11-14                      1\n\n     II. Propitiation.--_1 John_ ii. 2                    13\n\n    III. Faith in the Saviour.--_Acts_ xvi. 31            29\n\n     IV. Sincerity of Heart Necessary to the\n           Understanding of the Gospel.--_John_\n           vii. 17                                        41\n\n      V. The Humble Taught the Lord's Way.--_Psalm_\n           xxv. 9                                         50\n\n     VI. The Gratitude of the Pardoned.--_Luke_ vii. 47   66\n\n    VII. Consecration.--_Romans_ xii. 1, 2                81\n\n   VIII. Christianity in our Daily Life.--_Colossians_\n           iii. 17                                       104\n\n     IX. Unconscious Influence.--_Matthew_ xii.\n           36, 37                                        117\n\n      X. Secular Anxiety.--_Matthew_ vi. 25, 31          133\n\n     XI. Contentment.--_Philippians_ iv. 11-14           151\n\n    XII. Joy.--_Philippians_ iv. 4                       164\n\n   XIII. Sickness.--_John_ xi. 4                         173\n\n    XIV. Jesus Only.--_Matthew_ xvii. 8                  181\n\n     XV. Prayer.--_Matthew_ vii. 7, 8                    189\n\n    XVI. Assurance.--_2 Timothy_ i. 12                   206\n\n   XVII. Immortality.--_Psalm_ viii. 4                   222\n\n  XVIII. Heaven.--_Revelation_ vii. 15                   235\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR.\n\n\nThe preparation of this volume for the press, whilst it has\nnecessarily entailed considerable labour, has happily been attended\nwith little difficulty. None of these sermons were prepared for the\npulpit with any idea of publication, and only a few of them, which\nneed not be specified, should be taken as finished compositions. Their\nauthor, however, never allowed himself to think superficially or to\nwrite carelessly. His MSS. are easily read, and are in such a state as\nto leave almost nothing to be done in the way of revision.\n\nMany other sermons equal to these in power and interest might have\nbeen included, if space had served. I ought, perhaps, to say that the\nselection has been determined by a wish to place before the reader, in\nthe order of a series, Mr. Bailhache's thoughts on Christian Doctrine,\nFaith, Duty, Privilege, Experience, and Hope. I trust that the\ncollection, as it stands, will give as comprehensive an idea, as any\nposthumous publication _could_ give, of the character and style of a\nministry to which, under God, many souls--some in heaven, and some\nstill on earth--owe their truest spiritual light and their best\nspiritual strength.\n\nIt must have been a privilege of no ordinary value to listen Sabbath\nafter Sabbath to preaching such as this. No one could read, as I have\nhad to read, the whole mass of sermons entrusted to me, without\nperceiving that he who wrote and spoke them was \"a workman that needed\nnot to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.\" He was\npenetrated to the very centre of his being with a sense of the\ngrandeur of the Bible as a Divine Revelation, and of the glory of the\nGospel as a Divine remedy for the sin and sorrow of the world. He had\nhis own way of developing religious truth, and of applying it to the\nmind, the conscience, and the heart. He preserved his individuality of\nthought and of method in every part of every discourse. But he was no\ntheological speculatist. With all needful fearlessness in his thinking\nand reading, his constant endeavour was to ascertain \"the mind of the\nSpirit,\" and to present _that_, in its enlightening and sanctifying\npower, to his hearers in all their manifold spiritual conditions. He\nwas familiar with the forms of scepticism prevalent in our time, and\nwith the reasonings which give to them more or less of plausibility.\n\"The riddle of the world\" had its saddening aspects for him, as it has\nfor all earnest souls. But the anxieties which spring from such\nsources found in his mind an all-sufficient solace in the beautiful\nadaptations and the splendid triumphs of the truth as it is in Jesus.\nHe could see clearly enough that, by the Gospel, God was filling the\nworld's darkness with light, and turning its curse into a blessing.\nScience might advance, and in its advance might seem to set itself\nagainst Biblical facts, and against the principles founded upon them;\nbut he was all along calmly and intelligently assured that Science\nrightly so called, and Revelation rightly interpreted, so far from\nmeeting in antagonism, must meet in cordial and comely agreement, and\ntake their place side by side for the higher instruction of mankind.\nHe did not preach on these matters controversially, but contented\nhimself with the quiet announcement, on all appropriate occasions, of\nthe results of his own studies; and those results were always on the\nside of an implicit faith in Evangelical Christianity. One of the\nmost marked characteristics of his ministry was the uninterrupted and\nprofound reverence he paid to what he believed, on honest and mature\ninvestigation, to be the Divine authority of Scripture teaching. He\nknew, of course, that a conscientious and enlightened criticism has\nits work to do upon the Book; but his comprehensive and careful\nreading only strengthened his conviction that such criticism, so far\nfrom invalidating its authority, must render the nature of that\nauthority increasingly transparent, and its basis increasingly firm.\nThus he could draw forth from the Book the teaching contained in it,\nand could present it to the reverent faith of his congregation,\nwithout misgiving. His ministry was eminently evangelical, in the\nbroadest and best sense of the word. It was this all-pervading quality\nwhich gave to it its special beauty and impressiveness. He wanted to\nbe wise, and to make his people wise, _up_ to what is written; above\nthat he did not attempt to soar.\n\nMr. Bailhache was an able Biblical Expositor. I find amongst the\npapers before me, expositions of the Decalogue, the First Psalm, the\nLord's Prayer, the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, the\nMessages to the Seven Churches, and the Epistles to the Galatians and\nthe Philippians. These comprise eighty discourses, and many of them\nare so good that they ought not to remain in seclusion. Possibly some\nchannel of publicity may yet be found for them.\n\nThe estimate in which Mr. Bailhache was held as a Christian teacher by\nthose best fitted to judge, is fitly expressed in the following\nextract from the Address which was presented to him by the\nCongregation at Islington, on his retirement from the pastorate there\nin the autumn of 1870:--\"During a period of six years and a half, you\nhave ministered to us in holy things, and, as the servant of the Lord\nJesus, you have sought our highest spiritual good. In all your\nministerial work in our midst, you have so impressed us with the\nconviction of your entire devotedness to our interests, and to the\nexaltation and glory of Christ, that our minds have been the more\neasily constrained to give heed to your instructions, and we have the\nmore deeply felt the force of your influence and your example. The\nthought has often occurred to us (and it has been often expressed),\nthat if we were not becoming better Christians--more conformed to the\nimage of Christ--our shame was the greater, considering how\nconstantly you have been the faithful and able exponent of the mind of\nthe Spirit, and with what freshness, variety, and power, you have been\nenabled to set before us things new and old out of the treasury of the\nLord's word. Nor have you ever permitted us to feel that you occupied\na region remote from ourselves, or that the isolation of the study and\nof your official character, made you self-absorbed or unsympathetic.\nThe very contrary of this has been our happy experience. With an\nalmost surprising power of appropriation, you have made our doubts and\ndifficulties, our hopes and fears, our joys and sorrows, all your own,\nand, with a whole-hearted sympathy that has entered into all the\nexperiences of the Christian life, you have, in the pulpit and in the\nclass, and in the more private opportunities of the family and of\nfriendship, been made eminently useful in the communication of help\nand strength. To not a few your ministrations have been made the\nsavour of life unto life, who will be your crown and rejoicing one\nday, since through your word they have been reconciled to God by Jesus\nChrist. We magnify the grace of God in you, and none the less when we\ndeclare that your life and labours in our midst have placed us under\nlasting obligations of gratitude and love.\"\n\nI regret that I have not space for a few pages of pithy, condensed\njottings extracted from the Author's \"Diary,\" and written by him\nduring hours of private devotion. They would testify, in common with\nevery other part of the volume, to the atmosphere of piety in which\nour beloved friend habitually lived. In social life, he was playful\nand jocose; and many who have thought that they knew him well, knew\nhim almost exclusively as he was in such moods as these. He was\nhowever emphatically a man who \"walked with God.\" Many others knew him\nonly in connection with his official work, and gave to him their\nunstinted admiration for his plodding, almost pertinacious industry.\nHe had \"a mind to work,\" but he sanctified and ennobled all his work\nby prayer. I have often had, as, no doubt, many more have had, the\nprivilege of his society in the lone hours of the night, when he could\ntalk with the unreserved frankness of a confiding friend; and I never\nleft him after such hallowed times as these without feeling that I had\nbeen drawn nearer to him, and through him, nearer to the Saviour, by\nthe modest, holy, Christian beauty of his spirit.\n\nAlas, that so comely and benignant a life should have closed so\nearly! He died at forty-eight years of age. We have no right, nor have\nwe any disposition, to repine; but we cannot refrain from mourning.\n\nHe began life well, sacrificing fair interests as a member of the\nlegal profession in Jersey, with the Island Bar in view, and was soon\npreparing for the Christian ministry at Stepney College. His preaching\nwas attractive, and at the termination of his academic course, he\nbecame the pastor of the influential church at South Parade Chapel,\nLeeds. Four years later, he removed to Watford, and from thence, in\n1864, to Cross Street, Islington, where his ministry may be said to\nhave approached, if it did not actually reach, its maturity. In 1870\nhe relinquished the pastorate for Secretarial work at the Baptist\nMission House, into which he threw all the steady, quenchless\nenthusiasm of his nature, and upon which the blessing of God\nconspicuously rested. Discharging his duties with a fidelity and a\nskill which were as effective as they were modest, he was equally\nbeloved by the Missionaries abroad, and by his colleagues and the\nconstituencies at home; and he had the satisfaction of knowing that,\nnotwithstanding many difficulties, he was contributing in various\nways to the advancement of the great enterprize. The toil and anxiety\nentailed upon him were onerous in the extreme, and after a time it\nbecame obvious to his friends that his multifarious exertions were\nundermining his strength. He went to the Baptist Union meetings in\nLeeds in the October of 1878, when he ought to have been taking\nrepose; and, though seriously ill, he there preached what proved to be\nhis last Sermon, in the chapel of his first pastorate--the Sermon on\n\"Immortality\" in this volume--and read his last paper, on \"Our\nMissionary Principles and Motives.\" It is remarkable that he should\nthus have finished his public course in the town of his first\nministerial settlement, and that he should have there spoken his last\npublic words on behalf of that great department of Christian work\nwhich had engaged his best thoughts and his warmest sympathies for\nmany years, and to his holy zeal for which it may be truly said that\nhe sacrificed his life. At those Leeds meetings, he was \"already\nwithin the shadow of death,\" and returned home to sink gradually but\nsurely beneath the distressing malady which took him to heaven on the\n13th of the following December.\n\nTo his widowed companion and helpmeet, whose faithful affection he\nprized as his most precious earthly treasure--to his children and\nkindred, who so fondly loved him, and so deeply revere his memory--to\nthe churches which he so wisely and so zealously served in the work of\nthe Gospel--to the Missionary Society in the sacred interests of which\nhe lived and died--and to the numberless personal friends to whom he was\nso dear, and who will ever thank God that they were permitted to enjoy\nhis genial confidence and sympathy--these productions of his brain and\nheart are dedicated, with the grateful assurance that, through them,\nhe, being dead, will yet continue to speak, and, speaking thus, will\nstill be the helper of many in \"the way everlasting.\"\n\n                                              J. P. BARNETT.\n    Oxford, _August, 1880_.\n\n\n\n\nI.\n\n_SALVATION._\n\n\"The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,\nteaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should\nlive soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking\nfor that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and\nour Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might\nredeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar\npeople, zealous of good works.\"--Titus ii. 11-14.\n\n\nBriefly stated, the consequences of the Fall were these--that man\nbecame unholy in point of character, and guilty in point of law. The\nfirst covenant God made with man was a covenant of law, and the two\n\"trees\" shadowed forth, the one the condition, the other the benefit,\nof such a covenant. \"The tree of the knowledge of good and evil\"\npoints to obedience as the condition; and \"the tree of life\" points to\nlife, in its fullest and most spiritual sense, as the benefit. Man\ndisobeyed. He failed to fulfil the condition, and thus he lost the\nblessing. Henceforth, if there is to be any blessing for him, it must\ncome on some other ground, and from some higher source. Having\nforfeited all hope from law, his only possible hope must come, if it\ncome at all, from mercy.\n\nWe thus perceive that when the great salvation wrought by Christ is\nannounced to us, we have to do at the outset with what on God's part\nis\n\n1. An act of pure sovereignty. Condemnation was the righteous award of\na just law to a creature who had broken it, and who could not plead\nany admissible excuse for his sin. The law might, therefore, have been\nallowed to take its course, thus receiving honour before the whole\nintelligent universe. Only one Will in the universe was free to\ninterfere; the will of the Lawgiver and Creator Himself. Interference\non His part, however, could not be under the pressure of legal\nobligation, but must be in the exercise of a sovereign right. Hence,\nthe key-note of the gospel is \"the _Grace_ of God.\"\n\n2. An act of boundless love. It is obvious that salvation cannot have\nproceeded from any other motive in the Divine Mind. \"God _so loved_\nthe world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever\nbelieveth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.\" The\nBible has no other solution of the origin of salvation to offer than\nthis.\n\nNow, that which proceeds from sovereignty and love on the part of God\nmust absolutely preclude all claim or thought of merit on the part of\nman. Merit leaves no room, no occasion for grace. Grace begins where\nmerit ends, if grace be given at all.--What, then, _is_ the \"great\nsalvation\"?\n\nMan, being unholy and guilty, needed a salvation which would include\nhis justification or his forgiveness, and one which would culminate in\nhis sanctification by the restoration to him of his lost spiritual\npower. In other words, he needed a deliverance from the curse of sin,\nand also from sin itself.\n\nThis deliverance, man cannot find within his own nature. He cannot\nsave himself from the curse of sin; for inasmuch as the law\nrighteously demanded a perfect and constant obedience, he could never\nblot out the guilt of former sins by acts of obedience at a later\nperiod of life. Moreover, such later acts of a perfect obedience are\nimpossible to him, for holiness does not proceed from a sinful nature.\n\"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?\" Men do not \"gather\ngrapes from thorns, or figs from thistles.\" Man is as depraved and as\nweak as he is guilty. Self-salvation is impossible; salvation is of\nthe Lord alone. The gospel is the announcement of the fact that God\nsaves, and of the method in which the great work of salvation is done\nby Him.\n\nI. The Word of God, both in the Old and in the New Testament,\nproclaims a dispensation of Divine mercy. So unexpected and so\ncheering is this proclamation that it has given the gospel the name it\nbears. It is emphatically \"good news\"--good news from God to man. This\ngood news announces that the first deliverance which man requires is\nprovided for. God remits the penalty of sin. But how?\n\nHe does this in such a way that, so far from weakening law, or\ninvalidating the condemnation of sin, He shows more clearly than ever,\nhow holy is the law, and how just the condemnation. Hence, though this\nforgiveness is an act of pure mercy, it is mercy exercised in a\nrighteous way through the wonderful sacrifice of Christ. This was the\nmeaning of the promise that accompanied the curse; and so clear was it\nthat it was apprehended in the first sacrifices men ever offered. The\nJewish sacrifices shadowed it forth. The Scriptures teach this method\nof Divine forgiveness in the plainest terms. I quote two or three\npassages in proof: Rom. iii. 23-26; John i. 29; 1 John ii. 1, 2; 1\nPeter ii. 24; Isaiah liii. 4-6.\n\nThis is Scripture, and we must not dare to trifle with it. These\ndeclarations can have but one meaning. Christ has suffered in our\nstead the penalty we had all deserved, that we might receive, for His\nsake, that eternal life and blessedness which _He only had deserved_.\nOn this point all the types and teachings of both Testaments speak\nwith one voice.\n\nThere are, no doubt, in this substitution of the innocent for the\nguilty, some difficulties for human reason. But _we_ have to do with\nthe Bible. It meets conscience; and reason must bend in submission\nbefore a grace the deeper meaning of which it does not see. Observe,\nhowever, that according to the Scripture representation, the\nsubstitution was divinely appointed, and the Substitute Himself was a\nwilling victim. We accept the doctrine, (1) Partly in virtue of human\nneed. Conscience points to the necessity of a satisfaction. (2) Partly\nin virtue of the peace and the joy to which faith in the doctrine\ngives rise.--\"Scripture always lays stress upon the Saviour's\nhumiliation and bitter sufferings. We are not said to be redeemed by\nHis incarnation, by His birth, by His miracles, by His doctrine, not\neven by His agony in the garden, though all these were necessary to\nthe ransom; but by His blood.\" On this ground of the Atonement, the\nfirst part of salvation--forgiveness--is secured.\n\nII. Man needs also to be redeemed from sin. This need, like the\nformer, he is unable to meet of himself, but God meets it on his\nbehalf. How? By putting into the heart a fertile germ of holiness.\n\nFreedom from condemnation and regeneration are indissolubly connected\ntogether in God's idea of salvation, and He achieves both by the work\nof Christ His Son. This redemption from the love, and consequently\nfrom the power of sin, is accomplished by Him on a principle which is\ndivinely simple and efficacious; a principle which lies at the root of\nthe theory of evangelical sanctification. This principle is the love\nwhich He excites _in_ us by the manifestation of His own love _to_ us.\nThus the Apostle John writes: \"Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not;\nwhosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him\" (1 John iii.\n6). \"He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love\" (1 John iv.\n8). To love God, and, under the constraining influence of love, to\nserve Him, we have need to know and to realise how great is the love\nof God to us.\n\nNow this Divine love has been revealed to the world through the medium\nof that same Saviour, who by His sacrificial death has opened up the\nway for our pardon and our restoration to the Divine favour. The Son\nof God came into the world to reveal the heart of the Father. What\ngreater gift could God have bestowed than that of His Divine Son? What\ngreater proof of love could He have exhibited than that which this\ngreatest of all possible gifts presents? \"God _so_ loved.\" And Christ\nhas perfectly performed His mission. His whole ministry was a\ndeclaration of the Divine love. Of that love His death on the cross\nwas the sublimest expression. We learn therefrom not only that God\nmanifests to us His mercy, _but also at what cost_. Our debt must be\npaid; and as we are bankrupt, He pays it on our behalf. And who is our\nSubstitute? Not a man, not an angel, not any creature; but the Divine\nSon, \"by whom God made the worlds and upholds them by the word of His\npower,\" \"who is the brightness of the Father's glory and the express\nimage of His person\"--it was _He_ who \"by Himself purged our sins.\"\nSuch is the love of God. We cannot fathom it, for it is Divine; but\nin proportion as we are enabled to \"know\" it, we say \"We love Him\nbecause He first loved us;\" \"We are bought with a price: we are not\nour own.\" And we say our devout \"Amen!\" when the chiefest Apostle of\nmercy says to us: \"I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies\nof God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,\nacceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.\"\n\nThis Divine love, however, wonderful as it is, is offered to\nunsusceptible hearts. Hence the necessity--hence also the gift--of the\nHoly Spirit, through whom God strives with man. The Holy Spirit is the\ngift of Christ; and He convinces the world of sin, of righteousness,\nand of judgment. He takes of the things of Christ, and shows them unto\nus.\n\nSee, then, the completeness of the Divine plan of salvation. To\nundeserving hearts God offers His love in Christ; to unsusceptible\nhearts He explains and commends it by His Spirit.\n\nIII. The only remaining question is as to our own part in the great plan\nof mercy. Because we are intelligent and moral creatures, God does not\nsave us without our own concurrence. To every one who desires to\nreceive this twofold gift--the gift of pardon and of sanctification--a\ncertain disposition is necessary. That disposition is in the Scriptures\ncalled \"faith.\" Faith is the divinely-appointed condition of salvation.\nThe terms are simple, but they are indispensable. Scripture, in every\npart, recognises and imposes them. From the earliest times they have\nbeen complied with, as in the sacrifices of Abel, Noah, and Abraham. It\nwas this same principle of faith that gave validity to the worship under\nthe Mosaic dispensation. So the Lord Jesus Christ, who healed men's\nphysical diseases as types of the diseases of the soul, always demanded\nfaith as the condition of His working. As it was with Christ, so it was\nwith His apostles. Thus Paul said to the Philippian jailer, \"Believe on\nthe Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.\" All this shows to us\nthat whilst, on the one hand, we are saved by grace; on the other, we\nhave no participation in the grace which saves, except by the exercise\nof our own faith in the Saviour.\n\nWhat is this faith? It may be considered in its principle, and in its\napplication.\n\nIn its principle, it is a general conviction that the Bible is the\nWord of God, and that what He says therein should receive our assent;\nor, in other words, should be accepted by us as _true_. In its\napplication, it is the belief of God's Word as it respects\n_ourselves_. It is this which Paul commends to the Philippian jailer.\nWhen a man, under the burden of his sin, says, \"I am lost; I cannot\nsave myself; save me, Lord!\" we have an illustration of this applied\nfaith--a sense of personal misery, a sense of personal helplessness, a\nsense of a Saviour willing to save him personally, and a direct appeal\nto that Saviour for salvation. From the moment of such a prayer, there\nis not a single promise of Scripture that such a man may not make his\nown. A promised pardon, a promised Spirit, a promised heaven--all are\nhis! The essence of the faith is in the conviction which expresses\nitself thus: \"Jesus Christ is not only able and willing to be the\nSaviour of all men, but He is my Saviour.\" Such a faith brings Christ\nand the soul together in precisely those relations in which He is the\nSaviour, and in which the soul is saved.\n\nBut how is this faith obtained? Must not God give it? Yes. So Paul,\nwriting to the Philippians, tells them it was \"given\" to them \"to\nbelieve in Christ.\" Must we, then, listlessly wait until it comes to\nus? No. Paul again says to these same Philippians, \"Work out your own\nsalvation with fear and trembling.\" The reconciliation of these two\ntruths into one theory may be difficult, but in practice it is easy\nenough. _We recognise them both when we ask for faith._ For to ask is\nto recognise our need of that for which we ask; it is also to\nrecognise the fact that we do not possess it of ourselves; and it is\nalso to seek and to act. Ask, then, for faith, and God will say: \"Wilt\nthou be made whole?\" Will you--not as a vague desire, but as the most\nearnest determination of your heart and will? Ask for faith; God will\ngrant it. Ask largely; you cannot ask too much. And even if you sigh\nover the weakness of desire, press the old and never-failing prayer:\n\"Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief.\"\n\nFaith saves, and grace saves. This is scarcely a contradiction in\nterms, and certainly it is no contradiction in principle. Faith is the\ninstrument; grace is the primary and efficacious power. Faith is the\nchannel; grace is the stream. Faith touches the hem of the Saviour's\ngarment; grace is the virtue that passes forth from Him in response to\nthe touch. Christ reaches down from heaven; faith reaches up from\nearth; each hand grasps the other--the one in weakness, the other in\npower--and salvation is in the grasp. Take--oh, take that pierced\nhand! Amen.\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\n_PROPITIATION._\n\n\"He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also\nfor the sins of the whole world.\"--1 John ii. 2.\n\n\nIt is easier to attack than to defend. An objection may be stated in a\nsingle sentence which shall require many pages for an adequate reply.\nThose who reject Christianity generally adopt this method, but I know\nnot why they should be allowed to monopolise it. Why should not\nbelievers, instead of simply proving that there is a God, and that the\nBible is His Word, insist upon positive proof from their opponents\nthat there is no God, and that the Bible is nothing more than a human\nbook? Why should we not impose upon them the more difficult task of\ndefending their position, by attacking it with all earnestness at\nevery point? For Christian defence, we have need to be both really and\nconsciously very strong in the truth. On the other hand, to be an\nunbeliever, a man can do without either knowledge or goodness. He has\nonly to ply you with his eternal \"_Why?_\" _Why_, because the universe\nexists, must it have ever been _created_? _Why_ may it not have always\nexisted? _Why_ are we bound to accept the teaching of the Bible? _Why_\nwas it necessary that Christ should suffer to expiate our sins? _Why_\ndid Christ come so late in the history of the world? _Why_ are there\nno miracles now? _Why? Why? Why?_--\n\nAs Christians, however, we take the position open to us, whether of\nattack or defence. We do so because the salvation of our adversaries\nis dear to us, and because we are so sure that the course they adopt\ninjures, not ourselves, but them. We bring to them a priceless\ntreasure--salvation through, and from, the crucified Christ. If they\nhinder us, the loss is theirs.\n\nOn the present occasion we deal with one of the questions often\npropounded: \"Why was it necessary that Christ should die for our sins,\nin order that we may be saved?\" or, \"How can the sufferings of the\ninnocent atone for the sins of the guilty?\"\n\nTo make our answer more clear, we begin by saying: \"We do not know.\"\nWhy should we insist--why should any one insist--upon understanding\nthe \"_why_\" of this arrangement? Why should not every one be content\nto know the _fact_? If the reason of the fact were obvious, we should,\nof course, gladly accept it; but if it be hidden from us, whilst the\nfact itself is disclosed, why should we complain? We cannot fully\nunderstand the Divine purposes. We can only guess. Even angels study,\nand wonder, and adore, but do not fully know. Let it be observed that\nthe real question here is not exactly as unbelievers put it. Thus: I\ndo not know how the rays of the sun enlighten my eyes, nor how my\nenlightened eyes transmit ideas to my mind. Does it follow that the\nsun does not enlighten, or that my mind does not receive impressions\nthrough what I see? The imperative question is, not, \"How is the thing\ndone?\" but, \"_Is_ it done?\"--not as to the _reason_ of the fact, but\nthe _reality_ of it. So in the matter before us. It is surely enough\nfor us to show that redemption through the sacrifice of Christ, like\nthe sun, comes from God, and that it gives light, life, and fruit.\nThis being done, nothing more can be reasonably asked.\n\nTo know whether this doctrine of redemption is God's truth, it is\nsufficient to know whether the Bible is God's Word. And here we ask,\nWhat will you do with ancient prophecies and their fulfilment?--with\nconfirmations of Bible history which are continually accumulating?--with\nthe conspicuous excellence of the moral teaching and influence which the\nBible supplies?--with the sublimity of Christ's character?--with the\nmiracles He wrought?--with the marvellous effects of Christianity upon\nthe world, notwithstanding the strongest inducements, in human\nprejudice, to its rejection? Settle such questions as these according to\nthe admitted laws of evidence, and then there will be no reason to\ncontend as to the \"why\" and the \"how\" of redemption.\n\nSuch, however, is not the method which the unbeliever pursues. He\nturns away from the Record as a source of instruction. It is hard to\nconvince a man who begins by closing his ears with his own pride. To\nwhatever study a man addresses himself, he will never advance in it in\n_spite_ of himself. His progress will be proportioned, among other\nthings, to the amount of honest effort he makes to learn. That is, he\nmust feel the fact and the disadvantage of his own ignorance. Who\ncould study mathematics by beginning at the outset to dispute its\naxioms? Just so with Christian truth. Put aside prejudice and pride.\nDo not take it for granted that you have light enough in your mind, at\nstarting, to pronounce upon the truth or the falsity, the\nreasonableness or the unreasonableness, of the doctrine of salvation\nthrough the cross of Christ. Listen attentively. Look for more light,\nand receive it when it comes. We do not say: \"Believe before you have\nread;\" but we do say: \"Don't contradict before you have read.\"\n\nI have already said that we are not obliged to _explain_ the\nphilosophy of the redemption which is taught in the Scriptures. Let me\nnow say that that redemption is itself the best solution of the great\ndifficulty which is felt by the believer and the unbeliever alike. It\nis this: Conscience tells us that God is just; the heart tells us that\nHe is good;--how then can a God whose justice and goodness are equal,\n_i.e._, both of them infinite, escape from the position in which\nsinners have placed Him? I put the difficulty in this bold form in\norder that it may be the more distinctly apprehended. We have sinned,\nand a just God must punish. We sigh after happiness, and a good God--a\nGod who is infinitely kind--may be expected to bestow happiness upon\nus. But how can God deal with us in both these ways at one and the\nsame time?\n\nWe know instinctively, of course, that there is no real dilemma to God\nHimself; but those who reject the atonement of Christ are bound to\ndeal with what presents itself as an inevitable dilemma to _them_.\n\nThe unbeliever says: \"God is too good to punish.\" What then becomes of\nHis justice, since conscience testifies that we are sinners, that sin\ndeserves punishment, that vice and virtue are not one, that God cannot\ndeal in the same way with both without encouraging the vice which\nneeds to be suppressed, and discouraging the virtue which needs to be\nupheld? Take away the fear of punishment under the pretext that God is\ngood, and you deprive conscience of its meaning and its power.\n\nShall it be said, then, that God will punish every transgressor? Have\nthe numberless generations which have been upon the earth gone to an\ninevitable doom? This conclusion is as hard to admit as the other. The\ninstincts of the heart are against it.\n\nNo; men do not accept either conclusion to the exclusion of the other.\nThey say God will adopt a mean between His justice and His mercy so\nas to bring them into harmony. But how? Here is the crucial\ndifficulty. Is it to be solved by the principle of mutual concession?\n\nLet me remind you, again, that the difficulty is not created by God,\nbut by man. In Him, justice and mercy are really one: it is only to us\nthat they are seen to be two; and it is our sin which disturbs and\nconfuses our conception of their union with each other. He might\nindeed annihilate us, and so leave us no opportunity to complain. But\nour whole moral and emotional nature repels with horror the thought of\nsuch a termination to our sin, as being unworthy of the God who has to\ngovern us. No! when we reflect seriously upon the question, we cannot\nresist the feeling that God must have some plan of rescuing us from\nthe doom we merit which shall give equal expression to His justice and\nHis mercy.\n\nMen in general, alas! hold justice cheaply, and, lowering the Divine\nstandard of human character, they easily persuade themselves that they\nmay enter heaven through the breach they have made in the Divine\nattributes. They think that God is indulgent, and will forgive,\nforgetting that indulgence is weakness. God _will_ forgive, but His\nforgiveness must stand on safe ground. It cannot apply indiscriminately\nto all men. Men think they have said all when they have said, \"God will\nforgive.\" Such a forgiveness would aim a blow at His justice. No matter;\nHe will forgive! Such a forgiveness is without motive--an effect without\na cause. No matter; He will forgive! Such a forgiveness has its root in\nsentiment, not in reason. It matters not; He will forgive! Such a\nforgiveness imposes no obligation on the forgiver, and encourages sin.\nNever mind; He will forgive!\n\nSurely this is the spiritual blindness which comes from the perversion\nof the conscience and the heart.\n\nSome say, \"God forgives; but the condition is that we turn away from\nsin and live a life of holiness.\" There are many answers to this; but\nI will only ask those who thus speak, \"Are you now living in such a\nway as to have in your present holiness, and on the ground of it, the\nassurance of your pardon?\" That is a question which conscience may be\nsafely left to answer.\n\nAt this point Christianity comes professing to reveal to us the Divine\nplan of salvation. It tells us that God forgives for the sake of Jesus\nChrist, who is Himself, in His sacrifice, the gift of the Father's\nlove. A debt has been contracted; the insolvent debtor presents in\npayment the money which a friend has freely contributed for the\npurpose; the creditor is satisfied. In this way goodness and justice\nare reconciled. It is Divine love which meets the claim of the Divine\nRighteousness. The redeemed soul, redeemed by the blood of Christ, is\nled to obedience by a love which responds to the love which has\nredeemed him. This last result none can dispute. Does it spring from\nerror? No; it is too pure, too blessed for that. The redemption that\nproduces it is a true principle founded in the nature of God--sublime\nin its working--like sap, inexplicable, but justified by the beauty of\nits foliage and the goodliness of its fruits.\n\nLet us look a little more closely into this principle of Propitiation.\nSuppose we were reading the gospel for the first time, free from\nprejudice, and from the deadening influence of habit; we should be\nstruck with the prominence everywhere given in it to the death of\nChrist. Ask a Christian child, or an aged saint, \"What did Christ come\non earth to do?\" The answer from each will be, \"He came to die for\nus.\" The child finds his answer on the very surface of Scripture; the\naged man finds it in that same Scripture when he has studied it to its\nvery depths. The one quickly learns that this death of Christ was\noften predicted by Christ Himself, that it holds the most prominent\nplace in each of the four Gospels, that it is constantly referred to\nin the Epistles, that it is the text of all the preaching of the\napostles, and that it is symbolised in both the sacraments, for \"we\nare buried by baptism into His death,\" and whenever in the Supper we\npartake of the bread and wine, we \"show forth His death till He come.\"\nThe mature Christian, in his turn, learns to look upon the death of\nChrist as the centre and the soul of all the great acts of the great\nwork of our redemption, which seem, whether they preceded or followed,\nto have been done in direct view of it, and in indissoluble connection\nwith it. The incarnation was designed to open up the way for it.\n\"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He\nalso Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He\nmight destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.\"\nThe resurrection was intended to attest its meaning and its value. For\nChrist was \"delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our\njustification.\" The object of the ascension was to secure the\nprecious fruits of it. \"For He entered in once into the holy place,\nhaving obtained eternal redemption for us.\"\n\nThe remarkable thing in all this is that in the gospel, the aim of\nwhich is to reveal eternal life, the Prince of Life is always offered\nto us as dying upon the cross. _Death in order to life!_ What can be\nthe meaning and the bearing of a death which God has placed in so\nexalted a position? We can only get our answer from Scripture; and we\ncan only get it from Scripture as we read in the simple,\nunsophisticated humility of mind and heart of which Christ Himself and\nHis apostles give us the example.\n\n\"_Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins._\" We have sinned\nagainst God, and our sins have been so many _offences_ to Him;\noffences which must be dealt with. Christ averts the penalty from us\nby taking it to Himself. The Holy One consents to suffer for the sake\nof the guilty. The apostle who styles Christ as the \"Propitiation\" has\nsaid, in a sentence immediately preceding: \"The blood of Jesus Christ\nHis Son cleanseth us from all sin.\" Almost numberless passages teach\nthe same doctrine. If we were engaged in an exercise of Biblical\ncriticism, we should have to discuss each of these passages minutely\nin its turn. But the general idea we gather from them is definite and\nclear. A ransom paid, our sins borne, the wrath of God appeased, an\noffered sacrifice--all these contain one idea: Jesus Christ freeing us\nfrom the desert of our sin by Himself satisfying Divine Justice on our\nbehalf.\n\nHence the two great facts of our religious history. We were under the\ncondemnation of a holy law. He who was \"the Life,\" _for our sake_\nendured death that we who deserved death might have life _for His\nsake_. And God is \"faithful and just to forgive us our sins.\"\n\nTo a simple-hearted Christian all this is clear. Men may be\nscandalised at the exchange (as they term it) between justice and sin,\nbetween life and death; but Paul knows how to state the matter: \"God\nhath made Him (Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we\nmight be made the righteousness of God in Him.\" Men may be indignant\n(as they often profess to be) at the thought of the innocent suffering\nfor the guilty; but Peter does not hesitate to say: \"Christ hath once\nsuffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to\nGod.\"\n\nWhat is it, moreover, that _connects_ the teaching of the Old\nTestament with that of the New? The doctrine of sacrifice, as thus\nexplained, is not simply _attested_ by Scripture: it is the _soul_ of\nit; its bond of unity. The death of Christ is _the_ sacrifice \"once\noffered in the end of the world,\" in which all the sacrifices of the\nOld Testament find their common destination; to which they correspond,\nas the figure to the reality. The cross is the end, the key, the\nmeaning, the value of all of them. Without this we cannot understand\nthem. They were types: the cross is the antitype. What they\n_represented_, the cross _achieved_. The cross procured the pardon\nwhich they proclaimed. And so the cross has always been the symbol of\nthe Christian Church. The Jews understood it, and were scandalised;\nthe Greeks understood it, and sneered.\n\nAnd now what ends does this sacrifice of Propitiation serve? Mainly\ntwo, which are inclusive of all the rest.\n\nI. It is the fullest revelation of the Divine character. Leaving aside\nall questions of abstract and technical theology, we observe that it\nsets before us, in one great act, the righteousness and the mercy of\nGod. The cross proclaims the pardon for which infinite love solicits.\n_The heart of God yields to itself._ But how can this be? It is\nbecause the pardon solicited by love is obtained by a sacrifice which\nequally exhibits God's righteousness. If we seek the universe through\nfor the greatest proof we can have of the love of God to the sinner,\nwe shall find it in the cross; for we there see not only that God\nforgives, but also that He is _so resolved_ to forgive that, rather\nthan that the sinner shall be left to perish, the stroke of the\noffended law shall fall on the willing head and heart and life of \"His\nonly begotten and well-beloved Son.\" On the other hand, if we want to\nknow something of God's abhorrence of sin, we shall find it in the\ncross; for we there see that, so impossible is it for Him to allow it\nto go unpunished, that He secures for it a Divine expiation in the\nwilling sacrifice of His Divine Son. \"Mercy and truth are met\ntogether; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.\" Most\npersons can see in the cross a demonstration of Divine love; in the\nlight of Bible teaching, they may also see in it a demonstration of\nDivine justice more marked and telling than in a closed Eden, in the\nwaters of the Deluge, in the overthrow of the cities of the plain, in\nthe destruction of Jerusalem, or in the punishment of the wicked in\neternity.\n\nII. If men are to be saved at all, they must be saved _to holiness_;\nthey must be sanctified as well as forgiven. The result cannot be\notherwise for those who truly believe in the sacrifice of Christ as\nthus explained. Holiness and love, the two great elements of the\ncharacter of God; these are expressed in the cross, and they must be\nreproduced in the character of those for whom the cross does its\nappointed work. How can we believe, as the cross teaches us to\nbelieve, in God's hatred to sin, without feeling that we must hate it\nalso, and, hating it, must forsake it? And how can we believe, as the\ncross teaches us to believe, in the love which has obtained our\nsalvation, without giving our own love as a genuine, though feeble,\nreturn? Let a man, struggling with the sins which he condemns, but\nwhich he cannot shake off, learn that the Son of God came into the\nworld to die for him; and he will find in that revelation a strength\nfor conflict with sin which he never had before. Speak to him of the\nbeauty and dignity of the law, of the righteousness of God's claims,\nof the penalties of transgression; and, though his conscience may\nassent to all you say, his heart will not yield. Can he refuse when he\nsees Jesus on the cross, and knows what, for him, that spectacle\nmeans? The cross is an argument presented to his reason, his\nconscience, his will, his heart, his whole being; nay, it is more than\nan argument, it is an appeal; and the response must be: \"We love Him\nbecause He first loved us.\" \"The love of Christ constraineth us;\nbecause we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:\nand that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth\nlive unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them, and rose again.\"\n\nAnd now it only remains to be said that this Propitiation is needed by\nall, that it is sufficient for all, and that it is free to all. Let\nall receive it.\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\n_FAITH IN THE SAVIOUR._\n\n\"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.\"--Acts\nxvi. 31.\n\n\nA startling providential dispensation was one of the means by which\nthe spiritual nature of this jailer was roused. Only one, effectual so\nfar as it went, but not complete in itself. It was preparatory and\nauxiliary to the action of the Holy Spirit, the instrument by which\nthe Spirit did His special work of convincing the man of sin. Thus it\nis that outward events and circumstances are made to co-operate with\nGod in the conversion of a soul. The way in which the Spirit works is\na mystery, akin to that in which one human mind acts upon another. But\nthe _means_ of this spiritual action is no mystery. We use speech,\nexternal appliances of various kinds; the Divine Spirit does the same.\nIn the case of the jailer he employed the earthquake together with the\ncalm faith, the perfect serenity, of the apostles at a moment which\nwas to himself a moment of terror, and which would also have been a\nmoment of terror to them had they not been the Christians they were. A\ngreat joy; a great sorrow, commotion, loss, alarm, the apparent\nnearness of death; daily mercies, the \"means of grace,\" the Word of\nGod, the ministry of the gospel--through all these the Spirit works.\nThey are powerless in themselves; they can only become mighty as used\nby Him.\n\nIt is obvious at a glance that this man's spiritual nature _was_\nroused. Spiritual realities burst in upon his mind in all their awful\nmomentousness. His whole soul was suddenly concentrated in a sense of\nhis ruin. Hence the short, sharp question--the question which sprung\nfrom an inward agony--\"What must I do to be saved?\" That question must\nbe answered, if it can be--answered on the instant! There is a\ntremendous depth of meaning in it. It is as though a lightning flash\nhad in a moment illuminated the man's whole spiritual condition,\nbringing out every feature of it into startling distinctness. All the\nfears and the aspirations of his immortal being are here; his past\nlife with all its sin, his remorse, his dread of judgment, his terror\nin the presence of God--all are here; he feels himself to be a lost\nman. How can he be saved?\n\nIn his question there is no hint of self-righteousness or of\nself-confidence, or even of the remotest hope in himself. He does not\nask, like \"the young man in the gospel,\" \"What good thing must I do\nthat I may inherit eternal life?\" The question of the young man is\nleisurely; the question of the jailer is hurried, under the feeling\nthat there is not a moment to be lost. Helpless and hopeless, he wants\nbut one thing, and that is to be \"saved.\" Of course his \"What must I\ndo?\" indicates that he is willing and ready to comply with any\npossible terms; yet it is not a question of conscious strength--it is\nrather the question of despair.\n\nSuch a question shows that a great point--an essential point--had been\ngained. The gospel is a sovereign remedy designed and constructed to\nmeet a desperate case. Not only do they that are whole stand in no\nneed of a physician, but wherever there lingers an idea of spiritual\nstrength, or a dream, of self-righteousness, the condition necessary\nfor the reception of such a salvation as that which the gospel\nproclaims is entirely wanting. Christ is an exclusive Saviour, and\n\"looking to Him\" is an exclusive hope.\n\n\"What must I do to be saved?\" Clear, quick, unhesitating, comes the\nanswer of Paul: \"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be\nsaved.\" Both the question and the answer strike the point--the centre\nof the soul's supreme need, and the centre of the gospel message.\n\nThis answer of Paul's is not simply his own. It is the answer of God\nto every man who wants to know how he can be saved. It is the answer\nof the whole Bible. It is the pre-eminently, distinctively Christian\nanswer. All revelation has one great object--Jesus Christ, promised,\nannounced, expected, seen by faith beforehand; then Jesus Christ\nactually come, His life told, His mission developed, Himself presented\nto the world as the one and only Name whereby men can be\nsaved;--always Jesus Christ. Patriarchs and prophets, Moses and David,\nChrist Himself, His apostles and disciples after Him, the whole\nChurch--all unite to say to the awakened soul: \"Believe on the Lord\nJesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.\"\n\nBut this answer, though not Paul's alone, is nevertheless his in such\na sense that an immense weight belongs to it. What does Paul himself\nunderstand by it? We know something of his experience, and that will\ntell us the meaning of these words as spoken by him. He spake that\nwhich he knew, and testified that which he had seen. He felt that he\ncould offer to the spiritual need of every man that which had so fully\nmet his own.\n\nRead Paul's life. Read his epistles. You see at a glance what Christ\nwas to _him_--a Redeemer. And what to him was the very centre of\nChristian truth? \"Christ crucified.\" He had been so roused as to see\nclearly the relation between himself and God. The true sense of sin\nhad been awakened within him. No man had made more strenuous efforts\nto obtain justification by the works of the law than he had; and no\nman had more deeply realised his helplessness. How does he describe\nthe struggle? \"I had not known sin, but by the law.... When the\ncommandment came, sin revived, and I died.... Sin, taking occasion by\nthe commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.... That which I do I\nallow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do\nI.... I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) there dwelleth no good\nthing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which\nis good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil\nwhich I would not, that I do.... O wretched man that I am! who shall\ndeliver me from the body of this death?\"\n\n\"I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.\"\n\nWe all know how God arrested, overcame, and subdued him, by showing\nhim in that same \"Jesus Christ our Lord\" the mystery of the Divine\nlove. God taught him that he must no longer expect righteousness and\neternal life to come from his own works, to be wrought by his own\nstrength. Eternal life is the free gift of God. Look to the cross!\nListen to the Spirit! Learn in \"the folly of the cross\" to adore the\nwisdom and the power of God--a forgiveness that glorifies justice as\nwell as mercy; a forgiveness that kills sin as well as removes its\npenalty; a salvation that harmonises man with God as well as forgives\nhim; a salvation that implies a perfect holiness, the motive being\nlove, and the effectual power being that of the Holy Spirit. Deep as\nhis want had been, it was now completely met by the revelation of the\nSaviour. To that revelation his response was prompt, complete,\nirrevocable. He says that it was as though scales had fallen from his\neyes, this disclosure of the Divine plan of salvation to his mind. It\nwas full of light, full of mercy. The manifestation of the risen\nChrist was the instrumentality which enlightened him. He saw\nstraightway the nature and purpose of \"the cross,\" the certainty of\njustification through faith, the believer's completeness in Christ.\n\"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that\nis risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh\nintercession for us.\" \"There is now no condemnation to them which are\nin Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.\nFor the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free\nfrom the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that\nit was weak through the flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the\nflesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who\nwalk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.\" \"I beseech you\ntherefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your\nbodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your\nreasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye\ntransformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is\nthat good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.\" The natural\nresult of these convictions in the apostle's own case was his\nconsecration to the Saviour. Bought with a great price, he felt that\nhe was no longer his own, but that, in life and death, he belonged to\nHim who had given Himself for him. In Christ he had found peace for\nhis conscience, light for his mind, love for his heart. And what was\nthe secret of it all? Simply \"believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.\"\n\nThis, then, was Paul's gospel to the jailer, and there is no other\ngospel to-day. We know that sin incurs condemnation--the displeasure\nof God. The universal conscience gives testimony to that fact. We know\nthat man cannot, in his own person, satisfy the claims of the Divine\nlaw. But there comes down to us the old truth that Christ is \"the Lamb\nof God that taketh away the sin of the world.\" He \"finished the work\nwhich His Father gave Him to do,\" and the whole benefit of that work\nis given to faith.\n\nIt is in the name of this perfect system of truth--which, observe, is\na perfect series of facts--consecrated by the trial of ages, by the\nexperience of an incalculable number of souls in all times, places,\nand conditions, and by the world's own verdict on Christian character\nwherever it is found--that we speak to you with a confidence equal to\nthat with which Paul spoke to the jailer. And let me add that we so\nspeak because we have made the experience of it our own, and that it\nis as sure in our hearts as our very existence. Yes, a perfect series\nof facts as well as a perfect system of truth. Men sometimes object\nthat we put before them hard and abstruse systems of theology, and\nthat we condemn them for not believing things which they cannot\nunderstand. There is no need to do anything of the kind, and when it\nis done a grave mistake is committed. I preach no \"abstractions\" to\nyou when I urge you to faith in Christ for salvation. I deal with\nfacts and their deductions--deductions which are as inevitable as the\nfacts are real--deductions which follow the facts as the shadow\nfollows the substance. Deny the deductions? You must first deny the\nfacts. The jailer, poor man, was no theologian, and Paul did not\nperplex and mystify him. He placed the person of Christ immediately\nbefore the soul. Faith in a person; that is _first_--not faith in a\ncreed. A creed will follow; for there cannot be faith without thought,\nand thought always strives to formulate itself. But, blessed be God,\nmillions have been saved with next to no \"theology.\" Having Christ for\nits object, and salvation for its aim, faith reposes in the facts of\nHis mission and work; but as He is a living Christ, it emphatically\nreposes in _Him_. This is the commonest form of the believer's\nexperience. In our social life we know what faith in a person means.\nWe confide in known goodness; and therefore we believe words,\npromises, acts, and we do so because we trust _him_ from whom they\ncome. This is the last and most perfect stage of the faith men place\nin one another, and it includes a confidence which is not impaired by\nwhat, in the person who is trusted, seems startling, unexpected,\nmysterious, contradictory, inexplicable. Just so with the gospel. It\nmeets our needs by telling us what God has done for us in Christ. We\nbelieve the record which fits our want, and we put our trust in the\nSaviour. Confiding in Him, we can accept such mysteries as we may\ndiscern in His dealings, and faith in a holy and loving Saviour is\nhenceforth the true rest of life, and the true foretaste of heaven.\n\nSuch being the nature of faith unto salvation, we see how it contrasts\n(1) with indifference. Indifference is commonly supposed to be a\nmental state, in which a man neither believes nor disbelieves; whereas\nit is really a state of spiritual deadness. (2) With mere opinion,\nwhich is nothing more than an inclination in favour of, or against, a\nthing, and not an earnest practical conviction about it. (3) With\npresumption, which is a prepossession with no sufficient basis of\nevidence.\n\nIt may, perhaps, be said that, in this representation of faith in\nChrist as the one all-comprehensive condition of salvation, we have\nleft no room for penitence, holiness, devotedness. But think again for\na moment. Were not all these in this man? Did not his conduct to the\napostles show, so far as the opportunity was given him, the fruits of\nfaith in the various ways of grateful love? Faith is the\nstarting-point; but when we are told to \"believe in Christ\" an appeal\nis made to us in response to which there is a whole career to be\nfilled up. Faith, like everything else in life, has its beginning, and\nits development is progressive. It means thought, and thought means\ncontrition, gratitude, and a glad and loving obedience. It requires\ntime, but we have eternity before us. In some, the result of years is\naccomplished in a day. Simple-hearted men generally receive by a sort\nof intuition what others take a long period to elaborate. The one\nthing essential to all is that they be faithful to the light and the\nlove they have received.\n\n\"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.\" We do not call you to a learned\nand critical study. The life and teachings and redeeming work of the\nSaviour are put before us with a simplicity that brings them within\nthe reach of a peasant or a child. Attention, earnestness, sincerity,\nprayer, will do all that is needed. Seek the faith that will make\nChrist yours. Do you not already, under the gracious influence of the\nHoly Spirit, feel your need of Him? Oh, whilst mercy calls, and the\nthrone of grace is accessible, pray and yield!\n\n    Ye that in these courts are found\n    Listening to the joyful sound,\n    Lost and helpless as you are,\n    Sons of sorrow, sin, and care,\n    Glorify the King of kings!\n    Take the peace the gospel brings.\n\n    Turn to Christ with longing eyes,\n    View His bleeding sacrifice.\n    See through Him your sins forgiven,\n    Pardon, holiness, and heaven.\n    Glorify the King of kings!\n    Take the peace the gospel brings.\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\n_SINCERITY OF HEART NECESSARY TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE GOSPEL._\n\n\"If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether\nit be of God, or whether I speak of myself.\"--John vii. 17.\n\n\nThe Jews, marvelling at Christ's teaching in the temple, exclaim, \"How\nknoweth this man letters, having never learned?\" They do not mean to\nask whether Christ is competent to teach, for they _see_ that he is so\nclearly enough; but they thus express their astonishment at the\nauthority and the ability with which He deals with the Scriptures,\nconsidering that He has never received the instruction of the Schools.\n\nIn His reply, Jesus fully enters into the thought of His questioners.\nThat thought is this: \"In order to teach, one must have been taught.\"\nHe intimates to them that He meets this requirement. As though He had\nsaid: \"It is true that I have not been in the schools of your Rabbis,\nbut I have been taught in a better school than theirs. He who has\ngiven me my mission, has also given me my message. So that my teaching\ndoes not proceed originally from myself. I have only to lay hold of my\nFather's thought, and then to reproduce it faithfully to you.\"\n\nBut how is this to be verified? The answer to this question is found\nin the text: \"If any man will do His will, he shall know of the\ndoctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.\"\nChrist's teaching, in its highest aim, is a Divine method of\nsanctification. Whoever, then, earnestly seeks to \"do the will of\nGod\"--that is, to be holy--will soon recognise the Divine adaptability\nof the gospel to its end. The meaning of the verse is the same as in\nchapter v. and verse 46: \"For had ye believed Moses, ye would have\nbelieved me;\" and also in chapter iii. and verse 21: \"He that doeth\ntruth cometh to the light.\" On the one hand, the holy sublimity of the\ngospel flashes irresistibly on the soul that longs for holiness; on\nthe other hand, the soul, in its inability to attain its ideal, seeks\npeace and strength at the hands of the Saviour. Faith, therefore, is\nnot the result of a logical operation; it appears to the soul as the\nbest means of realising the satisfaction of its deepest\nwant--holiness. The word \"will\" points to the loftiness of the\naspiration and to the earnestness of the effort.\n\nOur Lord's words, then, mean this, that if any man be supremely\nanxious to do the right, he will find in Scripture sufficient proof of\nits divinity, and, as a consequence, of its adaptability to the soul's\ndeepest need. Christ was dealing with men who were disposed to cavil\nabout His authority and about the truth which He taught. These men\nwere acquainted with the Mosaic law, which enjoined not only purity of\nlife, but also purity of heart. It was a law therefore which, if\nhonestly studied, must lead to those convictions which would enable\nthem to see the necessity and the wisdom of the gospel which Christ\nwas preaching. And so He lays down the principle that sincerity in\nregard to the _known_ law of God determines the real position of the\nmind _towards_ God, and prepares it for deeper and still deeper\npenetration into all necessary spiritual knowledge. On the contrary,\nhe who is insincere, and does not practise what he knows, but\nendeavours to evade it by sophistry, blinds himself until even the\nbrightest light can be of no service to him. This was the case with\nthe majority of the Pharisees with whom Christ had to do. This\npassage is therefore of the highest practical importance, since it\nteaches that man's capacity for spiritual knowledge is dependent upon\nhis inclination. If the will be opposed to God, the understanding\nbecomes clouded; if it be inclined towards God, the ability to know\nincreases. That the inclination is the door to the intellect is a fact\nuniversally recognised. It is expressed in the proverb: \"None are so\nblind as those who will not see.\" In every department of learning, a\nman, in order to attainment, _must make up his mind to it_. For good\nor ill, the will is a quickening power.\n\nIt would be interesting and instructive to discuss this question in\nconnection with religious error, both in and out of the professing\nChristian Church. My present purpose, however, is a more simple and\nelementary one--namely, to indicate the bearing of the question upon\nman's reception of the gospel for his salvation. I say, then, that\nhonesty, sincerity, integrity of heart is the required and\nindispensable condition for perceiving and feeling the divinity and\nsuitability of the gospel; and that even an ignorant man, if he be but\nsincere, and devoutly anxious to know the will of God, that he may do\nit, may discover in the Bible those traces of moral beauty and of\nDivine truth which a learned but unconscientious man will almost\ncertainly fail to find therein. Sincerity of heart--this is the\nwisest, most natural, and most comprehensive means of access to the\ninner spirit of that gospel which is the power of God unto salvation.\nA few remarks in proof of this.\n\nI. Suppose the gospel to be so manifestly filled with the proofs of its\ndivinity that all hearts, even the most obdurate, could not refrain from\nyielding to its claims. Suppose it to be _self-evidencing_, in the same\nway and to the same extent, as the sun is self-evidencing by its\nshining, or fire by its known power to burn. In this case, no moral or\nintellectual disposition would be necessary in order to its reception.\nIt could no more be denied than the light of the sun, or the consuming\npower of fire. But what, with such a gospel, would be man's position?\nForced to assent to an imperious obligation, he would be, in relation to\nthe gospel and to the salvation provided in it, nothing more than a\nmachine, acting under the impulse of an irresistible necessity. There\ncould, under these circumstances, be neither praise nor blame attached\nto him. He could no longer be accounted a moral agent--could not be\nregarded as free, inasmuch as it would not be possible for him to choose\nerror or evil without obvious and startling folly. He could no longer be\nresponsible, because he would have to yield to a necessity. There could\nbe no free thought in his creed, no free love in his heart, and\nconsequently no virtue in his life.\n\nII. Since, then, some disposition is necessary in order to a man's\ncoming to the gospel, suppose that God had imposed an _intellectual_\nqualification--such, for instance, as is required for the learning of\nart or of science, or for the understanding of any difficult problem\nin philosophy. Observe what in that case must follow. If, to discover\nthe truth necessary to salvation, a large measure of natural genius or\nof accumulated knowledge be required, we must consider as excluded\nfrom salvation the immense majority of the human race! Men cannot in\nany large numbers abandon the common, legitimate, indispensable\npursuits of secular life in order to become students of theology. Such\nan arrangement would shut out from heaven all who have neither time,\nnor fortune, nor energy of intellect sufficient to enable them to\nfollow our profounder investigations. The poor man for want of means,\nthe sick man for want of strength, the old man for want of time--all,\nbeing unable to explore and to make their own the prescribed science,\nwould be lost! The fearfulness of the consequences shows how false the\nsupposed principle must be.\n\nIII. Take another supposition; viz., that, in order to a man's being\nconvinced of the truth of the gospel, he should be required to purify\nhis heart from all evil, so that with a clear moral vision he should\nbe able to see the beauties which have been obscured by his sinful\npassions. Doubtless this means of appreciating Christianity would be\nefficacious, were it practicable. But it is not so; for evidently the\n_knowledge_ of the truth must precede the _practice_ of the truth. A\ncreature without wings might as well be told that he should go to\nheaven on condition that he would fly thither!\n\nIV. See now, not what _our_ plans might be, but what _God's_ plan is.\nHe does not influence man so as to degrade him into a machine: He\nsimply and uniformly demands the worship and the service of willing\nhearts. He does not require of him the genius or the learning which is\nthe privilege of only a few. He does not ask in advance the goodness\nwhich is impossible as a spontaneous production of his degenerate\nnature. He just requires of all that which they can give, if they\nwill--viz., simple, devout honesty of purpose. Christ's words are not,\n\"If any man _does_;\" but, \"If any man will do\"--_desires_ to do--is\nsupremely _anxious_ to do--_wills_ to do--\"the will of God he shall\nknow of the doctrine, whether it be of God.\" Who, then, has a right to\ncomplain? Who cannot be sincere? Who is unable to set before himself\nthe purpose of living up to the light he has in order that he may be\nin the surest position for receiving more? Who will say, \"This\ncondition is too hard?\"\n\nObserve, then, how your case stands. Are you, or are you not, anxious\nto please God in any way which He may appoint and reveal to you? If\nyou are not, His gospel must be a sealed and unmeaning book to you.\nYour mind is not open to the faith which unites the soul to the\nSaviour. You are altogether destitute of the motive which would lead\nyou to the cross. But if you are, what then? You must see at once that\nyou are sinners, that you are guilty, and that you are hopeless. In\nthe light of these convictions, look at the gospel. It tells you of\nthe Divine Saviour who died for you and who rose again, who paid your\ndebt, who took to Himself your penalty, and who has therefore done\nall that was necessary to set you free. To meet your helplessness, He\nonly asks for your faith, and offers to you the quickening and guiding\nand upholding influences of His Holy Spirit.\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\n_THE HUMBLE TAUGHT THE LORD'S WAY._\n\n\"The meek will He teach His way.\"--Psalm xxv. 9.\n\n\nInstead of \"meek\" read \"humble,\" and then connect the verse with the\npreceding, so as to see who and what are the persons to whom the\nPsalmist refers. The righteous Lord will teach sinners His way; but\nthe sinners, in order to be thus divinely taught, must be humble.\n\nProbably this text of Scripture does not seem at first sight to be\nvery promising to some of you. If so, the reason probably is that one\nat least of the subjects it brings to our notice is not a favourite or\ninspiring one. Men are comparatively little attracted by the more\nquiet and passive virtues of life, and among these the virtue of\nhumility is one of the least popular. The truth is that we are still\nunder the influence of Pagan notions about it. The philosophers of\nthe past never understood it. To them it was a mean and despicable\nthing--the evidence of weakness and poverty of soul, the necessary\nvirtue of the enslaved and the helpless. This notion exists now. The\nworld has far more respect for the self-confident, the noisy, the\nbombastic, than for the humble. Of course the world's ideas of\nhumility are at fault, and have need to be corrected. We cannot enter\nupon that task now, except incidentally and very partially. One thing\nonly let me say--namely, that Christianity has transformed and\nennobled the despised word by giving us the thing itself. The life of\nChrist comprises the perfection of humility as well as of every other\nvirtue. In Him we see that humility makes no man contemptible. He was\nno less a king because He was a servant. And the virtue that was\nperfect in Him is one of the essential qualities of the Christian\ncharacter--one of the essential elements of the Christian life,\nwhether in its high enjoyments or in its high achievements.\n\nThe words before us present this virtue of humility under one special\naspect. Man has something to learn, and God has something to teach;\nand humility is _teachableness_. Christianity demands of its\ndisciples that disposition of heart which is the indispensable\ncondition of all learning whatsoever. No more objection can be urged\nagainst Christianity for this, than against any art or science or\nphilosophy which men seek to acquire. All these might say to their\ndisciples, \"Unless you give up your prejudice, your conceit, your\nself-will, your presumption, you have no business here; we have\nnothing to teach you.\" And so, \"poverty of spirit,\" as Christ\nintimates in the \"Beatitudes,\" is the strait gate into \"the kingdom of\nGod.\"\n\nIt is only as respects religion that this principle is seriously\nmisunderstood, and a little reflection will show why it is that\noutside Christianity humility is misapprehended. Humility is the\nresult of self-knowledge, and this cannot be obtained until man has\nlearned to know himself in the light of God's wisdom and holiness. So\nlong as he compares himself with his fellow-creatures around him, it\nmay seem to him that there is no necessity for such an element of\ncharacter as this. Nor is it in this way that the virtue is commended\nand enforced. Whilst the standard of excellence remains merely human,\nit is quite clear that a man may say, \"I am as good as my neighbours;\nat least, I am no worse.\" But put before him a holy God and a holy\nlaw! In this new light all becomes changed. Apart from that\nrevelation, many flatter themselves that they have lived respectably.\nThey are not conscious of any serious defection in the common,\nevery-day duties of life. Let the great revelation come to them, and\nthey must make wonderful self-discoveries. How many forgotten sins are\nthen brought to mind! How many secret sins are then brought to light!\nHow many temptations have been yielded to for convenience' sake! How\nmuch coldness and indifference towards the right, the true, and the\ngood! How much selfishness! How much cowardice! How many meannesses!\nHow many secret and contemptible dishonesties! What culpable ignorance\nof God! What rebellion against His known will! Is not all this enough\nto humble a man? Where is the man amongst us who would not rather die\nthan have all his sins brought to light before his fellow-men? Thus,\nto make us humble, God teaches us, first of all, truly to know\nourselves. This is that \"conviction of sin\" which is wrought by His\nHoly Spirit.\n\nGod teaches us this in His law, but chiefly by the life of Christ His\nSon. Who can remain proud when he compares his own life with that?\nBefore men we may, perhaps, hold our own; but before Him there is\nnothing left for us but self-abasement.\n\nIn presence of such a conviction as this, it is vain for the world to\nflatter a man, for he has learnt his own misery. He wants to know the\ntruth, for it is only the truth that can save. He knows too much of\nhimself to accept any teaching that would exalt _man_, for he could\nnot accept that without dishonouring God. He wants a frank, firm voice\nthat will trouble him, and to which his conscience will respond. The\nfirst question for us is: Have we so learnt to know ourselves, or do\nwe obstinately shut our eyes against God's light? Such a knowledge of\nsin brings with it a sense of deserved condemnation.\n\nAnd here God comes in to teach us humility in another way. He shows us\nHis love in Christ. It is not possible that a sinner who has come to\nthe knowledge of himself should discover that he is the object of a\nlove on the part of God such as that which the gospel reveals without\nbeing overwhelmed. Show to man a God who judges and condemns, and the\nsinner must shrink from before Him under the sense of a deserved doom;\nbut show to him a God who comes to him graciously, who loves him, who\nhas provided redemption for him, and who is waiting to receive and to\nhelp him, and all the pride of his heart at once breaks down. The\nprodigal son was most humble when he received his father's kiss of\nwelcome. How can we be proud when we know that God has loved us, and\nthat Christ has died for us? Unbelievers sometimes call the\nChristian's faith presumption; we know, on the contrary, that the\nfeeling produced is as unlike presumption as it can be. The very faith\nwhich accepts the gospel has its root in lowliness of mind. Pride\nwould reject it. And it is at the foot of the cross that humility\ngrows. If not there, then nowhere.\n\nThus we see that all our Christian life, in one aspect of it, is a\ngrowth in humility. This beautiful virtue affects our whole being,\nrescuing for God all that has been usurped by sin.\n\n_Our reason must be humble._ We are living in an age of criticism and\ndiscussion; and, both in the Church and out of it, human thought is\nprone to pride and self-sufficiency. There is work, of course, for\nthought to do, and we must do it; for thought is God's gift. But it\ncan only be done aright as it is done in humility. We must never touch\nreligious questions with profane hands. Let us rather remember that\nall our researches into truth should be conducted with a view the\nbetter to adore and to obey. We should examine truth only with a\ndesire to perceive, acknowledge, and reverence it. Our Lord teaches us\nthat the gospel both enlightens and blinds. \"For judgment I am come\ninto this world, that they who see not might see, and that they who\nsee might be made blind.\" The first part of this great statement is\neasily understood; it is the second which startles. But why so? Is it\nnot like Simeon's prediction that Christ would be for the \"fall\" as\nwell as for the \"rising\" of many? Is it not like what Paul said of the\ngospel, that it is a \"savour\" both of \"life unto life\" and of \"death\nunto death\"? So long as the gospel is not preached in a church or a\nhouse, all is quiet--with the quietness of death! As soon as it is\npreached, some accept it, and say that they have passed from darkness\nto light; others reject it, and are made angry by its teaching and its\nclaims. If these latter were quiet, we might suppose the gospel to be\nwithout effect upon them; but they show that, by hardening themselves\nagainst it, they are becoming blinder than ever. Recall other words\nwhich point to the same result--words spoken by our Lord: \"I thank\nThee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these\nthings from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.\nEven so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight.\" This should be a\njoyful truth to us, for Jesus had joy in declaring it. Wherein is its\nworth? The \"things\" of which He speaks are the doctrines of salvation.\n\"The wise and prudent\" are self-satisfied men who think that they can\ncomprehend all religious truth by their own reason alone. The \"babes\"\nare humble souls, who, in the consciousness of their ignorance and\nweakness, look to God for wisdom. Thus Christ says that Divine\nteaching is necessary for the understanding of gospel truth, and this\nfact humility alone enables us to feel. Man's intelligence can do many\nwonderful things, but God Himself must come to our help if we are ever\nto know the things that pertain to our salvation. Our reason must bow\nto Him.\n\n_The heart must be humble._ We may profess entire mental submission to\nGod, and yet be under the influence of pride. There is a humility\nwhich is spurious as well as a humility which is real. It is\npossible, and not very uncommon, for a man to cherish a false\nconsciousness of merit even in the disbelief and denial of merit! If a\nman is proud who puts confidence in his self-righteousness, so also is\nhe who puts confidence in his intellectual orthodoxy.\n\n_Our conduct must be humble._ This grace of humility must not only\ndwell in the inner spirit, but be manifested in our outer life. It is\nvain to come to the cross with the offer of a bending reason, a\nsubdued will, and a broken heart, and then go out into the world\nintent on the accomplishment of our own purposes. If we are truly\nhumble, we shall be _seen_ to be so in the way in which we accept the\nteachings of events; in our reverent waiting for the signs of the\nDivine will; in the faithful, unreluctant fulfilment of the humblest\nduties; in our resignation to, and our acquiescence in, the trials and\nafflictive dispensations which come upon us. We often see this grace\nin its greatest beauty at the close of the most eminent lives. God's\nmost gifted men, as a rule, advance in humility as they grow in\nexperience. They are like boughs that bend the lower the more fruit\nthey bear. Like John the Baptist, they say, \"He must increase, but I\nmust decrease.\"\n\nThis, then, is the _disposition_, and to it God makes a great\n_promise_. He will _teach His way_ to the humble. This applies\n\n_To our knowledge of Divine truth._ How uniformly have God's truest\nwitnesses upon earth consisted of men conspicuous for their lowliness\nof mind. It was to such that the Saviour was first announced and that\nHe first came. Such were the people who listened to Him and accepted\nHim, whilst the \"learned\" and the \"great\" rejected Him. His apostles\nwere humble men; and it has always been by the humble that the strong\nand the proud have, in the end, been vanquished. Every bright page in\nthe history of the Church is a commentary on our text. To-day, in\nspite of the progress of thought in our world, we, in regard to the\nmatters that belong to our spiritual life and salvation, have to sit\nas disciples at the feet of the humble men who themselves sat at the\nfeet of the Divine Teacher who said, \"Learn of me, for I am meek and\nlowly of heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.\" Our views of\nthe truth as it is in Jesus may be modified and corrected; yet the\npages of these same humble men are still the standard of our faith and\nof our teaching. Religious opinions change, not because we have gone\nbeyond Paul and Peter and John, but because we understand them better.\nThis is no plea, no apology, for mental weakness. On the contrary,\npride is rather the characteristic of mental weakness and of ignorance\nthan of mental strength and enlightenment. We may search, but we must\nremember that we always depend upon God for light. In religion the\ncondition of the heart is the condition of knowledge. Proud, haughty,\nself-sufficient Saul of Tarsus had to be humbled before he could\nbecome Paul the Believer and the Apostle.\n\n_To the every-day dispensations of life._ In this world we are the\nsubjects of God's discipline, and that discipline is for the most part\nmysterious. The course of events with us is often varied. We are\nsubjected to vicissitudes of every kind--vicissitudes of thought, of\nimpression, of feeling, and of experience. We are troubled in life, in\nheart, in the cultivation of Christian excellence, in the maintenance\nof life's relationships, in the performance of duty. Whilst we try to\nbear in mind the glorious issues to which we are destined, we are\noften perplexed in our endeavours to ascertain how the discipline we\nare undergoing tends towards their realisation. We are puzzled by the\nprevalence of wickedness, by the disappointment of hopes, the apparent\nfutility of many of our prayers; and we say, \"I am blind, and the way\nin which I am walking is unknown to me.\" Humility will help us to\nthink that God has _His own way_ among all these perplexities of ours,\nthough we are unable to trace it. \"All things work together for good\nto them that love God.\"\n\n    God works not as man works, nor sees\n      As man sees, though we mark\n    Ofttimes the moving of His hands\n      Beneath the eternal Dark.\n\n            *   *   *   *\n\n    And He who made both life and death,\n      He knoweth which is best.\n    We live to Him, we die to Him,\n      And leave Him all the rest.\n\nThus the humble are taught trust, patience, resignation, obedience,\npeace of heart, and daily advancement in sanctification.\n\n_To our bearing towards others._ Humility will qualify us cordially to\nrecognise whatever worth they have, to show gentleness and charity to\nthose among them who are faulty and weak, and thus will take us along\na line of conduct which will lead to the strengthening of the bonds of\nbrotherhood. \"Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.\nYea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with\nhumility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the\nhumble.\" The word here rendered \"Be clothed\" occurs nowhere else in\nScripture. It is borrowed from a piece of dress worn by servants when\nthey were doing menial offices, which at once intimated their station,\nand fitted them for the performance of the duties attached to it.\nRemember that it is Peter who gives this advice--the Peter who in\nformer days so often brought himself into trouble by his want of\nhumility. Notice, too, the special point he now has in view. He is\npleading for harmonious action in the Church, a result which can only\nbe obtained by observing the law of voluntary subordination to\nestablished authority--an observance to which the habit of humility\nwill most effectually contribute. Humility is one of the chief social\nand ecclesiastical virtues, through the medium of which God teaches us\nwhat is the attitude we are to maintain towards those who are around\nus.\n\n_To our Christian work._ All the heroes of the faith in past times\navowed their personal infirmities. Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah,\nPeter, Paul--each, in one form or another, confessed: \"When I am\nweak, then am I strong; I can do all things through Christ who\nstrengtheneth me. I glory in mine infirmities, that the power of\nChrist may rest upon me.\" We must lay hold of this thought, for it\nalone can guard us against discouragement. As long as we depend on\nourselves, God will break down our confidence by repeated failures;\nbut when His wisdom has humbled us, His mercy will lift us up. Why\nshould it not be so? We may well be humble in our work when we\nremember how far we are from being indispensable to God. He can work\neither with us or without us, as He pleases. It is His own order to\nachieve mighty moral results through the humblest instrumentalities;\nand frequently His independence of us is taught in a very striking\nway--as, for example, when He calls to Himself some great preacher, or\nsome man who is doing wide-spread good, in the midst of his activity\nand his usefulness. Besides, we have no monopoly of any one gift of\nthe Christian life--either as regards the gift itself or as regards\nthe quality and extent of the service which it can be made to render.\nOthers excel us in the very thing of which we are most proud. Many of\nour fellow Christians are doing the same kind of works as ourselves,\nonly far better. And as to our \"gifts,\" let us not forget that they\n_are_ gifts. We have \"received\" them; and why, then, should we boast\nas if we had not received them, but were ourselves the creators of\nthem? Moreover, in proportion to our gifts, so is our responsibility,\nand \"to whom much is given, of him shall much be required.\" Have we\nused such gifts as we have as nobly as we might? Have we fallen into\nno needless errors, no selfishness, no half-heartedness? So then,\nwhile everything calls us to duty, there is much to fill us with\ncontrition; and mingling fidelity and humility together, our exclusive\nconfidence must be in God. This is the Divine way which the Divine\nTeacher teaches to the humble.\n\n_The Lord's way._ This is a beautiful and lovable expression. It links\nearth with heaven. There _is_ a way which leads to God; a way in which\nGod walks with us, and we with Him; a way that is peaceful here, while\nit leads to the land of rest above. We begin it in humility,\nconfessing our sins at the cross, and accepting God's mercy there. We\nend it before the throne, casting our crowns at the feet of Him who\ndied to save us.\n\n    Hark! universal nature shook and groan'd,\n    'Twas the last trumpet--see the Judge enthroned:\n    Rouse all your courage at your utmost need,\n    Now summon every virtue, stand and plead.\n    What! silent? Is your boasting heard no more?\n    That self-renouncing wisdom, learn'd before,\n    Had shed immortal glories on your brow,\n    That all your virtues cannot purchase now.\n      All joy to the believer! He can speak,\n    Trembling yet happy, confident yet meek.\n      Since the dear hour that brought me to Thy foot,\n    And cut up all my follies by the root,\n    I never trusted in an arm but Thine,\n    Nor hoped but in Thy righteousness divine:\n    My prayers and alms, imperfect and defiled,\n    Were but the feeble efforts of a child;\n    Howe'er perform'd, it was their brightest part,\n    That they proceeded from a grateful heart:\n    Cleansed in Thine own all purifying blood,\n    Forgive their evil, and accept their good:\n    I cast them at Thy feet, my only plea\n    Is what it was, dependence upon Thee:\n    While struggling in the vale of tears below,\n    That never failed, nor shall it fail me now.\n    Angelic gratulations rend the skies,\n    Pride falls unpitied never more to rise,\n    Humility is crown'd, and Faith receives the prize.\n\n\n\n\nVI.\n\n_THE GRATITUDE OF THE PARDONED._\n\n\"Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven;\nfor she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth\nlittle.\"--Luke vii. 47.\n\n\nIt has been observed that the Bible records with great minuteness\nevents which a secular historian would deem beneath his notice,\nwhilst, on the other hand, matters of great secular importance are\npassed over unmentioned. What ordinary historian would think of\nnarrating such a story as the one we have in the verses before us? The\nBible records it because it is a history of souls. To a Bible\nhistorian, the conversion of a soul is an event of unique sublimity,\nand everything that can illustrate it is felt to be a source of\ndeepest interest. The history of outward events will pass into\noblivion; the history of souls will be read in eternity.\n\nThe narrative before us is one of the most beautiful and touching in\nthe gospel record. It was a saying of Gregory the Great: \"Whenever I\nthink of this story I am more inclined to weep over it than to preach\nupon it.\" It is just the tale to prompt deep, quiet feeling rather\nthan elaborate disquisition. It contains an illustration in real life\nof the old promise: \"A bruised reed shall He not break, and the\nsmoking flax shall He not quench.\" It declares the Saviour's matchless\nsympathy for the sinner, and the most broken-hearted sinner's hope in\nHim. It teaches these lessons for all time, since in Christ and in His\nsystem of Redemption there can be no change. Let us look at the\nnarrative somewhat closely, and may God help us to see in it Christ as\nthe refuge of the lost, and the thankfulness to Him which must possess\nthe soul whom He has saved. When we have said all we can, there will\nyet remain much more to be felt.\n\nBefore I proceed, however, let me say that this narrative must not be\nconfounded with another which is in many respects like it, and which\nhas been told by the other evangelists. In both cases, the name of the\nhost is Simon, and in both a woman anoints the Lord Jesus, and wipes\nHis feet with her hair. But the differences are numerous. In this\ncase, the host is a Pharisee living in Galilee, and he looks on Christ\nwith mistrust; in the other case, the host is a healed leper in Judea,\nbound to Christ by grateful love. In this case, the anointing proceeds\nfrom personal and grateful love, and has no other specialty of motive;\nin the other case, Jesus says: \"Let her alone; against the day of my\nburying hath she kept this.\" Here, Jesus is blamed by the Pharisee;\nthere, the woman is blamed by the disciples. Pride is the root of\nSimon's objection; the objection of the disciples springs from\nselfishness. Here a sinner is pardoned; there a disciple is honoured.\nHere, in all probability, the woman was Mary Magdalene; there, the\nwoman was the sister of Lazarus.\n\nWe have no information as to the reason which induced this Pharisee to\ninvite Christ to his house. The verse I have read as a text may\nobscurely hint to us, perhaps, that he himself had come under some\nobligation to Jesus, and not feeling any true gratitude, he thought he\nmight acquit himself of his obligation by a compliment of this kind! Or\nthe invitation may have sprung from curiosity, or from vanity, or from\nambition. Possibly he may have wished to play the _patron_. Anyhow, we\nhave no sign that he was urged by spiritual considerations. Many men\ncome--if one might so say--_locally_ near to Christ, who have no faith\nin Him, and no love for Him.\n\nNeither have we any information as to the reason or reasons which\ninduced Christ to accept this invitation. Several reasons might be\nimagined. He may have hoped, as the opportunity was specially\nfavourable, to bring a blessing to the Pharisee's heart. Men are never\nmore open, or more submissive, or more susceptible to the word of\nlove, than when they themselves are showing kindness in the form of\nthe hospitalities of home and of the family circle. Perhaps, too, He\nmay have felt that to decline the invitation would be to lay Himself\nopen to an accusation on the part of the Pharisees that He neglected\nor spurned them, whilst He could put Himself in close communication\nwith \"publicans and sinners.\" At any rate, we have here a beautiful\ninstance of the self-denial of His love. He knew what awaited Him, and\nyet He went.\n\nAnd now we have to notice that when Jesus had passed over the\nthreshold of the Pharisee's house the door was open to \"a woman who\nwas a sinner.\" How was this? The simple and sufficient answer is that\nJesus was there. Otherwise she would not have dared to enter within\nthe perfumed respectability and sanctity of such a place. That would\nhave been a terror to such a fallen one as she. But redeeming love had\nalready begun its work upon her heart, so that she could come without\nmisgiving, could enter with a holy confidence. When Christ appears,\ngrace bears the sceptre, and the law loses its power to alarm.\n\nWe may take this incident, therefore, as a striking illustration of\nthe spirit of Christ and of His true followers, as contrasted with\nPharisaism in its suspiciousness, its blindness, its narrowness, and\nits ascetic scrupulosity.\n\nThe woman, probably under the pressure of gratitude for some act of\ncompassionate love already received from Christ, is full of the\nholiest and tenderest emotions. In a fine, sacred humility, she weeps,\nand washes His feet with her tears. True tears they are, for they are\nthe tears of penitence--and not of penitence only, but of thankfulness\nalso. Confused and bewildered, perhaps, she wipes the feet on which\nthey have fallen with her hair, and then kisses them, and anoints them\nwith costly ointment! Such is the gratitude of the pardoned--deep,\nstrong, irrepressible. And she expresses it in touchingly significant\nways.\n\nThe woman's action was distasteful to the Pharisee. The touch of a\nGentile, or of a notoriously wicked person, was supposed to leave\npollution behind it, and therefore by the Pharisees it was scrupulously\navoided. Thus Simon had no understanding whatever of the scene before\nhim. He had no eyes to see, no ears to hear, how the angels were filling\nheaven with the music of their joy over this poor sinner who had\nrepented. A weak human virtue might be contaminated by contact with such\nan one as she had been; but not His who was the Christ of God. No doubt,\napart from the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, apart from the\nstrength which God imparts to the soul by His grace, a man does run the\nrisk of polluting his morality by allowing it to be touched by the\nimpure streams of his fellow-creatures' vices. This has always been so\nfully recognised that we have a whole system of proverbial philosophy on\nthe point. Christ, however, was perfect, and His purity was such that it\ncould not incur this danger. Outward contact with \"sinners\" could bring\nno contamination to Him.\n\nSimon took offence at the conduct of the woman, and began at once to\nindulge in dark, though unspoken, suspicions against Christ for\npermitting it. His suspicion took this form: \"This man professes to be\na prophet, and is regarded as a prophet by His followers. But surely,\nif He were a prophet, He would have known this woman's character, and\nwould have repelled her from Him, instead of permitting such\ndemonstrations of affection as these.\" Simon's notion of a \"prophet\"\nwas that he must possess at least two qualifications. (1) He must have\na knowledge of the characters of the persons with whom He has to deal.\nOn behalf of merely ordinary, human prophets, this was an exaggerated\nclaim. To what prophet could Simon point who was able to read the\nheart? How did he know that Christ had ever seen this woman before?\nAnd on the supposition that He had not, on what ground could Simon\ndemand that, in order to be entitled to the designation of a prophet,\nHe should show an insight into her character at the commencement of\nthe very first interview. Christ had the insight; but Simon felt\nconstrained to doubt it for no other reason than that He did not\ninstantly repel the woman from Him. (2) And so, in Simon's judgment,\nthe second qualification of a \"prophet\" consisted in such a moral\nexclusiveness as would forbid contact with sinners. He thought that,\nif Christ did know what manner of woman this was, His tolerance of her\nconduct at this time was sufficient proof that He could not be a good\nman, and was not, therefore, to be regarded as a prophet. A prophet's\nsanctity would have forbidden such a scene as this. But again we ask,\nWhence could such a notion have sprung? Who among the \"prophets\" ever\nstood aloof from sinners? Was it not emphatically to sinners that they\nwere sent?\n\nSimon's reasoning was full of sophistry, and the sophistry came from a\ndefective heart. Had he known the nature of the Saviour's mission--as\none which demanded a perfect knowledge of all hearts, combined with\ngrace, love, and power to save the worst--he might perhaps have felt\nand reasoned differently.\n\nHis thoughts were unspoken, but Christ divined them, and proceeded to\ndeal with them. To the personal imputation He made no reply. It was a\nlittle thing to Him to be judged by man. It was sufficient for Him to\naim at two points. One was to vindicate the woman on well-known\nprinciples, and the other, to lead the Pharisee to self-examination.\nWith these two objects in view, He utters a parable, and applies it to\nthe case in hand. The parable and its application are both marked by a\nmingled faithfulness and love. He makes Simon himself to be the judge\nin the case He describes, and on the basis of Simon's own judgment He\nbrings the practical point right home to the proud heart of the man.\nBy a few sharp and striking contrasts, He shows that the woman, sinful\nas she has been, has manifested more love to Him than Simon Himself\nwhose guest He is! Though a discredited stranger, she has done for Him\nwhat Simon, His host, had failed to do.\n\n\"Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.\"\n\n\"Master, say on.\"\n\n\"There was a certain creditor, who had two debtors: the one owed him\nfive hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to\npay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them\nwill love him most?\"\n\n\"I suppose, he to whom he forgave most.\"\n\n\"Thou hast rightly judged. Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine\nhouse; thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my\nfeet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou\ngavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not\nceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but\nthis woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto\nthee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but\nto whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.\"\n\nHaving said this, Christ crowns His work of love by saying to the\nwoman, \"Thy sins are forgiven.\"\n\nNow in all this we have an explanation and a vindication of the\ngrateful love to Christ which fills and animates the pardoned soul.\nThis love is shown to us--\n\nI. _In its source._ The grace of Christ in forgiving sins. Grace! How\ngreat! since it forgives all equally; the debtor who owes five hundred\npence as well and as completely as the one who owes fifty--greater\nsinners and lesser sinners alike! For sinners of every grade there is\nbut one relief, and that is Divine mercy--needed by those who have\nsinned least as well as by those who have sinned most, and equally\nsufficing for both. Grace! How free! since it forgives where no\nsatisfaction can be made. \"Nothing to pay;\" such is the condition of\nevery sinner before God. \"Without money and without price;\" such is\nGod's gracious invitation.\n\nII. _In its law._ It is in the nature of things that love should beget\nlove, and that the love thus originated should be measured by the\nextent of the favour which has been shown. \"We love Him, because He\nfirst loved us.\" Hence, love does not precede pardon, but is the fruit\nof it, and is proportioned to the sense of obligation. This doctrine,\nclear as it is, is not apprehended by all, and is even contradicted by\nsome. The inveterate spirit of self-righteousness has made men say:\n\"See this woman. By loving much she obtains the forgiveness of many\nsins.\" This is palpably the reverse of _Christ's_ teaching in this\ncase. Love to God can never be the growth of unrenewed and unforgiven\nhearts. \"To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.\" This\nshows the true order: forgiveness and then love. So that love is no\nplea for pardon; Christ does not say, \"Thy love hath saved thee,\" but\n\"thy faith.\"\n\n    I love the Lord. He lent an ear\n      When I for help implored;\n    He rescued me from all my fear;\n      Therefore I love the Lord.\n\nIII. _In its character._ It is an all-absorbing feeling, which\nprompts the offering of the best gifts to the Saviour, and which fills\nsuch offerings with the spirit of devoutness, humility, and\nself-denial.\n\nTwo closing thoughts.\n\n1. Men may be very near to the source of salvation and eternal life,\nwithout coming into the realisation of these blessings. In the outward\nsense, Christ was very near to this Pharisee and to his friends; but\nthey did not perceive His spiritual power. They thought He was only a\nman like unto themselves; possibly, perhaps, on a somewhat higher\nplane of manhood, though many of them do not seem to have given Him\ncredit even for that. His forgiveness was announced to this poor\nsinful, but contrite woman in their hearing; but the best effect it\nhad upon them was to fill them with a dubious wonder, and to set them\non questioning His authority. Near as they were to Him, they failed to\nsee in Him, what \"the woman who was a sinner\" saw. Such is the\nposition, practically, of multitudes to-day. Not, indeed, that their\nnearness to Christ is a local nearness, as in the case of those who\nwere immediately around Him in the days of His flesh. They could look\nupon His outward form, could literally hear His voice. Not so now.\nBut there is another nearness to Him which is moral and spiritual. We\nhave His Word--the record of His life, the Divine repository of His\nteaching. We have the ordinances of His worship--ordinances by which\nHis Word is brought more home to our understandings and hearts. We\nhave the influences of His truth shed over all the scenes in which we\nmove. The surface influences of Christianity modify and, to some\nextent, mould the whole of our social life. Moreover, Scripture takes\naccount of the differences in human character. This woman, who was a\nsinner, and this Pharisee were not alike in their relation to Christ.\nThere was one to whom He said, \"Thou art not far from the kingdom of\nGod.\" Not far from it, and yet not in it. Are there no such cases now?\nAll are sinners; but depravity is developed in much grosser forms in\nsome than in others; and religious influences, which fall short of\neffecting a complete conversion, nevertheless often deter men from\nplunging into extreme vice. It is mournfully possible to be near to\nChrist, and yet not to come into the enjoyment of His salvation.\n\n2. On the other hand, there are instances in which people obtain\nsalvation who seem, as to character, farthest away from it. The case\nof this sinful woman is an illustration in point. We have no right to\nmitigate or to extenuate her guilt. Let it be recognised in all its\ndark completeness. As an actual sinner she had sunk very low. Her sin\nwas against nature's purest laws, and was of the kind that soon and\neffectually kills shame--one of the most fatal forms of sin, and\ndeclared to be such, not only by God's law, but by the common consent\nof the universal conscience of the civilised world; a sin committed\nagainst the strongest restraints--the restraints of sacred womanhood;\nperhaps against the memory of the holy associations of childhood, a\nfather's tenderness, a mother's love, and all the joy of a happy home.\nSuch was this woman--\"a bruised reed.\" But she was brought to tears\nunder a sense of Paradise lost, the tears of despair; and yet again to\ntears of joy under the sense of Paradise regained. How many more--far\noff as she--have been made nigh; treated by fellow sinners as the\noffscouring of the earth, yet drawn to the Saviour. They are brought\nto the cross; they repent, believe, are sanctified, and exult in the\nconsciousness of eternal life. Constrained by the mercies of God, they\nyield themselves a living sacrifice to Him.\n\nThe whole scene before us is one of the boldest triumphs of\nreconciliation and love, in contrast with Pharisaic suspicion and\nunforgivingness; and it supplies the fullest inspiration for the\nlargest hope.\n\nMay we all come to Christ as this woman did, and hear, as she heard,\nHis gentle \"Go in peace!\"\n\n\n\n\nVII.\n\n_CONSECRATION._\n\n\"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye\npresent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,\nwhich is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world:\nbut be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove\nwhat is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.\"--Romans\nxii. 1, 2.\n\n\nIn bringing this passage before you, I have to dwell specifically on\nthe motives to self-consecration to God, and to what is involved\ntherein; and I do so with the twofold object of reconsidering the\nsources of our Christian hope and strength, and the incentives to our\ngrowth in the Divine life.\n\nThe apostle commences his appeal with the word \"therefore.\" This is a\nlogical term, leading to a conclusion from premises which have been\npreviously stated. It does not stand alone, but in an argument resumes\nin itself all that has been advanced. Take careful note of the simple\nwords of Scripture. There is point in them all. If, for example, the\nuse of the word \"therefore\" in this text be overlooked, we shall be\nunable properly to feel the force of the apostle's appeal. What is it,\nthen, that the apostle has said in this epistle, and of which he\nintends, by this word \"therefore,\" to remind his readers? He has been\ngiving to them a large, full, grand exposition of the great truths of\nredemption. He has prepared the way for this by a graphic picture of\nthe sinfulness and helplessness of human nature. He has shown that the\nheathen world is grossly depraved--in a state of alienation from God,\nwhich is to a certain extent wilful (chap. i. 29-32). He has proceeded\nto demonstrate that, with all their advantages, the Jews are no better\n_at heart_ than the heathen, and as truly sinful, condemned, and\nhopeless as they (ii. 17-24). The conclusion supplied by these facts\nis, that none are righteous--that all, Jews and Gentiles alike, have\nsinned and come short of the glory of God, and that all stand on the\nsame ground of spiritual danger. This brings out the fact that\nredemption is the pressing need of the whole world. The way is now\nclear for the presentation of the gospel. _The basis of redemption is\nChrist's work of atonement._ The foundation of the plan of salvation\nis God's free grace--His boundless, sovereign love. Christ came forth\nfrom the Father as the expression of this. He suffered, bled, died\nfor us, to meet the claims of the Divine law on our behalf, and to\nprocure our justification and peace. \"Being justified freely by His\ngrace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath\nset forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood\" (iii. 24,\n25). \"Jesus Christ, who was delivered for our offences\" (iv. 25). \"For\nwhen we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the\nungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet\nperadventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God\ncommendeth His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners,\nChrist died for us\" (v. 6-8). Salvation, then, is founded upon the\natonement of Christ--a proper work of propitiation, providing for\npardon and justification. _The condition of this salvation on our part\nis simply the acceptance of it by faith._ Faith is primarily the\nrepose of the soul in Christ's redeeming work--a yielding to God's\nmethod of saving us. It operates to this end independently--yea, even\nto the exclusion--of all works of self-righteousness. \"By the deeds of\nthe law shall no flesh living be justified.\" It is inconsistent with\nall boasting. \"Where is boasting, then? It is excluded. By what law?\nOf works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a\nman is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.\" This simple\ncondition of salvation is the only one which can be adapted to our\nneed. Sinners as we are, our condition is hopeless unless redemption\nbe offered to us as a free gift. _This redemption is secured to all\nwho believe by God's unalterable purpose and promise._ It is not\nvitally affected by recurring doubts and fears, nor even by our often\ninsufficient struggles against sin (viii. 28-39). _The result is\ninconceivably glorious_; freedom from condemnation, adoption into\nGod's family, joy, peace, full favour with God here, and heaven with\nits perfect glory, consummated in the resurrection, hereafter.\n\nNow, it is at the close of all this that the apostle's \"therefore\"\ncomes; and these are the facts and principles which give to it its\npoint and force. It links all the disclosures of Divine love with the\nobligations of redeemed souls. Since God has done so much as this for\nyou, what then? By the remembrance of the sin which left you without\nhope; by the greatness of the love of God who, to save you, gave His\nwell-beloved Son to an atoning death on your behalf; by the greatness\nof the love of Christ who, to save you, consecrated Himself to this\nperfect sacrifice; by His birth and death, by His cross and passion,\nby His resurrection and ascension; by the freeness and the simplicity\nof the condition on which Christ's salvation becomes yours; by your\npresent peace; by your hope which blooms with immortality and with\neternal life; by _these_, _the mercies of God_, I beseech you, yield\nyourselves to God. That surrender must be the first, the natural, the\ninevitable result of any vivid and practical realisation of the Divine\ngoodness. \"Yield your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to\nGod, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this\nworld: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may\nprove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.\"\n\nThe Apostle Paul was pre-eminently the teacher of what are called the\ndoctrines of grace. In the system of Divine truth which he gives us,\nhe leaves no room for the indulgence on man's part of the least\nsentiment of pride. The gospel, in his view, is the Divine expedient\nfor what must otherwise have been a desperate and hopeless case; an\nexpedient, therefore, which--since, from first to last, it is the\nexpression of God's free and sovereign love--cannot allow of any\nself-glorying to man as unregenerate, or of any self-satisfaction to\nman as Christian. Hence the uniformity and consistency of his teaching\nwith respect to \"works.\" In the believer and the unbeliever alike,\nthese \"works,\" judged by \"the law\"--the standard of moral\nperfection--are all defective, and therefore unavailing. The same\ntruth applies to them all at every stage of the Christian's progress\ntowards heaven. In no sense does salvation come by \"works,\" \"lest any\nman should boast.\"\n\nOn this point, however, the apostle has always been misunderstood by\npersons who have pushed his teaching to an illegitimate conclusion. If\nall be of \"grace,\" why insist upon \"works\"? The objection was made in\nhis day, and he met it. It is made in our day, and has still to be\nmet. It is sufficiently met by Paul's own method. Paul's doctrine of\ngrace could never, in his mind, lead to \"licentiousness,\" and it is\none of the most remarkable phenomena of religious thought that it\nshould have ever been suspected of doing so. The Christian man, in\nPaul's view, is the regenerate man; and the regenerate man is the holy\nman. Without the spirit and life of holiness Paul would have deemed it\nabsurd to consider a man a Christian at all. The passage before us,\neven if there were no others of the same kind, is sufficient to prove\nhow indissolubly connected are privilege and obligation in the\nChristian life. As we have seen, the apostle draws the exhortations\nwhich commence with this chapter, and which are exhaustively presented\nin all their variety and comprehensiveness--exhortations to a complete\nconsecration to God in all the practical forms which it can\nassume--from the great gospel system, the system of salvation by grace\nand by grace alone; evidently taking it for granted that, by the\ncontemplation of the grace for man which is in Christ Jesus, the minds\nof his readers would be softened, and prepared to acknowledge the\nclaim.\n\nWhat, then, is the nature of the consecration to which we are thus\nurged? \"That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, and\nacceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.\" Every word in\nthis description tells: and if we gather together the elements of the\nservice commended, we shall find that nothing is wanting, and that\nunder the various particulars we may range all the duties and beauties\nof a consecrated Christian life.\n\nThe only point on which a question might be raised is as to the\nmeaning of the terms: \"That ye present your _bodies_ a _living_\nsacrifice.\" Some have supposed a contrast here between the dead\nbodies of the animals offered in the old sacrifices and the living\nself-consecration of the Christian. If the supposition be just, the\nidea is both beautiful and suggestive. I think, however, that the\nultimate meaning of the apostle is that the believer in Christ should\ndevote _himself_ wholly to God, and that the term \"your bodies\" is\nonly another term for \"yourselves.\" We cannot imagine an acceptable\nbodily, or external sacrifice, without the participation in it of the\nconscience, the judgment, the heart, the whole man. The apostle puts\nhis thought somewhat more fully in the kindred passage: \"Ye are bought\nwith a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit\nwhich are God's.\" Observe, then, the elements of this consecration.\n\n1. _Individuality._ It is to be a personal thing. \"Present\nyourselves.\" We cannot fulfil our Christian mission by transferring it\nto other hands. There are no proxies in religion. Organisations,\ncommittees, associations, the giving of money--all have their\npropriety, but none of them can take the place of personal\n\"presentation.\" For convenience' sake, organisations of various kinds\nmay be resorted to with a view to the maintenance and spread of the\ngospel in the world, and undoubtedly may be usefully employed in\nspheres beyond the reach of personal endeavour; but the individual\nChristian must _himself_ be engaged in the service of God. Every\nbeliever in the Saviour has his own sphere of service, in which no\nfellow creature can be substituted for Him. The Christian law is:\npersonal service always in so far as it is possible; vicarious service\nonly in so far as personal service cannot be rendered.\n\n2. _Activity._ \"A living sacrifice.\" No man fulfils his Christian\ncommission in mere retirement and contemplation. It is true that he is\nnot to be \"of the world;\" but in the nature of the case he must be\n\"in\" it. Retirement and contemplation are, indeed, needed for the rest\nand growth of the soul; but action is at least equally indispensable.\nOur practical life is the chief part of our testimony for God, and the\nchief weapon of our aggressive warfare upon the unbelief and\nirreligion around us; and in order that it may be effective, it is\nrequired, in its fulness and in its energy, to be pervaded,\ninvigorated, impelled, and directed by the Christian spirit. Every\nscene, every experience, every development of life is to be hallowed.\nIf we \"present ourselves a living sacrifice,\" we relinquish all\nself-claim, and give ourselves up to God to be used by Him for the\npurposes of His glory. As Christ's sacrifice began with the moment\nwhen He left His Father's throne, so ours must begin with the first\nconsciousness of our salvation--\"a living sacrifice,\" the consecration\nof the whole life with all its powers.\n\n3. _Holiness._ \"Holy,\" because _to God_, with the full intention and\ndevotion of the soul. This scarcely needs to be insisted on. There may\nbe an apparent religious devotedness which is not real, because it\ntakes the form of ostensibly religious acts--acts, however, which have\nnot their origin and their impelling force in grateful love to God for\nHis saving mercy, but in some kind of selfishness, and which are\ntherefore unholy in themselves, and unacceptable to God. The\nconsecrated life is the life which is in sympathy with the whole\ncharacter and will of Him by whom the supreme blessing of redemption\nhas been bestowed.\n\n4. _Reasonableness._ The true consecration is not the result of any\nmere positive or arbitrary enactment, the ground and propriety of\nwhich cannot be discerned. The true Christian does not spend his life\nupon a certain principle, and consequently in a certain way, merely\nbecause he is _told_ to do so. The service which he renders to God\nrises out of his felt _relations_ to God. If it were not commanded at\nall--if it were not even formally hinted at as an obligation--it would\nstill be natural, \"reasonable,\" and therefore right. The realised\n\"mercies of God\" would be instinctively understood to claim\nit--instinctively felt to prompt it. \"Your reasonable service.\" The\nwords are significant. \"Service\" is properly _homage_. \"Reasonable\" is\nthat which pertains to the _mind_. So that the apostle's phrase stands\nopposed to all mere religious externalism. It is the homage of the\nlife to God with the full consent of the mind, in the consciousness of\nthe sacred obligation arising out of the enjoyment of the Divine mercy\nin the salvation of the soul.\n\nSuch service is declared to be \"acceptable to God.\" It is so for the\nsake of Christ whose grace has infused into the soul the life out of\nwhich it springs; it is so because the motives which determine it are\nright and good; and it is so because it is the loving gift of His own\nchildren.\n\nBut the apostle expands his thought, so as to set forth this\nconsecration under other aspects--as, for example, that of\n_nonconformity to the world_. \"Be not conformed to this world.\" A word\nof explanation is required on the meaning of the term, \"this world.\"\nIt is obvious that this term has no reference to the external frame of\nthings, considered in itself. In a loose way we apply the term \"world\"\nto many things, and Nature is one of them. But full compliance with\nthe apostle's admonition in the text is compatible with even an\nenthusiastic admiration of Nature. Nature is a mirror in which we may\nsee the wisdom and the goodness of God. It is full of the beautiful to\nbe loved--full of the sublime to be admired. Its phenomena, forms, and\nlaws, are worthy of the most reverential and pleasurable\ninvestigation, not only for what they are in themselves, but because\nthe most spiritual Christian can say, \"My Father made them all: they\nare His.\" The term \"world,\" again, sometimes means the aggregate of\nhuman beings; but nonconformity to the world is at the furthest remove\nfrom misanthropy. Human beings are proper objects of a Christian's\nlove, and his love for them is shown in the best efforts he can make\nfor their welfare. Every man is, to his mind, invested with a sacred\nimportance. He endeavours to estimate men as fully as possible in the\nsame way as God does, of whom it is said that \"His mercies are over\nall His works,\" and that \"He so loved the world, that He gave His\nonly begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,\nbut have everlasting life.\" At the lowest, man is God's\nimage--mournfully defaced, it is true--but retaining in his nature\ntraces enough of his original dignity to compel our recognition of him\nas God's handiwork; whilst also, even at the lowest, he may be brought\nunder the influences of a gospel which despairs of none. Neither is\nthere anything in the apostle's injunction to condemn the social\nrelationships which prevail amongst us or to weaken our appreciation\nof them. The true Christian, indeed, will ever be the best husband,\nthe best wife, the best parent, the best child, the best friend. All\nthese natural relationships are capable of being ennobled by the holy,\nsanctifying influences of true religion. God Himself often appeals to\nthem as types of the relations in which He stands to us, and as\nexplanations of the tenderness of the love He cherishes for us. How\nprominent is the position they take in the epistles. The inspired\nwriters thought none of them beneath their notice. God has given to us\nHis will in connection with such humble things as domestic service,\nslavery, and the like. Neither does the apostle here call upon us to\nseparate ourselves from the common business of secular life.\nScripture again and again enforces the honest doing of the work of\nevery day, on which the bread of every day depends. Nor is there here\nany prohibition of the enjoyment of the utmost happiness which the\nsinless pleasures of our outward life can afford. The Christian is\npeculiarly fitted for such enjoyment, because he can receive it with a\ndevoutly thankful heart, and in a spirit which will keep it from being\nharmful.\n\nThis term, \"the world,\" means _the age_, or the temporal conditions\nnow existing, considered from a moral and spiritual point of view.\n\"The world,\" therefore, to which we are not to be \"conformed\" is the\norder and course of life followed by those to whom the present is all\nand eternity nothing. The Christian is to regard life from another, a\nhigher--namely, a spiritual and eternal--point of view, and to live\naccordingly. It is the _wrong spirit_ of life that the apostle calls\nus away from--the life which is governed by \"worldly\" impulses and\nmotives. His injunction is like unto that of another apostle: \"Love\nnot the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man\nlove the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is\nin the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the\npride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the\nworld passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will\nof God abideth for ever.\" \"The lust of the flesh\"--carnality--the\nlowest of all the forms of self-gratification--that which makes the\ndrunkard, the profligate, the debauchee. \"The lust of the eyes\"--the\ndisposition to attach ourselves to what is external, showy, dazzling.\n\"The pride of life\"--the tendency to glory in anything which ministers\nto our self-importance in our worldly position--wealth, rank, station.\nAll these things are passing away, and are therefore unworthy of the\nsupreme place in our hearts. Enjoyments springing out of them, hopes\nfounded upon them, must perish. Only he that \"doeth the will of\nGod\"--living above the love of the world, by living to God and in the\nsupreme love of Him--\"abideth for ever\" in the higher and happier\norder of being.\n\nThere is a proper \"use\" of the world, which is easily distinguished\nfrom its \"abuse.\" The worldly spirit of an unchristian man says, \"Let\nus eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.\" The ascetic spirit in a\nChristian man says, \"All contact with the world is dangerous: we must\nhave nothing to do with it. Touch not, taste not, handle not.\" The\ntrue spirit of Christianity says, \"Use the world, but do not abuse\nit.\" The Christian's inheritance is inclusive of \"all things.\" All may\nbe made to minister to his spiritual growth, and to become the means\nof blessing on his part to others. Avail yourself of all, then, but\nwithin the limits proper to each; never allowing any, by over\nindulgence, to check the development of the inner life. Use the world,\nbut do not let the world use you. \"I pray not that Thou shouldest take\nthem out of the world, but that Thou shouldest _keep them from the\nevil_.\"\n\nIn looking, then, at the idea of nonconformity to the world, it was in\nthe apostle's mind, we are impressed by one or two reflections.\n\n1. The apostle takes a wide, free, and exalted view of his subject. He\nis in marked dissent from the spirit of Pharisaism, whether among the\nJews, or in the Christian Church. His plan is different from the\nordinary rules and restraints which men put upon themselves, and which\nattach (sometimes arbitrarily enough) merely to certain habits and\nforms of life which are of no moment. Paul's \"world\" does not mean\ncertain conditions of society, certain amusements, or certain\noccupations, conventionally marked off from all the rest as being\nspecially wrong. It is not a mere cleaning of the outside of the\nplatter. He goes deeply into the heart of things. What he teaches is\nthis: \"Ye are God's redeemed, disciples of Christ, heirs of glory.\"\nLive under the inspiration of all this--all will then follow that\nought to follow. You are no longer under law, which says, \"Touch not,\ntaste not, handle not--stand entirely aloof;\" but under grace, with\nlove to God as your motive, and the Spirit of Christ as your guide. He\ncould say, \"I am not of the world;\" and yet He was no prophet of the\nwilderness, but a Brother and Sympathiser everywhere. The first great\nsocial act of His public ministry was to associate Himself with the\njoy of life. With its sorrow also He was equally at home. He lived His\nDivine life in every scene--in His childhood under the roof of His\nparents, in the toil for bread, in public, in private, in the temple,\nin the family at Bethany. There is no allowable scene in which we\nmove, and with which we mingle, from which His sanctifying presence is\nwithheld. We have no need to be afraid to go where He has been before\nus, if only we go in His spirit. \"They are not of the world, even as I\nam not of the world.\"\n\n2. This law lays no hard bondage on life. Not on its duties; for\nChristianity raises them all into consecration;--not on its\naffections; for Christianity purifies them all;--nor on its lawful\nenjoyments; for Christianity forbids nothing but sin. Worldliness is\ndetermined by the _spirit_ of our life, not by the objects with which\nwe have to do. It is only \"the _lust_ of the flesh, the _lust_ of the\neye, and the _pride_ of life\" that are prohibited. It is not a worldly\nobject that makes us worldly, but the worldly spirit with which we\nregard it.\n\n3. It is easy to see that this principle of nonconformity to the world\nis in constant requisition. There is abundant scope for it. The\nopinions of men and the known will of God are often in competition; it\nought never to be a matter of doubt as to which we prefer. We are\noften exposed to allurement into scenes which are notoriously\nunfavourable to the development of the spiritual life; there ought not\nto be even a momentary uncertainty as to our willingness to resist the\nallurement--not merely for our own sake, but for the sake of Him whose\n\"mercies\" we enjoy, whose we are, and whom we profess to serve. There\nshould never be any room for the question as to whether we are on the\nside of right or wrong, holiness or sin, spirituality or carnality,\nconscience or convenience, charity or harshness, faith or unbelief.\n\nThus we see that, whilst in one aspect of it Christianity is broad, in\nanother it is narrow. \"Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that\nleadeth unto life.\" These are the words of the Divine Author of our\nfaith. This is the chief ground of dislike which men of the world have\nto the practical claims of the gospel. Say with Paul that everything\nwe do must be done to the glory of God; say with Christ that sin is in\nour secret thoughts as well as in our acts, and then the complaint of\n\"strictness\" is instantly heard. Yet is it not evident that an inward\nholiness is the only thing that can be taught, and that without inward\nholiness there is no real holiness at all? The truth is that men\nsecretly want concessions to be made in favour of their favourite\nsins--one for his ambition, another for his unlawful or questionable\nattachments, another for his covetousness, another for his liberty to\nbe dishonest in trade or insincere in society, another--where shall we\nstop? Concessions? Men may make concessions in these directions in the\nname of Christianity; but Christianity itself disowns them. \"What\nfellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what\ncommunion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with\nBelial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what\nagreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of\nthe living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in\nthem; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore\ncome out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the\nunclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you,\nand ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.\"\n\n\"Be not conformed to this world.\" So obviously true are the remarks\nwhich have been made, that one reflection might well excite a\nmomentary surprise. It might be said, \"Is not unworldliness of the\nvery essence of the new life? And if it be, why recommend that which\nmust follow in the due course of things?\" It is true that\nunworldliness _is_ of the essence of the new life; but we have to\nremember that we receive that life, not perfectly developed, but in\nits germ; and that the process of its growth is impeded by what\nremains of the old life which it is destined gradually, and by-and-by\ncompletely, to replace. This is the phenomenon which Paul describes\nwhen he speaks of the conflict between the \"old\" man and the \"new.\"\nOur will is called upon at every point to decide between the impulses\nof our new condition and the habits of the old.\n\nIn conclusion, how is this nonconformity to the world, in the spirit\nof a grateful consecration to God, to be attained? \"Be ye transformed\nby the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and\nacceptable, and perfect will of God.\" This is the great\ndesideratum--the great necessity. The primary change must take place\nin the mind--not in its nature, but in the kind and order of its\n_life_. It must be \"renewed\" in its bias, in its inclinations, in its\naspirations, so that it may be able to understand and appreciate the\nDivine will, and to address itself to the order of service which the\nFather of mercies shall accept.\n\nIt may be said, \"What do we know of the spiritual world? And how can\nwe be conformed to a world of which we know nothing?\" The answer is,\nthat our very Christianity supposes the change which sets this\nobjection aside. Our love to this present world can only be subdued by\nits being superseded _by_ another, or subordinated _to_ another. Our\nlove to Christ is the great secret of our attachment to heaven and to\nheavenly things. Given a soul under the influence of love to God, and\nloyalty to God must follow.\n\nIn order to this, however, there must be self-knowledge. We must see\nour \"differences.\" There must be the study of the character of Christ.\nThere must also be earnest prayer for, and trust in, the help of the\nHoly Spirit. The work before us is more than an occasional outburst of\nreligious sentiment; more than spasmodic, self-denying charity under\nthe influence of suddenly awakened emotion; more than scrupulosity\nabout small matters of pleasure or pursuit. _It is a life_; and as\nsuch it has spontaneity, freedom, and blessedness. In many an instance\nit attains wonderful maturity on earth; it is perfected in heaven.\n\nIs this life ours? Oh, accept the one and only Saviour--exclusive in\nHis claims, yet offering His mercy to all. You are conscious of sin,\nand this makes you feel (if you reflect) your need of salvation. Take\nit from Him. All He asks is that you should turn from the sin that\nmade Him bleed, and trust the love which for you was stronger than\ndeath. Strait as is the gate through which you must enter into \"life,\"\nthat life is in itself one of holy freedom and holy joy. The \"gate\"\nopens into broad fields of exhaustless treasure. Whoever may\nrepresent the Christian life as monotonous and poor, we say it is not\nso. It is quietness of heart, loftiness of feeling, sweet submission,\ntrust, loyalty to the highest, aspiration after the best, the\nabnegation of self in blessing others and in glorifying the God and\nFather of all; such is the life to which the Christian is called. We\nchallenge the world to produce a single case of a Christian regretting\nhis consecration, or confessing that he made a sorry exchange, when he\nleft the world's delusive hopes for pardon, peace, the Father's smile,\nthe way of holiness, and the assurance of heaven. The wholly\nconsecrated Christian is the wholly happy one.\n\n    Fling wide the portals of your heart;\n    Make it a temple set apart\n    From earthly use, for heaven's employ,\n    Adorn'd with prayer and love and joy:\n    So shall your sovereign enter in,\n    And new and nobler life begin.\n\n    Redeemer, come! I open wide\n    My heart to Thee; here, Lord, abide!\n    Let me Thine inner presence feel,\n    Thy grace and love in me reveal;\n    Thy Holy Spirit guide me on,\n    Until the glorious crown be won!\n\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\n_CHRISTIANITY IN OUR DAILY LIFE._\n\n\"Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord\nJesus.\"--Colossians iii. 17.\n\n\nOne of the most striking characteristics of the Christian religion is\nwhat I may term its _universality_. I mean that its obligations and\nprivileges cover the whole ground of human life--present and to come.\nThis fact, which is abundantly illustrated and enforced in the New\nTestament, is also clearly hinted at in the Old. It seems to have been\npresent to the Psalmist's mind in the parallel he draws in the\nnineteenth Psalm between the sun, whose going forth is from the end of\nheaven, whose circuit is unto the ends of it, and from whose heat\nnothing is hid; and \"the law of the Lord\" which, in its perfectness,\ncomes into satisfying contact with all human need. It converts the\nsoul, turning it towards itself, the source of light. It makes wise\nthe simple, who unreservedly yield to its influence. It rejoices the\nheart, anxious to be right, as it is itself perfect. It enlightens the\neyes with a purity of truth which has no admixture of error. It\ncleanses from secret faults. It keeps back the servant of the Lord\nfrom presumptuous sins.\n\nThis universality gives to Christianity its grand ideal character. It\nteaches that, morally considered, sin is the condition of _all men_;\nthat condemnation is the result of sin to _all men_; and that the love\nof the Father, the sacrifice of the Son, and the regenerating and\nsanctifying power of the Holy Spirit have direct bearings on the\nspiritual wants of _all men_. Christianity meets an absolute ruin by\nan absolute restoration; so that, as there is nothing in man and in\nhis relations to the universe which sin has not defiled and degraded,\nso there is nothing in man and in his relations to the universe which\nChristianity is not designed and destined to uplift and to purify.\n\nThis element of universality comes out very strikingly in the chapter\nbefore us. The apostle is describing the spiritual life. In its\nessence, it is an abandonment of the \"old\"--\"putting off the old man,\"\nas a dress thrown completely aside; and an adoption of the\nnew--\"putting on the new man\"--the prodigal's rags exchanged for the\nbest robe. In its range, it is universal--_within_, setting the\naffections on heavenly things; _without_, renouncing the deeds of the\nlife of sin, and manifesting the virtues of the life of holiness. It\nis universal also in its application--involving personal purity, and\ngiving its own tone and spirit to all the relationships, to all the\nworship, and to all the work, of life. The whole is summed up in the\nremarkable words of the text: \"And whatsoever ye do in word or deed,\ndo _all_ in the name of the Lord Jesus.\" We are the subjects of a\nProvidence and a Grace inclusive of every moment and every incident.\nGod, on His part, demands of us a consecration that shall leave\nnothing (however unimportant, relatively considered) unhallowed--not a\nsingle affection, no domestic or social relationship, nothing in\nspeech, nothing in conduct. It is the same truth that the same apostle\nelsewhere expresses: \"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or\nwhatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.\"\n\nI want to offer to your attention at this time a single application of\nthis principle--its application to the common, secular work of life.\n\nAt first sight, it seems strange that by far the greater part of human\nlife should be appointed by God to be spent in worldly toil. This\nstrangeness is augmented in proportion as our aim is towards a life\ndistinctively and completely Christian. Considering the supreme\nimportance of the spiritual and the eternal; considering, too, the\nuncertain duration of our life, notwithstanding the fact that it\ninvolves the immeasurable interests of eternity; and considering,\nstill further, the manifold obstacles in the way of a man's\nsalvation--we might have supposed that God's providential arrangements\nwould have secured to us far more freedom from worldly labour and care\nthan we enjoy. It would not have been surprising if He had said to us:\n\"Retire much; rest much--that you may have much time for thought and\nprayer.\" But it is not so. Six days for work; one day for rest and\nworship! Certain exceptions apart, toil is, for most men, the hard and\nunremitting condition of life; often indeed--especially in our cities,\nand in \"hard times\" like the present--toil that demands the straining\nof every nerve, the putting forth to the utmost of every energy, and\nthe employment of every moment. The best of us come to our Sabbaths\nlike wrestlers who sit and rest for a while between the conflict past\nand the conflict to come. This is the experience of most of us:\nbusiness men who have to fight in the great competitions of trade;\nworking men to strive for a sufficiency of bread and raiment for\nthemselves and their families; fathers and mothers, masters and\nservants who have to meet the manifold duties and worries of domestic\nlife. We come to our Sabbath-rest, probably with the feeling that, on\nthe whole, during the week, we have _lost_ rather than _gained_ in\nrelation to our spiritual interests. Are we right in the feeling? Must\nour daily work be a hindrance to us? Is it impossible for us so to\nengage in it as to find it spiritually helpful? The text before us\nsettles the point. It presents to us an obligation that is inclusive\nof every word and deed, and which must consequently include the common\ntoil of every day. It is an apostolic injunction, and the injunction\npresupposes its own practicability. \"Whatsoever ye do in word or deed,\ndo all _in the name of the Lord Jesus_.\"\n\nThat secular work is not _necessarily_ spiritually helpful we know too\nwell. Idleness is always disastrous; but there is much worldly work\nwhich is more disastrous still. Tens of thousands pursue it daily in\nutter godlessness, and train themselves by it to intense selfishness\nand materialism. They \"mind earthly things,\" and \"glory in their\nshame.\" Even many professing Christians manifest an alarming craving\nfor mere worldly enjoyment; and their luxuries tax them a hundred-fold\nmore than their benevolence. But it need not be so. Secular work _can_\nbe made the means of spiritual education, and the sphere for the\ndevelopment of piety.\n\nThe first great requisite is conversion. No obligation, indeed, rests\nupon Christians which does not rest upon all men, whether they be\nChristians or not. A perfect Christian is simply _man as he ought to\nbe_. But in the unchristian man the disposition is wanting--he lives\nto himself. The Christian, on the contrary, has entered into a new\nlife. By the Holy Spirit's grace, he has repented of sin; he is\nforgiven, accepted, justified, accepted into Divine sonship; he is\nunder the influence of new principles--is essentially in a new\nworld--acknowledges a holy law, which he now loves for its own\nsake--is consciously under the eye of a good Master, who is his\nSaviour as well as his Lord--and is thus moved by a living impulse of\ngratitude to Him who has died for him, and whose he is in life and\ndeath. Out of this there comes the conviction that the one object of\nlife should be spiritual growth. Commonly men think of life as having\ntwo aims; or rather they try to solve the problem of living two\nlives--the one present, the other future; the one worldly, the other\nreligious; the one affecting the body with its transitory interests,\nthe other affecting the soul with its eternal interests. Hence the\nwide divorce between \"the secular\" and \"the sacred,\" work and worship,\nholy days and common days. The more enlightened Christian knows that\nthis is a radical mistake. The world, time, matter, the body--all have\ntheir relations and their obligations, their spheres and their claims;\nbut they do not stand isolated from the spiritual and the unseen.\nSeparate, they are godless. They are all intended to serve as\ninstruments of moral discipline--to supply lessons in the school of\nlife;--all tending, under God, to the great result. Failures they are,\nif regarded as _ends_ in themselves; blessed they are in proportion as\nthey are religiously used as _means_. Apart from the conviction that\nthis should be our one great aim, it seems impossible to hope that the\nspiritual will predominate over the worldly; the six days' secular\ntoil must be destructive of the day's spiritual culture. The\n\"prosperous\" will degrade life into a mere pursuit of earthly wealth\nwith its associated advantages, whilst the rest will simply continue\nthe hard struggle for daily bread--\"the bread that perisheth.\"\n\nThe life of millions around us seems, religiously considered, to be\nan absolute blank. Mix with them, observe them, and you will be\nconvinced of this. It is one of the sources of deepest sadness to a\nChristian to note the extent to which godlessness prevails in all\nranks of society. Even amongst Christians themselves there are\nterrible invasions of the spirit of worldliness. Let _us_ seek, by the\nhelp of God, the convictions by which this evil may be checked. The\nsoul is greater than the body; eternity is greater than time. The\nmaterial and the temporal sink into insignificance in contrast with\nthe spiritual and the eternal. Let the lower interests serve the\nhigher.\n\nI have already referred to the universality of the claims which\nChristianity makes upon us. Its aim is not to induce us to assume a\ncertain character merely at certain specified times and in certain\nspecified places, and to be content with that. On the contrary, its\npurpose is to induce us to do everything in one specified spirit,\nwhich shall shape, give sanctity and consecration to, the whole.\nHence, it is never represented as working first on the outward habits\nof men, but on their hearts. It does not cleanse the outside of the\ncup or platter, leaving corruption within; but it first endeavours to\nestablish purity within, and to give the purity which is within a\nforce by which it shall work outwardly. The outward acts of the life\nare but the embodiments of the heart and will. Thus, whether we be\nscholars, or merchants, or preachers, or mechanics, or servants, we\nare to carry a soul, sanctified and governed by Christ, into all our\noccupations, even the commonest. Whether we pray or work, whether we\nbe in the church or the shop, we are to be under the control of the\none Christian spirit.\n\nUndoubtedly, there are some occupations in which it is difficult for\nChristians to engage, and some which they ought never to touch. But\napart from these, the work of life is not an evil. There is no need to\nretire away from it into solitude as the only suitable sphere for the\ndevelopment of piety. A wise Christian looks upon it as a mode of\nspiritual culture. It depends upon the man himself, upon the guiding\nprinciple of his life, as to whether work shall degrade or raise him.\n\nConsider two or three points in illustration and proof of the truth I\nam endeavouring to enforce.\n\nI. Secular work requires and cultivates certain active forces of\ncharacter which are also required in the culture of the spiritual\nlife, such, for example, as _clearness and definiteness of aim_: so\nthat there shall be no working in the dark, or in ignorance of the\nspecial end to be attained. \"This one thing I do.\" _Perseverance_, so\nthat the end, once clearly ascertained and decided on, shall be\nsteadily and unflinchingly pursued, until it is accomplished.\n_Prudence and foresight_, so that there shall be a wise adaptation of\nmeans. _Energy_, so that every opportunity and every appliance shall\nbe used to the utmost. _Courage_, so that no difficulties shall\ndismay. All these forces acquire strength in the earthly sphere, which\nis a clear gain, and which may be brought to use in the spiritual. We,\nas Christians, have an end to pursue which must be clearly\napprehended; we must not run uncertainly, or as one that beateth the\nair; we must persevere, running with patience the race that is set\nbefore us; our zeal must not be without knowledge; what our hands find\nto do we must do with our might; and we must be in nothing terrified\nby our adversaries. So far from being hindered in all this by the\ndiscipline of our common life, experience proves that indolence in\nsecular business has a paralysing effect on spiritual exertion. In\nspiritual exertion man uses the same power as in secular, only the\nfield of operation is different. But inasmuch as the same powers are\nwanted for both, the one may be a true auxiliary to the other.\n\nII. The same line of remark will apply to the _passive_ forces of\ncharacter. They are wanted equally in the secular and the spiritual,\nand their cultivation in the one prepares them for use in the other.\nFor example: _Submission._ Many a position in life is irksome and\nuncongenial; but nevertheless it should be accepted as God's\nprovidential arrangement on our behalf. \"It is not in man that walketh\nto direct his steps.\"--_Patience._ Many a result has to be long worked\nfor and long waited for, often with many disappointments and\nreverses.--_Contentment._ The worry of life, not its work, is that\nwhich burdens and kills. Looking on our position as one which God has\nappointed, we take it calmly as that which is best for us.--_Trust._\nWe have simply to rely on God for everything, remembering that our\npowers, opportunities, and results are all under His wise and loving\ncontrol. \"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,\" and sufficient\nalso is the grace to bear it. Our hearts are wearied and worn only as\nwe insist on carrying heavier burdens than God assigns to us. How\nclear it is that all these passive forces are needed in our secular\nwork, if it is to be done well! But it is equally clear that they are\nneeded just as much in our spiritual life. In it their growth is an\nessential element; and they have their bearing specially on Christian\nwork--work done for the spread of religion in the world.\n\nIII. Secular work offers important opportunities for spiritual\nusefulness. Our most effective preaching is often that of our\nunconscious influence. And let us remember that no amount of formal\nsanctity can prevail against the inconsistencies of our common days.\nMoreover, our daily, secular duties bring us into contact with men in\nways which are least open to suspicion. Add to this, that they put\ninto our hands, in a greater or lesser degree, resources by which we\ncan materially help the cause of Christ, and so become, in heart, in\ninterest, in devotedness, more and more closely identified with that\ncause. We can \"honour the Lord with our substance, and with the\nfirst-fruits of all our increase,\" and so find that \"it is more\nblessed to give than to receive.\"\n\nThe practical problem that God gives to every one of us to solve, is\nto get perfected in our hearts the feeling that we are doing His will\nin the common details of our ordinary vocation as well as in acts\nmore ostensibly \"religious.\" The conclusion is irresistible; the thing\nmay be done--but how? It cannot be done without habitual\nself-examination; it cannot be done without prayer; it cannot be done\nwithout reliance on the help of the Holy Spirit.\n\nLet us be thankful to God for putting within our reach the high honour\nof glorifying Him, for introducing us to a life so pure in its\nsprings, for His kindly help in every step of its progress, and for\nthe hope that it will one day reach its happy consummation.\n\n\n\n\nIX.\n\n_UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE._\n\n\"I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall\ngive account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt\nbe justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.\"--Matthew xii.\n36, 37.\n\n\nThis is a startling, terrifying text; one of many which tempt men to\nlimitations and compromises of their meaning. Some persons would not\nhesitate to accuse it of extravagance, and even devout Christians\nsometimes pause and ask whether it is to be taken in its absolute\nliteralness. \"Every idle word.\" Is not this the kind of thing which is\nleast amenable to a vigorous judgment? Is not the \"idle,\" the vain,\nthe worthless, at the worst, thereby negative? Christ says, No. Speech\nis a gift to be put to sanctified uses; and the non-use as well as the\nabuse of every gift is sinful. This utterance of our Divine Master, to\nbe vindicated, needs only to be understood. Underlying it are vital\nmoral considerations which should be devoutly studied.\n\nThere are many ways in which a man can manifest himself. By his\nthought, he is always known to God and to his own heart, but not to\nhis fellow men. To reveal himself to them, his thought must somehow\nfind expression. His actions are mostly intentional and deliberate;\nbut they are liable to be prompted, inspired, checked, or controlled\nby circumstances. So, too, may be his speech; but there is a\nspontaneousness, a freedom, in _that_, which belongs to no other\nmanifestation of the man's inward self. Thus it is by his words that\nhe is best judged. The largest part of our practical life is\nresolvable into speech.\n\nChristianity itself is amenable to this law. Think of the streams of\nholy speech which have been flowing through the world for ages, and of\nthe life they have conveyed to thirsty souls. Think of these streams\nas they are flowing to-day in tens of thousands of Christian\ncongregations, and in innumerable Sabbath schools. Compare their\ninfluence with that of the dark utterances of heathenism, and the\ndisturbing teachings of unbelief. Think of the countless rills of\nChristian speech which are flowing to-day from the lips of those who\nlove the Saviour, and who are endeavouring to make Him known in the\nhome, in the sick-chamber, in the prison-house, and in their various\nintercourse with those around them. Compare their influence with that\nof the idle, thoughtless, impious, profane talk of the millions who\nare living without God; and then say whether Christianity may or may\nnot be judged by its words! Lord Jesus, Thou needest no justification\nfrom such imperfect creatures as we are; but if Thou didst, it would\nbe enough for us to recall the gracious words that proceeded out of\nthine own mouth, and then to challenge the wisdom of the ages, saying,\n\"Never man spake like this man!\"\n\nThe general drift of the passage before us is this, that man speaks as\nhe is, and is as he speaks, and that, therefore, by his words he shall\nbe judged. His words are signs which reveal his character. Whilst, at\nthe last, he will be judged by his character, single words and\nunnoticed deeds will, if need be, be adduced as proofs of inner and\nunderlying principles. Of course it is not meant that words will be\nthe only tests; but our Lord's language shows that they form a far\nmore important element of proof than is commonly supposed. In this\nlight, no manifestation of character is insignificant. Everything\ntells. Words, looks, even gestures, have their meaning. Often to men's\neyes, and always to God's (though He does not need them) they are as\nstraws on the stream, showing the course of the current.\n\nThese general reflections supply the basis of the further reflections\nI have to offer. My purpose is twofold: first, to show that, for good\nor ill, the life of every one of us is an incessant exercise of\ninfluence; and secondly, to deduce from this fact some important\nlessons.\n\nI. Now, generally, when men speak of exerting influence, the thought\npresent to their minds is of something exceptional, attractive,\ncommanding, or formal. Thus, such a phrase as \"a person of influence\"\nis understood to denote a man who stands in a position of special\nadvantage, either (for instance) of wealth, or of mental power, or of\nsocial importance. Hence the notion of influence is narrowed, and\nultimately it becomes false. It does so in two ways: partly by\nrestricting influence to a few, and then by confining it among these\nfew to certain peculiarities of character or of circumstance. The\ntruth is that influence is always going forth from every man, and from\neverything _in_ man.\n\nThere are two ways in which men act upon one another. They do so\neither directly, deliberately, and intentionally, or, otherwise,\nindirectly and unconsciously. Thus, if I want to make men around me\ngenerous, I may write, preach, speak, use arguments, multiply\nincentives, enforce appeals. In all this I am conscious that I have a\npurpose to accomplish, and in everything I say I keep that purpose in\nview. If I succeed, I do so through the intentional influence I have\nput into operation. I have tried to realise a definite result, and I\nhave not been disappointed. But I can teach generosity in another way.\nObedient to the impulses of my own heart, I may relieve the need of\nsome poor blind beggar on the road, who implores the passer-by to help\nhim. This act may be noticed by a third person whom I did not know to\nbe near, and it may so impress him as to open his heart and his hand\nto do the kindness he had not thought of doing. Now I had no such\ndesign with respect to _him_; for the time, I had nothing in view\nbeyond meeting an appeal for help which came personally to myself. I\nwas unconscious of the influence I exerted upon the person who\nfollowed my example, and yet I did for him as much as if I had set\nmyself to develop an argument or to enforce a claim.\n\nNow, if at this point the question be asked: \"Are we responsible for\nthis undesigned influence?\" the answer is that we certainly _are_ so,\ninasmuch as it springs from, and manifests, character. We must not be\nmisled by the fact that this quiet, unconscious action is not that of\nwhich the world takes much notice. Men do not speak of it, as they do\nof the striking and commanding agencies which form so large a portion\nof the history of the day. Some of these are powerful on a wide scale,\nas in the case of a popular preacher, or a great philanthropist. But\nthe influence of which we are speaking is exerted within narrower\ncircles. It acts, not upon the masses by wide-spread impressions, but\nupon individuals by single strokes; not upon the broad platform of\npublic enterprise, but within the more contracted sphere of personal\nlife. The supposition that it is feeble on that account is a grave\nmistake. Our personal relationships are more numerous and more\ncontinuous than our public avocations, and it is in the former rather\nthan in the latter that we are most effectually training our fellow\ncreatures for good or evil. Sometimes, too, this quiet influence is\nbrought to light with important results, as when John Bright was\ndiscovered reading the Scriptures in the cottage of a poor blind\nwoman. No public act of his--splendid as all his public acts\nare--could furnish a truer indication of character than this simple\nand, to most people's eyes, this unimportant incident in his history.\n\nThat the value of direct influence in promoting the well-being of\nmankind is incalculable there can be no doubt. All our great\nundertakings--social, political, and religious--are of this kind. The\nprogress which the world has made in every right direction is greatly\ndue to the combined efforts put forth by societies or bodies of men\nwho have had truth to propagate, or blessing to diffuse, and who have\nsteadily directed their energies to the end in view. Associations for\nPolitical Reform, Temperance Societies, British Schools, Ragged\nSchools, Sunday Schools, Tract Societies, Missionary Agencies,\nMothers' Meetings, Church, Chapel, out-door, and theatre services, are\nall of this sort; and the harvest of good reaped from them only God\nknows, at whose inspiration and in whose name all good is done.\nStatistics tell us much, but far more remains untold. All this\nwell-directed action is in accordance with the Divine order. God wills\nthat we should use judiciously and zealously applied effort for each\nother's welfare, especially in connection with the spread of His\ntruth. Every Christian agency is a form of obedience to the great\ncommand: \"Preach the gospel to every creature.\" Such action, moreover,\nis in accordance with our convictions. We _must_ labour, formally and\nintentionally, on behalf of any and every cause which lies near to our\nhearts. Imagine all these direct agencies to be suddenly and\ncompletely withdrawn--what would then become of our poor world? Would\nit not speedily lapse into a mournful, moral waste--a training-school\nfor present and everlasting perdition? Multiplied and energetically\nworked as these agencies are, the condition of the world is bad\nenough. The appalling needs of the world demand heroic effort; and, as\nI have said, the amount of good already wrought by this is beyond\ncalculation.\n\nNevertheless, the other kind of influence--the indirect and\nunconscious--is invested also with an importance which is\nincalculable; and it will be a blessed time both for the Church and\nfor the world when this truth comes to be practically remembered as it\nshould be. Let us consider this matter a little further, bearing in\nmind, as we do so, that the application of the subject must be to the\nChristian conscience of us all.\n\nI. Notice some differences between the two kinds of influence which\nhave been named.\n\n1. We have already said the influence which we consciously exert is\nthe result of forethought, and deliberately contemplates an end, the\nattainment of which is steadily kept in view; whilst our unconscious\ninfluence is spontaneous, and has no premeditation or calculation\nabout it. We need only add here, that the action of this unconscious\ninfluence is very immediate; a fact which is explained by the\nmysterious insight which enables men to look into, and to understand,\none another. We form judgments of men every day without data that we\ncan adduce. These judgments are instinctive, and they are more\nfrequently right than wrong. How is it that we conceive a sudden\nrepugnance to one, and at first sight fall in love with another? The\nimpression made needed only a word, a tone, a look, a gesture, a\nsmile, a tear; on so slender a basis a judgment was formed which will\nlast a life-time, or which years will be required to modify.\n\n2. Our unconscious influence is a perpetual emanation from ourselves.\nDirect effort need not truly express us at all. It may be imposed upon\nus by circumstances which we cannot control. Often we should avoid it\nif we could. Moreover, when it is voluntary and unconstrained, it is a\nthing of times, seasons, places, and conditions in life, and is\ntherefore more or less fitful, partial, and intermittent. The other\nkind of influence acts continuously--without pauses, without breaks,\nwithout paroxysms. It is thus that every man--high or low--in spheres\nextended or narrow, without intention, forethought or consciousness of\nthe fact, is always leading some one more or less closely after him:\nit may be wife, friend, little child, or stranger; but some one most\nsurely.\n\n3. This unconscious influence is necessarily simple. It makes its\nappeal to all kinds of human judgment, and to all degrees of human\ninsight. It is quickly apprehended, by the ignorant and the young as\nwell as by the learned and mature. Many of our direct and most\ndefinitely-arranged efforts are misunderstood. They tax people's\nthought; they demand reflection; and they frequently excite\ndifferences of opinion. How many instances there are in which the most\ncogent and strongly-urged arguments are lost, while the quiet and\nundesigned force of example succeeds.\n\n4. Our unconscious influence is the more powerful because it excites\nno suspicion. It is intuitively felt to represent our inner self in\nthe direction, and within the range, of its present meaning. Many of\nour direct efforts put men upon their guard. If they are hostile to\nour intentions, they resist our formal endeavours; if they are\nindifferent, they become impatient of our zeal. But direct efforts,\nmoreover, are often thought to be mainly _professional_, and this\nimpression concerning them places them at a disadvantage. On the other\nhand, our unconscious influence wins men unconsciously to\nthemselves--wins them when they are off their guard--and thus wins\nthem in spite of themselves.\n\nII. How, then, does this fact of our unconscious influence touch the\nquestion of our responsibility? In what sense, and on what grounds,\nare we accountable for it?\n\n1. It is conditioned by our character. It reproduces outwardly what we\nare within. If our character, or, as the Divine Master terms it, our\n\"heart\" be good, then our unconscious influence must be good likewise;\nif our character--our \"heart\"--be evil, our unconscious influence must\nalso be evil. As we are responsible for the motives which actuate us,\nso are we responsible for every form of conduct that proceeds\ntherefrom. It must, of course, be admitted that even in a\nfundamentally holy character there are ever and anon exceptional\nmistakes, inconsistencies, and flaws. How many of these, He only knows\nwho forgives all. But we are speaking of great moral tendencies; and\nconcerning these we are in no doubt. They reveal _character_, and they\nshare the responsibility, in regard to their influence, which belongs\nto character.\n\n2. It is by this unconscious influence that we act most on those who\nare nearest to us. Children, members of our families, fellow-workmen,\nand acquaintances--all these are much more affected by the general\ntenour of our conduct, and the so-thought trivial indications of our\ncharacter, than by our more formal efforts. Alas, it often happens\nthat these latter are made ineffectual by the operation of the former.\nA practical inconsistency in a parent's life at home will drive away\nfrom the mind and conscience of a child the force of the best and most\nfrequently repeated precept. Even when direct and well-meant effort is\nput forth, it is often comparatively powerless apart from the help it\nderives from the unconscious influence that accompanies it. A smile, a\nlook, a sigh, a tear, will often put life into an argument which may\nbe sound enough in itself, but which, without such an auxiliary,\nwould be dry, uninteresting, and therefore ineffective. Is all this\ninfluence outside the range of our responsibility?\n\n3. Our indirect influence is our _truest_. It best represents _us_. In\nformal effort, there is room for a more or less transient enthusiasm,\nlove of excitement, love of applause, self-seeking, hypocrisy. But our\nunconscious influence belongs to us at all times--follows us, and is\nas true to us as the shadow follows, and is true to, the substance. We\ncannot escape from it. It proceeds from us spontaneously, without our\nvolition; and it mirrors externally what we are radically and in the\nrecesses of our real being. If we be responsible for what we really\nare, we must be responsible for the influence we thus spontaneously\nand inevitably exert.\n\n4. Another ground of this responsibility is that, on reflection, we\nknow that it is by these unconscious exhibitions of character that the\nworld is constantly judging us. Often the judgment of the world is\nharsh, and commonly uncharitable; but it is shrewd, and generally\nthere is a rough justice about it which marks its worth.\n\nThese considerations, and many more that might be adduced, show how\nsolemn is our responsibility with respect to the impressions we are\nconstantly and unconsciously producing on those around us. As in\nnature, so in human life, the most unobtrusive and silent forces are\nthe strongest. The nightly dew effects more good than the occasional\nstorm-shower, and light works more wonders than lightning.\n\nIII. From all this we learn some weighty lessons. It teaches us--\n\n1. The importance of each act in our life. The text before us is no\nexaggeration. Everything tells, because there is character in\neverything, and consequently _power_ for good or ill. It is impossible\nfor any one of us to be in the world without responsibility. There is\nno escape for us. Simply to be _in_ the world, whatever we may be, is\nto exert an influence, subtle, quiet, powerful--an influence compared\nwith which argument and expostulation and entreaty are feeble. We say\nwe mean well; we think that at least we are injuring nobody and doing\nno harm; _but is it so?_ It cannot be so, unless our influence be\nalways on the side of God and of goodness. By looks, glances,\nunpremeditated words and deeds, we are perpetually exerting an\ninfluence which may turn the scale of some man's eternal destiny!\n\n2. The necessity of conversion. If our unconscious influence is to be\nof a wholesome kind, we must undergo a radical moral change, out of\nwhich will proceed an all-pervading sanctification. Blessed be God for\nthe revelation of the Holy Spirit. Up to this point, the consideration\nof our subject may have prompted some to ask: \"Are we, then, to be\nanxiously, feverishly, incessantly watching ourselves in order that we\nmay make no mistakes, and do no evil? Such vigilance--would it not\ntake all our time, and absorb all our strength? Such a life--would it\nnot be a terrible bondage? Is it necessary?\" We reply, \"Yes, and no.\"\nThat is to say, there will always be the necessity for watchfulness\nand prayer; but the true secret of _doing_ good lies in _being_ good.\nThe path of the just is as a shining light; he shines because he is\nluminous. The tree is known by its fruit; not by the fruit which is\ntacked on, as in the case of a Christmas tree, but by the fruit which\nis the produce of the tree's own interior life. \"Out of the abundance\nof the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the treasure of the\nheart bringeth forth good things, and an evil treasure bringeth forth\nevil things.\" Before a man can impart the higher order of blessing to\nhis fellow men, he himself must receive the blessing of a new nature\nfrom God.\n\nThe question is often asked why the triumphs of Christianity are not\nmore marked in the world, and why spiritual growth is not more marked\nin the Church. The answer is found partly, no doubt, in the\nimperfections of the direct efforts which are put forth with these\nends in view; but not in these alone. No small portion of it is to be\ntraced to the deleterious elements which mingle with the undesigned\ninfluences which emanate from many of the professors of Christ's\nreligion. When Moses was on the Mount with God, his face became\nluminous. Was he conscious of its shining? Not until the people were\n\"afraid to come nigh him.\" Then he had to cover his face with a vail!\nHow few are \"luminous\" enough to need \"vailing\" now!\n\n\n\n\nX.\n\n_SECULAR ANXIETY._\n\n\"Take no thought for your life.\"--Matthew vi. 25.\n\n\"Take no thought for the morrow.\"--Matthew vi. 31.\n\n\nLet us survey the entire passage of which the first of these texts is\nthe commencement, and of which the second is the close. It brings\nbefore us a common evil, and for this evil it proposes a sovereign\nremedy.\n\nThe evil is _secular anxiety_. Perhaps we need not be greatly\nsurprised at its prevalence, when we consider what the life-experience\nof most of us is. Think of the uncertainty of almost everything we\nknow--life, health, friendship, domestic relationships and affections,\nriches, commerce. Life has many sad surprises and disappointments. Our\nown day is especially full of care. The age is mad with\nspeculation--thousands making haste to be rich, and so bringing upon\nthemselves many temptations. For many others, the time is full of\nhard necessities, and the outlook is one of possible or even probable\npoverty. The admonitions given by our Lord in the verses before us are\nneeded now more than ever.\n\nThere are persons who, under the influence of pride and false notions\nof manliness, consider careworn Christians--Christians labouring and\nstruggling amid the difficulties of the way--undeserving of sympathy.\n\"After all,\" they say, \"what are the ills of life, that we should make\nso much ado? Be men!\" Sometimes we meet with superficial Christians\nwho profess that this life is really so insignificant, that it shows a\nlow state of piety to be painfully affected by common ills. As to the\nfirst, nothing but stoicism, or the hard-heartedness which is\nsometimes the result of prosperity, can make the soul unsusceptible to\nthe ordinary troubles of life, or independent of the antidote which\nthe religion of Christ supplies. As to the second, do not let them\ntalk in a way which implies that they are wiser than their Lord. He\nknew how heavily care pressed upon the hearts He loved, and\ncondescended to offer them the appropriate and all-sufficient relief.\n\nAnd how does the great Teacher speak to the careworn in these verses?\nIs it not unspiritual to take arguments for the comfort of our\nChristian life from lower things? Must we go to the irrational and\ninanimate creation for gospels of blessing for our spiritual need?\nChrist drew His arguments from the birds and the flowers; clearly\nshowing that we should accustom ourselves to see God's hand, His love,\nHis teaching, in all things. Let Him not be excluded from the least\npart of His creation. Every part of it may subserve the purposes of\nHis grace. \"_Consider_\" the fowls of the air and the flowers of the\nfields; make them objects of study. To the thoughtful they often\nsuggest \"thoughts that lie too deep for tears;\" to the Christian they\nmay well suggest thoughts which shall inspire thanksgiving and prayer.\n\nNote the condescension, the simplicity, and the power of our Lord's\nargument. His appeals are homely. He seeks no far-fetched reasonings\nor facts from antiquity. He points to birds and flowers; an argument\nfor simple people, but equally effective for the learned and the\nrefined. We have no need to go far for lessons of comfort.\n\nWe must not overlook the necessary limitations of our Lord's teaching\nin these verses. Those limitations are found in the nature of things.\nObserve, then,\n\nI. Christ does not forbid all anticipations of the future. He cannot\nmean so much as this when He says, \"Take no thought for the morrow.\"\nMan is an inhabitant of two worlds--one material, the other spiritual.\nThis being so, two distinct sets or classes of wants press upon\nhim--the wants of the body, and those of the soul. The wants of the\nsoul point to a future state of existence, for which we must prepare.\nIn relation to these, carelessness--the absence of forethought--would\nbe fatal. According to the state of our souls, the thought of the\nfuture gives us terror or joy. To the Christian, the future is the\nscene of his perfected spiritual growth, and of his consummated\nhappiness. Every aspiration of his soul bounds joyfully towards it,\nand he instinctively leaves the things that are behind to press\nforward. In the words before us, Christ does not touch such matters as\nthese. It is not fore-_thought_ which is condemned, but fore-_boding_.\n\nII. Nor does He discountenance earnest activity in the duties of the\npresent. Work is God's oldest law. It is only in wilful blindness or\nin unaccountable delusion that men can plead this teaching as an\nexcuse for indolence. \"If any man will not work, neither shall he\neat.\" Work is often spoken of as a curse; but it is a blessing. With\na Christian spirit, it may be gloriously consecrated. It links us in\nour activity with God who \"worketh hitherto,\" and with Christ who\nworked His full day.\n\nIII. Christ does not even condemn a legitimate forethought in\nconnection with secular interests. There _is_ a legitimate forethought\nsuch as this. Nature teaches it. We must sow in order to reap. We must\ntoil to-day for results which cannot come till to-morrow. \"If any\nprovide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he\nhath denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.\" The faith to\nlive by is that which prompts not to sitting down and doing nothing,\nbut to trustful and persevering enterprise. Keep in mind the\ndistinction between forethought and foreboding. It is forethought in a\nman which leads him to sow for a future harvest; it is foreboding that\nwould fill his heart with fears that the harvest will be a bad one.\nForethought is the grand distinction between the civilized and the\nsavage; foreboding is the weakness of distrust.\n\nWhat the Lord bids us guard against, then, is conjectural brooding\nover the possible necessities of the future, and our possible lack of\nthe resources required for their supply. \"Taking thought\" means\ngiving way to anxiety--the constant occupation and worry of the heart\nin looking forward, gazing into, and dreading the possibilities of the\ndays and years yet to come. \"Sufficient unto the day is the evil\nthereof.\" Be warned against forebodings of evil to-morrow. The lesson\nis, \"Do the day's work as it is appointed by God; accept the day's\nmercy, bear the day's evil; and be not anxious about the evil which\nto-morrow may bring.\"\n\nHow common a weakness--nay, rather let us say, how common a sin--this\ntaking anxious thought for the morrow is! We see the lines of care in\nthousands of faces every day. Anxiety has marked its furrows round\nlips which every morning say, \"Give us this day our daily bread.\" It\nis a calamity as well as a sin. It disturbs the heart, so that there\ncan be no enjoyment of present mercies. It adds to the present the\nweight of an unknown but dreaded future. It paralyses religious\nfeeling, and checks religious activity. It defeats its end by\nshortening the life it would fain prolong.\n\nNow Christ shows that this kind of anxiety reckons falsely, because it\nis founded on a false estimate of life; and He further shows that to\ngauge our position aright we must reckon according to the Divine\nthought respecting it. The whole of the teaching before us on this\nsubject is perfectly plain, consisting of a few simple and obvious\npoints. We cannot hope, indeed, to bring it within the understanding\nof the mere worldling. The man who has no filial confidence in God has\nno antidote for care. Anxiety can only be subdued in the heart of him\nwho can look upward, and say, \"Father, I trust in Thee!\"\n\nWhat, then, is the first point? It is this, that God--the Author of\nour life, the Creator of our bodies--will surely give that which,\nhowever necessary, is yet less important and less valuable. In\nbringing us into existence, He has done more than He can do in giving\nto us any secular blessing which we can need. \"Is not the life more\nthan meat, and the body than raiment?\" We have our life from Him; our\nbodies are His handiwork. Why should we suspect that He will be\nindisposed to give us whatever may be needful for the existence thus\ncreated? Will He, by neglect, frustrate His own purpose? The greater\ngift can only be sustained and made valid by the lesser ones. Without\nfood and raiment the body must decay, and its life must perish. God\ndoes not give imperfectly.\n\nAnother point is this, that anxious care answers no good purpose. It\nis useless. If we could by means of it gain an exemption from future\nevil, common prudence would dictate it as a wise expedient. But it is\nnot so. Christ puts this consideration very strongly. No amount of\nforeboding can add a single moment to our life, for the boundaries of\nour life have been fixed by God. The future is utterly unknown to us;\nand foreboding will not help us in the least degree to forecast its\ndifficulties and its trials, though it may unfit us for the endurance\nof them. Whether we are cognizant of it or not, God will take His plan\nwith us, and will carry it out. If we could not believe in the love\nthat He hath towards us, the thought of this would be a dark sorrow;\nbut, assured of His love as we _may_ be, we can also be assured that\nHe will do all things well. At any rate, no over-anxiety of ours will\nfacilitate the order of life we long for. \"The morrow shall take\nthought for the things of itself.\" It will have anxieties enough of\nits own in spite of every effort of ours to set it free from them.\nEvery day, to the end, will have its own \"evil,\" and the \"evil\" of\neach day will require all our strength for coping with it. So that\nanxiety _for_ the morrow will not remove care _from_ the morrow; it\nwill only take strength and joy from to-day. Trust in God, and all\nthat He gives you of trouble for to-day will be accompanied by the\ngift of the strength necessary to enable you to bear it. But do not\nexpect Him to give you strength to bear unnecessary sorrows--sorrows\nof your own making--the sorrows which spring from worldliness and\nunbelief. \"As thy day\"--the day that now is--\"so thy strength shall\nbe.\"\n\nA third point is, that, reasoning from analogy, we may be sure that\nGod will provide for us. He feeds the birds, and He clothes the\nlilies. They can do nothing for themselves; yet how well are they\nprovided for! \"Are not ye much better than they?\" A wonderfully\nsimple, beautiful, and effective argument this! How grand the view it\ngives us of God's position in His universe! What knowledge must be\nHis! What power! What vastness--what variety of resource! What\nminuteness of kindly, loving interest! Who would not gladly entertain\nsuch a conception of God and of His Providence as this, in preference\nto the atheism and the materialism which have intruded so grievously\ninto the science of our times? \"Behold the fowls of the air: for they\nsow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your\nheavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?...\nConsider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not,\nneither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his\nglory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe\nthe grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into\nthe oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?\"\nThus, God is not content with giving what is simply necessary for\nlife; He gives for _beauty_ also. Showing His goodness in such a\nmanner to objects inferior to man, why should man suspect that the\nsame goodness will be denied to _him_? Observe, that Christ does not\nteach that birds and flowers are better than men because of their\nimmunity from toil. His meaning is, that creatures which do not and\ncannot toil--creatures which do not and cannot forecast the\nfuture--are clothed and fed; will God neglect the nobler creatures to\nwhom He has given the power of thought, and whom He has put under the\nobligation to labour? Even with these higher powers, man is still as\ndependent as any of the inferior creatures around him. Will his needs\nbe overlooked, while theirs are supplied? Such a question is all the\nmore pertinent when we remember, that whilst they live for a day, he\nwas created for eternity, and needs the special gifts which can shape\nhis present life into a preparation and a discipline.\n\nAn additional point is, that unholy anxiety is essentially ungodly,\nirreligious, unworthy of the position and the professions of a\nChristian man. \"Take no thought,\" no anxious thought, \"saying, What\nshall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be\nclothed? _For after all these things do the Gentiles seek._\" Anxious\nthought, therefore, is the characteristic of heathenism, and must be\nexcluded from the religion which is true. It is the spirit of the\nworld, not the spirit which is of God. We see this clearly enough when\nwe compare the amount of thought and care which we bestow upon our\nearthly interests with that which we devote to the interests which are\nspiritual and eternal. What anxiety we give ourselves about the future\nof our health, the future of our business, the future of our worldly\nposition, the future of our children's secular education, the future\nof their rank in society! Is it not ten times as great as that which\nwe bestow upon our Christian consistency, our religious usefulness,\nour growth in grace? If we could hold the balance steadily, which\nwould prove to be the preponderating scale? Our Lord puts the case in\nan indirect manner, no doubt; nevertheless, it is impossible to avoid\nthe implied conclusion. That conclusion is this: \"If you suffer\nyourself to be anxiously absorbed in earthly things, you rank yourself\nwith 'the Gentiles,' to whom this world is all.\"--Besides, such\nanxiety is ungodly because it is _untrustful_. Heathens, who cannot\nblind themselves to the fact that their gods leave them for the most\npart, if not entirely, to themselves, may be excused if they feel that\nthere is room, yea even necessity, for anxious foreboding. But how\ndifferent should it be with those who know the one living and true\nGod, and who can recognize Him as their Father! Surely He may be\ntrusted as knowing His children, recognizing their needs, loving them,\nand tenderly caring for them. Taking anxious thought implies the\nweakness, if not the extinction, of faith.--Moreover, its impiety is\nseen in the fact that it is a practical subordination of the spiritual\nto the secular. \"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His\nrighteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.\" Let the\nmost important things have the first attention. Give due scope to the\nhigher aspirations of the soul, and the lower ones will shrink into\ntheir due proportions, and will take their proper place. God will give\nthe earthly as it is needed to those who first seek the heavenly, and\nthe true spirit of religion will make us rich by making us content.\n\nTo Christians this teaching, taking it as a whole, covers the entire\nground of their secular life, and much more than that. Look at two or\nthree samples of the cases to which it applies.\n\n1. To personal secular positions. \"What will the future be? Shall I\nlive to be old? When I am old, shall I be provided for? Will health\nand strength be continued to me according to my years?\" Leave that! Do\nyour work _to-day_. For this you may have the needful strength from\nGod. Do not trouble about anything further. Use prudently the means\nwhich God has put into your hands for providing for the future, and\nthen commit their safe keeping to Him. If you have no such means,\nstill trust. There are many promises on which you may implicitly and\ncalmly rely.\n\n2. \"How about my children? Will they grow up to be manful, good,\ngodly; a seed to serve the Lord, and a generation to call Him\nblessed; my comfort, my pride? Or will they take evil ways; prove,\nlike so many more, vicious, ungodly, and bring down my grey hairs in\nsorrow to the grave?\" Leave that! Do your duty to your children\nto-day. Train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Use a\nwise and godly forethought on their behalf. Pray for them. Instruct\nthem. Set before them a Christian example. You may trust the rest with\nGod, calmly and thankfully expecting the fulfilment of the words:\n\"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will\nnot depart from it.\"\n\n3. \"What about my religious future? If I make a Christian profession,\nshall I be able to live consistently with it? Shall I have strength to\nresist temptation? What if I should fall? Can I so live as not to\ndishonour the Church and the cause of Christ?\" Leave that! Nurse your\nChristian graces to-day. Lay up spiritual strength in reserve. That is\nrequired by a wise forethought. But having done so, leave the rest.\nGod will take care of it all. You may stedfastly trust that He will\ngloriously complete the work which He has graciously begun.\n\n4. \"My Christian work--what about that? Shall I be permitted to go on\nwith it for a few years longer, and thus to have some opportunity of\nrealizing my ambition as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ? Or shall\nI be called away comparatively early? And if so, what will become of\nall the plans and projects upon which I have expended so much thought\nand prayer and toil?\" Leave that! Do your work to-day, and be not\nanxious about the rest. When to-day merges into to-morrow let the new\nto-day bring its own work with it, to be done in the day. Nothing more\nof solicitude than that is needful. You are not indispensable to God;\nnor are you essential to the work which by His will you are doing. If\nit be worth doing, and you be separated from it, He will find a\nsuitable successor, or as many successors as the accomplishment of the\nwork may require.\n\n5. \"How about the prosperity of the cause of Christ in the world? Will\nit go steadily forward, or will new and fiercer foes rise up against\nit?\" Leave that! Do all you can for it whilst you are here, and\nentrust the rest, as you entrust your own work, to God. Do not hinder\nit by wasting time in forebodings which ought to be spent in service.\n\n6. \"What of death--my own death? Shall I have grace enough to support\nme when the time comes?\" Leave that! No doubt you will; but do not be\nanxious about it. To-day you are \"the living;\" be \"the living to\npraise the Lord,\" and trust the needs of your dying hour to Him.\n\nThe words of Christ recorded in these verses must have startled His\nhearers. They taught new truth concerning life, and, beautiful as they\nwere, the truth they taught was strange. It would have been so strange\nas to be without weight, if He had not first taught equally new and\nequally beautiful truth concerning God. How does Christ here speak of\nGod? \"Your heavenly Father.\" The heathen instructors had not taught\nthat! Pharisees and Sadducees had not taught that! But Christ was now\nin the world; He had come forth from the Father, and He could say to\nmen: \"Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.\"\nThus the whole teaching of these verses on the subject of Providence\nand of Faith becomes plain and demonstrative. The great requirement is\nfor us to love Him filially as He loves us paternally; and then, from\nthat point, all is clear. We are dependent, but He will provide. There\nare present difficulties, and probably there will be future trials;\nbut all takes the form of wise and holy discipline under His guiding\nand beneficent hand.\n\nHow do we arrive at the conviction of the Fatherhood of God? Sin\nstands in the way, and conscience craves something more than a mere\nauthoritative announcement. Sin is the forfeiture of all claim to the\nDivine favour. What right have we to expect that His providence will\nbe to us a providence of love? There is but one answer: to trust a God\nof providence, we must believe in a God of grace. Paul puts the whole\nphilosophy of this in a single sentence: \"He that spared not His own\nSon, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also\nfreely give us all things?\" Our present subject, therefore, calls for\nthe gospel, and cannot be completed without it. \"Behold the Lamb of\nGod that taketh away the sin of the world.\" \"He that hath seen me hath\nseen the Father.\" And, \"If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts\nunto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven\ngive good things to them that ask Him?\" But let us ever remember that\nwe have higher wants than those of the body. The soul needs food, and\nGod has supplied \"the bread of life\"; it needs raiment, and God has\ngiven to us the robe of righteousness wrought by Christ; it needs a\nhome, and we have \"a house not made with hands, eternal in the\nheavens.\" With these provisions, then, shall we forecast the future\nwith fear, or with hope? Which shall it be?\n\n    O holy trust! O endless sense of rest,\n      Like the beloved John,\n    To lay my head upon the Saviour's breast,\n      And thus to Journey on!\n\n\n\n\nXI.\n\n_CONTENTMENT._\n\n\"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in\nwhatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be\nabased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am\ninstructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to\nsuffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth\nme.\"--Philippians iv. 11-14.\n\n\nMy purpose is to define and to recommend the Christian virtue of\ncontentment. I shall endeavour to show that its acquirement is a duty,\nand that its possession is a joy; but I shall also have to show that\nas a duty it is not practicable, and that as a joy it is not\nattainable, except on Christian grounds. I trust that all this will be\nmade abundantly clear by the following observations.\n\nI. Let us glance at the character of the man whose words are now\nbefore us. There is in the words the ring of a high moral tone which\nis irresistibly attractive. Yet the effect they produce upon us must\ndepend very much upon the kind of man who wrote them, and the\ncondition or conditions of life through which he had to pass.\n\nWe should be pained by such words as these if they came from the lips\nof a man whom the world would consider prosperous. When the conditions\nof a man's life are easy and comfortable, to make a profession of\ncontentment would be an abuse both of language and of sentiment. Such\na case is not one for content, but for devout and hearty gratitude\nmingled with a sense of humiliation under the thought, which ought to\nbe present to every such man, that he deserves no more than others,\nthough God gives him more than many others possess.\n\nWe should think sadly of these words if they came from a stoical man.\nContentment is not the listlessness of indifference. It is\nself-conscious, and finds in itself its own joy. Indifference is\nloss--deterioration. It implies the blunting of sensibility. The heart\nthat is callous to grief is closed against gladness also.\n\nWe should pity the man who uttered these words from mere weakness of\ncharacter, devoid of aspiration, enthusiasm, or resolve. In his case,\ncontent would be mere good-for-nothingness. The world is full of\nuncomplaining men and women who do not cry, not because they are\ncontent, but because they are spiritless, and consequently because\nthey are crushed down and hopeless.\n\nThere are other circumstances which would disparage contentment. We\nwill not mention them now; they will be suggested as we proceed.\n\nNow Paul was every way the kind of man to give the noblest meaning to\nthe words we are considering. His whole constitution, make, rendered\nhim susceptible of the highest earthly enjoyment. Mentally, morally,\nand socially, he was prepared to accept and to appreciate the best\nthat this world could offer to him. He had great powers of thought,\nreflection, imagination, and will. He had great tenderness and\ngenerosity of heart. Proofs abound that his social instincts were full\nof life and strength. He was pre-eminently a man to be touched by\nkindness or unkindness, by gratitude or ingratitude, by love or\nhatred.\n\nAnd what was his experience? It was not the one-sided experience of a\nman who has known only one condition in life. On the contrary, he had\nbeen familiar with almost the highest and the lowest. On the one hand,\nhe had enjoyed the love, and the tender, fervent gratitude, of many of\nhis converts; and on the other hand, he could speak of the bad\nconduct, the ingratitude, and the vexatious opposition of others. He\nhad the manifold sorrows of a martyr's life of bonds, imprisonments,\nscourgings, and stonings, to which must be added the prospect of a\nmartyr's death. He was not a man of one kind of experience only, to\nwhich habit had accustomed him. He had known the terrible alternations\nof life, and had learned to be content under them all. \"I know both\nhow to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all\nthings I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to\nabound and to suffer need.\"\n\nMoreover, Paul was a man of prodigious activity. Contentment is easy\nto a sluggish nature, but it must have been a difficult acquirement to\none in whom brain, heart, hands, and all the powers of life were\ncontinually on the move. Couple with this incessancy of action the\nloftiness and ardour of his aspirations. He was not only capable of an\nintense enthusiasm in any work which he took in hand, but his whole\nimpulse was an energetic straining forward and upward.\n\nThese considerations give something of _marvellousness_ to the\ncontentment which the apostle here avows for himself; and they suggest\nthat it must have rested on some underlying conviction--some\nestablished condition of soul which it is desirable for us to discover\nand identify.\n\nThe language he uses is in the utmost degree significant. There is no\nhaste about it, nor is there any exaggeration. It is the expression of\nthe result of a severe and protracted mental and moral training, under\nthe influence of the Spirit of God. \"I have _learned_.\" The lesson has\nbeen a difficult one, but I have mastered it. \"_I_ have learned.\" The\n\"I\" is emphatic. \"Whether others have learned the lesson or not, _I_\nhave learned it.\" The apostle does not speak either hesitatingly or\nslightingly of his attainment. Thus, when he says, \"I know both how to\nbe abased, and how to abound,\" he goes on to use a word which means,\nliterally, \"I have been taught the secret,\" \"I have been initiated\ninto the mysteries\"--both of satisfaction and of hunger, both of\nplenty and of want. Such language implies that his contentment was one\nwhich had not been easily acquired. He had not passed into it by a\nsingle step only. I do not suppose the process was a very slow one,\nbut it _was_ a process. The lesson had to be spelt out, word by word,\noften syllable by syllable, perhaps sometimes with tearful eyes and a\nbleeding heart. And so these words are a record of attainment such as\nthis world cannot snatch. The man who could so speak of himself was in\npossession of the best knowledge. He had graduated and taken honours\nin the highest university.\n\nII. The practical importance of this lesson of contentment must be\nobvious to all. Two considerations will enable us to see its\nimportance clearly.\n\n1. Our earthly life is a scene of change. No position is secured to\nany of us in this world, nor is it in the power of any of us to remain\nalways, and safe from molestation, in a coveted state of action, or of\nexistence, or of enjoyment. Some men never get into a state of\npositive happiness, and, in the experience of many, the transitions\nfrom high to low positions are startling, romantic, painful,\nmysterious. Events which men call accidents are constantly changing\nthe aspects of things, and certainly the most marked characteristic of\nour life is vicissitude. This is a truth which is known and recognized\nby all, and possibly it is one which is felt acutely by not a few who\nare here at this time.\n\n2. The changes to which we are exposed are temptations to disquietude\nof heart, and consequently to discontent. This is true in a peculiar\nsense of those who look only to the present world for satisfaction,\nbut it is also true to a certain extent of the Christian. And why?\nPartly because he is seldom perfectly free from unworldliness of\ndesire and of hope; partly because he does not always read aright the\nmeaning of his discipline, and keep in mind the truth that because it\nis Divine it must be always wise and good; and partly because he looks\ntoo much to \"second causes,\" not only in disappointment and sorrow,\nbut also in success and joy, forgetting the hand and the purpose of\nGod.\n\nSo that a Christian who has passed through the numerous and various\nvicissitudes of life, and whose faith, like a tree in successive\nstorms, has gained strength from every blast--whose hopes have\nbrightened while the clouds of life were lowering, and whose\nexperience by discipline has become enlightened, rich, and mature--is\none of the noblest, though, alas! one of the rarest, sights in the\nworld. Such a man was Paul in a pre-eminent degree. Reverses did not\nsour him. He had often to contend against the hostile hand of his\nfellow man, but persecution did not embitter him. He could retain\nthrough all his absorbing interest in the salvation of human souls and\nin the glory of God. His troubles did not shut him up in himself. He\ndid not always talk about them, as though he wanted everybody to pity\nand help him; on the contrary, he was a peculiarly brave and joyful\nman. He looked upon joy not simply as a possibility, nor simply as a\nprivilege, but as a duty, the neglect of which by a Christian was\nshameful. He knew that whatever of earthly good might slip away from\nhim, or be snatched away, there was something immeasurably better\nwhich was his for ever--God, Christ, immortality, heaven. \"Who shall\nseparate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress,\nor persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... Nay,\nin all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved\nus. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor\nprincipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,\nnor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to\nseparate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.\"\n\nIII. What has been said will help us to form a true idea of the state\nof mind which the apostle here avows for himself, and in doing so to\navoid some mistakes. We have seen that contentment is neither\nstoicism, nor want of interest in life nor sluggishness of\ntemperament, nor weakness of character. We further say, that Paul does\nnot mean that he considers all conditions in life alike desirable,\nthat there is nothing to choose between them, that it is altogether\nimmaterial whether men be well or ill, strong or weak, rich or poor,\nhigh or low, masters or slaves. Paul was not insensible to the\nadvantages of outward comfort, or to the disadvantages of poverty. Nor\ndoes he mean to teach that a Christian may not use all means which are\nintrinsically legitimate and right for improving his condition, in so\nfar as he has those means at his command, or the possibility of\nobtaining them. What he means is that his happiness is not essentially\ndependent on external circumstances. An illustration of Solomon's\nwords, \"A good man is satisfied from himself,\" he carries within him\neverywhere the elements of his own well-being. So that being the man\nhe is, being the man God has made him to be, being the man whom the\nHoly Spirit is fashioning by His grace, through the instrumentality of\nthe discipline of life, with a hope that does not make him ashamed,\nbecause he has the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy\nGhost given unto him--he is happy enough even in the midst of\nprivations and difficulties. His contentment is not indifference to\nhis work, but industrious fidelity. It is not the narcotizing of\naspiration; for a man may ardently aspire, and yet be content until it\nis time to rise. Still less is it complacency with his own moral and\nspiritual condition, or with that of the world around him; for he says\nthat he \"forgets the things that are behind, and reaches forth to the\nthings that are before,\" and he \"greatly longs after men in the bowels\nof Jesus Christ.\" But with all his appreciation of life's comforts,\nwith all his aspirations after personal perfection, and with all his\nlongings to be useful in his day, he is not disconcerted by\ndifficulties and disadvantages;--he has learned in whatsoever state he\nis, therewith to be content.\n\nWe must guard ourselves, however, from applying this example of\ncontentment to troubles of our own making. God entrusts every man,\nmore or less, with the means of blessing himself, and of maintaining\nhis own honour among his fellow men. But by sin, or by mistakes of\nconduct arising from a culpable carelessness, we may lose our position\nof advantage; and when we do so, we are not entitled to the comfort\narising from the thought that, as all events are in God's hands, we\nmust just take things as they come, and be satisfied! The sin which\nhas brought mischief must be deplored; its consequences must be\naccepted as a Divine correction, and Divine help must be sought so\nthat the chastisement may be sanctified. And if on the lower ground we\nbecome less worldly, holier, and more Christ-like, God will have the\ngreater glory and will give the deeper peace.\n\nIV. And now for the secret of the apostle's contentment, and the\nlessons that we are to learn therefrom for ourselves. Paul says, \"I\ncan do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.\" The language\nis peculiar; what does it mean? It means that, in whatsoever condition\nhe might be, he had Christ for a Helper and a Friend; that Christ's\ncompanionship with him was constant, full, tender; that His sympathy\nwas great, minute, comprehensive, cheering, exalting, all-sufficient.\nSo complete was his identification with Christ that he tells these\nPhilippians that living or dying he was Christ's. But how did this\ncome about? Once he persecuted the Christ whom he now glorifies. And\neven now his happiness has nothing of the _miraculous_ in it. It does\nnot belong to him merely as an apostle, or in the same way as his\n\"inspiration\" or other special, supernatural gifts with which he is\nendowed. It is the work of God's grace--grace imparted to him through\nthe same channels along which it may come to us. The secret is this:\nPaul was a Christian--a converted, regenerated man, a believer in\nChrist, under the influence of the Holy Ghost; and the result was\naccomplished by such simple means as faith and hope and prayer.\n\nPaul had felt, as we all feel, that there is in man a soul as well as\na body, an eternal life as well as a temporal. He had also felt, as we\nall feel, that he was a sinner, condemned and hopeless before that\nholy law which he had broken, and the judgment of which he must one\nday meet. But, in obedience to the message of the gospel, he had\naccepted Christ as his Saviour, through whom he had received the\nforgiveness of sins, Divine sonship, and sanctifying grace. So that he\nhad to regard himself as henceforth under training for heaven, the\ntraining administered by a Divine hand. He knew that the present life,\nwith all its changes, was the thing that was wanted for his spiritual\neducation, that nothing was accidental, that no changes were chances,\nand that all changes made up one great organized system of discipline,\nin which \"all things were working together for good.\" Thus he could\ncherish in his heart a contentment which would cover all his\nexperiences. There are ills which certain men can bear patiently, but\na Christian contentment learns to bear all ills cheerfully;\nunmurmuring and acquiescent when sorrows multiply, and when mercies\none by one are taken away.\n\nThis contentment under Christian conditions is a duty, not perhaps of\nvery easy attainment--Paul himself does not say that it is that--but\nit is a duty, as being the natural fruit of faith and trust. Every\nChristian should be able to say:\n\n    I will not cloud the present with the past,\n      Nor borrow shadows from a future sky:\n    'Tis in the present that my lot is cast,\n      And ever will be through eternity.\n\n    \"Sufficient to the day the present ill,\"\n      Was kindly utter'd by a heavenly Voice,\n    And one inspired to tell his Master's will\n      Hath bid us alway in the Lord rejoice.\n\n\n\n\nXII.\n\n_JOY._\n\n\"Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say rejoice.\"--Philippians\niv. 4.\n\n\nWhatever may be the impression produced by these words, no one can\nread them attentively, and be indifferent to the admonition they\nconvey. They speak to our most real life, a life of mingled sunshine\nand shadow; and they speak in the name of a religion which is divinely\nholy and solemn. They have a marvellous power in awakening feeling,\nand if we could but know the emotion they excite in each of us, we\nshould find them to constitute a perfect test of our actual\nexperiences, as well as of our religious condition. In any religious\nassembly, there must of necessity be two widely different states of\nfeeling. Some souls are happy, and others are depressed. To the first\nclass, the words before us come with sweetness, adding joy to joy; to\nthe second, they come with pain, the pain of contrast and of longing.\nHence the question might be asked, \"To whom are they addressed? Are\nthey spoken to the happy alone? Must they be suppressed when we speak\nto the sad or to the miserable?\" They are addressed neither to the one\nclass alone, nor to the other alone. They were spoken to _all_ hearts\nin the Philippian church, without distinction of condition; and\nwithout distinction they are also spoken to us. If there be any\nspecial stress in them at all, it is when they are addressed to the\nsorrowing, as we shall see by-and-by. The words themselves supply a\nhint as to how this may be. The joy that is recommended is \"_joy in\nthe Lord_.\" It is therefore a Christian joy; and those to whom the\napostle recommends it, whatever may be the diversity of their\ncircumstances, are first of all, last of all, anyhow, under any\ncondition, Christians. Paul knows that joy is an inevitable\nconsequence of the possession of true Christianity in the heart, that\nit is the natural outcome of Christian faith, that it ought to be a\npervading experience of the Christian soul through all the forms and\ncircumstances of its life. And so he offers the same exhortation to\nall. Nor is it a recommendation merely: it is a command, and it\nstrikingly takes its place among the great Pauline precepts. For the\nproof of this, turn to these precepts as we have them at the close of\nhis first epistle to the Thessalonians. (See chap. v. 14-22.)\n\nNo one will suppose for a moment that the exhortation to rejoice can\nbe applied in any sense to unbelieving men, to men of the world, to\nthe ungodly. Granting that they have a joy peculiarly their own, it is\nof such a nature, and is so conditioned by the life of every day, that\nit would be cruel to bid them \"rejoice _evermore_.\" The worldling has\ntoo many disappointments, struggles, and cares, for a permanent and\nunbroken joy such as that. He may think himself fortunate for\nrejoicings that come now and then! Besides, how could Paul recommend a\nrejoicing which is not \"in the Lord,\" which is the only rejoicing\npossible to the unbeliever? Paul's joy is consistent with every duty\nof the religion he preached; but to that religion the unbeliever is\nopposed. His rejoicing cannot be acceptable to the Lord. It is\nspurious. It has no true, substantial source. To such a man the\napostle might rather have said, \"Weep!\" Christian joy is an\ninheritance closely fenced around; and hard as it seems to enjoy any\ngood things in which others cannot share, we must say, \"Unbelieving\nmen and women, it is not for you.\" The way here is through the strait\ngate, and along the narrow road.\n\nNo joy can be \"joy in the Lord\" which does not contain the following\nelements--\n\n1. _Purity._ The objects that excite it must be pure. It must be free\nfrom all carnality and from all sin; it must spring from the soul's\nsympathy with God, with His truth, with His goodness. Holy in its\nobjects, it becomes a sanctifying power.\n\n2. _Calmness._ It is freedom from turmoil of heart, from disquietude\nof life. It suffuses our feeling and our conduct with peace--peace\nthat \"flows like a river.\" Hence, it is the condition of a quiet,\nsteady Christian experience.\n\n3. _Seriousness._ It does not depend on self-forgetfulness, or on a\nforced thoughtlessness. It is deepest in the most reflective, and is\nstrengthened in all by an honest and habitual self-examination.\n\n4. _Humility._ There is a sort of arrogance and self-sufficiency in\nworldly joy. Christianity puts man in his true place, and teaches him\nto refer all his peace to God.\n\n5. _Love._ Love to man and to God; the latter as the natural effect of\ngratitude, the former from deep pity for his spiritual destitution, or\nfrom sympathy in a common experience of happiness.\n\n6. _Permanence._ It is not a fitful, occasional, moody thing.\nSecondary sources of joy may fail, but God, the primary Source and\nGiver of all joy, remains; and the relationship between the believer\nand Him abides, so that the grounds of peace and of hope are\neverlasting.\n\nNow it is clear that these are not the elements of a worldly joy. We\ndo not care to reduce all that joy to a common level, and to say that\nit is invariably and equally destitute of all these qualities of\npurity, calmness, seriousness, humility, love, permanence. It is\nenough to say that it is not \"joy in the Lord.\" It does not\nconsciously or actually spring from Him; it is not maintained by\ncommunion with Him; and it does not pay to Him its tribute of love,\nconsecration, and praise.\n\nThis exhortation to Christian joy is one of the most common in the\nwritings of Paul. Happy Christians may wonder why it is repeated so\noften. Why urge it at all? Is it not the first, the necessary, the\nconstant result of faith? Why specially insist upon it as a duty? If\nfaith be weak, give us reasons by which faith may be strengthened;\nbut, once in the conscious possession of eternal life and of peace\nwith God, let the results naturally follow. Are they not sure to come?\n\nOne would suppose so; but, alas! Paul knew, and we have reason to\nknow, that we are very inconsistent! There is often a divorce between\nour professed beliefs and the results that should flow from them.\nThen, too, our faith is often unconsciously held. It is too merely\ntraditional; it lacks freshness and vitality. We may well, therefore,\nbe thankful that God, who has given us such motives for joy, should\nstill recommend it to us. Even with a very sincere faith may\ncircumstances arise which shall trouble our hearts. Our joy is\nconstantly threatened, and almost unconsciously we sometimes come to\nfeel that we have none. I know many Christians of whom the last thing\nwe could affirm would be that they are joyful Christians. Hence the\nexhortation. It takes the form of a command. Why?\n\n1. We owe it to the love and mercy of our God. Joy is the sign, the\nexpression, and the ornament of gratitude. A faith without joy is an\naltar without perfume. God's abounding grace realised in the heart\ndemands this return. If we be not joyful, what does the fact mean? Do\nwe lightly esteem His great love? Are we afraid it may fail?\n\n2. Joy is a means of _testifying_ our gratitude. Without joy, faith is\nbarren and inefficient, or else its fruits are rare and without\nsavour. The gospel represents good works as the fruits of faith, and\nfruits grow not on the trunk, but on the branches; and joy is one of\nthese. A worldly joy gives vigour to the heart in the pursuit of\nworldly objects. Christian joy prompts the heart to devotedness to\nGod.\n\n3. The world is mightily influenced by our joy. The idea that religion\nis a sad, gloomy thing is widely spread, and is a hindrance in the\nway. Men know that our beliefs ought to produce joy, and, if they fail\nto do so, they become themselves discredited. A true Christian is\nreally at the source of all true joy. The world yields him most\nbecause he is nearest heaven. _Joy is a proselyting power._\n\n4. True joy cannot be imitated. The world's gaiety is the effect of\ntemperament and circumstances, not of reflection; it repudiates and\nshrinks from thought. Christian joy deepens the more thoughtful men\nbecome. The grounds on which it rests are felt to be the surer the\nmore they are examined.\n\nLet us look at one or two more of the characteristics of Christian\njoy.\n\n1. It does not avoid contact with men, but it can, if need be, live\nalone. It can flourish in the heart that is alone with itself and\nwith God, and can find its food in meditation and prayer. It blossoms\nwhere other joys fade.\n\n2. It is devout. It loves the places where its Author is worshipped,\nbut it can sing its praises everywhere. The heart in which it resides\nis a temple. It sings even in the midst of cares and tribulations,\nlike Paul and Silas in the midnight gloom of the prison at Philippi.\n\n3. It is at the furthest remove from frivolity. It rejoices in serious\nthings, even in such serious things as sorrow and death. It looks up\nand on with hope. It rests in God. It knows that Christ, its Source,\ncan never be separated from it. It thinks itself rich enough in the\npossession of God's great love.\n\n4. It triumphs over the hindrances by which all other joy is thwarted.\nAs to remembrances of the past, all that needed to be forgiven _is_\nforgiven. As to actual trouble, it can take hold of God. As to\nforecasts of the future, _that_, in its truest blessedness, is secure.\n\nWho would not be a Christian? And who, being a Christian, can refuse\nto be glad?\n\n    Eternal Source of Life and Light,\n      From whom my every blessing flows,\n    How shall my lips extol aright\n      The bounty that no measure knows?\n\n    Sweet are the gifts Thou dost accord;\n      Still best when best we love Thy ways:\n    But one yet add, all bounteous Lord,\n      And teach me as I would to praise.\n\n    To praise Thee ofttimes with my tongue;\n      To praise Thee ever with my heart;\n    And soon, where heavenly praise is sung,\n      Oh, let me take my blissful part!\n\n    Then, Lord, not one of all the host\n      That hymn Thy glory round the Throne,\n    How e'er exalted there, shall boast\n      A strain more fervent than mine own.\n\n\n\n\nXIII.\n\n_SICKNESS._\n\n\"Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.\"--John xi. 4.\n\n\nMuch contact with sickness of late has set me thinking about it; about\nthe place it occupies in the Divine dispensations of our life, and the\nlessons it may teach. The subject will find an easy entrance into our\nmeditations. Most of us have known what sickness is, and all of us\nhave in prospect that which will prove to be our last.\n\nIn all the sorrow that affects the people of God there is more or less\nof mystery, which deepens in proportion as those who suffer become\nmature in their Christian life, and advanced in holiness. Yet there\nare some obvious truths in relation to it which are not hard to\ndiscern, and to some of these it will be profitable to turn our\nthoughts now.\n\nI. Sickness, in common with all our ills, is a solemn witness to the\nexistence of sin. If we trace it back to its first cause, we shall\nfind it to have originated in \"the transgression of the law.\" It\nwould be contrary both to the letter and to the spirit of the gospel\nto see in each sickness the direct result of a particular sin. Yet\ncases of this kind are not so rare as we suppose. Many men, even\nprofessing Christians, suffer in consequence of sins known only to God\nand to themselves; secret luxuries and excesses, or a trifling,\nperhaps half unconscious, with some of the simplest laws of Nature.\nLet not this be altogether overlooked. Moreover, whilst we are not at\nliberty to suppose an immediate connection between some particular\nsickness and some particular sin, there is a general connection\nbetween sin and suffering. There would have been no sickness in the\nworld if there had been no sin. There was none in Eden: there will be\nnone in heaven. Sickness is a witness to the disorder which sin has\ncreated. The Christian is a forgiven man, but the secondary\nconsequences of sin remain. In a sinful world, the sins of others\nreact upon him in various ways. He himself, though forgiven, is not\nyet perfect. There will always be enough of the sense of sin even in\nthe most devout heart, to bend the sufferer in humiliation beneath the\nthought that in a thousand ways he has deserved the discipline of\nsorrow.\n\nII. Sickness, however, affords equal testimony to the love of God.\nThe Christian has ample reason for knowing that it is a Father's hand\nthat smites, and that the blow is tempered with gentle mercy. We\nsuffer less than many have suffered before: less than many are\nsuffering now. The Old Testament gives us some notable examples of\nsuffering--Job, David, etc.; so also does the New Testament--Paul, for\ninstance. And what were the sufferings of these compared with those of\nChrist, who wept and bled and died, not for Himself, but for us? In\nall ages better men than we have suffered more. Consider what we have\ndeserved, and what, but for the mercy of God, we must have had to\nbear. If the sufferings of life are not worthy to be compared with the\nglory that is to follow, neither are they worthy to be compared with\nthe doom which _must_ have followed, if God had not loved us with an\ninfinite and everlasting love. Nor is it beneath the subject to\nmention the alleviations which are granted to us, and which we must\nall trace to the Divine Hand--sleep, the suspension of pain, sympathy,\nand, most of all, the hopes of the gospel. These are common-place\nconsiderations, but we must entertain them, if our gratitude and trust\nare to be strong and simple.\n\nBut we must enter into particulars a little further for the sake of\nevolving truth still more immediate and personal.\n\nIII. Sickness is often a special grace from God, and is a\nprovidential answer to the secret desires of our own souls. Not,\nindeed, the answer we ask, or the answer we expect; rather, indeed,\nthe answer we would gladly avoid: but still an answer. The cardinal\nwant of man is salvation. Who does not know that sickness has often\nbeen sanctified to that end? The cardinal want of the Christian is\nsanctification--preparedness for heaven; and every Christian knows\nhow seriously this is impeded by a crowd of difficulties, real\nenough, but which we have a propensity to exaggerate; generally, the\ndaily occupations and cares of life--a family to be provided for, a\ncompetency to gain, favourable opportunities to be looked for and\nseized, daily mischances, and the like. Meanwhile we are conscious\nof our spiritual wants, and there is a painful conflict between the\nclaims which are temporal, and those which are spiritual. How many\nChristians are living a life of absorption in the world, yet\nharassed with occasional regrets, fears, desires, connected with\nbetter things? To these sickness is a Divine reply. It is as though\nGod said: \"Dear child, I know thy difficulty. Thou canst not of\nthine own determination leave the world; come away now. Leave thy\nlabour, thy anxiety, thy dreams. Shut out from the world's noise,\nlisten to Me, to thy soul, to heaven, to eternity. Not that thou\nmayest do thy duty less faithfully do I thus check thee, but that\nthou mayest learn the true subordination of things to one another;\nnot the spiritual to the temporal, but the temporal to the\nspiritual. That is why I put this affliction upon thee.\" Oh, verily,\nblessed is sickness when viewed from the station where we rest and\nrefresh in the fevered journey of life--a truce after battle, a\nparenthesis in life's tale, into which God puts His own deep-meaning\nand gentle word. Let us remember this for our brethren's sakes and\nfor our own.\n\nIV. Sickness, as a special proof of God's love, is charged with a\nmission to bring to us some special gifts and graces. It is above all\nthings a means of blessing when we associate with it the idea of\ndiscipline, however stern. There is not a single Christian virtue that\nmay not acquire strength on a bed of sickness, and there are not a few\nChristian virtues which probably must be learnt there, if they are\never to be learnt perfectly at all. Among these note the following:\n\n1. _Patience._ This is specially the fruit of sorrow. No soul can\nknow what patience is until it has learnt what suffering is. To this\neffect Paul and James both teach, putting suffering before the\nChristian as a veritable cause of joy because it produces patience.\nHow many elements in sickness would be aggravated by the absence of\nthis beautiful grace! How quickly we come to feel that all worry is\nuseless, and that we must simply wait the good pleasure of the Lord!\nHow commonly too, the existence of this virtue strikes the beholder.\nIt is not apathy, it is not stoicism; it is submission. When the\nsickness is past there will still remain much in life to try us; but\nif we have learnt the lesson, we shall know how to apply it.\n\n2. _Entire dependence upon God._ This is sometimes hard to realize in\ndays of health and vigour, but in days of sickness we feel that the\nsentiment is impressed upon us with especial weight. We know that it\nis He who casteth down and lifteth up. We use means for recovery, and\nthis is right; but we learn that without His blessing the best and the\nmost skilfully applied of these are of no avail. This sense of\ndependence on God should be the habit of the mind; and having\nacquired it in sorrow we shall not repudiate or forget it in joy.\n\n3. _Unworldliness._ In a sickness which is protracted, and the issue\nof which is uncertain, we learn to put the proper estimate on things.\nWe find and we feel that we have here no true home and no true\nsatisfaction, and that we must look above. At such a time we perceive\nthat the _real_ is the _spiritual_ and the _eternal_. As we groan in\nthis tabernacle, we obtain our true relief in the contemplation of\nthings unseen.\n\n4. _The confidence of faith._ The possible issues of our sickness are\nmomentous, and the question comes: \"Of what quality are my hopes? Is\nthe religion that has given me joy and strength in health able to\nsupport me now?\" And how often the blessed answer is \"Yes!\" God gives\nus strength equal to our day. The Father's smile, the presence of the\nSaviour, simple trust in the Cross--these are realized as they never\nhave been before. And if health should return, it will be with the\ncalmly, soberly delightful feeling of a religion in the heart that has\nstood the test. This is the experience of not a few whom I have known.\n\nAll this has a mighty influence on others besides the sufferers\nthemselves. They preach, and preach effectively, through their sorrow\nand the grace by which they bear it, and get blessing out of it. Thus\ntheir sickness becomes an occasion on which, an instrumentality by\nwhich, God conveys the blessings of His grace to their brethren.\n\nTo all of us, whether in sickness or in health, the subject suggests\nsome important lessons. It suggests thankfulness for such health as we\nhave. Others are suffering: why not we? Multitudes are languishing in\npain to-day; most of us are well. Let us bless God, and seek His grace\nthat we may use this gift of health, with all His other gifts, to His\nglory. It suggests sympathy for those who suffer. How dependent they\nare on our kindness, our gentleness, our love. Let us give it to them\nin full measure. Specially, let us give expression to our sympathy for\nthem by prayer on their behalf. It suggests faithfulness to the vows\nmade in the time of our trouble. How much holier would all of us be\nto-day if none of those vows had been forgotten!\n\n\n\n\nXIV.\n\n_JESUS ONLY._\n\n\"And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus\nonly.\"--Matthew xvii. 8.\n\n\nThe visible glory has vanished; Moses and Elias have disappeared; the\ncloud is gone; the Voice has been heard; and Jesus has assumed again\nthe form of His lowliness. A few moments ago Peter, in a\nhalf-unconscious ecstasy, was saying: \"Lord, it is good for us to be\nhere: if Thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for Thee,\none for Moses, and one for Elias.\" And now they are coming down from\nthe mountain to the turmoil at its foot, and they who wished to\ntabernacle so gloriously above must descend again to their\nfishing-nets below. The change seems sudden and sad. We feel inclined\nto exclaim, \"What a loss!\" But though they come down, Jesus is with\nthem. Herein lies the substance of what I want now to develop. Our\nlife has its resting-places, exposed to startling, rude alternations;\nbut it has also, in the midst of all, its grand solace.\n\nI. The first of these truths is one of such common experience, that\nwe have no need to do more in support of it than to point to\nwell-known facts. I shall try to generalize them by referring merely\nto three points.\n\n1. To our external personal circumstances. Sometimes we are\nprosperous, cheerful, happy. We say, \"The lines have fallen to me in\npleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.\" Incidents occur which\nseem to transform our ordinary life. We succeed in our pursuits. We\nare in health. Our domestic happiness is undisturbed. We have been\ndelivered from impending ill, and, instead of suffering what we have\nfeared, we realize more than we have hoped for. We are thankful; we\nare content; and we want to build our tabernacle on the green mount of\nour prosperity.\n\nMay we not indulge this feeling without any suspicion that our\nprosperity may too much absorb and unspiritualise us? But the time for\ndisenchantment comes, and if we have grace enough in our hearts, we\nfind that a drawback is put in the way of our fancied happiness, the\ntendency of which is proving a strong temptation to worldliness. And\nthen, though we do not court reverses--for they, too, have their\ntemptations--we begin to feel that this position of fancied happiness\nis not so perfect as we thought. Besides, the novelty passes away, and\nthe satisfaction becomes less. We had forgotten our higher needs\nwhilst we were absorbed in our external well-being. And so we come to\nacknowledge once more that this is not our rest. Sometimes, too, a\nveritable reverse takes place; like the disciples, we have to come\ndown from the mount. The alternations of grief, disappointment, and\ncare follow our joy, and we get a further confirmation of the truth\nthat there is no resting-place to be found in any of the\ncircumstantials of life.\n\n2. To our intercourse with men. We have reason to be thankful for all\nthe blessing which reaches us through this channel, and especially so\nfor all sanctified human relationships. To men of confiding, generous\nnatures, it is natural to repose in their contact with certain of\ntheir fellow creatures. Some of our brethren wield a marvellous charm\nover us. We trust their character; we are not conscious of their\ndefects; we are entirely at home with them.\n\nBut here, again, we find that we must come down from the mount. It\nwould be a sad story if we could all tell our surprises and\ndisappointments in this matter. How many apparently beautiful\nfriendships have passed away! How many defects have we discovered in\nthose whom we have implicitly trusted, when we have been brought into\na closer acquaintance with them? How many have others discovered in\nus? Do we not see here one reason why men become cynical and\nmisanthropic? The greater the confidence, the greater the subsequent\ndistrust. The greater the joy, the deeper the grief which has followed\nit. Let us thank God for the friendships that abide; but let us\nremember that human love can never be a perfect resting-place for our\nhearts.\n\n3. To our Christian feeling. In the early days of our Christian life\nespecially, and often afterwards, all seems to be \"transfigured\"\nbefore our eyes. We see a new earth and a new heaven. We breathe a\nlife-giving atmosphere as we ascend the hills from whence cometh our\nhelp. Moses and Elias--the law and the prophets--have undergone the\nsame transformation. Desires which are earthly have given place to\ndesires which are spiritual. We seem to be in closest contact with the\nSaviour, and we pity the small pre-occupations of the world. We say,\n\"Let us build here our tabernacle, and rest.\"\n\nBut changes await us! First the heights, then the depths! To-day, the\nunutterable words from heaven; to-morrow, the thorn in the flesh and\nthe messenger of Satan to buffet! The one is not without the other.\nHence the lesson comes home to us: \"Do not depend too much on your\nheart-states.\" These high joys seldom last long. Jesus, so to speak,\nloses His splendour, and comes down again from the mount, as a man, to\nHis humiliation.\n\nII. The facts I have adverted to are such as only experience teaches.\nThe prosperous and the immature may suppose that I take too gloomy a\nview of life. By no means. Life has brought its trials to me; and,\nlike many others, I have been again and again on the mount to come\ndown afterwards into the valley. And, were it not for one crowning\nconsideration, there has been enough of change to some of us to make\nus sad and gloomy enough. What has prevented it? _This, that Jesus has\ncome down from the mount along with us._ We have learnt to prize Him\nin proportion as we have learnt the deceptiveness of all beside!\n\nAs Jesus humbled Himself, so He humbles His own. He wants us to walk\nby faith, not by sight, nor by sentiment. What should we become on\nour Tabor, if we were allowed to build our tabernacles there?\nCertainly proud; perhaps foolish; perhaps self-sufficient. Paul was in\ndanger of being exalted above measure by the glory of the revelations\nwhich came to him; have we any reason to be more certain of ourselves?\nThe greater the height the more destructive the fall. We might also\nmistake religious ecstasies for religious firmness or religious\ngrowth. Yes, the true discipline is that which makes us come down.\n\nAll this looks like the disenchantment of our cherished illusions.\nWhat have we to put in their place? Man does not live alone by what is\ntaken away from him, but by what is given to him. Have we taken away\nall? Have we given nothing? We read that a Voice came out of the\ncloud, saying, \"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;\nhear ye Him.... And when the disciples had lifted up their eyes, they\nsaw no man, save Jesus only.\" What does that teach us?\n\nIt teaches that out of these ecstasies, which often hide the reality,\nthere comes a gift of God more precious than all--_Jesus Himself_.\nWhatever form He may assume, He is still the same; still the same\nwhether He goes up the mountain with us, or comes down with us from\nthe mountain. Our illusions vanish, but Jesus does not disappear. It\nis to Him that God directs us when the dreams of life are gone. Events\ndeceive us, men change, the joy of our own hearts subsides; but these\nthings happen that we may lift up our eyes and see Jesus only.\n\nAnd so the illusions which depart give place to a permanent good. Do\nnot be afraid to descend from the mountain-tops into the low valleys\nwhich lie beneath. Neither height nor depth need separate from the\nlove of Christ. A mighty and gracious Hand guides you, whether you see\nit or not. Lay hold of it with confidence. Though your ecstacies\nvanish, the great gain of your faith will be a sober, deep repose.\n\nDo not confound this repose with a want of life or of interest. A\nstaid, strong, sober Christian is a man who has learnt in whatsoever\nstate he is therewith to be content. A staid, strong, sober Christian\nis one who can do all things through Christ, who is ever near and ever\nstrengtheneth.\n\nIs not such a condition a blessed one? It is that which gives to faith\nits permanence and its calm. Instead of ascending to heaven and\ndescending to the abyss to find Christ, we find Him here, and remain\nwith Him in peace and assurance. Having found Him, and being united\nto Him, we may, if need be, do without the rest. On the mount and in\nthe plain we have the same Saviour. In any case, our hearts are on a\nsure foundation.\n\nThe tabernacles Peter wanted to erect on Tabor let us erect in the\nvalley. Let us keep near to Jesus; near to His law, near to His\npromises, but emphatically near to Him. This, too, will be a\ntransfiguration, the transfiguration of our common life. The light of\nthe Divine glory will shine about us; and in the light, and out of the\ncloud, the Voice will speak. We shall tabernacle with Moses and Elias\nonly above; but we may tabernacle with Jesus below. Let us tabernacle\nwith Him most at the cross; for it is there that we shall find most of\nour holiness and our hope.\n\n\n\n\nXV.\n\n_PRAYER._\n\n\"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and\nit shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and\nhe that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be\nopened.\"--Matthew vii. 7, 8.\n\n\nPrayer is one of the vital elements of the Christian life. It mingles\nwith its first impulses; it is the secret of every step in its\ndevelopment, the hidden germ of the grain of mustard-seed, the sap\nthat nourishes the growing and the perfected tree from the furthermost\nfibres of its roots to the topmost shoot of its branches. A sapless\ntree is not a living one, but dead; a prayerless Christian cannot be.\n\nAs might have been expected, the New Testament is remarkably plain in\nits teaching on this subject of prayer. The difficulties connected\nwith it which exist in our minds are not difficulties which it creates\nor even sanctions. A simple reverence for its utterances is almost all\nthat we need for their removal. Let us inwardly pray for this while\nwe study the question now.\n\nThe form in which our Lord presents His exhortation in the text is\ninteresting and suggestive. He uses three words--\"ask,\" \"seek,\"\n\"knock,\" which seem to intimate a gradation, and to lead up to a\nclimax. The word \"ask\" indicates the felt want of a good which may be\nobtained; not purchased, but obtained as a free gift. The word \"seek\"\nindicates the continuance of the asking, with the added idea, perhaps,\nthat our need is our fault, and that what we seek has been previously\nlost. The word \"knock\" supposes a difficulty in obtaining, the delay\nof the answer, a blessing shut up, and not immediately forthcoming.\nHere, then, is a hint of possible difficulties. Nevertheless, a\npromise is annexed, which is all-sufficient. \"Ask, and it shall be\ngiven you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto\nyou.\" Christ's word is assurance enough for us; but He condescends to\nappend an argument drawn from a comparison between man and God,\nbetween imperfect earthly parents and the infinitely perfect Father in\nheaven; an argument which ought to be conclusive. \"What man is there\nof you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he\nask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know\nhow to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your\nFather who is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?\"\n\nThe facts as they lie open on the surface of the text are among the\nmost solemn and momentous facts of our life and thought. There is a\nGod, holding in the universe a position which is exclusively His own,\nthe great and only Giver of all good. Man's position is one of\ndependence; in no sense is he self-sufficient. As it is God's\nprerogative to give, so it is man's duty and interest to ask. There is\na possibility of communion between Him who gives and him who needs;\nthe hand of want brought into contact with the hand that supplies.\nThen we have the fact that God is both able and willing to satisfy\nman's want out of His own fulness. Further, we have the tender\nsolicitation to trust on our part--the absolute promise that such\ntrust can never be misplaced--and the encouraging assurance that the\nGod who gives is moved towards His creatures who ask by all the\nsympathies of a Divine Fatherhood. Every ground of the confidence that\nchildren have in their parents is consolidated into a rock of\nimmovable repose when the Heavenly Father comes in question.\n\nThese facts enter into the common substance of our Christian belief\nand thought. As Christians, we never deny and never dispute them. We\nhold them in a measure unconsciously till the crises of life bring\nthem into prominence. But they are inconceivably marvellous. As mere\nconceptions they are grand; as realized grounds of hope they are\ninexpressibly helpful. They are full of greatness and tenderness. Each\nof us may say to himself: \"My soul, with all thy manifold infirmities\nand littlenesses, thou canst pray to the great God! Ay, thou canst\ncome to Him as to an infinite Father!\" Surely that is distinction and\nconsolation enough.\n\nComparatively few Christians, however, understand prayer as they\nshould--either as a duty or as a privilege. With tens of thousands\namongst them it is to a great extent an unappreciated boon. Even many\ndevout Christians--anxious to use it to more effect--have their\ndifficulties. I want to offer some help to such as these. The scope of\nprayer, unanswered prayer, delayed answers, etc., all are subjects of\nanxious questioning.\n\nI. Prayer, according to the teaching of Scripture and of experience,\nis a simple transaction of asking and receiving. It indirectly serves\nother ends, as we shall see shortly; but it is first of all, and all\nthrough, just what I have stated. We pray because we want; we pray in\norder to get what we want; and we pray with the feeling that we shall\nnot get it unless we pray. There is no mystery in such a view as this.\nThe transaction between the Christian and God, involved in prayer as\nthus described, is as natural, as simple, as well defined, and as\neasily understood, as the action of a child when it asks its parents\nfor what it needs, and when its parents give what it needs in answer\nto the asking. The holy men of Scripture understood prayer in this\nway. Their prayers are full of simplicity, both as to their structure\nand their spirit. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, Elijah, all\nsimply asked for such blessing as they felt they needed; asked for the\nsake of receiving, and feeling that the reception of what they wanted\nwas dependent upon their asking. They unquestionably believed in an\ninvisible Hand, and felt that the Heart that guided that Hand\ndelighted to be trusted and appealed to in every, and for every, kind\nof human need.\n\nII. The simplicity of their view of the _nature_ of prayer is no\ngreater than that of the view they took of the _scope_ of prayer. A\nfeeling has grown up in the minds of many that we cannot ask with\nconfidence for temporal blessings, and that the only blessings for\nwhich we may be sure that it is right to ask are those which are\nspiritual. But that was not the idea of the praying men of the past.\nThere was not a blessing, material or spiritual, for which they\nhesitated to pray--life, health, food, rain, fruitful seasons, success\nin battle, peace of soul, forgiveness of sins, strength for holy\nwork--all these, and indiscriminately as to any special privilege\nattached to the prayer for one or another. Just so taught Christ. \"The\nLord's Prayer\" asks not only for the glory of God and the forgiveness\nof trespasses, but also for \"daily bread.\"\n\nThese considerations must neither be misunderstood nor overlooked.\nPrayer is a direct, specific, simple act. Men say that well-wishing,\nright-living, work, and such like, are prayer. Not so. A prayerful\nspirit may be, and ought to be, blended with the whole of our life;\nbut we must not so shade off the act into something else as to take\naway its point and its reality. Prayer is the concentration of the\nsoul upon its present need, whatever that may be, and then bringing it\nto God, naked and undisguised, for Him to meet it. The faith that\nprompts and backs up such prayer hangs every circumstance of life,\nthe most minute and the most momentous alike, on the direct and\nimmediate control of God, in whose great foresight all our little\nplans are lost, and in whose hands we become the instruments of our\nown well-being.\n\nIII. It is demanded by such a view of prayer as that which has now\nbeen given, that we should confidently expect the answers to our\npetitions. This seems a simple, trite thing to say; but it is here\nespecially that we fail. The attitude of looking for answers to prayer\nis not a common one. How is this? Partly because our prayers are often\nso vague that we do not know precisely what to expect; partly because\nthe habit of prayer is largely formal--a mere piece of religious\nroutine; sometimes because we misapprehend the form in which the\nanswer may come; and sometimes because, in impatience, we lose heart\nand hope. We should ever remember, however, that the promise to hear\nand to answer is positive and unrestricted. This fact leaves ample\nroom for the truth, which we should also ever remember, that the mode\nand time of the answer remain with God, and must be left to His loving\nwisdom. If He should see that what we ask will strengthen our faith in\nHim, bring our hearts nearer to Him, and help us to fulfil His will,\nHe will grant the answer directly, and in the form in which we look\nfor it. He has done so in numberless cases. Sometimes He does so in\nspecial and unmistakeable instances, of which, perhaps, George M\u00c3\u00bcller\nand his orphanage is the most prominent in our time. On the other\nhand, if He should see that an answer of this kind would encourage\nworldliness, or in any way lead to evil, as it might sometimes do,\nthen He will delay the answer, or will change its form into one of\ngreater safety for us, at the same time speaking with His \"still small\nvoice\" words of peace to our hearts. One thing is certain; namely,\nthat if the worldly advantage be first in our view, it will be well\nfor our prayer to be denied, and God will deny it.\n\nIV. One condition, then, of answered prayer is that we must be loyal\nto God, and this loyalty includes submission to His will--a\nwillingness to receive, and a willingness to be denied. We may ask\nwhat we will in such a spirit as this; for in such a spirit we shall\nbe sure that any refusal from Him will be a blessing to ourselves.\n\nV. One difficulty in relation to prayer of which anti-christian people\nmake much, and which often occurs even to the most devout, is as to\nhow these specific answers to prayer can be made to agree with the\nregularity of God's laws and the order of His Providence. This\nquestion introduces us to a mystery which we cannot hope fully to\nsolve. We have no idea that prayer alters either the perceptions or\nthe will of God; neither do we imagine that it interferes with natural\nlaws, so as to prevent their due and natural operation. The operations\nof nature are often affected by the human will, both directly and\nindirectly; yet no one supposes that to that extent the order of\nnature is disturbed. Why may not the influence of the human will upon\nnature act through the medium of prayer to the great Author of nature,\nas well as in any other way? No objection of this kind lies against\nprayer which does not equally lie against all human enterprise; yea,\neven against the daily work by which we live! It is a sufficient reply\nto every objection of this kind that it is founded in a philosophy of\nfatalism. Surely if man, within the limits of his power, can use\nnature for himself, God, whose power is infinitely greater, can use\nnature for him, if He be pleased on any terms to do so; and there is\nno more interference with the order of nature in the Divine use of it\nthan there is in the human. Prayer may have its part to play in the\ngreat system of causation as well as work. It may be a part of the\nforeseen chain of causes and effects by which God unfolds His eternal\npurposes. The good order of a family is not disturbed by the margin\ngiven to the children's wishes and requests; and when we are wise\nenough to know, we shall see how it has been even so in the greater\nfamily of God. God is love before we pray as well as when He answers;\nand yet it may be according to His will, because it is according to\nHis beneficent wisdom, that there shall be many blessings unreceived\nby us until we ask for them.\n\nVI. How do these thoughts bear upon the subject of importunity in\nprayer? Such importunity is not discountenanced, but rather\nencouraged, by the very form of our Lord's exhortation. \"Ask; seek;\nknock.\" I have said that this series of words intimates a gradation,\nand constitutes a climax. Seeking is more than asking; knocking is\nmore than asking or seeking. \"Ask and ye shall receive.\" Yes, but the\n\"asking\" which is to be followed by receiving may be such as to\ninclude both \"seeking\" and \"knocking.\" God is not reluctant to hear\nand to answer; but that is no reason why He should not require\nsometimes to be importuned. Christ gives His special sanction to this\nimportunity through the medium of two parables, both of which were\nspoken for the express purpose of urging it. The first of these is the\nparable of the man who disturbs the repose of his friend at midnight\nfor the purpose of obtaining from him the means of showing hospitality\nto an unexpected wayfarer; the second is the parable of the injured\nwidow and the unjust judge. In both these parables, the suppliants are\nrepresented as prevailing; but the point to be noted is that the power\nby which they prevail is their earnest and persistent importunity. Why\ndoes Christ illustrate prayer to God by the pertinacity which is\nneedful to arouse the affections of sinful man? We may be sure that He\ndoes not ascribe any thing of human imperfection to God. Our Father in\nheaven slumbers not, and is never weary. He is love. Christ simply\nputs Himself in the feeling of the man who knows by experience that\nGod often delays the fulfilment of prayer, and shows, by parabolic\nteaching, that to pray well we must be fervent and not \"faint.\" The\nlesson is impressive. If between man and man importunate prayer\nprevails, how much more will it prevail with God who is perfect, and\nwho will not make us wait except for the sake of our highest\nwell-being. The man goes to his friend with confidence because he has\nfaith in the friendship; how inconceivably strong may this confidence\nbe when we repose it in God! The plea was the stress of his need; the\nsame stress belongs to many of the needs which only God can supply.\nOur praying-time, like that of the friend at midnight, is often that\nof the deepest darkness; but we pray to God and not to man, and need\nnot fear that He, in His deep, heavenly repose, will fail faithfully\nto hearken to our supplications--supplications which, because they\nproceed from the holiest solicitudes of love and duty, are inspired by\nHimself. Christ bids us reason from both bad men and good men to God,\nand it is well for us that He does so. On the bad side, man's love is\nweak, his judgment faulty, and his selfishness deep-rooted; God is\ninfinite both in His wisdom and His love. On the good side, earthly\nfathers give bread, not stones, to their children; how much kinder is\nHe to whom we look up and say, \"Our Father which art in heaven\"!\n\"Yes,\" you say, \"He is good and kind; but He makes us wait.\" It is so;\nand why? We are feeble in our desires, and changeful in our purposes.\nWe soon give up. We want faith, patience, perseverance. The uniformly\nimmediate fulfilment of our petitions would leave no room for the\ncultivation of these quiet, unobtrusive virtues of the Divine life\nwithin us. God makes us wait, that we may become importunate, and that\nimportunity may nourish the virtues which are as yet too feeble.\nBesides, delay gives purity to our motives, and intensity to our\ndesires. A blessing which is easily won is likely to be unappreciated.\nGod would not have us treat His gold as though it were stones. Delay\nis not refusal; it is discipline. Moreover why speak we of delay at\nall? What we so designate is not delay from the Divine point of view.\nHe never postpones any asked-for good for one moment beyond the fit\ntime for bestowing it.\n\n    God's help is always sure,\n      His methods seldom guessed;\n    Delay will make our pleasure pure,\n      Surprise will give it zest.\n\n    His wisdom is sublime,\n      His heart profoundly kind;\n    God never is before His time,\n      And never is behind.\n\nVII. What, then, is the character of the prayer which avails? That\nsome prayers are \"hindered\"--so hindered as to be unsuccessful--we\nknow full well. This may be accounted for partly by mistaken notions\nabout the Scripture theory of prayer. For example, Jesus says, \"What\nthings ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye\nshall have them.\" The teaching of these words is that the inspiration\nto true prayer is God's pledge of the blessings sought, and that we\nmust be prepared to take it as such. The prayer of a man who has not\nfull faith in prayer falls short of its mark. Hindrance may also arise\nfrom mistaken notions as to the primary use of prayer. Prayer is not\nan end in itself, but a means to an end. It is true that the holier we\nbecome the more shall we find ourselves accustomed to an atmosphere of\nprayerfulness as the normal condition of the soul. But we shall not\npray aright, if we pray under the impression that we are holy because\nwe pray. We must rather pray in order to be holy. The hindrance may\nalso arise from the absence of a supreme anxiety and of a constant\neffort to honour God in all our relations. Peter speaks of obedience\nto the duties which spring from the conjugal relation as being\nnecessary to prevent the \"hindrance\"--the ineffectualness--of family\nprayer. This is but a special application of a great general\nprinciple--namely, the connection between holy conduct in society and\nthe efficiency of our social devotional exercises. These two act and\nre-act upon each other. To secure the true, full benefit of prayer, we\nmust strive to live holily in all the society with which we mingle.\nThis point touches upon the value of intercessory prayer. Suppose that\nthere is a want of correspondence between the interest in the welfare\nof those around us which we express in our prayers on their behalf,\nand that which we show in our intercourse with them; can we rightly\nexpect such prayers to prevail? The deficiency is too frequently\nmanifest in our relations both to the Church and the world. How often\nis Church brotherhood nominal rather than real! How many pray for the\nsalvation of souls, without caring to do anything else! There is one\nthing which will always, in so far as it exists, be a barrier to the\nacceptableness of prayer, and that is the wilful and persistent\nviolation of any of the Divine commands--the refusal to perform\nChristian duties incumbent upon us, or the cherishing of some habit or\npropensity known to be wrong. \"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the\nLord will not hear me.\" The success of our prayers does not depend\nupon our learning, or upon the skill with which we can express our\npetitions, or with which we can string them together. It depends\nrather upon the state of our hearts--the vivid consciousness of need,\nthe deep feeling of dependence on God, the supreme desire of the heart\nto be right with Him, faith in His promises, trust in His power and\nHis love, gratitude for His goodness, an unfainting perseverance in\nappealing to His throne, and a willingness to wait His time for the\nblessings thus humbly, trustfully, and earnestly sought. These are the\nelements of the true spirit of prayer. \"Ask\" thus \"and it shall be\ngiven you;\" \"seek\" thus, \"and ye shall find;\" \"knock\" thus, \"and it\nshall be opened unto you.\"\n\nI alluded in the beginning to the indirect effects of prayer, and\nthese are too valuable to be overlooked. Prayer, pervaded by humility\nand trust, is always strengthened by its own exercise. All Christian\ngraces are beautified by it; all Christian virtues are stimulated by\nit. It is a Divine provision for rousing the slumbering affections of\nthe renewed heart, and keeping them awake. Prayer, too, is its own\nreward, and a blessed one. How holy and how happy must they be who are\non intimate terms with God! Their faces catch His glory, and their\nevery tone and step the impress of the sanctity of the Divine\ncompanionship. The Christian can tell his Father all! And because he\nis so near to God and to heaven, he can put and keep the world beneath\nhis feet.\n\nEven delays and seeming refusals are not without their salutary\ninfluence. Some persons pray for specific blessings year after\nyear--\"pray without ceasing\"--and are often staggered at the fact that\ntheir prayers remain unanswered; and yet we see them growing in\nspirituality, purity, fortitude, faith, and we hear them say, \"Though\nHe slay me, yet will I trust in Him.\" And so their faith--the most\nprecious thing they have--is tried and refined as in a furnace. Surely\nsuch an answer to prayer is sublime!\n\nI have been speaking to many a doubt, to many a perplexity, with which\nI am familiar in my own experience and in that of others. God grant\nthat my words may be helpful! What we all want in regard to this great\nsubject is clearer views and a more unquestioning trust. God courts\nour utmost confidence, and He will not fail to reward it.\n\n\n\n\nXVI.\n\n_ASSURANCE._\n\n\"I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep\nthat which I have committed unto Him against that day.\"--2 Timothy\ni. 12.\n\n\nThese are among the last words the apostle wrote. He is now at Rome,\nin prison, and within a few days of the tragic end. He is worn down by\nage; still more so by a constant, toilsome, suffering ministry of some\nthirty years, a ministry which has obtained for him, at the hands of\nmen, stones and stripes, and now a dungeon, with the immediate\nprospect of a violent death. He is bound with chains, and compelled to\nbe silent just where and when he has so long been anxious to speak, in\nthe metropolis of the world! He is, moreover, forsaken by his friends,\nwho, though they love him, have not courage to go and visit him now!\nOutwardly, no sadder condition could well be imagined. Yet Paul is\nfilled with a deep and holy peace. How is this? The answer is that he\nfeels within himself the approval of his God. He is in prison, but\nthat is because of his obedience to His Saviour. He has worn himself\ndown in a Divine service. Behind him he sees a long train of woes and\nsufferings, but he also sees many churches which he has founded, and\nmany unknown regions open to the gospel. Before him he sees an\nunrighteous judge and a painful martyrdom, but he also sees heaven,\nChrist, and the unfading crown. If he says, \"All have forsaken me,\" he\ncan also say, as his Master did, that he is not left alone. All this\nis enough to account for the calmness and hopefulness of this his last\nepistle, and especially of the words before us to-day.\n\nI will not trouble you with the critical difficulties of the text. On\nonly one preliminary question I would say a word. What does Paul mean\nby the expression, \"that which I have committed unto Him\"? Some urge\nthat it was the Church which he was about to leave; others, that it\nwas the result of his labours; and others, that it was his final\nsalvation. I prefer to combine all these into one general whole, and\nto say: \"All his Christian interests, the hopes on which his spirit\nrested for his personal salvation, and every other interest that was\ndear to his heart.\" He had \"committed\" to Christ himself, the church\nhe had loved and served, the results of his labour, and the final\nreward to which he was looking forward. If, within the vast scope of\nhis desires, there had been one thing which he could not commit to\nChrist, his rest would have been incomplete, and his joy would have\nbeen marred. But for _everything_ he was able to say: \"Saviour, I have\ncommitted this to Thee.\"\n\nObserve how Paul puts this great matter. He was the greatest\n_doctrinal_ writer of the New Testament; but he does not say that he\nbelieves in _doctrines_, but that he believes in a _Person_. \"I know\n_whom_ I have believed.\" All doctrinal belief follows, and is\ncomprised in, that. Faith everywhere in Scripture is confidence in\nChrist. He who believes in Christ must come sooner or later to believe\nin the doctrines which cluster around Him. But our experience grows\nbeyond these into the realisation of Him as being so actual, so near,\nand so sufficient, as to be our true rest. Who among us can tell _all_\nthe reasons why he believes in Christ? Many of them cannot be put into\nwords. They belong to our most secret thoughts, to the emotions of our\nhappiest hours, to a hidden, silent history, which, if the world\nheard, it could not understand. Yet these proofs multiply in\nproportion as the Christian advances in life. How many times have we\nfound the words of Christ adapted to our wants! How many unexpected\ndeliverances has He wrought on our behalf! How many answers to prayer\nhave we received at His hands! How much peace has He breathed into our\nhearts! \"I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able\nto keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.\"\n\nWhat a grand confirmation have we here of the faith Paul preached! Had\nhis trust been misplaced, surely he had suffered enough to disabuse\nhim of it, and that most completely. But his faith grows the more he\nsuffers. No mere party zeal could stand a test like this; no, nor any\ndelusion either. And so we say that such a man as Paul was, under the\ncircumstances in which he maintained his trust, could not be deceived.\nThus Paul's faith becomes a confirmation of our own, and, with him on\nour side, we may face a world of doubt.\n\nBut I wish to use the text chiefly for the elucidation of a single\nsubject. Paul's words express _the assurance of his faith_. How does\nthis subject strike us? Does not the very mention of it give rise to\nsad reflections in many hearts? \"The assurance of faith.\" \"Ah, I knew\nit once,\" we say; \"it was the experience of earlier days, and has been\nthe experience of some special days since then, still more so of some\nspecially holy moments. But it is not my normal state. Would it were!\"\n\nWe are living in a period in which there seems to be a general\ndisinclination towards whatever is firm and precise in religious\ncreed, feeling, and life. This may not be an altogether unhopeful\nstate of things. Respect for truth may keep some minds silent\nconcerning their beliefs, or at least may prevent them from avowing\nthose beliefs too dogmatically. Anxiety and doubt may even in some\ncases be a sign of spiritual earnestness. Yet the tendency we speak of\nis on the whole to be deeply deplored. The truth is that the world has\ninvaded us. Men shrink from great precision of conviction because they\nshrink from great consecration of life. How few the lives that are\npre-eminently Christian, as Paul's was! On the other hand, our day is\nremarkable for its craving for mere religious excitement. In many\ncases, it is not so much the desire for truth, as the desire to be\nexcited and pleased, that prevails. Neither of these tendencies can\nbuild up the faith which finds its grand avowal in the words: \"I know\nwhom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that\nwhich I have committed unto Him against that day.\"\n\nThe remedy for the state of things upon which I have touched cannot\nnow be pointed out, because it would lead me away from my purpose. But\nI want to show the effect of it upon ourselves, and upon those who are\nwithout. There are certain aims common to the Christian life of all of\nus, and these cannot be reached so long as our faith lacks steadiness\nand stability.\n\n1. Our great mission is to convert souls. We are avowedly the\ninstruments of the Spirit of God in this momentous work. But what is\nthe conversion of a soul? It is a radical change in its affections and\nits life. But this change never takes place apart from the influence\nof deep convictions. Men will not exchange the known for the unknown:\nactual life with its passions and its pleasures for the weak and cold\nabstractions of a faith with no precision in its principles, or for\nthe worship of a God who is vague and problematical. How are we to\nsucceed in winning souls to the truth we profess unless we can produce\nsomething which ought to convince them that we have the right of it?\nAn unstable faith will be of little use to us here. There must be no\nhesitation in our avowal that our transition from the world to God is\na blessed one. In other matters, a man of strong beliefs has half won\nus to his side. In religion, it is notoriously so. Paul's grand words\nhave been a source of strength to us. Let us make them our own--the\nexpression of our own faith--and they will become, through us, a\nsource of strength to others. Let us have this same Christianity in\nits fulness and its power; and having it, let us avow it without\ntimidity and without reserve.\n\n2. Our personal obligation, as Christians, is to be holy; and we want\nthe assurance of faith for that. We may be deceived about our\nconversion. At the outset of our Christian life we may be the subjects\nof many illusions. But men are not mistaken when, day by day, they are\nfighting their passions, bringing the will into subjection, conquering\nthe flesh, and submitting the whole life to the long, slow, toilsome\ndiscipline of obedience. This kind of work is never accomplished by a\nvague and undecided religion. Men do not deny themselves without an\nequivalent. You cannot persuade them to give up their illusions, their\npleasures, their passions, nor even their vices, unless you show them\nsomething else which may, must, and ought to take their place. If you\nempty the heart of one set of elements, you must fill it with another.\nSo it is that we want a living God, a living Christ, close to us;\nloving us, forgiving us, helping us, comforting us, and opening before\nus the prospect of glory and of happiness for eternity. Let us know\nand feel ourselves able to say, \"I know whom I have believed, and am\npersuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him\nagainst that day,\" and the struggle with inward evil will be\nsimplified, and will become comparatively easy.\n\n3. We stand in daily need of strength and consolation, and for that\nnothing but a firm and settled faith will suffice. There are great\nsorrows and great anxieties to which we are all exposed, in the face\nof which nothing will do for us but sovereign words of life and of\nhope in which we can implicitly trust. There are great wrongs under\nwhich we cannot be comforted except by the constant conviction of a\nrighteousness which will one day vindicate the right, and redress the\nwrong. There are great losses in which we want the promise and the\ncertainty of an immense and restoring love. Souls will seek this\nstrength, this consolation, here, there, everywhere; but they will\nnever find it until they can say, \"I know whom I have believed, and am\npersuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him\nagainst that day.\"\n\n4. The assurance of faith is necessary to all earnestness of effort in\nthe spread of the gospel. A church or a Christian, subsiding into\nuncertainty of religious belief, has no motive for zeal in the\npropagation of religion. We preach because we believe. Let the idea,\nthat the Christianity of Christ or of Paul or of the New Testament\nneeds modification, become prevalent in the professing church, and the\nsecret of every true impulse in missionary work, whether abroad or at\nhome, will be gone. It is the men who share Paul's stable, grand faith\nwho can take their stand as the preachers of Christ. It is only they\nwho can rise to the sacrifices necessary for the promotion of His\ntruth in the world.\n\nHave we such a faith as this? If not how can we obtain it? This latter\nquestion will be best answered by a close adherence to the text. We\nmust say a few words respecting the faith itself, and also respecting\nChrist, who is the object of it.\n\nWhat is faith? A common answer is that faith is an act of\nintellectual submission to the teachings of another--that it is in\nmatters of the mind what blind and unquestioning obedience is in\nmatters of practice. This account of faith was early imposed by the\nPapal Church, and it is not repudiated even now by some evangelical\nchurches. The root of all doctrines of sacramental efficacy is the\nrenunciation of private judgment in matters of faith. No wonder that\nwith such a definition of faith Christianity should be held in\nderision, and regarded as the special privilege of the young, the\nimmature, the aged, and all whose weaknesses and disappointments leave\nthem no other consolation and no other resource! This is not the\nteaching of Scripture. Of course in faith there is submission, for\nthere are many things to be believed which we cannot understand.\nNevertheless, faith is much more than submission, and there is not a\ncase of faith in the whole Word of God which presents to us the\nbelieving life as a thing of mere blind credulity. Was it so with\nAbraham, with Job, with David, with Paul, or with any of the others?\nEven in relation to the dark things, faith rests upon convictions\nwhich make submission the only rational, the only possible attitude of\nthe mind. According to Scripture, faith is the soul laying hold of\nthe invisible God--laying hold of Christ as His Son and our Saviour.\nThere is no abdication of any one of the powers of the soul. In\nbelieving, the soul is entire with its reason, its thought, its love,\nand all its spiritual energies. Nor is there any weakness. When a man\nis hesitating between surrender to the voice of conscience, and\nsurrender to the voice of passion, he performs an act of faith if he\nyields to the voice of conscience, for he is ruled by the invisible;\nyet the last thing we dare say of such a man would be that he is weak.\nRightly considered, every such act is a triumph of the soul. The\nconscientious man is the representative of the greatest moral strength\nwe know. Imagine a soul with all its life under the constant thought\nof God and of Christ. Surely such an order of life as his affords\nscope enough for intellectual strength and for moral heroism.\n\nMuch must be taken for granted, we said. Reason has its sphere, and to\nit a truly noble task is assigned. The visible world belongs to it,\nand it is subjecting that world to itself more and more every day. But\nhow powerless it is when man asks of it a response to the aspirations\nof his conscience and his heart. What can it say to a soul weighed\ndown by a sense of guilt? What to the heart that is torn by calamity?\nWhat to any man when death draws nigh? Oh, no! Unless we are to\nabandon ourselves to despair, there must be faith--some truth in\nwhich, or some Being in whom, the whole soul can repose. And mark,\nthis was just the light in which the apostle looked at the matter. He\nwas near the end. Eternity was close before him. He knew that endless\nissues were at stake. He was nerved to confront it all by faith. _What\nfaith?_ What was he trusting in?\n\n_Paul believed in Christ._ On what grounds? Can _we_ believe in\nChrist? If so, again I ask on what grounds?\n\n1. Christ stands before us in our darkness in a position which is\nexclusively His own. Of all men, He alone knew whence He came and\nwhither He went. Without hesitation, and with tones of sovereign\nauthority, He points out to us the way to God. He speaks of heaven as\none who has come from thence. Everywhere He calls Himself the Sent of\nthe Father, His only-begotten Son, the Lord of souls. His word was\nwith power; sweet with intensest human tenderness, influential with\nDivine authority. What was it that gave Him this power? Not human\nreasoning, not eloquence. It was the light of Truth reaching the\nconscience, and penetrating the heart. We see in Him God as He is, and\nwe also see in Him man as he ought to be. We do not reason about this\ninfluence. Apprehending Him, we instinctively accept it. It is thus\nthat millions have said: \"To whom can we go but unto Thee? Thou hast\nthe words of eternal life.\"\n\n2. This influence of Christ has been exerted on every variety of human\nsoul. His followers, in ever-increasing numbers, come from all\nconditions on earth--rich and poor, learned and ignorant, young and\nold, hardened sinners and men blushing with their first sins: all find\nfrom Him peace and light and hope. Especially is this so with those\nwho suffer and weep; those who have felt the poverty of mere words,\nand who are now beyond the reach of any illusion. For the first time\nthey have been comforted, and the comfort has satisfied them.\n\n3. Still we want further to know by what authority He wields this\ninfluence. We ask, \"Does He come from God?\" The reply is that He does\nbefore our eyes the works of God. Not miracles merely, for though\nthese constitute a powerful testimony, there is yet something more.\nHe has revealed God in His own person, and the proof of His Divine\nmission has been given in His life. In Him, holiness has been at once\nrealised and exhibited. Eighteen hundred years ago His enemies could\nfind no fault in Him. Since then humanity has progressed, but Christ\nstill leaves the noblest sons of men amazingly far behind Him. A\nhostile criticism has been indefatigable in its attempt to discover\nflaws in His character, and yet that character still stands before us\nas the ideal of the good and the true. His is a holiness before which\nthe conscience of the world is accused and judged. Irresistibly the\nanswer of the heart comes: \"He who is so holy must be worthy of all\nour faith.\"\n\n4. Moreover, there is the sense of sin and of the need of pardon and\nsalvation. Here after all, and more than anywhere else, is the secret\nof confidence in Christ. We seek salvation in works--anywhere out of\nHim--but we cannot find it. He who is holy and true tells us that He\ncame into the world to save us, that He is our sacrifice and our\npeace, and that the love and the righteousness of God are manifest in\nHim and in the redeeming work He has undertaken on our behalf. This\nexactly meets our case. We say: \"This is what we want, but what we\nhave elsewhere sought in vain. At His hands we accept it with implicit\ntrust and with fervent thankfulness.\"\n\nAre not these reasons enough? Is not the response of every heart,\n\"Yes, they are.\" Can it be less than the utmost folly and guilt for\nmen to resist the voice of a conscience which tells them that it is\nonly in Christ that the soul can find its rest? Is all this concurrent\ntestimony to be set aside?\n\nThis assurance of faith, however, can only be the result of intense\nearnestness. We do not forget the necessity of the agency of the\nSpirit of God; let us never forget it; but let us also remember how\nconstantly and how fatally that agency can be contravened. Paul held\nthe great truths he preached with so tenacious and so unquestioning a\nfaith, because he had begun by consecrating his heart to them under\nthe intuitive perception that they were the truths which his nature as\na man and his condition as a sinner so imperatively needed, and\nbecause all his experience of them did but confirm their sufficiency.\n\"If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine\nwhether it be of God,\" or whether it be of men. \"I know whom I have\nbelieved, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have\ncommitted unto Him against that day.\"\n\nFor the unbeliever there are grounds enough for faith, both within and\nwithout. And if, even with the desire, faith be still found to be\nbeset with difficulties, there is one unfailing prayer which will make\nit easy--the prayer, \"Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.\"\n\n\n\n\nXVII.\n\n_IMMORTALITY._\n\n\"What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that\nThou visitest him?\"--Psalm viii. 4.\n\n\nOne or two remarks on the meaning of certain expressions in this Psalm\nare necessary before we proceed. The second verse is pictorial, and\nhas a martial character. Two hosts are seen facing each other. A\nbeautiful world and a wonderful universe are in view of both.\nChildren, in their conscious or unconscious admiration of what they\nsee, and in the early and universal instinct by which they attribute\nit to the hand of a great God, effectually rebuke the unbelief of\nscoffers and all haters of God, who persistently refuse to recognise\nHim in His works. So, even to-day, the simple and pious intuitions of\nthe race face, fight, and conquer all materialism. The beautiful and\nsignificant application of these words found in the account of our\nLord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem points for all time to the duty\nof giving Christian teaching to the young. In our Christian homes and\nour Sunday-schools lies the great bulwark against the spread of\ninfidelity. Such teaching acts on the future. \"Instead of the fathers\nshall be the children,\" a generation to serve God. These will become\nfathers in their turn. \"Take care of the children, and the adults will\ntake care of themselves.\"\n\n\"What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that\nThou visitest him?\" At first sight, it would seem as though the\nPsalmist were contrasting the littleness of man with the greatness of\nthe universe. And, indeed, he does use a word to denote man which\npoints to his weakness. But this is only David's starting-point in his\naim to correct the impression. The Psalm reveals, not the littleness,\nbut the greatness of man. \"When I consider Thy heavens, the work of\nThy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained; what is\nman, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou\nvisitest him?\" How little he looks! Yet how great he must be! \"For\nThou makest him to want little of a Divine standing; Thou crownest him\nwith honour and glory; Thou makest him to have dominion over the work\nof Thy hands; Thou puttest all under his feet--all sheep and oxen,\nand also beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the\nsea--whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea.\"\n\nOne of the subtlest, and, to a certain degree, one of the most\nplausible of the objections of unbelief has been the attempt to instil\ninto men's minds the idea that it is presumptuous on their part to put\nconfidence in the apparently sublime, but really fallacious, prospects\nwhich Christianity offers to them with regard to their destiny beyond\nthis world. God is too great, it is said, and man is too little for us\nto admit the thought that God takes such an interest in man, both for\nthis world and for the next, as the Bible affirms. The tendency of\nmodern thought is largely in the direction of this view.\n\nIt would be easy to overtax our attention by going into too wide a\nfield. I will speak only of the Christian idea of an immortal and\nheavenly life hereafter. It is this which is imperilled; it is this\nwhich is called in question. I have nothing to do now with the debated\nquestion of future punishment. Let me re-state the form of scepticism\nwith which I have to deal. It is said to be presumptuous to suppose\nthat we, the creatures of a day, are to be hereafter lifted up to a\nstate of perfect blessedness, which is to last for ever, in the\npresence of God; and we are recommended to leave this dream aside, and\nto be content with the position we occupy here and now. \"You have much\nto be thankful for, even as things are. Let it not be thought a\nhardship, if death should prove to be the end of man.\"\n\nThe lines of thought as they start from this point are numerous, and\none is tempted to follow them out. But we must forbear, for the sake\nof attending simply to our one purpose. I may, however, point out to\nyou how partial and unreal is the view which is thus taken of man's\nposition and of his aspirations. Given the utmost of outward and\npresent satisfaction, man universally is not content with this. But\nhow many millions of human beings there are in the world at this\nmoment to whom the present life can scarcely be said to have been any\nboon at all! How many more millions of such beings have lived in the\npast. The very ground we tread everywhere cowers beneath human sorrow.\nIs it not a cruel mockery to say to the suffering, the enslaved, the\ndown-trodden: \"Be grateful for what you have; it is vain, foolish,\nwrong for you to expect or to wish for more\"? Some such advice as\nthis may be given if our Christian hopes are tenable; but if they are\nnot, we do but insult the suffering if we speak to them in this\nfashion.\n\nThe kind of unbelief we are anxious to check is spreading. Among the\nmasses, in many directions, the desire to apprehend spiritual\nrealities, and to be ruled by them, is increasingly small; the battles\nof life and thought are on behalf of the interests of a day; and even\namong well-disposed persons the hold of fundamental truth is seriously\nrelaxed. Hence the necessity for our seeking to strengthen our\ncherished convictions, and to discern clearly and grasp firmly \"the\nfaith once delivered to the saints.\"\n\nIf the views we animadvert upon were entertained merely by the\nignorant and the uncultured, we should not so much wonder; but we\n_are_ perplexed when we find them so prevalent amongst the wise of\nthis world, and even by not a few who are reputed to be masters of\nhuman science. It is true that their advancing knowledge gives them\nvaster conceptions of the universe which they so unweariedly explore;\nbut is it not strange that that vaster knowledge does not enhance\ntheir estimate of man, since he _can_ explore so widely and _can_\ncomprehend so much? Why should religious faith decrease in proportion\nas human knowledge is accumulated?\n\nI take the psalm before us as furnishing a triumphant and lasting\nreply to the kind of unbelief in question. In Nature, first, God shows\nus His estimate of man. The ascent is easy from Nature to Grace, in\nwhich the Divine estimate is raised to its highest point.\n\nWe are invited to look around. Can there be any doubt that this\nbeautiful world, with its immense treasures known and unknown, its\nbountiful harvests of every order on land and sea, and its marvellous\nvariety of life, animate and inanimate, was formed for our sakes? Was\nnot everything the earth contains made for our use and enjoyment, in\nmeasure increasing with every new discovery? The fruits of the ground,\nwith each returning season, are prepared for our wants, and in that\npreparation, every season, with its sunshine and its shade, its\ndryness and its rain, its dews and its storms, is incessantly engaged.\nAll nature is occupied in the successful attempt to answer the initial\nquestion, \"What shall we eat? what shall we drink? and wherewithal\nshall we be clothed?\" The dress we wear brings innumerable animals\nunder tribute. \"We have dominion over all sheep and oxen, yea, and the\nbeast of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and\nwhatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea.\" Everything tells us\nthat, in this world, we are kings--\"a little,\" only a little, \"lower\nthan the angels\"--the gods. Between man and the inferior animals there\nis as great a distance as between the master and his slave;--nay more,\nas between the artizan and his instruments. The irrational animal is\nmuch nearer to the inanimate creation than to man since the end and\npurpose of both is to minister to man. This world, therefore, was\nmanifestly made for us. Who ventures to doubt it? Least of all can it\nbe doubted by the discoverers of earth's profounder secrets.\n\nWe are invited to look still further afield. This world, which is made\nfor us, is not independent or alone. It is in no sense self-sustained.\nIt is part of a wonderful and incomprehensible whole. Other great\ncreations concur in its maintenance. The sun enlightens, warms, and\nfertilizes it. The moon and the stars exert manifold influences upon\nit. The whole host of heaven has been brought into co-ordinate and\nhelpful relation to it--yes, _it_: the world which exists _for us_!\n\"When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and\nthe stars which Thou hast ordained;\" when I consider the manifold\nbearings of Thy universe upon man--what _is_ man! What _must_ he be!\nIn certain aspects, indeed, apparently small; but, by all these\ntokens, how great! We do not say that we are the only moral and\nspiritual beings in the midst of so many worlds. We do not know, but\nwe may accept the probability that God has created beings capable of\nadoring and loving Him everywhere. But we do say--and science combines\nwith Scripture to compel us to say--that these worlds have been in\npart created for us, just as our world has been in part created for\nthem. This is clear. The most sceptical of men cannot venture to doubt\nit; nor do they. It is only needful that we should carefully observe\nin order to become convinced of this marvellous fact.\n\nSo much, then, for what nature teaches. The psalmist sought to learn\nthe lesson, and it is right that we should seek to learn it too.\n\nThis first step being taken, another follows. Man is an object of the\nmanifold agencies of myriads of worlds. He is so _as man_; and the\nrelative position he holds, intellectually, morally, or socially, to\nhis fellow men, has nothing to do with the fact. Nature ministers to\nthe Caffre and the Hottentot as truly as to the man of most advanced\ncivilization; the only difference being in the use which the two\nopposite classes can make of nature. Why, then, should man refuse to\nbelieve that he is an object of solicitous love to that God who\ncreated him, who made him what he is, and who thus crowned him with\nglory and honour? Why should he refuse to believe that God loves him\nenough to send His Son to die for him, and thus to save him from the\nwreck of his being through sin? Especially, why should he refuse to\nbelieve this when he is assured of it by Him who testified that He was\nthat Son of God--by Jesus, the man _par excellence_, the God-man? Why\nshould it be doubted that man is an object of interest to angels, who\nare said to rejoice over every sinner that repenteth? Why should it be\ndoubted that God has provided for him a fairer home than this, that\nimmortality and heaven are the things which God has in reserve for\nhim? Why should it be doubted that an everlasting salvation has been\nprovided for him through such a sacrifice as that of Christ? If sun,\nmoon, and stars have been made for the service of man, why should it\nbe hard to believe that God, who counts the stars, and calls them all\nby their names, should also heal the broken in heart, and bind up\ntheir wounds?\n\nThe prospect of human destiny as opened up by Christianity is grand;\nbut not too grand to be ascribed to Him who created the universe, and\nso arranged it that it should constitute one vast system of\nministration to us. When we see God thus working for man, we cannot be\nsurprised that angels should be glad to serve him too. Neither can we\nwonder that the Son of God should come to save him. The wonder begins\nwith man's primary relation to the \"all things,\" for our knowledge of\nwhich we are not dependent upon revelation at all. Science teaches us\nthat; and revelation only endorses it. That is wonderful enough; but\naccepting it as a fact, all that revelation teaches, but which science\ncould not have discovered, follows naturally enough. The facts of\nrevelation concerning man may be accepted the more implicitly because\nthey really have their basis in the facts of science. The whole is in\nperfect harmony. The one and the other are both represented--and\nconsistently so--as concurring in the great cause of human happiness.\n\nTry now from the greatness of the means to estimate the greatness of\nthe end. Is eternal life too much for a being whom the worlds combine\nto sustain, to feed, and to bless? Is a heaven of holiness and of love\ntoo much for a being whom angels are delighted to protect? No! The\nwonderful thing would be if, after having combined these vast and\nvarious forces to maintain our earthly existence, an Almighty and\nAll-good God should for ever quench our life after its brief day upon\nthe earth!\n\nIt may be objected that this is a low and selfish view to take of the\nmatter. It may be said that it is not the life of the individual, but\nthe life of the race that has to be considered; and that it is enough\nfor us to live, after we are gone, in the good remembrances of those\nwho will survive us, and to hope that what we are doing will advance\nthe interests of those who will follow us. An immortality such as this\nis in reality no immortality at all. An unconscious immortality! A\npublic recognition of what we have been when we shall be no longer! A\npublic gratitude, which may at best be but precarious to those to whom\nit is due, when they are believed to have dropped into nothingness and\nthus to be no longer capable of receiving and enjoying it! A progress\nmerely confined to material interests! And who are sharing in it\nto-day? The few who are strong enough to hold their own in the battle\nof life! They, and only they! All this is supreme nonsense. The\naspirations of the heart are against it. If man's life ends here, it\nwas not worth while for him to be born. Millions, in that case, might\njustly look up to God and say, \"Remember how short my time is:\nwherefore hast Thou made all men in vain?\"\n\nNevertheless, lest we should be exalted to pride and self-importance,\nlet us remember that the grandeur of our destiny is not determined and\nmeasured by our merits, but by the immensity of the Divine goodness.\nWhat have we which we have not received? And since we have received\nit, why should we boast as if it were all of our own making?\n\nAh, it is because Satan can compare our hopes with our rights, and can\nhelp us to do so too, that he succeeds in injecting doubts into our\nhearts. Our reply must be, that the eternal and blessed life which we\nanticipate is not of _reward_, but of _grace_; not a payment, but a\ngift--a gift in harmony with all God's other gifts, but still the\ngreatest gift of all; and that instead of inflating us with pride, it\nmay well place us at His feet in lowliest, devoutest thankfulness. By\nsin we had forfeited all; but \"where sin hath abounded, grace doth\nmuch more abound.\" God loved the man whom He had created with such\npower, and whom He had placed in so commanding a position; and because\nHe loved him, He resolved to provide a great redemption for him.\n\nWhat a ground have we here for hope! And what a plea for\nevangelisation!\n\n\n\n\nXVIII.\n\n_HEAVEN._\n\n\"Therefore are they before the throne of God.\"--Revelation vii. 15.\n\n\nLet us think of Heaven this morning. The verses of which the text is a\nfragment will help us to do so.\n\nThe hope of heaven is the crowning hope of the Christian. It ought at\nall times to be an important element in his joy. All the pleasant\nthings of earth should be made brighter by the reflected light of the\nworld beyond the grave. It is common, however, for us to live in a\nsort of unconsciousness of this. Within proper limits this is not to\nbe complained of. For our duties are _here_, and we are not fitted for\nthere by \"looking too eagerly beyond.\" Besides, earth is the\ntraining-school for heaven, and unless we would enter into heaven as\ninto \"a vast abrupt,\" obviously our present duty is by all means to\ncultivate that life which shall fit us for it.\n\nThere are, however, certain lulls in the rush of life which seem to\ndraw us to the contemplation of the future. We find them sometimes in\nseasons of repose, but more especially in seasons of sorrow, and more\nespecially still in seasons of bereavement.\n\nI am not anxious to form an argument this morning. I have little\ndisposition to _argue_ about heaven. But I want to express some\nthoughts, disjointed perhaps, but I trust suggestive, and each one\ncarrying its message to our weary hearts.\n\nWhat may we know? We often ask this question with hope that is\ntremulous--or it may be with tremulousness that is hopeful. What may\nwe know? Certainly not all that we sometimes wish to know; but then we\nsometimes wish to know things the knowledge of which would be useless,\nor curious, or beyond our reach until we can see with tearless eyes,\nand realise with sinless hearts. There are certain aspects under which\nheaven seems to be altogether visionary. Where is it? We are not told.\nWhat are the dimensions and outlines of it? We do not know. It is\ndescribed under a great variety of material figures. We read of its\ngates of pearl, its walls of jasper, its streets of gold, its river of\nthe water of life, its tree of life; but we know that these\ndescriptions symbolise the spiritual. Not that they are mere riddles,\nhowever. Some of their truth may be confidently guessed. There is one\nimportant fact of which we cannot be in doubt. Heaven is the place in\nwhich will be developed and perfected a certain character--certain\nmoral and spiritual qualifications. Heaven is where perfect goodness\nis, just as on earth happiness is where godliness and Christlikeness\nare. We may, therefore, put heaven where we will, and think about it\nalmost as we please, provided we put the right sort of character\nthere, and remember what sort of discipline here must prepare for it.\nThis is the essential point in the revelations of this book: \"There\nshall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither\nwhatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are\nwritten in the Lamb's book of life.\" There _must_ be a heaven for the\ngood.\n\nI shall not stop to point out what a wreck our common Christianity\nwould be if there were no future life of blessedness for the\nChristian. In contemplating such a possibility, the apostle Paul\nexclaims: \"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all\nmen most miserable.\" _We_: for we have expected heaven; the fair\nvision has been put before us as a great hope, and we lose in\nproportion to what we thought we had gained. _We_: for we have\nprepared for it, through a life--in many instances a _long_ life--of\nself discipline, of loyalty to God, of the mortification of sin, of\nthe cultivation of goodness. _We_: for we have suffered for it,\nsometimes directly through ills endured for Christ's sake, and always\nindirectly by the sacrifice of that which the world distinctively\ncalls its own, and on which it sets its supreme regard. Our\nChristianity has promised this heaven to us; and the promise has\nenhanced many an earthly joy, and charmed away many an earthly sorrow.\nNo heaven? Then we have been shamefully deceived--miserably\ndisappointed; and there is no hope for us any more! But no! The words\nof the great consolation are sounding still, and we can trust them:\n\"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in\nme. In my Father's house are many mansions: _if it were not so, I\nwould have told you_. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and\nprepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto\nmyself; that where I am there ye may be also.\"\n\nIt is one of the characteristic glories of the Bible that it meets the\nrenewed heart's desires in regard to the future, by revealing, not\nonly the fact of the future, but also some of its resplendent\nmysteries; so that, after taking man through the several stages of his\nprogress on earth, it conducts him at last to the heaven of his hopes,\nthe home of the good. Perhaps no Scripture disclosure of Heaven is\nmore wonderful, more complete, more entrancing than the one we have in\nthe vision of the apostle John as recorded in the verses before us.\nTrue, it is put before us, like the other revelations of this book, in\npoetical and pictorial form. Nevertheless, the spiritual teaching is\nsufficiently plain. Let us seek the help of that good Spirit by whom\nJohn was inspired, whilst we try to learn something of that which is\nrevealed to us in this chapter. In the light of it we see an\ninnumerable multitude of persons who, having travelled this world in\ntrial and in sorrow, are now before the throne of God, safe in the\nheaven of the redeemed.\n\nSo we see, at the very beginning, that the Heaven which is here\npresented to our view is no solitary place. It is not peopled merely\nby a few. John says he saw \"a great multitude whom no man could\nnumber.\" In the Old Testament a similar phrase is used to denote\nIsrael, the representative of the Church of later times. The\nnumberless stars of heaven, and the sands on the seashore are the\nparallels of the idea we find here. The Church on earth, sometimes not\nunfitly described as \"a garden walled around,\" and as \"a little\nflock,\" is not, in this sense, the representation of the Church in\nheaven. We see, further, that the heavenly territory embraces the\nrepresentatives of every earthly human condition: they gather from all\nages and all climes of the world--from all \"nations and kindreds, and\npeoples, and tongues.\" In this great fact we have the basis of the\ntheory of our mission work, and our hope of its ultimate success.\n\nWe see, again, that the relation of the saints to Christ in heaven is\nessentially the same as that of the saints on earth. They stand before\nthe throne and before the Lamb, and cry with a loud voice: \"Salvation\nto our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.\"\n\n    They sing the Lamb in hymns above,\n      And we in hymns below.\n\nSelf-confidence, self-righteousness, self-exaltation have no place\n_there_. All the glory of salvation, all the glory of heaven, is due\nto God and to the Lamb from first to last. Every step of the way,\nright on to its termination, has been arranged by His wisdom and\naccomplished by His grace.\n\nWith these facts before us, there ought to be no strangeness connected\nwith our conception of Heaven. Its inhabitants are our friends\ntransferred, and the elements of its perfected life and joy are the\nsame as we are, in our measure, familiar with in the imperfect state\nthrough which we are now passing. Perhaps the most comprehensive, and\nmost spiritually attractive and influential idea of it is that of\n_entire satisfaction_. In this aspect of it, it meets the demands of\nour experience, fulfils our hope, and draws us upward. Satisfaction!\nHow beautiful the thought! To the weary and the heavy laden it comes\nas rest. To the aspiring it comes as a sphere of boundless\nopportunity. To the sad and troubled, it is \"a land of pure delight.\"\nTo those who groan under present spiritual short comings and\nfrailties, it is the home of the spirits of the just made perfect. We\nare often staggered at the faults of Christians; they will be \"without\nfault\" there. Here our faults dissociate us more or less from our\nbrethren; faultlessness there will make the union complete. Here\ndarkness, there light; here sowing, there the harvest; here a\nwilderness, there the garden of the Lord. Heaven contains all our\nideals of the true, the beautiful and the good; and one day we shall\nrealise them! The description which we have before us warrants all\nthis, and much more. How much more? The redeemed in Heaven live a life\nof immunity from suffering. No hunger; no thirst; no oppression from\nthe heat of the sun. No faintness; no pangs. John seems, from the form\nof expression he uses, to have beheld them as they were \"coming out of\ngreat tribulation.\" Whatever may be the prophetic reference in these\nwords, we may understand them as having some meaning appropriate to\nall the redeemed. All life, with its varied experience may be called\n(and that too in no fanciful sense) a tribulation; in this sense at\nleast, that it is a probation, a trial, a testing-time in view of the\ngreat awards of the future. From this all come, gradually,\nsuccessively, one by one, passing from the school of earth to the home\nof heaven. Trial is the common discipline of the good, and it comes in\nmany forms;--sometimes in the form of bodily pain and sickness;\nsometimes in the form of trouble, disappointment, loss in the\nhousehold and in the social circle; sometimes in the form of\npersecution; often in the form of a struggle with temptation\nspringing up from within or from without; often, it may be, in the\nform of conflict with doubt. Sorrow, trial, tribulation--from all this\nthe redeemed in heaven have emerged. But they have not only escaped\nfrom evil; they have risen into a perfect blessedness--the blessedness\nwhich comes from the satisfaction of every want. They not only hunger\nno more, neither thirst any more; but the Lamb that is in the midst of\nthe throne feeds them, and leads them to living fountains of waters.\nTheir blessedness is all the richer because not only are all their\ntears wiped away, but wiped away by the hand of infinite gentleness\nand love--the hand of the Best Beloved in all the universe! Well may\nthey be glad! Well may they sing loud ecstatic songs of praise to\ntheir Redeemer. Well may they serve Him day and night in His\ntemple--perfected powers rejoicing evermore in a perfect consecration.\nThey are a company living, dwelling, at the very centre of joy: no\ncare upon them, no labour weighing them down; their Lord in the midst\nof them, their satisfaction complete.\n\nThe contrast between their condition on earth and in heaven is full of\nwonder to us as we muse upon it. How was the change wrought? What\nmust we learn concerning this from what is here revealed?\n\nThey were prepared _here_ for the state beyond. The life of heaven is\nthe continuation and the result of the earthly life. \"They washed\ntheir robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,\" and they\n\"came up out of great tribulation.\" Here we have the process of the\ncleansing, \"the great tribulation\" being comprehensive of the whole\ndiscipline by which God purifies human souls. Here we have also the\npurifying element, \"the blood of the Lamb,\" the atoning power to wash\nout all stains, the stimulating power to inspire to all holiness. And\nwe also have the final result--\"white raiment.\" So, doctrinally, the\n\"robes\" stand for the whole character, the tribulation for the process\nof purification; \"the blood of the Lamb,\" for the cleansing element in\nits justifying and sanctifying effects. Their holiness is not merely\npassive. There is a righteousness which is imputed; but there is also\na righteousness which is acquired--acquired in the might of the\nSaviour, and through the influences of His Spirit. Those who do not\naspire to the latter have no hope from the former, except a hope which\nmust make them ashamed. But inasmuch as both aspects of salvation are\nto be referred to the Lamb, they give to Him the glory. It is all His\nfrom beginning to end. \"They have washed their robes and made them\nwhite in the blood of the Lamb.\" Thus their salvation was effected on\nearth. Heaven has introduced no new moral element into their\ncondition. Heaven is essentially the full realisation of what a\nChristian expects and hopes this side the grave. It is the inheritance\nof the man who has the kingdom of God _within_ him.\n\nThere is one part of the description which requires a little\nexplanation, and all the more so as it bears upon the aspects given to\nus of heavenly blessedness. The redeemed are represented as standing\nbefore the throne with palms in their hands. Many explain this by the\nheathen use of the palm as the emblem of victory, and they quote the\ndeclaration: \"In all these things we are more than conquerors through\nHim that loved us.\" I would rather, with some, refer this emblem to a\nmuch sweeter and holier reminiscence. The figure seems to be taken\nfrom the Feast of Tabernacles, which commemorated two things--God's\ncare for, and protection of, Israel during their wanderings in the\nwilderness, and His continued Providence in the supply of the fruits\nof the earth in their season. It was held at the close of the year's\nout-door labours, and with it the season of rest began. And so with\nthe ransomed above, the troubles of the wilderness are ended, and the\nharvest-home has come.\n\nSuch is the heaven to which God has removed our dead. May we not with\nthankfulness leave them there? Must we not feel that by death, they\nhave made a glorious exchange? In their case, it would be wrong to\ncall death by hard names. It is the message which comes to the child\nat school to go home. I know that we often fail to apprehend this.\nBound by time and sense, we want to build our homes here, and our\nstructures have one after another to be overthrown that we may the\nbetter learn to think of \"the city which hath foundations, whose\nbuilder and maker is God.\" Heaven is best seen by the graves of those\nwe have loved; and not till earth becomes poor to us is Heaven felt to\nbe rich. There our loved ones are in raiment white and clean, and they\nare happy. Let it be our constant endeavour to rejoin them there. The\nsame blood still atones; the same all-holy Spirit still purifies; the\nsame process of trial leads to the same issue. For ourselves, we\nshould ever keep in mind the connection between discipline here and\nglory hereafter. Present darkness may be interpreted by future light.\nEven now, the sanctified effects of trial are such as to suggest to us\nwhat its final issues will be. It subdues us, makes us gentle, reveals\nus to ourselves, reveals God to us, spiritualises us; so that we may\nwell be more anxious to have our troubles blessed by God than to have\nthem taken away. As the discipline of earth is fashioning us for\nheaven, so our conceptions of heaven are continually re-acting upon\nus, and moulding our life.\n\nOne thought more. The seer beholds the immense multitude of the\nredeemed. The angel asks him who they are; but he does not know them.\nMany of them perhaps are persons whom he had known on earth; but they\nare so changed that he does not recognise them now. He used to know\nthem by their imperfect Christian virtues; but now they are \"without\nfault.\" And so they seem strange to him, just as sometimes even here\nthe transformations of virtue and of joy make us say of well-known\nfaces that we hardly recognise them again. A hint of this we often see\nin the faces of the dead; so like, yet so unlike. Is there any doubt,\nthen, as to our recognising them at the last? None. We may, perhaps,\nfail to identify them at once, but they will not be strangers to us\nlong. We shall look upon them with opened and purified eyes, and shall\nknow them, even as the disciples on the mount knew Moses and Elias,\nnotwithstanding the glory. Oh, it will be good for us to be there!\nGood for us to remain there for ever!\n\nRead: \"These are they who _are coming_\"--not \"who came.\" They began to\ncome with Abel; and the procession is not yet closed. Among the last\nare those over the loss of whom we are weeping now. Let us brush away\nour tears; for at least we may say to ourselves this--\n\n    One sweetly solemn thought\n      Comes to me o'er and o'er:\n    I'm nearer my home to-day\n      Than I've ever been before!\n\n    Nearer my Father's house,\n      Where the many mansions be;\n    Nearer the great white Throne;\n      Nearer the jasper sea!\n\n    Nearer the bound of life,\n      Where I lay my burden down!\n    Nearer leaving my cross!\n      Nearer wearing my crown!\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note\n\nArchaic and variable spelling is preserved as printed.\n\nThe following typographic errors have been fixed:\n\n    Page xiv--repeated 'not' deleted--... if it did not actually\n    reach, its maturity.\n\n    Page 46--repeated 'in' deleted--Observe what in that case\n    must follow.\n\n    Page 62--repeated 'are' deleted--... towards those who are\n    around us.\n\n    Page 195--inmediate amended to immediate--... on the direct\n    and immediate control of God, ...\n\n    Page 227--trimphant amended to triumphant--... furnishing a\n    triumphant and lasting reply ...\n\nThe frontispiece has been moved to follow the title page.\n\nThe illustration caption in {brackets} has been added by the transcriber\nfor the convenience of the reader.","title":"Sermons: Selected from the Papers of the Late Rev. Clement Bailhache","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":53834}