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McLaren, Alex

The unchanging Christ

THE UNCHANGING CHRIST

The Expositor s Library

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THE NEW EVANGELISM.

Prof. Henry Drummond, f.r.s.e.

The mind of the master.

Rev. John Watson, d.d.

the Teaching of Jesus concerning

HIMSELF. Rev. Prof. James Stalker, d.d.

FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST.

Rev. R. W. Dale, d.d., ll.d.

STUDIES ON THE NEW TESTAMENT.

Prof. F. GODET, D.D.

THE LIFE OF THE MASTER.

Rev. John Watson, d.d.

STUDIES OF THE PORTRAIT OF CHRIST.—
Vol. I. Rev. George Matheson, d.d.

Studies of the portrait of Christ.—

Vol. II. Rev. George Matheson, d.d.

The Jewish Temple and the Christian

CHURCH. Rev. R. W. Dale, d.d., ll.d.

The ten commandments.

Rev. R. W. Dale, d.d., ll.d.

THE FACT OF CHRIST.

Rev. P. Carnegie Simpson, m.a.

THE CROSS IN MODERN LIFE.

Rev. J. G. Greenhough, m.a.

HEROES AND MARTYRS OF FAITH.

Prof. A. S. Peake, d.d.

A GUIDE TO PREACHERS.

Principal A. E. GARVIE, M.A., D.D.

Modern Substitutes for Christianity.

Rev. P. McAdam Muir, d.d.

Ephesian Studies.

Right Rev. H. C. G. MOULE, D.D.

THE UNCHANGING CHRIST.

Rev. Alex McLaren, d.d.,d.litt.

THE GOD OF THE AMEN.

Rev. Alex McLaren, d.d, .d.litt.

The ascent through Christ.

Rev. E. Griffith Jones, b.a.

STUDIES ON THE OLD TESTAMENT.

Prof. F. Godet, d.d.

LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON

THE UNCHANGING

CHRIST

y/ BY THE REV.

ALEX McLaren, D.D., D.Litt.

HODDER AND STOUGHTON

LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO

The Unchanging Christ

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for
ever,” — Heb. xiii. 8.

ir.

The Secret of Immortal Youth

“ Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young
men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the
Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up
with wings as eagles ; they shall run and not be weary;
and they shall walk and not faint.’’ — Isa. xl. 30, 31.

III.

Next the Throne .

• • • ••• ••• ••• ••• •••

u To sit on My right hand, and on My left, is not Mine to
give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is
prepared of My Father.’’ — Matt, xx, 23.

CONTENTS.

IV.

The King in His Beauty .

“Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured
into thy lips : therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.
(3) Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O mighty one, thy
glory and thy majesty. (4) And in thy majesty ride on
prosperously because of truth and meekness and right¬
eousness ; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible
things. (5) Thine arrows are sharp ; the peoples fall
under thee ; they are in the heart of the king’s enemies.
(6) Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever : a sceptre
of equity is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. (7) Thou
hast loved righteousness, and hated wickedness: there¬
fore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of
gladness above thy fellows.” — Ps. xlv. 2-7 (R.V.).

The Portrait of the Bride .

“ (10) Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine
ear ; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s
house; (n) So shall the King desire thy beauty: for
He is Thy Lord ; and worship thou Him. (12) And
the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift ; even
the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour.
(13) The King’s daughter within the palace is all
glorious : her clothing is inwrought with gold. (14) She
shall be led unto the King in broidered work ; the
virgins, her companions, that follow her shall be
brought unto thee. (15) With gladness and rejoicing
shall they be led ; they shall enter into the King’s
palace.” — Ps. xlv. 10-15 (R.V.).

VI.

Sin Overcoming and Overcome .

“ Iniquities prevail against me : as for our transgressions,
Thou shalt purge them away.” — Ps. Ixv. 3.

VII.

Why the Talent was Buried .

“ Then he which had received the one talent come and said,
Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping

PAGE

/ -

CONTENTS.

PAGE

where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou
hast not strawed : and I was afraid, and went and hid
thy talent in the earth.” — Matt. xxv. 24, 25.

VIII.

God’s Certainties and Man’s Certitudes . 82

“ For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is
the yea : wherefore also through Him is the amen.” —

2 Cor. i. 20.

IX.

The Anointing which Establishes . ... 93

“ Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and
hath anointed us, is God.” — 2 Cor. i. 21.

The Seal and Earnest .

■ ••• * • • ••• ••• •••

“Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the
Spirit in our hearts.” — 2 Cor. i. 22.

104

XI.

The Warrior Peace . 115

“ The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall
keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.” —
Phil. iv. 7.

XII.

The Vision of God and the Feast before Him ... 125

“ They saw God and did eat and drink.” — Exodus xxiv. 11.

XIII.

What comes of a Dead Christ . 136

“ And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and
your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false
witnesses of God.” — 1 Cor. xv. 14, 15.

CONTENTS.

XIV. page

Fences and Serpents ... ... ... ... ... ... 148

“ Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.” —
Eccles. x. 8.

XV.

Strength in Weakness . 1 59

“ For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might
depart from me. And He said unto me, My grace is
sufficient for thee : for My strength is made perfect n
weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in
my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon
me.” — 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9.

XVI.

How to keep in the Love of God . 170

“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy
faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the
love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ unto eternal life.” — Jude 20, 21.

XVII.

A Death in the Desert . 18 1

“ So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land
of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And He
buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, . .

but no man lcnoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.” —
Deut. xxxiv. 5, 6.

XVIII.

From Centre to Circumference . 192

“ The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of
the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for
me.” — Gal. ii. 20.

CONTENTS.

vii

XIX. PAGE

The Guiding Pillar . 203

“ So it was alway : the cloud covered the tabernacle by day,
and the appearance of fire by night.” — Numbers ix. 16.

XX.

Righteousness First, then Peace . 214

“First being by interpretation King of Righteousness, and

after that also King of Salem, which is King of Peace.” •
— Heb. vii. 2.

XXI.

The New Name . 223

“ To him that overcometh will I give . . . anew name

. . . which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth

it.” — Rev. ii. 17.

XXII.

The Heavenly Vision . 236

“ Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto
the heavenly vision.” — Acts xxvi. 19.

XXIII.

The Threefold Common Heritage . . 247

“I, John, your brother, and partaker with you in the
tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in
Jesus.”— Rev. i. 9 (R.V.).

XXIV.

Anathema and Grace . 260

“ The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand. If any
man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be
Anathema Maran-atha. The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ
Jesus.” — 1 Cor. xvi. 21-24.

Vlll

CONTENTS .

XXV. PAGE

The Supreme Desire of the Devout Soul . 271

“Teach me to |do Thy will ; for Thou art my God : Thy
spirit is good ; lead me into the land of uprightness.” —

Ps. cxliii. 10.

XXVI.

The Delays of Love ... . 282

“ Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

When He had heard, therefore, that he was sick, He
abode two days still in the same place where He was.” — •

John xi. 5, 6.

XXVII.

A Parable in a Miracle . 291

“And there came a leper to Him, beseeching Him, and
kneeling down to Him, and saying unto Him, If Thou
wilt, Thou canst make me clean.

“ And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth His Hand,
and touched him, and saith unto him, I will ; be thou
clean.

“ And as soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy
departed from him, and he was cleansed.” — Mark i.

40-42.

XXVIII.

The Burden-bearing God . 304

“ Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits.”

— (A.V.)

“ Blessed be the Lord, who daily beareth our burdens .” —

Ps. lxviii. 19 (R.V.).

Sbe ‘mncbanaing Cbnst.

‘•Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and
for ever.”— Heb. xiii, 8.

OW far back does this “ yesterday ”
go r The limit must be found by
observing that it is “Jesus Christ”
who is spoken of— that is to say, the
/ ncarnate Saviour. That observation
disposes of the reference of these words to the past
eternity in which the eternal Word of God was what
He is to-day. The sameness that is referred to here
is neither the sameness of the Divine Son from all
eternity, nor the sameness of the medium of reve¬
lation in both the old and the new dispensations,
but the sameness of the human Christ to all gene¬
rations of His followers. And the epoch referred
to in the “yesterday” is defined more closely if
we observe the previous context, which speaks of
the dying teachers who have had the rule and
have passed away. The “yesterday” is the period
of these departed teachers ; the “ to-day ” is the
period of the writer and his readers.

THE UNCHANGING CHRIST.

But whilst the words of my text are thus nar¬
rowly limited, the attribute, which is predicated of
Christ in them, is something more than belongs to
manhood, and requires for its foundation the
assumption of His deity. He is the unchanging
Jesus because He is the Divine Son. The text
resumes, at the end of the Epistle, the solemn
words of the first chapter, which referred the
declaration of the Psalmist to “the Son ” —
“Thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail/'
That Son, changeless and eternal by Divine
immutability, is Jesus Christ, the incarnate Re¬
deemer.

This text may well be taken as our motto in
looking forward, as I suppose we are all of us
more or less doing, and trying to forecast the
dim outlines of the coming events of this New
Year. Whatever may happen, let us hold fast
by that confidence, “Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”

I. — I apply these words, then, as a New Year’s
motto, in two or three different directions, and
ask you to consider, first, the unchanging Christ
in His relation to our changeful lives.

The one thing of which anticipation may be
sure is that nothing continues in one stay. True,
“ that which is to be hath already been ” ; true,
there is “ nothing new under the sun ” ; but just as
in the physical world the infinite variety of creatures
and things are all made out of a few very simple
elements, so, in our lives, out of a comparatively
small number of possible incidents, an immense
variety of combinations results, with the effect that.

THE UNCHANGING CHRIST.

while we may be sure of the broad outlines of our
future, we are all in the dark as to its particular
events, and only know that ceaseless change will
characterise it, and so all forward looking must
have a touch of fear in it, and there is only one
thing that will enable us to front the else intolerable
certainty of uncertainty, and that is, to fall back
upon this thought of my text, ‘‘Jesus Christ is the
same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”

The one lesson of our changeful lives ought to
be for each of us the existence of that which changes
not. By the very law of contrast, and by the need
of finding sufficient reason for the changes, we are
driven from the contemplation of the fleeting to the
vision of the permanent. The wraves of this stormy
sea of life ought to fling us all high and dry on to
the safe shore. Blessed are they who, in a world
of passing phenomena, penetrate to the still centre
of rest, and looking over all the vacillations of
the things that can be shaken, can turn to the
Christ and say, Thou Who movest all things art
Thyself unmoved ; Thou Who changest all things,
Thyself changest not. As the moon rises slow and
silvery, with its broad shield, out of the fluctuations
of the ocean, so the one radiant Figure of the all-
sufficient and immutable Lover and Friend of our
souls should rise for us out of the billows of life's
tossing ocean, and come to us across the seas.
Brother ! let the fleeting proclaim to you the per¬
manent; let the world with its revolutions lead you
up to the thought of Him that is the same for ever.
For that is the only thought on which a man can
build, and, building, be at rest.

THE UNCHANGING CHRIST.

The yesterday of my text may either be applied
to the generations that have passed, and then the
“ to-day ” is our little life ; or it may be applied to
my own yesterday, and then the to-day is this nar¬
row present. In either application the words of
my text are full of hope and of joy. In the former
they say to us that no time can waste, nor any
drawing from the fountain can diminish the all-
sufficiency of that Divine Christ in whom eighteen
centuries have trusted and been “ lightened, and
their faces were not ashamed.” The yesterday of
His grace to past generations is the prophecy of
the future and the law for the present. There is
nothing that ever any past epoch has drawn from
Him, of courage and confidence, of hope and
wisdom, of guidance and strength, of love and
consolation, of righteousness and purity, of brave
hope and patient endurance, which He does not
stand by my side ready to give to me too to-day.
“ As we have heard so have we seen in the city
of the Lord of Hosts.” And the old Christ of a
thousand years is the Christ of to-day, ready
to help, to succour, and to make us like Him¬
self.

In the second reference, narrowing the “yester¬
days ” to our own experiences, the words are full
of consolation and of hope. “ Thou hast been my
Help ; leave me not, neither forsake me” is the
prayer that ought to be taught us by every re¬
membrance of what Jesus Christ has been to us.
The high-water mark ofJHis possible sweetness
does not lie in some irrevocable past moment of
our lives. We never have to say that we have

THE UNCHANGING CHRIST.

found a sufficiency in Him that we never shall find
any more. Remember the time in your experience
when Jesus Christ was most tender, most near,
most sweet, most mysterious, most soul-sufficing'
for you, and be sure that He stands beside you
ready to renew the ancient blessing* and to sur¬
pass it in His gift. Man’s love sometimes wearies,
Christ’s never ; man’s basket may be emptied,
Christ’s is fuller after the distribution than it was
before. This fountain can never run dry. Not
until seven times, but until seventy times seven ;
perfection multiplied into perfection, and that
again multiplied by perfection once more, is the
limit of the inexhaustible mercy of our Lord. And
all in which the past has been rich lives in the
present.

Remember, too, that this same thought which
heartens us to front the inevitable changes also
gives dignity, beauty, poetry, to the small, prosaic
present. “Jesus Christ is the same to-day .” We
are always tempted to think that this moment is
commonplace and insignificant. Yesterday lies
consecrated in memory; to-morrow radiant in
hope ; but to-day is poverty-stricken and prose.
The sky is furthest away from us right over our
heads ; behind and in front it seems to touch the
earth. But if we will only realise that all that
sparkling lustre and all that more than mortal
tenderness of pity and of love with which Jesus
Christ has irradiated and sweetened an)* past is
verily here with us amidst the commonplaces and
insignificant duties of the dusty to-day, then we
need look back to no purple distance, nor forward

THE UNCHANGING CHRIST.

to any horizon where sky and earth kiss, but feel
that here or nowhere, now or never, is Christ the
all-sufficient and unchanging’ Friend. He is faith¬
ful. He cannot deny Himself.

II. — So, secondly, I apply these words in another
direction. I ask you to think of the relation
between the unchanging Christ and the dying
helpers.

That is the connection in which the words occur
in my text. The writer has been speaking of the
subordinate and delegated leaders and rulers in
the Church “ who have spoken the word of God ”
and who have passed away, leaving a faith to be
followed, and a conversation the end of which is
to be considered. And, turning from all these
mortal companions, helpers, guides, he bids us
think of Him who liveth for ever, and for ever is
the Teacher, the Companion, the Home of our
hearts, and the Goal of our love. All other ties —
sweet, tender, infinitely precious, have been or will
be broken for you and me. Some of us have to
look back upon their snapping ; some of us have to
look forward. But there is one bond over which
the skeleton fingers of Death have no power, and
they fumble at that knot in vain. He separates
us from all others ; blessed be God ! he cannot
separate us from Christ. “ I shall not lose Thee
though I die ” ; and Thou, Thou diest never.

God’s changeful Providence comes into all our
lives, and parts dear ones, making their places
empty that Christ Himself may fill the empty
places, and, striking away other props, though the
tendrils that twine round them bleed with the

THE UNCHANGING CHRIST.

wrench, in order that the plant may no longer
trail along the ground, but twine itself round the
Cross and climb to the Christ upon the Throne.
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the
Lord sitting on a throne.” The true King was
manifested when the earthly, shadowy monarch
was swept away. And just as, on the face of some
great wooded cliff, when the leaves drop, the
solemn strength of the everlasting rock gleams
out pure, so, when our dear ones fall away, Jesus
Christ is revealed, “the same yesterday, and
to-day, and for ever.” “ They truly were many,
because they were not suffered to continue by
reason of death; this Man continueth ever. He
lives, and in Him all loves and companionships
live unchanged.”

III. — -So, further, we apply, in the third place,
this thought to the relation between the un¬
changing Christ and decaying institutions and
opinions.

The era in which this Epistle was written was an
era of revolution so great that we can scarcely
imagine its apparent magnitude. It was close
upon the final destruction of the ancient system
of Judaism as an external institution. The
Temple was tottering to its fall, the nation was
ready to be scattered, and the writer, speaking to
Hebrews, to whom that seemed to be the passing
away of the eternal verities of God, bids them lift
their eyes above all the chaos and dust of dis¬
solving institutions and behold the true Eternal, the
ever-living Christ. He warns them, in the verse
that follows my text, not to be carried about with

THE UNCHANGING CHRIST.

divers and strange doctrines, but to keep fast to
the unchanging Jesus. And so these words may
well come to us with lessons of encouragement,
and with teaching of duty and steadfastness, in an
epoch of much unrest and change — social, theo¬
logical, ecclesiastical — such as that in which our
lot is cast. Man’s systems are the shadows on the
hillside. Christ is the everlasting solemn mountain
itself Much in the popular conception and repre¬
sentation of Christianity is in the act of passing.
Let it go : Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and
to-day, and for ever. We need not fear change
within the limits of His Church or of His world.
For change there means progress, and the more the
human creations and embodiments of Christian
truth crumble and disintegrate, the more distinctly
does the solemn, single, unique figure of Christ
the Same rise before us. There is nothing in the
world’s history to compare with the phenomena
which is presented by the unworn freshness of
Jesus Christ after all these centuries. All other
men, however burning and shining their light,
flicker and die out into extinction. And but for
a season can the world rejoice in any of their
beams. But this Jesus dominates the ages, and
is as fresh to-day, in spite of all that men say,,
as He was eighteen centuries ago. They tell us
He is losing His power; they tell us that mists
of oblivion are wrapping Him round, as He moves
slowly to the doom which besets Him in common
with all the great names of the world. The wish
is father to the thought. Christ is not done with
yet, nor has the world done with Him, nor is He

THE UNCHANGING CHRIST.

iess available for the necessities of this generation,
with its perplexities and difficulties, than He was
in the past. His sameness is consistent with an
infinite unfolding of new preciousness and new
powers, as new generations with new questions
arise, and the world seeks for fresh guidance. “ I
write no new commandment unto you ” : I preach
no new Christ unto you. “ Again, a new com¬
mandment I write unto you/’ and every genera¬
tion will find new impulse, new teaching, new
shaping energies, social and individual, ecclesias¬
tical, theological, intellectual, in the old Christ who
was crucified for our offences and raised again for
our justification, and remains “ the same yesterday,
and to-day, and for ever/’

IV. — Lastly, look at these words in their applica¬
tion to the relation between the unchanging Christ
and the eternal love of heaven.

The “ for ever ” of my text is not to be limited
to this present life, but it runs on into the re¬
motest future, and summons up before us the
grand and boundless prospect of an eternal un¬
folding and reception of new beauties in the old
earthly Christ. For Him the change between
the “ to-day ” of his earthly life and the “ for
ever ” of His ascended glory made no change
in the tenderness of his heart, the sweetness
of His smile, the nearness of His helping
hand. The beloved Apostle, when he saw
Him next after He was ascended, fell at His
feet as dead, because the attributes of His
nature had become so glorious. But when
the old hand, the same hand that had been

THE UNCHANGING CHRIST

pierced with the nails on the Cross, though it
now held the seven stars, was laid upon him,
and the old voice, the same voice that had spoken
to him in the upper room and in feebleness from
the Cross, though it was now as the “ sound ot
many waters/’ said to him, “ Fear not, I am the
first and the last ; I am He that liveth and was
dead and am alive for evermore”; John learned
that the change from the Cross to the Throne
touched but the circumference of his Master’s
being, and left the whole centre of His love and
brotherhood wholly unaffected.

Nor will the change for us, from earth to the
closer communion of the heavens, bring us into
contact with a changed Christ. It will be but like
the experience of a man starting from the outer¬
most verge of the solar system, where that giant
planet welters away out in the darkness and
the cold, and travelling inwards ever nearer and
nearer to the central light, the warmth becoming
more fervent, the radiance becoming more
wondrous, as he draws nearer and nearer to the
greatness which he divined when he was far away,
and which he knows better when he is close to
it. It will be the same Christ, the Mediator, the
Revealer, in heaven as on earth, whom we here
dimly saw and knew to be the Sun of our souls
through the clouds and mists of earth. That
radiant and eternal sameness will consist with
continual variety, and an endless streaming forth
of new lustres and new powers. But through all
the growing proximity and illumination of the
heavens it will be the same Jesus that we knew

THE UNCHANGING CHRIST.

1 1

upon earth ; still the Friend and the Lover of our
souls.

So, dear friends, if you and I have Him for our
very own, then we do not need to fear change, for
change will be progress; nor loss, for loss will be
gain; nor the storm of life, which will drive us
to His breast ; nor the solitude of death, for our
Shepherd will be with us there. He will be “the
same for ever” ; though we shall know Him more
deeply ; even as we shall be the same, though
“ changed from glory into glory.” If we have
Him, we may be sure, on earth, of a “ to-morrow ”
which “ shall be as this day, and much more
abundant.” If we have Him, we may be sure of a
Heaven in which the sunny hours of its unending
day will be filled with the fruition of ever new
glories from the old Christ who, for earth and
Heaven, is “ the same yesterday, and to-day, and
for ever.”

II.

Zbe Secret of 3mmortal l?outb.

“Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall
utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength ; they shall mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall
run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” —
Isa. xl. 30, 31.

REMEMBER a sunset at sea, where
the bosom of each wavelet that
fronted the west was aglow with
fiery gold, and the back of each
turned eastward was cold green ; so
that, looking on the one hand all was glory, and
on the other all was sober melancholy. So
differently does life look to you young people and
to us older ones. Every man must buy his own
experience for himself, and no preaching nor
talking will ever make you see life as we see it.
It is neither possible nor desirable that you should ;
but it is both possible and most desirable that you
should open your eyes to plain, grave facts, which
do not at all depend on our way of looking at
things, and that if they be ascertainable, as they
are, you should let them shape your life.

Here are a couple of facts in my text which I

THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH.

want you to look steadily in the face, and to take
account of them, because, if you do so now, they
may save you an immense deal of disappointment
and sorrow in the days that are to come. You
have the priceless prerogative still in your hands
of determining what that future is to be ; but you
will never use that power rightly if you are guided by
illusions, or if, unguided by anything but inclina¬
tion, you let things drift, and do as you like.

So, then, my object is simply to deal with
these two forecasts which my text presents ;
the one a dreary certainty of weariness and decay,
the other a blessed possibility of inexhaustible and
incorruptible strength and youth, and on the contrast
to build as earnest an appeal to you as I can make.

I. — Now, then, first look at the first fact here,
that of the dreary certainty of weariness and decay.

I do not need to spend much time in talking
about that. It is one of the commonplaces which
are so familiar that they have lost all power of
impression, and can only be rescued from their
trivial insignificance by being brought into imme¬
diate connection with ourown experience. If, instead
of the toothless generality, “ the youths shall faint
and be weary,” I could get you young people to
say, “/— I shall faint and be weary, and, as sure
as I am living, I shall lose what makes to me the
very joy of life at this moment,” I should not have
preached in vain.

Of course the words of my text point to the plain
fact that all created and physical life, by the very
law of its being, in the act of living tends to death ;
and by the very operation of its strength tends to

THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH.

exhaustion. There are three stages in every
creature’s life — that of growth, that of equilibrium,
that of decay. You are in the first. If you live
you will come to the second and the third, as cer¬
tain as fate. Your “eyes will grow dim,” your
“ natural force” will be “abated,” the body will
become a burden, the years that are full of buoy¬
ancy will be changed for years of heaviness and
weariness, strength will decay, “ and the young
men ” — that is you — “shall utterly fall.”

And the text points also to another fact, that,
longbefore your natural life shall have begun to tend
towards decay, hard work and occasional sorrows
and responsibilities and burdens of all sorts will
very often make you wearied and ready to faint.
In your early days you dream of life as a kind of
enchanted garden, full of all manner of delights :
and you stand at the threshold with eager eyes and
outstretched hands. Ah ! dear young friend, long
before you have traversed the length of one of its
walks, you will often have been sick and tired of the
whole thing, and weary of what is laid upon you.

My text points to another fact, as certain as
gravitation, that the faintness and weariness and
decay of the bodily strength will be accompanied
with a parallel change in your feelings. We are
drawn onward by hopes, and when we get them
fulfilled we find that they are disappointing.
Custom, which weighs upon us “heavy as frost,
and deep almost as life,” takes the edge off every¬
thing that is delightsome, though it does not so
completely take away the pain of things that are
burdensome and painful. Men travel from a

THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH.

tinted morning into the sober light of common day,
and with failing faculties and shattered illusions
and dissipated hopes, and powers bending under
the long monotony of middle life, most of them
live. Now all that is the veriest threadbare
morality, and I daresay while I have been talking
some of you have been thinking that I am repeat¬
ing platitudes that every old woman could preach.
So I am. That is to say, I am trying to put into
feeble words the universal human experience.
That is your experience, and what I want to get you
to think about now is that, as sure as you are living
and rejoicing in your youth and strength,
this is the fate that is awaiting you — “the youths
shall faint and be weary, and shall utterly fall.”

Well, then, one question, Do you not think that,,
if that is so, it would be as well to face it ? Do you
not think that a wise man would take account of all
the elements in forecasting his life, and would
shape his conduct accordingly ? If there be some¬
thing certain to come, it is a very questionable
piece of wisdom to make that the thing which we
are most unwilling to think about. I do not want
to be a kill-joy ; I do not want to take anything
out of the happy buoyancy of youth. I would say,
as even that cynical, bitter Ecclesiastes says,
“ Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth ; and let thy
heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth.” By all
means, only take all the facts into account, and if
you have joys which shrivel up at the touch of this
thought, then the sooner you get rid of such joys
the better. If your gladness depends upon your
forcibly shutting your eyes to what is inevitably^

ib THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH.

certain to come about, do you not think that you
are living in a fool’s paradise that you had better
get out of as soon as possible ? There is the fact.
Will you be a wise and brave man and front it, and
settle how you are going to deal with it, or will you
let it hang there on your horizon, a thunder- cloud that
you do not like to look at, and that you are all the
more unwilling to entertain the thought of, because
you are so sure that it will burst in storm ? Lay
this, then, to heart, though it be a dreary certainty,
that weariness and decay are sure to be your fate.

II. — Now turn, in the next place, to the blessed
opposite possibility of inexhaustible and immortal
strength. “ They that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength ; they shall mount up with
wings as eagles ; they shall run and not be weary ;
they shall walk and not faint.”

The life of nature tends inevitably downward,
but there may be another life within the life of
nature which shall have the opposite motion, and
tend as certainly upwards. “ The youths shall
faint and be weary.” Whether they be Christians
or not, the law of decay and fatigue will act upon
them ; but there may be that within each of us, if
we will, which shall resist that law, and have no
proclivity whatsoever to extinction in its blaze, to
death in its life, to weariness in its effort, and shall
be replenished and not exhausted by expenditure.
“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength,” and, in all forms of motion possible to a
creature, they shall expatiate and never tire. So
let us look on this blessed possibility a little more
closely.

THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH.

Note, then, how to get at it. “They that wait
upon the Lord ” is Old Testament dialect for what
in New Testament phraseology is meant by
“ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." For the
notion expressed here by “ waiting ” is that of
expectant dependence, and the New Testament
“ faith ” is the very same in its attitude of expec¬
tant dependence, while the object of the Old
Testament “ waiting/' Jehovah, is identical with
the object of the New Testament faith, which
fastens on God manifest in the flesh, the Man
Jesus Christ.

Therefore, I am not diverting the language of
my text from its true meaning, but simply opening
its depth, when I say that the condition of the
inflow of this unwearied and immortal life into our
poor, fainting, dying humanity is simply the trust
in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of our souls. True,
the revelation has advanced, the contents of that
which we grasp are more developed and articulate,
blessed be God ! True, we know more about
Jehovah, when we see Him in Jesus Christ, than
Isaiah did. True, we have to trust in Him as dying
on the Cross for our salvation and as the pattern
and example in His humanity of all nobleness and
beauty of life for young or old, but the Christ is
the “ same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."
And the faith that knit the furthest back of the
saints of old to the Jehovah, whom they dimly
knew, is in essence identical with the faith that
binds my poor, sinful heart to the Christ that died
and that lives for my redemption and salvation.
So, dear brethren, here is the simple old message

THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH.

for each of you, young or old. No matter where
we stand on the course of life, there may come
into our hearts a Divine Indweller, who laughs at
weariness and knows nothing of decay ; and He
will come if, as sinful men, we turn ourselves to
that dear Lord, who fainted and was weary many
a time in His humanity, and who now lives, the
strong Son of God, immortal love, to make us
partakers in His immortality and His strength.
How, then, we get this Divine gift is by faith in
Jesus Christ, which is the expansion, as it was the
root, of trust in Jehovah.

Further, what is this strength that we thus get,
if we will, by faith r It is the true entrance into
our souls of a Divine life. God in His Son will
come to us, according to His own gracious and
profound promise: “If any man open the door I
will enter in.” He will come into our hearts and
abide there. He will give to us a life derived
from, and, therefore, kindred with, His own. And
in that connection it is very striking to notice how
the prophet, in the context, reiterates these two
words, “ fainteth not, neither is weary .” He begins
by speaking of “ God, the Lord, the Creator of the
ends of the earth, who fainteth not, neither is
weary.” He passes on to speak of His gift of
power to the faint. He returns to the contrast
between the Creator’s incorruptible strength and
the fleeting power of the strongest and youngest.
And then he crowns all with the thought that
the same characteristics shall mark them in
whom the unwearied God dwells as mark Him.
We, too, like Him, if we have Christ in our

THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH.

hearts by faith, shall share, in some fashion and
degree in His wondrous prerogative of unwearied
strength.

So, brethren, here is the promise. God will give
Himself to you, and in the very heart of your
decaying nature will plant the seed of an im¬
mortal being which shall, like His own, shake off
fatigue from the limbs, and never tend to dissolu¬
tion or an end. The life of nature dies by living ;
the life of grace, which may belong to us all, lives
by living, and lives evermore thereby. And so
that life is continuous and progressive, with no
tendency to decay, nor term to its being. “ The
path of the just is as the shining light that shineth
more and more ” until it riseth to the zenith of the
noontide of the day. Each of you, looking forward
to the certain ebbing away of creatural power, to
the certain changes that may pass upon you, may
say, “ I know that I shall have to leave behind
me my present youthful strength, my unworn
freshness, my buoyancy, my confidence, my
wonder, my hope ; but I shall carry my Christ ;
and in Him I shall possess the secret of an
immortal youth.”

The oldest angels are the youngest. The longer
men live in fellowship with Christ the stronger do
they grow. And though our lives, whether we be
Christians or no, are necessarily subject to the
common laws of mortality, we may carry all that is
worth preserving of the earliest stages into the
latest ; and when grey hairs are upon us, and we are
living next door to our graves, we may still have
the enthusiasm, the energy, and above all, the

THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH.

boundless hopefulness that made the gladness and
the spring of our long-buried youth. “ They shall
still bring forth fruit in old age." “ The youths
shall faint and be weary, but they that wait upon
the Lord shall renew their strength.”

There is one more point to touch, and then I have
done, and that is the manner in which this immortal
strength is exercised. The latter clauses of my
text give us, so to speak, three forms of motion.
“They shall mount up with wings as eagles."
Some good commentators find in this a parallel
to the words in the 103rd Psalm, “ My youth is
renewed like the eagle’s," and propose to translate
it in this fashion, “ They shall cast their plumage
like the eagle." But it seems much more in
accordance with the context and the language to
adopt substantially the reading of our English
version here, or to make the slight change, “ They
shall lift up their wings as the eagle," implying, of
course, the steady, upward flight towards the light
of heaven.

So, then, there are three forms of unwearied
strength lying ready for you,young men and women,
to take for your very own if you like, strength to
soar, strength to run, strength to walk.

There is strength to soar. Old men generally
shed their wings, and can only manage to crawl.
They have done with romance. Enthusiasms are
dead. Sometimes they cynically smile at their own
past selves and their dreams. And it is a bad sign
when an old man does that. But for the most part
they are content, unless they have got Christ in
their hearts, to keep along the low levels, and their

THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH.

soaring1 days are done. But if you and I have
Jesus Christ for the life of our spirits, as certainly
as fire sends its shooting tongues upwards, so
certainly shall we rise above the sorrows and sins
and cares of this “ dim spot which men call earth,”
and find an ampler field for buoyant motion high
up in communion with God. Strength to soar
means the gracious power of bringing all heaven
into our grasp, and setting our affections on things
above. As the night falls, and joys become fewer
and life sterner, and hopes become rarer and more
doubtful, it is something to feel that, however
straitened may be the ground below, there is plenty
of room above, and that, though we are strangers
upon earth, we can lift our thoughts yonder. If
there be darkness here, still we can “ outsoar the
shadow or our night/’ and live close to the sun in
fellowship with God. Dear brethren, life on earth
were too wretched unless it were possible to
“ mount up with wings as eagles.”

Again, you may have strength to run — that is to
say, there is power waiting for you for all the great
crises of your lives which call for special, though
it may be brief, exertion. Such crises will come to
each of you, in sorrow, work, difficulty, hard
conflicts. Moments will be sprung upon you with¬
out warning, in which you will feel that years hang
on the issue of an instant. Great tasks will be
clashed down before you unexpectedly which will
demand the gathering together of all your power.
And there is only one way to be ready for such
times as these, and that is to live waiting on the
Lord, near Christ, with Him in your hearts, and

THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH.

then nothing will come that will be too big for you.
However rough the road, and however severe
the struggle, and however swift the pace, you
will be able to keep it up. Though it may be
with panting lungs and a throbbing heart, and dim
eyes an,d quivering muscles, yet if you wait on the
Lord you will run and not be weary. You will be
masters of the crises.

Strength to walk may be yours — that is to say,
patient power for persistent pursuit of weary,
monotonous duty. That is the hardest, and so it
comes last. Many a man finds it easy, under the
pressure of strong excitement, and for a moment
or two, to keep up a swift pace, who finds it very
hard to keep steadily at unexciting work. And
yet there is nothing to be done except by doggedly
plodding along the dusty road of trivial duties,
unhelped by excitement and unwearied by mo¬
notony. Only one thing will conquer the disgust
at the wearisome round of mill-horse tasks which,
sooner or later, seizes all godless men, and that is
to bring the great principles of the Gospel into
them, and to do them in the might and for the sake
of the dear Lord. “ They shall run and not be
weary, they shall walk” — along life’s common way
in cheerful godliness — “and they shall not faint.”

Dear friends, life to us all is, and must be, full of
sorrow and of effort. Constant work and frequent
sorrows wear us all out, and bring us many a time
to the verge of fainting. I beseech you to begin
right, and not to add to the other occasions for
weariness that of having to retrace, with remorseful
heart and ashamed feet, the paths of evil on which

THE SECRET OF IMMORTAL YOUTH.

you have run. Begin right— that is to say, begin
with Christ and take Him for Inspiration, for
Pattern, for Guide, for Companion. “Run with
patience the race set before you, looking unto Jesus
the Author of your Faith, lest ye be wearied and
faint in your minds.”

And if you have Him in your hearts, then, how¬
ever the creatural power may be weary, yet because
He is with you “ your shoes shall be iron and brass,
and as your day so shall your strength be ” ; and
you may lift up in your turn the glad triumphant
acknowledgment : “ For this cause we, feeble as we
are, faint not, but though our outward man perish,
our inward man is renewed day by day.”

God bless you all, and make that your expe¬
rience !

III.

IRcyt tbe Gbrone.

“ To sit on My right hand, and on My left, is not Mine to give, but it
shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of My Father.” —
Matt. xx. 23.

HE request of James and John, through
their mother, to which this is a por¬
tion of the answer, was singularly
blended of good a,nd evil, devotion
and selfishness, insight and ignor¬
ance. It breathed the heartiest love of Christ, the
most entire belief in His Kingdom and power, the
conviction that to be nearest to Him was to be
most blessed, a brave readiness to risk and bear
anything for that, and a profound confidence that
if He said c> Yes5’ the accomplishment was certain.

So much for the good; but, on the other side,
what vulgar, low notions of what His Kingdom
was; what coarse, selfish ambition in this family
conspiracy to steal a march on the others ; and
what utter ignorance of all the conditions for the
place to which they aspire ! Christ's answer,
wonderfully patient and gentle, tries to life them
into a higher region, to make them understand

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that they must be near Him in suffering before
they could be near Him in glory, and that not even
His will can give the honour they asked, as a mere
piece of favouritism, and irrespective of moral and
spiritual conditions.

I. The Seats by Christ’s Side. — The disciples’
request had no reference to the perfect form of
Christ’s Kingdom in another life, and our Lord’s
answer does not apply only to that. But the gulf
between the present and future is largely imagin¬
ary, and these words of my text do apply to both
sides of it, while yet they have a predominant
reference to another life and to the conditions
there. Observe that our Lord, in His patient and
instructive answer to the foolish and selfish prayer
of His two disciples, does not say to them, as it
would have been so easv and natural to have said,
if it had been true : “ You are wrong altogether,
there are no such places as those that you desire,”
but, on the contrary, says distinctly that there are,
inasmuch as He tells them that to sit on His right
hand and left is prepared for some of His Father.

Therefore, there is distinctly, in the words of my
text, the principle of diversity of degree corre¬
sponding to what we call rank, and that diversity
depends upon, and is, diversity in closeness to
Jesus Christ. Just as here on earth all the
differences between Christian men come down at
last to this one difference — that some live nearer
their Master and that some are further away from
Him — so in the Heavens it shall be, and pre¬
eminence there shall consist in nearness in heart
and spirit to the King. All shall be close to Him,

NEXT THE THRONE .

and all shall be every moment getting closer, but
there shall be diversity in the proximity, and some
shall sit on the right hand and on the left.

Of course we start with the conception of equality.
All get the penny in the parable. All “ sit down
with Him on His throne,’’ which is the apex of
the universe. All have the same eternal life ;
all possess the same conditions and prerogatives
of that heavenly and glorified body, of likeness
to Jesus Christ, of cessation from the toil of
earth, and all are, in the true sense of the word,
from the beginning of the eternity of growing
glory, perfect. But perfection does not exclude
growth. There may be the most entire sym¬
metrical development of faculties, and yet there
may be the possibility of widening and of
deepening. The cup which is filled, according to
the old Puritan illustration, may be larger or
smaller, but all the cups are full. But that good
old illustration does not tell the whole story. The
cup is not, like one of gold, of fixed circumference
and depth, but, like the calyx of a flower, it is
endowed with the power of growth, and continually
increases in capaciousness and, therefore, in
contents. Equality does not exclude variety, and
perfection is not inconsistent with progress, and if
there be progress there must necessarily be
diversity of stages.

This variety is distinctly taught in Scripture.
We have two parables occupied with this matter,
both of which have to be taken into account. In
that of the talents equal faithfulness in trading
with unequal capital is made equal in recompense,

NEXT THE THRONE ,

the same praise and the same entrance into the
Lord’s joy being given to the servant who had
received two talents as to his richer companion who
had five. But in the other parable, which con>
pletes the teaching of the former, and which only
a very hasty and superficial criticism could regard
as but a varying edition of it — namely, that of the
pounds — precisely the converse idea is presented.

* There we have the same amount originally given
to all, but unequally increased by greater or less
diligence, and therefore a graduated scale of
rewards corresponding thereto, in the gifts of
authority over ten or five cities. A city for every
pound ! so much greater than, and yet so accurately
proportioned to, the faithfulness of earth are the
rewards of heaven! There is such a thing as
“ salvation, yet so as by fire ” ; the man entering
into eternal life and yet the work that he did as a
Christian teacher all being consumed and burnt
up, and so he suffering loss ; and, on the ether
hand, there is such a thing as salvation in fulness
and “ an entrance ministered abundantly into the
everlasting Kingdom of the Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ.”

Such diversity is a necessary result of the very
conception of the future, as being the retribution
for the present. For if retribution, then it must
correspond to that of which it is the outcome and
the reward. And that to which it corresponds,
we only too sadly know, is a dreadful inequality in
the maturity and purity of Christian life and con¬
duct here. If only we would bring more closely
together in our thoughts, as they are bolted in-

NEXT THE THRONE

separably together in reality, our stature and pro¬
gress in Christian character here, and the rewards
and results that follow, we should understand that
not only may, but must, there be wide adversities
even in the one possession of the one eternal life ;
and that just as, and because, Christian men and
women differ in the — I was going to say quantity ,
•of Christ which they make their own here, so
shall they differ in the lustre of the glory and the
sweep of the dominion which is granted to them
hereafter. “ One at the right hand and one on
the left ” ; and others further from the Throne,
though all as near it as they can be, and all getting
nearer it every moment.

Nor let us forget, in reference to this diversity,
that we are taught in the context to discharge
from our minds, in connection with it, all earthly
ideas of superiority, wherein the excellency of the
one is the inferiority of the others, and pre¬
eminence for A means degradation for all the rest
•of the alphabet. It is not so here, but the pre¬
eminence consists in, or at least is manifested by, a
larger faculty for service and a deeper desire to
serve. That is a wonderful thought for that dim
unknown future, that even amongst perfect natures
there shall be room for mutual help, and that none
shall be so directly united with the all-sufficient
source of all blessing that it shall be impossible
for him to receive anything of his brother, or to
give anything to another, but rather that all shall
be knit together in common bonds of impartation,
and that “ no man shall say that anything ” of
the Christ “ which he possesses is his own, but they

NEXT THE THRONE.

shall have all ” of Him “ common.” And thus
the orinces in that world are the servants of those

who stand further from the light and are less
participant of its radiance and its warmth.

The rabbis had a couple of parables which illus¬
trated this thought. There was a great king, said
they, who entered into a city with his court. All
passed through the one gate into the one palace,,
but each was marshalled according to his dignity
when he entered there.

And again they said, in a singular variant of
Christ’s parable of the Marriage Supper : A great
king made a feast, and invited many. Each man
came bringing his seat ; some, golden chairs ;
some, silken cushions ; some, wooden benches
some, rough stones. Every man sat on what he
brought. We determine where we shall sit. It
is not all the same, in reference to that future life,
how near your Master you live here. Plenty of us
think that we should like to be very near Him in
the heavens. “ Ye know not what ye ask.” The
conditions are that you should be near Him
here.

II. — So that brings me to speak, in the second
place, of the law of precedence in the kingdom.

It belongs to them “ for whom it is prepared of
My Father.” The language is strongly meta¬
phorical. The conception is of the thrones all
ranged and allocated in that upper chamber, as
the stalls of the knights in some chapel of their
order might be, while the owners were fighting in
the field, and over each of the seats hung the
banner and the cognizance of its occupant. So,

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says Christ, the vacant thrones are there, “ pre¬
pared of My Father ” ; and prepared with a
definite reference to certain persons.

Now I do not take it that in this there is any
doctrine of an absolute unconditional destination
of those seats for individuals, apart from their
character and faithfulness here, but simply a
strong and picturesque statement of this truth,
which is the answer to the foolish prayer of the
two disciples, that the places are not given by
favouritism, nor mere arbitrary will, but allocated
in accordance with fixed principles and eternal
laws in the Divine mind. So the question
comes to be, What sort of people they are
for whom these calm thrones in the empyrean
are waiting. Can we ascertain the laws of
precedence, the grounds on which the Divine
preparation of the seats is based ? The answer
is plain in the context. It gives us two great
principles.

The seats are prepared, first, for those that have
drunk most deeply of Christ’s cup. “ Can ye drink
of the cup that I drink of? ” They answered cheer¬
fully and swiftly, “ We can.” And nobly they
stood to their vow in after days, though when
they made it they knew so little of what it implied.
To drink of Christ’s cup is no less the condition
of our future nearness to Him. Not that the
accident of actual martyrdom secures it. A martyr
is not necessarily a saint. It is not being burnt to
ashes for Christ that fits for the seats next Him ;
but it is the inward appropriation of His life and
spirit, which will certainly lead to a true participa-

NEXT THE THRONE. 3l

tion in His cup. One of these two was the first
martyr among- the Apostles, the other was not
called to die for Christ, but to linger here after all
his companions, and to teach a new generation the
wonders that had been.

The measure, then, in which we Christian people
incorporate Jesus Christ into ourselves here will
determine all our future. If our whole being is
saturated with Him, that will lead to a threefold
partaking of His cup. It will lead to our standing
in a relation to the world and its evils similar to
His, and, in our humble measure, we too shall
know what He knew of the world’s antagonism,
and of the sorrows of a pure soul walking amidst
filth, and of love and self-sacrifice put forth in vain.
It will lead to our sharing in the Master’s cup,
inasmuch also as it will re-produce in our spiritual
experience the crucifying of the flesh and the death
to self and sin which were Christ’s, and we shall
thus know “ the fellowship of His sufferings, being
made conformable unto His death.” There is no
Christian life without that. It is a daily dying, a
daily self-sacrifice, a daily putting to the death
the old man, the natural passions, desires, tastes,
inclinations. Unless we thus die ever we never
live. Communion with Jesus Christ will lead to
drinking of His cup in yet another fashion, inas¬
much as it will make all our sufferings His, and
bring into the darkest of our sorrows the sweet and
blessed thought that in all our affliction He is
afflicted, and so His presence will save us. If we
drink His cup He drinks ours, and leaves the
fragrance of His lips upon its edge. Thus fellow-

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ship with His sufferings here, which rests upon
communion of spirit with Himself, is the condition
on which we shall draw nearest to Him in the
fellowship of His glory.

The context gives a second condition of that pre¬
eminence. It tails to those who most fully imitate
His life and death of service and sacrifice. There
is but one road to the Throne. If we are going
where He is, we must go as He went, for there are
no by-ways. Unselfish service for His sake is the
only path. “ Whosoever will be chief among you,
let him be your servant.” The service does not
cease to be unselfish because it is brightened by the
hope of being near Him. They who, in entirest
self-oblivion, regard all spiritual enjoyments,
natural faculties, and material possessions as
trusted to them to scatter for His sake, and so to
increase, are they who will stand nearest the Master
whom they were so like on earth ; and, having
taken part, in some humble measure, in the like¬
ness of His life and death, such shall be found also
in the likeness of His resurrection.

These words about the preparation by the Father
further suggest the certainty that these seats thus
prepared shall be ours if we adhere to the con¬
ditions. Here vaulting ambition doth o’erleap
itself. Men scramble for the best places, and
before they reach them somebody else is seated
there. But there is one field of ambition legitimate,
one field of unselfish ambition, one field of ambition
which is always sure of gratification and of finding
the results more blessed than its most sanguine
dreams — and that is, that we should seek to be

NEXT THE THRONE

nearest our Master. If that be our aim, the aim
shall not be missed. The inheritance incorruptible
is reserved in heaven for those who by faith are
kept for it. God is keeping my place for me, and
will bring me to my place if I only abide near my
Master, and live the unselfish life of service and
sacrifice whereof He has set the pattern. So, at
last, He will say to us, “ Come, ye blessed, enter
into the Kingdom prepared for you before the
foundation of the world/’

H!-— Lastly, my text speaks of Jesus Christ as,
under the aforesaid laws and restrictions, the Giver
of the precedence.

To take the words before us as being an uncon¬
ditional disclaimer, on His part, of His authority
to give Heavenly places would be to run counter
to the whole tenor of Scripture ; and it would be
to do violence to the whole force of the context.
For His disclaimer must necessarily be interpreted
with reference to the conceptions to which it is the
answer. And these conceptions were that He
could give the Kingdom, and pre-eminence in it,
as a pure piece of partiality, and arbitrary
favouritism, without regard to fitness. Since that
was the request, the answer in my text must in all
propriety be interpreted “It is not Mine to give
so." As you will observe, “ shall be given ” is a
supplement, and good commentators suggest that
instead of reading “ it shall be given to them,” we
should translate without a supplement “ It is not
Mine to give except to them to whom it is prepared
of My Father/’ If we adopt such a rendering —
and whether we adopt it or no the meaning is the

NEXT THE THRONE ,

same— then we have here Christ not denying, but
affirming, in accordance with all Scriptural
analogy, that He is the Giver of place in the
Kingdom. Only He asserts, as He always does,
that His giving is not merely of His own will, but
by the will of the Father ; and that it is regulated
by the principles which I have already laid down.

He is the Giver. “Have thou authority over
the cities ” was the language of the lord of the
servants. “ / will give to him that overcometh ”
is His own seven-fold utterance in the Apocalyptic
epistles. He is the Judge, and, as Judge, exer¬
cises the authority to place men where He knows
they ought to stand. He is not denuding Himselt
•of His power to bestow, but He is telling us that,
in the exercise of that power, He and the Father
are one ; and that He gives, not from foolish
fondness, nor in answer to a bare and ignorant
wish, but in accordance with these great principles.
The gift is surely from His hand, for if the hand
had not been pierced with the nails it never had
been able to give the crown. And all that we
hope for in the future, or possess in the present,
is alike the purchase of His blood and the result
of His great sacrifice.

The gift of Christ is heaven, and our place in the
heaven. And how much sweeter that thought
makes the heavenly glories they only who possess
them can tell. That they shall be Christ’s love-
gift, that they shall come to the recipients charged
not only with their own essential sweetness, but
surcharged, over and above, with the fragrance of
His love, gilds even the refined gold of the

NEXT THE THRONE.

heavenly crown, and makes even more precious

“ the unsearchable riches ” of the treasures that
are above.

Dear friends! one last word. Jesus Christ can¬
not give you heaven because you want it, nor as a
mere piece of good nature and kindness. There
are laws which He cannot break. Many of us
seem to think that because God is merciful heaven
is sure. It js a delusion. If Christ could save you
He would. He wants to do it, He pleads with
you that you will let Him. But, remember this,
not even His love nor His power can give you the
entrance there unless you comply with the con¬
dition. And the condition is that plain one, that
you must be like Him, and so be fit for His pre¬
sence. You can only become like Him by puttino-
your trust, as a sinful man, in the great sacrifice of
His Cross, and then taking that Cross as the
pattern and law of your lives. You must begin
with faith. ‘-Add to your faith” all the graces
which are the likeness of your Saviour- King, and
so, and only so, “an entrance shall be ministered
unto you abundantly into the everlasting King-

IV.

Sbe Iking in Ibis Beauty

“ Thou art fairer than the children of men : grace is poured into thy
lips : therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. (3) Gird thy
sword upon thy thigh, O mighty one, thy glory and thy majesty.
(4) And in thy majesty ride on prosperously because of truth and
meekness and righteousness ; and thy right hand shall teach thee
terrible things. (5) Thine arrows are sharp; the peoples fall
under thee ; they are in the heart of the king’s enemies. (6) Thy
throne, O God, is for ever and ever : a sceptre of equity is the
sceptre of Thy kingdom. (7) Thou hast loved righteousness, and
hated wickedness : therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee
with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” — Ps. xlv, 2.7 (R.V.).

HERE is no doubt that this Psalm
was originally the marriage hymn
of some Jewish king. All attempts
to settle who that was have failed,
for the very significant reason that
neither the history nor the character of any of
them correspond to the Psalm. Its language is a
world too wide for the diminutive stature and
stained virtues of the greatest and best of them.
And it is almost ludicrous to attempt to fit its
glowing sentences even to a Solomon. They all
look like little David in Saul’s armour. So. then,

THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY.

we must admit one of two thing’s. Either we have
here a piece of poetical exaggeration far beyond
the limits of poetic licence, or “ a greater than
Solomon is here.” Every Jewish king, by virtue of
his descent and of his office, was a living prophecy
of the greatest of the sons of David, the future
King of Israel. And the Psalmist sees the ideal
Person who, as he knew, was one day to be real,
■shining through the shadowy form of the earthly
king, whose very limitations and defects, no less
than his excellencies and his glories, forced the
devout Israelite to think of the coming King in
whom “the sure mercies” promised to David
should be facts at last. In plainer words, the
Psalm celebrates Christ, not only although, but
because, it had its origin and partial application
in a forgotten festival at the marriage of some
unknown king. It sees him in the light of the
Messianic hope, and so it prophecies of Christ.
My object is to take the features of this portrait
•of the King, partly in order that we may better
understand the Psalm, and partly in order that
we may with the more reverence crown Him as
Lord of all.

I. — The Person of the King.

The old world ideal of a monarch put special
■emphasis upon two things — personal beauty and
courtesy ot. address and speech. The Psalm
ascribes both of these to the King of Israel, and
ifrom both of them draws the conclusion that one
so richly endowed with the most eminent of royal
graces is the object of the special favour of God.
“ Thou art fairer than the children of men, grace is

THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY.

poured into thy lips : therefore God hath blessed
thee for ever.”

Here, at the very outset, we have the key-note
struck of superhuman excellence ; and though the
reference is, on the surface, only to physical per¬
fection, yet beneath that there lies the deeper
reference to a character which spoke through the
eloquent frame, and in which all possible beauties
and sovereign graces were united in fullest develop¬
ment, in most harmonious co-operation and un¬
stained purity.

“ Thou art fairer than the children of men.” Put
side by side with that, words which possibly refer
to, and seem to contradict it. A. later prophet,,
speaking of the same Person, said : “ His visage
was so marred, more than any man, and His form
than the sons of men . . . There is no form

nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him there
is no beauty that we should desire Him.” We have
to think, not of the outward form, howsoever
lovely with the loveliness of meekness and trans¬
figured with the refining patience of suffering it
may have been, but of the beauty of a soul that
was all radiant with a lustre of loveliness that
shames the fragmentary and marred virtues of the
rest of us, and stands before the world for ever as
the supreme type and high-water mark of the
glory that is possible to a human spirk. God has
lodged in men’s nature the apprehension of Himself,
and ail that flows from Him, as true, as good, as-
beautiful, and to these three there correspond
wisdom, morality, and art. The latter, divorced
from the other two, becomes earthly and devilish..

THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY.

This generation needs the lesson that beauty
wrenched from truth and goodness, and pursued
for its own sake, by artist or by poet or by dilettante ,
leads by a straight descent to ugliness and to evil,
and that the only true satisfying of the deep
longing for “whatsoever things are lovely 55 is to
be found when we turn to Christ and find in Him,
not only wisdom that enlightens the understanding,
and righteousness that fills the conscience, but beauty
that satisfies the heart. He is “ altogether lovely.5"
Nor let us forget that once on earth the fashion
of His countenance was altered, and His raiment
did shine as the light, as indicative of the possi¬
bilities that lay slumbering in His lowly Manhood,
and as prophetic of that to which we believe that
the ascended Christ hath now attained — viz., the
body of His glory, wherein He reigns, filled with
light and undecaying loveliness on the Throne of
the Heaven. Thus He is fairer in external reality
now, as He is, by the confession of an admiring,
though not always believing, world, fairer in
inward character than the children of men.

Another personal characteristic is “ Grace is
poured into thy lips.5’ Kingly courtesy, and kingly
graciousness of word, must be the characteristic ot
the sovereign of men. The abundance of that
bestowment is expressed by that word “poured.55
We need only remember — “ All wondered at the
gracious words which proceeded out of His
mouth,55 or how even the rough instruments of
authority were touched and diverted from their
appointed purpose, and came back and said,
“Never man spake like this Man.55 To the music

THE KING IN IIIS BEAUTY.

of Christ's words all other eloquence is harsh, poor,
shallow — like the piping of a shepherd boy upon
some wretched oaten straw as compared with the
full thunder of the organ. Words came from His
lips of unmingled graciousness. That fountain
never sent forth sweet waters and bitter. He satis¬
fies the canon of St. James : “If any man offend
not in word, the same is a perfect man/’ Words
of wisdom, of love, of pity, of gentleness, of pardon,
of bestowment, and only such, came from Him :
“ Daughter ! Be of good cheer.” “ Son ! Thy sins
be forgiven thee.” “Come unto Me all ye that
labour and are heavy-laden.”

“ Grace is poured into thy lips ” ; and, withal,
it is the grace of a king. For His language is
authoritative even when it is most tender, and
regal when it is most gentle. His lips, sweet as
honey and the honeycomb, are the lips of an
autocrat. He speaks and it is done : He commands
and it stands fast. He says to the tempest,
“Be still,” and it it is quiet; and to the demons,
“Come out of him,” and' they disappear; and
to the dead, “ Come forth,” and he stumbles from
the tomb.

Another personal characteristic is — “ God hath
blessed thee for ever,” By which we are to un¬
derstand, not that the two preceding graces are
the reasons for the Divine benediction, but that
the Divine benediction is the cause of them ; and
therefore they are the signs of it. It is not that
because He is lovely and gracious therefore God
hath blessed Him ; but it is that we may know
that God has blessed Him because He is lovely

THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY,

and gracious. These endowments are the results,
not the causes ; the signs or the proofs, not the
reasons of the Divine benediction. That is to say,
the humanity so fair and unique shows by its
beauty that it is the result of the continual and
unique operation and benediction of a present
God. \\/e understand Him when we say, “On
Him rests the Spirit of God without measure or
interruption. dhe explanation of the perfect
humanity is the abiding Divinity.

II. — We pass from the person of the King, in
the next place, to His warfare.

The Psalmist breaks out in a burst of invocation,
calling upon the King to array Himself in His
weapons of warfare, and then in broken clauses
vividly pictures the conflict. The Invocation runs
thus: “Gird on thy sword upon thy thigh, O
mighty hero, gird on thy glory and thy majesty,
and ride on prosperously on behalf (or, in the
cause) of truth and meekness and righteousness.”
The King, then, is the perfection of warrior
strength as well as of beauty and gentleness— a
combination of qualities that speaks of old days
when kings were kings, and reminds us of many a
figure in ancient song, as well as of a Saul and a
David in Jewish history.

He calls upon Him to bind on His side His
glittering sword, and to put on, as his armour,

glory and majesty.” These two words, in the
usage of the Psalms, belonging to Divinity, and they
are applied to the monarch here as being the
earthly representative of the Divine supremacy,
on whom there falls some reflection of the glory

THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY.

and the majesty of which He is the vice-regent
and representative. Thus arrayed, with the weapon
by His side and the glittering armour on His
limbs, He is called upon to mount His chariot or
His warhorse and ride forth.

But for what ? “ On behalf of truth, meekness,,
righteousness.” If He be a warrior, these are the
purposes for which the true King of men must
draw His sword, and these only. No vulgar
ambition nor cruel lust of conquest, earth-hunger,
or “glory” actuates Him. Nothing but the spread
through the world of the gracious beauties which
are His own can be the end of the King’s warfare.
He fights for truth : He fights — strange paradox —
for meekness ; He fights for righteousness.. And
He not only fights for them, but with them, for they
are His own, and by reason of them He “ rides
prosperously,” as well as “ rides prosperously” in
order to establish them.

In two or three swift touches the Psalmist next
paints the tumult and hurry of the fight. “Thy
right hand shall teach thee terrible things.” There
are no armies or allies, none to stand beside Him.
The one mighty figure of the kingly warrior stands
forth, as in the Assyrian sculptures of conquerors,
erect and alone in his chariot, crashing through
the ranks of the enemy, and owing victory to his
own strong arm alone.

Then follow three short, abrupt clauses, which
in their hurry and fragmentary character, reflect
the confusion and swiftness of battle.

“Thine arrows are sharp. . . . The people

fall under thee,” . . . “in the heart of the

THE KING IN HIS BE A UTY

king’s enemies.” He sees the bright arrow on the
string. It whizzes ; he looks— the plain is strewed

with prostrate forms, the king’s arrow in the heart
of each.

Put side by side with that this picture : — A
rocky road ; a great city shining- in the morning
sunlight across a narrow valley ; a crowd of shou£
ing peasants waving palm branches in their
rustic hands; in the centre the meek carpenters
Son, sitting upon the poor robes which alone
draped the ass’s colt, the tears upon His cheeks,
and His lamenting heard above the Hosannahs’
as He looked across the glen and said, “ If thou
hadst known the things that belong to thy
peace ! ” That is the fulfilment, or part of the
fulfilment of this prophecy. The slow-pacing,
peaceful beast and the meek, weeping Christ are
the reality of the vision which, in such strangely-
contrasted and yet true form, floated before the
prophetic eye of this ancient singer. For Christ’s
humiliation is His majesty, and His sharpest
weapon is His all-penetrating love, and His Cross
is His chariot of victory and throne of dominion.

But not only in His earthly life of meek suffering-
does Christ fight as a King, but all through the
ages the world-wide conflict for truth and "meek¬
ness and righteousness is His conflict ; and
wherever that is being waged the power which
wages it is His, and the help which is done upon
earth He doeth it all Himself. True, He has His
army, willing in the day of His power, and clad
in priestly purity and armour of light, but all
their strength, courage, and victory are from

THE KING IN HIS BE A UTY.

Him ; and when they fight and conquer, it is not
they, but He in them, who struggles and over¬
comes. We have a better hope than that built on
“ a stream of tendency that makes for righteous-
ness.” We know a Christ crucified and crowned, who
fights for it, and what He fights for will hold the field.

Ihis prophecy of our psalm is not exhausted
yet. I have set side by side with it one picture —
the Christ on the ass’s colt. Put side by side with
it this other. “ I beheld the heaven opened ; and
lo ! a white horse. And He that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True ; and in righteousness He
doth judge and make war.” The psalm waits for
its completion still, and shall be filled on that
day of the true marriage supper of the Lamb,
when the festivities of the marriage chamber shall
be preceded by the last battle and crowning victory
of the King of kings, the Conqueror of the world.

III. — Lastly, we have the Royalty of the King.
“ Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.” This
is not the place nor time to enter on the discussion
of the difficulties of these words. I must run the
risk of appearing to state confident opinions with¬
out assigning reasons when I venture to say that
the translation in the Authorised Version is the
natural one. I do not say that others have been
adopted by reason of doctrinal prepossessions ;
I know nothing about that ; but I do say that they
are not by any means so natural a translation as
that which stands before us. What it may mean is
another matter ; but the plain rendering of the words
I venture to assert, is wha.t our English Bible makes
it — “ Thy throne, O Lord ! is for ever and ever.”

THE ICING IN HIS BE A UTY.

I hen it is to be remembered that throughout the
Old Testament we have occasional instances of the
use of that great and solemn designation in refer¬
ence to persons in such place and authority as that
they are representatives of God. So kings and
judges and lawyers and the like are spoken of more
than once, therefore there is not, in the language,
translated as in our English Bible, necessarily the
implication of the unique divinity of the persons so
addressed. But I take it that here is an instance
in which the prophet was “wiser than he knew/’ and
in which you and I understand him better than he
understood himself, and know what God, who
spoke through him, meant, whatsoever the prophet,
through whom He spoke, did mean. That is to
say, I take the words before us as directly referring
to Jesus Christ, and as directly declaring the
Divinity of His person, and therefore the eternity
of His kingdom.

We live in days when that perpetual sovereignty
is being questioned. In a revolutionary time like
this it is well for Christian people, seeing so many
venerable things going, to tighten their grasp upon
the conviction that, whatever goes, Christ’s King¬
dom will not go ; and that, whatever may be
shaken by any storms, the foundation of His
Throne stands fast. For our personal lives, and,
for the great hopes of the future beyond the grave, it
is all-important that we should grasp, as an element¬
ary conviction of our faith, the belief in the perpetual
rule of that Saviour whose rule is life and peace.

In the great mosque of Damascus, which was a
Christian church once, there may still be read,.

THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY.

deeply cut in the stone, high above the pavement
where the Mohammedans bow, these words, “ Thy
kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom. ”
It is true, and yet it shall be known that lie is for
ever and ever the Monarch of the world.

Then, again, this royalty is a royalty ot
righteousness. “ The sceptre of Thy kingdom is a
right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness and
hatest wickedness/’ His rule is no arbitrary sway.
His rod is no rod of iron and tyrannical oppression,
His own personal character is righteousness.
Righteousness is the very life-blood and animating
principle of His rule. He loves righteousness, and
therefore puts His broad shield of protection over
all who love it and seek after it. He hates wicked
ness, and therefore He wars against it wherever it
is, and seeks to draw men out of it. And thus His
kingdom is the hope of the world.

And, lastly, this dominion of perennial righteous¬
ness is the dominion of unparalleled gladness.
4t Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee
with the oil of joy above thy fellows.” Set side
by side with that the other words, “A man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” And
remember how, at the very darkest moment of the
Lord’s earthly experiences, He said : “ These

things have I spoken unto you that My joy may
remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”
Christ’s gladness flowed from Christ’s righteous¬
ness. Because His pure humanity was ever in
touch with God, and in conscious obedience to
Him, therefore, though darkness was around,
there was light within. He was “ sorrowful, yet

THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY.

always rejoicing,” and the saddest of men was
likewise the gladdest of men, and possessed “ the
oil of joy above His fellows.”

Brother ! that kingdom is offered to us ; parti¬
cipation in that joy of our Lord may belong to
each of us. He rules that He may make us like
Himself, lovers of righteousness, and so, like
Himself, possessors of unfading joy. Make Him
your King ; let His arrow reach your heart ; bow
in submission to His power; take for your very
life His words of graciousness ; lovingly gaze
upon His beauty till some reflection of it shall
shine from you ; fight by His side with strength
drawn from Him alone; own and adore Him as the
enthroned God-man, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Crown Him with the many crowns of supreme
trust, heart-whole love, and glad obedience. So
shall you be honoured to share in His warfare and
triumph. So shall you have a throne close to His,
and eternal as it. So shall His right sceptre be
graciously stretched out to you to give you access
with boldness to the presence chamber of the King.
So shall He give you, too, “ the oil of joy for
mourning” even in the valley of weeping, and the
fulness of His gladness for evermore, when He sets
you at His right hand.

£be portrait of tbe Bribe.

“(io) Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear;
forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house ; (n) So shall
the King desire thy beauty : for He is thy Lord ; and worship thou
Him. (12) And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a
gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour.
(13) The King’s daughter within the palace is all glorious: her
clothing is inwrought with gold. (14) She shall be led unto the
King in broidered work ; the virgins, her companions, that follow
her shall be brought unto thee. (15) With gladness and rejoicing
shall they be led ; they shall enter into the King’s palace.”
— Ps. xlv. 10-15 (R.V.).

HE relation between God and Israel
is constantly represented in the Old
Testament under the emblem of a
marriage. The tenderest promises
of protection and the sharpest re¬
bukes of unfaithfulness are based upon this founda¬
tion. “Thy Maker is thy Husband”; or, “I am
married unto thee, saith the Lord.” The emblem
is transferred in the New Testament to Christ and
His Church. Beginning with John the Baptist’s
designation of Him as the Bridegroom, it re¬
appears in many of our Lord’s sayings and
parables, is frequent in the writings of the Apostle

THE PORTRAIT OF THE BRIDE.

Paul, and reaches its height of poetic splendour
and terror in that magnificent description in
Revelations of the Bride, the Lamb’s wife, and the
marriage supper of the Lamb.

Seeing, then, the continual occurrence of this
metaphor, it is unnatural and almost impossible to
deny its presence in this Psalm. In a former
sermon I have directed attention to the earlier
portion of it, which presents us, in its portraiture
of the King, a shadowy and prophetic outline of
Jesus Christ. I desire, in a similar fashion, to
deal now with the latter portion, which, in its
portrait of the bride, presents us with truths
having their real fulfilment in the Church col¬
lectively and in the individual soul.

Of course, inasmuch as the consort of a Jewish
monarch was not an incarnate prophecy, as her
husband was, the transference of the historical
features of this wedding- song to a spiritual pur¬
pose is not so satisfactory, or easy, in the latter
part as in the former. There is a thicker rind of
prose fact, as it were, to cut through, and certain
of the features cannot be applied to the relation
between Christ and His Church without undue
violence. But, whilst we admit that, it is also
clear that the main, broad outlines of this picture
do require as well as admit its higher application.
Therefore I turn to them to try to bring out what
they teach us so eloquently and vividly of Christ’s
gifts to, and requirements from, the souls that are
wedded to Him.

I. — Now the first point is this — the all-surren¬
dering Love that must mark the Bride.

THE PORTRAIT OF THE BRIDE .

The language of the tenth verse is the voice
of prophecy or inspiration ; speaking words of
fatherly counsel to the princess — “ Forget also
thine own people, and thy father’s house.” His¬
torically I suppose it points to the foreign birth of
the queen, who is called upon to abandon all old
ties, and to give herself with wholehearted conse-
cration to her new duties and relations.

In all real wedded life, as those who have tasted
it know, there comes, by sweet necessity, the
subordination, in the presence of a purer and more
absorbing affection, of all lower, howsoever sweet,
loves that once filled the whole heart. Such sur¬
render is no pain but gladness, inasmuch as the
deeper well that has been sunk dries the surface
springs, and gathers all their waters into itself.
The new treasure that has filled the heart compels,
by glad compulsion, the surrender, or, at least, the
subordination of all former affections to the sweet
constraint of all-mastering love.

The same thing is true in regard to the union
of the soul with Christ. The description of the
bride’s abandonment of former duties and ties
may be transferred, without the change of a word,
to our relations to Him. If love to Him has
really come into our hearts, it will master all our
yearnings and tendencies and affections, and we
shall feel that we cannot but yield up everything
besides, by reason of the sovereign power of this
new affection. Christ demands from us (if I may
use the word “ demand ” for the beseeching of
love), for His sake, and for our sakes, the entire
surrender of ourselves to Him. And that new

THE PORTRAIT OF THE BRIDE .

affection will deal with the old loves, just as the
new buds upon the beech-trees in the spring deal
with the old leaves that still hang withered on
some of the branches. It will push them from
their hold, and they will drop. If a river should
be turned into some dark cave where unclean
beasts have herded and littered for years, the bright
waters will sweep out on their bosom all the filth
and rottenness. So, when the love of Christ comes
surging and flashing into a heart, it will bear out
on its broad surface all conflicting and subordinate
inclinations, with the passions and lusts that used
to rule and befoul the spirit. Christ demands
complete surrender, and, if we are Christians, that
absolute abandonment will not be a pain nor un¬
welcome. We shall drop the toys of earth as easily
and naturally as a child will some trinket or play¬
thing when it stretches out its little hand to get a
better gift from its loving mother. Love will sweep
the heart clean of its antagonists ; and there is no
real union between Jesus Christ and us except in
the measure in which we joyfully, and not as a
reluctant giving up of things that we would much
rather keep if we durst, “ count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
our Lord.”

Have the terms of wedded life changed since my
psalm was written ? Is there less need now than
there used to be that, if we are to possess a heart,
we should give a whole heart r And have the
terms of Christian living altered since the old
days, when He said, “ Whosoever he be of you
that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be

THE PORTRAIT OF THE BRIDE.

My disciple ? ” Ah ! I fear me that it is no un¬
charitable judgment to say that the bulk of so-
called Christians are playing at being Christians,
and have never penetrated into the depths either
of the sweet all-sufficiency of the love that they
say they possess, or the constraining necessity
that is in it for the surrender of all besides. Many
happy husbands and wives, if they would only treat
Jesus Christ as they treat one another, would find
out a power and a blessedness in the Christian
life that they know nothing about at present.
“ Daughter, forget thine own people and thy
father’s house ! ”

II. — Again, the second point here is that which
directly follows — the King’s love and the Bride’s
reverence. “ So shall the King greatly desire thy
beauty : for He is thy Lord ; and worship thou
Him.”

The King is drawn, in the outgoings of His
affection, by the sweet trust and perfect love
which has surrendered everything for Him and
happily followed Him from the far-off land. And
then, in accordance with Oriental ideas, and with
His royal rank, the bride is exhorted, in the midst
of the utter trust and equality born of love, to
remember, “ He is thy Lord, and reverence thou
Him.” So, then, here are two thoughts that go,
as I take it, very deep into the realities of the
Christian life. The first is that, in simple literal
fact, Jesus Christ is affected, in his relation to us,
by the completeness of our dependence upon Him,
and surrender of all else for Him. We do not
.believe that half vividly enough. We have sur-

THE PORTRAIT OF TIIE BRIDE.

rounded Jesus Christ with a halo of mystery and
of remoteness which neither lets us think of Him
as being really man or really God. And I press
on you this as a plain fact, no piece of pulpit
rhetoric, that His relation to us as Christians
hinges upon our surrender to Him. Of course,,
there is a love with which He pours Himself out
over the unworthy and the sinful — blessed be His
name ! — and the more sinful and the more un¬
worthy, the deeper the tenderness and the more
yearning the pity and pathos of invitation which
He lavishes upon us. But that is a different thing*
from this other, which is that He is pleased or
displeased, actually drawn to or repelled from us,,
in the measure of the completeness and gladness
of our surrender of ourselves to Him. That is
what Paul means when he says that he labours
that whether present or absent he may be
pleasing to Christ. And this is the highest and
strongest motive that I know for all holy and
noble living, that we shall bring a smile into
our Master’s face and draw Him nearer to our¬
selves thereby. “ So shall the King greatly desire
thy beauty.”

Again, in the measure in which we live out our
Christianity, in whole-hearted and thorough sur¬
render, in that measure shall wTe be conscious of
His nearness and feel His love.

There are many Christian people that have only
got religion enough to make them uncomfortable,,
only enough to make religion to them a system of
regulations, negative and positive, the reasonable¬
ness and sweetness of which they only partially

THE PORTRAIT OF THE BRIDE.

apprehend. They must not do this because it is
forbidden ; they ought to do that because it is
commanded. They would much rather do the
forbidden thing, and they have no wish to do the
commanded thing. And so they live in twilight.
And when they come beside a man that really has
been walking in the light of Christ’s face, his
language and experience, though it be but a
transcript of facts, sounds to them all unreal and
fanatical. They miss the blessing that is waiting
for them, just because they have not really given
up themselves. If by resolute and continual
opening of our hearts to Christ’s real love and
presence, and by consequent casting away of our
false and foolish self-dependence, we were to blow
away the clouds that come between us and Him, we
should feel the sunshine. But as it is, a miserable
multitude of professing Christians walk in the
darkness, and have no light, or, at the most, but
some wintry sunshine that struggles through the
thick mist, and does little more than reveal the
barrenness that lies around. Brethren ! If you
want to be happy Christians, be out-and-out ones ;
and if you would have your hands and your hearts
filled with Christ, empty them of the trash that
they grip so closely now.

Then, on the other side, there is the reminder
and exhortation ? “ He is thy Lord, worship thou
Him.” The beggar-maid that, in the old ballad,
married the king in all her love, was filled with
reverence ; and the ragged, filthy souls, whom
Jesus Christ stoops to love, and wash, and make His
•own, are never to forget, in the highest rapture of

THE PORTRAIT OF THE BRIDE .

their joy, their lowly adoration, nor, in the glad
familiarity of their loving approach to Him, cease
to remember that the test of love is “ Keep My
commandments.”

There are types of emotional and sentimental
religion that have a great deal more to say about
love than about obedience ; that are full of half
wholesome apostrophes to a “ dear Lord,” and
half forget the “Lord” in the emphasis which they
put on the “ dear.” And I want you to remember
this as by no means an unnecessary caution, and
of special value in some quarters to-day, that the
test of the reality of Christian love is its lowliness,
and that all that which indulges in heated emotion,
and forgets practical service, is rotten and spurious.
If the king desire her beauty, still, when he
stretches out the golden sceptre, Esther must come
to him with lowly guise and a reverent heart.
“ He is thy Lord, worship thou Him.”

III. — The next point in this portraiture is the
Teflected honour and influence of the bride. There are
difficulties about the translation of the 12th verse
of our Psalm that I do not need to trouble you with.
We may take it for our purpose as it stands before
us. “The daughter of Tyre” (representing the
wealthy, outside nations) “ shall be there with a
gift ; even the rich among the people shall entreat
thy favour.”

The bride, thus beloved by the King, thus
standing by His side, those around recognise her
dignity and honour, and draw near to secure her
intercession. Translate that out of the emblem
into plain words, and it comes to this — if Chris-

56 THE PORTRAIT OF THE BRIDE.

tian people, and communities of such, are to have
influence in the world, they must be thorough¬
going Christians. If they are, they will get hatred
sometimes ; but men know honest people and
religious people when they see them, and such
Christians will win respect and be a power in the
world. If Christian men and Christian commu¬
nities are despised by outsiders, they very
generally earn the contempt and deserve it, both
from men and from heaven. The true Evangelist
is Christian character. They that manifestly live
with the sunshine of the Lord’s love on their faces,
and whose hands are plainly clear from worldly
and selfish graspings, will have the world recog¬
nising the fact and honouring them accordingly.
“ The sons of them that afflicted thee shall come
bending unto thee, and all they that despised thee
shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy
feet.” When the Church has cast the world out of
its heart it will conquer the world — and not till
then.

IV. — The next point in this picture is the fair
adornment of the bride. The language is in part
ambiguous ; and if this were the place for com¬
menting would require a good deal of comment.
But vve take it as it stands in our Bible, “The
King’s daughter is all glorious within” — not within
her nature but within the innermost recesses ot the
palace — “ her clothing is of wrought gold. She
shall be brought unto the King in raiment of
needlework.”

It is an easy and well-worn metaphor to talk
about people s character as their dress. We speak

THE PORTRAIT OF THE PRIDE .

about the “habits” of a man, and we use that
word to express both his customary manners and
his costume. Custom and costume, again, are
the same word. So here, without any departure
from the well-trodden path of Scriptural emblem,
we cannot but see in the glorious apparel the figure
of the pure character with which the bride is
clothed. The book of the Revelation dresses her in
the fine linen clean and white, which symbolizes
the lustrous radiance and snowy purity of righteous¬
ness. The psalm describes her dress as partly
consisting in garments gleaming with gold, which
suggests splendour and glory, and partly in robes
of careful and many-coloured embroidery, which
suggests the patience with which the slow needle
has been worked through the stuff, and the varie¬
gated and manifold graces and beauties with which
she is adorned.

So, putting all the metaphors together, the true
Christian character, which will be ours if we really
are the subjects of that Divine love, will be lustrous
and snowy as the snows on Hermon, or as was the
garment whose whiteness outshone the neighbour¬
ing snows when He was transfigured before them.
Our characters will be splendid with a splendour
far above the tawdry beauties and vulgar con¬
spicuousness of the “heroic” and wordly ideals,
.and will be endowed with a purity and harmony of
colouring in richly various graces^ such as no
earthly looms can ever weave.

We are not told here how the garment is
attained. It is no part of the purpose of the
psalm to tell us that, but it is part of its purpose

THE PORTRAIT OF THE BRIDE .

to insist that there is no marriage between Christ
and the soul except that soul be pure, none except
it be robed in the beauty of righteousness and the
splendour of consecration, and the various gifts of
an all-giving Spirit. The man that came into the
wedding-feast with his dirty, every-day clothes on
was turned out as a rude insulter. But what of the
queen that should come foully dressed ? There
would be no place for her amidst its solemnities.
You will never stand at the right hand of Christ
unless your souls here are clothed in the fine
linen clean and white, and over it the flashing
wealth and the harmonised splendour of the
gold and embroidery of Christlike graces. We
know how to get the garment. Faith strips the
rags and puts the best robe on us ; and effort
based upon faith enables us day by day to put off
the old man with his deeds and to put on the new
man. The bride “ made herself ready,” and “to
her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine
linen, clean and white/’

V. — Lastly, we have the picture of the home¬
coming of the bride. “ She shall be brought unto
the King .... with gladness and rejoicing
shall they be brought ; they shall enter into the
King’s palace.”

I he presence of virgin companions waiting on
the bride is no more difficult to understand here
than it is in Christ’s parable of the Ten Virgins.
It is a characteristic of all parabolical representa¬
tion to be elastic, and sometimes duplicate its
emblems for the same thing ; and that is the case
here. But the main point to be insisted upon is

THE FOR TEA IT OF THE BRIDE,

this, that, according to the perspective of Scrip¬
ture, the life of the Christian Church here on earth
is, if I may so say, a betrothal in righteousness and
lovingkindness ; and that the betrothal waits for
its consummation in that great future when the
bride shall pass into the presence of the King.
The whole collective body of sinful souls redeemed
by His blood, and who know the sweetness of His
partially received love, shall be drawn within the
curtains of that upper house, and enter into a
union with Christ Jesus ineffable, incomprehensible
till experienced ; and of which the closest union
of loving souls on earth is but a dim shadow.
“ He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit ” ; and
the reality of our union with Him rises above the
emblem of a marriage, as high as spirit rises above
flesh.

The psalm stops at the palace-gate. “ Eye hath
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into
the heart of man the things which God hath pre¬
pared for them that love Him.” But there is a
solemn prelude to that completed union and its
deep rapture. Before it there comes the last cam¬
paign of the conquering King on the white horse,
who wars in righteousness. Dear friends ! You
must choose now whether you will be of the com¬
pany of the Bride or of the company of the enemy.
4t They that were ready went in with Him unto the
marriage, and the door was shut.”

Which side of the door do you mean to be on i

Sin ©vercoming ant) ©vercotue.

“ Iniquities prevail against me : as for our transgressions, Tliou shalt

purge them away.” — Ps. lxv. 3.

HERE is an intended contrast in these
two clauses more pointed and em¬
phatic in the original than in our
Bible, between man’s impotence
and God’s power in the face of the
fact of sin. The words of the first clause might
be translated, with perhaps a little increase of
vividness, “ iniquities are too strong for me ” ; and
the “ Thou ” of the next clause is emphatically
expressed in the original, “ as for our transgres¬
sions ” (which we cannot touch), “ Thou shalt
purge them away.” Despair of seif is the mother
of confidence in God ; and no man has learned the
blessedness and the sweetness of God’s power to
cleanse who has not learnt the impotence of his
own feeble attempts to overcome his transgression.
The very heart of Christianity is redemption.
There are a great many ways of looking at Christ’s
mission and Christ’s work, but I venture to say

SIN OVERCOMING AND OVERCOME. 61

that they are all inadequate unless they start
with this as the fundamental thought, and that
only he who has learnt by serious reflection and
bitter personal conviction the gravity and the
hopelessness of the fact of the bondage of sin,
rightly understands the meaning and the bright¬
ness of the Gospel of Christ. The angel voice that
told us His name, and based His name upon
His characteristic work, went deeper into the
“ philosophy ” of Christianity than many a modern
thinker wdien he said, “ Thou shalt call His
name Jesus, because He shall save His people
from their sins/* So here we have the hopelessness
and misery of man’s vain struggles, and side by
side the joyful confidence in the Divine victory.
We have the problem and the solution, the barrier
and the overleaping of it ; man’s impotence and
the omnipotence of God’s mercy. My iniquities
are too strong for me, but Thou art too strong for
them. As for our transgressions, of which I cannot
purge the stain, with all my tears and with all my
work, “ Thou shalt purge them away.” Note, then,
these tv/o— first, the cry of despair; second, the
ringing note of confidence.

I. — The cry of despair.

“ Too strong for me,” and yet they are, me. Me,
and not me ; mine, and yet, somehow or other, my
enemies, although my children— too strong for me,
yet I give them their strength by my own cowardly
and feeble compliance with their temptations ; too
strong for me and overmastering me, though I pride
myself often on my freedom and spirit when I am
yielding to them. Mine iniquities are mine, and

SIN OVERCOMING AND OVERCOME.

yet they are not mine ; me, and yet, blessed be
God ! they can be separated from me.

The picture suggested by the words is that of
some usurping power that has mastered a man,
laid its grip upon him so that all efforts to get
away from the grasp are hopeless. Now, I dare
say, some of you are half consciously thinking that
this is a piece of ordinary pulpit exaggeration, and
has no kind of application to the respectable and
decent lives that most of you live, and are ready to
say, with as much promptitude and as much false¬
hood as the old Jews did, even whilst the Roman
eagles, lifted above the walls of the castle, were
giving them the lie, “We were never in bondage
to any man.” You do not know or feel that any¬
thing has got hold of you which is stronger than
you. Well, let us see.

Consider for a moment. You are powerless to
master your evil, considered as habits. You do
not know the tyranny of the usurper until a rebel¬
lion is got up against him. As long as you are
gliding with the stream you have no notion of its
force. Turn your boat and try to pull against it,
and when the sweat-drops come on your brow, and
you are sliding backwards, in spite of all your
effort, you will begin to find out what a tremendous
down-sucking energy there is in that quiet, silent
flow'. So the ready compliance of the worst part
of my nature masks for me the tremendous force
with which my evil tyrannizes over me, and it is
only when I face round and try to go the other
way, that I find out what a power there is in its
invisible grasp.

SIN OVERCOMING AND OVERCOME. 6 3

Did you ever try to cure some trivial bad habit,
some trick of your fingers, for instance r You know
what infinite pains and patience and time it took
you to do that, and do you think that you would
find it easier if you once set yourself to cure that
lust, say, or that petulance, pride, passion, dis¬
honesty, or whatsoever form of selfish living in
forgetfulness of God may be your besetting sin r
If you will try to pull the poison fang up, you will
find how deep its roots are. It is like the yellow
charlock in a field, which seems only to spread in
consequence of attempts to get rid of it; as the
rough rhyme says — “One year’s seeding, seven
years’ weeding” — and more at the end of the time
than at the beginning. Any honest attempt at
mending character drives a man to this — “Iniquities
are too strong for me.”

I do not for a moment deny that there may be,
and occasionally is, a magnificent force of will and
persistency of purpose in efforts at self-improve¬
ment on the part of perfectly irreligious men.
But, if by the occasional success of such effort a
man conquers one form of evil, that does not
deliver him from evil. You have got the usurping
dominion deep in your nature, and what does it
matter in essence which part of your being is most
conspicuously under its control ? It may be some
animal passion, and you may conquer that. A man,
for instance, when he is young, lives in the sphere
of sensuous excitement ; and when he gets old he
turns a miser, and laughs at the pleasures that he
used to get from the flesh, and thinks himself
ever so much wiser. Is he any better ? He

SIN OVERCOMING AND OVERCOME.

has changed, so to speak, the kind of sin. That is
all. The devil has put a new viceroy in authority,
but it is the old government, though with fresh
officials. The house which is cleared of the seven
devils without getting into it the all-filling and
sanctifying grace of God and love of Jesus Christ
will stand empty. Nature abhors a vacuum, and
so does Satan, and the empty house invites the
seven ill-tenants, and back they come in all their
diabolical completeness.

So, dear friends, though you may do a great
deal — thank God ! — in subduing evil habits and
inclinations, you cannot touch, so as to master, the
central fact of sin unless you get God to help you
to do it. And you have to go down on your knees
before you can do that work. “ Iniquities are too
strong for me.”

Then, again, consider our utter impotence in
dealing with our own evil regarded as guilt.
When we do wrong, the judge within, which we
call conscience, says to us two things, or perhaps
three. It says first, “ That is wrong ” ; it says
secondly, You have got to answer for it ” ; and
I think it says thirdly, “ And you will be punished
for it.” That is to say, there is a sense of demerit
that goes side by side with our evil, as certainly as
the shadow travels with the substance. And
though, sometimes, when the sun goes behind a
cloud, there is no shadow, and sometimes, when
the light within us is darkened, conscience does
not cast the black shade of demerit across the
mind ; yet conscience is there, though silent.
When it does speak it says, “ You have done

SIN OVERCOMING AND OVERCOME. 65

wrong, and you are answerable.” Answerable to
whom ? To it ? No ! To society ? No ! To
law ? No ! You can only be answerable to a
person, and that is God. Against Him we have
sinned. We do wrong ; and if wrong was all that
we had to charge ourselves with, it would be
because there was nothing but law that we were
answerable to. We do unkind things; and if
unkindness and inhumanity were all that we had
to charge ourselves with, it would be because we
were only answerable to one another. We do
suicidal things ; and if self-inflicted injury was all
our definition of evil, it would be because we were
only answerable to our conscience and ourselves.
But we sin, and that means that every wrong thing,
big or little, which we do, whether we think about
God in the doing of it or no, is, in its deepest
essence, an offence against Him.

The judgment of conscience carries with it the
solemn looking-for of future judgment. It says, “I
am only a herald : He is coming.” No man feels
the burden of guilt without an anticipation of
judgment. What are you going to do with
these two feelings ? Do you think that you
can deal with them ? It is no use saying, “ I am
not responsible for what I did ; I inherited such-
and-such tendencies ; circumstances are so-and-so.
I could not help it ; environment, and evolution,
and all the rest of it diminish, if they do not
destroy, responsibility.” Be it so ! And yet,
after all, this is left : the certainty in my own
convictions that I had the power to do or not to
do. That is a fundamental part of a man’s con-

SIN OVERCOMING AND OVERCOME

sciousness. If it is a delusion, what is to be
trusted ? and how can we be sure of anything1 ?
So that we are responsible for our action, and
can no more elude the guilt that follows sin than
we can jump off our own shadow. And I want
you to consider what you are going to do about
your guilt.

One thing you cannot do— you cannot remove
it. Men have tried to do so by sacrifices, and
false religions. They have swung in the air by
means of hooks fastened into their bodies, and I do
not know what besides, and they have not managed
it. You can no more get rid of your guilt by being
sorry for your sin than you could bring a dead

man to life again by being sorry for a murder.

What is done is done. “What I have written I have
written.” Nothing will ever wash that little lily
hand white again, as the magnificent murderess in
Shakespeare's great creation found out. You can
forget your guilt ; you can ignore it. You can adopt
some of the easily-learned-by-rote and fashionable
theories that will enable you to minimise it, and
to laugh at us old-fashioned believers in guilt and
punishment. You do not take away the rock
because you blow out the lamps of the light¬
house. And you do not alter an ugly fact

by ignoring it. I beseech you, as reason¬
able men and women, to open your eyes to these
plain facts about yourselves, that you have an
element of demerit and of liability to consequent
evil and suffering which you are perfectly power¬
less to touch or to lighten in the slightest
degree.

SIN OVERCOMING AND OVERCOME. 67

Consider, again, our utter impotence in regard
to our evil, looked upon as a barrier between us
and God. That is the force of the context here.
The Psalmist has just been saying, “ O Thou that
hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come.
And then he bethinks himself how flesh compassed
with infirmities can come. And he staggers back
bewildered. There can be no question but that
the plain dictate of common sense is, “We know
that God heareth not sinners.” My evil not
only lies like a great black weight of guilt and
of habit on my consciousness and on my acti¬
vity, but it actually stands like a frowning cliff,
barring my path and making a barrier between
me and God. “ Your hands are full of blood ; I
hate your vain oblations,” says the solemn Voice
through the prophet. And this stands for ever
true — “ The prayer of the wicked is an abomina¬
tion ” There frowns the barrier. Thank God!
mercies come through it, howsoever close knit and
impenetrable it may seem. Thank God ! no sin
can shut Him out from us, but it can shut us out
from Him. And though we cannot separate God
from ourselves, and He is nearer us than our con¬
sciousness and the very basis of our being, yet by a
mysterious power we can separate ourselves from
Him. We may build up, of the black blocks of
our sins flung up from the inner fires, and
cemented with the bituminous mortar of our lusts
and passions, a black wall between us and our
Father. You and I have done it. We can build

it _ we cannot throw it down ; we can rear it we

cannot tunnel it. “Our iniquities are too strong

for us.” 5

SIN OVERCOMING AND OVERCOME.

Now notice that thisgreat cry of despair in my text
is the cry of a single soul. This is the only place in
the Psalm in which the singular person is used.
“ Iniquities are too strong for us ” is not sufficient.
Each man must take guilt to himself. The recog¬
nition and confession of evil must be an intensely
personal and individual act. My question to you,
dear friend, is, Did you ever know it by experi¬
ence ? Going apart by yourself, away from
everybody else, with no companions or con¬
federates to lighten the load of your felt evil,
forgetting tempters and associates and all other
people, did you ever stand, you and God, face to
face, with nobody to listen to the conference ?
And did you ever feel in that awful presence that
whether the world was full of men or deserted
and you the only survivor would make no differ¬
ence to the personal responsibility and weight and
guilt of your individual sin ? Have you ever felt,
“Against Thee, Thee only, have I” — solitary —
“ sinned.” and confessed that iniquities are " too
strong for me ” ?

II. — Now, let me say a word or two about the
second clause of this great verse, the ringing cry
of confident hope.

The confidence is, as I said, the child of despair.
You will never go into that large place of assured
trust in God’s effacing finger passed over all your
evil until you have come through the narrow pass,
where the black rocks all but bar the traveller’s
foot, of conscious impotence to deal with your
sin. You must, first of all, dear friend, go down
into the depths, and learn to have no trust in

SIN O VER CO MING AND OVERCOME.

yourselves before you can rise to the heights, and
rejoice in the hope of the glory and of the mercy
of God. Begin with “ too strong for me,5’ and
the impotent “me” leads on to the Almighty
“ Thou/’

Then, do not forget that what was confidence on
the Psalmist’s part is knowledge on ours. “ As
for our transgressions, Thou wilt purge them
away.” You and I know why, and know how,
Jesus Christ in His great work for us has vindicated
the Psalmist’s confidence, and has laid bare for the
world’s faith the grounds upon which that Divine
power proceeds in its cleansing mercy. “ Thou
wilt purge them away,” said he. “ Christ hath
borne our sins in His own body on the tree,” says
the New Testament. I have spoken about our
impotence in regard to our own evil, considered
under three aspects. I meant to have said more
about Christ’s work upon our sins, considered
under some three aspects. But let me just, very
briefly, touch upon them.

Jesus Christ, when trusted, will do for sin, as
habit, what cannot be done without Him. He
will give the motive to resist, which is lacking
in the majority of cases. He will give the
power to resist, which is lacking in all cases. He
will put a new life and spirit into our nature which
shall strengthen and transform our feeble wills,
shall elevate and glorify our earthward trailing
affections, shall make us love that which He loves,
and aspire to that which He is, until we become,
in the change from glory to glory, the reflections
of the image of the Lord. As habit and as domin-

SIN OVERCOMING AND OVERCOME.

ant power within us, nothing- will cast out the evil
that we have entertained in our hearts except the
power of the life of Christ Jesus, in His Spirit
dwelling within us and making us clean. When
“ a strong man keeps his house his goods are in
peace, but when a stronger than he cometh he
taketh from him all his implements in which he
trusteth and divideth his spoil.” And so Christ
has bound the strong man, in that one great sacri¬
fice, on the Cross. And now He comes to each of
us, if we will trust Him, and gives motives, power,
pattern, hopes, which enable us to cast out the
tyrant that has held dominion over us. “ If the
Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

And I tell all of you, especially you young men
and women, who presumably have noble aspira¬
tions and desires, that the only way to conquer the
word, the flesh, and the devil, is to let Christ
clothe you with His armour ; and, as the prophet
did in the old story, let Him lay His hand on your
feeble hands whilst you aim the arrows and draw
the bow, and then you will shoot, and net miss.
Christ, and Christ: alone, within us will make us
powerful to cast out the evil.

In like manner. He, and He only, deals with
sin, considered as guilt. Here is the living
secret and centre of all Christ’s preciousness
and power — that He died on the Cross, and in His
Spirit, which knew the drear desolation of being
forsaken by God ; and in His flesh, which bore the
outward consequences of sin in death, as a sinful
world knows it, “ bare our sins and carried our
sorrows,” and that “ by His stripes we are healed.”

SIN OVERCOMING AND OVERCOME . 71

If you will trust yourselves to that mighty sacri¬
fice, and, with no reservation, as if you could do
anything, will cast your whole weight and burden
upon Him, then the guilt will pass away, and the
power of sin will be broken. Transgressions will
be buried — “ covered,” as the original of my text
has it — as with a great mound piled upon them,
so that they shall never offend or smell rank
to heaven any more, but be lost to sight for

ever.

Christ can take away the barrier piled by sin
between God and the human spirit. Solid and
black as it stands. His blood dropped upon it
melts it away. Then it disappears like the
black bastions of the aerial structures in the
clouds before the sunshine. He hath opened for
us a new and living way, that we might “ have
access with confidence,” and, sinners as we are,
that we might dwell for evermore at the side of
our Lord.

So, dear brother, whilst humanity cries — and I
pray that all of us may cry like the Apostle : “ Oh,
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me
from the body of this death ? — faith lifts up, swift
and clear, her ringing note of triumph, which I
pray God — or, rather, which I beseech you that
you will make your own — “ I thank God, through
Jesus Christ our Lord.”

vi r.

Mb? the (Talent was Burleb.

“Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord,
I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast
not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed ; and I was
afraid,and went and hid thy talent in the earth.” — MATT.xxv.24,25.

HAT was a strangely insolent excuse
for indolence. To charge an angry
master to his face with grasping
greed and injustice was certainly not
the way to conciliate him. Such lan¬
guage is quite unnatural and incongruous until
we remember the reality which the parable was
meant to shadow — viz., the answers for their deeds
which men will give at Christ’s judgment bar.
Then we can understand how, by some irresistible
necessity, this man was compelled, even at the
risk of increasing the indignation of the master,
to turn himself inside out, and to put into harsh,
ugly words the half conscious thoughts which had
guided his life and caused his unfaithfulness.
“ Every one of us shall give account of himself to
God.” The unabashed impudence of such an
excuse for idleness as this is but putting into vivid

WHY THE TALENT WAS BURIED.

and impressive form this truth, that then a man s
actions in their true character, and the ugly
motives that underlie them, and which he did not
always honestly confess to himself, will be clear
before him. It will be as much of a surprise to the
men themselves, in many cases, as it will be to the
listeners. Thus it becomes us to look well to
the underside of our lives, the unspoken convic¬
tions and the unformulated motives which work
all the more mightily upon us because, for the
most part, they work in the dark. This is Christ s
explanation of one very operative and fruitful

cause of the refusal to serve him.

I. _ I ask you, then, to consider, first, the

slander here and the truth that contradicts it.
u I knew thee that thou art an hard man, says he,
“ reaping where thou hast not sown ” (and he was
standing with the unused talent in his hand all
the while), “ and gathering where thou hast not
strawed ” That is to say, deep down in many a
heart, that has never said as much to itself, there
lies this black drop of gall— a conception of the
Divine character rather as demanding than as
giving, a thought of Him as exacting. What He
requires is more considered than what He bestows.
So religion is thought to be mainly a matter of
doing certain things and rendering up certain
sacrifices, instead of being regarded, as it really is,
as mainly a matter of receiving from God. Christ’s
authority makes me bold to say that this error
underlies the lives of an immense number of
nominal Christians, of people that think them¬
selves very good religious people, as well as the

WHY THE TALENT WAS BURIED .

lives of thousands who stand apart from religion
altogether. And I want, not to drag down any
curtain by my own hand, but to ask you to lift
away the veil which hides the ugly thing in
your hearts, and to put your own consciousness to
the bar of your own conscience, and say whether
it is not true that the uppermost thought about
God, when you think about Him at all, is, “Thou
art a hard man, reaping where Thou hast not
sown/'

It is not difficult to understand why such a
thought of God should rise in a heart which has no
delight in Him nor in His service. There is a
side to the truth as to God's relations to man which
gives a colour of plausibility to the slander. Grave
and stringent requirements are made by the Divine
law upon each of us ; and our consciences tell us
that they have not been kept. Therefore, we seek
to persuade ourselves that they are too severe.
Ihen, further, we are, by reason of our own selfish¬
ness, almost incapable of rising to the conception
of God's pure, perfect, disinterested love ; and we
are far too blind to the benefits that He pours
upon us all every day of our lives. And so
from all these reasons taken together, and some
more besides, it comes about that, for some of
us, the blessed sun in the heavens, the God
of all mercy and love, has been darkened into
a lurid orb shorn of all its beneficent beams,
and hanging threatening there in our misty
sky. “ I knew Thee that Thou art an hard man."
Ah ! I am sure that if men and women would
go down in the deep places of their own

WHY THE TALENT WAS BURIED. 75

hearts, and ask themselves what their real
thought of God is, they would acknowledge that

it is something like that.

Now turn to the other side. What is the truth
that smites this slander to death r That God is
perfect, pure, unmingled, infinite love. And what
is love ? The infinite desire to impart itself. His
“ nature and property ” is to be merciful, and you
can no more stop God from giving than you can
shut up the rays of the sun within itself. To be
and to bestow are for Him one and the same
thing. His love is an infinite longing to bestow
which passes over into perpetual acts of benefi¬
cence. He never reaps where He has not sown.
Is there any place where He has not sown ? Is
there any heart on which there have been no seeds
of goodness scattered from His rich hand ? The
calumniator in the text was speaking his
slanders with that in his hand which should
have stopped his mouth. He who complained
that the hard master was asking for fruit of
what He had not given would have had nothing
at all if he had not obtained the one talent from
His hand. And there is no place in the whole
wide universe of God where His love has not
scattered its beneficent gifts. There are no fallow
fields out of cultivation and unsown in His
great farm. He never asks where He has not

given.

He never asks until after He has given. He
begins with bestowing, and it is only after the vine¬
yard has been planted on the very fruitful hill, and
the hedge built round about it, and the winepress

WHY THE TALENT WAS BURIED.

digged, and the tower erected, and miracles of
long-suffering mercy and skilful patience have
been lavished upon it, that then He looks
that it should bring forth grapes. God’s gifts
precede His requirements. He ever sows before
He reaps. More than that, He gives what He
asks, helping us to render to Him the hearts
that He desires. He, by His own merciful com¬
munications, makes it possible that we should
lay at His feet the tribute of loving thanks. Just
as a parent will give a child some money in order
that the child may go and buy the giver a birth¬
day present, so God gives to us hearts, and en¬
riches them with many bestowments. He scatters
round about us good from His hand, like drops of
a fragrant perfume from a blazing torch, in order
that we may catch them up and have some portion
of the joy which is especially His own— the joy
of giving. It would be a poor affair if our sole
relation to God was that of receiving. It would
be a tyrannous affair if our sole relation to God
ivas that of rendering up. But both are united,
and if it be “more blessed to give than to receive,”
the Giver of all good does not leave us without the
opportunity of entering in even to that superlative
blessing. We have to come to Him and say, when
we lay the gifts, either of our faculties or of our trust,
of our riches or of our virtues, at His feet, “ All
things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we
given Thee.”

He asks for our sakes, and not for His own.

“ If I were hungry I would not tell thee, for the
cattle upon a thousand hills are Mine. Offer

WHY THE TALENT WAS BURIED.

unto God praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most
High/’ It is blessed to us to render. He is none
the richer for all our giving, as He is none the
poorer for all His. Yet His giving is real to us, and
our giving is real and a joy to Him. That is the
truth lifted up against the slander of the natural
heart. God is love, pure giving, unlimited and
perpetual disposition to bestow. He gives all
things before He asks for anything, and when
He asks for anything it is that we may be blessed.

Ah ! you say, “ It’s all very well — where do you
learn all that about God ? ” My answer is a very
simple one. I learn it, and I believe there is no
other place to learn it, at the Cross of Jesus Christ.
If that be the very apex, of the Divine love and
self-revelation ; if, looking upon it, we understand
God better than by any other means, then there
can be no question but that instead of gathering
where He has not strawed, and reaping where He
has not sown, God is only, and always, and utterly,
and to every man, infinite love that bestows itself.
My heart says to me many a time, “ God’s laws are
hard, God’s judgment is strict. God requires
what you cannot give. Crouch before Him, and be
afraid.” And my faith says, “ Get thee behind
me, Satan ! ” “ He that spared not His own Son,

. . how shall He not with Him also freely give
us all things ? ” The Cross of Christ is the
answer to the slander, and the revelation of the
giving God.

II. — Secondly, mark here the Fear that dogs
such a thought, and the Love that casts out the

fear.

WHY THE TALENT WAS, BURIED.

‘‘I was afraid ! ” Yes ! of course. If a man is
not a fool, his emotions follow his thoughts, and
his thoughts ought to shape his emotions. And
wherever there is the twilight of uncertainty
upon the great lesson that the Cross of Jesus
Christ has taught us, there there will be, however
masked and however modified by other thoughts,
deep in the human heart a perhaps unspoken but
not, therefore, ineffectual dread of God. Just as
the misconception of the Divine character does
influence many a life in which it has never been
spoken articulately, and needs some steady obser¬
vation of ourselves to be detected, so with this
dread of Him. Carry the task of self-examination
a little bit further, and ask yourselves whether
there does not lie coiled in many of your hearts
this dread of God, like a sleeping snake, which
only needs a little warmth to be awakened to
sting. There are all the signs of it. There are
many of you who have a distinct indisposition to
be brought close up to the thought of Him. There
are many of you who have a distinct sense of dis¬
comfort when you are pressed against the realities
of the Christian religion. There are many of you
who, though you cover it over with a shallow
confidence, or endeavour to persuade yourselves
with speculative doubts about the Divine nature,
or hide it from yourselves by indifference, yet know
that all that is very thin ice, and that there is
a great black pool down below — a dread at the
heart, of a righteous Judge somewhere, with whom
you have somewhat to do that you cannot break
off. I do not want to appeal to fear, but it goes

WHY THE TALENT WAS BURIED.

to one’s heart to see the hundreds and thousands
of people round about who, just because they
are afraid of God, will not think about Him,
put away angrily and impatiently solemn words
like these that I am trying to speak, and try to
surround themselves with some kind of a fool s
paradise of indifference, and to shut their eyes to
facts and realities. You do not confess it to
yourselves. What kind of a thought must that
be about your relation to God which you are
afraid to speak ? Some of you remember the
awful words in one of Shakespeare’s plays ;
“ Now I, to comfort him, bid him he should
not think of God. I hoped there was no need
to trouble himself with any such thoughts
yet.” What does that teach us ? “ I knew

Thee that Thou art an hard man ; and I was
afraid.”

Dear friend, there are two religions in this
world, there is the religion of fear and there is the
religion of love, and if you have not the one you
must have the other, if you have any at all. I he
only way to get perfect love that casts out fear is
to be quite sure of the Father-love in heaven that
begets it. And the only way to be sure of the
Infinite love in the' heavens that kindles some
little spark of love in our hearts here is to go to
Christ and learn the lesson that He reveals to us
at His Cross. Love will annihilate the fear; or
rather, if I may take such a figure, will set a light
to the wreathing smoke that rises and flash it all
up into a ruddy flame. For the perfect love that
casts out fear sublimes it into reverence and

WHY THE TALENT WAS BURIED.

changes it into trust. Have you got that love, and
did you get it at Christ’s Cross ?

III. — Lastly, mark the torpor of fear and the
activity of love. “ I was afraid, and I went and
hid thy talent in the earth.”

Fear paralyzes service, cuts the nerves of activity,
makes a man refuse obedience to God. It was
a very illogical thing of that indolent servant
to say, “ I knew that you were so hard in
exacting what was due to you, therefore I determined
not to give it to you.” Is it more illogical and
more absurd than what hundreds of men and women
round about us do to-day, when they say, “ God’s
requirements are so great that I do not attempt to
fulfil them ” ? One would have thought that he
would have reasoned the other way, and said,
“Because I knew that Thy requirements were
so great and severe, therefore I put myself with
all my powers to my work.” Not so. Logical
or illogical, the result remains, that that thought
of God, that black drop of gall, in many a heart,
stops the action of the hand. Fear is barren, or if
it produces anything it is nothing to the purpose,
and it brings gifts that not even God’s love can
accept, for there is no love in them. Fear is
barren ; love is fruitful — like the two mountains
of Samaria, from one of which the rolling burden
of the curses of the Law was thundered, and from
the other of which the sweet words of promise and
of blessing were chanted in musical response. On
the one side are black rocks, without a blade of
grass on them, the Mount of Cursing ; on the other
side are blushing grapes and vineyards, the Mount

WHY THE TALENT WAS BURIED.

of Blessing. Love moves to action, fear paralyzes
into indolence. And the reason why such hosts of
you do nothing for God is because your hearts
have never been touched with the thorough con¬
viction that He has done everything for you, and
asks you but to love Him back again, and bring
Him your hearts. These dark thoughts are like
the frost which binds the ground in iron fetters,
making all the little flowers that were beginning
to push their heads above the ground draw
back again. And love, when it comes, will
come like the west wind and the sunshine of
the Spring ; and before its emancipating fingers
the earth’s fetters will be cast aside, and the white
snowdrops and the yellow crocuses will show
themselves above the ground. If you want your
hearts to bear any fruit of noble living, of holy
consecration, of pure deeds, then here is the process
— Begin with the knowledge and belief of “the
love which God hath to us ” ; learn that at the Cross,
and let it silence your doubts, and send them back
to their kennels, silenced. Then take the next
step, and love Him back again. “We love Him
because He first loved us.” That love will be the
productive principle of all glad obedience, and you
will keep His commandments ; and here upon
earth find, as the faithful servant found, that talents
used increase ; and yonder will receive the
eulogium from His lips whom to please is blessed¬
ness, by whom to be praised is Heaven and glory
“ Well done ! good and faithful servant ! ”

VIII.

(Bob’s Certainties anb flDan’s Certitubes.

“ For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea :
wherefore also through Him is the amen.” — 2 Cor. i. 20 (R V.).

HIS is one of the many passages the
force and beauty of which are, for the
first time, brought within the reach
of an English reader by the altera¬
tions in the Revised Version. These
are partly dependent upon the reading of the text
and partly upon the translation. As the words
stand in our Old Version, “yea” and “amen" seem
to be very nearly synonymous expressions, and
to point substantially to the same thing — viz.,
that Jesus Christ is, as it were, the confirmation
and seal of God’s promises. But in the Revised
Version the alterations, especially in the pronouns,
indicate more distinctly that the Apostle means two
different things by the “yea" and the “amen."
The one is God’s voice, the other is man’s. The
one has to do with the certainty of the Divine
revelation, the other has to do with the certitude of
our faith in the revelation. When God speaks in

GODS CERTAINTIES AND MANS CERTITUDES. 83

Christ, He confirms everything that He has said
before, and when we listen to God speaking in
Christ, our lips are, through Christ, opened to shout
our assenting “ Amen 55 to His great promises. So,
then, we have the double form of our Lord’s work,
covering the whole ground of His relations to man,
set forth in these two clauses, in the one of which
God’s confirmation of His past revelations by Jesus
Christ is treated of, and in the other of which the
hope and confident assent which men may give to
that revelation is set before us. I deal, then, with
these two points — God’s certainties in Christ, and
man’s certitudes through Christ.

Now these two things do not go together always.
We may be very certain, as far as our persuasion
is concerned, of a very doubtful fact, or we may be
very doubtful, as far as our persuasion is concerned,
of a very certain fact. We speak about truths or
facts as being certain, and we ought to mean by
that, not how we think about them, but what they
are in the evidence on which they rest. A certain
truth is a truth which has its evidence irrefragable ;
and the only fitting attitude for men, in the pre¬
sence of a certain truth, is to have a certainty of
the truth. And these two things are, our Apostle
tells us, both given to us in and through Jesus
Christ. Let me deal, then, with these two sides.

I. — First, God’s certainties in Christ.

Of course the original reference of the text is to
the whole series of great promises given in the
Old Testament. These, says Paul, are sealed and
confirmed to men by the revelation and work of
Jesus Christ, but it is obvious that the principle

84 GOD'S CERTAINTIES AND MAN'S CERTITUDES.

which is good in reference to them is good on a
wider field. I venture to take that extension, and
to ask you to think briefly about some of the
things that are made for us indubitably certain
in Jesus Christ.

And, first of all, there is the certainty about
God’s heart. Everywhere else we have only per-
adventures, hopes, fears, guesses more or less
doubtful, and round about inferences as to His
disposition and attitude towards us. As one of the
old divines says somewhere, “ all other ways of
knowing God are like the bended bow, Christ is
the straight string.” The only means by which,
indubitably, as a matter of demonstration, men can
be sure that God in the heavens has a heart of love
towards them is by Jesus Christ. For consider
what will make us sure of that. Nothing but facts •
words are of little use, arguments are of little use.
A revelation, however precious, which simply says
to us “ God is Love/’ is not sufficient for our need,
We want to see love in operation if we are to be
sure of it, and the only demonstration of the love
of God is to witness the loye of God in actual
working. And you get it where ? On the Cross of
Jesus Christ. I do not believe that anything else
irrefragably establishes the fact for the yearning
hearts of us poor men who want love, and yet
cannot grope our wa)’ in amidst the mysteries
and the clouds in providence and nature, except
this — “ Herein is love, not that we loved God, but
that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins.”

The question may arise in some minds, Is there

GOD'S CERTAINTIES AND MANS CERTITUDES. 85

any need for proving God’s love ? The question
never arose except within the limits of Christi¬
anity. It is only men who have lived all
their lives in an atmosphere saturated by
Christian sentiment and conviction that ever
come to the point of saying, “ We do not
want historical revelation to prove to us the
fact of a loving God.” They would never have
fancied that they did not need the revelation
unless, unconsciously to themselves, and in¬
directly, all their thoughts had been coloured
and illuminated by the revelation that they
professed to reject. God as Love is “ our dearest
faith, our ghastliest doubt,” and the only way
to make absolutely certain of the fact that His
heart is full of mercy to us is to look upon Him
as He stands revealed to us, not merely in the
words of Christ, for, precious as they are, these
are the smallest part of His revelation, but in
the life and in the death which open for us the
heart of God. Remember what He said Him¬
self, not “ he that hath listened to Me, doth
understand the Father,” but “ he that hath
seen Me hath seen the Father.” “In Him is
yea.” And the hopes and shadowy fore-revela¬
tions of the loving heart of God are confirmed
by the fact of His life and death. God establishes,
not “commends,” as our translation has it, “His
love towards us in that whilst we were yet sinners
Christ died for us.”

Further, in Him we have the certainty of
pardon. Every deep heart-experience amongst
men has felt the necessity of having a clear cer-

86 GOD'S CERTAINTIES AND MAN'S CERTITUDES .

taintyjand knowledge about forgiveness. Men
do not feel it always. A man can skate over the
surface of the great deeps that lie beneath the most
frivolous life, and may suppose, in his superficial
way of looking at things, that there is no need for
any definite teaching about sin, and the mode of
dealing with it. But once bring that man face to
face, in a quiet hour, with the facts of his life and of
a Divine law, and all that superficial ignoring of
evil in himself, and of the dread of punishment
and consequences, passes away. I am sure of this,
that no religion will ever go far and last long and
work mightily, and lay a sovereign hand upon
human life, which has not a most plain and decisive
message to preach in reference to pardon. And I
am sure of this, that one reason for the comparative
feebleness of much so-called Christian teaching in
this generation is just that the deepest needs of a
man’s conscience are not met by it. In a religion
on which the whole spirit of a man may rest itself,
there must be a very plain message about what is
to be done with sin. The only message which
answers to the needs of an awakened conscience
and an alarmed heart is the old-fashioned message
that Jesus Christ the Righteous has died for us
sinful men. All other religions have felt after a
clear doctrine of forgiveness, and all have failed to
find it. Here is the Divine “Yea!” And on it
alone we can suspend the whole weight of our
soul’s salvation. The rope that is to haul us out of
the horrible pit and the miry clay had much need to
be tested before we commit ourselves to it. There
are plenty of easy-going superficial theories about

GOD'S CERTAINTIES AND MAN'S CERTITUDES . 87

forgiveness predominant in the world to-day.
Except the one that says, “ In Whom we have
redemption through His blood, even the forgive¬
ness of sin,” they are all like the rope let down
into the dark mine to lift the captives beneath,
half of the strands of which have been cut on the
sharp edge above, and when the weight hangs to
it, it will snap. There is nothing on which a man
who has once learned the tragical meaning and
awful reality and depth of the fact of transgres¬
sion can suspend his forgiveness, except this,
that “ Christ has died, the just for the unjust,
to bring us unto God.” “ In Him the promise is
yea.”

And, again, we have in Christ Divine certainties
in regard of life. We have in Him the absolutely
perfect pattern to which we are to conform our
whole doings. And so, notwithstanding that there
may, and will still, be many uncertainties and much
perplexity, we have the great broad lines of morals
and of duty traced with a firm hand, and all that
we need to know of obligation and of perfectness
lies in this — be like Jesus Christ ! So the solemn
commandments of the ethical side of Divine revela¬
tion, as well as the promises of it, get their “ yea ”
in Jesus Christ. And He stands the Law of our lives.

We have certainties for life, in the matter of
protection, guidance, supply of all necessity, and
the like, treasured and garnered in Jesus Christ.
For He not only confirms, but fulfils, the promises
which God has made. If we have that dear Lord
for our very own, and He belongs to us as He does
belong to them who love Him and trust Him, then

88 GOD'S CERTAINTIES AND MAN'S CERTITUDES.

in Him we have in actual possession these
promises, how many soever they be, which are
given by God’s other words.

Christ is Protean, and becomes everything to
each man that each man requires. He is, as it
were, “ a box where sweets compacted lie.” “ In
Him are hid all the treasures,” not only of
wisdom and knowledge, but of Divine gifts, and
we have but to go to Him in order to have that
which at each moment, as it emerges, we most
require. As in some of those sunny islands of the
Southern Pacific, one tree supplies the people with
all that they need for their simple wants, fruit
for their food, leaves for their houses, staves,
thread, needles, clothing, drink, everything — so
Jesus Christ, this Tree of Life, is Himself the sum
of all the promises, and, having Him, we have
everything that we need.

And, lastly, in Christ we have the Divine cer¬
tainties as to the future, over which, apart from
Him, lie cloud and darkness. As I said about the
revelation of the heart of God, so I say about the
revelation of a future life — a verbal revelation is
not enough. We have enough of arguments ;
what we want is facts. We have enough of
man’s peradventures about a future life, enough of
evidence more or less valid to show that it is
“ probable,” or “ not inconceivable,” or more likely
than not,’ and so on and so on. What we want is
that somebody shall cross the gulf and come back
again. And so we get in the Resurrection of
Christ the one fact on which men may safely rest
their convictions of immortality. And I do not

GOD'S CERTAINTIES AND MAN'S CERTITUDES. 89

think that there is a second anywhere. On it alone,
as I believe, hinges the whole answer to the
question — “ If a man die, shall he live again ? ”
This generation is brought, in my reading of it,
right up to this alternative — Christ’s Resurrection,
or we die like the brutes that perish. “ All the
promises of God in Him are yea.”

II. — And now a word as to the second portion of
my text — viz., man’s certitudes, which answer to
God’s certainties.

The latter are in Christ, the former are through
Christ. Now it is clear that the only fitting
attitude for professing Christians in reference to
these certainties of God is the attitude of unhesi¬
tating affirmation and joyful assent. Certitude is
the fitting response to certainty.

There should be some kind of correspondence
between the firmness with which we grasp, the
tenacity with which we hold, the assurance with
which we believe these great truths, and the rock¬
like firmness and immovableness of the evidence
upon which they rest. It is a poor compliment to
God to come to His most veracious affirmations,
sealed with the broad seal of His Son’s life and
death, and to answer with a hesitating “ Amen,”
that falters and almost sticks in our throat. Build
rock upon rock. Be certain of the certain things.
Grasp with a firm hand the firm stay. Immovably
cling to the immovable foundation ; and though
you be but like the limpet on the rock, hold fast
by the Rock, as the limpet does ; for it is an insult
to the certainty of the revelation, when there is
hesitation in the believer.

90 GOD'S CERTAINTIES AND MAN’S CERTITUDES .

I need not dwell for more than a moment upon
the lamentable contrast which is presented between
this certitude, which is our only fitting attitude,
and the hesitating- assent and half-belief in which
so many professing Christians pass their lives.
The reasons for that are partly moral, partly
intellectual. This is not a day which is favourable
to the unhesitating avowal of convictions in refer¬
ence to an unseen world, and many of us are
afraid of being called narrow, or dogmatisers, and
think it looks like breadth, and liberality, and
culture, and I know not what, to say “ Well !
perhaps it is, but I am not quite sure ; I think it
is, but I will not commit myself/’ All the promises
of God, which in Him are yea, ought through Him
to get from us an “ Amen.”

There is a great deal that will always be un¬
certain. The firmer our convictions, the fewer will
be the things that they grasp; but if they be
few, they will be big, and enough for us. Those
truths certified in Christ concerning the heart of
God, the message of pardon, the law for life, the
gifts of guidance, defence, and sanctifying, the
sure and certain hope of immortality — these things
we ought to be sure about, whatever borderland
of uncertainty may lie beyond them. The Chris¬
tian verb is “ we know ” not “ we hope, we calcu¬
late, we infer, we think,” but “we know ” And
it becomes us to apprehend for ourselves the full
blessedness and power of the certitude which
Christ has given to us by the certainties which
He has brought us.

I need not speak about the blessedness of such

GOD'S CERTAINTIES AND MAN'S CERTITUDES . 91

a calm assurance, about the need of it for power,
for peace, for effort, for fixedness in the midst of
a world and age of change. But I must, before
I close, point you to the only path by which that
certitude is attainable. “ Through Him is the
amen. He is the Door. The truths which He
confirms are so inextricably intertwined with
Himself that you cannot get them and put away
Him. Christ’s relation to Christ’s Gospel is not
the relation of other teachers to their words.
You may accept the words of a Plato, whatever
you think of the Plato who spoke the words. But
you cannot separate Christ and His teaching in
that fashion, and you must have Hurt if you are to
get it. So faith in Him, the intellectual acceptance
of Him, as the authoritative and infallible Revealer,
the bowing down of heart and will to Him as our
Commander and our Lord, the absolute trust in
Him as the foundation of all our hope and the
source of all our blessedness — that is the way to
certitude. And there is no other road that we can
take.

If thus we keep near Him our faith will bring
us the present experience and fulfilment of the
promises, and we shall be sure of them, because
we have them already. And whilst men are ask¬
ing, “ Do we know anything about God ? Is there
a God at ail? Is there such a thing as forgive¬
ness ? Can anybody find anywhere absolute rules
for his life ? Is there anything beyond the grave
but mist and darkness?” we can say, “One
thing I know, Jesus Christ is my Saviour, and
in Him I know God, and pardon, and duty, and

92 GOD'S CERTAINTIES AND MAN'S CERTITUDES.

sanctifying, and safety, and immortality; and
whatever is dark, this, at least, is sun-clear”
Get high enough up and you will be above the
fog ; and while the men down in it are squabbling
as to whether there is anything outside the mist,
you, from your sunny station, will see the far-off
coasts, and haply catch some whiff of perfume
from their shore, and see some glinting of a glory
upon the shining turrets of “the city that hath
foundations.” We have a present possession of all
the promises of God ; and wThoever doubts their
certitude, the man that knows himself a son of
God by faith, and has experience of forgiveness
and guidance and answered prayer and hopes
whose “sweetness yieldeth proof that they wTere
born for immortality,” knows the things which
others question and doubt.

So live near Jesus Christ, and, holding fast by
His hand, you may lift up your joyful “Amen”
to everyone of God’s “yeas.” For in Him we
know the Father, in Him we know that we have
the forgiveness of sins, in Him we know that
God is near to bless and succour and guide, and
in Him “ we know that, though our earthly house
were dissolved, we have a building of God.”
Wherefore we are always confident ; and when the
Voice from Heaven says “Yea ! ” our choral shout
may go up, “Amen ! Thou art the faithful and true
witness.”

Zb e anointing wblcb Establishes.

“Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath'
anointed us, is God.v — 2 Cor. i. 21.

HE connection in which these words
occur is a remarkable illustration of
the Apostle’s habit of looking at the
most trivial things in the light of
the highest truths. He had been
obliged, as the context informs us, to abandon an
intended visit to Corinth. The miserable crew of
antagonists, who yelped at his heels all his life,
seized this change of purpose as the occasion for a
double-barrelled charge. They said he was either
fickle and infirm of purpose, or insincere, and say¬
ing “Yea” with one side of his mouth and “Nay”
with the other. He rebuts this accusation with
apparently quite disproportionate vehemence and
great solemnity. He points in the context to the
faithfulness of God, to the firm Gospel which he
had preached, to God’s great “ Yea ! as his
answer. He says in effect, “ How could I, with
such a word burning in my heart, move in a region

THE ANOINTING WHICH ESTABLISHES.

of equivocation and double-dealing ? or how could
I, whose whole being is saturated writh so firm and
stable a Gospel, be unreliable and fickle ? The
message must make the messenger like itself.
Communion with a faithful God must make faith¬
keeping men; the certainties of God’s ‘Yea’ and
the certitudes of our ‘Amen’ must influence our
characters.” And so to suppose that a man in¬
fluenced by Christianity is a wreak, double-dealing,
unsteadfast man is a contradiction in terms.
In the text he carries his argument a step further,
and points, not only to the power of the Gospel
to steady and confirm, but also to the fact that
God Himself communicates to the believing
soul Christian stability by the anointing which
He bestows.

So, then, we have in these words the declaration
that inflexible, immovable steadfastness is a mark
of a Christian, and that this Christian steadfast¬
ness, without which there is no Christianity w^orth
the naming, is a direct gift from God Himself by
means of that great anointing which He confers
upon men. To that thought, in one or two of its
aspects, I ask your attention.

I. — Notice the deep source of this Christian
steadfastness.

The language of the original, carefully considered,
seems to me to bear this interpretation, that the
“ anointing ” of the second clause is the means
of the “establishing” of the first — that is to
say, that God confers Christian steadfastness of
character by the bestowment of the unction of His
Divine Spirit.

THE ANOINTING WHICH ESTABLISHES

Now notice how deep Paul digs in order to get a
foundation for a common virtue. There are many
ways by which men may cultivate the tenacity and
steadfastness of purpose which ought to mark us
all. Much discipline may be brought to bear in
order to secure that ; but the text says the deepest
ground upon which it can be rested is nothing less
Divine and solemn than this, the actual communi¬
cation to men, to feeble, vacillating, fluctuating
wills, and treacherous, wayward, wandering hearts,
of the strength and fixedness which are given by
God’s own Spirit.

I suppose I need not remind you that from begin-
ningto end of Scripture “ anointing” is taken as the
symbol of the communication of a true Divine in¬
fluence. The oil laid on the head of prophet, priest,
and king was but the expression of the communica¬
tion to the recipient of a Divine influence which
fitted him, as well as designated him, for the office
that he filled. And although it is aside from my
present purpose, I may just, in a sentence, point to
the felicity of the emblem. It is the flowing oil,
which smoothes the surface upon which it is spread,
which supples the limbs, and which is nutritive
and illuminating; thus giving an appropriate
emblem of the secret, silent, quickening, nourishing,
enlightening influences of that Spirit which God
gives to all His sons.

And inasmuch as here this oil of the Divine Spirit
is stated as being the true ground and basis of
Christian steadfastness, it is obvious that the anoint¬
ing intended cannot be that of mere designation
to, and inspiration for, apostolic or other office,

THE ANOINTING WHICH ESTABLISHES.

but must be the universal possession of all Christian
men and women. “ Ye/* says another apostle,
speaking to the whole democracy of the Christian
Church, and not to any little group of selected
aristocrats therein— u ye have an unction from the
Holy One” and every man and woman that has a
living grasp of the living Christ receives from Him

this great gift.

Then, notice further that this anointing of a
Divine Spirit, which is a true source of life to those
that possess it, is derived from, and parallel with,
Christ’s anointing. We use the word “ Christ ” as
a proper name, and forget what it means. The
« Christ ” is the Anointed One . And do you think
that it was a mere accident, or the result of a scanty
vocabulary, which compelled the Apostle, in these
two contiguous clauses, to cognate words when
he said ' “ He that established us with you in the

Anointed, and hath anointed us, is God.” . Did he
not mean to say thereby, “ Each of you, m a very
true sense, if you are a Christian, is a Christ ?
You, too, are anointed ; you, too, are God s Messiahs.
On you the same Spirit rests in a measure which
dwelt without measure in Him. The chief of
Christ’s gift to the Church is the gift of His own
life. All His Brethren are anointed with the oil
that was poured upon His head, even as the oil
upon Aaron’s locks percolated to the very skirts of
his garments. Being anointed with the anointing
which was on Him, all His people may claim an
identity of nature, may hope for an identity of des¬
tiny, and are bound to a prolongation of part of
His function and a similarity of character. If He

THE ANOINTING WHICH ESTABLISHES .

by that anointing was made Prophet, Priest, and
King for the world, all His children partake of
these offices in subordinate but real fashion, and
are prophets to make God known to men, priests to
offer up spiritual sacrifices, and kings at least over
themselves, and, if they will, over a world which
obeys and serves those that serve and love God.
Ye are anointed — u Messiahs ” and “Christs,” by
derivation of the life of Jesus Christ.

And if these things be true, it is plain enough
how this Divine unction, which is granted to all
Christians, lies at the root of steadfastness.

We talk a great deal about the gentleness of
Christ ; we cannot celebrate it too much, but we
may forget that it is the gentleness of strength.
We do not sufficiently mark the masculine features
in that character, the tremendous tenacity of will,
the inflexible fixedness of purpose, the irremovable
constancy of obedience in the face of all temptations
to the contrary. The figure that rises before us is
of the Christ yearning over weaklings far oftener
than it is of the Christ with knitted brow, and
tightened lips, and far-off gazing eye, “ steadfastly
setting His face to go to Jerusalem,” and followed,
as He pressed up the rocky road from Jericho, by
that wondering group, astonished at the rigidity of
purpose that was stamped on His features. That
Christ gives us His Spirit to make us tenacious,
constant, righteously obstinate, inflexible in the
pursuit of all that is lovely and of good report, like
Himself. That Divine Spirit will cure the fickle¬
ness of our natures ; for our wills are never fixed
till they are fixed in obedience, and never free until

THE ANOINTING WHICH ESTABLISHES.

they elect to serve Him. That Divine Spirit will
cure the wandering of our hearts and bind us to
Himself. It will lift us above the selfish and
cowardly dependence on externals and surround¬
ings, men and things, in which we are all tempted
to live. We are all too like aneroid barometers,
that go up and down with every variation of a foot
or two in the level, but if we have the Spirit of
Christ dwelling in us it will cut the bonds that bind
us to the world, and give us possession of a deeper
love than can be sustained by, or is derived from,
these superficial sources. The true possession of
the Divine Spirit, if I might use such a metaphor,
sets a man on an isolating stool, and all the currents
that move round about him are powerless to reach
him. If we have that Divine Spirit within us, it
will give us an experience of the preciousness and
truth, the certitude and the sweetness of Christ s
Gospel, which will make it impossible that we
should ever i< cast away the confidence which has
such “ recompense of reward/' No man will be
surely bound to the truth and person of Christ with
bonds that cannot be snapped except he who in his
heart has the knowledge which is possession, by the
gift of that Divine Spirit to knit him to Jesus

Christ.

So, dear friends, whilst the world is full of wise
words about steadfastness, and exalts determination
of character and fixity of purpose, rightly, as the
basis of all good, our Gospel comes to us poor,
light, thistledown creatures, and lets us see how we
can be steadfast and settled by being fastened to a
steadfast and settled Christ. When storms are

THE ANOINTING WHICH ESTABLISHES.

raging they lash light articles on deck to holdfasts.
Let us lash ourselves to the abiding Christ, and we,
too, shall abide.

II* In the next place, notice the aim or purpose
of this Christian steadfastness.

“ He stablisheth us with you in Christ/' or, as
the original has it even more significantly, into or
“ unto Christ." Now that seems to me to imply two
things— first, that our steadfastness, made possible
by our possession of that Divine Spirit, is steadfast¬
ness in our relations to Jesus Christ. We are
established in reference or in regard to Him. In
other words, what Paul here means is, first, a fixed
conviction of the truth that He is the Christ, the
Son of God, the Saviour of the world, and my
Saviour. That is the first step. Men who are
steadfast without their intellect guiding and settling
the steadfastness are not steadfast, but obstinate
and pigheaded. We are meant to be guided by
our understandings, and no fixity is anything better
than the immobility of a stone, unless it be based
upon a distinct and whole-brained intellectual
acceptance of Jesus Christ as the All-in-all for us,
for life and death, for inward and outward being.

Paul means, next, a steadfastness in regard to
Christ of our trust and love. Surely if from Him
there is for ever streaming out an unbroken flow of
tenderness, there should be ever on our sides an
equally unbroken opening of our hearts for the
reception of His love, and an equally uninterrupted
response to it in our grateful affectiom There
can be no more damning condemnation of the
vacillations and fluctuations of Christian men's

100

THE ANOINTING WHICH ESTABLISHES.

affections than the steadfastness of Christ’s love to
them. He loves ever; He is unalterable in the
communication and effluence of His heart. Surely
it is most fitting that we should be steadfast in our
devotion and answering love to Him. And Paul
means not only fixedness of intellectual conviction
and continuity of loving response, but also habitual
obedience, which is always ready to do His will.

So we answer His “ Yea ! ” with our “ Amen ! ’
and having an unchanging Christ to rest upon, rest
upon Him unchanging. The broken, fluctuating
affections and trusts and obediences which mark so
much of the average Christian life of this day are
only too sad proofs of how scant our possession of
that Spirit of steadfastness must be believed to be.
God’s “Yea” is answered by our faltering “Amen” ;
God’s truth is hesitatingly accepted ; God’s love is
partially returned ; God’s work is slothfully and
negligently done. “ Be ye steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord.

Another thought is suggested by these words—
viz., that such steadfastness as we have been trying
to describe has for its result a deeper penetration
into Jesus Christ and a fuller possession of Him.
The only way by which we can grow nearer and
nearer to our Lord is by steadfastly keeping beside
Him. You cannot get the spirit of a landscape
unless you sit down and gaze, and let it soak into
you. The cheap tripper never sees the lake. You
cannot get to know a man until you summer and
winter with him. No subject worth studying opens
itself out to the hasty glance. Was it not Sir Isaac
Newton who used to say, “ I have no genius, but I

THE ANOINTING WHICH ESTABLISHES.

IOI

keep a subject before me”? “ Abide in Me ; as the
branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine,
no more can ye except ye abide in Me.” Contin¬
uous, steadfast adhesion to Him is the condition of
growing up into his likeness, and receiving more
and more of His beauty into our waiting hearts.
“ Wait on the Lord ; wait, I say, on the Lord.”

III. — Lastly, notice the very humble and com¬
mon-place sphere in which the Christian steadfast¬
ness manifests itself.

It was nothing of more importance than that
Paul had said he was going to Corinth, and did not,
on which he brings all this array of great principles
to bear. From which I gather just this thought,
that the highest gifts of God's grace and the great¬
est truths of God’s Word are meant to regulate the
tiniest things in our daily life It is no degradation
to the lightning to have to carry messages. It is
no profanation of the sun to gather its rays into a
burning glass to light a kitchen fire with. And it
is no unworthy use of the Divine Spirit that God
gives to His children to say it will keep a man from
hasty and precipitate decisions as to little things in
life, and from chopping and changing about, with
levity of purpose and without a sufficient reason.
If our religion is not going to influence the trifles,
what is it going to influence ? Our life is made up
of trifles, and if these are not its field, where is its
field ? You may be quite sure that, if your religion
does not influence the little things, it will never in¬
fluence the big ones. If it has not power enough
to guide the horses when they are at a slow, sober
walk, what do you think it will do when they are

102

THE ANOINTING WHICH ESTABLISHES.

at a gallop and plunging ! “ He that is faithful in

that which is least is faithful also in much.” So
let us see to two things — first, that all our religion
is worked into our life, for only so much of it as is
so inwrought is our religion, and, second, that all
our life is brought under the sway of motives de¬
rived from our religion ; for only in proportion as
it is, will it be pure and good.

And as regards this special virtue and prime
quality of steadfastness and fixedness of purpose,
you can do no good in the world without it. Un¬
less a man can hold his own, and turn an obstinate
negative to the temptations that lie thick about
him, he will never come to any good at all, either
in this life or in the next. The basis of all excel¬
lence is a wholesome disregard of externals, and
the cultivation of a strong self-reliant and self-
centred, because God-trusting and Christ-centred,
will. And I tell you, especially you young men
and women, if you want to do or be anything
worth doing or being, you must try to get
your natures hardened into being “steadfast,
immovable.” There is only one infallible way
of doing it, and that is to let the “ strong Son of
God” live in you, and in Him to find your strength
for resistance, your strength for obedience, your
strength for submission. “ I have set the Lord
always before me ; because He is at my right hand,
I shall not be moved.”

There are two types of men in the world. That
one has his emblem in the chaff, rootless with no
hold, swept out of the threshing-floor by every
gust of wind. That resembles many whose

THE ANOINTING WHICH ESTABLISHES.

103

principles lie at the mercy of the babble of tongues
round about you, whose rectitude goes at a puff of
temptation, like the smoke out of a chimney when
the wind blows ; wTho have no will for what is
good, but live as it happens. The other type of
man’s emblem is the tree, rooted deep and there¬
fore rising high, with its roots going as far
underground as its branches spread in the blue,
and therefore green of leaf and rich of fruit. “ We
are made partakers of Christ if we hold fast the
beginning of our confidence, steadfast until the
end.”

Zbz Seal an& j£arneet.

“ Who hath also sealed us, aud given the earnest of the Spirit in

our hearts.” — 2 Cor. i. 22.

HERE are three strong metaphors
in this and the preceding verse —
“anointing,” “sealing/’ and “giving
the earnest ” — all of which find
their reality in some Divine act.
These three metaphors all refer to the same
subject, and what that subject is is sufficiently
explained in the last of them. The “ earnest
consists of “ the Spirit in our hearts,” and the
same explanation might have been appended to
both the preceding clauses, for the “ anointing ” is
the anointing of the Spirit, and the “ seal ’ is the
seal of the Spirit. Further, these three metaphors
all refer to one and the same act. They are not
three things, but three aspects of one thing, just
as a sunbeam might be regarded either as the
source of warmth, or of light, or of chemical action.
So the one gift of the one Spirit “ anoints/’
“ seals,” and is the “ earnest.” Further, these three
metaphors all declare a universal prerogative of
Christians. Every man that loves Jesus Christ

THE SEAL AND EARNEST.

105

has the Spirit in the measure of hisfaith. “And if any
man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His/’

I. — The first metaphor in the text : the “ seal ” of
the Spirit.

A seal is impressed upon a recipient material,
made soft by warmth, in order to leave there a
copy of itself. And it is not fanciful, nor riding1 a
metaphor to death, when I dwell upon these
features of the emblem in order to suggest the
analogies in Christian life. The Spirit of God
comes into our spirits, and by gentle contact im¬
presses upon the material, which was intractable
until it was melted by the genial warmth of faith
and love, the likeness of Itself, but yet so as that
prominences correspond to the hollows, and what
is in relief in the one is sunk in the other. Expand
that general statement for a moment or two.

The effect of all the Divine indwelling, which is
the characteristic gift of the Gospel to every
Christian soul, is to mould the recipient into the
image of the Divine inhabitant. There is in the
human spirit — such is its dignity amidst its ruins,
and its nobility shining through its degradation —
a capacity of receiving the image of God which
consists not only in voluntary and intelligent
action and the consciousness of personal being,
but in the love of the things that are fair, and in
righteousness, and true holiness. His Spirit,
entering into a heart, will there make that heart
wise with its own wisdom, strong with some in¬
fusion of its own strength, gracious with some
drops of its own grace, gentle with some softening
lrom its own gentleness, holy with some purity

io6

THE SEAL AND EARNEST.

reflected from its own transcendent whiteness.
The Spirit, which is life, moulds the heart into
which it enters into a kindred, and, therefore,
similar life.

There are, however, characteristics in this
“seal” of the Spirit which are not so much copies
as correspondences. That is to say, just as what
is convex in the seal is concave in the impression v
and vice versa, so, when that Divine Spirit comes
into our spirits, its promises will excite faith, its
gifts will breed desire ; to every bestowment there
will answer an opening receptivity. Yearning love
will correspond to the love that longs to dispense,
the sense of need to the Divine fulness and suffi¬
ciency, emptiness to abundance, prayers to promises;
the cry “Abba ! Father ! ” the yearning conscious¬
ness of sonship, to the word “Thou art My Son” ;
and the upward eye of aspiration and petition, and
necessity, and waiting, to the downward glance of
love bestowing itself. The open heart answers to the
extended hand, and the seal which God’s Spirit im¬
presses upon the heart that is submitted to it is of
this two-fold character, resemblance in moral nature
and righteousness, correspondence as regards the
mysteries of the converse between the recipient and
the giving God.

Then, mark, the material is made capable of
receiving the stamp because it is warmed and soft¬
ened. That is to say, my faith must prepare my
heart for the sanctifying indwelling of that Divine
Spirit. The hard wax may be struck with the seal,
but it leaves no trace. God does not do with man
as the coiner does with his blanks, put them cold

THE SEAL AND EARNEST.

107

into a press, and by violence from without stamp
an image upon them, but He does as men do with
a seal, warms the wax first, and then, with a gentle
firm touch, leaves the likeness there. So, brother !
Learn this lesson : if you want to be good lie under
the contact of the Spirit of righteousness, and see
that your heart is warm.

Still further, note that this aggregate of Christian
character, in likeness and correspondence, is the
true sign that we belong to God. The seal is the
mark of ownership, is it not ? Where the broad
arrow has been impressed everybody knows that
that is royal property. And so this seal of God’s
Divine Spirit, in its effects upon my character, is
the one token to myself and to other people that I
belong to God, and that He belongs to me. Or, to
put it into plain English, the only reason for any
mans being regarded as a Christian is his posses¬
sion of the likeness and correspondence to God which
that Divine Spirit gives. Likeness and correspon¬
dence, I say, for the one class of results are the more
open for the observation of the world, and the other
class are the more of value for ourselves. I believe
that Christian people ought to have, and are meant
by that Divine Spirit dwelling in them to have,
a consciousness that they are Christians, God’s
children, for their own peace and rest and joy. But
you cannot use that in demonstration to other
people ; you may be as sure of it as you will, in
your inmost hearts, but it is no sign to anybody
else. And, on the other hand, there may be much
of outward virtue and beauty of character which
may lead other people to say about a man : “ That

io8

THE SEAL AND EARNEST.

is a good Christian man, at any rate/’ and yet there
may be in the heart an all but absolute absence of
any joyful assurance that we are Christ's, and that
He belongs to us. So the two things must go to¬
gether. Correspondence, the spirit of sonship which
meets His taking us as sons, the faith which clasps
the promise, the reception which welcomes bestow-
ment, must be stamped upon the inward life.
For the outward life there must be the manifest im¬
press of righteousness upon my actions if there is to
be any real seal and token that I belong to Him.
God writes His own name upon the men that
are His. All their goodness, their gentleness,
patience, hatred of evil, energy and strenuousness
in service, submission in suffering, with whatsoever
other radiance of human virtue may belong to them,
are reallly “ His mark ! "

There is no other worth talking about, and to you
Christian men I come and say, Be very sure that
your professions of inward communion and happy
consciousness that you are Christ's are verified to
yourself and to others by a plain outward life of
righteousness like the Lord’s. Have you got that
seal stamped upon your lives like the hall-mark
that says, “ This is genuine silver, and no plated
Brummagem stuff" ? Have you got that seal of a
visible righteousness and every-day purity to con¬
firm your assertion that you belong to Christ ?
And is it woven into the whole length of your being
like the scarlet thread that is spun into every
Admiralty cable as a sign that it is crown property ?
God’s seal, visible to me and to nobody else, is my
consciousness that I am His ; but that conscious-

THE SEAL AND EARNEST.

109

ness is vindicated and delivered from the possibi¬
lity of illusion or hypocrisy only when it is checked
and fortified by the outward evidence of the holy
life that the Spirit of God has wrought.

Further, this sealing, which is thus the token of
God’s ownership, is also the pledge of security. A
seal is stamped in order that there may be no tam¬
pering with what it seals-, that it may be kept safe
from all assaults, thieves, and violence. And in the
metaphor of our text there is included this thought,
too, which is also of an intensely practical nature.
For it just comes to this — our true guarantee that
we shall come at last into the sweet security and
safety of the perfect state is present likeness to the
indwelling Spirit and the present reception of
Divine grace. The seal is the pledge of security,
just because it is the mark of ownership. When,
by God’s Spirit dwelling in us, we are led to love
the things that be fair, and to long after more
possession of whatever things are of good report,
that is like God’s hoisting His flag upon a newly-
annexed territory. And is He going to be so
careless in the preservation of His property as that
He will allow that which is thus acquired to slip
away from Him r Does He account us as of so
small value as to hold us with so slack a hand ?
But no man has a right to rest on the assurance of
God’s savinghim into the heavenly kingdom unless
He is saving him at this moment from the devil and
his own evil heart. And, therefore, I say the Chris¬
tian character, in its outward manifestations and in
its sweet inward secrets of communion, is the gua¬
rantee that we shall not fall. Rest upon Him, and

IIO

THE SEAL AND EARNEST.

He will hold you up. We are “ kept by the power
of God unto salvation/' and that power keeps and
that final salvation becomes ours “ through faith."

II. — Now, secondly, turn to the other emblem,
that “ earnest ” which consists in like manner “of
the Spirit."

The “ earnest," of course, is a small portion of
purchase-money, or wages, or contract-money, which
is given at the completion of the bargain as an
assurance that the whole amount will be paid in due
time. And, says the Apostle, this seal is also an
earnest. It not only makes certain God’s ownership
and guarantees the security of those on whom it is
impressed, but it also points onwards to the future,
and at once guarantees that, and to a large extent
reveals the nature of it. So, then, we have these two
thoughts on which I touch.

The Christian character and experience is the
earnest of the inheritance, in the sense of being its
guarantee, inasmuch as the experiences of the
Christian life here are plainly immortal. The resur¬
rection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the objective
and external proof of a future life. The facts of the
Christian life, its aspirations, its communion, its
clasp of God as its very own, are the subjective and
inward proofs of a future life. As a matter of fact,
if you will take the Old Testament, you will see that
the highest summits in it to which the hope of
immortality soared spring directly from the experi¬
ence of deep and blessed communion with the living
God. When the Psalmist said “Thou wilt not
leave my soul in Sheol ; neither wilt Thou suffer Thy
Holy One to see corruption," he was speaking a

THE SEAL AND EARNEST.

iii

conviction that had been floated into his mind on
the crest of a great wave of religious enjoyment and
communion. And, in like manner, when the other
Psalmist said “ Thou art the strength of my heart,
and my portion for ever,” he was speaking of the
glimpse that he had got of the land that was very
far off, from the height which he had climbed on
the mount of fellowship with God. And for us,
I suppose that the same experience holds good.
Howsoever much we may say we believe in a future
life, and in a heaven, we really grasp it as a fact
that shall be true about ourselves, in the proportion
in which here we are living in direct contact and
communion with God. The conviction of immor¬
tality is the distinct and direct result of the present
enjoyment of communion with Him, and it is a
reasonable result. No man that has known what it
is to turn himself to God with a glow of humble love,
and to feel that he is not turning his face to vacuity,
but to a face that looks on him with love, can believe
that anything can ever come to destroy that com¬
munion. What have faith, love, aspiration, resig¬
nation, fellowship with God, to do with death ?
They cannot be cut through with the stroke that
destroys physical life, any more than you can divide
a sunbeam with a sword. It unites again, and the
impotent edge passes through and has effected
nothing. Death can shear asunder many bonds,
but that invisible bond that unites the soul to God
is of adamant, against which his scythe is in vain.
Death is the grim porter that opens the door of a
dark hole and herds us into it as sheep are driven
into a slaughter-house. But to those who have

112

THE SEAL AND EARNEST

learned what it is to lay a trusting hand in God’s
hand, the grim porter is turned into the gentle dam¬
sel that keeps the door and opens it for light and
warmth and safety to the hunted prisoner that
has escaped from the dungeon of life. Death
cannot touch communion, and the consciousness
of communion with God is the earnest of the
inheritance.

And it is so for another reason. All the results
of the Divine Spirit’s sealing of the soul are mani¬
festly complete, and as manifestly tend towards
completeness. The engine is clearly working only
half-speed. It is obviously capable of much higher
pressure than it is working at now. Those powers
in the Christian man can plainly do a great deal
more than they ever have done here, and are meant
to do a great deal more. Is this imperfect Chris¬
tianity of ours, our little faith, so soon shattered, our
little love so quickly disproved, our faltering resolu¬
tions, our lame performances, our earthward cleav¬
ings — are these things all that Jesus Christ’s bitter
agony was for, and all that a Divine Spirit is able
to make of us ? Manifestly, here is but a segment
of the circle, in heaven is the perfect round ; and the
imperfections in the work of so obviously Divine an
Agent, so far as life is concerned, cry aloud for a
region where tendency shall become result, and all
that was in Him to make us we shall become. The
road evidently leads upwards, and round that sharp
corner where the black rocks come so near each
other and our eyesight cannot travel, we may be
sure it goes steadily up still to the top of the pass,
until it reaches “the shining tablelands whereof our

THE SEAL AND EARNEST.

IX3

God Himself is Sun and Moon,” and brings us all to
the city set on a liill.

And, further, that Divine seal is the earnest,
inasmuch as itself is part of the whole. The truest
and the loftiest conception that we can form of
heaven is the perfecting of the religious experience
of earth. The shilling or two given to the servant
in old-fashioned days when he was hired is of the
same currency as the balance that he is to get when
the year’s work is done. The small payment to-day
comes out of the same purse, and is coined out of
the same specie, and is part of the same currency of
the same kingdom, as what we get when we go
yonder, and count the endless riches to which we
have fallen heirs at last. You have but to take the
faith, the love, the obedience, the communion, of
the highest of moments of the Christian life on
earth, and take from them all their limitations,
subtract from them all their imperfections, multiply
them to their superlative possibility, endow them
with a continual power of growth, and stretch
them out to absolute eternity, and you get heaven.
The earnest is of a piece with the inheritance.

So, dear brethren, here is a gift offered for us all,
a gift which our feebleness sorely needs, a gift for
every timid nature, for every weak will, for every
man, woman, and child beset with snares and fight¬
ing with heavy tasks, the offer of a reinforcement
as real and as sure to bring victory as when, on
that day when the fate of Europe was determined,
after long hours of conflict, the Prussian bugles
blew, and the English commander knew that with
the fresh troops that came on the field victory was

THE SEAL AND EARNEST.

1 14

made certain. So you and I may have in our hearts
the Spirit of God, the spirit of strength, the spirit
of love and of a sound mind, the spirit of adoption,
the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the know¬
ledge of Him to enlighten our darkness, to bind our
hearts to Him, to quicken and energise our souls,
to make the weakest among us strong, and the
strong as an angel of God. And the condition on
which we may get it is this simple one which the
Apostle lays down. “ After that ye believed , ye
were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance.” The Christ
who is the Lord and Giver of the Spirit has shown
us how its blessed influences may be ours when,
on the great day of the feast, He stood and cried
with a voice that echoes across the centuries, and is
meant for each of us, “ If any man thirst, let him
come unto Me and drink. He that believeth in Me,
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
This spake He of the Spirit which they that believe
on Him should receive.”

£be Warrior peace.

“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep
your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.” — Phil. iv. 7-

HE great Mosque of Constantinople
was once a Christian church, dedi¬
cated to the Holy Wisdom. Over
its western portal may still be read,
graven on a brazen plate, the words,
« Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy-

laden, and I will give you rest.” For four
hundred years noisy crowds have fought, and
sorrowed, and fretted beneath the dim inscription
in an unknown tongue ; and no eye has looked at
it, nor any heart responded. It is but too sad a
svmbol of the reception which Christ’s offers meet
amongst men, and — blessed be His name ! — its
prominence there, though unread and unbelieved,
is a symbol of the patient forbearance with which
rejected blessings are once and again pressed upon
us, and He stretches out His hand though no man
regards, and calls though none do hear. My text

1 16 THE WARRIOR PEACE.

is Christ’s offer of peace. The world offers excite¬
ment, Christ promises repose.

I. — Mark, then, first, this peace of God. What
is it ?

What are its elements ? Whence does it come ?
It is of Him, as being its Source, or Origin, or Author,
or Giver, but it belongs to Him in a yet deeper
sense, for Himself is Peace. And in some humble
but yet real fashion our restless and anxious hearts
may partake in the Divine tranquillity, and with a
calm repose, kindred with that rest from which it is
derived, may enter into His rest.

If that be too high a flight, at all events the peace
that may be ours was His, in the perfect and un¬
broken tranquillity of His perfect Manhood. What,
then, are its elements ? The peace of God must,
first of all, be peace with God. Conscious friendship
with Him is indispensable to all true tranquillity.
Where that is absent there may be the ignoring
of the disturbed relationship ; but there will be no
peace of heart. The indispensable requisite is “ a
conscience like a sea at rest.” Unless we have
made sure work of our relationship with God, and
know that He and we are friends, there is no real
repose possible for us. In the whirl of excitement
we may forget, and for a time turn away from, the
realities of our relation to Him, and so get such
gladness as is possible to a life not rooted in
conscious friendship with Him. But such lives will
be like some of those sunny islands in the Eastern
Pacific, extinct volcanoes, where Nature smiles and
all things are prodigal and life is easy and luxuri¬
ant ; but some day the clouds gather, and the earth

THE WARRIOR PEACE.

ii 7

shakes, and fire pours forth, and the sea boils, and
every living thing dies, and darkness and desolation
come. You are living, brother, upon a volcano’s
side, unless the roots of your being are fixed in a
God who is your Friend.

Again, the peace of God is peace within our¬
selves. The unrest of human life comes largely
from our being torn asunder by contending
impulses. Conscience pulls this way, passion that.
Desire says, “Do this”; reason, judgment, prudence
say, “ It is at your peril if you do ! ” One desire
fights against another. And so the man is rent
asunder. There must be the harmonising of all
the being if there is to be real rest of spirit. No
longer must it be like the chaos ere the creative
word was spoken, where, in gloom, contending
elements strove.

Again, men have not peace, because in most of
them everything is topmost that ought to be under¬
most, and everything undermost that ought to be
uppermost. “ Beggars are on horseback ” (and we
know where they ride), “ and princes walking.” The
more regal part of the man’s nature is suppressed,
and trodden under foot ; and the servile arts, which
ought to be under firm restraint, and guided
by a wise hand, are too often supreme, and wild
work comes of that. When you put the captain and
the officers, and everybody on board that knows
anything about navigation, into irons, and fasten
down the hatches on them, and let the crew and
the cabin-boys take the helm and direct the ship, it
is not likely that the voyage will end anywhere but
on the rocks. Multitudes are living lives of

1 1 8

THE WARRIOR PEACE.

unrestfulness, simply because they have set the
lowest parts of their nature upon the throne, and
subordinated the highest.

Our unrest comes from yet another source. You
have not peace, because you have not found and
grasped the true objects for any of your faculties.
God is the only possession that brings quiet.
The heart hungers until it feeds upon Him. The
mind is satisfied with no truth until behind truth it
finds a person who is true. The will is enslaved
and wretched until in God it recognises legitimate
and absolute authority which it is blessing to obey.
Love puts out its yearnings, like the filaments that
gossamer spiders send out into the air, seeking in
vain for something to fasten upon, until it touches
God, and clings there. There is no rest for a man
until he rests in God. The reason why this world
is so full of excitement is because it is so empty of
peace, and the reason why it is so empty of peace is
because it is so void of God. The peace of God
brings peace with Him, and peace within. It
“ unites our hearts to fear His name/' and draws all
the else turbulent and confusedly flowing impulses
of the great deep of the spirit after itself, in a tidal
wave, as the moon the waters of the gathered ocean.
The peace of God is peace with Him, and peace
within.

I need not, I suppose, do more than say one word
about that descriptive clause in my text, “ It passeth
understanding/' The understanding is not the
hand by which men lay hold of the peace of God
any more than you can see a picture with your ears
or hear music with your eyes. To everything its

THE WARRIOR PEACE.

own organ : you cannot weigh truth in a trades¬
man’s scales or measure thought with a yard-stick.
Love is not the organ for apprehending Euclid, nor
the brain the organ for grasping these Divine and
spiritual gifts. The peace of God transcends the
understanding, as well as belongs to another order
of things than that about which the understanding
is concerned. You must experience it to know it ;
you must have it in order that you may feel its
sweetness. It eludes the grasp of the loveliest,
though it yields itself to the clutch of the patient
and loving heart.

II. — So notice, in the next place, what my text
tells us about what the peace of God does.

“ It shall keep your hearts and minds. The
Apostle here blends together, in a very remarkable
manner, the conceptions of peace and of war, for
he employs a purely military word to express the
office of this Divine peace. That word, “ shall
keep,” is the same as is translated in another of his
letters kept with a garrison — and, though, perhaps, it
might be going too far to insist that the military
idea is prominent in his mind, it will certainly not

be unsafe to recognize its presence.

So, then, this Divine peace takes upon itself
warlike functions, and garrisons the heart and
mind. What does he mean by ‘‘the heart and
mind ” ? Not, as the English reader might suppose,
two different faculties, the emotional and the intel¬
lectual— which is what we usually roughly mean by
our distinction between heart and mind but, as is
always the case in the Bible, the “ heart means
the whole inner man, whether considered as think-

120

THE WARRIOR PEACE,

ing, willing, purposing, or doing any other inward
act ; and the word rendered “ mind ” does not mean
another part of human nature, but the whole pro¬
ducts of the operations of the heart. The Revised
Version renders it by “ thoughts/’ and that is cor¬
rect if it be given a wide enough application, so as
to include emotions, affections, purposes, as well as
“ thoughts ” in the narrower sense. The whole
inner man, in all the extent of its manifold opera¬
tions, that indwelling peace of God will garrison
and guard.

So note, however profound and real that Divine
peace is, it is to be enjoyed in the midst of warfare.
Quiet is not quiescence. God’s peace is not torpor.
The man that has it has still to wage continual
conflict, and day by day to brace himself anew for
the fight. The highest energy of action is the result
of the deepest calm of heart ; just as the motion of
this solid, and, as we feel it to be, immovable world,
is far more rapid through the abysses of space, and
on its own axis, than any of the motions of the
things on its surface. So the quiet heart “ which
moveth altogether if it move at all,” rests whilst it
moves, and moves the more swiftly because of its
unbroken repose. That peace of God, which is
peace militant, is unbroken amidst the conflicts.
The wise old Greeks chose for the Goddess of Athens
the goddess of Wisdom, and whilst they consecrated
to her the olive branch, which is the symbol of peace,
they set her image on the Parthenon, helmed and
spear-bearing, to defend the peace which she
brought to earth. So this heavenly virgin, whom
the Apostle personifies here, is the “ winged sentry,

THE WARRIOR PEACE.

[21

all skilful in the wars,” who enters into our hearts
and fights for us to keep us in unbroken peace.

It is possible day by day to go out to toil and
care and anxiety and change and suffering and
conflict, and yet to bear within our hearts the
unalterable rest of God. Deep in the bosom of the
ocean, beneath the region where winds howl and
billows break, there is calm, but the calm is not
stagnation. Each drop from these fathomless
abysses may be raised to the surface by the power of
the sunbeams, expanded there by their heat and sent
on some beneficent message across the world. So,
deep in our hearts, beneath the storm, beneath
the raving winds and the curling waves, there
may be a central repose, as unlike stagnation
as it is unlike tumult ; and the peace of God
may keep, as a warrior, our hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus.

What is the plain English of that metaphor?
Just this, that a man who has that peace as his
conscious possession is lifted above the temptations
that otherwise would drag him away. The full
cup, filled with precious wine, has no room in it for
the poison that otherwise might be poured in.
As Jesus Christ has taught us, there is such a thing
as cleansing a heart in some measure, and yet
because it is “ empty,” though it is “ swept and
garnished,” the demons come back again. I he
best way to be made strong to resist temptation is
to be lifted above feeling it to be a temp cation by
reason of the sweetness of the peace possessed.
Oh ! if our hearts were filled, as they might be filled,
with that Divine repose, do you think that the

I 22

THE WARRIOR PEACE.

vulgar, coarse-tasting baits which make our mouths
water now would have any power over us ? Will a
man who bears in his hands jewels of priceless
value, and knows them to be such, find much
temptation when some bit of imitation stuff, made
of coloured glass and a tinfoil backing, is presented
to him ? Will the world draw us away if we are
rooted and grounded in the peace of God ? Geolo¬
gists tell us that climates are changed and crea¬
tures are killed by the slow variation of level in the
earth. If you and I can only heave our lives up
high enough, the foul things that live down below
will find the air too pure and keen for them, and
will die and disappear ; and all the vermin that
stung and nestled down in the flats will be gone
when we get up to the heights. The peace of God
will keep hearts and their thoughts.

III. — Now, lastly, notice how we get the peace
of God.

My text is an exuberant promise, but it is knit
on to something before by that “and” at the
beginning of the verse. It is a promise, as all
God's promises are, on conditions. And here are
the conditions. “ Be careful for nothing ; but in
everything, by prayer and supplication with thanks¬
giving, let your requests be made known unto
God/’ That defines the conditions in part ; and
the last words of the text itself complete the
definition. “In Christ Jesus” describes, not so
much where we are to be kept, as a condition
under which we shall be. How, then, can I get
this peace into my turbulent, changeful life r

I answer, first, trust is peace. It is always so ;

THE WARRIOR PEACE.

123

even when it is misplaced we are at rest. 1 he
condition of repose for the human heart is tnat we
shall be “ in Christ/’ who has said, “In the world
ye shall have tribulation, but in Me ye shall have
peace” And how may I be “ in Him ” ? Simply
by trusting1 myself to Him. That brings peace

with God.

The sinless Son of God has died on the Cross, a
sacrifice for the sins of the whole world for yours
and for mine. Let us trust to that and we shall
have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus
Christ. And “ in Him ” we have, by trust, inward
peace, for He, through our faith, controls our
whole natures, and faith leads the lion in a silken

leash, like Spenser’s Una.

Trust in Christ brings peace amid outward
sorrows and conflicts. When the pilot comes on
board the captain does not leave the bridge, but
stands by the pilot’s side. His responsibility is
past, but his duties are not over. And when Christ
comes into my heart, my effort, my judgment, aie
not made unnecessary or put on one side. Let Him
take the command, and stand beside Him, and carry
out His orders, and you will find rest to your souls.

Again, submission is peace. What makes our
troubles is not outward circumstances, howsoever
afflictive they may be, but the resistance of our
spirits to the circumstances. And where a man s
will bends and says, “Not mine, but Thine, be
done,” there is calm. Submission is like the lotion
that you apply to the mosquito bites — it takes away
the irritation, though the puncture be left. Submis¬
sion is peace, both.as resignation and as obedience.

124

THE WARRIOR PEACE.

Communion is peace. You will get no quiet
until you live with God. Until He is at your side,
you will always be moved.

So, dear friends, do you fix this in your minds :
a life without Christ is a life without peace.
Without Him you may have excitement, pleasure,
gratified passions, success, accomplished hopes,
but peace never ! You never have had it, have
you ? If you live without Him, you may forget
that you have not Him, and you can plunge into
the world, and so lose the consciousness of the
aching void, but it is there all the same. You
never will have peace until you go to Him. There
is only one way to get it. The Christless heart is
like the troubled sea that cannot rest. There is
no peace for it. But in Him you can get it for the
asking. “The chastisement of our peace was laid
upon Him/’ For our sakes He died on the Cross,
so making peace. Trust Him as your only hope,
Saviour, friend, and the God of peace will “ fill
you with all joy and peace in believing/' Then
bow your wills to Him in acceptance of His
providence and in obedience to His commands,
and so, “ your peace shall be as a river, and your
righteousness as the waves of the sea/’ Then
keep your hearts in union and communion with
Him, and so His presence will keep you in perfect
peace whilst conflicts last, and, with Him at your
side, you wfill pass through the valley of the
shadow of death undisturbed, and come to the true
Salem, the city of peace, where they beat their
swords into ploughshares, and learn and fear war
no more.

XII.

Hhe Distort of (Bob arto tbe feast

before Ibim.

“ They saw God and did eat and drink. Exodus xxiv. 11.

HESE are strangely bold words, both
for the assertion with which they
begin, and for the juxtaposition of
the two things which they declare.
They come at the close of the
solemn ceremonial by which God and Israel
entered into covenant. Lightly-uti.ered vows of
obedience to all that God could speak had echoed
among the rocks. On the basis of that promise
a covenant was formed and ratified by sacrifice. A
rude altar was piled, round it were set twel\e
standing stones — the representatives of the tribes
the whole group being a symbol of Israel gathered
round its God. The sacrifices were offered, half of
the blood is cast upon the altar, the witness that
man enters into amity with God through sacrifice.
Half of the blood is sprinkled upon the people, the
witness that the blood of the sacrifice cleanses and
consecrates the men that accept it. And then a
chosen body of seventy representatives of the

THE VISION OF GOD

126

nation, accompanying the Lawgiver and the future
high priest, ascend the mountain. They pass
within the fence, the witness that access to God is
possible on the footing of Covenant and Sacrifice.
They behold, as I suppose, unclouded, the material
and fiery symbol of His presence ; witness that
men through Sacrifice and Covenant can see God.

But our eyes are stayed on the pavement
beneath His feet. No form is described. Enough
for us that there is spread beneath Him that which
is blue and gleaming as the cloudless Heaven
above Sinai. “ They eat and drink ” — witness
that men who draw nigh to God, on the footing of
sacrifice and covenant, and thereby behold His
face, have therein festal abundance for all their
need. So this incident, in its form adapted to the
infantile development of the people that first
received it, carries in its symbols the deepest
truths of the best communion of the Christian life,
and may lend itself to the foreshadowing of the
unspoken glories of the heavens.

I. — I ask you to consider, first, the vision of God
possible for us.

The Bible says two things about that. It asserts,
and it denies with equal emphasis, the possibility of
our seeing Him. The two things are, of course,
easily capable of reconciliation ; the sight which is
affirmed is not the sight which is denied. That
vision which is impossible is the literal vision by
sense, or, in a secondary meaning, the full,
adequate, direct knowledge of God. The vision
which is affirmed is the knowledge of Him, clear,
certain, vivid, and, as I believe, yielding nothing

AND THE FEAST BEFORE HIM .

127

to sense in any of these respects. The God whom
we cannot see, either in the sense of perceiving1
with the eye, or of grasping and apprehending
with mind and spirit, is the boundless infinitude of
the Divine nature. The God whom we can see is
that aspect of that infinite nature which is turned
to us, which the Scripture calls “ the face of God.”
The vision of God of which the text speaks appears
to have been an actual visible appearance, pro¬
bably of that “ symbolical fire” which shone on Sinai,
and was seen by the people veiled in cloud and
smoke, but by the seventy in unveiled brightness.
The author of Exodus knew as well as any modern
objector, that no man can see God’s face,” and
declares that these men “ saw the God of Israel,”
not because its conceptions of Him are gross and
material, but because the invisible God deigned to
assume a form of visible brightness in order to
certify His presence and friendship. That this is
“ supernatural ” we admit ; that it is “ gross or
“ puerile ” we deny.

Now what lessons does this vision bring for us r
I am not going to plunge into questions out of
place in the pulpit about the nature and certitude
of man’s knowledge of God. Our business is with
revealed truth, and this is the truth for us, that we
Christians may, even here and now, see God, the
God of the covenant.

Jesus Christ is the Revealer. This generation is
very fond of saying, “ No man hath seen God at
any time, nor can see Him.” It is a pity that they
do not go on with the quotation and say, “ the only-
begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the .Father,

128

THE VISION OF GOD

He hath declared Him.” The eradiation of His
brightness, “ and the express image of His person,”
is that Divine man, God manifest in the flesh.
The knowledge of God which we have in Jesus
Christ is real, as sight is real. It is not complete,
but it is genuine knowledge. We know the
best of God, if I may use such a phrase, when
we know what we know in Christ, that He is
a loving and a righteous will ; when we can say
of Him “ He is love," in no metaphor but in
simple reality, and His will is a will towards all
righteousness, and towards all blessing, anything
that heaven has to teach us about God afterwards
is less than that. We see Him in the reality of
a genuine, central, though by no means complete,
knowledge.

Our knowlege of God in Christ is as sight, in
reference to certitude. People say “ seeing is
believing." I should turn it the other way about,
and say “believing is seeing." For we maybe
a great deal surer of God than ever we can be of
this outer world. And the witness which is borne
to us in Christ of the Divine nature is far more
reliable than even the evidence that is borne to us
by sense of an external universe. We all know
how possible it is that sense may be deceived. I
suppose we all believe that our consciousness and
our intuitions are more certain than the evidence
of our senses. And I venture to affirm that in
certitude the facts about God which are laid down
at all our doors in the person and work of Jrsus
Christ compare not unfavourably with the evidence
of sense.

AND THE FEAST BEFORE HIM

129

The knowledge that we have of God in Christ
is as vision, or it may be so in reference to its
vividness as well as its reality and its certitude.
That depends upon ourselves, as I shall have to
show you in a moment. But it is possible for men
to live so thoroughly, closely, realizing God and
His presence, that the things roundabout are seen
to be shadowy and phantasmal, and He, the Un¬
seen Reality blazing behind them all. Sight is
busy, intrusive, self-asserting; but we may have,
and ought to have, a vividness of impression of
the Divine love and the Divine presence which
make all that bodily sight can show to us dim and
far off. Christ, the revealer of God, makes God
visible to us. “ He that hath seen Me hath seen
the Father.” Remember, too, that when we learn
to know, and absolutely to rely upon, and vividly to
realize our Father s presence through Jesus Christ,
then we shall see Him in all things and every¬
where. The world is full of confused and frag¬
mentary witnesses to Him which may be diversely
interpreted according to men’s dispositions ; but
when we have reached the higher knowledge the
lower sources of knowledge become vocal with a
deeper music and significant with a better mean¬
ing ; and a world, which is chaos to a man that
has not learned God in Christ, is all order and
witnesses of the Father to the man that has.

So it is possible for us, like those Israelites in the
wilderness, to see uncreated brightness blazing
upon the barren rocks ; possible for us to see that
everything in life is aflame with a present God ;
possible for us to have all events, persons, objects

i3o

THE VISION OF GOD

transparent, and revealing the Father of us
all.

People are desperately afraid of what they call,
without quite knowing what they mean by it,
Pantheism. Christian Pantheism asserts that God
is separable from, and independent of, the material
universe ; but also asserts that the material uni¬
verse is neither separable from, nor independent of,
the upholding and indwelling God. And they
who in all material things see the presence and
the play of the Divine will, have come to under¬
stand the secret of the universe. God moves
everywhere. There is no power but of God. And
they who have learned to see Him in Christ see
Him everywhere.

Then remember, further, that the degree of this
vision depends upon ourselves, and is a matter of
cultivation. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they shall see God/’ There are three things wanted
for sight — something to see ; something to see
by ; something to see with. God has given us the
two first, and He will help us to the last if we like.
But we have to bring the eye, without which the
sunbeam is vain, and that which it reveals is also
vain. Christ stands before us, at once the Master-
Light of all our seeing, and the Object that we are
to behold. But for us there is needed that the eye
shall be pure ; that the heart shall turn towards
Him. Faith is the eye of the soul. Meditation
and habitual occupation of mind and heart with
Jesus Christ, the Revealer of God, are needed if we
are to “ see God.” There are things that cannot
be seen at a glance, and this is one of them.

and the feast BEFORE HIM. 13 1

Faith, meditation, purity, these three are the
purging of our vision, and the conditions in us of
the sight of God.

So, Christian men and women, here is a ques¬
tion for you. Do you know God anything like as
really, as certainly, as vividly as you know and see
the things that are round about you? Are your
eyes darkened that you cannot see, because you
have gazed so long and so lovingly on the trifles
of life that you cannot focus them to behold the
far-off and the infinitely superior glory of God ?

The seventy that climbed the mount pro¬
claim a privilege and prescribe a duty. And il
we profess to have entered into covenant with
God on the footing of sacrifice, and to have made
the acquaintance of Christ who reveals God,
oh ! it is a shame and a sin that we should see
Him so dimly, far-off, through mists, and that any
trivial object close to our eyes should be Dig
enough to shut Him out and bright enough
to dazzle them. “They saw God" points to
obligation as well as prerogative.

II. — Secondly, notice the feast in the Divine

presence.

“They did eat and drink." That suggests in
the singular juxtaposition of the two things, that
the vision of God is consistent with, and conse¬
crates, common enjoyment and everyday life.
Even before that awful blaze these men sat down
and fed, “ eating their meal with gladness and
singleness of heart,” and finding no contradiction
nor any profanity in the close juxtaposition of the
meal and the vision. There is no false asceticism

r\ ^

*32

THE VISION OF GOD

as the result of the Christian sight of God. It
takes nothing out of life that ought to be in it. If
we see God there is only one thing that we shall be
ashamed to do in His presence, and that is to sin.
For all the rest, the vision of God blends sweetly
and lovingly with common service and homely
joys. It will interpret life. Nothing is small with
such a background ; nothing common-place when
looked at in connection with Him. It will ennoble
life. It will gladden life. The dustiest, dreariest,
loneliest road becomes less lonely, dreary, and
dusty when he that travels it can say, “ I walk in
the light of His countenance ” ; and all sad things
are less sad when we link them with a present God.
It will consecrate life. Like the fabled Venetian
glass, which shivered into pieces when poison was
poured into it, the thought of God’s presence, the
loving vision of His face, passes out of our hearts
when we yield ourselves to sin. And the test ot
evil is, “ Dare I do it before the flashing Shekinah
on the mountain top ? ” The feast that is spread
in the presence of the Lord is a feast of pure
dainties and of unintoxicating wines.

But there is another thought here, to which I
must refer for a moment. That strange meal^on
the mountain was no doubt made on the sacrifices
that had preceded, of which a part were peace-
offerings. The ritual of that species of sacrifice
partly consisted in a portion of the sacrifice being
partaken of by the offerers. The same meaning
lies in this meal on the mountain that lay in the
sacrificial feast of the peace-offering, the same
meaning that lies in the great feast of the new

AND THE FEAST BEFORE HIM.

133

Covenant, ‘‘This is My body; this is My blood/’
They who are in fellowship with God, on the foot¬
ing’ of covenant and sacrifice, and are gladdened
by the vision of His loving face, are nourished and
sustained by the sacrifice through which they come
near. The Christ that died for us must be the
Christ on whom mind and heart and will and
memory and hope, and all our nature, feed, and
by whom they are nourished. God spreads in His
presence a table, and the food on that table is the
“ Bread which came down from Heaven that it
might give life to the world/’ The vision of God
and the feast on the mountain are equally provided
and made possible by Christ our Passover, who
was sacrificed for us.

III. — And so, lastly, we may gather out of this
incident a glimpse of a prophetic character, and
see in it the perfecting of the vision and of the
feast.

We recall the Apostle’s wonderful statement of
the difference between the beatific knowledge of
heaven and the indirect and partial knowledge of
earth. Here we “ see in a glass darkly ; there face
to face.” It is not for us to try before the time to
interpret the latter of these statements ; only this,
let us remember that, whatever may be the change
in manner of knowledge, and in measure of appre¬
hension, and in proximity of presence, there is no
change in heaven, in the medium of revelation.
For heaven, as for earth, God is the King invisible ;
for heaven, as for earth, no man can see Him : the
only begotten Son declares Him. Christ is lor
ever the Manifester of God, and the glorified saints

THE VISION OF GOD

*34

see God as we see Him in the face of Jesus Christ,
though they see that face as we do not. Yonder
there are new capacities indeed. Where there are
more windows in the house, there will be more
sunshine in the rooms. When there is a new
speculum in the telescope, galaxies will be resolved
that are now nebulous, and new brightnesses will
be visible that are now veiled. But with all the
new powers and the extension of present vision,
there will be no corrections in the present vision.
We know the best of God, as I have said already.
Certainly, the divinest thing in God, if I may so
say, is His love, and it is revealed to us in Jesus
Christ. Much will drop away, forms of thought
will disappear, inadequate conceptions will
crumble ; we shall put away childish things.
There will be progress, but no corrections, in the
revelation of God that Christ has made. We shall
see Him as He is, and learn that what we knew of
Him in Christ here is true for ever. And on that
perfect vision will follow the perfect meal, which
will still be the feeding on the sacrifice. For there
were no heaven except “ He had offered one
sacrifice for sins for ever/’ and there is no spiritual
life above except a life derived from Him.

The feast means perfect satisfaction, perfect
repose, perfect gladness, perfect companionship,
It is possible for us to sit here as the guests at the
lower table, looking up the hall and seeing our
Host from afar ; and then to be bade to go up
higher, and seat ourselves closer to the Lord of the
feast. And then we shall say, “ They shall be
satisfied with the fatness of Thy house ; and Thou

AND THE FEAST BEFORE HIM.

135

makest them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.
In Thy light shall we see light.”

Whether is that life, dear friend, better, or the
life which sees God at intervals through mists that
make His face lurid and hostile ; and is, therefore,
a life of hunger and unrest, ending at last in
banishment from the banqueting hall and abandon¬
ment to the outer darkness ?

Christ shows us God and spreads the table for

earth and for heaven.

XIII.

Mbat comes of a 2>eai> Christ.

And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your
faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of
God.” — i Cor. xv. 14, 15.

E do not prove that an event has hap¬
pened by showing the advantages of
believing that it has. And so the
statement of consequences of the
denial of the Resurrection in this
context is not intended as proof of the reality of
the Resurrection. Paul has established that in the
previous part of the chapter by the only legitimate
evidence — viz., the testimony of eye-witnesses.
Here he deals with the results that would follow
from the denial of a Resurrection in order to show,
not that it has verily taken place, but that the
belief of it is fundamental to all real Christian
belief.

The peculiar form of heresy against which the
Apostle is arguing — viz., the denial of a general
resurrection of the dead, accompanied with an
acceptance of Christ’s Resurrection, does not
concern us now. Nor are we concerned with the
place in his argument which this enumeration or

137

WHA T COMES OF A DEAD CHRIST.

the destructive effects of the denial of Christ s rising
again, holds. I confine myself to the consideration
of that list of consequences. If we invert them j
we gather the blessed results of the faith in a 1
Resurrection. I deal, not only with the clauses
which I have read, but with the others which
belong to the same subject in the adjoining verses.

I. _ The first point the Apostle makes is this:

that with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ the

whole Gospel stands or falls.

“If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching
vain/5 Now that does not mean, as a mere
English reader might take it to mean, u it is
useless for us to preach.” “ Preaching ” here
means, not the act, but the subject-matter of the
message, and “vain” means, not idle , but empty.
Paul thinks that unless Jesus Christ be risen the
Gospel is emptied of its contents. Its life-blood is
drained out of it. As we say colloquially, there is
nothing in it. It is an empty shell.. A dead
Christ makes a hollow Gospel ; a living Christ
makes a full one.

Let us just illustrate that for a few moments. If
the Resurrection goes the supernatural goes ; if
the Resurrection remains the door is opened for
the miraculous. We hear all round about us
to-day, in all sorts of voices, the declaration that
all miracle is impossible. There is one fact that
stands on its own appropriate evidence, evidence
which I venture to say is irrefragable viz., the
historical fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ,
which shatters all such contention. That fact is
the key of the position. Like some great fortress

138

WHAT COMES OF A DEAD CHRIST.

standing at the mouth of the pass into the fertile
country, as long as it holds out, the storm of war
is rolled back in broken foam from its firm battle¬
ments ; if it yields all is surrendered. Round the
alleged fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
turns this wThole controversy ; and more and more
it will be manifest that any theory of the relations
between God and man, which is not able to find a
place for the fact of the Resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, is unable to hold the field.
All sorts of preposterous theories to account for
the belief in it upon natural grounds spring up,
generation after generation, and generation after
generation are swept away into the dust-bin of
forgotten absurdities, and the old message stands,
“ Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.” If that be
the truth, there is a gap in the iron wall of natural
sequence that rings round men’s lives, wide
enough for all supernatural communications from
the loving Father of us all to enter in. This is the
test question, Do you believe in the Resurrection
of Jesus Christ ?

Again, if the Resurrection of Christ goes, all the
peculiarity of His nature goes with it. He said,
as I believe, that He was the Son of God. His
life is full of claims to a unique position. When
He was laid in the new rock tomb, and the stars
shone down upon it that night, was He laid there
for ever, and is He there still r If so, there is no
use in mincing the matter, Jesus Christ’s talk
about Himself was false; and Jesus Christ’s claims
to be a reliable religious teacher are subject to the
tremendous deduction that, with all the. beauty of

WHAT COMES OF A DEAD CHRIST.

139

much that He said, and the sweetness and humble¬
ness of His life, He advanced claims which the
fact of His dying the death of all men, and lying
in the tomb, has pulverised and absolutely de¬
stroyed. But if it be true that He has risen from
the dead, then we say with Paul, “ declared to be
the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead.’
And in that mighty act which befel, as in the
breaking dawn of this day, we hear the last and
the clearest of God’s utterances of approval, “ This
is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

Again, with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
stands or falls the special character and efficacy of
His death. If He has been laid in the tomb, and
has not burst its bonds, then it is idle to talk of
anything in the nature of expiation or sacrifice for
sin in that death which He died ; but, if it be true
that He indeed has come forth from the grave,
then we have the great Divine attestation to the
efficacy of His sacrifice, and the acceptableness of
His expiation, and can rejoice that, the Victim
having come forth from the darkness of death, that
which He died to effect has been effected, and our
sins are passed away.

If, on the other hand, there be no Resurrection,
-hen there is no sacrifice, and if no sacrifice, then
;here is no pardon, and the very heart of the
Gospel has disappeared, and Christ falls back into
the crowd, and there is nothing in Him that there
is not in the rest of us.

So, if all these things go— the miraculous, the
Divinity of our Lord, the sacrificial nature of His
death— if these things go, what is left is not

140 WHAT COMES OF A DEAD CHRIST.

Christianity. Paul says: “If Christ be not risen,
our preaching " — the thing that I preach — is
emptied of all its contents; it is not worth preach¬
ing. What, then, was his conception of the
Gospel ? Suppose there were no Resurrection,
what is left ? All that a great many think makes
Christianity. Its removal does not touch the
beauty of Christ's words. It does not, in the
slightest degree, affect the loveliness of His
character; it does not at all, except inferentially,
affect His position as our Pattern and the
very ideal and summit of the human nature.
“Yet," says Paul, “if that is all I have to preach,
I have nothing but an empty shell to preach."
He thought that the things which went with
the Resurrection of Jesus Christ were all the
things that made Christianity. If you took it
away, you struck out the centre pole of the tent,
and all the rest came down in a huddle of
wet canvas, below which no man could live. “ If
Christ be not risen, our preaching is vain."

II. — Secondly, with the Resurrection of Jesus
Christ stands or falls the character of the wit¬
nesses.

The Apostle, in his down-right fashion, puts his
finger upon the real state of the case when he says,
“ This is the question : Are we, these eleven men
and I, John, Peter, and all the rest of us, are we
liars or are we not ? " He points out, too, the
palpable improbability, when he says that if so,
they are “ false witnesses of God " — men believing
themselves to be servants of Him who is the God
of truth and purity, and thinking to advance His

WHAT COMES OF A DEAD CHRIST. 14 1

Kingdom by telling a monstrous falsehood.
There have been priests, plenty, that have not
felt any inconsistency in such a position, and have
been orthodox liars for God. But it is impossible
to suppose that that was the character of these
Apostles. Enthusiasm never lives with falsehood,
nor does self-sacrifice. No conscious liar can
preach a lofty morality. These men were self-
sacrificing enthusiasts who had devoted their lives
to the promulgation of the loftiest morality. Is
it credible that flowers of that sort grow in the
rotten swamp of unveracity ? Do men gather
grapes of thorns or figs of thistles ? The
hypothesis that the early Christian witnesses to
the Resurrection were deliberate falsifiers of fact
will not hold water.

And by the acknowledgment of the disbelievers
of the Resurrection to-day it does not hold water,
for the vulgar old theory has been long abandoned,
and nobody now ventures to say that they were
false witnesses. Oh, no ! The men that least
accept their testimony are those who abound in
compliments to their moral elevation, to the purity
and beauty of their religious character, to the
“ genius ” of Paul, to the large wisdom that marks
many of his words. I can fancy how he would
have looked at some of these modern teachers,
who kiss first and then deny. He would have said
to them : “ I do not want your compliments-. I am
not here as a great religious thinker ; my business
is to tell a plain story. Do you believe me, or do
you not ? ”

And that really is the issue to which we have to

142

WHAT COMES OF A DEAD CHRIST.

come. For no attempt to save the character of the
first preachers, and to give up the historical fact,
has ever been able to stand its ground, or ever
will. They talk about illusions. Strange illusions
that sprung up in a soil that had nothing in it to
prepare for them ! There was no expectation
which might have become parent of the belief.
They tell us that the desire was father of the
thought. I wonder if people that try to explain
the Resurrection on the ground that longing to
see Him again made the Apostles fancy that they
had seen Him again, ever yearned

For the touch of a vanished hand,
Or the sound of a voice that is still.

I think if they had, they would have looked for
some other explanation. Illusions shared by 500
people at once ! They fancied they saw Him
amongst them ; they fancied they saw Him eat
and drink ; they fancied they heard Him speak ;
they fancied that they heard Him say, “ I go into
Galilee ” ; they fancied they met Him there ; they
fancied they saw Him go up into heaven ! Surely,
such an explanation, by the very desperation of
the shifts to which it is reduced, bears involuntary
witness that the Resurrection is an historical fact,
resting upon evidence with which it is vain to
struggle. We are shut up to the alternative —
either Jesus Christ is risen again from the dead,
or these noble lives of enthusiasm, faith, self-
sacrifice, and lofty morality, are the spawn of a
lie. “Yea! we are found false witnesses of

WHAT COMES OF A DEAD CHRIST.

143

III. — Again, with the Resurrection of Jesus
Christ stands or falls the faith of the Christian.

Twice in this context does the Apostle use the
expression, according to our Authorised Version,
“ Your faith is vain/' But the two words rendered
“ vain ” are not the same. The first of them is
that employed also in the previous clause, “ Then
is our preaching vain/’ and in both cases it means
“ empty.” The second, in the 17th verse, is a
different word, and means vain in the sense of
having no effect.

So notice, first, a dead Christ makes an empty
faith. There is nothing for faith to lay hold of.
It is like a drowning man grasping a rope’s end
swinging over the side of the ship, which is loose
at the other end and gives; or like some poor
creature falling down the face of a precipice, and
clutching at a tuft of grass, which comes away in
his hand. A dead Christ is no object for faith.
He may be for admiration or imitation ; but for
faith — No! You want a living Lord for that, “a
Christ that died, yea ! rather that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God.” Faith
is empty of contents unless it grasps the risen
Lord ; and if it lays hold of Him it is solid and
full.

Again, a dead Christ makes a powerless faith.
The Apostle proceeds to give one illustration of
its powerlessness. Unless we believe in a risen
Saviour we have no deliverance from our sin, either
as a ground of condemnation or as a power over our
lives. A religion which does not bring conscious
deliverance from sin, both as guilt and as tendency,

144

WHA T COMES OF A DEAD CHRIST.

is not worth calling a religion. If our faith has
not set us free from condemnation, and from the
love and service of evil, it is not worth calling
faith. How much vain faith, then, there must
be going up and down the world, if all faith which
leaves men “ in their sins ” is to be gibbeted as
“vain”! What about yours? Does it take you
clean out of the region of sin and death, and lift
you right into the region of righteousness and life ?
In Paul’s judgment no religion will deliver a
man from the condemnation and the power of
evil, except a religion which grasps the fact of the
risen Christ. That is so, because, as we have
seen, unless for the Resurrection, we have no
ground of belief in the expiation and sacrifice of
the Cross. And if we have not that, we have
nothing that assures to us the cleansing of our
sins.

And it is so for another reason — because, unless
we have a faith in a Christ that lives to help and
quicken and purify us, we shall never really be
delivered from the dominion of our sins, nor live
a life of purity and of righteousness. So, both
because the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the key
to the power of the death of Christ, and because it
is the beginning of the continuous life of Jesus
Christ with us, in us, and for us, our faith has no
operation in delivering us from the burden and
chain of evil, unless it grasps a Cross, an empty
sepulchre, and a filled Throne. “ If Christ be not
risen your faith is vain.”

IV. — And, lastly, with the Resurrection of Christ
stands or falls the Heaven of His servants.

WHAT COMES OF A DEAD CHRIST.

145

That is set before us in the context in two
forms : “ Then they also which are fallen asleep in
Christ are perished/’ A dead Christ means dead
Christians. All the saints that have gone, as they
thought, with “ singing and with everlasting joy
upon their heads/’ into the presence of the living
Lord, have gone out of life with a lie in their right
hand, and have lain down in the dust, there to
remain for evermore. The dark curtain falls.
There is one thing that makes immortality certain
— the fact of Christ’s Resurrection. There is but
one thing that makes the believer’s eternal life
sure — the eternal life of his Lord. A living Head
means living members ; a dead Head means
members dead and corrupt. So, for ourselves, for
all our dear ones, for all the generations that have
trod the common road into the great darkness,
there is the one hope — a risen Christ. “ I am the
Resurrection and the Life.” “ Because I live, ye
shall live also.”

And, again, another form of this thought is, a
dead Christ makes deluded Christians, “ for if in
this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all
men most miserable.” Now, that “ only does
not merely apply to the words that precede it in
our translation, but to the whole clause : “ If in
this life we have hope in Christ, and if that is all,
we are of all men the most to be pitied.” So says
Paul, and then people say, “ What a low notion
that is ! Would it not be better to be a Christian
than not, if there were no future life ? Did not the
Stoic philosophers, who said, ‘Virtue is its own
reward,’ reach a higher elevation than this Apostle

146

WHAT COMES OF A DEAD CHRIST.

who said, If there is no future life for Christians,
then they are most to be pitied of all men ?” I do
not think so. Notice, he does not say they are
most to be pitied, because of any sorrows or
trouble that they have had here, although that is
the ordinary explanation of the words. They are
the most to be pitied because the nobler the hope,
the more tragic its disappointment. And of all
the tragedies of life there would be none so great
as this, that Christian men cherishing such
aspirations, with such high, buoyant, jubilant
confidence in a great eternity, should all the while
have been clutching a phantom, grasping mists,
44 filling their belly with the east wind/’ as the Old
Testament says. If we, journeying across the
desert, are only cheated by mirage> when we think
we see the shining battlements of the Eternal
City, which are nothing but hot air dancing in
empty space, surely none are more to be pitied
than we. On the other hand, a living Christ turns
these hopes into certainties, and makes us, not the
most pitiable, but the most blessed and felicitous
of the sons of men ; for they are happy, whatever
their outward fate, who live, entertaining a pure
hope, and who die into its fulfilment. And this is
the lot of the Christian man.

So, brethren, this Gospel, that Christ died for
our sins, and was raised again the third day, is
the Gospel that is worth preaching. That is the
Gospel that makes our faith solid. That is the
Gospel that gives us deliverance from our sins.
That is the Gospel that makes it possible for us to
think thankfully, peacefully, sometimes even joy-

WHAT COMES OF A DEAD CHRIST.

147

fully of those that sleep in Jesus. That is the
Gospel which will make us, whilst we live, blessed
in hope, and when we die thrice blessed in fruition.
Do you see to it that it is the Gospel which you
believe, by which also you stand. And take for
your own that great shout of triumph with which
our Apostle turns away from the ghastly picture
of what would come of a dead Christ. “ Now is
Christ risen from the dead, and become the first
fruits of them that sleep.”

XIV.

fences an£> Serpents.

“ Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.” — Eccles. x. 8.

HAT is meant here is, probably, not
such a hedge as we are accustomed to
see, but a dry stone wall, or, perhaps,
an earthen embankment, in the
crevices of which might lurk a snake,
to sting the careless hand. The connection and
purpose of the text are somewhat obscure. It is
one of a string of proverb-like sayings which all
seem to be illustrations of the one thought that
every kind of work has its own appropriate and
peculiar peril. So, says the preacher, if a man is
digging a pit, the sides of it may cave in and he
may go down. If he is pulling down a wall he
may get stung. If he is working in a quarry there
may be a fall of rock. If he is a woodman the
tree he is felling may crush him. What then ? Is
the inference to be, sit still and do nothing,
because you may get hurt whatever you do ? By
no means. The writer of this book hates idleness
very nearly as much as he does what he calls
“ folly,” and his inference is stated in the next
verse — “ Wisdom is profitable to direct/’ That is

FENCES AND SERPENTS,

149

to say, since all work has its own dangers, work
warily, and with your brains as well as your
muscles, and do not put your hand into the hollow
in the wall, until you have looked to see whether
there are any snakes in it. Is that very whole¬
some maxim of prudence all that is meant to be
learnt ? I think not. The previous clause, at all
events, embodies a well-known metaphor of the
Old Testament. “ He that diggeth a pit shall fall
into it” often occurs as expressing the retribution
in kind that comes down on the cunning plotter
against other men’s prosperity, and the conclusion
that wisdom suggests in that application of the
sentence i s,not “ Dig judiciously, but u Do not dig
at all.” And so in my text the “ wall ” may stand
for the limitations and boundary lines of our lives,
and the inference that wisdom suggests in that
application of the saying is not “ Pull down
judiciously,” but “ Keep the fence up, and be sure
you keep on the right side of it.” For any attempt
to pull it down — which, being interpreted, is to
transgress the laws of life which God has enjoined —
is sure to bring out the hissing snake with its
poison.

Now it is in that respect that I want to look at
the words before us.

I.— First of all, let us take that thought which
underlies my text— that all life is given us, rigidly
walled up.

The first thing that the child learns is, that it
must not do what it likes. The last lesson that
the old man has to learn is, You must do what you
ought. And between these two extremes of life

FENCES AND SEE FEASTS.

1 5 0

we are always making attempts to treat the world
as an open common, on which we may wander at
our will. And before we have gone many steps,
some sort of keeper or other meets us and says to
us, “ Trespassers ! back again to the road ! ” Life
is rigidly hedged in and limited. To live as you
like is the prerogative of a brute. To live as you
ought, and to recognise and command by obeying
the laws and limitations stamped upon our very -
nature and enjoined by our circumstances, is the
freedom and the glory of a man. There are
limitations, I say, fences on all sides. Men put up
their fences ; and they are often like the wretched
wooden hoardings that you sometimes see limiting
the breadth of a road. But in regard to these con¬
ventional limitations and regulations, which own
no higher authority or lawgiver than society and
custom, you must make up your mind even more
certainly than in regard of loftier laws, that if you
meddle with them, there will be plenty of serpents
coming out to hiss and bite. No man that defies
the narrow maxims and petty restrictions of con¬
ventional ways, and sets at nought the opinions of
the people round about him, but must make up his
mind for backbiting and slander and opposition of
all sorts. It is the price that we pay for obeying
at first hand the laws of God and caring nothing
for the conventionalities of man.

But apart from that altogether, let me just
remind you, in half-a-dozen sentences, of the
various limitations or fences which hedge up our
lives on every side. There are the obligations
which we owe, and the relations in which we

FENCES AND SERPENTS.

151

stand, to the outer world, the laws of physical life,
and all that touches the external and the material.
There are the relations in which we stand, and the
obligations which we owe to ourselves. And God
has so made us as that obviously large tracks of
every mans nature are given to him on purpose
to be restrained, curbed, coerced, and sometimes
utterly crushed and extirpated. God gives us our
impulses under lock and key. All our animal
desires, all our natural tendencies, are held on
condition that we exercise control over them, and
keep them well within the rigidly marked limits
which He has laid down, and which we can easily
find out. There are, further, the relations in which
we stand, and the obligations and limitations,
therefore, under which we come, to the people
round about us. High above them all,, and in
some sense including them all, but loftier than
these, there is the all-comprehending relation in
which we stand to God, who is the fountain of
all obligations, the source and aim of all duty, who
encompasses us on every side, and whose Will
makes the boundary walls within which alone it is

safe for a man to live.

We sometimes foolishly feel that a life thus
hedged up, limited by these high boundaries on
either side, must be uninteresting, monotonous, or
unfree. It is not so. The walls are blessings, like
the parapet on a mountain road, that keeps the
travellers from toppling over the face of the cliff.
They are training-walls, as our hydrographical
engineers talk about, which, built in the bed of a
river, wholesomely confine its waters and make a

*52

FENCES AND SERPENTS.

good scour which gives life, instead of letting
them vaguely wander and stagnate across great
fields of mud. Freedom consists in keeping
willingly within the limits which God has traced,
and anything else is not freedom but licence and
rebellion, and at bottom servitude of the most
abject type.

II. — So, secondly, note that every attempt to
break down the limitations brings poison into the
life.

We live in a great automatic system which, by
its own operation, largely avenges every breach of
law. I need not remind you, except in a word, of
the way in which the transgression of the plain
physical laws stamped upon our constitutions
avenges itself ; but the certainty with which disease
dogs all breaches of the laws of health is but a
type in the lower and material universe of the far
higher and more solemn certainty with which “ the
soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Wherever a man
sets himself against- any of the laws of this
material universe, they make short work of him.
We command them, as I said, by obeying them ;
and the difference between the obedience and the
breach of them is the difference between the
engineer standing on his engine and the wretch
that is caught by it as it rushes over the rails. But
that is but a parable of the higher thing which I
want to speak to you about.

The grosser forms of transgression of the plain
laws of temperance, abstinence, purity, bring with
them, in like manner, a visible and palpable punish¬
ment in the majority of cases. Whoso pulls down

FENCES AND SERPENTS

the wall of temperance, a serpent will bite him.
Trembling hands, broken constitutions, ruined
reputations, vanished ambitions, wasted lives,
poverty, shame, and enfeebled will, death-these
are the serpents that bite, in many cases, t e
transgressor. I have a man in my eye at this
moment that used to sit in one of these pews, who
came into Manchester a promising young man, a
child of many prayers, with the ball at his feet m
one of vour great warehouses, the only hope o
his house, professedly a Christian. He began to
tamper with the wall. First, a tiny little bit of
stone taken out that did not show the daylight
through; then a little bigger and a bigger. An
the serpent struck its fangs into him, and, 1 you
saw him now, he is a shambling wreck, outside of
society, and, as we sometimes tremblingly thi ,
beyond hope. Young men ! “ Whoso breaketh a

hedge, a serpent shall bite him.

In like manner there are other forms of ‘ sms o
the flesh” avenged in kind, which I dare not speak
about more plainly here. I see many young men
in my congregation, many strangers in this great
city, living, I suppose, in lodgings, and there ore
whhout ™ny restraints. If you were to take a
pair of compasses and place one leg of them dow
at the Free Trade Hall, and take a circle of hall-a-
mile round there, you would get a cavern o
rattlesnakes. You know what I mean. o.v
theatres, low music-halls, casinos, haunts o y
viler sorts— there the snakes are, hissing and
wreathing and ready to bite. Do not “ put your
hand on the hole of the asp.” fake care of

1 54

FENCES AND SERPENTS.

books, pictures, songs, companions that would
lead you astray. Oh ! for a voice to stand at some
doors that I know in Manchester, and peal this
text into the ears of the fools, men and women,
that go in there !

I heard only this week of one once in a good
position in this city, and in early days, I believe,
a member of my own congregation, begging in
rags from door to door. And the reason was,
simply, the wall had been pulled down and
the serpent had struck. It always does ; not
with such fatal external effects always, but be
ye sure of this : “ God is not mocked ; 4 what¬

soever a man/ or a woman either, ‘ soweth,
that shall he also reap/ ” For remember that
there are other ways of pulling down walls
than these gross and palpable transgressions
with the body ; and there are other sorts of
retributions which come with unerring certainty
besides those that can be taken notice of by
others. I do not want to dwell upon these at any
length, but let me just remind you of one or two
of them.

Some serpents’ bites inflame, some paralyse ;
and one or other of these two things — either an
inflamed conscience or a palsied conscience — is the
result of all wrong-doing. I do not know which is
the worst. There are men and women now in
this chapel, sitting listening to me, perhaps half
interested, without the smallest suspicion that I
am talking about them. The serpent’s bite has
led to the torpor of their consciences. Which is
the worse — to loathe my sin and yet to find its

FENCES AND SERPENTS.

155

slimy coils round about me, so that I cannot break
it, or to have got to like it and to be perfectly
comfortable in it, and to have no remonstrance
within when I do it ? Be sure of this, that every
transgression and disobedience acts immediately
upon the conscience of the doer, sometimes to stir
that conscience into agonies of gnawing remorse,
more often to lull it into a fatal slumber.

I do not speak of the retributions which we heap
upon ourselves in loading our memories with
errors and faults, in polluting them often with vile
imaginations, or in laying up there a life-long
series of actions, none of which have ever had
a trace of reference to God in them. I do not
speak, except in a sentence, of the retribution
which comes from the habit of evil which
weights upon men, and makes it all but impossible
for them ever to shake off their sin. I do not
speak, except in a sentence, of the perverted
relations to God, the incapacity of knowing Him,
the disregard and even sometimes the dislike ol
the thought of Him which steal across the heart
of the man that lives in evil and sin ; but I put all
into two words — every sin that I do tells upon
myself, inasmuch as its virus passes into my blood
as guilt and as habit. And then I remind you of
what you say you believe, that beyond this world
there lies the solemn judgment-seat of God, where
you and I have to give account of our deeds. Oh !
brother, be sure of this, “ whoso breaketh a
hedge ” — here and now, and yonder also, “ a
serpent shall bite him.”

That is as far as my text carries me. It has

FENCES AND SERPENTS,

156

nothing more to say. Am I to shut the Book and
have done r There is only one system that has
anything more to say, and that is the Gospel of
Jesus Christ.

III. — And so, passing from my text, I have to
say, lastly, All the poison may be got out of your
veins if you like.

Our Lord used this very same metaphor under
a different aspect, and with a different historical
application, when He said, “ As Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of
Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have eternal life/’

There is Christ’s idea of the condition of this
world of ours — a camp of men lying bitten by
serpents and drawing near to death. What I
have been speaking about, in perhaps too abstract
terms, is the condition of each one of us. It is
hard to get people,' when they are gathered by the
hundred to listen to a sermon flung out in
generalities, to realise it. If I could get you one
by one, and “buttonhole” you; and instead of the
plural “ you ” use the singular “ thou ” perhaps 1
could reach you. But let me ask you to try and
realise each for yourselves that this serpent bite,
as the issue of pulling down the wall, is true about
each soul in this place to-night, and that Christ
endorsed the representation. How are we to get
this poison out of the blood ? Reform your ways r
Yes ! I say that too ; but reforming the life will
deliver from the poison in the character, when you
cure hydrophobia by washing the patient’s skin,
and not till then. It is all very well to repaper

FENCES AND SERPENTS .

157

your dining rooms, but it is very little good doing
that if the drainage is wrong. It is the drainage
that is wrong with us all. A man cannot reform
himself down to the bottom of his sinful being. If
he could, it does not touch the past. That remains
the same. If he could, it does not affect his
relation to God. Repentance — if it were possible
apart from the softening influence of faith in Jesus
Christ — repentance alone would not solve the
problem. So far as men can see, and so far as all
human systems have declared, “ What I have
written I have written.” There is no erasing it.
The irrevocable past stands stereotyped for ever.
Then comes in this message of forgiveness and
cleansing, which is the very heart of all that we
preachers have to say, and has been spoken to
most of you so often that it is almost impossible
to invest it with any kind of freshness or power.
But once more I have to preach to you that Christ
has received into His own inmost life and self the
whole gathered consequences of a world's sin ; and
by the mystery of His sympathy, and the reality of
His mysterious union with us men, He, the sinless
Son of God, has been made sin for us, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
The brazen serpent lifted on the pole was in the
likeness of the serpent whose poison slew, but
there was no poison in it. Christ has come, the
sinless Son of God, for you and me. He has died
on the Cross, the sacrifice for every man’s sin, that
every man’s wound might be healed, and the
poison cast out of his veins. He has bruised the
malignant, black head of the snake, with His

FENCES AND SERPENTS.

158

wounded heel ; and because He has been wounded,
we are healed of our wounds. For sin and death
launched their last dart at Him, and, like some
venomous insect that can sting once and then
must die, they left their sting in His wounded
heart, and have none for them that put their trust
in Him.

So, dear brother, here is the simple condition —
namely, Faith. One look of the languid eye of the
poisoned man, howsoever bloodshot and dim it
might be, and howsoever nearly veiled with the
film of death, was enough to make him whole.
The look of our consciously sinful souls to that
dear Christ that has died for us will take away the
guilt, the power, the habit, the love of evil ; and,
instead of blood saturated with the venom of sin,
there will be in our veins the spirit of life in Christ,
which will make us free from the law of sin and
death. “ Look unto Him and be ye saved, all the
ends of the earth/'

XV.

Strength in Meanness.

“For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from
me. And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee : for
My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore,
will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me.” — 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9.

HIS very remarkable page in the
autobiography of the Apostle shows
us that he, too, belonged to the
great army of martyrs who, with
hearts bleeding and pierced through
and through with a dart, yet did their work for
God. It is of little consequence what his thorn in
the flesh may have been. The original word
suggests very much heavier sorrow than the
metaphor of “ a thorn ” might imply. It really
seems to mean, not a tiny bit of thorn that might
lie half concealed in the finger tip, but one of those
hideous stakes on which the cruel punishment of
impalement used to be inflicted. And Paul’s
thought is, not that he has a little, trivial trouble

i6o STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS.

to bear, but that he is, as it were, forced quivering
upon that tremendous torture.

Unquestionably, what he means is some bodily
ailment or other. The hypothesis that the “ thorn
in the flesh ” was the sting of the animal nature
inciting him to evil is altogether untenable, be¬
cause such a thorn could never have been left
when the prayer for its removal was earnestly
presented ; nor could it ever have been, when
left, an occasion for glorying. Manifestly it was
no weakness removable by his own effort, no
incapacity for service which in any manner
approximated to being a fault, but purely and
simply some infliction from God’s hand (though
likewise capable of being regarded as a “ messen¬
ger of Satan ”), which hindered him in his work,
and took down any proud flesh and danger of
spiritual exaltation in consequence of the largeness
of his religious privileges.

Our text sets before us three most instructive
windings, as it were, of the stream of thoughts that
passed through the Apostle’s mind, in reference to
this burden that he had to carry, and may afford
wholesome contemplation for us to-day. There is,
first, the instinctive shrinking which took refuge in
prayer. Then there is the insight won by prayer
into the sustaining strength for, and the purposes
of, the thorn that was not to be plucked out. And
then, finally, there is the peace of acquiescence, and
a will that accepts — not the inevitable, but the loving.

I. — First of all we get the instinctive shrinking
from that which tortured the flesh, which takes
refuge in prayer.

STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS.

161

There is a wonderful, a beautiful, and, I suppose,
an intentional parallel between the prayers of the
servant and of the Master. Paul's petitions are the
echo of Gethsemane. There, under the quivering-
olives, in the broken light of the Paschal moon,
Jesus “ thrice " prayed that the cup might pass
from Him. And here the servant, emboldened and
instructed by the example of the Master, “ thrice "
reiterates his human and natural desire for the
removal of the pain, whatever it was, which
seemed to him so to hinder the efficiency and
the fulness, as it certainly did the joy, of his
service.

But he that prayed in Gethsemane was He to
whom Paul addressed his prayer. For, as is almost
always the case in the New Testament, “ the Lord "
here evidently means Christ, as is obvious from the
connection of the answer to the petition with the
Apostle’s final confidence and acquiescence. For
the answer was : “ My strength is made perfect in
weakness"; and the Apostle’s conclusion is: “Most
gladly will I glorify in infirmity, that the" strength
or “power of Christ may rest upon me." Therefore
the prayer with which we have to deal here is a
prayer offered to Jesus, who prayed in Gethsemane,
and to whom we can bring our petitions and our
desires.

Notice how this thought of prayer directed to
the Master Himself helps to lead us deep into
the sacredest and most blessed characteristics of
prayer. It is only telling Christ what is in
our hearts. Oh, if we lived in the true under¬
standing of what prayer really is — the emptying

162

STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS.

out of our inmost desire and thoughts before our
Brother, who is likewise our Lord — questions as
to what it was permissible to pray for, and what
it was not permissible to pray for, would be
irrelevant, and drop away of themselves. If we
had a less formal notion of prayer, and realised
more thoroughly what it was — the speech of a
confiding heart to a sympathising Lord — then
everything that fills our hearts would be seen to be
a fitting object of prayer. If anything is large
enough to interest me, it is not too small to be
spoken about to Him.

So the question, which is often settled upon very
abstract and deep grounds that have little to do
with the matter — the question as to whether
prayer for outward blessings is permissible — falls
away of itself. If I am to talk to Jesus Christ
about everything that concerns me, am I to keep
my thumb upon all that great department and be
silent about it ? One reason why our prayers are
often so unreal is, because they do not fit our real
wants, nor correspond to the thoughts that are busy
in our minds at the moment of praying. Our hearts
are full of some small matter of daily interest,
and when we kneel down not a word about it
comes to our lips. Can that be right ?

The difference between the different objects of
prayer is not to *be found in the rejection of all
temporal and external, but in remembering that
there are two sets of things to be prayed about,
and over one set must ever be written, “ If it be
Thy will,” and over the other it need not be written,
because we are sure that the granting of our wishes,

STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS. 163

is His will. We know about the one that “ if we
ask anything according to His will, He heareth us.”
That may seem to be a very poor and shrunken
kind of hope to give a man, that if his prayer is
in conformity with the previous determination of
the Divine will, it will be answered. But it
availed for the joyful confidence of that Apostle
who saw deepest into the conditions and the
blessedness of the harmony of the will of God
and of man. But about the other heap we can
only say, “ Not my will, but Thine be done.’’
With that sentence, not as a formula upon our
lips but deep in our hearts, let us take every¬
thing into His presence, thorns and stakes, pin¬
pricks and wounds out of which the life-blood is
ebbing ; let us take them all to Him, and be sure
that we shall take none of them in vain.

So then we have the Person to whom the prayer
is addressed, the subjects with which it is occu¬
pied, and the purpose to which it is directed.
“ Take away the burden” was the Apostle's petition ;
but it was a mistaken petition, and, therefore,
unanswered.

II. — That brings me to the second of the
windings, as I have ventured to call them, of this
stream — viz., the insight into the source of strength
for, and the purpose of, the thorn that could not be
taken away. The Lord said unto me, “Myfgrace
is sufficient for thee. For My strength” (where
the word u My ” is a supplement, but a necessary
one) “ is made perfect in weakness.”

The answer is, in form and in substance, a gentle
refusal of the form of the petition, but it is more

164

STRENGTH IN WEARNESS.

than a granting of its essence. For the best
answer to such a prayer, and the answer which a
true man means when he says, “ Take away the
burden,” need not be the external removal of the
pressure of the sorrow, but the infusing of power
to sustain it. There are two ways of lightening a
burden, one is diminishing its actual weight, the
other is increasing the strength of the shoulder
that bears it. And the latter is God's way, is
Christ’s way, of dealing with us.

Now mark that the answer which this faithful
prayer receives is no communication of anything
fresh, but it is the opening of the man’s eyes to see
that already he has all that he needs. The reply is
not, “ I will give thee grace sufficient.” but “ My
grace ” (which thou hast now) “ is sufficient for
thee ” That grace is given and possessed by the
sorrowing heart at the moment when it prays.
Open your eyes to see what you have, and you will
not ask for the load to be taken away. Is not that
always true ? Many a heart is carrying some
heavy weight ; perhaps some have an incurable
sorrow, some are stricken by disease that they
know can never be healed, some are aware
that the shipwreck has been total, and that
the sorrow that they carry to-day will lie down
with them in the dust. Be it so ! “ My grace (not

shall be, but) is sufficient for thee.” And what thou
hast already in thy possession is enough for all that
comes storming against thee of disease, disappoint¬
ment, loss and misery. Set on the one side all
possible as well as all actual weaknesses, burdens,
pains, and set on the other these two words — “ My

STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS.

165

grace/’ and all these dwindle into nothingness and
disappear. If troubled Christian men would learn
what they have, and would use what they
already possess, they would less often beseech Him
with vain petitions to take away their blessings
which are in the thorns in the flesh. “ My grace
is sufficient.”

How modestly the Master speaks about what
He gives ! “ Sufficient ? ” Is not there a margin ?

Is there not more than is wanted r The overplus
is “ exceeding abundant,” not only “above what
we ask or think,” but far more than our need.
“ Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient
that every one may take a little,” says Sense.
Omnipotence says, “Bring the few small loaves
and fishes unto Me ” ; and Faith dispensed them
amongst the crowd; and Experience “gathered
up of the fragments that remained,” more than
there had been when the multiplication began.
So the grace utilised increases ; the gift grows
as it is employed. “ Unto him that hath shall
be given.” And the “sufficiency” is not a
bare adequacy, just covering the extent of the
need, with no overlapping margin, but is large
beyond expectation, desire, or necessity, so lead¬
ing onwards to high hopes and a wider opening
of the open mouths of our need that the blessing
may pour in.

The other part of this great answer, that the
Christ from Heaven spoke in or to the praying
spirit of this not disappointed, though refused,
Apostle, unveiled the purpose of the sorrow, even
as the former part had disclosed the strength to

STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS.

1 66

bear it. For, says He, laying down therein the
great law of His kingdom in all departments and
in all ways, “ My strength is made perfect ” — that
is, of course, perfect in its manifestation or
operations, for it is perfect in itself already. “ My
strength is made perfect in weakness.” It works
in and through man’s weakness.

God works with broken reeds. If a man conceits
himself to be an iron pillar, God can do nothing
with or by him. All the self-conceit and confi¬
dence have to be taken out of him first. He
has to be brought low before the Father can
use him for His purposes. The lowlands hold the
water, and, if only the sluice is open, the gravita¬
tion of His grace does all the rest and carries the
flood into the depths of the lowly heart.

His strength loves to work in weakness, only the
weakness must be conscious, and the conscious
weakness must have passed into conscious depend¬
ence. There, then, you get the law for the Church,
for the works of Christianity on the widest scale
and in individual lives. Strength that conceits
itself to be such is weakness ; weakness that knows
itself to be such is strength. The only true source
of Power, both for Christian work and in all other
respects, is God Himself ; and our strength is but
ours by derivation from Him. And the only way
to secure that derivation is through humble depend¬
ence, which we call faith in Jesus Christ. And the
only way by which that faith in Jesus Christ can
ever be kindled in a man’s soul is through the
sense of his need and emptiness. So when we
know ourselves weak, we have taken the first step

STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS.

167

to strength ; just as, when we know ourselves sin¬
ners, we have taken the first step to righteousness ;
just as in all regions the recognition of the doleful
fact of our human necessity is the beginning of the
joyful confidence in the glad, triumphant fact of
the Divine fulness. All our hollownesses, if I
may so say, are met with His fulness that fits
into them. It only needs that a man be aware
of that which he is, and then turn himself to
Him who is all that he is not, and then into
his empty being will flow rejoicing the whole
fulness of God. “ My strength is made perfect in
weakness.”

III. — Lastly, mark the calm final acquiescence
in the loving necessity of continued sorrow. “Most
gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmity
that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” The
will is entirely harmonised with Christ’s. The
Apostle begins with instinctive shrinking, he passes
onwards to a perception of the purpose of his trial
and of the sustaining grace ; and he comes now
to acquiescence which is not passivity, but glad
triumph. He is more than submissive, he gladly
glories in his infirmity in order that the power of
Christ may “spread a tabernacle over” him. “ It
is good for me that I have been afflicted,” said the
old prophet. Paul says, in a yet higher note of
concord with God’s will, “I am glad that I sorrow.
I rejoice in weakness, because it makes it easier
for me to cling, and, clinging, I am strong, and
conquer evil.” Far better is it that the sting of our
sorrow should be taken away, by our having learned
what it is for, and having bowed to it, than that it

i68

STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS.

should be taken away by the external removal
which we sometimes long for. A grief, a trial, an
incapacity, a limitation, a weakness, which we use
as a means of deepening our sense of dependence
upon Him, is a blessing, and not a sorrow. And
if we would only go out into the world trying to
interpret its events in the spirit of this great text,
we should less frequently wonder and weep over
what sometimes seem to us the insoluble mysteries
of the sorrows of ourselves and of other men. They
are all intended to make it more easy for us to
realise our utter hanging upon Him, and so to
open our hearts to receive more fully the quicken¬
ing influences of His omnipotent and all-sufficing
grace.

Here, then, is a lesson for those who have to
carry some cross and know they must carry it
throughout life. It will be wreathed with flowers
if you accept it. Here is a lesson for all
Christian workers. Ministers of the Gospel espe¬
cially should banish all thoughts of their own
cleverness, intellectual ability, culture, sufficiency
for their work, and learn that only when they are
emptied can they be filled, and only when they
know themselves to be nothing are they ready for
God to work through them. And here is a lesson
for all who stand apart from the grace and power
of Jesus Christ in fancied superiority to the need.
Whether you know it or not, you are a broken
reed ; and the only hope of your ever being bound
up and made strong is that you shall recognise
your sinfulness, your necessity, your abject poverty,
your utter emptiness, and come to Him Who is

STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS.

169

righteousness, riches, fulness, and say, “ Because
I am weak, be Thou my Strength/' The secret of
all noble, heroic, useful, happy life lies in that
paradox, “ When I am weak, then am I strong,”
and the secret of all failures, miseries, hopeless
losses, lies in its converse, “When I am strong,
then am I weak.”

XVI.

Ibow to keep (it the “Hove of (Bob.

“ But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith,
praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God,
looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life.” — Jude 20, 21.

HE main subject of this singular little
letter is the warning against certain
teachers whose errors of belief and
vices of conduct seem to have been
equally great. After the vehement
denunciation of these, which coincides in many
particulars with the similar language of the second
epistle ascribed to Peter, the writer turns, as with
a sudden movement of revulsion, from the false
teachers to exhort his readers to conduct contrary
to theirs, and sets forth in these words the true
way by which individuals and churches can guard
themselves against abounding errors.

In the verses which I have taken for my text
there is one great central injunction, round which
are grouped subsidiary clauses, containing, in
regard to those which precede it, the means of
obeying the commandment ; and in reference to
that which follows it, an attendant expectation.

HOW TO KEEP IN THE LOVE OF GOD. 17 1

I. — We consider that central injunction — the
very keystone of the arch of a devout Christian
life — “ Keep yourselves in the love of God.”

Now “ the love of God ” here obviously means,
not ours to Him, but His to us, and the command¬
ment is parallel to, and may be a reminiscence of,
our Lord’s great word : u As the Father hath loved
Me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in My
love.” God’s love to us is regarded as a kind of
sphere or region in which the Christian soul lives
and moves and has its being. It is the sweet
home of our hearts, and a fortress “whereunto
we may continually resort,” and our wisdom and
security is to keep at home within the strong walls
that defend us, compassed by the warmth and
protection of the love which God has towards us.

Then my text implies that Christian men may
get outside of the love of God. No doubt “ His
tender mercies are over all His works.” No doubt
His love holds in a grasp which never can be
loosened every creature that He hath made. But
our earnestness in declaring the universality of the
love of God ought never to lead us to speak of it
so as to suggest that He is indifferent to moral
distinctions, or that He so finds the reason for His
love, in Himself, and not in us, as that it is all the
same to its flow whether we be good or bad. There
are gifts of the Divine love which, like the sun¬
shine in the heaven, come equally on the unfaith¬
ful and on the good. But all the best and noblest
manifestations of that love, and the sweetest,
selectest aspects of that love itself, cannot come
to men irrespective of their moral character and

IJ2

HOW TO KEEP IN THE LOVE OF GOD .

their relation to Him. God loves all as well as
they will let Him, but it is possible for men not
only to modify the possibilities of the Divine
love in its bestowment upon them, but to make
it needful that that very love, when it finds its
way to them, should come like the sun through
the mist, shorn of its beauty and turned into a hot
ball of lurid fire. And it is possible for Christians
to be so unfaithful to their position and their
calling as that they may get out of the warmth
into the cold dank mists. The sun pours down,
but you can cross the street from the sunn}r to the
shady side and walk in the shadow. It is possible
for Christian people to lose the consciousness of
being surrounded and kept within that warm and
sunny circle where God’s love falls. And this
exhortation puts, as the very centre of the devout
life, considered in regard to the man himself and
his relations to God, this : Keep yourselves in the
charmed circle, and be sure that you walk in the
light of His face and in the felt love of His heart.

Then another question is suggested by my text.
I asked, Can a man get out of the love of God r
And I have to ask now, Can a man, then, keep
always in it ? The ideal set forth here is that of
unbroken continuity in the flow of that Divine
love which falls in its gentlest and mightiest beams
only upon the heart that aspires towards Him,
and also a continual consciousness on my part
that I am within the reach of its rays, and that
it is well with me because I am. We need not
discuss, for the guidance of our own lives and
efforts, whether the entire realisation of the ideal

HOW TO KEEP IN THE LOVE OF GOD .

173

is possible for us here. Enough for us to know
that we may all come indefinitely near to it, if not
absolutely up to it. Enough for us to know that it
is possible for Christian people to make their lives
one long abiding in the love of God, both in regard
of the actual reception of it and of the conscious¬
ness of that reception.

Alas ! alas ! what an awful contrast to the
realities of the Christian life, as we see them
around us and as we feel them within us, such an
exhortation as this is ! Instead of one unbroken
line of light, what' do we find ? A dot of light
and then a stretch of blackness; and then another
little sparkle, scarcely visible, and short lived,
followed by another dreary tract of murky mid¬
night. So, alas! most of us have but gleams
of sunshine, watery, weak, cloudy, brief, and then
the doleful veil is drawn again over the blue, and
we walk in the valley of the shadow. You who
have felt the assurance that you dwell in the light
of God’s face, and that His love falls on you, do
you see to it that the highest aim of your lives is
to unite the severed points, and to turn them into
a continuous and unbroken line. 4< Keep your¬
selves in the love of God.”

Is it not strange that we should need the exhor¬
tation ? Is it not tragic that we should neglect it ?
The foolish creatures that stray away from the
warm security of the mother-bird’s breast are
snapped up by the hawks; and they who have
been within the enclosure of that love that
specially surrounds those who know it and respond
to it, and have wandered out, like worse prodigals,

174

HOW TO KEEP IN THE LOVE OF GOD.

into a further darkness, can hope for nothing,
except they go back again with contrition, but
famine and fever and rags and wretchedness.

The secret of all blessedness is to live in the
love of God. Our sorrows and difficulties and
trials will change their aspect, if we walk in the
peaceful enjoyment and conscious possession of
His Divine heart. That is the true anaesthetic.
No pain is intolerable when we are sure that God’s
loving hand is round about us. There in that
fortress we can be quiet. However the storms
may be raging without, it is possible for us all to
have a secret place into which we may retire,
where we hear not the loud winds when they
call. We may dwell at rest like the inhabi¬
tants of some deep, sunken dell, which is all
still, without a breath to move the thick blos¬
soms on the loaded trees, even whilst winds
are raving and waves thundering on the iron-
bound coast. “ Keep yourselves in the love of

God.”

XI. _ Further, notice the subsidiary exhortations

which point out the means of obeying this central
command.

The two clauses in my text which precede that
main precept are more minute and particular
directions as to the way in which it is to be
observed. We might almost read, “ By building
yourselves on your most holy faith, and by praying
in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of

God.”

The first means of securing our continual
abiding in the conscious enjoyment of God’s love

HOW TO KEEP IN THE LOVE OF GOD .

r75

to us is our continual effort at building up a noble
character on the foundation of faith. I need not
enter upon the question as to whether here the
“ faith/' which is the foundation, has its ordinary
meaning in Scripture, of the act by which we trust
or believe, or whether it has the later ecclesiastical
and theological meaning of that on which our
trust and belief are fixed. The two interpretations
are either of them possible ; both of them come
substantially to the same thing. For the worth of
my faith as the foundation of my life depends
wholly on the firmness and steadfastness of that
which my faith grasps. The foundation of all
that is good and noble in a character is the
going out of self to trust in God manifest in
Jesus Christ. That is the real basis of everything
that is great and lofty ; that is the footing on
which alone a man may work with certainty of
success at the great task of self-culture and
development. But the faith which is thus the
foundation of all excellence is only the foundation.
A great many of you think that it is the house,
but it is only the basis on which the house
may be built. The notion which is very common
amongst Evangelical people is that faith is
mainly of use as a means whereby we escape
from the consequences of our sins, or whereby
we are carried into some future haven of rest
and blessedness. But the true conception of
Christian faith is that it is the root from which
may come, and ought to come, all nobility and
excellence of character, “whatsoever things are
pure, and lovely, and of good report." But it

176

HOW TO KEEP IN THE LOVE OF GOD.

is only the foundation ; it is the “ potentiality
of wealth/’ but it is not the wealth. It is the
possible root of all goodness, but it is not that
goodness. “All things are possible to him that
believeth,” but they will be actually his in the
measure of diligence which he “ adds to his faith,
virtue,” and all the other beads of the Rosary of
Christian graces. So do not make the mistake
which such multitudes of stagnant, professing
Christians do, of fancying that the foundation is
the house. What would you say of a man who
had dug his foundations, and got in the first
courses, and then left the bricks lying on the
ground, and did no more ? And that is what
many people that call themselves Christians do :
they use their faith only as a shield against con¬
demnation, and forget that, if it is anything at all,
it works, and works by love.

Then remember, too, that this building of a
noble and godlike and God-pleasing character can
be erected on the foundation of faith only by
constant effort. Growth is not the whole ex¬
planation of the process by which a man becomes
what God would have him to be. Struggle has to
be included as well as growth, and neither growth
nor struggle exhaust the New Testament meta¬
phors for progress. This other one of my text is
of constant recurrence. It takes the metaphor of a
building, to suggest the slow, continuous, bit-by-
bit effort. You do not rear the fabric of a noble
character all at a moment. No man reaches the
extremity, either of goodness or baseness, per
saltum , by a leap ; you must be content with bit-

HO W TO KEEP IN THE LOVE OF GOD.

177

by-bit work. The Christian character is like a
mosaic formed of tiny squares in all but infinite
numbers, each one of them separately set and
bedded in its place. You have to build by a plan ;
you have to see to it that each day has its task,
each day its growth. You have to be content
with one brick at a time. It is a life-long task,
till the whole be finished. And not until we-
pass from earth to heaven does our building
work cease. Continuous effort is the condition of
progress.

How many of us have dropped the idea of pro¬
gress out of our Christian practice altogether !
What an enormous percentage of stagnant
Christians there are amongst us, people that are
no better to-day than they were ten years ago,
because they have never grasped the conception of
the Christian duty of endless toil at self-culture !
My brother ! unless you and 1 are daily finding
more and more power to regulate and purify our
lives in the faith that we profess, it becomes us to
institute a very close examination as to whether
our profession goes any deeper than our tongues.
They, and only they, have a right to say, “ I
believe in God the Father and in Jesus Christ His
Son/’ in whom their faith is daily producing
growth in the grace as well as in the knowledge
which have Him for their object.

Now, look at the second of the conditions laid
down here, by which that continual living within
the charmed circle of the love of God is made
possible. “ Praying in the Holy Ghost/’ Who
that has ever honestly tried to cure himself of a

T 2

i7»

HOW TO KEEP IN THE LOVE OF GOD.

fault, or to make his own some unfamiliar virtue
opposed to his natural temperament, but has found
that the cry <l O God ! help me has come
instinctively to his lips ? I do not believe in the
depth and earnestness of any efforts at self-
improvement which have not often driven
a man to his knees. Every person that has
really closed in resolute serious combat with
his own infirmities, and the enemies that beset
him, must have felt that, unless he cries to
God in the battle, he has little chance of success.
Therefore, says Jude, continuous effort at building
up a high and noble character will drive a man to,
and must necessarily be accompanied with, prayer
in the Holy Spirit. The prayer which helps us to
keep in the love of God is not the petulant and
passionate utterance of our own wishes, but is the
yielding of our desires to the impulses divinely
breathed upon us. As Michael Angelo says, 44 The
prayers we make will then be sv/eet, indeed, If
Thou the Spirit give by which we pray/’ Our own
desires may be hot and vehement, but the desires
that run parallel with the Divine will, and are
breathed into us by God’s own Spirit, are the
desires which, in their meek submissiveness, are
omnipotent with Him Whose omnipotence is
perfected in our weakness.

Such prayer is the true help for the builder.
His right attitude is on his knees. WEen men go
out to weed some great field they often kneel at
their task. And it is only when kneeling that we
can cleanse the soil of our own hearts of the
quick-growing and poisonous weeds that are there.

HOIV TO KEEP IN THE LOPE OF GOD.

179

My prayer breaks the bond of many a temptation
that holds me. My prayer is the test for many a
masked evil that seeks to seduce me. M!y prayer
will be like a drop of poison on a scorpion— it will
kill the sin on the instant. "We shall conquer
when we go into the battle as the Puritans did,
with the old Psalm upon their lips : “ Let God
arise ; and let His enemies be scattered.” If we
would build a holy character on a holy faith it
must be done with the help of prayer in the Holy
Ghost.

HI- — Lastly, notice here the expectation attendant
on the obedience to the central commandment,
“Looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life.”

After all our efforts, after all our prayers, we
all of us build much wood, hay, stubble, in the
building which we rear on the true foundation.
And the best of us, looking back over our past,
will most deeply feel that it is all so poor and
stained that all we have to trust to is the forgiving
mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. That mercy will
be anticipated for all the future, nearer and more
remote, in proportion as we keep ourselves for the
present in the love of God. The more we feel in
our hearts the experience that God loves us, the
more sure we shall be that He will love us ever.
The sunshine in which we walk will be reflected
upon all the path before us, and will illuminate
that else dusky and foreboding sky that lies beyond
the dark grave. The consciousness of His present
love is the surest ground for the hope in Christ's
future mercy. That mercy will scatter its pardon-

i8o

HOW TO KEEP IN THE LOVE OF GOD.

ing gifts all along the path of life, and will not
reach its highest issue, nor be satisfied in its
relation to us, until it has brought us into the full
and perfect enjoyment of that super-eminent degree
of eternal life which lies beyond the grave. Here
we have rills from it by the way ; there we shall
be taken to the well-head of the Divine love. The
gifts of God’s mercy in Christ Jesus which we
receive here, great and precious as they are, are
but the small change given to us for the expenses
of the road as we journey to the inheritance where
God keeps boundless stores of uncoined gold for
us. The mercy for which we look cannot stop till
it has acquitted us at the bar of the great Judge,
who is Jesus Christ, and has given to us the full
possession of the perfect copy of His own eternal
life. If you and I keep ourselves in the love of
God by effort founded upon faith, and prospered by
prayer, we may then look quietly forward to that
solemn future, knowing our sins indeed, but sure
of the love of God, and therefore sure of eternal
life.

XVII.

a Deatb in tbe Desert.

“ So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab,
according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a
valley in the land of Moab, . . . but no man knoweth of his

sepulchre unto this day.” — Deut. xxxiv. 5, 6.

FITTING end to such a life! The
great law-giver and leader had been
all his days a lonely man ; and now,
surrounded by a new generation, and
all the old familiar faces vanished,
he is more solitary than ever. He had lived alone
with God, and it was fitting that alone with God he
should die.

How the silent congregation must have watched
as, alone, with “ natural strength unabated/' he
breasted the mountain, and went up to be seen no
more ! With dignified reticence our chapter tells
us no details. He “ died there," in that dreary
solitude, and in some cleft he was buried, and no
man knows where. The lessons of that solitary
death and unknown tomb may best be learned
by contrast with another death and another
grave — those of the Leader of the New Covenant,
the Law-giver and Deliverer from a worse bondage.

i82

A DEATH IN THE DESERT.

and Guide into a better Canaan, the Son who
was faithful over His own house, as Moses was
faithful in all his house, as a servant. The one
dies amidst the cliffs, and his grave is visited
only by the eagles and the clouds; the Other is
buried close by a city wall, and His sepulchre
is guarded by foes, and haunted by weeping
friends, and filled with a great light of angel-
faces, and every man knoweth His sepulchre unto
this day.

I. — Note, then, first, as a lesson gathered from
this lonely death, the penalty of transgression.

One of the great truths which the old law and
ordinances given by Moses were intended to burn
in on the conscience of the Jew, and through him
on the conscience of the world, was that in¬
dissoluble connection between evil done and evil
suffered, which reaches its highest exemplification
in the death which is the wages of sin. And just
as some men that have invented instruments for
capital punishment have themselves had to prove
the sharpness of their own axe, so the law-giver,
whose message it has been to declare, “ the soul
that sinneth it shall die/’ had himself to go up
alone to the mountain-top to receive in his own
person the exemplification of the law that had been
spoken by his own lips. He sinned when, in a
moment of passion (with many palliations and
excuses), he smote the rock that he was bidden to
address, and forgot therein, and in his angry words
to the rebels, that he was only an instrument in
the Divine hand. It was a momentary wavering
in a hundred and twenty years of obedience.

A DEATH IN THE DESERT. 183

It was one failure in a life of self-abnegation and
suppression. The stern sentence came.

People say, “ A heavy penalty for a small
offence/' Yes ! But an offence of Moses could
not be a small offence. Noblesse oblige ! The
higher a man rises in communion with God, and
the more glorious the message and office which are
put into his hands, the more intolerable in him is
the slightest deflection from the loftiest level. A
splash of mud, that would never be seen on a
navvy’s clothes, stains the white satin of a bride or
the embroidered garment of a noble. And so a
little sin done by a loftily endowed and inspired
man ceases to be small.

Nor are we to regard that momentary lapse only
from the outside and the surface. One little mark
under the armpit of a plague-sufferer tells the
physician that the fatal disease is there. A tiny
leaf above ground may reveal deep below, the root
of a poison-plant. That little deflection, coming
as it did at the beginning of the resumption of his
functions by the Lawgiver after seven-and-thirty
years of comparative abeyance, and on his first
encounter with the new generation that he had to
lead, was a very significant indication that his
character had begun to yield and suffer from the
strain that had been put upon it ; and that, in fact,
he was scarcely fit for the responsibilities that the
new circumstances brought. So the penalty was
not so disproportionate to the fault as it may
seem.

And was the penalty such a very big one ? Do
you think that a man who had been toiling

184

A DEATH IN THE DESERT \

for eighty years at a very thankless task would
consider it a very great punishment to be told,
“ Go home and take youf wages ” ? It did not mean
the withdrawal of the Divine favour. “ Moses and
Aaron among his priests. Thou wast a God that
forgavest them, though Thou tookest vengeance of
their inventions.” The penalty of a forgiven sin is
never hard to bear, and the penalty of a for¬
given sin is very often punctually and mercifully
exacted.

But still we are not to ignore the fact that this
lonely death, with which we are now concerned,
has in it of the nature of a penal infliction. And
so it stands forth in consonance with the whole
tone of the Mosaic teaching. I admit, of course,
that the mere physical fact of the separation be¬
tween body and spirit is simply the result of
natural law. But that is not the death that you
and I know. Death as we know it, the ugly thing
that flings its long shadows across all life, and that
comes armed with terrors for conscience and spirit,
is the “wages of sin/' and is only possible to
men who have transgressed the law of God. So
far Moses in his life and in his death carries us —
that no transgression escapes the appropriate
punishment ; that the smallest sin has in it the
seeds of mortal consequences ; that the loftiest saint
does not escape the law of retribution.

And no further does Moses with his Law
and his death carry us. But we turn to
the other death. And there you get the con¬
firmation, in an eminent degree, of that Law,
and yet the repeal of it. It is confirmed and

A DEATH TV THE DESERT.

185

exhausted in Jesus Christ. His death was “ the
wages of sin.” Whose ? Not His. Mine, yours,
every man’s. And because He died, surrounded
by men, outside the old city wall, pure and sinless
in Himself, He therein at once said “ Amen ” to
the Law of Moses, and swept it away. For all the
sins of the world were laid upon His head. He
bore the curse for us all, and has emptied the
bitter cup which men’s transgressions have mingled.
Therefore the solitary death in the desert proclaims
“ the wages of sin ” ; this death outside the city
wall proclaims “ the gift of God,” which is
“ eternal life.”

II. — Another of the lessons of our incident is the
withdrawal, by a hard fate, of the worker on the
very eve of the completion of his work.

For all these forty years there had gleamed
before the fixed and steadfast spirit of the sorely
tried Leader one hope that he never abandoned,
and that was that he might look upon and enter
into the blessed land which God had promised.
And now he stands on the heights of Moab.
Half-a-dozen miles, as the crow flies, and his feet
would tread its soil. He lifts his eyes, and away,
up yonder, in the far north, he sees the rolling
uplands of Gilead, and across the deep gash where
the Jordan runs he catches a glimpse of the blue
hills of Naphtali or of Galilee, and the central
mountain masses of Ephraim and Manasseh, where
Ebal and Gerizim lift their heads ; and then, further
south, the stony summits of the Judaean hills, where
Jerusalem and Bethlehem lie, and, through some
gap in the mountains, a gleam as of sunshine upon

i86

A DEATH IN THE DESERT.

armour tells where the ocean is. And then his eye
falls upon the waterless plateau of the south, and at
his feet the fertile valley of Jordan, with Jericho
glittering amongst its palm trees like a diamond
set in emeralds, and on some spur of the lower
hill bounding the plain the little Zoar. This was
the land which the Lord had promised to the
fathers, for which he had been yearning, and to
which all his work had been directed all these
years ; and now he is to die, as my text puts it, with
such pathetic emphasis, “ there in Moab and to
have no part in the fair inheritance.

It is the lot of all epoch-making men, of all
great constructive and reforming geniuses, whether
in the Church or in the world, that they should toil
at a task, the full issues of which will not be known
until their heads are laid low7 in the dust. But if,
on the one hand, that seems hard, on the other
hand there is the compensation of “ the vision of
the future and all the wonder that shall be,” which
is granted many a time to the faithful worker ere
he closes his eyes. But it is not the fate of epoch-
making and great men only ; it is the law for our
little lives. If these are worth anything, they are
constructed on a scale too large to bring out all
their results here and now. It is easy for a man
to secure immediate consequences of an earthly
kind ; easy enough for him to make certain that he
shall have the fruit of his toil. But quick returns
mean small profits ; and an unfinished life that
succeeds in nothing may be far better than a com¬
pleted one that has realised all its shabby pur¬
poses and accomplished all its petty desires. Do

A DEATH IN THE DESERT.

187

you, my brother, live for the far off; and seek not
for the immediate issues and fruits that the world
can give, but be contented to be of those whose toil
waits for eternity to disclose its significance. Better
a half-finished temple than a finished pigstye or
huckster’s shop. Better a life, the beginning of
much and the completion of nothing, than a life
directed to and hitting an earthly aim. “ He that
soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life
everlasting/’ and his harvest and garner are beyond
the grave.

HI. — Again, notice here the lesson of the solitude
and mystery of death.

Moses dies alone, with no hand to clasp his,
none to close his eyes ; but God’s finger does it.
The outward form of his death is but putting into
symbol and visibility the awful characteristics of
that last moment for us all. However closely we
have been twined with others, each of us has to
unclasp all hands, and make that journey through
the narrow, dark tunnel by himself. We live
alone in a very real sense, but we each have to
die as if there were not another human being in
the whole universe but only ourselves. But the
solitude may be a solitude with God. Up there,
alone with the stars and the sky and the ever¬
lasting rocks and menacing death, Moses had for
companion the supporting God. That awful path
is not too desolate and lonely to be trodden if we
tread it with Him.

Moses’ lonely death leads to a society yonder.
If you refer to the 32nd chapter you will find that,
when he was summoned to the mountain, God said

1 88

A DEATH IN THE DESERT.

to him, “ Die in the mount whither thou goest
up and be gathered to thy people.” He was
to be buried there, up amongst the rocks of
Moab, and no man was ever to visit his
sepulchre to drop a tear over it. How was
he “ gathered to his people” ? Surely only
thus, that, dying in the desert alone, he
opened his eyes in the city, surrounded by
“solemn troops and sweet societies” of those to
whom he was kindred. So the solitude of a
moment leads on to blessed and eternal com¬
panionship.

So far the death of Moses carries us. What
does the other death say ? Moses had nobody but
God with him when he died. There is a drearier
desolation than that, and Jesus Christ proved it
when He cried, “ My God, My God, why hast
Thou forsaken Me?” That was solitude indeed,
and in that hour of mysterious, and to us unfathom¬
able, desertion and misery the lonely Christ
sounded a depth, of which the Lawgiver in his
death but skimmed the surface. Christ was parted
from God in His death, because he bore on Him
the sins that separated us from our Father, and in
order that none of us may ever need to tread that
dark passage alone, but may be able no say, “ I will
fear no evil, for Thou art with me” — Thou, Who
hast trodden every step in its rough and dreary
path, uncheered by the presence which cheers us
and millions more. Christ died that we might
live. He died alone that, when we come to die,
we may hold His hand and the solitude may
vanish.

A DEATH IN THE DESERT.

189

Then, again, our incident teaches us the mystery
that wrapped death to that ancient world, of
which we may regard that unknown and forgotten
sepulchre as the visible symbol. Deep darkness
lies over the Old Testament in reference to what is
beyond the grave, broken by gleams of light,
when the religious consciousness asserted its
indestructibility, in spite of all appearance to the
contrary ; but never rising to the height of serene
and continual assurance of immortal life and
resurrection. We may conceive that mysterious¬
ness as set forth for us by that grave that was
hidden away in the defiles of Moab, unvisited and
uncared for by any.

We turn to the other grave, and there, as the
stone is rolled away, and the rising sunshine of
the Easter morning pours into it, we have a visible
symbol of the life and immortality which Jesus
Christ then brought to light by His Gospel. The
buried grave speaks of the inscrutable mystery
that wrapped the future : the open sepulchre pro¬
claims the risen Lord of life, and the sunlight cer¬
tainty of future blessedness which we owe to Him.
Death is solitary no more, though it be lonely as
far as human companionship is concerned ; and a
mystery no more, though what is beyond be
hidden from our view, and none but Christ have
ever returned to tell the tale, and He has told
us little but the fact that we shall live with
Him.

We rejoice that we have not to turn to a grave
hid amongst the hills where our dead Leader lies,
but to an open sepulchre by the city wall in the

igo

A DEATH IN THE DESERT.

sunshine, from whence has come the ever-living
Captain of our salvation.

IV. — The last lesson is the uselessness of a dead
Leader to a generation with new conflicts.

Commentators have spent a great deal of inge¬
nuity in trying to assign reasons why God con¬
cealed the grave of Moses. The text does not say
that God concealed it at all. The ignorance of the
place of His sepulchre does not seem to have been
part of the Divine design, but simply a consequence
of the circumstances of his death, and of the fact
that he lay in an enemy’s land, and that Israel
had something else to do than to go to look for the
grave of a dead commander. It had to conquer
the land, and a living Joshua was what it wanted ;
not a dead Moses.

So we may learn from this how easily the gaps
fill. “ Thirty days’ mourning,” and says my
text, with almost a bitter touch, “so the days of
mourning for Moses were ended.” A month of it,
that was all ; and then everybody turned to the
new man that was appointed for the new
work. God has many tools in His tool-chest, and
He needs them all before the work is done.
Joshua could no more have wielded Moses’ rod
than Moses could have wielded Joshua’s sword.
The one did his work, and was laid aside. New
circumstances required a new type of character —
the smaller man better fitted for the rougher
work. And so it always is. Each generation,
each period, has its own men that do some little
part of the work which has to be done, and then
drop it and hand over the task to others. The

A DEATH IN THE DESERT. 191

division of labour is the multiplication of joy at
the end, and he that soweth and he that reapeth
rejoice together.

But whilst the one grave tells us “ this man
served his generation by the will of God, and was
laid asleep and saw corruption," the other grave
proclaims One whom all generations need, Whose
work is comprehensive and complete, who dies
never. “He liveth and was dead, and is alive
for evermore.” Christ, and Christ alone, can
never be antiquated. This day requires Him, and
has in Him as complete an answer to all its
necessities as if no other generation had ever
possessed Him. He liveth for ever, and for ever
is the Shepherd of men.

So Aaron dies and is buried on Hor, and Moses
dies and is buried on Pisgah, and Joshua steps into
his place, and, in turn, he disappears. The one
eternal Word of God worked through them all, and
came at last Himself in human flesh to be the
everlasting deliverer, redeemer, founder of a cove¬
nant, lawgiver, guide through the wilderness,
captain of the warfare, and all that the world or a
single soul can need until the last generation has
crossed the flood, and all the wandering pilgrims
are gathered in the land of their inheritance. The
dead Moses pre-supposes and points to the living
Christ. Let us take Him for our all-sufficing and
eternal Guide.

XVIII.

Jrom Centre to Circumference.

‘■The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of
God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” — Gal. ii. 20.

E have a bundle of paradoxes in this
verse. First, “ I am crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live.” The
Christian life is a dying life. If we
are in any real sense joined to Christ,
the power of His death makes us dead to self and
sin and the world. In that region as in the
physical, death is the gate of life ; and, inasmuch
as what we die to in Christ is itself only a living
death, we live because we die, and in proportion
as we do.

The next paradox is, “ Yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me.” The Christian life is a life in which
an indwelling Christ casts out and therefore
quickens self. We gain ourselves when we lose
ourselves. His abiding in us does not destroy but
heightens our individuality. We then most truly
live when we can say, “Not I, but Christ liveth in
me ” ; the soul of my soul and the self of myself.

And the last paradox is that of my text, “ The

FROM CENTRE TO CIRCUMFERENCE ,

T93

life which I live in the flesh, I live in ” (not “ by”)
“ the faith of the Son of God.” The true Christian
life moves in two spheres at once. Externally and
superficially it is “ in the flesh,” really it is “ in
faith.” It belongs not to the material nor is depen¬
dent upon the physical body in which we are
housed. We are strangers here, and the ttue
region and atmosphere of the Christian life is that
invisible sphere of faith.

So, then, we have in these words of my text a
Christian man’s frank avowal of the secret of his
own life. It is like a geological cutting, it goes
down from the surface, where the grass and the
flowers are, through the various strata, but it goes
deeper than these, to the fiery heart, the flaming
nucleus and centre of all things. Therefore it may
do us all good to make a section of our hearts and
see whether the strata there are conformable to
those that are here.

I. — Let us begin with the centre, and work to
the surface. We have, first, the great central fact
named last, but round which all the Christian life is
gathered.

“The Son of God, who loved me, and gave
Kimself for me.” These two words, the “loving”
and the “ giving,” both point backwards to some
one definite historical fact, and the only fact which
they can have in view is the great one of the death
of Jesus Christ. That is His giving up of Himself.
That is the signal and highest manifestation and
proof of His love.

Notice (though I can but touch in the briefest
possible manner upon the great thoughts that

i94

FROM CENTRE TO CIRCUMFERENCE

gather round these words) the three aspects of that
transcendent fact, the centre and nucleus of the
whole Christian life, which come into prominence
in these words before us. Christ’s death is a great
act of self-surrender, of which the one motive is
His own pure and perfect love. No doubt in other
places of Scripture we have set forth the death of
Christ as being the result of the Father’s purpose,
and we read that in that wondrous surrender there
were two givings up. The Father “ freely gave
Him up to the death for us all.” That Divine
surrender, the Apostle ventures, in another pas¬
sage, to find dimly suggested from afar, in the
silent but submissive and unreluctant surrender
with which Abraham yielded his only begotten
son on the mountain top. But besides that in¬
effable giving up by the Father of the Son, Jesus
Christ Himself, moved only by His love, willingly
yields Himself. The whole doctrine of the sacri¬
fice of Jesus Christ has been marred by one-sided
insisting on the truth that God sent the Son, to
the forgetting of the fact that the Son “came” ;
and that He was bound to the Cross neither by
cords of man’s weaving nor by the will of the
Father, but that He Himself bound Himself to
that Cross with the cords of love and the bands of
a man, and died from no natural necessity nor
from any imposition of the Divine will upon Him
unwilling, but because He would, and that He
would because He loved. “ He loved me, and gave
Himself for me.”

Then note, further, that here, most distinctly,
that great act of self-surrendering love wThich

195

FROM CENTRE TO CIRCUMFERENCE .

culminates on the Cross is regarded as being for
man in a special and peculiar sense. I know, of
course, that from the mere wording of my text
we cannot argue the atoning and substitutionary
character of the death of Christ, for the preposition
here does not necessarily mean “ instead of,” but
“ for the behoof of.” But admitting that, I have
another question. If Christ’s death is for “the
behoof of” men, in what conceivable sense does
it benefit them, unless it is in the place of men r
The death “ for me ” is only for me when I
understand that it is “ instead of ” me. And
practically you will find that wherever the full-
orbed faith in Christ Jesus as the death for all
the sins of the whole world, bearing the penalty
and bearing it away, has begun to falter and grow
pale, men do not know what to do with Christ’s
death at all, and stop talking about it to a very
large extent.

Unless He died as a sacrifice, I, for one, fail to
see in what other than a mere sentimental sense
the death of Christ is a death for men.

And lastly, about this matter, observe how here
we have brought into vivid prominence the great
thought that Jesus Christ in His death has regard
to single souls. We preach that He died for all.
If we believe in that august title which is laid
here as the vindication of our faith on the one
hand, and as the ground of the possibility of the
benefits of His death being world-wide on the
other — viz., the Son of God — then we shall not
stumble at the thought that He died for all, be¬
cause He died for each. I know that if you only

13*

1 96 FROM CENTRE TO CIRCUMFERENCE.

regard Jesus Christ as human I am talking utter
nonsense ; but I know, too, that if we believe in
the divinity of our Lord, there need be nothing to
stumble us, but the contrary, in the thought that
it was not an abstraction that He died for, that it
was not a vague mass of unknown beings,
clustered together, but so far away that He
could not see any of their faces, for whom
He gave His life on the Cross. That is the way in
which, and in which alone, we can embrace the
whole mass of humanity — by losing sight of the
individuals. We generalise, precisely because we
do not see the individual units ; but that is not
God’s way, and that is not Christ’s way, Who is
Divine. For Him the all is broken up into its
parts, and when we say that the Divine love loves
all, we mean that the Divine love loves each. I
believe (and I commend the thought to you), that
we do not fathom the depth of Christ’s sufferings
unless we recognise that the sins of each man were
consciously adding pressure to the load beneath
which He sank ; nor picture the wonders of His love
until we believe that on the Cross it distinguished
and embraced each, and, therefore, comprehended
all. Every man may say “ He loved me, and gave
Himself for me.”

II. — So much, then, for the first central fact that
is here. Now let me say a word, in the second
place, about the faith which makes that fact the
foundation of my own personal life,

“ I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me, and gave Himself for me.” I am not going to
plunge into any unnecessary dissertations about

FROM CENTRE TO CIRCUMFERENCE- 197

the nature of faith ; but may I say that, like all
other familiar conceptions, it has got worn so
smooth that it glides over our mental palate without
roughening any of th e papilla or giving any sense or
savour at all ? And I do believe that dozens ot
people like you, that have come to church and
chapel all your lives, and fancy yourselves to be
fully an fait at all the Christian truth that you
will ever hear from my lips, do not grasp with any
clearness of apprehension the meaning of that
fundamental word “ faith/’

It is a thousand pities that it is confined by
the accidents of language to our attitude in refer¬
ence to Jesus Christ. So some of you think that
it is some kind of theological juggle which has
nothing to do with, and never can be seen in
operation in, common life. Suppose, instead of the
threadbare technical “ faith ” we took to a new
translation for a minute, and said “ trust do you
think that would freshen up the thought to you
at all ? It is the very same thing which makes the
sweetness of your relations to wife and husband
and friend and parent, which transferred to Jesus
Christ and glorified in the process, becomes the
seed of immortal life and the opener of the gate
of Heaven. Trust Jesus Christ. That is the living
centre of the Christian life ; that is the process by
which we draw the general blessing of the Gospel
into our own hearts, and make the world-wide
truth our truth.

I need not insist either, I suppose, on the
necessity, if our Christian life is to be modelled
upon the Apostolic lines, of our faith embracing

198

FROM CENTRE TO CIRCUMFERENCE.

the Christ in all these aspects in which I have
been speaking about His work. God forbid that I
should seem to despise rudimentary and incom¬
plete feelings after Him which may be in any heart
not able to say “ Amen ” to Paul’s statement
here. I want to insist very earnestly, and
with special reference to the young, that the
true Christian faith is not merely the grasp
of a person, but it is the grasp of the Person who is
“declared to be the Son of God,” and whose
death is the voluntary self-surrender motived by
His love, for the carrying away of the sins of
every single soul in the whole universe. That is
the Christ, the full Christ, cleaving to whom our
faith finds somewhat to grasp worthy of grasping
And I beseech you, be not contented with a partial
grasp of a partial Saviour ; neither shut your eyes
to the Divinity of His nature, nor to the efficacy of
His death, but remember that the true Gospel
preaches Christ and Him crucified ; and that for
us, saving faith is the faith that grasps the Son
of God “Who loved me and gave Himself for
me.”

Note, further, that true faith is personal faith,
which appropriates, and, as it were, fences in as
my very own the purpose and benefit of Christ’s
giving of Himself. It is always difficult for lazy
people (and most of us are lazy) to transfer into
their own personal lives and to bring into actual
contact with themselves and their own experience,
wide, general truths. To assent to them, when
we keep them in their generality, is very easy and
very profitless. It does no man any good to say

FROM CENTRE TO CIRCUMFERENCE .

199

“All men are mortal”; but how different it is
when the blunt end of that generalisation is
shaped into a point, and I say “ I have to die ! ”
It penetrates then, and it sticks, It is easy to say
“ All men are sinners.” That never forced any¬
body down on his knees yet. But when we shut
out on either side the lateral view and look straight
on, on the narrow line of our own lives, up to the
Throne where the Lawgiver sits, and feel “ I am a
sinful man,” that sends us to our prayers for
pardon and purity. And in like manner nobody
was ever wholesomely terrified by the thought of a
general judgment. But when you translate it
into u I must stand there,” the terror of the Lord
persuades men.

In like manner that great truth which we all of
us say we believe, that Christ has died for the
world, is utterly useless and profitless to us until
we have translated it into Paul's world, “ loved me
and gave Himself for me** I do not say that the
essence of faith is the conversion of the general
statement into the particular application, but I do
say that there is no faith which does not realise
one’s personal possession of the benefits of the
death of Christ, and that until you turn the wide
word into a message for yourself alone, you have
not yet got within sight of the blessedness of the
Christian life. The whole river may flow past me,
but only so much of it as I can bring into my own
garden by my own sluices, and lift in my own
bucket, and put to my own lips, is of any use to me,
The death of Christ for the world is a common¬
place of superficial Christianity, which is no

{

20 d FROM CENTRE TO CIRCUMFERENCE.

Christianity ; the death of Christ for myself, as
if He and I were the only beings in the universe,
that is the death on which faith fastens and feeds.

And, dear brother, you have the right to exer¬
cise it. The Christ loves each, and therefore he
loves all ; that is the process in the Divine mind.
The converse is the process in the revelation of that
mind ; the Bible says to us, Christ loves all, and
therefore we have the right to draw the inference
that He loves each. You have as much right to
take every “ whosoever ” of the New Testament
as your very own, as if on the page of your Bible
that “ whosoever ” was struck out and your name,
John, Thomas, Mary, Elizabeth, or whatever it is,
were put in there. “ He loved me** Can you say
that ? Have you ever passed from the region of
universality, which is vague and profitless, into
the region of personal appropriation of the person
of Jesus Christ and His death ?

III. — And now, lastly, notice the life which is
built upon this faith.

The true Christian life is dual. It is a life in the
flesh, and it is also a life in faith. These two, as I
have said, are like two spheres, in either of which a
man’s course is passed, or, rather, the one is
surface and the other is central. Here is a great
trailing spray of seaweed floating golden on the
unquiet water, and rising and falling on each wave
or ripple. Aye ! but its root is away deep, deep,
deep below the storms, below where there is
motion, anchored upon a hidden rock that can
never move. And so my life, if it be a Christian
life at all, has its surface amidst the shifting muta-

FROM CENTRE TO CIRCUMFERENCE ,

201

bilities of earth, but its root in the silent eternities
of the centre of all things, which is Christ in God.
I live in the flesh on the outside, but if I am a
Christian at all, I live in faith in regard of my
true and proper being.

This faith, which grasps the Divine Christ as the
person whose love-moved death is my life, and
who by faith becomes Himself the indwelling
Guest in my heart ; this faith, if it be worth any¬
thing, will mould and influence my whole being.
It will give me motive, pattern, power for all noble
service and all holy living. The one thing that
stirs men to true obedience is that their hearts be
touched with the firm assurance that Christ loved
them and died for them.

We sometimes used to see men starting an
engine by manual force ; and what toil it was
to get the great cranks to turn and the pistons
to rise ! So we set ourselves to try and move our
lives into holiness and beauty and nobleness, and
it is dispiriting work. There is a far better, surer
way than that : let the steam in, and that will do it.
That is to say — let the Christ in His dying power
and the living energy of His indwelling Spirit
occupy the heart, and activity becomes blessedness,
and work is rest, and service is freedom and
dominion.

The life that I live in the flesh is poor, limited,
tortured with anxiety, weighed upon by sore dis¬
tresses, becomes dark and gray and dreary often
as we travel nearer the end, and is always full of
miseries and of pains. But if within that life in
the flesh there be a life in faith, which is the life of

202

FROM CENTRE TO CIRCUMFERENCE,

Christ Himself brought to us through our faith,
that life will be triumphant, quiet, patient, aspiring,
noble, hopeful, gentle, strong, Godlike, being the
life of Christ Himself within us.

So, dear friends, test your faith by these two
tests, what it grasps and what it does. If it grasps
a whole Christ, in all the glory of His nature and
the blessedness of His work, it is genuine ; and it
proves its genuineness if, and only if, it works in
you by love ; animating all your action, bringing
you ever into the conscious presence of that dear
Lord, and making Him pattern, law, motive, goal,
companion and reward. “ To me to live is Christ.”

If so, then we live indeed ; but to live in the flesh
is to die ; and the death that we die when we live
in Christ is the gate and the beginning of the only
real life of the soul.

XIX.

£be (Smtrtng pillar.

“ So it was alway ; the cloud covered the tabernacle by day, and the
appearance of fire by night.”— Numbers ix. 16.

HE children of Israel in the wilderness,
surrounded by miracle, had nothing
which we do not possess. They had
some things in an inferior form ;
their sustenance came by manna,
ours comes by God's blessing on our daily work,
which is better. Their guidance came by this
supernatural pillar ; ours comes by the reality of
which that pillar was nothing but a picture. And
so, instead of fancying that men thus led were in
advance of us, we should learn that these, the
supernatural manifestations, visible and palpable,
of God’s presence and guidance were the beggarly
elements : “ God having provided some better
thing for us that they without us should not be
made perfect/'

With this explanation of the relation between
the miracle and symbol of the old, and the
reality and standing miracle of the new covenants,
let us look at the eternal truths, which are set

204

THE GUIDING PILLAR .

before us in a transitory form, in this cloud by day
and fiery pillar by night.

I- — Note, first, the double form of the guiding
pillar.

The fire was the centre, the cloud was wrapped
around it. The former was the symbol, making
visible to a generation who had to be taught
through their senses the inaccessible holiness and
flashing brightness and purity of the Divine
nature ; the latter tempered and veiled the too
great brightness for feeble eyes.

The same double element is found in all God’s
manifestations of Himself to men. In every
form of revelation are present both the heart
and core of light, which no eye can look upon,
and the merciful veil which, because it veils,
unveils ; because it hides, reveals ; makes visible
because it conceals ; and shows God because it
is the hiding of His power. So, through all the
history of His dealings with men, there has
ever been what is called in Scripture language the
“ face,” or the “ name of God ” ; the aspect
of the Divine nature on which eye can look ;
and manifested through it, there has always been
the depth and inaccessible abyss of that
infinite Being. We have to be thankful that in
the cloud is the fire, and that round the fire is the
cloud. For only so can our eyes behold and our
hands grasp the else invisible and remote central
Sun of the universe. God hides to make better
known the glories of His character. His revela¬
tion is the flashing of the uncreated and intolerable
light of His infinite Being through the encircling

THE GUIDING PILLAR.

°5

clouds of human conceptions and words, or
of deeds which each show forth, in forms
fitting to our apprehension, some fragment of His
lustre. After all revelation, He remains unre¬
vealed. After ages of showing forth His glory, He
is still the King invisible, whom no man hath seen
at any time nor can see. The revelation which He
makes of Himself is ‘‘truth and is no lie” The
recognition of the presence in it of both the fire and
the cloud does not cast any doubt on the reality of
our imperfect knowledge, or the authentic partici¬
pation in the nature of the central light, of the
sparkles of it which reach us. We know with a
real knowledge what we know of Him. What He
shows us is Himself, though not His whole self.

This double aspect of all possible revelation of
God, which was symbolised in comparatively gross
external form in the pillar that led Israel on its
march, and lay stretched out and quiescent, a
guarding covering above the tabernacle when the
weary march was still, recurs all through the
history of Old Testament revelation by type and
prophecy and ceremony, in which the encompassing
cloud was comparatively dense, and the light which
pierced it relatively faint. It re-appears in both
elements in Christ, but combined in new propor¬
tions, so as that “ the veil, that is to say, His flesh,”
is thinned to transparency and all aglow with the
indwelling lustre of manifest Deity. So a light,
set in some fair alabaster vase, shines through its
translucent walls, bringing out every delicate tint
and meandering vein of colour, while itself diffused
and softened by the enwrapping medium which it

200

THE GUIDING PILLAR.

beautifies by passing through its purity. Both are
made visible and attractive to dull eyes by the
conjunction. He that hath seen Christ hath seen
the Father, and he that hath seen the Father in
Christ hath seen the man Christ, as none see Him
who are blind to the incarnate deity which illumi¬
nates the manhood in which it dwells.

But we have to note also the varying appearance
of the pillar according to need. There was a double
change in the pillar according to the hour, and
according as the congregation was on the march or
encamped. By day it was a cloud, by night it
glowed in the darkness. On the march it moved
before them, an upright pillar, as gathered together
for energetic movement ; when the camp rested it
“ returned to the many thousands of Israel” and
lay quietly stretched above the tabernacle like one
of the long-drawn, motionless clouds above the
setting summer’s sun, glowing through all its
substance with unflashing radiance reflected from
unseen light, and “on all the glory” (shrined in
the Holy Place beneath) was “ a defence.”

Both these changes of aspect symbolise for us the
reality of the Protean capacity of change according
to our ever-varying needs, which for our blessing
we may find in that ever-changing, unchanging,
Divine presence which will be our companion if
we will.

It was not only by a natural process that, as day-
light declined, what had seemed but a column of
smoke, in the fervid desert sunlight, brightened
into a column of fire, blazing amid the clear stars.
But we may well believe in an actual admeasure-

THE GUIDING PILLAR.

207

ment of the degree of light, correspondent to the
darkness and to the need for certitude and cheering
sense of God’s protection, which the defenceless
camp would feel as they lay down to rest.

When the deceitful brightness of earth glistens
and dazzles around me, my vision of Him may be
“ a cloudy screen to temper the deceitful ray ” ;
and when “ there stoops on our path, in storm and
shade, the frequent night,” as earth grows darker,
and life becomes grayer and more sombre, and
verges to its even, the pillar blazes brighter before
the weeping eye, and draws nearer to the lonely
heart. We have a God that manifests Himself in
the pillar of cloud by day, and in the flaming fire
by night.

II. — Note the guidance of the pillar*

When it lifts the camp marches ; when it glides
down and lies motionless the march is stopped
and the tents are pitched. The main thing which
is dwelt upon in this description of the God^-
guided pilgrimage of the wandering people is the
absolute uncertainty in which they were kept as
to the duration of their encampment, and as to the
time and circumstances of their march. Some¬
times the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle many
days; sometimes for a night only; sometimes it
lifted in the night. “ Whether it was by day or
by night that the cloud was taken up, they
journeyed. Or whether it were two days, or a
month, or a year that the cloud tarried upon the
tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of
Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not:
but when it was taken up they journeyed.” So

208

THE GUIDING PILLAR.

never, from moment to moment, did they know
when the moving cloud might settle, or the resting
cloud might soar. Therefore, absolute uncertainty
as to the next stage was visibly represented before
them by that hovering guide which determined
everything, and concerning whose next movement
they knew absolutely nothing.

Is not that all true about us ? We have no
guiding cloud like this. So much the better.
Have we not a more real guide ? God guides
us by circumstances, God guides us by His
word, God guides us by His Spirit, speaking
through our common sense and in our understand¬
ings, and, most of all, God guides us by that dear
Son of His, in whom is the fire and round whom is
the cloud. And perhaps we may even suppose
that our Lord implies some allusion to this very
symbol in His own great words, “ I am the Light
of the world. He that followeth Me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of
life.” For the conception of “ following ” the
light seems to make it plain that our Lord’s image
is not that of the sun in the heavens, or any such
supernal light, but of some light that comes near
enough to a man to move before him, and
behind which he can march. So, I think, that
Christ Himself laid His hand upon this ancient
symbol, and in these great words said in effect,
“I am that which it only shadowed and fore¬
told. At all events, whether in them He was
pointing to our text or no, we must feel that He
is the reality which was expressed by this out¬
ward symbol. And no man who can say, “ Jesus

THE GUIDING TIL LAE.

209

Christ is the Captain of my salvation, and after
Plis pattern I march : at the pointing of His
guiding finger I move ; and in His footsteps, He
being my helper, I want to tread/' need feel or
fancy that any possible pillar, floating before the
dullest eye, was a better, surer, or Diviner guide
than he possesses. They whom Christ guides
want none other for leader, pattern, counsellor,
companion, reward. This Christ is our Christ for
ever and ever ; He will be our guide even unto
death and beyond it. The pillar that we follow,
which will glow with the ruddy flame of love in
the darkest hours of life — blessed be His Name —
will glide in front of us through the valley of the
shadow of death, brightest then when the murky
midnight is blackest. Nor will the pillar which
guides us cease to blaze, as did the guide of the
desert march, when Jordan had been crossed. It
will still move before us on paths of continuous and
ever-increasing approach to infinite perfection.
They who follow Christ afar off and with faltering
steps here shall there “ follow the Lamb whitherso¬
ever He goeth.”

In like manner, the same absolute uncertainty
which was intended to keep the Israelites
(though it failed often) in the attitude of constant
dependence, is the condition in which we all have
to live, though we mask it from ourselves. That
we do not know what lies before us is a common¬
place. The same long tracts of monotonous con¬
tinuance in the same place, and doing the same
duties befall us that befell these men. Years pass
and the pillar spreads itself out, a defence above

1210

THE GUIDING PILLAR .

the unmoving sanctuary. And then, all of a flash
when we are least thinking of change, it gathers
itself together, is a pillar again, shoots upwards,
and moves forwards ; and it is for us to go after
it. And so our lives are shuttlecocked between
uniform sameness which may become mechanical
monotony, and agitation by change which may
make us lose our hold of fixed principles and calm
faith, unless we recognise that the continuance
and the change are alike the will of the guiding
God, whose Will is signified by the stationary or
moving pillar.

III. — That leads me to the last thing that I
would note — viz., the docile following of the Guide.

In the context, the writer does not seem to be
able to get away from the thought that whatever
the pillar did, immediate prompt obedience
followed. He says it over and over and over again.
“ As long as the cloud abode they rested, and when
the cloud tarried long they journeyed not ” ; and
“ when the cloud was a few days on the tabernacle
they abode”; and "‘according to the command¬
ment they journeyed ” ; and “ when the cloud abode
until the morning they journeyed ” ; and “ whether
it were two days, or a month, or a year that the
cloud tarried they journeyed not but abode in their
tents.” So, after he has reiterated the thing half-
a-dozen times or more, he finishes by putting it all
again in one verse, as the last impression which he
would leave from the whole narrative — “at the
commandment of the Lord they rested in their
tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they
journeyed.” Obedience was prompt ; whensoever

THE GUIDING PILLAR .

2 1 1

and for whatsoever the signal was given, the men
were ready. In the night, after they had had their
tents pitched for a long period, when only the
watcher’s eyes were open, the pillar lifts, and in an
instant the alarm is given, and all the camp is in a
bustle. That is what we have to set before us as
the type of our lives. We are to be as ready for
every indication of God’s will as they were. The
peace and blessedness of our lives largely depend
on our being eager to obey, and therefore quick to
perceive, the slightest sign of motion in the resting
or of rest in the moving pillar, which regulates our
march and our encamping.

What do we want in order to cultivate and keep
such a disposition ? We need perpetual watchful¬
ness lest the pillar should lift unnoticed. When
Nelson was second in command at Copenhagen,
the admiral in command of the fleet hoisted the
signal for recall, and Nelson put his telescope to
his blind eye and said, “I do not see it.” That is
very like what we are tempted to do. When the
signal for unpleasant duties that we want to get
out of is hoisted, we are very apt to put the telescope
to the blind eye, and pretend to ourselves that we
do not see the fluttering flags.

We need still more to keep our wills in absolute
suspense, if His will has not declared itself. Do
not let us be in a hurry to run before God. When
the Israelites were crossing the Jordan, they were
told to leave a great space between themselves
and the guiding ark, that they might know how
to go, because “ they had not passed that way
heretofore.” Impatient hurrying at God’s heels is

14*

212

THE GUIDING PILLAR .

apt to lead us astray. Let Him get well in front
that you may be quite sure which way He wants
you to go, before you go. And if you are not
sure which way He wants you to go, be sure
that He does not at that moment want you to go
anywhere.

We need to hold the present with a slack hand,
so as to be ready to fold our tents and take to the
road, if God will. We must not reckon on con¬
tinuance, nor strike our roots so deep that it needs
a hurricane to remote us. To those who set their
gaze on Christ, no present, from which He wishes
them to remove, can be so good for them as the
new conditions into which He would have them
pass. It is hard to leave the spot, though it be in
the desert, where we have so long encamped that
it has come to feel like home. We may look with
regret on the circle of black ashes on the sand
where our little fire glinted cheerily, and our feet
may ache and our hearts ache more as we begin
our tramp once again, but we must set ourselves to
meet the God-appointed change cheerfully, in the
confidence that nothing will be left behind which it
is not good to lose, nor anything met which does
not bring a blessing, however its first aspect may
be harsh or sad.

We need, too, to cultivate the habit of prompt
obedience. “ I made haste and delayed not to
keep Thy commandments” is the only safe motto.
It is reluctance which usually puts the drag on.
Slow obedience is often the germ of incipient dis¬
obedience. In matters of prudence and of intellect,
second thoughts are better than first, and third

THE GUIDING PILLAR.

213

thoughts, which often come back to first ones,
better than second ; but, in matters of duty, first
thoughts are generally best. They are the in¬
stinctive response of conscience to the voice of
God, while second thoughts are too often the objec¬
tions of disinclination, or sloth, or cowardice. It is
easiest to do our duty when we are at first sure of
it. It then comes with an impelling power which
carries us over obstacles on the crest of a wave,
while hesitation and delay leave us stranded in
shoal water. If we would follow the pillar, we
must follow it at once.

A heart that waits and watches for God’s direc¬
tion, that uses common sense as well as faith to
unravel small and great perplexities, and is willing
to sit loose to the present, however pleasant, in
order that it may not miss the indications which
say “Arise! this is not your rest” — fulfils the
conditions on which, if we keep them, we may be
sure that He will guide us by the right way, and
bring us at last to the city of habitation.

XX.

IRfgbteousness jfuet, tben peace.

“First being by interpretation King of Righteousness, and after that
also King of Salem, which is King of Peace.” — Heb. vii. 2.

E mysterious figure of Melchisedec
is here taken as being a significant
allegory of Jesus Christ. That figure
starts out of the history in Genesis
with a strange abruptness. He unites
in himself the two offices, the separation of which
was essential in Judaism, and the union of which
has so often been a curse — of King and priest. He
has no recorded ancestors or predecessors, and no
sons or successors, and the absence of any mention
of those from whom he received, or to whom he
bequeathed, his double functions, suggested to the
author of Psalm cx. the use of Melchisedec as a
type of the eternal priesthood of the mysterious
monarch whose conquering kingdom he foretold.
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews echoes
the Psalm, but adds some other points to the
prophetic significance of the dim figure of that
ancient priest-king. His name is probably signifi¬
cant — “king of righteousness" — expressive of his
personal character, of the animating principle of

2[5

RIGHTEOUSNESS FIRST, THEN PEACE.

his dominion and the purpose of his reign. The
name of his city is significant — “ Salem " : that
is, peace. Amidst the barbarisms of the military
monarchies of the time, this strange figure stands as
a witness of the aspirations of man after a dominion
which is not a tyranny or founded on arbitrary will,
and of a realm in which the swords are beaten into
ploughshares and the spears into pruning-hooks.

But our writer sees still a further significance in
the order in which the names occur. Of course,
this is a play of fancy, but it is fancy which pierces
deeply into fact. Christ is “ King of Righteous¬
ness," and after that, and only “ after that, also
King of Peace." The order of designation is the
order of manifestation, and in it the writer finds a
symbol of some of the deepest things about Christ
and His kingdom. I want to point out in two or
three words some various applications of this
thought.

I— First, then, we find in this order a hieroglyphic
of Christ5 s reconciling work.

First, King of Righteousness, afterwards King
of Peace. There is no peace and amity with God
possible, except on the basis of righteousness. If
we are to believe that he is indifferent to moral
distinctions, and that men hating righteousness
and loving iniquity can live in friendship and
concord with Him, then all our hopes are gone,
and

The pillared firmament were rottenness,

And earth’s base built on stubble.

It is a true gospel, however harsh it sounds,
which proclaims “ Thou art not a God that hast

216

RIGHTEOUSNESS FIRST, THEN PEACE.

pleasure in iniquity, neither shall the wicked dwell
in Thy sight/' This is the dictate of conscience ;
this is the dictate of what people call “ natural
religion." This, the necessity of righteousness for
friendship with God, is the message of the old
covenant ; and this, the absolute need of purity
and cleanness of life and heart for all true enjoy¬
ment of the Divine favour, is Christ’s message as
truly.

Nay, further, the first thing which the Gospel —
which Christ, who is the Gospel — does when He
comes into a man’s heart is to emphasize two facts,
— the absolute need for righteousness in order to
friendship with God, and the want of it in the heart
to which He has come. And so the conflict is
intensified, the sense of discord is kindled, the
alienation between man and God is made conscious
on the first entrance of Christ into the spirit.
Instead of coming with peace, He comes with a
sword, a sword which pierces to the “ dividing
asunder of the joints and marrow and to the discern¬
ing of the thoughts and intents of the heart." The
oil comes after the arrow, the bandage after the
wound. The bandage and the oil have no blessing
or preciousness, except the wound and the arrow-
come first. And the first word of the peace-bringing
Christ, whose mission it is to reconcile men with
God, deepens and aggravates, sometimes to
despair, and always to bitterness, the consciousness
of a separation between man and God.

First, King of Righteousness, and after that
King of Peace. For when once the consciousness
of alienation, enmity (or at least the absence of

RIGHTEOUSNESS FIRST, , THEN PEACE.

217

concord), has been kindled in the heart, then the
next step is the gift of righteousness. “ Being
justified by faith we have peace with God.” We
do not need to plunge here into the subtleties of
technical theology, but here is the great message
round which all the power of Christianity has
centred, and from which it all flows, that by
humble faith in Jesus Christ, we may all be so
united to Him as that we may receive pard.on, and
stand before God as righteous, and obtain the grant
ot a true new spirit of righteousness and purity.
Christ, by our union with Him, becomes our
righteousness in no mere artificial and forensic
sense, but in this most deep and real sense, that
He, by His Divine power, pours Himself into the
trusting heart, and thereby turns its evil into good,
and makes it, though but in germ, in its deepest
centre righteous and loving righteousness. Joined
to Him, our faith receives the righteousness which
is of God, and is ours through Christ.

And so the peace comes. First, as King of
Righteousness, He bestows His own righteousness
upon us, and makes us, therefore, capable, and
only thereby capable of entering into loving rela¬
tionship with God Himself. On the hearts thus
pardoned and ’cleansed, as upon some mirror,
polished from its rust and stains, the living sun¬
shine can fall, and play, and create the image of
itself on the now brilliant but once dark surface.
He is King of Peace because He is King of
Righteousness.

Dear brethren, here are the two great principles
which this text enforces upon us : no peace with

1 8 RIGHTEOUSNESS FIRST, THEN PEACE.

God without righteousnesss ; no way of getting"
righteousness but union with Jesus Christ.

II. — And so, secondly, I see in this order a sum¬
mary of Christ’s operations in the individual soul.

There is no inward harmony, no peace of heart
and quietness of nature, except on condition of
being good and righteous men. The real root of
all our agitations and distractions is our sinfulness ;
and wherever there creeps over a heart the love of
evil, there comes, like some subtle sea-born mist
stealing up over the country and blotting out all
its features, a poisonous obscuration which shrouds
all the spirit in its doleful folds. Disturbance
comes not so much from outward causes as from an
inward alienation towards that which is pure and
good. “ The wicked is as the troubled sea that
cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.”
When your consciences are pulling one way and
your lusts another, when the flesh is fighting
against the spirit, and, if I may so say, the spirit
has its back to the wall and is vainly trying to beat
down the impulses of the stinging flesh; when
reason says, “ Don’t,” and inclination says, “But
I will,” what tranquillity is there possible for you ?
The only way by which we can walk in peace is by
living in righteousness. “ The work of righteous¬
ness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness
quietness and assurance for ever.”

And now, remember, by righteousness we do not
mean any abstract theological virtue, but we mean
the plain dictates of conscience obeyed ; that you
shall be good men, even in the world’s sense
of goodness ; we mean that you shall be

RIGHTEOUSNESS FIRST, THEN PEACE.

219

just, chaste, temperate, self-controlling, gentle,
placable, kind, enduring, practising “ whatsoever
things are lovely, and whatsoever things are of
good report.” And it is the hearty love of these,
and the continual cultivation of them, that alone
can bring secure peace to the heart. You will get
these, and the desire for them, only by keeping
close to Christ that He may bestow them, as He
will, upon you. Peace within comes from righteous¬
ness within, and no man is righteous unless he has
Christs righteousness for the very spring and
strength of his life.

HT — Thirdly, I see in this order the programme
of Christ’s operations in the world.

The herald angels sang “ on earth peace.”
Nineteen centuries have passed, and Christianity
is still a revolutionary and disturbing element
wherever it comes, and the promise seems to
linger, and the great words that declared “ Unto
us a child” should “ be born ” . . . and His

name shall be ... “ the Prince of Peace,”

seem as far away from fulfilment as ever they
were. Yes, because He is first of alt King of
Righteousness, and must destroy the evil that is in
the world before He can manifest Himself as King
of Peace.

So the very psalm on which my text is
founded, with its singular vision of a priest-
king scarcely paralleled in the whole course of
Messianic prophecy, whilst it sets forth the
dim figure of a priest after the order of Mel-
chisedec, arrays him in the garb of a warrior,
and shows us his armies following him in the

220

RIGHTEOUSNESS FIRST. THEN PEACE

conflict. David and Solomon have both to be
taken together, and in the order in which they
reigned, in order to complete the programme of
Christs work in the world. His coming brings
effervescence and tumult. “ Think not that I am
come to send peace on earth ; I came not to send
peace, but a sword.” And so, blessed be His
name ! it will always be. “ In righteousness He
doth judge and make war.” His kingdom of peace
will be set up through confusion and destruction,
overturning and overturning until the world has
learned to know and love His name. First, King
of Righteousness — that, at all hazards — that,
though conflict may dog His steps and warfare
ever wait upon Him — first, King of Righteousness,
and after that , King of Peace.

So learn the duty of His servants. There are
plenty ol us who seek in our religion comfort,
pleasant emotion, a sense of the Divine favour, an
assurance of pardon, a hope of Heaven, with a
great deal more earnestness than we seek in it a
means of conquering our own sins and of helping
us to conquer the world’s sin.

Let us beware of all forms of Christianity which
either fail to answer the question, “ How can an
unrighteous man find peace with God ? ” or
which fail to answer the question, “ How can I
make myself more and more pure and good ? ” or
which fail to send the Christian warrior out into
the world with a religion in his hand which is not
only his own balm and comfort, his own support
and strength, but also his weapon, mighty,
through God, to the pulling down of strongholds.

22 I

RIGHTEOUSNESS FIRST, THEN PEACE.

If we are the followers of the Prince of Peace, who
is, first of all, King of Righteousness, we are
called to be His faithful servants and soldiers.
For all the social evils that swarm round about us
to-day, intemperance, impurity, commercial dis¬
honesty, follies of fashionable and of social life and
the like, for all teachings that dim and darken the
face of His great counsel and purpose of mercy,
we are to cherish an undying hatred, and war
against them an unceasing warfare.

My text ought to be as a trumpet call to every
Christian man, banishing the foolish dreams of a
selfish and ignoble peace, and awaking him to the
consciousness that peace is only to be won through
long, continued conflict, and that to seek for
tranquillity before we have fought the fight is an
anachronism, and to indulge ourselves in quiet
repose whilst the world lieth in the wicked one is
treason to our Master and a misreading of His
Gospel. The “ men that turn the world upside
down ” was the designation of the early Christians,
Ye are called to peace, but ye are called to fight
for peace, and to win it by your swords. So far
to-day the task is conflict, and for to- morrow the
assurance is victory and repose.

IV. — And that brings me to the last word. I
see in this order the prophecy of the end.

The true Salem, the city of peace, is not here.
One more conflict every soldier of the Cross, ere
he treads its pavement, has to wage with the
last enemy who is to be destroyed by Jesus
Christ, but to be destroyed only at “the end/’ For
us and for the world the assurance stands firm that

222

RIGHTEOUSNESS FIRST , THEN PEACE.

the King, who Himself is Righteousness, is the
King whose city is peace. And that city will come.
“I saw the New Jerusalem descending out of
Heaven, as a bride adorned for her husband” and
within its streets there shall be no tumult nor con¬
flict, and its gates need not be “ shut day nor night.”
“ The kindly earth shall slumber,” lapped in uni¬
versal law,” the law of the King of Righteousness.
He at last, after that awful final conflict when the
armies of Heaven ride forth behind Him whose
name is the Word of God, shall be manifested as
the eternal and peaceful King.

So, dear brethren, the sum of the whole thing is,
peace is sure ; peace with God ; peace in my own
tranquil and righteous heart ; peace for a world,
from out of which sin shall be scourged ; peace is
sure, because righteousness is ours, since it is
Christ’s. And for ourselves, if we want — and who
does not want ?— to “ be found of Him in peace,
without spot blameless,” let us see to it that we
“ are found, not having our own righteousness, but
that which is of God through faith.” Christ is
King of Peace only to those to whom He has
become, through their humble trust, the King of
Righteousness.

XXI.

£be IRew IRame.

To him that overcometh will I give ... a new name
which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” — R.EV. ii. 17.

HE series of sevenfold promises
attached to these letters to the
Asiatic churches presents us with a
sevenfold aspect of future blessedness.
They begin with the reversal of man’s
first sorrow and the promise of regaining the lost
Paradise, the return of the “ statelier Eden,” and
full access to the tree of life. They end with
that beyond which nothing higher can be conceived
or experienced, a share in the royalty and the
throne of Jesus Christ Himself.

There may be traced in them many interesting
links of connection and sequence, as well as in
general a correspondence between them and the
trials or graces of the church addressed. In the
present case the little community at Pergamos
was praised because it held fast Christ’s name, and
so there is promised to it a new name as its very
own. I need not trouble you with any discussion
about what may be the significance of the “ white
stone” on which this new tname is represented

224

THE NEW NAME.

in the text as written. Commentators have in¬
dulged in a whirl of varying conjectures about
it, and no certainty has, as it seems to me,
been attained. The allusion is one to which we
have lost the key, and as I do not know what it
means I do not pretend to explain. Probably it
means nothing separately, and the “ white stone ”
only comes into vision as the vehicle on which is
inscribed the “ new name,” which is the substance
of the promise. At all events, it is that alone to
which I desire to turn your attention.

I. — Consider, first, the large hopes which gather
round this promise of a “ new name.”

Abraham and Jacob, in the Old Testament,
received new names from God ; Peter and the
sons of Zebedee in the New Testament, received
new names from Christ. In the sad latter day’s of
the Jewish monarchy, its kings, being deposed by
barbarian and pagan conquerors, 4were reinstated,
with new names imposed upon them by the
victors. In all these cases the imposition of the
new name implies authority and ownership on
the part of the giver ; and generally a relation¬
ship to the giver, with new offices, functions, and
powers on the part of the receiver. And so when
Christ from the heavens declares that He will
rename the conqueror, He asserts, on the one hand,
His own absolute authority over him, and, on the
other hand, His own perfect ^knowledge of the
nature and inmost being of the creature He
names. And, still further, He gives a promise
of a nature renewed, of new functions committed
to the conqueror, of new spheres, new closeness

THE NEW NAME

225

of approach to Himself, new capacities, and new
powers. Can we go any further ? The language
of my text warns us that we can go but a little
way. But still, reining in fancy, and trying to
avoid the temptations of cheap and easy rhetoric
and sentimental eloquence which attach to the
ordinary treatment of this subject, let me just
remind you that there are two things that shine
out plain and clear, in the midst of the darkness
and vagueness that surround the future glories of
the redeemed. The one is their closer relationship
to Jesus Christ ; the other is their possession, in
the ultimate and perfect state, of a body of which
the predicates are incorruption, glory, power, and
which is a fit organ for the spirit, even as the
present corporeal house in which we dwell is an
adequate organ for the animal life, and for that
alone. And if we hold fast to these two things,
the closer proximity to the Lord, and the wondrous
new relations into which we may enter with the
old Christ, and, on the other hand, the emancipa¬
tion from the limitations imposed upon will and
perception and action by the feeble body, and the
possession of an instrument which is up to all the
requirements of the immortal spirit, and works in
perfect correspondence with it, we can at least see
such things as the following.

The “ new name ” means new vision. We know
not how much the flesh, which is the organ of
perception for things sensible, is an obscuring,
blind, and impenetrable barrier between us and
the loftier order of things unseen, in which this
little sphere of the material and visible floats,

226

THE NEW NAME.

perishable as a soap-bubble with its iridescent
hues. But this we know, that when the stained
glass of life is shattered, the white light of Eternity
will pour in. And this we know, “ Now we see
through a glass darkly: then, face to face.” By
reason of the encompassing flesh, we see but a
reflection of the light. According to the great
myth of the old Greek philosopher to which Paul,
in the words quoted, has put his “Amen,” we
stand as in a cavern with our back to the light,
and we see the shadows reflected passing before
the mouth. But then, with the new name and the
closer relationship to Jesus Christ, we shall turn
ourselves from the reflections and to the light, and
shall see face to face.

The “ new name ” means new activities. We
know not how far these fleshly organs, which are
the condition of our working upon the outward
universe with which they bring us into connection,
limit and hem the operations of the spirit. But
this we know, that when that which is sown in
weakness is raised in power, when that which is
sown in corruption is raised in incorruption, when
that which is sown in dishonour is raised in glory,
we shall then possess an instrument adequate to
all that we can ask it to perform ; a perfect tool
for a perfected spirit. And, just as the fisherman,
when he was taken from his nets to be an
Apostle, was re-christened, so the saint, who has
been working here, down amidst the trivialities of
this poor material world, and learning his trade
tnereby, shall, when he is made a journeyman,
and set free from his apprenticeship, be renamed,

THE NEW NAME.

227

in token of larger functions in a nobler sphere,
and of wider service with better implements.
“ His servants shall serve him.” The strengths that
have been slowly matured here, and the faculties
which have been patiently polished and brought
to an edge, shall find their true field in work, of
sorts unknown, to which perhaps the conditions of
space that now hamper us shall be no impediment.

Further, the “new name” means new purity.
There are two words very characteristic of this
Book of the Apocalypse. One of them is that
word of my text, “new”— the “new Jerusalem,”
“ new heavens and a new earth,” a “ new song,”
a “ new name,” and the grand all-comprehensive
proclamation, “Behold, I make all things new.”
The other is “white,” not the cold, pallid white
that may mean death, but the flashing white, as
of sunshine upon snow, the radiant white of
purity smitten by Divinity, and so blazing up
into lustre that dazzles. There are “white
thrones,” and “ white robes,” and “white horses,”
and all these express one and the same
thing, namely, that one element in the newness
of the “ new name ” is spotless purity and super¬
nal radiance. Here, at the best, our whiteness
is but blackness washed, and on the road to be
cleansed.

The “new name” means new joys, which, in
comparison with the gladness of earth, shall be
like the difference between the blazing sunshine
on an ordinary June day, and the dim transient
gleams of an ordinary frosty December day.
Here and now, we know joy and sorrow as a

1 5 *

228

THE NEW NAME.

double star, one bright and the other dark, which
revolve round one centre, and with terrible swift¬
ness take each other’s places. But there, “thou
makest them drink of the river of Thy pleasures,”
and no longer shall we have to speak of them as
being —

Like the snowflakes on the river,

A moment white, then gone for ever,

but as sealed with the solemn seal of perpetuity,
and clarified into the utmost height of purity, and
calm with the majesty of a Divine tranquillity
after the pattern of His joy, that was full and
abode — an undisturbed and changing blessedness.

So, dear friends, new perceptions, new activities,
new moral perfectnesses, new gladnesses, these are
the elements which, without passing beyond the
soberest interpretation of the great promise of my
text, we may fairly see shining through it.

II. — I ask you to look, secondly, at the connec¬
tion between Christ’s “ new name,” and ours.

There is another promise in one of the other
letters, which is often read as if it covered the
same ground as that of my text, but which in
reality is different, though closely connected. In
the next chapter we read, in the 12th verse, “Him
that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple
of My God, and I will write upon him ” — perhaps
we may carry the metaphor of the pillar onwards
into this clause, and think of it as inscribed with
what follows— “ the name of My God ”— in token
of ownership— “ the name of the city of My God,
which is the ‘ new Jerusalem in token of
citizenship — “ and I will write upon him My ‘ new

THE NEW NAME,

229

name. That great promise links itself with that
of my text as being the plain ground of it, as will
appear if you will give me your attention for a few
moments.

What is this “new name” of Christ’s ? Obviously,
remembering the continual use of the word “name”
in Scripture, the new name of Jesus is a revelation of
His character, nature, and heart ; a new mani¬
festation of Himself to the glad eyes of those that
loved Him when they saw Him amidst the darkness
and the mists of earth, and so have been honoured
to see Him more clearly amidst the radiances of the
glories of Heaven.

Only remember that when we speak of a “ new
name ” of Christ’s as being part of the blessedness
of the future state to which we may humbly look
forward, there is implied no antiquating of the old
name. Nothing will ever make the Cross of Jesus
Christ less the centre of the revelation of God than
it is to-day. The world sweeps on, and when the
great ages of eternity have come, there will sink
beneath the horizon of the past many a tall column
that stands high and flashes lights from its summit
to-day. But no distance onwards, nor any fresh
illumination, will ever pale the light that shines
from the earthly manifestation and bitter passion
of the Christ, the Revealer of God. We antiquate
none of that light, because we look for a deeper
understanding of what, it reveals, when we come to
the loftier station of the heavens. And as for earth,
so for heaven. The paradox of this Apostle is true,
and Christ Himself will say to us then, “ Brethren!
I write no new commandment unto you, but an old.

230

THE NEW NAME ,

commandment which ye had from the beginning.
Again, a new commandment write I unto you,
because the darkness is past and the true light now
shineth.” The new name is the new name of the
old Christ.

Then what is the inscription of that name upon
the conqueror ? It is not merely the manifestation
of the revealed character of Jesus in new beauty,
but it is the manifestation of His ownership of His
servants by their transformation into His likeness,
which transformation is the consequence of their
new vision of Him. “ I will write upon him My
new name” is but saying in other words, “The
new revelation of My character, which he shall
receive, will be stamped upon his character, and
he shall become like Myself.” It is but putting
into picturesque form what this same Apostle said
in more abstract words when he declared, “ When
He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him, for
we shall see Him as He is.” Here we see Him as
He has become for our sins, and the imperfect
vision partially works likeness ; there seeing Him
as He is, we become as He is. The name is
inscribed upon the beholder as the sun makes an
image of itself on the photographic plate. If thou
wouldest see Christ, thou must be as Christ ; if
thou wouldest be as Christ, thou must see Christ.
“ We all, with unveiled faces, mirroring as a glass
does the glory of the Lord, are changed into the
same image.”

So, then, our “name” is Christ’s new name
stamped upon us. On the day of the bridal of the
Lamb and the Church, the bride takes her

THE NEW NAME.

231

Husband’s name, and all who love Him and pass
into His sweet presence in the Heavens, are named
by His new name because they partake of His life.
“ He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit,” and
Christ’s name is his name.

HI- — Again, notice, in the third place, the
blessed secret of this new name.

“ No man knoweth it save He that receiveth it.”
Of course not. There is only one way to know
the highest things in human experience, and that
is by possessing them. Nobody can describe love,
sorrow, gladness, so as to awaken a clear concep¬
tion of them in hearts that have never experienced
them. And so poetry goes side by side with man
through the ages, and is always foiled in its efforts,
and feels that it has not yet reached the heart of
the mystery that it tries to speak. Its words
awaken memories in those only who have already
known the things, and you can no more impart a
knowledge of the deepest human experiences to
men who have not experienced them than you can
describe an odour or a taste. That is eminently
true about religion, and it is most of all true about
that perfect future state.

“ No man knoweth it saving he that receiveth
it.” Well, then, when we go one inch beyond the
utterances of Him that does know — that is, Jesus
Christ — then we get into dreams and errors. And
we can no more conceive that future life, apart
from the utterances of our Lord, either from His
own lips or through His inspired servants, than an
unborn child can construct a picture of the world
that it has never seen. A chrysalis, lying under

232

THE NEW NAME.

ground, would know about as much of what it
would be like when it had got its wings and lived
upon sweetness, and flashed in the sunshine, as a
man when he lets his imagination attempt to
construct a picture of another life. I abjure all
such. I try to speak plain inferences from
manifest certitudes of Scripture. And I beseech
you to remember that for us the curtain is the
picture, and that the more detailed and precise
descriptions of that future life are, whether in
popular religious books or elsewhere, the more
sure they are to be wrong. Death keeps his secret
well, and we have to pass his threshold before we
know what lies beyond.

But more than that. That same blessed mystery
lies round about the name of each individual
possessor, to all but himself. That sounds a ques¬
tionable joy. We know how sad it is to be unable
to speak our deepest selves to our dearest ones,
and feel as if no small part of that future blessedness
lay in the thought of the power of absolute self-
impartation down to the very roots of our being.
And I do not think that my text denies that. The
New Testament teaches us that the redeemed shall
“ be manifested,” and shall be able, therefore, to
reveal themselves to the very secret foundations of
their being. And yet each eye shall see its own
rainbow, and each will possess in happy certitude
of individual possession a honeyed depth of sweet
experience which, after all glad revelation, will
remain unrevealed, the basis of the being, the deep
foundation of the blessedness. Just as we shall
know Christ perfectly, and bear His new name

THE NEW NAME

233

inscribed upon our foreheads, and yet He has “ a
name which no man knoweth but He Himself/’ so
the mystery of each redeemed soul will still remain
impenetrable to others. But it will be a mystery
of no painful darkness, nor making any barrier
between ourselves and the saints whom we
love.

Rather it is the guarantee of an infinite variety
in the manner of possessing the one name. All
the surrounding diamonds that are set about the
central blaze shall catch the light on their facets,
and from one it will come golden, and from
another violet, and another red, and another
flashing and pure white. Each glorified spirit
shall reveal Christ, and yet the one Christ shall
be manifested in infinite variety of forms, and the
total summing up of the many reflections will be
the image of the whole Lord. As the old Rabbis
named the angels that stood round the Throne of
God by divers names, expressive of the divers
forms which the one Divine presence assumed to
them, and called one Gabriel, “ God, my strength ” ;
and another Uriel, “God, my light” ; and another
Raphael, “ God, the Healer ” ; and another
Michael, “Who is like God?” so, as we stand
about the Christ, we shall diversely manifest His
one glory, one after this manner and another after
that.

IV. — Lastly, note the giving of the new name to
the victors.

The language of my text involves two things :
“To him that overcometh,” lays down the condi¬
tions ; “ Will I give,” lays down the cause of the

234

THE NEW NAME .

possession of the “ new name ” — that is to say,
this renovation of the being, and efflorescence
into new knowledges, activities, perfections, and
joy is only possible on condition of the earthly
life of obedience and service and conquest. It is
no arbitrary bestowment of a title. The conqueror
gets the name that embodies his victories, and
without conquering a man cannot receive it. It is
not dying that fits a man for heaven, or makes it
possible for God to give it him. God would give
it him if He could, but God cannot. The limita¬
tion, inseparable from His being, and from the
nature of the gift, lies here — “ To him that over-
cometh,” and only to him, “ will I give.” The
name corresponds to the reality, and in heaven
men are called what they are.

But while the conquering life here is the condi¬
tion of the gift, it is none the less a gift. That
heavenly blessedness is not the necessary conse¬
quence of earthly faithfulness. It is not a case of
evolution, but of bestowal by God’s free love in
Christ. The power by which we conquer is His
gift. The life which He crowns is His gift, and
when He crowns it, it is His own grace in it
which He crowns. “ The gift of God is eternal
life.”

So, my friends, here is the all-important truth
for us all. u This is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith ” ; and that faith is
victorious in idea and germ, as soon as it
begins to abide in a man’s heart. If he were
to die the moment after having yielded him¬
self to Christ in faith, he would be a victor, and

THE NEW NAME.

235

capable of the crown which God will give to those
who overcome, whether they have fought for the
twelve hours of the conflict or but for a moment at
its close. This great promise is held out to each
of us. It opens before us the sure prospect of
blessedness, progress, power and joy, shoreless
and infinite, unspeakable after all speech, and
certain as yesterday. Either that prospect is
before us or its dark opposite. We shall either
conquer by Christ's faith and in Christ’s strength
and so receive His Divine name, or else be beaten
by the world and the flesh and the devil, and so
bear the image of our conquerors. I beseech you,
make your choice that you will be of those who,
having got the victory over the beast and his
image and the number of his name, stand at last
on the sea of glass with the harps of God, and sing
a song of thanksgiving to Him by whom they
have overcome, and whose image and name they
bear.

XXII.

“ £be Ibeavenlp IDiston."

“ Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the
heavenly vision.” — Acts xxvi. 19.

HIS is Paul's account of the decisive
moment in his life on which all his
own future, and a great deal of the
future of Christianity and of the
world, hung. The gracious voice
had spoken from heaven, and now everything
depended on the answer made in the heart of the
man lying there blind and amazed. Will he rise
melted by love, and softened into submission, or
hardened by resistance to the call of the exalted
Lord r The somewhat singular expression, which
he employs in the text, makes us spectators of the
very process of his yielding. For it might be
rendered, with perhaps an advantage, “ I became
not disobedient"; as if the “disobedience" was
the prior condition, from which we see him in the
very act of passing, by the melting of his nature
and the yielding of his will. Surely there have
been few decisions in the world’s history big with
larger destinies than that which the captive

THE HEAVENLY VISION

237

described to Agrippa in the simple words: “I
became net disobedient to the heavenly vision.”

I. — Note, then, first, that this heavenly vision
shines for us too.

Paul throughout his whole career looked back
to the miraculous appearance of Jesus Christ in
the heavens, as being equally available as valid
ground for his Christian convictions as were the
appearances of the Lord in bodily form to the
eleven after His resurrection. And I may venture
to work the parallel in the inverse direction,
and to say to you that what we see and know
of Jesus Christ is as valid a ground for our
convictions, and as true and powerful a call
for our obedience, as when the heaven was rent,
and the glory above the mid-day sun bathed the
persecutor and his followers on the stony road to
Damascus. For the revelation that is made to the
understanding and the heart, to the spirit and the
will, is the same whether it be made, as it was to
Paul, through a heavenly vision, or, as it was to
the other Apostles, through the facts of the life,
death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, which
their senses certified to them or, as it is to us,
by the record of the same facts, permanently en¬
shrined in Scripture. Paul’s sight of Christ was
for a moment ; we can see Him as often and as
long as we will, by turning to the pages of this
Book. Paul’s sight of Christ was accompanied
with but a partial apprehension of the great and
far-reaching truths which he was to learn and to
teach, as embodied in the Lord whom he saw.
To see Him was the work of a moment, to “know

238 THE HEAVENLY VISION.

Him ” was the effort of a lifetime. We have the
abiding results of the life-long process lying ready
to our hands in Paul’s own letters, and we have
not only the permanent record of Christ in the
Gospels instead of the transient vision in the
heavens, and the- unMding of the meaning and
bearings of the historical facts, in the authorita¬
tive teaching of the Epistles, but we have also, in
the history of the Church founded on these, in the
manifest workings of a Divine power for and
through the company of believers, as well as in the
correspondence between the facts and doctrines of
Christianity and the wants of humanity, a vision
disclosed and authenticated as heavenly, more
developed, fuller of meaning and more blessed to
the eyes which see it than was poured upon the
persecutor as he reeled from his horse on the way
to the great city.

Dear brethren, they who see Christ in the word,
in the history of the world, in the pleading of the
preacher, in the course of the ages ; and who some¬
times hear His voice in the warnings which He
breathes into their consciences, and in the illumina¬
tions which he flashes on their understanding,
need ask for no loftier, no more valid and irre¬
fragable manifestion of His gracious self. To
each of us this vision is granted. May I say,
without seeming egotism, to you it is granted even
through the dark and cloudy envelope of my poor
words r

II. — The vision of Christ, howsoever perceived,
comes demanding obedience.

The purpose for which Jesus Christ made Him-

THE HEAVENLY VISION.

239

self known to Paul was to give him a charge which
should influence his whole life. And the manner
in which the Lord, when He had appeared, pre¬
pared the way for the charge was twofold. He
revealed Himself in His radiant glory, in His
exalted being, in His sympathetic and mysterious
unity with them that loved Him and trusted Him,
in His knowledge of the doings of the persecutor ;
and He disclosed to Saul the inmost evil that
lurked in his own heart, and showed him, to his
bewilderment and confusion, how the thing that
he thought to be righteousness and service was
blasphemy and sin. So by the manifestion of
Himself enthroned omniscient, bound by the
closest ties of identity and of sympathy with all
that love Him, and by the disclosure of the
amazed gazer’s evil and sin, Jesus Christ opened
the way for the charge which bore in its very heart
an assurance of pardon, and was itself a manifes¬
tation of His love.

In like manner all heavenly visions are meant
to secure human obedience. We have not done
what God means us to do with any knowledge of
Him which He grants, unless we utilise it to drive
the wheels of life and carry it out into practice in
our daily conduct. Revelation is not meant to
satisfy mere curiosity or the idle desire to know.
It shines above us like the stars, but, unlike them,
it shines to be the guide of our lives. And what¬
soever glimpse of the Divine nature, or of Christ’s
love, nearness, and power, we have ever caught,
was meant to bow our wills in glad submission,
and to animate our hands for diligent service and

240

THE HEAVENLY VISION.

to quicken our feet to run in the way of His com¬
mandments.

There is plenty of idle gazing, with more or
less of belief, at the heavenly vision. I beseech
you to lay to heart this truth, that Christ rends
the heavens and shows us God, not that men
may know, but that men may, knowing, do ; and
all His visions are the bases of His command¬
ment. So the question for us all is, What are we
doing with what we know of Jesus Christ r
Nothing? Have we translated our thoughts of
Him into actions, and have we put all our actions
under control by our thoughts of Him ? It is not
enough that a man should say, “ whereupon I saw
the vision/' or, “ whereupon I was convinced of the
vision," or, u whereupon I understood the vision.'
Sight, apprehension, theology, orthodoxy, they are
all very well, but the right result is, “ whereupon
I was not disobedient to the Heavenly vision." And
unless your knowledge of Christ makes you do, and
keep from doing, a thousand things, it is only an
idle vision, which adds to your guilt.

But notice, in this connection, the peculiarity of
the obedience which the vision requires. There is
not a word in this story of Paul’s conversion about
the thing which Paul himself always puts in the
foreground as the very hinge upon which conver¬
sion turns — viz., faith. Not a word. The name is
not here, but the thing is here, if people will look.
For the obedience which Paul says that he
rendered to the vision was not rendered with his
hands. He got up to his feet on the road there,
“not disobedient," though he had not done a

THE HEAVENLY VISION.

241

thing. This is to say, the man’s will had melted.
It had all gone with a run, so to speak, and the
inmost being of him was subdued. The obedience
was the submission of self to God, and not the
more or less diligent and continuous consequent
external activity in the way of God’s command¬
ments. Further, Paul’s obedience is also an
obedience based upon the vision of Jesus Christ
enthroned, living, bound by ties, that thrill at the
slightest touch, to every heart that loves Him and
making common cause with him.

And, furthermore, it is an obedience based upon
the shuddering recognition of Paul’s own un¬
suspected evil and foulness, how all the life, that he
had thought was being built up into a temple that
God would inhabit, was rottenness and falsehood.
And it is an obedience, further, built upon the
recognition of pity and pardon in Christ, who,
after His sharp denunciation of the sin, looks
down from heaven with a smile of forgiveness
upon His lips, and says : “ But rise and stand
upon thy feet, for I will send thee to make known
My name.”

An obedience which is the inward yielding of
the will, which is all built upon the revelation of
the living Christ, Who was dead and is alive for
evermore, and close to all His followers ; and is,
further, the thankful tribute of a heart that knows
itself to be sinful, and is certain that it is for¬
given — what is that but the obedience which is of
faith ? And thus, when I say the heavenly vision
demands obedience, I do not mean that Christ
shows Himself to you to set you to work, but I

1 6

242

THE HEAVENLY VISION.

mean that Christ shows Himself to you, that you
may yield yourselves to Him, and in the act may
receive power to do all His sweet and sacred will.

III.— Thirdly, this obedience is in our own power
to give or to withhold.

Paul, as I said in my introductory remarks, puts
us here as spectators of the very act of submission.
He shows it to us in its beginning — he shows us
the state from which he came and that into which
he passed, and he tells us, “ I became not dis¬
obedient/’ In his case it was a complete, swift
and permanent revolution, as if some thick-ribbed
ice should all at once melt into sweet water. But
whether swift or slow, it was his doing, and after
the Voice had spoken it was possible that Paul
should have resisted, and risen from the ground,
not a servant, but a persecutor still. For God’s
grace constrains no man, and there is always the
possibility open that when He calls we refuse,
and that when He beseeches we say “ I will
not.”

There is the mystery on which the subtlest
intellects have tasked their powers and blunted the
edge of their keenness in all generations ; and it is
not going to be settled in five minutes of a sermon
of mine. But the practical point that I have to
urge is simply this : there are two mjrsteries, the
one that men can, and the other that men do ,
' resist Christ’s pleading voice. As to the former,
we cannot fathom it. But do not let any difficulty
deaden to you the clear voice of one’s own con¬
sciousness. If I cannot trust my sense that I can
do this thing or not do it, as I choose, there is

THE HEAVENLY VISION.

243

nothing that I can trust. Will is the power of
determining which of two roads I shall go, and,
strange as it is, incapable of statement in any
more general terms than the reiteration of the
fact; yet here stands the fact, that God, the in¬
finite Will, yet has given to men, whom He made
in His own image, this inexplicable and awful
power of coinciding with or opposing His purposes
and His voice.

“ Our wills are ours, we know not how ;

Our wills are ours, to make them Thine.”

For the other mystery is, that men do con¬
sciously set themselves against the will of God,
and refuse the gifts which they know all the
while are for their good. It is no use to say that
sin is ignorance. No ; that is only a surface ex¬
planation. You and I know too well that many
a time when we have been as sure of what God
wanted us to do as if we had seen it written in
flaming letters on the sky there, we have gone and
done the exact opposite. I know that there are
men and women who are convinced in their inmost
souls that they ought to be Christians, and that
Jesus Christ is pleading with them at the present
hour, and yet in whose hearts there is no yielding
to what, they yet are certain, is the will and voice
of Jesus Christ.

IV. — Lastly, this obedience may, in a moment,
revolutionize a life.

Paul rode from Jerusalem breathing out
threatenings and slaughters. He fell from his
war horse, a persecutor of Christians, and a
bitter enemy of Jesus. A few moments pass

244

THE HEAVENLY VISION.

There was one moment in which the crucial
decision was made ; and he staggered to his feet,
loving all that he had hated, and abandoning all
in which he had trusted. His own doctrine, that
“ if any man be in Christ he is a new creature,
old things are passed away and all things are
become new” is but a generalization of what
befell himself on the Damascus road. It is no
use trying to say that there had been a warfare
going on in this man’s mind long before, of which
his complete capitulation was only the final visible
outcome. There is not a trace of anything of the
kind in the story. It is a pure hypothesis pressed
into the service of the anti-supernatural explanation
of the story.

There are plenty of analogies of such sudden and
entire revolution. All reformation of a moral kind
is best done quickly. It is a very hopeless task, as
everybody knows, to tell a drunkard to break off
his habits gradually. There must be one moment
in which he definitely turns himself round and sets
his face in the other direction. Some things are
best done with slow, continuous pressure ; other
things need to be done with a wrench if they are to
be done at all.

There used to be far too much insistance upon
one type of religious experience, and all men that
were to be recognised as Christians were, by Evan¬
gelical Nonconformists, required to be able to point
to the moment when, by some sudden change, they
passed from darkness to light. We have drifted
away from that very far now, and there is need for
insisting, not upon the necessity, but upon the

THE HEAVENLY VISION.

245

possibility of sudden conversions. However some
may try to show that such experiences cannot be,
the experience of every earnest Christian teacher
can answer — well ! whether they can be or not,
they are. Jesus Christ cured two men gradually,
and all the others instantaneously. No doubt, for
young people who have been born amidst Christian
influences, and have grown up in Christian house¬
holds, the usual way of becoming Christians is
that slowly and imperceptibly they shall pass into
the consciousness of communion with Jesus Christ.
But for people who have grown up irreligious and,
perhaps, profligate and sinful, the most probable
way is a sudden stride out of the kingdom of
darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.
So I come to you all, with this message.
No matter what your past, no matter how
much of your life may have ebbed away, no
matter how deeply rooted and obstinate may be
your habits of evil, no matter how often you may
have tried to mend yourself and have failed, it is
possible by one swift act of surrender to break the
chains and go free. In every man’s life there
have been moments into which years have been
crowded, and which have put a wider gulf be¬
tween his past and his present self than many
slow, languid hours can dig. A great sorrow, a
great joy, a great, newly-discerned truth, a great
resolve will make “one day as a thousand
years.” Men live through such moments and feel
that the past is swallowed up as by an earthquake.
The highest instance of thus making time elastic
and crowding it with meaning is when a man forms

246

THE HEAVENLY VISION.

and keeps the swift resolve to yield himself to
Christ. It may be the work of a moment, but it
makes a gulf between past and future, like that which
parted the time before and the time after that in
which “ God said, Let there be light : and there was
light.” If you have never yet bowed before the
heavenly vision and yielded yourself as conquered
by the love which pardons, to be the glad servant
of the Lord Jesus who takes all His servants into
wondrous oneness with Himself, do it now. You
can. Delay is disobedience, and may be death.
Do it now, and your whole life will be changed.
Peace and joy and power will come to you, and
you, made a new man, will move in a new world
of new relations, duties, energies, loves, gladnesses,
helps, and hopes. If you take heed to prolong the
point into a line, and hour by hour to renew the
surrender and the cry “ Lord, what wilt Thou have
me to do ? ” you will ever have the vision of the
Christ enthroned, pardoning, sympathising, and
commanding, which will fill your sky with glory,
point the path of your feet, and satisfy your gaze
with His beauty, and your heart with His all-
sufficing and ever-present love.

XXI LI.

<Xbe Cbreefolb Common Ibentage.

“ I, John, your brother, and partaker with you m the tribulation and
kingdom and patience which are in Jesus.” — Rev. i. 9 (Revised
Version).

O does the Apostle introduce himself
to his readers ; with no word of pre¬
eminence or of apostolic authority,
but with the simple claim to share
with them in their Christian heri¬
tage. And this is the same man who, at an
earlier stage of his Christian life, desired that he
and his brother might “ sit on Thy right hand and
on Thy left in Thy Kingdom.” What a change
had passed over him ! What was it that our. of
such timber made such a polished shaft ? I think
there is only one answer — the resurrection of Jesus
Christ and the gift of God’s good Spirit that came
after it.

It almost looks as if John was thinking about
his old ambitious wish, and our Lord’s answer to
it, when he wrote these words ; for the very gist
of our Lord’s teaching to him on that memorable
occasion is reproduced in compressed form in my

text. He had been taught that fellowship in

..... ' \

248 THE THREEFOLD COMMON HERITAGE.

Christ’s sufferings must go before participation in
His throne; and so here he puts tribulation before
the kingdom. He had been taught, in answer to
his foolish request, that pre-eminence Avas not the
first thing. to think of, but service; and that the
only principle according to which rank was deter¬
mined in that kingdom was service. So here he
says nothing about dignity, but calls himself
simply a brother and companion. He humbly
suppresses his apostolic authority, and takes his
place, not by the side of the throne, apart from
others, but down among them.

Now, the Revised Version is distinctly an im¬
proved version in its rendering of these words.
It reads “ partaker with you,” instead of “com¬
panion,” and so emphasizes the notion of partici¬
pation. It reads, “ in the tribulation and kingdom
and patience,” instead of “in tribulation and in
the kingdom and patience ” ; and so, as it were,
brackets all the three nouns together under one
preposition and one definite article, and thus shows
more closely their connection. And instead of “ in
the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ,” it
reads, “which are in Jesus Christ,” and so shows
that the predicate, “ in Christ Jesus,” extends to
all the three — the ‘‘tribulation,” the “kingdom,”
and the “ patience,” and not only to the last of the
three, as would be suggested to an ordinary reader
of our English version. So that we have here a
participation by all Christian men in three things,
all of which are, in some sense, “ in Christ Jesus.”
Note that participation in “ the kingdom ” stands
in the centre, buttressed, as it were, on the one side

THE THREEFOLD COMMON HERITAGE. 249

by participation “ in the tribulation,” and on the
other side by participation “in the patience/ We
may, then, best bring- out the connection and force
of these thoughts by looking at the common
royalty, the common road leading to it, and the
common temper in which the road is trodden all
which things do inhere in Christ, and may be ours
on condition of our union with Him.

I. — So then, first, note the common royalty.
“ I, John, am a partaker with you in the king^
dom.”

Now John does not say, “ I am going to be a
partaker,” but says, “Here and now, in this little
rocky island of Patmos, an exile and all but a
martyr, I yet, like all the rest of you, who have
the same weird to dree, and the same bitter cup to
drink, even now am a partaker of the kingdom
that is in Christ/'

What is that kingdom r It is the sphere or
society, the state or realm, in which His will is
obeyed ; and, as we may say, His writs run. His
kingdom, in the deepest sense of the word, is only
there, where loving hearts yield, and where His
will is obeyed consciously, because the conscious
obedience is rooted in love.

But then, besides that, there is a wider sense ol
the expression, in which Christ’s kingdom stretches
all through the universe, and wherever the autho¬
rity of God is, there is the kingdom of the exalted
Christ, who is the right hand and active power of
God.

So then the “kingdom that is in Christ” is yours
if you are “ in Christ/’ Or, to put it into other

250

THE THREEFOLD COMMON HERITAGE.

words, whoever is ruled by Christ has a share in
rule with Christ. Hence the words in the context
here, to which a double meaning may be attached,
“ He hath made us to be a kingdom/' We are
His kingdom in so far as our wills joyfully and
lovingly submit to His authority; and then, in so
far as we are His kingdom, we are kings. So far
as our wills bow to and own His sway, they are
invested with power to govern ourselves and
others. His subjects are the world’s masters.
Even now, in the midst of confusions and rebel¬
lions, and apparent contradictions, the true rule in
the world belongs to the men and women who bow
to the authority of Jesus Christ. Whoever worships
Him, saying, “Thou art the King of Glory, O
Christ,” receives from Him the blessed assurance,
“ and I appoint unto you a kingdom.” His vassals
are altogether princes. He is “'King of kings,”
not only in the sense that He is higher than the
kings of the earth, but also in the sense, though it
be no part of the true meaning of the expression,
that those whom He rules are, by the very submis¬
sion to His rule, elevated to royal dignity.

We rule over ourselves, which is the best king¬
dom to govern, on condition of saying : — “ Lord !
I cannot rule myself ; do Thou rule me.” When we
put the reins into His hands, when we put our
consciences into His keeping, when we take our
law from His gentle and yet sovereign lips, when
we let Him direct our thinking ; when His word is
absolute truth that ends all controversy, and when
His will is the supreme authority that puts an end
to every hesitation and reluctance, then we are

THE THREEFOLD COMMON HERITAGE .

251

masters of ourselves. The man that has rule over
his own spirit is the true king'. He that thus is
Christ’s man is his own master. Being lords of
ourselves, and having- our foot upon our passions,
and conscience and will flexible in His hand and
yielding to His lightest touch, as a fine-mouthed
horse does to the least pressure of the bit, then we
are masters of circumstances and the world ; and
all things are on our side if we are on Christ s
side.

So we do not need to wait for Heaven to be
heirs, that is possessors, of the kingdom that God
hath prepared for them that love Him. Christ s
dominion is shared even now and here by all who
serve Him. It is often hard for us to believe this
about ourselves or others, especially when toil
weighs upon us, and adverse circumstances, against
which we have vainly striven, tyrannise over our
lives. We feel more like powerless victims than lords
of the world. Our lives seem concerned with such
petty trivialities, and so absolutely lorded over by
externals, that to talk of a present dominion over
a present world seems irony, flatly contradicted by
facts. We are tempted to throw forward the real¬
isation of our regality to the future. We are heirs,
indeed, of a great kingdom, but for the present are
set to keep a small huckster’s shop in a Dack street
So we faithlessly say to ourselves ; and we need to
open our eyes, as John would have his brethren do,
to the fact of the present participation of every
Christian, in the present kingdom of the enthroned
Christ. There can be no more startling anomalies
in our lots than were in his, as he sat there in

252 THE THREEFOLD COMMON HERITAGE.

Patmos, a solitary exile, weighed upon with many
cares, ringed about with perils not a few. But in
them all he knew his share in the kingdom to be
real and inalienable, and yielding much for present
fruition, however much more remained over for
hope and future possession. The kingdom is not
only “of” but “in” Jesus Christ. He is, as it
were, the sphere in which it is realised. If we are
“ in Him ” by that faith which engrafts us into
Him, we shall ourselves both be and possess that
kingdom, and possess it, because we are it.

But, while the kingdom is present, its perfect
form is future. The crown of righteousness is laid
up for God’s people, even though they are already
a kingdom, and already (according to the true read¬
ing of Rev. v. io) “ reign upon the earth.” Great
hopes, the greater for their dimness, gather round
that future when the faithfulness of the steward
shall be exchanged for the authority of the ruler,
and the toil of the servant for the joy of the Lord.
The presumptuous ambition of John in his early
request did not sin by setting his hopes too high
for, much as he asked when he sought a place at
the right hand of his Master’s throne, his wildest
dreams fell far below the reality, reserved for all
who overcome, of a share in that very throne itself.
There is room there, not for one or two of the
aristocracy of heaven, but for all the true servants
of Christ.

They used to say that in the days of the first
Napoleon every French soldier carried a field-
marshal’s baton in his knapsack. That is to say,
every one of them had the chance of winning it,

THE THREEFOLD COMMON HERITAGE.

2 C

and many of them did win it. But every Christian
soldier carries a crown in his, and that not because
he perhaps may, but because he certainly will, wear
it, when the war is over, if he stands by his flag,
and because he has it already in actual possession,
though for the present the helmet becomes his
brow rather than the diadem. On such themes
we can say little, only let us remember that the
present and the future life of the Christian are
distinguished, not by the one possessing the
royalty which the other wants, but as the partial
and perfect forms of the same Kingdom, which,
in both forms alike, depends on our true abiding
in Him. That kingdom is in Him, and is the
common heritage of all who are in Him, and who,
on earth and in heaven, possess it in degrees
varying accurately with the measure in which they
are in Christ, and He in them.

II. — Note, secondly, the common road to that
common royalty.

As I have remarked, the kingdom is the central
thought here, and the other two stand on either
side as subsidiary : on the one hand, a common
“ tribulation ” ; on the other, a common “ patience.”
The former is the path, by which all have to travel
who attain the royalty ; the latter is the common
temper, in which all the travellers must face the
steepnesses and roughnesses of the road.

“ Tribulation ” has, no doubt, primarily reference
to actual persecution, such as had sent John to
his exile in Patmos, and hung like a threatening
thunder-cloud over the Asiatic churches. But the
significance of the word is not exhausted thereby.

254

THE THREEFOLD COMMON HERITAGE .

It is always true that “ through much tribulation
we must enter the kingdom.” All who are bound
to the same place, and who start from the same
place must go by the same road. There are no
short cuts nor bye-paths for the Christian pilgrim.
The only way to the kingdom that is in Christ is
the road which He Him sell trod. There is
“ tribulation in Christ,” as surely as in Him there
are peace and victory, and if we are in Christ we
shall be sure to get our share of it. The Christian
course brings new difficulties and trials of its own,
and throws those who truly out-and-out adopt it
into relations with the world which will surely
lead to oppositions and pains. If we are in the
.world as Christ was, we shall have to make up our
minds to share “ the reproach of Christ ” until
Egypt owns Him and not Pharaoh for its King.
If there be no such experience, it is much more
probable that the reason for exemption is the
Christian’s worldliness than the world’s growing
Christlikeness.

No doubt the grosser forms of persecution are
at an end, and no doubt multitudes of nominal
Christians live on most amicable terms with the
world, and know next to nothing of the tribulation
that is in Christ. But that is not because there is
any real alteration in the consequences of union
with Jesus, but because their union is so very
slight and superficial. The world “ loves its own,”
and what can it find to hate in the shoals of people,
whose religion is confined to their tongues mostly,
and has next to nothing to do with their lives r It
has not ceased to be a hard thing to be a real and

THE THREEFOLD COMMON HERITAGE.

255

thorough Christian. A great deal in the world is
against us when we try to be .so, and a great deal
in ourselves is against us. There will be “ tribu¬
lation ” by reason of self-denial, and the mortifica¬
tion and rigid suppression or regulation of habits,
tastes, and passions, which some people may be
able to indulge, but which we must cast out,
though dear and sensitive as a right eye,, if they
interfere with our entrance into life. The law is
unrepealed — “ If we suffer with Him, we shall also
reign with Him.” . .

But this participation in the tribulation that is
in Christ has another and gentler aspect. The
expression points to the blessed softening of our
hardest trials when they are borne in union with
the Man of Sorrows. The sunniest lives have
their dark times. Sooner or later we all have to
lay our account with hours when the heart bleeds
and hope dies, and we shall not find strength to
bear such times aright, unless we bear them in union
with Jesus Christ, by which our darkest sorrows
are turned into the tribulation that is in Him, and
all the bitterness, or, at least, the poison of
the bitterness, taken out of them, and they
almost changed into a solemn joy. Egypt would
be as barren as the desert which bounds it, were it
not for the rising of the Nile ; so when the cold
waters of sorrow rise up and spread over our
hearts, if we are Christians, they will leave a
precious deposit when they retire, on which will
grow rich harvests. Some edible plants are not
fit for use till they have had a touch of frost.
Christian character wants the same treatment.

256 THE THREEFOLD COMMON HERITAGE.

It is needful for us that the road to the kingdom
should often run. through the valley of weeping.
Our being in the kingdom depends upon the
bending of our wills in submission to the King ;
then surely nothing should be more welcome to
us, as nothing can be more needful, than anything
which bends them, even if the fire which makes
their obstinacy pliable, and softens the iron so
that it runs in the appointed mould, should have
to be very hot. The soil of the vineyards on the
slopes of Vesuvius is disintegrated lava. The
richest grapes, from which a precious wine is
made, grow on the product of eruptions which
tore the mountain side and darkened all the sky.
So our costliest graces of character are grown in a
heart enriched by losses and made fertile by con¬
vulsions which rent it and covered smiling verdure
with what seemed at first a fiery flood of ruin. The
kingdom is reached by the road of tribulation.
Blessed are they for whom the universal sorrows
which flesh is heir to become helps heavenwards
because they are borne in union with Jesus, and so
hallowed into “tribulation that is in Him/’

III. — We note the common temper in which the
common road to the common royalty is to be
trodden.

“Tribulation” refers to circumstances — “pa¬
tience” to disposition. We shall certainly meet
with tribulation if we are Christians, and if we
are, we shall front tribulation with patience. Both
are equally, though in different ways, characteristics
of all the true travellers to the kingdom. Patience
is the link, so to speak, between the kingdom and

THE THREEFOLD COMMON HERITAGE.

257

the tribulation. Sorrow does not of itself lead to
the possession of the kingdom. ^All depends on
the disposition which the sorrow evokes, and the
way in which it is borne. We may take our
sorrows in such a fashion as to be driven by them
out of our submission to Christ, and so they may
lead us awa}r from and not towards the kingdom.
The worst affliction is an affliction wasted, and
every affliction is wasted, unless it is met with
patience, and that in Christ Jesus. Many a man
is soured, or paralysed, or driven from his faith, or
drowned in self-absorbed and self-compassionating
regret, or otherwise harmed by his sorrows, and
the only way to get the real good of them is to
keep closely united to our Lord, that in Him we
may have patience as well as peace.

Most of us know that the word here translated
“patience” means a great deal more than the
passive endurance which we usually mean by that
word, and distinctly includes the notion of active
perseverance. That active element is necessarily
implied, for instance, in the exhortation, “ Let us
run with patience the race that is set before us.”
Mere uncomplaining passive endurance is not the
temper which leads to running any race. It
simply bears and does nothing, but the persistent
effort of the runner with tense muscles calls for
more than patience. A vivid metaphor underlies
the word — that of the fixed attitude of one bearing
up a heavy weight or pressure without yielding or
being crushed. Such immovable constancy is
more than passive. There must be much active
exercise of power to prevent collapse. But all the

258

THE THREEFOLD COMMON HERITAGE.

strength is not to be exhausted in the effort to
bear without flinching. There should be enough
remaining for work that remains over and above
the sorrow. The true Christian patience implies
continuance in well-doing, besides meek accept¬
ance of tribulation. The first element in it is, no
doubt, unmurmuring acquiescence in whatsoever
affliction from God or man beats against us on our
path. But the second is, continual effort after
Christian progress, notwithstanding the tribula¬
tion. The storm must not blow us out of our
course. We must still “bear up and steer right
onward/' in spite of all its force on our faces, or,
as “ birds of tempest-loving kind ” do, so spread
our pinions as to be helped by it towards our
goal.

Do I address anyone who has to stagger
along the Christian course under some heavy and,
perhaps, hopeless load of sorrow ? There is a plain
lesson for all of us in such circumstances. It is
not less my duty to seek to grow in grace and
Christlikeness because I am sad. That is my first
business at all times and under all changes of
fortune and mood. My sorrows are meant to help
me to that, and if they so absorb me that I am
indifferent to the obligation of Christian progress,
then my patience, however stoical and uncom¬
plaining it may be, is not the “ perseverance that
is in Christ Jesus.” Nor does tribulation absolve
from plain duties. Poor Mary of Bethany sat
still in the house, with her hands lying idly in her
lap, and her regrets busy with the most unprofit¬
able of all occupations — fancying how different all

THE THREEFOLD COMMON HERITAGE,

259

would have been if one thing had been different.
Sorrow is excessive or misdirected and selfish, and
therefore hurtful, when for the sake of indulgence
in it we fling up plain tasks. The glory of the
kingdom shining athwart the gloom of the tribu¬
lation should help us to be patient, and the
patience, laying hold of the tribulation by the
right handle, should convert it into a blessing and
an instrument for helping us to a fuller possession
of the kingdom.

This temper of brave and active persistence in
the teeth of difficulties will only be found where
these other two are found — in Christ. The stem
from which that three-leaved plant grows must be
rooted in Him. He is the King, and in Him
abiding, we have our share of the common royalty.
He is the forerunner and pathfinder, and, abiding
in Him, we tread the common path to the common
kingdom, which is hallowed at every rough place
by the print of His bleeding feet. He is the leader
and perfecter of faith, and, abiding in Him, we
receive some breath of the spirit which was in
Him, who for the joy that was set before Him,
endured the Cross, despising the shame. Abiding
in Him, we shall possess in our measure all which
is in Him, and find ourselves partakers with an
innumerable company “ in the tribulation and
kingdom and patience which are in Christ Jesus/'
and may hope to hear at last, “ Ye are they which
have continued with Me in My temptations, and I
appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath
appointed unto Me."

i7*

XXIV.

anathema anb (Brace.

The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand. If any man love
not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be
with you all in Christ Jesus.” — i Cor. xvi. 21-24.

RROR and tenderness are strangely-
mingled in this parting salutation,
which was added to the letter writ¬
ten by an amanuensis, in the great
characters shaped by Paul’s own
hand. He has been obliged, throughout the whole
epistle, to assume a tone of remonstrance abun¬
dantly mingled with irony and sarcasm and
indignation. He has had to rebuke the Corin¬
thians for many faults, party spirit, lax morality,
toleration of foul sins, grave abuses in their
worship even at the Lord’s Supper, gross errors in
opinion in the denial of the Resurrection. And in
this last solemn warning he traces all these vices
to their fountain-head — the defect of love to Jesus
Christ — and warns of their fatal issue. “ Let him
be Anathema.”

But .he will not leave these terrible words for his
last. The .thunder is followed by gentle rain, and

ANATHEMA AND GRACE. 261

the sun glistens on the dewdrops. “ The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” Nor for
himself will he let the last impression be one of
rebuke or even of warning. He desires to show
that his heart yearns over them all ; so he gathers
them all — the partisans ; the poor brother that has
fallen into sin ; the lax ones who, in their mis¬
placed tenderness, had left him in his sin ; the
misguided reasoners who had struck the Resurrec¬
tion out of the articles of the Christian creed — he
gathers them all into his final salutation, and he
says, “Take and share my love — though I have
had to rebuke — amongst the whole of you.”

Is not that beautiful ? And does not the juxta¬
position of such messages in this farewell go
deeper than the revelation of Paul’s character r
May we not see, in these terrible and tender
thoughts thus inextricably intertwined and braided
together, a revelation of the true nature both of the
terror and the tenderness of the Gospel which Paul
preached r It is from that point of view that I
want to look at them now.

I. — I take first that thought, the terror of the

fate of the unloving.

Now, I must ask you for a moment’s attention
in regard of these two untranslated words,
Anathema Maran-atha. The first thing to be
noticed is that the latter of them stands inde¬
pendently of the former, and forms a sentence by
itself, as I shall have to show you presently.
“ Anathema ” means an offering, or a thing
devoted ; and its use in the New Testament arises
from its use in the Greek translation of the Old

202

ANATHEMA AND GRACE.

Testament, where it is employed for persons and
things that, in a peculiar sense, were set apart and
devoted to God. In the story of the conquest of
Canaan, for instance, we read of Jericho and other
places, persons, or things that were, as our version
somewhat unfortunately renders it, u accursed/' or
as it ought rather to be rendered, “ devoted/' or
put under a ban. And this “ devotion " was of
such a sort as that the things or persons devoted
were doomed to destruction. All the dreadful
things that were done in the conquest were the
consequences of the persons that endured them
being thus “consecrated," in a very dreadful
sense, or set apart for God. The underlying idea
was that evil things brought into contact with
Him were necessarily destroyed with a swift
destruction. That being the meaning of the word,
it is clear that its use in my text is distinctly
metaphorical, and that it suggests to us that the
unloving, like those cities full of uncleanness,
when they are brought into contact with the
infinite love of the coming Judge, shrivel up and
are destroyed.

The other word, “ Maran-atha," as I said, is to
be taken as a separate sentence. It belongs to
the dialect which was probably the vernacular of
Palestine in the time of Paul, and to which belong,
for the most part, the other untranslated words
that are scattered up and down the Gospels, such
as “ Aceldama," “ Eph-pha-tha," and the like. It
means “ our Lord comes." Why Paul chose to
use that untranslated scrap of another tongue
in a letter to a Gentile Church we cannot tell

ANATHEMA AND GRACE. 263

Perhaps it had come to be a kind of watchword
amongst the early Jewish Christians, which came
naturally to his lips. But, at any rate, the use of it
here is distinctly to confirm the warning of the
previous clause, by pointing to the time at which
that warning shall be fulfilled. “ If any man love
not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be devoted and
destroyed. Our Lord comes.” The only other
thing to be noticed by way of introduction is that
this first clause is not an imprecation, nor any
wish on the part of the Apostle, but is a solemn
prophetic warning (acquiesced in by every
righteous heart) of that which will certainly come.
The significance of the whole may be gathered
into one simple sentence — the coming of the Lord
of Love is the destruction of the unloving.

“ Our Lord comes.” Paul’s Christianity gathered
round two facts and moments — one in the past,
Christ has come ; one in the future, Christ will
come. For memory, the coming by the cradle
and the Cross; for hope, the coming on His
throne in glory ; and between these two moments,
like the solid piers of a suspension bridge, the frail
structure of the present hangs swinging. In this
day men have lost their expectation of the one,
and to a large extent their faith in the other. But
we shall not understand Scripture unless we seek
to make as prominent in our thoughts as on its
pages that second coming as the complement and
necessary issue of the first. It stands stamped on
every line. It colours all the New Testament
views of life. It is used as a motive for every duty,
and as a magnet to draw men to Jesus Christ by

264

ANATHEMA AND GRACE.

salutary dread. There is no hint in my text about
the time of the Lord’s coming, no disturbing of the
solemnity of the thought by non-essential details
of chronology, so we may dismiss these from our
minds. The fact is the same, and has the same
force as a motive upon life, whether it is to be
fulfilled in the next moment or thousands of years
hence, provided only that you and I are to be
there when He comes.

There have been many comings in the past,
besides the comings in the flesh. The days of the
Lord that have already appeared in the history of
the world are not few. One characteristic is
stamped upon them all, and that is the swift
annihilation of what is opposed to Him. The
Bible has a set of standing metaphors by which to
illustrate this thought of the Coming of the Lord — -
“ a flood,” “ a harvest ” when the ears are ripe for
the sickle, the waking of God from slumber, and
the like ; all suggesting similar thoughts. The
day of the Lord, the coming of the Lord, will
include and surpass all the characteristics which
these lesser and premonitory judgment days
presented in miniature. I do not enlarge on
this theme. I would not play the orator about
it if I could ; but I appeal to your consciences,
which, in the case of most of us, not only
testify of right and wrong, but of responsibility,
and suggest a Judge to whom we are responsible.
And I urge on each, and on myself, this simple
question : Have I allowed its due weight on my
life and character to that watchword of the ancient
church — Maran-atha , “ our Lord cometh ” r

ANATHEMA AND GRACE. 265

Now, the coming of the Lord of Love is the
annihilation of the unloving. The destruction
implied in Anathema does not mean the cessation
of Being, but a death which is worse than death,
because it is a death in life. Suppose a man with
all his past annihilated, with all its effort foiled
and crushed, with all its possessions evaporated
and disappeared, and with his memory and his
conscience stung into clear-sighted activity, so as
that he looks back upon his former self and into
his present self, and feels that it is all waste and
chaos, would not that fulfil the word of my text —
“ Let him be Anathema ” ? And suppose that such
a man, in addition to these thoughts, and as the
root and the source of them, had ever the
quivering consciousness that he was and must be
in the presence of an unloved Judge ; have you
not there the naked bones of a very dreadful
thing, which does not need any tawdry eloquence
of man to make it more solemn and more real r
The unloving heart is always ill at ease in the
presence of Him whom it does not love. The
unloving heart does not love, because it does not
trust, nor see the love. Therefore, the unloving
heart is a heart that is only capable of apprehend¬
ing the wrathful side of Christ's character. It is a
heart devoid of the fruits of love which are likeness
and righteousness, “ without which no man shall
see the Lord,” nor stand the flash of the brightness
of His coming. So there is no cruelty, no arbi¬
trariness in the decree that the heart that loves
not, when brought into contact with the infinite
Lord of Love, must find in the touch death and not

266

ANATHEMA AND GRACE.

life, darkness and not light, terror and not hope.
Notice that Paul’s negation is a negation and
not an affirmation. He does not say “he that
hateth,” but “ he that doth not love.” The absence
of the active emotion of love, which is the child of
faith, the parent of righteousness, the condition of
joy in His presence, is sufficient to ensure that this
fate shall fall upon a man. I durst not enlarge. I
leave the truth on your hearts.

II. — Secondly, notice the present grace of the
coming Lord. “ Our Lord cometh. The grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” These
two things are not contradictory, but we often deal
with them as if they were. And some men lay
hold of the one side of the antithesis, and some
men lay hold of the other, and rend them apart, and
make antagonistic theories of Christianity out of
them. But the real doctrine puts the two together
and says there is no terror without tenderness, and
there is no tenderness without terror. If we sacri¬
fice the aspects of the Divine nature, as revealed
to us in the gentle Christ, which kindle a whole¬
some dread, we have, all unwittingly, robbed the
aspects of the Divine nature, which warm in us a
gracious love, of their power to inflame and to
illuminate. You cannot have love which is any¬
thing nobler than facile good nature and un¬
righteous indifference, unless you have along with
it aspects of God’s character and government
which ought to make some men afraid. And you
cannot keep these latter aspects from being exag¬
gerated and darkened into a Moloch of cruelty,
unless you remember that, side by side with them,

ANATHEMA AND GRACE.

267

or rather underlying them and determining them,
are aspects of the Divine nature to which only
child-like confidence and calm beatific returns of
love do rightly respond. The terror of the Lord
is a garb which our sins force upon the love of
the Lord. And when the one is presented it
brings with it the other. Never should they be
parted in our thoughts or in our teaching.

Note what that present grace is. It is a tender¬
ness which gathers into its embrace all these
imperfect, immoral, lax, heretical people in Corinth,
as well as everywhere else — “ The grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” There were
men in that church that said, “ I am of Paul, I of
Apollos, I of Cephas, I of Christ/' There were men
in that church that had defiled their souls and their
flesh, and corrupted the community, and blasphemed
the name of Christ by such foul, sensual sin as was
not even named among the Gentiles/' There
were men in that church so dead to all the sanctities
even of the communion-table as that, with the
bread between their teeth and the wine-cup in their
hands, one was hungry and another drunken.
There were men in that church, whose Christianity
was so anomalous and singularly fragmentary that
they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.
And yet Paul flings the great rainbow, as it were,
of Christ’s enclosing love over them all. And
surely the love which gathers in such people leaves
none outside its sweep ; and the tenderness which
stoops from heaven to pity, to pardon, to cleanse
such is a tenderness to which the weakest, saddest,
sinfullest, foulest of the sons of men may confi-

268

ANATHEMA AND GRACE.

dently resort. Let nothing rob you of this
assurance, that Christ, the coming Lord, is present
with us all, and with all our weak and wicked
brethren, in the full- condescension of His all-
embracing, all-hoping, all-forgetting, and all¬
restoring love. All that we need, in order to get
its full sunshine into our hearts, is that we trust
Him utterly, and, so trusting, love Him back again
with that love which is the fulfilling of the Law and
the crown of the Gospel.

III. — And now, lastly, note the tenderness,
caught from the Master Himself, of the servant
who rebukes. «

This last message of love from the Apostle him¬
self, in verse 24, is quite anomalous. There is no
other instance in his letters where he introduces
himself and his own love at the end, after he has
pronounced the solemn benediction commending
to Christ’s grace. But here, as if he had felt that
he must leave an impression of himself on their
minds, which corresponded to the impression of his
Master that he desired to leave, he deviates from
his ordinary habit, and makes his last word a
personal word — “ My love be with you all in Christ
Jesus.” Rebuke is the sign of love. Sharp con¬
demnation may be the language of love. Plain
warning of possible evils is the simple duty of
love. So Paul folds all whom he has been
rebuking in the warm embrace of his proffered
love, which was the very cause of his rebuke. The
healing balm of this closing message was to be
applied to the wounds which his keen edged words
had made, and to show that they were wounds by

ANATHEMA AND GRACE .

269

a surgeon, not by a foe. In effect, this parting
smile of love says : “ I am not become your enemy
because I tell you the truth ; I show my love to
you by the plainness and roughness of my words/’
Generalize that, free it from its personal reference,
and it just comes to this : There never was a
shallower sneer than the sneer which is cast at
Christianity, as if it were harsh, “ferocious,” or
unloving, when it preaches the terror of the Lord.
No ! rather, because the Gospel is a Gospel, it
must speak plainly about death and destruction to
the unloving. The danger signal is not to be
blamed for a collision, which it is hoisted to avert ;
and it is a strange sign of an unfeeling and unsym¬
pathetic, or of a harsh and gloomy system, that it
should tell men where they are driving, in order
that they may never reach the miserable goal.
“Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we
persuade men.” And when people say to us
preachers, “ Is that your Gospel, a Gospel that
talks about everlasting destruction from the
presence of the Lord at the glory of His coming — is
that your Gospel ?” We can only answer, Yes ! it
is. Because, so to talk, may, by God’s mercy,
secure that some who hear shall never know
anything of the wrath, save the hearing of it with
the ear, and may, by the warning of it, be drawn
to the Rock of Ages for safety and shelter from
the storm.

Therefore, dear friends, the upshot of all that
I have been feebly trying to say is just this :
let us lay hold with all our hearts, and by
simple faith, of the present grace of the coming,

270

ANATHEMA AND GRACE.

loving Lord and Judge. You can do it. It is
your only hope to do it. Have you done it ?
If so, then you may lift up your heads to the
throne, and be glad, as those who know that their
Friend and Deliverer will come at last, to help, to
bless, to save. If not, dear friend, take the
warning, that not to love is to be shrivelled like a
leaf in the flame, at that coming which is life to
them that love, and destruction to all besides.
“ Herein is our love made perfect, that we may
have boldness before Him in the day of judgment.’’

XXV.

£be Supreme

“ Teach me to do Thy will ; for Thou art my God: Thy spirit is good;
lead me into the land of uprightness.” — Ps. cxliii. io.

HESE two clauses mean substantially
the same thing. The Psalmist’s
longings are expressed in the first of
them in plain words, and in the
second in a figure. “To do God’s
will ” is to be in “ the land of uprightness.” That
phrase, in its literal application, means a stretch
of level country, and hence is naturally em¬
ployed as an emblem of a moral or religious
condition. A life of obedience to the will of God
is likened to some far-stretching plain, easy to
traverse, broken by no barren mountains or frown¬
ing cliffs, but basking, peaceful and fruitful,
beneath the smile of God. Into such a garden of
the Lord the Psalmist prays to be led.

In each case his prayer is based upon a motive
or plea. Thou art my God.” His faith appre¬
hends a personal bond between him and God, and

272 THE SUPREME DESIRE OF THE DEVOUT SOUL.

feels that that bond obliges God to teach him His
will. If we adopt the readings in our Bibles of our
second clause a still deeper and more wonderful
plea is presented there. “ Thy spirit is good, and
therefore the trusting spirit has a right to ask to
be made good likewise. The relation of the
believing spirit to God not only obliges God to
teach it His will, but to make it partaker of His
own image and conformed to His own purity. So
high on wings of faith and desire soared this man,
who, at the beginning of his psalm was crushed to
the dust by enemies and by dangers. So high we
may rise by like means.

X. _ Notice, then, first, the supreme aim of the

devout soul.

We do not know who wrote this psalm. The
superscription says that it was David s. And
although its place in the Psalter seems to suggest
another author, the peculiar fervour and closeness
of intimacy with God which breathes through it
are like the Davidic psalms, and seem to confirm
the superscription. If so, it will naturally fall into
its place with the others which were pressed from
his heart by the persecution under Absalom. But
be that as it may, whosoever wrote the psalm,
he was a man in extremest misery and peril, and,
as he says of himself, “ persecuted,” “ over¬
whelmed,5’ “ desolate.” The tempest blows him
to the Throne of God ; and when he is there,
what does he ask? Deliverance? Scarcely. In
one clause, and again at the end, as if by a kind
of after-thought, he asks for the removal of the
calamities. But the main burden of his prayer is

THE SUPREME DESIRE OF THE DEVOUT SOUL. 273

for a closer knowledge of God; the sound of His
loving-kindness in his inward ear, light to show
him the way wherein he should walk, and the
sweet sunshine of God’s face upon his heart.
There is a better thing to ask than exemption
from sorrows, even grace to bear them rightly.
The supreme desire of the devout soul is
practical conformity to the will of God. For the
prayer of our text is not “Teach me to know Thy
will.” The Psalmist, indeed, has asked that in a
previous clause — “ Cause me to know the way
wherein I should walk.” But knowledge is not all
that we need, and the gulf between knowledge and
practice is so deep that after we have prayed that
we may be caused to know the way, and have
received the answer, there still remains the need
for God’s help that knowledge may become life,,
and that all which we understand we may do.
To such practical conformity to the will of God
all other aspects of religion are meant to be sub¬
servient.

Christianity is a revelation of truth, but to accept
it as such is not enough. Christianity brings to
me exemption from punishment, escape from hell,,
deliverance from condemnation and guilt. And
by some of us that is apt to be regarded as the
whole Gospel ; but pardon is only a means to an
end. Christianity brings to us the possibility of
indulgence in sweet and blessed emotions, and a
fervour of feeling which to experience is the ante-
past of heaven. And for some of us, all our
religion goes off in vaporous emotion ; but feeling
alone is not Christianity. Our religion brings to

274

THE SUPREME DESIRE OF THE DEVOUT SOUL .

us sweet and gracious consolations, but it is a poor
affair if we only use it as an anodyne and a
comfort. Our Christianity brings to us glorious
hopes that flash lustre into the darkness, and
make the solitude of the grave companionship,
and the end of earth the beginning of life. But it
is a poor affair if the mightiest operation of our
religion be relegated to a future, and flung on to
the close. All these things, the truth which the
Gospel brings, the pardon and peace of conscience
which it ensures, the joyful emotion which it sets
loose from the ice of indifference, the sweet conso¬
lations with which it pillows the weary head and
bandages the bleeding heart, and the great hopes
which flash light into glazing eyes, and make the
end glorious with the rays of a beginning, and the
western heaven bright with the promise of a new
day — all these things are but subservient means to
this highest purpose, that we should do the will of
God, and be conformed to His image. They
whose religion has not reached that apex have yet
to understand its highest meaning. The river of
the water of life that proceeds from the Throne of
God and the Lamb is not sent merely to refresh
thirsty lips, and to bring music into the silence of a
waterless desert, but it is sent to drive the wheels
of life. Action, not thought, is the end of God’s
revelation, and the perfecting of man.

But, then, let us remember that we shall most
imperfectly apprehend the whole sweep and
blessedness of this great supreme aim of the
devout soul, if we regard this doing of God’s will
as merely the external of obedience to an external

THE SUPREME DESIRE OF THE DEVOUT SOUL. 275

command. Simple doing is not enough ; the deed
must be the fruit of love. The aim of the Chris¬
tian life is not obedience to a law that is recognised
as authoritative, but joyful moulding of ourselves
after a law that is felt to be sweet and loving.
“I delight to do Thy will, yea! Thy law is
within my heart.” Only when thus the will
yields itself in loving and glad conformity to
the will of God is true obedience possible for us.
Brother! Is that your Christianity? Do you
desire, more than anything besides, that what He
wills you should will, and that His law should be
stamped upon your hearts, and all your rebellious
desires and purposes should be brought into a
sweet captivity which is freedom, and an obedi¬
ence to Christ which is Kingship over the universe
and yourselves ?

II. — Note, secondly, the Divine teaching and
touch which are required for this conformity.

The Psalmist betakes himself to prayer, because
he knows that of himself he cannot bring his will
into this attitude of harmonious submission. And
his prayer for “teaching” is deepened in the second
clause of our text into a petition, which is substan¬
tially the same in meaning, but yet sets the felt
need and the coveted help in a still more striking
light, in its cry for the touch of God’s good spirit
to guide, as by a hand grasping the Psalmist’s
hand, into the paths of obedience.

We may learn from this prayer, then, that prac¬
tical conformity to God’s will can never be attained
by our own efforts. Remember all the hindrances

that rise between us and it ; these wild passions of

18*

276 THE SUPREME DESIRE OF THE DEVOUT SOUL.

ours, this obstinate gravitating of tastes and
desires towards earth, these animal necessities,
these spiritual perversities, which make up so
much of us all — how can we coerce these into
submission? Our better selves sit within like
some prisoned king, surrounded and “ fooled by
the rebel powers” of his revolted subjects; and
our best resource is to send an embassy to the
over-lord, the Sovereign King, praying Him to
come to our help. We cannot will to will as God
wills, but we can turn ourselves to Him, and ask
Him to put the power within us which shall
subdue the evil, conquer the rebels, and make
us masters of our own else anarchic and troubled
spirits. For all honest attempts to make the will
of God our wills, the one secret of success is con¬
fident and continual appeal to Him. A man must
have gone a very little way, very superficially and
perfunctorily, on the path of seeking to make him¬
self what he ought to be, unless he has found out
that he cannot do it, and unless he has found out that
there is only one way to do it, and that is to go to
God and say, “ O Lord ! I am baffled and beaten.
I put the reins into Thy hand ; do Thou inspire
and direct and sanctify.”

That practical conformity to the will of God
requires Divine teaching. But yet that teaching
must be no outward thing. It is not enough that
we should have communicated to us, as from
without, the clearest knowledge of what we ought
to be. There must be more that that. Our
Psalmist’s prayer was a prophecy. He said,
“ Teach me to do Thy will.” And he thought, no

THE SUPREME DESIRE OF THE DEVOUT SOUL. 277

doubt, of an inward teaching which should mould
his nature as well as enlighten it ; of the com¬
munication of impulses as well as of conceptions ;
of something which should make him love the
Divine will, as well as of something which should
make him know it.

You and I have Jesus Christ for our Teacher, the
answer to the Psalm. His teaching is inward and
deep and real, and answers to all the necessities of
the case. We have His example to stand as our
perfect law. If we want to know what is God’s
will, we have only to turn to that life ; and how¬
ever different from ours His may have been in its
outward circumstances, and however fragmentary
and brief its records in the Gospels may sometimes
seem to us, yet in these little booklets, telling of
the quiet life of the Carpenter’s Son, there is guid¬
ance for every man and woman in all circumstances,
however complicated. And we do not need any¬
thing more to teach us what God’s will is than the
life of Jesus Christ. His teaching goes deeper than
example. He comes into our hearts, He moulds
our wills. His teaching is by inward impulses and
communications of desire and power to do, as well
as of light to know. A law has been given which
can give life. As the modeller will take a piece of
wax into his hand, and by warmth and manipula¬
tion make it soft and pliable, so Jesus Christ, if we
let Him, will take our hard hearts into His hands,
and by gentle, loving, subtle touches, will shape
them into the pattern of His own perfect beauty,
and will mould all their vagrant inclinations and
aberrant distortions into “ one immortal feature of

278 THE SUPREME DESIRE OF THE DEVOUT SOUL .

loveliness and perfection.” “ The grace of God that
bringeth salvation has appeared unto all men
teaching that, denying ungodliness and worldly
lusts, we should live soberly,” controlling ourselves,
“ righteously,” fulfilling all our obligations to our
fellows, “ and godly,” referring everything to Him,
“ in this present world.”

That practical conformity to the Divine will
requires, still further, the operation of the Divine
Spirit as our guide. “ Thy Spirit is good ; lead
me into the land of uprightness.” There is only
one power that can draw us out of the far-off
land of rebellious disobedience, where the prodigals
and the swine’s husks and the famine and the
rags are, into the “ land of uprightness,” and that
is, the communicated Spirit of God, which is
given to all them that desire it, and will lead
them in paths of righteousness for His name’s
sake. It is He that works in us, the willing and
the doing, according to His own good pleasure.
“ He shall guide you,” said the Master, “unto all
truth ” — not merely into its knowledge, but into its
performance ; not merely into truth of conception,
but into truth of practice, which is righteousness,
and the fulfilling of the Law.

III. — Lastly, note the Divine guarantee that this
practical conformity shall be ours.

The Psalmist pleads with God a double motive —
His relation to us and His own perfectness,
“ Thou art my God ; therefore teach me.” “ Thy
Spirit is good ; therefore lead me into the land of
uprightness.” I can but glance for a moment at
these two pleas of the prayer.

THE SUPREME DESIRE OF THE DEVOUT SOUL. 279

Note, then, first, God’s personal relation to the
devout soul, as the guarantee that that soul shall
be taught, not merely to know, but also to do
His will. If He be “ my God,” there can be no
deeper desire in His heart, than that His will
should be my will. And this He desires, not
from any masterfulness or love of dominion, but
only from love to us. If He be my God, and
therefore longing to have me obedient, He will
not withhold what is needed to make me so. God
is no hard taskmaster who sets us to make bricks
without straw. Whatsoever He commands He
gives, and His commandments are always second
and His gifts first. He bestows Himself and then
He says, “ For the love’s sake, do My will.” Be
sure that the sacred bond which knits us to Him
is regarded by Him, the faithful Creator, as an
obligation which He recognises and respects and
will discharge. We have a right to go to Him
and to say to Him, “ Thou art my God ; and Thou
wilt not be what Thou art, nor do what Thou hast
pledged Thyself to do, unless Thou makest me to
know and to do Thy will.”

And, on the other hand, if we have taken Him
for ours, and have the bond knit from our side as
well as from His, then the fact of our faith gives
us a claim on Him which He is sure to honour.
The soul that can say, “I have taken Thee for
mine,” has a hold on God which God is only too
glad to recognise and to vindicate. And whoso¬
ever, humbly trusting to that great Father in the
heavens, feels that he belongs to God, and that God
belongs to him, is warranted in saying, u Teach me,.

j>8o THE SUPREME DESIRE OF THE DEVOUT SOUL.

and make me to do Thy will,” and in being con¬
fident of an answer.

And there is the other plea with Him and
guarantee for us, drawn from God’s own moral
character and perfectness. The last clause of my
text may either be read as our Bible has it, “ Thy
Spirit is good ; lead me,” or “ Let Thy good
Spirit lead me.” In either case the goodness of
the Divine Spirit is the plea on which the prayer
is grounded. The goodness here referred to is, as I
take it, not merely beneficence and kindliness, but
rather goodness in its broader and loftier sense of
perfect moral purity. So that the thought just
comes to this — we have the right to expect that
we shall be made participant of the Divine nature.
So sweet, so deep, so tender is the tie that knits a
devout soul to God, that nothing short of con¬
formity to the perfect purity of God can satisfy
the aspirations of the creature or discharge the
obligations of the Creator.

It is a daring thought. The Psalmist’s desire
was a prophecy. The New Testament vindicates
and fulfils it when it says “ We shall be like Him,
for we shall see Him as He is.” Since he now
dwells in “ the land of uprightness,” who once dwelt
among us in this weary world of confusion and of
sin, then we one day shall be with Him. Christ’s
heart cannot be satisfied ; Christ’s Cross cannot be
rewarded ; the Divine nature cannot be at rest ;
the purpose of redemption cannot be accomplished,
until all that have trusted in Christ be partakers
of Divine purity, and all the wanderers be led by
devious and yet by right paths, by crooked and

THE SUPREME DESIRE OF THE DEVOUT SOUL. 281

yet by straight ways, by places rough and yet
smooth, into “the land of uprightness.” Where
and what He is, there and that shall also His
servants be.

My brother ! If to do the will of God is to
dwell in the land of uprightness, disobedience is
to dwell in a dry and thirsty land, barren and
dreary, horrid with frowning rocks and jagged
cliffs, where every stone cuts the feet and every
step is a blunder, and all the paths end at last on
the edge of an abyss, and crumble into nothingness
beneath the despairing foot that treads them. Do
you see to it that you walk in ways of righteous¬
ness which are paths of peace ; and look for all
the help you need, with assured faith, to Him who
shall guide us by His counsel and afterwards
receive us to His glory.

XXVI.

Gbe Delays of Xove.

“ Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When He
had heard, therefore, that he was sick, He abode two days still in the
same place where He was.” — John xi. 5, 6.

E learn from a later verse of this
chapter that Lazarus had been dead
four days, when Christ reached
Bethany. The distance from that
village to the probable place of
Christ’s abode, when He received the message, was
about a day’s journey. If, therefore, to the two
days on which He abode still after the receipt of the
news, we add the day which the messengers took to
reach Him and the day which He occupied in
travelling, we get the four days since which
Lazarus had been laid in his grave. Consequently,
the probability is that, when our Lord got the
message, the man was dead. Christ did not
remain still, therefore, in order to work a greater
miracle by raising Lazarus from the dead than He
would have done by healing, but He stayed —
strange as it would appear — for reasons closely
connected with the highest well-being of all the
beloved three, and because He loved them.

THE DELAYS OF LOVE.

283

John is always very particular in his use of that
word “ therefore,” and he points out many a subtle
and beautiful connection of cause and effect by his
employment of it. I do not know that any of them
are more significant and more full of illumination
with regard to the ways of Divine providence than
the instance before us. How these two sisters
must have looked down the rocky road, that led up
from Jericho, during those four weary days, to see if
there were any signs of His coming ! How strange
it must have appeared to the disciples themselves
that He made no sign of movement, notwithstand¬
ing the message! Perhaps Johns scrupulous
carefulness, in pointing out that His love was
Christ's reason for His quiescence, may reflect a
remembrance of the doubts, that had crept over the
minds of himself and his brethren, during these two
days of strange inaction. The evangelist will have
us learn a lesson, which reaches far beyond the
instance in hand, and casts light on many dark
places.

I. — Christ's delays are the delays of love.

We have all of us, I suppose, had experience of
desires for the removal of bitterness or sorrows, or
ior the fulfilment of expectations and wishes, which
we believed, on the best evidence that we could find,
to be in accordance with His will, and which we
have been able to make prayers out of, in true faith
and submission, which prayers have had to be
offered over and over and over again, and no
answer has come. It is part of the method of
Providence that the lifting away of the burden and
the coming of the desires should be a hope deferred.

284

THE BELAYS OF LOVE.

And instead of stumbling at the mystery, or feeling
as if it made a great demand upon our faith, would
it not be wiser for us to lay hold of that little word
of the Apostle’s here, and to see in it a small
window that opens out on to a boundless prospect,
and a glimpse into the very heart of the Divine
motives in His dealings with us ?

If we could once get that conviction into our
hearts, how quietly we should go about our work !
What a beautiful and brave patience there would
be in us, if we habitually felt that the only reason
which actuates God’s providence in its choice of
times of fulfilling our desires and lifting away our
bitterness is our own good ! Nothing but the
purest and simplest love, transparent and without
a fold in it, sways Him in all that He does. Why
should it be so difficult for us to believe this ? If
we were more in the way of looking at life, with
all its often unwelcome duty, and its arrows of
pain and sorrow, and all its disappointments, and
other ills that it is heir to, as a discipline, and
were to think less about the unpleasantness, and
more about the purpose, of what befalls us, we
should find far less difficulty in understanding
that the delay is born of the love, and is a token
* of His tender care.

Sorrow is prolonged for the same reason as it was
sent. It is of little use to send it for a little while.
In the majority of cases, time is an element in its
working its right effect upon us. If the weight
is lifted, the elastic substance beneath springs up
again. As soon as the wind passes over the corn¬
field, the bowing ears raise themselves. You have

THE BELAYS OF LOVE.

285

to steep foul things in water for a good while
before the pure liquid washes out the stains. And
so time is an element in all the good that we get
out of the discipline of life. Therefore, the same
love which sends must necessarily protract, beyond
our desires, the discipline under which we are
put. If we thought of it, as I have said, more
frequently as discipline and schooling, and less
frequently as pain and a burden, we should under¬
stand the meaning of things a great deal better
than we do, and should be able to face them with
braver hearts, and with a patient, almost joyous,
endurance.

If we think of some of the purposes of our sor¬
rows and burdens, we shall discern still more
clearly that time is needed for accomplishing them,
and that, therefore, love must delay its coming to
take them away. For example, the object of
them all, and the highest blessing, that any of us
can obtain, is that our wills should be bent until
they coincide with God's, and that takes time.
The shipwright when he gets a bit of timber
that he wants to make a “knee" out of,
knows that to mould it into the right form
is not the work of a day. A will may be
broken at a blow, but it will take a while
to bend it. And just because swiftly pass¬
ing disasters have little permanent effect in
moulding our wills, it is a blessing, and not
an evil, to have some standing fact in our
lives, which will make a continual demand
upon us for continually repeated acts of bowing
ourselves beneath His sweet, though it may

286 THE DELAYS OF LOVE.

seem severe, will. God's love in Jesus Christ can
give us nothing better than the opportunity
of bowing our wills to His, and saying, “ Not
mine, but Thine be done." If that is why He
stops on the other side of Jordan, and does not
come even to the loving messages of beloved
hearts, then He shows His love in the sweetest
and the loftiest form. So, dear friends, if you
carry a life-long sorrow, do not think that it is a
mystery why it should lie upon your shoulders,
when there is Omnipotence and an infinite Heart
in the heavens. If it has the effect of bending you
to His purpose, it is the truest token of His loving
care that He can send. In like manner, is it not
worth carrying a weight of unfulfilled wishes, and
a weariness of unalleviated sorrows, if these do
teach us three things, which are one thing — faith,
endurance, prayerfulness, and so knit us by a
threefold cord that cannot be broken to the very
heart of God Himself ?

II. — This delayed help always comes at the right
time.

Do not let us forget that heaven’s clock is differ¬
ent from ours. In our day there are twelve hours,
and in God’s a thousand years. What seems long
to us is to Him “a little while." Let us not imitate
the short-sighted impatience of His disciples, who
said, “ What is this that He saith, A little while ?
We cannot tell what He saith.” The time of
separation looked so long in anticipation to them,
and to Him it had dwindled to a moment. Two
days, eight-and-forty hours, He delayed His answer
to Mary and Martha, and they thought it an

THE BELAYS OF LOVE. 287

eternity, while the heavy hours crept by, and
they only said, “It’s very weary, He cometh not.”
How long did it look to them when they had
got Lazarus back ?

The longest protraction of the fulfilment of the
most yearning expectation and unfulfilled desire
will seem but as the winking of an eyelid, when we
get to estimate duration by the same scale by
which He estimates it, the scale of Eternity. The
ephemeral insect, born in the morning and dead
when the day falls, has a still minuter scale than
ours, but we should not think of regulating our
estimate of long and short by it. Do not let us
commit the equal absurdity of regulating the march
of His Providence by the swift beating of our
timepieces. God works leisurely because God has
eternity to work in.

The answer always comes at the right time, and
is punctual though delayed. For instance, Peter is
in prison. The Church keeps praying for him ;
prays on, day after day. No answer ! The week
of the feast comes. Prayer is made intensely and
fervently and continuously. No answer! The
slow hours pass away. The last day of his life, as
it would appear, comes and goes. No answer !
The night gathers ; prayer rises to heaven. The
last hour of the last watch of the last night that he
had to live has come, and as the veil of darkness is
thinning, and the day is beginning to break, “ the
angel of the Lord shone round about him.” But
there is no haste in his deliverance. All is done
leisurely, as in the confidence of ample time to
spare, and perfect security. He is bidden to arise

288

THE DELAYS OF LOVE.

quickly, but there is no hurry in the stages of
his liberation. “Gird thyself and bind on thy
sandals.” He is to take time to lace them. There
is no fear of the quaternion of soldiers waking, or
of there not being time to do all. We can fancy
the half-sleeping and wholly-bewildered Apostle
fumbling at the sandal strings, in dread of
some movement rousing his guards, and the
calm angel face looking on. The sandals fastened,
he is bidden to put on his garments and follow.
With equal leisure and orderliness he is conducted
through the first and the second guard of sleeping
soldiers, and then through the prison gate. He
might have been lifted at once clean out of his
dungeon, and set down in the house where many
were gathered praying for him. But more signal
was the demonstration of power which a deliver¬
ance so gradual gave, when it led him slowly past
all obstacles and paralysed their power. God is
never in haste. He never comes too soon nor too
late. “ The Lord shall help them, and that right
early.” Sennacherib’s army is round the city,
famine is within the walls. To-morrow will be too
late. But to-night the angel strikes, and the
enemies are all dead men. So God’s delay makes
the deliverance the more signal and joyous when it
is granted. And though hope deferred may some¬
times make the heart sick, the desire when it comes
is a tree of life.

HI. — The best help is not delayed.

The principle which we have been illustrating
applies only to one half — and that the less im¬
portant half— of our prayers and of Christ’s

THE BELAYS OF LOVE. 289

answers. For, in regard to spiritual blessings and
our petitions for fuller, purer, and Diviner life, there
is no delay. In that region the law is not “ He
abode still two days in the same place,” but
“ Before they call I will answer, and while they
are yet speaking I will hear.” If you have been
praying for deeper knowledge of God ; for lives
like His ; for hearts more filled with the Spirit ;
and have not got the answer, do not fall back
upon the misapplication of such a principle as
this of my text, which has nothing to do with that
region ; but remember that the only reason why
good people do not immediately get the blessings
of the Christian life for which they ask lies in
themselves, and not at all in God. “ Ye have not,
because ye ask not. Ye ask and have not, because ”
— not because He delays, but because — “ ye ask
amiss,” or because, having asked, you get up from
your knees and go away, not looking to see
whether the blessing is coming down or not.

Ah ! There is a sad amount of lying and hypo¬
crisy in prayers for spiritual blessings. Many peti¬
tioners do not want to have them. They would
not know what to do with them if they got them.
They make the requests because their fathers did
so before them, and because these are the right
kinds of things to say in a prayer. Such prayers
get no answers. If a man prays for some spiritual
enlargement, and then goes out into the world and
lives clean contrary to his prayers, what right has
he to say that God delays His answers ? No ! He
does not delay His answers, but we push back His
answers, and the gift that is given we will not take.

290

THE DELAYS OF LOVE.

Let us remember that the two halves of the Divine
dealings are not regulated by the same principle,
though they be regulated by the same motive ; and
that the love which often delays for our good, in
regard of the desires that have reference to out¬
ward things, is swift as the lightning to answer
every petition which moves within the circle of
our spiritual life.

“ Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye stand
praying, believe that ‘ then and there ' ye receive
them ” ; and the undelaying God will take care
that “you shall have them/'

XXVII.

a parable In a fllMracle.

“ And there came a leper to Him, beseeching Him, and kneeling down
to Him, and saying unto Him, If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me
clean.

“ And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth His hand, and touched
him, and saith unto him : I will ; be thou clean.

“ And as soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed
from him, and he was cleansed.” — Mark i. 40 — 42.

HRIST’S miracles are called wonders
— that is, deeds which, by their
exceptional character, arrest atten¬
tion and excite surprise. Further,
they are called “ mighty works ” —
that is, exhibitions of superhuman power. They
are still further called “signs” — that is, tokens
of His Divine mission. But they are signs in
another sense, being, as it were, parables as well
as miracles, and representing on the lower plane
of material things the effects of His working on
men’s spirits. Thus, His feeding of the hungry
speaks of His higher operation as the Bread of
Life. His giving sight to the blind foreshadows
His illumination of darkened minds. His healing

of the diseased speaks of His restoration of sick

19*

292

A PARABLE IN A MIRACLE.

souls. His stilling of the tempest tells of Him as
the Peace-bringer for troubled hearts ; and His
raising of the dead proclaims Him as the Life-
giver, who quickens with the true life all who
believe on Him. This parabolic aspect of the
miracles is obvious in the case before us. Leprosy
received exceptional treatment under the Mosaic
law, and the peculiar restrictions to which the
sufferer was subjected, as well as the ritual of his
cleansing, in the rare cases where the disease wore
itself out, are best explained by being considered
as symbolical rather than as sanitary. It was taken
as an emblem of sin. Its hideous symptoms, its
rotting sores, its slow, stealthy, steady progress, its
defiance of all known means of cure, made its
victim only too faithful a walking image of that
worse disease. Remembering this deeper aspect
of leprosy, let us study this miracle before us, and
try to gather its lessons.

I. — First, then, notice the leper’s cry.

Mark connects the story with our Lord’s first
journey through Galilee, which was signalized by
many miracles, and had excited much stir and
talk. The news of the Healer had reached the
isolated huts where the lepers herded, and had
kindled a spark of hope in one poor wretch, which
emboldened him to break through all regulations,
and thrust his tainted and unwelcome presence
into the shrinking crowd. He seems to have ap¬
peared there suddenly, having forced or stolen his
way somehow into Christ’s presence. And there he
was, with his horrible white face, with his tightened,
glistening skin, with some frowsy rag over his

A PARABLE I/V A MIRACLE

293

mouth, and a hunted look as of a wild beast in his
eyes. The crowd shrank back from him ; he had
no difficulty in making his way to where Christ is
sitting, calmly teaching. And Mark’s vivid narra¬
tive shows him to us, flinging himself down before
the Lord, and, without waiting for question or
pause, interrupting whatever was going on, with
his piteous cry. Misery and wretchedness make
short work of conventional politeness.

Note the keen sense of misery that impels to the
passionate desire for relief. A leper with the flesh
dropping off his bones could not suppose that
there was nothing the matter with him. His
disease was too gross and palpable not to be felt ;
and the depth of misery measured the earnestness
of desire. The parallel fails us there. The emblem
is all insufficient, for here is the very misery of
our deepest misery, that we are unconscious
of it, and sometimes even come to love it.
There are forms of sickness in which the man goes
about, and to each enquiry says, “ I am perfectly
well ” ; though everybody else can see death
written on his face. And so it is with this terrible
malady that has laid its corrupting and putrefying
finger upon us all. The worse we are, the less we
know that there is anything the matter with us;
and the deeper the leprosy has struck its filthy
fangs into us, the more ready we are to say that
we are sound. We preachers have it for one of
our first duties to try to rouse men to the recog¬
nition of the facts of their spiritual condition, and
all our efforts are too often — as I, for my part,
sometimes half despairingly feel when I stand in

294 A PARABLE IN A MIRACLE.

the pulpit — like a fire-brand dropped into a pond,
which hisses for a moment and then is extinguished.
Men and women sit in pews listening contentedly
and quietly, who, if they saw themselves, I do
not say even as God sees them, but as others see
them, would know that the leprosy is deep in
them, and the taint patent to every eye. I do not
charge you, my brother, with gross transgressions
of plain moralities ; I know nothing about that.
I know this ; “ As face answereth to face in a
glass/’ so doth the heart of man to man. And
I bring this message, we have all gone astray,
and wounds and bruises and putrefying sores
mark us all. Oh ! if the best of us could see
himself for once, in the light of God, as the worst
of us will see himself one day, the cry would come
from the purest lips, “ Oh ! wretched man that I
am ! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death — this life in death that I carry, rotting and
smelling foul to Heaven, about with me, whereso¬
ever I go ? ”

Note, further, this man’s confidence in Christ’s
power : thou canst make me clean.” He had
heard all about the miracles that were being
wrought up and down over the country, and he
came to the Worker, with nothing of the nature of
religious faith in him, but with entire confidence,
based upon the report of previous miracles, in
Christ’s ability to heal. I do not suppose that in
its nature, it was very different from the trust with
which savages will crowd round a traveller that
has a medicine chest with him, and expect to be
cured of their diseases. But still it was real

A PARABLE IN A MIRACLE.

295

confidence in our Lord’s power to heal. As a rule,
though not without exceptions, He required (we
may perhaps say He needed) such confidence as a
condition of His miracle-working power.

If we turn from the emblem to the thing sig¬
nified, from the leprosy of the body to that of the
spirit, we may be sure of Christ’s omnipotent
ability to cleanse from the extremest severity of
the disease, however inveterate and chronic it
may have become. Sin dominates men by two
opposite lies. I have said how hard it is to get
people’s consciences awakened to see the facts of
their moral and religious condition ; but then, when
they are woke up, it is almost as hard to keep
them from the other extreme. The devil, first of
all, says to a man, “ It is only a little one. Do
it ; you will be none the worse. You can give it
up when you like, you know.” That is the
lauguage before the act. Afterwards, his language
is, first, “ You have done no harm, never mind
what people say about sin. Make yourself com¬
fortable.” And then, when that lie wears itself
out, the mask is dropped, and this is what is
said : “ I have got you now, and you cannot get
away. Done is done ! What thou hast written
thou hast written ; and neither thou nor anybody
else can blot it out.” Hence the despair into
which awakened consciences are apt to drop, and
the feeling, which dogs the sense of evil like a
spectre, of the hopelessness of all attempts to
make oneself better. Brethren, they are both
lies ; the lie that we are pure is the first ; the
lie that we are too black to be purified is the

296

A PARABLE IN A MIRACLE.

second. “ If we say that we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and make God a liar/’ But if
we say, as some of us, when once our consciences
are stirred, are but too apt to say, “ We have
sinned, and it cleaves to us for ever/’ we deceive
ourselves still worse, and still more darkly and
doggedly contradict the sure word of God. Christ’s
blood atones for all past sin, and has power to
bring forgiveness to every one. Christ’s vital spirit
will enter into any heart, and, abiding there, has
power to make the foulest clean.

Note, again, the leper’s hesitation. “ If Thou
wilt.” He had no right to presume on Christ’s
goodwill. He know nothing about the principles
upon which His miracles were wrought and His
mercy extended. He supposed, no doubt, as he
was bound to suppose, in the absence of any plain
knowledge, that it was a mere matter of accident,
of caprice, of momentary inclination and good
nature, to whom the gift of healing should come.
And so he draws near with the modest “ If Thou
wilt ” ; not pretending to know more than he
knew, or to have a claim which he had not.
But his hesitation is quite as much entreaty as
hesitation. What do we mean when we say about
a man, “ He can do it, if he likes,” but to imply
that it is so easy to do it, that it would be cruel not
to do it ? And so, when the leper said, “ If Thou
wilt Thou canst,” he meant, “There is no obstacle
standing between me and health but Thy will, and
surely it cannot be Thy will to leave me is this
life in death.” He, as it were, throws the respon¬
sibility for his health or disease upon Christ’s

A PARABLE IN A MIRACLE.,

297

shoulders, and thereby makes the strongest appeal
to that loving heart.

We stand on another level. The leper s hesita¬
tion is our certainty. We know the principle upon
which His mercy is dispensed ; we know that it is
a universal all-embracing love ; we know that no
caprice nor pasing spasm of good nature lies at
the bottom of it. We know that if any men are
not healed, it is not because Christ will not, but
because they will not. If ever there springs in
our hearts the dark doubt “ If Thou wilt,” which
was innocent in this man in the twilight of his
knowledge, but is wrong in us in the full noontide
of ours, we ought to be able to banish it at once,
and to lay none of the responsibility of our con¬
tinuing unhealed on Christ, but all on ourselves.
He has laid it there, when He lamented, “ How
often would I — and ye would not ! Nothing can
be more in accordance with the will of God, of
which Jesus Christ is the embodiment, than to
deliver men from sin, which is the opposite of
His will.

II. — Notice, secondly, the Lord’s answer.

Mark’s record of this miracle puts the miracle in
very small compass, and dilates rather upon the
attitude and mind of Jesus Christ preparatory to
it. As if, apart altogether from the supernatural
element and the lessons that are to be drawn from
it, it was worth our while to ponder, for the
gladdening of our hearts and the strengthening of
our hopes, on that lovely picture of sheer simple
compassion and tender-heartedness. “ Jesus,
moved with compassion ” — a clause which occurs

298 A PARABLE IN A MIRACLE.

% V

only in Mark's account — “put forth His hand
and touched him, and said, I will ; be thou
clean."

Note, then, three things — the compassion, the
touch, the word.

As to the first, is it not a precious gift for us, in
the midst of our many wearinesses and sorrows
and sicknesses, to have that picture of Jesus Christ
bending over the leper, and sending, as it were, a
gush of pitying love from His heart to flood away
all his miseries ? It is a true revelation of the
heart of Jesus Christ. Simple pity is its very core.
That pity is eternal, and subsists, as He sits in the
calm of the Heavens, even as it was manifest
whilst He sat teaching in the humble house in
Galilee. For “ we have not a High Priest which
cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities."
The pitying Christ is near us all. Nor let us
forget that it is this swift shoot of pity which
underlies all that follows — the touch, the word, and
the cure. Christ does not wait to be moved by the
prayers that come from these leprous lips, but He
is moved by the leprous lips themselves. The
sight of the man affects His pitying heart, which
sets in motion all the wheels of His healing powers.
So we may learn that the impulse to which His
redeeming activity owes its origin wells up from
His own heart. Show Him sorrow, and He answers
it by a pity of such a sort that it is restless till it
helps and assuages. We may rise higher. The pity
of Jesus Christ is the summit of His revelation
of the Father, and, looking upon that gentle heart,
into whose depths we can see as through a little

A PARABLE IN A MIRACLE.

299

window by these words of my text, we must stand
with hushed reverence as beholding not only the
compassion of the Man, but therein manifested the
pity of the God, who, “ Like as a father pitieth
his children, pitieth them that fear Him,” and
pities yet more the more miserable men who fear
and love Him not. The Christian's God is no
impassive Being, indifferent to mankind, but “ One
who in all our afflictions is afflicted, and, in His
love and in His pity,” redeems and bears and
carries.

Note, still further, the Lord’s touch. With
swift obedience to the impulse of His pity, Christ
thrusts forth His hand and touches the leper.
There was much in it that, but whatever more we
may see in it, we should not be blind to the
loving humanity of the act. Remember that the
man kneeling there had felt no touch of a hand
for years ; that the very kisses of his own
children and his wife’s grasp of love were
denied him. And now Jesus puts out His hand,
and, without thinking of Mosaic restrictions and
ceremonial prohibitions, yields to the impulse
of His pity, and gives assurance of His sympathy
and His brotherhood as He lays His pure fingers
upon the rotting ulcers. All men that help their
fellows must be contented thus to identify them¬
selves with them and to take them by the hand, if
they would seek to deliver them from their evils.

Remember, too, that according to the Mosaic law
it was forbidden to any but the priest to touch
a leper. Therefore, in this act, beautiful as it is
in its uncalculated humanity, there may have been

3oo

A PARABLE IN A MIRACLE.

something intended of a deeper kind. Our Lord
thereby does one of two things — either He asserts
H is authority as overriding that of Moses and all his
regulations, or He asserts- His sacerdotal character.
Either way there is a great claim in the act.

Further, we may take that touch of Christ’s
as being a parable of His whole work. It was a
piece of wonderful sympathy and condescension
that He should put out His hand to touch the
leper ; but it was the result of a far greater and
more wonderful piece of sympathy and condescen¬
sion that He had a hand to touch him with. For
the “ sweet human hands and lips and eyes” which
He wore in this world were assumed by Him in
order that He might make Himself one with all
the sufferers and bear the burden of all their sins.
So His touch of the leper symbolizes His identify¬
ing of Himself with mankind, the foulest and the
most degraded ; and in this connection there is a
profound meaning in one of the ordinarily trivial
legends of the Rabbis, who, founding upon a word
ot the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, tell us that when
Messias comes He will be found sitting amongst
the lepers at the gate of the city. So He was
numbered amongst the transgressors in His life,
and “with the wicked in His death.” He touches,
and, touching, contracts no impurity, cleansing
as the sunlight or the fire does, by burning up
the impurity, and not by receiving it into
Himself.

Note the Lord’s word, “ I will; be thou clean.”
It is shaped, convolution for convolution, so to
speak, to match the man’s prayer. He ever moulds

A PARABLE IN’ A MIRACLE . 301

His response according to the feebleness and
imperfection of the petitioner’s faith. But, at
the same time, what a ring of autocratic authority
and conscious sovereignty there is in the brief,
calm, imperative word, “ I will ; be thou clean ! ”
He accepts the leper’s ascription of power; He
claims to work the miracle by His own will, and
therein He is either guilty of what comes very near
arrogant blasphemy, or He is rightly claiming for
Himself a Divine prerogative. If His word can
tell as a force on material things, what is the con¬
clusion ? He who “ speaks and it is done” is
Almighty and Divine.

HI. — Lastly, note the immediate cure.

Mark tells, with his favourite word, “straight¬
way,” how as soon as Christ had spoken, the
leprosy departed from him. And to turn from the
symbol to the fact, the same sudden and complete
cleansing is possible for us. Our cleansing from
sin must depend upon the present love and present
power of Jesus Christ. On account of Christ’s
sacrifice, whose efficacy is eternal, and lies at the
foundation of all our blessedness and our purity
until the heavens shall be no more, we are forgiven
our sins, and our guilt is taken away. By the
present indwelling of that cleansing Spirit of the
ever-living Christ, which will be given to us each if
we seek it, we are cleansed day by day from our
evil. “ The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all
sin,” not only when shed as propitiation, but when
applied as sanctifying. We must come to Christ,
and there must be a real living contact between us
and Him through our faith, if we are to possess

302

A PARABLE IN A MIRACLE.

either the forgiveness or the cleansing which are
wrapped up inseparable in His gifc.

Further, the suddenness of this cure and its
completeness may be reproduced in us. People
tell us that to believe in sudden conversion is
fanatical. This is not the place to argue that
question. It seems to me that such suddenness is
in accordance with analogy. And I, for my part,
preach with full belief and in the hope that the
words may not be spoken altogether in vain to
every man, woman, and child listening to me,
irrespective of their condition, character, and past,
that there is no reason why they should not go to
Him straightway, no reason why He should not
put out His hand straightway and touch them ;
no reason why their leprosy should not pass from
them straightway, and they lie down to sleep
to-night accepted in the Beloved and cleansed in
Him. Trust Him and He will do it.

Only remember, it was of no use to the leper
that crowds had been healed, that floods of blessing
had been poured over the land. What he wanted
was that a rill should come and refresh his own
lips. If you want to have Christ’s cleansing you
must make personal work of it, and come with
this prayer, “On me be all that cleansing-
shown ! ” You do not need to go to Him with an
“If” nor a prayer, for His gift has not waited for
our asking, and He has anticipated us by coming
with healing in His wings. The parts are
reversed, and He prays you to receive the gift, and
stands before each of us with the gentle remon¬
strance upon His lips : “ Why will ye die when I

A PARABLE IN A MIRACLE.

303

am here ready to cure you ? ” Take Him at His
word, for He offers to us all, whether we desire it
or no, the cleansing which we need. Take Him
at His word, trust Him wholly, trust to His death
for forgiveness, to His sanctifying Spirit for cleans¬
ing, and “ straightway ” your “leprosy will depart
from you,” and your flesh shall become like the
flesh of a little child, and you shall be clean.

XXVIII.

£be Burben=*3Beanng (Bob.

“Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits’’ —
(Authorized Version).

“ Blessed be the Lord, who daily beareth our burdens .” — Ps. lxviii. 19
(Revised Version).

E difference between these two
renderings seems to be remarkable,
and a person ignorant of any lan¬
guage but our own might find it
hard to understand how any one
sentence was susceptible of both. But the explana¬
tion is extremely simple. The important words in
the Authorized Version, “with benefits,” are a
supplement, having nothing to represent them in
the original. The word translated “ loadeth ” in
the one rendering and “ beareth ” in the other
admits of both these meanings with equal ease,
and is, in fact, employed in both of them in other
places in Scripture. It is clear, I think, that, in
this case, at all events, the revision is an improv-
ment. For the great objection to the rendering
which has become familiar to us all, “ Who daily
loadeth us with benefits ” is that these essential

THE BURDEN-BEARING GOD. 305

words are not in the original, and need to be sup¬
plied in order to make out the sense. Whereas, on
the other hand, if we adopt the suggested emenda¬
tion, “ Who daily beareth our burdens,” we get a
still more beautiful meaning, which requires no
force or addition in order to bring it out. So, then,

I accept that varied form of our text as the one on
which I desire to say a few words now.

I. — The first thing that strikes me in looking at
it is the remarkable and eloquent blending of
majesty and condescension.

It is not without significance that the Psalmist
employs that name for God in this clause which
most strongly expresses the idea of supremacy and
dominion. Rule and dignity are the predominant
ideas in the word “Lord,” as indeed the English
reader feels in hearing it ; and then, side by side
with that, there lies this thought, that the Highest,
the Ruler of all, whose absolute authority stretches
over all mankind, stoops to this low and servile
office, and becomes the burden-bearer for all the
pilgrims who will put their trust in Him. This
blending together of the two ideas of dignity and
condescension to lowly offices of help and further¬
ance is made even more emphatic if we glance
back at the context of the psalm. For there is no
place in Scripture in which there is flashed before
the mind of the singer a grander picture of the
magnificence and the glory of God than that
which glitters and flames in the previous verses.
We read in them of God “ riding through the
heavens by His name Jehovah ” ; of Him as

marching at the head of the people through the

306

THE BURDEN-BEARING GOD.

wilderness, and of the earth quivering at His
tread, and the heavens dropping at His presence.
We read of Zion itself being moved at the presence
of the Lord. We read of His word going forth so
mightily as to scatter armies and their kings. We
read of the chariots of God as “ 20,000, even thou¬
sands of angels.” And all is gathered together
in the great verse, “ Thou hast ascended on high.
Thou hast led captivity captive.” And then,
before he has taken breath almost, the Psalmist
turns, with most striking and dramatic abruptness,
from the contemplation, awe-struck and yet jubi¬
lant, of all that tremendous, magnificent, and
earth-shaking power, to this wonderful thought,
« Blessed be the Lord, who daily beareth our
burdens.” Not only does He march at the head
of the congregation through the wilderness, but
He comes, if I might so say, behind the caravan,
amongst the carriers and the porters, and will bear
anything that any of the weary pilgrims entrusts
to His care.

Oh ! dear brethren, if familiarity did not dull
the glory of it, what a thought that is — a
God that carries men’s loads ! People talk much
rubbish about the “stern Old Testament Deity” :
is there anything sweeter, greater, more heart-
compelling and heart-softening, than such a
thought as this ? How all the majesty bows
itself and declares itself to be enlisted on our side
when we think that “ He that sitteth on the circle
of the heavens, and the inhabitants thereof are as
grasshoppers,” is the God that “ daily beareth
our burdens ! ”

THE BURDEN-BEARING GOD.

307

And that is the tone of the Old Testament
throughout, for you will always find braide
together in the closest vital unity the representa¬
tion of these two aspects of the Divine nature;
and if ever we have set forth a more than
ordinarily magnificent conception of His power
and majesty be sure that, if you look, you will
find side by side with it a more than ordinarily
tender representation of His gentleness and is
grace. And, if we look deeper, this is not a
case of contrast, it is not that there are
sharply opposed to each other these two things,
the gentleness and the greatness, the condes¬
cension and the magnificence, but that the
former is the direct result of the latter; and 1
is just because He is Lord, and has dominion
over all, that, therefore, He bears the burdens
of all. For the responsibilities of the Creator
are in proportion to His greatness, and He that
has made man has thereby made it necessary
that He should, if they will let Hint, be their
Burden-bearer and their Servant. Ihe highest
must be the lowest, and just because God is lug
over all, blessed for ever, therefore is He the
Supporter and Sustainer of all. So we may earn
the true meaning of elevation of all sorts, an ,
from the example of the loftiest, may raw e
lesson for our more insignificant varieties o
height, that the higher we are, the more we are
bound to stoop, and that men are then li 'est o
when their elevation suggests to them responsi¬
bility, and when He that is chiefest becomes t te

Servant.

THE BURDEN-BEARING GOD.

308

II. — So, then, notice next the deep insight into
the heart and ways of God here.

“ He daily beareth our burdens.” If there is any
meaning in this word at all, it means that He so
knits Himself with us as that all which touches us
touches Him, that He takes a share in all our
pressing duties, and feels the reflection from all
our sorrows and pains. We have no impassive
God in the heavens, careless of mankind, nor is
His settled and changeless and unshaded blessed¬
ness of such a sort as that there cannot pass
across it — if I may not say a shadow, I may at
least say — a ripple from men’s pangs and troubles
and cares. Love is the identification of one’s self
with the beloved object. We call it sympathy
when we are speaking about the fellow feeling
between man and man that is kindled of love.
But there is something deeper than sympathy in
that great Heart, which gathers into itself all
hearts, and in that great Being, whose being
underlies all our beings, and is the root from
which we all live and grow. God, in all our
afflictions, is afflicted ; and, in simple though pro¬
found verity, has that which is most truly repre¬
sented to men, by calling it a fellow feeling with
our infirmities and our sorrows.

“ Think not thou canst sigh a sigh,

And thy Maker is not nigh ;

Think not thou canst weep a tear
And thy Maker is not near.”

For want of a better word, we speak of the
sympathy of God ; but we need something far
more intimate and unwearied than we understand

THE BURDEN-BEARING GOD.

309

by that word, to express the community of feeling
between all who trust Him and His own infinite
heart. If this bearing of our burden means
anything it gives us a deep insight, too, into
His workings, as well as into His heart. For
it covers over this great truth that He Himself
comes to us, and by the communication of
His own power to us makes us able to bear
the burdens which we roll upon Him. ihe
meaning of His “ lifting our load,” in so far as
that expression refers to the Divine act rather
than the Divine heart, is that He breathes
into us the strength by which we can carry the
heavy task of duties, and can endure the crushing
pressure of our sorrows. And all the endurance
of the saints is Grod in them bearing their burdens.
Notice, too, “ daily beareth,” or, as the Hebrew
has it yet more emphatically because more simply,
“ day by day beareth.” He travels with us, in the
greatness of His might and the long suffering of
His unwearied patience, through all our tribula¬
tion, and as He has “borne and carried” His
people “all the days of old,” so, at each new
recurrence of new weights, He is with us still.
Like some river that runs by the wayside and ever
cheers the traveller on the dusty path with its
music, and offers its waters to cool his thirsty lips,
so, day by day, in the slow iteration of our
lingering sorrows, and in the monotonous recur¬
rence of our habitual duties, there is with us the
ever-present help of the Ancient of Days, who
measures out daily strength for the daily load,
and never sends the one without proffering the

other.

3 10

THE BURDEN-BEARING GOD.

III. — So, again, notice here the remarkable
anticipation of the very heart of the Gospel.

“ The God who daily beareth our burdens/5 says
the Psalmist. He spoke deeper things than he
knew, and was wiser than he understood. For
the hope that gleams in these words comes to
fulfilment in Him of whom it was written in
prophetic anticipation, so clear and definite that
it reads like historical narrative — “ He bare our
grief and carried our sorrows. The chastisement
of our peace was upon Him. The Lord hath laid
on Him the iniquity of us all.55

Ah ! It were of small avail to know a God that
bore the burden of our sorrows and the load of our
duties, if we did not know a God who bore the
weight of our sins. For that is the real crushing
weight that breaks men’s hearts and bows them to
the earth. So the New Testament, with its
message of a Christ on whom is laid the whole
pressure of the world’s sin, is the deepest fulfilment
of the great words of my text.

IV. — Note, lastly, what we should therefore do
with our burdens.

First, we should cast them on God, and let Him
carry them. He cannot unless we do. One some¬
times sees a petulant and self-confident little child
staggering along with some heavy burden by the
parent’s side, but pushing away the hand that is
put out to help it to carry its load. And that is
what too many of us do when God says to us,
“ Here, my child, let Me help you. I will take the
heavy end of it, and do you take the light one.”
“ Cast thy burden upon the Lord ” — and do it by

THE BURDEN-BEARING GOD. 311

faith, by simple trust in Him, by making real to
yourselves the fact of His Divine sympathy, and
His sure presence to aid and to sustain.

Having thus let Him carry the weight, do not
you try to carry it too. As our good old hymn
has it —

“ Why should I the burden bear ? ”

It is a great deal more God’s affair than yours.
We have, indeed, in a sense, to carry it.
‘■Every man shall bear his own burden. The
weight of duty is not to be indolently shoved
off our shoulders on to His, saying, “Let
Him do the work.” We have indeed to
carry the weight of sorrow. There is no use
trying to deny its bitterness and its burden,
and it would not be well for us that it should
be less bitter and less heavy. In many lands
the habit prevails, especially amongst the women,
of carrying heavy loads on their heads ; and
all travellers tell us that the practice gives a
dignity and a grace to the carriage, and a freedom
and a swing to the gait, which nothing else will
do. Depend upon it, that so much of our burdens
of work and weariness as is left to us, after w’e
have cast them upon Him, is intended to
strengthen and ennoble us. But do not let there
be the gnawings of anxiety. Do not let there be
the self-torment of aimless prognostications of
evil Do not let there be the chewing of the
bitter morsel of irrevocable sorrows ; but fling all
upon God. And remember what the Master has
said, and His servant has repeated: “ lake no

312

THE BURDEN-BEARING GOD .

anxious care . . . for your heavenly Father

knoweth ” ; “ Cast your anxiety upon Him, for
He careth for you/’

And the last advice that comes from my text is,
to see that your tongues are not silent in that great
hymn of praise which ought to go up to “ the Lord
that daily beareth our burdens/' He wants only
our trust and our thanks, and is best paid by
the praise of our love and of our heaping still
more upon His ever strong and ready arm. Bless
the Lord, who beareth our burdens, and see that
you give Him yours to bear. Listen to Him that
hath said, “ Come unto Me all ye that . . .

are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

London: Alexander & Shepheaed, Ltd., Printers, Norwich St., E.C.

Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Library

2 0

146 0864

Date Due

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