EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D. , Litt. D. 

ROMANSCORINTHIANS _(To II Corinthians, Chap. V)_

EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D. , Litt. D. 

ROMANS

CONTENTS

THE WITNESS OF THE RESURRECTION (Romans i. 4, R. V. )

PRIVILEGE AND OBLIGATION (Romans i. 7)

PAUL'S LONGING (Romans i. 11, 12)

DEBTORS TO ALL MEN (Romans i. 14)

THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD (Romans i. 16)

WORLD-WIDE SIN AND WORLD-WIDE REDEMPTION (Romans iii. 19-26)

NO DIFFERENCE (Romans iii. 22)

'LET US HAVE PEACE' (Romans v. 1, R. V. )

ACCESS INTO GRACE (Romans v. 2)

THE SOURCES OF HOPE (Romans v. 2-4)

A THREEFOLD CORD (Romans v. 5)

WHAT PROVES GOD'S LOVE (Romans v. 8)

THE WARRING QUEENS (Romans v. 21)

'THE FORM OF TEACHING' (Romans vi. 17)

'THY FREE SPIRIT' (Romans viii. 2)

CHRIST CONDEMNING SIN (Romans viii. 8)

THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT (Romans viii. 16)

SONS AND HEIRS (Romans viii. 17)

SUFFERING WITH CHRIST, A CONDITION OF GLORY WITH CHRIST (Romans viii. 17)

THE REVELATION OF SONS (Romans viii. 19)

THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY (Romans viii. 23)

THE INTERCEDING SPIRIT (Romans viii. 26)

THE GIFT THAT BRINGS ALL GIFTS (Romans viii. 32)

MORE THAN CONQUERORS (Romans viii. 37)

LOVE'S TRIUMPH (Romans viii. 38, 39)

THE SACRIFICE OF THE BODY (Romans xii. 1)

TRANSFIGURATION (Romans xii. 2)

SOBER THINKING (Romans xii. 3)

MANY AND ONE (Romans xii. 4, 5)

GRACE AND GRACES (Romans xii. 6-8)

LOVE THAT CAN HATE (Romans xii. 9, 10, R. V. )

A TRIPLET OF GRACES (Romans xii. 11)

ANOTHER TRIPLET OF GRACES (Romans xii. 12)

STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET (Romans xii. 13-15)

STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET (Romans xii. 16, R. V. )

STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET (Romans xii. 17, 18, R. V. )

STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET (Romans xii. 19-21)

LOVE AND THE DAY (Romans xiii. 8-14)

SALVATION NEARER (Romans xiii. 11)

THE SOLDIER'S MORNING-CALL (Romans xiii. 12)

THE LIMITS OF LIBERTY (Romans xiv. 12-23)

TWO FOUNTAINS, ONE STREAM (Romans xv. 4, 13)

JOY AND PEACE IN BELIEVING (Romans xv. 13)

PHOEBE (Romans xvi. 1, 2, R. V. )

PRISCILLA AND AQUILA (Romans xvi. 3-5)

TWO HOUSEHOLDS (Romans xvi. 10, 11)

TRYPHENA AND TRYPHOSA (Romans xvi. 12)

PERSIS (Romans xvi. 12)

A CRUSHED SNAKE (Romans xvi. 20)

TERTIUS (Romans xvi. 22, R. V. )

QUARTUS A BROTHER (Romans xvi. 23)

THE WITNESS OF THE RESURRECTION

 'Declared to be the Son of God with power, . .. By the resurrection of the dead. '--ROMANS i. 4 (R. V. ). 

It is a great mistake to treat Paul's writings, and especially thisEpistle, as mere theology. They are the transcript of his life'sexperience. As has been well said, the gospel of Paul is aninterpretation of the significance of the life and work of Jesusbased upon the revelation to him of Jesus as the risen Christ. Hebelieved that he had seen Jesus on the road to Damascus, and it wasthat appearance which revolutionised his life, turned him from apersecutor into a disciple, and united him with the Apostles asordained to be a witness with them of the Resurrection. To them allthe Resurrection of Jesus was first of all a historical factappreciated chiefly in its bearing on Him. By degrees they discernedthat so transcendent a fact bore in itself a revelation of what wouldbecome the experience of all His followers beyond the grave, and asymbol of the present life possible for them. All three of theseaspects are plainly declared in Paul's writings. In our text it ischiefly the first which is made prominent. All that distinguishesChristianity; and makes it worth believing, or mighty, is inseparablyconnected with the Resurrection. 

I. The Resurrection of Christ declares His Sonship. 

Resurrection and Ascension are inseparably connected. Jesus does notrise to share again in the ills and weariness of humanity. Risen, 'Hedieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. ' 'He died untosin once'; and His risen humanity had nothing in it on which physicaldeath could lay hold. That He should from some secluded dimple onOlivet ascend before the gazing disciples until the bright cloud, which was the symbol of the Divine Presence, received Him out oftheir sight, was but the end of the process which began unseen inmorning twilight. He laid aside the garments of the grave and passedout of the sepulchre which was made sure by the great stone rolledagainst its mouth. The grand avowal of faith in His Resurrectionloses meaning, unless it is completed as Paul completed his 'yearather that was raised from the dead, ' with the triumphant 'who is atthe right hand of God. ' Both are supernatural, and the Virgin Birthcorresponds at the beginning to the supernatural Resurrection andAscension at the close. Both such an entrance into the world and sucha departure from it, proclaim at once His true humanity, and that'this is the Son of God. '

Still further, the Resurrection is God's solemn 'Amen' to thetremendous claims which Christ had made. The fact of HisResurrection, indeed, would not declare His divinity; but theResurrection of One who had spoken such words does. If the Cross anda nameless grave had been the end, what a _reductio ad absurdum_that would have been to the claims of Jesus to have ever been withthe Father and to be doing always the things that pleased Him. TheResurrection is God's last and loudest proclamation, 'This is Mybeloved Son: hear ye Him. ' The Psalmist of old had learned to trustthat his sonship and consecration to the Father made it impossiblethat that Father should leave his soul in Sheol, or suffer one whowas knit to Him by such sacred bonds to see corruption; and theunique Sonship and perfect self-consecration of Jesus went down intothe grave in the assured confidence, as He Himself declared, that thethird day He would rise again. The old alternative seems to retainall its sharp points: Either Christ rose again from the dead, or Hisclaims are a series of blasphemous arrogances and His characterirremediably stained. 

But we may also remember that Scripture not only represents Christ'sResurrection as a divine act but also as the act of Christ's ownpower. In His earthly life He asserted that His relation both tophysical death and to resurrection was an entirely unique one. 'Ihave power, ' said He, 'to lay down my life, and I have power to takeit again'; and yet, even in this tremendous instance ofself-assertion, He remains the obedient Son, for He goes on to say, 'This commandment have I received of My Father. ' If these claims arejust, then it is vain to stumble at the miracles which Jesus did inHis earthly life. If He could strip it off and resume it, thenobviously it was not a life like other men's. The whole phenomenon issupernatural, and we shall not be in the true position to understandand appreciate it and Him until, like the doubting Thomas, we fall atthe feet of the risen Son, and breathe out loyalty and worship inthat rapturous exclamation, 'My Lord and my God. '

II. The Resurrection interprets Christ's Death. 

There is no more striking contrast than that between the absolutenon-receptivity of the disciples in regard to all Christ's plainteachings about His death and their clear perception after Pentecostof the mighty power that lay in it. The very fact that they continueddisciples at all, and that there continued to be such a community asthe Church, demands their belief in the Resurrection as the onlycause which can account for it. If He did not rise from the dead, andif His followers did not know that He did so by the plainestteachings of common-sense, they ought to have scattered, and borne inisolated hearts the bitter memories of disappointed hopes; for if Helay in a nameless grave, and they were not sure that He was risenfrom the dead, His death would have been a conclusive showing up ofthe falsity of His claims. In it there would have been no atoningpower, no triumph over sin. If the death of Christ were not followedby His Resurrection and Ascension, the whole fabric of Christianityfalls to pieces. As the Apostle puts it in his great chapter onresurrection, 'Ye are yet in your sins. ' The forgiveness which theGospel holds forth to men does not depend on the mercy of God or onthe mere penitence of man, but upon the offering of the one sacrificefor sins in His death, which is justified by His Resurrection asbeing accepted by God. If we cannot triumphantly proclaim 'Christ isrisen indeed, ' we have nothing worth preaching. 

We are told now that the ethics of Christianity are its vital centre, which will stand out more plainly when purified from these mysticaldoctrines of a Death as the sin-offering for the world, and aResurrection as the great token that that offering avails. Paul didnot think so. To him the morality of the Gospel was all deduced fromthe life of Christ the Son of God as our Example, and from His deathfor us which touches men's hearts and makes obedience to Him ourjoyful answer to what He has done for us. Christianity is a new thingin the world, not as moral teaching, but as moral power to obey thatteaching, and that depends on the Cross interpreted by theResurrection. If we have only a dead Christ, we have not a livingChristianity. 

III. Resurrection points onwards to Christ's coming again. 

Paul at Athens declared in the hearing of supercilious Greekphilosophers, that the Jesus, whom he proclaimed to them, was 'theMan whom God had ordained to judge the world in righteousness, ' andthat 'He had given assurance thereof unto all men, in that He raisedHim from the dead. ' The Resurrection was the beginning of the processwhich, from the human point of view, culminated in the Ascension. Beyond the Ascension stretches the supernatural life of the glorifiedSon of God. Olivet cannot be the end, and the words of the two men inwhite apparel who stood amongst the little group of the upward gazingfriends, remain as the hope of the Church: 'This same Jesus shall socome in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. ' That greatassurance implies a visible corporeal return locally defined, andhaving for its purpose to complete the work which Incarnation, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, each advanced a stage. The Resurrectionis the corner-stone of the whole Christian faith. It seals the truthsthat Jesus is the Son of God with power, that He died for us, that Hehas ascended on high to prepare a place for us, that He will comeagain and take us to Himself. If we, by faith in Him, take for oursthe women's greeting on that Easter morning, 'The Lord hath risenindeed, ' He will come to us with His own greeting, 'Peace be untoyou. '

PRIVILEGE AND OBLIGATION

 'To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints. '--ROMANS i. 7. 

This is the address of the Epistle. The first thing to be noticedabout it, by way of introduction, is the universality of thisdesignation of Christians. Paul had never been in Rome, and knew verylittle about the religious stature of the converts there. But he hasno hesitation in declaring that they are all 'beloved of God' and'saints. ' There were plenty of imperfect Christians amongst them;many things to rebuke; much deadness, coldness, inconsistency, andyet none of these in the slightest degree interfered with theapplication of these great designations to them. So, then, 'belovedof God' and 'saints' are not distinctions of classes within the paleof Christianity, but belong to the whole community, and to eachmember of the body. 

The next thing to note, I think, is how these two great terms, 'beloved of God' and 'saints, ' cover almost the whole ground of theChristian life. They are connected with each other very closely, as Ishall have occasion to show presently, but in the meantime it may besufficient to mark how the one carries us deep into the heart of Godand the other extends over the whole ground of our relation to Him. The one is a statement of a universal prerogative, the other anenforcement of a universal obligation. Let us look, then, at thesetwo points, the universal privilege and the universal obligation ofthe Christian life. 

I. The universal privilege of the Christian life. 

'Beloved of God. ' Now we are so familiar with the juxtaposition ofthe two ideas, 'love' and 'God, ' that we cease to feel thewonderfulness of their union. But until Jesus Christ had done Hiswork no man believed that the two thoughts could be brought together. 

Does God love any one? We think the question too plain to need to beput, and the answer instinctive. But it is not by any meansinstinctive, and the fact is that until Christ answered it for us, the world stood dumb before the question that its own heart raised, and when tortured spirits asked, 'Is there care in heaven, and isthere love?' there was 'no voice, nor answer, nor any that regarded. 'Think of the facts of life; think of the facts of nature. Think ofsorrows and miseries and pains, and sins, and wasted lives andstorms, and tempests, and diseases, and convulsions; and let us feelhow true the grim saying is, that

 'Nature, red in tooth and claw, With rapine, shrieks against the creed'

that God is love. 

And think of what the world has worshipped, and of all the varietiesof monstrosity, not the less monstrous because sometimes beautiful, before which men have bowed. Cruel, lustful, rapacious, capricious, selfish, indifferent deities they have adored. And then, 'God hathestablished, ' proved, demonstrated 'His love to us in that while wewere yet sinners Christ died for us. '

Oh, brethren, do not let us kick down the ladder by which we haveclimbed; or, in the name of a loving God, put away the Christianteaching which has begotten the conception in humanity of a God thatloves. There are men to-day who would never have come within sightof that sunlight truth, even as a glimmering star, away down uponthe horizon, if it had not been for the Gospel; and who now turnround upon that very Gospel which has given them the conception, and accuse it of narrow and hard thoughts of the love of God. 

One of the Scripture truths against which the assailant often turnshis sharpest weapons is that which is involved in my text, theScripture answer to the other question, 'Does not God love all?' Yes!yes! a thousand times, yes! But there is another question, Does thelove of God, to all, make His special designation of Christian men asHis beloved the least unlikely? Surely there is no kind ofcontradiction between the broadest proclamation of the universalityof the love of God and Paul's decisive declaration that, in a verydeep and real manner, they who are in Christ are the beloved of God. Surely special affection is not in its nature, inconsistent withuniversal beneficence and benevolence. Surely it is no exaltation, but rather a degradation of the conception of the divine love, if weproclaim its utter indifference to men's characters. Surely you arenot honouring God when you say, 'It is all the same to Him whether aman loves Him and serves Him, or lifts himself up in rebellionagainst Him, and makes himself his own centre, and earth his aim andhis all. ' Surely to imagine a God who not only makes His sun to shineand His rains and dews to fall on the unthankful and the evil, thatHe may draw them to love Him, but who also is conceived as taking thesinful creature who yet cleaves to his sins to His heart, as He doesthe penitent soul that longs for His image to be produced in it, isto blaspheme, and not to honour the love, the universal love of God. 

God forbid that any words that ever drop from my lips should seem tocast the smallest shadow of doubt on that great truth, 'God so lovedthe world that He gave His Son!' But God forbid, equally, that anywords of mine should seem to favour the, to me, repellent idea thatthe infinite love of God disregards the character of the man on whomit falls. There are manifestations of that loving heart which any mancan receive; and each man gets as much of the love of God as it ispossible to pour upon him. But granite rock does not drink in the dewas a flower does; and the nature of the man on whom God's love fallsdetermines how much, and what manner of its manifestations shall passinto his true possession, and what shall remain without. 

So, on the whole, we have to answer the questions, 'Does God loveany? Does not God love all? Does God specially love some?' with theone monosyllable, 'Yes. '

And so, dear brethren, let us learn the path by which we can passinto that blessed community of those on whom the fullness andsweetness and tenderest tenderness of the Father's heart will fall. 'If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will lovehim. ' Myths tell us that the light which, at the beginning, had beendiffused through a nebulous mass, was next gathered into a sun. Sothe universal love of God is concentrated in Jesus Christ; and if wehave Him we have it; and if we have faith we have Him, and can say, 'Neither life, nor death, nor things present, nor things to come, norheight, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separateus from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. '

II. Then, secondly, mark the universal obligation of the Christianlife. 

'Called to be saints, ' says my text. Now you will observe that thetwo little words 'to be' are inserted here as a supplement. They maybe correct enough, but they are open to the possibility ofmisunderstanding, as if the saintship, to which all Christian peopleare 'called' was something future, and not realised at the moment. Now, in the context, the Apostle employs the same form of expressionwith regard to himself in a clause which illuminates the meaning ofmy text. 'Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ' says he, in the firstverse, 'called to be an Apostle' or, more correctly, 'a calledApostle. ' The apostleship coincided in time with the call, wascontemporaneous with that which was its cause. And if Paul was anApostle since he was called, saints are saints since _they_ arecalled. 'The beloved of God' are 'the called saints. '

I need only observe, further, that the word 'called' here does notmean 'named' or 'designated' but 'summoned. ' It describes not thename by which Christian men are known, but the thing which they areinvited, summoned, 'called' by God to be. It is their vocation, nottheir designation. Now, then, I need not, I suppose, remind you that'saint' and 'holy' convey precisely the same idea: the one expressingit in a word of Teutonic, and the other in one of classic derivation. 

We notice that the true idea of this universal holiness which, _ipsofacto_, belongs to all Christian people, is consecration to God. Inthe old days temple, altars, sacrifices, sacrificial vessels, personssuch as priests, periods like Sabbaths and feasts, were called'holy. ' The common idea running through all these uses of the word is_belonging to God_, and that is the root notion of the New Testament'saint' a man who is God's. God has claimed us for Himself when Hegave us Jesus Christ. We respond to the claim when we accept Christ. Henceforth we are not our own, but 'consecrated'--that is, 'saints. '

Now the next step is purity, which is the ordinary idea of sanctity. Purity will follow consecration, and would not be worth much withoutit, even if it was possible to be attained. Now, look what a fardeeper and nobler idea of the service and conditions of moralgoodness this derivation of it from surrender to God gives, than doesa God-ignoring morality which talks and talks about acts anddispositions, and never goes down to the root of the whole matter;and how much nobler it is than a shallow religion which in likemanner is ever straining after acts of righteousness, and forgetsthat in order to be right there must be prior surrender to God. Get aman to yield himself up to God and no fear about the righteousness. Virtue, goodness, purity, righteousness, all these synonyms expressvery noble things; but deep down below them all lies the NewTestament idea of holiness, consecration of myself to God, which isthe parent of them all. 

And then the next thing to remind you of is that this consecration isto be applied all through a man's nature. Yielding yourselves to Godis the talismanic secret of all righteousness, as I have said; andevery part of our complex, manifold being is capable of suchconsecration. I hallow my heart if its love twines round His heart. Ihallow my thoughts if I take His truth for my guide, and ever seek tobe led thereby in practice and in belief. I hallow my will when itbows and says, 'Speak, Lord! Thy servant heareth!' I hallow my senseswhen I use them as from Him, with recognition of Him and for Him. Infact, there are two ways of living in the world; and, narrow as itsounds, I venture to say there are only two. Either God is my centre, and that is holiness; or self is my centre, in more or less subtleforms, and that is sin. 

Then the next step is that this consecration, which will issue in allpurity, and will cover the whole ground of a human life, is onlypossible when we have drunk in the blessed thought 'beloved of God. 'My yielding of myself to Him can only be the echo of His giving ofHimself to me. He must be the first to love. You cannot argue a maninto loving God, any more than you can hammer a rosebud open. If youdo you spoil its petals. But He can love us into loving Him, and thesunshine, falling on the closed flower, will expand it, and it willgrow by its reception of the light, and grow sunlike in its measureand according to its nature. So a God who has only claims upon uswill never be a God to whom we yield ourselves. A God who has lovefor us will be a God to whom it is blessed that we should beconsecrated, and so saints. 

Then, still further, this consecration, thus built upon the receptionof the divine love, and influencing our whole nature, and leading toall purity, is a universal characteristic of Christians. There is nofaith which does not lead to surrender. There is no aristocracy inthe Christian Church which deserves to have the family name givenespecially to it. 'Saint' this, and 'Saint' that, and 'Saint' theother--these titles cannot be used without darkening the truth thatthis honour and obligation of being saints belong equally to all thatlove Jesus Christ. All the men whom thus God has drawn to Himself, byHis love in His Son, they are all, if I may so say, objectively holy;they belong to God. But consecration may be cultivated, and must becultivated and increased. There is a solemn obligation laid uponevery one of us who call ourselves Christians, to be saints, in thesense that we have consciously yielded up our whole lives to Him; andare trying, body, soul, and spirit, 'to perfect holiness in the fearof the Lord. '

Paul's letter, addressed to the 'beloved in God, ' the 'called saints'that are in Rome, found its way to the people for whom it was meant. If a letter so addressed were dropped in our streets, do you thinkanybody would bring it to you, or to any Christian society as awhole, recognising that we were the people for whom it was meant? Theworld has taunted us often enough with the name of saints; andlaughed at the profession which they thought was included in theword. Would that their taunts had been undeserved, and that it werenot true that 'saints' in the Church sometimes means less than 'goodmen' out of the Church! 'Seeing that we have these promises, dearlybeloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh andspirit; perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. '

PAUL'S LONGING[1]

 'I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; 12. That is, that I may be comforted together with you, by the mutual faith both of you and me. '--ROMANS i. 11, 12. 

I am not wont to indulge in personal references in the pulpit, but Icannot but yield to the impulse to make an exception now, and to letour happy circumstances mould my remarks. I speak mainly to mine ownpeople, and I must trust that other friends who may hear or read mywords will forgive my doing so. 

In taking such a text as this, I desire to shelter myself behindPaul, and in expounding his feelings to express my own, and to drawsuch lessons as may be helpful and profitable to us all. And so thereare three things in this text that I desire to note: the manlyexpression of Christian affection; the lofty consciousness of thepurpose of their meeting; and the lowly sense that there was much tobe received as well as much to be given. A word or two about each ofthese things is all on which I can venture. 

I. First, then, notice the manly expression of Christian affectionwhich the Apostle allows himself here. 

Very few Christian teachers could or should venture to talk so muchabout themselves as Paul did. The strong infusion of the personalelement in all his letters is so transparently simple, so obviouslysincere, so free from any jarring note of affectation or unctuoussentiment that it attracts rather than repels. If I might ventureupon a paradox, his personal references are instances ofself-oblivion in the midst of self-consciousness. 

He had never been in Rome when he wrote these words; he had nopersonal relations with the believers there; he had never looked themin the face; there were no sympathy and confidence between them, asthe growth of years. But still his heart went out towards them, andhe was not ashamed to show it. 'I _long_ to see you, '--in theoriginal the word expresses a very intense amount of yearning blendedwith something of regret that he had been so long kept from them. 

Now it is not a good thing for people to make many professions ofaffection, and I think a public teacher has something better to dothan to parade such feelings before his audiences. But there areexceptions to all rules, and I suppose I may venture to let my heartspeak, and to say how gladly I come back to the old place, dear to meby so many sacred memories and associations, and how gladly I reknitthe bonds of an affection which has been unbroken, and deepening onboth sides through thirty long years. 

Dear friends! let us together thank God to-day if He has knit ourhearts together in mutual affection; and if you and I can look eachother, as I believe we can, in the eyes, with the assurance that Isee only the faces of friends, and that you see the face of one whogladly resumes the old work and associations. 

But now, dear brethren, let us draw one lesson. Unless there be thismanly, honest, though oftenest silent, Christian affection, thesooner you and I part the better. Unless it be in my heart I can doyou no good. No man ever touched another with the sweet constrainingforces that lie in Christ's Gospel unless the heart of the speakerwent out to grapple the hearts of the hearers. And no audience everlisten with any profit to a man when they come in the spirit ofcarping criticism, or of cold admiration, or of stolid indifference. There must be for this simple relationship which alone binds aNonconformist preacher to his congregation, as a _sine qua non_ ofall higher things and of all spiritual good, a real, though oftenestit be a concealed, mutual affection and regard. We have to thank Godfor much of it; let us try to get more. That is all I want to sayabout the first point here. 

II. Note the lofty consciousness of the purpose of their meeting. 

'I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift. 'Paul knew that he had something which he could give to these people, and he calls it by a very comprehensive term, 'some spiritualgift'--a gift of some sort which, coming from the Divine Spirit, wasto be received into the human spirit. 

Now that expression--a spiritual gift--in the New Testament has avariety of applications. Sometimes it refers to what we callmiraculous endowments, sometimes it refers to what we may callofficial capacity; but here it is evidently neither the one nor theother of these more limited and special things, but the general ideaof a divine operation upon the human spirit which fills it withChristian graces--knowledge, faith, love. Or, in simpler words, whatPaul wanted to give them was a firmer grasp and fuller possession ofJesus Christ, His love and power, which would secure a deepening andstrengthening of their whole Christian life. He was quite sure he hadthis to give, and that he could impart it, if they would listen towhat he would say to them. But whilst thus he rises into the loftyconception of the purpose and possible result of his meeting theRoman Christians, he is just as conscious of the limitations of hispower in the matter as he is of the greatness of his function. Theseare indicated plainly. The word which he employs here, 'gift' isnever used in the New Testament for a thing that one man can give toanother, but is always employed for the concrete results of the graceof God bestowed upon men. The very expression, then, shows that Paulthought of himself, not as the original giver, but simply as achannel through which was communicated what God had given. In thesame direction points the adjective which accompanies the noun--a'_spiritual_ gift'--which probably describes the origin of the giftas being the Spirit of God, rather than defines the seat of it whenreceived as being the spirit of the receiver. Notice, too, as bearingon the limits of Paul's part in the gift, the propriety and delicacyof the language in his statement of the ultimate purpose of the gift. He does not say 'that I may strengthen you, ' which might have soundedtoo egotistical, and would have assumed too much to himself, but hesays 'that ye may be strengthened, ' for the true strengthener is notPaul, but the Spirit of God. 

So, on the one hand, the Christian teacher is bound to rise to theheight of the consciousness of his lofty vocation as having inpossession a gift that he can bestow; on the other hand, he is boundever to remember the limitations within which that is true--viz. Thatthe gift is not his, but God's, and that the Spirit of the Lord isthe true Giver of all the graces which may blossom when His word, ministered by human agents, is received into human hearts. 

And, now, what are the lessons that I take from this? Two very simpleones. First, no Christian teacher has any business to open his mouth, unless he is sure that he has received something to impart to men asa gift from the Divine Spirit. To preach our doubts, to preach ourown opinions, to preach poor platitudes, to talk about politics andmorals and taste and literature and the like in the pulpit, isprofanation and blasphemy. Let no man open his lips unless he cansay: 'The Lord hath showed me this; and this I bring to you as Hisword. ' Nor has a Christian organisation any right to exist, unless itrecognises the communication and reception and further spreading ofthis spiritual gift as its great function. Churches which have lostthat consciousness, and, instead of a divine gift, have little moreto offer than formal worship, or music, or entertainments, or mereintellectual discourse, whether orthodox or 'advanced, ' have no rightto be; and by the law of the survival of the fittest will not longbe. The one thing that warrants such a relationship as subsistsbetween you and me is this, my consciousness that I have a messagefrom God, and your belief that you hear such from my lips. Unlessthat be our bond the sooner these walls crumble, and this voiceceases, and these pews are emptied, the better. 'I have, ' says, Paul, 'a gift to impart; and I long to see you that I may impart it toyou. ' Oh! for more, in all our pulpits, of that burdenedconsciousness of a divine message which needs the relief of speech, and longs with a longing caught from Christ to impart its richesttreasures. 

That is the one lesson. And the other one is this. Have you, dearfriends, received the gift that I have, under the limitations alreadyspoken of, to bestow? There are some of you who have listened to myvoice ever since you were children--some of you, though not many, have heard it for well on to thirty years. Have you taken the thingthat all these years I have been--God knows how poorly, but God knowshow honestly--trying to bring to you? That is, have you taken Christ, and have you faith in Him? And, as for those of you who say thatyou are Christians, many blessings have passed between you and methrough all these years; but, dear friends, has the chief blessingbeen attained? Are you being strengthened day by day for the burdensand the annoyances and the sorrows of life by your coming here? Do Ido you any good in that way; are you better men than when we firstmet together? Is Christ dearer, and more real and nearer to you; andare your lives more transparently consecrated, more manifestly theresult of a hidden union with Him? Do you walk in the world like theMaster, because you are members of this congregation? If so, itspurpose has been accomplished. If not, it has miserably failed. 

I have said that I have to thank God for the unbroken affection thathas knit us together. But what is the use of such love if it does notlead onwards to this? I have had enough, and more than enough, ofwhat you call popularity and appreciation, undeserved enough, butrendered unstintedly by you. I do not care the snap of a finger forit by comparison with this other thing. And oh, dear brethren! if allthat comes of our meeting here Sunday after Sunday is either praiseor criticism of my poor words and ways, our relationship is a curse, and not a blessing, and we come together for the worse and not forthe better. The purpose of the Church, and the purpose of theministry, and the meaning of our assembling are, that spiritual giftsmay be imparted, not by me alone, but by you, too, and by me in myplace and measure, and if that purpose be not accomplished, all otherpurposes, that are accomplished, are of no account, and worse thannothing. 

III. And now, lastly, note the lowly consciousness that much was tobe received as well as much to be given. 

The Apostle corrects himself after he has said 'that I may impartunto you some spiritual gift, ' by adding, 'that is, that I may becomforted (or rather, encouraged) together with you by the mutualfaith both of you and me. ' If his language were not so transparentlysincere, and springing from deep interest in the relationship betweenhimself and these people, we should say that it was exquisitecourtesy and beautiful delicacy. But it moves in a region far morereal than the region of courtesy, and it speaks the inmost truthabout the conditions on which the Roman Christians shouldreceive--viz. That they should also give. There is only one Giver whois only a Giver, and that is God. All other givers are alsoreceivers. Paul desired to see his Roman brethren that he might beencouraged; and when he did see them, as he marched along the AppianWay, a shipwrecked prisoner, the Acts of the Apostles tells us, 'Hethanked God and took courage. ' The sight of them strengthened him andprepared him for what lay before him. 

Paul's was a richly complicated nature--firm as a rock in its will, tremulously sensitive in its sympathies; like some strongly-rootedtree with its stable stem and a green cloud of fluttering foliagethat moves in the lightest air. So his spirit rose and fell accordingto the reception that he met from his brethren, and the manifestationof their faith quickened and strengthened his. 

And he is but one instance of a universal law. All teachers, the moregenuine they are, the more sympathetic they are, are the moresensitive of their environment. The very oratorical temperamentplaces a man at the mercy of surroundings. All earnest work has evertravelling with it as its shadow seasons of deep depression; and theChristian teacher does not escape these. I am not going to speakabout myself, but this is unquestionably true, that every Elijah, after the mightiest effort of prophecy, is apt to cover his head inhis mantle and to say, 'Take me away; I am not better than myfathers. ' And when a man for thirty years, amidst all the changesincident to a great city congregation in that time, has to stand upSunday after Sunday before the same people, and mark how some of themare stolidly indifferent, and note how others are dropping awayfrom their faithfulness, and see empty places where loving forms usedto sit--no wonder that the mood comes ever and anon, 'Then, said I, surely I have laboured in vain and spent my strength for nought. ' Thehearer reacts on the speaker quite as much as the speaker does on thehearer. If you have ice in the pews, that brings down the temperatureup here. It is hard to be fervid amidst people that are all but dead. It is difficult to keep a fire alight when it is kindled on the topof an iceberg. And the unbelief and low-toned religion of acongregation are always pulling down the faith and the fervour oftheir minister, if he be better and holier, as they expect him to be, than they are. 

'He did not many works because of their unbelief. ' Christ knew thehampering and the restrictions of His power which came from beingsurrounded by a chill, unsympathetic environment. My strength and myweakness are largely due to you. And if you want your minister topreach better, and in all ways to do his work more joyfully andfaithfully, the means lie largely in your own hands. Icyindifference, ill-natured interpretations, carping criticisms, swiftforgetfulness of one's words, all these things kill the fervour ofthe pulpit. 

On the other hand, the true encouragement to give a man when he istrying to do God's will, to preach Christ's Gospel, is not to pat himon the back and say, 'What a remarkable sermon that was of yours!what a genius! what an orator!' not to go about praising it, but tocome and say, 'Thy words have led me to Christ, and from thee I havetaken the gift of gifts. '

Dear brethren, the encouragement of the minister is in the conversionand the growth of the hearers. And I pray that in this new lease ofunited fellowship which we have taken out, be it longer orshorter--and advancing years tell me that at the longest it must becomparatively short--I may come to you ever more and more with thelofty and humbling consciousness that I have a message which Christhas given to me, and that you may come more and more receptive--notof _my_ words, God forbid--but of Christ's truth; and that so wemay be helpers one of another, and encourage each other in thewarfare and work to which we all are called and consecrated. 

[Footnote 1: Preached after long absence on account of illness. ]

DEBTORS TO ALL MEN

 'I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. '--ROMANS i. 14. 

No doubt Paul is here referring to the special obligation laid uponhim by his divine call to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. He wasentrusted with the Gospel as a steward, and was therefore bound tocarry it to all sorts and conditions of men. But the principleunderlying the statement applies to all Christians. The indebtednessreferred to is no peculiarity of the Apostolic order, but attaches toevery believer. Every servant of Jesus Christ, who has received thetruth for himself, has received it as a steward, and is, as such, indebted to God, from whom he got the trust, and to the men for whomhe got it. The only limit to the obligation is, as Paul says in thecontext, 'as much as in me is. ' Capacity, determined by faculties, opportunities, and circumstances, prescribes the kind and the degreeof the work to be done in discharge of the obligation; but theobligation is universal. We are not at liberty to choose whether weshall do our part in spreading the name of Jesus Christ. It is a debtthat we owe to God and to men. Is that the view of duty which theaverage Christian man takes? I am afraid it is not. If it were, ourtreasuries would be full, and great would be the multitude of themthat preached the Word. 

It is no very exalted degree of virtue to pay our debts. We do notexpect to be praised for that; and we do not consider that we are atliberty to choose whether we shall do it or not. We are dishonest ifwe do not. It is no merit in us to be honest. Would that allChristian people applied that principle to their religion. The worldwould be different, and the Church would be different, if they did. 

Let me try, then, to enforce this thought of indebtedness and ofcommon honesty in discharging the indebtedness, which underlies thesewords. Paul thought that he went a long way to pay his debts tohumanity by carrying to everybody whom he could reach the 'Name thatis above every name. '

I. Now, first, let me say that we Christians are debtors to all menby our common manhood. 

It is not the least of the gifts which Christianity has brought tothe world, that it has introduced the new thought of the brotherhoodof mankind. The very word 'humanity' is a Christian coinage, and itwas coined to express the new thought that began to throb in men'shearts, as soon as they accepted the message that Jesus Christ cameto give, the message of the Fatherhood of God. For it is on thatbelief of God's Fatherhood that the belief of man's brotherhoodrests, and on it alone can it be secured and permanently based. 

Here is a Jew writing to Latins in the Greek language. The phenomenonitself is a sign of a new order of things, of the rising of a floodthat had surged over, and in the course of ages would sap away anddissolve, the barriers between men. The Apostle points to two of thewidest gulfs that separated men, in the words of my text. 'Greeks andBarbarians' divides mankind, according to race and language. 'Wiseand unwise' divides them according to culture and intellectualcapacity. Both gulfs exist still, though they have been wonderfullyfilled up by the influence, direct and indirect, of the Gospel ofJesus Christ. The fiercest antagonisms of race which still subsistare felt to belong to a decaying order, and to be sure, sooner orlater, to pass away. I suppose that the gulf made by the increasedculture of modern society between civilised and the savage peoples, and, within the limits of our own land, the gulf made by educationbetween the higher and the lower layers of our community--I speak notof higher and lower in regard to wealth or station, but in regard tointellectual acquirement and capacity--are greater than, perhaps, they ever were in the past. But yet over the gulf a bridge is thrown, and the gulf itself is being filled up. High above all thesuperficial distinctions which separate Jew and Gentile, Greek andBarbarian, educated and illiterate, scientific and unscientific, wiseand unwise, there stretches the great rainbow of the truth that allare one in Christ Jesus. Fraternity without Fatherhood is a ghastlymockery that ended a hundred years ago in the guillotine, and to-daywill end in disappointment; and it is little more than cant. But whenChristianity comes and tells us that we have one Father and oneRedeemer, then the unity of the race is secured. 

And that oneness which makes us debtors to all men is shown to bereal by the fact that, beneath all superficial distinctions ofculture, race, age, or station, there are the primal necessities andyearnings and possibilities that lie in every human soul. All men, savage or cultivated, breathe the same air, see by the same light, are fed by the same food and drink, have the same yearning hearts, the same lofty aspirations that unfulfilled are torture; the sameexperience of the same guilt, and, blessed be God! the same Saviourand the same salvation. 

Because, then, we are all members of the one family, every man isbound to regard all that he possesses, and is, and can do, ascommitted to him in stewardship to be imparted to his fellows. We arenot sponges to absorb, but we are pipes placed in the spring, that wemay give forth the precious water of life. 

Cain is not a very good model, but his question is the world'squestion, and it implies the expectation of a negative answer--'Am Imy brother's keeper?' Surely, the very language answers itself, and, although Cain thinks that the only answer is 'No, ' wisdom sees thatthe only answer is 'Yes. ' For if I am my brother's brother, thensurely I am my brother's keeper. We have a better example. There isanother Elder Brother who has come to give to His brethren all thatHimself possessed, and we but poorly follow our Master's patternunless we feel that the mystic tie which binds us in brotherhood toevery man makes us every man's debtor to the extent of ourpossessions. That is the Christian truth that underlies the modernSocialistic idea, and, whatever the form in which it is ultimatelybrought into practice as the rule of mankind, the principle willtriumph one day; and we are bound, as Christian men, to hasten thecoming of its victory. We are debtors by reason of our commonhumanity. 

II. We are debtors by our possession of the universal salvation. 

The principle which I have already been laying down applies allround, to everything that we have, are, or can do. But its moststringent obligation, and the noblest field for its operations, arefound in reference to the Christian man's possession of the Gospelfor the joy of his own heart, and to the duties that are thereininvolved. Christ draws men to Himself for their own sakes, blessed beHis name! but not for their own sakes only. He draws them to Himself, that they, in their turn, may draw others with whose hands theirs arelinked, and so may swell the numbers of the flock that gathers roundthe one Shepherd. He puts the dew of His blessing into the chalice ofthe tiniest flower, that it may 'share its dewdrop with anothernear. ' Just as every particle of inert dough as it is leavenedbecomes in its turn leaven, and the medium for leavening the particlecontiguous to it, so every Christian is bound, or, to use themetaphor of my text, is a debtor to God and man, to impart the Gospelof Jesus Christ. 'Greek and Barbarian, ' says Paul, 'wise or unwise';all distinctions vanish. If I can get at a man, no matter whatcolour, his race, his language, his capacity, his acquirements, he is my creditor, and I am defrauding him of what he has a right toexpect from me if I do not do my best to bring him to Jesus Christ. 

This obligation receives additional weight from the proved adaptationof the Gospel to all sorts and conditions of men. Alone of allreligions has Christianity proved itself capable of dominating everytype of character, of influencing every stage of civilisation, ofassuming the speech of every tongue, and of wearing the garb of everyrace. There are other religions which are evidently destined only toa narrow field of operations, and are rigidly limited by geographicalconditions, or by stages of civilisation. There are wines that areruined by a sea voyage, and can only be drunk in the land where thevintage was gathered; and that is the condition of all the ethnicreligions. Christianity alone passes through the whole earth, andinfluences all men. The history of missions shows us that. There hasyet to be found the race that is incapable of receiving, or is beyondthe need of possessing, or cannot be elevated by the operation of, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

So to all men we are bound, as much as in us is, to carry the Gospel. The distinction that is drawn so often by the people who never move afinger to help the heathen either at home or abroad, between the homeand the foreign field of work, vanishes altogether when we stand atthe true Christian standpoint. Here is a man who wants the Gospel; Ihave it; I can give it to him. That constitutes a summons asimperative as if we were called by name from Heaven, and bade to go, and as much as in us is to preach the Gospel. Brethren! we do notobey the command, 'Owe no man anything, ' unless, to the extent of ourability, or over the whole field which we can influence at home orabroad, we seek to spread the name of Christ and the salvation thatis in Him. 

III. We are debtors by benefits received. 

I am speaking to men and women a very large proportion of whom gettheir living, and some of whom amass their wealth, by trade withlands that need the Gospel. It is not for nothing that England haswon the great empire that she possesses--won it, alas! far too oftenby deeds that will not bear investigation in the light of Christianprinciple, but won it. 

What do we owe to the lands that we call 'heathen'? The very speechby which we communicate with one another; the beginning of ourcivilisation; wide fields for expanding population and emigration;treasures of wisdom of many kinds; an empire about which we are toofond of crowing and too reluctant to recognise itsresponsibilities--and Manchester its commerce and prosperity! Did Godput us where we are as a nation only in order that we might carry thegifts of our literature, great as that is; of our science, great asthat is; of our law, blessed as that is; of our manufactures, tothose distant lands? The best thing that we can give is the thingthat all of us can help to give--the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 'Whoknoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time asthis?'

IV. Lastly, we are debtors by injuries inflicted. 

Many subject-races seem destined to fade away by contact with ourrace; and if we think of the nameless cruelties, and the iliad ofwoes which England's possession of this great Colonial Empire has hadaccompanying it, we may feel that the harm in many aspects outweighsthe good, and that it had been better for these men to be leftsuckled in creeds outworn, and ignorant of our civilisation, than toreceive from us the fatal gifts that they often have received. I donot wish to exaggerate, but if you will take the facts of the case asbrought out by people that have no Christian prejudices to serve, Ithink you will acknowledge that we as a nation owe a debt ofreparation to the barbarians and the unwise. 

What about killing African tribes by the thousand with the vile stuffthat we call rum, and send to them in exchange for their poorcommodities? What about introducing new diseases, the offspring ofvice, into the South Sea Islands, decimating and all but destroyingthe population? Is it not true that, as the prophet wailed of oldabout a degenerate Israel, we may wail about the beach-combers andother loafers that go amongst savage lands from England--'Through youthe name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles. ' A Hindoo once saidto a missionary, 'Your Book is very good. If you were as good as yourBook you would conquer India in five years. ' That may be true or itmay not, but it gives us the impression that is produced by godlessEnglishmen on heathen peoples. We are taking away their religion fromthem, necessarily, as the result of education and contact withEuropean thought. And if we do not substitute for it the one faiththat elevates and saves, the last state of that man will be worsethan the first. 

We can almost hear the rattle of the guns on the north-west frontierof India to-day. There is another specimen of the injuries inflicted. This is not the place to talk politics, but I feel that this is theplace to ask this question, 'Are Christian principles to haveanything to do in determining national actions?' Is it Christian toimpose our yoke on unwilling tribes who have as deep a love forindependence as the proudest Englishmen of us all, and as good aright to it? Are punitive expeditions and Maxim guns instalments ofour debt to all men? I wonder what Jesus Christ, who died for Afridisand Orakzais and all the rest of them, thinks about such conduct?

Brethren, we are debtors to all men. Let us do our best to influencenational action in accordance with the brotherhood which has beenrevealed to us by the Elder Brother of us all; and let us, at leastfor our own parts, recognise, and, as much as in us is, discharge thedebt which, by our common humanity, and by our possession of theuniversal Gospel we owe to all men, and which is made more weighty bythe benefits we receive from many, and by the injuries which Englandhas inflicted on not a few. Else shall we hear rise above all thevoices that palliate crime, on the plea of 'State necessity, ' thestern words of the Master, 'In thy skirts is found the blood of thesouls of poor innocents. ' We are debtors; let us pay our debts. 

THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD[1]

 'I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. '--ROMANS i. 16. 

To preach the Gospel in Rome had long been the goal of Paul's hopes. He wished to do in the centre of power what he had done in Athens, the home of wisdom; and with superb confidence, not in himself, butin his message, to try conclusions with the strongest thing in theworld. He knew its power well, and was not appalled. The danger wasan attraction to his chivalrous spirit. He believed in flying atthe head when you are fighting with a serpent, and he knew thatinfluence exerted in Rome would thrill through the Empire. If wewould understand the magnificent audacity of these words of my textwe must try to listen to them with the ears of a Roman. Here was apoor little insignificant Jew, like hundreds of his countrymen downin the Ghetto, one who had his head full of some fantastic nonsenseabout a young visionary whom the procurator of Syria had very wiselyput an end to a while ago in order to quiet down the turbulentprovince; and he was going into Rome with the notion that his wordwould shake the throne of the Cæsars. What proud contempt would havecurled their lips if they had been told that the travel-stainedprisoner, trudging wearily up the Appian Way, had the mightiest thingin the world entrusted to his care! Romans did not believe much inideas. Their notion of power was sharp swords and iron yokes on thenecks of subject peoples. But the history of Christianity, whateverelse it has been, has been the history of the supremacy and therevolutionary force of ideas. Thought is mightier than all visibleforces. Thought dissolves and reconstructs. Empires and institutionsmelt before it like the carbon rods in an electric lamp; and thelittle hillock of Calvary is higher than the Palatine with its regalhomes and the Capitoline with its temples: 'I am not ashamed of theGospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. '

Now, dear friends, I have ventured to take these great words for mytext, though I know, better than any of you can tell me, how sure mytreatment of them is to enfeeble rather than enforce them, because I, for my poor part, feel that there are few things which we, all of us, people and ministers, need more than to catch some of the infectionof this courageous confidence, and to be fired with some spark ofPaul's enthusiasm for, and glorying in, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

I ask you, then, to consider three things: (1) what Paul thought wasthe Gospel? (2) what Paul thought the Gospel was? and (3) what hefelt about the Gospel?

I. What Paul thought was the Gospel?

He has given to us in his own rapid way a summary statement, abbreviated to the very bone, and reduced to the barest elements, ofwhat he meant by the Gospel. What was the irreducible minimum? Thefacts of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, as you will findwritten in the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to theCorinthians. So, then, to begin with, the Gospel is not a statementof principles, but a record of facts, things that have happened inthis world of ours. But the least part of a fact is the visible partof it, and it is of no significance unless it has explanation, and soPaul goes on to bind up with the facts an explanation of them. Themere fact that Jesus, a young Nazarene, was executed is no more agospel than the other one, that two brigands were crucified besideHim. But the fact that could be seen, plus the explanation whichunderlies and interprets it, turns the chronicle into a gospel, andthe explanation begins with the name of the Sufferer; for if you wantto understand His death you must understand who it was that died. Hisdeath is a thought pathetic in all aspects, and very precious inmany. But when we hear 'Christ died according to the Scriptures, ' thewhole symbolism of the ancient ritual and all the glowinganticipations of the prophets rise up before us, and that deathassumes an altogether different aspect. If we stop with 'Jesus died, 'then that death may be a beautiful example of heroism, a sweet, pathetic instance of innocent suffering, a conspicuous example of theworld's wages to the world's teachers, but it is little more. If, however, we take Paul's words upon our lips, 'Brethren, I declareunto you the Gospel which I preached . .. How that Christ died . .. According to the Scriptures, ' the fact flashes up into solid beauty, and becomes the Gospel of our salvation. And the explanation goes on, 'How that Christ died for our sins. ' Now, I may be very blind, but Iventure to say that I, for my part, cannot see in what intelligiblesense the Death of Christ can be held to have been for, or on behalfof, our sins--that is, that they may be swept away and we deliveredfrom them--unless you admit the atoning nature of His sacrifice forsins. I cannot stop to enlarge, but I venture to say that anynarrower interpretation evacuates Paul's words of their deepestsignificance. The explanation goes on, 'And that He was buried. ' Whythat trivial detail? Partly because it guarantees the fact of HisDeath, partly because of its bearing on the evidences of HisResurrection. 'And that He rose from the dead according to theScriptures. ' Great fact, without which Christ is a shattered prop, and 'ye are yet in your sins. '

But, further, notice that my text is also Paul's text for thisEpistle, and that it differs from the condensed summary of which Ihave been speaking only as a bud with its petals closed differs fromone with them expanded in their beauty. And now, if you will take thewords of my text as being the keynote of this letter, and read overits first eight chapters, what is the Apostle talking about when hein them fulfils his purpose and preaches 'the Gospel' to them thatare at Rome also? Here is, in the briefest possible words, hissummary--the universality of sin, the awful burden of guilt, thetremendous outlook of penalty, the impossibility of man rescuinghimself or living righteously, the Incarnation, and Life, and Deathof Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, the hand offaith grasping the offered blessing, the indwelling in believingsouls of the Divine Spirit, and the consequent admission of man intoa life of sonship, power, peace, victory, glory, the child's place inthe love of the Father from which nothing can separate. These are theteachings which make the staple of this Epistle. These are theexplanations of the weighty phrases of my text. These are at leastthe essential elements of the Gospel according to Paul. 

But he was not alone in this construction of his message. We hear agreat deal to-day about Pauline Christianity, with the implication, and sometimes with the assertion, that he was the inventor of what, for the sake of using a brief and easily intelligible term, I maycall Evangelical Christianity. Now, it is a very illuminating thoughtfor the reading of the New Testament that there are the three sets ofteaching, roughly, the Pauline, Petrine, and Johannine, and youcannot find the distinctions between these three in any difference asto the fundamental contents of the Gospel; for if Paul rings out, 'God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinnersChrist died for us, ' Peter declares, 'Who His own self bare our sinsin His own body on the tree, ' and John, from his island solitude, sends across the waters the hymn of praise, 'Unto Him that loved usand washed us from our sins in His own blood. ' And so the prouddeclaration of the Apostle, which he dared not have ventured upon inthe face of the acrid criticism he had to front unless he had knownhe was perfectly sure of his ground, is natural andwarranted--'Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach. '

We are told that we must go back to the Christ of the Gospels, thehistorical Christ, and that He spoke nothing concerning all theseimportant points that I have mentioned as being Paul's conception ofthe Gospel. Back to the Christ of the Gospels by all means, if youwill go to the Christ of all the Gospels and of the whole of eachGospel. And if you do, you will go back to the Christ who said, 'TheSon of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and togive His life a ransom for many. ' You will go back to the Christ whosaid, 'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all menunto Me. ' You will go back to the Christ who said, 'The bread that Iwill give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. 'You will go back to the Christ who bade His followers hold ineverlasting memory, not the tranquil beauty of His life, not thepersuasive sweetness of His gracious words, not the might of Hismiracles of blessing, but the mysterious agonies of His last hours, by which He would have us learn that there lie the secret of Hispower, the foundation of our hopes, the stimulus of our service. 

Now, brethren, I have ventured to dwell so long upon this matter, because it is no use talking about the Gospel unless we understandwhat we mean by it, and I, for my part, venture to say that that iswhat Paul meant by it, and that is what I mean by it. I plead for nonarrow interpretation of the phrases of my text. I would not thatthey should be used to check in the smallest degree the diversitiesof representation which, according to the differences of individualcharacter, must ever prevail in the conceptions which we form andwhich we preach of this Gospel of Jesus Christ. I want no parrot-likerepetition of a certain set of phrases embodied, however great may betheir meanings, in every sermon. And I would that the people to whomthose truths are true would make more allowance than they sometimesdo for the differences to which I have referred, and would show agreat deal more sympathy than they often do to those, especiallythose young men, who, with their faces toward Christ, have not yetgrown to the full acceptance of all that is implied in those graciouswords. There is room for a whole world of thought in the Gospel ofChrist as Paul conceived it, with all the deep foundations ofimplication and presupposition on which it rests, and with all the, as yet, undiscovered range of conclusions to which it may lead. Remember that the Cross of Christ is the key to the universe, andsends its influence into every region of human thought. 

II. What Paul thought the Gospel was. 

'The power of God unto salvation. ' There was in the background of theApostle's mind a kind of tacit reference to the antithetical powerthat he was going up to meet, the power of Rome, and we may tracethat in the words of my text. Rome, as I have said, was theembodiment of physical force, with no great faith in ideas. And overagainst this carnal might Paul lifts the undissembled weakness of theCross, and declares that it is stronger than man, 'the power of Godunto salvation. ' Rome is high in force; Athens is higher; the Crossis highest of all, and it comes shrouded in weakness having a poorMan hanging dying there. That is a strange embodiment of divinepower. Yes, and because so strange, it is so touching, and soconquering. The power that is draped in weakness is power indeed. Though Rome's power did make for righteousness sometimes, yet itsstream of tendency was on the whole a power to destruction andgrasped the nations of the earth as some rude hand might do richclusters of grapes and squeeze them into a formless mass. The trampof the legionary meant death, and it was true in many respects ofthem what was afterwards said of later invaders of Europe, that wheretheir horses' hoofs had once stamped no grass ever grew. Over againstthis terrific engine of destruction Paul lifts up the meek forces oflove which have for their sole object the salvation of man. 

Then we come to another of the keywords about which it is veryneedful that people should have deeper and wider notions than theyoften seem to cherish. What is salvation? Negatively, the removal andsweeping away of all evil, physical and moral, as the schools speak. Positively, the inclusion of all good for every part of the compositenature of a man which the man can receive and which God can bestow. And that is the task that the Gospel sets to itself. Now, I need notremind you how, for the execution of such a purpose, it is plain thatsomething else than man's power is absolutely essential. It is onlyGod who can alter my relation to His government. It is only God whocan trammel up the inward consequences of my sins and prevent themfrom scourging me. It is only God who can bestow upon my death a newlife, which shall grow up into righteousness and beauty, caught of, and kindred to, His own. But if this be the aim of theGospel, then its diagnosis of man's sickness is a very much graverone than that which finds favour amongst so many of us now. Salvationis a bigger word than any of the little gospels that we hearclamouring round about us are able to utter. It means something agreat deal more than either social or intellectual, or still more, material or political betterment of man's condition. The disease liesso deep, and so great are the destruction and loss partlyexperienced, and still more awfully impending over every soul of us, that something else than tinkering at the outsides, or dealing, asself-culture does, with man's understanding or, as social gospels do, with man's economical and civic condition, should be brought to bear. Dear brethren, especially you Christian ministers, preach a socialChristianity by all means, an applied Christianity, for there doeslie in the Gospel of Jesus Christ a key to all the problems thatafflict our social condition. But be sure first that there is aChristianity before you talk about applying it. And remember that theprocess of salvation begins in the deep heart of the individual andtransforms him first and foremost. The power is 'to every one thatbelieveth. ' It is power in its most universal sweep. Rome's Empirewas wellnigh ubiquitous, but, blessed be God, the dove of Christflies farther than the Roman eagle with beak and claw ready forrapine, and wherever there are men here is a Gospel for them. Thelimitation is no limitation of its universality. It is no limitationof the claim of a medicine to be a panacea that it will only do goodto the man who swallows it. And that is the only limitation of whichthe Gospel is susceptible, for we have all the same deep needs, thesame longings; we are fed by the same bread, we are nourished by thesame draughts of water, we breathe the same air, we have the samesins, and, thanks be to God, we have the same Saviour. 'The power ofGod unto salvation to every one that believeth. '

Now before I pass from this part of my subject there is only onething more that I want to say, and that is, that you cannot applythat glowing language about 'the power of God unto salvation' toanything but the Gospel that Paul preached. Forms of Christianitywhich have lost the significance of the Incarnation and Death ofJesus Christ, and which have struck out or obscured the central factswith which I have been dealing, are not, never were, and, I maypresumptuously venture to say, never will be, forces of large accountin this world. Here is a clock, beautiful, chased on the back, with avery artistic dial-plate, and works modelled according to the mostapproved fashion, but, somehow or other, the thing won't go. Perhapsthe mainspring is broken. And so it is only the Gospel, as Paulexpounds it and expands it in this Epistle, that is 'the power of Godunto salvation. ' Dear brethren, in the course of a sermon like this, of course, one must lay himself open to the charge of dogmatising. That cannot be helped under the conditions of my space. But let mesay as my own solemn conviction--I know that that is not worth muchto you, but it is my justification for speaking in such afashion--let me say as my solemn conviction that you may as well takethe keystone out of an arch, with nothing to hold the other stonestogether or keep them from toppling in hideous ruin on yourunfortunate head, as take the doctrine that Paul summed up in thatone word out of your conception of Christianity and expect it towork. And be sure of this, that there is only one Name that lords itover the demons of afflicted humanity, and that if a man goes andtries to eject them with any less potent charm than Paul's Gospel, they will turn upon him with 'Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but whoare you?'

III. What Paul felt about this Gospel. 

His restrained expression, 'I am not ashamed, ' is the stronger forits very moderation. It witnesses to the fixed purpose of his heartand attitude of his mind, whilst it suggests that he was well awareof all the temptations in Rome to being ashamed of it there. Think ofwhat was arrayed against him--venerable religion, systematisedphilosophies, bitter hatred and prejudice, material power and wealth. These were the brazen armour of Goliath, and this little David wentcheerily down into the valley with five pebble stones in a leathernwallet, and was quite sure how it was going to end. And it ended ashe expected. His Gospel shook the kingdom of the Roman, and cast itin another mould. 

And there are temptations, plenty of them, for us, dear friends, to-day, to bate our confidence. The drift of what calls itselfinfluential opinion is anti-supernatural, and we all are conscious ofthe presence of that element all round about us. It tells withspecial force upon our younger men, but it affects us all. In thisday, when a large portion of the periodical press, which does thethinking for most of us, looks askance at these truths, and when, onthe principle that in the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man isthe king, popular novelists become our theological tutors, and whenevery new publishing season brings out a new conclusive destructionof Christianity, which supersedes last season's equally completedestruction, it is hard for some of us to keep our flags flying. Theice round about us will either bring down the temperature, or, if itstimulates us to put more fuel on the fire, perhaps the fire may meltit. And so the more we feel ourselves encompassed by thesetemptations, the louder is the call to Christian men to castthemselves back on the central verities, and to draw at first handfrom them the inspiration which shall be their safety. And how isthat to be done? Well, there are many ways by which thoughtful, andcultivated, students may do it. But may I venture to deal here ratherwith ways which all Christian people have open before them? And I ambold to say that the way to be sure of 'the power of God untosalvation' is to submit ourselves continually to its cleansing andrenewing influence. This certitude, brethren, may be contributed toby books of apologetics, and by other sources of investigation andstudy which I should be sorry indeed to be supposed in any degree todepreciate. But the true way to get it is, by deep communion with theliving God, to realise the personality of Jesus Christ as presentwith us, our Friend, our Saviour, our Sanctifier by His Holy Spirit. Why, Paul's Gospel was, I was going to say, altogether--that would bean exaggeration--but it was to a very large extent simply thegeneralisation of his own experience. That is what all of us willfind to be the Gospel that we have to preach. 'We speak that we doknow and testify that we have seen. ' And it was because this mancould say so assuredly--because the depths of his own conscience andthe witness within him bore testimony to it--'He loved me and gaveHimself for me, ' that he could also say, 'The power of God untosalvation to every one that believeth. ' Go down into the depths, brother and friend; cry to Him out of the depths. Then you will feelHis strong, gentle grip lifting you to the heights, and that willgive power that nothing else will, and you will be able to say, 'Ihave heard Him myself, and I know that this is the Christ, theSaviour of the world. '

But there is yet another source of certitude open to us all, and thatis the history of the centuries. Our modern sceptics, attacking thetruth of Christianity mostly from the physical side, are strangelyblind to the worth of history. It is a limitation of faculty thatbesets them in a good many directions, but it does not work anywheremore fatally than it does in their attitude towards the Gospel. Afterall, Jesus Christ spoke the ultimate word when He said, 'By theirfruits ye shall know them. ' And it is so, because just as what ismorally wrong cannot be politically right, so what is intellectuallyfalse cannot be morally good. Truth, goodness, beauty, they are butthree names for various aspects of one thing, and if it be that thedifference between B. C. And A. D. Has come from a Gospel which is notthe truth of God, then all I can say is, that the richest vintagethat ever the world saw, and the noblest wine of which it ever drank, did grow upon a thorn. I know that the Christian Church has sinfullyand tragically failed to present Christ adequately to the world. Butfor all that, 'Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord'; and noblermanners and purer laws have come in the wake of this Gospel of JesusChrist. And as I look round about upon what Christianity has done inthe world, I venture to say, 'Show us any system of religion or of noreligion that has done that or anything the least like it, and thenwe will discuss with you the other evidences of the Gospel. '

In closing these words, may I venture relying on the melancholyprivilege of seniority, to drop for a minute or two into a tone ofadvice? I would say, do not be frightened out of your confidenceeither by the premature paean of victory from the opposite camp, orby timid voices in our own ranks. And that you may not be sofrightened, be sure to keep clear in your mind the distinctionbetween the things that can be shaken and the kingdom that cannot bemoved. It is bad strategy to defend an elongated line. It iscowardice to treat the capture of an outpost as involving theevacuation of the key of the position. It is a mistake, to which manygood Christian people are sorely tempted in this day, to assert sucha connection between the eternal Gospel and our deductions from theprinciples of that Gospel as that the refutation of the one must bethe overthrow of the other. And if it turns out to be so in any case, a large part of the blame lies upon those good and mistaken peoplewho insist that everything must be held or all must be abandoned. Theburning questions of this day about the genuineness of the books ofScripture, inspiration, inerrancy, and the like, are not soassociated with this word, 'God so loved the world . .. That whosoeverbelieveth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life, ' asthat the discovery of errors in the Second Book of Chronicles shakesthe foundations of the Christian certitude. In a day like this truthmust change its vesture. Who believes that the Dissenting Churches ofEngland are the highest, perfect embodiment of the Kingdom of God?And who believes that any creed of man's making has in it all and hasin it only the everlasting Gospel? So do not be frightened, and donot think that when the things that can be shaken are removed, thethings that cannot be shaken are at all less likely to remain. Dependupon it, the Gospel, whose outline I have imperfectly tried to setbefore you now, will last as long as men on earth know they aresinners and need a Saviour. Did you ever see some mean buildings thathave by degrees been gathered round the sides of some majesticcathedral, and do you suppose that the sweeping away of thoseshanties would touch the solemn majesty of the mediæval glories ofthe building that rises above them? Take them away if need be, andit, in its proportion, beauty, strength, and heavenward aspiration, will stand more glorious for the sweeping away. Preach positivetruth. Do not preach doubts. You remember Mr. Kingsley's book_Yeast_. Its title was its condemnation. Yeast is not meant to bedrunk; it is meant to be kept in the dark till the process offermentation goes on and it works itself clear, and then you maybring it out. Do not be always arguing with the enemy. It is a greatdeal better to preach the truth. Remember what Jesus said: 'Let themalone, they are blind leaders of the blind, they will fall into theditch. ' It is not given to every one of us to conduct controversialarguments in the pulpit. There are some much wiser and abler brethrenamongst us than you or I who can do it. Let us be contented with, notthe humbler but the more glorious, office of telling what we haveknown, leaving it, as it will do, to prove itself. You remember whatthe old woman, who had been favoured by her pastor with an elaboratesermon to demonstrate the existence of God, said when he hadfinished; 'Well, I believe there is a God, for all the gentlemansays. '

As one who sees the lengthening shadows falling over the darkeningfield, may I say one word to my junior brethren, with all whosestruggles and doubts and difficulties I, for one, do most tenderlysympathise? I beseech them--though, alas! the advice condemns thegiver of it as he looks back over long years of his ministry--to befaithful to the Gospel how that 'Jesus Christ died for our sinsaccording to the Scriptures. ' Dear young friends, if you only gowhere Paul went, and catch the inspiration that he caught there, yourpath will be clear. It was in contact with Christ, whose passion forsoul-winning brought Him from heaven, that Paul learned his passionfor soul-winning. And if you and I are touched with the divineenthusiasm, and have that aim clear before us, we shall soon find outthat there is only one power, one name given under heaven among menwhereby we can accomplish what we desire--the name of 'Jesus Christthat died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the righthand of God, and also maketh intercession for us. ' If our aim isclear before us it will prescribe our methods, and if the inspirationof our ministry is, 'I determine not to know anything among you saveJesus Christ and Him crucified, ' then, whether men will hear orwhether they will forbear, they shall know that there hath been aProphet among them. 

[Footnote 1: Preached before Baptist Union. ]

WORLD-WIDE SIN AND WORLD-WIDE REDEMPTION

 'Now we know, that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference: 23. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God: 24. Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26. To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness; that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. '--ROMANS iii. 19-26. 

Let us note in general terms the large truths which this passagecontains. We may mass these under four heads:

I. Paul's view of the purpose of the law. 

He has been quoting a mosaic of Old Testament passages from thePsalms and Isaiah. He regards these as part of 'the law, ' which term, therefore, in his view, here includes the whole previous revelation, considered as making known God's will as to man's conduct. Every wordof God, whether promise, or doctrine, or specific command, has in itsome element bearing on conduct. God reveals nothing only in orderthat we may know, but all that, knowing, we may do and be what ispleasing in His sight. All His words are law. 

But Paul sets forth another view of its purpose here; namely, todrive home to men's consciences the conviction of sin. That is notthe only purpose, for God reveals duty primarily in order that menmay do it, and His law is meant to be obeyed. But, failing obedience, this second purpose comes into action, and His law is a swift witnessagainst sin. The more clearly we know our duty, the more poignantwill be our consciousness of failure. The light which shines to showthe path of right, shines to show our deviations from it. And thatconviction of sin, which it was the very purpose of all the previousRevelation to produce, is a merciful gift; for, as the Apostleimplies, it is the prerequisite to the faith which saves. 

As a matter of fact, there was a far profounder and more inwardconviction of sin among the Jews than in any heathen nation. Contrastthe wailings of many a psalm with the tone in Greek or Romanliterature. No doubt there is a law written on men's hearts whichevokes a lower measure of the same consciousness of sin. There areprayers among the Assyrian and Babylonian tablets which might almoststand beside the Fifty-first Psalm; but, on the whole, the deep senseof sin was the product of the revealed law. The best use of ourconsciousness of what we ought to be, is when it rouses conscience tofeel the discordance with it of what we are, and so drives us toChrist. Law, whether in the Old Testament, or as written in ourhearts by their very make, is the slave whose task is to bring us toChrist, who will give us power to keep God's commandments. 

Another purpose of the law is stated in verse 21, as being to bearwitness, in conjunction with the prophets, to a future more perfectrevelation of God's righteousness. Much of the law was symbolic andprophetic. The ideal it set forth could not always remainunfulfilled. The whole attitude of that system was one offorward-looking expectancy. There is much danger lest, in moderninvestigations as to the authorship, date, and genesis of the OldTestament revelation, its central characteristic should be lost sightof; namely, its pointing onwards to a more perfect revelation whichshould supersede it. 

II. Paul's view of universal sinfulness. 

He states that twice in this passage (vs. 20 to 24), and it underlieshis view of the purpose of law. In verse 20 he asserts that 'by theworks of the law shall no flesh be justified, ' and in verses 23 and24 he advances from that negative statement to the positive assertionthat all have sinned. The impossibility of justification by the worksof the law may be shown from two considerations: one, that, as amatter of fact, no flesh has ever done them all with absolutecompleteness and purity; and, second, that, even if they had everbeen so done, they would not have availed to secure acquittal at atribunal where motive counts for more than deed. The former is themain point with Paul. 

In verse 23 the same fact of universal experience is contemplated asboth positive sin and negative falling short of the 'glory' (whichhere seems to mean, as in John v. 44, xii. 43, approbation from God). 'There is no distinction, ' but all varieties of condition, character, attainment, are alike in this, that the fatal taint is upon them all. 'We have, all of us, one human heart. ' We are alike in physicalnecessities, in primal instincts, and, most tragically of all, in thecommon experience of sinfulness. 

Paul does not mean to bring all varieties of character down to onedead level, but he does mean to assert that none is free from thetaint. A man need only be honest in self-examination to endorse thestatement, so far as he himself is concerned. The Gospel would bebetter understood if the fact of universal sinfulness were moredeeply felt. Its superiority to all schemes for making everybodyhappy by rearrangements of property, or increase of culture, would beseen through; and the only cure for human misery would be discernedto be what cures universal sinfulness. 

III. So we have next Paul's view of the remedy for man's sin. That isstated in general terms in verses 21, 22. Into a world of sinful mencomes streaming the light of a 'righteousness of God. ' Thatexpression is here used to mean a moral state of conformity withGod's will, imparted by God. The great, joyful message, which Paulfelt himself sent to proclaim, is that the true way to reach thestate of conformity which law requires, and which theunsophisticated, universal conscience acknowledges not to have beenreached, is the way of faith. 

The message is so familiar to us that we may easily fail to realiseits essential greatness and wonderfulness when first proclaimed. ThatGod should give righteousness, that it should be 'of God, ' not onlyas coming from Him, but as, in some real way, being kindred with Hisown perfection; that it should be brought to men by Jesus Christ, asancient legends told that a beneficent Titan brought from heaven, ina hollow cane, the gift of fire; and that it should become ours bythe simple process of trusting in Jesus Christ, are truths whichcustom has largely robbed of their wonderfulness. Let us meditatemore on them till they regain, by our own experience of their power, some of the celestial light which belongs to them. 

Observe that in verse 22 the universality of the redemption which isin Christ is deduced from the universality of sin. The remedy mustreach as far as the disease. If there is no difference in regard tosin, there can be none in regard to the sweep of redemption. Thedoleful universality of the covering spread over all nations, hascorresponding to it the blessed universality of the light which issent forth to flood them all. Sin's empire cannot stretch fartherthan Christ's kingdom. 

IV. Paul's view of what makes the Gospel the remedy. 

In verses 21 and 22 it was stated generally that Christ was thechannel, and faith the condition, of righteousness. The personalobject of faith was declared, but not the special thing in Christwhich was to be trusted in. That is fully set forth in verses 24-26. We cannot attempt to discuss the great words in these verses, each ofwhich would want a volume. But we may note that 'justified' heremeans to be accounted or declared righteous, as a judicial act; andthat justification is traced in its ultimate source to God's'grace, '--His own loving disposition--which bends to unworthy andlowly creatures, and is regarded as having for the medium of itsbestowal the 'redemption' that is in Christ Jesus. That is thechannel through which grace comes from God. 

'Redemption' implies captivity, liberation, and a price paid. Themetaphor of slaves set free by ransom is exchanged in verse 25 for asacrificial reference. A propitiatory sacrifice averts punishmentfrom the offerer. The death of the victim procures the life of theworshipper. So, a propitiatory or atoning sacrifice is offered byChrist's blood, or death. That sacrifice is the ransom-price throughwhich our captivity is ended, and our liberty assured. As Hisredemption is the channel 'through' which God's grace comes to men, so faith is the condition 'through' which (ver. 25) we make thatgrace ours. 

Note, then, that Paul does not merely point to Jesus Christ asSaviour, but to His death as the saving power. We are to have faithin Jesus Christ (ver. 22). But that is not a complete statement. Itmust be faith in His propitiation, if it is to bring us into livingcontact with His redemption. A gospel which says much of Christ, butlittle of His Cross, or which dilates on the beauty of His life, butstammers when it begins to speak of the sacrifice in His death, isnot Paul's Gospel, and it will have little power to deal with theuniversal sickness of sin. 

The last verses of the passage set forth another purpose attained byChrist's sacrifice; namely, the vindication of God's righteousness inforbearing to inflict punishment on sins committed before the adventof Jesus. That Cross rayed out its power in all directions--to theheights of the heavens; to the depths of Hades (Col. I. 20); to theages that were to come, and to those that were past. The suspensionof punishment through all generations, from the beginning till thatday when the Cross was reared on Calvary, was due to that Crosshaving been present to the divine mind from the beginning. 'The judgeis condemned when the guilty is acquitted, ' or left unpunished. Therewould be a blot on God's government, not because it was so severe, but because it was so forbearing, unless His justice was vindicated, and the fatal consequences of sin shown in the sacrifice of Christ. God could not have shown Himself just, in view either of age-longforbearance, or of now justifying the sinner, unless the Cross hadshown that He was not immorally indulgent toward sin. 

NO DIFFERENCE

 'There is no difference. '--ROMANS iii. 22. 

The things in which all men are alike are far more important thanthose in which they differ. The diversities are superficial, theidentities are deep as life. Physical processes and wants are thesame for everybody. All men, be they kings or beggars, civilised orsavage, rich or poor, wise or foolish, cultured or illiterate, breathe the same breath, hunger and thirst, eat and drink, sleep, aresmitten by the same diseases, and die at last the same death. We haveall of us one human heart. Tears and grief, gladness and smiles, moveus all. Hope, fear, love, play the same music upon all heart-strings. The same great law of duty over-arches every man, and the same heavenof God bends above him. 

Religion has to do with the deep-seated identities and not with thesuperficial differences. And though there have been many aristocraticreligions in the world, it is the great glory of Christianity that itgoes straight to the central similarities, and brushes aside, as ofaltogether secondary importance, all the subordinate diversities, grappling with the great facts which are common to humanity, and withthe large hopes which all may inherit. 

Paul here, in his grand way, triumphs and rises above all these smalldifferences between man and man, more pure or less pure, Jew orGentile, wise or foolish, and avers that, in regard of the deepestand most important things, 'there is no difference, ' and so hisGospel is a Gospel for the world, because it deals with all men onthe same level. Now I wish to work out this great glory andcharacteristic of the Gospel system in a few remarks, and to pointout to you the more important of these things in which all men, bethey what or who they may, stand in one category and have identicalexperiences and interests. 

I. First, there is no difference in the fact of sin. 

Now let us understand that the Gospel does not assert that there isno difference in the degrees of sin. Christianity does not teach, howsoever some of its apostles may seem to have taught, orunconsciously lent themselves to representations which imply the viewthat there was no difference between a man who 'did by nature thethings contained in the law, ' as Paul says, and the man who sethimself to violate law. There is no such monstrous teaching in theNew Testament as that all blacks are the same shade, all sin of thesame gravity, no such teaching as that a man that tries according tohis light to do what is right stands on exactly the same level as theman who flouts all such obligations, and has driven the chariots ofhis lusts and passions through every law that may stand in his way. 

But even whilst we have to insist upon that, that the teaching of mytext is not of an absolute identity of criminality, but only anuniversal participation in criminality, do not let us forget that, ifyou take the two extremes, and suppose it possible that there were abest man in all the world, and a worst man in all the world, thedifference between these two is not perhaps so great as at firstsight it looks. For we have to remember that motives make actions, and that you cannot judge of these by considering those, that 'as aman thinketh in his heart, ' and not as a man does with his hands, 'sois he. ' We have to remember, also, that there may be lives, sedulously and immaculately respectable and pure, which are whiterather with the unwholesome leprosy of disease than with thewholesome purity of health. 

In Queen Elizabeth's time, the way in which they cleaned the hall ofa castle, the floor of which might be covered with remnants of foodand all manner of abominations, was to strew another layer of rushesover the top of the filth, and then they thought themselves quiteneat and respectable. And that is what a great many of you do, coverthe filth well up with a sweet smelling layer of conventionalproprieties, and think yourselves clean, and the pinks of perfection. God forbid that I should say one word that would seem to cast anykind of slur upon the effort that any man makes to do what he knowsto be right, but this I proclaim, or rather my text proclaims for me, that, giving full weight and value to all that, and admitting theexistence of variations in degree, the identity is deeper than thediversity; and there is 'not a just man upon earth that doeth goodand sinneth not. '

Oh, dear friends! it is not a question of degree, but of direction;not how far the ship has gone on her voyage, but how she heads. Goodand evil are the same in essence, whatever be their intensity andwhatever be their magnitude. Arsenic is arsenic, whether you have aton of it or a grain; and a very small dose will be enough to poison. The Gospel starts with the assertion that there is no difference inthe fact of sin. The assertion is abundantly confirmed. Does notconscience assent? We all admit 'faults, ' do we not? We allacknowledge 'imperfections. ' It is that little word 'sin' which seemsto bring in another order of considerations, and to command theassent of conscience less readily. But sin is nothing except faultconsidered in reference to God's law. Bring the notion of God intothe life, and 'faults' and 'slips' and 'weaknesses, ' and all theother names by which we try to smooth down the ugliness of the uglything, start up at once into their tone, magnitude, and importance, and stand avowed as _sins_. 

Well now, if there be, therefore, this universal consciousness ofimperfection, and if that consciousness of imperfection has only needto be brought into contact with God, as it were, to flame thus, letme remind you, too, that this fact of universal sinfulness puts usall in one class, no matter what may be the superficial difference. Shakespeare and the Australian savage, the biggest brain and thesmallest, the loftiest and the lowest of us, the purest and thefoulest of us, we all come into the same order. It is a question ofclassification. 'The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, ' that isto say, has shut all men up as in a prison. You remember in theFrench Revolution, all manner of people were huddled indiscriminatelyinto the same dungeon of the Paris prisons. You would find a princessand some daughter of shame from the gutters; a boor from the countryand a landlord, a count, a marquis, a _savant_, a philosopherand an illiterate workman, all together in the dungeons. They kept upthe distinctions of society and of class with a ghastly mockery, evento the very moment when the tumbrils came for them. And so here arewe all, in some sense inclosed within the solemn cells of this greatprison-house, and whether we be wise or foolish, we are prisoners, whether we have titles or not, we are prisoners. You may be astudent, but you are a sinner: you may be a rich Manchester merchant, but you are a sinner; you may be a man of rank, but you are a sinner. Naaman went to Elisha and was very much offended because Elishatreated him as a leper who happened to be a nobleman. He wanted to betreated as a nobleman who happened to be a leper. And that is the waywith a great many of us; we do not like to be driven into one classwith all the crowd of evildoers. But, my friend, 'there is nodifference. ' 'All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. '

II. Again, there is no difference in the fact of God's love to us. 

God does not love men because of what they are, therefore He does notcease to love them because of what they are. His love to the sons ofmen is not drawn out by their goodness, their morality, theirobedience, but it wells up from the depths of His own heart, because'it is His nature and property, ' and if I may so say, He cannot helploving. You do not need to pump up that great affection by anymachinery of obedience and of merits; it rises like the water in anArtesian well, of its own impulse, with ebullient power from thecentral heat, and spreads its great streams everywhere. Andtherefore, though our sin may awfully disturb our relations with God, and may hurt and harm us in a hundred ways, there is one thing itcannot do, it cannot stop Him from loving us. It cannot dam back Hisgreat love, which flows out for ever towards all His creatures, andlaves them all in its gentle, strong flood, from which nothing candraw them away. 'In Him we live, and move, and have our being, ' andto live in Him, whatever else it may mean--and it means a great dealmore--is most certainly to live in His love. A man can as soon passout of the atmosphere in which he breathes as he can pass out of thelove of God. We can no more travel beyond that great over-archingfirmament of everlasting love which spans all the universe than astar set in the blue heavens can transcend the liquid arch and getbeyond its range. 'There is no difference' in the fact that all men, unthankful and evil as they are, are grasped and held in the love ofGod. 

But there _is_ a difference. Sin cannot dam God's love back, but sinhas a terrible power in reference to the love of God. Two things itcan do. It can make us incapable of receiving the highest blessingsof that love. There are many mercies which God pours 'upon theunthankful and the evil. ' These are His least gifts; His highest andbest cannot be given to the unthankful and the evil. They would ifthey could, but they cannot, because they cannot be received by them. You can shut the shutters against the light; you can close the vaseagainst the stream. You cannot prevent its shining, you cannotprevent its flowing, but you can prevent yourself from receiving itsloftiest and best blessings. 

And another awful power that my sin has in reference to God's loveis, that it can modify the form which God's love takes in itsdealings with me. We may force Him to do 'His work, ' 'His strangework, ' as Isaiah calls it, and to punish when He would fain onlysuccour and comfort and bless. Just as a fog in the sky does nottouch the sun, but turns it to our eyes into a fiery ball, red andlurid, so the mist of my sin coming between me and God, may, to myapprehension and to my capacity of reception, solemnly make differentthat great love of His. But yet there is no difference in the fact ofGod's love to us. 

III. Thirdly, there is no difference in the purpose and power ofChrist's Cross for us all. 

'He died for all. ' The area over which the purpose and the power ofChrist's death extend is precisely conterminous with the area overwhich the power of sin extends. It cannot be--blessed be God!--thatthe raven Sin shall fly further than the dove with the olive branchin its mouth. It cannot be that the disease shall go wider than thecure. And so, dear friends, I have to come to you now with thismessage. No matter what a man is, how far he has gone, how sinful hehas been, how long he has stayed away from the sweetness and grace ofthat great sacrifice on the Cross, that death was for him. The powerof Christ's sacrifice makes possible the forgiveness of all the sinsof all the world, past, present, and to come. The worth of thatsacrifice, which was made by the willing surrender of the IncarnateSon of God to the death of the Cross, is sufficient for the ransomprice of all the sins of all men. 

Nor is it only the power of the Cross which is all embracing, but itspurpose also. In the very hour of Christ's death, there stood, clearand distinct, before His divine omniscience, each man, woman, andchild of the race. And for them all, grasping them all in thetenderness of His sympathy and in the clearness of His knowledge, inthe design of His sufferings for them all, He died, so that everyhuman being may lay his hand on the head of the sacrifice, and _know_'his guilt was there, ' and may say, with as triumphant andappropriating faith as Paul did, 'He loved _me_, ' and in that hour ofagony and love 'gave Himself for _me_. '

To go back to a metaphor already employed, the prisoners are gatheredtogether in the prison, not that they may be slain, but 'God hathincluded them all, ' shut them all up, 'that He might have mercy uponall. ' And so, as it was in the days of Christ's life upon earth, sois it now, and so will it be for ever. All the crowd may come to Him, and whosoever comes 'is made whole of whatsoever disease he had. 'There are no incurables nor outcasts. 'There is no difference. '

IV. Lastly, there is no difference in the way which we must take forsalvation. The only thing that unites men to Jesus Christ is faith. You must trust Him, you must trust the power of His sacrifice, youmust trust the might of His living love. You must trust Him with atrust which is self-distrust. You must trust Him out and out. Thepeople with whom Paul is fighting, in this chapter, were quitewilling to admit that faith was the thing that made Christians, butthey wanted to tack on something besides. They wanted to tack on therites of Judaism and obedience to the moral law. And ever since menhave been going on in that erroneous rut. Sometimes it has been thatpeople have sought to add a little of their own morality; sometimesto add ceremonies and sacraments. Sometimes it has been one thing andsometimes it has been another; but there are not two ways to theCross of Christ, and to the salvation which He gives. There is onlyone road, and all sorts of men have to come by it. You cannot leanhalf upon Christ and half upon yourselves, like the timid cripplethat is not quite sure of the support of the friendly arm. You cannoteke out the robe with which He will clothe you with a little bit ofstuff of your own weaving. It is an insult to a host to offer to payfor entertainment. The Gospel feast that Christ provides is not asocial meal to which every guest brings a dish. Our part is simplereception, we have to bring empty hands if we would receive theblessing. 

We must put away superficial differences. The Gospel is for theworld, therefore the act by which we receive it must be one which allmen can perform, not one which only some can do. Not wisdom, norrighteousness, but faith joins us to Christ. And, therefore, peoplewho fancy themselves wise or righteous are offended that 'specialterms' are not made with them. They would prefer to have a privateportion for themselves. It grates against the pride of thearistocratic class, whether it be aristocratic by culture--and thatis the most aristocratic of all--or by position, or anything else--itgrates against their pride to be told: 'You have to go in by thatsame door that the beggar is going in at'; and 'there is nodifference. ' Therefore, the very width of the doorway, that is wideenough for all the world, gets to be thought narrowness, and becomesa hindrance to our entering. As Naaman's servant put a common-sensequestion to him, so may I to you. 'If the prophet had bid thee dosome great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?' Ay! that youwould! 'How much more when He says "Wash and be clean!"' There isonly one way of getting dirt off, and that is by water. There is onlyone way of getting sin off, and that is by the blood of Jesus Christ. There is only one way of having that blood applied to your heart, andthat is trusting Him. 'The common salvation' becomes ours when weexercise 'the common faith. ' 'There is no difference' in our sins. Thank God! 'there is no difference' in the fact that He grasps uswith His love. There is no difference in the fact that Jesus Christhas died for us all. Let there be no difference in our faith, orthere will be a difference, deep as the difference between Heaven andHell; the difference between them that believe and them that believenot, which will darken and widen into the difference between themthat are saved and them that perish. 

LET US HAVE PEACE

 'Let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. '--ROMANS v. 1. (R. V. ). 

In the rendering of the Revised Version, 'Let us have peace with Godthrough our Lord Jesus Christ, ' the alteration is very slight, beingthat of one letter in one word, the substitution of a long 'o' for ashort one. The majority of manuscripts of authority read 'let ushave, ' making the clause an exhortation and not a statement. Isuppose the reason why, in some inferior MSS. , the statement takesthe place of the exhortation is because it was felt to be somewhat ofa difficulty to understand the Apostle's course of thought. But Ishall hope to show you that the true understanding of the context, aswell as of the words I have taken for my text, requires theexhortation and not the affirmation. 

One more remark of an introductory character: is it not verybeautiful to see how the Apostle here identifies himself, in allhumility, with the Christians whom he is addressing, and feels thathe, Apostle as he is, has the same need for the same counsel andstimulus that the weakest of those to whom he is writing have? Itwould have been so easy for him to isolate himself, and say, 'Now youhave peace with God; see that you keep it. ' But he puts himself intothe same class as those whom he is exhorting, and that is what all ofus have to do who would give advice that will be worth anything or ofany effect. He does not stand upon a little molehill of superiority, and look down upon the Roman Christians, and imply that they haveneeds that he has not, but he exhorts himself too, saying, 'Let allof us who have obtained like precious faith, which is alike in anApostle and in the humblest believer, have peace with God. '

Now a word, first, about the meaning of this somewhat singularexhortation. 

There is a theory of man and his relation to God underlying it, whichis very unfashionable at present, but which corresponds to thedeepest things in human nature, and the deepest mysteries in humanhistory, and that is, that something has come in to produce thetotally unnatural and monstrous fact that between God and man thereis not amity or harmony. Men, on their side, are alienated, becausetheir wills are rebellious and their aims diverse from God's purposeconcerning them. And--although it is an awful thing to have to say, and one from which the sentimentalism of much modern Christianityweakly recoils--on God's side, too, the relation has been disturbed, and 'we are by nature the children of wrath, even as others'; not ofa wrath which is unloving, not of a wrath which is impetuous andpassionate, not of a wrath which seeks the hurt of its objects, butof a wrath which is the necessary antagonism and recoil of pure lovefrom such creatures as we have made ourselves to be. To speak as ifthe New Testament taught that 'reconciliation' was lop-sided--whichwould be a contradiction in terms, for reconciliation needs two tomake it--to talk as if the New Testament taught that reconciliationwas only man's putting away his false relation to God, is, as Ihumbly think, to be blind to its plainest teaching. So, there beingthis antagonism and separation between God and man, the Gospel comesto deal with it, and proclaims that Jesus Christ has abolished theenmity, and by His death on the Cross has become our peace; and thatwe, by faith in that Christ, and grasping in faith His death, passfrom out of the condition of hostility into the condition ofreconciliation. 

With this by way of basis, let us come back to my text. It soundsstrange; 'Therefore, being justified by faith, let up have peace. ''Well, ' you will say, 'but is not all that you have been saying justthis, that to be justified by faith, to be declared righteous byreason of faith in Him who makes us righteous, is to have peace withGod? Is not your exhortation an entirely superfluous one?' No doubtthat is what the old scribe thought who originated the reading whichhas crept into our Authorised Version. The two things do seem to beentirely parallel. To be justified by faith is a certain process, tohave peace with God is the inseparable and simultaneous result ofthat process itself. But that is going rather too fast. 'Beingjustified by faith let us have peace with God, ' really is justthis--see that you abide where you are; keep what you have. Theexhortation is not to attain peace, but retain it. 'Hold fast thatthou hast; let no man take thy crown. ' 'Being justified by faith'cling to your treasure and let nothing rob you of it--'let us havepeace with God. '

Now a word, in the next place, as to the necessity and importance ofthis exhortation. 

There underlies it, this solemn thought, which Christian people, andespecially some types of Christian doctrine, do need to have hammeredinto them over and over again, that we hold the blessed life itself, and all its blessings, only on condition of our own cooperation inkeeping them; and that just as physical life dies, unless byreception of food we nourish and continue it, so a man that is inthis condition of being justified by faith, and having peace withGod, needs, in order to the permanence of that condition, to give hisutmost effort and diligence. It will all go if he do not. All the oldstate will come back again if we are slothful and negligent. Wecannot keep the treasure unless we guard it. And just because we haveit, we need to put all our mind, the earnestness of our will, and theconcentration of our efforts, into the specific work of retaining it. 

For, consider how manifold and strong are the forces which are alwaysworking against our continual possession of this justification byfaith, and consequent peace with God. There are all the ordinarycares and duties and avocations and fortunes of our daily life, which, indeed, may be so hallowed in their motives and in theiractivities, as that they may be turned into helps instead ofhindrances, but which require a great deal of diligence and effort inorder that they should not work like grains of dust that come betweenthe parts of some nicely-fitting engine, and so cause friction anddisaster. There are all the daily tasks that tempt us to forget thethings that we only know by faith, and to be absorbed in the thingsthat we can touch and taste and handle. If a man is upon an inclinedplane, unless he is straining his muscles to go upwards, gravitationwill make short work of him, and bring him down. And unless Christianmen grip hard and continually that sense of having fellowship andpeace with God, as sure as they are living they will lose theclearness of that consciousness, and the calm that comes from it. Forwe cannot go into the world and do the work that is laid upon us allwithout there being possible hostility to the Christian life ineverything that we meet. Thank God there is possible help, too, andwhether our daily calling is an enemy or a friend to our religiondepends upon the earnestness and continuousness of our own efforts. But there is a worse force than these external distractions workingto draw us away, one that we carry within, in our own vacillatingwills and wayward hearts and treacherous affections and passions thatusually lie dormant, but wake up sometimes at the most inopportuneperiods. Unless we keep a very tight hand upon ourselves, certainlythese will rob us of this consciousness of being justified by faithwhich brings with it peace with God that passes understanding. 

In the Isle of Wight massive cliffs rise hundreds of feet above thesea, and seem as if they were as solid as the framework of the earthitself. But they rest upon a sharply inclined plane of clay, and themoisture trickles through the rifts in the majestic cliffs above, andgets down to that slippery substance and makes it like the greasedways down which they launch a ship; and away goes the cliff one day, with its hundreds of feet of buttresses that have fronted the tempestfor centuries, and it lies toppled in hideous ruin on the beachbelow. We have all a layer of 'blue slipper' in ourselves, and unlesswe take care that no storm-water finds its way down through thechinks in the rocks above they will slide into awful ruin. 'Beingjustified, let us have peace with God, ' and remember that theexhortation is enforced not only by a consideration of the manystrong forces which tend to deprive us of this peace, but also by aconsideration of the hideous disaster that comes upon a man's wholenature if he loses peace with God. For there is no peace withourselves, and there is no peace with man, and there is no peace inface of the warfare of life and the calamities that are certainlybefore us all, unless, in the deepest sanctuary of our being, thereis the peace of God because in our consciences there is peace withGod. If I desire to be at rest--and there is no blessedness butrest--if I desire to know the sovereign joy of tranquillity, undisturbed by my own stormy passions or by any human enmity, and tohave even the 'beasts of the field at peace with' me, and all thingsmy helpers and allies, there is but one way to realise the desire, and that is the retention of peace with God that comes with beingjustified by faith. 

Lastly, a word or two as to the ways by which this exhortation can becarried into effect. 

I have tried to explain how the peace of which my text speaks comesoriginally through Christ's work laid hold of by my faith, and now Iwould say only three things. 

Retain the peace by the exercise of that same faith which at firstbrought it. Next, retain it by union with that same Lord from whomyou at first received it. Very significantly, in the immediatecontext, we have the Apostle drawing a broad distinction between thebenefits which we have received from Christ's death, and those whichwe shall receive through His life. And that is the best commentary onthe words of my text. 'If when we were enemies, we were reconciled toGod by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall besaved by His life. ' So let our faith grasp firmly the great twinfacts of the Christ who died that He might abolish the enmity, andbring us peace; and of the Christ who lives in order that He may pourinto our hearts more and more of His own life, and so make us moreand more in His own image. And the last word that I would say, inaddition to these two plain, practical precepts is, let your conductbe such as will not disturb your peace with God. For if a man letshis own will rise up in rebellion against God's, whether that divinewill command duty or impose suffering, away goes all his peace. Thereis no possibility of the tranquil sense of union and communion withmy Father in heaven lasting when I am in rebellion against Him. Thesmallest sin destroys, for the time being, our sense of forgivenessand our peace with God. The blue surface of the lake, mirroring inits unmoved tranquillity the sky and the bright sun, or the solemnstars, loses all that reflected heaven in its heart when a cat's pawof wind ruffles its surface. If we would keep our hearts as mirrors, in their peace, of the peace in the heavens that shine down on them, we must fence them from the winds of evil passions and rebelliouswills. 'Oh! that thou wouldest hearken unto Me, then had thy peacebeen like a river. '

ACCESS INTO GRACE

 'By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. '--ROMANS v. 2. 

I may be allowed to begin with a word or two of explanation of theterms of this passage. Note then, especially, that _also_ whichsends us back to the previous clause, and tells us that our text addssomething to what was spoken of there. What was spoken of there?'The peace of God' which comes to a man by Jesus Christ through faith, the removal of enmity, and the declaration of righteousness. But thatpeace with God, which is the beginning of everything in the Christianview, is only the beginning, and there is much to follow. While, then, there is a progress clearly marked in the words of our text, and 'access into this grace wherein we stand' is something more than, and after, the 'peace with God, ' mark next the similarity of the textand the preceding verse. The two great truths in the latter, Christ'smediation or intervention, and our faith as the condition by which wereceive the blessings which are brought to us in and through Him, areboth repeated, with no unmeaning tautology, but with profoundsignificance in our text--'By whom also we have access'--as wellas--'the peace of God'--'access _by faith_ into this grace. ' So then, for the initial blessing, and for all the subsequent blessings of theChristian life, the way is the same. The medium and channel is one, and the act by which we avail ourselves of the blessings comingthrough that one medium is the same. Now the language of my text, with its talking about access, faith, and grace, sounds to a greatmany of us, I am afraid, very hard and remote and technical. Andthere are not wanting people who tell us that all that terminology inthe New Testament is like a dying brand in the fire, where the littlekernel of glowing heat is getting covered thicker and thicker withgrey ashes. Yes; but if you blow the ashes off, the fire is there allthe same. Let us try if we can blow the ashes off. 

This text seems to me in its archaic phraseology, only to need to bepondered in order to flash up into wonderful beauty. It carries in ita magnificent ideal of the Christian life, in three things: theChristian place, 'access into grace'; the Christian attitude, 'wherein we stand'; and the Christian means of realising that ideal, 'through Christ' and 'by faith. ' Now let us look at these threepoints. 

I. The Christian Place. 

There is clearly a metaphor here, both in the word 'access' and inthat other one 'stand. ' 'The grace' is supposed as some ample spaceinto which a man is led, and where he can continue, stand, andexpatiate. Or, we may say, it is regarded as a palace ortreasure-house into which we can enter. Now, if we take that greatNew Testament word 'grace, ' and ponder its meanings, we find thatthey run something in this fashion. The central thought, grand andmarvellous, which is enshrined in it, and which often is buried forcareless ears, is that of the active love of God poured out uponinferiors who deserve something very different. Then there follows asecond meaning, which covers a great part of the ground of the use ofthe phrase in the New Testament, and that is the communication ofthat love to men, the specific and individualised gifts which comeout of that great reservoir of patient, pardoning, condescending, andbestowing love. Then there may be taken into view a meaning which isless prominent in Scripture but not absent, namely, the resultingbeauty of character. A gracious soul ought to be, and is, a gracefulsoul; a supreme loveliness is imparted to human nature by thecommunication to it of the gifts which are the results of theundeserved, free, and infinite love of God. 

Now if we take all these three thoughts as blended together in thegrand metaphor of the Apostle, of the ample space into which theChristian man passes, we get such lessons as this. A Christian lifemay, and therefore should, be suffused with a continual consciousnessof the love of God. That would change everything in it. Here is somegreat sweep of rolling country, perhaps a Highland moor: the littletarns on it are grey and cold, the vegetation is gloomy and dark, dreariness is over all the scene, because there is a great pall ofcloud drawn beneath the blue. But the sun pierces with his lancesthrough the grey, and crumples up the mists, and sends them flyingbeneath the horizon. Then what a change in the landscape! All thetarns that looked black and wicked are now infantile in theirinnocent blue and sunny gladness, and every dimple in the heightsshows, and all the heather burns with the sunshine that falls uponit. So my lonely doleful life, if that light from God, the beam ofHis love, shines down upon it, rises into nobility, and flashes intobeauty, and is calm and fair and great, as nothing else can make it. You may dwell in love by dwelling in God, and then your lives will befair. You have access into the grace; see that you go there. Theytell us that nightingales sing by the wayside by preference, and wemay have in our lives, singing a quiet tune, the continual thought ofthe love of God, even whilst life's highway is dusty and rough, andour feet are often weary in treading it. A Christian life may be, andtherefore should be, suffused with the sense of the abiding love ofGod. 

Take the other meaning of the word, the secondary and derivedmeaning, the communication of that love to us, and that leads us tosay that a Christian life may, and therefore should, be enriched withcontinual gifts from God's fullness. I said that the Apostle wasusing a metaphor here, regarding the grace as being an amplespace into which a man was admitted, or we may say that he isthinking of it as a great treasure-house. We have the right ofentrance there, where on every side, as it were, lie ingots ofuncoined gold, and masses of treasure, and we may have just as muchor as little as we choose. It is entirely in our own determinationhow much of the wealth of God we shall possess. We have access to thetreasure-house; and this permit is put into our hands: 'Be it untothee even as thou wilt. ' The size of the sack that the man brings, inthe old story, determined the amount of wealth that he carried away. Some of you bring very tiny baskets and expect little and desirelittle; you get no more than you desired and expected. 

That wealth, the fullness of God, takes the shape of, as well as isdetermined in its measure by the magnitude of, the vessel into whichit is put. It is multiform, and we get whatever we desire, andwhatever either our characters or our circumstances require. The onegift assumes all forms, just as water poured into a vase takes theshape of the vase into which it is poured. The same gift unfoldsitself in an infinite variety of manners, according to the needs ofthe man to whom it is given; just as the writer's pen, thecarpenter's hammer, the farmer's ploughshare, are all made out of thesame metal. So God's grace comes to you in a different shape fromthat in which it comes to me, according to our different callings andneeds, as fixed by our circumstances, our duties, our sorrows, ourtemptations. 

So, brethren, how shameful it is that, having the possibility of somuch, we should have the actuality of so little. There is an oldstory about one of our generals in India long ago, who, when he camehome, was accused of rapacity because he had brought away so muchtreasure from the Rajahs whom he had conquered, and his answer to thecharge was, 'I was surprised at my own moderation. ' Ah! there are agreat many Christian people who ought to be ashamed of theirmoderation. They have gone into the treasure-house; stacks of jewels, jars of gold on all sides of them--and they have been content to comeaway with some one poor little coin, when they might have been 'richbeyond the dreams of avarice. ' Brethren, you have 'access' to thefullness of God. Whose fault is it if you are empty?

Then, further, I said there was another meaning in these great words. The love which may suffuse our lives, the gifts, the consequence ofthat love, which may enrich our lives, should, and in the measure inwhich they are received will, adorn and make beautiful our lives. For'grace' means loveliness as well as goodness, and the God who is thefountain of it all is the fountain of 'whatsoever things are fair, 'as well as of whatsoever things are good. That suggests twoconsiderations on which I have no time to dwell. One is that thehighest beauty is goodness, and unless the art of a nation learnsthat, its art will become filthy and a minister of sin. They talkabout 'Art for Art's sake. ' Would that all these poets and painterswho are trying to find beauty in corruption--and there is aphosphorescent glimmer in rotting wood, and a prismatic colouring onthe scum of a stagnant pond--would that all those men who are seekingto find beauty apart from goodness, and so are turning a divineinstinct into a servant of evil, would learn that the truegracefulness comes from the grace which is the fullness of God givenunto men. 

But there is another lesson, and that is that Christian people whosay that they have their lives irradiated by the love of God, and whoprofess to be receiving gifts from His full hand, are bound to takecare that their goodness is not 'harsh and crabbed, ' as not only'dull fools suppose' it to be, but as it sometimes is, but is musicaland fair. You are bound to make your goodness attractive, and to showthat the things that are 'of good report' are likewise the 'thingsthat are lovely. '

II. And so, now, turn to the second point here, viz. The Christianattitude. 

'The grace wherein ye _stand_'; that word is very emphatic here, and does not merely mean 'continue, ' but it suggests what I have putinto that phrase, the Christian attitude. 

Two things are implied. One is that a life thus suffused by the love, and enriched by the gifts, and adorned by the loveliness that comefrom God, will be stable and steadfast. Resistance and stability areimplied in the words. One very important item in determining a man'spower of resistance, and of standing firm against whatever assaultsmay be hurled against him, is the sort of footing that he has. If youstand on slippery mud, or on the ice of a glacier, you will find ithard to stand firm; but if you plant your foot on the grace of God, then you will be able to 'withstand in the evil day, and having doneall to stand. ' And how does a man plant his foot on the grace of God?simply by trusting in God, and not in himself. So that the secret ofall steadfastness of life, and of all successful resistance to thewhirling onrush of temptations and of difficulties, is to set yourfoot upon that rock, and then your 'goings' will be established. 

Jesus Christ brings to us, in the gift of life in Him, stabilitywhich will check the vacillations of our own hearts. We go up anddown, we yield when pressure is brought to bear against us, we arecarried off our feet often by the sudden swirl of the stream, and thefitful blast of the wind. But His grace comes in, and will make usable to stand against all assaults. Our poor natures, necessarilychangeable, and sinfully vacillating and weak, will be uniform, inthe measure in which the grace of God comes into our hearts. Just asin these so-called petrifying wells, they take a bit of cloth, abird's nest, a billet of wood, and plunge it into the water, and themineral held in solution there infiltrates into the substance of thething plunged in, and makes it firm and inflexible: so let us plungeour poor, changeful, vacillating resolutions, our wayward, wanderinghearts, our passions, so easily excited by temptation, into thatgreat fountain, and there will filter into our flexibility what willmake it firm, and into our changefulness what will give in us somefaint copy of the divine immutability, and we shall stand fast in theLord and in the power of His might. 

Further, in regard to this attitude, which is the result of thepossession of grace, we may say that it indicates not only stabilityand steadfastness, but erectness, as in opposition to crouching orbowing. A man's independence is guaranteed by his dependence upon, and his possession of, that communicated grace of God. And so youhave the fact that the phase of the Christian teaching which has laidmost stress on the decrees and sovereign will of God, on divine gracein fact, and too little upon the human side--the phase which isroughly described as Calvinism--has underlain the liberties ofEurope, and has stiffened men into the rejection of all priestly andcivic domination. 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there isliberty, ' and if a man has in his heart the grace of God, then hestands erect as a man. 'Ye are bought with a price; be ye not theservants of men. ' The Christian democracy, the Christian rejection ofall sacerdotal and other domination, flows from the access of eachindividual Christian to the fountain of all wisdom, the only sourceof law and command, the inspirer of all strength, the giver of allgrace. By faith ye stand. 'Stand fast therefore in the libertywherewith Christ has made you free. '

III. Lastly, and only a word; we have here the Christian way ofentrance into grace. 

I have already remarked on the emphasis with which, both in my textand in the preceding clause, there are laid down the two conditionsof possessing this grace, or the peace which precedes it: 'ByChrist--through faith. ' Notice, too, that Jesus Christ gives us'access. ' Now that expression is but an imperfect rendering of theoriginal. If it were not for its trivial associations, one might readinstead of 'access, ' introduction, 'by whom we have introduction intothis grace wherein we stand. ' The thought is that Jesus Christsecures us entry into this ample space, this treasure-house, as somecourt officer might take by the hand a poor rustic, standing on thethreshold of the palace, and lead him through all the glitteringseries of unfamiliar splendour, and present him at last in thecentral ring around the king. The reality that underlies the metaphoris plain. We sinners can never pass into that central glory, nor everpossess those gifts of grace, unless the barrier that stands betweenus and God, between us and His highest gifts of love, is swept away. 

I recall an old legend where two knights are represented as seekingto enter a palace, where there is a mysterious fire burning in themiddle of the portal. One of them tries to pass through, and recoilsscorched; but when the other essays an entrance the fierce firesinks, and the path is cleared. Jesus Christ has died, and I say itwith all reverence, as His blood touches the fire it flickers downand the way is opened 'into the holiest of all, whither theForerunner is for us entered. ' He both brings the grace and makes itpossible that we should go in where the grace is. 

But Jesus Christ's work is nothing to you unless your personal faithcomes in, and so that is pointed to in the second of the clauseshere: '_By faith_ we have access. ' That is no arbitrary appointment. It lies in the very nature of the gift and of the recipient. How canGod give access into that grace to a man who shrinks from being nearHim; who does not want 'access, ' and who could not use the grace ifhe had it? How can God bestow inward and spiritual gifts upon any manwho closes his heart against them, and will not have them? My faithis the condition; Christ is the Giver. If I ally myself to Him by myfaith, He gives to me. If I do not, with all the will to do it, Hecannot bestow His best gifts any more than a man who stretches outhis hand to another sinking in the flood can lift him out, and sethim on the safe shore, if the drowning man's hand is not stretchedout to grasp the rescuer's outstretched hand. 

Brethren, God is infinitely willing to give the choicest gifts of Hislove to us all, to gladden, to enrich, to adorn, to make stable anderect. But He cannot give them unless you will trust Him. 'It pleasedthe Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. ' That alabaster boxis brought to earth. It was broken on the Cross that 'the house'might be 'filled with the odour of the ointment. ' Our faith is theonly condition; it is only the condition, but it is the indispensablecondition, of our being anointed with that fragrant anointing. He, and He only, can give us the fullness of God. 

THE SOURCES OF HOPE

 'We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4. And patience, experience; and experience, hope. '--ROMANS v. 2-4. 

We have seen in a previous sermon that the Apostle in the foregoingcontext is sketching a grand outline of the ideal Christian life, asall rooted in 'being justified by faith, ' and flowering into 'peacewith God, ' 'access into grace, ' and a firm stand against allantagonists and would-be masters. In our text he advances to completethe outline by sketching the true Christian attitude towards thefuture. I have ventured to take so pregnant and large a text, becausethere is a very striking and close connection throughout the verses, which is lost unless we take them together. Note, then, 'we rejoicein hope, ' 'we glory in tribulation. ' Now, it is one word in theoriginal which is diversely rendered in these two clauses by'rejoice' and 'glory. ' The latter is a better rendering than theformer, because the original expression designates not only theemotion of joy, but the expression of it, especially in words. So itis frequently rendered in the New Testament by the word 'boast, 'which, of course, has unpleasant associations, which scarcely fit itfor use here. So then you see Paul regards it as possible for, andmore than possibly characteristic of, a Christian, that the very sameemotion should he excited by that great bright future hope, and bythe blackness of present sorrow. That is strong meat; and so he goeson to explain how he thinks it can and must be so, and points outthat trouble, through a series of results, arrives at last at this, that if it is rightly borne, it flashes up into greater brightnessthe hope which has grasped the glory of God. So then we have here, not only a wonderful designation of the object around which Christianhope twines its tendrils, but of the double source from which thathope may come, and of the one emotion with which Christian peopleshould front the darkness of the present and the brightness of thefuture. Ah! how different our lives would be if that ideal of asteadfast hope and an untroubled joy were realised by each of us. Itmay be. It should be. So I ask you to look at these three pointswhich I have suggested. 

I. That wonderful designation of the one object of Christian hopewhich should fill, with an uncoruscating and unflickering light, allthat dark future. 

'We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ' Now, I suppose I need notremind you that that phrase 'the glory of God' is, in the OldTestament, used especially to mean the light that dwelt between thecherubim above the mercy-seat; the symbol of the divine perfectionsand the token of the Divine Presence. The reality of which it was asymbol is the total splendour, so to speak, of that divine nature, asit rays itself out into all the universe. And, says Paul, the truehope of the Christian man is nothing less than that of that glory heshall be, in some true sense, and in an eternally growing degree, thereal possessor. It is a tremendous claim, and one which leads us intodeep places that I dare not venture into now, as to the resemblancebetween the human person and the Divine Person, notwithstanding allthe differences which of course exist, and which only a presumptuousform of religion has ventured to treat as transitory orinsignificant. Let me use a technical word, and say that it is nopantheistic absorption in an impersonal Light, no Nirvana of unionwith a vague whole, which the Apostle holds out here, but it is theclosest possible union, personality being saved and individualconsciousness being intensified. It is the clothing of humanity withso much of that glory as can be imparted to a finite creature. Thatmeans perfect knowledge, perfect purity, perfect love, and that meansthe dropping away of all weaknesses and the access of strange newpowers, and that means the end of the schism between 'will' and'ought, ' and of the other schism between 'will' and 'can. ' It meanswhat this Apostle says: 'Whom He justified them He also glorified, 'and what He says again, 'We all, beholding as in a glass'--or rather, perhaps, mirroring as a glass does--'the glory, are changed into thesame image. '

The very heart of Christianity is that the Divine Light of which thatShekinah was but a poor and transitory symbol has 'tabernacled'amongst men in the Christ, and has from Him been communicated, and isbeing communicated in such measure as earthly limitations andconditions permit, and that these do point on assuredly to perfectimpartation hereafter, when 'we shall be like Him, for we shall seeHim as He is. ' The Three could walk in the furnace of fire, becausethere was One with them, 'like unto the Son of God. ' 'Who among usshall dwell with the everlasting fire, ' the fire of that divineperfection? They who have had introduction by Christ into the grace, and who will be led by Him into the glory. 

Now, brethren, it seems to me to be of great importance that this, the loftiest of conceptions of that future life, should be the mainaspect under which we think of it. It is well to speak of rest fromtoil; it is well to speak of all the negations of presentunfavourable, afflictive conditions which that future presents to us. And perhaps there is none of the aspects of it which appeals todeeper feelings in ourselves, than those which say 'there shall be nonight there, ' 'there shall be no tears there, neither sorrow norsighing'; 'there shall be no toil there. ' But we must rise above allthat, for our heaven is to live in God, and to be possessors of Hisglory. Do not let us dwell upon the symbols instead of the realities. Do not let us dwell only on the oppositions and contradictions toearth. Let us rather rise high above symbols, high above negations, to the positive truth, and not contented with saying 'We shall befull of blessedness; we shall be full of purity; we shall be full ofknowledge, ' let us rather think of that which embraces them all--weshall be full of God. 

So much, then, for the one object of Christian hope. We have here--

II. The double source of that hope. 

Observe that the first clause of my text comes as the last term in asequence. It began with 'being justified by faith. ' The second roundof the ladder was, 'we have peace with God. ' The third, 'we haveaccess into this grace. ' The fourth, 'we stand, ' and then comes, 'werejoice in hope of the glory of God. ' That is to say, to put it intogeneral words, and, of course, presupposing the revelation in JesusChrist as the basis of all, without which there is no assured hope ofa future beyond the grave, then the facts of a Christian man's lifeare for him the best brighteners of the hope beyond. Of course, thatis so. 'Justified by faith'--'peace with God'--'access into grace';what, in the name of common-sense, can death do with these things?How can its blunted sword cut the bond that unites a soul that hashad such experiences as these with the source of them all? Nothingcan be more grotesque, nothing more incongruous, than to think thatthat subordinate and accidental fact, whose region is the physical, has anything whatever to do with this higher region of consciousness. 

And, further than that, it is absolutely unthinkable to a man in thepossession of these spiritual gifts, that they should ever come to aclose; and the fact that in the precise degree in which we realise asour very own possession, here and now, these Christian emotions andblessings, we instinctively rise to the belief that they are 'not foran age, but for all time, ' and not for all time, but for eternity, isitself, if not a proof, yet a very strong presumption, if you believein God, that a man who thus 'feels he was not made to die' because hehas grasped the Eternal, is right in so feeling. If, too, we look atthe experiences themselves, they all have the stamp ofincompleteness, and suggest completeness by their own incompleteness. The new moon with its ragged edge not more surely prophesies itscompleted silver round, than do the experiences of the Christian lifehere, in their greatness and in their smallness, declare that therecome a time and an order of things in which what was thwartedtendency shall be accomplished result. The tender green spikelet, pushing up through the brown clods, does not more surely prophesy thewaving yellow ear, nor the broad highway on which a man comes in thewilderness more surely declare that there is a village at the end ofit, than do the facts of the Christian life, here and now, attest thevalidity of the hope of the glory of God. 

And so, brethren, if you wish to brighten that great light that fillsthe future, see to it that your present Christianity is fuller of'peace with God, ' 'access into grace, ' and the firm, erect standingwhich flows from these. When the springs in the mountains dry up, theriver in the valley shrinks; and when they are full, it glides alonglevel with the top of its banks. So when our Christian life in thepresent is richest, our Christian hope of the future will be thebrighter. Look into yourselves. Is there anything there thatwitnesses to that great future; anything there that is obviouslyincipient, and destined to greater power; anything there which islike a tropical plant up here in 45 degrees of north latitude, managing to grow, but with dwarfed leaves and scanty flowers and halfshrivelled and sourish fruit, and that in the cold dreams of the warmnative land? Reflecting telescopes show the stars in a mirror, andthe observer looks down to see the heavens. Look into yourselves, andsee whether, on the polished plate within, there are any images ofthe stars that move around the Throne of God. 

But let us turn for a moment to the second source to which theApostle traces the Christian hope here. I must not be tempted to morethan just a word of explanation, but perhaps you will tolerate that. Paul says that trouble works patience, that is to say, not onlypassive endurance, but brave persistence in a course, in spite ofantagonisms. That is what trouble does to a man when it is rightlyborne. Of course the Apostle is speaking here of its ideal operation, and not of the reality which alas! often is seen when ourtribulations lash us into impatience, or paralyse our efforts. Tribulation worketh patience, 'and patience _experience_. ' That is adifficult word to put into English. There underlies it the frequentthought which is familiar in Scripture, of trouble of all kinds astesting a man, whether as the refiner's fire or the winnower's fan. It tests a man, and if he bears the trouble with patient persistence, then he has passed the test and is approved. Patient perseverancethus works approval, or proof of the man's Christianity, and, stillmore, proof of the reality and power of the Christ whom hisChristianity grasps. And so from out of that approval or proof whichcomes, through perseverance, from tribulation, there rises, ofcourse, in that heart that has been tested and has stood, a calm hopethat the future will be as the past, and that, having fought throughsix troubles, by God's help the seventh will be vanquished also, tillat last troubles will end, and heaven be won. 

Brethren, there is the true point of view from which to look, notonly at tribulations, but at all the trials, for they too bringtrials, that lie in duty and in enjoyment, and in earthly things. They are meant to work in us a conviction, by our experience ofhaving been able to meet them aright, of the reality of our grasp ofGod, and of the reality and power of the God whom we grasp. If wetook that point of view in regard to all the changes of thischangeful life, we should not so often be bewildered and upset by thedarkest of our sorrows. The shining lancets and cruel cuttinginstruments that the surgeon lays out on his table before he beginsthe operation are very dreadful. But the way to think of them is thatthey are there in order to remove from a man what it does him harm tokeep, and what, if it is not taken away, will kill him. So life, withits troubles, great and small, is all meant for this, to make ussurer of, and bring us closer to, our God, and to brace andstrengthen us in our own personal character. And if it does that, then blessed be everything that produces these results, and leads usthereby to glorying in the troubles by which shines out on us abrighter hope. 

So there are the two sources, you see: the one is the blessedness ofthe Christian life, the other the sorrows of the outward life, andboth may converge upon the brightening of our Christian hope. Ourrainbow is the child of the marriage of the sun and the rain. TheChristian hope comes from being 'justified by faith, having peacewith God . .. And access into grace, ' and it comes from tribulation, which 'worketh patience, ' and patience which 'worketh approval. ' Theone spark is struck from the hard flint by the cold steel, and theother is kindled by the sun itself, but they are both fire. 

And so, lastly, we have here--

III. The one emotion with which the Christian should front all thefacts, inward and outward, of his earthly life. 

'We glory in the hope, ' 'we glory in tribulation, ' I need not dwellupon the lesson which is taught us here by the fact that the Apostleputs as one in a series of Christian characteristics this of asteadfast and all-embracing joy. I do not believe that we Christianpeople half enough realise how imperative a Christian duty, as wellas how great a Christian privilege, it is to be glad always. You haveno right to be anxious; you are wrong to be hypochondriac anddepressed, and weary and melancholy. True; there are a great manyoccasions in our Christian life which minister sadness. True; theChristian joy looks very gloomy to a worldly eye. But there are farmore occasions which, if we were right, would make joy instinctive, and which, whether we are right or not, make it obligatory upon us. Ineed not speak of how, if that hope were brighter than it commonly iswith us, and if it were more constantly present to our minds andhearts, we should sing with gladness. I need not dwell upon thatgreat and wonderful paradox by which the co-existence of sorrow andof joy is possible. The sorrows are on the surface; beneath there maybe rest. All the winds of heaven may rave across the breast of ocean, and fret it into clouds of spume against a storm-swept sky. But deepdown there is stillness, and yet not stagnation, because there is thegreat motion that brings life and freshness; and so, though therewill be wind-vexed surfaces on our too-often agitated spirits, thereought to be deeper than these the calm setting of the whole ocean ofour nature towards God Himself. It is possible, as this Apostle hasit, to be 'sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. ' It is possible, as hisbrother Apostle has it, to 'rejoice greatly, though now for a seasonwe are in sorrow through manifold temptations. ' Look back upon yourlives from the point of view that your tribulation is an instrumentto produce hope, and you will be able to thank God for all the way bywhich He has led you. 

Now, brethren, the plain lesson of all this is just that we havehere, in these texts, a linked chain, one end of which is wrappedaround our sinful hearts, and the other is fastened to the Throne ofGod. You cannot drop any of the links, and you must begin at thebeginning, if you are to be carried on to the end. If we are to havea joy immovable, we must have a 'steadfast hope. ' If we are to have a'steadfast hope, ' we must have a present 'grace. ' If we are to have apresent 'grace, ' and 'access' to the fullness of God, we must have'peace with God. ' If we are to have 'peace with God, ' we must havethe condemnation and the guilt taken away. If we are to have thecondemnation and the guilt taken away, Jesus Christ must take them. If Jesus Christ is to take them away, we must have faith in Him. Thenyou can work it backward, and begin at your own end, and say, 'If Ihave faith in Jesus Christ, then every link of the chain in duesuccession will pass through my hand, and I shall have justifying, peace, access, the grace, erectness, hope, and exultation, and atlast He will lead me by the hand into the glory for which I dare tohope, the glory which the Father gave to Him before the foundation ofthe world, and which He will give to me when the world has passedaway in fervent heat. '

A THREEFOLD CORD

 'And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. '--ROMANS v. 5. 

We have seen in former sermons that, in the previous context, theApostle traces Christian hope to two sources: one, the series ofexperiences which follow 'being justified by faith' and the other, those which follow on trouble rightly borne. Those two golden chainstogether hold up the precious jewel of hope. But a chain that is tobear a weight must have a staple, or it will fall to the ground. Andso Paul here turns to yet another thought, and, going behind both ourinward experiences and our outward discipline, falls back on thatwhich precedes all. After all is said and done, the love of God, eternal, self-originated, the source of all Christian experiencesbecause of the work of Christ which originates them all, is the rootfact of the universe, and the guarantee that our highestanticipations and desires are not unsubstantial visions, but morningdreams, which are proverbially sure to be fulfilled. God is love;therefore the man who trusts Him shall not be put to shame. 

But you will notice that here the Apostle not only adduces the loveof God as the staple, so to speak, from which these golden chainshang, but that he traces the heart's being suffused with that love toits source, and as, of course, is always the case in the order ofanalysis, that which was last in time comes first in statement. Webegin at the surface, and go down and down and down from effect tocause, and yet again to the cause of that cause which is itselfeffect. We strip off, as it were, layer after layer, until we get tothe living centre--hope comes from the love, the love comes from theSpirit in the heart. And so to get at the order of time and ofmanifestation, we must reverse the order of analysis in my text, andbegin where it ends. So we have here three things--the Spirit given, the love shed abroad by that Spirit, and the hope established by thatlove. Now just look at them for a moment. 

I. The Spirit given. 

Now, the first point to notice here is that the Revised Versionpresents the meaning of our text more accurately than the AuthorisedVersion, because, instead of reading 'is given, ' it correctly reads'was given. ' And any of you that can consult the original will seethat the form of the language implies that the Apostle is thinking, not so much of a continuous bestowment, as of a definite moment whenthis great gift was bestowed upon the man to whom he is speaking. 

So the first question is, when was that Spirit given to these RomanChristians? The Christian Church has been split in two by its answersto that question. One influential part, which has taken a new leaseof life amongst us to-day, says 'in baptism, ' and the other says 'atthe moment of faith. ' I am not going to be tempted into controversialpaths now, for my purpose is a very different one, but I cannot helpjust a word about the former of these two answers. 'Given inbaptism, ' say our friends, and I venture to think that they therebydegrade Christianity into a system of magic, bringing together twoentirely disparate things, an external physical act and a spiritualchange. I do not say anything about the disastrous effects that havefollowed from such a conception of the medium by which this greatestof all Christian gifts is effected upon men. Since the Spirit who isgiven is life, the result of the gift of that Spirit is a new life, and we all know what disastrous and debasing consequences havefollowed from that dogma of regeneration by baptism. No doubt it isperfectly true that normally, in the early Church, the Divine Spiritwas given at baptism; but for one thing, that general rule hadexceptions, as in the case of Cornelius, and, for another thing, though it was given _at_ baptism, it was not given _in_baptism, but it was given through faith, of which in those daysbaptism was the sequel and the sign. 

But I pass altogether from this, and fall back on the great wordswhich, to me at least, if there were no other, would determine thewhole answer to this question as to when the Spirit was given: 'Thisspake He of the Holy Ghost, which they that _believe_ on Himshould receive'; and I would ask the modern upholders of the othertheory the indignant question which the Apostle Paul fired off out ofhis heavy artillery at their ancient analogues, the circumcisers inthe Galatian Church: 'This only would I know of you: Received ye theHoly Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?'

The answer which the evangelical Christian gives to this ancientquestion suggested by my text, 'When was that Divine Spiritbestowed?' is congruous with the spirituality of the Christian faith, and is eminently reasonable. For the condition required is theopening of the whole nature in willing welcome to the entrance of theDivine Spirit, and as surely as, wherever there is an indentation ofthe land, and a concavity of a receptive bay, the ocean will pourinto it and fill it, so surely where a heart is open for God, God inHis Divine Spirit will enter into that heart, and there will shed Hisblessed influences. 

So, dear brethren, and this is the main point to which I wish todirect your attention, the Apostle here takes it for granted that allthese Roman Christians knew in themselves the truth of what he wassaying, and had an experience which confirmed his assertion that theDivine Spirit of God was given to them when they believed. Ah! Iwonder if that is true about us professing Christians; if we areaware in any measure of a higher life than our own having beenbreathed into us; if we are aware in any measure of a Divine Spiritdwelling in our spirits, moulding, lifting, enlightening, guiding, constraining, and yet not coercing? We ought to be, 'Know ye not thatthe Spirit dwelleth in you, except ye be rejected?' Brethren, itseems to me to be of the very last importance, in this period of theChurch's history, that the proportion between the Church's teachingas to the work of Christ on the Cross, and as to the consequent workof the Spirit of Christ in our hearts and spirits, should be changed. We must become more mystical if we are not to become less Christian. And the fact that so many of us seem to imagine that the whole Gospellies in this, that 'He died for our sins according to theScriptures, ' and have relegated the teaching that He, by His Spirit, lives in us, if we are His disciples, to a less prominent place, hasdone enormous harm, not only to the type of Christian life, but tothe conception of what Christianity is, both amongst those whoreceive it, and amongst those who do not accept it, making it out tobe nothing more than a means of escape from the consequences of ourtransgression, instead of recognising it for what it is, theimpartation of a new life which will flower into all beauty, and bearfruit in all goodness. 

There was a question put once to a group of disciples, inastonishment and incredulity, by this Apostle, when he said to thetwelve disciples in Ephesus, 'Did you receive the Holy Ghost when youbelieved?' The question might well be put to a multitude ofprofessing Christians amongst us, and I am afraid a great many ofthem, if they answered truly, would answer as those disciples did, 'We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. '

And now for the second point in my text--

II. The love which is shed abroad by that Spirit. 

Now, I suppose I do not need to do more than point out that 'the loveof God' here means His to us, and not ours to Him, and that themetaphor employed is but partially represented by that rendering'shed abroad. ' 'Poured out' would better convey Paul's image, whichis that of a flood sent coursing through the heart, or, perhaps, rather lying there, as a calm deep lake on whose unruffled surfacethe heavens, with all their stars, are reflected. Of course, if God'slove to us thus suffuses a heart, then there follows theconsciousness of that love; though it is not the consciousness of thelove that the Apostle is primarily speaking of, but that which liesbehind it, the actual flowing into the human heart of that sweet andall-satisfying Love. This Divine Spirit that dwells in us, if we aretrusting in Christ, will pour it in full streams into our else emptyhearts. Surely there is nothing incongruous with the nature either ofGod or of man, in believing that thus a real communication ispossible between them, and that by thoughts the occasions of which wecannot trace, by moments of elevation, by swift, piercingconvictions, by sudden clear illuminations, God may speak, and willspeak, in our waiting hearts. 

 'Such rebounds the inmost ear Catches often from afar. Listen, prize them, hold them dear; For of God, of God, they are. '

But we must not forget, too, that, according to the whole strain ofNew Testament thinking, the means by which that Divine Spirit doespour out the flashing flood of the love of God into a man's heart is, as Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, by taking the things of Christand showing them to us. 

Now, as I said about a former point of my sermon, that the Apostle was taking for granted that this gift of the Spiritbelonged to all Christian people; so here again he takes for grantedthat in every Christian heart there is, by a divine operation, thepresence of the love, and of the consciousness of the love, of God. And, again, the question comes to some of us stunningly, to all of uswarningly, Is that a transcript of our experience? It is the ideal ofa Christian life; it is meant that it should be so, and should be socontinuously. The stream that is poured out is intended to run summerand winter, not to be dried up in drought, nor made turbid and noisyin flood, but with equable flow throughout. I fear me that theexperience of most good people is rather like one of those tropicalwadies, or nullahs in Eastern lands, where there alternate times ofspate and times of drought; and instead of a flashing stream, pouringlife everywhere, and full to the top of its banks, there is for longperiods a dismal stretch of white sun-baked stones, and a chaos oftumbled rocks with not a drop of water in the channel. The Spiritpours God's love into men's spirits, but there may be dams andbarriers, so that no drop of the water comes into the empty heart. 

Our Quaker friends have a great deal to say about 'waiting for thespringing of the life within us. ' Never mind about the phraseology:what is meant is profoundly true, that no Christian man will realisethis blessing unless he knows how to sit still and meditate, and letthe gracious influence soak into him. Thus being quiet, he may, hewill, find rising in his heart the consciousness of the love of God. You will not, if you give only broken momentary sidelong glances; youwill not, if you do not lie still. If you hold up a cup in a shakinghand beneath a fountain, and often twitch it aside, you will getlittle water in it; and unless we 'wait on the Lord, ' we shall not'renew our strength. ' You can build a dam as they do in Holland thatwill keep out, not only the waters of a river, but the waters of anocean, and not a drop will come through the dike. Brethren, we mustkeep ourselves in the love of God. 

Lastly, we have here--

III. The hope that is established by the love poured out. 

I need not dwell at any length upon this point, because, to a largeextent, it has been anticipated in former sermons, but just a word ortwo may be permitted me. That love, you may be very sure, is notgoing to lose its objects in the dust. The old Psalmist who knew somuch less than we do as to the love of God, and knew nothing of thewhispers of a Divine Spirit within his heart charged with the messageof the love as it was manifested in Jesus Christ, had risen to aheight of confidence, the beauty of the expression of which is oftenlost sight of, because we insist upon dealing with it as merely beinga Messianic prophecy, which it is, but not merely: 'Thou wilt notleave my soul in Sheol, neither wilt Thou suffer Thy beloved' (forthat is the real meaning of the word translated 'thy HolyOne')--'Thou wilt not suffer the child of Thy love to seecorruption. ' Death's bony fingers can untie all true lover's knotsbut one; and they fumble at that one in vain. God will not lose Hischild in the grave. 

That love, we may be very sure, will not foster in us hopes that areto be disappointed. Now, it is a fact that the more a man feels thatGod loves him, the less is it possible for him to believe that thatlove will ever terminate, or that he shall 'all die. ' In the lock ofa canal, as the water pours in, the vessel rises. In our hearts, asthe flood of the full love of God pours in, our hopes are borne upand up, nearer and nearer to the heavens. Since it is so, we mustfind in the fact that the constant and necessary result of communionwith Him here on earth is a conviction of the immortality of thatcommunion, a very, very strong guarantee for ourselves that the hopeis not in vain. And if you say that that is all merely subjective, yet I think that the universality of the experience is a fact to betaken into account even by those who doubt the reality of the hope, and for ourselves, at all events, is a sufficient ground on which torest. We have the historical fact of the Resurrection of JesusChrist. We have the fact that wherever there has been earthlyexperience of true communion with God, there, and in the measure inwhich it has been realised, the thermometer of our hopes ofimmortality, so to speak, has risen. 'God is love, ' and God will notbring the man that trusts Him to confusion. 

And may we not venture to say that, contemplating the analogousearthly love, we are permitted to believe that that divine Lover ofour souls desires to have His beloved with Him, and desires thatthere be no separation between Him and them, either, if I might sosay, in place or in disposition? As certainly as husband and wife, lover and friend, long to be together, and need it for perfection andfor rest, so surely will that divine love not be satisfied until ithas gathered all its children to its breast and made them partakersof itself. 

There are many, many hopes that put the men who cherish them toshame, partly because they are never fulfilled, partly because, though fulfilled, they are disappointed, since the reality is so muchless than the anticipation. Who does not know that the spray ofblossom on the tree looks far more lovely hanging above our headsthan when it is grasped by us? Who does not know that the fishstruggling on the hook seems heavier than it turns out to be whenlying on the bank? We go to the rainbow's end, and we find, not a potof gold, but a huddle of cold, wet mist. There is one man that isentitled to say: 'To-morrow shall be as this day, and much moreabundant. ' Who is he? Only the man whose hope is in the Lord his God. If we open our hearts by faith, then these three lines of sequence ofwhich we have been speaking will converge, and we shall have the hopethat is the shining apex of 'being justified by faith, ' and the hopethat is the calm result of trouble and agitation, and the hope that, travelling further and higher than anything in our inward experienceor our outward discipline, grasps the key-word of the universe, 'Godis love, ' and triumphantly makes sure that 'neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, northings to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shallbe able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesusour Lord. '

WHAT PROVES GOD'S LOVE

 'God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. '--ROMANS v. 8. 

We have seen in previous sermons on the preceding context that theApostle has been tracing various lines of sequence, all of whichconverge upon Christian hope. The last of these pointed to the factthat the love of God, poured into a heart like oil into a lamp, brightened that flame; and having thus mentioned the great Christianrevelation of God as love, Paul at once passes to emphasise thehistorical fact on which the conviction of that love rests, and goeson to say that 'the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by theHoly Ghost which is given to us, _for_ when we were yet withoutstrength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. ' Then there risesbefore him the thought of how transcendent and unparalleled a love isthat which pours its whole preciousness on unworthy and unresponsivehearts. He thinks to himself--'We are all ungodly; withoutstrength--yet, He died for us. Would any man do that? No! for, ' sayshe, 'it will be a hard thing to find any one ready to die for arighteous man--a man rigidly just and upright, and because rigidlyjust, a trifle hard, and therefore not likely to touch a heart tosacrifice; and even for a good man, in whom austere righteousness hasbeen softened and made attractive, and become graciousness andbeneficence, well! it is just within the limits of possibility thatsomebody might be found even to die for a man that had laid such astrong hand upon his affections. But God commendeth His love in thatwhile we were yet sinners Christ died for us. ' Now, when Paul says'commend, ' he uses a very significant word which is employed in twoways in the New Testament. It sometimes means to establish, or toprove, or to make certain. But 'prove' is a cold word, and theexpression also means to recommend, to set forth in such a way as toappeal to the heart, and God does both in that great act. Heestablishes the fact, and He, as it were, sweeps it into a man'sheart, on the bosom of that full tide of self-sacrifice. 

So there are two or three points that arise from these words, onwhich I desire to dwell now--to lay them upon our hearts, and notonly upon our understandings. For it is a poor thing to prove thelove of God, and we need that not only shall we be sure of it, butthat we shall be softened by it. So now let me ask you to look withme, first, at this question--

I. What Paul thought Jesus Christ died for. 

'Died _for_ us. ' Now that expression plainly implies two things:first, that Christ died of His own accord, and being impelled by agreat motive, beneficence; and, second, that that voluntary death, somehow or other, is for our behoof and advantage. The word in theoriginal, 'for, ' does not define in what way that death ministers toour advantage, but it does assert that for those Roman Christians whohad never seen Jesus Christ, and by consequence for you and menineteen centuries off the Cross, there is benefit in the fact ofthat death. Now, suppose we quote an incident in the story ofmissionary martyrdom. There was a young lady, whom some of us knewand loved, in a Chinese mission station, who, with the rest of themissionary band, was flying. Her life was safe. She looked back, andsaw a Chinese boy that her heart twined round, in danger. Shereturned to save him; they laid hold of her and flung her into theburning house, and her charred remains have never been found. Thatwas a death for another, but 'Jesus died for us' in a deeper sensethan that. Take another case. A man sets himself to some great cause, not his own, and he sees that in order to bless humanity, either bythe proclamation of some truth, or by the origination of some greatmovement, or in some other way, if he is to carry out his purpose, he must give his life. He does so, and dies a martyr. What he aimedat could only be done by the sacrifice of his life. The death was ameans to his end, and he died for his fellows. That is not the depthof the sense in which Paul meant that Jesus Christ died for us. Itwas not that He was true to His message, and, like many anothermartyr, died. There is only one way, as it seems to me, in which anybeneficial relation can be established between the Death of Christand us, and it is that when He died He died for us, because 'He bareour sins in His own body on the tree. '

Dear brethren, I dare say some of you do not take that view, but Iknow not how justice can be done to the plain words of Scriptureunless this is the point of view from which we look at the Cross ofCalvary--that there the Lamb of Sacrifice was bearing, and bearingaway, the sins of the whole world. I know that Christian men whounite in the belief that Christ's death was a sacrifice and anatonement diverge from one another in their interpretations of theway in which that came to be a fact, and I believe, for my part, thatthe divergent interpretations are like the divergent beams of lightthat fall upon men who stand round the same great luminary, and thatall of them take their origin in, and are part of the manifestationof, the one transcendent fact, which passes all understanding, andgathers into itself all the diverse conceptions of it which areformed by limited minds. He died for us because, in His death, oursins are taken away and we are restored to the divine favour. 

I know that Jesus Christ is said to have made far less of that aspectof His work in the Gospels than His disciples have done in theEpistles, and that we are told that, if we go back to Jesus, we shallnot find the doctrine which for some of us is the first form in whichthe Gospel finds its way into the hearts of men. I admit that thefully-developed teaching followed the fact, as was necessarily thecase. I do not admit that Jesus Christ 'spake nothing concerningHimself' as the sacrifice for the world's sins. For I hear from Hislips--not to dwell upon other sayings which I could quote--I hearfrom His lips, 'The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but tominister'--that is only half His purpose--'and to give His life aransom instead of the many. ' You cannot strike the atoning aspect ofHis death out of that expression by any fair handling of the words. 

And what does the Lord's Supper mean? Why did Jesus Christ selectthat one point of His life as the point to be remembered? Why did Heinstitute the double memorial, the body parted from the blood being asign of a violent death? I know of no explanation that makes thatLord's Supper an intelligible rite except the explanation which saysthat He came, to live indeed, and in that life to be a sacrifice, butto make the sacrifice complete by Himself bearing the consequences oftransgression, and making atonement for the sins of the world. 

Brethren, that is the only aspect of Christ's death which makes it ofany consequence to us. Strip it of that, and what does it matter tome that He died, any more than it matters to me that anyphilanthropist, any great teacher, any hero or martyr or saint, should have died? As it seems to me, nothing. Christ's death issurrounded by tenderly pathetic and beautiful accompaniments. As astory it moves the hearts of men, and 'purges them, by pity and byterror. ' But the death of many a hero of tragedy does all that. And if you want to have the Cross of Christ held upright in its placeas the Throne of Christ and the attractive power for the whole world, you must not tamper with that great truth, but say, 'He died for oursins, according to the Scriptures. '

Now, there is a second question that I wish to ask, and that is--

II. How does Christ's death 'commend' God's love?

That is a strange expression, if you will think about it, that'_God_ commendeth His love towards us in that _Christ_died. ' If you take the interpretation of Christ's death of which Ihave already been speaking, one could have understood the Apostle ifhe had said, 'Christ commendeth His love towards us in that Christdied. ' But where is the force of the fact of a _man's_ death toprove _God's_ love? Do you not see that underlying that swiftsentence of the Apostle there is a presupposition, which he takes forgranted? It is so obvious that I do not need to dwell upon it tovindicate his change of persons, viz. That 'God was in Christ, ' insuch fashion as that whatsoever Christ did was the revelation of God. You cannot suppose, at least I cannot see how you can, that there isany force of proof in the words of my text, unless you come up to thefull belief, 'God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. '

Suppose some great martyr who dies for his fellows. Well, all honourto him, and the race will come to his tomb for a while, and bringtheir wreaths and their sorrow. But what bearing has his death uponour knowledge of God's love towards us? None whatever, or at most avery indirect and shadowy one. We have to dig deeper down than that. 'God commends His love . .. In that Christ died. ' 'He that hath seenMe hath seen the Father. ' And we have the right and the obligation toargue back from all that is manifest in the tender Christ to theheart of God, and say, not only, 'God so loved the world that He'sent His Son, but to see that the love that was in Christ is themanifestation of the love of God Himself. 

So there stands the Cross, the revelation to us, not only of aBrother's sacrifice, but of a Father's love; and that because JesusChrist is the revelation of God as being the 'eradiation of Hisglory, and the express image of His person. ' Friends! light does pourout from that Cross, whatever view men take of it. But the omnipotentbeam, the all-illuminating radiance, the transforming light, the heatthat melts, are all dependent on our looking at it--I do not onlysay, as Paul looked at it, nor do I even say as Christ looked at it, but as the deep necessities of humanity require that the world shouldlook at it, as the altar whereon is laid the sacrifice for our sins, the very Son of God Himself. To me the great truths of theIncarnation and the Atonement of Jesus Christ are not points in amere speculative theology; they are the pulsating vital centre ofreligion. And every man needs them in his own experience. 

I was going to have said a word or two here--but it is notnecessary--about the need that the love of God should be irrefragablyestablished, by some plain and undeniable and conspicuous fact. Ineed not dwell upon the ambiguous oracles which--

 'Nature, red in tooth and claw, With rapine'

gives forth, nor on how the facts of human life, our own sorrows, andthe world's miseries, the tears that swathe the earth, as it rolls onits orbit, like a misty atmosphere, war against the creed that God islove. I need not remind you, either, of how deep, in our own hearts, when the conscience begins to speak its _not_ ambiguous oracles, there does rise the conviction that there is much in us which it isimpossible should be the object of God's love. Nor need I remind youhow all these difficulties in believing in a God who is love, basedon the contradictory aspects of nature, and the mysteries ofprovidence, and the whisperings of our own consciousness, are provedto have been insuperable by the history of the world, where we findmythologies and religions of all types and gods of every sort, butnowhere in all the pantheon a God who is Love. 

Only let me press upon you that that conviction of the love of God, which is found now far beyond the limits of Christian faith, andamongst many of us who, in the name of that conviction itself, rejectChristianity, because of its sterner aspects, is historically thechild of the evangelical doctrine of the Incarnation and sacrifice ofJesus Christ. And if it still subsists, as I know it does, especiallyin this generation, amongst many men who reject what seems to me tobe the very kernel of Christianity--subsists like the stream cut offfrom its source, but still running, that only shows that men holdmany convictions the origin of which they do not know. God is love. You will not permanently sustain that belief against the pressure ofoutward mysteries and inward sorrows, unless you grasp the otherconviction that Christ died for our sins. The two are inseparable. 

And now lastly--

III. What kind of love does Christ's death declare to us as existingin God?

A love that is turned away by no sin--that is the thing that strikesthe Apostle here, as I have already pointed out. The utmost reach ofhuman affection might be that a man would die for the good--he wouldscarcely die for the righteous. But God sends His Son, and comesHimself in His Son, and His Son died for the ungodly and the sinner. That death reveals a love which is its own origin and motive. We lovebecause we discern, or fancy we do, something lovable in the object. God loves under the impulse, so to speak, of His own welling-upheart. 

And yet it is a love which, though not turned away by any sin, iswitnessed by that death to be rigidly righteous. It is no mereflaccid, flabby laxity of a loose-girt affection, no mere foolishindulgence like that whereby earthly parents spoil their children. God's love is not lazy good-nature, as a great many of us think it tobe and so drag it in the mud, but it is rigidly righteous, andtherefore Christ died. That Death witnesses that it is a love whichshrinks from no sacrifices. This Isaac was not 'spared. ' God gave upHis Son. Love has its very speech in surrender, and God's love speaksas ours does. It is a love which, turned away by no sin, and yetrigidly righteous and shrinking from no sacrifices, embraces all agesand lands. 'God commendeth'--not 'commended. ' The majestic presenttense suggests that time and space are nothing to the swift andall-filling rays of that great Light. That love is 'towards us, ' youand me and all our fellows. The Death is an historical fact, occurring in one short hour. The Cross is an eternal power, rayingout light and love over all humanity and through all ages. 

God lays siege to all hearts in that great sacrifice. Do you believethat Jesus Christ died for _your_ sins 'according to the Scriptures'?Do you see there the assurance of a love which will lift you up aboveall the cross-currents of earthly life, and the mysteries ofprovidence, into the clear ether where the sunshine is unobscured?And above all, do you fling back the reverberating ray from themirror of your own heart that directs again towards heaventhe beam of love which heaven has shot down upon you? 'Herein islove, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and gave His Sonto be the propitiation for our sins. ' Is it true of us that we loveGod because He first loved us?

THE WARRING QUEENS

 'As sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. '--ROMANS v. 21. 

I am afraid this text will sound to some of you rather unpromising. It is full of well-worn terms, 'sin, ' 'death, ' 'grace, ''righteousness, ' 'eternal life, ' which suggest dry theology, if theysuggest anything. When they welled up from the Apostle's glowingheart they were like a fiery lava-stream. But the stream has cooled, and, to a good many of us, they seem as barren and sterile as thelong ago cast out coils of lava on the sides of a quiescent volcano. They are so well-worn and familiar to our ears that they create butvague conceptions in our minds, and they seem to many of us to be faraway from a bearing upon our daily lives. But you much mistake Paulif you take him to be a mere theological writer. He is an earnestevangelist, trying to draw men to love and trust in Jesus Christ. Andhis writings, however old-fashioned and doctrinally hard they mayseem to you, are all throbbing with life--instinct with truths thatbelong to all ages and places, and which fit close to every one ofus. 

I do not know if I can give any kind of freshness to these words, butI wish to try. To begin with, I notice the highly-imaginative andpicturesque form into which the Apostle casts his thoughts here. He, as it were, draws back a curtain, and lets us see two royal figures, which are eternally opposed and dividing the dominion between them. Then he shows us the issues to which these two rulers respectivelyconduct their subjects; and the question that is trembling on hislips is 'Under which of them do you stand?' Surely that is not fossiltheology, but truths that are of the highest importance, and ought tobe of the deepest interest, to every one of us. They are to you theformer, whether they are the latter or not. 

I. So, first, look at the two Queens who rule over human life. 

Sin and Grace are both personified; and they are both conceived of asfemale figures, and both as exercising dominion. They stand face toface, and each recognises as her enemy the other. The one hasestablished her dominion: 'Sin _hath_ reigned. ' The other isfighting to establish hers: 'That Grace _might_ reign. ' And thestruggle is going on between them, not only on the wide field of theworld; but in the narrow lists of the heart of each of us. 

Sin reigns. The truths that underlie that solemn picture are plainenough, however unwelcome they may be to some of us, and howeverremote from the construction of the universe which many of us aredisposed to take. 

Now, let us understand our terms. Suppose a man commits a theft. Youmay describe it from three different points of view. He has therebybroken the law of the land; and when we are thinking about that wecall it crime. He has also broken the law of 'morality, ' as we callit; and when we are looking at his deed from that point of view, wecall it vice. Is that all? He has broken something else. He hasbroken the law of God; and when we look at it from that point of viewwe call it sin. Now, there are a great many things which are sinsthat are not crimes; and, with due limitations, I might venture tosay that there are some things which are sins that are not to bequalified as vices. Sin implies God. The Psalmist was quite rightwhen he said; 'Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned'; although hewas confessing a foul injury he had done to Bathsheba, and a glaringcrime that he had committed against Uriah. It was as to God, and inreference to Him only, that his crime and his vice darkened andsolidified into sin. 

And what is it, in our actions or in ourselves considered inreference to God, that makes our actions sins and ourselves sinners?Remember the prodigal son. 'Father! Give me the portion of goods thatfalleth to me. ' There you have it all. He went away, and 'wasted hissubstance in riotous living. ' To claim myself for my own; to actindependently of, or contrary to, the will of God; to try to shakemyself clear of Him; to have nothing to do with Him, even though itbe by mere forgetfulness and negligence, and, in all my ways tocomport myself as if I had no relations of dependence on andsubmission to him--that is sin. And there may be that oblivion orrebellion, not only in the gross vulgar acts which the law callscrimes, or in those which conscience declares to be vices, but alsoin many things which, looked at from a lower point of view, may befair and pure and noble. If there is this assertion of self in them, or oblivion of God and His will in them, I know not how we are toescape the conclusion that even these fall under the class of sins. For there can be no act or thought, truly worthy of a man, situatedand circumstanced as we are, which has not, for the very core andanimating motive of it, a reference to God. 

Now, when I come and say, as my Bible teaches me to say, that this isthe deepest view of the state of humanity that sin reigns, I do notwish to fall into the exaggerations by which sometimes that statementhas been darkened and discredited; but I do want to press upon you, dear brethren, this, as a matter of _personal_ experience, thatwherever there is a heart that loves, and leaves God out, andwherever there is a will that resolves, determines, impels to action, and does not bow itself before Him, and wherever there are hands thatlabour, or feet that run, at tasks and in paths self-chosen andunconsecrated by reference to our Father in heaven, no matter howgreat and beautiful subsidiary lustres may light up their deeds, thevery heart of them all is transgression of the law of God. For this, and nothing else or less, is His law: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thyGod with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thystrength, and with all thy mind. ' I do not charge you with crimes. You know how far it would be right to charge you with vices. _I_do not charge you with anything; but I pray you to come with me andconfess: 'We all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. '

I suppose I need not dwell upon the difficulty of getting a lodgmentfor this conviction in men's hearts. There is no sadder, and no moreconclusive proof, of the tremendous power of sin over us, than thatit has lulled us into unconsciousness, hard to be broken, of its ownpresence and existence. You remember the old stories--I suppose thereis no truth in them, but they will do for an illustration--about somekind of a blood-sucking animal that perched upon a sleeping man, andwith its leathern wings fanned him into deeper drowsiness whilst itdrew from him his life-blood. That is what this hideous Queen doesfor men. She robes herself in a dark cloud, and sends out her behestsfrom obscurity. And men fancy that they are free whilst all the whilethey are her servants. Oh, dear brethren! you may call this theology, but it is a simple statement of the facts of our condition. 'Sin hathreigned. '

And now turn to the other picture, 'Grace might reign. ' Then there isan antagonistic power that rises up to confront the widespreaddominion of this anarch of old. And this Queen comes with twentythousand to war against her that has but ten thousand on her side. 

Again I say, let us understand our terms. I suppose, there are few ofthe keywords of the New Testament which have lost more of theirradiance, like quicksilver, by exposure in the air during thecenturies than that great word Grace, which is always on the lips ofthis Apostle, and to him had music in its sound, and which to us is apiece of dead doctrine, associated with certain high Calvinistictheories which we enlightened people have long ago grown beyond, andgot rid of. Perhaps Paul was more right than we when his heart leapedup within him at the very thought of all which he saw to liepalpitating and throbbing with eager desire to bless men, in thatgreat word. What does he mean by it? Let me put it into the shortestpossible terms. This antagonist Queen is nothing but the love of Godraying out for ever to us inferior creatures, who, by reason of oursinfulness, have deserved something widely different. Sin standsthere, a hideous hag, though a queen; Grace stands here, 'in all hergestures dignity and love, ' fair and self-communicative, though asovereign. The love of God in exercise to sinful men: that is whatthe New Testament means by grace. And is it not a great thought?

Notice, for further elucidation of the Apostle's conception, how hesacrifices the verbal correctness of his antithesis in order to getto the real opposition. What is the opposite of Sin? Righteousness. Why does he not say, then, that 'as Sin hath reigned unto death, evenso might Righteousness reign unto life'? Why? Because it is not man, or anything in man, that can be the true antagonist of, and victorover, the regnant Sin of humanity; but God Himself comes into thefield, and only He is the foe that Sin dreads. That is to say, theonly hope for a sin-tyrannised world is in the out-throb of the loveof the great heart of God. For, notice the weapon with which Hefights man's transgression, if I may vary the figure for a moment. Itis only subordinately punishment, or law, or threatening, or therevelation of the wickedness of the transgression. All these havetheir places, but they are secondary places. The thing that willconquer a world's wickedness is nothing else but the manifested loveof God. Only the patient shining down of the sun will ever melt theicebergs that float in all our hearts. And wonderful and blessed itis to think that, in whatsoever aspects man's sin may have been aninterruption and a contradiction of the divine purpose, out of theevil has come a good; that the more obdurate and universal therebellion, the more has it evoked a deeper and more wondroustenderness. The blacker the thundercloud, the brighter glows therainbow that is flung across it. So these two front each other, theone settled in her established throne--

'Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell--'

the other coming on her adventurous errand to conquer the world toherself, and to banish the foul tyranny under which men groan. 'Sinhath reigned. ' Grace is on her way to her dominion. 

II. Notice the gifts of these two Queens to their subjects. 

'Sin hath reigned in death' (as the accurate translation has it);'Grace reigns unto eternal life. ' The one has established herdominion, and its results are wrought out, her reign is, as it were, a reign in a cemetery; and her subjects are dead. If you want amodern instance to illustrate an ancient saw, think of Armenia. Thereis a reign whose gifts to its subjects are death. Sin reigns, saysPaul, and for proof points to the fact that men die. 

Now, I am not going to enter into the question here, and now, whetherphysical death passes over mankind because of the fact oftransgression. I do not suppose that this is so. But I ask you toremember that when the Bible says that 'Death passed upon all men, for all have sinned, ' it does not merely mean the physical fact ofdissolution, but it means that fact along with the accompaniments ofit, and the forerunners of it, in men's consciences. 'The sting ofdeath is sin, ' says Paul, in another place. By which he implies, I presume, that, if it were not for the fact of alienation from Godand opposition to His holy will, men might lie down and die asplacidly as an animal does, and might strip themselves for it 'as fora bed, that longing they'd been sick for. ' No doubt, there was deathin the world long before there were men in it. No doubt, also, thecomplex whole phenomenon gets its terror from the fact of men's sin. 

But it is not so much that physical fact with its accompanimentswhich Paul is thinking about when he says that 'sin reigns in death, 'as it is that solemn truth which he is always reiterating, and whichI pray you, dear friends, to lay to heart, that, whatever activitythere may be in the life of a man who has rent himself away fromdependence upon God--however vigorous his brain, however active hishand, however full charged with other interests his life, in the verydepth of it is a living death, and the right name for it is death. Sothis is Sin's gift--that over our whole nature there come mortalityand decay, and that they who live as her subjects are dead whilstthey live. Dear brethren, that may be figurative, but it seems to methat it is absurd for you to turn away from such thoughts, shrug yourshoulders, and say, 'Old-fashioned Calvinistic theology!' It issimply putting into a vivid form the facts of your life and of yourcondition in relation to God, if you are subjects of Sin. 

Then, on the other hand, the other queenly figure has her handsfilled with one great gift which, like the fatal bestowment which Singives to her subjects, has two aspects, a present and a future one. Life, which is given in our redemption from Death and Sin, and inunion with God; that is the present gift that the love of God holdsout to every one of us. That life, in its very incompleteness here, carries in itself the prophecy of its own completion hereafter, in ahigher form and world, just as truly as the bud is the prophet of theflower and of the fruit; just as truly as a half-reared building isthe prophecy of its own completion when the roof tree is put upon it. The men that here have, as we all may have if we choose, the gift oflife eternal in the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ His Son, must necessarily tend onwards and upwards to a region where Death isbeneath the horizon, and Life flows and flushes the whole heaven. Brother! do you put out your whole hand to take the poisoned giftfrom the claw-like hand of that hideous Queen; or do you turn andtake the gift of life eternal from the hands of the queenly Grace?

III. How this queenly Grace gives her gifts. 

You observe that the Apostle, as is his wont--I was going tosay--gets himself entangled in a couple of almost parenthetical or, at all events, subsidiary sentences. I suppose when he began to writehe meant to say, simply, 'as Sin hath reigned unto death, so Gracemight reign unto life. ' But notice that he inserts twoqualifications: 'through righteousness, ' 'through Jesus Christ ourLord. ' What does he mean by these?

He means this, first, that even that great love of God, comingthrobbing straight from His heart, cannot give eternal life as a merematter of arbitrary will. God can make His sun to shine and His rainto fall, 'on the unthankful and on the evil, ' and if God could, Godwould give eternal life to everybody, bad and good; but He cannot. There must be righteousness if there is to be life. Just as sin'sfruit is death, the fruit of righteousness is life. 

He means, in the next place, that whilst there is no life withoutrighteousness, there is no righteousness without God's gift. Youcannot break away from the dominion of Sin, and, as it were, establish yourselves in a little fortress of your own, repelling herassaults by any power of yours. Dear brethren, we cannot undo thepast; we cannot strip off the poisoned garment that clings to ourlimbs; we can mend ourselves in many respects, but we cannot of ourown volition and motion clothe ourselves with that righteousness ofwhich the wearers shall be worthy to 'pass through the gate into thecity. ' There is no righteousness without God's gift. 

And the other subsidiary clause completes the thought: 'throughChrist. ' In Him is all the grace, the manifest love, of God gatheredtogether. It is not diffused as the nebulous light in some chaoticincipient system, but it is gathered into a sun that is set in thecentre, in order that it may pour down warmth and life upon itscircling planets. The grace of God is in Christ Jesus our Lord. InHim is life eternal; therefore, if we desire to possess it we mustpossess Him. In Him is righteousness; therefore, if we desire our ownfoulness to be changed into the holiness which shall see God, we mustgo to Jesus Christ. Grace reigns in life, but it is life throughrighteousness, which is through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

So, then, brother, my message and my petition to each of youare--knit yourself to Him by faith in Him. Then He who is 'full ofgrace and truth' will come to you; and, coming, will bring in Hishands righteousness and life eternal. If only we rest ourselves onHim, and keep ourselves close in touch with Him; then we shall bedelivered from the tyranny of the darkness, and translated into theKingdom of the Son of His love. 

'THE FORM OF TEACHING'

 '. .. Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. '--ROMANS vi. 17. 

There is room for difference of opinion as to what Paul preciselymeans by 'form' here. The word so rendered appears in English as_type_, and has a similar variety of meaning. It signifiesoriginally a mark made by pressure or impact; and then, by naturaltransitions, a _mould_, or more generally a _pattern_ or _example_, and then the copy of such an example or pattern, or the cast fromsuch a mould. It has also the other meaning which its Englishequivalent has taken on very extensively of late years, such as, forinstance, you find in expressions like 'An English type of face, 'meaning thereby the general outline which preserves thedistinguishing characteristics of a thing. Now we may choose betweenthese two meanings in our text. If the Apostle means type in thelatter sense of the word, then the rendering 'form' is adequate, andhe is thinking of the Christian teaching which had been given to theRoman Christians as possessing certain well-defined characteristicswhich distinguished it from other kinds of teaching--such, forinstance, as Jewish or heathen. 

But if we take the other meaning, then he is, in true Paulinefashion, bringing in a vivid and picturesque metaphor to enforce histhought, and is thinking of the teaching which the Roman Christianshad received as being a kind of mould into which they were thrown, apattern to which they were to be conformed. And that that is hismeaning seems to me to be made a little more probable by the factthat the last words of my text would be more accurate if inverted, and instead of reading, as the Authorised Version does, 'that form ofdoctrine which was delivered you, ' we were to read, as the RevisedVersion does, 'that form whereunto ye were delivered. '

If this be the general meaning of the words before us, there arethree thoughts arising from them to which I turn briefly. First, Paul's Gospel was a definite body of teaching; secondly, thatteaching is a mould for conduct and character; lastly, that teachingtherefore demands obedience. Take, then, these three thoughts. 

I. First, Paul's Gospel was a definite body of teaching. 

Now the word 'doctrine, ' which is employed in my text, has, in thelapse of years since the Authorised Version was made, narrowed itssignificance. At the date of our Authorised translation 'doctrine'was probably equivalent to 'teaching, ' of whatever sort it might be. Since then it has become equivalent to a statement of abstractprinciples, and that is not at all what Paul means. He does not meanto say that his gospel was a form of doctrine in the sense of being atheological system, but he means to say that it was a body ofteaching, the nature of the teaching not being defined at all by theword. Therefore we have to notice that the great, blessed peculiarityof the Gospel is that it is a teaching, not of abstract dryprinciples, but of concrete historical facts. From these principlesin plenty may be gathered, but in its first form as it comes to menfresh from God it is not a set of propositions, but a history ofdeeds that were done upon earth. And, therefore, is it fitted to bethe food of every soul and the mould of every character. 

Jesus Christ did not come and talk to men about God, and say to themwhat His Apostles afterwards said, 'God is love, ' but He lived anddied, and that mainly was His teaching about God. He did not come tomen and lay down a theory of atonement or a doctrine of propitiation, or theology about sin and its relations to God, but He went to theCross and gave Himself for us, and that was His teaching aboutsacrifice. He did not say to men 'There is a future life, and it isof such and such a sort, ' but He came out of the grave and He said'Touch Me, and handle Me. A spirit hath not flesh and bones, ' and_therefore_ He brought life and immortality to light, by no emptywords but by the solid realities of facts. He did not lecture uponethics, but He lived a perfect human life out of which all moralprinciples that will guide human conduct may be gathered. And so, instead of presenting us with a _hortus siccus_, with a botaniccollection of scientifically arranged and dead propositions, He ledus into the meadow where the flowers grow, living and fair. His lifeand death, with all that they imply, are the teaching. 

Let us not forget, on the other hand, that the history of a fact isnot the mere statement of the outward thing that has happened. Suppose four people, for instance, standing at the foot of Christ'sCross; four other 'evangelists' than the four that we know. There isa Roman soldier; there is a Pharisee; there is one of the weepingcrowd of poor women, not disciples; and there is a disciple. Thefirst man tells the fact as he saw it: 'A Jewish rebel was crucifiedthis morning. ' The second man tells the fact: 'A blaspheming apostatesuffered what he deserved to-day. ' The woman tells the fact: 'A poor, gentle, fair soul was martyred to-day. ' And the fourth one tells thefact: 'Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins. ' The threetell the same fact; the fourth preaches the Gospel--that is to say, Christian teaching is the facts plus their explanation; and it isthat which differentiates it from the mere record which is of noavail to anybody. So Paul himself in one of his other letters putsit. This is his gospel: Jesus of Nazareth 'died for _our_ sinsaccording to the Scriptures, and He was buried, and rose again thethird day, according to the Scriptures. ' That is what turns the baldstory of the facts into teaching, which is the mould for life. 

So on the one hand, dear brethren, do not let us fall into thesuperficial error of fancying that our religion is a religion ofemotion and morality only. It is a religion with a basis of divinetruth, which, being struck away, all the rest goes. There is a revoltagainst dogma to-day, a revolt which in large measure is justified asan essential of progress, and in large measure as an instance ofprogress; but human nature is ever prone to extremes, and in therevolt from man's dogma there is danger of casting away God's truth. Christianity is not preserved when we hold by the bare facts of theoutward history, unless we take with these facts the interpretationof them, which declares the divinity and the sacrifice of the Son ofGod. 

And on the other hand, let us keep very clear in our minds the broadand impassable gulf of separation between the Christian teaching asembodied in the Scripture and the systems which Christianity hasevolved therefrom. Men's intellects must work upon the pabulum thatis provided for them, and a theology in a systematised form is anecessity for the intellectual and reasonable life of the ChristianChurch. But there is all the difference between man's inferences fromand systematising of the Christian truth and the truth that lieshere. The one is the golden roof that is cast over us; the other istoo often but the spiders' webs that are spun across and darken itssplendour. It is a sign of a wholesome change in the whole sentimentand attitude of the modern Christian mind that the word 'doctrine, 'which has come to mean men's inferences from God's truth, should havebeen substituted as it has been in our Revised Version of my text, bythe wholesome Christian word 'teaching. ' The teaching is the factswith the inspired commentary on them. 

II. Secondly, notice that this teaching is in Paul's judgment a mouldor pattern according to which men's lives are to be conformed. 

There can be no question but that, in that teaching as set forth inScripture, there does lie the mightiest formative power for shapingour lives, and emancipating us from our evil. 

Christ is _the_ type, the mould into which men are to be cast. The Gospel, as presented in Scripture, gives us three things. Itgives us the perfect mould; it gives us the perfect motive; it givesus the perfect power. And in all three things appears its distinctiveglory, apart from and above all other systems that have ever tried toaffect the conduct or to mould the character of man. 

In Jesus Christ we have in due combination, in perfect proportion, all the possible excellences of humanity. As in other cases ofperfect symmetry, the very precision of the balanced proportionsdetracts from the apparent magnitude of the statue or of the fairbuilding, so to a superficial eye there is but little beauty therethat we should desire Him, but as we learn to know Him, and livenearer to Him, and get more familiar with all His sweetness, and withall His power, He towers before us in ever greater and yet neverrepellent or exaggerated magnitude, and never loses the reality ofHis brotherhood in the completeness of His perfection. We have in theChrist the one type, the one mould and pattern for all striving, the'glass of form, ' the perfect Man. 

And that likeness is not reproduced in us by pressure or by a blow, but by the slow and blessed process of gazing until we become like, beholding the glory until we are changed into the glory. 

It is no use having a mould and metal unless you have a fire. It isno use having a perfect Pattern unless you have a motive to copy it. Men do not go to the devil for want of examples; and morality is notat a low ebb by reason of ignorance of what the true type of life is. But nowhere but in the full-orbed teaching of the New Testament willyou find a motive strong enough to melt down all the obstinatehardness of the 'northern iron' of the human will, and to make itplastic to His hand. If we can say, 'He loved me and gave Himself forme' then the sum of all morality, the old commandment that 'ye loveone another' receives a new stringency, and a fresh motive as well asa deepened interpretation, when His love is our pattern. The onething that will make men willing to be like Christ is their faiththat Christ is their Sacrifice and their Saviour. And sure I am ofthis, that no form of mutilated Christianity, which leaves out orfalteringly proclaims the truth that Christ died on the Cross for thesins of the world, will ever generate heat enough to mould men'swills, or kindle motives powerful enough to lead to a life of growingimitation of and resemblance to Him. The dial may be all right, thehours most accurately marked in their proper places, every minuteregistered on the circle, the hands may be all right, delicatelyfashioned, truly poised, but if there is no main-spring inside, dialand hands are of little use, and a Christianity which says, 'Christis the Teacher; do you obey Him?' is as impotent as the dial facewith the broken main-spring. What we need, and what, thank God, in'the teaching' we have, is the pattern brought near to us, and themotive for imitating the pattern, set in motion by the great thought, 'He loved me and gave Himself for me. '

Still further, the teaching is a power to fashion life, inasmuch asit brings with it a gift which secures the transformation of thebeliever into the likeness of his Lord. Part of 'the teaching' is thefact of Pentecost; part of the teaching is the fact of the Ascension;and the consequence of the Ascension and the sure promise of thePentecost is that all who love Him, and wait upon Him, shall receiveinto their hearts the 'Spirit of life in Christ Jesus' which shallmake them free from the law of sin and death. 

So, dear friends, on the one hand, let us remember that our religionis meant to work, that we have nothing in our creed that should notbe in our character, that all our _credenda_ are to be our _agenda_;everything _believed_ to be something _done_; and that if we contentourselves with the simple acceptance of the teaching, and make noeffort to translate that teaching into life, we are hypocrites orself-deceivers. 

And, on the other hand, do not let us forget that religion is thesoul of which morality is the body, and that it is impossible in thenature of things that you shall ever get a true, lofty, moral lifewhich is not based upon religion. I do not say that men cannot besure of the outlines of their duty without Christianity, though I amfree to confess that I think it is a very maimed and shabby versionof human duty, which is supplied, minus the special revelation ofthat duty which Christianity makes; but my point is, that theknowledge will not work without the Gospel. 

The Christian type of character is a distinct and manifestly separatething from the pagan heroism or from the virtues and therighteousnesses of other systems. Just as the musician's ear cantell, by half a dozen bars, whether that strain was Beethoven's, orHandel's, or Mendelssohn's, just as the trained eye can seeRaffaelle's magic in every touch of his pencil, so Christ, theTeacher, has a style; and all the scholars of His school carry withthem a certain mark which tells where they got their education andwho is their Master, if they are scholars indeed. And that leads meto the last word. 

III. This mould demands obedience. 

By the very necessity of things it is so. If the 'teaching' was but ateaching of abstract truths it would be enough to assent to them. Ibelieve that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two rightangles, and I have done my duty by that proposition when I have said'Yes! it is so. ' But the 'teaching' which Jesus Christ gives and_is_, needs a good deal more than that. By the very nature of theteaching, assent drags after it submission. You can please yourselfwhether you let Jesus Christ into your minds or not, but if youdo let Him in, He will be Master. There is no such thing as takingHim in and not obeying. 

And so the requirement of the Gospel which we call faith has in itquite as much of the element of obedience as of the element of trust. And the presence of that element is just what makes the differencebetween a sham and a real faith. 'Faith which has not works is dead, being alone. ' A faith which is all trust and no obedience is neithertrust nor obedience. 

And that is why so many of us do not care to yield ourselves to thefaith that is in Jesus Christ. If it simply came to us and said, 'Ifyou will trust Me you will get pardon, ' I fancy there would be a goodmany more of us honest Christians than are so. But Christ comes andsays, 'Trust Me, follow Me, and take Me for your Master; and be likeMe, ' and one's will kicks, and one's passions recoil, and a thousandof the devil's servants within us prick their ears up and stiffentheir backs in remonstrance and opposition. 'Submit' is Christ'sfirst word; submit by faith, submit in love. 

That heart obedience, which is the requirement of Christianity, meansfreedom. The Apostle draws a wonderful contrast in the contextbetween the slavery to lust and sin, and the freedom which comes fromobedience to God and to righteousness. Obey the Truth, and the Truth, in your obeying, shall make you free, for freedom is the willingsubmission to the limitations which are best. 'I will walk at libertyfor I keep Thy precepts. ' Take Christ for your Master, and, being Hisservants, you are your own masters, and the world's to boot. For 'allthings are yours if ye are Christ's. ' Refuse to bow your necks tothat yoke which is easy, and to take upon your shoulders that burdenwhich is light, and you do not buy liberty, though you buylicentiousness, for you become the slaves and downtrodden vassals ofthe world and the flesh and the devil, and while you promiseyourselves liberty, you become the bondsmen of corruption. Oh! then, let us obey from the heart that mould of teaching to which we aredelivered, and so obeying, we shall be free indeed. 

'THY FREE SPIRIT'

 'The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. '--ROMANS viii. 2. 

We have to distinguish two meanings of law. In the stricter sense, itsignifies the authoritative expressions of the will of a rulerproposed for the obedience of man; in the wider, almost figurativesense, it means nothing more than the generalised expression ofconstant similar facts. For instance, objects attract one another incertain circumstances with a force which in the same circumstances isalways the same. When that fact is stated generally, we get the lawof gravitation. Thus the word comes to mean little more than aregular process. In our text the word is used in a sense much nearerthe latter than the former of these two. 'The law of sin and ofdeath' cannot mean a series of commandments; it certainly does notmean the Mosaic law. It must either be entirely figurative, takingsin and death as two great tyrants who domineer over men; or it mustmean the continuous action of these powers, the process by which theywork. These two come substantially to the same idea. The law of sinand of death describes a certain constancy of operation, uniform andfixed, under the dominion of which men are struggling. But there isanother constancy of operation, uniform and fixed too, a mightyantagonistic power, which frees from the dominion of the former: itis 'the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. '

I. The bondage. 

The Apostle is speaking about himself as he was, and we have our ownconsciousness to verify his transcript of his own personal experience. Paul had found that, by an inexorable iron sequence, sinworked in himself the true death of the soul, in separation from God, in the extinction of good and noble capacities, in the atrophying ofall that was best in himself, in the death of joy and peace. And thisiron sequence he, with an eloquent paradox, calls a 'law, ' though itsvery characteristic is that it is lawless transgression of the truelaw of humanity. He so describes it, partly, because he would placeemphasis on its dominion over us. Sin rules with iron sway; men madlyobey it, and even when they think themselves free, are under a bittertyranny. Further, he desires to emphasise the fact that sin and deathare parts of one process which operates constantly and uniformly. This dark anarchy and wild chaos of disobedience and transgressionhas its laws. All happens there according to rule. Rigid andinevitable as the courses of the stars, or the fall of the leaf fromthe tree, is sin hurrying on to its natural goal in death. In thisfatal dance, sin leads in death; the one fair spoken and full ofdazzling promises, the other in the end throws off the mask, andslays. It is true of all who listen to the tempting voice, and thedeluded victim 'knows not that the dead are there, and that herguests are in the depth of hell. '

II. The method of deliverance. 

The previous chapter sounded the depths of human impotence, andshowed the tragic impossibility of human efforts to strip off thepoisoned garment. Here the Apostle tells the wonderful story of howhe himself was delivered, in the full rejoicing confidence that whatavailed for his emancipation would equally avail for every captivedsoul. Because he himself has experienced a divine power which breaksthe dreadful sequence of sin and of death, he knows that every soulmay share in the experience. No mere outward means will be sufficientto emancipate a spirit; no merely intellectual methods will avail toset free the passions and desires which have been captured by sin. Itis vain to seek deliverance from a perverted will by anyrepublication, however emphatic, of a law of duty. Nothing can touchthe necessities of the case but a gift of power which becomes anabiding influence in us, and develops a mightier energy to overcomethe evil tendencies of a sinful soul. 

That communicated power must impart life. Nothing short of a Spiritof life, quick and powerful, with an immortal and intense energy, will avail to meet the need. Such a Spirit must give the life whichit possesses, must quicken and bring into action dormant powers inthe spirit that it would free. It must implant new energies anddirections, new motives, desires, tastes, and tendencies. It mustbring into play mightier attractions to neutralise and deadenexisting ones; as when to some chemical compound a substance is addedwhich has a stronger affinity for one of the elements, a new thing ismade. 

Paul's experience, which he had a right to cast into general termsand potentially to extend to all mankind, had taught him that such anew life for such a spirit had come to him by union with JesusChrist. Such a union, deep and mystical as it is, is, thank God, anexperience universal in all true Christians, and constitutes the veryheart of the Gospel which Paul rejoiced to believe was entrusted tohis hands for the world. His great message of 'Christ in us' has beenwofully curtailed and mangled when his other message of 'Christ forus' has been taken, as it too often has been, to be the whole of hisGospel. They who take either of these inseparable elements to be thewhole, rend into two imperfect halves the perfect oneness of theGospel of Christ. 

We are often told that Paul was the true author of Christiandoctrine, and are bidden to go back from him to Jesus. If we do so, we hear His grave sweet voice uttering in the upper-room the deepwords, 'I am the Vine, ye are the branches'; and, surely, Paul is butrepeating, without metaphor, what Christ, once for all, set forth inthat lovely emblem, when he says that 'the law of the Spirit of lifein Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. ' Thebranches in their multitude make the Vine in its unity, and the sapwhich rises from the deep root through the brown stem, passes toevery tremulous leaf, and brings bloom and savour into every cluster. Jesus drew His emblem from the noblest form of vegetative life; Paul, in other places, draws his from the highest form of bodily life, whenhe points to the many members in one body, and the Head which governsall, and says, 'So also is Christ. ' In another place he points to thenoblest form of earthly love and unity. The blessed fellowship andsacred oneness of husband and wife are an emblem sweet, thoughinadequate, of the fellowship in love and unity of spirit betweenChrist and His Church. 

And all this mysterious oneness of life has an intensely practicalside. In Jesus, and by union with Him, we receive a power thatdelivers from sin and arrests the stealthy progress of sin'sfollower, death. Love to Him, the result of fellowship with Him, andthe consequence of life received from Him, becomes the motive whichmakes the redeemed heart delight to do His will, and takes all thepower out of every temptation. We are in Him, and He in us, oncondition, and by means, of our humble faith; and because my faiththus knits me to Him it is 'the victory that overcomes the world' andbreaks the chains of many sins. So this communion with Jesus Christis the way by which we shall increase that triumphant spiritual life, which is the only victorious antagonist of the else inevitableconsequence which declares that the 'soul that sinneth it shall die, 'and die even in sinning. 

III. The process of the deliverance. 

Following the R. V. We read 'made me free, ' not 'hath made me. ' Thereference is obviously, as the Greek more clearly shows, to a singlehistorical event, which some would take to be the Apostle's baptism, but which is more properly supposed to be his conversion. His strongbold language here does not mean that he claims to be sinless. Theemancipation is effected, although it is but begun. He holds that atthat moment when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, andhe yielded to Him as Lord, his deliverance was real, though notcomplete. He was conscious of a real change of position in referenceto that law of sin and of death. Paul distinguishes between the trueself and the accumulation of selfish and sensual habits which make upso much of ourselves. The deeper and purer self may be vitalised inwill and heart, and set free even while the emancipation is notworked out in the life. The parable of the leaven applies in theindividual renewal; and there is no fanaticism, and no harm, inPaul's point of view, if only it be remembered that sins by whichpassion and externals overbear my better self are mine inresponsibility and in consequences. Thus guarded, we may be whollyright in thinking of all the evils which still cleave to therenewed Christian soul as not being part of it, but destined to dropaway. 

And this bold declaration is to be vindicated as a propheticconfidence in the supremacy and ultimate dominion of the new powerwhich works even through much antagonism in an imperfect Christian. Paul, too, calls 'things that are not as though they were. ' If myspirit of life is the 'Spirit of life in Christ, ' it will go on toperfection. It is Spirit, therefore it is informing and conqueringthe material; it is a divine Spirit, therefore it is omnipotent; itis the Spirit of life, leading in and imparting life like itself, which is kindred with it and is its source; it is the Spirit of lifein Christ, therefore leading to life like His, bringing us toconformity with Him because the same causes produce the same effects;it is a life in Christ having a law and regular orderly course ofdevelopment. So, just as if we have the germ we may hope for fruit, and can see the infantile oak in the tightly-shut acorn, or in theegg the creature which shall afterwards grow there, we have in thisgift of the Spirit, the victory. If we have the cause, we have theeffects implicitly folded in it; and we have but to wait furtherdevelopment. 

The Christian life is to be one long effort, partial, and gradual, tounfold the freedom possessed. Paul knew full well that hisemancipation was not perfect. It was, probably, after this triumphantexpression of confidence that he wrote, 'Not as though I had alreadyattained, either were already perfect. ' The first stage is the giftof power, the appropriation and development of that power is the workof a life; and it ought to pass through a well-marked series andcycle of growing changes. The way to develop it is by constantapplication to the source of all freedom, the life-giving Spirit, andby constant effort to conquer sins and temptations. There is no suchthing in the Christian conflict as a painless development. We mustmortify the deeds of the body if we are to live in the Spirit. TheChristian progress has in it the nature of a crucifixion. It is to beeffort, steadily directed for the sake of Christ, and in the joy ofHis Spirit, to destroy sin, and to win practical holiness. Homelymoralities are the outcome and the test of all pretensions tospiritual communion. 

We are, further, to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord, by'waiting for the Redemption, ' which is not merely passive waiting, but active expectation, as of one who stretches out a welcoming handto an approaching friend. Nor must we forget that this accomplisheddeliverance is but partial whilst upon earth. 'The body is deadbecause of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. ' Butthere may be indefinite approximation to complete deliverance. Themetaphors in Scripture under which Christian progress is described, whether drawn from a conflict or a race, or from a building, or fromthe growth of a tree, all suggest the idea of constant advanceagainst hindrances, which yet, constant though it is, does not reachthe goal here. And this is our noblest earthly condition--not to bepure, but to be tending towards it and conscious of impurity. Henceour tempers should be those of humility, strenuous effort, firm hope. We are as slaves who have escaped, but are still in the wilderness, with the enemies' dogs baying at our feet; but we shall come to theland of freedom, on whose sacred soil sin and death can never tread. 

CHRIST CONDEMNING SIN

 'For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. '--ROMANS viii. 3. 

In the first verse of this chapter we read that 'There is nocondemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. ' The reason of thatis, that they are set free from the terrible sequence of cause andeffect which constitutes 'the law of sin and death'; and the reasonwhy they are freed from that awful sequence by the power of Christis, because He has 'condemned sin in the flesh. ' The occurrence ofthe two words 'condemnation' (ver. 1) and 'condemned' (ver. 3) shouldbe noted. Sin is personified as dwelling in the flesh, whichexpression here means, not merely the body, but unregenerate humannature. He has made his fortress there, and rules over it all. Thestrong man keeps his house and his goods are in peace. He laughs toscorn the attempts of laws and moralities of all sorts to cast himout. His dominion is death to the human nature over which hetyrannises. Condemnation is inevitable to the men over whom he rules. They or he must perish. If he escape they die. If he could be slainthey might live. Christ comes, condemns the tyrant, and casts himout. So, he being condemned, we are acquitted; and he being slainthere is no death for us. Let us try to elucidate a little furtherthis great metaphor by just pondering the two points prominent init--Sin tyrannising over human nature and resisting all attempts toovercome it, and Christ's condemnation and casting out of the tyrant. 

I. Sin tyrannising over human nature, and resisting all attempts toovercome it. 

Paul is generalising his own experience when he speaks of thecondemnation of an intrusive alien force that holds unregeneratehuman nature in bondage. He is writing a page of his ownautobiography, and he is sure that all the rest of us have like pagesin ours. Heart answereth unto heart as in a mirror. If each man is aunity, the poison must run through all his veins and affect his wholenature. Will, understanding, heart, must all be affected and each inits own way by the intruder; and if men are a collective whole, eachman's experience is repeated in his brother's. 

The Apostle is equally transcribing his own experience when in thetext he sadly admits the futility of all efforts to shake thedominion of sin. He has found in his own case that even the loftiestrevelation in the Mosaic law utterly fails in the attempt to condemnsin. This is true not only in regard to the Mosaic law but in regardto the law of conscience, and to moral teachings of any kind. It isobvious that all such laws do condemn sin in the sense that theysolemnly declare God's judgment about it, and His sentence on it; butin the sense of real condemnation, or casting out, and depriving sinof its power, they all are impotent. The law may deter from overtacts or lead to isolated acts of obedience; it may stir up antagonismto sin's tyranny, but after that it has no more that it can do. Itcannot give the purity which it proclaims to be necessary, nor createthe obedience which it enjoins. Its thunders roll terrors, and nofruitful rain follows them to soften the barren soil. There alwaysremains an unbridged gulf between the man and the law. 

And this is what Paul points to in saying that it 'was weak throughthe flesh. ' It is good in itself, but it has to work through thesinful nature. The only powers to which it can appeal are those whichare already in rebellion. A discrowned king whose only forces toconquer his rebellious subjects are the rebels themselves, is notlikely to regain his crown. Because law brings no new element intoour humanity, its appeal to our humanity has little more effect thanthat of the wind whistling through an archway. It appeals toconscience and reason by a plain declaration of what is right; towill and understanding by an exhibition of authority; to fears andprudence by plainly setting forth consequences. But what is to bedone with men who know what is right but have no wish to do it, whobelieve that they ought but will not, who know the consequences but'choose rather the pleasures of sin for a season, ' and shuffle thefuture out of their minds altogether? This is the essential weaknessof all law. The tyrant is not afraid so long as there is no onethreatening his reign, but the unarmed herald of a discrowned king. His citadel will not surrender to the blast of the trumpet blown fromSinai. 

II. Christ's condemnation and casting out of the tyrant. 

The Apostle points to a triple condemnation. 

'In the likeness of sinful flesh, ' Jesus condemns sin by His ownperfect life. That phrase, 'the likeness of the flesh of sin, 'implies the real humanity of Jesus, and His perfect sinlessness; andsuggests the first way in which He condemns sin in the flesh. In Hislife He repeats the law in a higher fashion. What the one spoke inwords the other realised in 'loveliness of perfect deeds'; and all menown that example is the mightiest preacher of righteousness, andthat active goodness draws to itself reverence and sways men toimitate. But that life lived in human nature gives a new hope of thepossibilities of that nature even in us. The dream of perfect beauty'in the flesh' has been realised. What the Man Christ Jesus was, Hewas that we may become. In the very flesh in which the tyrant rules, Jesus shows the possibility and the loveliness of a holy life. 

But this, much as it is, is not all. There is another way in whichChrist condemns sin in the flesh, and that is by His perfectsacrifice. To this also Paul points in the phrase, 'the flesh ofsin. ' The example of which we have been speaking is much, but it isweak for the very same reason for which law is weak--that it operatesonly through our nature as it is; and that is not enough. Sin's holdon man is twofold--one that it has perverted his relation to God, andanother that it has corrupted his nature. Hence there is in hima sense of separation from God and a sense of guilt. Both of these notonly lead to misery, but positively tend to strengthen the dominionof sin. The leader of the mutineers keeps them true to him byreminding them that the mutiny laws decree death without mercy. Guiltfelt may drive to desperation and hopeless continuance in wrong. Thecry, 'I am so bad that it is useless to try to be better, ' is oftenheard. Guilt stifled leads to hardening of heart, and sometimes todesire and riot. Guilt slurred over by some easy process ofabsolution may lead to further sin. Similarly separation from God isthe root of all evil, and thoughts of Him as hard and an enemy, always lead to sin. So if the power of sin in the past must becancelled, the sense of guilt must be removed, and the wall ofpartition between man and God thrown down. What can law answer tosuch a demand? It is silent; it can only say, 'What is written iswritten. ' It has no word to speak that promises 'the blotting out ofthe handwriting that is against us'; and through its silence one canhear the mocking laugh of the tyrant that keeps his castle. 

But Christ has come 'for sin'; that is to say His Incarnation andDeath had relation to, and had it for their object to remove, humansin. He comes to blot out the evil, to bring God's pardon. Therecognition of His sacrifice supplies the adequate motive to copy Hisexample, and they who see in His death God's sacrifice for man's sin, cannot but yield themselves to Him, and find in obedience a delight. Love kindled at His love makes likeness and transmutes the outwardlaw into an inward 'spirit of life in Christ Jesus. '

Still another way by which God 'condemns sin in the flesh' is pointedto by the remaining phrase of our text, 'sending His own Son. ' In thebeginning of this epistle Jesus is spoken of as 'being declared to bethe Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness'; andwe must connect that saying with our text, and so think of Christ'sbestowal of His perfect gift to humanity of the Spirit whichsanctifies as being part of His condemnation of sin in the flesh. Into the very region where the tyrant rules, the Son of Godcommunicates a new nature which constitutes a real new power. TheSpirit operates on all our faculties, and redeems them from thebondage of corruption. All the springs in the land are poisoned; buta new one, limpid and pure, is opened. By the entrance of the Spiritof holiness into a human spirit, the usurper is driven from thecentral fortress: and though he may linger in the outworks and keepup a guerilla warfare, that is all that he can do. We never trulyapprehend Christ's gift to man until we recognise that He not merely'died for our sins, ' but lives to impart the principle of holiness inthe gift of His Spirit. The dominion of that imparted Spirit isgradual and progressive. The Canaanite may still be in the land, buta growing power, working in and through us, is warring against all inus that still owns allegiance to that alien power, and there can beno end to the victorious struggle until the whole body, soul, andspirit, be wholly under the influence of the Spirit that dwelleth inus, and nothing shall hurt or destroy in what shall then be all God'sholy mountain. 

Such is, in the most general terms, the statement of what Christ does'for us'; and the question comes to be the all-important one foreach, Do I let Him do it for me? Remember the alternative. There musteither be condemnation for us, or for the sin that dwelleth in us. There is no condemnation for them who are in Christ Jesus, becausethere is condemnation for the sin that dwells in them. It must heslain, or it will slay us. It must be cast out, or it will cast usout from God. It must be separated from us, or it will separate usfrom Him. We need not be condemned, but if it be not condemned, thenwe shall be. 

THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT

 'The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. '--ROMANS viii. 18. 

The sin of the world is a false confidence, a careless, complacenttaking for granted that a man is a Christian when he is not. Thefault, and sorrow, and weakness of the Church is a false diffidence, an anxious fear whether a man be a Christian when he is. There arenone so far away from false confidence as those who tremble lest theybe cherishing it. There are none so inextricably caught in its toilsas those who are all unconscious of _its_ existence and of _their_danger. The two things, the false confidence and the falsediffidence, are perhaps more akin to one another than they look atfirst sight. Their opposites, at all events--the true confidence, which is faith in Christ; and the true diffidence, which is utterdistrust of myself--are identical. But there may sometimes be, andthere often is, the combination of a real confidence and a falsediffidence, the presence of faith, and the doubt whether it bepresent. Many Christians go through life with this as the prevailingtemper of their minds--a doubt sometimes arising almost to agony, andsometimes dying down into passive patient acceptance of the conditionas inevitable--a doubt whether, after all, they be not, as they say, 'deceiving themselves'; and in the perverse ingenuity with which thatstate of mind is constantly marked, they manage to distil forthemselves a bitter vinegar of self-accusation out of grand words inthe Bible, that were meant to afford them but the wine of gladnessand of consolation. 

Now this great text which I have ventured to take--not with the ideathat I can exalt it or say anything worthy of it, but simply in thehope of clearing away some misapprehensions--is one that has oftenand often tortured the mind of Christians. They say of themselves, 'Iknow nothing of any such evidence: I am not conscious of any Spiritbearing witness with my spirit. ' Instead of looking to other sourcesto answer the question whether they are Christians or not--and then, having answered it, thinking thus, 'That text asserts that _all_Christians have this witness, therefore certainly I have it in someshape or other, ' they say to themselves, 'I do not feel anything thatcorresponds with my idea of what such a grand, supernatural voice asthe witness of God's Spirit in my spirit must needs be; and thereforeI doubt whether I am a Christian at all. ' I should be thankful if theattempt I make now to set before you what seems to me to be the trueteaching of the passage, should be, with God's help, the means oflifting some little part of the burden from some hearts that areright, and that only long to know that they are, in order to be atrest. 

'The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are thechildren of God. ' The general course of thought which I wish to leavewith you may be summed up thus: Our cry 'Father' is the witness thatwe are sons. That cry is not simply ours, but it is the voice ofGod's Spirit. The divine Witness in our spirits is subject to theordinary influences which affect our spirits. 

Let us take these three thoughts, and dwell on them for a littlewhile. 

I. Our cry 'Father' is the witness that we are sons. 

Mark the terms of the passage: 'The Spirit itself beareth witness_with_ our spirit--. ' It is not so much a revelation made to myspirit, considered as the recipient of the testimony, as a revelationmade in or with my spirit considered as co-operating in thetestimony. It is not that my spirit says one thing, bears witnessthat I am a child of God; and that the Spirit of God comes in by adistinguishable process, with a separate evidence, to say Amen to mypersuasion; but it is that there is one testimony which has aconjoint origin--the origin from the Spirit of God as true source, and the origin from my own soul as recipient and co-operant in thattestimony. From the teaching of this passage, or from any of thelanguage which Scripture uses with regard to the inner witness, it isnot to be inferred that there will rise up in a Christian's heart, from some origin consciously beyond the sphere of his own nature, avoice with which he has nothing to do; which at once, by its owncharacter, by something peculiar and distinguishable about it, bysomething strange in its nature, or out of the ordinary course ofhuman thinking, shall certify itself to be not his voice at all, but_God's_ voice. That is not the direction in which you are tolook for the witness of God's Spirit. It is evidence borne, indeed, by the Spirit of God; but it is evidence borne not only to ourspirit, but through it, with it. The testimony is one, the testimonyof a man's own emotion, and own conviction, and own desire, the cry, Abba, Father! So far, then, as the form of the evidence goes, you arenot to look for it in anything ecstatic, arbitrary, parted offfrom your own experience by a broad line of demarcation; but you areto look into the experience which at first sight you would claim mostexclusively for your own, and to try and find out whether_there_ there be not working with your soul, working through it, working beneath it, distinct from it but not distinguishable from itby anything but its consequences and its fruitfulness--a deeper voicethan yours--a 'still small voice, '--no whirlwind, nor fire, norearthquake--but the voice of God speaking in secret, taking the voiceand tones of your own heart and your own consciousness, and saying toyou, 'Thou art my child, inasmuch as, operated by My grace, and Mineinspiration alone, there rises, tremblingly but truly, in thine ownsoul the cry, Abba, Father. '

So much, then, for the form of this evidence--my own conviction. Thenwith regard to the substance of it: conviction of what? The textitself does not tell us what is the evidence which the Spirit bears, and by reason of which we have a right to conclude that we are thechildren of God. The previous verse tells us. I have partiallyanticipated what I have to say on that point, but it will bear alittle further expansion. 'Ye have not received the spirit of bondageagain to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, wherebywe cry Abba, Father. ' 'The Spirit itself, ' by this means of our cry, Abba, Father, 'beareth witness with our spirit, that we are thechildren of God. ' The substance, then, of the conviction which islodged in the human spirit by the testimony of the Spirit of God isnot primarily directed to our relation or feelings to God, but to afar grander thing than that--to God's feelings and relation to us. Now I want you to think for one moment, before I pass on, howentirely different the whole aspect of this witness of the Spirit ofwhich Christian men speak so much, and sometimes with so littleunderstanding, becomes according as you regard it mistakenly as beingthe direct testimony to you that you are a child of God, or rightlyas being the direct testimony to you that God is your Father. The twothings seem to be the same, but they are not. In the one case, thefalse case, the mistaken interpretation, we are left to this, that aman has no deeper certainty of his condition, no better foundationfor his hope, than what is to be drawn from the presence or absenceof certain emotions within his own heart. In the other case, we areadmitted into this 'wide place, ' that all which is our own is secondand not first, and that the true basis of all our confidence lies notin the thought of what we are and feel to God, but in the thought ofwhat God is and feels to us. And instead, therefore, of being left tolabour for ourselves, painfully to search amongst the dust andrubbish of our own hearts, we are taught to sweep away all thatcrumbled, rotten surface, and to go down to the living rock that liesbeneath it; we are taught to say, in the words of the book of Isaiah, 'Doubtless Thou art our Father--we are all an unclean thing; ouriniquities, like the wind, have carried us away'; there is nothingstable in us; our own resolutions, they are swept away like the chaffof the summer threshing-floor, by the first gust of temptation; butwhat of that?--'in those is continuance, and we shall be saved!' Ah, brethren! expand this thought of the conviction that God is myFather, as being the basis of all my confidence that I am His child, into its widest and grandest form, and it leads us up to the blessedold conviction, I am nothing, my holiness is nothing, my resolutionsare nothing, my faith is nothing, my energies are nothing; I standstripped, and barren, and naked of everything, and I fling myself outof myself into the merciful arms of my Father in heaven! There is allthe difference in the world between searching for evidence of mysonship, and seeking to get the conviction of God's Fatherhood. Theone is an endless, profitless, self-tormenting task; the other is thelight and liberty, the glorious liberty, of the children of God. 

And so the _substance_ of the Spirit's evidence is the directconviction based on the revelation of God's infinite love andfatherhood in Christ the Son, that God is my Father; from whichdirect conviction I come to the conclusion, the inference, the secondthought, Then I may trust that I am His son. But why? Because ofanything in me? No: because of Him. The very emblem of fatherhood andsonship might teach us that _that_ depends upon the Father'swill and the Father's heart. The Spirit's testimony has for form myown conviction: and for substance my humble cry, 'Oh Thou, my Fatherin heaven!' Brethren, is not that a far truer and nobler kind ofthing to preach than saying, Look into your own heart for strange, extraordinary, distinguishable signs which shall mark you out asGod's child--and which are proved to be His Spirit's, because theyare separated from the ordinary human consciousness? Is it not farmore blessed for us, and more honouring to Him who works the sign, when we say, that it is to be found in no out-of-rule, miraculousevidence, but in the natural (which is in reality supernatural)working of His Spirit in the heart which is its recipient, breedingthere the conviction that God is my Father? And oh, if I am speakingto any to whom that text, with all its light and glory, has seemed tolift them up into an atmosphere too rare and a height too lofty fortheir heavy wings and unused feet, if I am speaking to any Christianman to whom this word has been like the cherubim and flaming sword, bright and beautiful, but threatening and repellent when it speaks ofa Spirit that bears witness with our spirit--I ask you simply to takethe passage for yourself, and carefully and patiently to examine it, and see if it be not true what I have been saying, that yourtrembling conviction--sister and akin as it is to your deepestdistrust and sharpest sense of sin and unworthiness--that yourtrembling conviction of a love mightier than your own, everlastingand all-faithful, is indeed the selectest sign that God can give youthat you _are_ His child. Oh, brethren and sisters! beconfident; for it is not false confidence: be confident if up fromthe depths of that dark well of your own sinful heart there risessometimes, through all the bitter waters, unpolluted and separate, asweet conviction, forcing itself upward, that God hath love in Hisheart, and that God is _my_ Father. Be confident; 'the Spirititself beareth witness with your spirit. '

II. And now, secondly, That cry is not simply ours, but it is thevoice of God's Spirit. 

Our own convictions are ours because they are God's. Our own soulspossess these emotions of love and tender desire going out toGod--our own spirits possess them; but our own spirits did notoriginate them. They are ours by property; they are His by source. The spirit of a Christian man has no good thought in it, no truethought, no perception of the grace of God's Gospel, no holy desire, no pure resolution, which is not stamped with the sign of a higherorigin, and is not the witness of God's Spirit in his spirit. Thepassage before us tells us that the sense of Fatherhood which is inthe Christian's heart, and becomes his cry, comes from God's Spirit. This passage, and that in the Epistle to the Galatians which isalmost parallel, put this truth very forcibly, when taken inconnection. 'Ye have received, ' says the text before us, 'the Spiritof adoption, whereby _we_ cry, Abba, Father. ' The variation in theEpistle to the Galatians is this: 'Because ye are sons, God hath sentforth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, _crying_ (the Spiritcrying), Abba, Father. ' So in the one text, the cry is regarded asthe voice of the believing heart; and in the other the same cry isregarded as the voice of God's Spirit. And these two things are bothtrue; the one would want its foundation if it were not for the other;the cry of the Spirit is nothing for me unless it be appropriated byme. I do not need to plunge here into metaphysical speculation of anysort, but simply to dwell upon the plain practical teaching of theBible--a teaching verified, I believe, by every Christian'sexperience, if he will search into it--that everything in him whichmakes the Christian life, is not his, but is God's by origin, and hisonly by gift and inspiration. And the whole doctrine of my text isbuilt on this one thought--without the Spirit of God in your heart, you never can recognise God as your Father. That in us which runs, with love, and childlike faith, and reverence, to the place 'whereHis honour dwelleth, ' that in us which says 'Father, ' is kindred withGod, and is not the simple, unhelped, unsanctified human nature. There is no ascent of human desires above their source. And whereverin a heart there springs up heavenward a thought, a wish, a prayer, atrembling confidence, it is because that came down first from heaven, and rises to seek its level again. All that is divine in man comesfrom God. All that tends towards God in man is God's voice in thehuman heart; and were it not for the possession and operation, thesanctifying and quickening, of a living divine Spirit granted to us, our souls would for ever cleave to the dust and dwell upon earth, norever rise to God and live in the light of His presence. EveryChristian, then, may be sure of this, that howsoever feeble may bethe thought and conviction in his heart of God's Fatherhood, _he_ didnot work it, he received it only, cherished it, thought of it, watched over it, was careful not to quench it; but in origin it wasGod's, and it is now and ever the voice of the Divine Spirit in thechild's heart. 

But, my friends, if this principle be true, it does not apply only tothis one single attitude of the believing soul when it cries, Abba, Father; it must be widened out to comprehend the whole of aChristian's life, outward and inward, which is not sinful anddarkened with actual transgression. To all the rest of his being, toeverything in heart and life which is right and pure, the same truthapplies. 'The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit' in everyperception of God's word which is granted, in every revelation of Hiscounsel which dawns upon our darkness, in every aspiration after Himwhich lifts us above the smoke and dust of this dim spot, in everyholy resolution, in every thrill and throb of love and desire. Eachof these is mine--inasmuch as in my heart it is experienced andtransacted; it is mine, inasmuch as I am not a mere dead piece ofmatter, the passive recipient of a magical and supernatural grace;but it is God's; and therefore, and therefore only, has it come to bemine!

And if it be objected, that this opens a wide door to all manner ofdelusion, and that there is no more dangerous thing than for a man toconfound his own thoughts with the operations of God's Spirit, let mejust give you (following the context before us) the one guarantee andtest which the Apostle lays down. He says, 'There is a witness fromGod in your spirits. ' You may say, That witness, if it come in theform of these convictions in my own heart, I may mistake and falselyread. Well, then, here is an outward guarantee. 'As many as are ledby the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God'; and so, on theregions both of heart and of life the consecrating thought, --God'swork, and God's Spirit's work--is stamped. The heart with its love, the head with its understanding, the conscience with its quickresponse to the law of duty, the will with its resolutions, --theseare all, as sanctified by Him, the witness of His Spirit; and thelife with its strenuous obedience, with its struggles against sin andtemptation, with its patient persistence in the quiet path ofordinary duty, as well as with the times when it rises into heroicstature of resignation or allegiance, the martyrdom of death and themartyrdom of life, this too is all (in so far as it is pure andright) the work of that same Spirit. The test of the inwardconviction is the outward life; and they that have the witness of theSpirit within them have the light of their life lit by the Spirit ofGod, whereby they may read the handwriting on the heart, and be surethat it is God's and not their own. 

III. And now, lastly, this divine Witness in our spirits is subjectto the ordinary influences which affect our spirits. 

The notion often prevails that if there be in the heart this divinewitness of God's Spirit, it must needs be perfect, clearly indicatingits origin by an exemption from all that besets ordinary humanfeelings, that it must be a strong, uniform, never flickering, neverdarkening, and perpetual light, a kind of vestal fire burning alwayson the altar of the heart! The passage before us, and all others thatspeak about the matter, give us the directly opposite notion. TheDivine Spirit, when it enters into the narrow room of the humanspirit, condescends to submit itself, not wholly, but to such anextent as practically for our present purpose _is_ wholly to submititself to the ordinary laws and conditions and contingencies whichbefall and regulate our own human nature. Christ came into the worlddivine: He was 'found in fashion as a man, ' in form a servant; thehumanity that He wore limited (if you like), regulated, modified, themanifestation of the divinity that dwelt in it. And not otherwise isthe operation of God's Holy Spirit when it comes to dwell in a humanheart. There too, working through man, _it_ 'is found in fashion as aman'; and though the origin of the conviction be of God, and thoughthe voice in my heart be not only my voice, but God's voice there, itwill obey those same laws which make human thoughts and emotionsvary, and fluctuate, flicker and flame up again, burn bright and burnlow, according to a thousand circumstances. The witness of theSpirit, if it were yonder in heaven, would shine like a perpetualstar; the witness of the Spirit, here in the heart on earth, burnslike a flickering flame, never to be extinguished, but still notalways bright, wanting to be trimmed, and needing to be guarded fromrude blasts. Else, brother, what does an Apostle mean when he says toyou and me, 'Quench not the Spirit'? what does he mean when he saysto us, 'Grieve not the Spirit'? What does the whole teaching whichenjoins on us, 'Let your loins be girded about, and your lightsburning, ' and 'What I say to you, I say to all, Watch!' mean, unlessit means this, that God-given as (God be thanked!) that conviction ofFatherhood is, it is not given in such a way as that, irrespective ofour carefulness, irrespective of our watching, it shall burn on--thesame and unchangeable? The Spirit's witness comes from God, thereforeit is veracious, divine, omnipotent; but the Spirit's witness fromGod is in man, therefore it may be wrongly read, it may be checked, it may for a time be kept down, and prevented from showing itself tobe what it is. 

And the practical conclusion that comes from all this, is just thesimple advice to you all: Do not wonder, in the first place, if thatevidence of which we speak, vary and change in its clearness andforce in your own hearts. 'The flesh lusteth against the spirit, andthe spirit against the flesh. ' Do not think that it cannot begenuine, because it is changeful. There is a sun in the heavens, butthere are heavenly lights too that wax and wane; they _are_ lights, they _are_ in the heavens though they change. You have no reason, Christian man, to be discouraged, cast down, still less despondent, because you find that the witness of the Spirit changes and varies inyour heart. Do not despond because it does; watch it, and guard it, lest it do; live in the contemplation of the Person and the fact thatcalls it forth, that it may not. You will never 'brighten yourevidences' by polishing at them. To polish the mirror ever soassiduously does not secure the image of the sun on its surface. Theonly way to do that is to carry the poor bit of glass out into thesunshine. It will shine then, never fear. It is weary work to labourat self-improvement with the hope of drawing from our own charactersevidences that we are the sons of God. To have the heart filled withthe light of Christ's love to us is the only way to have the wholebeing full of light. If you would have clear and irrefragable, for aperpetual joy, a glory and a defence, the unwavering confidence, 'Iam Thy child, ' go to God's throne, and lie down at the foot of it, and let the first thought be, 'My Father in heaven, ' and _that_will brighten, that will stablish, that will make omnipotent in yourlife the witness of the Spirit that you are the child of God. 

SONS AND HEIRS

 'If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. '--ROMANS viii. 17. 

God Himself is His greatest gift. The loftiest blessing which we canreceive is that we should be heirs, possessors of God. There is asublime and wonderful mutual possession of which Scripture speaksmuch wherein the Lord is the inheritance of Israel, and Israel is theinheritance of the Lord. 'The Lord hath taken you to be to Him apeople of inheritance, ' says Moses; 'Ye are a people for apossession, ' says Peter. And, on the other hand, 'The Lord is theportion of my inheritance, ' says David; 'Ye are heirs of God, ' echoesPaul. On earth and in heaven the heritage of the children of the Lordis God Himself, inasmuch as He is with them for their delight, inthem to make them 'partakers of the divine nature, ' and for them inall His attributes and actions. 

This being clearly understood at the outset, we shall be prepared tofollow the Apostle's course of thought while he points out theconditions upon which the possession of that inheritance depends. Itis children of God who are heirs of God. It is by union with ChristJesus, the Son, to whom the inheritance belongs, that they whobelieve on His name receive power to become the sons of God, and withthat power the possession of the inheritance. Thus, then, in thiscondensed utterance of the text there appear a series of thoughtswhich may perhaps be more fully unfolded in some such manner as thefollowing, that there is no inheritance without sonship, that thereis no sonship without a spiritual birth, that there is no spiritualbirth without Christ, and that there is no Christ for us withoutfaith. 

I. First, then, the text tells us, no inheritance without sonship. 

In general terms, spiritual blessings can only be given to those whoare in a certain spiritual condition. Always and necessarily thecapacity or organ of reception precedes and determines the bestowmentof blessings. The light falls everywhere, but only the eye drinks itin. The lower orders of creatures are shut out from all participationin the gifts which belong to the higher forms of life, simply becausethey are so made and organised as that these cannot find entranceinto their nature. They are, as it were, walled up all round; and theonly door they have to communicate with the outer world is the doorof sense. Man has higher gifts simply because he has highercapacities. All creatures are plunged in the same boundless ocean ofdivine beneficence and bestowment, and into each there flows justthat, and no more, which each, by the make and constitution that Godhas given it, is capable of receiving. In the man there are morewindows and doors opened out than in the animal He is capable ofreceiving intellectual impulses, spiritual emotions; he can think, and feel, and desire, and will, and resolve: and so he stands on ahigher level than the beast below him. 

Not otherwise is it in regard to God's kingdom, 'which isrighteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. ' The gift andblessing of salvation is primarily a spiritual gift, and onlyinvolves outward consequences secondarily and subordinately. Itmainly consists in the heart being at peace with God, in the wholesoul being filled with divine affections, in the weight and bondageof transgression being taken away, and substituted by the impulse andthe life of the new love. Therefore, neither God can give, nor mancan receive, that gift upon any other terms, than just this, that theheart and nature be fitted and adapted for it. Spiritual blessingsrequire a spiritual capacity for the reception of them; or, as mytext says, you cannot have the inheritance unless you are sons. Ifsalvation consisted simply in a change of place; if it were merelythat by some expedient or arrangement, an outward penalty, which wasto fall or not to fall at the will of an arbitrary judge, wereprevented from coming down, why then, it would be open to Him whoheld the power of letting the sword fall, to decide on what terms Hemight choose to suspend its infliction. But inasmuch as God'sdeliverance is not a deliverance from a mere arbitrary and outwardpunishment: inasmuch as God's salvation, though it be deliverancefrom the penalty as well as from the guilt of sin, is by no meanschiefly a deliverance from outward consequences, but mainly aremoval of the nature and disposition that makes these outwardconsequences certain, --therefore a man cannot be saved, God's lovecannot save him, God's justice will not save him, God's power standsback from saving him, upon any other condition than this that hissoul shall be adapted and prepared for the reception and enjoyment ofthe blessing of a spiritual salvation. 

But the inheritance which my text speaks about is also that which aChristian hopes to receive and enter upon in heaven. The sameprinciple precisely applies there. There is no inheritance of heavenwithout sonship; because all the blessings of that future life are ofa spiritual character. The joy and the rapture and the glory of thathigher and better life have, of course, connected with them certainchanges of bodily form, certain changes of local dwelling, certainchanges which could perhaps be granted equally to a man, of whateversort he was. But, friends, it is not the golden harps, not thepavement of 'glass mingled with fire, ' not the cessation from work, not the still composure, and changeless indwelling, not the societyeven, that makes the heaven of heaven. All these are but theembodiments and rendering visible of the inward facts, a soul atpeace with God in the depths of its being, an eye which gazes uponthe Father, and a heart which wraps itself in His arms. Heaven is noheaven except in so far as it is the possession of God. That sayingof the Psalmist is not an exaggeration, nor even a forgetting of theother elements of future blessedness, but it is a simple statement ofthe literal fact of the case, 'I have none in heaven but Thee!' Godis the heritage of His people. To dwell in His love, and to be filledwith His light, and to walk for ever in the glory of Hissunlit face, to do His will, and to bear His character stamped uponour foreheads--_that_ is the glory and the perfectness to whichwe are aspiring. Do not then rest in the symbols that show us, darklyand far off, what that future glory is. Do not forget that thepicture is a shadow. Get beneath all these figurative expressions, and feel that whilst it may be true that for us in our presentearthly state, there can be no higher, no purer, no more spiritualnor any truer representations of the blessedness which is to come, than those which couch it in the forms of earthly experience, andappeal to sense as the minister of delight--yet that all these thingsare representations, and not adequate presentations. The inheritanceof the servants of the Lord is the Lord Himself, and they dwell inHim, and _there_ is their joy. 

Well then, if that be even partially true--admitting all that you maysay about circumstances which go to make some portion of theblessedness of that future life--if it be true that God is the trueblessing given by His Gospel upon earth, that He Himself is thegreatest gift that can be bestowed, and that He is the true Heaven ofheaven--what a flood of light does it cast upon that statement of mytext, 'If children, then heirs'; no inheritance without sonship! Forwho can possess God but they who love Him? who can love, but they whoknow His love? who can have Him working in their hearts a blessed andsanctifying change, except the souls that lie thankfully quietbeneath the forming touch of His invisible hand, and like flowersdrink in the light of His face in their still joy? How can God dwellin any heart except a heart which has in it a love of purity? Wherecan He make His temple except in the 'upright heart and pure'? Howcan there be fellowship betwixt Him and any one except the man who isa son because he hath received of the divine nature, and in whom thatdivine nature is growing up into a divine likeness? 'What fellowshiphath Christ with Belial?' is not only applicable as a guide for ourpractical life, but points to the principle on which God'sinheritance belongs to God's sons alone. 'Blessed are the pure inheart, for they shall see God'; and those only who love, and arechildren, to them alone does the Father come and does the Fatherbelong. 

So much, then, for the first principle: No inheritance withoutsonship. 

II. Secondly, the text leads us to the principle that there is nosonship without a spiritual birth. 

The Apostle John in that most wonderful preface to his Gospel, whereall deepest truths concerning the Eternal Being in itself and in thesolemn march of His progressive revelations to the world are setforth in language simple like the words of a child and inexhaustiblelike the voice of a god, draws a broad distinction between therelation to the manifestations of God which every human soul byvirtue of his humanity sustains, and that into which some, by virtueof their faith, enter. Every man is lighted by the true light becausehe is a man. They who believe in His name receive from Him theprerogative to become the sons of God. Whatever else may be taught inJohn's words, surely they do teach us this, that the sonship of whichhe speaks does not belong to man as man, is not a relation into whichwe are born by natural birth, that we _become_ sons after we_are_ men, that those who become sons do not include all thosewho are lighted by the Light, but consist of so many of that greaternumber as receive Him, and that such become sons by a divine act, thecommunication of a spiritual life, whereby they are born of God. 

The same Apostle, in his Epistles, where the widest love is conjoinedwith the most firmly drawn lines of moral demarcation between thegreat opposites--life, light, love--death, darkness, hate--contrastsin the most unmistakable antithesis the sons of God who are known forsuch because they do righteousness, and the world which knew notChrist, nor knows those who, dimly beholding, partially resemble Him. Nay, he goes further, and says in strange contradiction to thepopular estimate of his character, but in true imitation of thatIncarnate love which hated iniquity, 'In this the children of God aremanifested and the children of the devil'--echoing thus the words ofHim whose pitying tenderness had sometimes to clothe itself insharpest words, even as His hand of powerful love had once to graspthe scourge of small cords. 'If God were your Father, ye would loveMe: ye are of your father, the devil. '

These are but specimens of a whole cycle of Scripture statementswhich in every form of necessary implication, and of directstatement, set forth the principle that he who is born again of theSpirit, and he only, is a son of God. 

Nothing in all this contradicts the belief that all men are thechildren of God, inasmuch as they are shaped by His divine hand andHe has breathed into their nostrils the breath of life. They who holdthat sonship is obtained on the condition which these passages seemto assert, do also rejoice to believe and to preach that the Father'slove broods over every human heart as the dovelike Spirit over theprimeval chaos. They rejoice to proclaim that Christ has come thatall, that each, may receive the adoption of sons. They do not feelthat their message to, nor their hope for, the world is less blessed, less wide, because while they call on all to come and take the thingsthat are freely given to them of God, they believe that those onlywho do come and take possess the blessing. Every man may become a sonand heir of God by faith in Jesus Christ. 

But notwithstanding all the mercies that belong to us all, notwithstanding the divine beneficence, which, like the air and thelight, pervades all nature, and underlies all our lives, notwithstanding the universal adaptation and intention of Christ'swork, notwithstanding the wooing of His tender voice and theunceasing beckoning of His love, it still remains true that there aremen in the world, created by God, loved and cared for by Him, forwhom Christ died, who might be, but are not, sons of God. 

Fatherhood! what does that word itself teach us? It speaks of thecommunication of a life, and the reciprocity of love. It rests upon adivine act, and it involves a human emotion. It involves that thefather and the child shall have kindred life--the father bestowingand the child possessing a life which is derived; and becausederived, kindred; and because kindred, unfolding itself in likenessto the father that gave it. And it requires that between the father'sheart and the child's heart there shall pass, in blessed interchangeand quick correspondence, answering love, flashing backwards andforwards, like the lightning that touches the earth and rises from itagain. A simple appeal to your own consciousness will decide if thatbe the condition of all men. Are you, my brother, conscious ofanything within you higher than the common life that belongs to youbecause you are an immortal soul? Can you say, 'From God's hand I havereceived the granting and implantation of a new and better life?' Isyour claim verified by this, that you are kindred with God in holyaffections, in like purposes, loving what He loves, hating what Hehates, doing what He wills, accepting what He sends, longing forHimself, and blessed in His presence? Is your sonship proved by thedepth and sincerity, the simplicity and power, of your throbbingheart of love to your Father in heaven? Or are all these emotionsempty words to you, things that are spoken in pulpits, but to whichyou have nothing in your life corresponding? Oh then, my friend, whatam I to say to you? What but this? no sonship except by thatspiritual birth; and if not such sonship, then the spirit of bondage. If not such sonship, why then, by all the tendencies of your nature, and by all the affinities of your moral being, if you are not holdingof heaven, you are holding of hell; if you are not drawing your life, your character, your emotions, your affections, from the sacred wellthat lies up yonder, you are drawing them from the black one thatlies down there. There are heaven, hell, and the earth that liesbetween, ever influenced either from above or from below. You aresons because born again, or slaves and 'enemies by wicked works. ' Itis a grim alternative, but it is a fact. 

III. Thirdly, no spiritual birth without Christ. 

We have seen that the sonship which gives power of possessing theinheritance and which comes by spiritual birth, rests upon the givingof life, spiritual life, from God; and unfolds itself in certain holycharacters, and affections, and desires, the throbbing of the wholesoul in full accord and harmony with the divine character and will. Well then, it looks very clear that a man cannot make that new lifefor himself, cannot do it because of the habit of sin, and cannot doit because of the guilt and punishment of sin. If for sonship theremust be a birth again, why, surely, the very symbol might convinceyou that such a process does not lie within our own power. There mustcome down a divine leaven into the mass of human nature, before thisnew being can be evolved in any one. There must be a gift of God. Adivine energy must be the source and fountain of all holy and of allGodlike life. Christ comes, comes to make you and me live again as wenever lived before; live possessors of God's love; live tenanted andruled by a divine Spirit; live with affections in our hearts which_we_ never could kindle there; live with purposes in our souls which_we_ never could put there. 

And I want to urge this thought, that the centre point of the Gospelis this regeneration; because if we understand, as we are too muchdisposed to do, that the Gospel simply comes to make men live better, to work out a moral reformation, --why, there is no need for a Gospelat all. If the change were a simple change of habit and action on thepart of men, we could do without a Christ. If the change simplyinvolved a bracing ourselves up to behave better for the future, wecould manage somehow or other about as well as or better than we havemanaged in the past. But if redemption be the giving of life fromGod; and if redemption be the change of position in reference toGod's love and God's law as well, neither of these two changes can aman effect for himself. You cannot gather up the spilt water; youcannot any more gather up and re-issue the past life. The sinremains, the guilt remains. The inevitable law of God will goon its crashing way in spite of all penitence, in spite of allreformation, in spite of all desires after newness of life. There isbut one Being who can make a change in our position in regard to God, and there is but one Being who can make the change by which man shallbecome a 'new creature. ' The Creative Spirit that shaped the earthmust shape its new being in my soul; and the Father against whose lawI have offended, whose love I have slighted, from whom I have turnedaway, must effect the alteration that I can never effect--thealteration in my position to His judgments and justice, and to thewhole sweep of His government. No new birth without Christ; no escapefrom the old standing-place, of being 'enemies to God by wickedworks, ' by anything that we can do: no hope of the inheritance unlessthe Lord and the Man, the 'second Adam from heaven, ' have come! He_has_ come, and He has 'dwelt with us, ' and He has worn thislife of ours, and He has walked in the midst of this world, and Heknows all about our human condition, and He has effected an actualchange in the possible aspect of the divine justice and government tous; and He has carried in the golden urn of His humanity a new spiritand a new life which He has set down in the midst of the race; andthe urn was broken on the cross of Calvary, and the water flowed out, and whithersoever that water comes there is life, and whithersoeverit comes not there is death!

IV. Last of all, no Christ without faith. 

It is not enough, brethren, that we should go through all theseprevious steps, if we then go utterly astray at the end, byforgetting that there is only one way by which we become partakers ofany of the benefits and blessings that Christ has wrought out. It ismuch to say that for inheritance there must be sonship. It is much tosay that for sonship there must be a divine regeneration. It is muchto say that the power of this regeneration is all gathered togetherin Christ Jesus. But there are plenty of people that would agree toall that, who go off at that point, and content themselves with_this_ kind of thinking--that in some vague mysterious way, theyknow not how, in a sort of half-magical manner, the benefit ofChrist's death and work comes to all in Christian lands, whetherthere be an act of faith or not! Now I am not going to talk theologyat present, at this stage of my sermon; but what I want to leave uponall your hearts is this profound conviction, --Unless we are wedded toJesus Christ by the simple act of trust in His mercy and His power, Christ is nothing to us. Do not let us, my friends, blink thatdeciding test of the whole matter. We may talk about Christ for ever;we may set forth aspects of His work, great and glorious. He may beto us much that is very precious; but the one question, the questionof questions, on which everything else depends, is, Am I trusting toHim as my divine Redeemer? am I resting in Him as the Son of God?Some of us here now have a sort of nominal connection with Christ, who have a kind of imaginative connection with Him; traditional, ceremonial, by habit of thought, by attendance on public worship, andby I know not what other means. Ceremonies are nothing, notionsare nothing, beliefs are nothing, formal participation in worship isnothing. Christ is everything to him that trusts Him. Christ isnothing but a judge and a condemnation to him who trusts Him not. Andhere is the turning-point, Am I resting upon that Lord for mysalvation? If so, you can begin upon that step, the low one on whichyou can put your foot, the humble act of faith, and with the footthere, can climb up. If faith, then new birth; if new birth, thensonship; if sonship, then an heir of God, and a joint-heir withChrist. ' But if you have not got your foot upon the lowest round ofthe ladder, you will never come within sight of the blessed face ofHim who stands at the top of it, and who looks down to you at thismoment, saying to you, 'My child, _wilt_ thou not cry unto Me "Abba, Father?"'

SUFFERING WITH CHRIST, A CONDITION OF GLORY WITH CHRIST

 '. .. Joint heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. '--ROMANS viii. 17. 

In the former part of this verse the Apostle tells us that in orderto be heirs of God, we must become sons through and joint-heirs withChrist. He seems at first sight to add in these words of our textanother condition to those already specified, namely, that ofsuffering with Christ. 

Now, of course, whatever may be the operation of suffering in fittingfor the possession of the Christian inheritance, either here or inanother world, the sonship and the sorrows do not stand on the samelevel in regard to that possession. The one is the indispensablecondition of all; the other is but the means for the operation of thecondition. The one--being sons, 'joint-heirs with Christ, '--is theroot of the whole matter; the other--the 'suffering with Him, '--isbut the various process by which from the root there come 'the blade, and the ear, and the full corn in the ear. ' Given the sonship--if itis to be worked out into power and beauty, there must be sufferingwith Christ. But unless there be sonship, there is no possibility ofinheriting God; discipline and suffering will be of no use at all. 

The chief lesson which I wish to gather from this text now is thatall God's sons must suffer with Christ; and in addition to thisprinciple, we may complete our considerations by adding briefly, thatthe inheritance must be won by suffering, and that if we suffer withHim, we certainly shall receive the inheritance. 

I. First, then, sonship with Christ necessarily involves sufferingwith Him. 

I think that we entirely misapprehend the force of this passagebefore us, if we suppose it to refer principally or merely to theoutward calamities, what you call trials and afflictions, whichbefall people, and see in it only the teaching, that the sorrows ofdaily life may have in them a sign of our being children of God, andsome power to prepare us for the glory that is to come. There is agreat deal more in the thought than that, brethren. This is notmerely a text for people who are in affliction, but for all of us. Itdoes not merely contain a law for a certain part of life, but itcontains a law for the whole of life. It is not merely a promise thatin all our afflictions Christ will be afflicted, but it is a solemninjunction that we seek to know 'the fellowship of His sufferings, and be made conformable to the likeness of His death, ' if we expectto be 'found in the likeness of His Resurrection, ' and to have anyshare in the community of His glory. In other words, the foundationof it is not that Christ shares in our sufferings; but that we, asChristians, in a deep and real sense do necessarily share andparticipate in Christ's. We 'suffer with Him'; _not_ He sufferswith us. 

Now, do not let us misunderstand each other, or the Apostle'steaching. Do not suppose that I am forgetting, or wishing you toaccount as of small importance, the awful sense in which Christ'ssuffering stands as a thing by itself and unapproachable, a solitarypillar rising up, above the waste of time, to which all meneverywhere are to turn with the one thought, 'I can do nothing likethat; I need to do nothing like it; it has been done once, and oncefor all; and what I have to do is, simply to lie down before Him, andlet the power and the blessings of that death and those sufferingsflow into my heart. ' The Divine Redeemer makes eternal redemption. The sufferings of Christ--the sufferings of His life, and thesufferings of His death--both because of the nature which bore them, and of the aspect which they wore in regard to us, are in theirsource, in their intensity, in their character, and consequences, unapproachable, incapable of repetition, and needing no repetitionwhilst the world shall stand. But then, do not let us forget that thevery books and writers in the New Testament that preach most broadlyChrist's sole, all-sufficient, eternal redemption for the world byHis sufferings and death, turn round and say to us too, '"Be plantedtogether in the likeness of His death"; you are "crucified to theworld" by the Cross of Christ; you are to "fill up that which isbehind of the sufferings of Christ. "' He Himself speaks of ourdrinking of the cup that He drank of, and being baptized with thebaptism that He was baptized with, if we desire to sit yonder on Histhrone, and share with Him in His glory. 

Now what do the Apostles, and what does Christ Himself, in thatpassage that I have quoted, mean, by such solemn words as these? Somepeople shrink from them, and say that it is trenching upon thecentral doctrine of the Gospel, when we speak about drinking of thecup which Christ drank of. They ask, Can it be? Yes, it can be, ifyou will think thus:--If a Christian has the Spirit and life ofChrist in him, his career will be moulded, imperfectly but really, bythe same Spirit that dwelt in his Lord; and similar causes willproduce corresponding effects. The life of Christ which--divine, pure, incapable of copy and repetition--in one aspect has ended forever for men, remains to be lived, in another view of it, by everyChristian, who in like manner has to fight with the world; who inlike manner has to resist temptation; who in like manner has tostand, by God's help, pure and sinless, in so far as the new natureof him is concerned, in the midst of a world that is full of evil. For were the sufferings of the Lord only the sufferings that werewrought upon Calvary? Were the sufferings of the Lord only thesufferings which came from the contradiction of sinners againstHimself? Were the sufferings of the Lord only the sufferings whichwere connected with His bodily afflictions and pain, precious andpriceless as they were, and operative causes of our redemption asthey were? Oh no. Conceive of that perfect, sinless, really humanlife, in the midst of a system of things that is all full ofcorruption and of sin; coming ever and anon against misery, andwrong-doing, and rebellion; and ask yourselves whether part of Hissufferings did not spring from the contact of the sinless Son of manwith a sinful world, and the apparently vain attempt to influence andleaven that sinful world with care for itself and love for theFather. If there had been nothing more than that, yet Christ'ssufferings as the Son of God in the midst of sinful men would havebeen deep and real. 'O faithless generation, how long shall I be withyou? how long shall I suffer you?' was wrung from Him by the painfulsense of want of sympathy between His aims and theirs. 'Oh that I hadwings like a dove, for then I would fly away and be at rest, ' mustoften be the language of those who are like Him in spirit, and inconsequent sufferings. 

And then again, another branch of the 'sufferings of Christ' is to befound in that deep and mysterious fact on which I durst not ventureto speak beyond what the actual words of Scripture put into mylips--the fact that Christ wrought out His perfect obedience as aman, through temptation and by suffering. There was no sin _within_Him, no tendency to sin, no yielding to the evil that assailed. 'ThePrince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me. ' But yet, whenthat dark Power stood by His side, and said, 'If thou be the Son ofGod, cast Thyself down, ' it was a real temptation and not a sham one. There was no wish to do it, no faltering for a moment, no hesitation. There was no rising up in that calm will of even a moment's impulseto do the thing that was presented;--but yet it was presented, and, when Christ triumphed, and the tempter departed for a season, therehad been a temptation and there had been a conflict. And thoughobedience be a joy, and the doing of His Father's will was Hisdelight, as it must needs be in pure and in purified hearts; yetobedience which is sustained in the face of temptation, and whichnever fails, though its path lead to bodily pains and the'contradiction of sinners, ' may well be called suffering. We cannotspeak of our Lord's obedience as the surrender of His own will to theFather's, with the implication that these two wills ever did or couldmove except in harmony. There was no place in Christ's obedience forthat casting out of sinful self which makes our submission asurrender joined with suffering, but He knew temptation. Flesh, andsense, and the world, and the prince of this world, presented it toHim; and therefore His obedience too was suffering, even though to dothe will of His Father was His meat and His drink, His sustenance andHis refreshment. 

But then, let me remind you still further, that not only does thelife of Christ, as sinless in the midst of sinful men, and the lifeof Christ, as sinless whilst yet there was temptation presented toit--assume the aspect of being a life of suffering, and become, inthat respect, the model for us; but that also the Death of Christ, besides its aspect as an atonement and sacrifice for sin, the powerby which transgression is put away and God's love flows out upon oursouls, has another power given to it in the teaching of the NewTestament. The Death of Christ is a type of the Christian's life, which is to be one long, protracted, and daily dying to sin, to self, to the world. The crucifixion of the old manhood is to be the life'swork of every Christian, through the power of faith in that Cross bywhich 'the world is crucified unto Me, and I unto the world. ' Thatthought comes over and over again in all forms of earnestpresentation in the Apostle's teaching. Do not slur it over as if itwere a mere fanciful metaphor. It carries in its type a most solemnreality. The truth is, that, if a Christian, you have a double life. There is Christ, with His power, with His Spirit, giving you a naturewhich is pure and sinless, incapable of transgression, like Hisown. The new man, that which is born of God, sinneth not, cannot sin. But side by side with it, working through it, working in it, leavening it, indistinguishable from it to your consciousness, byanything but this that the one works righteousness and the otherworks transgression, there is the 'old man, ' 'the flesh, ' 'the oldAdam, ' your own godless, independent, selfish, proud being. And theone is to slay the other! Ah, let me tell you, thesewords--crucifying, casting out the old man, plucking out the righteye, maiming self of the right hand, mortifying the deeds of thebody--they are something very much deeper and more awful thanpoetical symbols and metaphors. They teach us this, that there is nogrowth without sore sorrow. Conflict, not progress, is the word thatdefines man's path from darkness into light. No holiness is won byany other means than this, that wickedness should be slain day byday, and hour by hour. In long lingering agony often, with the bloodof the heart pouring out at every quivering vein, you are to cutright through the life and being of that sinful self; to do what theWord does, pierce to the dividing asunder of the thoughts and intentsof the heart, and get rid by crucifying and slaying--a long process, a painful process--of your own sinful self. And not until you canstand up and say, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, ' haveyou accomplished that to which you are consecrated and vowed by yoursonship--'being conformed unto the likeness of His death, ' and'knowing the fellowship of His sufferings. '

It is this process, the inward strife and conflict in getting rid ofevil, which the Apostle designates here with the name of 'sufferingwith Christ, that we may be also glorified together. ' On this highlevel, and not upon the lower one of the consideration that Christwill help us to bear outward infirmities and afflictions, do we findthe true meaning of all that Scripture teaching which says indeed, 'Yes, our sufferings are _His_'; but lays the foundation of it inthis, 'His sufferings are _ours_. ' It begins by telling us thatChrist has done a work and borne a sorrow that no second can ever do. Then it tells us that Christ's life of obedience--which, because it_was_ a life of obedience, was a life of suffering, and broughtHim into a condition of hostility to the men around Him--is to berepeated in us. It sets before us the Cross of Calvary, and thesorrows and pains that were felt there;--and it says to us, Christianmen and women, if you want the power for holy living, have fellowshipin that atoning death; and if you want the pattern of holy living, look at that Cross and feel, 'I am crucified to the world by it; andthe life that I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son ofGod. '

Such considerations as these, however, do not necessarily exclude theother one (which we may just mention and dwell on for a moment), namely, that where there is this spiritual participation in thesufferings of Christ, and where His death is reproduced andperpetuated, as it were, in our daily mortifying ourselves in thepresent evil world--there Christ is with us in our afflictions. Godforbid that I should try to strike away any word of consolation thathas come, as these words of my text have come, to so many sorrowinghearts in all generations, like music in the night and like coldwaters to a thirsty soul. We need not hold that there is no referencehere to that comforting thought, 'In all our affliction He isafflicted. ' Brethren, you and I have, each of us--one in one way, and one in another, all in some way, all in the right way, none intoo severe a way, none in too slight a way--to tread the path ofsorrow; and is it not a blessed thing, as we go along through thatdark valley of the shadow of death down into which the sunniest pathsgo sometimes, to come, amidst the twilight and the gathering clouds, upon tokens that Jesus has been on the road before us? They tell usthat in some trackless lands, when one friend passes through thepathless forests, he breaks a twig ever and anon as he goes, thatthose who come after may see the traces of his having been there, andmay know that they are not out of the road. Oh, when we arejourneying through the murky night, and the dark woods of afflictionand sorrow, it is something to find here and there a spray broken, ora leafy stem bent down with the tread of His foot and the brush ofHis hand as He passed, and to remember that the path He trod He hashallowed, and thus to find lingering fragrances and hidden strengthsin the remembrance of Him as 'in all points tempted like as we are, 'bearing grief _for_ us, bearing grief _with_ us, bearinggrief _like_ us. 

Oh, do not, do not, my brethren, keep these sacred thoughts ofChrist's companionship in sorrow, for the larger trials of life. Ifthe mote in the eye be large enough to annoy you, it is large enoughto bring out His sympathy; and if the grief be too small for Him tocompassionate and share, it is too small for you to be troubled byit. If you are ashamed to apply that divine thought, 'Christ bearsthis grief with me, ' to those petty molehills that you sometimesmagnify into mountains, think to yourselves that then it is a shamefor you to be stumbling over them. But on the other hand, never fearto be irreverent or too familiar in the thought that Christ iswilling to bear, and help you to bear, the pettiest, the minutest, and most insignificant of the daily annoyances that may come toruffle you. Whether it be a poison from one serpent sting, or whetherit be poison from a million of buzzing tiny mosquitoes, if there be asmart, go to Him, and He will help you to endure it. He will do more, He will bear it with you, for if so be that we suffer with Him, Hesuffers with us, and our oneness with Christ brings about a communityof possessions whereby it becomes true of each trusting soul in itsrelations to Him, that 'all mine (joys and sorrows alike) are thine, and all thine are mine. ' II. There remain some other considerationswhich may be briefly stated, in order to complete the lessons of thistext. In the second place, this community of suffering is a necessarypreparation for the community of glory. 

I name this principally for the sake of putting in a caution. TheApostle does not mean to tell us, of course, that if there were sucha case as that of a man becoming a son of God, and having no occasionor opportunity afterwards, by brevity of life or other causes, forpassing through the discipline of sorrow, his inheritance would beforfeited. We must always take such passages as this--which seem tomake the discipline of the world an essential part of the preparingof us for glory--in conjunction with the other undeniable truth whichcompletes them, that when a man has the love of God in his heart, however feebly, however newly, there and then he is fit for theinheritance. I think that Christian people make vast mistakessometimes in talking about 'being made meet for the inheritance ofthe saints in light, ' about being 'ripe for glory, ' and the like. Onething at any rate is very certain, it is not the discipline thatfits. That which fits goes before the discipline, and the disciplineonly develops the fitness. 'God hath made us meet for the inheritanceof the saints in light, ' says the Apostle. That is a past act. Thepreparedness for heaven comes at the moment--if it be a momentaryact--when a man turns to Christ. You may take the lowest and mostabandoned form of human character, and in one moment (it is possible, and it is often the case) the entrance into that soul of the feeblegerm of that new affection shall at once change the whole moralhabitude of that man. Though it be true, then, that heaven is onlyopen to those who are capable--by holy aspirations and divinedesires--of entering into it, it is equally true that suchaspirations and desires may be the work of an instant, and may besuperinduced in a moment in a heart the most debased and the mostdegraded. 'This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise, '--_fit_ forthe inheritance!

And, therefore, let us not misunderstand such words as this text, andfancy that the necessary discipline, which we have to go throughbefore we are ready for heaven, is necessary in anything like thesame sense in which it is necessary that a man should have faith inChrist in order to be saved. The one may be dispensed with, the othercannot. A Christian at any period of his Christian experience, if itplease God to take him, is fit for the kingdom. The life _is_ life, whether it be the budding beauty and feebleness of childhood, or thestrength of manhood, or the maturity and calm peace of old age. But'add to your faith, ' that 'an entrance may be ministered unto you_abundantly_. ' Remember that though the root of the matter, the seedof the kingdom, may be in you; and that though, therefore, you have aright to feel that, at any period of your Christian experience, if itplease God to take you out of this world, you are fit for heaven--yetin His mercy He is leaving you here, training you, disciplining you, cleansing you, making you to be polished shafts in His quiver; andthat all the glowing furnaces of fiery trial and all the cold watersof affliction are but the preparation through which the rough iron isto be passed before it becomes tempered steel, a shaft in theMaster's hand. 

And so learn to look upon all trial as being at once the seal of yoursonship, and the means by which God puts it within your power to wina higher place, a loftier throne, a nobler crown, a closer fellowshipwith Him 'who hath suffered, being tempted, ' and who will receiveinto His own blessedness and rest them that are tempted. 'The child, though he be an heir, differeth nothing from a servant, though he belord of all; but is under tutors and governors. ' God puts us in theschool of sorrow under that stern tutor and governor here, and givesus the opportunity of 'suffering with Christ, ' that by the dailycrucifixion of our old nature, by the lessons and blessings ofoutward calamities and change, there may grow up in us a still noblerand purer, and perfecter divine life; and that we may so be madecapable--more capable, and capable of more--of that inheritance forwhich the only necessary thing is the death of Christ, and the onlyfitness is faith in His name. 

III. Finally, that inheritance is the necessary result of thesuffering that has gone before. 

The suffering results from our union with Christ. That union mustneeds culminate in glory. It is not only because the joy hereafterseems required in order to vindicate God's love to His children, whohere reap sorrow from their sonship, that the discipline of lifecannot but end in blessedness. That ground of mere compensation is alow one on which to rest the certainty of future bliss. But theinheritance is sure to all who here suffer with Christ, because theone cause--union with the Lord--produces both the present result offellowship in His sorrows, and the future result of joy in His joy, of possession of His possessions. The inheritance is sure becauseChrist possesses it now. The inheritance is sure because earth'ssorrows not merely require to be repaid by its peace, but becausethey have an evident design to fit us for it, and it would bedestructive to all faith in God's wisdom, and God's knowledge of Hisown purposes, not to believe that what He has wrought us for will begiven to us. Trials have no meaning, unless they are means to an end. The end is the inheritance, and sorrows here, as well as the Spirit'swork here, are the earnest of the inheritance. Measure the greatnessof the glory by what has preceded it. God takes all these years oflife, and all the sore trials and afflictions that belong inevitablyto an earthly career, and works them in, into the blessedness that_shall_ come. If a fair measure of the greatness of any result ofproductive power be the length of time that was taken for getting itready, we can dimly conceive what that joy must be for which seventyyears of strife and pain and sorrow are but a momentary preparation;and what must be the weight of that glory which is the counterpoiseand consequence to the afflictions of this lower world. The furtherthe pendulum swings on the one side, the further it goes up on theother. The deeper God plunges the comet into the darkness out yonder, the closer does it come to the sun at its nearest distance, and thelonger does it stand basking and glowing in the full blaze of theglory from the central orb. So in _our_ revolution, the measure ofthe distance from the farthest point of our darkest earthly sorrow, _to_ the throne, may help us to the measure of the closeness of thebright, perfect, perpetual glory above, when we are _on_ the throne:for if so be that we are sons, we _must_ suffer with Him; if so bethat we suffer, we _must_ be glorified together!

THE REVELATION OF SONS

 'For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. '--ROMANS viii. 19. 

The Apostle has been describing believers as 'sons' and 'heirs. ' Hedrops from these transcendent heights to contrast their presentapparent condition with their true character and their future glory. The sad realities of suffering darken his lofty hopes, even althoughthese sad realities are to his faith tokens of joint-heirship withJesus, and pledges that if our inheritance is here manifested bysuffering with him, that very fact is a prophecy of common gloryhereafter. He describes that future as the revealing of a glory, towhich the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to becompared; and then, in our text he varies the application of thatthought of revealing and thinks of the subjects of it as being the'sons of God. ' They will be revealed when the glory which they haveas joint-heirs with Christ is revealed in them. They walk, as itwere, compassed with mist and cloud, but the splendour which willfall on them will scatter the envious darkness, and 'when Christ whois our life shall appear, then shall His co-heirs also appear withHim in glory. '

We may consider--

I. The present veil over the sons of God. 

There is always a difference between appearance and reality, betweenthe ideal and its embodiments. For all men it is true that the fullexpression of oneself is impossible. Each man's deeds fall short ofdisclosing the essential self in the man. Every will is hampered bythe fleshly screen of the body. 'I would that my tongue could utterthe thoughts that arise in me, ' is the yearning of every heart thatis deeply moved. Contending principles successively sway everypersonality and thwart each other's expression. For these, and manyother reasons, the sum-total of every life is but a shroudedrepresentation of the man who lives it; and we, all of us, after allefforts at self-revelation, remain mysteries to our fellows and toourselves. All this is eminently true of the sons of God. They have alife-germ hidden in their souls, which in its very nature is destinedto fill and expand their whole being, and to permeate with itstriumphant energy every corner of their nature. But it is weak andoften overborne by its opposite. The seed sown is to grow in spite ofbad weather and a poor soil and many weeds, and though it is destinedto overcome all these, it may to-day only be able to show on thesurface a little patch of pale and struggling growth. When we thinkof the cost at which the life of Christ was imparted to men, and ofthe divine source from which it comes, and of the sedulous andprotracted discipline through which it is being trained, we cannotbut conclude that nothing short of its universal dominion over allthe faculties of its imperfect possessors can be the goal of itsworking. Hercules in his cradle is still Hercules, and stranglessnakes. Frost and sun may struggle in midwinter, and the cold mayseem to predominate, but the sun is steadily enlarging its course inthe sky, and increasing the fervour of its beams, and midsummer dayis as sure to dawn as the shortest day was. 

The sons of God, even more truly than other men, have contendingprinciples fighting within them. It was the same Apostle who withoaths denied that he 'knew the man, ' and in a passion of clinginglove and penitence fell at His feet; but for the mere onlooker itwould be hard to say which was the true man and which would conquer. The sons of God, like other men, have to express themselves in wordswhich are never closely enough fitted to their thoughts and feelings. David's penitence has to be contented with groans which are not deepenough; and John's calm raptures on his Saviour's breast can only bespoken by shut eyes and silence. The sons of God never fullycorrespond to their character, but always fall somewhat beneath theirdesire, and must always be somewhat less than their intention. Theartist never wholly embodies his conception. It is only God who'rests from His works' because the works fully embody His creativedesign and fully receive the benediction of His own satisfaction withthem. 

From all such thoughts there arises a piece of plain practicalwisdom, which warns Christian men not to despond or despair if theydo not find themselves living up to their ideal. The sons of God are'veiled' because the world's estimate of them is untrue. The oldcommonplace that the world knows nothing of its greatest men isverified in the opinions which it holds about the sons of God. It isnot for their Christianity that they get any of the world's honoursand encomiums, if such fall to their share. They are _un_known andyet _well_-known. They live for the most part veiled in obscurity. 'The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth itnot. ' They are God's hidden ones. If they are wise, they will lookfor no recognition nor eulogy from the world, and will be content tolive, as unknown by the princes of this world as was the Lord ofglory, whom they slew because their dim eyes could not see theflashing of the glory 'through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. 'But no consciousness of imperfection in our revelation of anindwelling Christ must ever be allowed to diminish our efforts tolive out the life that is in us, and to shine as lights in the world;nor must the consciousness that we walk as 'veiled, ' lead us to addto the thick folds the criminal one of voluntary silence and cowardlyhiding in dumb hearts the secret of our lives. 

II. The unveiling of the sons of God. 

That unveiling is in the text represented as coming along with theglory which shall be revealed to usward, and as being contemporaneouswith the deliverance of the creation itself from the bondage ofcorruption, and its passing into the liberty of the glory of thechildren of God. It coincides with the vanishing of the pain in whichthe whole creation now groans and travails, and with theadoption--that is, the redemption of our body. Then hope will be seenand will pass into still fruition. All this points to the time whenJesus Christ is revealed, and His servants are revealed with Him inglory. That revelation brings with it of necessity the manifestationof the sons of God for what they are--the making visible in the lifeof what God sees them to be. 

That revelation of the sons of God is the result of the entiredominion and transforming supremacy of the Spirit of God in them. Inthe whole sweep of their consciousness there will in that day benothing done from other motives; there will be no sidelights flashingin and disturbing the perfect illumination from the candle of theLord set on high in their being; there will be no contradictions inthe life. It will be one and simple, and therefore perfectlyintelligible. Such is the destined issue of the most imperfectChristian life. The Christian man who has in his experience to-daythe faintest and most interrupted operation of the spirit of life inChrist Jesus has therein a pledge of immortality, because nothingshort of an endless life of progressive and growing purity will beadequate to receive and exemplify the power which can never terminateuntil it is made like Him and perfectly seeing Him as He is. 

But that unveiling further guarantees the possession of fullyadequate means of expression. The limitations and imperfections ofour present bodily life will all drop away in putting on 'the body ofglory' which shall be ours. The new tongue will perfectly utter thenew knowledge and rapture of the new life; new hands will perfectlyrealise our ideals; and on every forehead will be stamped Christ'snew name. 

That unveiling will be further realised by a divine act indicatingthe characters of the sons of God by their position. Earth'sjudgments will be reversed by that divine voice, and the greatpromise, which through weary ages has shone as a far-off star, --'Iwill set him on high because he hath known my name'--will then beknown for the sun near at hand. Many names loudly blown through theworld's trumpet will fall silent then. Many stars will be quenched, but 'they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of thefirmament. '

That revelation will be more surprising to no one than to those whoare its subjects, when they see themselves mirrored in that glass, and so unlike what they are here. Their first impulse will be towonder at the form they see, and to ask, almost with incredulity, 'Lord, is it I?' Nor will the wonder be less when they recognise manywhom they knew not. The surprises when the family of God is gatheredtogether at last will be great. The Israel of Captivity lifts up herwondering eyes as she sees the multitudes flocking to her side as thedoves to their windows, and, half-ashamed of her own narrow vision, exclaims, 'I was left alone; these, where had they been?' Let usrejoice that in the day when the sons of God are revealed, manyhidden ones from many dark corners will sit at the Father's table. That revelation will be made to the whole universe; we know not how, but we know that it shall be; and, as the text tells us, thatrevelation of the sons of God is the hope for which 'the earnestexpectation of the creature waits' through the weary ages. 

THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY

 'The adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. '--ROMANS viii. 23. 

In a previous verse Paul has said that all true Christians havereceived 'the Spirit of adoption. ' They become sons of God throughChrist the Son. They receive a new spiritual and divine life from Godthrough Christ, and that life is like its source. In so far as thatnew life vitalises and dominates their nature, believers havereceived 'the Spirit of adoption, ' and by it they cry 'Abba, Father. 'But the body still remains a source of weakness, the seat of sin. Itis sluggish and inapt for high purposes; it still remains subject to'the law of sin and death'; and so is not like the Father whobreathed into it the breath of life. It remains in bondage, and hasnot yet received the adoption. This text, in harmony with theApostle's whole teaching, looks forward to a change in the body andin its relations to the renewed spirit, as the crown and climax ofthe work of redemption, and declares that till that change iseffected, the condition of Christian men is imperfect, and is awaiting, and often a groaning. 

In dealing with some of the thoughts that arise from this text, wenote--

I. That a future bodily life is needed in order to give definitenessand solidity to the conception of immortality. 

Before the Gospel came men's belief in a future life was vague andpowerless, mainly because it had no Gospel of the Resurrection, andso nothing tangible to lay hold on. The Gospel has made the belief ina future state infinitely easier and more powerful, mainly because ofthe emphasis with which it has proclaimed an actual resurrection anda future bodily life. Its great proof of immortality is drawn, notmerely from ethical considerations of the manifest futility ofearthly life which has no sequel beyond the grave, nor from theintuitions and longings of men's souls, but from the historical factof the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and of His Ascension in bodilyform into heaven. It proclaims these two facts as parts of Hisexperience, and asserts that when He rose from the dead and ascendedup on high, He did so as 'the first-born among many brethren, ' theirforerunner and their pattern. It is this which gives the Gospel itspower, and thus transforms a vague and shadowy conception ofimmortality into a solid faith, for which we have already anhistorical guarantee. Stupendous mysteries still veil the nature ofthe resurrection process, though these are exaggerated intoinconceivabilities by false notions of what constitutes personalidentity; but if the choice lies between accepting the Christiandoctrine of a resurrection and the conception of a finite spiritdisembodied and yet active, there can be no doubt as to which ofthese two is the more reasonable and thinkable. Body, soul, andspirit make the complete triune man. 

The thought of the future life as a bodily life satisfies thelongings of the heart. Much natural shrinking from death comes fromunwillingness to part company with an old companion and friend. AsPaul puts it in 2nd Corinthians, 'Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon. ' All thoughts of the future which do not giveprominence to the idea of a bodily life open up but a ghastly anduninviting mode of existence, which cannot but repel those who areaccustomed to the fellowship of their bodies, and they feel that theycannot think of themselves as deprived of that which was theirservant and instrument, through all the years of their earthlyconsciousness. 

II. 'The body that shall be' is an emancipated body. 

The varied gifts of the Spirit bestowed upon the Christian Churchserved to quicken the hope of the yet greater gifts of thatindwelling Spirit which were yet to come. Chief amongst these ourtext considers the transformation of the earthly into a spiritualbody. This transformation our text regards as being the participationby the body in the redemption by which Christ has bought us with thegreat price of His blood. We have to interpret the language here inthe light of the further teaching of Paul in the great Resurrectionchapter of 1st Corinthians, which distinctly lays stress, not on theidentity of the corporeal frame which is laid in the grave with 'thebody of glory, ' but upon the entire contrast between the 'naturalbody, ' which is fit organ for the lower nature, and is informed byit, and the 'spiritual body, ' which is fit organ for the spirit. Wehave to interpret 'the resurrection of the body' by the definiteapostolic declaration, 'Thou sowest not that body that shall be. .. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him'; and we have to givefull weight to the contrasts which the Apostle draws between thecharacteristics of that which is 'sown' and of that which is'raised. ' The one is 'sown in corruption and raised in incorruption. 'Natural decay is contrasted with immortal youth. The one is 'sown indishonour, ' the other is 'raised in glory. ' That contrast is ethical, and refers either to the subordinate position of the body here inrelation to the spirit, or to the natural sense of shame, or to theideas of degradation which are attached to the indulgence of theappetites. The one is 'sown in weakness, ' the other is 'raised inpower'; the one is 'sown a natural body, ' the other is 'raised aspiritual body. ' Is not Paul in this whole series of contraststhinking primarily of the vision which he saw on the road to Damascuswhen the risen Christ appeared before him? And had not the yearswhich had passed since then taught him to see in the ascended Christthe prophecy and the pattern of what His servants should become? Wehave further to keep in view Paul's other representation in 2ndCorinthians v. , where he strongly puts the contrast between thecorporeal environment of earth and 'the body of glory, ' which belongsto the future life, in his two images: 'the earthly house of thistabernacle'--a clay hut which lasts but for a time, --and 'thebuilding of God, the house not made with hands and eternal. ' The bodyis an occasion of separation from the Lord. 

These considerations may well lead us to, at least, general outlineson which a confident and peaceful hope may fix. For example, theylead us to the thought that that redeemed body is no more subject todecay and death, is no more weighed upon by weakness and weariness, has no work beyond its strength, needs no sustenance by food, and norefreshment of sleep. 'The Lamb which is in the midst of the throneshall feed them, ' suggests strength constantly communicated by adirect divine gift. And from all these negative characteristics therefollows that there will be in that future bodily life no epochs ofage marked by bodily changes. The two young men who were seen sittingin the sepulchre of Jesus had lived before Adam, and would seem asyoung if we saw them to-day. 

Similarly the redeemed body will be a more perfect instrument forcommunication with the external universe. We know that the presentbody conditions our knowledge, and that our senses do not takecognisance of all the qualities of material things. Microscopes andtelescopes have enlarged our field of vision, and have brought theinfinitely small and the infinitely distant within our range. Our earhears vibrations at a certain rate per second, and no doubt if itwere more delicately organised we could hear sounds where now issilence. Sometimes the creatures whom we call 'inferior' seem to havesenses that apprehend much of which we are not aware. Balaam's asssaw the obstructing angel before Balaam did. Nor is there any reasonto suppose that all the powers of the mind find tools to work with inthe body. It is possible that that body which is the fit instrumentof the spirit may become its means of knowing more deeply, thinkingmore wisely, understanding more swiftly, comprehending more widely, remembering more firmly and judging more soundly. It is possible thatthe contrast between then and now may be like the contrast betweentelegraph and slow messenger in regard to the rapidity, betweenphotograph and poor daub in regard to the truthfulness, between afull-orbed circle and a fragmentary arc in regard to the completenessof the messages which the body brings to the indwelling self. 

But, once more, the body unredeemed has appetites and desires whichmay lead to their own satisfaction, which do lead to sordid cares andweary toil. 'The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spiritagainst the flesh. ' The redeemed body will have in it nothing totempt and nothing to clog, but will be a helper to the spirit and asource of strength. Glorious work of God as the body is, it has itsweaknesses, its limitations, and its tendencies to evil. We must notbe tempted into brooding over unanswered questions as to 'How do thedead rise, and with what body do they come?' But we can lift our eyesto the mountain-top where Jesus went up to pray. 'And as He prayedthe fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment becamewhite and dazzling'; and He was capable of entering into the Shekinahcloud and holding fellowship therein with the Father, who attestedHis Sonship and bade us listen to His voice. And we can look toOlivet and follow the ascending Jesus as He lets His benediction dropon the upturned faces of His friends, until He again passes into theShekinah cloud, and leaving the world, goes to the Father. And fromboth His momentary transfiguration and His permanent Ascension we candraw the certain assurance that 'He shall fashion anew the body ofour humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all thingsunto Himself. '

III. The redeemed body is a consequence of Christ's indwellingSpirit. 

It is no natural result of death or resurrection, but is the outcomeof the process begun on earth, by which, 'through faith and therighteousness of faith, ' the spirit is life. The context distinctlyenforces this view by its double use of 'adoption, ' which in oneaspect has already been received, and is manifested by the fact that'now are we the sons of God, ' and in another aspect is still 'waited'for. The Christian man in his regenerated spirit has been born again;the Christian man still waits for the completion of that sonship in atime when the regenerated spirit will no longer dwell in the claycottage of 'this tabernacle, ' but will inhabit a congruous dwellingin 'the building of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. '

Scripture is too healthy and comprehensive to be contented with amerely spiritual regeneration, and is withal too spiritual to besatisfied with a merely material heaven. It gives full place to bothelements, and yet decisively puts all belonging to the latter second. It lays down the laws that for a complete humanity there must be bodyas well as spirit; that there must be a correspondence between thetwo, and as is the spirit so must the body be, and further, that theprocess must begin at the centre and work outwards, so that thespirit must first be transformed, and then the body must beparticipant of the transformation. 

All that Scripture says about 'rising in glory' is said aboutbelievers. It is represented as a spiritual process. They who havethe Spirit of God in their spirits because they have it receive theglorified body which is like their Saviour's. It is not enough to diein order to 'rise glorious. ' 'If the Spirit of Him that raised upJesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from thedead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit thatdwelleth in you. ' The resurrection is promised for all mankind, butit may be a resurrection in which there shall be endless living andno glory, nor any beauty and no blessedness. But the body may be'sown in weakness, ' and in weakness raised; it may be 'sown indishonour' and in dishonour raised; it may be sown dead, and raised aliving death. 'Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shallawake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlastingcontempt. ' Does that mean nothing? 'They that have done evil to theresurrection of condemnation. ' Does that mean nothing? There are darkmysteries in these and similar words of Scripture which should makeus all pause and solemnly reflect. The sole way which leads to theresurrection of glory is the way of faith in Jesus Christ. If weyield ourselves to Him, He will plant His Spirit in our spirits, willguide and growingly sanctify us through life, will deliver us by theindwelling of the Spirit of life in Him from the law of sin anddeath. Nor will His transforming power cease till it has pervaded ourwhole being with its fiery energy, and we stand at the last men likeChrist, redeemed in body, soul, and spirit, 'according to the mightyworking whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself. '

THE INTERCEDING SPIRIT

 'The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. '--ROMANS viii. 26. 

Pentecost was a transitory sign of a perpetual gift. The tongues offire and the rushing mighty wind, which were at first the mostconspicuous results of the gifts of the Spirit, tongues, andprophecies, and gifts of healing, which were to the early Churchitself and to onlookers palpable demonstrations of an indwellingpower, were little more lasting than the fire and the wind. Doesanything remain? This whole great chapter is Paul's triumphant answerto such a question. The Spirit of God dwells in every believer as thesource of his true life, is for him 'the Spirit of adoption' andwitnesses with his spirit that he is a child of God, and a joint-heirwith Christ. Not only does that Spirit co-operate with the humanspirit in this witness-bearing, but the verse, of which our text is apart, points to another form of co-operation: for the word renderedin the earlier part of the verse 'helpeth' in the original suggestsmore distinctly that the Spirit of God in His intercession for usworks in association with us. 

First, then--

I. The Spirit's intercession is not carried on apart from us. 

Much modern hymnology goes wrong in this point, that it representsthe Spirit's intercession as presented in heaven rather than astaking place within the personal being of the believer. There is abroad distinction carefully observed throughout Scripture between therepresentations of the work of Christ and that of the Spirit ofChrist. The former in its character and revelation and attainment waswrought upon earth, and in its character of intercession andbestowment of blessings is discharged at the right hand of God inheaven; the whole of the Spirit's work, on the other hand, is wroughtin human spirits here. The context speaks of intercession expressedin 'groanings which cannot be uttered, ' and which, unexpressed thoughthey are, are fully understood 'by Him who searches the heart. 'Plainly, therefore, these groanings come from human hearts, and asplainly are the Divine Spirit's voicing them. 

II. The Spirit's intercession in our spirits consists in our owndivinely-inspired longings. 

The Apostle has just been speaking of another groaning withinourselves, which is the expression of 'the earnest expectation' of'the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body'; and he says thatthat longing will be the more patient the more it is full of hope. This, then, is Paul's conception of the normal attitude of aChristian soul; but that attitude is hard to keep up in one's ownstrength, because of the distractions of time and sense which areever tending to disturb the continuity and fixity of that onwardlook, and to lead us rather to be satisfied with the gross, dullpresent. That redemption of the body, with all which it implies andincludes, ought to be the supreme object to which each Christianheart should ever be turning, and Christian prayers should bedirected. But our own daily experience makes us only too sure thatsuch elevation above, and remoteness from earthly thoughts, with alltheir pettinesses and limitations, is impossible for us in our ownstrength. As Paul puts it here, 'We know not what to pray for'; norcan we fix and focus our desires, nor present them 'as we ought. ' Itis to this weakness and incompleteness of our desires and prayersthat the help of the Spirit is directed. He strengthens our longingsby His own direct operation. The more vivid our anticipations and themore steadfast our hopes, and the more our spirits reach out to thatfuture redemption, the more are we bound to discern something morethan human imaginings in them, and to be sure that such visions aretoo good not to be true, too solid to be only the play of our ownfancy. The more we are conscious of these experiences as our own, themore certain we shall be that in them it is not we that speak, but'the Spirit of the Father that speaketh in us. '

III. These divinely-inspired longings are incapable of fullexpression. 

They are shallow feelings that can be spoken. Language breaks down inthe attempt to express our deepest emotions and our truest love. Forall the deepest things in man, inarticulate utterance is the mostself-revealing. Grief can say more in a sob and a tear than in manyweak words; love finds its tongue in the light of an eye and theclasp of a hand. The groanings which rise from the depths of theChristian soul cannot be forced into the narrow frame-work of humanlanguage; and just because they are unutterable are to be recognisedas the voice of the Holy Spirit. 

But where amidst the Christian experience of to-day shall we findanything in the least like these unutterable longings after theredemption of the body which Paul here takes it for granted arethe experience of all Christians? There is no more startlingcondemnation of the average Christianity of our times than the calmcertainty with which through all this epistle the Apostle takes itfor granted that the experience of the Roman Christians willuniversally endorse his statements. Look for a moment at what thesestatements are. Listen to the briefest summary of them: 'We cry, Abba, Father'; 'We are children of God'; 'We suffer with Him that wemay be glorified with Him'; 'Glory shall be revealed to usward'; 'Wehave the first-fruits of the Spirit'; 'We ourselves groan withinourselves'; 'By hope were we saved'; 'We hope for that which we seenot'; 'Then do we with patience wait for it'; 'We know that to themthat love God all things work together for good'; 'In all thesethings we are more than conquerors'; 'Neither death nor life. .. Norany other creature shall be able to separate us from the love ofGod. ' He believed that in these rapturous and triumphant words he wasgathering together the experience of every Roman Christian, and wouldevoke from their lips a confident 'Amen. ' Where are the communitiesto-day in whose hearing these words could be reiterated with the likeassurance? How few among us there are who know anything of these'groanings which cannot be uttered!' How few among us there are whosespirits are stretching out eager desires towards the land ofperpetual summer, like migratory birds in northern latitudes when theautumn days are shortening and the temperature is falling!

But, however we must feel that our poor experience falls far short ofthe ideal in our text, an ideal which was to some extent realised inthe early Christian Church, we must beware of taking theimperfections of our experience as any evidence of the unreality ofour Christianity. They are a proof that we have limited and impededthe operation of the Spirit within us. They teach us that He will notintercede 'with groanings which cannot be uttered' unless we let Himspeak through our voices. Therefore, if we find that in our ownconsciousness there is little to correspond to those unutteredgroanings, we should take the warning: 'Quench not the Spirit. ''Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God in whom ye were sealed unto theday of redemption. '

IV. The unuttered longings are sure to be answered. 

He that searcheth the heart knows the meaning of the Spirit'sunspoken prayers; and looking into the depths of the human spiritinterprets its longings, discriminating between the mere human andpartial expression and the divinely-inspired desire which may beunexpressed. If our prayers are weak, they are answered in themeasure in which they embody in them, though perhaps mistaken by us, a divine longing. Apparent disappointment of our petitions may bereal answers to our real prayer. It was because Jesus loved Mary andMartha and Lazarus that He abode still in the same place where Hewas, to let Lazarus die that He might be raised again. That was thetrue answer to the sisters' hope of His immediate coming. God's wayof giving to us is to breathe within us a desire, and then to answerthe desire inbreathed. So, longing is the prophecy of fulfilment whenit is longing according to the will of God. They who 'hunger andthirst after righteousness' may ever be sure that their bread shallbe given them, and their water will be made sure. The true object ofour desires is often not clear to us, and so we err in translating itinto words. Let us be thankful that we pray to a God who can discernthe prayer within the prayer, and often gives the substance of ourpetitions in the very act of refusing their form. 

THE GIFT THAT BRINGS ALL GIFTS

 'He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?'--ROMANS viii. 32. 

We have here an allusion to, if not a distinct quotation from, thenarrative in Genesis, of Abraham's offering up of Isaac. The sameword which is employed in the Septuagint version of the OldTestament, to translate the Hebrew word rendered in our Bible as'withheld, ' is employed here by the Apostle. And there is evidentlyfloating before his mind the thought that, in some profound and realsense, there is an analogy between that wondrous and faithful act ofgiving up and the transcendent and stupendous gift to the world, fromGod, of His Son. 

If we take that point of view, the language of my text rises intosingular force, and suggests many very deep thoughts, about which, perhaps, silence is best. But led by that analogy, let us deal withthese words. 

I. Consider this mysterious act of divine surrender. 

The analogy seems to suggest to us, strange as it may be, and remotefrom the cold and abstract ideas of the divine nature which it isthought to be philosophical to cherish, that something correspondingto the pain and loss that shadowed the patriarch's heart flittedacross the divine mind when the Father sent the Son to be the Saviourof the world. Not merely to give, but to give up, is the highestcrown and glory of love, as we know it. And who shall venture to saythat we so fully apprehend the divine nature as to be warranted indeclaring that some analogy to that is impossible for Him? Ourlanguage is, 'I will not offer unto God that which doth cost menothing. ' Let us bow in silence before the dim intimation that seemsto flicker out of the words of my text, that so He says to us, 'Iwill not offer unto you that which doth cost Me nothing. ' 'He_spared_ not His own Son'; withheld Him not from us. 

But passing from that which, I dare say, many of you may suppose tobe fanciful and unwarranted, let us come upon the surer ground of theother words of my text. And notice how the reality of the surrenderis emphasised by the closeness of the bond which, in the mysteriouseternity, knits together the Father and the Son. As with Abraham, soin this lofty example, of which Abraham and Isaac were but as dim, wavering reflections in water, the Son is His own Son. It seems to meimpossible, upon any fair interpretation of the words before us, torefrain from giving to that epithet here its very highest and mostmysterious sense. It cannot be any mere equivalent for Messiah, itcannot merely mean a man who was like God in purity of nature and incloseness of communion. For the force of the analogy and the emphasisof that word which is even more emphatic in the Greek than in theEnglish 'His _own_ Son, ' point to a community of nature, to auniqueness and singleness of relation, to a closeness of intimacy, towhich no other is a parallel. And so we have to estimate the measureof the surrender by the tenderness and awfulness of the bond. 'Havingone Son, His well-beloved, He sent Him. '

Notice, again, how the greatness of the surrender is made moreemphatic by the contemplation of it in its double negative andpositive aspect, in the two successive clauses. 'He spared not HisSon, but delivered Him up, ' an absolute, positive giving of Him overto the humiliation of the life and to the mystery of the death. 

And notice how the tenderness and the beneficence that were the solemotive of the surrender are lifted into light in the last words, 'forus all. ' The single, sole reason that bowed, if I may so say, thedivine purpose, and determined the mysterious act, was a pure desirefor our blessing. No definition is given as to the manner in whichthat surrender wrought for our good. The Apostle does not need todwell upon that. His purpose is to emphasise the entireunselfishness, the utter simplicity of the motive which moved thedivine will. One great throb of love to the whole of humanity led tothat transcendent surrender, before which we can only bow and say, 'Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. '

And now, notice how this mysterious act is grasped by the Apostlehere as what I may call the illuminating fact as to the whole divinenature. From it, and from it alone, there falls a blaze of light onthe deepest things in God. We are accustomed to speak of Christ'sperfect life of unselfishness, and His death of pure beneficence, asbeing the great manifestation to us all that in His heart there is aninfinite fountain of love to us. We are, further, accustomed to speakof Christ's mission and death as being the revelation to us of thelove of God as well as of the Man Christ Jesus, because we believethat 'God was in Christ reconciling the world, ' and that He has somanifested and revealed the very nature of divinity to us, in Hislife and in His person, that, as He Himself says, 'He that hath seenMe hath seen the Father. ' And every conclusion that we draw as to thelove of Christ is, _ipso facto_, a conclusion as to the love of God. But my text looks at the matter from rather a different point of view, and bids us see, in Christ's mission and sacrifice, the greatdemonstration of the love of God, not only because 'God was inChrist, ' but because the Father's will, conceived of as distinctfrom, and yet harmonious with, the will of the Son, gives Him up forus. And we have to say, not only that we see the love of God in thelove of Christ, but 'God so loved the world that He sent His onlybegotten Son' that we might have life through Him. 

These various phases of the love of Christ as manifesting the divinelove, may not be capable of perfect harmonising in our thoughts, butthey do blend into one, and by reason of them all, 'God commendethHis love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died forus. ' We have to think not only of Abraham who gave up, but of theunresisting, innocent Isaac, bearing on his shoulders the wood forthe burnt offering, as the Christ bore the Cross on His, andsuffering himself to be bound upon the pile, not only by the cordsthat tied his limbs, but by the cords of obedience and submission, and in both we have to bow before the Apocalypse of divine love. 

II. So, secondly, look at the power of this divine surrender to bringwith it all other gifts. 

'How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?' TheApostle's triumphant question requires for its affirmative answeronly the belief in the unchangeableness of the Divine heart, and theuniformity of the Divine purpose. And if these be recognised, theirconclusion inevitably follows. 'With Him He will freely give us allthings. '

It is so, because the greater gift implies the less. We do not expectthat a man who hands over a million of pounds to another, to helphim, will stick at a farthing afterwards. If you give a diamond youmay well give a box to keep it in. In God's gift the lesser willfollow the lead of the greater; and whatsoever a man can want, it isa smaller thing for Him to bestow, than was the gift of His Son. 

There is a beautiful contrast between the manners of giving the twosets of gifts implied in words of the original, perhaps scarcelycapable of being reproduced in any translation. The expression thatis rendered 'freely give, ' implies that there is a grace and apleasantness in the act of bestowal. God gave in Christ, what we mayreverently say it was something like pain to give. Will He not givethe lesser, whatever they may be, which it is the joy of His heart tocommunicate? The greater implies the less. 

Farther, this one great gift draws all other gifts after it, becausethe purpose of the greater gift cannot be attained without thebestowment of the lesser. He does not begin to build being unable tofinish; He does not miscalculate His resources, nor stultify Himselfby commencing upon a large scale, and having to stop short before thepurpose with which He began is accomplished. Men build great palaces, and are bankrupt before the roof is put on. God lays His plans withthe knowledge of His powers, and having first of all bestowed thislarge gift, is not going to have it bestowed in vain for want of somesmaller ones to follow it up. Christ puts the same argument to us, beginning only at the other end of the process. Paul says, 'God haslaid the foundation in Christ. ' Do you think He will stop before theheadstone is put on? Christ said, 'It is your Father's good pleasureto give you the Kingdom. ' Do you think He will not give you bread andwater on the road to it? Will He send out His soldiers half-equipped;will it be found when they are on their march that they have beenstarted with a defective commissariat, and with insufficienttrenching tools? Shall the children of the King, on the road to theirthrones, be left to scramble along anyhow, in want of what they needto get there? That is not God's way of doing. He that hath begun agood work will also perfect the same, and when He gave to you and meHis Son, He bound Himself to give us every subsidiary and secondaryblessing which was needed to make that Son's work complete in each ofus. 

Again, this great blessing draws after it, by necessary consequence, all other lesser and secondary gifts, inasmuch as, in every realsense, everything is included and possessed in the Christ when wereceive Him. 'With Him, ' says Paul, as if that gift once laidin a man's heart actually enclosed within it, and had for itsindispensable accompaniment the possession of every smaller thingthat a man can need, Jesus Christ is, as it were, a great Cornucopia, a horn of abundance, out of which will pour, with magic affluence, all manner of supplies according as we require. This fountain flowswith milk, wine, and water, as men need. Everything is given us whenChrist is given to us, because Christ is the Heir of all things, andwe possess all things in Him; as some poor village maiden married toa prince in disguise, who, on the morrow of her wedding finds thatshe is lady of broad lands, and mistress of a kingdom. 'He thatspared not His own Son, ' not only 'with Him will give, ' but in Himhas 'given us all things. '

And so, brethren, just as that great gift is the illuminating fact inreference to the divine heart, so is it the interpreting fact inreference to the divine dealings. Only when we keep firm hold ofChrist as the gift of God, and the Explainer of all that God does, can we face the darkness, the perplexities, the torturing questionsthat from the beginning have harassed men's minds as they looked uponthe mysteries of human misery. If we recognise that God has given usHis Son, then all things become, if not plain, at least lighted withsome gleam from that great gift; and we feel that the surrender ofChrist is the constraining fact which shapes after its own likeness, and for its own purpose, all the rest of God's dealings with men. That gift makes anything believable, reasonable, possible, ratherthan that He should spare not His own Son, and then shouldcounterwork His own act by sending the world anything but good. 

III. And now, lastly, take one or two practical issuesfrom these thoughts, in reference to our own belief and conduct. 

First, I would say, Let us correct our estimates of the relativeimportance of the two sets of gifts. On the one side stands thesolitary Christ; on the other side are massed all delights of sense, all blessings of time, all the things that the vulgar estimation ofmen unanimously recognises to be good. These are only makeweights. They are all lumped together into an 'also. ' They are but the goldendust that may be filed off from the great ingot and solid block. Theyare but the outward tokens of His far deeper and true preciousness. They are secondary; He is the primary. What an inversion of ournotions of good! Do _you_ degrade all the world's wealth, pleasantness, ease, prosperity, into an 'also?' Are you content toput it in the secondary place, as a result, if it please Him, ofChrist? Do you live as if you did? Which do you hunger for most?Which do you labour for hardest? 'Seek ye first the Kingdom and theKing, and all 'these things shall be added unto you. '

Let these thoughts teach us that sorrow too is one of the gifts ofthe Christ. The words of my text, at first sight, might seem to besimply a promise of abundant earthly good. But look what lies closebeside them, and is even part of the same triumphant burst. 'Shalltribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, orperil, or sword?' These are some of the 'all things' which Paulexpected that God would give him and his brethren. And looking uponall, he says, 'They all work together for good'; and in them all wemay be more than conquerors. It would be a poor, shabby issue of sucha great gift as that of which we have been speaking, if it were onlyto be followed by the sweetnesses and prosperity and wealth of thisworld. But here is the point that we have to keep hold of--inasmuchas He gives us all things, let us take all the things that come to usas being as distinctly the gifts of His love, as is the gift ofChrist Himself. A wise physician, to an ignorant onlooker, might seemto be acting in contradictory fashions when in the one moment heslashes into a limb, with a sharp, gleaming knife, and in the nextsedulously binds the wounds, and closes the arteries, but the purposeof both acts is one. 

The diurnal revolution of the earth brings the joyful sunrise and thepathetic sunset. The same annual revolution whirls us through thebalmy summer days and the biting winter ones. God's purpose is one. His methods vary. The road goes straight to its goal; but itsometimes runs in tunnels dank and dark and stifling, and sometimesby sunny glades and through green pastures. God's purpose is alwayslove, brother. His withdrawals are gifts, and sorrow is not the leastof the benefits which come to us through the Man of Sorrows. 

So again, let these thoughts teach us to live by a very quiet andpeaceful faith. We find it a great deal easier to trust God forHeaven than for earth--for the distant blessings than for the nearones. Many a man will venture his soul into God's hands, who wouldhesitate to venture to-morrow's food there. Why? Is it not because wedo not really trust Him for the greater that we find it so hard totrust Him for the less? Is it not because we want the less morereally than we want the greater, that we can put ourselves off withfaith for the one, and want something more solid to grasp for theother? Live in the calm confidence that God gives all things; andgives us for to-morrow as for eternity; for earth as for heaven. 

And, last of all, make you quite sure that you have taken _the_great gift of God. He gives it to all the world, but they only haveit who accept it by faith. Have you, my brother? I look out upon thelives of the mass of professing Christians; and this question weighson my heart, judging by conduct--have they really got Christ fortheir own? 'Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is notbread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not?' Look how youare all fighting and scrambling, and sweating and fretting, to gethold of the goods of this present life, and here is a gift gleamingbefore you all the while that you will not condescend to take. Like aman standing in a market-place offering sovereigns for nothing, whichnobody accepts because they think the offer is too good to be true, so God complains and wails: I have stretched out My hands all theday, laden with gifts, and no man regarded. 

 'It is only heaven may be had for the asking; It is only God that is given away. '

He gives His Son. Take Him by humble faith in His sacrifice andSpirit; take Him, and with Him He freely gives you all things. 

MORE THAN CONQUERORS

 'Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. '--ROMANS viii. 37. 

In order to understand and feel the full force of this triumphantsaying of the Apostle, we must observe that it is a negative answerto the preceding questions, 'Who shall separate us from the love ofChrist? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, ornakedness, or peril, or sword?' A heterogeneous mass the Apostle herebrigades together as an antagonistic army. They are alike in nothingexcept that they are all evils. There is no attempt at an exhaustiveenumeration, or at classification. He clashes down, as it were, amiscellaneous mass of evil things, and then triumphs over them, andall the genus to which they belong, as being utterly impotent to dragmen away from Jesus Christ. To ask the question is to answer it, butthe form of the answer is worth notice. Instead of directly replying, 'No! no such powerless things as these can separate us from the loveof Christ, ' he says, 'No! In all these things, whilst welteringamongst them, whilst ringed round about by them, as by encirclingenemies, "we are more than conquerors. "' Thereby, he suggests thatthere is something needing to be done by us, in order that the foesmay not exercise their natural effect. And so, taking the words of mytext in connection with that to which they are an answer, we havethree things--the impotent enemies of love; the abundant victory oflove; 'We are more than conquerors'; and the love that makes usvictorious. Let us look then at these three things briefly. 

I. First of all, the impotent enemies of love. 

There is contempt in the careless massing together of the foes whichthe Apostle enumerates. He begins with the widest word that coverseverything--'affliction. ' Then he specifies various forms ofit--'distress, ' _straitening_, as the word might be rendered, then he comes to evils inflicted for Christ's sake by hostilemen--'persecution, ' then he names purely physical evils, 'hunger' and'nakedness, ' then he harks back again to man's antagonism, 'peril, 'and 'sword. ' And thus carelessly, and without an effort at logicalorder, he throws together, as specimens of their class, these salientpoints, as it were, and crests of the great sea, whose billowsthreaten to roll over us; and he laughs at them all, as impotent andnought, when compared with the love of Christ, which shields us fromthem all. 

Now it must be noticed that here, in his triumphant question, theApostle means not our love to Christ but His to us; and not even oursense of that love, but the fact itself. And his question is justthis:--Is there any evil in the world that can make Christ stoploving a man that cleaves to Him? And, as I said, to ask the questionis to answer it. The two things belong to two different regions. Theyhave nothing in common. The one moves amongst the low levels ofearth; the other dwells up amidst the abysses of eternity, and tosuppose that anything that assails and afflicts us here has anyeffect in making that great heart cease to love us is to fancy thatthe mists can quench the sunlight, is to suppose that that which liesdown low in the earth can rise to poison and to darken the heavens. 

There is no need, in order to rise to the full height of theChristian contempt for calamity, to deny any of its terrible power. These things can separate us from much. They can separate us fromjoy, from hope, from almost all that makes life desirable. They canstrip us to the very quick, but the quick they cannot touch. Thefrost comes and kills the flowers, browns the leaves, cuts off thestems, binds the sweet music of the flowing rivers in silent chains, casts mists and darkness over the face of the solitary grey world, but it does not touch the life that is in the root. 

And so all these outward sorrows that have power over the whole ofthe outward life, and can slay joy and all but stifle hope, and canban men into irrevocable darkness and unalleviated solitude, they donot touch in the smallest degree the secret bond that binds the heartto Jesus, nor in any measure affect the flow of His love to us. Therefore we may front them and smile at them and say:

 'Do as thou wilt, devouring time, With this wide world, and all its fading sweets';

'my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. '

You need not be very much afraid of anything being taken from you aslong as Christ is left you. You will not be altogether hopeless solong as Christ, who is our hope, still speaks His faithful promisesto you, nor will the world be lonely and dark to them who feel thatthey are lapt in the sweet and all-pervading consciousness of thechangeless love of the heart of Christ. 'Shall tribulation, ordistress, or persecution?'--in any of these things, 'we are more thanconquerors through Him that loved us. ' Brethren, that is theChristian way of looking at all externals, not only at the dark andthe sorrowful, but at the bright and the gladsome. If the withdrawalof external blessings does not touch the central sanctities andsweetness of a life in communion with Jesus, the bestowal of externalblessedness does not much brighten or gladden it. We can face thewithdrawal of them all, we need not covet the possession of them all, for we have all in Christ; and the world without His love contributesless to our blessedness and our peace than the absence of all itsjoys with His love does. So let us feel that earth, in its givingsand in its withholdings, is equally impotent to touch the one thingthat we need, the conscious possession of the love of Christ. 

All these foes, as I have said, have no power over the fact ofChrist's love to us, but they have power, and a very terrible power, over our consciousness of that love; and we may so kick against thepricks as to lose, in the pain of our sorrows, the assurance of Hispresence, or be so fascinated by the false and vulgar sweetnesses andpromises of the world as, in the eagerness of our chase after them, to lose our sense of the all-sufficing certitude of His love. Tribulation does not strip us of His love, but tribulation may sodarken our perceptions that we cannot see the sun. Joys need not robus of His heart, but joys may so fill ours, as that there shall be nolonging for His presence within us. Therefore let us not exaggeratethe impotence of these foes, but feel that there are real dangers, asin the sorrows so in the blessings of our outward life, and that theevil to be dreaded is that outward things, whether in their bright orin their dark aspects, may come between us and the home of ourhearts, the love of the loving Christ. 

II. So then, note next, the abundant victory of love. 

Mark how the Apostle, in his lofty and enthusiastic way, is notcontent here with simply saying that he and his fellows conquer. Itwould be a poor thing, he seems to think, if the balance barelyinclined to our side, if the victory were but just won by a hair'sbreadth and triumph were snatched, as it were, out of the very jawsof defeat. There must be something more than that to correspond tothe power of the victorious Christ that is in us. And so, he says, wevery abundantly conquer; we not only hinder these things which he hasbeen enumerating from doing that which it is their aim apparently todo, but we actually convert them into helpers or allies. The '_more_than conquerors' seems to mean, if there is any definite idea to beattached to it, the conversion of the enemy conquered into a friendand a helper. The American Indians had a superstition that every foetomahawked sent fresh strength into the warrior's arm. And so allafflictions and trials rightly borne, and therefore overcome, make aman stronger, and bring him nearer to Jesus Christ. 

Note then, further, that not only is this victory more than barevictory, being the conversion of the enemy into allies, but that itis a victory which is won even whilst we are in the midst of thestrife. It is not that we shall be conquerors in some far-off heaven, when the noise of battle has ceased and they hang the trumpet in thehall, but it is here now, in the hand-to-hand and foot-to-footdeath-grapple that we do overcome. No ultimate victory, in somefar-off and blessed heaven, will be ours unless moment by moment, here, to-day, ' we _are_ more than conquerors through Him thatloved us. '

So, then, about this abundant victory there are these things tosay:--You conquer the world only, then, when you make it contributeto your conscious possession of the love of Christ. That is the realvictory, the only real victory in life. Men talk about overcominghere on earth, and they mean thereby the accomplishment of theirdesigns. A man has 'victory, ' as it is phrased, in the world'sstrife, when he secures for himself the world's goods at which he hasaimed, but that is not the Christian idea of the conquest ofcalamity. Everything that makes me feel more thrillingly in myinmost heart the verity and the sweetness of the love of Jesus Christas my very own, is conquered by me and compelled to subserve myhighest good, and everything which slips a film between me and Him, which obscures the light of His face to me, which makes me lessdesirous of, and less sure of, and less happy in, and less satisfiedwith, His love, is an enemy that has conquered me. And all theseevils as the world calls them, and as our bleeding hearts have oftenfelt them to be, are converted into allies and friends when theydrive us to Christ, and keep us close to Him, in the consciouspossession of His sweet and changeless love. That is the victory, andthe only victory. Has the world helped me to lay hold of Christ? ThenI have conquered it. Has the world loosened my grasp upon Him? Thenit has conquered me. 

Note then, further, that this abundant victory depends on how we dealwith the changes of our outward lives, our sorrows or our joys. Thereis nothing, _per se_, salutary in affliction, there is nothing, _per se_, antagonistic to Christian faith in it either. No manis made better by his sorrows, no man need be made worse by them. That depends upon how we take the things which come storming againstus. The set of your sails, and the firmness of your grasp upon thetiller, determine whether the wind shall carry you to the haven orshall blow you out, a wandering waif, upon a shoreless and melancholysea. There are some of you that have been blown away from yourmoorings by sorrow. There are some professing Christians who havebeen hindered in their work, and had their peace and their faithshattered all but irrevocably, because they have not accepted, in thespirit in which they were sent, the trials that have come for theirgood. The worst of all afflictions is a wasted affliction, and theyare all wasted unless they teach us more of the reality and theblessedness of the love of Jesus Christ. 

III. Lastly, notice the love which makes us conquerors. 

The Apostle, with a wonderful instinctive sense of fitness, namesChrist here by a name congruous to the thoughts which occupy hismind, when he speaks of Him that loved us. His question has been, Cananything separate us from the love of Christ? And his answer is, Sofar from that being the case, that very love, by occasion of sorrowsand afflictions, tightens its grasp upon us, and, by thecommunication of itself to us, makes us more than conquerors. Thisgreat love of Jesus Christ, from which nothing can separate us, willuse the very things that seem to threaten our separation as a meansof coming nearer to us in its depth and in its preciousness. 

The Apostle says 'Him that loved us, ' and the words in the originaldistinctly point to some one fact as being the great instance oflove. That is to say they point to His death. And so we may sayChrist's love helps us to conquer because in His death He interpretsfor us all possible sorrows. If it be true that love to each of usnailed Him there, then nothing that can come to us but must be alove-token, and a fruit of that same love. The Cross is the key toall tribulation, and shows it to be a token and an instrument of anunchanging love. 

Further, that great love of Christ helps us to conquer, because inHis sufferings and death He becomes the Companion of all the weary. The rough, dark, lonely road changes its look when we see Hisfootprints there, not without specks of blood in them, where the thorns tore His feet. We conquer our afflictions if werecognise that 'in all our afflictions He was afflicted, ' and thatHimself has drunk to its bitterest dregs the cup which He commends toour lips. He has left a kiss upon its margin, and we need not shrinkwhen He holds it out to us and says 'Drink ye all of it. ' That onethought of the companionship of the Christ in our sorrows makes usmore than conquerors. 

And lastly, this dying Lover of our souls communicates to us all, ifwe will, the strength whereby we may coerce all outward things intobeing helps to the fuller participation of His perfect love. Oursorrows and all the other distracting externals do seek to drag usaway from Him. Is all that happens in counteraction to that pull ofthe world, that we tighten our grasp upon Him, and will not let Himgo; as some poor wretch might the horns of the altar that did notrespond to his grasp? Nay what we lay hold of is no dead thing, buta living hand, and it grasps us more tightly than we can ever graspit. So because He holds us, and not because we hold Him, we shallnot be dragged away, by anything outside of our own weak and waveringsouls, and all these embattled foes may come against us, they mayshear off everything else, they cannot sever Christ from us unlesswe ourselves throw Him away. 'In this thou shalt conquer. ' 'Theyovercame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of His testimony. '

LOVE'S TRIUMPH

 'Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God. '--ROMANS viii. 38, 39. 

These rapturous words are the climax of the Apostle's longdemonstration that the Gospel is the revelation of 'the righteousnessof God from faith to faith, ' and is thereby 'the power of God untosalvation. ' What a contrast there is between the beginning and theend of his argument! It started with sombre, sad words about man'ssinfulness and aversion from the knowledge of God. It closes withthis sunny outburst of triumph; like some stream rising among blackand barren cliffs, or melancholy moorlands, and foaming throughnarrow rifts in gloomy ravines, it reaches at last fertile lands, andflows calm, the sunlight dancing on its broad surface, till it losesitself at last in the unfathomable ocean of the love of God. 

We are told that the Biblical view of human nature is too dark. Well, the important question is not whether it is dark, but whether it istrue. But, apart from that, the doctrine of Scripture about man'smoral condition is not dark, if you will take the whole of ittogether. Certainly, a part of it is very dark. The picture, forinstance, of what men are, painted at the beginning of this Epistle, is shadowed like a canvas of Rembrandt's. The Bible is 'Nature'ssternest painter but her best. ' But to get the whole doctrine ofScripture on the subject, we have to take its confidence as to whatmen may become, as well as its portrait of what they are--and thenwho will say that the anthropology of Scripture is gloomy? To me itseems that the unrelieved blackness of the view which, because itadmits no fall, can imagine no rise, which sees in all man's sins andsorrows no token of the dominion of an alien power, and has, therefore, no reason to believe that they can be separated fromhumanity, is the true 'Gospel of despair, ' and that the system whichlooks steadily at all the misery and all the wickedness, and calmlyproposes to cast it all out, is really the only doctrine of humannature which throws any gleam of light on the darkness. Christianitybegins indeed with, 'There is none that doeth good, no, not one, ' butit ends with this victorious pæan of our text. 

And what a majestic close it is to the great words that have gonebefore, fitly crowning even their lofty height! One might well shrinkfrom presuming to take such words as a text, with any idea ofexhausting or of enhancing them. My object is very much more humble. I simply wish to bring out the remarkable order, in which Paul heremarshals, in his passionate, rhetorical amplification, all theenemies that can be supposed to seek to wrench us away from the loveof God; and triumphs over them all. We shall best measure thefullness of the words by simply taking these clauses as they stand inthe text. 

I. The love of God is unaffected by the extremest changes of ourcondition. 

The Apostle begins his fervid catalogue of vanquished foes by a pairof opposites which might seem to cover the whole ground--'neitherdeath nor life. ' What more can be said? Surely, these two includeeverything. From one point of view they do. But yet, as we shall see, there is more to be said. And the special reason for beginning withthis pair of possible enemies is probably to be found by rememberingthat they are a pair, that between them they do cover the wholeground and represent the _extremes_ of change which can befallus. The one stands at the one pole, the other at the other. If thesetwo stations, so far from each other, are equally near to God's love, then no intermediate point can be far from it. If the most violentchange which we can experience does not in the least matter to thegrasp which the love of God has on us, or to the grasp which we mayhave on it, then no less violent a change can be of any consequence. It is the same thought in a somewhat modified form, as we find inanother word of Paul's, 'Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; andwhether we die, we die unto the Lord. ' Our subordination to Him isthe same, and our consecration should be the same, in all varietiesof condition, even in that greatest of all variations. His love to usmakes no account of that mightiest of changes. How should it beaffected by slighter ones?

The distance of a star is measured by the apparent change in itsposition, as seen from different points of the earth's surface ororbit. But this great Light stands steadfast in our heaven, nor movesa hair's-breadth, nor pours a feebler ray on us, whether we look upto it from the midsummer day of busy life, or from the midwinter ofdeath. These opposites are parted by a distance to which the millionsof miles of the world's path among the stars are but a point, and yetthe love of God streams down on them alike. 

Of course, the confidence in immortality is implied in this thought. Death does not, in the slightest degree, affect the essentialvitality of the soul; so it does not, in the slightest degree, affectthe outflow of God's love to that soul. It is a change of conditionand circumstance, and no more. He does not lose us in the dust ofdeath. The withered leaves on the pathway are trampled into mud, andindistinguishable to human eyes; but He sees them even as when theyhung green and sunlit on the mystic tree of life. 

How beautifully this thought contrasts with the saddest aspect of thepower of death in our human experience! He is Death the Separator, who unclasps our hands from the closest, dearest grasp, and dividesasunder joints and marrow, and parts soul and body, and withdraws usfrom all our habitude and associations and occupations, and loosensevery bond of society and concord, and hales us away into a lonelyland. But there is one bond which his 'abhorred shears' cannot cut. Their edge is turned on _it_. One Hand holds us in a grasp whichthe fleshless fingers of Death in vain strive to loosen. Theseparator becomes the uniter; he rends us apart from the world thatHe may 'bring us to God. ' The love filtered by drops on us in life ispoured upon us in a flood in death; 'for I am persuaded, that neitherdeath nor life shall be able to separate us from the love of God. '

II. The love of God is undiverted from us by any other order ofbeings. 

'Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, ' says Paul. Here we passfrom conditions affecting ourselves to living beings beyondourselves. Now, it is important for understanding the precise thoughtof the Apostle to observe that this expression, when used without anyqualifying adjective, seems uniformly to mean good angels, thehierarchy of blessed spirits before the throne. So that there is noreference to 'spiritual wickedness in high places' striving to drawmen away from God. The supposition which the Apostle makes is, indeed, an impossible one, that these ministering spirits, who aresent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation, should so forget their mission and contradict their nature as to seekto bar us out from the love which it is their chiefest joy to bringto us. He knows it to be an impossible supposition, and its veryimpossibility gives energy to his conclusion, just as when in thesame fashion he makes the other equally impossible supposition aboutan angel from heaven preaching another gospel than that which he hadpreached to them. 

So we may turn the general thought of this second category ofimpotent efforts in two different ways, and suggest, first, that itimplies the utter powerlessness of any third party in regard to therelations between our souls and God. 

We alone have to do with Him alone. The awful fact of individuality, that solemn mystery of our personal being, has its most blessed orits most dread manifestation in our relation to God. There no otherBeing has any power. Counsel and stimulus, suggestion or temptation, instruction or lies, which may tend to lead us nearer to Him or awayfrom Him, they may indeed give us; but after they have done theirbest or their worst, all depends on the personal act of our owninnermost being. Man or angel can affect that, but from without. Theold mystics called prayer 'the flight of the lonely soul to the onlyGod. ' It is the name for all religion. These two, God and the soul, have to 'transact, ' as our Puritan forefathers used to say, as ifthere were no other beings in the universe but only they two. Angelsand principalities and powers may stand beholding with sympatheticjoy; they may minister blessing and guardianship in many ways; butthe decisive act of union between God and the soul they can neithereffect nor prevent. 

And as for them, so for men around us; the limits of their power toharm us are soon set. They may shut us out from human love bycalumnies, and dig deep gulfs of alienation between us and dear ones;they may hurt and annoy us in a thousand ways with slanderoustongues, and arrows dipped in poisonous hatred, but one thing theycannot do. They may build a wall around us, and imprison us from manya joy and many a fair prospect, but they cannot put a roof on it tokeep out the sweet influences from above, or hinder us from lookingup to the heavens. Nobody can come between us and God but ourselves. 

Or, we may turn this general thought in another direction, and say, These blessed spirits around the throne do not absorb and interceptHis love. They gather about its steps in their 'solemn troops andsweet societies'; but close as are their ranks, and innumerable as istheir multitude, they do not prevent that love from passing beyondthem to us on the outskirts of the crowd. The planet nearest the sunis drenched and saturated with fiery brightness, but the rays fromthe centre of life pass on to each of the sister spheres in its turn, and travel away outwards to where the remotest of them all rolls inits far-off orbit, unknown for millenniums to dwellers closer to thesun, but through all the ages visited by warmth and light accordingto its needs. Like that poor, sickly woman who could lay her wastedfingers on the hem of Christ's garment, notwithstanding the throngingmultitude, we can reach our hands through all the crowd, or rather Hereaches His strong hand to us and heals and blesses us. All theguests are fed full at that great table. One's gain is not another'sloss. The multitudes sit on the green grass, and the last man ofthe last fifty gets as much as the first. 'They did all eat, and werefilled'; and more remains than fed them all. So all beings are'nourished from the King's country, ' and none jostle others out oftheir share. This healing fountain is not exhausted of its curativepower by the early comers. 'I will give unto this last, even as untothee. ' 'Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, shall be able toseparate us from the love of God. '

III. The love of God is raised above the power of time. 

'Nor things present, nor things to come, ' is the Apostle's next classof powers impotent to disunite us from the love of God. Therhythmical arrangement of the text deserves to be noticed, as bearingnot only on its music and rhetorical flow, but as affecting itsforce. We had first a pair of opposites, and then a triplet; 'deathand life: angels, principalities, and powers. ' We have again a pairof opposites; 'things present, things to come, ' again followed by atriplet, 'height nor depth, nor any other creature. ' The effect ofthis is to divide the whole into two, and to throw the first andsecond classes more closely together, as also the third and fourth. Time and Space, these two mysterious ideas, which work so fatally onall human love, are powerless here. 

The great revelation of God, on which the whole of Judaism was built, was that made to Moses of the name 'I Am that I Am. ' And parallel tothe verbal revelation was the symbol of the Bush, burning andunconsumed, which is so often misunderstood. It appears whollycontrary to the usage of Scriptural visions, which are ever wont toexpress in material form the same truth which accompanies them inwords, that the meaning of that vision should be, as it is frequentlytaken as being, the continuance of Israel unharmed by the fieryfurnace of persecution. Not the continuance of Israel, but theeternity of Israel's God is the teaching of that flaming wonder. Theburning Bush and the Name of the Lord proclaimed the same great truthof self-derived, self-determined, timeless, undecaying Being. Andwhat better symbol than the bush burning, and yet not burning out, could be found of that God in whose life there is no tendency todeath, whose work digs no pit of weariness into which it falls, whogives and is none the poorer, who fears no exhaustion in Hisspending, no extinction in His continual shining?

And this eternity of Being is no mere metaphysical abstraction. It iseternity of love, for God is love. That great stream, the pouring outof His own very inmost Being, knows no pause, nor does the deepfountain from which it flows ever sink one hair's-breadth in its purebasin. 

We know of earthly loves which cannot die. They have entered sodeeply into the very fabric of the soul, that like some cloth dyed ingrain, as long as two threads hold together they will retain thetint. We have to thank God for such instances of love stronger thandeath, which make it easier for us to believe in the unchangingduration of His. But we know, too, of love that can change, and weknow that all love must part. Few of us have reached middle life, whodo not, looking back, see our track strewed with the gaunt skeletonsof dead friendships, and dotted with 'oaks of weeping, ' waving greenand mournful over graves, and saddened by footprints striking awayfrom the line of march, and leaving us the more solitary for theirdeparture. 

How blessed then to know of a love which cannot change or die! Thepast, the present, and the future are all the same to Him, to whom 'athousand years, ' that can corrode so much of earthly love, are intheir power to change 'as one day, ' and 'one day, ' which can hold sofew of the expressions of our love, may be 'as a thousand years' inthe multitude and richness of the gifts which it can be expanded tocontain. The whole of what He has been to any past, He is to usto-day. 'The God of Jacob is our refuge. ' All these old-world storiesof loving care and guidance may be repeated in our lives. 

So we may bring the blessedness of all the past into the present, andcalmly face the misty future, sure that it cannot rob us of His love. 

Whatever may drop out of our vainly-clasping hands, it matters not, if only our hearts are stayed on His love, which neither thingspresent nor things to come can alter or remove. Looking on all theflow of ceaseless change, the waste and fading, the alienation andcooling, the decrepitude and decay of earthly affection, we can liftup with gladness, heightened by the contrast, the triumphant song ofthe ancient Church: 'Give thanks unto the Lord: for He is good:because His mercy endureth for ever!'

IV. The love of God is present everywhere. 

The Apostle ends his catalogue with a singular trio of antagonists;'nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, ' as if he had gotimpatient of the enumeration of impotencies, and having named theoutside boundaries in space of the created universe, flings, as itwere, with one rapid toss, into that large room the whole that it cancontain, and triumphs over it all. 

As the former clause proclaimed the powerlessness of Time, so thisproclaims the powerlessness of that other great mystery of creaturallife which we call Space, Height or depth, it matters not. Thatdiffusive love diffuses itself equally in all directions. Up or down, it is all the same. The distance from the centre is the same toZenith or to Nadir. 

Here, we have the same process applied to that idea of Omnipresenceas was applied in the former clause to the idea of Eternity. Thatthought, so hard to grasp with vividness, and not altogether a gladone to a sinful soul, is all softened and glorified, as some solemnAlpine cliff of bare rock is when the tender morning light glows onit, when it is thought of as the Omnipresence of Love. 'Thou, God, seest me, ' may be a stern word, if the God who sees be but a mightyMaker or a righteous Judge. As reasonably might we expect a prisonerin his solitary cell to be glad when he thinks that the jailer's eyeis on him from some unseen spy-hole in the wall, as expect anythought of God but one to make a man read that grand one hundred andthirty-ninth Psalm with joy: 'If I ascend into heaven, Thou artthere; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, Thou art there. ' So may aman say shudderingly to himself, and tremble as he asks in vain, 'Whither shall I flee from Thy Presence?' But how different it all iswhen we can cast over the marble whiteness of that solemn thought thewarm hue of life, and change the form of our words into this of ourtext: 'Nor height, nor depth, shall be able to separate us from thelove of God. '

In that great ocean of the divine love we live and move and have ourbeing, floating in it like some sea flower which spreads its filmybeauty and waves its long tresses in the depths of mid-ocean. Thesound of its waters is ever in our ears, and above, beneath, aroundus, its mighty currents run evermore. We need not cower before thefixed gaze of some stony god, looking on us unmoved like thoseEgyptian deities that sit pitiless with idle hands on their laps, andwide-open lidless eyes gazing out across the sands. We need not fearthe Omnipresence of Love, nor the Omniscience which knows usaltogether, and loves us even as it knows. Rather we shall be gladthat we are ever in His Presence, and desire, as the height of allfelicity and the power for all goodness, to walk all the day long inthe light of His countenance, till the day come when we shall receivethe crown of our perfecting in that we shall be 'ever with the Lord. '

The recognition of this triumphant sovereignty of love over all thesereal and supposed antagonists makes us, too, lords over them, anddelivers us from the temptations which some of them present us toseparate ourselves from the love of God. They all become our servantsand helpers, uniting us to that love. So we are set free from thedread of death and from the distractions incident to life. So we aredelivered from superstitious dread of an unseen world, and fromcraven fear of men. So we are emancipated from absorption in thepresent and from careful thought for the future. So we are at homeeverywhere, and every corner of the universe is to us one of the manymansions of our Father's house. 'All things are yours, . .. And ye areChrist's; and Christ is God's. '

I do not forget the closing words of this great text. I have notventured to include them in our present subject, because they wouldhave introduced another wide region of thought to be laid down on ouralready too narrow canvas. 

But remember, I beseech you, that this love of God is explained byour Apostle to be 'in Christ Jesus our Lord. ' Love illimitable, all-pervasive, eternal; yes, but a love which has a channel and acourse; love which has a method and a process by which it poursitself over the world. It is not, as some representations would makeit, a vague, nebulous light diffused through space as in a chaotichalf-made universe, but all gathered in that great Light which rulesthe day--even in Him who said: 'I am the Light of the world. ' InChrist the love of God is all centred and embodied, that it may beimparted to all sinful and hungry hearts, even as burning coals aregathered on a hearth that they may give warmth to all that are in thehouse. 'God _so_ loved the world'--not merely _so much_, but in _sucha fashion_--'that'--that what? Many people would leap at once fromthe first to the last clause of the verse, and regard eternal lifefor all and sundry as the only adequate expression of the universallove of God. Not so does Christ speak. Between that universal loveand its ultimate purpose and desire for every man He inserts twoconditions, one on God's part, one on man's. God's love reaches itsend, namely, the bestowal of eternal life, by means of a divine actand a human response. 'God _so_ loved the world, that He _gave_ Hisonly begotten Son, that whosoever _believeth_ in Him should notperish, but have everlasting life. ' So all the universal love of Godfor you and me and for all our brethren is 'in Christ Jesus ourLord, ' and faith in Him unites us to it by bonds which no foe canbreak, no shock of change can snap, no time can rot, no distance canstretch to breaking. 'For I am persuaded, that neither death norlife, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in ChristJesus our Lord. '

THE SACRIFICE OF THE BODY

 'I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. '--ROMANS xii. 1. 

In the former part of this letter the Apostle has been building up amassive fabric of doctrine, which has stood the waste of centuries, and the assaults of enemies, and has been the home of devout souls. He now passes to speak of practice, and he binds the two halves ofhis letter indissolubly together by that significant 'therefore, 'which does not only look back to the thing last said, but to thewhole of the preceding portion of the letter. 'What God hath joinedtogether let no man put asunder. ' Christian living is inseparablyconnected with Christian believing. Possibly the error of ourforefathers was in cutting faith too much loose from practice, andsupposing that an orthodox creed was sufficient, though I think theextent to which they did suppose that has been very much exaggerated. The temptation of this day is precisely the opposite. 'Conduct isthree-fourths of life, ' says one of our teachers. Yes. But what aboutthe _fourth_ fourth which underlies conduct? Paul's way is theright way. Lay broad and deep the foundations of God's facts revealedto us, and then build upon that the fabric of a noble life. Thisgeneration superficially tends to cut practice loose from faith, andso to look for grapes from thorns and figs from thistles. Wrongthinking will not lead to right doing. 'I beseech you, _therefore_, brethren, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice. '

The Apostle, in beginning his practical exhortations, lays as thefoundations of them all two companion precepts: one, with which wehave to deal, affecting mainly the outward life; its twin sister, which follows in the next verse, affecting mainly the inward life. Hewho has drunk in the spirit of Paul's doctrinal teaching will presenthis body a living sacrifice, and be renewed in the spirit of hismind; and thus, outwardly and inwardly, will be approximating toGod's ideal, and all specific virtues will be his in germ. Those twoprecepts lay down the broad outline, and all that follow in the wayof specific commandments is but filling in its details. 

I. We observe that we have here, first, an all-inclusive directoryfor the outward life. 

Now, it is to be noticed that the metaphor of sacrifice runs throughthe whole of the phraseology of my text. The word rendered 'present'is a technical expression for the sacerdotal action of offering. Atacit contrast is drawn between the sacrificial ritual, which wasfamiliar to Romans as well as Jews, and the true Christian sacrificeand service. In the former a large portion of the sacrificesconsisted of animals which were slain. Ours is to be 'a livingsacrifice. ' In the former the offering was presented to the Deity, and became His property. In the Christian service, the gift passes, in like manner, from the possession of the worshipper, and is setapart for the uses of God, for that is the proper meaning of the word'holy. ' The outward sacrifice gave an odour of a sweet smell, which, by a strong metaphor, was declared to be fragrant in the nostrils ofDeity. In like manner, the Christian sacrifice is 'acceptable untoGod. ' These other sacrifices were purely outward, and derived noefficacy from the disposition of the worshipper. Our sacrifice, though the material of the offering be corporeal, is the act of theinner man, and so is called 'rational' rather than 'reasonable, ' asour Version has it, or as in other parts of Scripture, 'spiritual. 'And the last word of my text, 'service, ' retains the sacerdotalallusion, because it does not mean the service of a slave ordomestic, but that of a priest. 

And so the sum of the whole is that the master-word for the outwardlife of a Christian is sacrifice. That, again, includes twothings--self-surrender and surrender to God. 

Now, Paul was not such a superficial moralist as to begin at thewrong end, and talk about the surrender of the outward life, unlessas the result of the prior surrender of the inward, and that priorityof the consecration of the man to his offering of the body iscontained in the very metaphor. For a priest needs to be consecratedbefore he can offer, and we in our innermost wills, in the depths ofour nature, must be surrendered and set apart to God ere any of ouroutward activities can be laid upon His altar. The Apostle, then, does not make the mistake of substituting external forinternal surrender, but he presupposes that the latter has preceded. He puts the sequence more fully in the parallel passage in this veryletter: 'Yield yourselves unto God, and your bodies as instruments ofrighteousness unto Him. ' So, then, first of all, we must be priestsby our inward consecration, and then, since 'a priest must havesomewhat to offer, ' we must bring the outward life and lay it uponHis altar. 

Now, of the two thoughts which I have said are involved in this greatkeyword, the former is common to Christianity, with all noble systemsof morality, whether religious or irreligious. It is a commonplace, on which I do not need to dwell, that every man who will live a man'slife, and not that of a beast, must sacrifice the flesh, and rigidlykeep it down. But that commonplace is lifted into an altogether newregion, assumes a new solemnity, and finds new power for itsfulfilment when we add to the moralist's duty of control of theanimal and outward nature the other thought, that the surrender mustbe to God. 

There is no need for my dwelling at any length on the variouspractical directions in which this great exhortation must be wroughtout. It is of more importance, by far, to have well fixed in ourminds and hearts the one dominant thought that sacrifice is thekeyword of the Christian life than to explain the directions in whichit applies. But still, just a word or two about these. There arethree ways in which we may look at the body, which the Apostle heresays is to be yielded up unto God. 

It is the recipient of impressions from without. _There_ is a fieldfor consecration. The eye that looks upon evil, and by the look hasrebellious, lustful, sensuous, foul desires excited in the heart, breaks this solemn law. The eye that among the things seen dwellswith complacency on the pure, and turns from the impure as if a hotiron had been thrust into its pupil; that in the things seen discernsshimmering behind them, and manifested through them, the thingsunseen and eternal, is the consecrated eye. 'Art for Art's sake, ' toquote the cant of the day, has too often meant art for the flesh'ssake. And there are pictures and books, and sights of various sorts, flashed before the eyes of you young men and women which it ispollution to dwell upon, and should be pain to remember. I beseechyou all to have guard over these gates of the heart, and to pray, 'Turn away mine eyes from viewing vanity. ' And the other senses, inlike manner, have need to be closely connected with God if they arenot to rush us down to the devil. 

The body is not only the recipient of impressions. It is thepossessor of appetites and necessities. See to it that these areindulged, with constant reference to God. It is no small attainmentof the Christian life 'to eat our meat with gladness and singlenessof heart, praising God. ' In a hundred directions this characteristicof our corporeal lives tends to lead us all away from supremeconsecration to Him. There is the senseless luxury of thisgeneration. There is the exaggerated care for physical strength andcompleteness amongst the young; there is the intemperance in eatingand drinking, which is the curse and the shame of England. There isthe provision for the flesh, the absorbing care for the procuring ofmaterial comforts, which drowns the spirit in miserable anxieties, and makes men bond-slaves. There is the corruption which comes fromdrunkenness and from lust. There is the indolence which checks loftyaspirations and stops a man in the middle of noble work. And thereare many other forms of evil on which I need not dwell, all of whichare swept clean out of the way when we lay to heart this injunction:'I beseech you present your bodies a living sacrifice, ' and letappetites and tastes and corporeal needs be kept in rigidsubordination and in conscious connection with Him. I remember aquaint old saying of a German schoolmaster, who apostrophised hisbody thus: 'I go with you three times a day to eat; you must comewith me three times a day to pray. ' Subjugate the body, and let it bethe servant and companion of the devout spirit. 

It is also, besides being the recipient of impressions, and thepossessor of needs and appetites, our instrument for working in theworld. And so the exhortation of my text comes to include this, thatall our activities done by means of brain and eye and tongue and handand foot shall be consciously devoted to Him, and laid as a sacrificeupon His altar. That pervasive, universally diffused reference toGod, in all the details of daily life, is the thing that Christianmen and women need most of all to try to cultivate. 'Pray withoutceasing, ' says the Apostle. This exhortation can only be obeyed ifour work is indeed worship, being done by God's help, for God's sake, in communion with God. 

So, dear friends, sacrifice is the keynote--meaning therebysurrender, control, and stimulus of the corporeal frame, surrender toGod, in regard to the impressions which we allow to be made upon oursenses, to the indulgence which we grant to our appetites, and thesatisfaction which we seek for our needs, and to the activities whichwe engage in by means of this wondrous instrument with which God hastrusted us. These are the plain principles involved in theexhortation of my text. 'He that soweth to the flesh, shall of theflesh reap corruption. ' 'I keep under my body, and bring it intosubjection. ' It is a good servant; it is a bad master. 

II. Note, secondly, the relation between this priestly service andother kinds of worship. 

I need only say a word about that. Paul is not meaning to depreciatethe sacrificial ritual, from which he drew his emblem. But he ismeaning to assert that the devotion of a life, manifested throughbodily activity, is higher in its nature than the symbolical worshipof any altar and of any sacrifice. And that falls in with prevailingtendencies in this day, which has laid such a firm hold on theprinciple that daily conduct is better than formal worship, that ithas forgotten to ask the question whether the daily conduct is likelyto be satisfactory if the formal worship is altogether neglected. Ibelieve, as profoundly as any man can, that the true worship isdistinguishable from and higher than the more sensuous forms of theCatholic or other sacramentarian churches, or the more simple of thePuritan and Nonconformist, or the altogether formless of the Quaker. I believe that the best worship is the manifold activities of dailylife laid upon God's altar, so that the division between thingssecular and things sacred is to a large extent misleading andirrelevant. But at the same time I believe that you have very littlechance of getting this diffused and all-pervasive reference of all aman's doings to God unless there are, all through his life, recurringwith daily regularity, reservoirs of power, stations where he mayrest, kneeling-places where the attitude of service is exchanged forthe attitude of supplication; times of quiet communion with God whichshall feed the worshipper's activities as the white snowfields on thehigh summits feed the brooks that sparkle by the way, and bringfertility wherever they run. So, dear brethren, remember that whilstlife is the field of worship there must be the inward worship withinthe shrine if there is to be the outward service. 

III. Lastly, note the equally comprehensive motive and ground of thisall-inclusive directory for conduct. 

'I beseech you, by the mercies of God. ' That plural does not meanthat the Apostle is extending his view over the whole wide field ofthe divine beneficence, but rather that he is contemplating the oneall-inclusive mercy about which the former part of his letter hasbeen eloquent--viz. The gift of Christ--and contemplating it in themanifoldness of the blessings which flow from it. The mercies of Godwhich move a man to yield himself as a sacrifice are not the diffusedbeneficences of His providence, but the concentrated love that liesin the person and work of His Son. 

And there, as I believe, is the one motive to which we can appealwith any prospect of its being powerful enough to give the needfulimpetus all through a life. The sacrifice of Christ is the ground onwhich our sacrifices can be offered and accepted, for it was thesacrifice of a death propitiatory and cleansing, and on it, as theancient ritual taught us, may be reared the enthusiastic sacrifice ofa life--a thankoffering for it. 

Nor is it only the ground on which our sacrifice is accepted, but itis the great motive by which our sacrifice is impelled. _There_is the difference between the Christian teaching, 'present yourbodies a sacrifice, ' and the highest and noblest of similar teachingelsewhere. One of the purest and loftiest of the ancient moralistswas a contemporary of Paul's. He would have re-echoed from his heartthe Apostle's directory, but he knew nothing of the Apostle's motive. So his exhortations were powerless. He had no spell to work on men'shearts, and his lofty teachings were as the voice of one crying inthe wilderness. Whilst Seneca taught, Rome was a cesspool of moralputridity and Nero butchered. So it always is. There may be nobleteachings about self-control, purity, and the like, but an evil andadulterous generation is slow to dance to such piping. 

Our poet has bid us--

 'Move upwards, casting out the beast, And let the ape and tiger die. '

But how is this heavy bulk of ours to 'move upwards'; how is thebeast to be 'cast out'; how are the 'ape and tiger' in us to beslain? Paul has told us, 'By the mercies of God. ' Christ's gift, meditated on, accepted, introduced into will and heart, is the onepower that will melt our obstinacy, the one magnet that will draw usafter it. 

Nothing else, brethren, as your own experience has taught you, and asthe experience of the world confirms, nothing else will bindBehemoth, and put a hook in his nose. Apart from the constrainingmotive of the love of Christ, all the cords of prudence, conscience, advantage, by which men try to bind their unruly passions and manaclethe insisting flesh, are like the chains on the demoniac'swrists--'And he had oftentimes been bound by chains, and the chainswere snapped asunder. ' But the silken leash with which the fair Unain the poem leads the lion, the silken leash of love will bind thestrong man, and enable us to rule ourselves. If we will open ourhearts to the sacrifice of Christ, we shall be able to offerourselves as thankofferings. If we will let His love sway our willsand consciences, He will give our wills and consciences power tomaster and to offer up our flesh. And the great change, according towhich He will one day change the body of our humiliation into thelikeness of the body of His glory, will be begun in us, if we liveunder the influence of the motive and the commandment which thisApostle bound together in our text and in his other great words, 'Yeare not your own; ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify Godin your body and spirit, which are His. '

TRANSFIGURATION

 'Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. '--ROMANS xii. 2. 

I had occasion to point out, in a sermon on the preceding verse, thatthe Apostle is, in this context, making the transition from thedoctrinal to the practical part of his letter, and that he lays downbroad principles, of which all his subsequent injunctions andexhortations are simply the filling up of the details. One masterword, for the whole Christian life, as we then saw, is sacrifice, self-surrender, and that to God. In like manner, Paul here brackets, with that great conception of the Christian life, another equallydominant and equally comprehensive. In one aspect, it isself-surrender; in another, it is growing transformation. And, justas in the former verse we found that an inward surrender preceded theoutward sacrifice, and that the inner man, having been consecrated asa priest, by this yielding of himself to God, was then called upon tomanifest inward consecration by outward sacrifice, so in this furtherexhortation, an inward 'renewing of the mind' is regarded as thenecessary antecedent of transformation of outward life. 

So we have here another comprehensive view of what the Christian lifeought to be, and that not only grasped, as it were, in its verycentre and essence, but traced out in two directions--as to thatwhich must precede it within, and as to that which follows it asconsequence. An outline of the possibilities, and therefore theduties, of the Christian, is set forth here, in these three thoughtsof my text, the renewed mind issuing in a transfigured life, crownedand rewarded by a clearer and ever clearer insight into what we oughtto be and do. 

I. Note, then, that the foundation of all transformation of characterand conduct is laid deep in a renewed mind. 

Now it is a matter of world-wide experience, verified by each of usin our own case, if we have ever been honest in the attempt, that thepower of self-improvement is limited by very narrow bounds. Any manthat has ever tried to cure himself of the most trivial habit whichhe desires to get rid of, or to alter in the slightest degree the setof some strong taste or current of his being, knows how little he cando, even by the most determined effort. Something may be effected, but, alas! as the proverbs of all nations and all lands have taughtus, it is very little indeed. 'You cannot expel nature with a fork, 'said the Roman. 'What's bred in the bone won't come out of theflesh, ' says the Englishman. 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin orthe leopard his spots?' says the Hebrew. And we all know what theanswer to that question is. The problem that is set before a man whenyou tell him to effect self-improvement is something like thatwhich confronted that poor paralytic lying in the porch at the pool:'If you can walk you will be able to get to the pool that will makeyou able to walk. But you have got to be cured before you can do whatyou need to do in order to be cured. ' Only one knife can cut theknot. The Gospel of Jesus Christ presents itself, not as a mererepublication of morality, not as merely a new stimulus and motive todo what is right, but as an actual communication to men of a newpower to work in them, a strong hand laid upon our poor, feeble handwith which we try to put on the brake or to apply the stimulus. It isa new gift of a life which will unfold itself after its own nature, as the bud into flower, and the flower into fruit; giving newdesires, tastes, directions, and renewing the whole nature. And so, says Paul, the beginning of transformation of character is therenovation in the very centre of the being, and the communication ofa new impulse and power to the inward self. 

Now, I suppose that in my text the word 'mind' is not so muchemployed in the widest sense, including all the affections and will, and the other faculties of our nature, as in the narrower sense ofthe perceptive power, or that faculty in our nature by which werecognise, and make our own, certain truths. 'The renewing of themind, ' then, is only, in such an interpretation, a theological way ofputting the simpler English thought, a change of estimates, a new setof views; or if that word be too shallow, as indeed it is, a new setof convictions. It is profoundly true that 'As a man thinketh, sois he. ' Our characters are largely made by our estimates of what isgood or bad, desirable or undesirable. And what the Apostle isthinking about here is, as I take it, principally how the body ofChristian truth, if it effects a lodgment in, not merely the brain ofa man, but his whole nature, will modify and alter it all. Why, weall know how often a whole life has been revolutionised by the suddendawning or rising in its sky, of some starry new truth, formerlyhidden and undreamed of. And if we should translate the somewhatarchaic phraseology of our text into the plainest of modern English, it just comes to this: If you want to change your characters, and Godknows they all need it, change the deep convictions of your mind; andget hold, as living realities, of the great truths of Christ'sGospel. If you and I really believed what we say we believe, thatJesus Christ has died for us, and lives for us, and is ready to pourout upon us the gift of His Divine Spirit, and wills that we shouldbe like Him, and holds out to us the great and wonderful hopes andprospects of an absolutely eternal life of supreme and sereneblessedness at His right hand, should we be, could we be, the sort ofpeople that most of us are? It is not the much that you say youbelieve that shapes your character; it is the little that youhabitually realise. Truth professed has no transforming power; truthreceived and fed upon can revolutionise a man's whole character. 

So, dear brethren, remember that my text, though it is an analysis ofthe methods of Christian progress, and though it is a wonderfulsetting forth of the possibilities open to the poorest, dwarfed, blinded, corrupted nature, is also all commandment. And if it is truethat the principles of the Gospel exercise transforming power uponmen's lives, and that in order for these principles to effect theirnatural results there must be honest dealing with them, on our parts, take this as the practical outcome of all this first part of mysermon--let us all see to it that we keep ourselves in touch with thetruths which we say we believe; and that we thorough-goingly applythese truths in all their searching, revealing, quickening, curbingpower, to every action of our daily lives. If for one day we couldbring everything that we do into touch with the creed that weprofess, we should be different men and women. Make of your everythought an action; link every action with a thought. Or, to put itmore Christianlike, let there be nothing in your creed which is notin your commandments; and let nothing be in your life which is notmoulded by these. The beginning of all transformation is therevolutionised conviction of a mind that has accepted the truths ofthe Gospel. 

II. Well then, secondly, note the transfigured life. 

The Apostle uses in his positive commandment, 'Be ye transformed, 'the same word which is employed by two of the Evangelists in theiraccount of our Lord's transfiguration. And although I suppose itwould be going too far to assert that there is a distinct referenceintended to that event, it may be permissible to look back to it asbeing a lovely illustration of the possibilities that open to anhonest Christian life--the possibility of a change, coming fromwithin upwards, and shedding a strange radiance on the face, whilstyet the identity remains. So by the rippling up from within of therenewed mind will come into our lives a transformation not altogetherunlike that which passed on Him when His garments did shine 'so as nofuller on earth could white them'; and His face was as the sun in hisstrength. 

The life is to be transfigured, yet it remains the same, not only inthe consciousness of personal identity, but in the main trend anddrift of the character. There is nothing in the Gospel of JesusChrist which is meant to obliterate the lines of the strongly markedindividuality which each of us receives by nature. Rather the Gospelis meant to heighten and deepen these, and to make each man moreintensely himself, more thoroughly individual and unlike anybodyelse. The perfection of our nature is found in the pursuit, to thefurthest point, of the characteristics of our nature, and so, byreason of diversity, there is the greater harmony, and, all takentogether, will reflect less inadequately the infinite glories ofwhich they are all partakers. But whilst the individuality remains, and ought to be heightened by Christian consecration, yet a changeshould pass over our lives, like the change that passes over thewinter landscape when the summer sun draws out the green leaves fromthe hard black boughs, and flashes a fresh colour over all the brownpastures. There should be such a change as when a drop or two of rubywine falls into a cup, and so diffuses a gradual warmth of tint overall the whiteness of the water. Christ in us, if we are true to Him, will make us more ourselves, and yet new creatures in Christ Jesus. 

And the transformation is to be into His likeness who is the patternof all perfection. We must be moulded after the same type. There aretwo types possible for us: this world; Jesus Christ. We have to makeour choice which is to be the headline after which we are to try towrite. 'They that make them are like unto them. ' Men resemble theirgods; men become more or less like their idols. What you conceive tobe desirable you will more and more assimilate yourselves to. Christis the Christian man's pattern; is He not better than the blind, corrupt world?

That transformation is no sudden thing, though the revolution whichunderlies it may be instantaneous. The working _out_ of the newmotives, the working _in_ of the new power, is no mere work of amoment. It is a lifelong task till the lump be leavened. MichaelAngelo, in his mystical way, used to say that sculpture effected itsaim by the removal of parts; as if the statue lay somehow hid in themarble block. We have, day by day, to work at the task of removingthe superfluities that mask its outlines. Sometimes with a heavymallet, and a hard blow, and a broad chisel, we have to take awayhuge masses; sometimes, with fine tools and delicate touches, toremove a grain or two of powdered dust from the sparkling block, butalways to seek more and more, by slow, patient toil, to conformourselves to that serene type of all perfectness that we have learnedto love in Jesus Christ. 

And remember, brethren, this transformation is no magic changeeffected whilst men sleep. It is a commandment which we have to braceourselves to perform, day by day to set ourselves to the task of morecompletely assimilating ourselves to our Lord. It comes to be asolemn question for each of us whether we can say, 'To-day I am likerJesus Christ than I was yesterday; to-day the truth which renews themind has a deeper hold upon me than it ever had before. '

But this positive commandment is only one side of the transfigurationthat is to be effected. It is clear enough that if a new likeness isbeing stamped upon a man, the process may be looked at from the otherside; and that in proportion as we become liker Jesus Christ, weshall become more unlike the old type to which we were previouslyconformed. And so, says Paul, 'Be not conformed to this world, but beye transformed. ' He does not mean to say that the nonconformityprecedes the transformation. They are two sides of one process; botharising from the renewing of the mind within. 

Now, I do not wish to do more than just touch most lightly upon thethoughts that are here, but I dare not pass them by altogether. 'Thisworld' here, in my text, is more properly 'this age, ' which meanssubstantially the same thing as John's favourite word 'world, ' viz. The sum total of godless men and things conceived of as separatedfrom God, only that by this expression the essentially fleetingnature of that type is more distinctly set forth. Now the world isthe world to-day just as much as it was in Paul's time. No doubt theGospel has sweetened society; no doubt the average of godless life inEngland is a better thing than the average of godless life in theRoman Empire. No doubt there is a great deal of Christianity diffusedthrough the average opinion and ways of looking at things, thatprevail around us. But the World is the world still. There are maximsand ways of living, and so on, characteristic of the Christian life, which are in as complete antagonism to the ideas and maxims andpractices that prevail amongst men who are outside of the influencesof this Christian truth in their own hearts, as ever they were. 

And although it can only be a word, I want to put in here a veryearnest word which the tendencies of this generation do veryspecially require. It seems to be thought, by a great many people, who call themselves Christians nowadays, that the nearer they cancome in life, in ways of looking at things, in estimates ofliterature, for instance, in customs of society, in politics, intrade, and especially in amusements--the nearer they can come to theun-Christian world, the more 'broad' (save the mark!) and 'superiorto prejudice' they are. 'Puritanism, ' not only in theology, but inlife and conduct, has come to be at a discount in these days. And itseems to be by a great many professing Christians thought to be agreat feat to walk as the mules on the Alps do, with one foot overthe path and the precipice down below. Keep away from the edge. Youare safer so. Although, of course, I am not talking about mereconventional dissimilarities; and though I know and believe and feelall that can be said about the insufficiency, and even insincerity, of such, yet there is a broad gulf between the man who believes inJesus Christ and His Gospel and the man who does not, and theresulting conducts cannot be the same unless the Christian man isinsincere. 

III. And now lastly, and only a word, note the great reward and crownof this transfigured life. 

Paul puts it in words which, if I had time, would require somecommenting upon. The issue of such a life is, to put it into plainEnglish, an increased power of perceiving, instinctively and surely, what it is God's will that we should do. And that is the reward. Justas when you take away disturbing masses of metal from near a compass, it trembles to its true point, so when, by the discipline of which Ihave been speaking, there are swept away from either side of us thethings that would perturb our judgment, there comes, as blessing andreward, a clear insight into that which it is our duty to do. 

There may be many difficulties left, many perplexities. There is nopromise here, nor is there anything in the tendencies of Christ-likeliving, to lead us to anticipate that guidance in regard to mattersof prudence or expediency or temporal advantage will follow from sucha transfigured life. All such matters are still to be determined inthe proper fashion, by the exercise of our own best judgment andcommon-sense. But in the higher region, the knowledge of good andevil, surely it is a blessed reward, and one of the highest that canbe given to a man, that there shall be in him so complete a harmonywith God that, like God's Son, he 'does always the things that pleaseHim, ' and that the Father will show him whatsoever things Himselfdoeth; and that these also will the son do likewise. To know beyonddoubt what I ought to do, and knowing, to have no hesitation orreluctance in doing it, seems to me to be heaven upon earth, and theman that has it needs but little more. This, then, is the reward. Each peak we climb opens wider and clearer prospects into theuntravelled land before us. 

And so, brethren, here is the way, the only way, by which we canchange ourselves, first let us have our minds renewed by contact withthe truth, then we shall be able to transform our lives into thelikeness of Jesus Christ, and our faces too will shine, and our liveswill be ennobled, by a serene beauty which men cannot but admire, though it may rebuke them. And as the issue of all we shall haveclearer and deeper insight into that will, which to know is life, inkeeping of which there is great reward. And thus our apostle'spromise may be fulfilled for each of us. 'We all with unveiled facesreflecting'--as a mirror does--'the glory of the Lord, are changed. .. Into the same image. '

SOBER THINKING

 'For I say, through the grace that is given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. '--ROMANS xii. 3. 

It is hard to give advice without seeming to assume superiority; itis hard to take it, unless the giver identifies himself with thereceiver, and shows that his counsel to others is a law for himself. Paul does so here, led by the delicate perception which comes from aloving heart, compared with which deliberate 'tact' is cold andclumsy. He wishes, as the first of the specific duties to which heinvites the Roman Christians, an estimate of themselves based uponthe recognition of God as the Giver of all capacities and graces, andleading to a faithful use for the general good of the 'giftsdiffering according to the grace given to us. ' In the first words ofour text, he enforces his counsel by an appeal to his apostolicauthority; but he so presents it that, instead of separating himselffrom the Roman Christians by it, he unites himself with them. Hespeaks of 'the grace given to _me_, ' and in verse 6 of 'the gracegiven to _us_. ' He was made an Apostle by the same giving God who hasbestowed varying gifts on each of _them_. He knows what is the gracewhich he possesses as he would have them know; and in these counselshe is assuming no superiority, but is simply using the special giftbestowed on him for the good of all. With this delicate turn of whatmight else have sounded harshly authoritative, putting prominentlyforward the divine gift and letting the man Paul to whom it was givenfall into the background, he counsels as the first of the socialduties which Christian men owe to one another, a sober and justestimate of themselves. This sober estimate is here regarded as beingimportant chiefly as an aid to right service. It is immediatelyfollowed by counsels to the patient and faithful exercise ofdiffering gifts. For thus we may know what our gifts are; and theacquisition of such knowledge is the aim of our text. 

I. What determines our gifts. 

Paul here gives a precise standard, or 'measure' as he calls it, according to which we are to estimate ourselves. 'Faith' is themeasure of our gifts, and is itself a gift from God. The strength ofa Christian man's faith determines his whole Christian character. Faith is trust, the attitude of receptivity. There are in it aconsciousness of need, a yearning desire and a confidence ofexpectation. It is the open empty hand held up with the assurancethat it will be filled; it is the empty pitcher let down into thewell with the assurance that it will be drawn up filled. It is theprecise opposite of the self-dependent isolation which shuts us outfrom God. The law of the Christian life is ever, 'according to yourfaith be it unto you'; 'believe that ye receive and ye have them. ' Sothen the more faith a man exercises the more of God and Christ hehas. It is the measure of our capacity, hence there may be indefiniteincrease in the gifts which God bestows on faithful souls. Each of uswill have as much as he desires and is capable of containing. Thewalls of the heart are elastic, and desire expands them. 

The grace given by faith works in the line of its possessor's naturalfaculties; but these are supernaturally reinforced and strengthenedwhile, at the same time, they are curbed and controlled, by thedivine gift, and the natural gifts thus dealt with become what Paulcalls _charisms_. The whole nature of a Christian should be ennobled, elevated, made more delicate and intense, when the 'Spirit of lifethat is in Christ Jesus' abides in and inspires it. Just as a sunlesslandscape is smitten into sudden beauty by a burst of sunshine whichheightens the colouring of the flowers on the river's bank, and isflashed back from every silvery ripple on the stream, so the faithwhich brings the life of Christ into the life of the Christian makeshim more of a man than he was before. So, there will be infinitevariety in the resulting characters. It is the same force in variousforms that rolls in the thunder or gleams in the dewdrops, thatpaints the butterfly's feathers or flashes in a star. All individualidiosyncrasies should be developed in the Christian Church, and willbe when its members yield themselves fully to the indwelling Spirit, and can truly declare that the lives which they live in the fleshthey live by the faith of the Son of God. 

But Paul here regards the measure of faith as itself 'dealt to everyman'; and however we may construe the grammar of this sentence thereis a deep sense in which our faith is God's gift to us. We have togive equal emphasis to the two conceptions of faith as a human actand as a divine bestowal, which have so often been pitted againsteach other as contradictory when really they are complementary. Theapparent antagonism between them is but one instance of the greatantithesis to which we come to at last in reference to all humanthought on the relations of man to God. 'It is He that worketh in usboth to will and to do of His own good pleasure'; and all ourgoodness is God-given goodness, and yet it is our goodness. Everydevout heart has a consciousness that the faith which knits it to Godis God's work in it, and that left to itself it would have remainedalienated and faithless. The consciousness that his faith was his ownact blended in full harmony with the twin consciousness that it wasChrist's gift, in the agonised father's prayer, 'Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief. '

II. What is a just estimate of our gifts. 

The Apostle tells us, negatively, that we are not to think morehighly than we ought to think, and positively that we are to 'thinksoberly. '

To arrive at a just estimate of ourselves the estimate must ever beaccompanied with a distinct consciousness that all is God's gift. That will keep us from anything in the nature of pride orover-weening self-importance. It will lead to true humility, which isnot ignorance of what we can do, but recognition that we, the doers, are of ourselves but poor creatures. We are less likely to fancy thatwe are greater than we are when we feel that, whatever we are, Godmade us so. 'What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thoudidst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not receivedit?'

Further, it is to be noted that the estimate of gifts which Paulenjoins is an estimate with a view to service. Muchself-investigation is morbid, because it is self-absorbed; and muchis morbid because it is undertaken only for the purpose ofascertaining one's 'spiritual condition. ' Such self-examination isgood enough in its way, and may sometimes be very necessary; but atesting of one's own capacities for the purpose of ascertaining whatwe are fit for, and what therefore it is our duty to do, is far morewholesome. Gifts are God's summons to work, and our first response tothe summons should be our scrutiny of our gifts with a distinctpurpose of using them for the great end for which we received them. It is well to take stock of the loaves that we have, if the result bethat we bring our poor provisions to Him, and put them in His hands, that He may give them back to us so multiplied as to be more thanadequate to the needs of the thousands. Such just estimate of ourgifts is to be attained mainly by noting ourselves at work. Patientself-observation may be important, but is apt to be mistaken; and thetrue test of what we can do is what we _do_ do. 

The just estimate of our gifts which Paul enjoins is needful in orderthat we may ascertain what God has meant us to be and do, and mayneither waste our strength in trying to be some one else, nor hideour talent in the napkin of ignorance or false humility. There isquite as much harm done to Christian character and Christian serviceby our failure to recognise what is in our power, as by ambitious orostentatious attempts at what is above our power. We have to beourselves as God has made us in our natural faculties, and as the newlife of Christ operating on these has made us new creatures in Himnot by changing but by enlarging our old natures. It matters nothingwhat the special form of a Christian man's service may be; thesmallest and the greatest are alike to the Lord of all, and Heappoints His servants' work. Whether the servant be a cup-bearer or acounsellor is of little moment. 'He that is faithful in that which isleast, is faithful also in much. '

The positive aspect of this right estimate of one's gifts is, if wefully render the Apostle's words, as the Revised Version does, 'so tothink as to think soberly. ' There is to be self-knowledge in order to'sobriety, ' which includes not only what we mean by sober-mindedness, but self-government; and this aspect of the apostolic exhortationopens out into the thought that the gifts, which a just estimate ofourselves pronounces us to possess, need to be kept bright by thecontinual suppression of the mind of the flesh, by putting downearthly desires, by guarding against a selfish use of them, bypreventing them by rigid control from becoming disproportioned andour masters. All the gifts which Christ bestows upon His people Hebestows on condition that they bind them together by the golden chainof self-control. 

MANY AND ONE

 'For we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: 5. So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. '--ROMANS xii. 4, 5. 

To Paul there was the closest and most vital connection between theprofoundest experiences of the Christian life and its plainest andmost superficial duties. Here he lays one of his most mysticalconceptions as the very foundation on which to rear the greatstructure of Christian conduct, and links on to one of hisprofoundest thoughts, the unity of all Christians in Christ, acomprehensive series of practical exhortations. We are accustomed tohear from many lips: 'I have no use for these dogmas that Pauldelights in. Give me his practical teaching. You may keep the Epistleto the Romans, I hold by the thirteenth of First Corinthians. ' Butsuch an unnatural severance between the doctrine and the ethics ofthe Epistle cannot be effected without the destruction of both. Thevery principle of this Epistle to the Romans is that the differencebetween the law and the Gospel is, that the one preaches conductwithout a basis for it, and that the other says, First believe inChrist, and in the strength of that belief, do the right and be likeHim. Here, then, in the very laying of the foundation for conduct inthese verses we have in concrete example the secret of the Christianway of making good men. 

I. The first point to notice here is, the unity of the derived life. Many are one, because they are each in Christ, and the individualrelationship and derivation of life from Him makes them one whilstcontinuing to be many. That great metaphor, and nowadays muchforgotten and neglected truth, is to Paul's mind the fact which oughtto mould the whole life and conduct of individual Christians and tobe manifested therein. There are three most significant andinstructive symbols by which the unity of believers in Christ Jesusis set forth in the New Testament. Our Lord Himself gives us the oneof the vine and its branches, and that symbol suggests the silent, effortless process by which the life-giving sap rises and finds itsway from the deep root to the furthest tendril and the far-extendedgrowth. The same symbol loses indeed in one respect its value if wetransfer it to growths more congenial to our northern climate, andinstead of the vine with its rich clusters, think of some great elm, deeply rooted, and with its firm bole and massive branches, throughall of which the mystery of a common life penetrates and makes everyleaf in the cloud of foliage through which we look up participant ofitself. But, profound and beautiful as our Lord's metaphor is, thevegetative uniformity of parts and the absence of individualcharacteristics make it, if taken alone, insufficient. In the treeone leaf is like another; it 'grows green and broad and takes nocare. ' Hence, to express the whole truth of the union between Christand us we must bring in other figures. Thus we find the Apostleadducing the marriage tie, the highest earthly example of union, founded on choice and affection. But even that sacred bond leaves agap between those who are knit together by it; and so we have theconception of our text, the unity of the body as representing for usthe unity of believers with Jesus. This is a unity of life. He is notonly head as chief and sovereign, but He is soul or life, which hasits seat, not in this or that organ as old physics teach, butpervades the whole and 'filleth all in all. ' The mystery whichconcerns the union of soul and body, and enshrouds the nature ofphysical life, is part of the felicity of this symbol in itsChristian application. That commonest of all things, the mysteriousforce which makes matter live and glow under spiritual emotion, andchanges the vibrations of a nerve, or the undulations of the greybrain, into hope and love and faith, eludes the scalpel and themicroscope. Of man in his complex nature it is true that 'clouds anddarkness are round about him, ' and we may expect an equally solemnmystery to rest upon that which makes out of separate individuals oneliving body, animated with the life and moved by the Spirit of theindwelling Christ. We can get no further back, and dig no deeperdown, than His own words, 'I am . .. The life. '

But, though this unity is mysterious, it is most real. EveryChristian soul receives from Christ the life of Christ. There is areal implantation of a higher nature which has nothing to do with sinand is alien from death. There is a true regeneration which issupernatural, and which makes all who possess it one, in the measureof their possession, as truly as all the leaves on a tree are onebecause fed by the same sap, or all the members in the natural bodyare one, because nourished by the same blood. So the true bond ofChristian unity lies in the common participation of the one Lord, andthe real Christian unity is a unity of derived life. 

The misery and sin of the Christian Church have been, and are, thatit has sought to substitute other bonds of unity. The whole wearyhistory of the divisions and alienations between Christians hassurely sufficiently, and more than sufficiently, shown the failure ofthe attempts to base Christian oneness upon uniformity of opinion, orof ritual, or of purpose. The difference between the real unity, andthese spurious attempts after it, is the difference between bundlesof faggots, dead and held together by a cord, and a living treelifting its multitudinous foliage towards the heavens. The bundle offaggots may be held together in some sort of imperfect union, but isno exhibition of unity. If visible churches must be based on somekind of agreement, they can never cover the same ground as that of'the body of Christ. '

That oneness is independent of our organisations, and even of ourwill, since it comes from the common possession of a common life. Itsenemies are not divergent opinions or forms, but the evil tempers anddispositions which impede, or prevent, the flow into each Christiansoul of the uniting 'Spirit of life in Christ Jesus' which makes themany who may be gathered into separate folds one flock clusteredaround the one Shepherd. And if that unity be thus a fundamental factin the Christian life and entirely apart from external organisation, the true way to increase it in each individual is, plainly, thedrawing nearer to Him, and the opening of our spirits so as toreceive fuller, deeper, and more continuous inflows from His owninexhaustible fullness. In the old Temple stood the seven-branchedcandlestick, an emblem of a formal unity; in the new the sevencandlesticks are one, because Christ stands in the midst. He makesthe body one; without Him it is a carcase. 

II. The diversity. 

'We have many members in one body, but all members have not the sameoffice. ' Life has different functions in different organs. It islight in the eye, force in the arm, music on the tongue, swiftness inthe foot; so also is Christ. The higher a creature rises in the scaleof life, the more are the parts differentiated. The lowest is a meresac, which performs all the functions that the creature requires; thehighest is a man with a multitude of organs, each of which isdefinitely limited to one office. In like manner the division oflabour in society measures its advance; and in like manner in theChurch there is to be the widest diversity. What the Apostledesignates as 'gifts' are natural characteristics heightened by theSpirit of Christ; the effect of the common life in each ought to bethe intensifying and manifestation of individuality of character. Inthe Christian ideal of humanity there is place for every variety ofgifts. The flora of the Mountain of God yields an endlessmultiplicity of growths on its ascending slopes which pass throughevery climate. There ought to be a richer diversity in the Churchthan anywhere besides; that tree should 'bear twelve manner offruits, yielding its fruit every month for the healing of thenations. ' 'All flesh is not the same flesh. ' 'Star differeth fromstar in glory. '

The average Christian life of to-day sorely fails in two things: inbeing true to itself, and in tolerance of diversities. We are all soafraid of being ticketed as 'eccentric, ' 'odd, ' that we oftentimesstifle the genuine impulses of the Spirit of Christ leading us to thedevelopment of unfamiliar types of goodness, and the undertaking ofunrecognised forms of service. If we trusted in Christ in ourselvesmore, and took our laws from His whispers, we should often reachheights of goodness which tower above us now, and discover inourselves capacities which slumber undiscerned. There is a drearymonotony and uniformity amongst us which impoverishes us, and weakensthe testimony that we bear to the quickening influence of the Spiritthat is in Christ Jesus; and we all tend to look very suspiciously atany man who 'puts all the others out' by being himself, and lettingthe life that he draws from the Lord dictate its own manner ofexpression. It would breathe a new life into all our Christiancommunities if we allowed full scope to the diversities of operation, and realised that in them all there was the one Spirit. The worldcondemns originality: the Church should have learned to prize it. 'One after this fashion, and one after that, ' is the only wholesomelaw of the development of the manifold graces of the Christian life. 

III. The harmony. 

'We being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one ofanother. ' That expression is remarkable, for we might have expectedto read rather members _of the body_, than _of each other_;but the bringing in of such an idea suggests most emphatically thatthought of the mutual relation of each part of the great whole, andthat each has offices to discharge for the benefit of each. In theChristian community, as in an organised body, the active co-operationof all the parts is the condition of health. All the rays into whichthe spectrum breaks up the pure white light must be gathered togetheragain in order to produce it; just as every instrument in the greatorchestra contributes to the volume of sound. The Lancashirehand-bell ringers may illustrate this point for us. Each man picks uphis own bell from the table and sounds his own note at the momentprescribed by the score, and so the whole of the composer's idea isreproduced. To suppress diversities results in monotony; to combinethem is the only sure way to secure harmony. Nor must we forget thatthe indwelling life of the Church can only be manifested by the fullexhibition and freest possible play of all the forms which that lifeassumes in individual character. It needs all, and more than all, thetypes of mental characteristics that can be found in humanity tomirror the infinite beauty of the indwelling Lord. 'There arediversities of operations, ' and all those diversities but partiallyrepresent that same Lord 'who worketh all in all, ' and Himself ismore than all, and, after all manifestation through human characters, remains hinted at rather than declared, suggested but not revealed. 

Still further, only by the exercise of possible diversities is theone body nourished, for each member, drawing life directly andwithout the intervention of any other from Christ the Source, drawsalso from his fellow-Christian some form of the common life that tohimself is unfamiliar, and needs human intervention in order to itsreception. Such dependence upon one's brethren is not inconsistentwith a primal dependence on Christ alone, and is a safeguard againstthe cultivating of one's own idiosyncrasies till they become diseasedand disproportionate. The most slenderly endowed Christian soul hasthe double charge of giving to, and receiving from, its brethren. Wehave all something which we can contribute to the general stock. Wehave all need to supplement our own peculiar gifts by brotherlyministration. The prime condition of Christian vitality has been setforth for ever by the gracious invitation, which is also animperative command, 'Abide in Me and I in you'; but they who by suchabiding are recipients of a communicated life are not therebyisolated, but united to all who like them have received 'themanifestation of the Spirit to do good with. '

GRACE AND GRACES

 'Having then gifts, differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; 7. Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; 8. Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation; he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. '--ROMANS xii. 6-8. 

The Apostle here proceeds to build upon the great thought of theunity of believers in the one body a series of practicalexhortations. In the first words of our text, he, with characteristicdelicacy, identifies himself with the Roman Christians as arecipient, like them, of 'the grace that is given to us, ' and as, therefore, subject to the same precepts which he commends to them. Hedoes not stand isolated by the grace that is given to him; nor doeshe look down as from the height of his apostleship on the multitudebelow, saying to them, --Go. As one of themselves he stands amongstthem, and with brotherly exhortation says, --Come. If that had beenthe spirit in which all Christian teachers had besought men, theirexhortations would less frequently have been breath spent in vain. We may note

I. The grace that gives the gifts. 

The connection between these two is more emphatically suggested bythe original Greek, in which the word for 'gifts' is a derivative ofthat for 'grace. ' The relation between these two can scarcely beverbally reproduced in English; but it may be, though imperfectly, suggested by reading 'graces' instead of 'gifts. ' The gifts arerepresented as being the direct product of, and cognate with, thegrace bestowed. As we have had already occasion to remark, they arein Paul's language a designation of natural capacities strengthenedby the access of the life of the Spirit of Christ. As a candleplunged in a vase of oxygen leaps up into more brilliant flame, soall the faculties of the human soul are made a hundred timesthemselves when the quickening power of the life of Christ entersinto them. 

It is to be observed that the Apostle here assumes that everyChristian possesses, in some form, that grace which gives graces. Tohim a believing soul without Christ-given gifts is a monstrosity. Noone is without some graces, and therefore no one is without someduties. No one who considers the multitude of professing Christianswho hamper all our churches to-day, and reflects on the modern needto urge on the multitude of idlers forms of Christian activity, willfail to recognise signs of terribly weakened vitality. The humility, which in response to all invitations to work for Christ pleadsunfitness is, if true, more tragical than it at first seems, for itis a confession that the man who alleges it has no real hold of theChrist in whom he professes to trust. If a Christian man is fit forno Christian work, it is time that he gravely ask himself whether hehas any Christian life. 'Having gifts' is the basis of all theApostle's exhortations. It is to him inconceivable that any Christianshould not possess, and be conscious of possessing, some endowmentfrom the life of Christ which will fit him for, and bind him to, acourse of active service. 

The universality of this possession is affirmed, if we note that, according to the Greek, it was 'given' at a special time in theexperience of each of these Roman Christians. The rendering 'wasgiven' might be more accurately exchanged for 'has been given, ' andthat expression is best taken as referring to a definite moment inthe history of each believer namely, his conversion. When we 'yieldourselves to God, ' as Paul exhorts us to do in the beginning of thischapter, as the commencement of all true life of conformity to Hiswill, Christ yields Himself to us. The possession of these gifts ofgrace is no prerogative of officials; and, indeed, in all theexhortations which follow there is no reference to officials, thoughof course such were in existence in the Roman Church. They had theirspecial functions and special qualifications for these. But what Paulis dealing with now is the grace that is inseparable from individualsurrender to Christ, and has been bestowed upon all who are His. Tolimit the gifts to officials, and to suppose that the universal giftsin any degree militate against the recognition of officials in theChurch, are equally mistakes, and confound essentially differentsubjects. 

II. The graces that flow from the grace. 

The Apostle's catalogue of these is not exhaustive, nor logicallyarranged; but yet a certain loose order may be noted, which may beprofitable for us to trace. They are in number seven--the sacrednumber; and are capable of being divided, as so many of the series ofsevens are, into two portions, one containing four and the otherthree. The former include more public works, to each of which a manmight be specially devoted as his life work for and in the Church. Three are more private, and may be conceived to have a wider relationto the world. There are some difficulties of construction andrendering in the list, which need not concern us here; and we maysubstantially follow the Authorised Version. 

The first group of four seems to fall into two pairs, the first ofwhich, 'prophecy' and 'ministry, ' seem to be bracketed together byreason of the difference between them. Prophecy is a very high formof special inspiration, and implies a direct reception of specialrevelation, but not necessarily of future events. The prophet isusually coupled in Paul's writings with the apostle, and wasobviously amongst those to whom was given one of the highest forms ofthe gifts of Christ. It is very beautiful to note that by naturalcontrast the Apostle at once passes to one of the forms ofservice which a vulgar estimate would regard as remotest from thespecial revelation of the prophet, and is confined to lowly service. Side by side with the exalted gift of prophecy Paul puts the lowlygift of ministry. Very significant is the juxtaposition of these twoextremes. It teaches us that the lowliest office is as truly allottedby Jesus as the most sacred, and that His highest gifts find anadequate field for manifestation in him who is servant of all. Ministry to be rightly discharged needs spiritual character. Theoriginal seven were men 'full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, ' thoughall they had to do was to hand their pittances to poor widows. It maybe difficult to decide for what reason other than the emphasising ofthis contrast the Apostle links together ministry and prophecy, andso breaks a natural sequence which would have connected the secondpair of graces with the first member of the first pair. We shouldhave expected that here, as elsewhere, 'prophet, ' 'teacher, ''exhorter, ' would have been closely connected, and there seems noreason why they should not have been so, except that which we havesuggested, namely, the wish to bring together the highest andthe lowest forms of service. 

The second pair seem to be linked together by likeness. The 'teacher'probably had for his function, primarily, the narration of the factsof the Gospel, and the setting forth in a form addressed chiefly tothe understanding the truths thereby revealed; whilst the 'exhorter'rather addressed himself to the will, presenting the same truth, butin forms more intended to influence the emotions. The word hererendered 'exhort' is found in Paul's writings as bearing specialmeanings, such as consoling, stimulating, encouraging, rebuking andothers. Of course these two forms of service would often beassociated, and each would be imperfect when alone; but it wouldappear that in the early Church there were persons in whom the one orthe other of these two elements was so preponderant that their officewas thereby designated. Each received a special gift from the oneSource. The man who could only say to his brother, 'Be of goodcheer, ' was as much the recipient of the Spirit as the man who couldconnect and elaborate a systematic presentation of the truths of theGospel. 

These four graces are followed by a group of three, which may beregarded as being more private, as not pointing to permanent officesso much as to individual acts. They are 'giving, ' 'ruling, ' 'showingpity, ' concerning which we need only note that the second of thesecan hardly be the ecclesiastical office, and that it stands betweentwo which are closely related, as if it were of the same kind. Thegifts of money, or of direction, or of pity, are one in kind. Theright use of wealth comes from the gift of God's grace; so does theright use of any sway which any of us have over any of our brethren;and so does the glow of compassion, the exercise of the natural humansympathy which belongs to all, and is deepened and made tenderer andintenser by the gift of the Spirit. It would be a very differentChurch, and a very different world, if Christians, who were notconscious of possessing gifts which made them fit to be eitherprophets, or teachers, or exhorters, and were scarcely endowed evenfor any special form of ministry, felt that a gift from their hands, or a wave of pity from their hearts, was a true token of the movementof God's Spirit on their spirits. The fruit of the Spirit is to befound in the wide fields of everyday life, and the vine bears manyclusters for the thirsty lips of wearied men who may little know whatgives them their bloom and sweetness. It would be better for bothgiver and receiver if Christian beneficence were more clearlyrecognised as one of the manifestations of spiritual life. 

III. The exercise of the graces. 

There are some difficulties in reference to the grammaticalconstruction of the words of our text, into which it is not necessarythat we should enter here. We may substantially follow the Authorisedand Revised Versions in supplying verbs in the various clauses, so asto make of the text a series of exhortations. The first of these isto 'prophesy according to the proportion of faith'; a commandmentwhich is best explained by remembering that in the preceding verse'the measure of faith' has been stated as being the measure of thegifts. The prophet then is to exercise his gifts in proportion to hisfaith. He is to speak his convictions fully and openly, and to lethis utterances be shaped by the indwelling life. This exhortation maywell sink into the heart of preachers in this day. It is but the echoof Jeremiah's strong words: 'He that hath my word, let him speak myword faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Isnot my word like as fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer thatbreaketh the rock in pieces?' The ancient prophet's woe falls withdouble weight on those who use their words as a veil to obscure theirreal beliefs, and who prophesy, not 'according to the proportion offaith, ' but according to the expectations of the hearers, whose faithis as vague as theirs. 

In the original, the next three exhortations are alike in grammaticalconstruction, which is represented in the Authorised Version by thesupplement 'let us wait on, ' and in the Revised Version by 'let usgive ourselves to'; we might with advantage substitute for either thestill more simple form 'be in, ' after the example of Paul'sexhortation to Timothy 'be in these things'; that is, as our Versionhas it, 'give thyself wholly to them. ' The various gifts are eachrepresented as a sphere within which its possessor is to move, forthe opportunities for the exercise of which he is carefully to watch, and within the limits of which he is humbly to keep. That general lawapplies equally to ministry, and teaching and exhorting. We are toseek to discern our spheres; we are to be occupied with, if notabsorbed in, them. At the least we are diligently to use the giftwhich we discover ourselves to possess, and thus filling our severalspheres, we are to keep within them, recognising that each is sacredas the manifestation of God's will for each of us. The divergence offorms is unimportant, and it matters nothing whether 'the Giver ofall' grants less or more. The main thing is that each be faithful inthe administration of what he has received, and not seek to imitatehis brother who is diversely endowed, or to monopolise for himselfanother's gifts. To insist that our brethren's gifts should be likeours, and to try to make ours like theirs, are equally sins againstthe great truth, of which the Church as a whole is the example, thatthere are 'diversities of operations but the same Spirit. '

The remaining three exhortations are in like manner thrown togetherby a similarity of construction in which the personality of the doeris put in the foreground, and the emphasis of the commandment isrested on the manner in which the grace is exercised. The reason forthat may be that in these three especially the manner will show thegrace. 'Giving' is to be 'with simplicity. ' There are to be nosidelong looks to self-interest; no flinging of a gift from a height, as a bone might be flung to a dog; no seeking for gratitude; noostentation in the gift. Any taint of such mixed motives as theseinfuses poison into our gifts, and makes them taste bitter to thereceiver, and recoil in hurt upon ourselves. To 'give withsimplicity' is to give as God gives. 

'Diligence' is the characteristic prescribed for the man that rules. We have already pointed out that this exhortation includes a muchwider area than that of any ecclesiastical officials. It points toanother kind of rule, and the natural gifts needed for any kind ofrule are diligence and zeal. Slackly-held reins make stumblingsteeds; and any man on whose shoulders is laid the weight ofgovernment is bound to feel it as a weight. The history of many anation, and of many a family, teaches that where the rule is slothfulall evils grow apace; and it is that natural energy and earnestness, deepened and hallowed by the Christian life, which here is enjoinedas the true Christian way of discharging the function of ruling, which, in some form or another, devolves on almost all of us. 

'He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. ' The glow of natural humansympathy is heightened so as to become a 'gift, ' and the way in whichit is exercised is defined as being 'with cheerfulness. ' Thatinjunction is but partially understood if it is taken to mean no morethan that sympathy is not to be rendered grudgingly, or as bynecessity. No sympathy is indeed possible on such terms; unless theheart is in it, it is nought. And that it should thus flow forthspontaneously wherever sorrow and desolation evoke it, there must bea continual repression of self, and a heart disengaged from theentanglements of its own circumstances, and at leisure to make abrother's burden its very own. But the exhortation may, perhaps, rather mean that the truest sympathy carries a bright face intodarkness, and comes like sunshine in a shady place. 

LOVE THAT CAN HATE

 'Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. 10. In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honour preferring one another. '--ROMANS xii. 9-10 (R. V. ). 

Thus far the Apostle has been laying down very general precepts andprinciples of Christian morals. Starting with the oneall-comprehensive thought of self-sacrifice as the very foundation ofall goodness, of transformation as its method, and of the clearknowledge of our several powers and faithful stewardship of these, asits conditions, he here proceeds to a series of more specificexhortations, which at first sight seem to be very unconnected, butthrough which there may be discerned a sequence of thought. 

The clauses of our text seem at first sight strangely disconnected. The first and the last belong to the same subject, but theintervening clause strikes a careless reader as out of place andheterogeneous. I think that we shall see it is not so; but for thepresent we but note that here are three sets of precepts whichenjoin, first, honest love; then, next, a healthy vehemence againstevil and for good; and finally, a brotherly affection and mutualrespect. 

I. Let love be honest. 

Love stands at the head, and is the fontal source of all separateindividualised duties. Here Paul is not so much prescribing love asdescribing the kind of love which he recognises as genuine, and themain point on which he insists is sincerity. The 'dissimulation' ofthe Authorised Version only covers half the ground. It means, hidingwhat one is; but there is simulation, or pretending to be what one isnot. There are words of love which are like the iridescent scum onthe surface veiling the black depths of a pool of hatred. A Psalmistcomplains of having to meet men whose words were 'smoother thanbutter' and whose true feelings were as 'drawn swords'; but, short ofsuch consciously lying love, we must all recognise as a real dangerbesetting us all, and especially those of us who are naturallyinclined to kindly relations with our fellows, the tendency to uselanguage just a little in excess of our feelings. The glove isslightly stretched, and the hand in it is not quite large enough tofill it. There is such a thing, not altogether unknown in Christiancircles, as benevolence, which is largely cant, and words ofconventional love about individuals which do not represent anycorresponding emotion. Such effusive love pours itself in words, andis most generally the token of intense selfishness. Any man who seeksto make his words a true picture of his emotions must be aware thatfew harder precepts have ever been given than this brief one of theApostle's, 'Let love be without hypocrisy. '

But the place where this exhortation comes in the apostolic sequencehere may suggest to us the discipline through which obedience to itis made possible. There is little to be done by the way of directlyincreasing either the fervour of love or the honesty of itsexpression. The true method of securing both is to be growinglytransformed by 'the renewing of our minds, ' and growingly to bringour whole old selves under the melting and softening influence of'the mercies of God. ' It is swollen self-love, 'thinking more highlyof ourselves than we ought to think, ' which impedes the flow of loveto others, and it is in the measure in which we receive into ourminds 'the mind that was in Christ Jesus, ' and look at men as He did, that we shall come to love them all honestly and purely. When we aredelivered from the monstrous oppression and tyranny of self, we havehearts capable of a Christlike and Christ-giving love to all men, andonly they who have cleansed their hearts by union with Him, and byreceiving into them the purging influence of His own Spirit, will beable to love without hypocrisy. 

II. Let love abhor what is evil, and cleave to what is good. 

If we carefully consider this apparently irrelevant interruption inthe sequence of the apostolic exhortations, we shall, I think, see atonce that the irrelevance is only apparent, and that the healthyvehemence against evil and resolute clinging to good is as essentialto the noblest forms of Christian love as is the sincerity enjoinedin the previous clause. To detest the one and hold fast by the otherare essential to the purity and depth of our love. Evil is to beloathed, and good to be clung to in our own moral conduct, andwherever we see them. These two precepts are not mere tautology, butthe second of them is the ground of the first. The force of ourrecoil from the bad will be measured by the firmness of our graspof the good; and yet, though inseparably connected, the one is apt tobe easier to obey than is the other. There are types of Christian mento whom it is more natural to abhor the evil than to cleave to thegood; and there are types of character of which the converse is true. We often see men very earnest and entirely sincere in theirdetestation of meanness and wickedness, but very tepid in theirappreciation of goodness. To hate is, unfortunately, more congenialwith ordinary characters than to love; and it is more facile to lookdown on badness than to look up at goodness. 

But it needs ever to be insisted upon, and never more than in thisday of spurious charity and unprincipled toleration, that a healthyhatred of moral evil and of sin, wherever found and however garbed, ought to be the continual accompaniment of all vigorous and manlycleaving to that which is good. Unless we shudderingly recoil fromcontact with the bad in our own lives, and refuse to christen it withdeceptive euphemisms when we meet it in social and civil life, weshall but feebly grasp, and slackly hold, that which is good. Suchenergy of moral recoil from evil is perfectly consistent with honestlove, for it is things, not men, that we are to hate; and it isneedful as the completion and guardian of love itself. There isalways danger that love shall weaken the condemnation of wrong, andmodern liberality, both in the field of opinion and in regard topractical life, has so far condoned evil as largely to have lost itshold upon good. The criminal is pitied rather than blamed, and amultitude of agencies are so occupied in elevating the wrong-doersthat they lose sight of the need of punishing. 

Nor is it only in reference to society that this tendency works harm. The effect of it is abundantly manifest in the fashionable ideas ofGod and His character. There are whole schools of opinion whichpractically strike out of their ideal of the Divine Nature abhorrenceof evil, and, little as they think it, are thereby fatallyimpoverishing their ideal of God, and making it impossible tounderstand His government of the world. As always, so in this matter, the authentic revelation of the Divine Nature, and the perfectpattern for the human are to be found in Jesus Christ. We recall thatwonderful incident, when on His last approach to Jerusalem, roundingthe shoulder of the Mount of Olives, He beheld the city, gleaming inthe morning sunshine across the valley, and forgetting His ownsorrow, shed tears over its approaching desolation, which yet Hesteadfastly pronounced. His loathing of evil was whole-souled andabsolute, and equally intense and complete was His cleaving to thatwhich is good. In both, and in the harmony between them, He makes Godknown, and prescribes and holds forth the ideal of perfect humanityto men. 

III. Let sincere and discriminating love be concentrated on Christianmen. 

In the final exhortation of our text 'the love of the brethren' takesthe place of the more diffused and general love enjoined in the firstclause. The expression 'kindly affectioned' is the rendering of avery eloquent word in the original in which the instinctive love of amother to her child, or the strange mystical ties which unite membersof a family together, irrespective of their differences of characterand temperament, are taken as an example after which Christian menare to mould their relations to one another. The love which iswithout hypocrisy, and is to be diffused on all sides, is also to begathered together and concentrated with special energy on all who'call upon Jesus Christ as Lord, both their Lord and ours. ' The moregeneral precept and the more particular are in perfect harmony, however our human weakness sometimes confuses them. It is obviousthat this final precept of our text will be the direct result of thetwo preceding, for the love which has learned to be moral, hatingevil, and clinging to good as necessary, when directed to possessorsof like precious faith will thrill with the consciousness of a deepmystical bond of union, and will effloresce in all brotherly love andkindly affections. They who are like one another in the depths oftheir moral life, who are touched by like aspirations after like holythings, and who instinctively recoil with similar revulsion from likeabominations, will necessarily feel the drawing of a unity far deeperand sacreder than any superficial likenesses of race, orcircumstance, or opinion. Two men who share, however imperfectly, inChrist's Spirit are more akin in the realities of their nature, however they may differ on the surface, than either of them is toanother, however like he may seem, who is not a partaker in the lifeof Christ. 

This instinctive, Christian love, like all true and pure love, is tomanifest itself by 'preferring one another in honour'; or as the wordmight possibly be rendered, 'anticipating one another. ' We are not towait to have our place assigned before we give our brother his. Therewill be no squabbling for the chief seat in the synagogue, or theuppermost rooms at the feast, where brotherly love marshals theguests. The one cure for petty jealousies and the miserable strifefor recognition, which we are all tempted to engage in, lies in aheart filled with love of the brethren because of its love to theElder Brother of them all, and to the Father who is His Father aswell as ours. What a contrast is presented between the practice ofChristians and these precepts of Paul! We may well bow ourselves inshame and contrition when we read these clear-drawn lines indicatingwhat we ought to be, and set by the side of them the blurred andblotted pictures of what we are. It is a painful but profitable taskto measure ourselves against Paul's ideal of Christ's commandment;but it will only be profitable if it brings us to remember thatChrist gives before He commands, and that conformity with His idealmust begin, not with details of conduct, or with emotion, howeverpure, but with yielding ourselves to the God who moves us by Hismercies, and being 'transformed by the renewing of our minds' and'the indwelling of Christ in our hearts by faith. '

A TRIPLET OF GRACES

 'Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord. '--ROMANS xii. 11. 

Paul believed that Christian doctrine was meant to influenceChristian practice; and therefore, after the fundamental and profoundexhibition of the central truths of Christianity which occupies theearlier portion of this great Epistle, he tacks on, with a'therefore' to his theological exposition, a series of plain, practical teachings. The place where conduct comes in the letter isprofoundly significant, and, if the significance of it had beenobserved and the spirit of it carried into practice, there would havebeen less of a barren orthodoxy, and fewer attempts at producingrighteous conduct without faith. 

But not only is the place where this series of exhortations occurvery significant, but the order in which they appear is alsoinstructive. The great principle which covers all conduct, and may bebroken up into all the minutenesses of practical directions isself-surrender. Give yourselves up to God; that is the Alpha and theOmega of all goodness, and wherever that foundation is really laid, on it will rise the fair building of a life which is a temple, adorned with whatever things are lovely and of good report. So afterPaul has laid deep and broad the foundation of all Christian virtuein his exhortation to present ourselves as living sacrifices, he goeson to point out the several virtues in which such self-surrender willmanifest itself. There runs through the most of these exhortations anarrangement in triplets--three sister Graces linked togetherhand-in-hand as it were--and my text presents an example of thatthreefoldness in grouping. 'Not slothful in business; fervent inspirit; serving the Lord. '

I. We have, first, the prime grace of Christian diligence. 

'Not slothful in business' suggests, by reason of our modernrestriction of that word 'business' to a man's daily occupation, amuch more limited range to this exhortation than the Apostle meant togive it. The idea which is generally drawn from these words byEnglish readers is that they are to do their ordinary workdiligently, and, all the while, notwithstanding the cooling ordistracting influences of their daily avocations, are to keepthemselves 'fervent in spirit. ' That is a noble and needfulconception of the command, but it does not express what is in theApostle's mind. He does not mean by 'business' a trade or profession, or daily occupation. But the word means 'zeal' or 'earnestness. ' Andwhat Paul says is just this--'In regard to your earnestness in alldirections, see that you are not slothful. '

The force and drift of the whole precept is just the exhortation toexercise the very homely virtue of diligence, which is as much acondition of growth and maturity in the Christian as it is in anyother life. The very homeliness and obviousness of the duty causes usoften to lose sight of its imperativeness and necessity. 

Many of us, if we would sit quietly down and think of how we go aboutour 'business, ' as we call it, and of how we go about our Christianlife, which ought to be our highest business, would have great causefor being ashamed. We begin the one early in the morning, we keephard at it all day, our eyes are wide open to see any opening wheremoney is to be made; that is all right. We give our whole selves toour work whilst we are at it; that is as it should be. But why arethere not the same concentration, the same wide-awakeness, the sameopen-eyed eagerness to find out ways of advancement, the sameresolved and continuous and all-comprehending and dominatingenthusiasm about our Christianity as there is about our shop, or ourmill, or our success as students? Why are we all fire in the one caseand all ice in the other? Why do we think that it is enough to liftthe burden that Christ lays upon us with one languid finger, and toput our whole hand, or rather, as the prophet says, 'both handsearnestly, ' to the task of lifting the load of daily work? 'In yourearnestness be not slothful. '

Brethren, that is a very homely exhortation. I wonder how many of uscan say, 'Lord! I have heard, and I have obeyed Thy precept. '

II. Diligence must be fed by a fervent spirit. 

The word translated 'fervent' is literally boiling. The metaphor isvery plain and intelligible. The spirit brought into contact withChristian truth and with the fire of the Holy Spirit will naturallyhave its temperature raised, and will be moved by the warm touch asheat makes water in a pot hung above a fire boil. Such emotion, produced by the touch of the fiery Spirit of God, is what Pauldesires for, and enjoins on, all Christians; for such emotion is theonly way by which the diligence, without which no Christian progresswill be made, can be kept up. 

No man will work long at a task that his heart is not in; or if hedoes, because he is obliged, the work will be slavery. In order, then, that diligence may neither languish and become slothfulness, nor be felt to be a heavy weight and an unwelcome necessity, Paulhere bids us see to it that our hearts are moved because there is afire below which makes 'the soul's depths boil in earnest. '

Now, of course, I know that, as a great teacher has told us, 'Thegods approve the depth and not the tumult of the soul, ' and I knowthat there is a great deal of emotional Christianity which is worthnothing. But it is not that kind of fervour that the Apostle isenjoining here. Whilst it is perfectly true that mere emotion oftendoes co-exist with, and very often leads to, entire negligence as topossessing and manifesting practical excellence, the true relationbetween these is just the opposite--viz. That this fervour of which Ispeak, this wide-awakeness and enthusiasm of a spirit all quickenedinto rapidity of action by the warmth which it has felt from God inChrist, should drive the wheels of life. Boiling water makes steam, does it not? And what is to be done with the steam that comes off the'boiling' spirit? You may either let it go roaring through awaste-pipe and do nothing but make a noise and be idly dissipated inthe air, or you may lead it into a cylinder and make it lift apiston, and then you will get work out of it. That is what theApostle desires us to do with our emotion. The lightning goescareering through the sky, but we have harnessed it to tram-carsnowadays, and made it 'work for its living, ' to carry our letters andlight our rooms. Fervour of a Christian spirit is all right when itis yoked to Christian work, and made to draw what else is a heavychariot. It is not emotion, but it is indolent emotion, that is thecurse of much of our 'fervent' Christianity. 

There cannot be too much fervour. There may be too little outletprovided for the fervour to work in. It may all go off in comfortablefeeling, in enthusiastic prayers and 'Amens!' and 'So be it, Lords!'and the like, or it may come with us into our daily tasks, and makeus buckle to with more earnestness, and more continuity. Diligencedriven by earnestness, and fervour that works, are the true things. 

And surely, surely there cannot be any genuineChristianity--certainly there cannot be any deep Christianity--whichis not fervent. 

We hear from certain quarters of the Church a great deal about thevirtue of moderation. But it seems to me that, if you take intoaccount what Christianity tells us, the 'sober' feeling is ferventfeeling, and tepid feeling is imperfect feeling. I cannot understandany man believing as plain matter-of-fact the truths on which thewhole New Testament insists, and keeping himself 'cool, ' or, as ourfriends call it, 'moderate. ' Brethren, enthusiasm--which properlymeans the condition of being dwelt in by a god--is the wise, thereasonable attitude of Christian men, if they believe their ownChristianity and are really serving Jesus Christ. They should be'diligent in business, fervent'--boiling--in spirit. 

III. The diligence and the fervency are both to be animated by thethought, 'Serving the Lord!'

Some critics, as many of you know, no doubt, would prefer to readthis verse in its last clause 'serving the time. ' But that seems tome a very lame and incomplete climax for the Apostle's thought, andit breaks entirely the sequence which, as I think, is discernible init. Much rather, he here, in the closing member of the triplet, suggests a thought which will be stimulus to the diligence and fuelto the fire that makes the spirit boil. 

In effect he says, 'Think, when your hands begin to droop, and whenyour spirits begin to be cold and indifferent, and languor to stealover you, and the paralysing influences of the commonplace and thefamiliar, and the small begin to assert themselves--think that youare serving the Lord. ' Will that not freshen you up? Will that notset you boiling again? Will it not be easy to be diligent when wefeel that we are 'ever in the great Taskmaster's eye'? There are manyreasons for diligence--the greatness of the work, for it is no smallmatter for us to get the whole lump of our nature leavened with thegood leaven; the continual operation of antagonistic forces which areall round us, and are working night-shifts as well as day ones, whether we as Christians are on short time or not, the brevity of theperiod during which we have to work, and the tremendous issues whichdepend upon the completeness of our service here--all these thingsare reasons for our diligence. But _the_ reason is: 'Thou Christhast died for me, and livest for me; truly I am Thy slave. ' That isthe thought that will make a man bend his back to his work, whateverit be, and bend his will to his work, too, however unwelcome it maybe; and that is the thought that will stir his whole spirit tofervour and earnestness, and thus will deliver him from thetemptations to languid and perfunctory work that ever creep over us. 

You can carry that motive--as we all know, and as we all forget whenthe pinch comes--into your shop, your study, your office, your mill, your kitchen, or wherever you go. 'On the bells of the horses thereshall be written, Holiness to the Lord, ' said the prophet, and 'everybowl in Jerusalem' may be sacred as the vessels of the altar. Alllife may flash into beauty, and tower into greatness, and be smoothedout into easiness, and the crooked things may be made straight andthe rough places plain, and the familiar and the trite be investedwith freshness and wonder as of a dream, if only we write over them, 'For the sake of the Master. ' Then, whatever we do or bear, be itcommon, insignificant, or unpleasant, will change its aspect, and allwill be sweet. Here is the secret of diligence and of fervency, 'Iset the Lord always before me. '

ANOTHER TRIPLET OF GRACES

 'Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer. '--ROMANS xii. 12. 

These three closely connected clauses occur, as you all know, in themidst of that outline of the Christian life with which the Apostlebegins the practical part of this Epistle. Now, what he omits in thissketch of Christian duty seems to me quite as significant as what heinserts. It is very remarkable that in the twenty verses devoted tothis subject, this is the only one which refers to the inner secretsof the Christian life. Paul's notion of 'deepening the spirituallife' was 'Behave yourself better in your relation to other people. 'So all the rest of this chapter is devoted to inculcating our dutiesto one another. Conduct is all-important. An orthodox creed isvaluable if it influences action, but not otherwise. Devout emotionis valuable, if it drives the wheels of life, but not otherwise. Christians should make efforts to attain to clear views and warmfeelings, but the outcome and final test of both is a daily life ofvisible imitation of Jesus. The deepening of spiritual life should bemanifested by completer, practical righteousness in the market-placeand the street and the house, which non-Christians will acknowledge. 

But now, with regard to these three specific exhortations here, Iwish to try to bring out their connection as well as the force ofeach of them. 

I. So I remark first, that the Christian life ought to be joyfulbecause it is hopeful. 

Now, I do not suppose that many of us habitually recognise it as aChristian duty to be joyful. We think that it is a matter oftemperament and partly a matter of circumstance. We are glad whenthings go well with us. If we have a sunny disposition, and arenaturally light-hearted, all the better; if we have a melancholy ormorose one, all the worse. But do we recognise this, that a Christianwho is not joyful is not living up to his duty; and that there is noexcuse, either in temperament or in circumstances, for our not beingso, and always being so? 'Rejoice in the Lord alway, ' says Paul; andthen, as if he thought, 'Some of you will be thinking that that is avery rash commandment, to aim at a condition quite impossible to makeconstant, ' he goes on--'and, to convince you that I do not say ithastily, I will repeat it--"and again I say, rejoice. "' Brethren, weshall have to alter our conceptions of what true gladness is beforewe can come to understand the full depth of the great thought thatjoy is a Christian duty. The true joy is not the kind of joy that asaying in the Old Testament compares to the 'crackling of thornsunder a pot, ' but something very much calmer, with no crackle in it;and very much deeper, and very much more in alliance with 'whatsoeverthings are lovely and of good report, ' than that foolish, short-lived, and empty mirth that burns down so soon into blackashes. 

To be glad is a Christian duty. Many of us have as much religion asmakes us sombre, and impels us often to look upon the more solemn andawful aspects of Christian truth, but we have not enough to make usglad. I do not need to dwell upon all the sources in Christian faithand belief, of that lofty and imperatively obligatory gladness, but Iconfine myself to the one in my text, 'Rejoicing in hope. '

Now, we all know--from the boy that is expecting to go home for hisholidays in a week, up to the old man to whose eye the time-veil iswearing thin--that hope, if it is certain, is a source of gladness. How lightly one's bosom's lord sits upon its throne, when a greathope comes to animate us! how everybody is pleasant, and all thingsare easy, and the world looks different! Hope, if it is certain, willgladden, and if our Christianity grasps, as it ought to do, the onlyhope that is absolutely certain, and as sure as if it were in thepast and had been experienced, then our hearts, too, will sing forjoy. True joy is _not_ a matter of temperament, so much as a matterof faith. It is _not_ a matter of circumstances. All the surfacedrainage may be dry, but there is a well in the courtyard deep andcool and full and exhaustless, and a Christian who rightlyunderstands and cherishes the Christian hope is lifted abovetemperament, and is not dependent upon conditions for his joys. 

The Apostle, in an earlier part of this same letter, defines for uswhat that hope is, which thus is the secret of perpetual gladness, when he speaks about 'rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. ' Yes, itis that great, supreme, calm, far off, absolutely certain prospect ofbeing gathered into the divine glory, and walking there, like thethree in the fiery furnace, unconsumed and at ease; it is that hopethat will triumph over temperament, and over all occasions formelancholy, and will breathe into our life a perpetual gladness. Brethren, is it not strange and sad that with such a treasure by oursides we should consent to live such poor lives as we do?

But remember, although I cannot say to myself, 'Now I will be glad, 'and cannot attain to joy by a movement of the will or direct effort, although it is of no use to say to a man--which is all that the worldcan ever say to him--'Cheer up and be glad, ' whilst you do not alterthe facts that make him sad, there is a way by which we can bringabout feelings of gladness or of gloom. It is just this--we canchoose what we will look at. If you prefer to occupy your mind withthe troubles, losses, disappointments, hard work, blighted hopes ofthis poor sin-ridden world, of course sadness will come over youoften, and a general grey tone will be the usual tone of your lives, as it is of the lives of many of us, broken only by occasional burstsof foolish mirth and empty laughter. But if you choose to turn awayfrom all these, and instead of the dim, dismal, hard present, to sunyourselves in the light of the yet unrisen sun, which you can do, then, having rightly chosen the subjects to think about, the feelingwill come as a matter of course. You cannot make yourselves glad by, as it were, laying hold of yourselves and lifting yourselves intogladness, but you can rule the direction of your thoughts, and so canbring around you summer in the midst of winter, by steadilycontemplating the facts--and they are present facts, though we talkabout them collectively as 'the future'--the facts on which allChristian gladness ought to be based. We can carry our own atmospherewith us; like the people in Italy, who in frosty weather will be seensitting in the market-place by their stalls with a dish of embers, which they grasp in their hands, and so make themselves comfortablywarm on the bitterest day. You can bring a reasonable degree ofwarmth into the coldest weather, if you will lay hold of the vesselin which the fire is, and keep it in your hand and close to yourheart. Choose what you think about, and feelings will followthoughts. 

But it needs very distinct and continuous effort for a man to keepthis great source of Christian joy clear before him. We are like thedwellers in some island of the sea, who, in some conditions of theatmosphere, can catch sight of the gleaming mountain-tops on themainland across the stormy channel between. But thick days, with aheavy atmosphere and much mist, are very frequent in our latitude, and then all the distant hills are blotted out, and we see nothingbut the cold grey sea, breaking on the cold, grey stones. Still, youcan scatter the mist if you will. You can make the atmosphere bright;and it is worth an effort to bring clear before us, and to keep highabove the mists that cling to the low levels, the great vision whichwill make us glad. Brethren, I believe that one great source of theweakness of average Christianity amongst us to-day is the dimnessinto which so many of us have let the hope of the glory of God passin our hearts. So I beg you to lay to heart this first commandment, and to rejoice in hope. 

II. Now, secondly, here is the thought that life, if full of joyfulhope, will be patient. 

I have been saying that the gladness of which my text speaks isindependent of circumstances, and may persist and be continuous evenwhen externals occasion sadness. It is possible--I do not say it iseasy, God knows it is hard--I do not say it is frequently attained, but I do say it is possible--to realise that wonderful ideal of theApostle's 'As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. ' The surface of theocean may be tossed and fretted by the winds, and churned into foam, but the great central depths 'hear not the loud winds when theycall, ' and are still in the midst of tempest. And we, dear brethren, ought to have an inner depth of spirit, down to the disturbance ofwhich no surface-trouble can ever reach. That is the height ofattainment of Christian faith, but it is a possible attainment forevery one of us. 

And if there be that burning of the light under the water, like'Greek fire, ' as it was called, which many waters could notquench--if there be that persistence of gladness beneath thesurface-sorrow, as you find a running stream coming out below aglacier, then the joy and the hope, which co-exist with the sorrow, will make life patient. 

Now, the Apostle means by these great words, 'patient' and'patience, ' which are often upon his lips, something more than simpleendurance. That endurance is as much as many of us can often musterup strength to exercise. It sometimes takes all our faith and all oursubmission simply to say, 'I opened not my mouth, because thou didstit; and I will bear what thine hand lays upon me. ' But that is notall that the idea of Christian 'patience' includes, for it also takesin the thought of active work, and it is _perseverance_ as muchas _patience_. 

Now, if my heart is filled with a calm gladness because my eye isfixed upon a celestial hope, then both the passive and active sidesof Christian 'patience' will be realised by me. If my hope burnsbright, and occupies a large space in my thoughts, then it will notbe hard to take the homely consolation of good John Newton's hymn andsay--

 'Though painful at present, 'Twill cease before long; And then, oh, how pleasant The conqueror's song!'

A man who is sailing to America, and knows that he will be in NewYork in a week, does not mind, although his cabin is contracted, andhe has a great many discomforts, and though he has a bout ofsea-sickness. The disagreeables are only going to last for a day ortwo. So our hope will make us bear trouble, and not make much of it. 

And our hope will strengthen us, if it is strong, for all the workthat is to be done. Persistence in the path of duty, though my heartbe beating like a smith's hammer on the anvil, is what Christian menshould aim at, and possess. If we have within our hearts that fire ofa certain hope, it will impel us to diligence in doing the humblestduty, whether circumstances be for or against us; as some greatsteamer is driven right on its course, through the ocean, whateverstorms may blow in the teeth of its progress, because, deep down init, there are furnaces and boilers which supply the steam that drivesthe engines. So a life that is joyful because it is hopeful will befull of calm endurance and strenuous work. 'Rejoicing in hope;patient, ' persevering in tribulation. 

III. Lastly, our lives will be joyful, hopeful, and patient, inproportion as they are prayerful. 

'Continuing instant'--which, of course, just means steadfast--'inprayer. ' Paul uttered a paradox when he said, 'Rejoice in the Lordalway, ' as he said long before this verse, in the very first letterthat he ever wrote, or at least the first which has come down to us. There he bracketed it along with two other equally paradoxicalsayings. 'Rejoice evermore; pray without ceasing; in everything givethanks. ' If you pray without ceasing you can rejoice without ceasing. 

But can I pray without ceasing? Not if by prayer you mean only wordsof supplication and petition, but if by prayer you mean also a mentalattitude of devotion, and a kind of sub-conscious reference to God inall that you do, such unceasing prayer is possible. Do not let usblunt the edge of this commandment, and weaken our own consciousnessof having failed to obey it, by getting entangled in the cobwebs ofmere curious discussions as to whether the absolute ideal ofperfectly unbroken communion with God is possible in this life. Atall events it is possible to us to approximate to that ideal a greatdeal more closely than our consciences tell us that we ever yet havedone. If we are trying to keep our hearts in the midst of daily dutyin contact with God, and if, ever and anon in the press of our work, we cast a thought towards Him and a prayer, then joy and hope andpatience will come to us, in a degree that we do not know much aboutyet, but might have known all about long, long ago. 

There is a verse in the Old Testament which we may well lay to heart:'They cried unto God in the battle, and He was entreated of them. 'Well, what sort of a prayer do you think that would be? Suppose thatyou were standing in the thick of battle with the sword of an enemyat your throat, there would not be much time for many words ofprayer, would there? But the cry could go up, and the thought couldgo up, and as they went up, down would come the strong buckler whichGod puts between His servants and all evil. That is the sort ofprayer that you, in the battle of business, in your shops andcounting-houses and warehouses and mills, we students in our studies, and you mothers in your families and your kitchens, can send up toheaven. If thus we 'pray without ceasing, ' then we shall 'rejoiceevermore, ' and our souls will be kept in patience and filled with thepeace of God. 

STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET

 'Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. 14. Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. 15. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. '--ROMANS xii. 13-15. 

In these verses we pass from the innermost region of communion withGod into the wide field of duties in relation to men. The solitarysecrecies of rejoicing hope, endurance, and prayer unbroken, areexchanged for the publicities of benevolence and sympathy. In theformer verses the Christian soul is in 'the secret place of the MostHigh'; in those of our text he comes forth with the light of God onhis face, and hands laden with blessings. The juxtaposition of thetwo suggests the great principles to which the morality of the NewTestament is ever true--that devotion to God is the basis of allpractical helpfulness to man, and that practical helpfulness to manis the expression and manifestation of devotion to God. 

The three sets of injunctions in our text, dissimilar though theyappear, have a common basis. They are varying forms of onefundamental disposition--love; which varies in its forms according tothe necessities of its objects, bringing temporal help to the needy, meeting hostility with blessing, and rendering sympathy to both theglad and the sorrowful. There is, further, a noteworthy connection, not in sense but in sound, between the first and second clauses ofour text, which is lost in our English Version. 'Given tohospitality' is, as the Revised margin shows, literally, pursuinghospitality. Now the Greek, like the English word, has the specialmeaning of following with a hostile intent, and the use of it in theone sense suggests its other meaning to Paul, whose habit of 'goingoff at a word, ' as it has been called, is a notable feature of hisstyle. Hence, this second injunction, of blessing the persecutors, comes as a kind of play upon words, and is obviously occasioned bythe verbal association. It would come more appropriately at a laterpart of the chapter, but its occurrence here is characteristic ofPaul's idiosyncrasy. We may represent the connection of these twoclauses by such a rendering as: Pursue hospitality, and as for thosewho pursue you, bless, and curse not. 

We may look at these three flowers from the one root of love. 

I. Love that speaks in material help. 

We have here two special applications of that love which Paul regardsas 'the bond of perfectness, ' knitting all Christians together. Theformer of these two is love that expresses itself by tangiblematerial aid. The persons to be helped are 'saints, ' and it is their'needs' that are to be aided. There is no trace in the PaulineEpistles of the community of goods which for a short time prevailedin the Church of Jerusalem and which was one of the causes that ledto the need for the contribution for the poor saints in that citywhich occupied so much of Paul's attention at Corinth and elsewhere. But, whilst Christian love leaves the rights of property intact, itcharges them with the duty of supplying the needs of the brethren. They are not absolute and unconditioned rights, but are subject tothe highest principles of stewardship for God, trusteeship for men, and sacrifice for Christ. These three great thoughts condition andlimit the Christian man's possession of the wealth, which, in amodified sense, it is allowable for him to call his own. Hisbrother's need constitutes a first charge on all that belongs to him, and ought to precede the gratification of his own desires forsuperfluities and luxuries. If we 'see our brother have need and shutup our bowels of compassion against him' and use our possessions forthe gratification of our own whims and fancies, 'how dwelleth thelove of God in us?' There are few things in which Christian men ofthis day have more need for the vigorous exercise of conscience, andfor enlightenment, than in their getting, and spending, and keepingmoney. In that region lies the main sphere of usefulness for many ofus; and if we have not been 'faithful in that which is least, ' ourunfaithfulness there makes it all but impossible that we should befaithful in that which is greatest. The honest and rigidcontemplation of our own faults in the administration of our worldlygoods, might well invest with a terrible meaning the Lord'stremendous question, 'If ye have not been faithful in that which isanother's, who shall give you that which is your own?'

The hospitality which is here enjoined is another shape whichChristian love naturally took in the early days. When believers werea body of aliens, dispersed through the world, and when, as they wentfrom one place to another, they could find homes only amongst theirown brethren, the special circumstances of the time necessarilyattached special importance to this duty; and as a matter of fact, wefind it recognised in all the Epistles of the New Testament as one ofthe most imperative of Christian duties. 'It was the unity andstrength which this intercourse gave that formed one of the greatforces which supported Christianity. ' But whilst hospitality was aspecial duty for the early Christians, it still remains a duty forus, and its habitual exercise would go far to break down the frowningwalls which diversities of social position and of culture have rearedbetween Christians. 

II. The love that meets hostility with blessing. 

There are perhaps few words in Scripture which have been morefruitful of the highest graces than this commandment. What a train ofmartyrs, from primitive times to the Chinese Christians in recentyears, have remembered these words, and left their legacy of blessingas they laid their heads on the block or stood circled by fire at thestake! For us, in our quieter generation, actual persecution is rare, but hostility of ill-will more or less may well dog our steps, andthe great principle here commended to us is that we are to meetenmity with its opposite, and to conquer by love. The diamond is cutwith sharp knives, and each stroke brings out flashing beauty. Thereare kinds of wood which are fragrant when they burn; and there arekinds which show their veining under the plane. It is a poor thing ifa Christian character only gives back like a mirror the expression ofthe face that looks at it. To meet hate with hate, and scorn withscorn, is not the way to turn hate into love and scorn into sympathy. Indifferent equilibrium in the presence of active antagonism is notpossible for us. As long as we are sensitive we shall wince from ablow, or a sarcasm, or a sneer. We must bless in order to keepourselves from cursing. The lesson is very hard, and the only way ofobeying it fully is to keep near Christ and drink in His spirit whoprayed 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. '

III. Love that flows in wide sympathy. 

Of the two forms of sympathy which are here enjoined, the former isthe harder. To 'rejoice with them that do rejoice' makes a greaterdemand on unselfish love than to 'weep with them that weep. ' Thosewho are glad feel less need of sympathy than do the sorrowful, andenvy is apt to creep in and mar the completeness of sympathetic joy. But even the latter of the two injunctions is not altogether easy. The cynic has said that there is 'something not wholly displeasing inthe misfortunes of our best friends'; and, though that is an utterlyworldly and unchristian remark, it must be confessed not to bealtogether wanting in truth. 

But for obedience to both of these injunctions, a heart at leisurefrom itself is needed to sympathise; and not less needed is asedulous cultivation of the power of sympathy. No doubt temperamenthas much to do with the degree of our obedience; but this wholecontext goes on the assumption that the grace of God working ontemperament strengthens natural endowments by turning them into'gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. ' Thoughwe live in that awful individuality of ours, and are each, as itwere, is landed in ourselves 'with echoing straits between us thrown, 'it is possible for us, as the result of close communion with JesusChrist, to bridge the chasms, and to enter into the joy of abrother's joy. He who groaned in Himself as He drew near to the graveof Lazarus, and was moved to weep with the weeping sisters, will helpus, in the measure in which we dwell in Him and He in us, that we toomay look 'not every man on his own things, but every man also on thethings of others. '

On the whole, love to Jesus is the basis of love to man, and love toman is the practical worship of Christianity. As in all things, so inthe exhortations which we have now been considering, Jesus is ourpattern and power. He Himself communicates with our necessities, andopens His heart to give us hospitable welcome there. He Himself hasshown us how to meet and overcome hatred with love, and hurt withblessing. He shares our griefs, and by sharing lessens them. Heshares our joys, and by sharing hallows them. The summing up of allthese specific injunctions is, 'Let that mind be in you which wasalso in Christ Jesus. '

STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET

 'Be of the same mind one toward another. Set not your mind on high things, but condescend to things that are lowly. Be not wise in your own conceits. '--Romans xii. 16 (R. V. ). 

We have here again the same triple arrangement which has prevailedthrough a considerable portion of the context. These threeexhortations are linked together by a verbal resemblance which canscarcely be preserved in translation. In the two former the same verbis employed: and in the third the word for 'wise' is cognate with theverb found in the other two clauses. If we are to seek for any closerconnection of thought we may find it first in this--that all thethree clauses deal with mental attitudes, whilst the preceding onesdealt with the expression of such; and second in this--that the firstof the three is a general precept, and the second and third arewarnings against faults which are most likely to interfere with it. 

I. We note, the bond of peace. 

'Be of the same mind one toward another. ' It is interesting to noticehow frequently the Apostle in many of his letters exhorts to mutualharmonious relations. For instance, in this very Epistle he invokes'the God of patience and of comfort' to grant to the Roman Christians'to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, 'and to the Corinthians, who had their full share of Greekdivisiveness, he writes, 'Be of the same mind, live in peace, ' andassures them that, if so, 'the God of love and peace will be withthem'; to his beloved Philippians he pours out his heart inbeseeching them by 'the consolation that is in Christ Jesus, and thecomfort of love, and the fellowship of the Spirit--' that they would'fulfil his joy, that they be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind'; whilst to the two women in thatChurch who were at variance with one another he sends the earnestexhortation 'to be of the same mind in the Lord, ' and prays one whomwe only know by his loving designation of 'a true yokefellow, ' tohelp them in what would apparently put a strain upon their Christianprinciple. For communities and for individuals the cherishing of thespirit of amity and concord is a condition without which there willbe little progress in the Christian life. 

But it is to be carefully noted that such a spirit may co-exist withgreat differences about other matters. It is not opposed to widedivergence of opinion, though in our imperfect sanctification it ishard for us to differ and yet to be in concord. We all know thehopelessness of attempting to make half a dozen good men think alikeon any of the greater themes of the Christian religion; and if wecould succeed in such a vain attempt, there would still be many anunguarded door through which could come the spirit of discord, andthe half-dozen might have divergence of heart even whilst theyprofess identity of opinion. The true hindrances to our having 'thesame mind one toward another' lie very much deeper in our nature thanthe region in which we keep our creeds. The self-regard andself-absorption, petulant dislike of fellow-Christians'peculiarities, the indifference which comes from lack of imaginativesympathy, and which ministers to the ignorance which causes it, and athousand other weaknesses in Christian character bring about thedeplorable alienation which but too plainly marks the relation ofChristian communities and of individual Christians to one another inthis day. When one thinks of the actual facts in every corner ofChristendom, and probes one's own feelings, the contrast between theapostolic ideal and the Church's realisation of it presents acontradiction so glaring that one wonders if Christian people at allbelieve that it is their duty 'to be of the same mind one towardanother. '

The attainment of this spirit of amity and concord ought to be adistinct object of effort, and especially in times like ours, whenthere is no hostile pressure driving Christian people together, butwhen our great social differences are free to produce a certaininevitable divergence and to check the flow of our sympathy, and whenthere are deep clefts of opinion, growing deeper every day, andseeming to part off Christians into camps which have littleunderstanding of, and less sympathy with, one another. Even thestrong individualism, which it is the glory of true Christian faithto foster in character, and which some forms of Christian fellowshipdo distinctly promote, works harm in this matter; and those who pridethemselves on belonging to 'Free churches, ' and standing apart fromcreed-bound and clergy-led communities, are specially called upon tosee to it that they keep this exhortation, and cultivate 'the unityof the Spirit in the bond of peace. '

It should not be necessary to insist that the closest mutual concordamongst all believers is but an imperfect manifestation, as allmanifestations in life of the deepest principles must be, of the trueoneness which binds together in the most sacred unity, and shouldbind together in closest friendship, all partakers of the one life. And assuredly the more that one life flows into our spirits, the lesspower will all the enemies of Christian concord have over us. It isthe Christ in us which makes us kindred with all others in whom Heis. It is self, in some form or other, that separates us from thepossessors of like precious faith. When the tide is out, the littlerock-pools on the shore lie separated by stretches of slimy weeds, but the great sea, when it rushes up, buries the divisions, andunites them all. Our Christian unity is unity in Christ, and the onlysure way 'to be of the same mind one toward another' is, that 'themind which was in Christ Jesus be in us also. '

II. The divisive power of selfish ambition. 

'Set not your mind on high things, but condescend to things that arelowly. ' The contrast here drawn between the high and the lowly makesit probable that the latter as well as the former is to be taken asreferring to 'things' rather than persons. The margin of the RevisedVersion gives the literal rendering of the word translated'condescend. ' 'To be carried away with, ' is metaphorically equivalentto surrendering one's self to; and the two clauses present two sidesof one disposition, which seeks not for personal advancement orconspicuous work which may minister to self-gratulation, butcontentedly fills the lowly sphere, and 'the humblest duties onherself doth lay. ' We need not pause to point out that such an idealis dead against the fashionable maxims of this generation. Personalambition is glorified as an element in progress, and to a world whichbelieves in such a proverb as 'devil take the hindmost, ' these twoexhortations can only seem fanatical absurdity. And yet, perhaps, ifwe fairly take into account how the seeking after personaladvancement and conspicuous work festers the soul, and how the flowerof heart's-ease grows, as Bunyan's shepherd-boy found out, in thelowly valley, these exhortations to a quiet performance of lowlyduties and a contented filling of lowly spheres, may seem touchedwith a higher wisdom than is to be found in the arenas where mentrample over each other in their pursuit of a fame 'which appearethfor a little time, and then vanisheth away. ' What a peaceful world itwould be, and what peaceful souls they would have, if Christianpeople really adopted as their own these two simple maxims. They areeasy to understand, but how hard they are to follow. 

It needs scarcely be noted that the temper condemned here destroysall the concord and amity which the Apostle has been urging in theprevious clause. Where every man is eagerly seeking to force himselfin front of his neighbour, any community will become a strugglingmob; and they who are trying to outrun one another and who grasp at'high things, ' will never be 'of the same mind one toward another. 'But, we may observe that the surest way to keep in check the naturalselfish tendency to desire conspicuous things for ourselves ishonestly, and with rigid self-control, to let ourselves be carriedaway by enthusiasm for humble tasks. If we would not disturb ourlives and fret our hearts by ambitions that, even when gratified, bring no satisfaction, we must yield ourselves to the impulse of thecontinuous stream of lowly duties which runs through every life. 

But, plainly as this exhortation is needful, it is tooheavy a strain to be ever carried out except by the power of Christformed in the heart. It is in His earthly life that we find the greatexample of the highest stooping to the lowest duties, and elevatingthem by taking them upon Himself. He did not 'strive nor cry, norcause His voice to be heard in the streets. ' Thirty years of thatperfect life were spent in a little village folded away in theGalilean hills, with rude peasants for the only spectators, and thenarrow sphere of a carpenter's shop for its theatre. For the rest, the publicity possible would have been obscurity to an ambitioussoul. To speak comforting words to a few weeping hearts; to lay Hishands on a few sick folk and heal them; to go about in a despisedland doing good, loved indeed by outcasts and sinners, unknown byall the dispensers of renown, and consciously despised by all whomthe world honoured--that was the perfect life of the Incarnate God. And that is an example which His followers seem with one consent toset aside in their eager race after distinction and work that mayglorify their names. The difficulty of a faithful following of theseprecepts, and the only means by which that difficulty can beovercome, are touchingly taught us in another of Paul's Epistles bythe accumulation of motives which he brings to bear upon hiscommandment, when he exhorts by the tender motives of 'comfort inChrist, consolation of love, fellowship of the Spirit, and tendermercies and compassions, that ye fulfil my joy, being of the samemind, of one accord; doing nothing through faction or vainglory, butin lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself. ' As thepattern for each of us in our narrow sphere, he holds forth the mindthat was in Christ Jesus, and the great self-emptying which he shranknot from, 'but being in the form of God counted it not a prize to beon an equality with God, but, being found in fashion as a man, Hehumbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death. '

III. The divisive power of intellectual self-conceit. 

In this final clause the Apostle, in some sense, repeats the maximwith which he began the series of special exhortations in thischapter. He there enjoined 'every one among you not to think ofhimself more highly than he ought to think'; here he deals with oneespecial form of such too lofty thinking, viz. Intellectual conceit. He is possibly quoting the Book of Proverbs (iii. 7), where we read, 'Be not wise in thine own eyes, ' which is preceded by, 'Lean not tothine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him'; and isfollowed by, 'Fear the Lord and depart from evil'; thus pointing tothe acknowledgment and fear of the Lord as the great antagonist ofsuch over-estimate of one's own wisdom as of all other faults of mindand life. It needs not to point out how such a disposition breaksChristian unity of spirit. There is something especially isolating inthat form of self-conceit. There are few greater curses in the Churchthan little coteries of superior persons who cannot feed on ordinaryfood, whose enlightened intelligence makes them too fastidious tosoil their dainty fingers with rough, vulgar work, and whosesupercilious criticism of the unenlightened souls that are content tocondescend to lowly Christian duties, is like an iceberg that bringsdown the temperature wherever it floats. That temper indulged in, breaks the unity, reduces to inactivity the work, and puts an end tothe progress, of any Christian community in which it is found; andjust as its predominance is harmful, so the obedience to theexhortation against it is inseparable from the fulfilling of itssister precepts. To know ourselves for the foolish creatures that weare, is a mighty help to being 'of the same mind one toward another. 'Who thinks of himself soberly and according to the measure of faithwhich God hath dealt to him will not hunger after high things, butrather prefer the lowly ones that are on a level with his lowly self. 

The exhortations of our text were preceded with injunctions todistribute material help, and to bestow helpful sympathy. The tempersenjoined in our present text are the inward source and fountain ofsuch external bestowments. The rendering of material help and ofsympathetic emotion are right and valuable only as they are theoutcome of this unanimity and lowliness. It is possible to'distribute to the necessity of saints' in such a way as that thegift pains more than a blow; it is possible to proffer sympathy sothat the sensitive heart shrinks from it. It was 'when the multitudeof them that believed were of one heart and one soul' that it becamenatural to have all things common. As in the aurora borealis, quivering beams from different centres stream out and at each throbapproach each other till they touch and make an arch of light thatglorifies the winter's night, so, if Christian men were 'of the samemind toward one another, ' did not 'set their minds on high things, but condescended to things that were lowly, and were not wise intheir own conceits, ' the Church of Christ would shine forth in thedarkness of a selfish world and would witness to Him who came down'from the highest throne in glory' to the lowliest place in thislowly world, that He might lift us to His own height of gloryeverlasting. 

STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET

 'Render to no man evil for evil. Take thought for things honourable in the light of all men. 18. If it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men. '--ROMANS xii. 17, 18 (R. V. ). 

The closing words of this chapter have a certain unity in that theydeal principally with a Christian's duty in the face of hostility andantagonism. A previous injunction touched on the same subject in theexhortation to bless the persecutors; but with that exception, allthe preceding verses have dealt with duties owing to those with whomwe stand in friendly relations. Such exhortations take no cognisanceof the special circumstances of the primitive Christians as 'lambs inthe midst of wolves'; and a large tract of Christian duty would beundealt with, if we had not such directions for feelings and actionsin the face of hate and hurt. The general precept in our text isexpanded in a more complete form in the verses which follow the text, and we may postpone its consideration until we have to deal withthem. It is one form of the application of the 'love withouthypocrisy' which has been previously recommended. The second of thesethree precepts seems quite heterogeneous, but it may be noticed thatthe word for 'evil' in the former and that for 'honourable, ' in theseclosely resemble each other in sound, and the connection of the twoclauses may be partially owing to that verbal resemblance; whilst wemay also discern a real link between the thoughts in theconsideration that we owe even to our enemies the exhibition of alife which a prejudiced hostility will be forced to recognise asgood. The third of these exhortations prescribes unmoved persistencein friendly regard to all men. 

Dealing then, in this sermon only, with the second and third of theseprecepts, and postponing the consideration of the first to thefollowing discourse, we have here the counsel that

I. Hostility is to be met with a holy and beautiful life. 

The Authorised Version inadequately translates the significant wordin this exhortation by 'honest. ' The Apostle is not simply enjoininghonesty in our modern, narrow sense of the word, which limits it tothe rendering to every man his own. It is a remarkable thing that'honest, ' like many other words expressing various types of goodness, has steadily narrowed in signification, and it is very characteristicof England that probity as to money and material goods should be itsmain meaning. Here the word is used in the full breadth of itsancient use, and is equivalent to that which is fair with the moralbeauty of goodness. 

A Christian man then is bound to live a life which all men willacknowledge to be good. In that precept is implied the recognition ofeven bad men's notions of morality as correct. The Gospel is not anew system of ethics, though in some points it brings old virtuesinto new prominence, and alters their perspective. It is furtherimplied that the world's standard of what Christians ought to be maybe roughly taken as a true one. Christian men would learn a greatdeal about themselves, and might in many respects heighten theirideal, if they would try to satisfy the expectations of the mostdegraded among them as to what they ought to be. The worst of men hasa rude sense of duty which tops the attainments of the best. Christian people ought to seek for the good opinion of those aroundthem. They are not to take that opinion as the motive for theirconduct, nor should they do good in order to be praised or admiredfor it; but they are to 'adorn the doctrine, ' and to let their lightshine that men seeing their good may be led to think more loftily ofits source, and so to 'glorify their Father which is in heaven. ' Thatis one way of preaching the Gospel. The world knows goodness when itsees it, though it often hates it, and has no better ground for itsdislike of a man than that his purity and beauty of character makethe lives of others seem base indeed. Bats feel the light to belight, though they flap against it, and the winnowing of theirleathery wings and their blundering flight are witnesses to thatagainst which they strike. Jesus had to say, 'The world hateth Mebecause I testify of it that the deeds thereof are evil. ' Thatwitness was the result of His being 'the Light of the world'; and ifHis followers are illuminated from Him, they will have the sameeffect, and must be prepared for the same response. But none the lessis it incumbent upon them to 'take thought for things honourable inthe sight of all men. '

This duty involves the others of taking care that we have goodness toshow, and that we do not make our goodness repulsive by our additionsto it. There are good people who comfort themselves when men dislikethem, or scoff at them, by thinking that their religion is the cause, when it is only their own roughness and harshness of character. It isnot enough that we present an austere and repellent virtue; the fairfood should be set on a fair platter. This duty is especially owingto our enemies. They are our keenest critics. They watch for ourhalting. The thought of their hostile scrutiny should ever stimulateus, and the consciousness that Argus-eyes are watching us, with akeenness sharpened by dislike, should lead us not only to vigilanceover our own steps, but also to the prayer, 'Lead me in a plain path, because of those who watch me. ' To 'provide things honest in thesight of all men' is a possible way of disarming some hostility, conciliating some prejudice, and commending to some hearts the Lordwhom we seek to imitate. 

II. Be sure that, if there is to be enmity, it is all on one side. 

'As much as in you lieth, be at peace with all. ' These words are, Ithink, unduly limited when they are supposed to imply that there arecircumstances in which a Christian has a right to be at strife. As ifthey meant: Be peaceable as far as you can; but if it be impossible, then quarrel. The real meaning goes far deeper than that. 'It takestwo to make a quarrel, ' says the old proverb; it takes two to makepeace also, does it not? We cannot determine whether our relationswith men will be peaceful or no; we are only answerable for our part, and for that we are answerable. 'As much as lieth in you' is theexplanation of 'if it be possible. ' Your part is to be at peace; itis not your part up to a certain point and no further, but always, and in all circumstances, it is your part. It may not be possible tobe at peace with all men; there may be some who _will_ quarrel withyou. You are not to blame for that, but their part and yours areseparate, and your part is the same whatever they do. Be you at peacewith all men whether they are at peace with you or not. Don't youquarrel with them even if they will quarrel with you. That seems tome to be plainly the meaning of the words. It would be contrary tothe tenor of the context and the teaching of the New Testament tosuppose that here we had that favourite principle, 'There is a pointbeyond which forbearance cannot go, ' where it becomes right tocherish hostile sentiments or to try to injure a man. If there be sucha point, it is very remarkable that there is no attempt made in theNew Testament to define it. The nearest approach to such definitionis 'till seventy times seven, ' the two perfect numbers multipliedinto themselves. So I think that this injunction absolutelyprescribes persistent, patient peacefulness, and absolutelyproscribes our taking up the position of antagonism, and under nocircumstances meeting hate with hate. It does not follow that thereis never to be opposition. It may be necessary for the good of theopponent himself, and for the good of society, that he should behindered in his actions of hostility, but there is never to bebitterness; and we must take care that none of the devil's leavenmingles with our zeal against evil. 

There is no need for enlarging on the enormous difficulty of carryingout such a commandment in our daily lives. We all know too well howhard it is; but we may reflect for a moment on the absolute necessityof obeying this precept to the full. For their own souls' sakesChristian men are to avoid all bitterness, strife, and malice. Let ustry to remember, and to bring to bear on our daily lives, the solemnthings which Jesus said about God's forgiveness being measured by ourforgiveness. The faithful, even though imperfect, following of thisexhortation would revolutionise our lives. Nothing that we can onlywin by fighting with our fellows is worth fighting for. Men willweary of antagonism which is met only by the imperturbable calm of aheart at peace with God, and seeking peace with all men. The hot fireof hatred dies down, like burning coals scattered on a glacier, whenlaid against the crystal coldness of a patient, peaceful spirit. Watch-dogs in farmhouses will bark half the night through becausethey hear another barking a mile off. It takes two to make a quarrel;let me be sure that I am never one of the two!

STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET

 'Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him: if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. '--ROMANS xii. 19-21. 

The natural instinct is to answer enmity with enmity, and kindlinesswith kindliness. There are many people of whom we think well andlike, for no other reason than because we believe that they thinkwell of and like us. Such a love is really selfishness. In the samefashion, dislike, and alienation on the part of another naturallyreproduce themselves in our own minds. A dog will stretch its neck tobe patted, and snap at a stick raised to strike it. It requires astrong effort to master this instinctive tendency, and that effortthe plainest principles of Christian morality require from us all. The precepts in our text are in twofold form, negative and positive;and they are closed with a general principle, which includes boththese forms, and much more besides. There are two pillars, and agreat lintel coping them, like the trilithons of Stonehenge. 

I. We deal with the negative precept. 

'Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto wrath. ' Do nottake the law into your own hands, but leave God's way of retributionto work itself out. By avenging, the Apostle means a passionateredress of private wrongs at the bidding of personal resentment. Wemust note how deep this precept goes. It prohibits not merelyexternal acts which, in civilised times are restrained by law, but, as with Christian morality, it deals with thoughts and feelings, andnot only with deeds. It forbids such natural and common thoughts as'I owe him an ill turn for that'; 'I should like to pay him off. ' Agreat deal of what is popularly called 'a proper spirit' becomesextremely improper if tested by this precept. There is an eloquentword in German which we can only clumsily reproduce, which christensthe ugly pleasure at seeing misfortune and calls it 'joy in others'disasters. ' We have not the word; would that we had not the thing!

A solemn reason is added for the difficult precept, in thatfrequently misunderstood saying, 'Give place unto wrath. ' Thequestion is, Whose wrath? And, plainly, the subsequent words of thesection show that it is God's. That quotation comes from Deuteronomyxxxii. 35. It is possibly unfortunate that 'vengeance' is ascribed toGod; for hasty readers lay hold of the idea of passionate resentment, and transfer it to Him, whereas His retributive action has in it noresentment and no passion. Nor are we to suppose that the thoughthere is only the base one, _they are sure to be punished, so weneed not trouble_. The Apostle points to the solemn fact ofretribution as an element in the Divine government. It is not merelyautomatically working laws which recompense evil by evil, but it is the face of the Lord which is inexorably and inevitably set'against them that do evil. ' That recompense is not hidden away inthe future behind the curtain of death, but is realised in thepresent, as every evil-doer too surely and bitterly experiences. 

'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. ' God only has theright to recompense the ungodly and the sinner as well as therighteous. Dwelling in such a system as we do, how dares any one takethat work into his hands? It requires perfect knowledge of the trueevil of an action, which no one has who cannot read the heart; itrequires perfect freedom from passion; it requires perfect immunityfrom evil desert on the part of the avenger; in a word, it belongs toGod, and to Him alone. We have nothing to do with apportioningretribution to desert, either in private actions or in the treatmentof so-called criminals. In the latter our objects should bereformation and the safety of society. If we add to theseretribution, we transcend our functions. 

II. Take the positive, --Follow God's way of meeting hostility withbeneficence. 

The hungry enemy is to be fed, the thirsty to be given drink; and thereason is, that such beneficence will 'heap coals of fire upon hishead. ' The negative is not enough. To abstain from vengeance willleave the heart unaffected, and may simply issue in the cessation ofall intercourse. The reason assigned sounds at first strange. It isclear that the 'coals of fire' which are to be heaped on the head aremeant to melt and soften the heart, and cause it to glow with love. There may be also included the burning pangs of shame felt by a manwhose evil is answered by good. But these are secondary and auxiliaryto the true end of kindling the fire of love in his alienated heart. The great object which every Christian man is bound to have in viewis to win over the enemy and melt away misconceptions and hostility. It is not from any selfish regard to one's own personal ease that weare so to act, but because of the sacred regard which Christ hastaught us to cherish for the blessing of peace amongst men, and inorder that we may deliver a brother from the snare, and make himshare in the joys of fellowship with God. The only way to burn up theevil in his heart is by heaping coals of kindness and beneficence onhis head. And for such an end it becomes us to watch foropportunities. We have to mark the right moment, and make sure thatwe time our offer for food when he is hungry and of drink when hethirsts; for often _mal-a-propos_ offers of kindness make thingsworse. Such is God's way. His thunderbolts we cannot grasp, His lovewe can copy. Of the two weapons mercy and judgment which He holds inHis hand, the latter is emphatically His own; the former should beours too. 

III. In all life meet and conquer evil with good. 

This last precept, 'Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil withgood, ' is cast into a form which covers not only relations toenemies, but all contact with evil of every kind. It involves manygreat thoughts which can here be only touched. It implies that in allour lives we have to fight evil, and that it conquers, and we arebeaten when we are led to do it. It is only conquered by beingtransformed into good. We overcome our foes when we win them to belovers. We overcome our temptations to doing wrong when we make themoccasions for developing virtues; we overcome the evil of sorrow whenwe use it to bring us nearer to God; we overcome the men around uswhen we are not seduced by their example to evil, but attract them togoodness by ours. 

Evil is only thus transformed by the positive exercise of goodness onour part. We have seen this in regard to enemies in the precedingremarks. In regard to other forms of evil, it is often better not tofight them directly, but to occupy the mind and heart with positivetruth and goodness, and the will and hands with active service. Arusty knife shall not be cleaned so effectually by much scouring asby strenuous use. Our lives are to be moulded after the great exampleof Him, who at almost the last moment of His earthly course said, 'Beof good cheer: I have overcome the world. ' Jesus seeks to conquerevil in us all, and counts that He has conquered it when He haschanged it into love. 

LOVE AND THE DAY

 'Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 9. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 10. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 11. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 12. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light, 13. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying: 14. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. '--ROMANS xiii. 8-14. 

The two paragraphs of this passage are but slightly connected. Thefirst inculcates the obligation of universal love; and the secondbegins by suggesting, as a motive for the discharge of that duty, thenear approach of 'the day. ' The light of that dawn draws Paul's eyesand leads him to wider exhortations on Christian purity as befittingthe children of light. 

I. Verses 8-10 set forth the obligation of a love which embraces allmen, and comprehends all duties to them. The Apostle has just beenlaying down the general exhortation, 'Pay every man his due' andapplying it especially to the Christian's relation to civic rulers. He repeats it in a negative form, and bases on it the obligation ofloving every man. That love is further represented as the sum andsubstance of the law. Thus Paul brings together two thoughts whichare often dealt with as mutually exclusive, --namely, love and law. Hedoes not talk sentimentalisms about the beauty of charity and thelike, but lays it down, as a 'hard and fast rule, ' that we are boundto love every man with whom we come in contact; or, as the Greek hasit, 'the other. '

That is the first plain truth taught here. Love is not an emotionwhich we may indulge or not, as we please. It is not to select itsobjects according to our estimate of their lovableness or goodness. But we are bound to love, and that all round, without distinction ofbeautiful or ugly, good or bad. 'A hard saying; who can hear it?'Every man is our creditor for that debt. He does not get his due fromus unless he gets love. Note, further, that the debt of love is neverdischarged. After all payments it still remains owing. There is nopaying in full of all demands, and, as Bengel says, it is an undyingdebt. We are apt to weary of expending love, especially on unworthyrecipients, and to think that we have wiped off all claims, and itmay often be true that our obligations to others compel us to ceasehelping one; but if we laid Paul's words to heart, our patience wouldbe longer-breathed, and we should not be so soon ready to shut heartsand purses against even unthankful suitors. 

Further, Paul here teaches us that this debt (_debitum_, 'duty') oflove includes all duties. It is the fulfilling of the law, inasmuchas it will secure the conduct which the law prescribes. The Mosaiclaw itself indicates this, since it recapitulates the variouscommandments of the second table, in the one precept of love to ourneighbour (Lev. Xix. 18). Law enjoins but has no power to get itsinjunctions executed. Love enables and inclines to do all that lawprescribes, and to avoid all that it prohibits. The multiplicity ofduties is melted into unity; and that unity, when it comes into act, unfolds into whatsoever things are lovely and of good report. Love isthe mother tincture which, variously diluted and manipulated, yieldsall potent and fragrant draughts. It is the white light which theprism of daily life resolves into its component colours. 

But Paul seems to limit the action of love here to negative doing noill. That is simply because the commandments are mostly negative, andthat they are is a sad token of the lovelessness natural to us all. But do we love ourselves only negatively, or are we satisfied withdoing ourselves no harm? That stringent pattern of love to others notonly prescribes degree, but manner. It teaches that true love to menis not weak indulgence, but must sometimes chastise, and thwart, andalways must seek their good, and not merely their gratification. 

Whoever will honestly seek to apply that negative precept of workingno ill to others, will find it positive enough. We harm men when wefail to help them. If we can do them a kindness, and do it not, we dothem ill. Non-activity for good is activity for evil. Surely, nothingcan be plainer than the bearing of this teaching on the Christianduty as to intoxicants. If by using these a Christian puts astumbling-block in the way of a weak will, then he is working ill tohis neighbour, and that argues absence of love, and that isdishonest, shirking payment of a plain debt. 

II. The great stimulus to love and to all purity is set forth asbeing the near approach--of the day (verses 11-14). 'The day, ' inPaul's writing, has usually the sense of the great day of the Lord'sreturn, and may have that meaning here; for, as Jesus has told us, 'it is not for' even inspired Apostles 'to know the times or theseasons, ' and it is no dishonour to apostolic inspiration to assignto it the limits which the Lord has assigned. 

But, whether we take this as the meaning of the phrase, or regard itsimply as pointing to the time of death as the dawning of heaven'sday, the weight of the motive is unaffected. The language is vividlypicturesque. The darkness is thinning, and the blackness turninggrey. Light begins to stir and whisper. A band of soldiers liesasleep, and, as the twilight begins to dawn, the bugle call summonsthem to awake, to throw off their night-gear, --namely, the workscongenial to darkness, --and to brace on their armour of light. Lightmay here be regarded as the material of which the glistering armouris made; but, more probably, the expression means weapons appropriateto the light. 

Such being the general picture, we note the fact which underlies thewhole representation; namely, that every life is a definite wholewhich has a fixed end. Jesus said, 'We must work the works of Himthat sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh. ' Paul uses theopposite metaphors in these verses. But, though the two sayings areopposite in form, they are identical in substance. In both, thepredominant thought is that of the rapidly diminishing space ofearthly life, and the complete unlikeness to it of the future. Westand like men on a sandbank with an incoming tide, and every wash ofthe waves eats away its edges, and presently it will yield below ourfeet. We forget this for the most part, and perhaps it is not wellthat it should be ever present; but that it should never be presentis madness and sore loss. 

Paul, in his intense moral earnestness, in verse 13, bids us regardourselves as already in 'the day, ' and shape our conduct as if itshone around us and all things were made manifest by its light. Thesins to be put off are very gross and palpable. They are for the mostpart sins of flesh, such as even these Roman Christians had to bewarned against, and such as need to be manifested by the light evennow among many professing Christian communities. 

But Paul has one more word to say. If he stopped without it, he wouldhave said little to help men who are crying out, 'How am I to stripoff this clinging evil, which seems my skin rather than my clothing?How am I to put on that flashing panoply?' There is but one way, --puton the Lord Jesus Christ. If we commit ourselves to Him by faith, andfront our temptations in His strength, and thus, as it were, wrapourselves in Him, He will be to us dress and armour, strength andrighteousness. Our old self will fall away, and we shall take noforethought for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. 

SALVATION NEARER

 '. .. Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. '--ROMANS xiii. 11. 

There is no doubt, I suppose, that the Apostle, in common with thewhole of the early Church, entertained more or less consistently theexpectation of living to witness the second coming of Jesus Christ. There are in Paul's letters passages which look both in the directionof that anticipation, and in the other one of expecting to tastedeath. 'We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, 'he says twice in one chapter. 'I am ready to be offered, and the hourof my departure is at hand, ' he says in his last letter. 

Now this contrariety of anticipation is but the natural result ofwhat our Lord Himself said, 'It is not for you to know the times andthe seasons, ' and no one, who is content to form his doctrine of theknowledge resulting from inspiration from the words of Jesus ChristHimself, need stumble in the least degree in recognising the plainfact that Paul and his brother Apostles did not know when the Masterwas to come. Christ Himself had told them that there was a chamberlocked against their entrance, and therefore we do not need to thinkthat it militates against the authoritative inspiration of theseearly teachers of the Church, if they, too, searched 'what manner oftime the Spirit which was in them did signify when it testifiedbeforehand . .. The glory that should follow. '

Now, my text is evidently the result of the former of these twoanticipations, viz. That Paul and his generation were probably to seethe coming of the Lord from heaven. And to him the thought that' thenight was far spent, ' as the context says, 'and the day was at hand, 'underlay his most buoyant hope, and was the inspiration andmotive-spring of his most strenuous effort. 

Now, our relation to the closing moments of our own earthly lives, tothe fact of death, is precisely the same as that of the Apostle andhis brethren to the coming of the Lord. We, too, stand in thatposition of partial ignorance, and for us practically the words of mytext, and all their parallel words, point to how we should think of, and how we should be affected by, the end to which we are coming. Andthis is the grand characteristic of the Christian view of that lastsolemn moment. 'Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 'So I would note, first of all, what these words teach us should bethe Christian view of our own end; and, second, to what conduct thatview should lead us. 

I. The Christian view of death. 

'Now is our salvation nearer. ' We have to think away by faith andhope all the grim externals of death, and to get to the heart of thething. And then everything that is repulsive, everything that makesflesh and blood shrink, disappears and is evaporated, and beneath thefolds of his black garment, there is revealed God's last, sweetest, most triumphant angel-messenger to Christian souls, the great, strong, silent Angel of Death, and he carries in his hand the gift ofa full salvation. That is what our Apostle rose to the rapture ofbeholding, when he knew that the thought of his surviving till Christcame again must be put away, and when close to the last moment of hislife, he said, 'The Lord shall deliver me, and save me into Hiseverlasting kingdom. ' What was the deliverance and being saved thathe expected and expresses in these words? Immunity from punishment?Escape from the headsman's axe? Being 'delivered from the mouth ofthe lion, ' the persecuting fangs of the bloody Nero? By no means. Heknew that death was at hand, and he said, 'He will save me'--not fromit, but through it--'into His everlasting kingdom. ' And so in thewords of my text we may say--though Paul did not mean them so--as wesee the distance between us, and that certain close, dwindling, dwindling, dwindling: 'Now, ' as moment after moment ticks itself intothe past, 'now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 'Children, when they are getting near their holidays, take strips ofpaper, and tear off a piece as each day passes. And as we tear offthe days let us feel that we are drawing closer to our home, and thatthe blessedness laid up for us in it is drawing nearer to us. 'Oursalvation, ' not our destruction, our fuller life, not in any truesense of the word our 'death, ' is 'nearer than when we believed. '

But some one may say, 'Is a man not saved till after he is dead?' Issalvation future, not coming till after the grave? No, certainly not. There are three aspects of that word in Scripture. Sometimes the NewTestament writers treat salvation as past, and represent a Christianas being invested with the possession of it all at the very moment ofhis first faith. That is true, that whatever is yet to be evolvedfrom what is given to the poorest and foulest sinner, in the momentof his initial faith in Christ, there is nothing to be added to it. The salvation which the penitent thief received on the cross is allthe salvation that he was ever to get. But out of it there camewelling and welling and welling, when he had passed into the region'where beyond these voices there is peace'--there came welling outfrom that inexhaustible fountain which was opened in him all thefullnesses of an eternal progress in the heavens. And so it is withus. Salvation is a past gift which we received when we believed. 

But in another aspect, which is also emphatically stated inScripture, it is a progressive process, and not merely a giftbestowed once for all in the past. I do not dwell upon that thought, but just remind you of a turn of expression which occurs in variousconnections more than once. 'The Lord added to the Church daily suchas were being saved, ' says Luke. Still more emphatically in theEpistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle puts into antithesis the twoprogressive processes, and speaks of the Gospel as being preached, and being a savour of life unto life 'to them that are being saved, 'and a savour of destruction 'to them that are being lost. ' No moralor spiritual condition is stereotyped or stagnant. It is allprogressive. And so the salvation that is given once for all is everbeing unfolded, and the Christian life on earth is the unfolding ofit. 

But in another aspect still, such as is presented in my text, and inother parallel passages, that salvation is regarded as lying on theother side of the flood, because the manifestations of it there, theevolving there of what is in it, and the great gifts that come then, are so transcendently above all even of our selectest experienceshere, that they are, as it were, new, though still their roots are inthe old. The salvation which culminates in the absolute removal fromour whole being of all manner of evil, whether it be sorrow or sin, and in the conclusive bestowal upon us of all manner of good, whetherit be righteousness or joy, and which has for its seal 'the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body, ' so that body, soul, and spirit'make one music as before, but vaster, ' is so far beyond the germs ofitself which here we experience that my text and its like are amplyvindicated. And the man who is most fully persuaded and consciousthat he possesses the salvation of God, and most fully and blessedlyaware that that salvation is gradually gaining power in his life, isthe very man who will most feel that between its highestmanifestation on earth, and its lowest in the heavens there is such agulf as that the wine that he will drink there at the Father's tableis indeed new wine. And so 'is our salvation nearer, ' though wealready possess it, 'than when we believed. '

Dear brethren, if these things be true, and if to die is to be savedinto the kingdom, do not two thoughts result? The one is that thatblessed consummation should occupy more of our thoughts than I amafraid it does. As life goes on, and the space dwindles between usand it, we older people naturally fall into the way, unless we arefools, of more seriously and frequently turning our thoughts to theend. I suppose the last week of a voyage to Australia has far morethoughts in it about the landing next week than the two or threefirst days of beating down the English Channel had. I do not want toput old heads on young shoulders in this or in any other respect. Butsure I am that it does belong very intimately to the strength of ourChristian characters that we should, as the Psalmist says, be 'wise'to 'consider our latter end. '

The other thought that follows is as plain, viz. That thatanticipation should always be buoyant, hopeful, joyous. We havenothing to do with the sad aspects of parting from earth. They areall but non-existent for the Christian consciousness, when it is asvigorous and God-directed as it ought to be. They drop into thebackground, and sometimes are lost to sight altogether. Remember howthis Apostle, when he does think about death, looks at it with--I wasgoing to quote words which may strike you as being inappropriate--'afrolic welcome'; how, at all events, he is neither a bit afraid ofit, nor does he see in it anything from which to shrink. He speaks ofbeing with Christ, which is far better; 'absent from the body, present with the Lord'; 'the dissolution of the earthly house of thistabernacle'--the tumbling down of the old clay cottage in order thata stately palace of marble and precious stones may be reared upon itssite; 'the hour of my departure is at hand; I have finished thefight. ' Peter, too, chimes in with his words: 'My exodus; mydeparture, ' and both of the two are looking, if not longingly, at allevents without a tremor of the eyelid, into the very eyeballs of themessenger whom most men feel so hideous. Is it not a wonderful giftto Christian souls that by faith in Jesus Christ, the realm in whichtheir hope can expatiate is more than doubled, and annexes the dimlands beyond the frontier of death? Dear friends, if we are living inChrist, the thought of the end and that here we are absent from home, ought to be infinitely sweet, of whatever superficial terrors thispoor, shrinking flesh may still be conscious. And I am sure that thenearer we get to our Saviour, and the more we realise the joyouspossession of salvation as already ours, and the more we areconscious of the expanding of that gift in our hearts, the more weshall be delivered from that fear of death which makes men all their'lifetime subject to bondage. ' So I beseech you to aim at this, that, when you look forward, the furthest thing you see on the horizon ofearth may be that great Angel of Death coming to save you into theeverlasting kingdom. 

Now, just a word about

II. The conduct to which such a hope should incite. 

The Apostle puts it very plainly in the context, and we need butexpand in a word or two what he teaches us there. 'And that knowingthe time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now isour salvation nearer than when we believed. ' To what does he refer by'that'? The whole of the practical exhortations to a Christian lifewhich have been given before. Everything that is duty becomes tenfoldmore stringent and imperative when we apprehend the true meaning ofthat last moment. They tell us that it is unwholesome to be thinkingabout death and the beyond, because to do so takes away interest frommuch of our present occupations and weakens energy. If there isanything from which a man is wrenched away because he steadilycontemplates the fact of being wrenched away altogether fromeverything before long, it is something that he had better bewrenched from. And if there be any occupations which dwindle intonothingness, and into which a man cannot for the life of him flinghimself with any thoroughgoing enthusiasm or interest, if once thethought of death stirs in him, depend upon it they are occupationswhich are in themselves contemptible and unworthy. All good aims willgain greater power over us; we shall have a saner estimate of what isworth living for; we shall have a new standard of what is therelative importance of things; and if some that looked very greatturn out to be very small when we let that searching light in uponthem, and others which seemed very insignificant spring suddenly upinto dominating magnitude--that new and truer perspective will be allclear gain. The more we feel that our salvation is sweeping towardsus, as it were, from the throne of God through the blue abysses, themore diligently we shall 'work while it is called day, ' and the moreearnestly we shall seek, when the Saviour and His salvation come, tobe found with loins girt for all strenuous work, and lamps burning inall the brightness of the light of a Christian character. 

Further, says Paul, this hopeful, cheerful contemplation ofapproaching salvation should lead us to cast off the evil, and to puton the good. You will remember the heart-stirring imagery which theApostle employs in the context, where he says, 'The day is at hand;let us therefore fling off the works of darkness'--as men in themorning, when the daylight comes through the window, and makes themlift their eyelids, fling off their night-gear--'and let us put onthe armour of light. ' We are soldiers, and must be clad in what willbe bullet-proof, and will turn a sword's edge. And where shall steelof celestial temper be found that can resist the fiery darts shot atthe Christian soldier? His armour must be 'of light. ' Clad in theradiance of Christian character he will be invulnerable. And how canwe, who have robed ourselves in the works of darkness, either castthem off or array ourselves in sparkling armour of light? Paul tellsus, 'Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for theflesh. ' The picture is of a camp of sleeping soldiers; the nightwears thin, the streaks of saffron are coming in the dawning east. One after another the sleepers awake; they cast aside theirnight-gear, and they brace on the armour that sparkles in the beamsof the morning sun. So they are ready when the trumpet sounds thereveille, and with the morning comes the Captain of the Lord's host, and with the Captain comes the perfecting of the salvation which isdrawing nearer and nearer to us, as our moments glide through ourfingers like the beads of a rosary. Many men think of death and fear;the Christian should think of death--and hope. 

THE SOLDIER'S MORNING-CALL

 'Let us put on the armour of light. '--ROMANS xiii. 12. 

It is interesting to notice that the metaphor of the Christian armouroccurs in Paul's letters throughout his whole course. It firstappears, in a very rudimentary form, in the earliest of the Epistles, that to the Thessalonians. It appears here in a letter which belongsto the middle of his career, and it appears finally in the Epistle tothe Ephesians, in its fully developed and drawn-out shape, at almostthe end of his work. So we may fairly suppose that it was one of hisfamiliar thoughts. Here it has a very picturesque addition, for thepicture that is floating before his vivid imagination is that of acompany of soldiers, roused by the morning bugle, casting off theirnight-gear because the day is beginning to dawn, and bracing on thearmour that sparkles in the light of the rising sun. 'That, ' saysPaul, 'is what you Christian people ought to be. Can you not hear thenotes of the reveille? The night is far spent; the day is at hand;therefore let us put off the works of darkness--the night-gear thatwas fit for those hours of slumber. Toss it away, and put on thearmour that belongs to the day. '

Now, I am not going to ask or try to answer the question of how farthis Apostolic exhortation is based upon the Apostle's expectationthat the world was drawing near its end. That does not matter at allfor us at present, for the fact which he expresses as the foundationof this exhortation is true about us all, and about our position inthe midst of these fleeting shadows round us. We are hastening to thedawning of the true day. And so let me try to emphasise theexhortation here, old and threadbare and commonplace as it is, because we all need it, at whatever point of life's journey we havearrived. 

Now, the first thing that strikes me is that the garb for the manexpectant of the day is armour. 

We might have anticipated something very different in accordance withthe thoughts that Paul's imagery here suggests, about the differencebetween the night which is so swiftly passing, and is full of enemiesand dangers, and the day which is going to dawn, and is full of lightand peace and joy. We might have expected that he would have said, 'Let us put on the festal robes. ' But no! 'The night is far spent;the day is at hand. ' But the dress that befits the expectant of theday is not yet the robe of the feast, but it is 'the armour' which, put into plain words, means just this, that there is fighting, alwaysfighting, to be done. If you are ever to belong to the day, you haveto equip yourselves _now_ with armour and weapons. I do not needto dwell upon that, but I do wish to insist upon this fact, thatafter all that may be truly said about growth in grace, and thepeaceful approximation towards perfection in the Christian character, we cannot dispense with the other element in progress, and that isfighting. We have to struggle for every step. _Growth_ is not enoughto define completely the process by which men become conformed to theimage of the Father, and are 'made meet to be partakers of theinheritance of the saints in light. ' Growth does express part of it, but only a part. Conflict is needed to come in, before you have thewhole aspect of Christian progress before your minds. For there willalways be antagonism without and traitors within. There will alwaysbe recalcitrant horses that need to be whipped up, and jibbing horsesthat need to be dragged forward, and shying ones that need to beviolently coerced and kept in the traces. Conflict is the law, because of the enemies, and because of the conspiracy between theweakness within and the things without that appeal to it. 

We hear a great deal to-day about being 'sanctified by faith. ' Ibelieve that as much as any man, but the office of faith is to bringus the power that cleanses, and the application of that powerrequires our work, and it requires our fighting. So it is not enoughto say, 'Trust for your sanctifying as you have trusted for yourjustifying and acceptance, ' but you have to work out what you get byyour faith, and you will never work it out unless you fight againstyour unworthy self, and the temptations of the world. The garb of thecandidate for the day is armour. 

And there is another side to that same thought, and that is, the morevivid our expectations of that blessed dawn the more complete shouldbe our bracing on of the armour. The anticipation of that future, invery many instances, in the Christian Church, has led to preciselythe opposite state of mind. It has induced people to drop into merefantastic sentiment, or to ignore this contemptible present, andthink that they have nothing to do with it, and are only 'waiting forthe coming of the Lord, ' and the like. Paul says, 'Just because, onyour eastern horizon, you can see the pink flush that tells that thenight is gone, and the day is coming, therefore do not be asentimentalist, do not be idle, do not be negligent or contemptuousof the daily tasks; but because you see it, put on the armour oflight, and whether the time between the rising of the whole orb ofthe sun on the horizon be long or short, fill the hours withtriumphant conflict. Put on the whole armour of light. '

Again, note here what the armour is. Of course that phrase, 'thearmour of light, ' may be nothing more than a little bit of colour putin by a picturesque imagination, and may suggest simply how theburnished steel would shine and glitter when the sunbeams smote it, and the glistening armour, like that of Spenser's Red Cross Knight, would make a kind of light in the dark cave, into which he went. Orit may mean 'the armour that befits the light'; as is perhapssuggested by the antithesis 'the works of darkness, ' which are to be'put off. ' These are works that match the darkness, and similarly thearmour is to be the armour that befits the light, and that can flashback its beams. But I think there is more than that in theexpression. I would rather take the phrase to be parallel to anotherof this Apostle's, who speaks in 2nd Corinthians of the 'armour ofrighteousness on the right hand and on the left. ' 'Light' makes thearmour, 'righteousness' makes the armour. The two phrases say thesame thing, the one in plain English, the other in figure, whichbeing brought down to daily life is just this, that the true armourand weapon of a Christian man is Christian character. 'Whatsoeverthings are true, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things areof good report, ' these are the pieces of armour, and these are theweapons which we are to wield. A Christian man fights against evil inhimself by putting on good. The true way to empty the heart of sin isto fill the heart with righteousness. The lances of the light, according to the significant old Greek myth, slew pythons. The armouris 'righteousness on the right hand and on the left. ' Stick to plain, simple, homely duties, and you will find that they will defend yourheart against many a temptation. A flask that is full of rich winemay be plunged into the saltest ocean, and not a drop will find itsway in. Fill your heart with righteousness; your lives--let themglisten in the light, and the light will be your armour. God islight, wherefore God cannot be tempted with evil. 'Walk in the light, as He is in the light' . .. And 'the blood of Jesus Christ cleansethfrom all sin. '

But there is another side to that thought, for if you will look, atyour leisure, to the closing words of the chapter, you will find theApostle's own exposition of what putting on the armour of lightmeans. 'Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ'--that is his explanation ofputting on 'the armour of light. ' For 'once ye were darkness, but noware ye light in the Lord, ' and it is in the measure in which we areunited to Him, by the faith which binds us to Him, and by the lovewhich works obedience and conformity, that we wear the invulnerablearmour of light. Christ Himself is, and He supplies to all, theseparate graces which Christian men can wear. We may say that He is'the panoply of God, ' as Paul calls it in Ephesians, and when we wearHim, and only in the measure in which we do wear Him, in that measureare we clothed with it. And so the last thing that I would point outhere is that the obedience to these commands requires continualeffort. 

The Christians in Rome, to whom Paul was writing, were no novices inthe Christian life. Long ago many of them had been brought to Him. But the oldest Christian amongst them needed the exhortation as muchas the rawest recruit in the ranks. Continual renewal day by day iswhat we need, and it will not be secured without a great deal ofwork. Seeing that there is a 'putting off' to go along with the'putting on, ' the process is a very long one. ''Tis a lifelong tasktill the lump be leavened. ' It is a lifelong task till we strip offall the rags of this old self; and 'being clothed, ' are not 'foundnaked. ' It takes a lifetime to fathom Jesus; it takes a lifetime toappropriate Jesus, it takes a lifetime to be clothed with Jesus. Andthe question comes to each of us, have we 'put off the old man withhis deeds'? Are we daily, as sure as we put on our clothes in themorning, putting on Christ the Lord?

For notice with what solemnity the Apostle gives the master His full, official, formal title here, 'put ye on the _Lord Jesus Christ_. ' Dowe put Him on as _Lord_; bowing our whole wills to Him, and acceptingHim, His commandments, promises, providences, with glad submission?Do we put on _Jesus_, recognising in His manhood as our Brother notonly the pattern of our lives, but the pledge that the pattern, byHis help and love, is capable of reproduction in ourselves? Do we putHim on as 'the Lord Jesus _Christ_, ' who was anointed with the DivineSpirit, that from the head it might flow, even to the skirts of thegarments, and every one of us might partake of that unction and bemade pure and clean thereby? 'Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, ' anddo it day by day, and then you have 'put on the whole armour of God. '

And when the day that is dawning has risen to its full, then, nottill then, may we put off the armour and put on the white robe, layaside the helmet, and have our brows wreathed with the laurel, sheathe the sword, and grasp the palm, being 'more than conquerorsthrough Him who loved us, ' and fights in us, as well as for us. 

THE LIMITS OF LIBERTY

 'So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. 13. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock, or an occasion to fall, in his brother's way. 14. I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 15. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. 16. Let not then your good be evil spoken of: 17. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. 18. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. 19. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. 20. For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. 21. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. 22. Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. 23. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. '--ROMANS xiv. 12-23. 

The special case in view, in the section of which this passage ispart, is the difference of opinion as to the lawfulness of eatingcertain meats. It is of little consequence, so far as the principlesinvolved are concerned, whether these were the food which the Mosaicordinances made unclean, or, as in Corinth, meats offered to idols. The latter is the more probable, and would be the more important inRome. The two opinions on the point represented two tendencies ofmind, which always exist; one more scrupulous, and one more liberal. Paul has been giving the former class the lesson they needed in theformer part of this chapter; and he now turns to the 'stronger'brethren, and lays down the law for their conduct. We may, perhaps, best simply follow him, verse by verse. 

We note then, first, the great thought with which he starts, that ofthe final judgment, in which each man shall give account of himself. What has that to do with the question in hand? This, that it ought tokeep us from premature and censorious judging. We have something morepressing to do than to criticise each other. Ourselves are enough tokeep our hands full, without taking a lift of our fellows' conduct. And this, further, that, in view of the final judgment, we shouldhold a preliminary investigation on our own principles of action, and'decide' to adopt as the overruling law for ourselves, that we shalldo nothing which will make duty harder for our brethren. Paulhabitually settled small matters on large principles, and brought thesolemnities of the final account to bear on the marketplace and themeal. 

In verse 13 he lays down the supreme principle for settling the casein hand. No Christian is blameless if he voluntarily acts so as tolay a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in another's path. Arethese two things the same? Possibly, but a man may stumble, and notfall, and that which makes him stumble may possibly indicate atemptation to a less grave evil than that which makes him fall does. It may be noticed that in the sequel we hear of a brother's being'grieved' first, and then of his being 'overthrown. ' In any case, there is no mistake about the principle laid down and repeated inverse 21. It is a hard saying for some of us. Is my liberty to berestricted by the narrow scruples of 'strait-laced' Christians? Yes. Does not that make them masters, and attach too much importance totheir narrowness? No. It recognises Christ as Master, and all Hisservants as brethren. If the scrupulous ones go so far as to say tothe more liberal, 'You cannot be Christians if you do not do as wedo' then the limits of concession have been reached, and we are to doas Paul did, when he flatly refused to yield one hair's-breadth tothe Judaisers. If a man says, You must adopt this, that, or the otherlimitation in conduct, or else you shall be unchurched, the onlyanswer is, I will not. We are to be flexible as long as possible, andlet weak brethren's scruples restrain our action. But if they insiston things indifferent as essential, a yet higher duty than that ofregard to their weak consciences comes in, and faithfulness to Christlimits concession to His servants. 

But, short of that extreme case, Paul lays down the law of curbingliberty in deference to 'narrowness. ' In verse 14 he states withequal breadth the extreme principle of the liberal party, thatnothing is unclean of itself. He has learned that 'in the LordJesus. ' Before he was 'in Him, ' he had been entangled in cobwebs oflegal cleanness and uncleanness; but now he is free. But he adds anexception, which must be kept in mind by the liberal-mindedsection--namely, that a clean thing is unclean to a man who thinks itis. Of course, these principles do not affect the eternaldistinctions of right and wrong. Paul is not playing fast and loosewith the solemn, divine law which makes sin and righteousnessindependent of men's notions. He is speaking of thingsindifferent--ceremonial observances and the like; and the modernanalogies of these are conventional pieces of conduct, in regard toamusements and the like, which, in themselves, a Christian man can door abstain from without sin. 

Verse 15 is difficult to understand, if the 'for' at the beginning istaken strictly. Some commentators would read instead of it a simple'but' which smooths the flow of thought. But possibly the verseassigns a reason for the law in verse 13, rather than for thestatements in verse 14. And surely there is no stronger reason fortender consideration for even the narrowest scruples of Christiansthan the obligation to walk in love. Our common brotherhood binds usto do nothing that would even grieve one of the family. For instance, Christian men have different views of the obligations of Sundayobservance. It is conceivable that a very 'broad' Christian might seeno harm in playing lawn-tennis in his garden on a Sunday; but if hisdoing so scandalised, or, as Paul says, 'grieved' Christian people ofless advanced views, he would be sinning against the law of love ifhe did it. 

There are many other applications of the principle readily suggested. The principle is the thing to keep clearly in view. It has a widefield for its exercise in our times, and when the Christianbrotherhood includes such diversities of culture and socialcondition. And that is a solemn deepening of it, 'Destroy not withthy meat him for whom Christ died. ' Note the almost bitter emphasison 'thy, ' which brings out not only the smallness of thegratification for which the mischief is done, but the selfishness ofthe man who will not yield up so small a thing to shield from evilwhich may prove fatal, a brother for whom Christ did not shrink fromyielding up life. If He is our pattern, any sacrifice of tastes andliberties for our brother's sake is plain duty, and cannot beneglected without selfish sin. One great reason, then, for theconduct enjoined, is set forth in verse 15. It is the clear dictateof Christian love. 

Another reason is urged in verses 16 to 18. It displays the truecharacter of Christianity, and so reflects honour on the doer. 'Yourgood' is an expression for the whole sum of the blessings obtained bybecoming Christians, and is closely connected with what is here meantby the 'kingdom of God. ' That latter phrase seems here to besubstantially equivalent to the inward condition in which they arewho have submitted to the dominion of the will of God. It is 'thekingdom within us' which is 'righteousness, peace, and joy in theHoly Ghost. ' What have you won by your Christianity? the Apostle ineffect says, Do you think that its purpose is mainly to give yougreater licence in regard to these matters in question? If the mostobvious thing in your conduct is your 'eating and drinking, ' yourwhole Christian standing will be misconceived, and men will fancythat your religion permits laxity of life. But if, on the other hand, you show that you are Christ's servants by righteousness, peace, andjoy, you will be pleasing to God, and men will recognise that yourreligion is from Him, and that you are consistent professors of it. 

Modern liberal-minded brethren can easily translate all this forto-day's use. Take care that you do not give the impression that yourChristianity has its main operation in permitting you to do what yourweaker brethren have scruples about. If you do not yield to them, butflaunt your liberty in their and the world's faces, your advancedenlightenment will be taken by rough-and-ready observers as mainlycherished because it procures you these immunities. Show by your lifethat you have the true spiritual gifts. Think more about them thanabout your 'breadth, ' and superiority to 'narrow prejudices. ' Realisethe purpose of the Gospel as concerns your own moral perfecting, andthe questions in hand will fall into their right place. 

In verses 19 and 20 two more reasons are given for restrictingliberty in deference to others' scruples. Such conduct contributes topeace. If truth is imperilled, or Christ's name in danger of beingtarnished, counsels of peace are counsels of treachery; but there arenot many things worth buying at the price of Christian concord. Suchconduct tends to build up our own and others' Christian character. Concessions to the 'weak' may help them to become strong, but flyingin the face of their scruples is sure to hurt them, in one way oranother. 

In verse 15, the case was supposed of a brother's being grieved bywhat he felt to be laxity. That case corresponded to thestumbling-block of verse 13. A worse result seems contemplated inverse 20, --that of the weak brother, still believing that laxity waswrong, and yet being tempted by the example of the stronger toindulge in it. In that event, the responsibility of overthrowing whatGod had built lies at the door of the tempter. The metaphor of'overthrowing' is suggested by the previous one of 'edifying. 'Christian duty is mutual building up of character; inconsiderateexercise of 'liberty' may lead to pulling down, by inducing toimitation which conscience condemns. 

From this point onwards, the Apostle first reiterates in inverseorder his two broad principles, that clean things are unclean to theman who thinks them so, and that Christian obligation requiresabstinence from permitted things if our indulgence tends to abrother's hurt. The application of the latter principle to theduty of total abstinence from intoxicants for the sake of others isperfectly legitimate, but it is an application, not the directpurpose of the Apostle's injunctions. 

In verses 22 and 23, the section is closed by two exhortations, inwhich both parties, the strong and the weak, are addressed. Theformer is spoken to in verse 22, the latter in verse 23. The strongbrother is bid to be content with having his wider views, or'faith'--that is, certainty that his liberty is in accordance withChrist's will. It is enough that he should enjoy that conviction, only let him make sure that he can hold it as in God's sight, and donot let him flourish it in the faces of brethren whom it wouldgrieve, or might lead to imitating his practice, without having risento his conviction. And let him be quite sure that his conscience isentirely convinced, and not bribed by inclination; for many a mancondemns himself by letting wishes dictate to conscience. 

On the other hand, there is a danger that those who have scruplesshould, by the example of those who have not, be tempted to do whatthey are not quite sure is right. If you have any doubts, says Paul, the safe course is to abstain from the conduct in question. Perhaps abrother can go to the theatre without harm, if he believes it rightto do so; but if you have any hesitation as to the propriety ofgoing, you will be condemned as sinning if you do. You must notmeasure your corn by another man's bushel. Your convictions, not his, are to be your guides. 'Faith' is used here in a somewhat unusualsense. It means certitude of judgment. The last words of verse 23have no such meaning as is sometimes extracted from them; namely, that actions, however pure and good, done by unbelievers, are of thenature of sin. They simply mean that whatever a Christian man doeswithout clear warrant of his judgment and conscience is sin to him, whatever it is to others. 

TWO FOUNTAINS, ONE STREAM

 'That we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. .. . 13. The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope. '--ROMANS xv. 4, 13. 

There is a river in Switzerland fed by two uniting streams, bearingthe same name, one of them called the 'white, ' one of them the'grey, ' or dark. One comes down from the glaciers, and bearshalf-melted snow in its white ripple; the other flows through alovely valley, and is discoloured by its earth. They unite in onecommon current. So in these two verses we have two streams, a whiteand a black, and they both blend together and flow out into a commonhope. In the former of them we have the dark stream--'throughpatience and comfort, ' which implies affliction and effort. The issueand outcome of all difficulty, trial, sorrow, ought to be hope. Andin the other verse we have the other valley, down which the lightstream comes: 'The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace inbelieving, that ye may abound in hope. '

So both halves of the possible human experience are meant to end inthe same blessed result; and whether you go round on the one side ofthe sphere of human life, or whether you take the other hemisphere, you come to the same point, if you have travelled with God's hand inyours, and with Him for your Guide. 

Let us look, then, at these two contrasted origins of the sameblessed gift, the Christian hope. 

I. We have, first of all, the hope that is the child of the night, and born in the dark. 

'Whatsoever things, ' says the Apostle, 'were written aforetime, werewritten for our learning, that we, through patience, '--or rather_the brave perseverance_--'and consolation'--or rather perhaps_encouragement_--'of the Scriptures might have hope. ' The writtenword is conceived as the source of patient endurance which acts aswell as suffers. This grace Scripture works in us through theencouragement which it ministers in manifold ways, and the result ofboth is hope. 

So, you see, our sorrows and difficulties are not connected with, nordo they issue in, bright hopefulness, except by reason of thisconnecting link. There is nothing in a man's troubles to make himhopeful. Sometimes, rather, they drive him into despair; but at allevents, they seldom drive him to hopefulness, except where this linkcomes in. We cannot pass from the black frowning cliffs on one sideof the gorge to the sunny tablelands on the other without abridge--and the bridge for a poor soul from the blackness of sorrow, and the sharp grim rocks of despair, to the smiling pastures of hope, with all their half-open blossoms, is builded in that Book, whichtells us the meaning and purpose of them all; and is full of thehistories of those who have fought and overcome, have hoped and notbeen ashamed. 

Scripture is given for this among other reasons, that it mayencourage us, and so may produce in us this great grace of activepatience, if we may call it so. 

The first thing to notice is, how Scripture gives encouragement--forsuch rather than consolation is the meaning of the word. It is muchto dry tears, but it is more to stir the heart as with a trumpetcall. Consolation is precious, but we need more for well-being thanonly to be comforted. And, surely, the whole tone of Scripture in itsdealing with the great mystery of pain and sorrow, has a loftierscope than even to minister assuagement to grief, and to stay ourweeping. It seeks to make us strong and brave to face and to masterour sorrows, and to infuse into us a high-hearted courage, whichshall not merely be able to accept the biting blasts, but shall feelthat they bring a glow to the cheek and oxygen to the blood, whilewrestling with them builds up our strength, and trains us for higherservice. It would be a poor aim to comfort only; but to encourage--tomake strong in heart, resolved in will, and incapable of beingoverborne or crushed in spirit by any sorrows--that is a purposeworthy of the Book, and of the God who speaks through it. 

This purpose, we may say, is effected by Scripture in two ways. Itencourages us by its records, and by its revelation of principles. 

Who can tell how many struggling souls have taken heart again, asthey pondered over the sweet stories of sorrow subdued which stud itspages, like stars in its firmament? The tears shed long ago which Godhas put 'in His bottle, ' and recorded in 'His book, ' have truly beenturned into pearls. That long gallery of portraits of sufferers, whohave all trodden the same rough road, and been sustained by the samehand, and reached the same home, speaks cheer to all who follow them. Hearts wrung by cruel partings from those dearer to them than theirown souls, turn to the pages which tell how Abraham, with calmsorrow, laid his Sarah in the cave at Macpelah; or how, when Jacob'seyes were dim that he could not see, his memory still turned to thehour of agony when Rachael died by him, and he sees clear in itslight her lonely grave, where so much of himself was laid; or to thestill more sacred page which records the struggle of grief and faithin the hearts of the sisters of Bethany. All who are anywaysafflicted in mind, body, or estate find in the Psalms men speakingtheir deepest experiences before them; and the grand majesty ofsorrow that marks 'the patience of Job, ' and the flood of sunshinethat bathes him, revealing the 'end of the Lord, ' have strengthenedcountless sufferers to bear and to hold fast, and to hope. We are allenough of children to be more affected by living examples than bydissertations, however true, and so Scripture is mainly history, revealing God by the record of His acts, and disclosing the secret ofhuman life by telling us the experiences of living men. 

But Scripture has another method of ministering encouragement to ouroften fainting and faithless hearts. It cuts down through all thecomplications of human affairs, and lays bare the innermost motivepower. It not only shows us in its narratives the working of sorrow, and the power of faith, but it distinctly lays down the source andthe purpose, the whence and the whither of all suffering. No man needquail or faint before the most torturing pains or most disastrousstrokes of evil, who holds firmly the plain teaching of Scripture onthese two points. They all come _from_ my Father, and they allcome _for_ my good. It is a short and simple creed, easilyapprehended. It pretends to no recondite wisdom. It is a homelyphilosophy which common intellects can grasp, which children canunderstand, and hearts half paralysed by sorrow can take in. So muchthe better. Grief and pain are so common that their cure had need tobe easily obtained. Ignorant and stupid people have to writhe inagony as well as wise and clever ones, and until grief is the portiononly of the cultivated classes, its healing must come from somethingmore universal than philosophy; or else the nettle would be moreplentiful than the dock; and many a poor heart would be stung todeath. Blessed be God! the Christian view of sorrow, while it leavesmuch unexplained, focuses a steady light on these two points; itsorigin and its end. 'He for our profit, that we may be partakers ofHis holiness, ' is enough to calm all agitation, and to make thefaintest heart take fresh courage. With that double certitude clearbefore us, we can face anything. The slings and arrows which strikeare no more flung blindly by an 'outrageous fortune, ' but each bearsan inscription, like the fabled bolts, which tells what hand drew thebow, and they come with His love. 

Then, further, the courage thus born of the Scriptures producesanother grand thing--patience, or rather perseverance. By that wordis meant more than simply the passive endurance which is the mainelement in patience, properly so called. Such passive endurance is alarge part of our duty in regard to difficulties and sorrows, but isnever the whole of it. It is something to endure and even while theheart is breaking, to submit unmurmuring, but, transcendent as thatis, it is but half of the lesson which we have to learn and to put inpractice. For if all our sorrows have a disciplinary and educationalpurpose, we shall not have received them aright, unless we have triedto make that purpose effectual, by appropriating whatsoever moral andspiritual teaching they each have for us. Nor does our duty stopthere. For while one high purpose of sorrow is to deaden our heartsto earthly objects, and to lift us above earthly affections, nosorrow can ever relax the bonds which oblige us to duty. The solemnpressure of 'I ought, ' is as heavy on the sorrowful as on the happyheart. We have still to toil, to press forward, in the sweat of ourbrow, to gain our bread, whether it be food for our bodies, orsustenance for our hearts and minds. Our responsibilities to othersdo not cease because our lives are darkened. Therefore, heavy orlight of heart, we have still to stick to our work, and though we maynever more be able to do it with the old buoyancy, still to do itwith our might. 

It is that dogged persistence in plain duty, that tenaciouscontinuance in our course, which is here set forth as the result ofthe encouragement which Scripture gives. Many of us have all ourstrength exhausted in mere endurance, and have let obvious dutiesslip from our hands, as if we had done all that we could do when wehad forced ourselves to submit. Submission would come easier if youtook up some of those neglected duties, and you would be stronger forpatience, if you used more of your strength for service. You do wellif you do not sink under your burden, but you would do better if, with it on your shoulders, you would plod steadily along the road;and if you did, you would feel the weight less. It seems heaviestwhen you stand still doing nothing. Do not cease to toil because yousuffer. You will feel your pain more if you do. Take theencouragement which Scripture gives, that it may animate you to bateno jot of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer right onward. 

And let the Scripture directly minister to you perseverance as wellas indirectly supply it through the encouragement which it gives. Itabounds with exhortations, patterns, and motives of such patientcontinuance in well-doing. It teaches us a solemn scorn of ills. It, angel-like, bears us up on soft, strong hands, lest we bruiseourselves on, or stumble over, the rough places on our roads. Itsummons us to diligence by the visions of the prize, and glimpses ofthe dread fate of the slothful, by all that is blessed in hope, andterrible in foreboding, by appeals to an enlightened self-regard, andby authoritative commands to conscience, by the pattern of theMaster, and by the tender motives of love to Him to which He, Himself, has given voice. All these call on us to be followers ofthem who, through faith and perseverance, inherit the promises. 

But we have yet another step to take. These two, the encouragementand perseverance produced by the right use of Scripture, will lead tohope. 

It depends on how sorrow and trial are borne, whether they produce adreary hopelessness which sometimes darkens into despair, or abrighter, firmer hope than more joyous days knew. We cannot say thatsorrow produces hope. It does not, unless we have this connectinglink--the experience in sorrow of a God-given courage which faltersnot in the onward course, nor shrinks from any duty. But if, in thevery press and agony, I am able, by God's grace, to endure nor ceaseto toil, I have, in myself, a living proof of His power, whichentitles me to look forward with the sure confidence that, throughall the uproar of the storm, He will bring me to my harbour of restwhere there is peace. The lion once slain houses a swarm of bees wholay up honey in its carcase. The trial borne with brave persistenceyields a store of sweet hopes. If we can look back and say, 'Thouhast been with me in six troubles, ' it is good logic to look forwardand say, 'and in seven Thou wilt not forsake me. ' When the first wavebreaks over the ship, as she clears the heads and heels over beforethe full power of the open sea, inexperienced landsmen think they areall going to the bottom, but they soon learn that there is a long waybetween rolling and foundering, and get to watch the highest wavestowering above the bows in full confidence that these also will slipquietly beneath the keel as the others have done, and be leftharmless astern. 

The Apostle, in this very same letter, has another word parallel tothis, in which he describes the issues of rightly-borne sufferingwhen he says, 'Tribulation worketh perseverance'--the same word thatis used here--'and perseverance worketh' the proof in our experienceof a sustaining God; and the proof in our experience of a sustainingGod works hope. We know that of ourselves we could not have mettribulation, and therefore the fact that we have been able to meetand overcome it is demonstration of a mightier power than our own, working in us, which we know to be from God, and thereforeinexhaustible and ever ready to help. That is foundation firm enoughto build solid fabrics of hope upon, whose bases go down to thecentre of all things, the purpose of God, and whose summits, like theupward shooting spire of some cathedral, aspire to, and seem almostto touch, the heavens. 

So hope is born of sorrow, when these other things come between. Thedarkness gives birth to the light, and every grief blazes up awitness to a future glory. Each drop that hangs on the wet leavestwinkles into rainbow light that proclaims the sun. The garishsplendours of the prosperous day hide the stars, and through thenight of our sorrow there shine, thickly sown and steadfast, theconstellations of eternal hopes. The darker the midnight, the surer, and perhaps the nearer, the coming of the day. Sorrow has not had itsperfect work unless it has led us by the way of courage andperseverance to a stable hope. Hope has not pierced to the rock, andbuilds only 'things that can be shaken, ' unless it rests on sorrowsborne by God's help. 

II. So much then for the genealogy of one form of the Christian hope. But we have also a hope that is born of the day, the child ofsunshine and gladness; and that is set before us in the second of thetwo verses which we are considering, 'The God of hope fill you withall joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope. '

So then, 'the darkness and the light are both alike' to our hope, inso far as each may become the occasion for its exercise. It is notonly to be the sweet juice expressed from our hearts by the winepressof calamities, but that which flows of itself from hearts ripened andmellowed under the sunshine of God-given blessedness. 

We have seen that the bridge by which sorrow led to hope, isperseverance and courage; in this second analysis of the origin ofhope, joy and peace are the bridge by which Faith passes over intoit. Observe the difference: there is no direct connection betweenaffliction and hope, but there is between joy and hope. We have noright to say, 'Because I suffer, I shall possess good in the future';but we have a right to say, 'Because I rejoice'--of course with a joyin God--'I shall never cease to rejoice in Him. ' Such joy is theprophet of its own immortality and completion. And, on the otherhand, the joy and peace which are naturally the direct progenitors ofChristian hope, are the children of faith. So that we have here twogenerations, as it were, of hope's ancestors;--Faith produces joy andpeace, and these again produce hope. 

Faith leads to joy and peace. Paul has found, and if we only put itto the proof, we shall also find, that the simple exercise of simplefaith fills the soul with '_all_ joy and peace. ' Gladness in allits variety and in full measure, calm repose in every kind andabundant in its still depth, will pour into my heart as water doesinto a vessel, on condition of my taking away the barrier and openingmy heart through faith. Trust and thou shalt be glad. Trust, and thoushalt be calm. In the measure of thy trust shall be the measure ofthy joy and peace. 

Notice, further, how indissolubly connected the present exercise offaith is with the present experience of joy and peace. The exuberantlanguage of this text seems a world too wide for anything that manyprofessing Christians ever know even in the moments of highestelevation, and certainly far beyond the ordinary tenor of theirlives. But it is no wonder that these should have so little joy, whenthey have so little faith. It is only while we are looking to Jesusthat we can expect to have joy and peace. There is no flashing lighton the surface of the mirror, but when it is turned full to the sun. Any interruption in the electric current is registered accurately byan interruption in the continuous line perforated on the telegraphribbon; and so every diversion of heart and faith from Jesus Christis recorded by the fading of the sunshine out of the heart, and thesilencing of all the song-birds. Yesterday's faith will not bring joyto-day; you cannot live upon past experience, nor feed your soulswith the memory of former exercises of Christian faith. It must belike the manna, gathered fresh every day, else it will rot and smellfoul. A present faith, and a present faith only, produces a presentjoy and peace. Is there, then, any wonder that so much of theordinary experience of ordinary Christians should present a sadlybroken line--a bright point here and there, separated by longstretches of darkness? The gaps in the continuity of their joy arethe tell-tale indicators of the interruptions in their faith. If thelatter were continuous, the former would be unbroken. Always believe, and you will always be glad and calm. 

It is easy to see that this is the natural result of faith. The veryact of confident reliance on another for all my safety and well-beinghas a charm to make me restful, so long as my reliance is not put toshame. There is no more blessed emotion than the tranquil happinesswhich, in the measure of its trust, fills every trustful soul. Evenwhen its objects are poor, fallible, weak, ignorant dying men andwomen, trust brings a breath of more than earthly peace into theheart. But when it grasps the omnipotent, all-wise, immortal Christ, there are no bounds but its own capacity to the blessedness which itbrings into the soul, because there is none to the all-sufficientgrace of which it lays hold. 

Observe again how accurately the Apostle defines for us theconditions on which Christian experience will be joyful and tranquil. It is 'in believing, ' not in certain other exercises of mind, thatthese blessings are to be realised. And the forgetfulness of thatplain fact leads to many good people's religion being very much moregloomy and disturbed than God meant it to be. For a large part of itconsists in sadly testing their spiritual state, and gazing at theirfailures and imperfections. There is nothing cheerful ortranquillising in grubbing among the evils of your own heart, and itis quite possible to do that too much and too exclusively. If yourfavourite subject of contemplation in your religious thinking isyourself, no wonder that you do not get much joy and peace out ofthat. If you do, it will be of a false kind. If you are thinking moreabout your own imperfections than about Christ's pardon, more aboutthe defects of your own love to Him than about the perfection of Hislove to you, if instead of practising faith you are absorbed inself-examination, and instead of saying to yourself, 'I know how fouland unworthy I am, but I look away from myself to my Saviour, ' youare bewailing your sins and doubting whether you are a Christian, youneed not expect God's angels of joy and peace to nestle in yourheart. It is 'in believing, ' and not in other forms of religiouscontemplation, however needful these may in their places be, thatthese fair twin sisters come to us and make their abode with us. 

Then, the second step in this tracing of the origin of the hope whichhas the brighter source is the consideration that the joy and peacewhich spring from faith, in their turn produce that confidentanticipation of future and progressive good. 

Herein lies the distinguishing blessedness of the Christian joy andpeace, in that they carry in themselves the pledge of their owneternity. Here, and here only, the mad boast which is doomed to be somiserably falsified when applied to earthly gladness is simple truth. Here 'to-morrow _shall_ be as this day and much more abundant. 'Such joy has nothing in itself which betokens exhaustion, as all theless pure joys of earth have. It is manifestly not born for death, asare they. It is not fated, like all earthly emotions or passions, toexpire in the moment of its completeness, or even by sudden revulsionto be succeeded by its opposite. Its sweetness has no after pang ofbitterness. It is not true of this gladness, that 'Hereof cometh inthe end despondency and madness, ' but its destiny is to 'remain' aslong as the soul in which it unfolds shall exist, and 'to be full' aslong as the source from which it flows does not run dry. 

So that the more we experience the present blessedness, which faithin Christ brings us, the more shall we be sure that nothing in thefuture, either in or beyond time, can put an end to it; and hence ahope that looks with confident eyes across the gorge of death, to the'shining tablelands' on the other side, and is as calm as certitude, shall be ours. To the Christian soul, rejoicing in the consciousexercise of faith and the conscious possession of its blessedresults, the termination of a communion with Christ, so real andspiritual, by such a trivial accident as death, seems wildly absurdand therefore utterly impossible. Just as Christ's Resurrection seemsinevitable as soon as we grasp the truth of His divine nature, and itbecomes manifestly impossible that He, being such as He is--shouldbe holden of death, ' being such as it is, so for His children, whenonce they come to know the realities of fellowship with their Lord, they feel the entire dissimilarity of these to anything in the realmwhich is subjected to the power of death, and to know it to be asimpossible that these purely spiritual experiences should be reducedto inactivity, or meddled with by it, as that a thought should bebound with a cord or a feeling fastened with fetters. They, anddeath, belong to two different regions. It can work its will on 'thiswide world, and all its fading sweets'--but is powerless in the stillplace where the soul and Jesus hold converse, and all His joy passesinto His servant's heart. I saw, not long since, in a wood a mass ofblue wild hyacinths, that looked like a little bit of heaven droppeddown upon earth. You and I may have such a tiny bit of heaven itselflying amidst all the tangle of our daily lives, if only we put ourtrust in Christ, and so get into our hearts some little portion ofthat joy that is unspeakable, and that peace that passethunderstanding. 

Thus, then, the sorrows of the earthly experience and the joys of theChristian life will blend together to produce the one blessed resultof a hope that is full of certainty, and is the assurance ofimmortality. There is no rainbow in the sky unless there be both ablack cloud and bright sunshine. So, on the blackest, thickestthunder-mass of our sorrows, if smitten into moist light by thesunshine of joy and peace drawn from Jesus Christ by faith, there maybe painted the rainbow of hope, the many-coloured, steadfast token ofthe faithful covenant of the faithful God. 

JOY AND PEACE IN BELIEVING

 'The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. '--ROMANS xv. 13. 

With this comprehensive and lofty petition the Apostle closes hisexhortation to the factions in the Roman Church to be at unity. Theform of the prayer is moulded by the last words of a quotation whichhe has just made, which says that in the coming Messiah 'shall theGentiles hope. ' But the prayer itself is not an instance of being ledaway by a word--in form, indeed, it is shaped by verbal resemblance;in substance it points to the true remedy for religious controversy. Fill the contending parties with a fuller spiritual life, and theground of their differences will begin to dwindle, and look verycontemptible. When the tide rises, the little pools on the rocks areall merged into one. 

But we may pass beyond the immediate application of these words, andsee in them the wish, which is also a promise, and like theexhibition of every ideal is a command. This is Paul's conception ofthe Christian life as it might and should be, in one aspect. Younotice that there is not a word in it about conduct. It goes fardeeper than action. It deals with the springs of action in theindividual life. It is the depths of spiritual experience here setforth which will result in actions that become a Christian. And inthese days, when all around us we see a shallow conception ofChristianity, as if it were concerned principally with conduct andmen's relations with one another, it is well to go down into thedepths, and to remember that whilst 'Do, do, do!' is very important, 'Be, be, be!' is the primary commandment. Conduct is a making visibleof personality, and the Scripture teaching which says first faith andthen works is profoundly philosophical as well as Christian. So weturn away here from externals altogether, and regard the effect ofChristianity on the inward life. 

I. I wish to notice man's faith and God's filling as connected, andas the foundation of everything. 

'The God of hope fill you . .. '--let us leave out the interveningwords for a moment--'in believing. ' Now, you notice that Paul doesnot stay to tell us what or whom we are to believe in, or on. Hetakes that for granted, and his thought is fastened, for the moment, not on the object but on the act of faith. And he wishes to drivehome to us this, that the attitude of trust is the necessaryprerequisite condition of God's being able to fill a man's soul, andthat God's being able to fill a man's soul is the necessaryconsequence of a man's trust. Ah, brethren, we cannot altogether shutGod out from our spirits. There are loving and gracious gifts that, as our Lord tells us, He makes to 'fall on the unthankful and theevil. ' His rain is not like the summer showers that we sometimes see, that fall in one spot and leave another dry; nor like the destructivethunderstorms, that come down bringing ruin upon one cane-brake andleave the plants in the next standing upright. But the best, thehighest, the truly divine gifts which He is yearning to give to usall, cannot be given except there be consent, trust, and desire forthem. You can shut your hearts or you can open them. And just as thewind will sigh round some hermetically closed chamber in vain searchfor a cranny, and the man within may be asphyxiated though theatmosphere is surging up its waves all round his closed domicile, soby lack of our faith, which is at once trust, consent, and desire, weshut out the gift with which God would fain fill our spirits. You cantake a porous pottery vessel, wrap it up in waxcloth, pitch it allover, and then drop it into mid-Atlantic, and not a drop will findits way in. And that is what we can do with ourselves, so thatalthough in Him 'we live and move and have our being, ' and are likethe earthen vessel in the ocean, no drop of the blessed moisture willever find its way into the heart. There must be man's faith beforethere can be God's filling. 

Further, this relation of the two things suggests to us that aconsequence of a Christian man's faith is the direct action of Godupon him. Notice how the Apostle puts that truth in a double formhere, in order that he may emphasise it, using one form ofexpression, involving the divine, direct activity, at the beginningof his prayer, and another at the end, and so enclosing, as it were, within a great casket of the divine action, all the blessings, theflashing jewels, which he desires his Roman friends to possess. 'TheGod of hope fill you . .. Through the power of the Holy Ghost. ' I wishI could find words by which I could bear in upon the ordinary type ofthe Evangelical Christianity of this generation anything like thedepth and earnestness of my own conviction that, for lack of aproportionate development of that great truth, of the direct actionof the giving God on the believing heart, it is weakened and harmedin many ways. Surely He that made my spirit can touch my spirit;surely He who filleth all things according to their capacity canHimself enter into and fill the spirit which is opened for Him bysimple faith. We do not need wires for the telegraphy between heavenand the believing soul, but He comes directly to, and speaks in, andmoves upon, and moulds and blesses, the waiting heart. And until youknow, by your own experience rightly interpreted, that there is sucha direct communion between the giving God and the recipient believingspirit, you have yet to learn the deepest depth, and the most blessedblessedness, of Christian faith and experience. For lack of it ahundred evils beset modern Christianity. For lack of it men fix theirfaith so exclusively as that the faith is itself harmed thereby, onthe past act of Christ's death on the Cross. You will not suspect meof minimising that, but I beseech you remember one climax of theApostle's which, though not bearing the same message as my text, isin harmony with it, 'Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risenagain, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makethintercession for us. ' And remember that Christ Himself bestows thegift of His Divine Spirit as the result of the humiliation and theagony of His Cross. Faith brings the direct action of the giving God. 

And one more word about this first part of my text: the result ofthat direct action is complete--'the God of hope fill you' with noshrunken stream, no painful trickle out of a narrow rift in the rock, but a great exuberance which will pass into a man's nature in themeasure of his capacity, which is the measure of his trust anddesire. There are two limits to God's gifts to men: the one is thelimitless limit of God's infinitude, the other is the workinglimit--our capacity--and that capacity is precisely measured, as thecapacity of some built-in vessel might be measured by a little gaugeon the outside, by our faith. 'The God of hope' fills you in'believing, ' and 'according to thy faith shall it be unto thee. '

II. Notice the joy and peace which come from the direct action of theGod of hope on the believer's soul. 

Now, it is not only towards God that we exercise trust, but whereverit is exercised, to some extent, and in the measure in which theobject on which it rests is discovered by experience to be worthy, itproduces precisely these results. Whoever trusts is at peace, just asmuch as he trusts. His confidence may be mistaken, and there willcome a tremendous awakening if it is, and the peace will be shatteredlike some crystal vessel dashed upon an iron pavement, but so long asa man's mind and heart are in the attitude of dependence uponanother, conceived to be dependable, one knows that there are fewphases of tranquillity and blessedness which are sweeter and deeperthan that. 'The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her'--thatis one illustration, and a hundred more might be given. And if youwill take that attitude of trust which, even when it twines roundsome earthly prop, is upheld for a time, and bears bright flowers--ifyou take it and twine it round the steadfast foundations of theThrone of God, what can shake that sure repose? 'Joy and peace' willcome when the Christian heart closes with its trust, which is God inChrist. 

He that believes has found the short, sure road to joy and peace, because his relations are set right with God. For these relations arethe disturbing elements in all earthly tranquillity, and like theskeleton at the feast in all earthly joy, and a man can never, downto the roots of his being, be at rest until he is quite sure thatthere is nothing wrong between him and God. And so believing, we cometo that root of all real gladness which is anything better than acrackling of thorns under a pot, and to that beginning of all truetranquillity. Joy in the Lord and peace with God are the parents ofall joy and peace that are worthy of the name. 

And that same faith will again bring these two bright-winged angelsinto the most saddened and troubled lives, because that faith bringsright relations with ourselves. For our inward strifes stuff thornsinto the pillow of our repose, and mingle bitterness with thesweetest, foaming draughts of our earthly joys. If a man's conscienceand inclinations pull him two different ways, he is torn asunder asby wild horses. If a man has a hungry heart, for ever yearning afterunattained and impossible blessings, then there is no rest there. Ifa man's little kingdom within him is all anarchical, and each passionand appetite setting up for itself, then there is no tranquillity. But if by faith we let the God of hope come in, then hungry heartsare satisfied, and warring dispositions are harmonised, and theconscience becomes quieted, and fair imaginations fill the chamber ofthe spirit, and the man is at rest, because he himself is unified bythe faith and fear of God. 

And the same faith brings joy and peace because it sets right ourrelations with other people, and with all externals. If I am livingin an atmosphere of trust, then sorrow will never be absolute, norhave exclusive monopoly and possession of my spirit. But there willbe the paradox, and the blessedness, of Christian experience, 'assorrowful yet always rejoicing. ' For the joy of the Christian lifehas its source far away beyond the swamps from which the sour dropsof sorrow may trickle, and it is possible that, like the fabled firethat burned under water, the joy of the Lord may be bright in myheart, even when it is drenched in floods of calamity and distress. 

And so, brethren, the joy and peace that come from faith will fillthe heart which trusts. Only remember how emphatically the Apostlehere puts these two things together, 'joy and peace in believing. ' Aslong as, and not a moment longer than, you are exercising theChristian act of trust, will you be experiencing the Christianblessedness of 'joy and peace. ' Unscrew the pipe, and in an instantthe water ceases to flow. Touch the button and switch off, and outgoes the light. Some Christian people fancy they can live upon pastfaith. You will get no present joy and peace out of past faith. Therain of this day twelve months will not moisten the parched ground ofto-day. Yesterday's religion was all used up yesterday. And if youwould have a continuous flow of joy and peace through your lives, keep up a uniform habit and attitude of trust in God. You will get itthen; you will get it in no other way. 

III. Lastly, note the hope which springs from this experience of joyand peace. 

'The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, thatye may abound in hope. ' Here, again, the Apostle does not troublehimself to define the object of the hope. In this, as in the formerclause, his attention is fixed upon the emotion, not upon thattowards which it goes out. And just as there was no need to say inwhom it was that the Christian man was to believe, so there is noroom to define what it is that the Christian man has a right to hopefor. For his hope is intended to cover all the future, the nextmoment, or to-morrow, or the dimmest distance where time has ceasedto be, and eternity stands unmoved. The attitude of the Christianmind ought to be a cheery optimism, an unconquerable hope. 'The besthas yet to be' is the true Christian thought in contemplating thefuture for myself, for my dear ones, for God's Church, and for God'suniverse. 

And the truest basis on which that hope can rest is the experiencegranted to us, on condition of our faith, of a present, abundantpossession of the joy and peace which God gives. The gladder you areto-day, if the gladness comes from the right source, the surer youmay be that that gladness will never end. That is not what befallsmen who live by earthly joys. For the more poignant, precious, and, as we faithlessly think, indispensable some of these are to us, themore into their sweetest sweetness creeps the dread thought: 'This istoo good to last; this must pass. ' We never need to think that aboutthe peace and joy that come to us through believing. For they, intheir sweetness, prophesy perpetuity. I need not dwell upon thethought that the firmest, most personally precious convictions of aneternity of future blessedness, rise and fall in a Christianconsciousness with the purity and the depth of its own experience ofthe peace and joy of the Gospel. The more you have of Jesus Christ inyour lives and hearts to-day, the surer you will be that whateverdeath may do, it cannot touch that, and the more ludicrouslyimpossible it will seem that anything that befalls this poor body cantouch the bond that knits us to Jesus Christ. Death can separate usfrom a great deal. Its sharp scythe cuts through all other bonds, butits edge is turned when it is tried against the golden chain thatbinds the believing soul to the Christ in whom he has believed. 

So, brethren, there is the ladder--begin at the bottom step, withfaith in Jesus Christ. That will bring God's direct action into yourspirit, through His Holy Spirit, and that one gift will break up intoan endless multiplicity of blessings, just as a beam of light spiltupon the surface of the ocean breaks into diamonds in every wave, andthat 'joy and peace' will kindle in your hearts a hope fed by thegreat words of the Lord: 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I giveunto you, ' 'My joy shall remain in you, and your joy shall be full, ''He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. '

PHOEBE

 'I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the Church that is at Cenchrea: 2. That ye receive her in the Lord, worthily of the Saints, and that ye assist her in whatsover matter she may have need of you: for she herself hath been a succourer of many, and of mine own self. '--ROMANS xvi. 1, 2 (R. V. ). 

This is an outline picture of an else wholly unknown person. She, like most of the other names mentioned in the salutations in thischapter, has had a singular fate. Every name, shadowy and unreal asit is to us, belonged to a human life filled with hopes and fears, plunged sometimes in the depths of sorrows, struggling with anxietiesand difficulties; and all the agitations have sunk into forgetfulnessand calm. There is left to the world an immortal remembrance, andscarcely a single fact associated with the undying names. 

Note the person here disclosed. 

A little rent is made in the dark curtain through which we see aswith an incandescent light concentrated for a moment upon her, one ofthe many good women who helped Paul, as their sisters had helpedPaul's Master, and who thereby have won, little as either Paul or shethought it, an eternal commemoration. Her name is a purely idolatrousone, and stamps her as a Greek, and by birth probably a worshipper ofApollo. Her Christian associations were with the Church at Cenchrea, the port of Corinth, of which little Christian community nothingfurther is known. But if we take into account the hideousimmoralities of Corinth, we shall deem it probable that the port, with its shifting maritime population, was, like most seaports, asoil in which goodness was hard put to it to grow, and a church hadmuch against which to struggle. To be a Christian at Cenchrea canhave been no light task. Travellers in Egypt are told that Port Saidis the wickedest place on the face of the earth; and in Phoebe's homethere would be a like drift of disreputables of both sexes and of allnationalities. It was fitting that one good woman should be recordedas redeeming womanhood there. We learn of her that she was a'servant, ' or, as the margin preferably reads, a 'deaconess of theChurch which is at Cenchrea'; and in that capacity, by gentleministrations and the exhibition of purity and patient love, as wellas by the gracious administration of material help, had been a'succourer of many. ' There is a whole world of unmentioned kindnessesand a life of self-devotion hidden away under these few words. Possibly the succour which she administered was her own gift. She mayhave been rich and influential, or perhaps she but distributed theChurch's bounty; but in any case the gift was sweetened by thegiver's hand, and the succour was the impartation of a woman'ssympathy more than the bestowment of a donor's gift. Sometime orother, and somehow or other, she had had the honour and joy ofhelping Paul, and no doubt that opportunity would be to her a crownof service. She was now on the point of taking the long journey toRome on her own business, and the Apostle bespeaks for her help fromthe Roman Church 'in whatsoever matter she may have need of you, ' asif she had some difficult affair on hand, and had no other friends inthe city. Possibly then she was a widow, and perhaps had had somelawsuit or business with government authorities, with whom a wordfrom some of her brethren in Rome might stand her in good stead. Apparently she was the bearer of this epistle, which would give her astanding at once in the Roman Church, and she came among them with ahalo round her from the whole-hearted commendation of the Apostle. 

Mark the lessons from this little picture. 

We note first the remarkable illustration here given of the power ofthe new bond of a common faith. The world was then broken up intosections, which were sometimes bitterly antagonistic and at othersmerely rigidly exclusive. The only bond of union was the iron fetterof Rome, which crushed the people, but did not knit them together. But here are Paul the Jew, Phoebe the Greek, and the Roman readers ofthe epistle, all fused together by the power of the divine love thatmelted their hearts, and the common faith that unified their lives. The list of names in this chapter, comprising as it does men andwomen of many nationalities, and some slaves as well as freemen, isitself a wonderful testimony of the truth of Paul's triumphantexclamation in another epistle, that in Christ there is 'neither Jewnor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female. '

The clefts have closed, and the very line of demarcation isobliterated; and these clefts were deeper than any of which wemoderns have had experience. It remains something like a miracle thatthe members of Paul's churches could ever be brought together, andthat their consciousness of oneness could ever overpower thetremendous divisive forces. We sometimes wonder at their bickerings;we ought rather to wonder at their unity, and be ashamed of theimportance which we attach to our infinitely slighter mutualdisagreements. The bond that was sufficient to make the earlyChristians all one in Christ Jesus seems to have lost its bindingpower to-day, and, like an used-up elastic band, to have no claspinggrip left in it. 

Another thought which we may connect with the name of Phoebe is thecharacteristic place of women in Christianity. 

The place of woman amongst the Jews was indeed free and honourable ascompared with her position either in Greece or Rome, but in none ofthem was she placed on the level of man, nor regarded mainly in theaspect of an equal possessor of the same life of the Spirit. But areligion which admits her to precisely the same position of asupernatural life as is granted to man, necessarily relegates to asubordinate position all differences of sex as it does all othernatural distinctions. The women who ministered to Jesus of theirsubstance, the two sisters of Bethany, the mourners at Calvary, thethree who went through the morning twilight to the tomb, were but theforemost conspicuous figures in a great company through all the ageswho have owed to Jesus their redemption, not only from the slavery ofsin, but from the stigma of inferiority as man's drudge or toy. Tothe world in which Paul lived it was a strange, new thought thatwomen could share with man in his loftiest emotions. Historically theemancipation of one half of the human race is the direct result ofthe Christian principle that all are one in Christ Jesus. In modernlife the emancipation has been too often divorced from its one surebasis, and we have become familiar with the sight of the 'advanced'women who have advanced so far as to have lost sight of the Christ towhom they owe their freedom. The picture of Phoebe in our text mightwell be commended to all such as setting forth the most womanlikeideal. She was 'a succourer of many. ' Her ministry was a ministry ofhelp; and surely such gentle ministry is that which most befits thewoman's heart and comes most graciously to the woman's fingers. 

Phoebe then may well represent to us the ministry of succour in thisworld of woe and need. There is ever a cry, even in apparentlysuccessful lives, for help and a helper. Man's clumsy hand is but tooapt to hurt where it strives to soothe, and nature itself seems todevolve on the swifter sympathies and more delicate perceptions ofwoman the joy of binding up wounded spirits. In the versesimmediately following our text we read of another woman to whom wasentrusted a more conspicuous and direct form of service. Priscilla'taught Apollos the way of God more perfectly, ' and is traditionallyrepresented as being united with her husband in evangelistic work. But it is not merely prejudice which takes Phoebe rather thanPriscilla as the characteristic type of woman's special ministry. Wemust remember our Lord's teaching, that the giver of 'a cup of coldwater in the name of a prophet' in some measure shares in theprophet's work, and will surely share in the prophet's reward. Shewho helped Paul must have entered into the spirit of Paul's labours;and He to whom all service that is done from the same motive is onein essence, makes no difference between him whose thirsty lips drinkand her whose loving hand presents the cup of cold water. 'Smallservice is true service while it lasts. ' Paul and Phoebe were one inministry and one in its recompense. 

We may further see in her a foreshadowing of the reward of lowlyservice, though it be only the service of help. Little did Phoebedream that her name would have an eternal commemoration of herunnoticed deeds of kindness and aid, standing forth to latergenerations and peoples of whom she knew nothing, as worthy ofeternal remembrance. For those of us who have to serve unnoticed andunknown, here is an instance and a prophecy which may stimulate andencourage. 'Surely I will never forget any of their works' is agracious promise which the most obscure and humble of us may take toheart, and sustained by which, we may patiently pursue a way on whichthere are 'none to praise and very few to love. ' It matters littlewhether our work be noticed or recorded by men, so long as we knowthat it is written in the Lamb's book of life and that He will oneday proclaim it 'before the Father in heaven and His angels. '

PRISCILLA AND AQUILA

 'Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus; 4. (Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but so all the churches of the Gentiles:) 5. Likewise greet the church that is in their house. '--ROMANS xvi. 3-5. 

It has struck me that this wedded couple present, even in the scantynotices that we have of them, some interesting points which may beworth while gathering together. 

Now, to begin with, we are told that Aquila was a Jew. We are nottold whether Priscilla was a Jewess or no. So far as her name isconcerned, she may have been, and very probably was, a Roman, and, ifso, we have in their case a 'mixed marriage' such as was not uncommonthen, and of which Timothy's parents give another example. She issometimes called Prisca, which was her proper name, and sometimesPriscilla, an affectionate diminutive. The two had been living inRome, and had been banished under the decree of the Emperor, just asJews have been banished from England and from every country in Europeagain and again. They came from Rome to Corinth, and were, perhaps, intending to go back to Aquila's native place, Pontus, when Paul metthem in the latter city, and changed their whole lives. Hisassociation with them began in a purely commercial partnership. Butas they abode together and worked at their trade, there would be manyearnest talks about the Christ, and these ended in both husband andwife becoming disciples. The bond thus knit was too close to beeasily severed, and so, when Paul sailed across the Ægean forEphesus, his two new friends kept with him, which they would be themore ready to do, as they had no settled home. They remained with himduring his somewhat lengthened stay in the great Asiatic city; for wefind in the first Epistle to the Corinthians which was written fromEphesus about that time, that the Apostle sends greetings from'Priscilla and Aquila and the Church which is in their house. ' Butwhen Paul left Ephesus they seem to have stayed behind, andafterwards to have gone their own way. 

About a year after the first Epistle to the Corinthians was sent fromEphesus, the Epistle to the Romans was written, and we find there thesalutation to Priscilla and Aquila which is my text. So thiswandering couple were back again in Rome by that time, and settleddown there for a while. They are then lost sight of for some time, but probably they returned to Ephesus. Once more we catch a glimpseof them in Paul's last letter, written some seven or eight yearsafter that to the Romans. The Apostle knows that death is near, and, at that supreme moment, his heart goes out to these two faithfulcompanions, and he sends them a parting token of his undying love. There are only two messages to friends in the second Epistle toTimothy, and one of these is to Prisca and Aquila. At the mouth ofthe valley of the shadow of death he remembered the old days inCorinth, and the, to us, unknown instance of devotion which these twohad shown, when, for his life, they laid down their own necks. 

Such is all that we know of Priscilla and Aquila. Can we gather anylessons from these scattered notices thus thrown together?

I. Here is an object lesson as to the hallowing effect ofChristianity on domestic life and love. 

Did you ever notice that in the majority of the places where thesetwo are named, if we adopt the better readings, Priscilla's namecomes first? She seems to have been 'the better man of the two'; andAquila drops comparatively into the background. Now, such a couple, and a couple in which the wife took the foremost place, was anabsolute impossibility in heathenism. They are a specimen of whatChristianity did in the primitive age, all over the Empire, and isdoing to-day, everywhere--lifting woman to her proper place. Thesetwo, yoked together in 'all exercise of noble end, ' and helping oneanother in Christian work, and bracketed together by the Apostle, whoputs the wife first, as his fellow-helpers in Christ Jesus, standsbefore us as a living picture of what our sweet and sacred familylife and earthly loves may be glorified into, if the light fromheaven shines down upon them, and is thankfully received into them. 

Such a house as the house of Prisca and Aquila is the product ofChristianity, and such ought to be the house of every professingChristian. For we should all make our homes as 'tabernacles of therighteous, ' in which the voice of joy and rejoicing is ever heard. Not only wedded love, but family love, and all earthly love, are thenmost precious, when into them there flows the ennobling, the calming, the transfiguring thought of Christ and His love to us. 

Again, notice that, even in these scanty references to our twofriends, there twice occurs that remarkable expression 'the churchthat is in their house. ' Now, I suppose that that gives us a littleglimpse into the rudimentary condition of public worship in theprimitive church. It was centuries after the time of Priscilla andAquila before circumstances permitted Christians to have buildingsdevoted exclusively to public worship. Up to a very much later periodthan that which is covered by the New Testament, they gatheredtogether wherever was most convenient. And, I suppose, that both inRome and Ephesus, this husband and wife had some room--perhaps theworkshop where they made their tents, spacious enough for some of theChristians of the city to meet together in. One would like people whotalk so much about 'the Church, ' and refuse the name to individualsocieties of Christians, and even to an aggregate of these, unless ithas 'bishops, ' to explain how the little gathering of twenty orthirty people in the workshop attached to Aquila's house, is calledby the Apostle without hesitation 'the church which is in theirhouse. ' It was a part of the Holy Catholic Church, but it was also 'aChurch, ' complete in itself, though small in numbers. We have herenot only a glimpse into the manner of public worship in early times, but we may learn something of far more consequence for us, and findhere a suggestion of what our homes ought to be. 'The Church that isin thy house'--fathers and mothers that are responsible for yourhomes and their religious atmosphere, ask yourselves if any one wouldsay that about your houses, and if they could not, why not?

II. We may get here another object lesson as to the hallowing ofcommon life, trade, and travel. 

It does not appear that, after their stay in Ephesus, Aquila and hiswife were closely attached to Paul's person, and certainly they didnot take any part as members of what we may call his evangelisticstaff. They seem to have gone their own way, and as far as the scantynotices carry us, they did not meet Paul again, after the time whenthey parted in Ephesus. Their gipsy life was probably occasioned byAquila's going about--as was the custom in old days when there wereno trades-unions or organised centres of a special industry--to lookfor work where he could find it. When he had made tents in Ephesusfor a while, he would go on somewhere else, and take temporarylodgings there. Thus he wandered about as a working man. Yet Paulcalls him his 'fellow worker in Christ Jesus'; and he had, as we saw, a Church in his house. A roving life of that sort is not generallysupposed to be conducive to depth of spiritual life. But theirwandering course did not hurt these two. They took their religionwith them. It did not depend on locality, as does that of a greatmany people who are very religious in the town where they live, and, when they go away for a holiday, seem to leave their religion, alongwith their silver plate, at home. But no matter whether they were inCorinth or Ephesus or Rome, Aquila and Priscilla took their Lord andMaster with them, and while working at their camel's-hair tents, theywere serving God. 

Dear brethren, what we want is not half so much preachers such as mybrethren and I, as Christian tradesmen and merchants and travellers, like Aquila and Priscilla. 

III. Again, we may see here a suggestion of the unexpected issues ofour lives. 

Think of that complicated chain of circumstances, one end of whichwas round Aquila and the other round the young Pharisee in Jerusalem. It steadily drew them together until they met in that lodging atCorinth. Claudius, in the fullness of his absolute power, said, 'Turnall these wretched Jews out of my city. I will not have it pollutedwith them any more. Get rid of them!' So these two were uprooted, anddrifted to Corinth. We do not know why they chose to go thither;perhaps they themselves did not know why; but God knew. And whilethey were coming thither from the west, Paul was coming thither fromthe east and north. He was 'prevented by the Spirit from speaking inAsia, ' and driven across the sea against his intention to Neapolis, and hounded out of Philippi and Thessalonica and Beræa; and turnedsuperciliously away from Athens; and so at last found himself inCorinth, face to face with the tentmaker from Rome and his wife. Thenone of the two men said, 'Let us join partnership together, and setup here as tent-makers for a time. ' What came out of this unintendedand apparently chance meeting?

The first thing was the conversion of Aquila and his wife; and theeffects of that are being realised by them in heaven at this moment, and will go on to all eternity. 

So, in the infinite complexity of events, do not let us worryourselves by forecasting, but let us trust, and be sure that the Handwhich is pushing us is pushing us in the right direction, and that Hewill bring us, by a right, though a roundabout way, to the City ofHabitation. It seems to me that we poor, blind creatures in thisworld are somewhat like a man in a prison, groping with his hand inthe dark along the wall, and all unawares touching a spring whichmoves a stone, disclosing an aperture that lets in a breath of purerair, and opens the way to freedom. So we go on as if stumbling in thedark, and presently, without our knowing what we do, by some trivialact we originate a train of events which influences our whole future. 

Again, when Aquila and Priscilla reached Ephesus they formed anotherchance acquaintance in the person of a brilliant young Alexandrian, whose name was Apollos. They found that he had good intentions and agood heart, but a head very scantily furnished with the knowledge ofthe Gospel. So they took him in hand, just as Paul had taken them. IfI may use such a phrase, they did not know how large a fish they hadcaught. They had no idea what a mighty power for Christ was lyingdormant in that young man from Alexandria who knew so much less thanthey did. They instructed Apollos, and Apollos became second only toPaul in the power of preaching the Gospel. So the circle widens andwidens. God's grace fructifies from one man to another, spreadingonward and outward. And all Apollos' converts, and _their_converts, and _theirs_ again, right away down the ages, we maytrace back to Priscilla and Aquila. 

So do not let us be anxious about the further end of our deeds--viz. Their results; but be careful about the nearer end of them--viz. Their motives; and God will look after the other end. Seeing that'thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether this or that, ' or howmuch any of them will prosper, let us grasp _all_ opportunitiesto do His will and glorify His name. 

IV. Further, here we have an instance of the heroic self-devotionwhich love to Christ kindles. 

'For my sake they laid down their own necks. ' We do not know to whatPaul is referring: perhaps to that tumult in Ephesus, where hecertainly was in danger. But the language seems rather more emphaticthan such danger would warrant. Probably it was at some perilousjuncture of which we know nothing (for we know very little, afterall, of the details of the Apostle's life), in which Aquila andPriscilla had said, 'Take us and let him go. He can do a great dealmore for God than we can do. We will put our heads on the block, ifhe may still live. ' That magnanimous self-surrender was a wonderfultoken of the passionate admiration and love which the Apostleinspired, but its deepest motive was love to Christ and not to Paulonly. 

Faith in Christ and love to Him ought to turn cowards into heroes, todestroy thoughts of self, and to make the utmost self-sacrificenatural, blessed, and easy. We are not called upon to exerciseheroism like Priscilla's and Aquila's, but there is as much heroismneeded for persistently Christian life, in our prosaic dailycircumstances, as has carried many a martyr to the block, and many atremulous woman to the pyre. We can all be heroes; and if the love ofChrist is in us, as it should be, we shall all be ready to 'yieldourselves living sacrifices, which is our reasonable service. '

Long years after, the Apostle, on the further edge of life, lookedback over it all; and, whilst much had become dim, and some trustedfriends had dropped away, like Demas, he saw these two, and wavedthem his last greeting before he turned to the executioner--'SalutePrisca and Aquila. ' Paul's Master is not less mindful of His friends'love, or less eloquent in the praise of their faithfulness, or lesssure to reward them with the crown of glory. 'Whoso confesseth Mebefore men, him will I also confess before the angels in heaven. '

TWO HOUSEHOLDS

 '. .. Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household. 11. . .. Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord. '--ROMANS xvi. 10, 11. 

There does not seem much to be got out of these two sets ofsalutations to two households in Rome; but if we look at them witheyes in our heads, and some sympathy in our hearts, I think we shallget lessons worth the treasuring. 

In the first place, here are two sets of people, members of twodifferent households, and that means mainly, if not exclusively, slaves. In the next place, in each case there was but a section ofthe household which was Christian. In the third place, in neitherhousehold is the master included in the greeting. So in neither casewas _he_ a Christian. 

We do not know anything about these two persons, men of positionevidently, who had large households. But the most learned of ourliving English commentators of the New Testament has advanced a veryreasonable conjecture in regard to each of them. As to the first ofthem, Aristobulus: that wicked old King Herod, in whose life Christwas born, had a grandson of the name, who spent all his life in Rome, and was in close relations with the Emperor of that day. He had diedsome little time before the writing of this letter. As to the secondof them, there is a very notorious Narcissus, who plays a great partin the history of Rome just a little while before Paul's periodthere, and he, too, was dead. And it is more than probable that theslaves and retainers of these two men were transferred in both casesto the emperor's household and held together in it, being known asAristobulus' men and Narcissus' men. And so probably the Christiansamong them are the brethren to whom these salutations are sent. 

Be that as it may, I think that if we look at the two groups, weshall get out of them some lessons. 

I. The first of them is this: the penetrating power of Christiantruth. Think of the sort of man that the master of the firsthousehold was, if the identification suggested be accepted. He is oneof that foul Herodian brood, in all of whom the bad Idumæan blood rancorruptly. The grandson of the old Herod, the brother of Agrippa ofthe Acts of the Apostles, the hanger-on of the Imperial Court, withRoman vices veneered on his native wickedness, was not the man towelcome the entrance of a revolutionary ferment into his household;and yet through his barred doors had crept quietly, he knowingnothing about it, that great message of a loving God, and a Masterwhose service was freedom. And in thousands of like cases the Gospelwas finding its way underground, undreamed of by the great and wise, but steadily pressing onwards, and undermining all the toweringgrandeur that was so contemptuous of it. So Christ's truth spread atfirst; and I believe that is the way it always spreads. Intellectualrevolutions begin at the top and filter down; religious revolutionsbegin at the bottom and rise; and it is always the 'lower orders'that are laid hold of first. 'Ye see your calling, brethren, how thatnot many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many nobleare called, ' but a handful of slaves in Aristobulus' household, withthis living truth lodged in their hearts, were the bearers and thewitnesses and the organs of the power which was going to shatter allthat towered above it and despised it. And so it always is. 

Do not let us be ashamed of a Gospel that has not laid hold of theupper and the educated classes, but let us feel sure of this, thatthere is no greater sign of defective education and of superficialculture and of inborn vulgarity than despising the day of smallthings, and estimating truth by the position or the intellectualattainments of the men that are its witnesses and its lovers. TheGospel penetrated at first, and penetrates still, in the fashion thatis suggested here. 

II. Secondly, these two households teach us very touchingly andbeautifully the uniting power of Christian sympathy. 

A considerable proportion of the first of these two households wouldprobably be Jews--if Aristobulus were indeed Herod's grandson. Theprobability that he was is increased by the greeting interposedbetween those to the two households--'Salute Herodion. ' The namesuggests some connection with Herod, and whether we suppose thedesignation of 'my kinsman, ' which Paul gives him, to mean 'bloodrelation' or 'fellow countryman, ' Herodion, at all events, was a Jewby birth. As to the other members of these households, Paul may havemet some of them in his many travels, but he had never been in Rome, and his greetings are more probably sent to them as conspicuoussections, numerically, of the Roman Church, and as tokens of hisaffection, though he had never seen them. The possession of a commonfaith has bridged the gulf between him and them. Slaves in those dayswere outside the pale of human sympathy, and almost outside the paleof human rights. And here the foremost of Christian teachers, who wasa freeman born, separated from these poor people by a tremendouschasm, stretches a brother's hand across it and grasps theirs. TheGospel that came into the world to rend old associations and to splitup society, and to make a deep cleft between fathers and children andhusband and wife, came also to more than counterbalance its dividingeffects by its uniting power. And in that old world that wasseparated into classes by gulfs deeper than any of which we have anyexperience, it, and it alone, threw a bridge across the abysses andbound men together. Think of what a revolution it must have been, when a master and his slave could sit down together at the table ofthe Lord and look each other in the face and say 'Brother' and forthe moment forget the difference of bond and free. Think of what arevolution it must have been when Jew and Gentile could sit downtogether at the table of the Lord, and forget circumcision anduncircumcision, and feel that they were all one in Jesus Christ. Andas for the third of the great clefts--that, alas! which made so muchof the tragedy and the wickedness of ancient life--viz. Theseparation between the sexes--think of what a revolution it was whenmen and women, in all purity of the new bond of Christian affection, could sit down together at the same table, and feel that they werebrethren and sisters in Jesus Christ. 

The uniting power of the common faith and the common love to the oneLord marked Christianity as altogether supernatural and new, uniquein the world's experience, and obviously requiring something morethan a human force to produce it. Will anybody say that theChristianity of this day has preserved and exhibits that primitivedemonstration of its superhuman source? Is there anything obviouslybeyond the power of earthly motives in the unselfish, expansive loveof modern Christians? Alas! alas! to ask the question is to answerit, and everybody knows the answer, and nobody sorrows over it. Isany duty more pressingly laid upon Christian churches of thisgeneration than that, forgetting their doctrinal janglings for awhile, and putting away their sectarianisms and narrowness, theyshould show the world that their faith has still the power to do whatit did in the old times, bridge over the gulf that separates classfrom class, and bring all men together in the unity of the faith andof the love of Jesus Christ? Depend upon it, unless the modernorganisations of Christianity which call themselves 'churches' showthemselves, in the next twenty years, a great deal more alive to thenecessity, and a great deal more able to cope with the problem, ofuniting the classes of our modern complex civilisation, the term oflife of these churches is comparatively brief. And the form ofChristianity which another century will see will be one whichreproduces the old miracle of the early days, and reaches across thedeepest clefts that separate modern society, and makes all one inJesus Christ. It is all very well for us to glorify the ancient loveof the early Christians, but there is a vast deal of falsesentimentality about our eulogistic talk of it. It were better topraise it less and imitate it more. Translate it into present life, and you will find that to-day it requires what it nineteen hundredyears ago was recognised as manifesting, the presence of somethingmore than human motive, and something more than man discovers oftruth. The cement must be divine that binds men thus together. 

Again, these two households suggest for us the tranquillising powerof Christian resignation. 

They were mostly slaves, and they continued to be slaves when theywere Christians. Paul recognised their continuance in the servileposition, and did not say a word to them to induce them to breaktheir bonds. The Epistle to the Corinthians treats the whole subjectof slavery in a very remarkable fashion. It says to the slave: 'Ifyou were a slave when you became a Christian, stop where you are. Ifyou have an opportunity of being free, avail yourself of it; if youhave not, never mind. ' And then it adds this great principle: 'Hethat is called in the Lord, being a slave, is Christ's freeman. Likewise he that is called, being free, is Christ's slave. ' TheApostle applies the very same principle, in the adjoining verses, tothe distinction between circumcision and uncircumcision. From allwhich there comes just the same lesson that is taught us by these twohouseholds of slaves left intact by Christianity--viz. That where aman is conscious of a direct, individual relation to Jesus Christ, that makes all outward circumstances infinitely insignificant. Let usget up to the height, and they all become very small. Of course, theprinciples of Christianity killed slavery, but it took eighteenhundred years to do it. Of course, there is no blinking the fact thatslavery was an essentially immoral and unchristian institution. Butit is one thing to lay down principles and leave them to be worked inand then to be worked out, and it is another thing to go blindlycharging at existing institutions and throwing them down by violence, before men have grown up to feel that they are wicked. And so the NewTestament takes the wise course, and leaves the foolish one tofoolish people. It makes the tree good, and then its fruit will begood. 

But the main point that I want to insist upon is this: what was goodfor these slaves in Rome is good for you and me. Let us get near toJesus Christ, and feel that we have got hold of His hand for our ownselves, and we shall not mind very much about the possible varietiesof human condition. Rich or poor, happy or sad, surrounded bycompanions or treading a solitary path, failures or successes as theworld has it, strong or broken and weak and wearied--all thesevarieties, important as they are, come to be very small when we cansay, 'We are the Lord's. ' That amulet makes all things tolerable; andthe Christian submission which is the expression of our love to, andconfidence in, His infinite sweetness and unerring goodness, raisesus to a height from which the varieties of earthly condition seem toblend and melt into one. When we are down amongst the low hills, itseems a long way from the foot of one of them to the top of it; butwhen we are on the top they all melt into one dead level, and youcannot tell which is top and which is bottom. And so, if we only canrise high enough up the hill, the possible diversities of ourcondition will seem to be very small variations in the level. III. Lastly, these two groups suggest to us the conquering power ofChristian faithfulness. 

The household of Herod's grandson was not a very likely place to findChristian people in, was it? Such flowers do not often grow, or atleast do not easily grow, on such dunghills. And in both these casesit was only a handful of the people, a portion of each household, that was Christian. So they had beside them, closely identified withthem--working, perhaps, at the same tasks, I might almost say, chained with the same chains--men who had no share in their faith orin their love. It would not be easy to pray and love and trust Godand do His will, and keep clear of complicity with idolatry andimmorality and sin, in such a pigsty as that; would it? But these mendid it. And nobody need ever say, 'I am in such circumstances that Icannot live a Christian life. ' There are no such circumstances, atleast none of God's appointing. There are often such that we bringupon ourselves, and then the best thing is to get out of them as soonas we can. But as far as He is concerned, He never puts anybodyanywhere where he cannot live a holy life. 

There were no difficulties too great for these men to overcome; thereare no difficulties too great for us to overcome. And wherever youand I may be, we cannot be in any place where it is so hard to live aconsistent life as these people were. Young men in warehouses, peoplein business here in Manchester, some of us with unfortunate domesticor relative associations, and so on--we may all feel as if it wouldbe so much easier for us if this, that, and the other thing werechanged. No, it would not be any easier; and perhaps the harder theeasier, because the more obviously the atmosphere is poisonous, themore we shall put some cloth over our mouths to prevent it fromgetting into our lungs. The dangerous place is the place where thevapours that poison are scentless as well as invisible. But whateverbe the difficulties, there is strength waiting for us, and we may allwin the praise which the Apostle gives to another of these Romanbrethren, whom he salutes as 'Apelles, approved in Christ'--a manthat had been 'tried' and had stood his trial. So in our variousspheres of difficulty and of temptation we may feel that the greetingfrom heaven, like Paul's message to the slaves in Rome, comes to uswith good cheer, and that the Master Himself sees us, sympathiseswith us, salutes us, and stretches out His hand to help and to keepus. 

TRYPHENA AND TRYPHOSA

 'Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord. '--ROMANS xvi. 12. 

The number of salutations to members of the Roman Church isremarkable when we take into account that Paul had never visited it. The capital drew all sorts of people to it, and probably there hadbeen personal intercourse between most of the persons here mentionedand the Apostle in some part of his wandering life. He not onlydisplays his intimate knowledge of the persons saluted, but hisbeautiful delicacy and ingenuity in the varying epithets applied tothem shows how in his great heart and tenacious memory individualshad a place. These shadowy saints live for ever by Paul's briefcharacterisation of them, and stand out to us almost as clearly andas sharply distinguished as they did to him. 

These two, Tryphena and Tryphosa, were probably sisters. That isrendered likely by their being coupled together here, as well as bythe similarity of their names. These names mean luxurious, ordelicate, and no doubt expressed the ideal for their daughters whichthe parents had had, and possibly indicate the kind of life fromwhich these two women had come. We can scarcely fail to note thecontrast between the meaning of their names and the Christian livesthey had lived. Two dainty women, probably belonging to a class inwhich a delicate withdrawal from effort and toil was thought to bethe woman's distinctive mark, had fled from luxury, which oftentended to be voluptuous, and was always self-indulgent, and hadchosen the better part of 'labour in the Lord. ' They had becomeuntrue to their names, because they must be true to their Master andthemselves. We may well take the lesson that lies here, and iseminently needful to-day amidst the senseless, and often sinful, tideof luxury which runs so strongly as to threaten the great and eternalChristian principle of self-denial. 

The first thing that strikes us in looking at these salutations isthe illustration which it gives of the uniting power of a commonfaith. Tryphena and Tryphosa were probably Roman ladies of somesocial standing, and their names may indicate that they at leastinherited a tendency to exclusiveness; yet here they occurimmediately after the household of Narcissus and in close connectionwith that of Aristobulus, both of which are groups of slaves. Aristobulus was a grandson of Herod the Great, and Narcissus was awell-known freedman, whose slaves at his death would probably becomethe property of the Emperor. Other common slave names are those ofAmpliatus and Urbanus; and here in these lists they stand side byside with persons of some distinction in the Roman world, and withmen and women of widely differing nationalities. The Church of Romewould have seemed to any non-Christian observer a motley crowd inwhich racial distinctions, sex, and social conditions had all beenswept away by the rising tide of a common fanaticism. In it wasexemplified in actual operation Paul's great principle that in ChristJesus 'there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, bond norfree, but in Him all are one. ' Roman society in that day, as Juvenalshows us, was familiar with the levelling and uniting power of commonvice and immorality, and the few sternly patriotic Romans who wereleft lamented that 'the Orontes flowed into the Tiber'; but suchcommon wallowing in filth led to no real unity, whereas, in theobscure corner of the great city where there were members of theinfant Church gathered together, there was the beginning of a commonlife in the one Lord which lifted each participant of it out of thedreary solitude of individuality, and imparted to each heart thetingling consciousness of oneness with all who held the one faith inthe one Lord and had received the one baptism in the one Name. Thatfair dawn has been shadowed by many clouds, and the churches ofto-day, however they may have developed doctrine, may look back withreproach and shame to the example of Rome, where Tryphena andTryphosa, with all their inherited, fastidious delicacy, recognisedin the household of Aristobulus and the household of Narcissus'brethren in the Lord, ' and were as glad to welcome Jews, Asiatics, Persians, and Greeks, as Romans of the bluest blood, into the familyof Christ. The Romish Church of our day has lost its early grace ofwelcoming all who love the one Lord into its fellowship; and we ofthe Protestant churches have been but too swift to learn the badlesson of forbidding all who follow not with us. 

Another thought which may be suggested by Tryphena and Tryphosa isthe blessed hallowing of natural family relations by common faith. They were probably sisters, or, at all events, as their namesindicate, near relatives, and to them that faith must have beendoubly precious because they shared it with each other. None of thetrials to which the early Christians were exposed was more severethan the necessity which their Christianity so often imposed uponthem of breaking the sacred family ties. It saddened even Christ'sheart to think that He had come to rend families in sunder, and tomake 'a man's foes them of his own household'; and we can littleimagine how bitter the pang must have been when family love had to becast aside at the bidding of allegiance to Him. 

But though the stress of that separation between those most nearlyrelated in blood by reason of unshared faith is alleviated in thisday, it still remains; and that is but a feeble Christian life whichdoes not feel that it is drawing a heart from closest human embracesand constituting a barrier between it and the dearest of earth. Thereis still need in these days of relaxed Christian sentiment for thestern austerity of the law, 'He that loveth father or mother morethan Me is not worthy of Me'; and there are many Christian souls whowould be infinitely stronger and more mature, if they did not yieldto the seductions of family affections which are not rooted in JesusChrist. But still, though our faith ought to be far more than itoften is, the determining element in our affections and associations, its noblest work is not to separate but to unite; and whilst it oftenmust divide, it is meant to draw more closely together hearts thatare already knit by earthly love. Its legitimate effect is to makeall earthly sweetnesses sweeter, all holy bonds more holy and morebinding, to infuse a new constraint and preciousness into all earthlyrelationships, to make brothers tenfold more brotherly and sistersmore sisterly. The heart, in which the deepest devotion is yielded toJesus Christ, has its capacity for devotion infinitely increased, andthey who, looking into each other's faces, see reflected theresomething of the Lord whom they both love, love each other all themore because they love Him most, and in their love to Him, and His tothem, have found a new measure for all their affection. They who, looking on their dear ones, can 'trust they live in God, ' will therefind them 'worthier to be loved, ' and will there find a power ofloving them. Tryphena and Tryphosa were more sisterly than ever whenthey clung to their Elder Brother. 'There is no man that hath leftbrethren, or sisters, or mother, or father, for My sake, but he shallreceive a hundredfold more in this time, brethren, and sisters, andmothers, and in the world to come eternal life. '

The contrast between the names of these two Roman ladies and thecharacterisation of their 'labour in the Lord' may suggest to us themost formidable foe of Christian earnestness. Their names, as we havealready noticed, point to a state of society in which the parentsideal for their daughters was dainty luxuriousness and a withdrawalfrom the rough and tumble of common life; but these two women, magnetised by the love of Jesus, had turned their backs on theparental ideal, and had cast themselves earnestly into a life oftoil. That ideal was never more formidably antagonistic to the vigourof Christian life than it is to-day. Rome, in Paul's time, was notmore completely honeycombed with worldliness than England is to-day;and the English churches are not far behind the English 'world' intheir paralysing love of luxury and self-indulgence. In all ages, earnest Christians have had to take up the same vehement remonstranceagainst the tendency of the average Christian to let his religiouslife be weakened by the love of the world and the things of theworld. The protests against growing luxury have been a commonplace inall ages of the Church; but, surely, there has never been a time whenit has reached a more senseless, sinful, and destroying height thanin our day. The rapid growth of wealth, with no capacity of using itnobly, which modern commerce has brought, has immensely influencedall our churches for evil. It is so hard for us, aggregated in greatcities, to live our own lives, and the example of our class has suchimmense power over us that it is very hard to pursue the path of'plain living and high thinking' in communities, all classes of whichare more and more yielding to the temptation to ostentation, so-called comfort, and extravagant expenditure; and that this is adanger--we are tempted to say _the_ danger--to the purity, loftiness, and vigour of religious life among us, he must be blind who cannotsee, and he must be strangely ignorant of his own life who cannotfeel that it is the danger for him. I believe that for one professingChristian whose earnestness is lost by reason of intellectual doubts, or by some grave sin, there are a hundred from whom it simply oozesaway unnoticed, like wind out of a bladder, so that what was onceround and full becomes limp and flaccid. If Demas begins with lovingthe present world, it will not be long before he finds a reason fordeparting from Paul. 

We may take these two sisters, finally, as pointing for us the truevictory over this formidable enemy. They had turned resolutely awayfrom the heathen ideal enshrined in their names to a life of realhard toil, as is distinctly implied by the word used by the Apostle. What that toil consisted in we do not know, and need not inquire; butthe main point to be noted is that their 'labour' was 'in the Lord. 'That union with Christ makes labour for Him a necessity, and makes itpossible. 'The labour we delight in physics pain'; and if we are inHim, we shall not only 'live in Him, ' but all our work begun, continued, and ended in Him, will in Him and by Him be accepted. There is no victorious antagonist of worldly ease and self-indulgencecomparable to the living consciousness of union with Jesus and Hislife in us. To dwell in the swamps at the bottom of the mountain isto live in a region where effort is impossible and malaria weakensvitality; to climb the heights brings bracing to the limbs and apurer air into the expanding lungs, and makes work delightsome thatwould have been labour down below. If we are 'in the Lord, ' He is ouratmosphere, and we can draw from Him full draughts of a noble life inwhich we shall not need the stimulus of self-interest or worldlysuccess to use it to the utmost in acts of service to Him. They wholive in the Lord will labour in the Lord, and they who labour in theLord will rest in the Lord. 

PERSIS

 'Salute the beloved Persis, who laboured much in the Lord. '--ROMANS xvi. 12. 

There are a great number of otherwise unknown Christians who pass fora moment before our view in this chapter. Their characterisations arelike the slight outlines in the background of some great artist'scanvas: a touch of the brush is all that is spared for each, and yet, if we like to look sympathetically, they live before us. Now, thisgood woman, about whom we never hear again, and for whom these fewwords are all her epitaph--was apparently, judging by her name, ofPersian descent, and possibly had been brought to Rome as a slave. Atall events, finding herself there, she had somehow or other becomeconnected with the Church in that city, and had there distinguishedherself by continuous and faithful Christian toil which had won theaffection of the Apostle, though he had never seen her, and knew nomore about her. That is all. She comes into the foreground for amoment, and then she vanishes. What does she say to us?

First of all, like the others named by Paul, she helps us tounderstand, by her living example, that wonderful, new, unitingprocess that was carried on by means of Christianity. The simple factof a Persian woman getting a loving message from a Jew, the womanbeing in Rome and the Jew in Corinth, and the message being writtenin Greek, brings before us a whole group of nationalities all fusedtogether. They had been hammered together, or, if you like it better, chained together, by Roman power, but they were melted together byChrist's Gospel. This Eastern woman and this Jewish man, and the manyothers whose names and different nationalities pass in a flash beforeus in this chapter, were all brought together in Jesus Christ. 

If we run our eye over these salutations, what strikes one, even atthe first sight, is the very small number of Jewish names; only onecertain, and another doubtful. Four or five names are Latin, and thenall the rest are Greek, but this woman seemingly came from furthereast than any of them. There they all were, forgetting the hostilenationalities to which they belonged, because they had found One whohad brought them into one great community. We talk about the unitinginfluence of Christianity, but when we see the process going onbefore us, in a case like this, we begin to understand it better. 

But another point may be noticed in regard to this unitingprocess--how it brought into action the purest and truest love as abond that linked men. There are four or five of the people commendedin this chapter of whom the Apostle has nothing to say but that theyare beloved. This is the only woman to whom he applies that term. Andnotice his instinctive delicacy: when he is speaking of men he says, '_My_ beloved'; when he is greeting Persis he says, '_the_ beloved, 'that there may be no misunderstanding about the 'my'--'the belovedPersis which laboured much in the Lord'--indicating, by one delicatetouch, the loftiness, the purity, and truly Christian character ofthe bond that held them together. And that is no true Church, whereanything but that is the bond--the love that knits us to one another, because we believe that each is knit to the dear Lord and fountain ofall love. 

What more does this good woman say to us? She is an example livingand breathing there before us, of what a woman may be in God'sChurch. Paul had never been in Rome; no Apostle, so far as we know, had had anything to do with the founding of the Church. The mostimportant Church in the Roman Empire, and the Church which afterwardsbecame the curse of Christendom, was founded by some anonymousChristians, with no commission, with no supervision, with noofficials amongst them, but who just had the grace of God in theirhearts, and found themselves in Rome, and could not help speakingabout Jesus Christ. God helped them, and a little Church sprang intobeing. And the great abundance of salutations here, and thehonourable titles which the Apostle gives to the Christians of whomhe speaks, and many of whom he signalises as having done greatservice, are a kind of certificate on his part to the vigorous lifewhich, without any apostolic supervision or official direction, haddeveloped itself there in that Church. 

Now, it is to be noticed that this striking form of eulogium which isattached to our Persis she shares in common with others in the group. And it is to be further noticed that all those who are, as it were, decorated with this medal--on whom Paul bestows this honour of sayingthat they had 'laboured, ' or 'laboured much in the Lord, ' are womenthat stand alone in the list. There are several other women in it, but they are all coupled with men--husbands or brothers, or some kindof relative. But there are three sets of women, I do not say singlewomen, but three sets of women, standing singly in the list, and itis about them, and them only, that Paul says they 'laboured, ' or'laboured much. ' There is a Mary who stands alone, and she 'bestowedmuch labour on' Paul and others. Then there are, in the same verse asmy text, two sisters, Tryphena and Tryphosa, whose names mean 'theluxurious. ' And the Apostle seems to think, as he writes the twonames that spoke of self-indulgence: 'Perhaps these rightly describedthese two women once, but they do not now. In the bad old days, before they were Christians, they may have been rightly namedluxurious-living. But here is their name now, the luxurious is turnedinto the self-sacrificing worker, and the two sisters "labour in theLord. "' Then comes our friend Persis, who also stands alone, and sheshares in the honour that only these other two companies of womenshare with her. She 'laboured much in the Lord. ' In that littlecommunity, without any direction from Apostles and authorisedteachers, the brethren and sisters had every one found their tasks;and these solitary women, with nobody to say to them, 'Go and do thisor that, ' had found out for themselves, or rather had been taught bythe Spirit of Jesus, what they had to do, and they worked at it witha will. There are many things that Christian women can do a greatdeal better than men, and we are not to forget that this modern talkabout the emancipation of women has its roots here in the NewTestament. We are not to forget either that prerogative meansobligation, and that the elevation of woman means the laying upon herof solemn duties to perform. I wonder how many of the women membersof our Churches and congregations deserve such a designation as that?We hear a great deal about 'women's rights' nowadays. I wish some ofmy friends would lay a little more to heart than they do, 'women'sduties. '

And now, lastly, the final lesson that I draw from this eulogium of anotherwise altogether unknown woman is that she is a model ofChristian service. 

First, in regard to its measure. She 'laboured much in the Lord. 'Now, both these two words, 'laboured' and 'much, ' are extremelyemphatic. The word rightly translated 'laboured' will appear in itsfull force if I recall to you a couple of other places in which it isemployed in the New Testament. You remember that touching incidentabout our Lord when, being '_wearied_ with His journey, He satthus on the well. ' 'Wearied' is the same word as is here used. Then, you remember how the Apostle, after he had been hauling empty netsall night in the little, wet, dirty fishing-boat, said, perhaps witha yawn, 'Master, we have _toiled_ all the night and caughtnothing. ' He uses the same word as is employed here. Such is the sortof work that these women had done--work carried to the point ofexhaustion, work up to the very edge of their powers, work unsparingand continuous, and not done once in some flash of evanescententhusiasm, but all through a dreary night, in spite of apparentfailures. 

_There_ is the measure of service. Many of us seem to think thatif we say 'I am tired, ' that is a reason for not doing anything. Sometimes it is, no doubt; and no man has a right so to labour as toimpair his capacity for future labour, but subject to that conditionI do not know that the plea of fatigue is a sufficient reason foridleness. And I am quite sure that the true example for us is theexample of Him who, when He was most wearied, sitting on the well, was so invigorated and refreshed by the opportunity of winninganother soul that, when His disciples came back to Him, they lookedat His fresh strength with astonishment, and said to themselves, 'Hasany man brought Him anything to eat?' Ay, what He had to eat was workthat He finished for the Father, and some of us know that the truestrefreshment in toil is a change of toil. It is almost as good toshift the load on to the other shoulder, or to take a stick into theother hand, as it is to put away the load altogether. Oh, the carefullimits which Christian people nowadays set to their work for Jesus!They are not afraid of being tired in their pursuit of business orpleasure, but in regard to Christ's work they will let anything go towrack and ruin rather than that they should turn a hair, bypersevering efforts to prevent it. Work to the limit of power if youlive in the light of blessedness. 

She 'laboured much in the Lord, ' or, as Jesus Christ said about theother woman who was blamed by the people that did not love enough tounderstand the blessedness of self-sacrifice, 'she had done what shecould. ' It was an apology for the form of Mary's service, but it wasa stringent demand as to its amount. 'What she could'--not _half_ ofwhat she could; not what she _conveniently_ could. That is themeasure of acceptable service. 

Then, still further, may we not learn from Persis the spring of alltrue Christian work? She 'laboured much in the Lord, ' because she_was_ 'in Him, ' and in union with Him there came to her powerand desire to do things which, without that close fellowship, sheneither would have desired nor been able to do. It is vain to try towhip up Christian people to forms of service by appealing to lowermotives. There is only one motive that will last, and bring out fromus all that is in us to do, and that is the appeal to our sense ofunion and communion with Jesus Christ, and the exhortation to live inHim, and then we shall work in Him. If you link the spindles in yourmill, or the looms in your weaving-shed, with the engine, they willgo. It is of no use to try to turn them by hand. You will only spoilthe machinery, and it will be poor work that you will get off them. 

So, dear brethren, be 'in the Lord. ' That is the secret of service, and the closer we come to Him, and the more continuously, moment bymoment, we realise our individual dependence upon Him, and our unionwith Him, the more will our lives effloresce and blossom into allmanner of excellence and joyful service, and nothing else thatChristian people are whipped up to do, from lower and more vulgarmotives than that, will. It may be of a certain kind ofinferior value, but it is far beneath the highest beauty of Christianservice, nor will its issues reach the loftiest point of usefulnessto which even our poor service may attain. 

Persis seems to me to suggest, too, the safeguard of work. Ah, if shehad not 'laboured in the Lord, ' and been 'in the Lord' whilst she waslabouring, she would very soon have stopped work. Our Christian work, however pure its motive when we begin it, has in itself the tendencyto become mechanical, and to be done from lower motives than thosefrom which it was begun. That is true about a man in my position. Itis true about all of us, in our several ways of trying to serve ourdear Lord and Master. Unless we make a conscience of continuallyrenewing our communion with Him, and getting our feet once morefirmly upon the rock, we shall certainly in our Christian work, having begun in the spirit, continue in the flesh, and before we knowwhere we are, we shall be doing work from habit, because we did ityesterday at this hour, because people expect it of us, because A, B, or C does it, or for a hundred other reasons, all of which are buttoo familiar to us by experience. They are sure to slip in; theychange the whole character of the work, and they harm the workers. The only way by which we can keep the garland fresh is by continuallydipping it in the fountain. The only way by which we can keep ourChristian work pure, useful, worthy of the Master, is by seeing to itthat our work itself does not draw us away from our fellowship withHim. And the more we have to do, the more needful is it that weshould listen to Christ's voice when He says to us, 'Come yeyourselves apart with Me into a solitary place, and there renew yourcommunion with Me. '

The last lesson about our work which I draw from Persis is theunexpected immortality of true Christian service. How Persis wouldhave opened her eyes if anybody had told her that nearly 1900 yearsafter she lived, people in a far-away barbarous island would besitting thinking about her, as you and I are doing now! Howastonished she would have been if it had been said to her, 'Now, Persis, wheresoever in the whole world the Gospel is preached, yourname and your work and your epitaph will go with it, and as longas men know about Jesus Christ, your and their Master, they will knowabout you, His humble servant. ' Well, we shall not have our names inthat fashion in men's memories, but Jesus will have your name andmine, if we do His work as this woman did it, in _His_ memory. 'Iwill never forget any of their works. ' And if we--self-forgetful tothe limit of our power, and as the joyful result of our personalunion with that Saviour who has done everything for us--try to livefor His praise and glory in any fashion, then be sure of this, thatour poor deeds are as immortal as Him for whom they are done, andthat we may take to ourselves the great word which He has spoken, when He has declared that at the last He will confess His confessors'names before the angels in heaven. Blessed are the living that 'livein the Lord'; blessed are the workers that work 'in the Lord, ' forwhen they come to be the dead that 'die in the Lord' and rest fromtheir labours, their works shall follow them. 

A CRUSHED SNAKE

 'The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. '--ROMANS xvi. 20. 

There are three other Scriptural sayings which may have been floatingin the Apostle's mind when he penned this triumphant assurance. 'Thoushalt bruise his head'; the great first Evangel--we are to be endowedwith Christ's power; 'The lion and the adder thou shalt trample underfoot'--all the strength that was given to ancient saints is ours;'Behold! I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, andover all the power of the enemy'--the charter of the seventy is theperennial gift to the Church. Echoing all these great words, Paulpromises the Roman Christians that 'the God of peace shall bruiseSatan under your feet shortly. ' Now, when any special characteristicis thus ascribed to God, as when He is called 'the God of patience'or 'the God of hope, ' in the preceding chapter, the characteristicselected has some bearing on the prayer or promise following. Forexample, this same designation, 'the God of peace, ' united with theother, 'that brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus, that greatShepherd of the sheep, ' is laid as the foundation of the prayer forthe perfecting of the readers of the Epistle to the Hebrews in everygood work. It is, then, because of that great name that the Apostleis sure, and would have his Roman brethren to be sure, that Satanshall shortly be bruised under their feet. No doubt there may havebeen some reference in Paul's mind to what he had just said aboutthose who caused divisions in the Church; but, if there is suchreference, it is of secondary importance. Paul is gazing on all thegreat things in God which make Him the God of peace, and in them allhe sees ground for the confident hope that His power will be exertedto crush all the sin that breaks His children's peace. 

Now the first thought suggested by these words is the solemn glimpsegiven of the struggle that goes on in every Christian soul. 

Two antagonists are at hand-grips in every one of us. On the onehand, the 'God of peace, ' on the other, 'Satan. ' If you believe inthe personality of the One, do not part with the belief in thepersonality of the other. If you believe that a divine power andSpirit is ready to help and strengthen you, do not think so lightlyof the enemies that are arrayed against you as to falter in thebelief that there _is_ a great personal Power, rooted in evil, who is warring against each of us. Ah, brethren! we live far too muchon the surface, and we neither go down deep enough to the dark sourceof the Evil, nor rise high enough to the radiant Fountain of theGood. It is a shallow life that strikes that antagonism of God andSatan out of itself. And though the belief in a personal tempter hasgot to be very unfashionable nowadays, I am going to venture to saythat you may measure accurately the vitality and depth of a man'sreligion by the emphasis with which he grasps the thought of thatgreat antagonism. There is a star of light, and there is a star ofdarkness; and they revolve, as it were, round one centre. 

But whilst, on the one hand, our Christianity is made shallow inproportion as we ignore this solemn reality, on the other hand, it issometimes paralysed and perverted by our misunderstanding of it. For, notice, 'the God of peace shall bruise Satan _under your feet_. 'Yes, it is God that bruises, but He uses our feet to do it. It is Godfrom whom the power comes, but the power works through us, and we areneither merely the field, nor merely the prize, of the conflictbetween these two, but we ourselves have to put all our pith into thetask of keeping down the flat, speckled head that has the poisongland in it. 'The God of peace'--blessed be His Name--'shall bruiseSatan under your feet, ' but it will need the tension of your muscles, and the downward force of your heel, if the wriggling reptile is tobe kept under. 

Turn, now, to the other thought that is here, the promise and pledgeof victory in the name, the God of peace. I have already referred totwo similar designations of God in the previous chapter, and if wetake them in union with this one in our text, what a wonderfullybeautiful and strengthening threefold view of that divine nature dowe get! 'The God of patience and consolation' is the first of thelinked three. It heads the list, and blessed is it that it does, because, after all, sorrow makes up a very large proportion of theexperience of us all, and what most men seem to themselves to needmost is a God that will bear their sorrows with them and help them tobear, and a God that will comfort them. But, supposing that He hasbeen made known thus as the source of endurance and the God of allconsolation, He becomes 'the God of hope, ' for a dark backgroundflings up a light foreground, and a comforted sorrow patientlyendured is mighty to produce a radiant hope. The rising of the muddywaters of the Nile makes the heavy crops of 'corn in Egypt. ' So thename 'the God of hope' fitly follows the name 'the God of patienceand consolation. '

Then we come to the name in my text, built perhaps on the other two, or at least reminiscent of them, and recalling them, 'the God ofpeace, ' who, through patience and consolation, through hope, andthrough many another gift, breathes the benediction of His own greattranquillity and unruffled calm over our agitated, distracted, sinfulhearts. In connection with one of those previous designations towhich I have referred, the Apostle has a prayer very different inform from this, but identical in substance, when he says 'the God ofhope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. ' Is not thatclosely allied to the promise of my text, 'The God of peace shallbruise Satan under your feet shortly'? Is there any surer way of'bruising Satan' under a man's feet than filling him 'with joy andpeace in believing'? What can the Devil do to that man? If his soulis saturated, and his capacities filled, with that pure honey ofdivine joy, will he have any taste for the coarse dainties, the leeksand the garlic, that the Devil offers him? Is there any surer way ofdelivering a man from the temptations of his own baser nature, andthe solicitations of this busy intrusive world round about him, thanto make him satisfied with the goodness of the Lord, and conscious inhis daily experience of 'all joy and peace'? Fill the vessel withwine, and there is no room for baser liquors or for poison. I supposethat the way by which you and I, dear friends, will most effectuallyconquer any temptations, is by falling back on the superior sweetnessof divine joys. When we live upon manna we do not crave onions. So He'will bruise Satan under your feet' by giving that which will armyour hearts against all his temptations and all his weapons. Blessedbe God for the way of conquest, which is the possession of a supremergood!

But then, notice how beautifully too this name, 'the God of peace, 'comes in to suggest that even in the strife there may betranquillity. I remember in an old church in Italy a painting of anArchangel with his foot on the dragon's neck, and his sword thrustthrough its scaly armour. It is perhaps the feebleness of theartist's hand, but I think rather it is the clearness of his insight, which has led him to represent the victorious angel, in the moment inwhich he is slaying the dragon, as with a smile on his face, and notthe least trace of effort in the arm, which is so easily smiting thefatal blow. Perhaps if the painter could have used his brush betterhe would have put more expression into the attitude and the face, butI think it is better as it is. We, too, may achieve a conquest overthe dragon which, although it requires effort, does not disturbpeace. There is a possibility of bruising that slippery head under myfoot, and yet not having to strain myself in the process. We may have'peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation. ' Do you rememberhow the Apostle, in another place, gives us the samebeautiful--though at first sight contradictory--combination when hesays, 'The peace of God shall garrison your heart'?

 'My soul! there is a country Far, far beyond the stars, Where stands an armed sentry, All skilful in the wars. '

And her name is Peace, as the poet goes on to tell us. Ah, brethren!if we lived nearer the Lord, we should find it more possible to'fight the good fight of faith, ' and yet to have 'our feet shod withthe preparedness of the gospel of peace. '

'The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet'; and inbruising He will give you His peace to do it, and His peace in doingit, and in still greater measure after doing it. For every struggleof the Christian soul adds something to the subsequent depth ofits tranquillity. And so the name of the God of peace is our pledge ofvictory in, and of deepened peace after, our warfare with sin andtemptation. 

Lastly, note the swiftness with which Paul expects that this processshall he accomplished. 

I dare say that he was thinking about the coming of the Lord, whenall the fighting and struggle would be over, and that when he said'God shall bruise him under your feet shortly, ' there lay in the backof his mind the thought, 'the Lord is at hand. ' But be that as itmay, there is another way of looking at the words. They are not inthe least like our experience, are they? 'Shortly!'--and here am I, aChristian man for the last half century perhaps; and have I got muchfurther on in my course? Have I brought the sin that used to troubleme much down, and is my character much more noble, Christ-like, thanit was long years ago? Would other people say that it is? Instead of'shortly' we ought to put 'slowly' for the most of us. But, dearfriend, the ideal is swift conquest, and it is our fault and ourloss, if the reality is sadly different. 

There are a great many evils that, unless they are conqueredsuddenly, have very small chance of ever being conquered at all. Younever heard of a man being cured of his love of intoxicating drink, for instance, by a gradual process. The serpent's life is not crushedout of it by gradual pressure, but by one vigorous stamp of a nervousheel. 

But if my experience as a Christian man does not enable me to set tomy seal that this text is true, the text itself will tell me why. Itis 'the God of peace' that is going to 'bruise Satan. ' Do you keepyourself in touch with Him, dear friend? And do you let His powerscome uninterruptedly and continuously into your spirit and life? Itis sheer folly and self-delusion to wonder that the medicine does notwork as quickly as was promised, if you do not take the medicine. Theslow process by which, at the best, many Christian people 'bruiseSatan under their feet, ' during which he hurts their heels more thanthey hurt his head, is mainly due to their breaking the closeness andthe continuity of their communion with God in Jesus Christ. 

But, after all, it is Heaven's chronology that we have to do withhere. 'Shortly, ' and it will be 'shortly, ' if we reckon by heavenlyscales of duration. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh inthe morning. 'The Lord will help her, and that right early. ' 'TheLord is at hand. ' When we get yonder, ah! how all the long years offighting will have dwindled down, and we shall say 'the Lord did helpme, and that right early, ' and though there may have been more thanthreescore years and ten of fighting, that, while we were in thethick of it, did not seem to come to much, we shall then look backand say: 'Yes, Lord, it was but for a moment, and it has brought meto the undying day of Eternal Peace. '

TERTIUS

 'I, Tertius, who write the epistle, salute you in the Lord. '--ROMANS xvi. 22 (R. V. ). 

One sometimes sees in old religious pictures, in some obscure corner, a tiny kneeling figure, the portrait of the artist. So Tertius heregets leave to hold the pen for a moment on his own account, and fromCorinth sends his greeting to his unknown brethren in Rome. Apparently he was a stranger to them, and needed to introducehimself. He is never heard of before or since. For one brief momenthe is visible, like a star of a low magnitude, shining out for amoment between two banks of darkness and then swallowed up. Judgingby his name, he was probably a Roman, and possibly had someconnection with Italy, but clearly was a stranger to the Church inRome. We do not know whether he was a resident in Corinth, where hewrote this epistle, or one of Paul's travelling companions. Probablyhe was the former, as his name never recurs in any of Paul's letters. One can understand the impulse which led him for one moment to comeout of obscurity and to take up personal relations with those who hadso long enjoyed his pen. He would fain float across the deep gulf ofalienation a thread of love which looked like gossamer, but hasproved to be stronger than centuries and revolutions. 

This humble and modest greeting is an expression of a sentiment whichthe world may smile at, but which, being 'in the Lord, ' partakes ofimmortality. No doubt the world's hate drove more closely togetherall the disciples in primitive times; but the yearning of Tertius forsome little corner in the love of his Roman brethren might wellinfluence us to-day. There ought to be an effort of imagination goingout towards unknown brethren. Christian love is not meant to be keptwithin the limits of sight and personal knowledge; it should overleapthe narrow bounds of the communities to which we belong, andexpatiate over the whole wide field. The great Shepherd hasprescribed for us the limits to the very edge of which our Christianlove should consciously go forth, and has rebuked the narrowness towhich we are prone, when He has said, 'Other sheep I have which arenot of this fold. ' We are all too prone to let identities of opinionand of polity, or even the accident of locality, set bounds to ourconsciousness of brotherhood; and the example of this little gush ofaffection, that reaches out a hand across the ocean and grasps thehands of unknown partakers in the common life of the one Lord, maywell shame us out of our narrowness, and quicken us into a wideperception and deepened feeling towards all who in every place callup Jesus Christ as their Lord--'both their Lord and ours. '

Another lesson which we may learn from Tertius' characterisation ofhimself is the dignity of subordinate work towards a great end. Hisoffice as amanuensis was very humble, but it was quite as necessaryas Paul's inspired fervour. It is to him that we owe our possessionof the Epistle; it is to him that Paul owed it that he was able torecord in imperishable words the thoughts that welled up in his mind, and would have been lost if Tertius had not been at his side. Thepower generated in the boilers does its work through machines ofwhich each little cog-wheel is as indispensable as the great shafts. Members of the body which seem to be 'more feeble, are necessary. 'Every note in a great concerted piece of music, and every instrument, down to the triangle and the little drum in the great orchestra, isnecessary. This lesson of the dignity of subordinate work needs to belaid to heart both by those who think themselves to be capable ofmore important service, and by those who have to recognise that theless honourable tasks are all for which they are fit. To the formerit may preach humility, the latter it may encourage. We are all veryignorant of what is great and what is small in the matter of ourChristian service, and we have sometimes to look very closely and toclear away a great many vulgar misconceptions before we canclearly discriminate between mites and talents. 'We know not whichmay prosper, whether this or that'; and in our ignorance of what itmay please God to bring out of any service faithfully rendered toHim, we had better not be too sure that true service is ever small, or that the work that attracts attention and is christened by men'great' is really so in His eyes. It is well to have the nobleambition to 'desire earnestly the greater gifts, ' but it is better to'follow the more excellent way, ' and to seek after the love whichknows nothing of great or small, and without which prophecy and theknowledge of all mysteries, and all conspicuous and all the shiningqualities profit nothing. 

We can discern in Tertius' words a little touch of what we may callpride in his work. No doubt he knew it to be subordinate, but he alsoknew it to be needful; and no doubt he had put all his strength intodoing it well. No man will put his best into any task which he doesnot undertake in such a spirit. It is a very plain piece of homelywisdom that 'what is worth doing at all is worth doing well. ' Withouta lavish expenditure of the utmost care and effort, our work willtend to be slovenly and unpleasing to God, and man, and to ourselves. We may be sure there were no blots and bits of careless writing inTertius' manuscript, and that he would not have claimed the friendlyfeelings of his Roman brethren, if he had not felt that he had puthis best into the writing of this epistle. The great word of KingDavid has a very wide application. 'I will not take that which isthine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost. '

Tertius' salutation may suggest to us the best thing by which to beremembered. All his life before and after the hours spent at Paul'sside has sunk in oblivion. He wished to be known only as havingwritten the Epistle. Christian souls ought to desire to live chieflyin the remembrance of those to whom they have been known as havingdone some little bit of work for Jesus Christ. We may well askourselves whether there is anything in our lives by which we shouldthus wish to be remembered. All our many activities will sink intosilence; but if the stream of our life, which has borne along downits course so much mud and sand, has brought some grains of gold inthe form of faithful and loving service to Christ and men--these willnot be lost in the ocean, but treasured by Him. What we do for Jesusand to spread the knowledge of His name is the immortal part of ourmortal lives, and abides in His memory and in blessed results in ourown characters, when all the rest that made our busy and often stormydays has passed into oblivion. All that we know of Tertius who wrotethis Epistle is that he wrote it. Well will it be for us if thesummary of our lives be something like that of his!

QUARTUS A BROTHER

 'Quartus a brother. '--ROMANS xvi. 23. 

I am afraid very few of us read often, or with much interest, thoselong lists of names at the end of Paul's letters. And yet there areplenty of lessons in them, if anybody will look at them lovingly andcarefully. There does not seem much in these three words; but I amvery much mistaken if they will not prove to be full of beauty andpathos, and to open out into a wonderful revelation of whatChristianity is and does, as soon as we try to freshen them up intosome kind of human interest. 

It is easy for us to make a little picture of this brother Quartus. He is evidently an entire stranger to the Church in Rome. They hadnever heard his name before: none of them knew anything about him. Further, he is evidently a man of no especial reputation or positionin the Church at Corinth, from which Paul writes. He contrastsstrikingly with the others who send salutations to Rome. 'Timotheus, my work-fellow'--the companion and helper of the Apostle, whose namewas known everywhere among the Churches, heads the list. Then comeother prominent men of his more immediate circle. Then follows aloving greeting from Paul's amanuensis, who, naturally, as the pen isin his own hand, says: '_I_, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord. ' Then Paul begins again to dictate, and thelist runs on. Next comes a message from 'Gaius mine host, and of thewhole Church'--an influential man in the community, apparently rich, and willing, as well as able, to extend to them large and lovinghospitality. Erastus, the chamberlain or treasurer of the city, follows--a man of consequence in Corinth. And then, among all thesepeople of mark, comes the modest, quiet Quartus. He has no wealthlike Gaius, nor civic position like Erastus, nor wide reputation likeTimothy. He is only a good, simple, unknown Christian. He feels aspring of love open in his heart to these brethren far across thesea, whom he never met. He would like them to know that he thoughtlovingly of them, and to be lovingly thought of by them. So he begs alittle corner in Paul's letter, and gets it; and there, in his littleniche, like some statue of a forgotten saint, scarce seen amidst theglories of a great cathedral, 'Quartus a brother' stands to all time. 

The first thing that strikes me in connection with these words is, how deep and real they show that new bond of Christian love to havebeen. 

A little incident of this sort is more impressive than any amount ofmere talk about the uniting influence of the Gospel. Here we get aglimpse of the power in actual operation in a man's heart, and if wethink of all that this simple greeting presupposes and implies, andof all that had to be overcome before it could have been sent, we maywell see in it the sign of the greatest revolution that was everwrought in men's relations to one another, Quartus was an inhabitantof Corinth, from which city this letter was written. His Roman namemay indicate Roman descent, but of that we cannot be sure. Just asprobably he may have been a Greek by birth, and so have had tostretch his hand across a deep crevasse of national antipathy, inorder to clasp the hands of his brethren in the great city. There waslittle love lost between Rome, the rough imperious conqueror, andCorinth, prostrate and yet restive under her bonds, and nourishingremembrances of a freedom which Rome had crushed, and of a culturethat Rome haltingly followed. 

And how many other deep gulfs of separation had to be bridged beforethat Christian sense of oneness could be felt! It is impossible forus to throw ourselves completely back to the condition of thingswhich the Gospel found. The world then was like some great field ofcooled lava on the slopes of a volcano, all broken up by a labyrinthof clefts and cracks, at the bottom of which one can see the flickerof sulphurous flames. Great gulfs of national hatred, of fierceenmities of race, language, and religion; wide separations of socialcondition, far profounder than anything of the sort which we know, split mankind into fragments. On the one side was the freeman, on theother, the slave; on the one side, the Gentile, on the other, theJew; on the one side, the insolence and hard-handedness of Romanrule, on the other, the impotent, and therefore envenomed, hatred ofconquered peoples. 

And all this fabric, full of active repulsions and disintegratingforces, was bound together into an artificial and unreal unity by theiron clamp of Rome's power, holding up the bulging walls that wereready to fall--the unity of the slave-gang manacled together foreasier driving. Into this hideous condition of things the Gospelcomes, and silently flings its clasping tendrils over the wide gaps, and binds the crumbling structure of human society with a new bond, real and living. We know well enough that that was so, but we arehelped to apprehend it by seeing, as it were, the very process goingon before our eyes, in this message from 'Quartus a brother. '

It reminds us that the very notion of humanity, and of thebrotherhood of man, is purely Christian. A world-embracing society, held together by love, was not dreamt of before the Gospel came; andsince the Gospel came it is more than a dream. If you wrench away theidea from its foundation, as people do who talk about fraternity, andseek to bring it to pass without Christ, it is a mere piece ofUtopian sentiment--a fine dream. But in Christianity it worked. Itworks imperfectly enough, God knows. Still there is some reality init, and some power. The Gospel first of all produced the thing andthe practice, and then the theory came afterwards. The Church did nottalk much about the brotherhood of man, or the unity of the race; butsimply ignored all distinctions, and gathered into the fold the slaveand his master, the Roman and his subject, fair-haired Goths andswarthy Arabians, the worshippers of Odin and of Zeus, the Jew andthe Gentile. That actual unity, utterly irrespective of alldistinctions, which came naturally in the train of the Gospel, wasthe first attempt to realise the oneness of the race, and firsttaught the world that all men were brethren. 

And before this simple word of greeting could have been sent, and theunknown man in Corinth felt love to a company of unknown men in Rome, some profound new impulse must have been given to the world;something altogether unlike any of the forces hitherto in existence. What was that? What should it be but the story of One who gaveHimself for the whole world, who binds men into a unity because ofHis common relation to them all, and through whom the greatproclamation can be made: 'There is neither Jew nor Greek, there isneither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye areall one in Christ Jesus. ' Brother Quartus' message, like some tinyflower above-ground which tells of a spreading root beneath, is amodest witness to that mighty revolution, and presupposes thepreaching of a Saviour in whom he and his unseen friends in Rome areone. 

So let us learn not to confine our sympathy and the play of ourChristian affection within the limits of our personal knowledge. Wemust go further a-field than that. Like this man, let us sometimessend our thoughts across mountains and seas. He knew nobody in theRoman Church, and nobody knew him, but he wished to stretch out hishand to them, and to feel, as it were, the pressure of their fingersin his palm. That is a pattern for us. 

Let me suggest another thing. Quartus was a Corinthian. TheCorinthian Church was remarkable for its quarrellings anddissensions. One said, 'I am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos, andI of Cephas, and I of Christ. ' I wonder if our friend Quartusbelonged to any of these parties? There is nothing more likely thanthat he had a much warmer glow of Christian love to the brethren overthere in Rome than to those who sat on the same bench with him in theupper room at Corinth. For you know that sometimes it is true aboutpeople, as well as about scenery, that 'distance lends enchantment tothe view. ' A great many of us have much keener sympathies with'brethren' who are well out of our reach, and whose peculiarities donot jar against ours, than with those who are nearest. I do not sayQuartus was one of these, but he may very well have been one of thewranglers in Corinth who found it much easier to love his brotherwhom he had not seen than his brother whom he had seen. So take thehint, if you need it. Do not let your Christian love go wanderingaway abroad only, but keep some for home consumption. 

Again, how simply, and with what unconscious beauty, the deep reasonfor our Christian unity is given in that one word, a 'Brother. ' As ifhe had said, Never mind telling them anything about what I am, whatplace I hold, or what I do. Tell them I am a brother, that will beenough. It is the only name by which I care to be known; it is thename which explains my love to them. 

We are brethren because we are sons of one Father. So that favouritename, by which the early Christians knew each other, rested upon andproclaimed the deep truth that they knew themselves to be allpartakers of a common life derived from one Parent. When they saidthey were brethren, they implied, 'We have been born again by theword of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. ' The great Christiantruth of regeneration, the communication of a divine life from Godthe Father, through Christ the Son, by the Holy Spirit, is thefoundation of Christian brotherhood. So the name is no mere piece ofeffusive sentiment, but expresses a profound fact. 'To as many asreceived Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, ' andtherein to become the brethren of all His sons. That is the trueground of our unity, and of our obligation to love all who arebegotten of Him. You cannot safely put them on any other footing. Allelse--identity of opinion, similarity of practice and ceremonial, local or national ties, and the like--all else is insufficient. Itmay be necessary for Christian communities to require in addition ageneral identity of opinion, and even some uniformity in governmentand form of worship; but if ever they come to fancy that suchsubordinate conditions of visible oneness are the grounds of theirspiritual unity, and to enforce these as such, they are slipping offthe real foundation, and are perilling their character as Churches ofChrist. The true ground of the unity of all Christians is here: 'Havewe not all one Father?' We possess a kindred life derived from Him. We are a family of brethren because we are sons. 

Another remark is, how strangely and unwittingly this good man hasgot himself an immortality by that passing thought of his. One lovingmessage has won for him the prize for which men have joyfully givenlife itself, --an eternal place in history. Wheresoever the Gospel ispreached there also shall this be told as a memorial of him. How muchsurprised he would have been if, as he leaned forward to Tertiushurrying to end his task and said, 'Send my love too, ' anybody hadtold him that that one act of his would last as long as the world, and his name be known for ever! And how much ashamed some of theother people in the New Testament would have been if they had knownthat their passing faults--the quarrel of Euodia and Syntyche forinstance--were to be gibbeted for ever in the same fashion! Howcareful they would have been, and we would be, of our behaviour if weknew that it was to be pounced down upon and made immortal in thatstyle! Suppose you were to be told--Your thoughts and acts to-morrowat twelve o'clock will be recorded for all the world to read--youwould be pretty careful how you behaved. When a speaker sees thereporters in front of him, he weighs his words. 

Well, Quartus' little message is written down here, and the worldknows it. All our words and works are getting put down too, inanother Book up there, and it is going to be read out one day. Itdoes seem wonderful that you and I should live as we do, knowing thatall the while that God is recording it all. If we are not ashamed todo things, and let Him note them on His tablets that they may be forthe time to come, for ever and ever, it is strange that we should bemore careful to attitudinise and pose ourselves before one anotherthan before Him. Let us then keep ever in mind 'those pure eyes andperfect witness of the all-judging' God. The eternal record of thislittle message is only a symbol of the eternal life and eternalrecord of all our transient and trivial thoughts and deeds beforeHim. Let us live so that each act, if recorded, would shine with somemodest ray of true light like brother Quartus' greeting, and let usseek that, like him, --all else about us being forgotten, position, talents, wealth, buried in the dust, --we may be remembered, if we areremembered at all, by such a biography as is condensed into thesethree words. Who would not wish to be embalmed, so to speak, in sucha record? Who would not wish to have such an epitaph as this? A sweetfate to live for ever in the world's memory by three words which tellhis name, his Christianity, and his brotherly love! So far as we areremembered at all, may the like be our life's history and ourepitaph!

EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D. , Litt. D. 

CORINTHIANS(_To II Corinthians, Chap. V_)

CONTENTS

CALLING ON THE NAME (1 COR. I. 2)

PERISHING OR BEING SAVED (1 COR. I. 18)

THE APOSTLE'S THEME (1 COR. Ii. 2)

GOD'S FELLOW-WORKERS (1 COR. Iii. 9)

THE TESTING FIRE (1 COR. Iii. 12, 13)

TEMPLES OF GOD (1 COR. Iii. 16)

DEATH, THE FRIEND (1 COR. Iii. 21, 22)

SERVANTS AND LORDS (1 COR. Iii. 21-23)

THE THREE TRIBUNALS (1 COR. Iv. 3, 4)

THE FESTAL LIFE (1 COR. V. 8)

FORMS _VERSUS_ CHARACTER (1 COR. Vii. 19, GAL. V. 6, GAL. Vi. 15, R. V. )

SLAVES AND FREE (1 COR. Vii. 22)

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE (1 COR. Vii. 24)

'LOVE BUILDETH UP' (1 COR. Viii. 1-13)

THE SIN OF SILENCE (1 COR. Ix. 16, 17)

A SERVANT OF MEN (1 COR. Ix. 19-23)

HOW THE VICTOR RUNS (1 COR. Ix. 24)

'CONCERNING THE CROWN' (1 COR. Ix. 25)

THE LIMITS OF LIBERTY (1 COR. X. 23-33)

'IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME' (1 COR. Xi. 24)

THE UNIVERSAL GIFT (1 COR. Xii. 7)

WHAT LASTS (1 COR. Xiii. 8, 13)

THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION (1 COR. Xv. 3, 4)

REMAINING AND FALLING ASLEEP (1 COR. Xv. 6)

PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF (1 COR. Xv. 10)

THE UNITY OF APOSTOLIC TEACHING (1 COR. Xv. 11)

THE CERTAINTY AND JOY OF THE RESURRECTION (1 COR. Xv. 20)

THE DEATH OF DEATH (1 COR. Xv. 20, 21; 50-58)

STRONG AND LOVING (1 COR. Xvi. 13, 14)

ANATHEMA AND GRACE (1 COR. Xvi. 21-24)

GOD'S YEA; MAN'S AMEN (2 COR. I. 20, R. V. )

ANOINTED AND STABLISHED (2 COR. I. 21)

SEAL AND EARNEST (2 COR. I. 22)

THE TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION (2 COR. Ii. 14, R. V. )

TRANSFORMATION BY BEHOLDING (2 COR. Iii. 18)

LOOKING AT THE UNSEEN (2 COR. Iv. 18)

TENT AND BUILDING (2 COR. V. 1)

THE PATIENT WORKMAN (2 COR. V. 5)

THE OLD HOUSE AND THE NEW (2 COR. V. 8)

PLEASING CHRIST (2 COR. V. 9)

THE LOVE THAT CONSTRAINS (2 COR. V. 14)

THE ENTREATIES OF GOD (2 COR. V. 20)

I. CORINTHIANS

CALLING ON THE NAME

 'All that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. '--1 COR. I. 2. 

There are some difficulties, with which I need not trouble you, aboutboth the translation and the connection of these words. One thing isquite clear, that in them the Apostle associates the church atCorinth with the whole mass of Christian believers in the world. Thequestion may arise whether he does so in the sense that he addresseshis letter both to the church at Corinth and to the whole of thechurches, and so makes it a catholic epistle. That is extremelyunlikely, considering how all but entirely this letter is taken upwith dealing with the especial conditions of the Corinthian church. Rather I should suppose that he is simply intending to remind 'theChurch of God at Corinth . .. Sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to besaints, ' that they are in real, living union with the whole body ofbelievers. Just as the water in a little land-locked bay, connectedwith the sea by some narrow strait like that at Corinth, is yet partof the whole ocean that rolls round the world, so that littlecommunity of Christians had its living bond of union with all thebrethren in every place that called upon the name of Jesus Christ. 

Whichever view on that detail of interpretation be taken, thisphrase, as a designation of Christians, is worth considering. It isone of many expressions found in the New Testament as names for them, some of which have now dropped out of general use, while some arestill retained. It is singular that the name of 'Christian, ' whichhas all but superseded all others, was originally invented as a jeerby sarcastic wits at Antioch, and never appears in the New Testament, as a name by which believers called themselves. Important lessons aretaught by these names, such as disciples, believers, brethren, saints, those of the way, and so on, each of which embodies somecharacteristic of a follower of Jesus. So this appellation in thetext, 'those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ' mayyield not unimportant lessons if it be carefully weighed, and to someof these I would ask your attention now. 

I. First, it gives us a glimpse into the worship of the primitiveChurch. 

To 'call on the name of the Lord' is an expression that comesstraight out of the Old Testament. It means there distinctlyadoration and invocation, and it means precisely these things when itis referred to Jesus Christ. 

We find in the Acts of the Apostles that the very first sermon thatwas preached at Pentecost by Peter all turns upon this phrase. Hequotes the Old Testament saying, 'Whosoever shall call on the name ofthe Lord shall be saved, ' and then goes on to prove that 'the Lord, 'the 'calling on whose Name' is salvation, is Jesus Christ; and windsup with 'Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly thatGod hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord andChrist. '

Again we find that Ananias of Damascus, when Jesus Christ appeared tohim and told him to go to Paul and lay his hands upon him, shrankfrom the perilous task because Paul had been sent to 'bind them thatcall upon the name of the Lord, ' and to persecute them. We find thesame phrase recurring in other connections, so that, on the whole, wemay take the expression as a recognised designation of Christians. 

This was their characteristic, that they prayed to Jesus Christ. Thevery first word, so far as we know, that Paul ever heard from aChristian was, 'Lord Jesus! receive my spirit. ' He heard that cry ofcalm faith which, when he heard it, would sound to him as horribleblasphemy from Stephen's dying lips. How little he dreamed that hehimself was soon to cry to the same Jesus, 'Lord, what wilt thou haveme to do?' and was in after-days to beseech Him thrice fordeliverance, and to be answered by sufficient grace. How little hedreamed that, when his own martyrdom was near, he too would look toJesus as Lord and righteous Judge, from whose hands all who loved Hisappearing should receive their crown! Nor only Paul directs desiresand adoration to Jesus as Lord; the last words of Scripture are a cryto Him as Lord to come quickly, and an invocation of His 'grace' onall believing souls. 

Prayer to Christ from the very beginning of the Christian Church was, then, the characteristic of believers, and He to whom they prayed, thus, from the beginning, was recognised by them as being a DivinePerson, God manifest in the flesh. 

The object of their worship, then, was known by the people among whomthey lived. Singing hymns to Christus as a god is nearly all that theRoman proconsul in his well-known letter could find to tell hismaster of their worship. They were the worshippers--not merely thedisciples--of one Christ. That was their peculiar distinction. Amongthe worshippers of the false gods they stood erect; before Him, andHim only, they bowed. In Corinth there was the polluted worship ofAphrodite and of Zeus. These men called not on the name of theselustful and stained deities, but on the name of the Lord JesusChrist. And everybody knew whom they worshipped, and understood whosemen they were. Is that true about us? Do we Christian men sohabitually cultivate the remembrance of Jesus Christ, and are we socontinually in the habit of invoking His aid, and of contemplatingHis blessed perfections and sufficiency, that every one who knew uswould recognise us as meant by those who call on the name of the LordJesus Christ?

If this be the proper designation of Christian people, alas! alas!for so many of the professing Christians of this day, whom neitherbystanders nor themselves would think of as included in such a name!

Further, the connection here shows that the divine worship of Christwas universal among the churches. There was no 'place' where it wasnot practised, no community calling itself a church to whom He wasnot the Lord to be invoked and adored. This witness to the early anduniversal recognition in the Christian communities of the divinity ofour Lord is borne by an undisputedly genuine epistle of Paul's. It isone of the four which the most thorough-going destructive criticismaccepts as genuine. It was written before the Gospels, and is a voicefrom the earlier period of Paul's apostleship. Hence the importanceof its attestation to this fact that all Christians everywhere, bothJewish, who had been trained in strict monotheism, and Gentile, whohad burned incense at many a foul shrine, were perfectly joinedtogether in this, that in all their need they called on the name ofJesus Christ as Lord and brought to Him, as divine, adoration not tobe rendered to any creatures. From the day of Pentecost onwards, aChristian was not merely a disciple, a follower, or an admirer, but aworshipper of Christ, the Lord. 

II. We may see here an unfolding of the all-sufficiency of JesusChrist. 

Note that solemn accumulation, in the language of my text, of all thedesignations by which He is called, sometimes separately andsometimes unitedly, the name of 'our Lord Jesus Christ. ' We neverfind that full title given to Him in Scripture except when thewriter's mind is labouring to express the manifoldness andcompleteness of our Lord's relations to men, and the largeness andsufficiency of the blessings which He brings. In this context I findin the first nine or ten verses of this chapter, so full is theApostle of the thoughts of the greatness and wonderfulness of hisdear Lord on whose name he calls, that six or seven times he employsthis solemn, full designation. 

Now, if we look at the various elements of this great name we shallget various aspects of the way in which calling on Christ is thestrength of our souls. 

'Call on the name of--the Lord. ' That is the Old Testament Jehovah. There is no mistaking nor denying, if we candidly consider theevidence of the New Testament writings, that, when we read of JesusChrist as 'Lord, ' in the vast majority of cases, the title is not amere designation of human authority, but is an attribution to Him ofdivine nature and dignity. We have, then, to ascribe to Him, and tocall on Him as possessing, all which that great and incommunicableName certified and sealed to the Jewish Church as their possessionin their God. The Jehovah of the Old Testament is our Lord of theNew. He whose being is eternal, underived, self-sufficing, self-determining, knowing no variation, no diminution, no age, Hewho is because He is and that He is, dwells in His fulness in ourSaviour. To worship Him is not to divert worship from the one God, nor is it to have other gods besides Him. Christianity is as muchmonotheistic as Judaism was, and the law of its worship is the oldlaw--Him only shalt thou serve. It is the divine will that all menshould honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. 

But what is it to call on the name of Jesus? That name implies allthe sweetness of His manhood. He is our Brother. The name 'Jesus' isone that many a Jewish boy bore in our Lord's own time and before it;though, afterwards, of course, abhorrence on the part of the Jew andreverence on the part of the Christian caused it almost entirely todisappear. But at the time when He bore it it was as undistinguisheda name as Simeon, or Judas, or any other of His followers' names. Tocall upon the name of Jesus means to realise and bring near toourselves, for our consolation and encouragement, for our strengthand peace, the blessed thought of His manhood, so really and closelyknit to ours; to grasp the blessedness of the thought that He knowsour frame because He Himself has worn it, and understands and pitiesour weakness, being Himself a man. To Him whom we adore as Lord wedraw near in tenderer, but not less humble and prostrate, adorationas our brother when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, and thusembrace as harmonious, and not contradictory, both the divinity ofthe Lord and the humanity of Jesus. 

To call on the name of Christ is to embrace in our faith and tobeseech the exercise on our behalf of all which Jesus is as theMessiah, anointed by God with the fulness of the Spirit. As such Heis the climax, and therefore the close of all revelation, who is thelong-expected fruition of the desire of weary hearts, the fulfilment, and therefore the abolition, of sacrifice and temple and priesthoodand prophecy and all that witnessed for Him ere He came. We furthercall on the name of Christ the Anointed, on whom the whole fulness ofthe Divine Spirit dwelt in order that, calling upon Him, that fulnessmay in its measure be granted to us. 

So the name of the Lord Jesus Christ brings to view the divine, thehuman, the Messiah, the anointed Lord of the Spirit, and Giver of thedivine life. To call on His name is to be blessed, to be made pureand strong, joyous and immortal. 'The name of the Lord is a strongtower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe. ' Call on His namein the day of trouble and ye shall be heard and helped. 

III. Lastly, this text suggests what a Christian life should be. 

We have already remarked that to call on the name of Jesus was thedistinctive peculiarity of the early believers, which marked them offas a people by themselves. Would it be a true designation of the bulkof so-called Christians now? You do not object to profess yourself aChristian, or, perhaps, even to say that you are a disciple ofChrist, or even to go the length of calling yourself a follower andimitator. But are you a worshipper of Him? In your life have youthe habit of meditating on Him as Lord, as Jesus, as Christ, and ofrefreshing and gladdening dusty days and fainting strength by theliving water, drawn from the one unfailing stream from these triplefountains? Is the invocation of His aid habitual with you?

There needs no long elaborate supplication to secure His aid. Howmuch has been done in the Church's history by short bursts of prayer, as 'Lord, help me!' spoken or unspoken in the moment of extremity!'They cried unto God in the battle. ' They would not have time forvery lengthy petitions then, would they? They would not give muchheed to elegant arrangement of them or suiting them to the canons ofhuman eloquence. 'They cried unto God in the battle'; whilst theenemy's swords were flashing and the arrows whistling about theirears. These were circumstances to make a prayer a 'cry'; no composedand stately utterance of an elegantly modulated voice, nor a languidutterance without earnestness, but a short, sharp, loud call, such asdanger presses from panting lungs and parched throats. Therefore thecry was answered, 'and He was entreated of them. ' 'Lord, save us, weperish!' was a very brief prayer, but it brought its answer. And sowe, in like manner, may go through our warfare and work, and day byday as we encounter sudden bursts of temptation may meet them withsudden jets of petition, and thus put out their fires. And the samehelp avails for long-continuing as for sudden needs. Some of us mayhave to carry lifelong burdens and to fight in a battle ever renewed. It may seem as if our cry was not heard, since the enemy's assault isnot weakened, nor our power to beat it back perceptibly increased. But the appeal is not in vain, and when the fight is over, if notbefore, we shall know what reinforcements of strength to our weaknesswere due to our poor cry entering into the ears of our Lord andBrother. No other 'name' is permissible as our plea or as recipientof our prayer. In and on the name of the Lord we must call, and if wedo, anything is possible rather than that the promise which wasclaimed for the Church and referred to Jesus, in the very firstChristian preaching on Pentecost, should not be fulfilled--'Whosoevershall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. '

'In every place. ' We may venture to subject the words of my text to alittle gentle pressure here. The Apostle only meant to express theuniversal characteristics of Christians everywhere. But we mayventure to give a different turn to the words, and learn from themthe duty of devout communion with Christ as a duty for each of uswherever we are. If a place is not fit to pray in it is not fit to bein. We may carry praying hearts, remembrances of the Lord, sweet, though they may be swift and short, contemplations of His grace, Hislove, His power, His sufficiency, His nearness, His punctual help, like a hidden light in our hearts, into all the dusty ways of life, and in every place call on His name. There is no place so dismal butthat thoughts of Him will make sunshine in it; no work so hard, socommonplace, so prosaic, so uninteresting, but that it will becomethe opposite of all these if whatever we do is done in remembrance ofour Lord. Nothing will be too hard for us to do, and nothing toobitter for us to swallow, and nothing too sad for us to bear, if onlyover all that befalls us and all that we undertake and endeavour wemake the sign of the Cross and call upon the name of the Lord. If 'inevery place' we have Him as the object of our faith and desire, andas the Hearer of our petition, in 'every place' we shall have Him forour help, and all will be full of His bright presence; and though wehave to journey through the wilderness we shall ever drink of thatspiritual rock that will follow us, and that Rock is Christ. In everyplace call upon His name, and every place will be a house of God, anda gate of heaven to our waiting souls. 

PERISHING OR BEING SAVED

 'For the preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. '--1 COR. I. 18. 

The starting-point of my remarks is the observation that a slightvariation of rendering, which will be found in the Revised Version, brings out the true meaning of these words. Instead of reading 'themthat perish' and 'us which are saved, ' we ought to read 'them that_are perishing_, ' and 'us which _are being_ saved. ' That is to say, the Apostle represents the two contrasted conditions, not so much asfixed states, either present or future, but rather as processes whichare going on, and are manifestly, in the present, incomplete. Thatopens some very solemn and intensely practical considerations. 

Then I may further note that this antithesis includes the whole ofthe persons to whom the Gospel is preached. In one or other of thesetwo classes they all stand. Further, we have to observe that theconsideration which determines the class to which men belong, is theattitude which they respectively take to the preaching of the Cross. If it be, and because it is, 'foolishness' to some, they belong tothe catalogue of the perishing. If it be, and because it is, 'thepower of God' to others, they belong to the class of those who are inprocess of being saved. 

So, then, we have the ground cleared for two or three very simple, but, as it seems to me, very important thoughts. 

I. I desire, first, to look at the two contrasted conditions, 'perishing' and 'being saved. '

Now we shall best, I think, understand the force of the darker ofthese two terms if we first ask what is the force of the brighter andmore radiant. If we understand what the Apostle means by 'saving' and'salvation' we shall understand also what he means by 'perishing. '

If, then, we turn for a moment to Scripture analogy and teaching, wefind that that threadbare word 'salvation, ' which we all take it forgranted that we understand, and which, like a well-worn coin, hasbeen so passed from hand to hand that it scarcely remainslegible--that well-worn word 'salvation' starts from a doublemetaphorical meaning. It means either--and is used for both--beinghealed or being made safe. In the one sense it is often employed inthe Gospel narratives of our Lord's miracles, and it involves themetaphor of a sick man and his cure; in the other it involves themetaphor of a man in peril and his deliverance and security. Thenegative side, then, of the Gospel idea of salvation is the makingwhole from a disease, and the making safe from a danger. Negatively, it is the removal from each of us of the one sickness, which is sin;and the one danger, which is the reaping of the fruits andconsequences of sin, in their variety as guilt, remorse, habit, andslavery under it, perverted relation to God, a fearful apprehensionof penal consequences here, and, if there be a hereafter, there, too. The sickness of soul and the perils that threaten life, flow from thecentral fact of sin, and salvation consists, negatively, in thesweeping away of all of these, whether the sin itself, or the fatalfacility with which we yield to it, or the desolation and perversionwhich it brings into all the faculties and susceptibilities, or theperversion of relation to God, and the consequent evils, here andhereafter, which throng around the evil-doer. The sick man is healed, and the man in peril is set in safety. 

But, besides that, there is a great deal more. The cure is incompletetill the full tide of health follows convalescence. When God saves, He does not only bar up the iron gate through which the hosts of evilrush out upon the defenceless soul, but He flings wide the goldengate through which the glad troops of blessings and of graces flockaround the delivered spirit, and enrich it with all joys and with allbeauties. So the positive side of salvation is the investiture of thesaved man with throbbing health through all his veins, and thestrength that comes from a divine life. It is the bestowal upon thedelivered man of everything that he needs for blessedness and forduty. All good conferred, and every evil banned back into its darkden, such is the Christian conception of salvation. It is much thatthe negative should be accomplished, but it is little in comparisonwith the rich fulness of positive endowments, of happiness, and ofholiness which make an integral part of the salvation of God. 

This, then, being the one side, what about the other? If this besalvation, its precise opposite is the Scriptural idea of'perishing. ' Utter ruin lies in the word, the entire failure to bewhat God meant a man to be. That is in it, and no contortions ofarbitrary interpretation can knock that solemn significance out ofthe dreadful expression. If salvation be the cure of the sickness, perishing is the fatal end of the unchecked disease. If salvation bethe deliverance from the outstretched claws of the harpy evils thatcrowd about the trembling soul, then perishing is the fixing of theirpoisoned talons into their prey, and their rending of it intofragments. 

Of course that is metaphor, but no metaphor can be half so dreadfulas the plain, prosaic fact that the exact opposite of the salvation, which consists in the healing from sin and the deliverance fromdanger, and in the endowment with all gifts good and beautiful, isthe Christian idea of the alternative 'perishing. ' Then it means thedisease running its course. It means the dangers laying hold of theman in peril. It means the withdrawal, or the non-bestowal, of allwhich is good, whether it be good of holiness or good of happiness. It does not mean, as it seems to me, the cessation of consciousexistence, any more than salvation means the bestowal of consciousexistence. But he who perishes knows that he has perished, even as heknows the process while he is in the process of perishing. Therefore, we have to think of the gradual fading away from consciousness, anddying out of a life, of many things beautiful and sweet and gracious, of the gradual increase of distance from Him, union with whom is thecondition of true life, of the gradual sinking into the pit of utterruin, of the gradual increase of that awful death in life and life indeath in which living consciousnessmakes the conscious subject aware that he is lost; lost to God, lostto himself. 

Brethren, it is no part of my business to enlarge upon such awfulthoughts, but the brighter the light of salvation, the darker theeclipse of ruin which rings it round. This, then, is the firstcontrast. 

II. Now note, secondly, the progressiveness of both members of thealternative. 

All states of heart or mind tend to increase, by the very fact ofcontinuance. Life is a process, and every part of a spiritual beingis in living motion and continuous action in a given direction. Sothe law for the world, and for every man in it, in all regions of hislife, quite as much as in the religious, is 'To him that hath shallbe given, and he shall have abundance. '

Look, then, at this thought of the process by which these twoconditions become more and more confirmed, consolidated, andcomplete. Salvation is a progressive fact. In the New Testament wehave that great idea looked at from three points of view. Sometimesit is spoken of as having been accomplished in the past in the caseof every believing soul--'Ye have been saved' is said more than once. Sometimes it is spoken of as being accomplished in the present--'Yeare saved' is said more than once. And sometimes it is relegated tothe future--'Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed, ' andthe like. But there are a number of New Testament passages whichcoincide with this text in regarding salvation as, not the work ofany one moment, but as a continuous operation running through life, not a point either in the past, present, or future, but a continuedlife. As, for instance, 'The Lord added to the Church daily thosethat were being saved. ' By one offering He hath perfected for everthem that are being sanctified. And in a passage in the SecondEpistle to the Corinthians, which, in some respects, is an exactparallel to that of my text, we read of the preaching of the Gospelas being a 'savour of Christ in them that are being saved, and inthem that are perishing. '

So the process of being saved is going on as long as a Christian manlives in this world; and every one who professes to be Christ'sfollower ought, day by day, to be growing more and more saved, morefully filled with that Divine Spirit, more entirely the conqueror ofhis own lusts and passions and evil, more and more invested with allthe gifts of holiness and of blessedness which Jesus Christ is readyto bestow upon him. 

Ah, brethren! that notion of a progressive salvation at work in alltrue Christians has all but faded away out of the beliefs, as it hasall but disappeared from the experience, of hosts of you that callyourselves Christ's followers, and are not a bit further on than youwere ten years ago; are no more healed of your corruptions (perhapsless so, for relapses are dangerous) than you were then--have notadvanced any further into the depths of God than when you first got aglimpse of Him as loving, and your Father, in Jesus Christ--arecontented to linger, like some weak band of invaders in a strangeland, on the borders and coasts, instead of pressing inwards andmaking it all your own. Growing Christians--may I venture tosay?--are not the majority of professing Christians. And, on theother side, as certainly, there are progressive deterioration andapproximation to disintegration and ruin. How many men there arelistening to me now who were far nearer being delivered from theirsins when they were lads than they have ever been since! How many inwhom the sensibility to the message of salvation has disappeared, inwhom the world has ossified their consciences and their hearts, inwhom there is a more entire and unstruggling submission to low thingsand selfish things and worldly things and wicked things, than thereused to be! I am sure that there are not a few among us now who werefar better, and far happier, when they were poor and young, and couldstill thrill with generous emotion and tremble at the Word of God, than they are to-day. Why! there are some of you that could no morebring back your former loftier impulses, and compunction of spiritand throbs of desire towards Christ and His salvation, than you couldbring back the birds' nests or the snows of your youthful years. Youare perishing, in the very process of going down and down into thedark. 

Now, notice, that the Apostle treats these two classes as coveringthe whole ground of the hearers of the Word, and as alternatives. Ifnot in the one class we are in the other. Ah, brethren! life is nolevel plane, but a steep incline, on which there is no standingstill, and if you try to stand still, down you go. Either up or downmust be the motion. If you are not more of a Christian than you were ayear ago, you are less. If you are not more saved--for there is adegree of comparison--if you are not more saved, you are less saved. 

Now, do not let that go over your head as pulpit thunder, meaningnothing. It means _you_, and, whether you feel or think it ornot, one or other of these two solemn developments is at this momentgoing on in you. And that is not a thought to be put lightly on oneside. 

Further, note what a light such considerations as these, thatsalvation and perishing are vital processes--'going on all the time, 'as the Americans say--throw upon the future. Clearly the twoprocesses are incomplete here. You get the direction of the line, butnot its natural termination. And thus a heaven and a hell aredemanded by the phenomena of growing goodness and of growing badnesswhich we see round about us. The arc of the circle is partiallyswept. Are the compasses going to stop at the point where the gravecomes in? By no means. Round they will go, and will complete thecircle. But that is not all. The necessity for progress will persistafter death; and all through the duration of immortal being, goodness, blessedness, holiness, Godlikeness, will, on the one hand, grow in brighter lustre; and on the other, alienation from God, lossof the noble elements of the nature, and all the other dolefuldarknesses which attend that conception of a lost man, will increaselikewise. And so, two people, sitting side by side here now, maystart from the same level, and by the operation of the one principlethe one may rise, and rise, and rise, till he is lost in God, and sofinds himself, and the other sink, and sink, and sink, into theobscurity of woe and evil that lies beneath every human life as apossibility. 

III. And now, lastly, notice the determining attitude to the Crosswhich settles the class to which we belong. 

Paul, in my text, is explaining his reason for not preaching theGospel with what he calls 'the words of man's wisdom, ' and he says, in effect, 'It would be of no use if I did, because what settleswhether the Cross shall look "foolishness" to a man or not is theman's whole moral condition, and what settles whether a man shallfind it to be "the power of God" or not is whether he has passed intothe region of those that are being saved. '

So there are two thoughts suggested which sound as if they wereillogically combined, but which yet are both true. It is true thatmen perish, or are saved, because the Cross is to them respectively'foolishness' or 'the power of God'; and the other thing is alsotrue, that the Cross is to them 'foolishness, ' or 'the power of God'because, respectively, they are perishing or being saved. That is notputting the cart before the horse, but both aspects of the truth aretrue. 

If you see nothing in Jesus Christ, and His death for us all, except'foolishness, ' something unfit to do you any good, and unnecessary tobe taken into account in your lives--oh, my friends! _that_ is thecondemnation of your eyes, and not of the thing you look at. If aman, gazing on the sun at twelve o'clock on a June day, says to me, 'It is not bright, ' the only thing I have to say to him is, 'Friend, you had better go to an oculist. ' And if to us the Cross is'foolishness, ' it is because already a process of 'perishing' hasgone so far that it has attacked our capacity of recognising thewisdom and love of God when we see them. 

But, on the other hand, if we clasp that Cross in simple trust, wefind that it is the power which saves us out of all sins, sorrows, and dangers, and 'shall save us' at last 'into His heavenly kingdom. '

Dear friends, that message leaves no man exactly as it found him. Mywords, I feel, in this sermon, have been very poor, set by the sideof the greatness of the theme; but, poor as they have been, you willnot be exactly the same man after them, if you have listened to them, as you were before. The difference may be very imperceptible, but itwill be real. One more, almost invisible, film, over the eyeball; onemore thin layer of wax in the ear; one more fold of insensibilityround heart and conscience--or else some yielding to the love; somefinger put out to take the salvation; some lightening of the pressureof the sickness; some removal of the peril and the danger. The samesun hurts diseased eyes, and gladdens sound ones. The same fire meltswax and hardens clay. 'This Child is set for the rise and fall ofmany in Israel. ' 'To the one He is the savour of life unto life; tothe other He is the savour of death unto death. ' _Which_ is He, forHe _is_ one of them, to you?

THE APOSTLE'S THEME

 'I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. '--1 COR. Ii. 2. 

Many of you are aware that to-day I close forty years of ministry inthis city--I cannot say to this congregation, for there are very, very few that can go back with me in memory to the beginning of theseyears. You will bear me witness that I seldom intrude personalreferences into the pulpit, but perhaps it would be affectation notto do so now. Looking back over these long years, many thoughts arisewhich cannot be spoken in public. But one thing I may say, and thatis, that I am grateful to God and to you, dear friends, for theunbroken harmony, confidence, affection, and forbearance which havebrightened and lightened my work. Of its worth I cannot judge; itsimperfections I know better than the most unfavourable critic; but Ican humbly take the words of this text as expressive, not, indeed, ofmy attainments, but of my aims. One of my texts, on my first Sundayin Manchester, was 'We preach Christ and Him crucified, ' and I lookback, and venture to say that the noble words of this text have been, however imperfectly followed, my guiding star. 

Now, I wish to say a word or two, less personal perhaps, and yet, asyou can well suppose, not without a personal reference in my ownconsciousness. 

I. Note here first, then, the Apostolic theme--Jesus Christ and Himcrucified. 

Now, the Apostle, in this context, gives us a little autobiographicalglimpse which is singularly and interestingly confirmed by someslight incidental notices in the Book of the Acts. He says, in thecontext, that he was with the Corinthians 'in weakness and in fearand in much trembling, ' and, if we turn to the narrative, we findthat a singular period of silence, apparent abandonment of his workand dejection, seems to have synchronised with his coming to thegreat city of Corinth. The reasons were very plain. He had recentlycome into Europe for the first time and had had to front a newcondition of things, very different from what he had found inPalestine or in Asia Minor. His experience had not been encouraging. He had been imprisoned in Philippi; he had been smuggled away bynight from Thessalonica; he had been hounded from Berea; he had allbut wholly failed to make any impression in Athens, and in hissolitude he came to Corinth, and lay quiet, and took stock of hisadversaries. He came to the conclusion which he records in my text;he felt that it was not for him to argue with philosophers, or toattempt to vie with Sophists and professional orators, but that hisonly way to meet Greek civilisation, Greek philosophy, Greekeloquence, Greek self-conceit, was to preach 'Christ and Himcrucified. ' The determination was not come to in ignorance of theconditions that were fronting him. He knew Corinth, its wealth, itswickedness, its culture, and knowing these he said, 'I have made upmy mind that I will know nothing amongst you save Jesus Christ andHim crucified. '

So, then, this Apostle's conception of his theme was--the biographyof a Man, with especial emphasis laid on one act in His history--Hisdeath. Christianity is Christ, and Christ is Christianity. Hisrelation to the truth that He proclaimed, and to the truths that maybe deducible from the story of His life and death, is altogetherdifferent from the relation of any other founder of a religion to thetruths that he has proclaimed. For in these you can accept theteaching, and ignore the teacher. But you cannot do that withChristianity; 'I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life'; and inthat revealing biography, which is the preacher's theme, thepalpitating heart and centre is the death upon the Cross. So, whatever else Christianity comes to be--and it comes to be a greatdeal else--the principle of its growth, and the germ which mustvitalise the whole, lie in the personality and the death of JesusChrist. 

That is not all. The history of the life and the death want somethingmore to make them a gospel. The fact, I was going to say, is theleast part of the fact; as in some vegetable growths, there is farmore underground than above. For, unless along with, involved in, anddeducible from, but capable of being stated separately from, theexternal facts, there is a certain commentary or explanation of them:the history is a history, the biography is a biography, the story ofthe Cross is a touching narrative, but it is no gospel. 

And what was Paul's commentary which lifted the bare facts up intothe loftier region? This--as for the person, Jesus Christ 'declaredto be the son of God with power'--as for the fact of the death, 'diedfor our sins according to the Scriptures. ' Let in these twoconceptions into the facts--and they are the necessary explanationand presupposition of the facts--the Incarnation and the Sacrifice, and then you get what Paul calls 'my gospel, ' not because it was hisinvention, but because it was the trust committed to him. That is theGospel which alone answers to the facts which he deals with; and thatis the Gospel which, God helping me, I have for forty years tried topreach. 

We hear a great deal at present, or we did a few years ago, aboutthis generation having recovered Jesus Christ, and about thenecessity of going 'back to the Christ of the Gospels. ' By all means, I say, if in the process you do not lose the Christ of the Epistles, who is the Christ of the Gospels, too. I am free to admit that a pastgeneration has wrapped theological cobwebs round the gracious figureof Christ with disastrous results. For it is perfectly possible toknow the things that are said about Him, and not to know Him aboutwhom these things are said. But the mistake into which the presentgeneration is far more likely to fall than that of substitutingtheology for Christ, is the converse one--that of substituting anundefined Christ for the Christ of the Gospels and the Epistles, theIncarnate Son of God, who died for our salvation. And that is a moredisastrous mistake than the other, for you can know nothing about Himand He can be nothing to you, except as you grasp the Apostolicexplanation of the bare facts--seeing in Him the Word who becameflesh, the Son who died that we might receive the adoption of sons. 

I would further point out that a clear conception of what the themeis, goes a long way to determine the method in which it shall beproclaimed. The Apostle says, in the passage which is parallel to thepresent one, in the previous chapter, 'We preach Christ crucified';with strong emphasis on the word 'preach. ' 'The Jew required a sign';he wanted a man who would do something. The Greek sought afterwisdom; he wanted a man who would perorate and argue and dissertate. Paul says, 'No!' 'We have nothing to _do_. We do not come tophilosophise and to argue. We come with a message of fact that hasoccurred, of a Person that has lived. ' And, as most of you know, theword which he uses means in its full signification, 'to proclaim as aherald does. '

Of course, if my business were to establish a set of principles, theological or otherwise, then argumentation would be my weapon, proofs would be my means, and my success would be that I should winyour credence, your intellectual consent, and conviction. If I werehere to proclaim simply a morality, then the thing that I would aimto secure would be obedience, and the method of securing it would beto enforce the authority and reasonableness of the command. But, seeing that my task is to proclaim a living Person and a historicalfact, then the way to do that is to do as the herald does when in themarket-place he stands, trumpet in one hand and the King's message inthe other--proclaim it loudly, confidently, not 'with bated breathand whispering humbleness, ' as if apologising, nor too much concernedto buttress it up with argumentation out of his own head, but to say, 'Thus saith the Lord, ' and to what the Lord saith conscience says, 'Amen. ' Brethren, we need far more, in all our pulpits, of thatunhesitating confidence in the plain, simple proclamation, stripped, as far as possible, of human additions and accretions, of the greatfact and the great Person on whom all our salvation depends. 

II. So let me ask you to notice the exclusiveness which this themedemands. 

'Nothing but, ' says Paul. I might venture to say--though perhaps thetone of the personal allusions in this sermon may seem to contradictit--that this exclusiveness is to be manifested in one very difficultdirection, and that that is, the herald shall efface himself. We haveto hold up the picture; and if I might take such a metaphor, like aman in a gallery who is displaying some masterpiece to the eyes ofthe beholders, we have to keep ourselves well behind it; and it willbe wise if not even a finger-tip is allowed to steal in front andcome into sight. One condition, I believe, of real power in theministration of the Gospel, is that people shall be convinced thatthe preacher is thinking not at all about himself, but altogetherabout his message. You remember that wonderfully pathetic utterancefrom John the Baptist's stern lips, which derives much additionalpathos and tenderness from the character of the man from whom itcame, when they asked him, 'Who art thou?' and his answer was, 'I ama Voice. ' I am a Voice; that is all! Ah, that is the example! Wepreach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord. We must effaceourselves if we would proclaim Christ. 

But I turn to another direction in which this theme demandsexclusiveness, and I revert to the previous chapter where in theparallel portion to the words of my text, we find the Apostle veryclearly conscious of the two great streams of expectation and wishwhich he deliberately thwarted and set at nought. 'The Jews require asign--but we preach Christ crucified. The Greeks seek after wisdom, 'but again, 'we preach Christ crucified. ' Now, take these two. Theyare representations, in a very emphatic way, of two sets of desiresand mental characteristics, which divide the world between them. 

On the one hand, there is the sensuous tendency that wants somethingdone for it, something to see, something that sense can grasp at; andso, as it fancies, work itself upwards into a higher region. 'The Jewrequires a sign'--that is, not merely a miracle, but something tolook at. He wants a visible sacrifice; he wants a priest. He wantsreligion to consist largely in the doing of certain acts which may besupposed to bring, in some magical fashion, spiritual blessings. AndPaul opposes to that, 'We preach Christ crucified. ' Brethren, thetendency is strong to-day, not only in those parts of the Anglicancommunion where sacramentarian theories are in favour, but amongstall sections of the Christian Church, in which there is obvious adrift towards more ornate ritual, and aesthetic services, as means ofattracting to church or chapel, and as more important thanproclaiming Christ. I am free to confess that possibly some of us, with our Puritan upbringing and tendency, too much disregard thatside of human nature. Possibly it is so. But for all that Iprofoundly believe that if religion is to be strong it must have avery, very small infusion of these external aids to spiritualworship, and that few things more weaken the power of the Gospel thatPaul preached than the lowering of the flag in conformity withdesires of men of sense, and substituting for the simple glory of thepreached Word the meretricious, and in time impotent, and alwayscorrupting, attractions of a sensuous worship. 

Further, 'The Greeks seek after wisdom. ' They wanted demonstration, abstract principles, systematised philosophies, and the like. Paulcomes again with his 'We preach Christ and Him crucified. ' The wisdomis there, as I shall have to say in a moment, but the form that ittakes is directly antagonistic to the wishes of these wisdom-seekingGreeks. The same thing in modern guise besets us to-day. We arecalled upon, on all sides, to bring into the pulpit what they call anethical gospel; putting it into plain English, to preach morality, and to leave out Christ. We are called upon, on all sides, to preachan applied Christianity, a social gospel--that is to say, largely toturn the pulpit into a Sunday supplement to the daily newspaper. Weare asked to deal with the intellectual difficulties which springfrom the collision of science, true or false, with religion, and thelike. All that is right enough. But I believe from my heart that thething to do is to copy Paul's example, and to preach Christ and Himcrucified. You may think me right or you may think me wrong, but hereand now, at the end of forty years, I should like to say that I havefor the most part ignored that class of subjects deliberately, and ofset purpose, and with a profound conviction, be it erroneous or not, that a ministry which listens much to the cry for 'wisdom' in itsmodern forms, has departed from the true perspective of Christianteaching, and will weaken the churches which depend upon it. Let whowill turn the pulpit into a professor's chair, or a lecturer'splatform, or a concert-room stage or a politician's rostrum, I forone determine to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Himcrucified. 

III. Lastly, observe the all-sufficient comprehensiveness which thistheme secures. 

Paul says 'nothing but'; he might have said 'everything in. ' For'Jesus Christ and Him crucified' covers all the ground of men'sneeds. No doubt many of you will have been saying to yourselveswhilst you have been listening, if you have been listening, to what Ihave been saying, 'Ah! old-fashioned narrowness; quite out of date inthis generation. ' Brethren, there are two ways of adapting one'sministry to the times. One is falling in with the requirements of thetimes, and the other is going dead against them, and both of thesemethods have to be pursued by us. 

But the exclusiveness of which I have been speaking, is no narrowexclusiveness. Paul felt that, if he was to give the Corinthians whatthey needed, he must refuse to give them what they wanted, and thatwhilst he crossed their wishes he was consulting their necessities. That is true yet, for the preaching that bases itself upon the lifeand death of Jesus Christ, conceived as Paul had learned from JesusChrist to conceive them, that Gospel, whilst it brushes aside men'ssuperficial wishes, goes straight to the heart of their deep-lyinguniversal necessities, for what the Jew needs most is not a sign, andwhat the Greek needs most is not wisdom, but what they both need mostis deliverance from the guilt and power of sin. And we all, scholarsand fools, poets and common-place people, artists and ploughmen, allof us, in all conditions of life, in all varieties of culture, in allstages of intellectual development, in all diversities of occupationand of mental bias, what we all have in common is that human heart inwhich sin abides, and what we all need most to have is that evil dropsqueezed out of it, and our souls delivered from the burden and thebondage. Therefore, any man that comes with a sign, and does not dealwith the sin of the human heart, and any man that comes with aphilosophical system of wisdom, and does not deal with sin, does notbring a Gospel that will meet the necessities even of the people towhose cravings he has been aiming to adapt his message. 

But, beyond that, in this message of Christ and Him crucified, therelies in germ the satisfaction of all that is legitimate in thesedesires that at first sight it seems to thwart. 'A sign?' Yes, andwhere is there power like the power that dwells in Him who is theIncarnate might of omnipotence? 'Wisdom?' Yes, and where is therewisdom, except 'in Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdomand knowledge'? Let the Jew come to the Cross, and in the weak Manhanging there, he will find a mightier revelation of the power of Godthan anywhere else. Let the Greek come to the Cross, and there hewill find wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. The bases of all social, economical, political reform and well-being, lie in the understanding and the application to social and nationallife, of the principles that are wrapped in, and are deduced from, the Incarnation and the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We have notlearned them all yet. They have not all been applied to national andindividual life yet. I plead for no narrow exclusiveness, but for oneconsistent with the widest application of Christian principles to alllife. Paul determined to know nothing but Jesus, and to knoweverything in Jesus, and Jesus in everything. Do not begin yourbuilding at the second-floor windows. Put in your foundations first, and be sure that they are well laid. Let the Sacrifice of Christ, inits application to the individual and his sins, be ever the basis ofall that you say. And then, when that foundation is laid, exhibit, toyour heart's content, the applications of Christianity and its socialaspects. But be sure that the beginning of them all is the work ofChrist for the individual sinful soul, and the acceptance of thatwork by personal faith. 

Dear friends, ours has been a long and happy union but it is a verysolemn one. My responsibilities are great; yours are not small. Letme beseech you to ask yourselves if, with all your kindness to themessenger, you have given heed to the message. Have you passed beyondthe voice that speaks, to Him of whom it speaks? Have you taken thetruth--veiled and weakened as I know it has been by my words, but yetin them--for what it is, the word of the living God? My occupancy ofthis pulpit must in the nature of things, before long, come to aclose, but the message which I have brought to you will survive allchanges in the voice that speaks here. 'All flesh is grass . .. TheWord of the Lord endureth for ever. ' And, closing these forty years, during a long part of which some of you have listened most lovinglyand most forbearingly, I leave with you this, which I venture toquote, though it is my Master's word about Himself, 'I judge you not;the word which I have spoken unto you, the same shall judge you inthe last day. '

GOD'S FELLOW-WORKERS

 'Labourers together with God. '--1 COR. Iii. 9. 

The characteristic Greek tendency to factions was threatening to rendthe Corinthian Church, and each faction was swearing by a favouriteteacher. Paul and his companion, Apollos, had been taken as thefigureheads of two of these parties, and so he sets himself in thecontext, first of all to show that neither of the two was of any realimportance in regard to the Church's life. They were like a couple ofgardeners, one of whom did the planting, and the other the watering;but neither the man that put the little plant into the ground, northe man that came after him with a watering-pot, had anything to dowith originating the mystery of the life by which the plant grew. That was God's work, and the pair that had planted and watered werenothing. So what was the use of fighting which of two nothings wasthe greater?

But then he bethinks himself that that is not quite all. The man thatplants and the man that waters are something after all. They do notcommunicate life, but they do provide for its nourishment. And morethan that, the two operations--that of the man with the dibble andthat of the man with the watering-pot--are one in issue; and so theyare partners, and in some respects may be regarded as one. Then whatis the sense of pitting them against each other?

But even that is not quite all; though united in operation, they areseparate in responsibility and activity, and will be separate inreward. And even that is not all; for, being nothing and yetsomething, being united and yet separate, they are taken intoparticipation and co-operation with God; and as my text puts it, inwhat is almost a presumptuous phrase, they are 'labourers togetherwith Him. ' That partnership of co-operation is not merely apartnership of the two, but it is a partnership of the three--God andthe two who, in some senses, are one. 

Now whilst this text is primarily spoken in regard to the apostolicand evangelistic work of these early teachers, the principle which itembodies is a very wide one, and it applies in all regions of lifeand activity, intellectual, scholastic, philanthropic, social. Where-ever men are thinking God's thoughts and trying to carry intoeffect any phase or side of God's manifold purposes of good andblessing to the world, there it is true. We claim no special orexclusive prerogative for the Christian teacher. Every man that istrying to make men understand God's thought, whether it is expressedin creation, or whether it is written in history, or whether it iscarven in half-obliterated letters on the constitution of humannature, every man who, in any region of society or life, is seekingto effect the great designs of the universal loving Father--can taketo himself, in the measure and according to the manner of his specialactivity, the great encouragement of my text, and feel that he, too, in his little way, is a fellow-helper to the truth and afellow-worker with God. But then, of course, according to NewTestament teaching, and according to the realities of the case, thehighest form in which men thus can co-operate with God, and carryinto effect His purposes is that in which men devote themselves, either directly or indirectly, to spreading throughout the wholeworld the name and the power of the Saviour Jesus Christ, in whom allGod's will is gathered, and through whom all God's blessings arecommunicated to mankind. So the thought of my text comesappropriately when I have to bring before you the claims of ourmissionary operations. 

Now, the first way in which I desire to look at this great ideaexpressed in these words, is that we find in it

I. A solemn thought. 

'Labourers together with God. ' Cannot He do it all Himself? No. Godneeds men to carry out His purposes. True, on the Cross, Jesus spokethe triumphant word, 'It is finished!' He did not thereby simply meanthat He had completed all His suffering; but He meant that He hadthen done all which the world needed to have done in order that itshould be a redeemed world. But for the distribution and applicationof that finished work God depends on men. You all know, in your owndaily businesses, how there must be a middleman between the mill andthe consumer. The question of organising a distributing agency isquite as important as any other part of the manufacturer's business. The great reservoir is full, but there has to be a system ofirrigating-channels by which the water is carried into every cornerof the field that is to be watered. Christian men individually, andthe Church collectively, supply--may I call it the missinglink?--between a redeeming Saviour and the world which He hasredeemed in act, but which is not actually redeemed, until it hasreceived the message of the great Redemption that is wrought. Thesupernatural is implanted in the very heart of the mass of leaven bythe Incarnation and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ; but the spreading ofthat supernatural revelation is left in the hands of men who workthrough natural processes, and who thus become labourers togetherwith God, and enable Christ to be to single souls, in blessedreality, what He is potentially to the world, and has been eversince. He died upon the Cross. 'It is finished. ' Yes--because it isfinished, our work begins. 

Let me remind you of the profound symbolism in that incident whereour Lord for once appeared conspicuously, and almost ostentatiously, before Israel as its true King. He had need--as He Himself said--ofthe meek beast on which He rode. He cannot pass, in His coronationprocession, through the world unless He has us, by whom He may becarried into every corner of the earth. So 'the Lord has need' of us, and we are 'fellow-labourers with Him. '

But this same thought suggests another point. We have here a solemncall addressed to every Christian man and woman. 

Do not let us run away with the idea that, because here the Apostleis speaking in regard to himself and Apollos, he is enunciating atruth which applies only to Apostles and evangelists. It is true ofall Christians. My knowledge of and faith in Jesus Christ as my ownpersonal Saviour impose upon me the obligation, in so far as myopportunities and capacities extend, thus to co-operate with Him inspreading His great Name. Every Christian man, just because he is aChristian, is invested with the power--and power to its last particleis duty--and is, therefore, burdened with the honourable obligationto work for God. There is such a thing as 'coming to the help of theLord, ' though that phrase seems to reverse altogether the truerelation. It is the duty of every Christian, partly because ofloyalty to Jesus, and partly because of the responsibility which thevery constitution of society lays upon every one of us, to diffusewhat he possesses, and to be a distributing agent for the life thathe himself enjoys. Brethren! there is no possibility of Christian menor women being fully faithful to the Saviour, unless they recognisethat the duty of being a fellow-labourer with God inevitably followson being a possessor of Christ's salvation; and that no Apostle, noofficial, no minister, no missionary, has any more necessity laidupon him to preach the Gospel, nor pulls down any heavier woe onhimself if he is unfaithful, than has and does each one of Christ'sservants. 

So 'we are fellow-labourers with God. ' Alas! alas! how poorly theaverage Christian realises--I do not say discharges, butrealises--that obligation! Brethren, I do not wish to find fault, butI do beseech you to ask yourselves whether, if you are Christians, you are doing anything the least like what my text contemplates asthe duty of all Christians. 

May I say a word or two with regard to another aspect of this solemncall? Does not the thought of working along with God prescribe for usthe sort of work that we ought to do? We ought to work in God'sfashion, and if we wish to know what God's fashion is, we have but tolook at Jesus Christ. We ought to work in Jesus Christ's fashion. Weall know what that involved of self-sacrifice, of pain, of weariness, of utter self-oblivious devotion, of gentleness, of tenderness, of infinite pity, of love running over. 'The master's eye makes a goodservant. ' The Master's hand working along with the servant ought tomake the servant work after the Master's fashion. 'As My Father hathsent Me, so send I you. ' If we felt that side by side with us, liketwo sailors hauling on one rope, 'the Servant of the Lord' wastoiling, do you not think it would burn up all our selfishness, andlight up all our indifference, and make us spend ourselves in Hisservice? A fellow-labourer with God will surely never be lazy andselfish. Thus my text has in it, to begin with, a solemn call. 

It suggests

II. A signal honour. 

Suppose a great painter, a Raphael or a Turner, taking a little boythat cleaned his brushes, and saying to him, 'Come into my studio, and I will let you do a bit of work upon my picture. ' Suppose anaspirant, an apprentice in any walk of life, honoured by beingpermitted to work along with some one who was recognised all over theworld as being at the very top of that special profession. Would itnot be a feather in the boy's cap all his life? And would he notthink it the greatest honour that ever had been done him that he wasallowed to co-operate, in however inferior a fashion, with such anone? Jesus Christ says to us, 'Come and work here side by side withMe, ' But Christian men, plenty of them, answer, 'It is a perpetualnuisance, this continual application for money! money! money! work!work! work! It is never-ending, and it is a burden!' Yes, it is aburden, just because it is an honour. Do you know that the Hebrewword which means 'glory' literally means 'weight'? There is a greattruth in that. You cannot get true honours unless you are prepared tocarry them as burdens. And the highest honour that Jesus Christ givesto men when He says to them, not only 'Go work to-day in Myvineyard, ' but 'Come, work here side by side with Me, ' is a heavyweight which can only be lightened by a cheerful heart. 

Is it not the right way to look at all the various forms of Christianactivity which are made imperative upon Christian people, by theirpossession of Christianity as being tokens of Christ's love to us? Doyou remember that this same Apostle said, 'Unto me who am less thanthe least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach theunsearchable riches of Christ?' He could speak about burdens andheavy tasks, and being 'persecuted but not forsaken, ' almost crusheddown and yet not in despair, and about the weights that came upon himdaily, 'the care of all the churches, ' but far beneath all the senseof his heavy load lay the thrill of thankful wonder that to him, ofall men in the world, knowing as he did better than anybody elsecould do his own imperfection and insufficiency, this distinguishinghonour had been bestowed, that he was made the Apostle to theGentiles. That is the way in which the true man will always look atwhat the selfish man, and the half-and-half Christian, look at asbeing a weight and a weariness, or a disagreeable duty, which is tobe done as perfunctorily as possible. One question that a great manywho call themselves Christians ask is, 'With how little service can Ipass muster?' Ah, it is because we have so little of the Spirit ofChrist in us that we feel burdened by His command, 'Go ye into allthe world, ' as being so heavy; and that so many of us--I leave you tojudge if you are in the class--so many of us make it criminally lightif we do not ignore it altogether. I believe that, if it werepossible to conceive of the duty and privilege of spreading Christ'sname in the world being withdrawn from the Church, all His realservants would soon be yearning to have it back again. It is a tokenof His love; it is a source of infinite blessings to ourselves; 'ifthe house be not worthy, your peace shall return to you again. '

And now, lastly, we have suggested by this text

III. A strong encouragement. 

'Fellow-labourers with God'--then, God is a Fellow-labourer with us. The co-operation works both ways, and no man who is seeking to spreadthat great salvation, to distribute that great wealth, to irrigatesome little corner of the field by some little channel that he hasdug, needs to feel that he is labouring alone. If I am workingwith God, God is working with me. Do you remember that most strikingpicture which is drawn in the verses appended to Mark's Gospel, whichtells how the universe seemed parted into two halves, and up above inthe serene the Lord 'sat on the right hand of God, ' while below, inthe murky and obscure, 'they went everywhere preaching the Word. ' Theseparation seems complete, but the two halves are brought together bythe next word--'The Lord also, ' sitting up yonder, 'working withthem' the wandering preachers down here, 'confirming the words withsigns following. ' Ascended on high, entered into His rest, havingfinished His work, He yet is working with us, if we are labourerstogether with God. If we turn to the last book of Scripture, whichdraws back the curtain from the invisible world which is all filledwith the glorified Christ, and shows its relations to the earthlymilitant church, we read no longer of a Christ enthroned in apparentease, but of a Christ walking amidst the candlesticks, and of a Lambstanding in the midst of the Throne, and opening the seals, launchingforth into the world the sequences of the world's history, and of theWord of God charging His enemies on His white horse, and behind Himthe armies of God following. The workers who labour with God have theascended Christ labouring with them. 

But if God works with us, success is sure. Then comes the oldquestion that Gideon asked with bitterness of heart, when he wasthreshing out his handful of wheat in a corner to avoid theoppressors, 'If the Lord be with us, wherefore is all this come uponus? Will any one say that the progress of the Gospel in the world hasbeen at the rate which its early believers expected, or at the ratewhich its own powers warranted them to expect? Certainly not. And soit comes to this, that whilst every true labourer has God workingwith him, and therefore success is certain, the planter and thewaterer can delay the growth of the plant by their unfaithfulness, bynot expecting success, by not so working as to make it likely, or byneutralising their evangelistic efforts by their worldly lives. WhenJesus Christ was on earth, it is recorded, 'He could there do nomighty works because of their unbelief, save that He laid His handson a few sick folk and healed them. ' A faithless Church, a worldlyChurch, a lazy Church, an unspiritual Church, an un-ChristlikeChurch--which, to a large extent, is the designation of the so-calledChurch of to day--can clog His chariot-wheels, can thwart the work, can hamper the Divine Worker. If the Christians of Manchester wererevived, they could win Manchester for Jesus. If the Christians ofEngland lived their Christianity, they could make England what itnever has been but in name--a Christian country. If the Churchuniversal were revived, it could win the world. If the singlelabourer, or the community of such, is labouring 'in the Lord, ' theirlabour will not be in vain; and if they thus plant and water, Godwill give the increase. 

THE TESTING FIRE

 'Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble: 13. Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. '--1 COR. Iii. 12, 13. 

Before I enter upon the ideas which the words suggest, my exegeticalconscience binds me to point out that the original application of thetext is not exactly that which I purpose to make of it now. Thecontext shows that the Apostle is thinking about the special subjectof Christian teachers and their work, and that the builders of whomhe speaks are the men in the Corinthian Church, some of them hisallies and some of them his rivals, who were superimposing upon thefoundation of the preaching of Jesus Christ other doctrines andprinciples. The 'wood, hay, stubble' are the vapid and trivialdoctrines which the false teachers were introducing into the Church. The 'gold, silver, and precious stones' are the solid and substantialverities which Paul and his friends were proclaiming. And it is aboutthese, and not about the Christian life in the general, that thetremendous metaphors of my text are uttered. 

But whilst that is true, the principles involved have a much widerrange than the one case to which the Apostle applies them. And, though I may be slightly deflecting the text from its originaldirection, I am not doing violence to it, if I take it as declaringsome very plain and solemn truths applicable to all Christian people, in their task of building up a life and character on the foundationof Jesus Christ; truths which are a great deal too much forgotten inour modern popular Christianity, and which it concerns us all veryclearly to keep in view. There are three things here that I wish tosay a word about--the patchwork building, the testing fire, the fateof the builders. 

I. First, the patchwork structure. 

'If any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. ' In the original application of the metaphor, Paul is thinking of all these teachers in that church at Corinth asbeing engaged in building the one structure--I venture to deflecthere, and to regard each of us as rearing our own structure of lifeand character on the foundation of the preached and accepted Christ. 

Now, what the Apostle says is that these builders were, some of them, laying valuable things like gold and silver and costly stones--bywhich he does not mean jewels, but marbles, alabasters, polishedporphyry or granite, and the like; sumptuous building materials, which were employed in great palaces or temples--and that some ofthem were bringing timber, hay, stubble, reeds gathered from themarshes or the like, and filling in with such trash as that. That isa picture of what a great many Christian people are doing in theirown lives--the same man building one course of squared and solid andprecious stones, and topping them with rubbish. You will see in thewalls of Jerusalem, at the base, five or six courses of those massiveblocks which are the wonders of the world yet; well jointed, welllaid, well cemented, and then on the top of them a mass of poorstuff, heaped together anyhow; scamped work--may I use a modernvulgarism?--'jerry-building. ' You may go to some modern village, onan ancient historic site, and you will find built into the mud wallsof the hovels in which the people are living, a marble slab with faircarving on it, or the drum of a great column of veined marble, and onthe top of that, timber and clay mixed together. 

That is the type of the sort of life that hosts of Christian peopleare living. For, mark, all the builders are on the foundation. Paulis not speaking about mere professed Christians who had no faith atall in them, and no real union with Jesus Christ. These builders were'on the foundation'; they were building on the foundation, there wasa principle deep down in their lives--which really lay at the bottomof their lives--and yet had not come to such dominating power as tomould and purify and make harmonious with itself the life that wasreared upon it. We all know that that is the condition of many men, that they have what really are the fundamental bases of their lives, in belief and aim and direction; and which yet are not strong enoughto master the whole of the life, and to manifest themselves throughit. Especially it is the condition of some Christian people. Theyhave a real faith, but it is of the feeblest and most rudimentarykind. They are on the foundation, but their lives are interlaced withthe most heterogeneous mixty-maxty of good and evil, of lofty, high, self-sacrificing thoughts and heavenward aspirations, of resolutionsnever carried out into practice; and side by side with these thereshall be meannesses, selfishnesses, tempers, dispositions allcontradictory of the former impulses. One moment they are all fireand love, the next moment ice and selfishness. One day they are allfor God, the next day all for the world, the flesh, and the devil. Jacob sees the open heavens and the face of God and vows; to-morrowhe meets Laban and drops to shifty ways. Peter leaves all and followshis Master, and in a little while the fervour has gone, and the firehas died down into grey ashes, and a flippant servant-girl's tongueleads him to say 'I know not the man. ' 'Gold, silver, preciousstones, ' and topping them, 'wood, hay, stubble!'

The inconsistencies of the Christian life are what my text, in theapplication that I am venturing to make of it, suggests to us. Ah, dear friends! we do not need to go to Jacob and Peter; let us look atour own hearts, and if we will honestly examine one day of our lives, I think we shall understand how it is possible for a man, on thefoundation, yet to build upon it these worthless and combustiblethings, 'wood, hay, stubble. '

We are not to suppose that one man builds _only_ 'gold, silver, precious stones. ' There is none of us that does that. And we are notto suppose that any man who _is_ on the foundations has so littlegrasp of it, as that he builds _only_ 'wood, hay, stubble. '

There is none of us who has not intermingled his building, and thereis none of us, if we are Christians at all, who has not sometimeslaid a course of 'precious stones. ' If your faith is doing _nothing_for you except bringing to you a belief that you are not going tohell when you die, then it is no faith at all. 'Faith without worksis dead. ' So there is a mingling in the best, and--thank God!--thereis a mingling of good with evil, in the worst of real Christianpeople. 

II. Note here, the testing fire. 

Paul points to two things, the day and the fire. 

'The day shall declare it, ' that is the day on which Jesus Christcomes to be the Judge; and it, that is 'the day, ' 'shall be revealedin fire; and the fire shall test every man's work. ' Now, it is to benoticed that here we are moving altogether in the region of loftysymbolism, and that the metaphor of the testing fire is suggested bythe previous enumeration of building materials, gold and silver beingcapable of being assayed by flame; and 'wood, hay, stubble' beingcombustible, and sure to be destroyed thereby. The fire here is notan emblem of punishment; it is not an emblem of cleansing. There isno reference to anything in the nature of what Roman Catholics callpurgatorial fires. The allusion is simply to some stringent andsearching means of testing the quality of a man's work, and ofrevealing that quality. 

So then, we come just to this, that for people 'on the foundation, 'there is a Day of revelation and testing of their life's work. It isa great misfortune that so-called Evangelical Christianity does notsay as much as the New Testament says about the judgment that is tobe passed on 'the house of God. ' People seem to think that the greatdoctrine of salvation, 'not by works of righteousness which we havedone, but by His mercy, ' is, somehow or other, interfered with whenwe proclaim, as Paul proclaims, speaking to Christian people, 'Wemust be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, ' and declaresthat 'Every man will receive the things done in his body, accordingto that he has done, whether it be good or bad. ' Paul saw nocontradiction, and there is no contradiction. But a great manyprofessing Christians seem to think that the great blessing of theirsalvation by faith is, that they are exempt from that futurerevelation and testing and judgment of their acts. That is not theNew Testament teaching. But, on the contrary, 'Whatsoever a mansoweth that shall he also reap, ' was originally said to a church ofChristian people. And here we come full front against that solemntruth, that the Lord will 'gather together His saints, those thathave made a covenant with Him by sacrifice, that He may judge Hispeople. ' Never mind about the drapery, the symbolism, the expressionin material forms with which that future judgment is arranged, inorder that we may the more easily grasp it. Remember that thesepictures in the New Testament of a future judgment are highlysymbolical, and not to be interpreted as if they were plain prose;but also remember that the heart of them is this, that there comesfor Christian people as for all others, a time when the light willshine down upon their past, and will flash its rays into the darkchambers of memory, and when men will--to themselves if not toothers--be revealed 'in the day when the Lord shall judge the secretsof men according to my Gospel. '

We have all experience enough of how but a few years, a change ofcircumstances, or a growth into another stage of development, give usfresh eyes with which to estimate the moral quality of our past. Manya thing, which we thought to be all right at the time when we did it, looks to us now very questionable and a plain mistake. And when weshift our stations to up yonder, and get rid of all this blindingmedium of flesh and sense, and have the issues of our acts in ourpossession, and before our sight--ah! we shall think very differentlyof a great many things from what we think of them now. Judgment willbegin at the house of God. 

And there is the other thought, that the fire which reveals and testshas also in it a power of destruction. Gold and silver will lose noatom of their weight, and will be brightened into greater lustre asthey flash back the beams. The timber and the stubble will go up in aflare, and die down into black ashes. That is highly metaphorical, ofcourse. What does it mean? It means that some men's work will becrumpled up and perish, and be as of none effect, leaving a great, black sorrowful gap in the continuity of the structure, and thatother men's work will stand. Everything that we do is, in one sense, immortal, because it is represented in our final character andcondition, just as a thin stratum of rock will represent forests offerns that grew for one summer millenniums ago, or clouds of insectsthat danced for an hour in the sun. But whilst that is so, andnothing human ever dies, on the other hand, deeds which have been inaccordance, as it were, with the great stream that sweeps theuniverse on its bosom will float on that surface and never sink. Actswhich have gone against the rush of God's will through creation willbe like a child's go-cart that comes against the engine of an expresstrain--be reduced, first, to stillness, all the motion knocked out ofthem, and then will be crushed to atoms. Deeds which stand the testwill abide in blessed issue for the doer, and deeds which do not willpass away in smoke, and leave only ashes. Some of us, building on thefoundation, have built more rubbish than solid work, and that will be

 'Cast as rubbish to the void When God has made the pile complete. '

III. So, lastly, we have here the fate of the two builders. 

The one man gets wages. That is not the bare notion of salvation, forboth builders are conceived of as on the foundation, and both aresaved. He gets wages. Yes, of course! The architect has to give hiscertificate before the builder gets his cheque. The weaver, who hasbeen working his hand-loom at his own house, has to take his web tothe counting-house and have it overlooked before he gets his pay. Andthe man who has built 'gold, silver, precious stones, ' willhave--over and above the initial salvation--in himself the blessedconsequences, and unfold the large results, of his faithful service;while the other man, inasmuch as he has not such work, cannot havethe consequences of it, and gets no wages; or at least his pay issubject to heavy deductions for the spoiled bits in the cloth, andfor the gaps in the wall. 

The Apostle employs a tremendous metaphor here, which is masked inour Authorised Version, but is restored in the Revised. 'He shall besaved, yet so as' (not 'by' but) 'through fire'; the picture beingthat of a man surrounded by a conflagration, and making a rushthrough the flames to get to a place of safety. Paul says that hewill get through, because down _below_ all inconsistency andworldliness, there was a little of that which ought to have been_above_ all the inconsistency and the worldliness--a true faithin Jesus Christ. But because it was so imperfect, so feeble, solittle operative in his life as that it could not keep him frompiling up inconsistencies into his wall, therefore his salvation isso as through the fire. 

Brethren, I dare not enlarge upon that great metaphor. It is meantfor us professing Christians, real and imperfect Christians--it ismeant for us; and it just tells us that there are degrees in thatfuture blessedness proportioned to present faithfulness. We beginthere where we left off here. That future is not a dead level; andthey who have earnestly striven to work out their faith into theirlives shall 'summer high upon the hills of God. ' One man, like Paulin his shipwreck, shall lose ship and lading, though 'on brokenpieces of the ship' he may 'escape safe to land'; and another shallmake the harbour with full cargo of works of faith, to be turned intogold when he lands. If we build, as we all may, 'on that foundation, gold and silver and precious stones, ' an entrance 'shall beministered unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of ourLord and Saviour Jesus Christ'; whilst if we bring a preponderance of'wood, hay, stubble, ' we shall be 'saved, yet so as through thefire. '

TEMPLES OF GOD

 'Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?'--1 COR. Iii. 16

The great purpose of Christianity is to make men like Jesus Christ. As He is the image of the invisible God we are to be the images ofthe unseen Christ. The Scripture is very bold and emphatic inattributing to Christ's followers likeness to Him, in nature, incharacter, in relation to the world, in office, and in ultimatedestiny. Is He the anointed of God? We are anointed--Christs in Him. Is He the Son of God? We in Him receive the adoption of sons. Is Hethe Light of the world? We in Him are lights of the world too. Is Hea King? A Priest? He hath made us to be kings and priests. 

Here we have the Apostle making the same solemn assertion in regardto Christian men, 'Know ye not that ye are'--as your Master, andbecause your Master is--'that ye are the temple of God, and that theSpirit of God dwelleth in you?'

Of course the allusion in my text is to the whole aggregate ofbelievers--what we call the Catholic Church, as being collectivelythe habitation of God. But God cannot dwell in an aggregate of men, unless He dwells in the individuals that compose the aggregate. And God has nothing to do with institutions except through the peoplewho make the institutions. And so, if the Church as a whole is aTemple, it is only because all its members are temples of God. 

Therefore, without forgetting the great blessed lesson of the unityof the Church which is taught in these words, I want rather to dealwith them in their individual application now; and to try and layupon your consciences, dear brethren, the solemn obligations and theintense practical power which this Apostle associated with thethought that each Christian man was, in very deed, a temple of God. 

It would be very easy to say eloquent things about this text, butthat is no part of my purpose. 

I. Let me deal, first of all, and only for a moment or two, with theunderlying thought that is here--that every Christian is adwelling-place of God. 

Now, do not run away with the idea that that is a metaphor. It wasthe outward temple that was the metaphor. The reality is that whichyou and I, if we are God's children in Jesus Christ, experience. There was no real sense in which that Mighty One whom the Heaven ofHeavens cannot contain, dwelt in any house made with hands. But theTemple, and all the outward worship, were but symbolical of the factsof the Christian life, and the realities of our inward experience. These are the truths whereof the other is the shadow. We use words towhich it is difficult for us to attach any meaning, when we talkabout God as being locally present in any material building; but wedo not use words to which it is so difficult to attach a meaning, when we talk about the Infinite Spirit as being present and abidingin a spirit shaped to hold Him, and made on purpose to touch Him andbe filled by Him. 

All creatures have God dwelling in them in the measure of theircapacity. The stone that you kick on the road would not be there ifthere were not a present God. Nothing would happen if there were notabiding in creatures the force, at any rate, which is God. But justas in this great atmosphere in which we all live and move and haveour being, the eye discerns undulations which make light, and the earcatches vibrations which make sound, and the nostrils are recipientof motions which bring fragrance, and all these are in the oneatmosphere, and the sense that apprehends one is utterly unconsciousof the other, so God's creatures, each through some little narrowslit, and in the measure of their capacity, get a straggling beamfrom Him into their being, and therefore they are. 

But high above all other ways in which creatures can lie patent toGod, and open for the influx of a Divine Indweller, lies the way offaith and love. Whosoever opens his heart in these divinely-taughtemotions, and fixes them upon the Christ in whom God dwells, receivesinto the very roots of his being--as the water that trickles throughthe soil to the rootlets of the tree--the very Godhead Himself. 'Hethat is joined to the Lord is one spirit. '

That God shall dwell in my heart is possible only from the fact thatHe dwelt in all His fulness in Christ, through whom I touch Him. ThatTemple consecrates all heart-shrines; and all worshippers that keepnear to Him, partake with Him of the Father that dwelt in Him. 

Only remember that in Christ God dwelt completely, all 'the fulnessof the Godhead bodily' was there, but in us it is but partially; thatin Christ, therefore, the divine indwelling was uniform andinvariable, but in us it fluctuates, and sometimes is more intimateand blessed, and sometimes He leaves the habitation when we leaveHim; that in Christ, therefore, there was no progress in the divineindwelling, but that in us, if there be any true inhabitation of oursouls by God, that abiding will become more and more, until everycorner of our being is hallowed and filled with the searchingeffulgence of the all-pervasive Light. And let us remember that Goddwelt in Christ, but that in us it is God in Christ who dwells. So toHim we owe it all, that our poor hearts are made the dwelling-placeof God; or, as this Apostle puts it, in other words conveying thesame idea, 'Ye are built upon the foundation of the Apostles andprophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Corner-stone; in whomall the building fitly framed together groweth . .. For a habitationof God through the Spirit. '

II. Now then, turning from this underlying idea of the passage, letus look, for a moment, at some of the many applications of which thegreat thought is susceptible. I remark, then, in the second place, that as temples all Christians are to be manifesters of God. 

The meaning of the Temple as of all temples was, that there theindwelling Deity should reveal Himself; and if it be true that weChristian men and women are, in this deep and blessed reality ofwhich I have been speaking, the abiding places and habitations ofGod, then it follows that we shall stand in the world as the greatmeans by which God is manifested and made known, and that in atwo-fold way; _to ourselves_ and _to other people_. 

The real revelation of God to our hearts must be His abiding in ourhearts. We do not learn God until we possess God. He must fill oursouls before we know His sweetness. The answer that our Lord made toone of His disciples is full of the deepest truth. 'How is it, ' saidone of them in his blundering way, 'how is it that Thou wilt manifestThyself to us?' And the answer was, 'We will come and make Our abodewith him. ' You do not know God until, if I might so say, He sits atyour fireside and talks with you in your hearts. Just as some wifemay have a husband whom the world knows as hero, or sage, or orator, but she knows him as nobody else can; so the outside, and if I may sosay, the public character of God is but the surface of the revelationthat He makes to us, when in the deepest secrecy of our own hearts Hepours Himself into our waiting spirits. O brethren! it is within thecurtains of the Holiest of all that the Shekinah flashes; it iswithin our own hearts, shrined and templed there, that God revealsHimself to us, as He does not unto the world. 

And then, further, Christian men, as the temples and habitations ofGod, are appointed to be the great means of making Him known to theworld around. The eye that cannot look at the sun can look at therosy clouds that lie on either side of it, and herald its rising;their opalescent tints and pearly lights are beautiful to dim vision, to which the sun itself is too bright to be looked upon. Men willbelieve in a gentle Christ when they see you gentle. They willbelieve in a righteous love when they see it manifesting itself inyou. You are 'the secretaries of God's praise, ' as George Herbert hasit. He dwells in your hearts that out of your lives He may berevealed. The pictures in a book of travels, or the diagrams in amathematical work, tell a great deal more in half a dozen lines thancan be put into as many pages of dry words. And it is not books oftheology nor eloquent sermons, but it is a Church glowing with theglory of God, and manifestly all flushed with His light and majesty, that will have power to draw men to believe in the God whom itreveals. When explorers land upon some untravelled island and meetthe gentle inhabitants with armlets of rough gold upon their wrists, they say there must be many a gold-bearing rock of quartz crystal inthe interior of the land. And if you present yourselves, Christianmen and women, to the world with the likeness of your Master plainupon you, then people will believe in the Christianity that youprofess. You have to popularise the Gospel in the fashion in whichgo-betweens and middlemen between students and the populacepopularise science. You have to make it possible for men to believein the Christ because they see Christ in you. 'Know ye not that yeare the temples of the living God?' Let His light shine from you. 

III. I remark again that as temples all Christian lives should beplaces of sacrifice. 

What is the use of a temple without worship? And what kind of worshipis that in which the centre point is not an altar? That is the sortof temple that a great many professing Christians are. They haveforgotten the altar in their spiritual architecture. Have you got onein your heart? It is but a poor, half-furnished sanctuary that hasnot. Where is yours? The key and the secret of all noble life is toyield up one's own will, to sacrifice oneself. There never wasanything done in this world worth doing, and there never will be tillthe end of time, of which sacrifice is not the centre andinspiration. And the difference between all other and lessernobilities of life, and the supreme beauty of a true Christian lifeis that the sacrifice of the Christian is properly a_sacrifice_--that is, an offering to _God_, done for the sake of thegreat love wherewith He has loved us. As Christ is the one trueTemple, and we become so by partaking of Him, so He is the oneSacrifice for sins for ever, and we become sacrifices only throughHim. If there be any lesson which comes out of this great truth ofChristians as temples, it is not a lesson of pluming ourselves on ourdignity, or losing ourselves in the mysticisms which lie near thistruth, but it is the hard lesson--If a temple, then an altar; if analtar, then a sacrifice. 'Ye are built up a spiritual house, a holypriesthood, that ye may offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable toGod'--sacrifice, priest, temple, all in one; and all for the sake andby the might of that dear Lord who has given Himself a bleedingSacrifice for the sins of the whole world, that we might offer aEucharistic sacrifice of thanks and praise and self-surrender untoHim, and to His Father God. 

IV. And, lastly, this great truth of my text enforces the solemnlesson of the necessary sanctity of the Christian life. 

'The temple of God, ' says the context, 'the temple of God is holy, which (holy persons) ye are. ' The plain first idea of the temple is aplace set apart and consecrated to God. 

Hence, of course, follows the idea of purity, but the parent idea of'holiness' is not purity, which is the consequence, but consecrationor separation to God, which is the root. 

And so in very various applications, on which I have not time todwell now, this idea of the necessary sanctity of the Temple is putforth in these two letters to the Corinthian Church. Corinth was acity honeycombed with the grossest immoralities; and hence, perhaps, to some extent the great emphasis and earnestness and even severityof the Apostle in dealing with some forms of evil. 

But without dwelling on the details, let me just point you to threedirections in which this general notion of sanctity is applied. Thereis that of our context here 'Know ye not that ye are the temple ofGod? If any man _destroy_ the temple of God, him shall Goddestroy, for the temple of God is holy, and such ye are. '

He is thinking here mainly, I suppose, about the devastation anddestruction of this temple of God, which was caused by schismaticaland heretical teaching, and by the habit of forming parties, 'one ofPaul, one of Apollos, one of Cephas, one of Christ, ' which wasrending that Corinthian Church into pieces. But we may apply it morewidely than that, and say that anything which corrupts and defilesthe Christian life and the Christian character assumes a darker tintof evil when we think that it is sacrilege--the profanation of thetemple, the pollution of that which ought to be pure as He who dwellsin it. 

Christian men and women, how that thought darkens the blackness ofall sin! How solemnly there peals out the warning, 'If any mandestroy or impair the temple, ' by any form of pollution, 'him' withretribution in kind, 'him shall God destroy. ' Keep the temple clear;keep it clean. Let Him come with His scourge of small cords and Hismerciful rebuke. You Manchester men know what it is to let themoney-changers into the sanctuary. Beware lest, beginning with makingyour hearts 'houses of merchandise, ' you should end by making them'dens of thieves. '

And then, still further, there is another application of this sameprinciple, in the second of these Epistles. 'What agreement hath thetemple of God with idols?' 'Ye are the temple of the living God. '

Christianity is intolerant. There is to be one image in the shrine. One of the old Roman Stoic Emperors had a pantheon in his palace withJesus Christ upon one pedestal and Plato on the one beside Him. Andsome of us are trying the same kind of thing. Christ there, andsomebody else here. Remember, Christ must be everything or nothing!Stars may be sown by millions, but for the earth there is one sun. And you and I are to shrine one dear Guest, and one only, in theinmost recesses of our hearts. 

And there is another application of this metaphor also in ourletter. 'Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghostwhich is in you?' Christianity despises 'the flesh'; Christianityreverences the body; and would teach us all that, being robed in thatmost wonderful work of God's hands, which becomes a shrine for GodHimself if He dwell in our hearts, all purity, all chastisement andsubjugation of animal passion is our duty. Drunkenness, and gluttony, lusts of every kind, impurity of conduct, and impurity of word andlook and thought, all these assume a still darker tint when they arethought of as not only crimes against the physical constitution andthe moral law of humanity, but insults flung in the face of the Godthat would inhabit the shrine. 

And in regard to sins of this kind, which it is so difficult to speakof in public, and which grow unchecked in secrecy, and are ruininghundreds of young lives, the words of this context are grimly true, 'If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. ' I speaknow mainly in brotherly or fatherly warning to young men--did youever read this, 'His bones are full of the iniquities of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust'? 'Know ye not that ye arethe temple of God?'

And so, brethren, our text tells us what we may all be. There is noheart without its deity. Alas! alas! for the many listening to me nowwhose spirits are like some of those Egyptian temples, which had inthe inmost shrine a coiled-up serpent, the mummy of a monkey, or someother form as animal and obscene. 

Oh! turn to Christ and cry, 'Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest, Thou andthe ark of Thy strength. ' Open your hearts and let Christ come in. And before Him, as of old, the bestial Dagon will be found, dejectedand truncated, lying on the sill there; and all the vain, cruel, lustful gods that have held riot and carnival in your hearts willflee away into the darkness, like some foul ghosts at cock-crow. 'Ifany man hear My voice and open the door I will come in. ' And theglory of the Lord shall fill the house. 

DEATH, THE FRIEND

 '. .. All things are yours . .. Death. '--1 COR. Iii. 21, 22. 

What Jesus Christ is to a man settles what everything else is to Him. Our relation to Jesus determines our relation to the universe. If webelong to Him, everything belongs to us. If we are His servants, allthings are our servants. The household of Jesus, which is the wholeCreation, is not divided against itself, and the fellow-servants donot beat one another. Two bodies moving in the same direction, andunder the impulse of the same force, cannot come into collision, andsince 'all things work together, ' according to the counsel of Hiswill, 'all things work together for good' to His lovers. Thetriumphant words of my text are no piece of empty rhetoric, but theplain result of two facts--Christ's rule and the Christian'ssubmission. 'All things are yours, and ye are Christ's, ' so the starsin their courses fight against those who fight against Him, and if weare at peace with Him we shall 'make a league with the beasts of thefield, and the stones of the field, ' which otherwise would behindrances and stumbling-blocks, 'shall be at peace with' us. 

The Apostle carries his confidence in the subservience of all thingsto Christ's servants very far, and the words of my text, in which hedares to suggest that 'the Shadow feared of man' is, after all, aveiled friend, are hard to believe, when we are brought face to facewith death, either when we meditate on our own end, or when ourhearts are sore and our hands are empty. Then the question comes, andoften is asked with tears of blood, Is it true that this awful force, which we cannot command, does indeed serve us? Did it serve thosewhom it dragged from our sides; and in serving them, did it serve us?Paul rings out his 'Yes'; and if we have as firm a hold of Paul'sLord as Paul had, our answer will be the same. Let me, then, dealwith this great thought that lies here, of the conversion of the lastenemy into a friend, the assurance that we may all have that death isours, though not in the sense that we can command it, yet in thesense that it ministers to our highest good. 

That thought may be true about ourselves when it comes to our turn todie, and, thank God, has been true about all those who have departedin His faith and fear. Some of you may have seen two very strikingengravings by a great, though somewhat unknown artist, representingDeath as the Destroyer, and Death as the Friend. In the one case hecomes into a scene of wild revelry, and there at his feet lie, starkand stiff, corpses in their gay clothing and with garlands on theirbrows, and feasters and musicians are flying in terror from thecowled Skeleton. In the other he comes into a quiet church belfry, where an aged saint sits with folded arms and closed eyes, and anopen Bible by his side, and endless peace upon the wearied face. Thewindow is flung wide to the sunrise, and on its sill perches a birdthat gives forth its morning song. The cowled figure has brought restto the weary, and the glad dawning of a new life to the aged, and isa friend. The two pictures are better than all the poor words that Ican say. It depends on the people to whom he comes, whether he comesas a destroyer or as a helper. Of course, for all of us the merephysical facts remain the same, the pangs and the pain, the slowtorture of the loosing of the bond, or the sharp agony of itsinstantaneous rending apart. But we have gone but a very little wayinto life and its experiences, if we have not learnt that identity ofcircumstances may cover profound difference of essentials, and thatthe same experiences may have wholly different messages and meaningsto two people who are equally implicated in them. Thus, while thephysical fact remains the same for all, the whole bearing of it mayso differ that Death to one man will be a Destroyer, while to anotherit is a Friend. 

For, if we come to analyse the thoughts of humanity about the lastact in human life on earth, what is it that makes the dread darknessof death, which all men know, though they so seldom think of it? Isuppose, first of all, if we seek to question our feelings, thatwhich makes Death a foe to the ordinary experience is, that it islike a step off the edge of a precipice in a fog; a step into a dimcondition of which the imagination can form no conception, because ithas no experience, and all imagination's pictures are painted withpigments drawn from our past. Because it is impossible for a man tohave any clear vision of what it is that is coming to meet him, andhe cannot tell 'in that sleep what dreams may come, ' he shrinks, aswe all shrink, from a step into the vast Inane, the dim Unknown. Butthe Gospel comes and says, 'It _is_ a land of great darkness, ' but'To the people that sit in darkness a great light hath shined. '

 'Our knowledge of that life is small, The eye of faith is dim. '

But faith has an eye, and there is light, and this we can see--Oneface whose brightness scatters all the gloom, One Person who has notceased to be the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His beams, evenin the darkness of the grave. Therefore, one at least of therepellent features which, to the timorous heart, makes Death a foe, is gone, when we know that the known Christ fills the Unknown. 

Then, again, another of the elements, as I suppose, which constitutethe hostile aspect that Death assumes to most of us, is that itapparently hales us away from all the wholesome activities andoccupations of life, and bans us into a state of apparent inaction. The thought that death is rest does sometimes attract the weary orharassed, or they fancy it does, but that is a morbid feeling, andmuch more common in sentimental epitaphs than among the usualthoughts of men. To most of us there is no joy, but a chill, in theanticipation that all the forms of activity which have so occupied, and often enriched, our lives here, are to be cut off at once. 'Whatam I to do if I have no books?' says the student. 'What am I to do ifI have no mill?' says the spinner. 'What am I to do if I have nonursery or kitchen?' say the women. What are you to do? There is onlyone quieting answer to such questions. It tells us that what we aredoing here is learning our trade, and that we are to be moved intoanother workshop there, to practise it. Nothing can bereave us of theforce we made our own, being here; and 'there is nobler work for usto do' when the Master of all the servants stoops from His Throne andsays: 'Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make theeruler over many things; have thou authority over ten cities. ' Thenthe faithfulness of the steward will be exchanged for the authorityof the ruler, and the toil of the servant for a share in the joy ofthe Lord. 

So another of the elements which make Death an enemy is turned intoan element which makes it a friend, and instead of the separationfrom this earthly body, the organ of our activity and the medium ofour connection with the external universe being the condemnation ofthe naked spirit to inaction, it is the emancipation of the spiritinto greater activity. For nothing drops away at death that does notmake a man the richer for its loss, and when the dross is purged fromthe silver, there remains 'a vessel unto honour, fit for the Master'suse. ' This mightier activity is the contribution to our blessedness, which Death makes to them who use their activities here in Christ'sservice. 

Then, still further, another of the elements which is converted frombeing a terror into a joy is that Death, the separator, becomes toChrist's servants Death, the uniter. We all know how that function ofdeath is perhaps the one that makes us shrink from it the most, dreadit the most, and sometimes hate it the most. But it will be with usas it was with those who were to be initiated into ancient religiousrites. Blindfolded, they were led by a hand that grasped theirs butwas not seen, through dark, narrow, devious passages, but they wereled into a great company in a mighty hall. Seen from this side, theministry of Death parts a man from dear ones, but, oh! if we couldsee round the turn in the corridor, we should see that the solitudeis but for a moment, and that the true office of Death is not so muchto part from those beloved on earth as to carry to, and unite with, Him that is best Beloved in the heavens, and in Him with all Hissaints. They that are joined to Christ, as they who pass from earthare joined, are thereby joined to all who, in like manner, are knitto Him. Although other dear bonds are loosed by the bony fingers ofthe Skeleton, his very loosing of them ties more closely the bondthat unites us to Jesus, and when the dull ear of the dying hasceased to hear the voices of earth that used to thrill it in theirlowest whisper, I suppose it hears another Voice that says: 'Whenthou passest through the fire I will be with thee, and through thewaters they shall not overflow thee. ' Thus the Separator unites, first to Jesus, and then to 'the general assembly and Church of thefirst-born, ' and leads into the city of the living God, the pilgrimswho long have lived, often isolated, in the desert. 

There is a last element in Death which is changed for the Christian, and that is that to men generally, when they think about it, there isan instinctive recoil from Death, because there is an instinctivesuspicion that after Death is the Judgment, and that, somehow orother--never mind about the drapery in which the idea may be embodiedfor our weakness--when a man dies he passes to a state where he willreap the consequences of what he has sown here. But to Christ'sservant that last thought is robbed of its sting, and all the poisonsucked out of it, for he can say: 'He that died for me makes itpossible for me to die undreading, and to pass thither, knowing thatI shall meet as my Judge Him whom I have trusted as my Saviour, andso may have boldness before Him in the Day of Judgment. '

Knit these four contrasts together. Death as a step into a dimunknown _versus_ Death as a step into a region lighted by Jesus;Death as the cessation of activity _versus_ Death as the introductionto nobler opportunities, and the endowment with nobler capacities ofservice; Death as the separator and isolator _versus_ Death asuniting to Jesus and all His lovers; Death as haling us to thejudgment-seat of the adversary _versus_ Death as bringing us to thetribunal of the Christ; and I think we can understand how Christianscan venture to say, 'All things are ours, whether life or death'which leads to a better life. 

And now let me add one word more. All this that I have been saying, and all the blessed strength for ourselves and calming in our sorrowswhich result therefrom, stand or fall with the Resurrection of JesusChrist. There is nothing else that makes these things certain. Thereare, of course, instincts, peradventures, hopes, fears, doubts. Butin this region, and in regard to all this cycle of truths, the samething applies which applies round the whole horizon of ChristianRevelation--if you want not speculations but certainties, you have togo to Jesus Christ for them. There were many men who thought thatthere were islands of the sea beyond the setting sun that dyed thewestern waves, but Columbus went and came back again, and broughttheir products--and then the thought became a fact. Unless youbelieve that Jesus Christ has come back from 'the bourne from whichno traveller returns, ' and has come laden with the gifts of 'happyisles of Eden' far beyond the sea, there is no certitude upon which adying man can lay his head, or by which a bleeding heart can bestaunched. But when He draws near, alive from the dead, and says tous, as He did to the disciples on the evening of the day ofResurrection, 'Peace be unto you, ' and shows us His hands and Hisside, then we do not only speculate or think a future life possibleor probable, or hesitate to deny it, or hope or fear, as the case maybe, but we _know_, and we can say: 'All things are ours . .. Death'amongst others. The fact that Jesus Christ has died changes the wholeaspect of death to His servant, inasmuch as in that great solitude hehas a companion, and in the valley of the shadow of death seesfootsteps that tell him of One that went before. 

Nor need I do more than remind you how the manner of our Lord's deathshows that He is Lord not only of the dead but of the Death thatmakes them dead. For His own tremendous assertion, 'I have power tolay down My life, and I have power to take it again, ' was confirmedby His attitude and His words at the last, as is hinted at by thevery expressions with which the Evangelists record the fact of Hisdeath: 'He yielded up His spirit, ' 'He gave up the ghost, ' 'Hebreathed out His life. ' It is confirmed to us by such words as thoseremarkable ones of the Apocalypse, which speak of Him as 'the LivingOne, ' who, by His own will, 'became dead. ' He died because He would, and He would die because He loved you and me. And in dying, He showedHimself to be, not the Victim, but the Conqueror, of the Death towhich He submitted. The Jewish king on the fatal field of Gilboacalled his sword-bearer, and the servant came, and Saul bade himsmite, and when his trembling hand shrank from such an act, the kingfell on his own sword. The Lord of life and death summoned Hisservant Death, and He came obedient, but Jesus died not by Death'sstroke, but by His own act. So that Lord of Death, who died becauseHe would, is the Lord who has the keys of death and the grave. Inregard to one servant He says, 'I will that he tarry till I come, 'and that man lives through a century, and in regard to another Hesays, 'Follow thou Me, ' and that man dies on a cross. The dying Lordis Lord of Death, and the living Lord is for us all the Prince ofLife. 

Brethren, we have to take His yoke upon us by the act of faith whichleads to a love that issues in an obedience which will become moreand more complete, as we become more fully Christ's. Then death willbe ours, for then we shall count that the highest good for us will befuller union with, a fuller possession of, and a completer conformityto, Jesus Christ our King, and that whatever brings us these, eventhough it brings also pain and sorrow and much from which we shrink, is all on our side. It is possible--may it be so with each ofus!--that for us Death may be, not an enemy that bans us intodarkness and inactivity, or hales us to a judgment-seat, but theAngel who wakes us, at whose touch the chains fall off, and who leadsus through 'the iron gate that opens of its own accord, ' and bringsus into the City. 

SERVANTS AND LORDS

 'All things are yours; 22. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; 23. And ye are Christ's. '--1 COR. Iii. 21-23. 

The Corinthian Christians seem to have carried into the Church someof the worst vices of Greek--and English--political life. They weresplit up into wrangling factions, each swearing by the name of someperson. Paul was the battle-cry of one set; Apollos of another. Pauland Apollos were very good friends, their admirers bitterfoes--according to a very common experience. The springs lie closetogether up in the hills, the rivers may be parted by half acontinent. 

These feuds were all the more detestable to the Apostle because hisname was dragged into them; and so he sets himself, in the first partof this letter, with all his might, to shame and to argue theCorinthian Christians out of their wrangling. This great text is oneof the considerations which he adduces with that purpose. In effecthe says, 'To pin your faith to any one teacher is a wilful narrowingof the sources of your blessing and your wisdom. You say you arePaul's men. Has Apollos got nothing that he could teach you? and mayyou not get any good out of brave brother Cephas? Take them all; theywere all meant for your good. Let no man glory in individuals. '

That is all that his argument required him to say. But in hisimpetuous way he goes on into regions far beyond. His thought, likesome swiftly revolving wheel, catches fire of its own rapid motion;and he blazes up into this triumphant enumeration of all the thingsthat serve the soul which serves Jesus Christ. 'You are lords of men, of the world of time, of death, of eternity; but you are not lords ofyourselves. You belong to Jesus, and in the measure in which youbelong to Him do all things belong to you. '

I. I think, then, that I shall best bring out the fulness of thesewords by simply following them as they lie before us, and askingyou to consider, first, how Christ's servants are men's lords. 

'All things are yours, Paul, Apollos, Cephas. ' These three teacherswere all lights kindled at the central Light, and therefore shining. They were fragments of His wisdom, of Him that spoke; varying, butyet harmonious, and mutually complementary aspects of the oneinfinite Truth had been committed to them. Each was but a part of themighty whole, a little segment of the circle

 'They are but broken lights of Thee, And Thou, O Lord! art more than they. '

And in the measure, therefore, in which men adhere to Christ, andhave taken Him for theirs; in that measure are they delivered fromall undue dependence on, still more from all slavish submission to, any single individual teacher or aspect of truth. To have Christ forours, and to be His, which are only the opposite sides of the samething, mean, in brief, to take Jesus Christ for the source of allknowledge of moral and religious truth. His Word is the Christian'screed, His Person and the truths that lie in Him, are the fountainsof all our knowledge of God and man. To be Christ's is to take Him asthe master who has absolute authority over conduct and practice. Hiscommandment is the Christian's duty; His pattern the Christian'sall-sufficient example; His smile the Christian's reward. To beChrist's is to take Him for the home of our hearts, in whose graciousand sweet love we find all sufficiency and a rest for our seekingaffections. And so, if ye are His, Paul, Apollos, Cephas, all men areyours; in the sense that you are delivered from all undue dependenceupon them; and in the sense that they subserve your highest good. 

So the true democracy of Christianity, which abjures swearing by thewords of any teacher, is simply the result of loyal adherence to theteaching of Jesus Christ. And that proud independence which some ofyou seek to cultivate, and on the strength of which you declare thatno man is your master upon earth, is an unwholesome and dangerousindependence, unless it be conjoined with the bowing down of thewhole nature, in loyal submission, to the absolute authority of theonly lips that ever spoke truth, truth only, and truth always. IfChrist be our Master, if we take our creed from Him, if we accept Hiswords and His revelation of the Father as our faith and our objectivereligion, then all the slavery to favourite names, all the taking oftruth second-hand from the lips that we honour, all the partisanshipfor one against another which has been the shame and the ruin of theChristian Church, and is working untold mischiefs in it to-day, areended at once. 'One is your Master, even Christ. ' 'Call no man Rabbi!upon earth; but bow before Him, the Incarnate and the PersonalTruth. '

And in like manner they who are Christ's are delivered from alltemptations to make men's maxims and practices and approbation thelaw of their conduct. Society presses upon each of us; what we callpublic opinion, which is generally the clatter of the half-dozenpeople that happen to stand nearest us, rules us; and it needs to besaid very emphatically to all Christian men and women--Take your lawof conduct from His lips, and from nobody else's. 

'They say. What say they? Let them say. ' If we take Christ'scommandment for our absolute law, and Christ's approbation for ourhighest aim and all-sufficient reward, we shall then be able to brushaside other maxims and other people's opinions of us, safely andhumbly, and to say, 'With me it is a very small matter to be judgedof you, or of man's judgment. He that judgeth me is the Lord. '

The envoy of some foreign power cares very little what theinhabitants of the land to which he is ambassador may think of himand his doings; it is his sovereign's good opinion that he seeks tosecure. The soldier's reward is his commander's praise, the slave'sjoy is the master's smile, and for us it ought to be the law of ourlives, and in the measure in which we really belong to Christ it willbe the law of our lives, that 'we labour that, whether present orabsent, we may be pleasing to Him. '

So, brethren, as teachers, as patterns, as objects of love which isonly too apt to be exclusive and to master us, we can only take oneanother in subordination to our supreme submission to Christ, and ifwe are His, our duty, as our joy, is to count no man necessary to ourwellbeing, but to hang only on the one Man, whom it is safe andblessed to believe utterly, to obey abjectly, and to love with allour strength, because He is more than man, even God manifest in theflesh. 

II. And now let us pass to the next idea here, secondly, Christ'sservants are the lords of 'the world. '

That phrase is used here, no doubt, as meaning the external materialuniverse. These creatures around us, they belong to us, if we belongto Jesus Christ. That man owns the world who despises it. There areplenty of rich men in Manchester who say they possess so manythousand pounds. Turn the sentence about and it would be a great dealtruer--the thousands of pounds possess them. They are the slaves oftheir own possessions, and every man who counts any material thing asindispensable to his wellbeing, and regards it as the chiefest good, is the slave-servant of that thing. He owns the world who turns it tothe highest use of growing his soul by it. All material things aregiven, and, I was going to say, were created, for the growth of men, or at all events their highest purpose is that men should, by them, grow. And therefore, as the scaffolding is swept away when thebuilding is finished, so God will sweep away this material universewith all its wonders of beauty and of contrivance, when men have beengrown by means of it. The material is less than the soul, and he ismaster of the world, and owns it, who has got thoughts out of it, truth out of it, impulses out of it, visions of God out of it, whohas by it been led nearer to his divine Master. If I look out upon afair landscape, and the man who draws the rents of it is standing bymy side, and I suck more sweetness, and deeper impulses, and largerand loftier thoughts out of it than he does, it belongs to me farmore than it does to him. The world is his who from it has learned todespise it, to know himself and to know God. He owns the world whouses it as the arena, or wrestling ground, on which, by labour, hemay gain strength, and in which he may do service. Antagonism helpsto develop muscle, and the best use of the outward frame of things isthat we shall take it as the field upon which we can serve God. 

And now all these three things--the contempt of earth, the use ofearth for growing souls, and the use of earth as the field ofservice--all these things belong most truly to the man who belongs toChrist. The world is His, and if we live near Him and cultivatefellowship with Him, and see His face gleaming through all theMaterial, and are led up nearer to Him by everything around us, thenwe own the world and wring the sweetness to the last drop out of it, though we may have but little of that outward relation to its goodswhich short-sighted men call possessing them. We may solve theparadox of those who, 'having nothing, yet have all, ' if we belong toChrist the Lord of all things, and so have co-possession with Him ofall His riches. 

III. Further, my text tells us, in the third place, that Christianmen, who belong to Jesus Christ, are the lords and masters of 'lifeand death. '

Both of these words are here used, as it seems to me, in theirsimple, physical sense, natural life and natural death. You may say, 'Well, everybody is lord of life in that sense. ' Yes, of course, in afashion we all possess it, seeing that we are all alive. But thatmysterious gift of personality, that awful gift of consciousexistence, only belongs, in the deepest sense, to the men who belongto Jesus Christ. I do not call that man the owner of his own life whois not the lord of his own spirit. I do not see in what, except inthe mere animal sense in which a fly, or a spider, or a toad may becalled the master of its life, that man owns himself who has notgiven up himself to Jesus Christ. The only way to get a real hold ofyourselves is to yield yourselves to Him who gives you back Himself, and yourself along with Him. The true ownership of life depends uponself-control, and self-control depends upon letting Jesus Christgovern us wholly. So the measure in which it is true of me that 'Ilive; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, ' is the measure in whichthe lower life of sense really belongs to us, and ministers to ourhighest good. 

And then turn to the other member of this wonderful antithesis, 'whether life or _death_. ' Surely if there is anything over which noman can become lord, except by sinfully taking his fate into his ownhands, it is death. And yet even death, in which we seem to beabjectly passive, and by which so many of us are dragged awayreluctantly from everything that we care to possess, may become amatter of consent and therefore a moral act. Animals expire; aChristian man may yield his soul to his Saviour, who is the Lord bothof the dead and of the living. If thus we feel our dependence uponHim, and yield up our lives to Him, and can say, 'Living or dying weare the Lord's, ' then we may be quite sure that death, too, will beour servant, and that our wills will be concerned even in passing outof life. 

Still more, if you and I, dear brethren, belong to Jesus Christ, thendeath is our fellow-servant who comes to call us out of thisill-lighted workshop into the presence of the King. And at His magiccold touch, cares and toils and sorrows are stiffened into silence, like noisy streams bound in white frost; and we are lifted clean upout of all the hubbub and the toil into eternal calm. Death is oursbecause it fulfils our deepest desires, and comes as a messenger topaupers to tell them they have a great estate. Death is ours if we beChrist's. 

IV. And lastly, Christ's servants are the lords of time and eternity, 'things present or things to come. '

Our Apostle's division, in this catalogue of his, is rhetoricalrather than logical; and we need not seek to separate the first ofthis final pair from others which we have already encountered in ourstudy of the words, but still we may draw a distinction. The wholemass of 'things present, ' including not only that material universewhich we call the world, but all the events and circumstances of ourlives, over these we may exercise supreme control. If we are bowingin humble submission to Jesus Christ, they will all subserve ourhighest good. Every weather will be right; night and day equallydesirable; the darkness will be good for eyes that have been tired ofbrightness and that need repose, the light will be good. The howlingtempests of winter and its white snows, the sharp winds of spring andits bursting sunshine; the calm steady heat of June and the mellowingdays of August, all serve to ripen the grain. And so all 'thingspresent, ' the light and the dark, the hopes fulfilled and the hopesdisappointed, the gains and the losses, the prayers answered and theprayers unanswered, they will all be recognised, if we have thewisdom that comes from submission to Jesus Christ's will, as beingours and ministering to our highest blessing. 

We shall be their lords too inasmuch as we shall be able to controlthem. We need not be 'anvils but hammers. ' We need not let outwardcircumstances dominate and tyrannise over us. We need not be like themosses in the stream, that lie whichever way the current sets, norlike some poor little sailing boat that is at the mercy of the windsand the waves, but may carry an inward impulse like some greatocean-going steamer, the throb of whose power shall drive us straightforward on our course, whatever beats against us. That we may havethis inward power and mastery over things present, and not be shapedand moulded and made by them, let us yield ourselves to Christ, andHe will help us to rule them. 

And then, all 'things to come, ' the dim, vague future, shall be foreach of us like some sunlit ocean stretching shoreless to thehorizon; every little ripple flashing with its own bright sunshine, and all bearing us onwards to the great Throne that stands on the seaof glass mingled with fire. 

Then, my brother, ask yourselves what your future is if you have notChrist for your Friend. 

 'I backward cast mine eye On prospects drear; And forward though I cannot see, I guess and fear. '

So I beseech you, yield yourselves to Jesus Christ, He died to winus. He bears our sins that they may be all forgiven. If we giveourselves to Him who has given Himself to us, then we shall be lordsof men, of the world, of life and death, of time and eternity. 

In the old days conquerors used to bestow upon their followers landsand broad dominions on condition of their doing suit and service, andbringing homage to them. Christ, the King of the universe, makes Hissubjects kings, and will give us to share in His dominion, so that toeach of us may be fulfilled that boundless and almost unbelievablepromise: 'He that overcometh shall inherit all things. ' 'All areyours if ye are Christ's. '

THE THREE TRIBUNALS

 'But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. 4. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified; but he that judgeth me is the Lord. '--1 COR. Iv. 3, 4. 

The Church at Corinth was honeycombed by the characteristic Greekvice of party spirit. The three great teachers, Paul, Peter, Apollos, were pitted against each other, and each was unduly exalted by thosewho swore by him, and unduly depreciated by the other two factions. But the men whose names were the war-cries of these sections werethemselves knit in closest friendship, and felt themselves to beservants in common of one Master, and fellow-workers in one task. 

So Paul, in the immediate context, associating Peter and Apollos withhimself, bids the Corinthians think of '_us_' as being servantsof Christ, and not therefore responsible to men; and as stewards ofthe mysteries of God, that is, dispensers of truths long hidden butnow revealed, and as therefore accountable for correct accounts andfaithful dispensation only to the Lord of the household. Beingresponsible to Him, they heeded very little what others thought aboutthem. Being responsible to Him, they could not accept vindicationby their own consciences as being final. There was a judgment beyondthese. 

So here we have three tribunals--that of man's estimates, that of ourown consciences, that of Jesus Christ. An appeal lies from the firstto the second, and from the second to the third. It is base to dependon men's judgments; it is well to attend to the decisions ofconscience, but it is not well to take it for granted that, ifconscience approve, we are absolved. The court of final appeal isJesus Christ, and what He thinks about each of us. So let us lookbriefly at these three tribunals. 

I. First, the lowest--men's judgment. 

'With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, 'enlightened Christians that you are, or by the outside world. Now, Paul's letters give ample evidence that he was keenly alive to thehostile and malevolent criticisms and slanders of his untiringopponents. Many a flash of sarcasm out of the cloud like a lightningbolt, many a burst of wounded affection like rain from summer skies, tell us this. But I need not quote these. Such a character as hiscould not but be quick to feel the surrounding atmosphere, whether itwas of love or of suspicion. So, he had to harden himself againstwhat naturally had a great effect upon him, the estimate which hefelt that people round him were making of him. There was nothingbrusque, rough, contemptuous in his brushing aside these popularjudgments. He gave them all due weight, and yet he felt, 'From allthat this lowest tribunal may decide, there are two appeals, one tomy own conscience, and one to my Master in heaven. '

Now, I suppose I need not say a word about the power which thatterrible court which is always sitting, and which passes judgmentupon every one of us, though we do not always hear the sentencesread, has upon us all. There is a power which it is meant to have. Itis not good for a man to stand constantly in the attitude of defyingwhatever anybody else chooses to say or to think about him. But thedanger to which we are all exposed, far more than that other extreme, is of deferring too completely and slavishly to, and being far toosubtly influenced in all that we do by, the thought of what A, B, orC, may have to say or to think about it. 'The last infirmity of nobleminds, ' says Milton about the love of fame. It is an infirmity tolove it, and long for it, and live by it. It is a weakening ofhumanity, even where men are spurred to great efforts by the thoughtof the reverberation of these in the ear of the world, and of thehonour and glory that may come therefrom. 

But not only in these higher forms of seeking after reputation, butin lower forms, this trembling before, and seeking to conciliate, thetribunal of what we call 'general opinion, ' which means the voices ofthe half-dozen people that are beside us and know about us, besets usall, and weakens us all in a thousand ways. How many men would loseall the motive that they have for living reputable lives, if nobodyknew anything about it? How many of you, when you go to London, andare strangers, frequent places that you would not be seen in inManchester? How many of us are hindered, in courses which we knowthat we ought to pursue, because we are afraid of this or that man orwoman, and of what they may look or speak? There is a regard to man'sjudgment, which is separated by the very thinnest partition fromhypocrisy. There is a very shadowy distinction between the man who, consciously or unconsciously, does a thing with an eye to what peoplemay say about it, and the man who pretends to be what he is not forthe sake of the reputation that he may thereby win. 

Now, the direct tendency of Christian faith and principle is todwindle into wholesome insignificance the multitudinous voice ofmen's judgments. For, if I understand at all what Christianity means, it means centrally and essentially this, that I am brought intoloving personal relation with Jesus Christ, and draw from Him thepower of my life, and from Him the law of my life, and from Him thestimulus of my life, and from Him the reward of my life. If there isa direct communication between me and Him, and if I am deriving fromHim the life that He gives, which is 'free from the law of sin anddeath, ' I shall have little need or desire to heed the judgment thatmen, who see only the surface, may pass upon me, and upon my doings, and I shall refer myself to Him instead of to them. Those who can gostraight to Christ, whose lives are steeped in Him, who feel thatthey draw all from Him, and that their actions and character aremoulded by His touch and His Spirit, are responsible to no othertribunal. And the less they think about what men have to say of themthe stronger, the nobler, the more Christ-like they will be. 

There is no need for any contempt or roughness to blend with such aputting aside of men's judgments. The velvet glove may be worn uponthe iron hand. All meekness and lowliness may go with this wholesomeindependence, and must go with it unless that independence is falseand distorted. 'With me it is a very small thing to be judged of you, or of man's judgment, ' need not be said in such a tone as to mean 'Ido not care a rush what you think about me'; but it must be said insuch a tone as to mean 'I care supremely for one approbation, and ifI have that I can bear anything besides. '

Let me appeal to you to cultivate more distinctly, as a plainChristian duty, this wholesome independence of men's judgment. Isuppose there never was a day when it was more needed that men shouldbe themselves, seeing with their own eyes what God may revealto them and they are capable of receiving, and walking with their ownfeet on the path that fits them, whatsoever other people may sayabout it. For the multiplication of daily literature, the way inwhich we are all living in glass houses nowadays--everybody knowingeverything about everybody else, and delighting in the gossip whichtakes the place of literature in so many quarters--and the tendencyof society to a more democratic form give the many-headed monster andits many tongues far more power than is wholesome, in the shaping ofthe lives and character and conduct of most men. The evil ofdemocracy is that it levels down all to one plane, and that it tendsto turn out millions of people, as like each other as if they hadbeen made in a machine. And so we need, I believe, even more than ourfathers did, to lay to heart this lesson, that the direct result of adeep and strong Christian faith is the production of intenselyindividual character. And if there are plenty of angles in it, perhaps so much the better. We are apt to be rounded by being rubbedagainst each other, like the stones on the beach, till there is not asharp corner or a point that can prick anywhere. So society becomesutterly monotonous, and is insipid and profitless because of that. You Christian people, be yourselves, after your own pattern. Andwhilst you accept all help from surrounding suggestions and hints, make it 'a very small thing that you be judged of men. ' And you, young men, in warehouses and shops, and you, students, and you, boysand girls, that are budding into life, never mind what other peoplesay. 'Let thine eyes look right onwards, ' and let all the clatter oneither side of you go on as it will. The voices are very loud, but ifwe go up high enough on the hill-top, to the secret place of the MostHigh, we shall look down and see, but not hear, the bustle and thebuzz; and in the great silence Christ will whisper to us, 'Well done!good and faithful servant. ' That praise is worth getting, and one wayto get it is to put aside the hindrance of anxious seeking toconciliate the good opinion of men. 

II. Note the higher court of conscience. 

Our Apostle is not to be taken here as contradicting what he says inother places. 'I judge not mine own self, '--yet in one of these sameletters to the Corinthians he says, 'If we judged ourselves we shouldnot be judged. ' So that he does not mean here that he is entirelywithout any estimate of his own character or actions. That he did insome sense judge himself is evident from the next clause, because hegoes on to say, 'I know nothing against myself. ' If he acquittedhimself, he must previously have been judging himself. But hisacquittal of himself is not to be understood as if it covered thewhole ground of his life and character, but it is to be confined tothe subject in hand--viz. His faithfulness as a steward of themysteries of God. But though there is nothing in that region of hislife which he can charge against himself as unfaithfulness, he goeson to say, 'Yet am I not hereby justified?'

Our absolution by conscience is not infallible. I suppose thatconscience is more reliable when it condemns than when it acquits. Itis never safe for a man to neglect it when it says, 'You are wrong!'It is just as unsafe for a man to accept it, without furtherinvestigation, when it says, 'You are right!' For the only thing thatis infallible about what we call conscience is its sentence, 'It isright to do right. ' But when it proceeds to say 'This, that, and theother thing is right; and therefore it is right for you to do it, 'there may be errors in the judgment, as everybody's own experiencetells them. The inward judge needs to be stimulated, to beenlightened, to be corrected often. I suppose that the growth ofChristian character is very largely the discovery that things that wethought innocent are not, for us, so innocent as we thought them. 

You only need to go back to history, or to go down into your ownhistories, to see how, as light has increased, dark corners have beenrevealed that were invisible in the less brilliant illumination. Howlong it has taken the Christian Church to find out what Christ'sGospel teaches about slavery, about the relations of sex, aboutdrunkenness, about war, about a hundred other things that you and Ido not yet know, but which our successors will wonder that we failedto see! Inquisitor and martyr have equally said, 'We are servingGod. ' Surely, too, nothing is more clearly witnessed by individualexperience, than that we may do a wrong thing, and think that it isright. 'They that kill you will think that they do God service. '

So, Christian people, accept the inward monition when it is stern andprohibitive. Do not be too sure about it when it is placable andpermissive. 'Happy is he that condemneth not himself in the thingwhich he alloweth. ' There may be secret faults, lying all unseenbeneath the undergrowth in the forest, which yet do prick and sting. The upper floors of the house where we receive company, and where we, the tenants, generally live, may be luxurious, and sweet, and clean. What about the cellars, where ugly things crawl and swarm, and breed, and sting?

Ah, dear brethren! when my conscience says to me, 'You may do it, ' itis always well to go to Jesus Christ, and say to Him 'May I?' 'Searchme, O God, and . .. See if there be any wicked way in me, ' and show itto me, and help me to cast it out. 'I know nothing against myself;yet am I not hereby justified. '

III. Lastly, note the supreme court of final appeal. 

'He that judgeth me is the Lord. ' Now it is obvious that 'the Lord'here is Christ, both because of the preceding context and because ofthe next verse, which speaks of His coming. And it is equallyobvious, though it is often unnoticed, that the judgment of which theApostle is here speaking is a present and preliminary judgment. 'Hethat _judgeth_ me'--not, 'will judge, ' but _now_, at this verymoment. That is to say, whilst people round us are passing theirsuperficial estimates upon me, and whilst my conscience is excusing, or else accusing me--and in neither case with absoluteinfallibility--there is another judgment, running concurrently withthem, and going on in silence. That calm eye is fixed upon me, andsifting me, and knowing me. _That_ judgment is not fallible, becausebefore Him 'the hidden things' that the darkness shelters, thosecreeping things in the cellars that I was speaking about, are allmanifest; and to Him the 'counsels of the heart, ' that is, themotives from which the actions flow, are all transparent and legible. So His judgment, the continual estimate of me which Jesus Christ, inHis supreme knowledge of me, has, at every moment of my life--_that_is uttering the final word about me and my character. 

His estimate will dwindle the sentences of the other two tribunalsinto nothingness. What matter what his fellow-servants say about thesteward's accounts, and distribution of provisions, and management ofthe household? He has to render his books, and to give account of hisstewardship, only to his lord. 

The governor of a Crown Colony may attach some importance to colonialopinion, but he reports home; and it is what the people in DowningStreet will say that he thinks about. We have to report home; and itis the King whom we serve, to whom we have to give an account. Thegladiator, down in the arena, did not much mind whether the thumbs ofthe populace were up or down, though the one was the signal for hislife and the other for his death. He looked to the place where, between the purple curtains and the flashing axes of the lictors, theemperor sate. Our Emperor once was down on the sand Himself, andalthough we are 'compassed about with a cloud of witnesses, ' we lookto the Christ, the supreme Arbiter, and take acquittal orcondemnation, life or death, from Him. 

That judgment, persistent all through each of our lives, ispreliminary to the future tribunal and sentence. The Apostle employsin this context two distinct words, both of which are translated inour version 'judge. ' The one which is used in these three clauses, onwhich I have been commenting, means a preliminary examination, andthe one which is used in the next verse means a final decisive trialand sentence. So, dear brethren, Christ is gathering materials forHis final sentence; and you and I are writing the depositions whichwill be adduced in evidence. Oh! how little all that the world mayhave said about a man will matter then! Think of a man standingbefore that great white throne, and saying, 'I held a very high placein the estimation of my neighbours. The newspapers and the reviewsblew my trumpet assiduously. My name was carved upon the plinth of amarble statue, that my fellow-citizens set up in honour of mymany virtues, '--and the name was illegible centuries before thestatue was burned in the last fire!

Brother! seek for the praise from Him, which is praise indeed. If Hesays, 'Well done, good and faithful servant, ' it matters little whatcensures men may pass on us. If He says, 'I never knew you, ' alltheir praises will not avail. 'Wherefore we labour that, whetherpresent or absent, we may be well-pleasing to Him. '

THE FESTAL LIFE

 'Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven . .. But with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. '--1 COR. V. 8. 

There had been hideous immorality in the Corinthian Church. Paul hadstruck at it with heat and force, sternly commanding the exclusion ofthe sinner. He did so on the ground of the diabolical power ofinfection possessed by evil, and illustrated that by the very obviousmetaphor of leaven, a morsel of which, as he says, 'will leaven thewhole lump, ' or, as we say, 'batch. ' But the word 'leaven' drew upfrom the depths of his memory a host of sacred associations connectedwith the Jewish Passover. He remembered the sedulous hunting in everyJewish house for every scrap of leavened matter; the slaying of thePaschal Lamb, and the following feast. Carried away by theseassociations, he forgets the sin in the Corinthian Church for amoment, and turns to set forth, in the words of the text, a very deepand penetrating view of what the Christian life is, how it issustained, and what it demands. 'Wherefore, ' says he, 'let us keepthe feast . .. With the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 'That 'wherefore' takes us back to the words before it, And what arethese? 'Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us'; therefore--becauseof that sacrifice, to us is granted the power, and on us is laidimperatively the obligation, to make life a festival and to purgeourselves. Now, in the notion of a feast, there are two thingsincluded--joy and plentiful sustenance. So there are three pointshere, which I have already indicated--what the Christian life is, afestival; on what it is sustained, the Paschal Sacrifice; what itdemands, scrupulous purging out of the old leaven. 

I. The Christian life ought to be a continual festival. 

The Christian life a feast? It is more usually represented as afight, a wrestle, a race; and such metaphors correspond, as it wouldappear, far more closely to the facts of our environment, and to theexperiences of our hearts, than does such a metaphor as this. But themetaphor of the festival goes deeper than that of the fight or race, and it does not ignore the strenuous and militant side of theChristian life. No man ever lived a more strenuous life than Paul; noman had heavier tasks, and did them more cheerily; no man had asterner fight and fought it more bravely. There is nothing soft, Epicurean, or oblivious of the patent sad facts of humanity in thedeclaration that after all, beneath all, above all, central to all, the Christian life is a glad festival, when it is the life that itought to be. 

But you say, 'Ah! it is all very well to call it so; but in the firstplace, continual joy is impossible in the presence of thedifficulties, and often sadnesses, that meet us on our life's path;and, in the second place, it is folly to tell us to pump up emotions, or to ignore the occasions for much heaviness and sorrow of heart. 'True; but, still, it is possible to cultivate such a temper as makeslife habitually joyful. We can choose the aspect under which we bypreference and habitually regard our lives. All emotion follows upona preceding thought, or sensible experience, and we can pick theobjects of our thoughts, and determine what aspect of our lives tolook at most. 

The sky is often piled with stormy, heaped-up masses of blackness, but between them are lakes of calm blue. We can choose whether welook at the clouds or at the blue. _These_ are in the lowerranges; _that_ fills infinite spaces, upwards and out to thehorizon. These are transient, eating themselves away even whilst welook, and black and thunderous as they may be, they are there but fora moment--that is perennial. If we are wise, we shall fix our gazemuch rather on the blue than on the ugly cloud-rack that hides it, and thus shall minister to ourselves occasions for the noble kind ofjoy which is not noisy and boisterous, 'like the crackling of thornsunder a pot, ' and does not foam itself away by its very ebullience, but is calm like the grounds of it; still, like the heaven to whichit looks; eternal, like the God on whom it is fastened. If we wouldonly steadfastly remember that the one source of worthy and enduringjoy is God Himself, and listen to the command, 'Rejoice in the Lord, 'we should find it possible to 'rejoice always. ' For that thought ofHim, His sufficiency, His nearness, His encompassing presence, Hisprospering eye, His aiding hand, His gentle consolation, His enablinghelp will take the sting out of even the bitterest of our sorrows, and will brace us to sustain the heaviest, otherwise crushingburdens, and greatly to 'rejoice, though now for a season we are inheaviness through manifold temptations. ' The Gulf Stream rushes intothe northern hemisphere, melts the icebergs and warms the Polar seas, and so the joy of the Lord, if we set it before us as we can andshould do, will minister to us a gladness which will make our lives aperpetual feast. 

But there is another thing that we can do; that is, we can clearlyrecognise the occasions for sorrow in our experience, and yetinterpret them by the truths of the Christian faith. That is to say, we can think of them, not so much as they tend to make us sad orglad, but as they tend to make us more assured of our possession of, more ardent in our love towards, and more submissive in our attitudeto, the all-ordering Love which is God. Brethren, if we thought oflife, and all its incidents, even when these are darkest and mostthreatening, as being what it and they indeed are, His training of usinto capacity for fuller blessedness, because fuller possession ofHimself, we should be less startled at the commandment, 'Rejoice inthe Lord always, ' and should feel that it was possible, though thefigtree did not blossom, and there was no fruit in the vine, thoughthe flocks were cut off from the pastures, and the herds from thestall, yet to rejoice in the God of our salvation. Rightly understoodand pondered on, all the darkest passages of life are but like thecloud whose blackness determines the brightness of the rainbow on itsfront. Rightly understood and reflected on, these will teach us thatthe paradoxical commandment, 'Count it all joy that ye fall intodivers temptations, ' is, after all, the voice of true wisdom speakingat the dictation of a clear-eyed faith. 

This text, since it is a commandment, implies that obedience to it, and therefore the realisation of this continual festal aspect oflife, is very largely in our own power. Dispositions differ, some ofus are constitutionally inclined to look at the blacker, and some atthe brighter, side of our experiences. But our Christianity is worthlittle unless it can modify, and to some extent change, our naturaltendencies. The joy of the Lord being our strength, the cultivationof joy in the Lord is largely our duty. Christian people do notsufficiently recognise that it is as incumbent on them to seek afterthis continual fountain of calm and heavenly joy flowing throughtheir lives, as it is to cultivate some of the more recognisedvirtues and graces of Christian conduct and character. 

Secondly, we have here--

II. The Christian life is a continual feeding on a sacrifice. 

'Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Wherefore let us keep thefeast. ' It is very remarkable that this is the only place in Paul'swritings where he articulately pronounces that the Paschal Lamb is atype of Jesus Christ. There is only one other instance in the NewTestament where that is stated with equal clearness and emphasis, andthat is in John's account of the Crucifixion, where he recognises thefact that Christ died with limbs unbroken, as being a fulfilment, inthe New Testament sense of that word, of what was enjoined in regardto the antitype, 'a bone of him shall not be broken. '

But whilst the definite statement which precedes my text that Christis 'our Passover, ' and 'sacrificed for us' as such, is unique inPaul's writings, the thought to which it gives clear and crystallisedexpression runs through the whole of the New Testament. It underliesthe Lord's Supper. Did you ever think of how great was theself-assertion of Jesus Christ when He laid His hand on thatsacredest of Jewish rites, which had been established, as the wordsof the institution of it say, to be 'a perpetual memorial through allgenerations, ' brushed it on one side, and in effect, said: 'You donot need to remember the Passover any more. I am the true PaschalLamb, whose blood sprinkled on the doorposts averts the sword of thedestroying Angel, whose flesh, partaken of, gives immortal life. Remember Me, and this do in remembrance of Me. ' The Lord's Supperwitnesses that Jesus thought Himself to be what Paul tells theCorinthians that He is, even our Passover, sacrificed for us. But thepoint to be observed is this, that just as in that ancient ritual, the lamb slain became the food of the Israelites, so with us theChrist who has died is to be the sustenance of our souls, and of ourChristian life. 'Therefore let us keep the feast. '

Feed upon Him; that is the essential central requirement for allChristian life, and what does feeding on Him mean? 'How can this mangive us his flesh to eat?' said the Jews, and the answer is plainnow, though so obscure then. The flesh which He gave for the life ofthe world in His death, must by us be taken for the very nourishmentof our souls, by the simple act of faith in Him. That is the feedingwhich brings not only sustenance but life. Christ's death for us isthe basis, but it is only the basis, of Christ's living in us, andHis death for me is of no use at all to me unless He that died for melives in me. We feed on Him by faith, which not only trusts to theSacrifice as atoning for sin, but feeds on it as communicating andsustaining eternal life--'Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, wherefore let us keep the Feast. '

Again, we keep the feast when our minds feed upon Christ bycontemplation of what He is, what He has done, what He is doing, whatHe will do; when we take Him as 'the Master-light of all our seeing, 'and in Him, His words and works, His Passion, Resurrection, Ascension, Session as Sovereign at the right hand of God, find theperfect revelation of what God is, the perfect discovery of what manis, the perfect disclosure of what sin is, the perfect prophecy ofwhat man may become, the Light of light, the answer to every questionthat our spirits can put about the loftiest verities of God and man, the universe and the future. We feed on Christ when, with lowlysubmission, we habitually subject thoughts, purposes, desires, to Hisauthority, and when we let His will flow into, and make plastic andsupple, our wills. We nourish our wills by submitting them to Jesus, and we feed on Him when we not only say 'Lord! Lord!' but when we dothe things that He says. We feed on Christ, when we let His great, sacred, all-wise, all-giving, all satisfying love flow into ourrestless hearts and make them still, enter into our vagrantaffections and fix them on Himself. Thus when mind and conscience andwill and heart all turn to Jesus, and in Him find their sustenance, we shall be filled with the feast of fat things which He has preparedfor all people. With that bread we shall be satisfied, and with itonly, for the husks of the swine are no food for the Father's son, and we 'spend our money for that which is not bread, and our labourfor that which satisfieth not, ' if we look anywhere else than to thePaschal Lamb slain for us for the food of our souls. 

III. The Christian life is a continual purging out of the old leaven. 

I need not remind you how vivid and profoundly significant thatemblem of leaven, as applied to all manner of evil, is. But let meremind you how, just as in the Jewish Ritual, the cleansing from allthat was leavened was the essential pre-requisite to theparticipation in the feast, feeding on Jesus Christ, as I have triedto describe it, is absolutely impossible unless our leaven iscleansed away. Children spoil their appetites for wholesome food byeating sweetmeats. Men destroy their capacity for feeding on Christby hungry desires, and gluttonous satisfying of those desires withthe delusive sweets of this passing world. But, my brother, yourexperience, if you are a Christian man at all, will tell you that inthe direct measure in which you have been drawn away into palteringwith evil, your appetite for Christ and your capacity for gazing uponHim, contemplating Him, feeding on Him, has died out. There comes akind of constriction in a man's throat when he is hungering afterlesser good, especially when there is a tinge of evil in the supposedgood that he is hungering after, which incapacitates Him from eatingthe bread of God, which is Jesus Christ. 

But let us remember that absolute cleansing from all sin is notessential, in order to have real participation in Jesus Christ. TheJew had to take every scrap of leaven out of his house before hebegan the Passover. If that were the condition for us, alas! for usall; but the effort after purity, though it has not entirely attainedits aim, is enough. Sin abhorred does not prevent a man fromparticipating in the Bread that came down from heaven. 

Then observe, too, that for this power to cleanse ourselves, we musthave had some participation in Christ, by which there is given to usthat new life that conquers evil. In the words immediately precedingmy text, the Apostle bases his injunction to purge out the old leavenon the fact that 'ye are unleavened. ' Ideally, in so far as the powerpossessed by them was concerned, these Corinthians were unleavened, even whilst they were bid to purge out the leaven. That is to say, bewhat you are; realise your ideal, utilise the power you possess, andsince by your faith there has been given to you a new life that canconquer all corruption and sin, see that you use the life that isgiven. Purge out the old leaven because ye are unleavened. 

One last word--this stringent exhortation, which makes Christianeffort after absolute purity a Christian duty, and the condition ofparticipation in the Paschal Lamb, is based upon that thought towhich I have already referred, of the diabolical power of infectionwhich Evil possesses. Either you must cast it out, or it will chokethe better thing in you. It spreads and grows, and propagates itself, and works underground through and through the whole mass. Awater-weed got into some of our canals years ago, and it has all butchoked some of them. The slime on a pond spreads its green mantleover the whole surface with rapidity. If we do not eject Evil it willeject the good from us. Use the implanted power to cast out thiscreeping, advancing evil. Sometimes a wine-grower has gone into hiscellars, and found in a cask no wine, but a monstrous fungus intowhich all the wine had, in the darkness, passed unnoticed. I fearsome Christian people, though they do not know it, have somethinglike that going on in them. 

It is possible for us all to keep this perpetual festival. To livein, on, for, Jesus Christ will give us victory over enemies, burdens, sorrows, sins. We may, if we will, dwell in a calm zone where notempests rage, hear a perpetual strain of sweet music persistingthrough thunder peals of sorrow and suffering, and find a tablespread for us in the presence of our enemies, at which we shall renewour strength for conflict, and whence we shall rise to fight the goodfight a little longer, till we sit with Him at His table in HisKingdom, and 'eat, and live for ever. '

FORMS _VERSUS_ CHARACTER

 'Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. '--1 COR. Vii. 19. 

 'For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. '--GAL. V. 6. 

 'For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. '--GAL. Vi. 16 (R. V. ). 

The great controversy which embittered so much of Paul's life, andmarred so much of his activity, turned upon the question whether aheathen man could come into the Church simply by the door of faith, or whether he must also go through the gate of circumcision. We allknow how Paul answered the question. Time, which settles allcontroversies, has settled that one so thoroughly that it isimpossible to revive any kind of interest in it; and it may seem tobe a pure waste of time to talk about it. But the principles thatfought then are eternal, though the forms in which they manifestthemselves vary with every varying age. 

The Ritualist--using that word in its broadest sense--on the onehand, and the Puritan on the other, represent permanent tendencies ofhuman nature; and we find to-day the old foes with new faces. Thesethree passages, which I have read, are Paul's deliverance on thequestion of the comparative value of external rites and spiritualcharacter. They are remarkable both for the identity in the formerpart of each and for the variety in the latter. In all the threecases he affirms, almost in the same language, that 'circumcision isnothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, ' that the Ritualist's riteand the Puritan's protest are equally insignificant in comparisonwith higher things. And then he varies the statement of what thehigher things are, in a very remarkable and instructive fashion. The'keeping of the commandments of God, ' says one of the texts, is theall-important matter. Then, as it were, he pierces deeper, and inanother of the texts (I take the liberty of varying their order)pronounces that 'a new creature' is the all-important thing. And thenhe pierces still deeper to the bottom of all, in the third text, andsays the all-important thing is 'faith which worketh by love. '

I think I shall best bring out the force of these words by dealingfirst with that emphatic threefold proclamation of the nullity of allexternalism; and then with the singular variations in the triplestatement of what is essential, viz. Spiritual conduct and character. 

I. First, the emphatic proclamation of the nullity of outward rites. 

'Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, ' say twotexts. 'Circumcision availeth nothing, and uncircumcision availethnothing, ' says the other. It neither is anything nor does anything. Did Paul say that because circumcision was a Jewish rite? No. As Ibelieve, he said it because it was _a rite_; and because he hadlearned that the one thing needful was spiritual character, and thatno external ceremonial of any sort could produce that. I think we areperfectly warranted in taking this principle of my text, and inextending it beyond the limits of the Jewish rite about which Paulwas speaking. For if you remember, he speaks about baptism, in thefirst chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, in a preciselysimilar tone and for precisely the same reason, when he says, ineffect, 'I baptized Crispus and Gaius and the household of Stephanas, and I think these are all. I am not quite sure. I do not keep anykind of record of such things; God did not send me to baptize, Hesent me to preach the Gospel. '

The thing that produced the spiritual result was not the rite, butthe truth, and therefore he felt that his function was to preach thetruth and leave the rite to be administered by others. Therefore wecan extend the principle here to all externalisms of worship, in allforms, in all churches, and say that in comparison with theessentials of an inward Christianity they are nothing and they donothing. 

They have their value. As long as we are here on earth, living in theflesh, we must have outward forms and symbolical rites. It is inHeaven that the seer 'saw no temple. ' Our sense-bound naturerequires, and thankfully avails itself of, the help of external ritesand ceremonials to lift us up towards the Object of our devotion. Aman prays all the better if he bow his head, shut his eyes, and bendhis knees. Forms do help us to the realisation of the realities, andthe truths which they express and embody. Music may waft our souls tothe heavens, and pictures may stir deep thoughts. That is the simpleprinciple on which the value of all external aids to devotiondepends. They may be helps towards the appreciation of divine truth, and to the suffusing of the heart with devout emotions which may leadto building up a holy character. 

There is a worth, therefore--an auxiliary and subordinate worth--inthese things, and in that respect they are _not_ nothing, nor dothey 'avail nothing. ' But then all external rites tend to usurp morethan belongs to them, and in our weakness we are apt to cleave tothem, and instead of using them as means to lift us higher, to stayin them, and as a great many of us do, to mistake the meregratification of taste and the excitement of the sensibilities forworship. A bit of stained glass may be glowing with angel-forms andpictured saints, but it always keeps some of the light out, and italways hinders us from seeing through it. And all external worshipand form have so strong a tendency to usurp more than belongs tothem, and to drag us down to their own level, even whilst we thinkthat we are praying, that I believe the wisest man will try to paredown the externals of his worship to the lowest possible point. Ifthere be as much body as will keep a soul in, as much form as willembody the spirit, that is all that we want. What is more isdangerous. 

All form in worship is like fire, it is a good servant but it is abad master, and it needs to be kept very rigidly in subordination, orelse the spirituality of Christian worship vanishes before men know;and they are left with their dead forms which are onlyevils--crutches that make people limp by the very act of using them. 

Now, my dear friends, when that has happened, when men begin to say, as the people in Paul's time were saying about circumcision, and aspeople are saying in this day about Christian rites, that they arenecessary, then it is needful to take up Paul's ground and to say, 'No! they are nothing!' They are useful in a certain place, but ifyou make them obligatory, if you make them essential, if you say thatgrace is miraculously conveyed through them, then it is needful thatwe should raise a strong note of protestation, and declare theirabsolute nullity for the highest purpose, that of making thatspiritual character which alone is essential. 

And I believe that this strange recrudescence--to use a modernword--of ceremonialism and aesthetic worship which we see all roundabout us, not only in the ranks of the Episcopal Church, but amongstNonconformists, who are sighing for a less bare service, and here andthere are turning their chapels into concert-rooms, and instead ofpreaching the Gospel are having 'Services of Song' and the like--thatall this makes it as needful to-day as ever it was to say to men:'Forms are not worship. Rites may crush the spirit. Men may yield tothe sensuous impressions which they produce, and be lapped in anatmosphere of aesthetic emotion, without any real devotion. '

Such externals are only worth anything if they make us grasp morefirmly with our understandings and feel more profoundly with ourhearts, the great truths of the Gospel. If they do that, they help;if they are not doing that, they hinder, and are to be foughtagainst. And so we have again to proclaim to-day, as Paul did, 'Circumcision is nothing, ' 'but the keeping of the commandments ofGod. '

Then notice with what remarkable fairness and boldness and breadththe Apostle here adds that other clause: 'and uncircumcision isnothing. ' It is a very hard thing for a man whose life has been spentin fighting against an error, not to exaggerate the value of hisprotest. It is a very hard thing for a man who has been deliveredfrom the dependence upon forms, not to fancy that his formlessness iswhat the other people think that their forms are. The Puritan whodoes not believe that a man can be a good man because he is aRitualist or a Roman Catholic, is committing the very same error asthe Ritualist or the Roman Catholic who does not believe that thePuritan can be a Christian unless he has been 'christened. ' The twopeople are exactly the same, only the one has hold of the stick atone end, and the other at the other. There may be as much idolatry insuperstitious reliance upon the bare worship as in the advocacy ofthe ornate; and many a Nonconformist who fancies that he has 'neverbowed the knee to Baal' is as true an idol-worshipper in hissuperstitious abhorrence of the ritualism that he sees in othercommunities, as are the men who trust in it the most. 

It is a large attainment in Christian character to be able to saywith Paul, 'Circumcision is nothing, and my own favourite point ofuncircumcision is nothing either. Neither the one side nor the othertouches the essentials. '

II. Now let us look at the threefold variety of the designation ofthese essentials here. 

In our first text from the Epistle to the Corinthians we read, 'Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but thekeeping of the commandments of God. ' If we finished the sentence itwould be, 'but the keeping of the commandments of God is everything. '

And by that 'keeping the commandments, ' of course, the Apostle doesnot mean merely external obedience. He means something far deeperthan that, which I put into this plain word, that the one essentialof a Christian life is the conformity of the will with God's--notthe external obedience merely, but the entire surrender and thesubmission of my will to the will of my Father in Heaven. That is theall-important thing; that is what God wants; that is the end of allrites and ceremonies; that is the end of all revelation and of allutterances of the divine heart. The Bible, Christ's mission, Hispassion and death, the gift of His Divine Spirit, and every part ofthe divine dealings in providence, all converge upon this one aim andgoal. For this purpose the Father worketh hitherto, and Christ works, that man's will may yield and bow itself wholly and happily andlovingly to the great infinite will of the Father in heaven. 

Brethren! that is the perfection of a man's nature, when his willfits on to God's like one of Euclid's triangles superimposed uponanother, and line for line coincides. When his will allows a freepassage to the will of God, without resistance or deflection, aslight travels through transparent glass; when his will responds tothe touch of God's finger upon the keys, like the telegraphic needleto the operator's hand, then man has attained all that God andreligion can do for him, all that his nature is capable of; and farbeneath his feet may be the ladders of ceremonies and forms andoutward acts, by which he climbed to that serene and blessed height, 'Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but thekeeping of God's commandments is everything. '

That submission of will is the sum and the test of your Christianity. Your Christianity does not consist only in a mere something which youcall faith in Jesus Christ. It does not consist in emotions, howeverdeep and blessed and genuine they may be. It does not consist in theacceptance of a creed. All these are means to an end. They are meantto drive the wheel of life, to build up character, to make yourdeepest wish to be, 'Father! not my will, but Thine, be done. ' In themeasure in which that is your heart's desire, and not onehair's-breadth further, have you a right to call yourself aChristian. 

But, then, I can fancy a man saying: 'It is all very well to talkabout bowing the will in this fashion; how can I do that?' Well, letus take our second text--the third in the order of theiroccurrence--'For neither circumcision is anything, noruncircumcision, but a new creature. ' That is to say, if we are everto keep the will of God we must be made over again. Ay! we must! Ourown consciences tell us that; the history of all the efforts thatever we have made--and I suppose all of us have made some now andthen, more or less earnest and more or less persistent--tells us thatthere needs to be a stronger hand than ours to come into the fight ifit is ever to be won by us. There is nothing more heartless and moreimpotent than to preach, 'Bow your wills to God, and then you will behappy; bow your wills to God, and then you will be good. ' If that isall the preacher has to say, his powerless words will but provoke theanswer, 'We cannot. Tell the leopard to change his spots, or theEthiopian his skin, as soon as tell a man to reduce this revoltedkingdom within him to obedience, and to bow his will to the will ofGod. We cannot do it. ' But, brethren, in that word, 'a new creature, 'lies a promise from God; for a creature implies a creator. 'It is Hethat hath made us, and not we ourselves. ' The very heart of whatChrist has to offer us is the gift of His own life to dwell in ourhearts, and by its mighty energy to make us free from the law of sinand death which binds our wills. We may have our spirits moulded intoHis likeness, and new tastes, and new desires, and new capacitiesinfused into us, so as that we shall not be left with our own poorpowers to try and force ourselves into obedience to God's will, butthat submission and holiness and love that keeps the commandments ofGod, will spring up in our renewed spirits as their natural productand growth. Oh! you men and women who have been honestly trying, halfyour lifetime, to make yourselves what you know God wants you to be, and who are obliged to confess that you have failed, hearken to themessage: 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old thingsare passed away. ' The one thing needful is keeping the commandmentsof God, and the only way by which we can keep the commandments of Godis that we should be formed again into the likeness of Him of whomalone it is true that 'He did always the things that pleased' God. 

And so we come to the last of these great texts: 'In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faithwhich worketh by love. ' That is to say, if we are to be made overagain, we must have faith in Christ Jesus. We have got to the rootnow, so far as we are concerned. We must keep the commandments ofGod; if we are to keep the commandments we must be made over again, and if our hearts ask how can we receive that new creating power intoour lives, the answer is, by 'faith which worketh by love. '

Paul did not believe that external rites could make men partakers ofa new nature, but he believed that if a man would trust in JesusChrist, the life of that Christ would flow into his opened heart, anda new spirit and nature would be born in him. And, therefore, histriple requirements come all down to this one, so far as we areconcerned, as the beginning and the condition of the other two. 'Neither circumcision does anything, nor uncircumcision, but faithwhich worketh by love, ' does everything. He that trusts Christ openshis heart to Christ, who comes with His new-creating Spirit, andmakes us willing in the day of His power to keep His commandments. 

But faith leads us to obedience in yet another fashion, than thisopening of the door of the heart for the entrance of the new-creatingSpirit. It leads to it in the manner which is expressed by the wordsof our text, 'worketh by love. ' Faith shows itself living, because itleads us to love, and through love it produces its effects uponconduct. 

Two things are implied in this designation of faith. If you trustChrist you will love Him. That is plain enough. And you will not loveHim unless you trust Him. Though it lies wide of my present purpose, let us take this lesson in passing. You cannot work yourself up intoa spasm or paroxysm of religious emotion and love by resolution or byeffort. All that you can do is to go and look at the Master and getnear Him, and that will warm you up. You can love if you trust. Yourtrust will make you love; unless you trust you will never love Him. 

The second thing implied is, that if you love you will obey. That isplain enough. The keeping of the commandments will be easy wherethere is love in the heart. The will will bow where there is love inthe heart. Love is the only fire that is hot enough to melt the ironobstinacy of a creature's will. The will cannot be driven. Strike itwith violence and it stiffens; touch it gently and it yields. If youtry to put an iron collar upon the will, like the demoniac in theGospels, the touch of the apparent restraint drives it into fury, andit breaks the bands asunder. Fasten it with the silken leash of love, and a 'little child' can lead it. So faith works by love, becausewhom we trust we shall love, and whom we love we shall obey. 

Therefore we have got to the root now, and nothing is needful but anoperative faith, out of which will come all the blessed possession ofa transforming Spirit, and all sublimities and noblenesses of anobedient and submissive will. 

My brother! Paul and James shake hands here. There is a 'faith' socalled, which does not work. It is dead! Let me beseech you, none ofyou to rely upon what you choose to call your faith in Jesus Christ, but examine it. Does it do anything? Does it help you to be like Him?Does it open your hearts for His Spirit to come in? Does it fill themwith love to that Master, a love which proves itself by obedience?Plain questions, questions that any man can answer; questions that goto the root of the whole matter. If your faith does that, it isgenuine; if it does not, it is not. 

And do not trust either to forms, or to your freedom from forms. Theywill not save your souls, they will not make you more Christ-like. They will not help you to pardon, purity, holiness, blessedness. Inthese respects neither if we have them are we the better, nor if wehave them not are we the worse. If you are trusting to Christ, and bythat faith are having your hearts moulded and made over again intoall holy obedience, then you have all that you need. Unless you have, though you partook of all Christian rites, though you believed allChristian truth, though you fought against superstitious reliance onforms, you have not the one thing needful, for 'in Christ Jesusneither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faithwhich worketh by love. '

SLAVES AND FREE

 'He that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's free man: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant. '--1 COR. Vii. 22. 

This remarkable saying occurs in a remarkable connection, and is usedfor a remarkable purpose. The Apostle has been laying down theprinciple, that the effect of true Christianity is greatly todiminish the importance of outward circumstance. And on thatprinciple he bases an advice, dead in the teeth of all the maximsrecognised by worldly prudence. He says, in effect, 'Mind very littleabout getting on and getting up. Do God's will wherever you are, andlet the rest take care of itself. ' Now, the world says, 'Struggle, wriggle, fight, do anything to better yourself. ' Paul says, 'You willbetter yourself by getting nearer God, and if you secure that--artthou a slave? care not for it; if thou mayest be free, use it rather;art thou bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed; art thou loosed?seek not to be bound; art thou circumcised? seek not to beuncircumcised; art thou a Gentile? seek not to become in outward forma Jew. ' Never mind about externals: the main thing is our relation toJesus Christ, because in that there is what will be compensation forall the disadvantages of any disadvantageous circumstances, and inthat there is what will take the gilt off the gingerbread of anysuperficial and fleeting good, and will bring a deep-seated andpermanent blessing. 

Now, I am not going to deal in this sermon with that generalprinciple, nor even to be drawn aside to speak of the tone in whichthe Apostle here treats the great abomination of slavery, and thesingular advice that he gives to its victims; though theconsideration of the tone of Christianity to that master-evil of theold world might yield a great many thoughts very relevant to pressingquestions of to-day. But my one object is to fix upon the combinationwhich he here brings out in regard to the essence of the Christianlife; how that in itself it contains both members of the antithesis, servitude and freedom; so that the Christian man who is freeexternally is Christ's slave, and the Christian man who is outwardlyin bondage is emancipated by his union with Jesus Christ. 

There are two thoughts here, the application in diverse directions ofthe same central idea--viz. The slavery of Christ's free men, and thefreedom of Christ's slaves. And I deal briefly with these two now. 

I. First, then, note how, according to the one-half of theantithesis, Christ's freed men are slaves. 

Now, the way in which the New Testament deals with that awfulwickedness of a man held in bondage by a man is extremely remarkable. It might seem as if such a hideous piece of immorality werealtogether incapable of yielding any lessons of good. But theApostles have no hesitation whatever in taking slavery as a clearpicture of the relation in which all Christian people stand to JesusChrist their Lord. He is the owner and we are the slaves. For youmust remember that the word most inadequately rendered here, 'servant' does not mean a hired man who has, of his own volition, given himself for a time to do specific work and get wages for it;but it means 'a bond-slave, ' a chattel owned by another. All the uglyassociations which gather round the word are transported bodily intothe Christian region, and there, instead of being hideous, take on ashape of beauty, and become expressions of the deepest and mostblessed truths, in reference to Christian men's dependence upon, andsubmission to, and place in the household and the heart of, JesusChrist, their Owner. 

And what is the centre idea that lies in this metaphor, if you liketo call it so? It is this: absolute authority, which has for itscorrelative--for the thing in us that answers to it--unconditionalsubmission. Jesus Christ has the perfect right to command each of us, and we are bound to bow ourselves, unreluctant, unmurmuring, unhesitating, with complete submission at His feet. His authority, and our submission, go far, far deeper than the most despotic sway ofthe most tyrannous master, or than the most abject submission of themost downtrodden slave. For no man can coerce another man's will, andno man can require more, or can ever get more, than that outwardobedience which may be rendered with the most sullen and fixedrebellion of a hating heart and an obstinate will. But Jesus Christdemands that if we call ourselves Christians we shall bring, not ourmembers only as instruments to Him, in outward surrender and service, but that we shall yield ourselves, with our capacities of willing anddesiring, utterly, absolutely, constantly to Him. 

The founder of the Jesuits laid it down as a rule for his Order thateach member of it was to be at the master's disposal like a corpse, or a staff in the hand of a blind man. That was horrible. But theabsolute putting of myself at the disposal of another's will, whichis expressed so tyrannously in Loyola's demand, is the simple duty ofevery Christian, and as long as we have recalcitrating wills, whichrecoil at anything which Christ commands or appoints, and perk uptheir own inclinations in the face of His solemn commandment, or thatshrink from doing and suffering whatsoever He imposes and enjoins, wehave still to learn what it means to be Christ's disciples. 

Dear brethren, absolute submission is not all that makes a disciple, but, depend upon it, there is no discipleship worth calling by thename without it. So I come to each of you with His message toyou:--Down on your faces before Him! Bow your obstinate will, surrender yourselves and accept Him as absolute, dominant Lord overyour whole being! Are you Christians after that pattern? Beingfreemen, are you Christ's slaves?

It does not matter what sort of work the owner sets his household ofslaves to do. One man is picked out to be his pipe-bearer, or hisshoe-cleaner; and, if the master is a sovereign, another one is sentoff, perhaps, to be governor of a province, or one of his council. They are all slaves; and the service that each does is equallyimportant. 

 'All service ranks the same with God: There is no last nor first. '

What does it matter what you and I are set to do? Nothing. And, so, why need we struggle and wear our hearts out to get into conspicuousplaces, or to do work that shall bring some revenue of praise saidglory to ourselves? 'Play well thy part; there all the honour lies, 'the world can say. Serve Christ in anything, and all His servants arealike in His sight. 

The slave-owner had absolute power of life and death over hisdependants. He could split up families; he could sell away dear ones;he could part husband and wife, parent and child. The slave was his, and he could do what he liked with his own, according to the cruellogic of ancient law. And Jesus Christ, the Lord of the household, the Lord of providence, can say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes intothe mists and the shadows of death. And He can say to those who aremost closely united, 'Loose your hands! I have need of one of youyonder. I have need of the other one here. ' And if we are wise, if weare His servants in any real deep sense, we shall not kick againstthe appointments of His supreme, autocratic, and yet most lovingProvidence, but be content to leave the arbitrament of life anddeath, of love united or of love parted, in His hands, and say, 'Whether we live we are the Lord's, or whether we die we are theLord's; living or dying we are His. '

The slave-owner owned all that the slave owned. He gave him a littlecottage, with some humble sticks of furniture in it; and a bit ofground on which to grow his vegetables for his family. But he to whomthe owner of the vegetables and the stools belonged owned them too. And if we are Christ's servants, our banker's book is Christ's, andour purse is Christ's, and our investments are Christ's; and ourmills, and our warehouses, and our shops and our businesses are His. We are not His slaves, if we arrogate to ourselves the right of doingwhat we like with His possessions. 

And, then, still further, there comes into our Apostle's picture hereyet another point of resemblance between slaves and the disciples ofJesus. For the hideous abominations of the slave-market aretransferred to the Christian relation, and defecated and cleansed ofall their abominations and cruelty thereby. For what immediatelyfollows my text is, 'Ye are bought with a price. ' Jesus Christ haswon us for Himself. There is only one price that can buy a heart, andthat is a heart. There is only one way of getting a man to be mine, and that is by giving myself to be his. So we come to the very vital, palpitating centre of all Christianity when we say, 'He gave Himselffor us, that He might acquire to Himself a people for Hispossession. ' Thus His purchase of His slave, when we remember that itis the buying of a man in his inmost personality, changes all thatmight seem harsh in the requirement of absolute submission into themost gracious and blessed privilege. For when I am won by another, because that other has given him or her whole self to me, then thelanguage of love is submission, and the conformity of the two willsis the delight of each loving will. Whoever has truly been wooed intorelationship with Jesus, by reflection upon the love with which Jesusgrapples him to His heart, finds that there is nothing so blessed asto yield one's self utterly and for ever to His service. 

The one bright point in the hideous institution of slavery was, thatit bound the master to provide for the slave, and though that wasdegrading to the inferior, it made his life a careless, child-like, merry life, even amidst the many cruelties and abominations of thesystem. But what was a good, dashed with a great deal of evil, inthat relation of man to man, comes to be a pure blessing and good inour relation to Him. If I am Christ's slave, it is His business totake care of His own property, and I do not need to trouble myselfmuch about it. If I am His slave, He will be quite sure to find me infood and necessaries enough to get His tale of work out of me; and Imay cast all my care upon Him, for He careth for me. So, brethren, absolute submission and the devolution of all anxiety on the Masterare what is laid upon us, if we are Christ's slaves. 

II. Then there is the other side, about which I must say, secondly, aword or two; and that is, the freedom of Christ's slaves. 

As the text puts it, 'He that is called, being a servant, is theLord's freedman. ' A freedman was one who was emancipated, and whotherefore stood in a relation of gratitude to his emancipator andpatron. So in the very word 'freedman' there is contained the idea ofsubmission to Him who has struck off the fetters. 

But, apart from that, let me just remind you, in a sentence or two, that whilst there are many other ways by which men have sought, andhave partially attained, deliverance from the many fetters andbondages that attach to our earthly life, the one perfect way bywhich a man can be truly, in the deepest sense of the word and in hisinmost being, a free man is by faith in Jesus Christ. 

I do not for a moment forget how wisdom and truth, and noble aims andhigh purposes, and culture of various kinds have, in lower degreesand partially, emancipated men from self and flesh and sin and theworld, and all the other fetters that bind us. But sure I am thatthe process is never so completely and so assuredly effected as by thesimple way of absolute submission to Jesus Christ, taking Him for thesupreme and unconditional Arbiter and Sovereign of a life. 

If we do that, brethren, if we really yield ourselves to Him, inheart and will, in life and conduct, submitting our understanding toHis infallible Word, and our wills to His authority, regulating ourconduct by His perfect pattern, and in all things seeking to serveHim and to realise His presence, then be sure of this, that we shallbe set free from the one real bondage, and that is the bondage of ourown wicked selves. There is no such tyranny as mob tyranny; and thereis no such slavery as to be ruled by the mob of our own passions andlusts and inclinations and other meannesses that yelp and clamourwithin us, and seek to get hold of us and to sway. There is only oneway by which the brute domination of the lower part of our nature canbe surely and thoroughly put down, and that is by turning to JesusChrist and saying to Him, 'Lord! do Thou rule this anarchic kingdomwithin me, for I cannot govern it myself. Do Thou guide and directand subdue. ' You can only govern yourself and be free from thecompulsion of your own evil nature when you surrender the control tothe Master, and say ever, 'Speak, Lord! for Thy slave hears. Here amI, send me. '

And that is the only way by which a man can be delivered from thebondage of dependence upon outward things. I said at the beginning ofthese remarks that my text occurred in the course of a discussion inwhich the Apostle was illustrating the tendency of true Christianfaith to set man free from, and to make him largely independent of, the varieties in external circumstances. Christian faith does so, because it brings into a life a sufficient compensation for alllosses, limitations, and sorrows, and a good which is the reality ofwhich all earthly goods are but shadows. So the slave may be free inChrist, and the poor man may be rich in Him, and the sad man may bejoyful, and the joyful man may be delivered from excess of gladness, and the rich man be kept from the temptations and sins of wealth, andthe free man be taught to surrender his liberty to the Lord who makeshim free. Thus, if we have the all-sufficient compensation whichthere is in Jesus Christ, the satisfaction for all our needs anddesires, we do not need to trouble ourselves so much as we sometimesdo about these changing things round about us. Let them come, letthem go; let the darkness veil the light, and the light illuminatethe darkness; let summer and winter alternate; let tribulation andprosperity succeed each other; we have a source of blessednessunaffected by these. Ice may skin the surface of the lake, but deepbeneath, the water is at the same temperature in winter and insummer. Storms may sweep the face of the deep, but in the abyss thereis calm which is not stagnation. So he that cleaves to Christ isdelivered from the slavery that binds men to the details andaccidents of outward life. 

And if we are the servants of Christ, we shall be set free, in themeasure in which we are His, from the slavery which daily becomesmore oppressive as the means of communication become more complete, the slavery to popular opinion and to men round us. Dare to besingular; take your beliefs at first hand from the Master. Never mindwhat fellow-slaves say. It is His smile or frown that is ofimportance. 'Ye are bought with a price; be not servants of men. 'And so, brethren, 'choose you this day whom ye will serve. ' You arenot made to be independent. You must serve some thing or person. Recognise the narrow limitations within which your choice lies, andthe issues which depend upon it. It is not whether you will serveChrist or whether you will be free. It is whether you will serveChrist or your own worst self, the world, men, and I was going toadd, the flesh and the devil. Make your choice. He has bought you. You belong to Him by His death. Yield yourselves to Him, it is theonly way of breaking your chains. He that doeth sin is the servant ofsin. 'If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed, ' and notonly free; for the King's slaves are princes and nobles, and 'allthings are yours, and ye are Christ's. ' They who say to Him 'O Lord!truly I am Thy servant, ' receive from Him the rank of kings andpriests to God, and shall reign with Him for ever. 

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

 'Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God. '--1 COR. Vii. 24. 

You find that three times within the compass of a very few versesthis injunction is repeated. 'As God hath distributed to every man, 'says the Apostle in the seventeenth verse, 'as the Lord hath calledevery one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all the churches. 'Then again in the twentieth verse, 'Let every man abide in the samecalling wherein he is called. ' And then finally in our text. 

The reason for this emphatic reiteration is not difficult toascertain. There were strong temptations to restlessness besettingthe early Christians. The great change from heathenism toChristianity would seem to loosen the joints of all life, and havingbeen swept from their anchorage in religion, all external thingswould appear to be adrift. It was most natural that a man should seekto alter even the circumstances of his outward life, when such arevolution had separated him from his ancient self. Hence would tendto come the rupture of family ties, the separation of husband andwife, the Jewish convert seeking to become like a Gentile, theGentile seeking to become like a Jew; the slave trying to be free, the freeman, in some paroxysm of disgust at his former condition, trying to become a slave. These three cases are all referred to inthe context--marriage, circumcision, slavery. And for all three theApostle has the same advice to give--'Stop where you are. ' Inwhatever condition you were when God's invitation drew you toHimself--for that, and not being set to a 'vocation' in life, is themeaning of the word 'called' here--remain in it. 

And then, on the other hand, there was every reason why the Apostleand his co-workers should set themselves, by all means in theirpower, to oppose this restlessness. For, if Christianity in thoseearly days had once degenerated into the mere instrument of socialrevolution, its development would have been thrown back forcenturies, and the whole worth and power of it, for those who firstapprehended it, would have been lost. So you know Paul never said aword to encourage any precipitate attempts to change externals. Helet slavery--he let war alone; he let the tyranny of the Roman Empirealone--not because he was a coward, not because he thought thatthese things were not worth meddling with, but because he, like allwise men, believed in making the tree good and then its fruit good. He believed in the diffusion of the principles which he proclaimed, and the mighty Name which he served, as able to girdle thepoison-tree, and to take the bark off it, and the rest, the slowdying, might be left to the work of time. And the same general ideaunderlies the words of my text. 'Do not try to change, ' he says, 'donot trouble about external conditions; keep to your Christianprofession; let those alone, they will right themselves. Art thou aslave? Seek not to be freed. Art thou circumcised? Seek not to beuncircumcised. Get hold of the central, vivifying, transmutinginfluence, and all the rest is a question of time. '

But, besides this more especial application of the words of my textto the primitive times, it carries with it, dear brethren, a largegeneral principle that applies to all times--a principle, I may say, dead in the teeth of the maxims upon which life is being ordered bythe most of us. _Our_ maxim is, 'Get on!' Paul's is, 'Never mindabout getting _on_, get _up_!' Our notion is--'Try to make thecircumstances what I would like to have them. ' Paul's is--'Leavecircumstances to take care of themselves, or rather leave God to takecare of the circumstances. You get close to Him, and hold His hand, and everything else will right itself. ' Only he is not preachingstolid acquiescence. His previous injunctions were--'Let every manabide in the same calling wherein he was called. ' He sees that thatmay be misconceived and abused, and so, in his third reiteration ofthe precept, he puts in a word which throws a flood of light upon thewhole thing--'Let every man wherein he is called therein abide. ' Yes, but that is not all--'therein abide _with God_!' Ay, that is it! notan impossible stoicism; not hypocritical, fanatical contempt of theexternal. But whilst that gets its due force and weight, whilst aman yields himself in a measure to the natural tastes andinclinations which God has given him, and with the intention that heshould find there subordinate guidance and impulse for his life, still let him abide where he is called with God, and seek to increasehis fellowship with Him, as the main thing that he has to do. 

I. Thus we are led from the words before us first to the thought thatour chief effort in life ought to be union with God. 

'Abide with God, ' which, being put into other words, means, I think, mainly two things--constant communion, the occupation of all ournature with Him, and, consequently, the recognition of His will inall circumstances. 

As to the former, we have the mind and heart and will of God revealedto us for the light, the love, the obedience of our will and heartand mind; and our Apostle's precept is, first, that we should try, moment by moment, in all the bustle and stir of our daily life, tohave our whole being consciously directed to and engaged with, fertilised and calmed by contact with, the perfect and infinitenature of our Father in heaven. 

As we go to our work again to-morrow morning, what difference wouldobedience to this precept make upon my life and yours? Before allelse, and in the midst of all else, we should think of that DivineMind that in the heavens is waiting to illumine our darkness; weshould feel the glow of that uncreated and perfect Love, which, inthe midst of change and treachery, of coldness and of 'greetingswhere no kindness is, ' in the midst of masterful authority andunloving command, is ready to fill our hearts with tenderness andtranquillity: we should bow before that Will which is absolute andsupreme indeed, but neither arbitrary nor harsh, which is 'theeternal purpose that He hath purposed in Himself' indeed, but is also'the good pleasure of His goodness and the counsel of His grace. '

And with such a God near to us ever in our faithful thoughts, in ourthankful love, in our lowly obedience, with such a mind revealingitself to us, and such a heart opening its hidden storehouses for usas we approach, like some star that, as one gets nearer to it, expands its disc and glows into rich colour, which at a distance wasbut pallid silver, and such a will sovereign above all, energising, even through opposition, and making obedience a delight, what room, brethren, would there be in our lives for agitations, anddistractions, and regrets, and cares, and fears--what room forearthly hopes or for sad remembrances? They die in the fruition of apresent God all-sufficient for mind, and heart, and will--even as thesun when it is risen with a burning heat may scorch and wither theweeds that grow about the base of the fruitful tree, whose deeperroots are but warmed by the rays that ripen the rich clusters whichit bears. 'Let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide _withGod_. '

And then, as a consequence of such an occupation of the whole beingwith God, there will follow that second element which is included inthe precept, namely, the recognition of God's will as operating inand determining all circumstances. When our whole soul is occupiedwith Him, we shall see Him everywhere. And this ought to be ourhonest effort--to connect everything which befalls ourselves and theworld with Him. We should see that Omnipotent Will, the silent energywhich flows through all being, asserting itself through all secondarycauses, marching on towards its destined and certain goal, amidst allthe whirl and perturbation of events, bending even the antagonism ofrebels and the unconsciousness of godless men, as well as the play ofmaterial instruments, to its own purposes, and swinging and swayingthe whole set and motion of things according to its own impulse andby the touch of its own fingers. 

Such a faith does not require us to overlook the visible occasionsfor the things which befall us, nor to deny the stable laws accordingto which that mighty will operates in men's lives. Secondary causes?Yes. Men's opposition and crime? Yes. Our own follies and sins? Nodoubt. Blessings and sorrows falling indiscriminately on a wholecommunity or a whole world? Certainly. And yet the visible agents arenot the sources, but only the vehicles of the power, the belting andshafting which transmit a mighty impulse which they had nothing to doin creating. And the antagonism subserves the purposes of the rulewhich it opposes, as the blow of the surf may consolidate thesea-wall that it breaks against. And our own follies and sins mayindeed sorrowfully shadow our lives, and bring on us pains of bodyand disasters in fortune, and stings in spirit for which we alone areresponsible, and which we have no right to regard as inscrutablejudgments--yet even these bitter plants of which our own hands havesowed the seed, spring by His merciful will, and _are_ to be regardedas His loving, fatherly chastisements--sent before to warn us by apremonitory experience that 'the wages of sin is death. ' As a rule, God does not interpose to pick a man out of the mud into which he hasbeen plunged by his own faults and follies, until he has learned thelessons which he can find in plenty down in the slough, if he willonly look for them! And the fact that some great calamity or somegreat joy affects a wide circle of people, does not make its having aspecial lesson and meaning for each of them at all doubtful. _There_is one of the great depths of all-moving wisdom and providence, thatin the very self-same act it is in one aspect universal, and inanother special and individual. The ordinary notion of a specialprovidence goes perilously near the belief that God's will is lessconcerned in some parts of a man's life than in others. It is verymuch like desecrating and secularising a whole land by the very actof focussing the sanctity in some single consecrated shrine. But thetrue belief is that the whole sweep of a life is under the will ofGod, and that when, for instance, war ravages a nation, though thesufferers be involved in a common ruin occasioned by murderousambition and measureless pride, yet for each of the sufferers thecommon disaster has a special message. Let us believe in a divinewill which regards each individual caught up in the skirts of thehorrible storm, even as it regards each individual on whom the equalrays of His universal sunshine fall. Let us believe that every singlesoul has a place in the heart, and is taken into account in thepurposes of Him who moves the tempest, and makes His sun to shineupon the unthankful and on the good. Let us, in accordance with thecounsel of the Apostle here, first of all try to anchor and rest ourown souls fast and firm in God all the day long, that, grasping Hishand, we may look out upon all the confused dance of fleetingcircumstances and say, 'Thy will is done on earth'--if not yet 'as itis done in heaven, ' still done in the issues and events of all--anddone with my cheerful obedience and thankful acceptance of itscommands and allotments in my own life. 

II. The second idea which comes out of these words is this--Suchunion with God will lead to contented continuance in our place, whatever it be. 

Our text is as if Paul had said, 'You have been "called" in such andsuch worldly circumstances. The fact proves that these circumstancesdo not obstruct the highest and richest blessings. The light of Godcan shine on your souls through them. Since then you have such sacredmemorials associated with them, and know by experience thatfellowship with God is possible in them, do you remain where you are, and keep hold of the God who has visited you in them. '

If once, in accordance with the thoughts already suggested, our mindshave, by God's help, been brought into something like real, livingfellowship with Him, and we have attained the wisdom that piercesthrough the external to the Almighty will that underlies all its mazywhirl, then why should we care about shifting our place? Why shouldwe trouble ourselves about altering these varying events, since eachin its turn is a manifestation of His mind and will; each in its turnis a means of discipline for us; and through all their variety asingle purpose works, which tends to a single end--'that we should bepartakers of His holiness'?

And that is the one point of view from which we can bear to look uponthe world and not be utterly bewildered and over-mastered by it. Calmness and central peace are ours; a true appreciation of alloutward good and a charm against the bitterest sting of outward evilsare ours; a patient continuance in the place where He has set us isours--when by fellowship with Him we have learned to look upon ourwork as primarily doing His will, and upon all our possessions andconditions primarily as means for making us like Himself. Most menseem to think that they have gone to the very bottom of the thingwhen they have classified the gifts of fortune as good or evil, according as they produce pleasure or pain. But that is a poor, superficial classification. It is like taking and arranging books bytheir bindings and flowers by their colours. Instead of saying, 'Wedivide life into two halves, and we put there all the joyful, andhere all the sad, for that is the ruling distinction'--let us rathersay, 'The whole is one, because it all comes from one purpose, and itall tends towards one end. The only question worth asking in regardto the externals of our life is--How far does each thing help me tobe a good man? how far does it open my understanding to apprehendHim? how far does it make my spirit pliable and plastic under Histouch? how far does it make me capable of larger reception of greatergifts from Himself? what is its effect in preparing me for that worldbeyond?' Is there any other greater, more satisfying, more majesticthought of life than this--the scaffolding by which souls are builtup into the temple of God? And to care whether a thing is painful orpleasant is as absurd as to care whether the bricklayer's trowel isknocking the sharp corner off a brick, or plastering mortar on theone below it before he lays it carefully on its course. Is the_building_ getting on? That is the one question that is worththinking about. 

You and I write our lives as if on one of those manifold writerswhich you use. A thin filmy sheet _here_, a bit of black paperbelow it; but the writing goes through upon the next page, and whenthe blackness that divides two worlds is swept away _there_, thehistory of each life written by ourselves remains legible ineternity. And the question is--What sort of autobiography are wewriting for the revelation of that day, and how far do ourcircumstances help us to transcribe fair in our lives the will of ourGod and the image of our Redeemer?

If, then, we have once got hold of that principle that all whichis--summer and winter, storm and sunshine, possession and loss, memory and hope, work and rest, and all the other antitheses oflife--is equally the product of His will, equally the manifestationof His mind, equally His means for our discipline, then we have theamulet and talisman which will preserve us from the fever of desireand the shivering fits of anxiety as to things which perish. And, asthey tell of a Christian father who, riding by one of the great lakesof Switzerland all day long, on his journey to the Church Councilthat was absorbing his thoughts, said towards evening to the deaconwho was pacing beside him, 'Where is the lake?' so you and I, journeying along by the margin of this great flood of things whenwild storms sweep across it, or when the sunbeams glint upon its bluewaters, 'and birds of peace sit brooding on the charmed wave, ' willbe careless of the changeful sea, if the eye looks beyond the visibleand beholds the unseen, the unchanging real presences that make gloryin the darkest lives, and 'sunshine in the shady place. ' 'Let everyman, wherein he is called, therein abide with God. '

III. Still further, another thought may be suggested from thesewords, or rather from the connection in which they occur, and thatis--Such contented continuance in our place is the dictate of thetruest wisdom. 

There are two or three collateral topics, partly suggested by thevarious connections in which this commandment occurs in the chapter, from which I draw the few remarks I have to make now. 

And the first point I would suggest is that very old commonplace one, so often forgotten, that after all, though you may change about asmuch as you like, there is a pretty substantial equipoise andidentity in the amount of pain and pleasure in all externalconditions. The total length of day and night all the year round isthe same at the North Pole and at the Equator--half and half. Only, in the one place, it is half and half for four-and-twenty hours at atime, and in the other, the night lasts through gloomy months ofwinter, and the day is bright for unbroken weeks of summer. But, whenyou come to add them up at the year's end, the man who shivers in theice, and the man who pants beneath the beams from the zenith, havehad the same length of sunshine and of darkness. It does not mattermuch at what degrees between the Equator and the Pole you and I live;when the thing comes to be made up we shall be all pretty much uponan equality. You do not get the happiness of the rich man over thepoor one by multiplying twenty shillings a week by as many figures aswill suffice to make it up to £10, 000 a year. What is the use of sucheager desires to change our condition, when every condition hasdisadvantages attending its advantages as certainly as a shadow; andwhen all have pretty nearly the same quantity of the raw material ofpain and pleasure, and when the amount of either actually experiencedby us depends not on where we are, but on _what_ we are?

Then, still further, there is another consideration to be kept inmind upon which I do not enlarge, as what I have already saidinvolves it--namely, that whilst the portion of external pain andpleasure summed up comes pretty much to the same in everybody's life, any condition may yield the fruit of devout fellowship with God. 

Another very remarkable idea suggested by a part of the contextis--What is the need for my troubling myself about outward changeswhen _in Christ_ I can get all the peculiarities which make anygiven position desirable to me? For instance, hear how Paul talks toslaves eager to be set free: 'For he that is called in the Lord, _being_ a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he thatis called, _being_ free, is Christ's servant. ' If you generalisethat principle it comes to this, that in union with Jesus Christ wepossess, by our fellowship with Him, the peculiar excellences andblessings that are derivable from external relations of every sort. To take concrete examples--if a man is a slave, he may be free inChrist. If free, he may have the joy of utter submission to anabsolute master in Christ. If you and I are lonely, we may feel allthe delights of society by union with Him. If surrounded anddistracted by companionship, and seeking for seclusion, we may getall the peace of perfect privacy in fellowship with Him. If we arerich, and sometimes think that we were in a position of lesstemptation if we were poorer, we may find all the blessings for whichwe sometimes covet poverty in communion with Him. If we are poor, andfancy that, if we had a little more just to lift us above thegrinding, carking care of to-day and the anxiety of to-morrow, weshould be happier, we may find all tranquillity in Him. And so youmay run through all the variety of human conditions, and say toyourself--What is the use of looking for blessings flowing from thesefrom without? Enough for us if we grasp that Lord who is all in all, and will give us in peace the joy of conflict, in conflict the calmof peace, in health the refinement of sickness, in sickness thevigour and glow of health, in memory the brightness of undying hope, in hope the calming of holy memory, in wealth the lowliness ofpoverty, in poverty the ease of wealth; in life and in death beingall and more than all that dazzles us by the false gleam of createdbrightness!

And so, finally--a remark which has no connection with the textitself, but which I cannot avoid inserting here--I want you to think, and think seriously, of the antagonism and diametrical oppositionbetween these principles of my text and the maxims current in theworld, and nowhere more so than in this city. Our text is arevolutionary one. It is dead against the watchwords that you fathersgive your children--'push, ' 'energy, ' 'advancement, ' 'get on, whatever you do. ' You have made a philosophy of it, and you say thatthis restless discontent with a man's present position and eagerdesire to get a little farther ahead in the scramble, underlies muchmodern civilisation and progress, and leads to the diffusion ofwealth and to employment for the working classes, and to mechanicalinventions, and domestic comforts, and I don't know what besides. Youhave made a religion of it; and it is thought to be blasphemy for aman to stand up and say--'It is idolatry!' My dear brethren, Ideclare I solemnly believe that, if I were to go on to the ManchesterExchange next Tuesday, and stand up and say--'There is no God, ' Ishould not be thought half such a fool as if I were to go andsay--'Poverty is not an evil _per se_, and men do not come intothis world to get _on_ but to get _up_--nearer and liker toGod. ' If you, by God's grace, lay hold of this principle of my text, and honestly resolve to work it out, trusting in that dear Lord who'though He was rich yet for our sakes became poor, ' in ninety-ninecases out of a hundred you will have to make up your minds to let thebig prizes of your trade go into other people's hands, and becontented to say--'I live by peaceful, high, pure, Christ-likethoughts. ' 'He that needs least, ' said an old heathen, 'is nearestthe gods'; but I would rather modify the statement into, 'He thatneeds most, and knows it, is nearest the gods. ' For surely Christ ismore than mammon; and a spirit nourished by calm desires and holythoughts into growing virtues and increasing Christlikeness is betterthan circumstances ordered to our will, in the whirl of which we havelost our God. 'In everything by prayer and supplication, withthanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peaceof God and the God of peace shall keep your hearts and minds inChrist Jesus. '

'LOVE BUILDETH UP'

 'Now, as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. 2. And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. 3. But if any man love God, the same is known of him. 4. As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. 5. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many, ) 6. But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him. 7. Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some, with conscience of the idol unto this hour, eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. 8. But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse. 9. But take heed, lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak. 10. For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols; 11. And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? 12. But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. 13. Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. '--1 COR. Viii. 1-13. 

It is difficult for us to realise the close connection which existedbetween idol-worship and daily life. Something of the same sort isfound in all mission fields. It was almost impossible for Christiansto take any part in society and not seem to sanction idolatry. Wouldthat Christianity were as completely interwoven with our lives asheathen religions are into those of their devotees! Paul seems tohave had referred to him a pressing case of conscience, which dividedthe Corinthian Church, as to whether a Christian could join in theusual feasts or sacrifices. His answer is in this passage. 

The longest way round is sometimes the shortest way home. The Apostlebegins far away from the subject in hand by running a contrastbetween knowledge and love, and setting the latter first. But hiscontrast is very relevant to his purpose. Small questions should besolved on great principles. 

The first principle laid down by Paul is the superiority of love overknowledge, the bearing of which on the question in hand will appearpresently. We note that there is first a distinct admission of theCorinthians' intelligence, though there is probably a tinge of ironyin the language 'We know that we all have knowledge. ' 'YouCorinthians are fully aware that you are very superior people. Whatever else you know, you know that, and I fully recognise it. '

The admission is followed by a sudden, sharp comment, to which theCorinthians' knowledge that they knew laid them open. Swift as thethrust of a spear comes flashing 'Knowledge puffeth up. ' Puffed-upthings are swollen by wind only, and the more they are inflated thehollower and emptier they are; and such a sharp point as Paul'ssaying shrivels them. The statement is not meant as the assertion ofa necessary or uniform result of knowledge, but it does put plainly avery usual result of it, if it is unaccompanied by love. It isa strange, sad result of superior intelligence or acquirements, thatit so often leads to conceit, to a false estimate of the worth andpower of knowing, to a ridiculous over-valuing of certainacquirements, and to an insolent contempt and cruel disregard ofthose who have them not. Paul's dictum has been only too wellconfirmed by experience. 

'Love builds up, ' or 'edifies. ' Probably the main direction in whichthat building up is conceived of as taking effect, is in aiding theprogress of our neighbours, especially in the religious life. But thetendency of love to rear a fair fabric of personal character is notto be overlooked. In regard to effect on character, the palm must begiven to love, which produces solid excellence far beyond what mereknowledge can effect. Further, that pluming one's self on knowledgeis a sure proof of ignorance. The more real our acquirements, themore they disclose our deficiencies. All self-conceit hinders us fromgrowing intellectually or morally, and intellectual conceit is theworst kind of it. 

Very significantly, love to God, and not the simple emotion of lovewithout reference to its object, is opposed to knowledge; for love sodirected is the foundation of all excellence, and of all real love tomen. Love to God is not the antithesis of true knowledge, but it isthe only victorious antagonist of the conceit of knowing. Verysignificantly, too, does Paul vary his conclusion in verse 3 bysaying that the man who loves God 'is known of Him, ' instead of, aswe might have expected, 'knows Him. ' The latter is true, but thestatement in the verse puts more strongly the thought of the man'sbeing an object of God's care. In regard, then, to their effects oncharacter, in producing consideration and helpfulness to others, andin securing God's protection, love stands first, and knowledgesecond. 

What has all this to do with the question in hand? This, that iflooked at from the standpoint of knowledge, it may be solved in oneway, but if from that of love, it will be answered in another. So, inverses 4-6, Paul treats the matter on the ground of knowledge. Thefundamental truth of Christianity, that there is one God, who isrevealed and works through Jesus Christ, was accepted by all theCorinthians. Paul states it here broadly, denying that there were anyobjective realities answering to the popular conceptions or poeticfancies or fair artistic presentments of the many gods and lords ofthe Greek pantheon, and asserting that all Christians recognise oneGod, the Father, from whom the universe of worlds and living thingshas origin, and to whom we as Christians specially belong, and oneLord, the channel through whom all divine operations of creation, providence, and grace flow, and by whose redeeming work we Christiansare endowed with our best life. If a believer was fully convinced ofthese truths, he could partake of sacrificial feasts without dangerto himself, and without either sanctioning idolatry or being temptedto return to it. 

No doubt it was on this ground that an idol was nothing that thelaxer party defended their action in eating meat offered to idols;and Paul fully recognises that they had a strong case, and that, ifthere were no other considerations to come in, the answer to thequestion of conscience submitted to him would be wholly in favour ofthe less scrupulous section. But there is something better thanknowledge; namely, love. And its decision must be taken before thewhole material for a judgment is in evidence. 

Therefore, in the remainder of the chapter, Paul dwells on lovingregard for brethren. In verse 7, he reminds the 'knowing' Corinthiansthat new convictions do not obliterate the power of old associations. The awful fascination of early belief still exercises influence. Thechains are not wholly broken off. Every mission field shows examplesof this. Every man knows that habits are not so suddenly overcome, that there is no hankering after them or liability to relapse. Itwould be a dangerous thing for a weak believer to risk sharing in anidol feast; for he would be very likely to slide down to his oldlevel of belief, and Zeus or Pallas to seem to him real powers oncemore. 

The considerations in verse 7 would naturally be followed by thefurther thoughts in verse 9, etc. But, before dealing with these, Paul interposes another thought in verse 8, to the effect thatpartaking of or abstinence from any kind of food will not, in itself, either help or hinder the religious life. The bearing of thatprinciple on his argument seems to be to reduce the importance of thewhole question, and to suggest that, since eating of idol sacrificescould not be called a duty or a means of spiritual progress, the waywas open to take account of others' weakness as determining ouraction in regard to it. A modern application may illustrate thepoint. Suppose that a Christian does not see total abstinence fromintoxicants to be obligatory on him. Well, he cannot say thatdrinking is so, or that it is a religious duty, and so the way isclear for urging regard to others' weakness as an element in thecase. 

That being premised, Paul comes to his final point; namely, thatChristian men are bound to restrict their liberty so that they shallnot tempt weaker brethren on to a path on which they cannot walkwithout stumbling. He has just shown the danger to such of partakingof the sacrificial feasts. He now completes his position by showing, in verse 10, that the stronger man's example may lead the weaker todo what he cannot do innocently. What is harmless to us may be fatalto others, and, if we have led them to it, their blood is on ourheads. 

The terrible discordance of such conduct with our Lord's example, which should be our law, is forcibly set forth in verse 11, which hasthree strongly emphasised thoughts--the man's fate--he perishes; hisrelation to his slayer--a brother; what Christ did for the man whom aChristian has sent to destruction--died for him. These solemnthoughts are deepened in verse 12, which reminds us of the intimateunion between the weakest and Christ, by which He so identifiesHimself with them that any blow struck on them touches Him. 

There is no greater sin than to tempt weak or ignorant Christians tothoughts or acts which their ignorance or weakness cannot entertainor do without damage to their religion. There is much need for layingthat truth to heart in these days. Both in the field of speculationand of conduct, Christians, who think that they know so much betterthan ignorant believers, need to be reminded of it. 

So Paul, in verse 13, at last answers the question. His suddenturning to his own conduct is beautiful. He will not so much commandothers, as proclaim his own determination. He does so withcharacteristic vehemence and hyperbole. No doubt the liberal party inCorinth were ready to complain against the proposal to restrict theirfreedom because of others' weakness; and they would be disarmed, orat least silenced, and might be stimulated to like noble resolution, by Paul's example. 

The principle plainly laid down here is as distinctly applicable tothe modern question of abstinence from intoxicants. No one can doubtthat 'moderation' in their use by some tempts others to use whichsoon becomes fatally immoderate. The Church has been robbed ofpromising members thereby, over and over again. How can a Christianman cling to a 'moderate' use of these things, and run the risk ofdestroying by his example a brother for whom Christ died?

THE SIN OF SILENCE

 'For though I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel! 17. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. '--1 COR. Ix. 16, 17. 

The original reference of these words is to the Apostle's principleand practice of not receiving for his support money from thechurches. Gifts he did accept; pay he did not. The exposition of hisreason is interesting, ingenuous, and chivalrous. He strongly assertshis right, even while he as strongly declares that he will waive it. The reason for his waiving it is that he desires to have somewhat inhis service beyond the strict line of his duty. His preaching itself, with all its toils and miseries, was but part of his day's work, which he was bidden to do, and for doing which he deserved no thanksnor praise. But he would like to have a little bit of glad serviceover and above what he is ordered to do, that, as he ingenuouslysays, he may have 'somewhat to boast of. '

In this exposition of motives we have two great principles actuatingthe Apostle--one, his profound sense of obligation, and the other hisdesire, if it might be, to do more than he was bound to do, becausehe loved his work so much. And though he is speaking here as anapostle, and his example is not to be unconditionally transferred tous, yet I think that the motives which actuated his conduct arecapable of unconditional application to ourselves. 

There are three things here. There is the obligation of speech, thereis the penalty of silence, and there is the glad obedience whichtranscends obligation. 

I. First, mark the obligation of speech. 

No doubt the Apostle had, in a special sense, a 'necessity laid upon'him, which was first laid upon him on that road to Damascus, andrepeated many a time in his life. But though he differs from us inthe direct supernatural commission which was given to him, in thewidth of the sphere in which he had to work, and in the splendour ofthe gifts which were entrusted to his stewardship, he does not differfrom us in the reality of the obligation which was laid upon him. Every Christian man is as truly bound as was Paul to preach theGospel. The commission does not depend upon apostolic dignity. JesusChrist, when He said, 'Go ye into all the world, and preach theGospel to every creature, ' was not speaking to the eleven, but to allgenerations of His Church. And whilst there are many other motives onwhich we may rest the Christian duty of propagating the Christianfaith, I think that we shall be all the better if we bottom it uponthis, the distinct and definite commandment of Jesus Christ, the gripof which encloses all who for themselves have found that the Lord isgracious. 

For that commandment is permanent. It is exactly contemporaneous withthe duration of the promise which is appended to it, and whosoeversuns himself in the light of the latter is bound by the precept ofthe former. 'Lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world, 'defines the duration of the promise, and it defines also the durationof the duty. Nay, even the promise is made conditional upon thedischarge of the duty enjoined. For it is to the Church 'going intoall the world, and preaching the Gospel to every creature, ' that thepromise of an abiding presence is made. 

Let us remember, too, that, just because this commission is given tothe whole Church, it is binding on every individual member of theChurch. There is a very common fallacy, not confined to this subject, but extending over the whole field of Christian duty, by which thingsthat are obligatory on the community are shuffled off the shouldersof the individual. But we have to remember that the whole Church isnothing more than the sum total of all its members, and that nothingis incumbent upon it which is not in their measure incumbent uponeach of them. Whatsoever Christ says to all, He says to each, and thecommunity has no duties which you and I have not. 

Of course, there are diversities of forms of obedience to thiscommandment; of course, the restrictions of locality and the otherobligations of life, come in to modify it; and it is not every man'sduty to wander over the whole world doing this work. But the directwork of communicating to others who know it not the sweetness and thepower of Jesus Christ belongs to every Christian man. You cannot buyyourselves out of the ranks, as they used to be able to do out of themilitia, by paying for a substitute. Both forms of service areobligatory upon each of us. We all, if we know anything of Christ andHis love and His power, are bound, by the fact that we do know it, totell it to those whom we can reach. You have all got congregations ifyou would look for them. There is not a Christian man or woman inthis world who has not somebody that he or she can speak to moreefficiently than anybody else can. You have your friends, yourrelations, the people with whom you are brought into daily contact, if you have no wider congregations. You cannot all stand up andpreach in the sense in which I do so. But this is not the meaning ofthe word in the New Testament. It does not imply a pulpit, nor a setdiscourse, nor a gathered multitude; it simply implies a herald'stask of proclaiming. Everybody who has found Jesus Christ can say, 'Ihave found the Messiah, ' and everybody who knows Him can say, 'Comeand hear, and I will tell what the Lord hath done for my soul. ' Sinceyou can do it you are bound to do it; and if you are one of 'the dumbdogs, lying down and loving to slumber, ' of whom there are suchcrowds paralysing the energies and weakening the witness of everyChurch upon earth, then you are criminally and suicidally obliviousof an obligation which is a joy and a privilege as much as a duty. 

Oh, brethren! I do want to lay on the consciences of all youChristian people this, that nothing can absolve you from theobligation of personal, direct speech to some one of Christ and Hissalvation. Unless you can say, 'I have not refrained my lips, O Lord!Thou knowest, ' there frowns over against you an unfulfilled duty, theneglect of which is laming your spiritual activity, and drying up thesources of your spiritual strength. 

But, then, besides this direct effort, there are the other indirectmethods in which this commandment can be discharged, by sympathy andhelp of all sorts, about which I need say no more here. 

Jesus Christ's ideal of His Church was an active propaganda, an armyin which there were no non-combatants, even although some of thecombatants might be detailed to remain in the camp and look after thestuff, and others of them might be in the forefront of the battle. But is that ideal ever fulfilled in any of our churches? How manyamongst us there are who do absolutely nothing in the shape ofChristian work! Some of us seem to think that the voluntary principleon which our Nonconformist churches are largely organised means, 'Ido not need to do anything unless I like. Inclination is the guide ofduty, and if I do not care to take any active part in the work of ourchurch, nobody has anything to say. ' No man can force me, but ifJesus Christ says to me, 'Go!' and I say, 'I had rather not, ' JesusChrist and I have to settle accounts between us. The less _men_control, the more stringent ought to be the control of Christ. And ifthe principle of Christian obedience is a willing heart, then theduty of a Christian is to see that the heart is willing. 

A stringent obligation, not to be shuffled off by any of the excusesthat we make, is laid upon us all. It makes very short work of anumber of excuses. There is a great deal in the tone of thisgeneration which tends to chill the missionary spirit. We know moreabout the heathen world, and familiarity diminishes horror. We havetaken up, many of us, milder and more merciful ideas about thecondition of those who die without knowing the name of Jesus Christ. We have taken to the study of comparative religion as a science, forgetting sometimes that the thing that we are studying as a scienceis spreading a dark cloud of ignorance and apathy over millions ofmen. And all these reasons somewhat sap the strength and cool thefervour of a good many Christian people nowadays. Jesus Christ'scommandment remains just as it was. 

Then some of us say, 'I prefer working at home!' Well, if you aredoing all that you can there, and really are enthusiastically devotedto one phase of Christian service, the great principle of division oflabour comes in to warrant your not entering upon other fields whichothers cultivate. But unless you are thus casting all your energiesinto the work which you say that you prefer, there is no reason in itwhy you should do nothing in the other direction. Jesus Christ stillsays, 'Go ye into all the world. '

Then some of you say, 'Well, I do not much believe in your missionarysocieties. There is a great deal of waste of money about them. Anumber of things there are that one does not approve of. I have heardstories about missionaries being very idle, very luxurious, andtaking too much pay, and doing too little work. ' Well, be it so! Veryprobably it is partly true; though I do not know that the peoplewhose testimony is so willingly accepted, to the detriment of ourbrethren in foreign lands, are precisely the kind of people thatshould talk much about self-sacrifice and luxurious living, or whoseestimate of Christian work is to be relied upon. I fancy many ofthem, if they walked about the streets of an English town, would havea somewhat similar report to give, as they have when they walk aboutthe streets of an Indian one. But be that as it may, does thatindictment draw a wet sponge across the commandment of Jesus Christ?or can you chisel out of the stones of Sinai one of the wordswritten there, by reason of the imperfections of those who areseeking to obey them? Surely not! Christ still says, 'Go ye into allthe world!'

I sometimes venture to think that the day will come when thecondition of being received into, and retained in, the communion of aChristian church will be obedience to that commandment. Why, evenbees have the sense at a given time of the year to turn the dronesout of the hives, and sting them to death. I do not recommend thelast part of the process, but I am not sure but that it would be abenefit to us all, both to those ejected and to those retained, thatwe should get rid of that added weight that clogs every organisedcommunity in this and other lands--the dead weight of idlers who saythat they are Christ's disciples. Whether it is a condition of churchmembership or not, sure I am that it is a condition of fellowshipwith Jesus Christ, and a condition, therefore, of health in theChristian life, that it should be a life of active obedience to thisplain, imperative, permanent, and universal command. 

II. Secondly, a word as to the penalty of silence. 

'Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel. ' I suppose Paul is thinkingmainly of a future issue, but not exclusively of that. At all events, let me point you, in a word or two, to the plain penalties of silencehere, and to the awful penalties of silence hereafter. 

'Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel. ' If you are a dumb and idleprofessor of Christ's truth, depend upon it that your dumb idlenesswill rob you of much communion with Jesus Christ. There are manyChristians who would be ever so much happier, more joyous, and moreassured Christians if they would go and talk about Christ to otherpeople. Because they have locked up God's word in their hearts itmelts away unknown, and they lose more than they suspect of thesweetness and buoyancy and assured confidence that might mark them, for no other reason than because they seek to keep their morsel tothemselves. Like that mist that lies white and dull over the groundon a winter's morning, which will be blown away with the least puffof fresh air, there lie doleful dampnesses, in their sooty folds, over many a Christian heart, shutting out the sun from the earth, anda little whiff of wholesome activity in Christ's cause would clearthem all away, and the sun would shine down upon men again. If youwant to be a happy Christian, work for Jesus Christ. I do not laythat down as a specific by itself. There are other things to be takenin conjunction with it, but yet it remains true that the woe of alanguid Christianity attaches to the men who, being professingChristians, are silent when they should speak, and idle when theyshould work. 

There is, further, the woe of the loss of sympathies, and the gain ofall the discomforts and miseries of a self-absorbed life. And thereis, further, the woe of the loss of one of the best ways ofconfirming one's own faith in the truth--viz. That of seeking toimpart it to others. If you want to learn a thing, teach it. If youwant to grasp the principles of any science, try to explain it tosomebody who does not understand it. If you want to know where, inthese days of jangling and controversy, the true, vital centre of theGospel is, and what is the essential part of the revelation of God, go and tell sinful men about Jesus Christ who died for them; and youwill find out that it is the Cross, and Him who died thereon, asdying for the world, that is the power which can move men's hearts. And so you will cleave with a closer grasp, in days of difficulty andunsettlement, to that which is able to bring light into darkness andto harmonise the discord of a troubled and sinful soul. And, further, there is the woe of having none that can look to you and say, 'I owemyself to thee. ' Oh, brethren! there is no greater joy accessible toa man than that of feeling that through his poor words Christ hasentered into a brother's heart. And you are throwing away all thisbecause you shut your mouths and neglect the plain commandment ofyour Lord. 

Ay! but that is not all. There is a future to be taken into account, and I think that Christian people do far too little realise thesolemn truth that it is not all the same _then_ whether a manhas kept his Master's commandments or neglected them. I believe thatwhilst a very imperfect faith saves a man, there is such a thing asbeing 'saved, yet so as through fire, ' and that there is such a thingas having 'an abundant entrance ministered unto us into theeverlasting kingdom. ' He whose life has been very slightly influencedby Christian principle, and who has neglected plain, imperativeduties, will not stand on the same level of blessedness as the manwho has more completely yielded himself in life to the constrainingpower of Christ's love, and has sought to keep all His commandments. 

Heaven is not a dead level. Every man there will receive as muchblessedness as he is capable of, but capacities will vary, and theprincipal factor in determining the capacity, which capacitydetermines the blessedness, will be the thoroughness of obedience toall the ordinances of Christ in the course of the life upon earth. So, though we know, and therefore dare say, little about that future, I do beseech you to take this to heart, that he who there can standbefore God, and say, 'Behold! I and the children whom God hath givenme' will wear a crown brighter than the starless ones of those whosaved themselves, and have brought none with them. 

'Some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship, they all camesafe to land. ' But the place where they stand depends on theirChristian life, and of that Christian life one main element isobedience to the commandment which makes them the apostles andmissionaries of their Lord. 

III. Lastly, note the glad obedience which transcends the limits ofobligation. 

'If I do this thing willingly I have a reward. ' Paul desired to bringa little more than was required, in token of his love to his Master, and of his thankful acceptance of the obligation. The artist wholoves his work will put more work into his picture than is absolutelyneeded, and will linger over it, lavishing diligence and care uponit, because he is in love with his task. The servant who seeks to doas little as he can scrape through with without rebuke is actuated byno high motives. The trader who barely puts as much into the scale aswill balance the weight in the other is grudging in his dealings; buthe who, with liberal hand, gives 'shaken down, pressed together, andrunning over' measure, gives because he delights in the giving. 

And so it is in the Christian life. There are many of us whosequestion seems to be, 'How little can I get off with? how much can Iretain?'--many of us whose effort is to find out how much of theworld is consistent with the profession of Christianity, and to findthe minimum of effort, of love, of service, of gifts which may freeus from obligation. 

And what does that mean? It means that we are slaves. It means thatif we durst we would give nothing, and do nothing. And what does thatmean? It means that we do not care for the Lord, and have no joy inour work. And what does that mean? It means that our work deserves nopraise, and will get no reward. If we love Christ we shall beanxious, if it were possible, to do more than He commands us, intoken of our loyalty to the King, and of our delight in the service. Of course, in the highest view, nothing can be more than necessary. Of course He has the right to all our work; but yet there are heightsof Christian consecration and self-sacrifice which a man will not beblamed if he has not climbed, and will be praised if he has. What wewant, if I might venture to say so, is extravagance of service. Judasmay say, 'To what purpose is this waste?' but Jesus will say, He'hath wrought a good work on Me, ' and the fragrance of the ointmentwill smell sweet through the centuries. 

So, dear brethren, the upshot of the whole thing is, Do not let us doour Christian work reluctantly, else it is only slave's work, andthere is no blessing in it, and no reward will come to us from it. Donot let us ask, 'How little may I do?' but 'How much can I do?' Thus, asking, we shall not offer as burnt offering to the Lord that whichdoth cost us nothing. On His part He has given the commandment as asign of His love. The stewardship is a token that He trusts us, theduty is an honour, the burden is a grace. On our parts let us seekfor the joy of service which is not contented with the bare amount ofthe tribute that is demanded, but gives something over, if it werepossible, because of our love to Him. They who thus give to JesusChrist their all of love and effort and service will receive it allback a hundredfold, for the Master is not going to be in debt to anyof His servants, and He says to them all, 'I will repay it, howbeit Isay not unto thee how thou owest unto Me even thine own selfbesides. '

A SERVANT OF MEN

 'For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. 20. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; 21. To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, ) that I might gain them that are without law. 22. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. 23. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you. '--1 COR. Ix. 19-23. 

Paul speaks much of himself, but he is not an egotist. When he says, 'I do so and so, ' it is a gracious way of enjoining the same conducton his readers. He will lay no burden on them which he does nothimself carry. The leader who can say 'Come' is not likely to wantfollowers. So, in this section, the Apostle is really enjoining onthe Corinthians the conduct which he declares is his own. 

The great principle incumbent on all Christians, with a view to thesalvation of others, is to go as far as one can withoutuntruthfulness in the direction of finding points of resemblance andcontact with those to whom we would commend the Gospel. There is abase counterfeit of this apostolic example, which slurs overdistinctive beliefs, and weakly tries to please everybody bydiffering from nobody. That trimming to catch all winds never gainsany. Mr. Facing-both-ways is not a powerful evangelist. The motive ofbecoming all things to all men must be plainly disinterested, and theassimilation must have love for the souls concerned and eagerness tobring the truth to them, and them to the truth, legibly stamped uponit, or it will be regarded, and rightly so, as mere cowardice ordishonesty. And there must be no stretching the assimilation to thelength of either concealing truth or fraternising in evil. Love to myneighbour can never lead to my joining him in wrongdoing. 

But, while the limits of this assumption of the colour of oursurroundings are plainly marked, there is ample space within thesefor the exercise of this eminently Christian grace. We must get nearpeople if we would help them. Especially must we identify ourselveswith them in sympathy, and seek to multiply points of assimilation, if we would draw them to Jesus Christ. He Himself had to become manthat He might gain men, and His servants have to do likewise, intheir degree. The old story of the Christian teacher who voluntarilybecame a slave, that he might tell of Christ to slaves, has in spiritto be repeated by us all. 

We can do no good by standing aloof on a height and flinging down theGospel to the people below. They must feel that we enter into theircircumstances, prejudices, ways of thinking, and the like, if ourwords are to have power. That is true about all Christian teachers, whether of old or young. You must be a boy among boys, and try toshow that you enter into the boy's nature, or you may lecture tilldoomsday and do no good. 

Paul instances three cases in which he had acted, and still continuedto do so, on this principle. He was a Jew, but after his conversionhe had to 'become a Jew' by a distinct act; that is, he had recededso far from his old self, that he, if he had had only himself tothink of, would have given up all Jewish observances. But he felt ithis duty to conciliate prejudice as far as he could, and so, thoughhe would have fought to the death rather than given countenance tothe belief that circumcision was necessary, he had no scruple aboutcircumcising Timothy; and, though he believed that for Christians thewhole ancient ritual was abolished, he was quite willing, if it wouldsmooth away the prejudices of the 'many thousands of Jews whobelieved, ' to show, by his participation in the temple worship, thathe 'walked orderly, keeping the law. ' If he was told 'You must, ' hisanswer could only be 'I will not'; but if it was a question ofconciliating, he was ready to go all lengths for that. 

The category which he names next is not composed of different personsfrom the first, but of the same persons regarded from a somewhatdifferent point of view. 'Them that are under the law' describesJews, not by their race, but by their religion; and Paul was willingto take his place among them, as we have just observed. But he willnot do that so as to be misunderstood, wherefore he protests that indoing so he is voluntarily abridging his freedom for a specificpurpose. He is not 'under the law'; for the very pith of his view ofthe Christian's position is that he has nothing to do with thatMosaic law in any of its parts, because Christ has made him free. 

The second class to whom in his wide sympathies he is able toassimilate himself, is the opposite of the former--the Gentiles whoare 'without law. ' He did not preach on Mars' Hill as he did in thesynagogues. The many-sided Gospel had aspects fitted for the Gentileswho had never heard of Moses, and the many-sided Apostle had links oflikeness to the Greek and the barbarian. But here, too, hisassimilation of himself to those whom he seeks to win is voluntary;wherefore he protests that he is not without law, though herecognises no longer the obligations of Moses' law, for he is 'under[or, rather, "in"] law to Christ. '

'The weak' are those too scrupulous-conscienced Christians of whom hehas been speaking in chapter viii. And whose narrow views he exhortedstronger brethren to respect, and to refrain from doing what theycould do without harming their own consciences, lest by doing it theyshould induce a brother to do the same, whose conscience would prickhim for it. That is a lesson needed to-day as much as, or more than, in Paul's time, for the widely different degrees of culture anddiversities of condition, training, and associations among Christiansnow necessarily result in very diverse views of Christian conduct inmany matters. The grand principle laid down here should guide us all, both in regard to fellow-Christians and others. Make yourself as likethem as you honestly can; restrict yourself of allowable acts, indeference to even narrow prejudices; but let the motive of yourassimilating yourself to others be clearly their highest good, thatyou may 'gain' them, not for yourself but for your Master. 

Verse 23 lays down Paul's ruling principle, which both impelled himto become all things to all men, with a view to their salvation, ashe has been saying, and urged him to effort and self-discipline, witha view to his own, as he goes on to say. 'For the Gospel's sake'seems to point backward; 'that I may be a joint partaker thereofpoints forward. We have not only to preach the Gospel to others, butto live on it and be saved by it ourselves. 

HOW THE VICTOR RUNS

 'So run, that ye may obtain. '--1 COR. Ix. 24. 

'_So_ run. ' Does that mean 'Run so that ye obtain?' Most people, I suppose, superficially reading the words, attach that significanceto them, but the 'so' here carries a much greater weight of meaningthan that. It is a word of comparison. The Apostle would have theCorinthians recall the picture which he has been putting beforethem--a picture of a scene that was very familiar to them; for, asmost of us know, one of the most important of the Grecian games wascelebrated at intervals in the immediate neighbourhood of Corinth. Many of the Corinthian converts had, no doubt, seen, or even takenpart in them. The previous portion of the verse in which our textoccurs appeals to the Corinthians' familiar knowledge of the arenaand the competitors, 'Know ye not that they which run in a race runall, but one receiveth the prize?' He would have them picture theeager racers, with every muscle strained, and the one victor startingto the front; and then he says, 'Look at that panting conqueror. Thatis how you should run. _So_ run--'meaning thereby not, 'Run so thatyou may obtain the prize, ' but 'Run so' as the victor does, 'in orderthat you may obtain. ' So, then, this victor is to be a lesson to us, and we are to take a leaf out of his book. Let us see what he teachesus. 

I. The first thing is, the utmost tension and energy and strenuouseffort. 

It is very remarkable that Paul should pick out these Grecian gamesas containing for Christian people any lesson, for they werehoneycombed, through and through, with idolatry and all sorts ofimmorality, so that no Jew ventured to go near them, and it was partof the discipline of the early Christian Church that professingChristians should have nothing to do with them in any shape. 

And yet here, as in many other parts of his letters, Paul takes thesefoul things as patterns for Christians. 'There is a soul of goodnessin things evil, if we would observantly distil it out. ' It is verymuch as if English preachers were to refer their people to aracecourse, and say, 'Even there you may pick out lessons, and learnsomething of the way in which Christian people ought to live. '

On the same principle the New Testament deals with that diabolicalbusiness of fighting. It is taken as an emblem for the Christiansoldier, because, with all its devilishness, there is in it this, atleast, that men give themselves up absolutely to the will of theircommander, and are ready to fling away their lives if he lifts hisfinger. That at least is grand and noble, and to be imitated on ahigher plane. 

In like manner Paul takes these poor racers as teaching us a lesson. Though the thing be all full of sin, we can get one valuable thoughtout of it, and it is this--If people would work half as hard to gainthe highest object that a man can set before him, as hundreds ofpeople are ready to do in order to gain trivial and paltry objects, there would be fewer stunted and half-dead Christians amongst us. 'That is the way to run, ' says Paul, 'if you want to obtain. '

Look at the contrast that he hints at, between the prize that stirsthese racers' energies into such tremendous operation and the prizewhich Christians profess to be pursuing. 'They do it to obtain acorruptible crown'--a twist of pine branch out of the neighbouringgrove, worth half-a-farthing, and a little passing glory not worthmuch more. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown; we do _not_ doit, though we professedly have an incorruptible one as our aim andobject. If we contrast the relative values of the objects that menpursue so eagerly, and the objects of the Christian course, surely weought to be smitten down with penitent consciousness of our ownunworthiness, if not of our own hypocrisy. 

It is not even there that the lesson stops, because we Christianpeople may be patterns and rebukes to ourselves. For, on the one sideof our nature we show what we can do when we are really in earnestabout getting something; and on the other side we show with howlittle work we can be contented, when, at bottom, we do not much carewhether we get the prize or not. If you and I really believed thatthat crown of glory which Paul speaks about might be ours, and wouldbe all sufficing for us if it were ours, as truly as we believe thatmoney is a good thing, there would not be such a difference betweenthe way in which we clutch at the one and the apathy which scarcelycares to put out a hand for the other. The things that are seen andtemporal do get the larger portion of the energies and thoughts ofthe average Christian man, and the things that are unseen and eternalget only what is left. Sometimes ninety per cent. Of the water of astream is taken away to drive a milldam or do work, and only ten percent. Can be spared to trickle down the half-dry channel and donothing but reflect the bright sun and help the little flowers andthe grass to grow. So, the larger portion of most lives goes to drivethe mill-wheels, and there is very little left, in the case of manyof us, in order to help us towards God, and bring us closer intocommunion with our Lord. 'Run' for the crown as eagerly as you 'run'for your incomes, or for anything that you really, in your deepestdesires, want. Take yourselves for your own patterns and your ownrebukes. Your own lives may show you how you _can_ love, hope, work, and deny yourselves when you have sufficient inducement, and theirflame should put to shame their frost, for the warmth is directedtowards trifles and the coldness towards the crown. If you would runfor the incorruptible prize of effort in the fashion in which othersand yourselves run for the corruptible, your whole lives would bechanged. Why! if Christian people in general really took half--half?ay! a tenth part of--the honest, persistent pains to improve theirChristian character, and become more like Jesus Christ, which aviolinist will take to master his instrument, there would be a newlife for most of our Christian communities. Hours and hours ofpatient practice are not too much for the one; how many moments do wegive to the other? 'So run, that ye obtain. '

II. The victorious runner sets Christians an example of rigidself-control. 

Every man that is striving for the mastery is 'temperate in allthings. ' The discipline for runners and athletes was rigid. They hadten months of spare diet--no wine--hard gymnastic exercises everyday, until not an ounce of superfluous flesh was upon their muscles, before they were allowed to run in the arena. And, says Paul, that isthe example for us. They practise this rigid discipline andabstinence by way of preparation for the race, and after it was runthey might dispense with the training. You and I have to practiserigid abstinence as part of the race, as a continuous necessity. _They_ did not abstain only from bad things, they did not onlyavoid criminal acts of sensuous indulgence; but they abstained frommany perfectly legitimate things. So for us it is not enough to say, 'I draw the line there, at this or that vice, and I will have nothingto do with these. ' You will never make a growing Christian ifabstinence from palpable sins only is your standard. You must 'layaside' every sin, of course, but also 'every _weight_' Manythings are 'weights' that are not 'sins'; and if we are to run fastwe must run light, and if we are to do any good in this world we haveto live by rigid control and abstain from much that is perfectlylegitimate, because, if we do not, we shall fail in accomplishing thehighest purposes for which we are here. Not only in regard to thegross sensual indulgences which these men had to avoid, but in regardto a great deal of the outgoings of our interests and our hearts, wehave to apply the knife very closely and cut to the quick, if wewould have leisure and sympathy and affection left for loftierobjects. It is a very easy thing to be a Christian in one aspect, inasmuch as a Christian at bottom is a man that is trusting to JesusChrist, and that is not hard to do. It is a very hard thing to be aChristian in another aspect, because a real Christian is a man who, by reason of his trusting Jesus Christ, has set his heel upon theneck of the animal that is in him, and keeps the flesh well down, andnot only the flesh, but the desires of the mind as well as of theflesh, and subordinates them all to the one aim of pleasing Him. 'Noman that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life' ifhis object is to please Him that has called him to be a soldier. Unless we cut off a great many of the thorns, so to speak, by whichthings catch hold of us as we pass them, we shall not make muchadvance in the Christian life. Rigid self-control and abstinence fromelse legitimate things that draw us away from Him are needful, if weare so to run as the poor heathen racer teaches us. 

III. The last grace that is suggested here, the last leaf to take outof these racers' book, is definiteness and concentration of aim. 

'I, therefore, ' says the Apostle, 'so run not as uncertainly. ' If therunner is now heading that way and now this, making all manner ofloops upon his path, of course he will be left hopelessly in therear. It is the old fable of the Grecian mythology transplanted intoChristian soil. The runner who turned aside to pick up the goldenapple was disappointed of his hopes of the radiant fair. The ship, atthe helm of which is a steersman who has either a feeble hand or doesnot understand his business, and which therefore keeps yawing fromside to side, with the bows pointing now this way and now that, isnot holding a course that will make the harbour first in the race. The people that to-day are marching with their faces towards Zion, and to-morrow making a loop-line to the world, will be a long timebefore they reach their terminus. I believe there are few things morelacking in the average Christian life of to-day than resolute, conscious concentration upon an aim which is clearly and alwaysbefore us. Do you know what you are aiming at? That is the firstquestion. Have you a distinct theory of life's purpose that you canput into half a dozen words, or have you not? In the one case, thereis some chance of attaining your object; in the other one, none. Alas! we find many Christian people who do not set before themselves, with emphasis and constancy, as their aim the doing of God's will, and so sometimes they do it, when it happens to be easy, andsometimes, when temptations are strong, they do not. It needs astrong hand on the tiller to keep it steady when the wind is blowingin puffs and gusts, and sometimes the sail bellies full and sometimesit is almost empty. The various strengths of the temptations thatblow us out of our course are such that we shall never keep astraight line of direction, which is the shortest line, and the onlyone on which we shall 'obtain, ' unless we know very distinctly wherewe want to go, and have a good strong will that has learned to say'No!' when the temptations come. 'Whom resist steadfast in thefaith. ' 'I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, ' taking one courseone day and another the next. 

Now, that definite aim is one that can be equally pursued in allvarieties of life. 'This one thing I do' said one who did about asmany things as most people, but the different kinds of things thatPaul did were all, at bottom, one thing. And we, in all the varietiesof our circumstances, may keep this one clear aim before us, andwhether it be in this way or in that, we may be equally and at alltimes seeking the better country, and bending all circumstances andall duty to make us more like our Master and bring us closer to Him. 

The Psalmist did not offer an impossible prayer when he said: 'Onething have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I maydwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold thebeauty of the Lord and to enquire in His temple. ' Was David in 'thehouse of the Lord' when he was with his sheep in the wilderness, andwhen he was in Saul's palace, and when he was living with wild beastsin dens and caves of the earth, and when he was a fugitive, huntedlike a partridge upon the mountains? Was he always in the Lord'shouse? Yes! At any rate he could be. All that we do may be doing Hiswill, and over a life, crowded with varying circumstances and yetsimplified and made blessed by unvarying obedience, we may write, 'This one thing I do. '

But we shall not keep this one aim clear before our eyes, unless wehabituate ourselves to the contemplation of the end. The runner, according to Paul's vivid picture in another of his letters, forgetsthe things that are behind, and stretches out towards the things thatare before. And just as a man runs with his body inclining forward, and his eager hand nearer the prize than his body, and his eyesightand his heart travelling ahead of them both to grasp it, so if wewant to live with the one worthy aim for ours, and to put all oureffort and faith into what deserves it all--the Christian race--wemust bring clear before us continually, or at least with the utmostfrequency, the prize of our high calling, the crown of righteousness. Then we shall run so that we may, at the last, be able to finish ourcourse with joy, and dying to hope with all humility that there islaid up for us a crown of righteousness. 

'CONCERNING THE CROWN'

 'They do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we are incorruptible. '--1 COR. Ix. 25. 

One of the most famous of the Greek athletic festivals was held closeby Corinth. Its prize was a pine-wreath from the neighbouring sacredgrove. The painful abstinence and training of ten months, and thefierce struggle of ten minutes, had for their result a twist of greenleaves, that withered in a week, and a little fading fame that wasworth scarcely more, and lasted scarcely longer. The struggle and thediscipline were noble; the end was contemptible. And so it is withall lives whose aims are lower than the highest. They are greater inthe powers they put forth than in the objects they compass, and thequestion, 'What is it for?' is like a douche of cold water from thecart that lays the clouds of dust in the ways. 

So, says Paul, praising the effort and contemning the prize, 'They doit to obtain a corruptible crown. ' And yet there was a soul ofgoodness in this evil thing. Though these festivals were indissolublyintertwined with idolatry, and besmirched with much sensuous evil, yet he deals with them as he does with war and with slavery; pointsto the disguised nobility that lay beneath the hideousness, and holdsup even these low things as a pattern for Christian men. 

But I do not mean here to speak so much about the general bearing ofthis text as rather to deal with its designation of the aim andreward of Christian energy, that 'incorruptible crown' of which mytext speaks. And in doing so I desire to take into account likewiseother places in Scripture in which the same metaphor occurs. 

I. The crown. 

Let me recall the other places where the same metaphor is employed. We find the Apostle, in the immediate prospect of death, rising intoa calm rapture in which imprisonment and martyrdom lose theirterrors, as he thinks of the 'crown of righteousness' which the Lordwill give to him. The Epistle of James, again, assures the man whoendures temptation that 'the Lord will give him the crown of lifewhich He has promised to all them that love Him. ' The Lord Himselffrom heaven repeats that promise to the persecuted Church at Smyrna:'Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. 'The elders cast their crowns before the feet of Him that sitteth uponthe throne. The Apostle Peter, in his letter, stimulates the eldersupon earth to faithful discharge of their duty, by the hope thatthereby they shall 'receive a crown of righteousness that fadeth notaway. ' So all these instances taken together with this of my textenable us to gather two or three lessons. 

It is extremely unlikely that all these instances of the occurrenceof the emblem carry with them reference, such as that in my text, tothe prize at the athletic festivals. For Peter and James, intenseJews as they were, had probably never seen, and possibly never heardof, the struggles at the Isthmus and at Olympus and elsewhere. TheBook of the Revelation draws its metaphors almost exclusively fromthe circle of Jewish practices and things. So that we have to look inother directions than the arena or the racecourse to explain theseother uses of the image. It is also extremely unlikely that in theseother passages the reference is to a crown as the emblem ofsovereignty, for that idea is expressed, as a rule, by another wordin Scripture, which we have Anglicised as 'diadem. ' The 'crown' inall these passages is a garland twisted out of some growth of thefield. In ancient usage roses were twined for revellers; pine-shootsor olive branches for the victors in the games; while the laurel was'the meed of mighty conquerors'; and plaited oak leaves were laidupon the brows of citizens who had deserved well of their country, and myrtle sprays crowned the fair locks of the bride. 

And thus in these directions, and not towards the wrestling ground orthe throne of the monarch, must we look for the ideas suggested bythe emblem. 

Now, if we gather together all these various uses of the word, thereemerge two broad ideas, that the 'crown' which is the Christian's aimsymbolises a state of triumphant repose and of festal enjoyment. There are other aspects of that great and dim future which correspondto other necessities of our nature, and I suppose some harm has beendone and some misconceptions have been induced, and some unrealityimported into the idea of the Christian future, by the too exclusiveprominence given to these two ideas--victorious rest after thestruggle, and abundant satisfaction of all desires. That future isother and more than a festival; it is other and more than repose. There are larger fields there for the operation of powers that havebeen trained and evolved here. The faithfulness of the steward isexchanged, according to Christ's great words, for the authority ofthe ruler over many cities. But still, do we not all know enough ofthe worry and turbulence and strained effort of the conflict herebelow, to feel that to some of our deepest and not ignoble needs anddesires that image appeals? The helmet that pressed upon the broweven whilst it protected the brain, and wore away the hair evenwhilst it was a defence, is lifted off, and on unruffled locks thegarland is intertwined that speaks victory and befits a festival. Oneof the old prophets puts the same metaphor in words imperfectlyrepresented by the English translation, when he promises 'a crown' ora garland 'for ashes'--instead of the symbol of mourning, strewedgrey and gritty upon the dishevelled hair of the weepers, flowerstwined into a wreath--'the oil of joy for mourning, ' and the festival'garment of praise' to dress the once heavy spirit. So thesatisfaction of all desires, the accompaniments of a feast, inabundance, rejoicing and companionship, and conclusive conquest overall foes, are promised us in this great symbol. 

But let us look at the passages separately, and we shall find thatthey present the one thought with differences, and that if we combinethese, as in a stereoscope, the picture gains solidity. 

The crown is described in three ways. It is the crown of 'life, ' of'glory' and of 'righteousness. ' And I venture to think that thesethree epithets describe the material, so to speak, of which thewreath is composed. The everlasting flower of life, the radiantblossoms of glory, the white flower of righteousness; these are itscomponents. 

I need not enlarge upon them, nor will your time allow that I should. Here we have the promise of life, that fuller life which men want, 'the life of which our veins are scant, ' even in the fullest tide andheyday of earthly existence. The promise sets that future overagainst the present, as if then first should men know what it meansto live: so buoyant, elastic, unwearied shall be their energies, somanifold the new outlets for activity, and the new inlets for thesurrounding glory and beauty; so incorruptible and glorious shall betheir new being. Here we live a living death; there we shall liveindeed; and that will be the crown, not only in regard to physical, but in regard to spiritual, powers and consciousness. 

But remember that all this full tide of life is Christ's gift. Thereis no such thing as natural immortality; there is no such thing asindependent life. All Being, from the lowest creature up to theloftiest created spirit, exists by one law, the continual impartationto it of life from the fountain of life, according to its capacities. And unless Jesus Christ, all through the eternal ages of the future, imparted to the happy souls that sit garlanded at His board the lifeby which they live, the wreaths would wither on their brows, and thebrows would melt away, and dissolve from beneath the wreaths. 'I willgive him a crown of life. '

It is a crown of 'glory, ' and that means a lustrousness of characterimparted by radiation and reflection from the central light of theglory of God. 'Then shall the righteous blaze out like the sun in theKingdom of My Father. ' Our eyes are dim, but we can at least divinethe far-off flashing of that great light, and may ponder upon whathidden depths and miracles of transformed perfectness and unimaginedlustre wait for us, dark and limited as we are here, in the assurancethat we all shall be changed into the 'likeness of the body of Hisglory. '

It is a crown of 'righteousness. ' Though that phrase may mean thewreath that rewards righteousness, it seems more in accordance withthe other similar expressions to which I have referred to regard it, too, as the material of which the crown is composed. It is not enoughthat there should be festal gladness, not enough that there should becalm repose, not enough that there should be flashing glory, notenough that there should be fulness of life. To accord with theintense moral earnestness of the Christian system there must be, emphatically, in the Christian hope, cessation of all sin andinvestiture with all purity. The word means the same thing as theancient promise, 'Thy people shall be all righteous. ' It means thesame thing as the latest promise of the ascended Christ, 'They shallwalk with Me in white. ' And it sets, I was going to say, the veryclimax and culmination on the other hopes, declaring that absolute, stainless, infallible righteousness which one day shall belong to ourweak and sinful spirits. 

These, then, are the elements, and on them all is stamped thesignature of perpetuity. The victor's wreath is tossed on the ashenheap, the reveller's flowers droop as he sits in the heat of thebanqueting-hall; the bride's myrtle blossom fades though she lay itaway in a safe place. The crown of life is incorruptible. It istwined of amaranth, ever blossoming into new beauty and never fading. 

II. Now look, secondly, at the discipline by which the crown is won. 

Observe, first of all, that in more than one of the passages to whichwe have already referred great emphasis is laid upon Christ as_giving_ the crown. That is to say, that blessed future is notwon by effort, but is bestowed as a free gift. It is given from thehands which have procured it, and, as I may say, twined it for us. Unless His brows had been pierced with the crown of thorns, ourswould never have worn the garland of victory. Jesus provides the solemeans, by His work, by which any man can enter into that inheritance;and Jesus, as the righteous Judge who bestows the rewards, which arelikewise the results, of our life here, gives the crown. It remainsfor ever the gift of His love. 'The wages of sin is death, ' but werise above the region of retribution and desert when we pass to thenext clause--'the gift of God is eternal life, ' and that 'throughJesus Christ. '

Whilst, then, this must be laid as the basis of all, there must also, with equal earnestness and clearness, be set forth the other thoughtthat Christ's gift has conditions, which conditions these passagesplainly set forth. In the one, which I have read as a text, we havethese conditions declared as being twofold--protracted discipline andcontinuous effort. The same metaphor employed by the same Apostle, inhis last dying utterance, associates his consciousness that he hadfought the good fight and run his race, like the pugilists andrunners of the arena, with the hope that he shall receive the crownof righteousness. James declares that it is given to the man who_endures_ temptation, not only in the sense of bearing, but ofso bearing as not thereby to be injured in Christian character andgrowth in Christian life. Peter asserts that it is the reward ofself-denying discharge of duty. And the Lord from heaven lays downthe condition of faithfulness unto death as the necessarypre-requisite of His gift of the crown of life. In two of thepassages there is included, though not precisely on the level ofthese other requirements, the love of Him and the love of 'Hisappearing, ' as the necessary qualifications for the gift of thecrown. 

So, to begin with, unless a man has such a love to Jesus Christ asthat he is happy in His presence, and longs to have Him near, asparted loving souls do; and, especially, is looking forward to thatgreat judicial coming, and feeling that there is no tremor in hisheart at the prospect of meeting the Judge, but an outgoing of desireand love at the hope of seeing his Saviour and his Friend, what righthas he to expect the crown? None. And he will never get it. There isa test for us which may well make some of us ask ourselves, Are weChristians, then, at all?

And then, beyond that, there are all these other conditions which Ihave pointed out, which may be gathered into one--strenuous dischargeof daily duty and continual effort after following in Christ'sfootsteps. 

This needs to be as fully and emphatically preached as the otherdoctrine that eternal life is the gift of God. All manner ofmischiefs may come, and have come, from either of these twinthoughts, wrenched apart. But let us weave them as closely togetheras the stems of the flowers that make the garlands are twined, andfeel that there is a perfect consistency of both in theory, and thatthere must be a continual union of both, in our belief and in ourpractice. Eternal life is the gift of God, on condition of ourdiligence and earnestness. It is not all the same whether you are alazy Christian or not. It does make an eternal difference in ourcondition whether here we 'run with patience the race that is setbefore us, looking unto Jesus. ' We have to receive the crown as agift; we have to wrestle and run, as contending for a prize. 

III. And now, lastly, note the power of the reward as motive forlife. 

Paul says roundly in our text that the desire to obtain theincorruptible crown is a legitimate spring of Christian action. Now, I do not need to waste your time and my own in defending Christianmorality from the fantastic objection that it is low and selfish, because it encourages itself to efforts by the prospect of the crown. If there are any men who are Christians--if such a contradiction canbe even stated in words--only because of what they hope to gainthereby in another world, they will not get what they hope for; andthey would not like it if they did. I do not believe that there areany such; and sure I am, if there are, that it is not Christianitythat has made them so. But a thought that we must not take as asupreme motive, we may rightly accept as a subsidiary encouragement. We are not Christians unless the dominant motive of our lives be thelove of the Lord Jesus Christ; and unless we feel a necessity, because of loving Him, to aim to be like Him. But, that being so, whoshall hinder me from quickening my flagging energies, and stimulatingmy torpid faith, and encouraging my cowardice, by the thought thatyonder there remain rest, victory, the fulness of life, the flashingof glory, and the purity of perfect righteousness? If such hopes arelow and selfish as motives, would God that more of us were obedientto such low and selfish motives!

Now it seems to me, that this spring of action is not as strong inthe Christians of this day as it used to be, and as it should be. Youdo not hear much about heaven in ordinary preaching. I do not thinkit occupies a very large place in the average Christian man's mind. We have all got such a notion nowadays of the great good that theGospel does in society and in the present, and some of us have beenso frightened by the nonsense that has been talked about the'other-worldliness' of Christianity--as if that was a disgrace toit--that it seems to me that the future of glory and blessedness hasvery largely faded away, as a motive for Christian men's energies, like the fresco off a neglected convent wall. 

And I want to say, dear brethren, that I believe, for my part, thatwe suffer terribly by the comparative neglect into which this side ofChristian truth has fallen. Do you not think that it would make adifference to you if you really believed, and carried always with youin your thoughts, the thrilling consciousness that every act of thepresent was registered, and would tell on the far side yonder? We donot know much of that future, and these days are intolerant of mereunverifiable hypotheses. But accuracy of knowledge and definitenessof impression do not always go together, nor is there the fulness ofthe one wanted for the clearness and force of the other. Though thethread which we throw across the abyss is very slender, it is strongenough, like the string of a boy's kite, to bear the messengers ofhope and desire that we may send up by it, and strong enough to bearthe gifts of grace that will surely come down along it. 

We cannot understand to-day unless we look at it with eternity for abackground. The landscape lacks its explanation, until the mists liftand we see the white summits of the Himalayas lying behind andglorifying the low sandy plain. Would your life not be different;would not the things in it that look great be wholesomely dwindledand yet be magnified; would not sorrow be calmed, and life become 'asolemn scorn of ills, ' and energies be stimulated, and all bedifferent, if you really 'did it to obtain an incorruptible crown?'

Brethren, let us try to keep more clearly before us, as solemn andblessed encouragement in our lives, these great thoughts. The garlandhangs on the goal, but 'a man is not crowned unless he striveaccording to the laws' of the arena. The laws are two--No man canenter for the conflict but by faith in Christ; no man can win in thestruggle but by faithful effort. So the first law is, 'Believe on theLord Jesus Christ, ' and the second is, 'Hold fast that thou hast; letno man take thy crown. '

THE LIMITS OF LIBERTY

 'All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. 24. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth. 25. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake. 26. For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. 27. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed togo, whatsoever is set before you eat, asking no question for conscience sake. 28. But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof: 29. Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience? 30. For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? 31. Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 32. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: 33. Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. '--1 COR. X. 23-33. 

This passage strikingly illustrates Paul's constant habit of solvingquestions as to conduct by the largest principles. He did not keephis 'theology' and his ethics in separate water-tight compartments, having no communication with each other. The greatest truths wereused to regulate the smallest duties. Like the star that guided theMagi, they burned high in the heavens, but yet directed to the housein Bethlehem. 

The question here in hand was one that pressed on the CorinthianChristians, and is very far away from our experience. Idolatry had soinextricably intertwined itself with daily life that it was hard tokeep up any intercourse with non-Christians without falling intoconstructive idolatry; and one very constantly obtruding difficultywas that much of the animal food served on private tables had beenslaughtered as sacrifices or with certain sacrificial rites. What wasa Christian to do in such a case? To eat or not to eat? Both viewshad their vehement supporters in the Corinthian church, and theimportance of the question is manifest from the large space devotedto it in this letter. 

In chapter viii. We have a weighty paragraph, in which one phase ofthe difficulty is dealt with--the question whether a Christian oughtto attend a feast in an idol temple, where, of course, the viands hadbeen offered as sacrifices. But in chapter x. Paul deals with thecase in which the meat had been bought in the flesh-market, and sowas not necessarily sacrificial. Paul's manner of handling the pointis very instructive. He envelops, as it were, the practical solutionin a wrapping of large principles; verses 23, 24 precede the specificanswer, and are general principles; verses 25-30 contain thepractical answer; verses 31-33 and verse 1 of the next chapter areagain general principles, wide and imperative enough to mould allconduct, as well as to settle the matter immediately in hand, which, important as it was at Corinth, has become entirely uninteresting tous. 

We need not spend time in elucidating the specific directions givenas to the particular question in hand further than to note theimmense gift of saving common-sense which Paul had, and how sanelyand moderately he dealt with his problem. His advice was--'Don't askwhere the joint set before you came from. If you do not know that itwas offered, your eating of it does not commit you to idol worship. 'No doubt there were Corinthian Christians with inflamed conscienceswho did ask such questions, and rather prided themselves on theirstrictness and rigidity; but Paul would have them let sleeping dogslie. If, however, the meat is known to have been offered to an idol, then Paul is as rigid and strict as they are. That combination ofwillingness to go as far as possible, and inflexible determinationnot to go one step farther, of yieldingness wherever principle doesnot come in, and of iron fixedness wherever it does, is rare indeed, but should be aimed at by all Christians. The morality of the Gospelwould make more way in the world if its advocates always copied the'sweet reasonableness' of Paul, which, as he tells us in thispassage, he learned from Jesus. 

As to the wrapping of general principles, they may all be reduced toone--the duty of limiting Christian liberty by consideration forothers. In the two verses preceding the practical precepts, that dutyis stated with reference entirely to the obligations flowing from ourrelationship to others. We are all bound together by a mystical chainof solidarity. Since every man is my neighbour, I am bound to thinkof him and not only of myself in deciding what I may do or refrainfrom doing. I must abstain from lawful things if, by doing them, Ishould be likely to harm my neighbour's building up of a strongcharacter. I can, or I believe that I can, pursue some course ofconduct, engage in some enterprise, follow some line of life, withoutdamage to myself, either in regard to worldly position, or in regardto my religious life. Be it so, but I have to take some one else intoaccount. Will my example call out imitation in others, to whom it maybe harmful or fatal to do as I can do with real or supposed impunity?If so, I am guilty of something very like murder if I do not abstain. 

'What harm is there in betting a shilling? I can well afford to loseit, and I can keep myself from the feverish wish to risk more. ' Yes, and you are thereby helping to hold up that gambling habit which isruining thousands. 

'I can take alcohol in moderation, and it does me no harm, and I cango to a prayer-meeting after my dinner and temperate glass, and I amwithin my Christian liberty in doing so. ' Yes, and you take partthereby in the greatest curse that besets our country, and are, bycountenancing the drink habit, guilty of the blood of souls. How anyChristian man can read these two verses and not abstain from allintoxicants is a mystery. They cut clean through all the pleas formoderate drinking, and bring into play another set of principleswhich limit liberty by regard to others' good. Surely, if there wasever a subject to which these words apply, it is the use of alcohol, the proved cause of almost all the crime and poverty on both sides ofthe Atlantic. To the Christians who plead their 'liberty' we can onlysay, 'Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which healloweth. '

The same general considerations reappear in the verses following thespecific precept, but with a difference. The neighbour's profit isstill put forth as the limiting consideration, but it is elevated toa higher sacredness of obligation by being set in connection with the'glory of God' and the example of Christ. 'Do all to the glory ofGod. ' To put the thought here into modern English--Could you ask ablessing over a glass of spirits when you think that, though itshould do you no harm, your taking it may, as it were, tip some weakbrother over the precipice? Can you drink to God's glory when youknow that drink is slaying thousands body and soul, and that hopelessdrunkards are made by wholesale out of moderate drinkers? 'Give nooccasion of stumbling'; do not by your example tempt others intorisky courses. And remember that 'neighbour' (verse 24) resolvesitself into 'Jews' and 'Greeks' and the 'Church of God'--that is, substantially to your own race and other races--to men with whom youhave affinities, and to men with whom you have none. 

A Christian man is bound to shape his life so that no man shall beable to say of him that he was the occasion of that one's fall. He isso bound because every man is his neighbour. He is so bound becausehe is bound to live to the glory of God, which can never be advancedby laying stumbling-blocks in the way for feeble feet. He is so boundbecause, unless Christ had limited Himself within the bound ofmanhood, and had sought not His own profit or pleasure, we shouldhave had neither life nor hope. For all these reasons, the duty ofthinking of others, and of abstaining, for their sakes, from what onemight do, is laid on all Christians. How do they discharge that dutywho will not forswear alcohol for their neighbour's sake?

'IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME'

 'This do in remembrance of Me. '--1 COR. Xi. 24. 

The account of the institution of the Lord's Supper, contained inthis context, is very much the oldest extant narrative of that event. It dates long before any of the Gospels, and goes up, probably, tosomewhere about five and twenty years after the Crucifixion. Itpresupposes a previous narrative which had been orally delivered tothe Corinthians, and, as the Apostle alleges, was derived by him fromChrist Himself. It is intended to correct corruptions in theadministration of the rite which must have taken some time to developthemselves. And so we are carried back to a period very close indeedto the first institution of the rite, by the words before us. 

No reasonable doubt can exist, then, that within a very few years ofour Lord's death, the whole body of Christian people believed thatJesus Christ Himself appointed the Lord's Supper. I do not stay todwell upon the value of a rite contemporaneous with the fact which itcommemorates, and continuously lasting throughout the ages, as awitness of the historical veracity of the alleged fact; but I want tofix upon this thought, that Jesus Christ, who cared very little forrites, who came to establish a religion singularly independent of anyoutward form, did establish two rites, one of them to be done once ina Christian lifetime, one of them to be repeated with indefinitefrequency, and, as it appears, at first repeated daily by the earlybelievers. The reason why these two, and only these two, externalordinances were appointed by Jesus Christ was, that, taken together, they cover the whole ground of revealed fact, and they also cover thewhole ground of Christian experience. There is no room for any otherrites, because these two, the rite of initiation, which is baptism, and the rite of commemoration, which is the Lord's Supper, sayeverything about Christianity as a revelation, and about Christianityas a living experience. 

Not only so, but in the simple primitive form of the Lord's Supperthere is contained a reference to the past, the present and thefuture. It covers all time as well as all revelation and allChristian experience. For the past, as the text shows us, it is amemorial of one Person, and one fact in that Person's life. For thepresent, it is the symbol of the Christian life, as that great sixthchapter in John's gospel sets forth; and for the future, it is aprophecy, as our Lord Himself said on that night in the upperchamber, 'Till I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom, ' andas the Apostle in this context says, 'Till He come. ' It is to thesethree aspects of this ordinance, as the embodiment of all essentialChristian truth, and as the embodiment of all deep Christianexperience, covering the past, the present, and the future, that Iwish to turn now. I do not deal so much with the mere words of mytext as with this threefold significance of the rite which itappoints. 

I. So then, first, we have to think of it as a memorial of the past. 

'Do this, ' is the true meaning of the words, not 'in remembrance ofMe, ' but something far more sweet and pathetic--'do this for the_remembering_ of Me. ' The former expression is equal to 'Do thisbecause you remember. ' The real meaning of the words is, 'Do this incase you forget'; do this in order that you may recall to memory whatthe slippery memory is so apt to lose--the impression of even thesweetest sweetness, of the most loving love, and the mostself-abnegating sacrifice, which He offered for us. 

There is something to me infinitely pathetic and beautiful in lookingat the words not only as the commandment of the Lord, but as theappeal of the Friend, who wished, as we all do, not to be utterlyforgotten by those whom He cared for and loved; and who, not onlybecause their remembrance was their salvation, but because theirforgetfulness pained His human heart, brings to their hearts theplaintive appeal: 'Do not forget Me when I am gone away from you; andeven if you have no better way of remembering Me, take these poorsymbols, to which I am not too proud to entrust the care of Mymemory, and do this, lest you forget Me. '

But, dear brethren, there are deeper thoughts than this, on which Imust dwell briefly. 'In remembrance of Me'--Jesus Christ, then, takesup an altogether unique and solitary position here, and into thesacredest hours of devotion and the loftiest moments of communionwith God, intrudes His personality, and says, 'When you are mostreligious, remember Me; and let the highest act of your devout lifebe a thought turned to Myself. '

Now, I want you to ask, is that thought diverted from God? And if itis not, how comes it not to be? I want you honestly to ask yourselvesthis question--what did _He_ think about Himself who, at thatmoment, when all illusions were vanishing, and life was almost at itslast ebb, took the most solemn rite of His nation and laid itsolemnly aside and said: 'A greater than Moses is here; a greaterdeliverance is being wrought': 'Remember Me. ' Is that insisting onHis own personality, and making the remembrance of it the very apexand shining summit of all religious aspiration--is that the work ofone about whom all that we have to say is, He was the noblest of men?If so, then I want to know how Jesus Christ, in that upper chamber, founding the sole continuous rite of the religion which Heestablished, and making its heart and centre the remembrance of Hisown personality, can be cleared from the charge of diverting toHimself what belongs to God only, and how you and I, if we obey Hiscommands, escape the crime of idolatry and man-worship? 'Do this inremembrance, '--not of God--'in remembrance of Me, ' 'and let memory, with all its tendrils, clasp and cleave to My person. ' What anextraordinary demand! It is obscuring God, unless the 'Me' _is_ Godmanifest in the flesh. 

Then, still further, let me remind you that in the appointment ofthis solitary rite as His memorial to all generations, Jesus ChristHimself designates one part of His whole manifestation as the partinto which all its pathos, significance, and power are concentrated. We who believe that the death of Christ is the life of the world, aretold that one formidable objection to our belief is that Jesus ChristHimself said so little during His life about His death. I believe Hisreticence upon that question is much exaggerated, but apartaltogether from that, I believe also that there was a necessity inthe order of the evolution of divine truth, for the reticence, suchas it is, because, whatsoever might be possible to Moses and Elias, on the Mount of Transfiguration, 'His decease which He shouldaccomplish at Jerusalem, ' could not be much spoken about in the plaintill it had been accomplished. But, apart from both of theseconsiderations, reflect, that whether He said much about His death ornot, He said something very much to the purpose about it when He said'Do this in remembrance of Me. '

It is not His personality only that we are to remember. The whole ofthe language of the institution of the ritual, as well as the form ofthe rite, and its connection with the ancient passover, and itsconnection with the new covenant into connection with which ChristHimself brings it, all point to the significance in His eyes of Hisdeath as the Sacrifice for the world's sin. Wherefore 'the body' and'the blood' separately remembered, except to indicate death byviolence? Wherefore the language 'the body _broken_ for you';'the blood _shed_ for many for the remission of sins?' Wherefore theassociation with the Passover sacrifice? Wherefore the declarationthat 'this is the blood of the Covenant, ' unless all tended to theone thought--His death is the foundation of all loving relationshipspossible to us with God; and the condition of the remission ofsins--the Sacrifice for the whole world?'

This is the point that He desires us to remember; this is that whichHe would have live for ever in our grateful hearts. 

I say nothing about the absolute exclusion of any other purpose ofthis memorial rite. If it was the mysterious thing that thesuperstition of later ages has made of it, how, in the name ofcommon-sense, does it come that not one syllable, looking in thatdirection, dropped from His lips when He established it? Surely He, in that upper chamber, knew best what He meant, and what He was doingwhen He established the rite; and I, for my part, am contented to betold that I believe in a poor, bald Zwinglianism, when I say with myMaster, that the purpose of the Lord's Supper is simply thecommemoration, and therein the proclamation, of His death. There isno magic, no mystery, no 'sacrament' about it. It blesses us when itmakes us remember Him. It does the same thing for us which any othermeans of bringing Him to mind does. It does that through a differentvehicle. A sermon does it by words, the Communion does it by symbols. That is the difference to be found between them. And away goes thewhole fabric of superstitious Christianity, and all its mischiefs andevils, when once you accept the simple 'Remember. ' Christ told uswhat He meant by the rite when He said 'Do this in remembrance ofMe. '

II. And now one word or two more about the other particulars which Ihave suggested. The past, however sweet and precious, is not enoughfor any soul to live upon. And so this memorial rite, just because itis memorial, is a symbol for the present. 

That is taught us in the great chapter--the sixth of John'sGospel--which was spoken long before the institution of the Lord'sSupper, but expresses in words the same ideas which it expresses bymaterial forms. The Christ who died is the Christ who lives, and mustbe lived upon by the Christian. If our relation to Jesus Christ wereonly that 'Once in the end of the ages He appeared to put away sin bythe sacrifice of Himself'; and if we had to look back throughlengthening vistas of distance and thickening folds of oblivion, simply to a historical past, in which He was once offered, theretrospect would not have the sweetness in it which it now has. Butwhen we come to this thought that the Christ who was for us is alsothe Christ in us, and that He is not the Christ for us unless He isthe Christ in us; and His death will never wash away our sins unlesswe feed upon Him, here and now, by faith and meditation, then theretrospect becomes blessedness. The Christian life is not merely theremembrance of a historical Christ in the past, but it is the presentparticipation in a living Christ, with us now. 

He is near each of us that we may make Him the very food of ourspirits. We are to live upon Him. He is to be incorporated within usby our own act. This is no mysticism, it is a piece of simplereality. There is no Christian life without it. The true life of thebeliever is just the feeding of our souls upon Him, --our mindsaccepting, meditating upon, digesting the truths which are incarnatedin Jesus; our hearts feeding upon the love which is so tender, warm, stooping, and close; our wills feeding upon and nourished by theutterance of His will in commandments which to know is joy and tokeep is liberty; our hopes feeding upon Him who is our Hope, and inwhom they find no chaff and husks of peradventures, but the purewheat of 'Verily! verily I say unto you'; the whole nature thusfinding its nourishment in Jesus Christ. You are Christians in themeasure in which the very strength of your spirits, and sustenance ofall your faculties, are found in loving communion with the livingLord. 

Remember, too, that all this communion, intimate, sweet, sacred, ispossible only, or at all events is in its highest forms and mostblessed reality, possible only, to those who approach Him through thegate of His death. The feeding upon the living Christ which will bethe strength of our hearts and our portion for ever, must be afeeding upon the whole Christ. We must not only nourish our spiritson the fact that He was incarnated for our salvation, but also on thetruth that He was crucified for our acceptance with God. 'He thateateth Me, even he shall live by Me, ' has for its deepestexplanation, 'He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hatheternal life. '

My friends, what about the hunger of your souls? Where is itsatisfied? With the swine's husks, or with the 'Bread of God whichcame down from Heaven?'

III. Now, lastly, that rite which is a memorial and a symbol is alsoa prophecy. 

In the original words of the institution our Lord Himself makesreference to the future; 'till I drink it new with you in My Father'skingdom. ' And in the context here, the Apostle provides for theperpetual continuance, and emphasises the prophetic aspect, ofthe rite, by that word, 'till He come. ' His death necessarily impliesHis coming again. The Cross and the Throne are linked together by anindissoluble bond. Being what it is, the death cannot be the end. Being what He is, if He has once been offered to bear the sins ofmany, so He must come the second time without sin unto salvation. Therite, just because it is a rite, is the prophecy of a time when theneed for it, arising from weak flesh and an intrusive world, shallcease. 'They shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord;at that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord. ' Thereshall be no temple in that great city, because the Lord God Almightyand the Lamb are the Temple thereof. So all external worship is aprophecy of the coming of the perfect time, when that which isperfect being come, the external helps and ladders to climb to theloftiest shall be done away. 

But more than that, the memorial and symbol is a prophecy. That upperchamber, with its troubled thoughts, its unbidden tears, starting tothe eyes of the half-understanding listeners, who only felt that Hewas going away and the sweet companionship was dissolved, may seem tobe but a blurred and a poor image of the better communion of heaven. But though on that sad night the Master bore a burdened heart, andthe servants had but partial apprehension and a more partial love;though He went forth to agonise and to die, and they went forth todeny and to betray, and to leave Him alone, still it was a prophecyof Christ's table in His kingdom. Heaven is to be a feast. Thatrepresentation promises society to the solitary, rest to the toilers, the oil of joy for mourning, and the full satisfaction of alldesires. That heavenly feast surpasses indeed the antitype in theupper chamber, in that there the Master Himself partook not, andyonder we shall sup with Him and He with us, but is prophetic inthat, as there He took a towel and girded Himself and washed thedisciples' feet, so yonder He will come forth Himself and serve them. The future is unlike the prophetic past in that 'we shall go no moreout'; there shall be no sequences of sorrow, and struggle, anddistance and ignorance; but like it in that we shall feast on Christ, for through eternity the glorified Jesus will be the Bread of ourspirits, and the fact of His past sacrifice the foundation of ourhopes. 

So, dear brethren, though our external celebration of this rite bedashed, as it always is, with much ignorance and with feeble faith;and though we gather round this table as the first generation ofIsraelites did round the passover, of which it is the successor, withstaff in hand and loins girded, and have to eat it often with bitterherbs mingled, and though there be at our sides empty places, yet evenin our clouded and partial apprehension, and in the imperfections ofthis outward type, we may see a gracious shadow of what is waitingfor us when we shall go no more out, and all empty places shall befilled, and the bitter herbs shall be changed for the asphodel ofHeaven and the sweet flowerage round the throne of God, and we shallfeast upon the Christ, and in the loftiest experience of the utmostglories of the Heavens, shall remember the bitter Cross and agony asthat which has bought it all. 'This do in remembrance of Me. ' May itbe a symbol of our inmost life, and the prophecy of the Heaven towhich we each shall come!

THE UNIVERSAL GIFT

 'The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. '--1 COR. Xii. 7. 

The great fact which to-day[1] commemorates is too often regarded asif it were a transient gift, limited to those on whom it was firstbestowed. We sometimes hear it said that the great need of theChristian world is a second Pentecost, a fresh outpouring of theSpirit of God and the like. Such a way of thinking and speakingmisconceives the nature and significance of the first Pentecost, which had a transient element in it, but in essence was permanent. The rushing mighty wind and the cloven tongues of fire, and thestrange speech in many languages, were all equally transient. Therushing wind swept on, and the house was no more filled with it. Thetongues flickered into invisibility and disappeared from the heads. The hubbub of many languages was quickly silent. But that which thesethings but symbolised is permanent; and we are not to think ofPentecost as if it were a sudden gush from a great reservoir, and thesluice was let down again after it, but as if it were the entranceinto a dry bed, of a rushing stream, whose first outgush was attendedwith noise, but which thereafter flows continuous and unbroken. Ifchurches or individuals are scant of that gift, it is not because ithas not been bestowed, but because it has not been accepted. 

My text tells us two things: it unconditionally and broadly assertsthat every Christian possesses this great gift--the manifestation isgiven to every man; and then it asserts that the gift of each ismeant to be utilised for the good of all. 'The manifestation is givento every man to profit withal. '

I. Let me, then, say a word or two, to begin with, about theuniversality of this gift. 

Now, that is implied in our Lord's own language, as commented upon bythe Evangelist. For Jesus Christ declared that this was the standinglaw of His kingdom, to be universally applied to all its members, that 'He that believeth on Him, out of him shall flow rivers ofliving water'; and the Evangelist's comment goes on to say, 'Thisspake He of the Spirit which they that believe on Him shouldreceive. ' _There_ is the condition and the qualification. Whereverthere is faith, there the Spirit of God is bestowed, and bestowed inthe measure in which faith is exercised. So, then, in full accordancewith such fundamental principles in reference to the gift of theSpirit of God, comes the language of my text, and of many anothertext to which I cannot do more than refer. But let me just quote oneor two of them, in order that I may make more emphatic what I believea great many Christian people do not realise as they ought--viz. Thatthe gift of God's Holy Spirit is not a thing to be desired, as if itwere not possessed or confined to select individuals, or manifestedby exceptional and lofty attainments, but is the universal heritageof the whole Christian Church. 'Know ye not that ye are the temple ofthe Holy Ghost?' 'We have all been made to drink into one Spirit, 'says Paul again, in the immediate context. 'If any man have not theSpirit of Christ, he is none of His, ' says he, unconditionally. Andin many other places the same principle is laid down, a principlewhich I believe the Christian Church to-day needs to have recalled toits consciousness, that it may be quickened to realise it in itsexperience far more than is the case at present. 

Let me remind you, too, that that universality of the gifts of theDivine Spirit is implied in the very conception of what Christ'swork, in its deepest and most precious aspects to us, is. For we arenot to limit, as a great many so-called earnest evangelical teachersand believers do--we are not to limit His work to that which iseffected when a man first becomes a Christian--viz. Pardon andacceptance with God. God forbid that I should ever seem to underratethat great initial gift on which everything else must be built. But Iam not underrating it when I say, 'Let us prophesy according to theproportion of faith, ' and the 'proportion of faith' has beenviolated, and the perspective and completeness of Christian truth, and of Christ's gifts, have been, alas! to a very large extentdistorted because Christian people, trained in what we call theevangelical school, have laid far too little emphasis on the factthat the essential gift of Christ to His people is not pardon, noracceptance, nor justification, but _life_; and that forgiveness, and altered relationship to God, and assurance of acceptance withHim, are all preliminaries. They are, if I may recur to a figure thatI have already employed, the preparing of the channel, and the takingaway of the obstacles that block its mouth, in order to the inrush ofthe flood of the river of the water of life. 

This life that Christ gives is the result of the gift of the Spirit. So 'If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His. ' Thelife is the gift considered from our side, and the Spirit is the giftconsidered from the divine side. 'Every man that hath the Son hathlife'; because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made himfree from the law of sin and death. So you see if that is true--and Ifor my part am sure that it is--then all that vulgar way of lookingat the influences of the Holy Spirit upon men, as if they wereconfined to certain exceptional people, or certain abnormal andextraordinary and elevated acts, is swept away. It is not thespasmodic, the exceptional, the rare, not the lofty ortranscendentally Christlike acts or characters that are alone themanifestation of the Spirit. 

Nor is this gift a thing that a man can discover as distinct from hisown consciousness. The point where the river of the water of lifecomes into the channel of our spirits lies away far up, near thesources, and long before the stream comes into sight in our ownconsciousness, the blended waters have been inseparably mingled, andflow on peacefully together. 'The Spirit beareth witness _with_our spirits'; and you are not to expect that you can hear two voicesspeaking, but it is one voice and one only. 

Now, that universality of this divine gift underlies the veryconstitution of the Christian Church. 'Where the Spirit of the Lordis there is liberty, ' said Paul. It is because each Christian manhas access to the one Source of illumination and of truth andrighteousness and holiness, that no Christian man is to becomesubject to the dominion of a brother. And it is because on theservants and on the handmaidens has been poured out, in thesedays, God's Spirit and they prophesy, that all domination of classesor individuals, and all stiffening of the free life of God's Churchby man-made creeds, are contrary to the very basis of its existence, and an attack on the dignity of each individual member of the Church. 'Ye have an unction from the Holy One' is said to all Christianpeople--and 'ye need not that any man teach you, ' still less that anyman, or body of men, or document framed by men, should be set up asnormal and authoritative over Christ's free people. 

Still further, and only one word--Let me remind you of what I havealready said, and what is only too sadly true, that this granduniversality of the Spirit's gift to all Christian people does notfill, in the mind of the ordinary Christian man, the place that itought, and it does not fill it, therefore, in his experience. I sayno more upon that point. 

II. And now let me say a word, secondly, about the many-sidedness ofthis universal gift. 

One of the reasons why Christian people as a whole do not realise theuniversality as they ought is, as I have already suggested in asomewhat different connection, because they limit their notions fartoo much of what the gift of God's Spirit is to do to men. We musttake a wider view of what that Spirit is meant to effect than weordinarily take, before we understand how real and how visible itsuniversal manifestations are. Take a leaf out of the Old Testament. The man who made the brass-work for the Tabernacle was 'full of theSpirit of God. ' The poets who sung the Psalms, in more than oneplace, declare of themselves that they, too, were but the harps uponwhich the divine finger played. Samson was capable of his rude featsof physical strength, because 'the Spirit of God was upon him. ' Art, song, counsel, statesmanlike adaptation of means to ends, anddiscernment of proper courses for a nation, such as were exemplifiedin Joseph and in Daniel, are, in the Old Testament, ascribed to theSpirit of God, and even the rude physical strength of thesimple-natured and sensuous athlete is traced up to the same source. 

But again, we see another sphere of the Spirit's working in themanifestations of it in the experience of the primitive Church. Theseare, as we all know, accompanied with miracles, speaking with tonguesand working wonders. The signs of that Spirit in those days werevisible and audible. As I said, when the river first came into itsbed, it came like the tide in Morecambe Bay, breast-high, with aroar and a rush. But it was quiet after that. In the context we have awhole series of manifestations of this Divine Spirit, some of themmiraculous and some being natural faculties heightened, but allconcerned with the Church as a society, and being for the benefit ofthe community. 

But there is another class. If you turn to the Epistle to theGalatians, you will find a wonderful list there of what the Apostlecalls 'the fruit of the Spirit, ' beginning with 'love, joy, peace. 'These are all moral and religious, bearing upon personal experienceand the completeness of the individual character. 

Now, let us include all these aspects in our conception of the fruitof the Spirit's working on men--the secular, if we may use that word, as exhibited in the Old Testament; the miraculous, as seen in thefirst days of the Church; the ecclesiastical, if we may so designatethe endowments mentioned in the context, and the purely personal, moral, and religious emotions and acts. The plain fact is thateverything in a Christian's life, except his sin, is themanifestation of that Divine Spirit, from whom all good thoughts, counsels, and works do proceed. He is the 'Spirit of adoption, ' andwhenever in my heart there rises warm and blessed the aspiration'Abba! Father!' it is not my voice only, but the voice of that DivineSpirit. He is the Spirit of intercession; and whenever in my soulthere move yearning desires after infinite good, child-like longingsto be knit more closely to Him, that, too, is the voice of God'sSpirit; and our prayers are then 'sweet, indeed, when He the Spiritgives by which we pray. ' In like manner, all the variety of Christianemotions and experiences is to be traced to the conjoint operation ofthat Divine Spirit as the source, and my own spirit as influenced by, and the organ of, the Spirit of God. If I may take a very roughillustration, there is a story in the Old Testament about a king, towhom were given a bow and arrow, with the command to shoot. Theprophet's hand was laid on the king's weak hand, and the weak handwas strengthened by the touch of the other; and with one common pullthey drew back the string and the arrow sped. The king drew the bow, but it was the prophet's hand grasping his wrist that gave himstrength to do it. And that is how the Spirit of God will work withus if we will. 

III. Finally, consider the purpose of all the diverse manifestationsof the one universal gift. 

'To profit withal'--for his own good who possesses it, and for thegood of all the rest of his brethren. 

Now, that involves two plain things. There have been people in theChristian Church who have said, 'We have all the Spirit, andtherefore we do not need one another. ' There may be isolation, andself-sufficiency, and a host of other evils coming in, if we onlygrasp the thought, 'The manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyman, ' but they are all corrected if we go on and say, 'to profitwithal. ' For every one of us has something, and no one of us haseverything; so, on the one hand, we want each other, and, on theother hand, we are responsible for the use of what we have. 

You get the life, not in order that you may plume yourself on itspossession, nor in order that you may ostentatiously display it, still less in order that you may shut it up and do nothing with it;but you get the life in order that it may spread through you toothers. 

 'The least flower with a brimming cup may stand, And share its dew-drop with another near. '

We each have the life that God's grace may fructify through us toall. Power is duty; endowment is obligation; capacity prescribeswork. 'The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man toprofit withal. '

You can regulate the flow. You have the sluice; you can shut it oropen it. I have said that the condition, and the only condition, ofpossessing the fulness of God's Spirit is faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, the more you trust the more you have, and the less yourfaith the less the gift. You can get much or little, according to thegreatness or the smallness, the fixity or the transiency, of yourdesires. If you hold the empty cup with a tremulous hand, theprecious liquid will not be poured into it--for some of it will bespilt--in the same fulness as it would be if you held it steadily. Itis the old story--the miraculous flow of the oil stopped when thewidow had no more pots and vessels to bring. The reason why some ofus have so little of that Divine Spirit is because we have not heldout our vessels to be filled. You can diminish the flow by ignoringit, and that is what a host of so-called Christian people donowadays. You can diminish it by neglecting to use the little thatyou have for the purpose for which it was given you. Does anybodyprofit by your spiritual life? Do you profit much by it yourselves?Has it ever been of the least good to anybody else in the world? 'Themanifestation of the Spirit is given to' you, if you are a Christianman or woman, more or less. And if you shut it up, and do never anatom of good with it, either to yourselves or to anybody else, ofcourse it will slip away; and, sometime or other, to yourastonishment, you will find that the vessels are empty, and that theSpirit of the Lord has departed from you. 'Grieve not the Holy Spiritof God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. '

[Footnote 1: Whitsunday. ]

WHAT LASTS

 'Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 13. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three. .. . '--1 COR. Xiii. 8, 13. 

We discern the run of the Apostle's thought best by thus omitting theintervening verses and connecting these two. The part omitted is buta buttress of what has been stated in the former of our two verses;and when we thus unite them there is disclosed plainly the Apostle'sintention of contrasting two sets of things, three in each set. Theone set is 'prophecies, tongues, knowledge'; the other, 'faith, hope, charity. ' There also comes out distinctly that the point mainlyintended by the contrast is the transiency of the one and thepermanence of the other. Now, that contrast has been obscured andweakened by two mistakes, about which I must say a word. 

With regard to the former statement, 'Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease, ' thathas been misunderstood as if it amounted to a declaration that themiraculous gifts in the early Church were intended to be of briefduration. However true that may be, it is not what Paul means here. The cessation to which he refers is their cessation in the light ofthe perfect Future. With regard to the other statement, the abidingof faith, hope, charity, that, too, has been misapprehended as if itindicated that faith and hope belonged to this state of things only, and that love was the greatest of the three, because it waspermanent. The reason for that misconception has mainly lain in themisunderstanding of the force of '_Now_, ' which has been taken tomean 'for the present, ' as an implied contrast to an unspoken 'then';just as in the previous verse we have, '_Now_ we see through a glass, _then_ face to face. ' But the 'now' in this text is not, as thegrammarians say, temporal, but logical. That is, it does not refer totime, but to the sequence of the Apostle's thought, and is equivalentto 'so then. ' 'So then abideth faith, hope, charity. '

The scope of the whole, then, is to contrast the transient with thepermanent, in Christian experience. If we firmly grasped the truthinvolved, our estimates would be rectified and our practicerevolutionised. 

I. I ask this question--What will drop away?

Paul answers, 'prophecies, tongues, knowledge. ' Now these three wereall extraordinary gifts belonging to the present phase of theChristian life. But inasmuch as these gifts were the heightening ofnatural capacities and faculties, it is perfectly legitimate toenlarge the declaration and to use these three words in their widestsignification. So understood, they come to this, that all our presentmodes of apprehension and of utterance are transient, and will beleft behind. 

'Knowledge, it shall cease, ' and as the Apostle goes on to explain, in the verses which I have passed over for my present purpose, itshall cease because the perfect will absorb into itself theimperfect, as the inrushing tide will obliterate the little pools inthe rocks on the seashore. For another reason, the knowledge, themode of apprehension belonging to the present, will pass--becausehere it is indirect, and there it will be immediate. 'We shall knowface to face, ' which is what philosophers mean by intuition. Here ourknowledge 'creeps from point to point, ' painfully amassing facts, andthence, with many hesitations and errors, groping its way towardsprinciples and laws. Here it is imperfect, with many a gap in thecircumference; or like the thin red line on a map which shows thetraveller's route across a prairie, or like the spider's thread inthe telescope, stretched athwart the blazing disc of the sun--'butthen face to face. ' Incomplete knowledge shall be done away; and manyof its objects will drop, and much of what makes the science of earthwill be antiquated and effete. What would the hand-loom weaver'sknowledge of how to throw his shuttle be worth in a weaving-shed witha thousand looms? Just so much will the knowledges of earth be whenwe get yonder. 

Modes of utterance will cease. With new experiences will come newmethods of communication. As a man can speak, and a beast can onlygrowl or bark, so a man in heaven, with new experiences, will havenew methods of communication. The comparison between that mode ofutterance which we now have, and that which we shall then possess, will be like the difference between the old-fashioned semaphore, thatused to wave about clumsy wooden arms in order to conveyintelligence, and the telegraph. 

Think, then, of a man going into that future life, and saying 'I knewmore about Sanscrit than anybody that ever lived in Europe'; 'I sangsweet songs'; 'I was a past master in philology, grammars, andlexicons'; 'I was a great orator. ' 'Tongues shall cease'; and themodes of utterance that belonged to earth, and all that holds ofthem, will drop away, and be of no more use. 

If these things are true, brethren, with regard even to the highestform of these high and noble things, how much more and more solemnlytrue are they with regard to the aims and objects which most of ushave in view? They will all drop away, and we shall be left, strippedof what, for most of us, has made the whole interest and activity ofour lives. 

II. What will last?

'So then, abideth these three, faith, hope, love. ' When Paul takesthree nouns and couples them with a verb in the singular, he is notmaking a slip of the pen, or committing a grammatical blunder which achild could correct. But there is a great truth in that piece ofapparent grammatical irregularity; for the faith, the hope, and thelove, for which he can only afford a singular verb, are therebydeclared to be in their depth and essence one thing, and it, thetriple star, abides, and continues to shine. The three primitivecolours are unified in the white beam of light. Do not correct thegrammar, and spoil the sense, but discern what he means when he says, 'Now, abid_eth_ faith, hope, love. ' For this is what he means, that the two latter come out of the former, and that without it theyare nought, and that it without them is dead. 

Faith breeds Hope. _There_ is the difference between earthly hopesand Christian people's hopes. Our hopes, apart from the revelation ofGod in Jesus Christ, are but the balancing of probabilities, and thescale is often dragged down by the clutch of eager desires. But allis baseless and uncertain, unless our hopes are the outcome of ourfaith. Which, being translated into other words, is just this, thatthe one basis on which men can rest--ay! even for the immediatefuture, and the contingencies of life, as well as for the solemnitiesand certainties of heaven--any legitimate and substantial hope istrust in Jesus Christ, His word, His love, His power, and for theheavenly future, in His Resurrection and present glory. A man whobelieves these things, and only that man, has a rock foundation onwhich he can build his hope. 

Faith, in like manner, is the parent of Love. Paul and John, diverseas they are in the whole cast of their minds, the one beingspeculative and the other mystical, the one argumentative and theother simply gazing and telling what he sees, are precisely agreed inregard to this matter. For, to the Apostle of Love, the foundation ofall human love towards God is, 'We have known and believed the lovethat God hath to us, ' and 'We love Him because He first loved us, 'and to Paul the first step is the trusting reception of the love ofGod, 'commended to us' by the fact that 'whilst we were yet sinnersChrist died for us, ' and from that necessarily flows, if the faith begenuine, the love that answers the sacrifice and obeys the Beloved. So faith, hope, love, these three are a trinity in unity, and itabideth. That is the main point of our last text. Let me say a wordor two about it. 

I have said that the words have often been misunderstood as if the'now' referred only to the present order of things, in which faithand hope are supposed to find their only appropriate sphere. But thatis clearly not the Apostle's meaning here, for many reasons withwhich I need not trouble you. The abiding of all three is eternalabiding, and there is a heavenly as well as an earthly form of faithand hope as well as of love. Just look at these points for a moment. 

'Faith abides, ' says Paul, yonder, as here. Now, there is a commonsaying, which I suppose ninety out of a hundred people think comesout of the Bible, about faith being lost in sight. There is no suchteaching in Scripture. True, in one aspect, faith is the antithesisof sight. True, Paul does say 'We walk by faith, not by sight. ' Butthat antithesis refers only to part of faith's significance. In sofar as it is the opposite of sight, of course it will cease to be inoperation when 'we shall know even as we are known' and 'see Him asHe is. ' But the essence of faith is not in the absence of the persontrusted, but the emotion of trust which goes out to the person, present or absent. And in its deepest meaning of absolute dependenceand happy confidence, faith abides through all the glories and thelustres of the heavens, as it burns amidst the dimnesses and thedarknesses of earth. For ever and ever, on through the irrevolubleages of eternity, dependence on God in Christ will be the life of theglorified, as it was the life of the militant, Church. No millenniumsof possession, and no imaginable increases in beauty and perfectnessand enrichment with the wealth of God, will bring us one inch nearerto casting off the state of filial dependence which is, and ever willbe, the condition of our receiving them all. Faith 'abides. '

Hope 'abides. ' For it is no more a Scriptural idea that hope is lostin fruition, than it is that faith is lost in sight. Rather thatFuture presents itself to us as the continual communication of aninexhaustible God to our progressively capacious and capable spirits. In that continual communication there is continual progress. Whereverthere is progress there must be hope. And thus the fair form, whichhas so often danced before us elusive, and has led us into bogs andmiry places and then faded away, will move before us through all thelong avenues of an endless progress, and will ever and anon come backto tell us of the unseen glories that lie beyond the next turn, andto woo us further into the depths of heaven and the fulness of God. Hope 'abides. '

Love 'abides. ' I need not, I suppose, enlarge upon that thought whichnobody denies, that love is the eternal form of the human relation toGod. It, too, like the mercy which it clasps, 'endureth for ever. '

But I may remind you of what the Apostle does not explain in ourtext, that it is greater than its linked sisters, because whilstfaith and hope belong only to a creature, and are dependent andexpectant of some good to come to themselves, and correspond tosomething which is in God in Christ, the love which springs fromfaith and hope not only corresponds to, but resembles, that fromwhich it comes and by which it lives. The fire kindled is cognatewith the fire that kindles; and the love that is in man is like thelove that is in God. It is the climax of his nature; it is thefulfilling of all duty; it is the crown and jewelled clasp of allperfection. And so 'abideth faith, hope, love, and the greatest ofthese is love. '

III. Lastly, what follows from all this?

First, let us be quite sure that we understand what this abiding loveis. I dare say you have heard people say 'Ah! I do not care muchabout Paul's theology. Give me the thirteenth chapter of the firstEpistle to the Corinthians. That is beautiful; that praise of Love;_that_ comes home to men. ' Yes, very beautiful. Are you quite surethat you know what Paul means by 'love'? I do not use the wordcharity, because that lovely word, like a glistening meteor thatfalls upon the earth, has a rust, as it were, upon its surface thatdims its brightness very quickly. Charity has come to mean anindulgent estimate of other people's faults; or, still moredegradingly, the giving of money out of your pockets to otherpeople's necessities. These are what the people who do not care muchabout Paul's theology generally suppose that he means here. But thesedo not exhaust his meaning. Paul's notion of love is the response ofthe human love to the divine, which divine is received into the heartby simple faith in Jesus Christ. And his notion of love which neverfaileth, and endureth all things, and hopeth all things, is love tomen, which is but one stream of the great river of love to God. If werightly understand what he means by love, we shall find that hispraise of love is as theological as anything that he ever wrote. Weshall never get further than barren admiration of a beautiful pieceof writing, unless our love to men has the source and root to whichPaul points us. 

Again, let us take this great thought of the permanence of faith, hope, and love as being the highest conception that we can form ofour future condition. It is very easy to bewilder ourselves withspeculations and theories of another life. I do not care much aboutthem. The great gates keep their secret well. Few stray beams oflight find their way through their crevices. The less we say the lesslikely we are to err. It is easy to let ourselves be led away, byturning rhetoric into revelation, and accepting the symbols of theNew Testament as if they carried anything more than images of therealities. But far beyond golden pavements, and harps, and crowns, and white robes, lies this one great thought that the elements of theimperfect, Christlike life of earth are the essence of the perfect, Godlike life in heaven. 'Now abide these three, faith, hope, love. '

Last of all, let us shape our lives in accordance with thesecertainties. The dropping away of the transient things is no argumentfor neglecting or despising them; for our handling of them makes ourcharacters, and our characters abide. But it is a very excellentargument for shaping our lives so as to seek first the first things, and to secure the permanent qualities, and so to use the transient asthat it shall all help us towards that which does not pass. 

What will a Manchester man that knows nothing except goods and officework, and knows these only in their superficial aspect, and not asrelated to God, what, in the name of common-sense, will he do withhimself when he gets into a world where there is not a single ledger, nor a desk, nor a yard of cloth of any sort? What will some of us dowhen, in like manner, we are stripped of all the things that we havecared about, and worked for, and have made our aims down here?Suppose that you knew that you were under sailing orders to gosomewhere or other, and that at any moment a breathless messengermight appear and say, 'Come along! we are all waiting for you'; andsuppose that you never did a single thing towards getting your outfitready, or preparing yourself in any way for that which might come atany moment, and could not but come before very long. Would you be awise man? But that is what a great many of us are doing; doing everyday, and all day long, and doing that only. 'He shall leave them inthe midst of his days, ' says a grim text, 'and at his latter endshall be a fool. '

What will drop? Modes of apprehension, modes of utterance, occupations, duties, relationships, loves; and we shall be leftstanding naked, stripped, as it were, to the very quick, and only asmuch left as will keep our souls alive. But if we are clothed withfaith, hope, love, we shall not be found naked. Cultivate the highthings, the permanent things; then death will not wrench youviolently from all that you have been and cared for; but it willusher you into the perfect form of all that you have been and doneupon earth. All these things will pass, but faith, hope, love, 'staynot behind nor in the grave are trod, ' but will last as long asChrist, their Object, lives, and as long as we in Him live also. 

THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION

 'I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; 4. And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. '--1 COR. Xv. 3, 4. 

Christmas day is probably not the true anniversary of the Nativity, but Easter is certainly that of the Resurrection. The season isappropriate. In the climate of Palestine the first fruits of theharvest were ready at the Passover for presentation in the Temple. Itwas an agricultural as well as a historical festival; and theconnection between that aspect of the feast and the Resurrection ofour Lord is in the Apostle's mind when he says, in a subsequent partof this chapter, that Christ is 'risen from the dead and become thefirst fruits of them that slept. '

In our colder climate the season is no less appropriate. The 'lifere-orient out of dust' which shows itself to-day in every burstingleaf-bud and springing flower is Nature's parable of the spring thatawaits man after the winter of death. No doubt, apart from theResurrection of Jesus, the yearly miracle kindles sad thoughts inmourning hearts, and suggests bitter contrasts to those who sorrow, having no hope, but the grave in the garden has turned every blossominto a smiling prophet of the Resurrection. 

And so the season, illuminated by the event, teaches us lessons ofhope that 'we shall not all die. ' Let us turn, then, to the thoughtsnaturally suggested by the day, and the great fact which it brings toeach mind, and confirmed thereafter by the miracle that is beingwrought round about us. 

I. First, then, in my text, I would have you note the facts of Paul'sgospel. 

'First of all . .. I delivered' these things. And the 'first' not onlypoints to the order of time in the proclamation, but to the order ofimportance as well. For these initial facts are the fundamentalfacts, on which all that may follow thereafter is certainly built. Now the first thing that strikes me here is that, whatever else thesystem unfolded in the New Testament is, it is to begin with a simplerecord of historical fact. It becomes a philosophy, it becomes areligious system; it is a revelation of God; it is an unveiling ofman; it is a body of ethical precepts. It is morals and philosophyand religion all in one; but it is first of all a story of somethingthat took place in the world. 

If that be so, there is a lesson for men whose work it is to preachit. Let them never forget that their business is to insist upon thetruth of these great, supernatural, all-important, and fundamentalfacts, the death and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. They mustevolve all the deep meanings that lie in them; and the deeper theydig for their meanings the better. They must open out the endlesstreasures of consolation and enforce the omnipotent motives of actionwhich are wrapped up in the facts; but howsoever far they may carrytheir evolving and their application of them, they will neither befaithful to their Lord nor true stewards of their message unless, clear above all other aspects of their work, and underlying all otherforms of their ministry, there be the unfalteringproclamation--'first of all, ' midst of all, last of all--'how thatChrist died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ' and 'that Hewas raised again according to the Scriptures. '

Note, too, how this fundamental and original character of the gospelwhich Paul preached, as a record of facts, makes short work of agreat deal that calls itself 'liberal Christianity' in these days. Weare told that it is quite possible to be a very good Christian man, and reject the supernatural, and turn away with incredulity from thestory of the Resurrection. It may be so, but I confess that itpuzzles me to understand how, if the fundamental character ofChristian teaching be the proclamation of certain facts, a man whodoes not believe those facts has the right to call himself aChristian. 

Note, further, how there is an element of explanation involved in theproclamation of the facts which turns them into a gospel. Mark how'that _Christ_ died, ' not _Jesus_. It is a great truth, that the man, our Brother, Jesus, passed through the common lot, but that is notwhat Paul says here, though he often says it. What he says is that'_Christ_ died. ' Christ is the name of an office, into which iscondensed a whole system of truth, declaring that it is He who is theApex, the Seal, and ultimate Word of all divine revelation. It wasthe _Christ_ who died; unless it was so, the death of Jesus is nogospel. 

'He died for our sins. ' Now, if the Apostle had only said 'He diedfor us, ' that might conceivably have meant that, in a multitude ofdifferent ways of example, appeal to our pity and compassion and thelike, His death was of use to mankind. But when he says 'He died_for our sins_, ' I take leave to think that that expression hasno meaning, unless it means that He died as the expiation andsacrifice for men's sins. I ask you, in what intelligible sense couldChrist 'die for our sins' unless He died as bearing their punishmentand as bearing it for us? And then, finally, 'He died and rose . .. According to the Scriptures, ' and so fulfilled the divine purposesrevealed from of old. 

To the fact that a man was crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem, 'and rose again the third day, ' which is the narrative, there areadded these three things--the dignity of the Person, the purpose ofHis death, the fulfilment of the divine intention manifested from ofold. And these three things, as I said, turn the narrative into aGospel. 

So, brethren, let us remember that, without all three of them, thedeath of Jesus Christ is nothing to us, any more than the death ofthousands of sweet and saintly men in the past has been, who may haveseen a little more of the supreme goodness and greatness than theirfellows, and tried in vain to make purblind eyes participate in theirvision. Do you think that these twelve fishermen would ever haveshaken the world if they had gone out with the story of the Cross, unless they had carried along with it the commentary which isincluded in the words which I have emphasised? And do you supposethat the type of Christianity which slurs over the explanation, andso does not know what to do with the facts, will ever do much in theworld, or will ever touch men? Let us liberalise our Christianity byall means, but do not let us evaporate it; and evaporate it we surelyshall if we falter in saying with Paul, 'I declare, first of all, that which received, ' how that the death and resurrection were thedeath and resurrection of the Christ, 'for our sins, according to theScriptures. ' These are the facts which make Paul's gospel. 

II. Now I ask you to look, in the second place, at what establishesthe facts. 

We have here, in this chapter, a statement very much older than ourexisting written gospels. This epistle is one of the four letters ofPaul which nobody that I know of--with some quite insignificantexceptions in modern times--has ever ventured to dispute. It isadmittedly the writing of the Apostle, written before the gospels, and in all probability within five-and-twenty years of the date ofthe Crucifixion. And what do we find alleged by it as the state ofthings at its date? That the belief in the Resurrection of JesusChrist was the subject of universal Christian teaching, and wasaccepted by all the Christian communities. Its evidence to that factis undeniable; because there was in the early Christian Church a veryformidable and large body of bitter antagonists of Paul's, who wouldhave been only too glad to have convicted him, if they could, of anymisrepresentation of the usual notions, or divergence from the usualtype of teaching. So we may take it as undeniable that therepresentation of this chapter is historically true; and that withinfive-and-twenty years of the death of Jesus Christ every Christiancommunity and every Christian teacher believed in and proclaimed thefact of the Resurrection. 

But if that be so, we necessarily are carried a great deal nearer theCross than five-and-twenty years; and, in fact, there is not, betweenthe moment when Paul penned these words and the day of Pentecost, asingle chink in the history where you can insert such a tremendousinnovation as the full-fledged belief in a resurrection coming in assomething new. 

I do not need to dwell at all upon this other thought, that, unlessthe belief that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead originated atthe time of His death, there would never have been a Church at all. Why was it that they did not tumble to pieces? Take the nave out ofthe wheel and what becomes of the spokes? A dead Christ could neverhave been the basis of a living Church. If He had not risen from thedead, the story of His disciples would have been the same as thatwhich Gamaliel told the Sanhedrim was the story of all formerpseudo-Messiahs such as that man Theudas. 'He was slain, and as manyas followed him were dispersed and came to naught. ' Of course! Theexistence of the Church demands, as a pre-requisite, the initialbelief in the Resurrection. I think, then, that thecontemporaneousness of the evidence is sufficiently established. 

What about its good faith? I suppose that nobody, nowadays, doubtsthe veracity of these witnesses. Anybody that knows an honest manwhen he sees him, anybody that has the least ear for the tone ofsincerity and the accent of conviction, must say that they may havebeen fanatics, they may have been mistaken, but one thing is clear assunlight, they were not false witnesses for God. 

What, then, about their competency? Their simplicity, theirignorance, their slowness to believe, their stupor of surprise whenthe fact first dawned upon them, which they tell not with any idea ofmanufacturing evidence in their own favour, but simply as a piece ofhistory, all tend to make us certain that there was no play of amorbid imagination, no hysterical turning of a wish into a fact, onthe part of these men. The sort of things which they say that theysaw and experienced are such as to make any such suppositionaltogether absurd. There are long conversations, appearancesappealing to more than one sense, appearances followed bywithdrawals, sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening, sometimes at a distance, as on the mountain, sometimes close by, asin the chamber, to single souls and to multitudes. Fancy five hundredpeople all at once smitten with the same mistake, imagining that theysaw what they did not see! Miracles may be difficult to believe, theyare not half so difficult to believe as absurdities. And this modernexplanation of the faith in the Resurrection I venture respectfullyto designate as absurd. 

But there is one other point to which I would like to turn for amoment; and that is that little clause in my text that 'He wasburied. ' Why does Paul introduce that amongst his facts? Possibly inorder to affirm the reality of Christ's death; but I think foranother reason. If it be true that Jesus Christ was laid in thatsepulchre, a stone's throw outside the city gate, do you not see whata difficulty that fact puts in the way of disbelief or denial of HisResurrection? If the grave--and it was not a grave, remember, likeours, but a cave, with a stone at the door of it, that anybody couldroll away for entrance--if the grave was there, why, in the name ofcommon-sense, did not the rulers put an end to the pestilent heresyby saying, 'Let us go and see if the body is there'?

Modern deniers of the Resurrection may fairly be asked to front thisthought--If Jesus Christ's body was in the sepulchre, how was itpossible for belief in the Resurrection to have been originated, ormaintained? If His body was not in the grave, what had become of it?If His friends stole it away then they were deceivers of the worsttype in preaching a resurrection; and we have already seen that thathypothesis is ridiculous. If His enemies took it away, for which theyhad no motive, why did they not produce it and say, 'There is ananswer to your nonsense. There is the dead man. Let us hear no moreof this absurdity of His having risen from the dead'?

'He died . .. According to the Scriptures, and He was buried. ' And theangels' word carries the only explanation of the fact which itproclaims, 'He is not here--He is risen. '

I take leave to say that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ isestablished by evidence which nobody would ever have thought ofdoubting unless for the theory that miracles were impossible. Thereason for disbelief is not the deficiency of the evidence, but thebias of the judge. 

III. And now I have no time to do more than touch the last thought. Ihave tried to show what establishes the facts. Let me remind you, ina sentence or two, what the facts establish. 

I by no means desire to suspend the whole of the evidence forChristianity on the testimony of the eyewitnesses to theResurrection. There are a great many other ways of establishing thetruth of the Gospel besides that, upon which I do not need to dwellnow. But, taking this one specific ground which my text suggests, what do the facts thus established prove?

Well, the first point to which I would refer, and on which I shouldlike to enlarge, if I had time, is the bearing of Christ'sResurrection on the acceptance of the miraculous. We hear a greatdeal about the impossibility of miracle and the like. It upsets thecertainty and fixedness of the order of things, and so forth, and soforth. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead; and that opens a doorwide enough to admit all the rest of the Gospel miracles. It is of nouse paring down the supernatural in Christianity, in order to meetthe prejudices of a quasi-scientific scepticism, unless you areprepared to go the whole length, and give up the Resurrection. Thereis the turning point. The question is, Do you believe that JesusChrist rose from the dead, or do you not? If your objections to thesupernatural are valid, then Christ is not risen from the dead; andyou must face the consequences of that. If He is risen from the dead, then you must cease all your talk about the impossibility of miracle, and be willing to accept a supernatural revelation as God's way ofmaking Himself known to man. 

But, further, let me remind you of the bearing of the Resurrectionupon Christ's work and claims. If He be lying in some forgottengrave, and if all that fair thought of His having burst the bands ofdeath is a blunder, then there was nothing in His death that had theleast bearing upon men's sin, and it is no more to me than the deathsof thousands in the past. But if He is risen from the dead, then theResurrection casts back a light upon the Cross, and we understandthat His death is the life of the world, and that 'by His stripes weare healed. '

But, further, remember what He said about Himself when He was in theworld--how He claimed to be the Son of God; how He demanded absoluteobedience, implicit trust, supreme love, how He identified faith inHimself with faith in God--and consider the Resurrection as bearingon the reception or rejection of these tremendous claims. It seems tome that we are brought sharp up to this alternative--Jesus Christrose from the dead, and was declared by the Resurrection to be theSon of God with power; or Jesus Christ has _not_ risen from thedead--and what then? Then He was either deceiver or deceived, and ineither case has no right to my reverence and my love. We may bethankful that men are illogical, and that many who reject theResurrection retain reverence, genuine and deep, for Jesus Christ. But whether they have any right to do so is another matter. I confessfor myself that, if I did not believe that Jesus Christ had risenfrom the dead, I should find it very hard to accept, as an example ofconduct, or as religious teacher, a man who had made such greatclaims as He did, and had asked from me what He asked. It seems to methat He is either a great deal more, or a great deal less, than abeautiful saintly soul. If He rose from the dead He is much more; ifHe did not, I am afraid to say how much less He is. 

And, finally, the bearing of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ uponour own hopes of the future may be suggested. It teaches us that lifehas nothing to do with organisation, but persists apart from thebody. It teaches us that a man may pass from death and be unaltered inthe substance of his being; and it teaches us that the earthlyhouse of our tabernacle may be fashioned like unto the glorious housein which He dwells now at the right hand of God. There is no otherabsolute proof of immortality than the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

If we accept with all our hearts and minds Paul's Gospel in itsfundamental facts, we need not fear to die, because He has died, andby dying has been the death of death. We need not doubt that we shalllive again, because He was dead and is alive for ever more. ThisSamson has carried away the gates on His strong shoulders, and deathis no more a dungeon but a passage. If we rest ourselves upon Him, then we can take up, for ourselves and for all that are dear to usand have gone before us, the triumphant song, 'O Death, where is thysting?' 'Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through ourLord Jesus Christ. '

REMAINING AND FALLING ASLEEP

 'After that He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. '--1 COR. Xv. 6. 

There were, then, some five-and-twenty years after the Resurrection, several hundred disciples who were known amongst the churches ashaving been eyewitnesses of the risen Saviour. The greater partsurvived; some, evidently a very few, had died. The proportion of theliving to the dead, after five-and-twenty years, is generally theopposite. The greater part have 'fallen asleep'; some, acomparatively few, remain 'unto this present. ' Possibly there wassome divine intervention which supernaturally prolonged the lives ofthese witnesses, in order that their testimony might be the morelasting. But, be that as it may, they evidently were men of mark, andsome kind of honour and observance surrounded them, as was verynatural, and as appears from the fact that Paul here knows soaccurately (and can appeal to His fellow-Christians' accurateknowledge) the proportion between the survivors and the departed. Weread of one of them in the Acts of the Apostles at a later date thanthis, one Mnason, an 'original disciple. '

So we get a glimpse into the conditions of life in the early Church, interesting and of value in an evidential point of view. But mypurpose at present is to draw your attention to the remarkablelanguage in which the Apostle here speaks of the living and the deadamongst these witnesses. In neither case does he use the simple, common words 'living' or 'dead'; but in the one clause he speaks oftheir 'remaining, ' and in the other of their 'falling asleep'; bothphrases being significant, and, as I take it, both being traced up tothe fact of their having seen the risen Lord as the cause why theirlife could be described as a 'remaining, ' and their death as a'falling asleep. ' In other words, we have here brought before us, bythese two striking expressions, the transforming effect upon life andupon death of the faith in a risen Lord, whether grounded on sight ornot. And it is simply to these two points that I desire to turn now. 

I. First, then, we have to consider what life may become to those whosee the risen Christ. 

'The greater part remain until this present. ' Now the word _remain_is no mere synonym for living or surviving. It not only tells us thefact that the survivors were living, but the kind of life that theydid live. It is very significant that it is the same expression asour Lord used in the profound prophetic words, 'If I will that hetarry till I come, what is that to thee?' Now we are told in John'sGospel that 'that saying went abroad amongst the brethren, ' andinasmuch as it was a matter of common notoriety in the early Church, it is by no means a violent supposition that it may be floating inPaul's memory here, and may determine his selection of thisremarkable expression 'they remain, ' or 'they tarry, ' and they weretarrying till the Master came. So, then, I think if we give dueweight to the significance of the phrase, we get two or threethoughts worth pondering. 

One of them is that the sight of a risen Christ will make life calmand tranquil. Fancy one of these 500 brethren, after that vision, going back to his quiet rural home in some little village amongst thehills of Galilee. How small and remote from Him, and unworthy toruffle or disturb the heart in which the memory of that vision wasburning, would seem the things that otherwise would have beenimportant and distracting! The faith which we have in the risenChrist ought to do the same thing for us, and will do it in themeasure in which there shines clearly before that inward eye, whichis our true means of apprehending Him, the vision which shone beforethe outward gaze of that company of wondering witnesses. If we buildour nests amidst the tossing branches of the world's trees, they willsway with every wind, and perhaps be blown from their hold altogetherby such a storm as we all have sometimes to meet. But we may buildour nests in the clefts of the rock, like the doves, and be quiet, asthey are. Distractions will cease to distract, and troubles willcease to agitate, and across the heaving surface of the great oceanthere will come a Form beneath whose feet the waves smooththemselves, and at whose voice the winds are still. They who seeChrist need not be troubled. The ship that is empty is tossed uponthe ocean, that which is well laden is steady. The heart that hasChrist for a passenger need not fear being rocked by any storm. Calmness will come with the vision of the Lord, and we shall abide or'remain, ' for there will be no need for us to flee from this Refugeto that, nor shall we be driven from our secure abode by anycontingencies. 'He that believeth shall not make haste. '

It is a good thing to cultivate the disposition that says about mostof the trifles of this life, 'It does not much matter'; but the onlyway to prevent wholesome contempt of the world's trivialities fromdegenerating into supercilious indifference is, to base it uponChrist, discerned as near us and bestowing upon us the calmness ofHis risen life. Make Him your scale of importance, and nothing willbe too small to demand and be worthy of the best efforts of yourwork, but nothing will be too great to sweep you away from theserenity of your faith. 

Again, the vision of the risen Christ will also lead to patientpersistence in duty. If we have Him before us, the distasteful dutywhich He sets us will not be distasteful, and the small tasks, inwhich great faithfulness may be manifested, will cease to be small. If we have Him before us we have in that risen Christ the great andlasting Example of how patient continuance in well-doing triumphsover the sorrows that it bears, by and in patiently bearing them, andis crowned at last with glory and honour. The risen Christ is thePattern for the men who will not be turned aside from the path ofduty by any obstacles, dangers, or threats. The risen Christ is thesignal Example of glory following upon faithfulness, and of the crownbeing the result of the Cross. The risen Christ is the manifestHelper of them that put their trust in Him; and one of the plainestlessons and of the most imperative commands which come from thebelieving gaze upon that Lord who died because He would do the willof the Father, and is throned and crowned in the heavens because Hedied, is--By patient continuance in well-doing let us commit thekeeping of our souls to Him: and abide in the calling wherewith weare called. 

And, again, the sight of the risen Christ leads to a life of calmexpectancy. 'If I will that He _tarry_ till I come' conveys thatshade of meaning. The Apostle was to wait for the Lord from Heaven, and that vision which was given to these 500 men sent them home totheir abodes to make all the rest of their lives one calm aspirationfor, and patient expectation of, the return of the Lord. Theseprimitive Christians expected that Jesus Christ would come speedily. That expectation was disappointed in so far as the date wasconcerned, but after nineteen centuries it still remains true thatall vigorous and vital Christian life must have in it, as a veryimportant element of its vitality, the onward look which ever isanticipating, which often is desiring, and which constantly isconfident of, the coming of the Lord from Heaven. The Resurrectionhas for its consequences, its sequel and corollary, first theAscension; then the long tract of time during which Jesus Christ isabsent, but still in divine presence rules the world; and, finally, His coming again in that same body in which the disciples saw Himdepart from them. And no Christian life is up to the level of itsprivileges, nor has any Christian faith grasped the whole articles ofits creed, except that which sets in the very centre of all itsvisions of the future that great thought--He shall come again. 

Questions of chronology have nothing to do with that. It stands therebefore us, the certain fact, made certain and inevitable by the pastfacts of the Cross and the Grave and Olivet. He has come, He willcome; He has gone, He will come back. And for us the life that welive in the flesh ought to be a life of waiting for God's Son fromHeaven, and of patient, confident expectancy that when He shall bemanifested we also shall be manifested with Him in glory. 

So much, then, for life--calm, persistent in every duty, and animatedby that blessed and far-off, but certain, hope, and all of thesefounded upon the vision and the faith of a risen Lord. What havefears and cares and distractions and faint-heartedness and gloomysorrow to do with the eyes that have beheld the Christ, and with thelives that are based on faith in the risen Lord?

II. So, secondly, consider what death becomes to those who have seenChrist risen from the dead. 

'Some are fallen asleep. ' Now that most natural and obvious metaphorfor death is not only a Christian idea, but is found, as would beexpected, in many tongues, but yet with a great and significantdifference. The Christian reason for calling death a sleep embraces agreat deal more than the heathen reason for doing so, and in somerespects is precisely the opposite of that, inasmuch as to mostothers who have used the word, death has been a sleep that knew nowaking, whereas the very pith and centre of the Christian reason foremploying the symbol are that it makes our waking sure. We have herewhat the act of dying and the condition of the dead become by virtueof faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

They have 'fallen asleep. ' The act of dying is but a laying one'sself down to rest, and a dropping out of consciousness of thesurrounding world. It is very remarkable and very beautiful that thenew Testament scarcely ever employs the words _dying_ and _death_ forthe act of separating body and spirit, or for the condition either ofthe spirit parted from the body, or of the body parted from thespirit. It keeps those grim words for the reality, the separation ofthe soul from God; and it only exceptionally uses them for the shadowand the symbol, the physical fact of the parting of the man from thehouse which here he has dwelt in. But the reason why Christianityuses these periphrases or metaphors, these euphemisms for death, isthe opposite of the reason why the world uses them. The world is soafraid of dying that it durst not name the grim, ugly thing. TheChristian, or at least the Christian faith, is so little afraid ofdeath that it does not think such a trivial matter worth calling bythe name, but only names it 'falling asleep. '

Even when the circumstances of that dropping off to slumber arepainful and violent, the Bible still employs the term. Is it notstriking that the first martyr, kneeling outside the city, bruised bystones and dying a bloody death, should have been said to fallasleep? If ever there was an instance in which the gentle metaphorseemed all inappropriate it was that cruel death, amidst a howlingcrowd, and with fatal bruises, and bleeding limbs mangled by theheavy rocks that lay upon them. But yet, 'when he had said this hefell asleep. ' If that be true of such a death, no physical pains ofany kind make the sweet word inappropriate for any. 

We have here not only the designation of the act of dying, but thatof the condition of the dead. They are fallen asleep, and theycontinue asleep. How many great thoughts gather round that metaphoron which it is needless for me to try to dilate! They will suggestthemselves without many words to you all. 

There lies in it the idea of repose. 'They rest from their labours. 'Sleep restores strength, and withdraws a man at once from effort onthe outer world, and from communication from it. We may carry theanalogy into that unseen world. We know nothing about the relationsto an external universe of the departed who sleep in Jesus. It may bethat, if they sleep in Him, since He knows all, they, through Him, may know, too, something--so much as He pleases to impart to them--ofwhat is happening here. And it may even be that, if they sleep inHim, and He wields the energies of Omnipotence, they, through Him, may have some service to do, even while they wait for their housewhich is from heaven. But there is no need for, nor profit in, suchspeculations. It is enough that the sweet emblem suggests repose, andthat in that sleep there are folded around the sleepers the arms ofthe Christ on whose bosom they rest, as an infant does on its firstand happiest home--its mother's breast. 

But then, besides that, the emblem suggests the idea of continuousand conscious existence. A man asleep does not cease to be a man; adead man does not cease to live. It has often been argued from thismetaphor that we are to conceive of the space between death and theresurrection as being a period of unconsciousness, but the analogiesseem to me to be in the opposite direction. A sleeping man does notcease to know himself to be, and he does not cease to know himself tobe himself. That mysterious consciousness of personal identitysurvives the passage from waking to sleep, as dreams sufficientlyshow us. And, therefore, they that sleep know themselves to be. 

And, finally, the emblem suggests the idea of waking. Sleep is aparenthesis. If the night comes, the morning comes. 'If winter comes, can spring be far behind?' They that sleep will awake, and besatisfied when they 'awake with Thy likeness. ' And so these threethings--repose, conscious, continuous existence, and the certainty ofawaking--all lie in that metaphor. 

Now, then, the risen Christ is the only ground of such hope, andfaith in Him is the only state of mind which is entitled to cherishit. Nothing proves immortality except that open grave. Every otherfoundation is too weak to bear the weight of such a superstructure. The current of present opinion shows, I think, that neithermetaphysical nor ethical arguments for the future life will stand theforce of the disintegrating criticism which is brought to bear uponthat hope by the fashionable materialism of this generation. There isone barrier that will resist that force, and only one, and that isthe historical facts that Jesus Christ died, and that Jesus Christhas risen again. He rose; therefore death is not the end ofindividual existence. He rose; therefore life beyond the grave ispossible for humanity. He rose; therefore His sacrifice for theworld's sin is accepted, and I may be delivered from my guilt and myburden. He rose; therefore He is declared to be the Son of God withpower. He rose; therefore we, if we trust Him, may partake in HisResurrection and in some reflection of His glory. The old Greekarchitects were often careless of the solidity of the soil on whichthey built their temples, and so, many of them have fallen in ruins. The Temple of Immortality can be built only upon the rock of thatproclamation--Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. And we, dearbrethren, should have all our hopes founded upon that one fact. 

So then, for us, the calm, peaceful passage from life into what elseis the great darkness is possible on condition of our having beheldthe risen Lord. These witnesses of whom my text speaks, Paul wouldsuggest to us, laid themselves quietly down to sleep, because beforethem there still hovered the memory of the vision which they hadbeheld. Faith in the risen Christ is the anchor of the soul in death, and there is nothing else by which we can hold then. 

As the same Apostle, in one of his other letters, puts it, the beliefthat Christ is risen is not only the irrefragable ground of our hopethat we, too, shall rise, but has the power to change the wholeaspect of our death. Did you ever observe the emphasis with which Hesays, 'If we believe that Jesus _died_ and rose again, even sothem also which _sleep_ in Jesus will God bring with Him?' Hisdeath was death indeed, and faith in it softens ours to sleep. Hebore the reality that we might never need to know it, and if our poorhearts are resting upon that dear Lord, then the flames are butpainted ones and will not burn, and we shall pass through them, andno smell of fire will be upon us, and all that will be consumed willbe the bonds which bind us. He has abolished death. The physical factremains, but all which to men makes the idea of death is gone if wetrust the risen Lord. So that, between two men dying under preciselythe same circumstances, of the same disease, in adjacent beds in thesame hospital, there may be such a difference as that the same wordcannot be applied to the experiences of both. 

My dear friends, we have each of us to pass through that laststruggle; but we may make it either a quiet going to sleep with aloved Face bending over our closing eyes, like a mother's over herchild's cradle, and the same Face meeting us when we open them in themorning of heaven; or we may make it a reluctant departure from allthat we care for, and a trembling advance into all from whichconscience and heart shrink. 

Which is it going to be to you? The answer depends upon that toanother question. Are you looking to that Christ that died and isalive for evermore as your life and your salvation? Do you hold fastthat Gospel which Paul preached, 'how that Christ died for our sinsaccording to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He roseagain the third day, according to the Scriptures'? If you do, lifewill be a calm, persevering, expectant waiting upon Him, and deathwill be nothing more terrible than falling asleep. 

PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF

 'By the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. '--1 COR. Xv. 10. 

The Apostle was, all his life, under the hateful necessity ofvindicating his character and Apostleship. Thus here, though his mainpurpose in the context is simply to declare the Gospel which hepreached, he is obliged to turn aside in order to assert, and to backup his assertion, that there was no sort of difference between himand the other recognised teachers of Christian truth. He was forcedto do this by persistent endeavours in the Corinthian Church to denyhis Apostleship, and the faithfulness of his representation of theChristian verities. The way in which he does it is eminentlybeautiful and remarkable. He fires up in vindication of himself; andthen he checks himself. 'By the grace of God I am'--and he is goingto say what he is, but he bethinks himself, as if he had reflected;'No! I will leave other people to say what that is. By the grace ofGod I am--what I am, whatever that be. And all that I have to say isthat God made me, and that I helped Him. For the grace of God whichwas bestowed upon me was not in vain. You Corinthians may judge whatthe product is. I tell you how it has come about. ' So there arethoughts here, I think, well worth our pondering and taking into ourhearts and lives. 

I. First, as to the one power that makes men. 

'By the grace of God I am what I am. ' Now that word 'grace' has gotto be worn threadbare, and to mean next door to nothing, in the earsand minds of a great many continual hearers of the Gospel. ButPaul had a very definite idea of what he meant by it; and what hemeant by it was a very large thing, which we may well ponder for amoment as being the only thing which will transform and ennoblecharacter and will produce fruit that a man need not be ashamed of. The grace of God, in Paul's use of the words, which is the scripturaluse of them generally, implies these two things which are connectedas root and product--the active love of God, in exercise towards uslow and sinful creatures, and the gifts with which that love comesfull charged to men. These two things, which at bottom are one, loveand its gifts, are all, in the Apostle's judgment, gathered up andstored, as in a great storehouse, in Jesus Christ Himself, andthrough Him are made accessible to us, and brought to bear upon usfor the ennobling of our natures, and the investing of us with gracesand beauties of character, all strange to us apart from these. 

Now it seems to me that these two things, which come from one root, are the precise things which you and I need in order to make usnobler and purer and more Godlike men than otherwise we could everbecome. For what is it that men need most for noble and pure living?These two things precisely--motive and power to carry out thedictates of conscience. 

Every man in the world knows enough of duty and of right to be a farnobler man than any man in the world is. And it is not for want ofclear convictions of duty, it is not for want of recognised modelsand patterns of life, that men go wrong; but it is because there arethese two things lacking, motives for nobler service, and power to doand be what they know they ought to be. And precisely here Paul'sgospel comes in, 'By the grace of God I am what I am. ' That grace, considered in its two sides of love and of giving, supplies all thatwe want. 

It supplies motives. There is nothing that will bend a man's willlike the recognition of divine love which it is blessedness to comein contact with, and to obey. You may try to sway him by motives ofadvantage and self-interest, and to thunder into his ears the pealingwords of duty and right and 'ought, ' and there is no adequateresponse. You cannot soften a heart by the hammers of the law. Youcannot force a man to do right by brandishing before him the whipthat punishes doing wrong. You cannot sway the will by anything butthe heart; and when you can touch the deepest spring it moves thewhole mass. 

You have seen some ponderous piece of machinery, which resists allattempts of a puny hand laid upon it to make it revolve. But down inone corner is a little hidden spring. Touch that and with majesticslowness and certainty the mighty mass turns. You know thoserocking-stones down in the south of England; tons of weight poisedupon a pin point, and so exquisitely balanced that a child's fingerrightly applied may move the mass. So the whole man is made mobileonly by the touch of love; and the grace that comes to us, and says, 'If ye love Me, keep My commandments'--is, as I believe, the solemotive which will continuously and adequately sway the rebellious, self-centred wills of men, to obedience resulting in nobility oflife. 

The other aspect of this same great word is, in like manner, thatwhich we need. What men want is, first of all, the will to be nobleand good; and, second, the power to carry out the will. It is Godthat worketh in us both the willing and the doing. I venture toaffirm that there is no power known, either to thinkers, orphilanthropists, or doctrinaires, or strivers after excellence in theworld--no power known and available which will lift a life to suchheights of beauty and self-sacrificing nobility, as will the powerthat comes to us by communication of the grace that is in JesusChrist. 

I am perpetually trying to insist, dear brethren, upon this onethought, that the communication of actual new life is the centralgift of the Gospel; and this new life it is, this nature endowed withnew desires, hopes, aims, capacities, which alone will lift the wholeman into unwonted heights of beauty and serenity. It is the grace ofGod, the gift of His Divine Spirit who will dwell with all of us, ifwe will, which alone can be trusted to make men good. 

And now, if that be true, what follows? Surely this, that for all youwho have, in any measure, caught a glimpse of what you ought to be, and have been more or less vainly trying to realise your ideal, andreach your goal, there is a better way than the way of self-centredand self-derived and self-dependent effort. There is the way ofopening your hearts and spirits to the entrance and access of thatgreat power, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which will do in usand for us all that we know we ought to do, and yet feel hampered andhindered in performing. 

Oh, dear friends! there are many of you, I believe, who have more orless spasmodically and interruptedly, but with a continual recurrenceto the effort, sought to plant your feet firmly in the paths ofrighteousness, and have more or less failed. Listen to this Gospel, and accept it, and put it to the proof. The love of God which is inChrist Jesus, and the life which that love brings in its hands, forall of us who will trust it, will dwell in you if you will, and mouldyou into His own likeness, and the law of the spirit of life whichwas in Christ Jesus will make us free from the law of sin and death. 

All noble living is a battle. Can you and I, with our ten thousand, meet him that cometh against us with his twenty, the temptations ofthe world and of its Prince? Send for the reinforcements, and JesusChrist will come and teach your hands to war and your fingers tofight. All noble life is self-denial, coercion, restraint; and can mypoor, feeble hands apply muscular force enough to the brake to keepthe wheels clogged, and prevent them from whirling me downhill intoruin? Let Him come and put His great gentle hand on the top of yours, and that will enable you to scotch the wheels, and make self-denialpossible. All noble life is a building up by slow degrees from thefoundation. And can you and I complete the task with our own limitedresources, and our own feeble strengths? Will not 'all that pass bybegin to mock' us and say, 'This man began to build and was not ableto finish'? That is the epitaph written over all moralities and overall lives which, catching some glimpse of the good and the true andthe noble, have tried, apart from Christ, to reproduce them inthemselves. Frightful gaps, and an unfinished, however fair structureend them all. Go to Him. 'His hand hath laid the foundation of thehouse, His hand shall also finish it. ' He who is Himself thefoundation-stone is also the headstone of the corner, which isbrought forth with shouting of 'Grace! Grace unto it!'

I need not, I suppose, linger to remind you what important and largelessons these thoughts carry, not only for men who are trying to workat the task of mending and making their own characters, but on thelarger scale, for all who seek to benefit and elevate their fellows. Brethren, it is not for me to depreciate any workers who, in anydepartment, and by any methods, seek, and partially effect, theelevation of humanity. But I should be untrue to my own deepestconvictions, and unfaithful to the message which God's providence hasgiven it to me as my life's task to proclaim, if I did not declarethat nothing will truly _re-form_ humanity, society, the nation, thecity, except that which re-creates the individual: 'the grace of ourLord Jesus Christ' entering into their midst. 

II. And so, secondly, and very briefly, notice the lesson we get hereas to how we should think of our own attainments. 

I have already pointed out that there are two beautiful touches in mytext. The Apostle traces everything that he is, in his character andin his Christian standing and in his Apostolic work and success, tothat grace that has come down upon him, and clothed his nakednesswith so glorious a garment. And then, in addition to that, hemodestly, and with a fine sense of dignity, refrains from paradinghis attainments or his achievements, and says, 'It is not for me toestimate what I am; it is for you to do it. ' True, indeed, in thenext verse he does set forth, in very lofty language, his claims tobe in nothing behind the very chiefest of the Apostles, and 'to havelaboured more abundantly than they all. ' But still the spirit of thathumble and yet dignified silence runs through the whole context. 'Bythe grace of God I am--what I am. '

Well, then, it is not necessary for a man to be ignorant, or topretend that he is ignorant, of what he can do. We hear a great dealabout the unconsciousness of genius. There is a partial truth in it;and possibly the highest examples of power and success, in anydepartment of mental or intellectual effort, are unaware of theirachievements and stature. But if a man can do a certain kind ofservice there is no harm whatever in his recognising the fact that hecan do it. The only harm is in his thinking that because he can, he isa very fine fellow, and that the work itself is a great work; andso setting himself up above his brethren. There is a vast deal ofhypocrisy in what is called unconsciousness of power. Most men whohave been chosen and empowered to do a great work for God or for men, in any department, have been aware that they could do it. But theless we think about ourselves, in any way, the better. The moreentire our recognition of the influx of grace on which we depend forkeeping our reservoir full, the less likelihood there will be oftouchy self-assertion, the less likelihood of the misuse of thepowers that we have. If we are to do much for God, if we are to keepwhat we have already attained, if we are to make our own lives sweetand beautiful, if we are to be invested with any increase ofcapacity, or led to any higher heights of nobleness andChristlikeness, we must copy, and make a conscious effort to copy, these two things, which marked the Apostle's estimate of himself--adistinct recognition that we are only reservoirs and nothingmore--'What hast thou that thou hast not received? Why then dost thouglory as if thou hadst not received it?'--and a humble waiving asideof the attempt to determine what it is that we are. For howeverclearly a man may know his own powers and achievements, it is hardfor him to estimate the relations of these to his whole character. 

So, dear brethren, although it is a very homely piece of advice, andmay seem to be beneath the so-called dignity of the pulpit, let meventure just to remind you that self-conceit is no disease peculiarto the ten-talented people, but is quite as rife, if not a good dealrifer, among those with one talent. They are very humble when itcomes to work, and are quite contented to wrap the one talent up in anapkin then; but when it comes to self-assertion, or what they expectto receive of recognition from others, they need to be reminded quiteas much as their betters in endowment--'By the grace of God I am whatI am. '

III. And so, lastly, one word about the responsibility for ourco-operation with the grace, in order to the accomplishment of itsresults. 

'The grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, ' says Paul. 'Not I, but the grace of God which was with me, and so I labouredmore abundantly than they all. ' That is to say, God in His givinglove; Christ with His ever out-flowing Spirit, move round our hearts, and desire to enter. But the grace, the love, the gifts of the lovemay all be put away by our unfaithfulness, by our non-receptivity, byour misuse, and by our negligence. Paul yielded himself to the gracethat was brought to work upon him. Have you yielded yourselves?

Paul said, 'By the grace of God I am what I am. ' He could not havesaid that, could he, if he had known that the most part of what hewas was dead against God's will and purpose? Has God anything to dowith making you what you are, or has it been the devil that has hadthe greater share in it? This man, because he knew that he hadsubmitted himself to the often painful, searching, crucifying, self-restraining and stimulating influences of the Gospel and Spiritof Christ, could say, 'God's grace has made me what I am, and Ihelped Him to make me. ' And can you say anything like that?

Take your life. In how many of its deeds has there been present theconsciousness of God and His love? Take your character. How much ofit has been shot through and through, so to speak, by the fiery dartsof that cleansing, warming, consuming grace of God? Are you dailybeing baptized in that Spirit, searched by that Spirit, condemned bythat grace? Is it the grace of God, or nature and self and the worldand the flesh that have made you what you are?

Oh, brethren I let us cultivate the sense of our need of this divinehelp, for it does not come where men do not know how weak they are, and how much they want it. The mountain tops are high, --yes! and theyare dry; there is no water there. The rivers run in the green valleysdeep down. 'God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. 'Let us see that we open our hearts to the reception of thesequickening and cleansing influences, for it is possible for us tocover ourselves over with such an impenetrable covering that thatgrace cannot pass through it. Let us see to it that we keep ourselvesin close contact with the foundation of all this grace, even JesusChrist Himself, by desire, by faith, by love, by communion, bymeditation, by approximation, by sympathy, by service. And let us seethat we use the grace that we possess. 'For to him that hath shall begiven, and from him that hath not'--not possessing in any real sensebecause not utilising for its appointed purpose--'shall be taken awayeven that he hath. ' Wherefore, brethren, I 'beseech you that yereceive not the grace of God in vain. '

THE UNITY OF APOSTOLIC TEACHING

 'Whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed. '--1 COR. Xv. 11. 

Party spirit and faction were the curses of Greek civic life, andthey had crept into at least one of the Greek churches--that in theluxurious and powerful city of Corinth. We know that there was a veryconsiderable body of antagonists to Paul, who ranked themselves underthe banner of Apollos or of Cephas _i. E. _ Peter. Therefore, Paul, keenly conscious that he was speaking to some unfriendly critics, hastens in the context to remove the possible objection which mightbe made, that the Gospel which he preached was peculiar to himself, and proceeds to assert that the whole substance of what he had to sayto men, was held with unbroken unanimity by the other apostles. 'They' means all of _them_; and 'so' means the summary of the Gospelteaching in the preceding verses. 

Now, Paul would not have ventured to make that assertion, in the faceof men whom he knew to be eager to pick holes in anything that hesaid, unless he had been perfectly sure of his ground. There werebroad differences between him and the others. But their partisansmight squabble, as is often the case, and the men, whose partisansthey were, be unanimous. There were differences of individualcharacter, of temper, and of views about certain points of Christiantruth. But there was an unbroken front of unanimity in regard to allthat lies within the compass of that little word which covers so muchground--'_So_ we preach. '

Now, I wish to turn to that outstanding fact--which does not alwaysattract the attention which it deserves--of the absolute identity ofthe message which all the apostles and primitive teachers delivered, and to seek to enforce some of the considerations and lessons whichseem to me naturally to flow from it. 

I. First, then, I ask you to think of the fact itself--the unbrokenunanimity of the whole body of Apostolic teachers. 

As I have said, there were wide differences of characteristicsbetween them, but there was a broad tract of teaching wherein theyall agreed. Let me briefly gather up the points of unanimity, thecontents of the one Gospel, which every man of them felt was hismessage to the world. I may take it all from the two clauses in thepreceding context, 'how that Christ died for our sins according tothe Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again thethird day according to the Scriptures. ' These are the things aboutwhich, as Paul declares, there was not the whisper of a dissentientvoice. There is the vital centre which he declares every Christianteacher grasped as being the essential of his message, and in varioustones and manners, but in substantial identity of content, declaredto the world. 

Now, what lies in it? The Person spoken of--the Christ, and all thatthat word involves of reference to the ancient and incompleteRevelation in the past, its shadows and types, its prophecies andceremonies, its priesthood and its sacrifices; with all that itinvolves of reference to the ancient hopes on which a thousandgenerations had lived, and which either are baseless delusions, orare realised in Jesus--the Person whom all the Apostles proclaimedwas One anointed from God as Prophet, Priest, and King; who had comeinto the world to fulfil all that the ancient system had shadowed bysacrifice, temple, and priest, and was the Monarch of Israel and ofthe world. 

And not only were they absolutely unanimous in regard to the Person, but they were unbrokenly consentient in regard to the facts of Hislife, His death, and His Resurrection. But the proclamation of theexternal fact is no gospel. You must add the clause 'for our sins, 'and then the record, which is a mere piece of history, with no moregood news in it than the record of the death of any other martyr, hero, or saint, starts into being truly the good news for the world. The least part of a historical fact is the fact; the greatest part ofit is the explanation of the fact, and the setting it in its place inregard to other facts, the exhibition of the principles which itexpresses, and of the conclusions to which it leads. So the barehistorical declaration of a death and a resurrection is transmutedinto a gospel, by that which is the most important part of theGospel, the explanation of the meaning of the fact--'He died for oursins. '

If redemption from sin through the death of a Person is thefundamental conception of the Gospel for the world, then it is clearthat, for such a purpose, a divine nature in the Person is wanted. Your notion of what Christ came to do will determine your notion ofwho He is. If you only recognise that His work is to teach, or to show in exercise a fair human character, then you may restcontent with the lower notion of His nature which sees in Him but theforemost of the sons of men. But if we grasp 'died for our sins, 'then for such a task the incarnation of the Eternal Son of God is theabsolute pre-requisite. 

Still further, our text brings out the contents of this gospel asbeing the declaration of the Resurrection. On that I need not hereand now dwell at any length. But these are the points, the Person, the two facts, death and resurrection, and the great meaning of thedeath--viz. The expiation for the world's sins: these are the thingson which the whole of the primitive teachers of the Apostolic Churchhad one voice and one message. 

Now, I do not suppose that I need spend any time in showing to youhow the extant records bear out, absolutely, this contention of theApostle's. I need only remind you how the opposition that was wagedagainst him--and it was a very vigorous and a very bitteropposition--from a section of the Church, had no bearing at all uponthe question of what he taught, but only upon the question of to whomit was to be taught. The only objection that the so-called Judaisingparty in the early Church had against Paul and his preaching, was notthe Gospel that he declared, but his assertion that the Gentilenations might enter into the Church through faith in Jesus Christ, without passing through the gate of circumcision. Depend upon it, ifthere had been any, even the most microscopic, divergence on his partfrom the general, broad stream of Christian teaching, the sleepless, keen-eyed, unscrupulous enemies that dogged him all his days wouldhave pounced upon it eagerly, and would never have ceased talkingabout it. But not one of them ever said a word of the sort, butallowed his teaching to pass, because it was the teaching of everyone of the apostles. 

If I had time, or if it were necessary, it would be easy to point youto the records that we have left of the Apostolic teaching, in orderto confirm this unbroken unanimity. I do not need to spend time onthat. Proof-texts are not worth so much as the fact that thesedoctrines are interwoven into the whole structure of the NewTestament as a whole--just as they are into Paul's letters. But I maygather one or two sayings, in which the substance of each writer'steaching has been concentrated by himself. For instance, Peter speaksabout being 'redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as of a Lambwithout blemish and without spot, ' and declares that 'He Himself bareour sins in His own body on the tree. ' John comes in with hisdoxology: 'Unto Him that loved us, and loosed us from our sins in Hisown blood'; and it is his pen that records how in the heavens thereechoed 'glory and honour and thanks and blessing, for ever and ever, to the Lamb that was slain, and has redeemed us unto God by Hisblood. ' The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, steeped as he is inceremonial and sacrificial ideas, and having for his one purpose towork out the thought that Jesus Christ is all that the ancientritual, sacerdotal and sacrificial system shadows and foretells, sumsup his teaching in the statement that Christ having come, a highpriest of good things to come, 'through His own blood, entered in, once for all, into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemptionfor us. '

There were limits to the unanimity, as I have already said. Paul andPeter had a great quarrel about circumcision and related subjects. The Apostolic writings are wondrously diverse from one another. Peteris far less constructive and profound than Paul. Paul and Peter areboth untouched with the mystic wisdom of the Apostle John. But, inregard to the facts that I have signalised, the divinity, the personof Jesus Christ, His death and Resurrection, and the significance tobe attached to that death, they are absolutely one. The instrumentsin the orchestra are various, the tender flute, the ringing trumpet, and many another, but the note they strike is the same. 'Whether itwere I or they, so we preach. '

II. Now, let me ask you to consider the only explanation of thisunanimity. 

Time was when the people, who did not believe in Christ's divinityand sacrificial death, tortured themselves to try and make outmeanings for these epistles, which should not include the obnoxiousdoctrines. That is nearly antiquated. I suppose that there is nobodynow, or next to nobody, who does not admit that, right or wrong, Paul, Peter, John--all of them--teach these two things, that Christis the Eternal Son of the Father, and that His death is the Sacrificefor the world's sin. But they say that that is not the primitive, simple teaching of the Man of Nazareth; and that the unanimity is aunanimity of misapprehension of, and addition to, His words and tothe drift of His teaching. 

Now, just think what a huge--I was going to say--inconceivabilitythat supposition is. For there is no point, say from the time atwhich the Apostle who wrote the words of my text, which was somewhereabout the year 56 or 57 A. D. , --there is no point between that period, working backwards through the history of the Church to theCrucifixion, where you can insert such a tremendous revolution ofteaching as this. There is no trace of such a change. Peter'searliest speeches, as recorded in Acts, are in some importantrespects less developed doctrinally than are the epistles, butChrist's Messiahship, death, and Resurrection, with which isconnected the remission of sins, are as clearly and emphaticallyproclaimed as at any later time. So these points of the Apostolictestimony were preached from the first, and, if in preaching them, the witnesses perverted the simple teaching of the Carpenter ofNazareth, and ascribed to Him a character which He had not claimed, and to His death a power of which He had not dreamed, they did so atthe very time when the impressions of His personality and teachingwere most recent and strong. It seems to me, apart altogether fromother considerations, that such a right-about-face movement on thepart of the early teachers of Christianity, is an absoluteimpossibility, regard being had to the facts of the case, even if youmake much allowance for possible errors in the record. 

But I would make another remark. If misapprehension came in, if thesemen, in their unanimous declaration of Christ's death as theSacrifice for sin, were not fairly representing the conclusionsinevitable from the facts of Christ's life and death, and from Hisown words, is it not an odd thing that the same misapprehensionaffected them all? When people misconceive a teacher's doctrine, theygenerally differ in the nature of their misconceptions, and splitinto sections and parties. But here you have to account for the factthat every man of them, with all their diversity of idiosyncrasy andcharacter, tumbled into the same pit of error, and that there was notone of them left sane enough to protest. Does that seem to be alikely thing?

And what about the worth of the teacher's teaching, that did notguard its receivers from such absolute misapprehension as that? Ifthe whole Church unanimously mistook everything that Jesus Christ hadsaid to them, and unwarrantably made out of Him what they did, onthis hypothesis, I do not think that there is much left to honour oradmire in a teacher, whose teaching was so ambiguous, as that it ledall that received it into such an error as that into which, by thesupposition, they fell. 

No, brethren; they were one, because their Gospel was the onlypossible statement of the principles that underlay, and theconclusions that flowed from, the plain facts of the life and theteaching of Jesus Christ. I am not going to spend time in quoting Hisown words. I can only refer to one or two of them very succinctly. 'Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up. ' 'AsMoses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Sonof Man be lifted up. ' 'My flesh is the bread which I will give forthe life of the world. ' 'The Son of Man came not to be ministeredunto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. ' 'Thisis My body broken for you; take, eat, in remembrance of Me. ' 'This isMy blood, shed for many for the remission of sins; this do ye, asoften as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. ' What possibleexplanation, doing justice to these words, is there, except 'JesusChrist died for our sins according to the Scriptures'? And how couldmen who had heard them with their own ears, and with their own eyeshad seen Him risen from the dead and ascending into heaven, dootherwise than eagerly, enthusiastically, at the cost of all, andwith unhesitating voice of unbroken unanimity, 'so preach'?

I quite admit that in Christ's teaching in the gospels you will notfind the articulate drawing out into doctrinal statement of theprinciples that underlay, and the conclusions that flow from, thehistorical fact of Christ's propitiatory death. I do not wonder atthat, nor do I admit that it is any argument against the truth of thedivine revelation which is made in these doctrinal statements, toallege that we find nothing corresponding to them in Jesus Christ'sown words. The silence is not as absolute as is alleged, as thequotations which I have made, and which might have been multiplied, do distinctly enough show. Even if it were more absolute than it is, the silence is by no means unintelligible. Christ had to offer theSacrifice before the Sacrifice could be preached. He Himself warnedHis disciples against accepting His own words prior to the Cross, asthe conclusive and ultimate revelation. 'I have many things to sayunto you, but you cannot carry them now. ' There was need that theCross should be a fact before it was evolved into a doctrine. And soI venture to say that the unanimity of the preaching is onlyexplicable on the ground of that preaching in both its parts--itsassertion of Jesus' Messiahship and of His propitiatory death--beingthe repetition on the housetop of the lessons which they had heard inthe ear from Him. 

III. Note, briefly, the lesson from this unanimity. 

Let us distinctly apprehend where is the living heart of theGospel--that it is the message of redemption by the incarnation andsacrifice of the Son of God. There follows from that incarnation andsacrifice all the great teaching about the work of the Divine Spiritin men, dwelling in them for evermore. But the beginning of all is, 'Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. ' And, brethren, that message meets, as nothing else meets, the deepestneeds of every human soul. It is able, as nothing else is able, toopen out into a whole encyclopædia and universe of wisdom and truthand power. If we strike it out of our conception of Christianity, orif we obscure it as being the very palpitating centre of the whole, then feebleness will creep over the Christianity that is _minus_ aCross, or does not see in it the Sacrifice for the world's sin. Youmay cast overboard the sails to lighten the ship. If you do, she liesa log on the waters. And if, for the sake of meeting new phases ofthought, Christian churches tamper with this central truth, they haveflung away their means of progress and of power. 

Let me say again, and in a word only, that the considerations that Ihave been trying to submit to you in this sermon, show us the limitswithin which the modern cry of 'Back to the Christ of the Gospels, 'is right, and where it may be wrong. I believe that in former days, and to some extent in the present day, we evangelical teachers havetoo much sometimes talked rather about the doctrines than about thePerson who is the doctrines. And if the cry of 'Back to the Christ'means, 'Do not talk so much about the Atonement and Propitiation;talk about the Christ who atones, ' then, with all my heart, I say, 'Amen!' But put the Person in the foreground, the living-loving, thedying-loving, the risen-loving Christ, put Him in the foreground. Butif it is implied, as I am afraid it is often implied, that the Christof the Gospels is one and the Christ of the epistles is another, andthat to go back to the Christ of the gospels means to drop 'died forour sins according to the Scriptures, ' and to retain only thenon-miraculous, moral and religious teachings that are recorded inthe three first gospels, then I say that it is fatal for the Church, and it is false to the facts, for the Christ of the epistles is theChrist of the gospels: the difference only being that in the one youhave the facts, and in the other you have their meaning and theirpower. 

So, lastly, let this text teach us what we ourselves have to do withthis unanimous testimony. 'So we preach, and so ye believed. 'Brother! Do you believe _so_? That is to say, is your conceptionof the Gospel the mighty redemptive agency which is wrought by theIncarnate Son of God, who was crucified for our offences, and rosethat we might live, and is glorified that we, too, may share Hisglory? Is that your Gospel? But do not be content with anintellectual grasp of the thing. 'So ye believed' means a great dealmore than 'I believe that Christ died for our sins. ' It means 'Ibelieve in the Christ who did die for my sins. ' You must castyourself as a sinful man on Him; and, so casting, you will find thatit is no vain story which is commended to us by all these augustvoices from the past, but you will have in your own experience theverification of the fact that He died for our sins, in your ownconsciousness of sins forgiven, and new love bestowed; and so mayturn round to Paul, the leader of the chorus, and to all theapostolic band, and say to them, 'Now I believe, not because of thysaying, but because I have seen Him, and myself heard Him. '

THE CERTAINTY AND JOY OF THE RESURRECTION

 'But now is Christ risen from the dead . .. The first fruits of them that slept. '--1 COR. Xv. 20. 

The Apostle has been contemplating the long train of dismalconsequences which he sees would arise if we only had a dead Christ. He thinks that he, the Apostle, would have nothing to preach, and we, nothing to believe. He thinks that all hope of deliverance from sinwould fade away. He thinks that the one fact which gives assurance ofimmortality having vanished, the dead who had nurtured the assurancehave perished. And he thinks that if things were so, then Christianmen, who had believed a false gospel, and nourished an empty faith, and died clinging to a baseless hope, were far more to be pitied thanmen who had had less splendid dreams and less utter illusions. 

Then, with a swift revulsion of feeling, he turns away from thatdreary picture, and with a change of key, which the dullest ear canappreciate, from the wailing minors of the preceding verses, hebreaks into this burst of triumph. 'Now'--things being as they are, for it is the logical 'now, ' and not the temporal one--things beingas they are, 'Christ is risen from the dead, and that as the firstfruits of them that slept. '

Part of the ceremonial of the Passover was the presentation in theTemple of a barley sheaf, the first of the harvest, waved before theLord in dedication to Him, and in sign of thankful confidence thatall the fields would be reaped and their blessing gathered. There may be some allusion to that ceremony, which coincided in timewith the Resurrection of our Lord, in the words here, which regardthat one solitary Resurrection as the early ripe and early reapedsheaf, the pledge and the prophecy of the whole ingathering. 

Now there seem to me, in these words, to ring out mainly twothings--an expression of absolute certainty in the fact, and anexpression of unbounded triumph in the certainty of the fact. 

And if we look at these two things, I think we shall get the mainthoughts that the Apostle would impress upon our minds. 

I. The certainty of Christ's Resurrection. 

'Now _is_ Christ risen, ' says he, defying, as it were, doubt andnegation, and basing himself upon the firm assurance which hepossesses of that historical fact. 'Ah!' you say, 'seeing isbelieving; and he had evidence such as we can never have. ' Well! letus see. Is it possible for us, nineteen centuries nearly after thatday, to catch some echo of this assured confidence, and in the faceof modern doubts and disbeliefs, to reiterate with as unfalteringassurance as that with which they came from his glowing lips, thegreat words of my text? Can we, logically and reasonably, as men whoare guided by evidence and not by feeling, stand up before the world, and take for ours the ancient confession: 'I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, wascrucified, dead, and buried. The third day He rose again from thedead'? I think we can. 

The way to prove a fact is by the evidence of witnesses. You cannotargue that it would be very convenient, if such and such a thingshould be true; that great moral effects would follow if we believedit was true, and so on. The way to do is to put people who have seenit into the witness-box, and to make sure that their evidence isworth accepting. 

And at the beginning of my remarks I wish to protest, in a sentence, against confusing the issues about this question of the Resurrectionof Jesus Christ in that fashion which is popular nowadays, when weare told that miracle is impossible, and _therefore_ there hasbeen no Resurrection, or that death is the end of human existence, and that _therefore_ there has been no Resurrection. That is notthe way to go about ascertaining the truth as to asserted facts. Letus hear the evidence. The men who brush aside the testimony of theNew Testament writers, in obedience to a theory, either about theimpossibility of the supernatural, or about the fatal and finalissues of human death, are victims of prejudice, in the strictestmeaning of the word; and are no more logical than the well-known andproverbial reasoner who, when told that facts were against him, withsublime confidence in his own infallibility, is reported to havesaid, 'So much the worse for the facts. ' Let us deal with evidence, and not with theory, when we are talking about alleged facts ofhistory. 

So then, let me remind you that, in this chapter from which my textis taken, we have a record of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, olderthan, and altogether independent of, the records contained inthe gospels, which are all subsequent in date to it; that this Epistleto the Corinthians is one of the four undisputed Epistles of theApostle, which not the most advanced school of modern criticism has aword to say against; that, therefore, this chapter, written, at thelatest, some seven and twenty years after the date of theCrucifixion, carries us up very close to that event; that it showsthat the Resurrection was _universally_ believed all over the Church, and therefore must have then been long believed; that it enables usto trace the same belief as universal, and in undisputed possessionof the field among the churches, at the time of Paul's conversion, which cannot be put down at much more than five or six years afterthe Crucifixion, and that so we are standing in the presence ofabsolutely contemporaneous testimony. This is not a case in which abelief slowly and gradually grew up. Whether we accept the evidenceor not, we are bound to admit that it is strictly contemporaneoustestimony to the fact of Christ's Resurrection. 

And the witnesses are reliable and competent, as well ascontemporaneous. The old belief that their testimony was imposture isdead long ago; as, indeed, how could it live? It would be an anomaly, far greater than the Resurrection, to believe that these people, Mary, Peter, John, Paul, and all the rest of them, were conspiratorsin a lie, and that the fairest system of morality and the noblestconsecration that the world has ever seen, grew up out of a fraud, like flowers upon a dunghill. That theory will not hold water; andeven those who will not accept the testimony have long sinceconfessed that it will not. But the Apostle, in my context, seems tothink that that is the only tenable alternative to the other theorythat the witnesses were veracious, and I am disposed to believe thathe is right. He says, 'If Christ be not risen, then, are we' theutterly impossible thing of 'false witnesses to God, ' devoutperjurers, as the phrase might be paraphrased: men who are lying toplease God. If Christ be not risen, they have sworn to a thing thatthey know to be untrue, in order to advance His cause and Hiskingdom. If that theory be not accepted, there is no other aboutthese men and their message that will hold water for a minute, exceptthe admission of its truth. 

The fashionable modern one, that it was hallucination, ispreposterous. Hallucinations that five hundred people at once shared!Hallucinations that lasted all through long talks, spread atintervals over more than a month! Hallucinations that included eatingand drinking, speech and answer; the clasp of the hand and thefeeling of the breath! Hallucinations that brought instruction!Hallucinations that culminated in the fancy that a gathered multitudeof them saw Him going up into heaven! The hallucination is on theother side, I think. They have got the saddle on the wrong horse whenthey talk about the Apostolic witnesses being the victims ofhallucination. It is the people who believe it possible that theyshould be who are so. The old argument against miracles used to saythat it is more consonant with experience that testimony should befalse, than that a miracle should be true. I venture to say it is amuch greater strain on a man's credulity, to believe that _such_evidence is false than that _such_ a miracle, _so_ attested, is true. And I, for my part, venture to think that the reasonable men are themen who listen to these eye-witnesses when they say, 'We saw Himrise'; and echo back in answer the triumphant certitude, 'Christ isrisen indeed!'

There is another consideration that I might put briefly. A veryvaluable way of establishing facts is to point to the existence ofother facts, which indispensably require the previous ones for theirexplanation. Let me give you an illustration of what I mean. Ibelieve in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, amongst other reasons, because I do not understand how it was possible for the Church toexist for a week after the Crucifixion, unless Jesus Christ roseagain. Why was it that they did not all scatter? Why was it that thespirit of despondency and the tendency to separation, which werebeginning to creep over them when they were saying: 'Ah! it is allup! We _trusted_ that this had been He, ' did not go on to theirnatural issue? How came it that these people, with their Master takenaway from the midst of them, and the bond of union between themremoved, and all their hopes crushed did not say: 'We have made amistake, let us go back to Gennesareth and take to our fishing again, and try and forget our bright illusions'? That is what John theBaptist's followers did when he died. Why did not Christ's do thesame? Because Christ rose again and re-knit them together. When theShepherd was smitten, the flock would have been scattered, and neverdrawn together any more, unless there had been just such a thing asthe Resurrection asserts there was, to reunite the dispersed and toencourage the depressed. And so I say, Christianity with a _dead_Christ, and a Church gathered round a grave from which the stone has_not_ been rolled away, is more unbelievable than the miracle, for itis an absurdity. 

Then there is another thing that I would say in a word. Let me put anillustration to explain what I mean. Suppose, after the execution ofKing Charles I. , in some corner of the country a Pretender had sprungup and said, 'I am the King!' the way to end that would have been forthe Puritan leaders to have taken people to St. George's Chapel, andsaid, 'Look! there is the coffin, there is the body, is that theking, or is it not?' Jesus Christ was said to have risen again, within a week of the time of His death. The rulers of the nation hadthe grave, the watch, the stone, the seal. They could have put an endto the pestilent nonsense in two minutes, if it had been nonsense, bythe simple process of saying, 'Go and look at the tomb, and you willsee Him there. ' But this question has never been answered, and neverwill be--What became of that sacred corpse if Jesus Christ did notrise again from the dead? The clumsy lie that the rulers told, thatthe disciples had stolen away the body, was only their acknowledgmentthat the grave was empty. If the grave were empty, either Hisservants were impostors, which we have seen it is incredible thatthey were, or the Christ was risen again. 

And so, dear brethren, for many other reasons besides this handfulthat I have ventured to gather and put before you, and in spite ofthe prejudices of modern theories, I lift up here once more, withunfaltering certitude, the glad message which I beseech you toaccept: 'Christ is risen, the first fruits of them that slept. '

II. So much, then, for the first point in this passage. A word or twoabout the second--the triumph in the certitude of that Resurrection. 

As I remarked at a previous point of this discourse, the Apostle hasbeen speaking about the consequences which would follow from the factthat Christ was not raised. If we take all these consequences andreverse them, we get the glad issues of His Resurrection, andunderstand why it was that this great burst of triumph comes from theApostle's lips. And though I must necessarily treat this part of mysubject very inadequately, let me try to gather together the variouspoints on which, as I think, our Easter gladness ought to be built. 

First, then, I say, the risen Christ gives us a complete Gospel. Adead Christ annihilates the Gospel. 'If Christ be not risen, ' saysthe Apostle, 'our preaching, ' by which he means not the act but thesubstance of his preaching, 'is vain. ' Or, as the word might be moreaccurately rendered, 'empty. ' There is nothing in it; no contents. Itis a blown bladder; nothing in it but wind. 

What was Paul's 'preaching'? It all turned upon these points--thatJesus Christ was the Son of God; that He was Incarnate in the fleshfor us men; that He died on the Cross for our offences; that He wasraised again, and had ascended into Heaven, ruling the world andbreathing His presence into believing hearts; and that He would comeagain to be our Judge. These were the elements of what Paul called'his Gospel. ' He faces the supposition of a dead Christ, and he says, 'It is all gone! It is all vanished into thin air. I have nothing topreach if I have not a Cross to preach which is man's deliverancefrom sin, because on it the Son of God hath died, and I only knowthat Jesus Christ's sacrifice is accepted and sufficient, because Ihave it attested to me in His rising again from the dead. '

Dear brethren, on the fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ issuspended everything which makes the Gospel a gospel. Strike thatout, and what have you left? Some beautiful bits of moral teaching, alovely life, marred by tremendous mistakes about Himself and His ownimportance and His relation to men and to God; but you have gotnothing left that is worth calling a gospel. You have the crossrising there, gaunt, black, solitary; but, unless on the other sideof the river you have the Resurrection, no bridge will ever be thrownacross the black gulf, and the Cross remains 'dead, being alone. ' Youmust have a Resurrection to explain the Cross, and then the Life andthe Death tower up into the manifestation of God in the flesh and thepropitiation for our sins. Without it we have nothing to preach whichis worth calling a gospel. 

Again, a living Christ gives faith something to lay hold of. TheApostle here in the context twice says, according to the AuthorisedVersion, that a dead Christ makes our faith 'vain. ' But he reallyuses two different words, the former of which is applied to'preaching, ' and means literally 'empty, ' while the latter means 'ofnone effect' or 'powerless. ' So there are two ideas suggested herewhich I can only touch with the lightest hand. 

The risen Christ puts some contents, so to speak, into my faith; Hegives me something for it to lay hold of. 

Who can trust a _dead_ Christ, or who can trust a _human_ Christ?That would be as much a blasphemy as trusting any other man. It isonly when we recognise Him as declared to be the Son of God, and thatby the Resurrection from the dead, that our faith has anything roundwhich it can twine, and to which it can cleave. That living Saviourwill stretch out His hand to us if we look to Him, and if I put mypoor, trembling little hand up towards Him, He will bend to me andclasp it. You cannot exercise faith unless you have a risen Saviour, and unless you exercise faith in Him your lives are marred and sad. 

Again, if Christ be dead, our faith, if it could exist, would be asdevoid of effect as it would be empty of substance. For such a faithwould be like an infant seeking nourishment at a dead mother'sbreast, or men trying to kindle their torches at an extinguishedlamp. And chiefly would it fail to bring the first blessing which thebelieving soul receives through and from a risen Christ, namely, deliverance from sin. If He whom we believed to be our sacrifice byHis death and our sanctification by His life has not risen, then, aswe have seen, all which makes His death other than a martyr'svanishes, and with it vanish forgiveness and purifying. Only when werecognise that in His Cross explained by His Resurrection, we haveredemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, and bythe communication of the risen life from the risen Lord possess thatnew nature which sets us free from the dominion of our evil, is faithoperative in setting us free from our sins. 

So, dear friends, the risen Christ gives us something for faith tolay hold of, and will make it the hand by which we grasp His stronghand, which lifts us 'out of the horrible pit and the miry clay, andsets our feet upon a rock. ' But if He lie dead in the grave yourfaith is vain, because it grasps nothing but a shadow; and it is vainas being purposeless; you are yet in your sins. 

The last thought is that the risen Christ gives us the certitude ofour Resurrection. I do not for a moment mean to say that, apart fromthe Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the thought, be it a wish or adread, of immortality, has not been found in men, but there is allthe difference in the world between forebodings, aspirations, wishesit were so, fears that it might be so, and the calm certitude that itis so. Many men talked about a western continent, but Columbus wentthere and came back again, and that ended doubt. Many men before, andapart from Jesus, have cherished thoughts of an immortal life beyondthe grave, but He has been there and returned. And that, and, as Ibelieve, that only puts the doctrine of immortality upon anirrefragable foundation; and we can say, 'Now, I know that there isthat land beyond. ' They tell us that death ends everything. Modernmaterialism, in all its forms, asserts that it is the extinction ofthe personality. Jesus Christ died, and went through it, and came outof it the same, and I will trust Him. Brethren, the set of opinionamongst the educated and cultured classes in England, and all overEurope, at this moment, proves to anybody who has eyes to see, thatfor this generation, rejection of immortality will follow certainlyon the rejection of Jesus Christ. And for England to-day, as forGreece when Paul sent his letter to Corinth, the one light ofcertitude in the great darkness is the fact that Jesus Christ hathdied, and is risen again. 

If you will let Him, He will make you partakers of His own immortallife. 'The first fruits of them that slept' is the pledge and theprophecy of all the waving abundance of golden grain that shall begathered into the great husbandman's barns. The Apostle goes on torepresent the resurrection of 'them that are Christ's' as aconsequence of their union to Jesus. He has conquered for us all. Hehas entered the prison-house and come forth bearing its iron gates onHis shoulders, and henceforth it is not possible that we should beholden of it. There are two resurrections--one, that of Christ'sservants, one that of others. They are not the same inprinciple--and, alas, they are awfully different in issue. 'Someshall wake to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlastingcontempt. '

Let me beseech you to make Jesus Christ the life of your dead souls, by humble, penitent trust in Him. And then, in due time, He will bethe life of your transformed bodies, changing these into the likenessof the body of His glory, 'according to the working whereby He isable even to subdue all things unto Himself. '

THE DEATH OF DEATH

 'But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. 21. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. .. . 50. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 51. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, (for the trumpet shall sound;) and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56. The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. '--1 COR. Xv. 20, 21; 50-58. 

This passage begins with the triumphant ringing out of the great factwhich changes all the darkness of an earthly life without a heavenlyhope into a blaze of light. All the dreariness for humanity, and allthe vanity for Christian faith and preaching, vanish, like ghosts atcock-crow, when the Resurrection of Jesus rises sun-like on theworld's night. It is a historical fact, established by the evidenceproper for such, --namely, the credible testimony of eye-witnesses. They could attest His rising, but the knowledge of the worldwidesignificance of it comes, not from testimony, but from revelation. Those who saw Him risen join to declare: 'Now is Christ risen fromthe dead, ' but it is a higher Voice that goes on to say, 'and becomethe first-fruits of them that slept. '

That one Man risen from the grave was like the solitary sheaf ofpaschal first-fruits, prophesying of many more, a gathered harvestthat will fill the great Husbandman's barns. The Resurrection ofJesus is not only a prophecy, showing, as it and it alone does, thatdeath is not the end of man, but that life persists through death andemerges from it, like a buried river coming again flashing into thelight of day, but it is the source or cause of the Christian'sresurrection. The oneness of the race necessitated the diffusionthrough all its members of sin and of its consequence--physicaldeath. If the fountain is poisoned, all the stream will be tainted. If men are to be redeemed from the power of the grave, there must bea new personal centre of life; and union with Him, which can only beeffected by faith, is the condition of receiving life from Him, whichgradually conquers the death of sin now, and will triumph over bodilydeath in the final resurrection. It is the resurrection of Christiansthat Paul is dealing with. Others are to be raised, but on adifferent principle, and to sadly different issues. Since Christ'sResurrection assures us of the future waking, it changes death into'sleep, ' and that sleep does not mean unconsciousness any more thannatural sleep does, but only rest from toil, and cessation ofintercourse with the external world. 

In the part of the passage, verses 50 to 58, the Apostle becomes, notthe witness or the reasoner, as in the earlier parts of the chapter, but the revealer of a 'mystery. ' That word, so tragicallymisunderstood, has here its uniform scriptural sense of truth, otherwise unknown, made known by revelation. But before he unveilsthe mystery, Paul states with the utmost force a difficulty whichmight seem to crush all hope, --namely, that corporeity, as we knowit, is clearly incapable of living in such a world as that future onemust be. To use modern terms, organism and environment must beadapted to each other. A fish must have the water, the creatures thatflourish at the poles would not survive at the equator. A man withhis gross earthly body, so thoroughly adapted to his earthly abode, would be all out of harmony with his surroundings in that higherworld, and its rarified air would be too thin and pure for his lungs. Can there be any possibility of making him fit to live in a spiritualworld? Apart from revelation, the dreary answer must be 'No. ' But the'mystery' answers with 'Yes. ' The change from physical to spiritualis clearly necessary, if there is to be a blessed life hereafter. 

That necessary change is assured to all Christians, whether they dieor 'remain till the coming of the Lord. ' Paul varies in hisanticipations as to whether he and his contemporaries will belong tothe one class or the other; but he is quite sure that in either casethe indwelling Spirit of Jesus will effect on living and dead theneedful change. The grand description in verse 52, like the parallelin 1 Thessalonians iv. 16, is modelled on the account of thetheophany on Sinai. The trumpet was the signal of the DivinePresence. That last manifestation will be sudden, and its startlingbreaking in on daily commonplace is intensified by the reduplication:'In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. ' With sudden crash thatawful blare of 'loud, uplifted angel trumpet' will silence allother sounds, and hush the world. The stages of what follows aredistinctly marked. First, the rising of the dead changed in passingthrough death, so as to rise in incorruptible bodies, and then thechange of the bodies of the living into like incorruption. The formerwill not be found naked, but will be clothed with their whitegarments; the latter will, as it were, put on the glorious robesabove the 'muddy vesture of decay, ' or, more truly, will see themiracle of these being transfigured till they shine 'so as no fulleron earth could white them. ' The living will witness the resurrectionof the dead; the risen dead will witness the transformation of theliving. Then both hosts will be united, and, through all eternity, 'live together, ' and that 'with Him. ' Paul evidently expects that heand the Corinthians will be in the latter class, as appears by the'we' in verse 52. He, as it were, points to his own body when hesays, recurring to his former thought of the necessity of harmonybetween organism and environment, '_this_ corruptible must put onincorruption. ' Here 'corruption' is used in its physical application, though the ethical meaning may be in the background. 

The Apostle closes his long argument and revelation with a burst, almost a shout, of triumph. Glowing words of old prophets rush intohis mind, and he breathes a new, grander meaning into them. Isaiahhad sung of a time when the veil over all nations should be destroyed'in this mountain, ' and when death should be swallowed up for ever;and Paul grasps the words and says that the prophet's loftiestanticipations will be fulfilled when that monster, whose insatiablemaw swallows down youth, beauty, strength, wisdom, will himself beswallowed up. Hosea had prophesied of Israel's restoration underfigure of a resurrection, and Paul grasps _his_ words and fills themwith a larger meaning. He modifies them, in a manner on which we neednot enlarge, to express the great Christian thought that death hasconquered man but that man in Christ will conquer the conqueror. Withswift change of metaphor he represents death as a serpent, armed witha poisoned sting, and that suggests to him the thought, never faraway in his view of man, that death's power to slay is derivedfrom--or, so to say, concentrated in--sin; and that at once raisesthe other equally characteristic and familiar thought that lawstimulates sin, since to know a thing to be forbidden creates inperverse humanity an itching to do it, and law reveals sin by settingup the ideal from which sin is the departure. But just as the tracksin Paul's mind were well worn, by which the thought of death broughtin that of sin, and that of sin drew after it that of law, so withequal closeness of established association, that of law condemnatoryand slaying, brought up that of Christ the all-sufficient refuge fromthat gloomy triad--Death Sin, Law. Through union with Him each of usmay possess His immortal risen life, in which Death, the engulfer, ishimself engulfed; Death, the conqueror, is conquered utterly and forever; Death, the serpent, has his sting drawn, and is harmless. Thatparticipation in Christ's life is begun even here, and God 'giveth usthe victory' now, even while we live outward lives that must end indeath, and will give it perfectly in the resurrection, when 'theycannot die any more, ' and death itself is dead. 

The loftiest Christian hopes have close relation to the lowliestChristian duties, and Paul's triumphant song ends with plain, practical, prose exhortations to steadfastness, unmovable tenacity, and abundant fruitfulness, the motive and power of which will befound in the assurance that, since there is a life beyond, all labourhere, however it may fail in the eyes of men, will not be in vain, but will tell on character and therefore on condition througheternity. If our peace does not rest where we would fain see itsettle, it will not be wasted, but will return to us again, like thedove to the ark, and we shall 'self-enfold the large results of'labour that seemed to have been thrown away. 

STRONG AND LOVING

 'Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 14. Let all your things be done with charity. '--1 COR. Xvi. 13, 14. 

There is a singular contrast between the first four of theseexhortations and the last. The former ring sharp and short likepistol-shots; the last is of gentler mould. The former sound like theword of command shouted from an officer along the ranks; and there isa military metaphor running all through them. The foe threatens toadvance; let the guards keep their eyes open. He comes nearer;prepare for the charge, stand firm in your ranks. The battle isjoined; 'quit you like men'--strike a man's stroke--'be strong. '

And then all the apparatus of warfare is put away out of sight, andthe captain's word of command is softened into the Christianteacher's exhortation: 'Let all your deeds be done in charity. ' Forlove is better than fighting, and is stronger than swords. And yet, although there is a contrast here, there is also a sequence andconnection. No doubt these exhortations, which are Paul's last wordto that Corinthian Church on whom he had lavished in turn thetreasures of his manifold eloquence, indignation, argumentation, andtenderness, reflected the deficiencies of the people to whom he wasspeaking. They were schismatic and factious to the very core, and sothey needed the exhortation to be left last in their ears, as itwere, that everything should be done in love. They were ill-groundedin regard to the very fundamental doctrines of the faith, as allPaul's argumentation about the resurrection proves, and so theyneeded to be bidden to 'stand fast in the faith. ' Their slothfulcarelessness as to the discipline of the Christian life, and theirconsequent feebleness of grasp of the Christian verities, made themloose-braced and weak in all respects, and incapacitated them forvigorous warfare. Thus, we see a picture in these injunctions of thesort of community that Paul had to deal with in Corinth, which yet hecalled a Church of saints, and for which he loved and laboured. Letme then run over and try to bring out the importance and mutualconnection of what I may call this drill-book for the Christianwarfare, which is the Christian life. 

'Watch ye. ' That means one of two things certainly, probablyboth--Keep awake, and keep your eyes open. Our Lord used the samemetaphor, you remember, very frequently, but with a specialsignificance. On His lips it generally referred to the attitude ofexpectation of His coming in judgment. Paul uses sometimes the figurewith the same application, but here, distinctly, it has another. As Isaid, there is the military idea underlying it. What will become ofan army if the sentries go to sleep? And what chance will a Christianman have of doing his _devoir_ against his enemy, unless hekeeps himself awake, and keeps himself alert? Watchfulness, in thesense of always having eyes open for the possible rush down upon usof temptation and evil, is no small part of the discipline and theduty of the Christian life. One part of that watchfulness consists inexercising a very rigid and a very constant and comprehensivescrutiny of our motives. For there is no way by which evil creepsupon us so unobserved, as when it slips in at the back door of aspecious motive. Many a man contents himself with the avoidance ofactual evil actions, and lets any kind of motives come in and out ofhis mind unexamined. It is all right to look after our _doings_, but'as a man _thinketh_ in his heart, so is he. ' The good or the evil ofanything that I do is determined wholly by the motive with which I doit. And we are a great deal too apt to palm off deceptions onourselves to make sure that our motives are right, unless we givethem a very careful and minute scrutiny. One side of thiswatchfulness, then, is a habitual inspection of our motives andreasons for action. 'What am I doing this for?' is a question thatwould stop dead an enormous proportion of our activity, as if you hadturned the steam off from an engine. If you will use a very finesieve through which to strain your motives, you will go a long way tokeeping your actions right. We should establish a rigid examinationfor applicants for entrance, and make quite sure that each thatpresents itself is not a wolf in sheep's clothing. Make them allbring out their passports. Let every vessel that comes into yourharbour remain isolated from all communication with the shore, untilthe health officer has been on board and given a clean bill. 'Watchye, ' for yonder, away in the dark, in the shadow of the trees, theblack masses of the enemy are gathered, and a midnight attack is buttoo likely to bring a bloody awakening to a camp full of sleepers. 

My text goes on to bring the enemy nearer and nearer and nearer. 'Watch ye'--and if, not unnoticed, they come down on you, 'stand fastin the faith. ' There will be no keeping our ranks, or keeping ourfeet--or at least, it is not nearly so likely that there willbe--unless there has been the preceding watchfulness. If the firstcommand has not been obeyed, there is small chance of the second'sbeing so. If there has not been any watchfulness, it is not at alllikely that there will be much steadfastness. Just as with a mangoing along a crowded pavement, a little touch from a passer-by willthrow him off his balance, whereas if he had known it was coming, andhad adjusted his poise rightly, he would have stood against thrice asviolent a shock, so, in order that we may stand fast, we must watch. A sudden assault will be a great deal less formidable when it is aforeseen assault. 

'Stand fast _in the faith_. ' I take it that this does not mean'the thing that we believe, ' which use of the word 'faith' is theecclesiastical, but not the New Testament meaning. In Scripture, faith means not the body of truths that we believe, but the act ofbelieving them. This further command tells us that, in addition toour watchfulness, and as the basis of our steadfastness, confidencein the revelation of God in Jesus Christ will enable us to keep ourfeet whatever comes against us, and to hold our ground, whoever mayassault us. 

But remember that it is not because I have faith that I stand fast, but because of that in which I have faith. My feet may be wellshod--and it used to be said that a soldier's shoes were of as muchimportance in the battle as his musket--my feet may be well shod, butif they are not well planted upon firm ground I never shall be ableto stand the collision of the foe. So then, it is not my grasp of theblessed truth, God in Christ my Friend and Helper, but it is thattruth which I grasp at, that makes me strong. Or, to put it intoother words, it is the foothold, and not the foot that holds it, thatensures our standing firm. Only there is no steadfastnesscommunicated to us from the source of all stability, except by way ofour faith, which brings Christ into us. 'Watch ye; stand fast in thefaith. '

The next two words of command are very closely connected, though notquite identical. 'Quit you like men. ' Play a man's part in thebattle; strike with all the force of your muscles. But the Apostleadds, 'be strong. ' You cannot play a man's part unless you are. 'Bestrong'--the original would rather bear 'become strong. ' What is theuse of telling men to '_be_ strong'? It is a waste of words, innine cases out of ten, to say to a weak man, 'Pluck up your courage, and show strength. ' But the Apostle uses a very uncommon word here, at least uncommon in the New Testament, and another place where heuses it will throw light upon what he means: 'Strengthened with mightby His Spirit in the inner man. ' Then is it so vain a mockery to tella poor, weak creature like me to become strong, when you can point meto the source of all strength, in that 'Spirit of power and of loveand of a sound mind'? We have only to take our weakness there to haveit stiffened into strength; as people put bits of wood into what arecalled 'petrifying wells' which infiltrate into them mineralparticles, that do not turn the wood into stone, but make the wood asstrong as stone. So my manhood, with all its weakness, may havefiltered into it divine strength, which will brace me for all needfulduty, and make me 'more than conqueror through Him that loved us. 'Then, it is not mockery and cruelty, vanity and surplusage to preach'Quit you like men; be strong, and be a man'; because if we willobserve the plain and not hard conditions, strength will come to usaccording to our day, in fulfilment of the great promises: 'My graceis sufficient for thee; and My strength is made perfect in weakness. '

And now we have done with the fighting words of command, and come tothe gentler exhortation: 'Let all your things be done in charity. '

That was a hard lesson for these Corinthians who were splittingthemselves into factions and sects, and tearing each other's eyes outin their partisanship for various Christian teachers. But the advicehas a much wider application than to the suppression of squabbles inChristian communities. It is the sum of all commandments of theChristian life, if you will take love in its widest sense, in thesense, that is, in which it is always used in Paul's writings. We cutit into two halves, and think of it as sometimes meaning love to God, and sometimes love to man. The two are inseparably inter-penetratedin the New Testament writings; and so we have to interpret thissupreme commandment in the whole breadth and meaning of that greatword _Love_. And then it just comes to this, that love is thevictor in all the Christian warfare. If we love God, at any givenmoment, consciously having our affection engaged with Him, and ourheart going out to Him, do you think that any evil or temptationwould have power over us? Should we not see them as they are, to bedevils in disguise? In the proportion in which I love God I conquerall sin. And at the moment in which that great, sweet, all-satisfyinglight floods into my soul, I see through the hollowness and theshams, and detect the ugliness and the filth of the things thatotherwise would be temptations. If you desire to be conquerors in theChristian fight, remember that the true way of conquest is, asanother Apostle says, 'Keep yourselves in the love of God. ' 'Let allyour things be done in charity. '

And, further, how beautifully the Apostle here puts the great truththat we are all apt to forget, that the strongest type of humancharacter is the gentlest and most loving, and that the mighty man isnot the man of intellectual or material force, such as the worldidolises, but the man who is much because he loves much. If we wouldcome to supreme beauty of Christian character, there must beinseparably manifested in our lives, and lived in our hearts, strength and love, might and gentleness. That is the perfect man, and that was the union which was set before us, in the highest form, in the 'Strong Son of God, Immortal Love, ' whom we call our Saviour, and whom we are bound to follow. His soldiers conquer as the Captainof their salvation has conquered, when watchfulness and steadfastnessand courage and strength are all baptized in love and perfectedthereby. 

ANATHEMA AND GRACE

 'The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha. 23. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. 24. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. '--1 COR. Xvi. 21-24. 

Terror and tenderness are strangely mingled in this partingsalutation, which was added in the great characters shaped by Paul'sown hand, to the letter written by an amanuensis. He has beenobliged, throughout the whole epistle, to assume a tone ofremonstrance abundantly mingled with irony and sarcasm andindignation. He has had to rebuke the Corinthians for many faults, party spirit, lax morality, toleration of foul sins, grave abuses intheir worship even at the Lord's Supper, gross errors in opinion inthe denial of the Resurrection. And in this last solemn warning hetraces all these vices to their fountainhead--the defect of love toJesus Christ--and warns of their fatal issue. 'Let him be Anathema. '

But he will not leave these terrible words for his last. The thunderis followed by gentle rain, and the sun glistens on the drops; 'Thegrace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. ' Nor for himself willhe let the last impression be one of rebuke or even of warning. Hedesires to show that his heart yearns over them all; so he gathersthem all--the partisans; the poor brother that has fallen into sin;the lax ones who, in their misplaced tenderness, had left him in hissin; the misguided reasoners who had struck the Resurrection out ofthe articles of the Christian creed--he gathers them all into hisfinal salutation, and he says, 'Take and share my love--though I havehad to rebuke--amongst the whole of you. '

Is not that beautiful? And does not the juxtaposition of suchmessages in this farewell go deeper than the revelation of Paul'scharacter? May we not see, in these terrible and tender thoughts thusinextricably intertwined and braided together, a revelation of thetrue nature both of the terror and the tenderness of the Gospel whichPaul preached? It is from that point of view that I wish to look atthem 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 to these twountranslated words. _Anathema Maran-atha_. The first thing to benoticed is that the latter of them stands independently of theformer, and forms a sentence by itself, as I shall have to show youpresently. 'Anathema' means an offering, or a thing devoted; and itsuse in the New Testament arises from its use in the Greek translationof the Old Testament, where it is employed for persons and thingsthat, in a peculiar sense, were set apart and devoted to God. In thestory of the conquest of Canaan, for instance, we read of Jericho andother places, persons, or things that were, as our version somewhatunfortunately renders it, 'accursed, ' or as it ought rather to berendered, 'devoted, ' or 'put under a ban. ' And this 'devotion' was ofsuch a sort as that the things or persons devoted were doomed todestruction. All the dreadful things that were done in the Conquestwere the consequences of the persons that endured them being thus'consecrated, ' in a very dreadful sense, or set apart for God. Theunderlying idea was that evil things brought into contact with Himwere necessarily destroyed with a swift destruction. That being themeaning of the word, it is clear that its use in my text isdistinctly metaphorical, and that it suggests to us that theunloving, like those cities full of uncleanness, when they arebrought 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 separatesentence. It belongs to the dialect, which was probably thevernacular of Palestine in the time of Paul, and to which belong, forthe most part, the other untranslated words that are scattered up anddown the Gospels, such as 'Aceldama, ' 'Ephphatha, ' and the like. Itmeans 'our Lord comes. ' Why Paul chose to use that untranslated scrapof another tongue in a letter to a Gentile Church we cannot tell. Perhaps it had come to be a kind of watchword amongst the earlyJewish Christians, which came naturally to his lips. But, at anyrate, the use of it here is distinctly to confirm the warning of theprevious clause, by pointing to the time at which that warning shallbe fulfilled. 'If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him bedevoted and destroyed. Our Lord comes. ' The only other thing to benoticed by way of introduction is that this first clause is not animprecation, nor any wish on the part of the Apostle, but is a solemnprophetic warning (acquiesced in by every righteous heart) of thatwhich will certainly come. The significance of the whole may begathered into one simple sentence--The coming of the Lord of Love isthe destruction of the unloving. 

'Our Lord comes. ' Paul's Christianity gathered round two facts andmoments--one in the past, Christ has come; one in the future, Christwill come. For memory, the coming by the cradle and the Cross; forhope, the coming on His throne in glory; and between these twomoments, like the solid piers of a suspension bridge, the frailstructure of the Present hangs swinging. In this day men have losttheir expectation of the one, and to a large extent their faith inthe other. But we shall not understand Scripture unless we seek tomake as prominent in our thoughts as on its pages that second comingas the complement and necessary issue of the first. It stands stampedon every line. It colours all the New Testament views of life. It isused as a motive for every duty, and as a magnet to draw men to JesusChrist by salutary dread. There is no hint in my text about the timeof the Lord's coming, no disturbing of the solemnity of the thoughtby non-essential details of chronology, so we may dismiss these fromour minds. The fact is the same, and has the same force as a motivefor life, whether it is to be fulfilled in the next moment orthousands of years hence, provided only that you and I are to bethere when He comes. 

There have been many comings in the past, besides the comings in theflesh. The days of the Lord that have already appeared in the historyof the world are not few. One characteristic is stamped upon themall, and that is the swift annihilation of what is opposed to Him. The Bible has a set of standing metaphors by which to illustrate thisthought of the Coming of the Lord--a flood, a harvest when the earsare ripe for the sickle, the waking of God from slumber, and thelike; all suggesting similar thoughts. _The_ day of the Lord, _the_ coming of the Lord, will include and surpass all thecharacteristics which these lesser and premonitory judgment dayspresented in miniature. I do not enlarge on this theme. I would notplay the orator about it if I could; but I appeal to yourconsciences, which, in the case of most of us, not only testify ofright and wrong, but of responsibility, and suggest a judge to whomwe are responsible. And I urge on each, and on myself, this simplequestion: Have I allowed its due weight on my life and character tothat watchword of the ancient church--_Maran-atha_, 'our Lordcometh'?

Now, the coming of the Lord of Love is the annihilation of theunloving. The destruction implied in Anathema does not mean thecessation of Being, but a death which is worse than death, because itis a death in life. Suppose a man with all his past annihilated, with all its effort foiled and crushed, with all its possessionsevaporated and disappeared, and with his memory and his consciencestung into clear-sighted activity, so that he looks back upon hisformer self and into his present self, and feels that it is all wasteand chaos, would not that fulfil the word of my text--'Let him beAnathema'? And suppose that such a man, in addition to thesethoughts, and as the root and the source of them, had ever thequivering consciousness that he was and must be in the presence of anunloved Judge; have you not there the naked bones of a very dreadfulthing, which does not need any tawdry eloquence of man to make itmore solemn and more real? The unloving heart is always ill at easein the presence of Him whom it does not love. The unloving heart doesnot love, because it does not trust, nor see the love. Therefore, theunloving heart is a heart that is only capable of apprehending thewrathful side of Christ's character. It is a heart devoid of thefruits of love which are likeness and righteousness, 'without whichno man shall see the Lord, ' nor stand the flash of the brightness ofHis coming. So there is no cruelty nor arbitrariness in the decreethat the heart that loves not, when brought into contact with theinfinite Lord of Love, must find in the touch death and not life, darkness and not light, terror and not hope. Notice that Paul'snegation _is_ a negation and not an affirmation. He does not say'he that hateth, ' but 'he that doth not love. ' The absence of theactive emotion of love, which is the child of faith, the parent ofrighteousness, the condition of joy in His presence, is sufficient toensure that this fate shall fall upon a man. I durst not enlarge. Ileave the truth on your hearts. 

II. Secondly, notice the present grace of the coming Lord. 'Our Lordcometh. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. ' Thesetwo things are not contradictory, but we often deal with them as ifthey 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 makeantagonistic theories of Christianity out of them. But the realdoctrine puts the two together and says there is no terror withouttenderness, and there is no tenderness without terror. If wesacrifice the aspects of the divine nature, as revealed to us in thegentle Christ, which kindle a wholesome dread, we have, allunwittingly, robbed the aspects of the divine nature, which warm inus a gracious love, of their power to inflame and to illuminate. Youcannot have love which is anything nobler than facile good natureand unrighteous indifference, unless you have along with it aspects ofGod's character and government which ought to make some men afraid. And you cannot keep these latter aspects from being exaggerated anddarkened into a Moloch of cruelty, unless you remember that, side byside with them, or rather underlying them and determining them, areaspects of the divine nature to which only child-like confidence andcalm beatific returns of love do rightly respond. The terror of theLord is a garb which our sins force upon the love of the Lord, andwhen the one is presented it brings with it the other. Never shouldthey be parted in our thoughts or in our teaching. 

Note what that present grace is. It is a tenderness which gathersinto its embrace all these imperfect, immoral, lax, heretical peoplein Corinth, as well as everywhere else--'The grace of our Lord JesusChrist 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 weremen in that church that had defiled their souls and their flesh, andcorrupted the community, and blasphemed the name of Christ by suchfoul, sensual sin as was 'not even named among the Gentiles. ' Therewere men in that church so dead to all the sanctities even of thecommunion-table as that, with the bread between their teeth and thewine-cup in their hands, one was hungry and another drunken. Therewere men in that church, whose Christianity was so anomalous andsingularly fragmentary that they did not believe in the resurrectionof the dead. And yet Paul flings the great rainbow, as it were, ofChrist's enclosing love over them all. And surely the love whichgathers in such people leaves none outside its sweep; and thetenderness which stoops from heaven to pity, to pardon, to cleansesuch is a tenderness to which the weakest, saddest, sinfullest, foulest of the sons of men may confidently resort. Let nothing robyou of this assurance, that Christ, the coming Lord, is present withus all, and with all our weak and wicked brethren, in the fullcondescension of His all-embracing, all-hoping, all-forgetting, andall-restoring love. All that we need, in order to get its fullsunshine into our hearts, is that we trust Him utterly, and, sotrusting, love Him back again with that love which is the fulfillingof the Law and the crown of the Gospel. 

III. And now, lastly, note the tenderness, caught from the MasterHimself, of the servant who rebukes. 

This last message of love from the Apostle himself, in verse 24, isquite anomalous. There is no other instance in his letters where heintroduces himself and his own love at the end, after he haspronounced solemn benediction commending to Christ's grace. But here, as if he had felt that he must leave an impression of himself ontheir minds, which corresponded to the impression of his Master thathe desired to leave, he deviates from his ordinary habit, and makeshis last word a personal word--'_My love_ be with you all in ChristJesus. ' Rebuke is the sign of love. Sharp condemnation may be thelanguage of love. Plain warning of possible evils is the simple dutyof love. So Paul folds all whom he has been rebuking in the warmembrace of his proffered love, which was the very cause of hisrebuke. The healing balm of this closing message was to be applied tothe wounds which his keen edged words had made, and to show that theywere wounds by a surgeon, not by a foe. In effect, this parting smileof love says, 'I am not become your enemy because I tell you thetruth; I show my love to you by the plainness and roughness of mywords. ' Generalise that, free it from its personal reference, and itjust comes to this: There never was a shallower sneer than the sneerwhich is cast at Christianity, as if it were harsh, 'ferocious, ' orunloving, when it preaches the terror of the Lord. No! rather, because the Gospel _is_ a Gospel, it must speak plainly about deathand destruction to the unloving. The danger signal is not to beblamed for a collision, which it is hoisted to avert; and it is astrange sign of an unfeeling and unsympathetic, or of a harsh andgloomy system, that it should tell men where they are driving, inorder that they may never reach the miserable goal. 'Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. ' And when peoplesay to us preachers, 'Is that your Gospel, a Gospel that talks abouteverlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord at the glory ofHis 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 hearshall never know anything of the wrath, save the hearing of it withthe ear, and may, by the warning of it, be drawn to the Rock of Agesfor safety and shelter from the storm. '

Therefore, dear friends, the upshot of all that I have been feeblytrying to say is just this; let us lay hold with all our hearts, andby simple faith, of the present grace of the coming, loving Lord andJudge. You can do it. It is your only hope to do it. _Have_ youdone it? If so, then you may lift up your heads to the throne, and beglad, as those who know that their Friend and Deliverer will come atlast, to help, to bless, to save. If not, dear friend, take thewarning, that not to love is to be shrivelled like a leaf in theflame, at that coming which is life to them that love, anddestruction to all besides. 'Herein is our love made perfect, that wemay have boldness before Him in the day of judgment. '

II. CORINTHIANS

GOD'S YEA; MAN'S AMEN

 '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. ). 

This 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 bythe alterations in the Revised Version. These are partly dependentupon the reading of the text and partly upon the translation. As thewords stand in the Authorised Version, 'yea' and 'amen' seem to bevery nearly synonymous expressions, and to point substantially to thesame thing--viz. That Jesus Christ is, as it were, the confirmationand seal of God's promises. But in the Revised Version thealterations, especially in the pronouns, indicate more distinctlythat 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 dowith the certainty of the divine revelation, the other has to do withthe certitude of our faith in the revelation. When God speaks inChrist, He confirms everything that He has said before, and when welisten to God speaking in Christ, our lips are, through Christ, opened to utter our assenting 'Amen' to His great promises. So, then, we have the double form of our Lord's work, covering the whole groundof His relations to man, set forth in these two clauses, in the oneof which God's confirmation of His past revelations by Jesus Christis treated of, and in the other of which the full and confidentassent which men may give to that revelation is set before us. Ideal, then, with these two points--God's certainties in Christ, andman's certitudes through Christ. 

Now these two things do not always go together. We may be verycertain, as far as our persuasion is concerned, of a very doubtfulfact, or we may be very doubtful, as far as our persuasion isconcerned, of a very certain fact. We speak about truths or facts asbeing certain, and we ought to mean by that, not how we think aboutthem, but what they are in the evidence on which they rest. A certaintruth is a truth which has its evidence irrefragable; and the onlyfitting attitude for men, in the presence of a certain truth, is tohave a certitude of the truth. And these two things are, our Apostletells 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 seriesof great promises given in the Old Testament. These, says Paul, aresealed and confirmed to men by the revelation and work of JesusChrist, but it is obvious that the principle which is good inreference to them is good on a wider field. I venture to take thatextension, and to ask you to think briefly about some of the thingsthat 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 peradventures, hopes, fears, guessesmore or less doubtful, and roundabout inferences as to Hisdisposition and attitude towards us. As one of the old divines sayssomewhere, '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 heavenshas a heart of love towards them is by Jesus Christ. For considerwhat will make us sure of that. Nothing but facts; words are oflittle use, arguments are of little use. A revelation, howeverprecious, which simply says to us, 'God is Love' is not sufficientfor our need. We want to see love in operation if we are to be sureof it, and the only demonstration of the love of God is to witnessthe love of God in actual working. And you get it--where? On theCross of Jesus Christ. I do not believe that anything elseirrefragably establishes the fact for the yearning hearts of us poormen who want love, and yet cannot grope our way in amidst themysteries and the clouds in providence and nature, exceptthis--'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 any need for provingGod's love? The question never arose except within the limits ofChristianity. It is only men who have lived all their lives in anatmosphere saturated by Christian sentiment and conviction that evercome to the point of saying, 'We do not want historical revelation toprove to us the fact of a loving God. ' They would never have fanciedthat they did not need the revelation unless, unconsciously tothemselves, and indirectly, all their thoughts had been coloured andilluminated by the revelation that they profess they reject. God asLove is 'our dearest faith, our ghastliest doubt, ' and the only wayto make absolutely certain of the fact that His heart is full ofmercy to us is to look upon Him as He stands revealed to us, notmerely in the words of Christ, for, precious as they are, these arethe smallest part of His revelation, but in the life and in the deathwhich open for us the heart of God. Remember what He said Himself, _not_ 'He who hath listened to Me, doth understand the Father, ' but'He that hath _seen_ Me hath seen the Father. ' 'In Him is yea, ' andthe hopes and shadowy fore-revelations of the loving heart of God areconfirmed by the fact of His life and death. God _establishes_, not 'commends' as our translation has it, 'His love towards us inthat whilst we were yet sinners Christ died for us. '

Further, in Him we have the certainty of pardon. Every deepheart-experience amongst men has felt the necessity of having a clearcertainty and knowledge about forgiveness. Men do not feel it always. A man can skate over the surface of the great deeps that lie beneaththe most frivolous life, and may suppose, in his superficial way oflooking at things, that there is no need for any definite teachingabout sin and the mode of dealing with it. But once bring that manface to face, in a quiet hour, with the facts of his life and of adivine law, and all that superficial ignoring of evil in himself andof the dread of punishment and consequences, passes away. I am sureof this, that no religion will ever go far and last long and workmightily, and lay a sovereign hand upon human life, which has not amost plain and decisive message to preach in reference to pardon. AndI am sure of this, that one reason for the comparative feebleness ofmuch so-called Christian teaching in this generation is just that thedeepest needs of a man's conscience are not met by it. In a religionon which the whole spirit of a man may rest itself, there must be avery plain message about what is to be done with sin. The onlymessage which answers to the needs of an awakened conscience and analarmed heart is the old-fashioned message that Jesus Christ theRighteous has died for us sinful men. All other religions have feltafter a clear doctrine of forgiveness, and all have failed to findit. Here is the divine 'Yea!' And on it alone we can suspend thewhole weight of our soul's salvation. The rope that is to haul us outof the horrible pit and the miry clay had much need to be testedbefore we commit ourselves to it. There are plenty of easygoingsuperficial theories about forgiveness predominant in the worldto-day. Except the one that says, 'In whom we have redemption throughHis blood, even the forgiveness of sin, ' they are all like the ropelet down into the dark mine to lift the captives beneath, half of thestrands of which have been cut on the sharp edge above, and when theweight hangs on to it, it will snap. There is nothing on which a manwho has once learned the tragical meaning and awful reality and depthof the fact of his transgression can suspend his forgiveness, exceptthis, that 'Christ has died, the just for the unjust, to bring usunto God. ' 'In Him the promise is yea. '

And, again, we have in Christ divine certainties in regard to life. We have in Him the absolutely perfect pattern to which we are toconform our whole doings. And so, notwithstanding that there may, andwill still be many uncertainties and much perplexity, we have thegreat broad lines of morals and of duty traced with a firm hand, andall that we need to know of obligation and of perfectness lies inthis--Be like Jesus Christ! So the solemn commandments of the ethicalside of Divine Revelation, 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 inJesus Christ. For He not only confirms, but fulfils, the promiseswhich God has made. If we have that dear Lord for our very own, andHe belongs to us as He does belong to them who love Him and trustHim, then in Him we have in actual possession these promises, howmany soever they be, which are given by God's other words. 

Christ is Protean, and becomes everything to each man that each manrequires. He is, as it were, 'a box where sweets compacted lie. ' 'InHim are hid all the treasures, ' not only of wisdom and knowledge, butof divine gifts, and we have but to go to Him in order to have thatwhich at each moment as it emerges, we most require. As in some ofthose sunny islands of the Southern Pacific, one tree supplies thepeople with all that they need for their simple wants, fruit fortheir food, leaves for their houses, staves, thread, needles, clothing, drink, everything--so Jesus Christ, this Tree of Life, isHimself the sum of all the promises, and, having Him, we haveeverything that we need. 

And, lastly, in Christ we have the divine certainties as to theFuture over which, apart from Him, lie cloud and darkness. As I saidabout the revelation of the heart of God, so I say about therevelation of a future life--a verbal revelation is not enough. Wehave enough of arguments; what we want is facts. We have enough ofman's peradventures about a future life, enough of evidence more orless 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 thatsomebody shall cross the gulf and come back again, and so we get inthe Resurrection of Christ the one fact on which men may safely resttheir convictions of immortality, and I do not think that there is asecond anywhere. On it alone, as I believe, hinges the whole answerto the question--'If a man die, shall he live again?' This generationis brought, in my reading of it, right up to thisalternative--Christ's Resurrection, --or we die like the brutes thatperish. 'All the promises of God in Him are yea. '

II. And now a word as to the second portion of my text--viz. Man'scertitudes, which answer to God's certainties. 

The latter are _in_ Christ, the former are _through_ Christ. Now itis clear that the only fitting attitude for professing Christians inreference to these certainties of God is the attitude of unhesitatingaffirmation and joyful assent. Certitude is the fitting response tocertainty. 

There should be some kind of correspondence between the firmness withwhich we grasp, the tenacity with which we hold, the assurance withwhich we believe, these great truths, and the rock-like firmness andimmovableness of the evidence upon which they rest. It is a poorcompliment to God to come to His most veracious affirmations, sealedwith the broad seal of His Son's life and death, and to answer with ahesitating 'Amen, ' that falters and almost sticks in our throat. Build rock upon rock. Be sure of the certain things. Grasp with afirm hand the firm stay. Immovably cling to the immovable foundation;and though you be but like the limpet on the rock hold fast by theRock, as the limpet does; for it is an insult to the certainty of therevelation, when there is hesitation in the believer. 

I need not dwell for more than a moment upon the lamentable contrastwhich is presented between this certitude, which is our only fittingattitude, and the hesitating assent and half belief in which so manyprofessing Christians pass their lives. The reasons for that arepartly moral, partly intellectual. This is not a day which isfavourable to the unhesitating avowal of convictions in reference toan unseen world, and many of us are afraid of being called narrow, ordogmatisers, and think it looks like breadth, and liberality, andculture, and I know not what, to say 'Well! perhaps it is, but I amnot quite sure; I think it is, but I will not commit myself. ' All thepromises of God, which in Him are yea, ought through Him to get fromus an 'Amen. '

There is a great deal that will always be uncertain. The firmer ourconvictions, the fewer will be the things that they grasp; but, ifthey be few, they will be large, and enough for us. These truthscertified in Christ concerning the heart of God, the message ofpardon, the law for life, the gifts of guidance, defence, andsanctifying, the sure and certain hope of immortality--these thingswe ought to be sure about, whatever borderland of uncertainty may liebeyond them. The Christian verb is 'we _know_, ' not 'we hope, wecalculate, we infer, we think, ' but 'we _know_. ' And it becomesus to apprehend for ourselves the full blessedness and power of thecertitude which Christ has given to us by the certainties which hehas brought us. 

I need not speak about the blessedness of such a calm assurance, about the need of it for power, for peace, for effort, for fixednessin the midst of a world and age of change. But I must, before Iclose, point you to the only path by which that certitude isattainable. '_Through_ Him is the amen. ' He is the Door. The truthswhich He confirms are so inextricably intertwined with Himself thatyou cannot get them and put away Him. Christ's relation to Christ'sGospel is not the relation of other teachers to their words. You mayaccept the words of a Plato, whatever you think of the Plato whospoke the words. But you cannot separate Christ and His teaching inthat fashion, and you must have _Him_ if you are to get _it_. So, faith in Him, the intellectual acceptance of Him, as theauthoritative and infallible Revealer, the bowing down of heart andwill to Him as our Commander and our Lord, the absolute trust in Himas the foundation of all our hope and the source of all ourblessedness--that is the way to certitude, and there is no other roadthat we can take. 

If thus we keep near Him, our faith will bring us the presentexperience and fulfilment of the promises, and we shall be sure ofthem, because we have them already. And whilst men are asking, 'Do weknow anything about God? Is there a God at all? Is there such a thingas forgiveness? Can anybody find anywhere absolute rules for hislife? Is there anything beyond the grave but mist and darkness?' wecan say, 'One thing I know, Jesus Christ is my Saviour, and in Him Iknow God, and pardon, and duty, and sanctifying, and safety, andimmortality; and whatever is dark, this, at least, is sun-clear. ' Gethigh enough up and you will be above the fog; and while the men downin it are squabbling as to whether there is anything outside themist, you, from your sunny station, will see the far-off coasts, andhaply catch some whiff of perfume from their shore, and see someglinting of a glory upon the shining turrets of 'the city that hathfoundations. ' We have a present possession of all the promises ofGod; and whoever doubts their certitude, the man who knows himself ason of God by faith, and has experience of forgiveness and guidanceand answered prayer and hopes whose 'sweetness yieldeth proof thatthey were born for immortality, ' _knows_ the things which othersquestion and doubt. 

So live near Jesus Christ, and, holding fast by His hand, you maylift up your joyful 'Amen' to every one of God's 'Yeas. ' For in Himwe know the Father, in Him we know that we have the forgiveness ofsins, 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, wehave a building of God. ' Wherefore we are always confident; and whenthe Voice from Heaven says 'Yea!' our choral shout may go up 'Amen!Thou art the faithful and true witness. '

ANOINTED AND STABLISHED

 'Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God. '--2 COR. I. 21. 

The connection in which these words occur is a remarkableillustration of the Apostle's habit of looking at the most trivialthings in the light of the highest truths. He had been obliged, asthe context informs us, to abandon an intended visit to Corinth. Themiserable crew of antagonists, who yelped at his heels all his life, seized this change of purpose as the occasion for a double-barrelledcharge. They said he was either fickle and infirm of purpose, orinsincere, and saying 'Yea' with one side of his mouth and 'Nay' withthe other. He rebuts this accusation with apparently quitedisproportionate vehemence and great solemnity. He points in thecontext to the faithfulness of God, to the firm Gospel which he hadpreached, 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 regionof equivocation and double-dealing; or how could I, whose whole beingis saturated with so firm and stable a Gospel, be unreliable andfickle? The message must make the messenger like itself. Communionwith a faithful God must make faith-keeping men; the certainties ofGod's "Yea, " and the certitudes of our "Amen, " must influence ourcharacters. ' And so to suppose that a man, influenced byChristianity, is a weak, double-dealing, unsteadfast man is acontradiction in terms. In the text he carries his argument a stepfurther, and points, not only to the power of the Gospel to steadyand confirm, but also to the fact that God Himself communicates tothe believing soul Christian stability by the anointing which Hebestows. 

So, then, we have in these words the declaration that inflexible, immovable steadfastness is a mark of a Christian, and that thisChristian steadfastness, without which there is no Christianity worththe naming, is a direct gift from God Himself by means of that greatanointing which He confers upon men. To that thought, in one or twoof 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 tobear this interpretation, that the 'anointing' of the second clauseis the means of the 'establishing' of the first--that is to say, thatGod confers Christian steadfastness of character by the bestowment ofthe unction of His Divine Spirit. 

Now notice how deep Paul digs in order to get a foundation for acommon virtue. There are many ways by which men may cultivate thetenacity and steadfastness of purpose which ought to mark us all. Much discipline may be brought to bear in order to secure that; butthe text says that the deepest ground upon which it can be rested isnothing less divine and solemn than this, the actual communication tomen, to feeble, vacillating, fluctuating wills, and treacherous, wayward, wandering hearts, of the strength and fixedness which aregiven by God's own Spirit. 

I suppose I need not remind you that from beginning to end ofScripture, 'anointing' is taken as the symbol of the communication ofa true divine influence. The oil poured on the head of prophet, priest, and king was but the expression of the communication to therecipient of a divine influence which fitted him as well asdesignated him, for the office that he filled. And although it isaside from my present purpose, I may just, in a sentence, point tothe felicity of the emblem. The flowing oil smoothes the surface uponwhich it is spread, supples the limbs, and is nutritive andilluminating; thus giving an appropriate emblem of the secret, silent, quickening, nourishing, enlightening influences of thatSpirit which God gives to all His sons. 

And inasmuch as here this oil of the Divine Spirit is stated as beingthe true ground and basis of Christian steadfastness, it is obviousthat the anointing intended cannot be that of mere designation to, and inspiration for, apostolic or other office, but must be theuniversal possession of all Christian men and women. 'Ye, ' saysanother Apostle, speaking to the whole democracy of the ChristianChurch, and not to any little group of selected aristocratstherein--'ye have an unction from the Holy One, ' and every man andwoman who has a living grasp of the living Christ, receives from Himthis great gift. 

Then, notice further that this anointing by a Divine Spirit, which isa true source of life to those that possess it, is derived from, andparallel with, Christ's anointing. We use the word 'Christ' as aproper name, and forget what it means. The 'Christ' is _the AnointedOne_. And do you think that it was a mere accident, or the result ofa scanty vocabulary, which compelled the Apostle, in these twocontiguous clauses, to use cognate words when he said:--'He thatestablisheth us with you in the _Anointed_, and hath _anointed_ us, is God'? Did he not mean to say thereby, 'Each of you in a very truesense, if you are a Christian, is a _Christ_'? You, too, areanointed; you, too, are God's Messiahs. On you in a measure the sameSpirit rests which dwelt without measure in Him. The chief ofChrist's gifts to the Church is the gift of His own life. All Hisbrethren are anointed with the oil that was poured upon His head, even as the oil upon Aaron's locks percolated to the very skirts ofhis garments. Being anointed with the anointing which was on Him, allHis people may claim an identity of nature, may hope for an identityof destiny, and are bound to a prolongation of part of His functionand a similarity of character. If He by that anointing was madeProphet, Priest, and King for the world, all His children partake ofthese offices in subordinate but real fashion, and are prophets tomake God known to men, priests to offer up spiritual sacrifices, andkings at least over themselves, and, if they will, over a world whichobeys and serves those that serve and love God. Ye areanointed--'Messiahs' and 'Christs, ' by derivation of the life ofJesus Christ. 

And if these things be true, it is plain enough how this divineunction, which is granted to all Christians, lies at the root ofsteadfastness. 

We talk a great deal about the gentleness of Christ; we cannotcelebrate it too much, but we may forget that it is the gentleness ofstrength. We do not sufficiently mark the masculine features in thatcharacter, the tremendous tenacity of will, the inflexible fixednessof purpose, the irremovable constancy of obedience in the face of alltemptations to the contrary. The figure that rises before us is thatof the Christ yearning over weaklings far oftener than it is that ofthe Christ with knitted brow, and tightened lips, and far-off gazingeye, 'steadfastly setting His face to go to Jerusalem, ' and followedas He pressed up the rocky road from Jericho, by that wonderinggroup, astonished at the rigidity of purpose that was stamped on Hisfeatures. That Christ gives us His Spirit to make us tenacious, constant, righteously obstinate, inflexible in the pursuit of allthat is lovely and of good report, like Himself. That Divine Spiritwill cure the fickleness of our natures; for our wills are neverfixed till they are fixed in obedience, and never free until theyelect to serve Him. That Divine Spirit will cure the wandering of ourhearts and bind us to Himself. It will lift us above the selfish andcowardly dependence on externals and surroundings, men and things, inwhich we are all tempted to live. We are all too like aneroidbarometers, that go up and down with every variation of a foot or twoin our level, but if we have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us, itwill cut the bonds that bind us to the world, and give us possessionof a deeper love than can be sustained by, or is derived from, thesesuperficial sources. The true possession of the Divine Spirit, if Imight use such a metaphor, sets a man on an insulating stool, and allthe currents that move round about him are powerless to reach him. Ifwe have that Divine Spirit within us, it will give us an experienceof the preciousness and the truth, the certitude and the sweetness, of Christ's Gospel, which will make it impossible that we should evercast away the confidence which has such 'recompense of reward. ' Noman will be surely bound to the truth and person of Christ with bondsthat cannot be snapped, except he who in his heart has the knowledgeof Him which is possession, and by the gift of the Divine Spirit isknit to Jesus Christ. 

So, dear friends, whilst the world is full of wise words aboutsteadfastness, and exalts determination of character and fixity ofpurpose, rightly, as the basis of much good, our Gospel comes to uspoor, light, thistledown creatures, and lets us see how we can besteadfast and settled by being fastened to a steadfast and settledChrist. When storms are raging they lash light articles on deck toholdfasts. 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 Christiansteadfastness. 

'He stablisheth us with you in Christ, ' or as the original has iteven more significantly, _into_ or '_unto_ Christ. ' Now that seems tome to imply two things--first, that our steadfastness, made possibleby our possession of that Divine Spirit, is steadfastness in ourrelations to Jesus Christ. We are established in reference or inregard to Him. In other words, what Paul here means is, first, afixed 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. Menwho are steadfast without their intellect guiding and settling thesteadfastness are not steadfast, but obstinate and pigheaded. We aremeant to be guided by our understandings, and no fixity is anythingbetter than the immobility of a stone, unless it be based upon adistinct and whole-brained intellectual acceptance of Jesus Christ asthe All-in-all for us, for life and death, for inward and outwardbeing. 

Paul means, next, a steadfastness in regard to Christ in our trustand love. Surely if from Him there is for ever streaming out anunbroken flow of tenderness, there should be ever on our sides anequally unbroken opening of our hearts for the reception of His love, and an equally uninterrupted response to it in our gratefulaffection. There can be no more damning condemnation of thevacillations and fluctuations of Christian men's affections than thesteadfastness of Christ's love to them. He loves ever; He isunalterable in the communication and effluence of His heart. Surelyit is most fitting that we should be steadfast in our devotion andanswering love to Him. And Paul means not only fixedness ofintellectual conviction and continuity of loving response, but alsohabitual obedience, which is always ready to do His will. 

So we should answer His 'Yea!' with our 'Amen!' and having anunchanging Christ to rest upon, we should rest upon Him unchanging. The broken, fluctuating affections and trusts and obediences whichmark so much of the average Christian life of this day are only toosad proofs of how scant our possession of that Spirit ofsteadfastness must be supposed to be. God's 'Yea' is answered by ourfaltering 'Amen'; God's truth is hesitatingly accepted; God's love ispartially returned; God's work is slothfully and negligently done. 'Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of theLord. '

Another thought is suggested by these words--viz. That suchsteadfastness as we have been trying to describe has for its result adeeper 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 bysteadfastly keeping beside Him. You cannot get the spirit of alandscape unless you sit down and gaze, and let it soak into you. Thecheap tripper never sees the lake. You cannot get to know a man untilyou summer and winter with him. No subject worth studying opensitself to the hasty glance. Was it not Sir Isaac Newton who used tosay, 'I have no genius, but I keep a subject before me'? 'Abide inMe; as the branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine, nomore can ye except ye abide in Me. ' Continuous, steadfast adhesion toHim is the condition of growing up into His likeness, and receivingmore and more of His beauty into our waiting hearts. 'Wait on theLord; wait, I say, on the Lord. '

III. Lastly, notice the very humble and commonplace sphere in whichthe Christian steadfastness manifests itself. 

It was nothing of more importance than that Paul had said he wasgoing to Corinth, and did not, on which he brings all this array ofgreat principles to bear. From which I gather just this thought, thatthe highest gifts of God's grace and the greatest truths of God'sWord are meant to regulate the tiniest things in our daily life. Itis no degradation to the lightning to have to carry messages. It isno profanation of the sun to gather its rays into a burning glass tolight a kitchen fire with. And it is no unworthy use of the DivineSpirit that God gives to His children, to say it will keep a man fromhasty and precipitate decisions as to little things in life, and fromchopping and changing about, with a levity of purpose and without asufficient reason. If our religion is not going to influence thetrifles, what is it going to influence? Our life is made up oftrifles, and if these are not its field, where is its field? You maybe quite sure that, if your religion does not influence the littlethings, it will never influence the great ones. If it has not powerenough to guide the horses when they are at a slow, sober walk, whatdo you think it will do when they are at a gallop and plunging? 'Hethat is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. ' Solet us see to two things--first, that all our religion is worked intoour life, for only so much of it as is so inwrought is ourreligion--and, second, that all our life is brought under the sway ofmotives derived 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 steadfastnessand fixedness of purpose, you can do no good in the world without it. Unless a man can hold his own, and turn an obstinate negative to thetemptations that lie thick about him, he will never come to any goodat all, either in this life or in the next. The basis of allexcellence is a wholesome disregard of externals, and the cultivationof a strong self-reliant and self-centred, because God-trusting andChrist-centred, will. And I tell you, especially you young men andwomen, if you want to do or be anything worth doing or being, youmust try to get your natures hardened into being 'steadfast, unmovable. ' There is only one infallible way of doing it, and that isto let the 'strong Son of God' live in you, and in Him to find yourstrength for resistance, your strength for obedience, your strengthfor submission. 'I have set the Lord always before me; because He isat my right hand, I shall not be moved. '

There are two types of men in the world. The one has his emblem inthe chaff, rootless, with no hold, swept out of the threshing-floorby every gust of wind. That the picture of many whose principles lieat the mercy of the babble of tongues round about them, whoserectitude goes at a puff of temptation, like the smoke out of achimney when the wind blows; who have no will for what is good, butlive as it happens. The other type of man has his emblem in the tree, rooted deep, and therefore rising high, with its roots going as farunderground as its branches spread in the blue, and therefore greenof leaf and rich of fruit 'We are made partakers of Christ if we holdfast the beginning of our confidence, steadfast until the end. '

SEAL AND EARNEST

 'Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. '--2 COR. I. 23. 

There are three strong metaphors in this and the precedingverse--'anointing, ' 'sealing, ' and 'giving the earnest'--all of whichfind their reality in the same divine act. These three metaphors allrefer to the same subject, and what that subject is is sufficientlyexplained in the last of them. The 'earnest' consists of 'the Spiritin our hearts, ' and the same explanation might have been appended toboth the preceding clauses, for the 'anointing' is the anointing ofthe Spirit, and the 'seal' is the seal of the Spirit. Further, thesethree metaphors all refer to one and the same act. They are not threethings, but three aspects of one thing, just as a sunbeam might beregarded either as the source of warmth, or of light, or of chemicalaction. So the one gift of the one Spirit, 'anoints, ' 'seals, ' and isthe 'earnest. ' Further, these three metaphors all declare a universalprerogative of Christians. Every man that loves Jesus Christ has theSpirit in the measure of his faith, ' and if any man have not theSpirit of Christ he is none of His. '

I. Note the first metaphor in the text--the 'seal' of the Spirit. 

A seal is impressed upon a recipient material made soft by warmth, inorder to leave there a copy of itself. Now it is not fanciful, norriding a metaphor to death, when I dwell upon these features of theemblem in order to suggest their analogies in Christian life. TheSpirit of God comes into our spirits, and by gentle contact impressesupon the material, which was intractable until it was melted by thegenial warmth of faith and love, the likeness of Himself, but yet soas that prominences correspond to the hollows, and what is in reliefin the one is sunk in the other. Expand that general statement for amoment or two. 

The effect of all the divine indwelling, which is the characteristicgift of Christ to every Christian soul, is to mould the recipientinto the image of the divine inhabitant. There is in the humanspirit--such are its dignity amidst its ruins, and its nobilityshining through its degradation--a capacity of receiving that imageof God which consists not only in voluntary and intelligent actionand the consciousness of personal being, but in the love of thethings that are fair, and in righteousness, and true holiness. HisSpirit, entering into a heart, will make that heart wise with its ownwisdom, strong with some infusion of its own strength, gracious withsome drops of its own grace, gentle with some softening from its owngentleness, holy with some purity reflected from its own transcendentwhiteness. The Spirit, which is life, moulds the heart into which itenters to a kindred, and, therefore, similar life. 

There are, however, characteristics in this 'seal' of the Spiritwhich are not so much copies as correspondences. That is to say, justas what is convex in the seal is concave in the impression, and_vice versâ_, so, when that Divine Spirit comes into our spirits, itspromises will excite faith, its gifts will breed desire; to everybestowment there will answer an opening receptivity. Recipient lovewill correspond to the love that longs to dispense, the sense of needto the divine fulness and sufficiency, emptiness to abundance, prayers to promises; the cry 'Abba! Father'! the yearningconsciousness of sonship, to the word 'Thou art My Son'; and theupward eye of aspiration and petition, and necessity, and waiting, tothe downward glance of love bestowing itself. The open heart answersto the extended hand, and the seal which God's Spirit impresses uponthe heart that is submitted to it, has the two-fold character ofresemblance in moral nature and righteousness, and of correspondenceas regards the mysteries of the converse between the recipient manand the giving God. 

Then, mark that the material is made capable of receiving the stamp, because it is warmed and softened. That is to say, faith must preparethe heart for the sanctifying indwelling of that Divine Spirit. Thehard wax may be struck with the seal, but it leaves no trace. Goddoes not do with man as the coiner does with his blanks, put themcold into a press, and by violence from without stamp an image uponthem, but He does as men do with a seal, warms the wax first, andthen, with a gentle, firm touch, leaves the likeness there. So, brother! learn this lesson: if you wish to be good, lie under thecontact of the Spirit of righteousness, and see that your heart iswarm. 

Still further, note that this aggregate of Christian character, inlikeness and correspondence, is the true sign that we belong to God. The seal is the mark of ownership, is it not? Where the broad arrowhas been impressed, everybody knows that that is royal property. Andso this seal of God's Divine Spirit, in its effects upon mycharacter, is the one token to myself and to other people that Ibelong to God, and that He belongs to me. Or, to put it into plainEnglish, the best reason for any man's being regarded as a Christianis his possession of the likeness and correspondence to God whichthat Divine Spirit gives. Likeness and correspondence, I say, for theone class of results is the more open for the observation of theworld, and the other class is of the more value for ourselves. Ibelieve that Christian people ought to have, and are meant by thatDivine Spirit dwelling in them to have, a consciousness that they areChristians and God's children, for their own peace and rest and joy. But you cannot use that in demonstration to other people; you may beas sure of it as you will, in your inmost hearts, but it is no signto anybody else. And, on the other hand, there may be much of outwardvirtue and beauty of character which may lead other people to sayabout a man: '_That_ is a good Christian man, at any rate, ' and yetthere may be in the heart an all but absolute absence of any joyfulassurance that we are Christ's, and that He belongs to us. So the twofacts must go together. Correspondence, the spirit of sonship whichmeets His taking us as sons, the faith which clasps the promise, thereception which welcomes bestowment, must be stamped upon the inwardlife. For the outward life there must be the manifest impress ofrighteousness upon my actions, if there is to be any real seal andtoken that I belong to Him. God writes His own name upon the men thatare His. All their goodness, their gentleness, patience, hatred ofevil, energy and strenuousness in service, submission in suffering, with whatsoever other radiance of human virtue may belong to them, are really 'His mark!'

There is no other worth talking about, and to you Christian men Icome and say, Be very sure that your professions of inward communionand happy consciousness that you are Christ's are verified toyourself and to others by a plain outward life of righteousness likethe Lord's. Have you got that seal stamped upon your lives, like thehall-mark that says, 'This is genuine silver, and no plated Brummagemstuff'? Have you got that seal of a visible righteousness andevery-day purity to confirm your assertion that you belong to Christ?Is it woven into the whole length of your being, like the scarletthread that is spun into every Admiralty cable as a sign that it isCrown property? God's seal, visible to me and to nobody else, is myconsciousness that I am His; but that consciousness is vindicated anddelivered from the possibility of illusion or hypocrisy, only when itis checked and fortified by the outward evidence of the holy lifewhich the Spirit of God has wrought. 

Further, this sealing, which is thus the token of God's ownership, isalso the pledge of security. A seal is stamped in order that theremay be no tampering with what it seals; that it may be kept safe fromall assaults, thieves, and violence. And in the metaphor of our textthere is included this thought, too, which is also of an intenselypractical nature. For it just comes to this--our true guarantee thatwe shall come at last into the sweet security and safety of theperfect state is present likeness to the indwelling Spirit andpresent reception of divine grace. The seal is the pledge ofsecurity, just because it is the mark of ownership. When, by God'sSpirit dwelling in us, we are led to love the things that are fair, and to long after more possession of whatever things are of goodreport, that is like God's hoisting His flag upon a newly-annexedterritory. And is He going to be so careless in the preservation ofHis property as that He will allow that which is thus acquired toslip away from Him? Does He account us as of so small value as tohold us with so slack a hand? But no man has a right to rest on theassurance of God's saving him into the heavenly kingdom, unless He issaving him at this moment from the devil and his own evil heart. And, therefore, I say the Christian character, in its outwardmanifestations and in its sweet inward secrets of communion, is theguarantee that we shall not fall. Rest upon Him, and He will hold youup. We are 'kept by the power of God unto salvation, ' and that powerkeeps us and that final salvation becomes ours, 'through faith. '

II. Now, secondly, turn to the other emblem, that 'earnest' whichconsists in like manner 'of the Spirit. '

The 'earnest, ' of course, is a small portion of purchase-money, orwages, or contract-money, which is given at the making of a 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 makescertain God's ownership and guarantees the security of those on whomit is impressed, but it also points onwards to the future, and atonce guarantees that, and to a large extent reveals the nature of it. So, then, we have here two thoughts on which I touch. 

The Christian character and experience are the earnest of theinheritance, in the sense of being its guarantee, inasmuch as theexperiences of the Christian life here are plainly immortal. TheResurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the objective andexternal proof of a future life. The facts of the Christian life, itsaspirations, its communion, its clasp of God as its very own, are thesubjective and inward proofs of a future life. As a matter of fact, if you will take the Old Testament, you will see that the highestsummits in it, to which the hope of immortality soared, springdirectly from the experience of deep and blessed communion with theliving God. When the Psalmist said 'Thou wilt not leave my soul in_Sheol_; neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption, ' hewas speaking a conviction that had been floated into his mind on thecrest of a great wave of religious enjoyment and communion. And, inlike manner, when the other Psalmist said, 'Thou art the strength ofmy heart, and my portion for ever, ' he was speaking of the glimpsethat he had got of the land that was very far off, from the heightwhich he had climbed on the Mount of fellowship with God. And for us, I suppose that the same experience holds good. Howsoever much we maysay that we believe in a future life and in a heaven, we really graspthem as facts that will be true about ourselves, in the proportion inwhich we are living here in direct contact and communion with God. The conviction of immortality is the distinct and direct result ofthe present enjoyment of communion with Him, and it is a reasonableresult. No man who has known what it is to turn himself to God with aglow of humble love, and to feel that he is not turning his face tovacuity, but to a Face that looks on him with love, can believe thatanything can ever come to destroy that communion. What have faith, love, aspiration, resignation, fellowship with God, to do with death?They cannot be cut through with the stroke that destroys physicallife, any more than you can divide a sunbeam with a sword. It unitesagain, and the impotent edge passes through and has effected nothing. Death can shear asunder many bonds, but that invisible bond thatunites the soul to God is of adamant, against which his scythe is invain. Death is the grim porter that opens the door of a dark hole andherds us into it as sheep are driven into a slaughter-house. But tothose who have learned what it is to lay a trusting hand in God'shand, the grim porter is turned into the gentle damsel, who keeps thedoor, and opens it for light and warmth and safety to the huntedprisoner that has escaped from the dungeon of life. Death cannottouch communion, and the consciousness of communion with God is theearnest of the inheritance. 

It is so for another reason also. All the results of the DivineSpirit's sealing of the soul are manifestly incomplete, and asmanifestly tend towards completeness. The engine is clearly workingnow at half-speed. It is obviously capable of much higher pressurethan it is going at now. Those powers in the Christian man canplainly do a great deal more than they ever have done here, and aremeant to do a great deal more. Is this imperfect Christianity ofours, our little faith so soon shattered, our little love so quicklydisproved, our faltering resolutions, our lame performances, ourearthward cleavings--are these things all that Jesus Christ's bitteragony 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 theperfect round; and the imperfections, so far as life is concerned, inthe work of so obviously divine an Agent, cry aloud for a regionwhere tendency shall become result, and all that it was possible forHim to make us we shall become. The road evidently leads upwards, andround that sharp corner where the black rocks come so near each otherand our eyesight cannot travel, we may be sure it goes steadily upstill to the top of the pass, until it reaches 'the shiningtable-lands whereof our God Himself is Sun and Moon, ' and brings usall to the city set on a hill. 

And, further, that divine seal is the earnest, inasmuch as itself ispart of the whole. The truest and the loftiest conception that we canform of heaven is as being the perfecting of the religious experienceof earth. The shilling or two, given to the servant in old-fashioneddays, when he was hired, is of the same currency as the balance thathe is to get when the year's work is done. The small payment to-daycomes 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 getwhen we go yonder and count the endless riches to which we havefallen heirs at last. You have but to take the faith, the love, theobedience, the communion of the highest moments of the Christian lifeon earth, and free them from all their limitations, subtract fromthem all their imperfections, multiply them to their superlativepossibility, and endow them with a continual power of growth, andstretch them out to absolute eternity, and you get heaven. Theearnest is of a piece with the inheritance. 

So, dear brethren, here is a gift offered for us all, a gift whichour feebleness sorely needs, a gift for every timid nature, for everyweak will, for every man, woman, and child beset with snares andfighting with heavy tasks, the offer of a reinforcement as real andas sure to bring victory as when, on that day when the fate of Europewas determined, after long hours of conflict, the Prussian buglesblew, and the English commander knew that (with the fresh troops thatcame on the field) victory was made certain. So you and I may have inour hearts the Spirit of God, the spirit of strength, the spirit oflove and of a sound mind, the spirit of adoption, the spirit ofwisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, to enlighten ourdarkness, to bind our hearts to Him, to quicken and energise oursouls, to make the weakest among us strong, and the strong as anangel of God. And the condition on which we may get it is this simpleone which the Apostle lays down; '_After that ye believed_, ye weresealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of ourinheritance. ' The Christ, who is the Lord and Giver of the Spirit, has shown us how its blessed influences may be ours when, on thegreat day of the feast, He stood and cried with a voice that echoesacross the centuries, and is meant for each of us, 'If any manthirsts, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth in Me, outof his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This spake He of theSpirit which they that believe or Him should receive. '

THE TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION

 'Thanks be unto God, which always leadeth us in triumph in Christ and maketh manifest through us the savour of His knowledge in every place. '--2 COR. Ii. 14 (R. V. )

I suppose most of us have some knowledge of what a Roman Triumph was, and can picture to ourselves the long procession, the victoriousgeneral in his chariot with its white horses, the laurelled soldiers, the sullen captives, with suppressed hate flashing in their sunkeneyes, the wreathing clouds of incense that went up into the blue sky, and the shouting multitude of spectators. That is the picture in theApostle's mind here. The Revised Version correctly alters thetranslation into 'Thanks unto God which always _leadeth us in_triumph in Christ. '

Paul thinks of himself and of his coadjutors in Christian work asbeing conquered captives, made to follow their Conqueror and to swellHis triumph. He is thankful to be so overcome. What was deepestdegradation is to him supreme honour. Curses in many a strange tonguewould break from the lips of the prisoners who had to follow thegeneral's victorious chariot. But from Paul's lips comesirrepressible praise; he joins in the shout of acclamation to theConqueror. 

And then he passes on to another of the parts of the ceremonial. Asthe wreathing incense appealed at once to two senses, and was visiblein its curling clouds of smoke, and likewise fragrant to thenostrils, so says Paul, with a singular combination of expression, 'He maketh _manifest_, ' that is visible, the _savour_ ofHis knowledge. From a heart kindled by the flame of the divine lovethere will go up the odour of a holy life visible and fragrant, sweetand fair. 

And thus all Christians, and not Christian workers only in thenarrower sense of the word, who may be doing evangelistic work, haveset before them in these great words the very ideal and secret oftheir lives. 

There are three things here, on each of which I touch as belonging tothe true notion of a Christian life--the conquered captive; thatcaptive partaking in the triumph of his Conqueror; and the conqueredcaptive led as a trophy and a witness to the Conqueror's power. Thesethree things, I think, explain the Apostle's thoughts here. Let medeal with them now. 

I. First then, let us look at that thought of all Christians being inthe truest sense conquered captives, bound to the chariot wheels ofOne who has overcome them. 

The image implies a prior state of hostility and alienation. Now, donot let us exaggerate, let us take Paul's own experience. He isspeaking about himself here; he is not talking doctrine, he is givingus autobiography, and he says, 'I was an enemy, and I have beenconquered. '

What sort of an enemy was he? Well! He says that before he became aChristian he lived a pure, virtuous, respectable life. He was a man'as touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 'Observant of all relative duties, sober, temperate, chaste; no mancould say a word against him; he knew nothing against himself. Hisconscience acquitted him of wrong: 'I thought I ought to do manythings, ' as I did them. And yet, looking back from his present pointof view upon a life thus adorned with many virtues, pure from allmanifest corruption, to a large extent regulated by conscientious andreligious motives of a kind, he says, 'Notwithstanding all that, Iwas an enemy. ' Why? Because the retrospect let him see that his lifewas barren of the deepest faith and the purest love. And so I come tosome of my friends here now, and I say to you, 'Change the name, andthe story is true about you, ' respectable people, who are trying tolive pure and righteous lives, doing all duties that presentthemselves to you with a very tolerable measure of completeness andabominating and trying to keep yourselves from the things that yourconsciences tell you are wrong, yet needing to be conquered, in thedeepest recesses of your wills and your hearts, before you becomethe true subjects of the true King. I do not want to exaggerate, norto say of the ordinary run of people who listen to us preachers, thatthey commit manifest sins, 'gross as a mountain, open, palpable. 'Some of you do, no doubt, for, in every hundred people, there arealways some whose lives are foul and whose memories are stained andhorrible; but the run of you are not like that. And yet I ask you, has your will been bowed and broken, and your heart overcome andconquered by this mighty Prince, the Prince of Peace, the Prince ofLife? Unless it has, for all your righteousness and respectability, for all your outward religion and real religiousness of a sort, youare still hostile and rebellious, in your inmost hearts. That is thebasis of the representation of my text. 

What else does it suggest? It suggests the wonderful struggle andvictory of weaponless love. As was said about the first Christianemperor, so it may be said about the great Emperor in the heavens, '_In hoc signo vinces!_' By this sign thou shalt conquer. ForHis only weapon is the Cross of His Son, and He fights only by themanifestation of infinite love, sacrifice, suffering, and pity. Heconquers as the sun conquers the thick-ribbed ice by raying down itsheat upon it, and melting it into sweet water. So God in Christfights against the mountains of man's cold, hard sinfulness andalienation, and by the warmth of His own radiation turns them allinto rivers that flow in love and praise. He conquers simply byforbearance and pity and love. 

And what more does this first part of my text say to us? It tells us, too, of the true submission of the conquered captive; how we areconquered when we perceive and receive His love; how there is nothingelse needed to win us all for Him except only that we shall recogniseHis great love to us. 

This picture of the triumph comes with a solemn appeal andcommandment to every one of us professing Christians. Think of thesemen, dragged at the conqueror's chariot-wheels, abject, with theirweapons broken, with their resistance quelled, chained, yoked, haled away from their own land, dependant for life or death on thecaprice of the general who rode before them there. It is a picture ofwhat you Christian men and women are bound to be if you believe thatGod in Christ has loved you as we have been saying that He does. Forabject submission, unconditional surrender, the yielding up of ourwhole will to Him, the yielding of all our possessions as Hisvassals--these are the duties that are correspondent to the facts ofthe case. 

If we are thus won by infinite love, and not our own, but bought witha price, no conquered king, dragged at an emperor's chariot-wheels, was ever half as absolutely and abjectly bound to be his slave, andto live or die by his breath, as you are bound to your Master. Youare Christians in the measure in which you are the captives of Hisspear and of His bow; in the measure in which you hold yourterritories as vassal kings, in the measure in which you say, stretching out your willing hands for the fetters, 'Lord! here am I, do with me as Thou wilt. ' 'I am not mine own; be Thou my will, myEmperor, my Commander, my all. ' Loyola used to say, as the law of hisorder, that every man that became a member of the Society of Jesuswas to be like as a staff in a man's hand, or like as a corpse. Itwas a blasphemous and wicked claim, but it is but a poor fragmentarystatement of the truth about those of us who enter the real Societyof Jesus, and put ourselves in His hands to be wielded as His staffand His rod, and submit ourselves to Him, not as a corpse, but yieldyourselves to our Christ 'as those that are alive from the dead. '

II. Now we have here, as part of the ideal of the Christian life, theconquered captives partaking in the triumph of their general. 

Two groups made up the triumphal procession--the one that of thesoldiers who had fought for, the other that of the prisoners who hadfought against, the leader. And some commentators are inclined tobelieve that the Apostle is here thinking of himself and his fellowsas belonging to the conquering army, and not to the conquered enemy. That seems to me to be less probable and in accordance with the wholeimage than the explanation which I have adopted. But be that as itmay, it suggests to us this thought, that in the deepest reality inthat Christian life of which all this metaphor is but the expression, they who are conquered foes become conquering allies. Or, to put itinto other words--to be triumphed over by Christ is to triumph withChrist. And the praise which breaks from the Apostle's lips suggeststhe same idea. He pours out his thanks for that which he recognisesas being no degradation but an honour, and a participation in hisConqueror's triumph. 

We may illustrate that thought, that to be triumphed over by Christis to triumph with Christ, by such considerations as these. Thissubmission of which I have been speaking, abject and unconditional, extending to life and death, this submission and captivity is butanother name for liberty. The man who is absolutely dependent uponJesus Christ is absolutely independent of everything and everybodybesides, himself included. That is to say, to be His slave is to beeverybody else's master, and when we bow ourselves to Him, and takeupon us the chains of glad obedience, and life-deep as well aslife-long consecration, then He breaks off all other chains from ourhands, and will not suffer that any others should have a share withHim in the possession of His servant. If you are His servants you arefree from all besides; if you give yourselves up to Jesus Christ, inthe measure in which you give yourselves up to Him, you will be setat liberty from the worst of all slaveries, that is the slavery ofyour own will and your own weakness, and your own tastes and fancies. You will be set at liberty from dependence upon men, from thinkingabout their opinion. You will be set at liberty from your dependenceupon externals, from feeling as if you could not live unless you hadthis, that, or the other person or thing. You will be emancipatedfrom fears and hopes which torture the men who strike their roots nodeeper than this visible film of time which floats upon the surfaceof the great, invisible abyss of Eternity. If you have Christ foryour Master you will be the masters of the world, and of time andsense and men and all besides; and so, being triumphed over by Him, you will share in His triumph. 

And again, we may illustrate the same principle in yet another way. Such absolute and entire submission of will and love as I have beenspeaking about is the highest honour of a man. It was a degradationto be dragged at the chariot-wheels of conquering general, emperor, or consul--it broke the heart of many a barbarian king, and led someof them to suicide rather than face the degradation. It is adegradation to submit ourselves, even as much as many of us do, tothe domination of human authorities, or to depend upon men as much asmany of us do for our completeness and our satisfaction. But it isthe highest ennobling of humanity that it shall lay itself down atChrist's feet, and let Him put His foot upon its neck. It is theexaltation of human nature to submit to Christ. The true nobility arethose that 'come over with the Conqueror. ' When we yield ourselves toHim, and let Him be our King, then the patent of nobility is given tous, and we are lifted in the scale of being. All our powers andfaculties are heightened in their exercise, and made more blessed intheir employment, because we have bowed ourselves to His control. Andso to be triumphed over by Christ is to triumph with Christ. 

And the same thought may be yet further illustrated. That submissionwhich I have been speaking about so unites us to our Lord that weshare in all that belongs to Him and thus partake in His triumph. Ifin will and heart we have yielded ourselves to Him, he that is thusjoined to the Lord is one spirit, and all 'mine is Thine, and allThine is mine. ' He is the Heir of all things, and all things of whichHe is the Heir are our possession. 'All things are yours, and ye areChrist's. ' Thus His dominion is the dominion of all that love Him, and His heritage is the heritage of all those that have joinedthemselves to Him; and no sparkle of the glory that falls upon Hishead but is reflected on the heads of His servants. The 'many crowns'that He wears are the crowns with which He crowns His followers. 

Thus, my brother, to be overcome by God is to overcome the world, tobe triumphed over by Christ is to share in His triumph; and he overwhom Incarnate Love wins the victory, like the patriarch of old inhis mystical struggle, conquers in the hour of surrender; and to himit is said: 'As a prince thou hast power with God and hastprevailed. '

III. Lastly, a further picture of the ideal of the Christian life isset before us here in the thought of these conquered captives beingled as the trophies and the witnesses of His overcoming power. 

That idea is suggested by both halves of our verse. Both the emblemof the Apostle as marching in the triumphal procession, and theemblem of the Apostle as yielding from his burning heart the fragrantvisible odour of the ascending incense, convey the same idea, viz. That one great purpose which Jesus Christ has in conquering men forHimself, and binding them to His chariot wheels, is that from themmay go forth the witness of His power and the knowledge of His name. 

That opens very wide subjects for our consideration which I can onlyvery briefly touch upon. Let me just for an instant dwell upon someof them. First, the fact that Jesus Christ, by His Cross and Passion, is able to conquer men's wills, and to bind men's hearts to Him, isthe highest proof of His power. It is an entirely unique thing in thehistory of the world. There is nothing the least like it anywhereelse. The passionate attachment which this dead Galilean peasant isable to evoke in the hearts of people all these centuries after Hisdeath, is an unheard of and an unparalleled thing. All other teachers'serve their generations by the will of God, ' and then their namesbecome speedily less and less powerful, and thicker and thicker mistsof oblivion wrap them round until they disappear. But time has nopower over Christ's influence. The bond which binds you and me to Himnineteen centuries after His death is the very same in quality as, and in degree is often far deeper and stronger than, the bond whichunited to Him the men that had seen Him. It stands as an unique factin the history of the world, that from Christ of Nazareth there raysout through all the ages the spiritual power which absolutely takespossession of men, dominates them and turns them into His organs andinstruments. This generation prides itself upon testing all things byan utilitarian test, and about every system says:--'Well, let us seeit working. ' And I do not think that Christianity need shrink fromthe test. With all its imperfections, the long procession of holy menand women who, for nineteen centuries, have been marching throughhistory, owning Christ as their Conqueror, and ascribing all theirgoodness to Him, is a witness to His power to sway and to satisfymen, the force of whose testimony it is hard to overthrow. And Iwould like to ask the simple question: Will any system of belief orof no belief, except the faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice, do thelike for men? He leads through the world the train of His captives, the evidence of His conquests. 

And then, further, let me remind you that out of this representationthere comes a very stimulating and solemn suggestion of duty for usChristian people. We are bound to live, setting forth whose we are, and what He has done for us. Just as the triumphal procession tookits path up the Appian Way and along the side of the Forum to thealtar of the Capitol, wreathed about by curling clouds of fragrantincense, so we should march through the world encompassed by thesweet and fragrant odour of His name, witnessing for Him by word, witnessing for Him by character, speaking for Him and living likeHim, showing in our life that He rules us, and professing by ourwords that He does; and so should manifest His power. 

Still further, Paul's thanksgiving teaches us that we should bethankful for all opportunities of doing such work. Christian men andwomen often grudge their services and grudge their money, and feel asif the necessities for doing Christian work in the world wererather a burden than an honour. This man's generous heart was so fullof love to his Prince that it glowed with thankfulness at the thoughtthat Christ had let him do such things for Him. And He lets you dothem if you will. 

So, dear friends, it comes to be a very solemn question for us. Whatpart are we playing in that great triumphal procession? We are all ofus marching at His chariot wheels, whether we know it or not. Butthere were two sets of people in the old triumph. There were thosewho were conquered by force and unconquered in heart, and out oftheir eyes gleamed unquenchable malice and hatred, though theirweapons were broken and their arms fettered. And there were thosewho, having shared in the commander's fight, shared in his triumphand rejoiced in his rule. And when the procession reached the gate ofthe temple, some, at any rate, of the former class were put to deathbefore the gates. I pray you to remember that if we are dragged afterHim reluctantly, the word will come: 'These, mine enemies, whichwould not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay thembefore Me. ' Whereas, on the other hand, for those who have yieldedheart and soul to Him in love and submission born of the reception ofHis great love, the blessed word will come: 'He that overcometh shallinherit all things. ' Which of the two parts of the procession do youbelong to, my friend? Make your choice where you shall march, andwhether you will be His loyal allies and soldiers who share in Histriumph, or His enemies, who, overcome by His power, are not meltedby His love. The one live, the other perish. 

TRANSFORMATION BY BEHOLDING

 'We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image. '--2 COR. Iii. 18. 

This whole section of the Epistle in which our text occurs is aremarkable instance of the fervid richness of the Apostle's mind, which acquires force by motion, and, like a chariot-wheel, catchesfire as it revolves. One of the most obvious peculiarities of hisstyle is his habit of 'going off at a word. ' Each thought is, as itwere, barbed all round, and catches and draws into sight a multitudeof others, but slightly related to the main purpose in hand. And thischaracteristic gives at first sight an appearance of confusion to hiswritings. But it is not confusion, it is richness. The luxuriantunderwood which this fertile soil bears, as some tropical forest, does not choke the great trees, though it drapes them. 

Paul's immediate purpose seems to be to illustrate the frank opennesswhich ought to mark the ministry of Christianity. He does this byreference to the veil which Moses wore when he came forth fromtalking with God. There, he says in effect, we have a picture of theOld Dispensation--a partial revelation, gleaming through a veil, flashing through symbols, expressed here in a rite, there in a type, there again in an obscure prophecy, but never or scarcely everfronting the world with an unveiled face and the light of God shiningclear from it. Christianity is, and Christian teachers ought to be, the opposite of all this. It has, and they are to have, no esotericdoctrines, no hints where plain speech is possible, no reserve, nouse of symbols and ceremonies to overlay truth, but an intelligiblerevelation in words and deeds, to men's understandings. It and theyare plentifully to declare the thing as it is. 

But he gets far beyond this point in his uses of his illustration. Itopens out into a series of contrasts between the two revelations. Theveiled Moses represents the clouded revelation of old. The vanishinggleam on his face recalls the fading glories of that which wasabolished; and then, by a quick turn of association, Paul thinks ofthe veiled readers in the synagogues, copies, as it were, of thelawgiver with the shrouded countenance; only too significant imagesof the souls obscured by prejudice and obstinate unbelief, with whichIsrael trifles over the uncomprehended letter of the old law. 

The contrast to all this lies in our text. Judaism had the onelawgiver who beheld God, while the people tarried below. Christianityleads us all, to the mount of vision, and lets the lowliest passthrough the fences, and go up where the blazing glory is seen. Mosesveiled the face that shone with the irradiation of Deity. We withunveiled face are to shine among men. He had a momentary gleam, atransient brightness; we have a perpetual light. Moses' face shone, but the lustre was but skin deep. But the light that we have isinward, and works transformation into its own likeness. 

So there is here set forth the very loftiest conception of theChristian life as direct vision, universal, manifest to men, permanent, transforming. 

I. Note then, first, that the Christian life is a life ofcontemplating and reflecting Christ. 

It is a question whether the single word rendered in our version'beholding as in a glass, ' means that, or 'reflecting as a glassdoes. ' The latter seems more in accordance with the requirements ofthe context, and with the truth of the matter in hand. Unless webring in the notion of reflected lustre, we do not get any parallelwith the case of Moses. Looking into a glass does not in the leastcorrespond with the allusion, which gave occasion to the wholesection, to the glory of God smiting him on the face, till thereflected lustre with which it glowed became dazzling, and needed tobe hid. And again, if Paul is here describing Christian vision of Godas only indirect, as in a mirror, then that would be a point ofinferiority in us as compared with Moses, who saw Him face to face. But the whole tone of the context prepares us to expect a settingforth of the particulars in which the Christian attitude towards themanifested God is above the Jewish. So, on the whole, it seems betterto suppose that Paul meant 'mirroring, ' than 'seeing in a mirror. '

But, whatever be the exact force of the word, the thing intendedincludes both acts. There is no reflection of the light without aprevious reception of the light. In bodily sight, the eye is amirror, and there is no sight without an image of the thing perceivedbeing formed in the perceiving eye. In spiritual sight, the soulwhich beholds is a mirror, and at once beholds and reflects. Thus, then, we may say that we have in our text the Christian lifedescribed as one of contemplation and manifestation of the light ofGod. The great truth of a direct, unimpeded vision, as belonging toChristian men on earth, sounds strange to many of us. 'That cannotbe, ' you say; 'does not Paul himself teach that we see through aglass darkly? Do we not walk by faith and not by sight? "No man hathseen God at any time, nor can see Him"; and besides that absoluteimpossibility, have we not veils of flesh and sense, to say nothingof the covering of sin "spread over the face of all nations, " whichhide from us even so much of the eternal light as His servants abovebehold, who see His face and bear His name on their foreheads?'

But these apparent difficulties drop away when we take into accounttwo things--first, the object of vision, and second, the real natureof the vision itself. 

As to the former, who is the Lord whose glory we receive on ourunveiled faces? He is Jesus Christ. Here, as in the overwhelmingmajority of instances where _Lord_ occurs in the New Testament, it is the name of the manifested God our brother. The glory which webehold and give back is not the incomprehensible, incommunicablelustre of the absolute divine perfectness, but that glory which, asJohn says, we beheld in Him who tabernacled with us, full of graceand truth; the glory which was manifested in loving, pitying wordsand loveliness of perfect deeds; the glory of the will resigned toGod, and of God dwelling in and working through the will; the gloryof faultless and complete manhood, and therein of the express imageof God. 

And as for the vision itself, that seeing which is denied to bepossible is the bodily perception and the full comprehension of theInfinite God; that seeing which is affirmed to be possible, andactually bestowed in Christ, is the beholding of Him with the soul byfaith; the immediate direct consciousness of His presence theperception of Him in His truth by the mind, the feeling of Him in Hislove by the heart, the contact with His gracious energy in ourrecipient and opening spirits. Faith is made the antithesis of sight. It is so, in certain respects. But faith is also paralleled with andexalted above the mere bodily perception. He who believing grasps theliving Lord has a contact with Him as immediate and as real as thatof the eyeball with light, and knows Him with a certitude as reliableas that which sight gives. 'Seeing is believing, ' says sense;'Believing is seeing' says the spirit which clings to the Lord, 'whomhaving not seen' it loves. A bridge of perishable flesh, which is notmyself but my tool, connects me with the outward world. _It_ nevertouches myself at all, and I know it only by trust in my senses. Butnothing intervenes between my Lord and me, when I love and trust. Then Spirit is joined to spirit, and of His presence I have thewitness in myself. He is the light, which proves its own existence byrevealing itself, which strikes with quickening impulse on the eye ofthe spirit that beholds by faith. Believing we see, and, seeing, wehave that light in our souls to be 'the master light of all ourseeing. ' We need not think that to know by the consciousness of ourtrusting souls is less than to know by the vision of our fallibleeyes; and though flesh hides from us the spiritual world in which wefloat, yet the only veil which really dims God to us--the veil ofsin, the one separating principle--is done away in Christ, for allwho love Him; so as that he who has not seen and yet has believed, has but the perfecting of his present vision to expect, when fleshdrops away and the apocalypse of the heaven comes. True, in one view, 'We see through a glass darkly'; but also true, 'We all, withunveiled face, behold and reflect the glory of the Lord. '

Then note still further Paul's emphasis on the universality of thisprerogative--'We all. ' This vision does not belong to any selecthandful; does not depend upon special powers or gifts, which in thenature of things can only belong to a few. The spiritual aristocracyof God's Church is not the distinction of the law-giver, the priestor the prophet. There is none of us so weak, so low, so ignorant, socompassed about with sin, but that upon our happy faces that lightmay rest, and into our darkened hearts that sunshine may steal. 

In that Old Dispensation, the light that broke through clouds was butthat of the rising morning. It touched the mountain tops of theloftiest spirits: a Moses, a David, an Elijah caught the earlygleams; while all the valleys slept in the pale shadow, and the mistclung in white folds to the plains. But the noon has come, and, fromits steadfast throne in the very zenith, the sun, which never sets, pours down its rays into the deep recesses of the narrowest gorge, and every little daisy and hidden flower catches its brightness, andthere is nothing hid from the heat thereof. We have no privilegedclass or caste now; no fences to keep out the mob from the place ofvision, while lawgiver and priest gaze upon God. Christ revealsHimself to all His servants in the measure of their desire after Him. Whatsoever special gifts may belong to a few in His Church, thegreatest gift belongs to all. The servants and the handmaidens havethe Spirit, the children prophesy, the youths see visions, the oldmen dream dreams. 'The mobs, ' 'the masses, ' 'the plebs, ' or whateverother contemptuous name the heathen aristocratic spirit has for thebulk of men, makes good its standing within the Church, as possessorof Christ's chiefest gifts. Redeemed by Him, it can behold His faceand be glorified into His likeness. Not as Judaism with its ignorantmass, and its enlightened and inspired few--we _all_ behold the gloryof the Lord. 

Again, this contemplation involves reflection, or giving forth thelight which we behold. 

They who behold Christ have Christ formed in them, as will appear inmy subsequent remarks. But apart from such considerations, whichbelong rather to the next part of this sermon, I touch on thisthought here for one purpose--to bring out this idea--that what we_see_ we shall certainly _show_. That will be the inevitable resultof all true possession of the glory of Christ. The necessaryaccompaniment of vision is reflecting the thing beheld. Why, if youlook closely enough into a man's eye, you will see in it littlepictures of what he beholds at the moment; and if our hearts arebeholding Christ, Christ will be mirrored and manifested on ourhearts. Our characters will show what we are looking at, and ought, in the case of Christian people, to bear His image so plainly, thatmen cannot but take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus. 

This ought to lead all of us who say that we have seen the Lord, toserious self-questioning. Do beholding and reflecting go together inour cases? Are our characters like those transparent clocks, whereyou can see not only the figures and hands, but the wheels and works?Remember that, consciously and unconsciously, by direct efforts andby insensible influences on our lives, the true secret of our beingought to come, and will come, forth to light. The convictions whichwe hold, the emotions that are dominant in our hearts, will mould andshape our lives. If we have any deep, living perception of Christ, bystanders looking into our faces will be able to tell what it is upyonder that is making them like the faces of the angels--even visionof the opened heavens and of the exalted Lord. These two things areinseparable--the one describes the attitude and action of theChristian man towards Christ; the other the very same attitude andaction in relation to men. And you may be quite sure that, if littlelight comes from a Christian character, little light comes into it;and if it be swathed in thick veils from men, there must be no lessthick veils between it and God. 

Nor is it only that our fellowship with Christ will, as a matter ofcourse, show itself in our characters, and beauty born of thatcommunion 'shall pass into our face, ' but we are also called on, asPaul puts it here, to make direct conscious efforts for thecommunication of the light which we behold. As the context has it, God hath shined in our hearts, that we might give the light of theknowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. Away withall veils! No reserve, no fear of the consequences of plain speaking, no diplomatic prudence regulating our frank utterance, no secretdoctrines for the initiated! We are to 'renounce the hidden things ofdishonesty. ' Our power and our duty lie in the full exhibition of thetruth. We are only clear from the blood of men when we, for ourparts, make sure that if any light be hid, it is hid not by reason ofobscurity or silence on our parts, but only by reason of the blindeyes, before which the full-orbed radiance gleams in vain. All thisis as true for every one possessing that universal prerogative ofseeing the glory of Christ, as it is for an Apostle. The business ofall such is to make known the name of Jesus, and if from idleness, orcarelessness, or selfishness, they shirk that plain duty, they arecounteracting God's very purpose in shining on their hearts, andgoing far to quench the light which they darken. 

Take this, then, Christian men and women, as a plain practical lessonfrom this text. You are bound to manifest what you believe, and tomake the secret of your lives, in so far as possible, an open secret. Not that you are to drag into light before men the sacred depths ofyour own soul's experience. Let these lie hid. The world will be nonethe better for your confessions, but it needs your Lord. Show Himforth, not your own emotions about Him. What does the Apostle sayclose by my text? 'We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus theLord. ' Self-respect and reverence for the sanctities of our deepestemotions forbid our proclaiming these from the house-tops. Let thesebe curtained, if you will, from all eyes but God's, but let no foldshang before the picture of your Saviour that is drawn on your heart. See to it that you have the unveiled face turned towards Christ to beirradiated by His brightness, and the unveiled face turned towardsmen, from which shall shine every beam of the light which you havecaught from your Lord. 'Arise! shine, for thy light is come, and theglory of the Lord is risen upon thee!'

II. Notice, secondly, that this life of contemplation is therefore alife of gradual transformation. 

The brightness on the face of Moses was only skin-deep. It fadedaway, and left no trace. It effaced none of the marks of sorrow andcare, and changed none of the lines of that strong, stern face. But, says Paul, the glory which we behold sinks inward, and changes us aswe look, into its own image. Thus the superficial lustre, that hadneither permanence nor transforming power, becomes an illustration ofthe powerlessness of law to change the moral character into thelikeness of the fair ideal which it sets forth. And, in opposition toits weakness, the Apostle proclaims the great principle of Christianprogress, that the beholding of Christ leads to the assimilation toHim. 

The metaphor of a mirror does not wholly serve us here. When thesunbeams fall upon it, it flashes in the light, just because they donot enter its cold surface. It is a mirror, because it does not drinkthem up, but flings them back. The contrary is the case with thesesentient mirrors of our spirits. In them the light must first sink inbefore it can ray out. They must first be filled with the glory, before the glory can stream forth. They are not so much like areflecting surface as like a bar of iron, which needs to be heatedright down to its obstinate black core, before its outer skin glowswith the whiteness of a heat that is too hot to sparkle. The sunshinemust fall on us, not as it does on some lonely hill-side, lighting upthe grey stones with a passing gleam that changes nothing, and fadesaway, leaving the solitude to its sadness; but as it does on somecloud cradled near its setting, which it drenches and saturates withfire till its cold heart burns, and all its wreaths of vapour arebrightness palpable, glorified by the light which lives amidst itsmists. So must we have the glory sink into us before it can bereflected from us. In deep inward beholding we must have Christ inour hearts, that He may shine forth from our lives. 

And this contemplation will be gradual transformation. There is thegreat principle of Christian morals. 'We all beholding . .. Arechanged. ' The power to which is committed the perfecting of ourcharacters lies in looking upon Jesus. It is not the mere beholding, but the gaze of love and trust that moulds us by silent sympathy intothe likeness of His wondrous beauty, who is fairer than the childrenof men. It was a deep, true thought which the old painters had, whenthey drew John as likest to his Lord. Love makes us like. We learn_that_ even in our earthly relationships, where habitual familiaritywith parents and dear ones stamps some tone of voice or look, orlittle peculiarity of gesture, on a whole house. And when theinfinite reverence and aspiration which the Christian soul cherishesto its Lord are superadded, the transforming power of lovingcontemplation of Him becomes mighty beyond all analogies in humanfriendship, though one in principle with these. What a marvellousthing that a block of rude sandstone, laid down before a perfectmarble, should become a copy of its serene loveliness just by lyingthere! Lay your hearts down before Christ. Contemplate Him. Love Him. Think about Him. Let that pure face shine upon heart and spirit, andas the sun photographs itself on the sensitive plate exposed to itslight, and you get a likeness of the sun by simply laying the thingin the sun, so He will 'be formed in, you. ' Iron near a magnetbecomes magnetic. Spirits that dwell with Christ become Christ-like. The Roman Catholic legends put this truth in a coarse way, when theytell of saints who have gazed on some ghastly crucifix till they havereceived, in their tortured flesh, the copy of the wounds of Jesus, and have thus borne in their body the marks of the Lord. The story ishideous and gross, the idea beneath is ever true. Set your facestowards the Cross with loving, reverent gaze, and you will 'beconformed unto His death, ' that in due time you may 'be also in thelikeness of His Resurrection. '

Dear friends, surely this message--'Behold and be like'--ought to bevery joyful and enlightening to many of us, who are wearied withpainful struggles after isolated pieces of goodness, that elude ourgrasp. You have been trying, and trying, and trying half yourlifetime to cure faults and make yourselves better and stronger. Trythis other plan. Let love draw you, instead of duty driving you. Letfellowship with Christ elevate you, instead of seeking to struggle upthe steeps on hands and knees. Live in sight of your Lord, and catchHis Spirit. The man who travels with his face northwards has it greyand cold. Let him turn to the warm south, where the midday sundwells, and his face will glow with the brightness that he sees. 'Looking unto Jesus' is the sovereign cure for all our ills and sins. It is the one condition of running with patience 'the race that isset before us. ' Efforts after self-improvement which do not rest onit will not go deep enough, nor end in victory. But from that gazewill flow into our lives a power which will at once reveal the truegoal, and brace every sinew for the struggle to reach it. Therefore, let us cease from self, and fix our eyes on our Saviour till Hisimage imprints itself on our whole nature. 

Such transformation, it must be remembered, comes gradually. Thelanguage of the text regards it as a lifelong process. 'We _are_changed'; that is a continuous operation. 'From glory to glory'; thatis a course which has well-marked transitions and degrees. Be notimpatient if it be slow. It will take a lifetime. Do not fancy thatit is finished with you. Life is not long enough for it. Do not becomplacent over the partial transformation which you have felt. Thereis but a fragment of the great image yet reproduced in your soul, afaint outline dimly traced, with many a feature wrongly drawn, withmany a line still needed, before it can be called even approximatelycomplete. See to it that you neither turn away your gaze, nor relaxyour efforts till all that you have beheld in Him is repeated in you. 

Likeness to Christ is the aim of all religion. To it conversion isintroductory; doctrines, devout emotion, worship and ceremonies, churches and organisations are valuable as auxiliary. Let thatwondrous issue of God's mercy be the purpose of our lives, and theend as well as the test of all the things which we call ourChristianity. Prize and use them as helps towards it, and rememberthat they are helps only in proportion as they show us that Saviour, the image of whom is our perfection, the beholding of whom is ourtransformation. 

III. Notice, lastly, that the life of contemplation finally becomes alife of complete assimilation. 

'Changed into the same image, from glory to glory. ' The lustrouslight which falls upon Christian hearts from the face of their Lordis permanent, and it is progressive. The likeness extends, becomesdeeper, truer, every way perfecter, comprehends more and more of thefaculties of the man; soaks into him, if I may say so, until he issaturated with the glory; and in all the extent of his being, and inall the depth possible to each part of that whole extent, is like hisLord. That is the hope for heaven, towards which we may indefinitelyapproximate here, and at which we shall absolutely arrive there. There we expect changes which are impossible here, while compassedwith this body of sinful flesh. We look for the merciful exercise ofHis mighty working to 'change the body of our lowliness, that it maybe fashioned like unto the body of His glory'; and that physicalchange in the resurrection of the just rightly bulks very large ingood men's expectations. But we are somewhat apt to think of theperfect likeness of Christ too much in connection with thattransformation that begins only after death, and to forget that themain transformation must begin here. The glorious, corporeal lifelike our Lord's, which is promised for heaven, is great andwonderful, but it is only the issue and last result of the fargreater change in the spiritual nature, which by faith and lovebegins here. It is good to be clothed with the immortal vesture ofthe resurrection, and in that to be like Christ. It is better to belike Him in our hearts. His true image is that we should feel as Hedoes, should think as He does, should will as He does; that we shouldhave the same sympathies, the same loves, the same attitude towardsGod, and the same attitude towards men. It is that His heart and oursshould beat in full accord, as with one pulse, and possessing onelife. Wherever there is the beginning of that oneness and likeness ofspirit, all the rest will come in due time. As the spirit, so thebody. The whole nature must be transformed and made like Christ's, and the process will not stop till that end be accomplished in allwho love Him. But the beginning here is the main thing which drawsall the rest after it as of course. 'If the Spirit of Him that raisedup Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ fromthe dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by His Spirit thatdwelleth in you. '

And, while this complete assimilation in body and spirit to our Lordis the end of the process which begins here by love and faith, mytext, carefully considered, adds a further very remarkable idea. 'Weare all changed, ' says Paul, 'into the _same_ image. ' Same as what?Possibly the same as we behold; but more probably the phrase, especially 'image' in the singular, is employed to convey the thoughtof the blessed likeness of all who become perfectly like Him. As ifhe had said, 'Various as we are in disposition and character, unlikein the histories of our lives, and all the influences that these havehad upon us, differing in everything but the common relation to JesusChrist, we are all growing like the same image, and we shall come tobe perfectly like it, and yet each retain his own distinctindividuality. ' 'We being many are one, for we are all partakers ofone. '

Perhaps, too, we may connect with this another idea which occurs morethan once in Paul's Epistles. In that to the Ephesians, for instance, he says that the Christian ministry is to continue, till a certainpoint of progress has been reached, which he describes as our_all_ coming to 'a perfect _man_. ' The whole of us togethermake a perfect man--the whole make one image. That is to say, perhapsthe Apostle's idea is, that it takes the aggregated perfectness ofthe whole Catholic Church, one throughout all ages, and containing amultitude that no man can number, to set worthily forth anything likea complete image of the fulness of Christ. No one man, even raised tothe highest pitch of perfection, and though his nature be widened outto perfect development, can be the full image of that infinite sum ofall beauty; but the whole of us taken together, with all thediversities of natural character retained and consecrated, beingcollectively His body which He vitalises, may, on the whole, be a notwholly inadequate representation of our perfect Lord. Just as weset round a central light sparkling prisms, each of which catches theglow at its own angle, and flashes it back of its own colour, whilethe sovereign completeness of the perfect white radiance comes fromthe blending of all their separate rays, so they who stand roundabout the starry throne receive each the light in his own measure andmanner, and give forth each a true and perfect, and altogether acomplete, image of Him who enlightens them all, and is above themall. 

And whilst thus all bear the same image, there is no monotony; andwhile there is endless diversity, there is no discord. Like theserene choirs of angels in the old monk's pictures, each one with thesame tongue of fire on the brow, with the same robe flowing in thesame folds to the feet, with the same golden hair, yet each aseparate self, with his own gladness, and a different instrument forpraise in his hand, and his own part in that 'undisturbed song ofpure content, ' we shall all be changed into the same image, and yeteach heart shall grow great with its own blessedness, and each spiritbright with its own proper lustre of individual and characteristicperfection. 

The law of the transformation is the same for earth and for heaven. Here we see Him in part, and beholding grow like. There we shall seeHim as He is, and the likeness will be complete. That Transfigurationof our Lord (which is described by the same word as occurs in thistext) may become for us the symbol and the prophecy of what we lookfor. As with Him, so with us; the indwelling glory shall come to thesurface, and the countenance shall shine as the light, and thegarments shall be 'white as no fuller on earth can white them. ' Norshall that be a fading splendour, nor shall we fear as we enter intothe cloud, nor, looking on Him, shall flesh bend beneath the burden, and the eyes become drowsy, but we shall be as the Lawgiver and theProphet who stood by Him in the lambent lustre, and shone with abrightness above that which had once been veiled on Sinai. We shallnever vanish from His side, but dwell with Him in the abiding templewhich He has built, and there, looking upon Him for ever, our happysouls shall change as they gaze, and behold Him more perfectly asthey change, for 'we know that when He shall appear we shall be likeHim, for we shall see Him as He is. '

LOOKING AT THE UNSEEN

 'While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. '--2 COR. Iv. 18. 

Men may be said to be divided into two classes, materialists andidealists, in the widest sense of those two words. The mass care for, and are occupied by, and regard as really solid good, those goodswhich can be touched and enjoyed by sense. The minority--students, thinkers, men of ideas, moralists, and the like--believe in, and carefor, impalpable spiritual riches. Everybody admits that the latterclass is distinctly the higher. Now it is from no disregard to theimportance and reality of that broad distinction that I insist, tobegin with, that it is not the antithesis which is in the Apostle'smind here. His notion of 'the things that are seen' and 'the thingsthat are not seen' is a much grander and wider one than that. By 'thethings that are seen' he means the whole of this visible world, withall its circumstances and relations, and by 'the things that are notseen' he means the realities beyond the stars. 

He means the same thing that we mean when we talk in a much less trueand impressive contrast about the present and the future. To him the'things that are not seen' are present instead of being, as we weaklyand foolishly christen them, 'the future state. ' And it makes all thedifference whether we think of that august realm as lying far awayahead of us, or whether we feel that it is, as it is, in very deed, all round about us, and pressing in upon us, only that 'theveil'--that is to say, our 'flesh'--has come between us and it. Donot habitually think of these two sets of objects according to thatmisleading distinction 'present' and 'future, ' but think of themrather as 'the things that are seen, ' and 'the things that are notseen. '

I. Now, first, I wish to say a word or two about what such a lookwill do for us. 

Paul's notion is, as you will see if you look at the context, that ifwe want to understand the visible, or to get the highest good out ofthe things that are seen, we must bring into the field of vision 'thethings that are not seen. ' The case with which he is dealing is thatof a man in trouble. He talks about light affliction which is but fora moment, working out a far more exceeding and eternal weight ofglory, 'while we look at the things which are not seen. ' But theprinciple on which that statement is made, of course, has its widestapplication to all sorts and conditions of human life. 

And the thought that emerges from it directly is that only when wetake the 'things that are not seen' into account, and make them thestandard and the scale by which we judge all things, do we understand'the things that are seen. ' That triumphant paradox of the Apostle'sabout the heavy burdens that pressed upon him and his brethren, lifelong as these burdens were, which yet he calls 'light' and 'butfor a moment' is possible only when we open the shutter of thedungeon which we fancied was the whole universe, and look out on tothe fair land that stretches beyond. A man who has seen the Himalayaswill not be much overwhelmed by the height of Helvellyn. They wholook out into the eternities have the true measuring rod and standardby which to estimate the duration and intensity of the things thatare present. We are all tempted to do as villagers in some littlehamlet do--think that their small local affairs are the world'saffairs, and mighty, until they have been up to London and seen thescale of things there. If you and I would let the steady light ofEternity, and the sustaining pressure of the 'exceeding weight ofglory' pour into our minds, we should carry with us a standard whichwould bring down the greatness, dwindle the duration, lighten thepressure, of the most crushing sorrow, and would set in its truedimensions everything that is here. It is for want of that that we goon as we do, calculating wrongly what are the great things and whatare the small things. When, like some of those prisoners in theInquisition, the heavy iron weights are laid upon our half-crushedhearts, we are tempted to shriek, 'Oh, these will be my death!'instead of taking in that great vision which, as it makes all earthlyriches dross, so it makes all crushing burdens and blows of sorrowlight as a feather. 

But, on the other hand, do not let us forget that this same standardwhich thus dwindles, also magnifies the small, and in a very solemnsense, makes eternal the else fleeting things of this life. For thereis nothing that makes this present existence of ours so utterlycontemptible, insignificant, and transitory, as to block out of oursight its connection with Eternity. And there is nothing which solifts the commonplace into the solemn, and invests with everlastingand tremendous importance everything that a man does here, as to feelthat it all tells on his condition away beyond there. The shafting ison this side of the wall, but the work that it does is through thewall there, in the other chamber; and you do not understand thecranks and the wheels here unless you know that they go through thepartition and are doing something there beyond. If you shut outEternity from our life in time, then it is an inexplicable riddle;and I, for my part, would venture to say that in that case, the menwho answer the question, 'Is life worth living?' with a distinctnegative, are wise. It is a tale told by an idiot, 'full of sound andfury, signifying nothing, ' unless the light of 'the things not seen'flashes and flares in upon it. 

Further, this look of which my text speaks is the condition on whichTime prepares for Eternity. 

The Apostle is speaking about the effect of affliction in makingready for us an eternal weight of glory, and he says that is donewhile, or on condition that during the suffering, we are lookingsteadfastly towards the 'things that are not seen. ' But no outwardcircumstances or events can prepare a weight of glory for ushereafter, unless they prepare us for the glory. Affliction works forus that blessed result, in the measure in which it fits us for thatresult. And so you will find that, only a verse or two after my text, Paul, using the same very significant and emphatic verb, writesinverting the order of things, and says 'He that hath wrought _usfor_ the self-same thing is God. ' So that working the thing for us, and working us for the thing, are one and the same process. Or, toput it into plain English, our various duties and circumstances herewill prepare the glory of Eternity for us if they prepare us for theglory of Eternity. But only in the measure in which these outwardthings do thus shape and mould our characters do they work out for us'an exceeding weight of glory. '

It is often thought that a man has been so miserable here that God issure to give him future blessedness to recompense him. Well! 'thatdepends. ' If he has used his miserableness as he will use it when helets the light of 'the things not seen' in upon it, then, certainly, it will work out for him the blessed results. But if he does not, then, as certainly, it will not. Whilst there are many ways by whichcharacter is hammered and moulded and shaped into that which is fitto be clothed upon with the glory that is yonder, one of the foremostof these is the passing through things temporal with a continualregard to the things that are eternal. If you want to understandto-day you must bring Eternity into the account, and if you want touse to-day you must use it with the light of the eternal world fullupon it. The sum of it all is, brethren, that the things seen cannotbe estimated in their true character, unless they are regarded inimmediate connection with the things that are unseen; and that thethings seen will only prepare an eternal weight of glory for us whenthey prepare us for an eternal weight of glory. 

II. And so, I note that this look at the things not seen is onlypossible through Jesus Christ. 

He is the only window which opens out and gives the vision of thatfar-off land. I, for my part, believe that, if I might use such ametaphor, He is the Columbus of the New World. Men believed, andargued, and doubted about the existence of it across the seas there, until a man went, and came back again, and then went to found a newcity yonder. And men hoped for immortality, and believed after afashion--some of them--in a future life, and dreaded that it might betrue, and discussed and debated whether it was, but doubt clouded allminds, until One, our Brother, went away into the darkness, and cameback again, in most respects as He had gone, and then departed oncemore to make ready a city in which all who love Him should finallydwell, and to which you and I may be sure that we shall emigrate. Itis only in Jesus Christ that the look which my text enjoins ispossible. 

For not only has He given a certitude so that we need now not to say'We think, we hope, we fear, we are pretty well sure, that there mustbe a life beyond, ' but we can say 'We know. ' Not only has He donethis, but also in Him and His life of glory at God's right hand inheaven, is summed up all that we really can know about that future. We look into the darkness in vain; we look at Him, and, ourknowledge, though limited, is blessed. All other adumbrations of alife beyond must necessarily be cast into the metaphorical forms orthe negative symbols in which the New Testament abounds. We may speakof golden pavements, and thrones, and harps, and the like. We maysay: 'No night there, no sighing, nor weeping, no burdened hearts, notoil, no pain, for the former things are passed away. ' But a futurelife which is all described in metaphors, and a future life of whichwe know only that it is the negation of the disagreeables andlimitations of the present, is but a poor affair. Here is the positivetruth, 'To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me on Mythrone. ' 'We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. ' Andbeyond that nearness to Christ, blessed communion with Christ, likeness to Christ, royalty derived from Christ, I think we neitherknow nor need to know anything about that life. 

Not only is He our sole medium of knowledge and Himself therevelation of our heaven, but it is only by Him that man's thoughtsand desires are drawn to, and find themselves at home in, thattremendous thought of immortality. I know not how it may be with you, but I am not ashamed to confess that to me the idea of eternalcontinuance of my conscious being is an awful thought, ratherdepressing and bewildering than delighting and attractive. I, for mypart, do not believe that men generally do grapple to their hearts, with any gratitude or joy, that solemn belief of immortal life unlessthey feel that it is life with, and in, and like, Jesus Christ. 'Todepart' is dreary, and it is only when we can say 'and to be withChrist' that it becomes distinctly 'far better. ' He is, if I may sosay, at once telescope and star. By Him we see Him; we see, seeingHim, that the things that are unseen all cluster round Himself andbecome blessed. 

III. And now, lastly, this look should be habitual with all Christianpeople. 

Paul takes it for granted that every Christian man is, as thehabitual direction of his thoughts, looking towards those 'thingsthat are not seen. ' The original shows that even more distinctly thanour translation, but our translation shows it plainly enough. He doesnot say 'works for us an exceeding weight of glory _for_, ' but_'while'_ we look, as if it were a matter of course. He took it forgranted as to these Corinthians. I wonder if he would be warranted intaking it for granted about us?

Note what sort of a look it is which produces these blessed effects. The word which the Apostle employs here is a more pointed one thanthe ordinary one for 'seeing. ' It is translated in other places inthe New Testament, _'Mark'_ them which walk so as ye have us foran ensample, and the like. And it implies a concentrated, protractedeffort and interested gaze. A man, standing on the deck of a ship, casts a languid eye for a moment out on to the horizon, and seesnothing. A keen-eyed sailor by his side shades his eyes with hishand, and shuts out cross-lights, and looks, and peers, and keeps hiseyes steady, and he sees the filmy outline of the mountain land. Ifyou look for a minute, not much caring whether you see anything ornot, and then turn away, and get your eye dazzled with all thosevulgar, crude, high colours round about you here on earth, it is verylittle that you will see of 'the things that are not seen. 'Concentrated attention, and a steadfast look, are wanted to make theinvisible visible. You have to alter the focus of your eye if you areto see the thing that is afar off. 

There has to be a positive shutting out of all other things, as isemphatically taught in the text by putting first the not looking at'the things that are seen. ' Here they are pressing in upon oureyeballs, all round us, insisting on being looked at, and unlesswe resolutely avert our eyes, we shall not see anything else. Theymonopolise us unless we resist the intrusive appeals that they maketo us. We are like men down in some fertile valley, surrounded byrich vegetation, but seeing nothing beyond the green sides of theglen. We have to go up to the hill-top if we are to look out over theflashing ocean, and behold afar off the towers of the mother cityacross the restless waves. Brethren, unless you shut out the worldyou will never see the things that are not seen. 

Now, as I have said, the Apostle regards this conscious effort atbringing ourselves into touch, in mind and heart and faith, with 'thethings that are not seen' as being a habitual characteristic ofChristian men. I am very much afraid that the present generation ofChristian people do not, in anything like the degree in which theyshould, recreate and strengthen themselves with the contemplationwhich he here recommends. It seems to me, for instance, that we donot hear nearly as much in pulpits about the life beyond the grave aswe used to do when I was a boy. And, though I confess I speak fromlimited knowledge, it seems to me that these great motives which liein the thought of Eternity and our place there, are by no means asprominent in the minds of the Christian people of this generation asthey used to be. Partly, I suppose, that arises from the wholesomeemphasis which has been given of late years to the present day, andthis-side-the grave effects of Christianity, upon character and life. Partly it arises, I think, from the half-consciousness of beingsurrounded by an atmosphere of scepticism and unbelief as to a futurelife, and from the most unwise, inexpedient, and cowardly yielding tothe temptation to say very little about the distinctive features ofChristianity, and to dwell rather upon those which are sure to berecognised by even unbelieving people. And it comes, too, from thelack of faith, which, again, it tends mightily to increase. 

Oh, dear brethren! our consciences tell us what different people weshould be if habitually there shone before us that great, solemnissue to which we are all tending. Variations in the atmosphere therewill always be, and sometimes the distant outlines will be clearerand sharper than at others, and the colours will shine out moredistinctly. But surely it should not be that our vision of theEternal should be like the vision that dwellers amongst the mountainshave of the summits. They say that some of the great peaks of theworld are swathed in mist all day long, and that only for a fewmoments in the morning, or for a brief space in the evening, does thesolemn summit gleam rosy in the light. And that, I am afraid, is verymuch like the degree in which most of us look at 'the things that arenot seen' and so we are feeble, and we do not understand 'the thingsthat are not seen'; and we do not get the good out of them. 

Dear brethren, let us turn away our eyes from the gauds that we cansee, and open the eyes of our spirits on the things that are, thethings where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Surely, surely, it is madness that when two sets of objects are before us, the one lasting for a moment, and then dying down into blacknothingness, and the other shining on for ever; and when our 'look'settles whether we shall share the fate of the one or of the other, we should choose to gaze with all our eyes and hearts at theperishable and turn away from the permanent. Surely, if it is truethat the things which are seen are temporal, common-sense, and areasonable regard for our own well-being, bid us look at the eternal'things which are not seen, ' since only so can the light and themomentary afflictions, joys, sorrows, or circumstances, work out forus, and work us for 'a far more exceeding and eternal weight ofglory. '

TENT AND BUILDING

 'For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. '--2 COR. V. 1. 

Knowledge and ignorance, doubt and certitude, are remarkably blendedin these words. The Apostle knows what many men are not certain of;the Apostle doubts as to what all men now are certain of. '_If_ ourearthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved'--there is surely no ifabout that. But we must remember that the first Christians, and theApostles with them, did not know whether they might not survive tillthe coming of Christ; and so not die, but 'be changed. ' And thispossibility, as appears from the context, is clearly before theApostle's mind. Such a limitation of his knowledge is in entireaccordance with our Lord's own words, 'It is not for you to know thetimes and the seasons, ' and does not in the smallest degree derogatefrom his authority as an inspired teacher. But his certitude is asremarkable as his hesitation. He knows--and he modestly and calmlyaffirms the confidence, as possessed by all believers--that, in theevent of death coming to him or them, he and they have a mansionwaiting for their entrance; a body of glory like to that which Jesusalready wears. 

I. So my text mainly sets before us very strikingly the Christiancertitude as to the final future. 

I need not dwell, I suppose, upon that familiar metaphor by which therelation of man to his bodily environment is described as that of aman to his dwelling-place. Only I would desire, in a word, toemphasise this as being the first of the elements of the blessedcertitude in which Christian people may expatiate--the clear, broaddistinction between me and my physical frame. There is no moreconnection, says Paul, between us and the organisation in which we atpresent dwell than there is between a man and the house that heinhabits. 'The foolish senses crown' Death and call him lord; but theChristian's certitude firmly draws the line, and declares that theman, the whole personality, is undisturbed by anything that befallshis residence; and that he may pass unimpaired from one house toanother, being in both the self-same person. And that is something tokeep firm hold of in these days when we are being told that life andconsciousness are but a function of organisation, and that if the onebe annihilated the other cannot persist. No; though all illustrationsand metaphors must necessarily fail, the two which lie side by sidehere in my text and its context are far truer than thatpseudo-science--which is not science at all, but only inference fromscience--which denies that the man is one thing and his housealtogether another. 

Then again, note, as part of the elements of this Christiancertitude, the blessed thought that a body is part of the perfectionof manhood. No mere dim, ghostly future, where consciousness somehowpersists, without environment or tools to act upon an outer world, completes the idea of God in reference to man. But the old trinity isthe eternal trinity for humanity, body, soul, and spirit. Corporeity, with all that it means of definiteness, with all that it means ofrelation to an external universe, is the perfection of manhood. Todwell naked, as the Apostle says in the context, is a thing fromwhich man shudderingly recoils; and it is not to be his final fate. Let us take this as no small gain in reference to our conceptions ofa future--the emphatic drawing into light of that thought that forhis perfection man requires body, soul, and spirit. And now, if weturn for a moment to the characteristics of the two conditions withwhich my text deals, we get some familiar enough but yet great andstrengthening thoughts. The 'earthly house of this tabernacle isdissolved, ' or, more correctly, retaining the metaphor of the house, is to be pulled down--and in its place there comes a building of God, a 'house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. '

Now the contrast that is drawn here, whilst it would run out into agreat many other particulars, about which we know nothing, andtherefore had better say nothing, revolves in the Apostle's mindmainly round these two 'earthly' as contrasted with 'in the heavens';and 'tabernacle, ' or tent, as contrasted, first of all with a'building, ' and then with the predicate 'eternal. '

That is to say, the first outstanding difference which arises beforethe Apostle as blessed and glorious, is the contrast between thefragile dwelling-place, with its thin canvas, its bending poles, itscertain removal some day, and the permanence of that which is not a'tent, ' but a 'building' which is 'eternal. ' Involved in that isthe thought that all the limitations and weaknesses which arenecessarily associated with the perishableness of the presentabode are at an end for ever. No more fatigue, no more working beyondthe measure of power, no more need for recuperation and repose; nomore dread of sickness and weakness; no more possibility of decay, 'It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption'--neither'_can_ they die any more. ' Whether that be by reason of any inherentimmortality, or by reason of the uninterrupted flow into the creatureof the immortal life of Christ, to whom he is joined, is a questionthat need not trouble us now. Enough for us that the contrast betweenthe Bedouin tent--which is folded up and carried away, and nothingleft but the black circle where the cheerful hearth once glintedamidst the sands of the desert--and the stately mansion reared foreternity, is the contrast between the organ of the spirit in which wenow dwell and that which shall be ours. 

And the other contrast is no less glorious and wonderful. 'The_earthly_ house of this tent' does not merely define the composition, but also the whole relations and capacities of that to which itrefers. The 'tent' is 'earthly', not merely because, to use a kindredmetaphor, it is a 'building of clay, ' but because, by all itscapacities, it belongs to, corresponds with, and is fitted only for, this lower order of things, the seen and the perishable. And, on theother hand, the 'mansion' is in 'the heavens, ' even whilst the futuretenant is a nomad in his tent. That is so, because the power whichcan create that future abode is 'in the heavens. ' It is so called inorder to express the security in which it is kept for those who shallone day enter upon it. And it is so, further, to express the order ofthings with which it brings its dwellers into contact. 'Flesh andblood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither doth corruptioninherit incorruption. ' That future home of the spirit will becongruous with the region in which it dwells; fitted for the heavensin which it is now preserved. And thus the two contrasts--adapted tothe perishable, and itself perishable, belonging to the eternal anditself incorruptible--are the two which loom largest before theApostle's mind. 

Let no man say that such ideas of a possible future bodily frame arealtogether inconsistent with all that we know of the limitations andcharacteristics of what we call matter. 'There is one flesh of beastsand another of birds, ' says Paul; 'there is one glory of the sun andanother of the moon. ' And his old-fashioned argument is perfectlysound to-day. 

Do you know so fully all the possibilities of creation as that youare warranted in asserting that such a thing as a body which is thefit organ of the spirit, and is incorruptible like the heavens inwhich it dwells, is an impossibility? Surely the forms of matter aresufficiently varied to make us chary in asserting that other formsare impossible, to which there may belong, as characteristics, eventhese glorious ones of my text. The old story of the king in thetropics, who laughed to scorn some one who told him that water couldbe turned into a solid, may well be quoted in this connection. Let usbe less confident that we know all that is to be known in regard tothe sweep of God's creative power; and let us thankfully accept theteaching by which we, too, in all our ignorance, may be able to say, 'We know that . .. We have a building of God . .. Eternal in theheavens. '

Now there is only one more remark that I wish to make about this partof my subject; and it is this, that the teaching of my text and itscontext casts great light--and I think by many people much-neededlight--on what the resurrection of the dead means. That doctrine hasbeen weighted with a great many incredibilities and I venture to sayabsurdities, by well-meaning misconceptions and exaggerations. Wehave heard grand platitudes about 'the scattered dust being gatheredfrom the four winds of heaven, ' and so on, but the teaching of mytext is that the contrast between the present physical frame and thefuture bodily environment is utter and complete; and thatresurrection does not mean the assuming again of the body that isleft behind and done with, but the reinvestiture of the man withanother body. And so the Scriptural phrase is, not 'the resurrectionof the body, ' but 'the resurrection of the dead. ' It is a house 'inthe heavens. ' It comes 'from heaven. '

We leave the tent. Life and thought

 . .. Have gone away, side by side, Leaving doors and windows wide; Careless tenants they!

And they may well be careless, because in the heavens they haveanother mansion, incorruptible and glorious. 

We leave the 'tent'; we enter the 'building. ' There is nothing hereof some germ of immortality being somehow extricated from the ruins, and fostered into glorious growth. Or, to take another metaphor ofthe context, we strip off the garment and are naked; and then we areclothed with another garment and are not found naked. Theresurrection of the dead is the clothing of the spirit with the housewhich is from heaven. And there is as much difference between the twohabitations as there is between the grim, solid architectureof northern peoples, amidst snow and ice, needed to resist theblasts, and to keep the life within in an ungenial climate, and thelight, graceful dwellings of those who walk in an atmosphere ofperpetual sunshine in the tropics, as there is between the close-knitand narrow-windowed and narrow-doored abode in which we now have topass our days, and that large house, with broad windows that take ina mightier sweep and new senses that have relation with new qualitiesin the world then around us. Therefore let us, whilst we grope in thedark here, and live in a narrow hovel in a back street, look forwardto the time when we shall dwell on the sunny heights in the greatpavilion which God prepares for them that love Him. 

II. And now note, again, how we come to this certitude. 

My text is very significantly followed by a 'for, ' which gives thereason of the knowledge in a very remarkable manner. 'We know, . .. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with ourhouse, which is from heaven. ' Now that singular collocation of ideasmay be set forth thus--whatever longing there is in a Christian, God-inspired soul, that longing is a prophecy of its own fulfilment. We know that there is a house, because of the yearning, which isdeepest and strongest when we are nearest God, and likest what Hewould have us to be--the yearning to be 'clothed upon with our housewhich is from heaven. ' That is a truth that goes a long way; thoughto enlarge on it is irrelevant to our present purpose. It has itslimitations, as is obvious from the context, in which are humanelements which are not destined to be gratified, mingled with theyearning, which is of God, and which is destined to be satisfied. Butthis at least we may firmly hold by, that just because God will notput men to confusion intellectually, and does not let them entertainuncherished--still less Himself foster and excite--longings which Hedoes not mean to gratify, a Christian yearning for immortality is, tothe man who feels it, a declaration that immortality is sure for him. 'Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires ofthine heart. ' Whatsoever, in touching Him, we do deeply long for mayhave blended with it human elements, which will be dispersedunsatisfied, but the substance of it is a prophecy of its ownfulfilment. And as surely as the stork in the heavens, flyingsouthward, will reach the sunny lands which draw it from the grimnorthern winter, so surely may a man say, 'I know that I have a housein heaven, because I long for it, and shrink from being found naked. '

Of course such longing, such aspiration and revulsion are no proofsof a fact except there be some fact which changes them, from merevague desires, and makes these solid certainties. And such a fact wehave in that which is the only proof that the world has received, ofthe persistence of life through death and the continuance of personalidentity unchanged by the grave, and that is the Resurrection ofJesus Christ from the dead. Our faith in immortality does not dependmerely on our own subjective desires and longings, but these desiresand longings are quickened, confirmed, and certified by this greatfact that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead; and therefore we knowthat the yearnings in us are not in vain. So we come to thiscertitude, first, by reason of his experience; and, second, by reasonof the longings which that experience fosters if it does not kindle, within our hearts. 

And let no man take exception to the Apostle's word here, 'we know, 'or tell us that 'Knowledge is of the things we see. ' That is true, and not true. It is true in regard to what arrogates to itself thename of science. And we are willing to admit the limitation if themen who insist upon it will, on their sides, admit that there areother sources of certitude than so-called 'facts, ' by which they meanmerely material facts. If it is meant to assert that we are less sureof the love of God, of immortality, than we are of the existence ofthis piece of wood, or that flame of gas; then I humbly venture tosay that there is another region of facts than those which areappreciable by sense; that the evidence upon which we rest ourcertitude of immortal blessedness is quite as valid, quite as true, quite as able to bear the weight of a leaning heart as anything thatcan be produced, in the nature of evidence, for the things round us. It is not, 'We fancy, we believe, we hope, we are pretty nearlysure, ' but it is 'We _know_ . .. That we have a building of God. '

III. Lastly, note what this certitude does. 

The Apostle tells us by the 'for' which lies at the beginning of mytext, and makes it a reason for something that has preceded, and whathas preceded is this, 'We look not at the things which are seen, butat the things which are not seen. '

That is to say, such a joyous, calm certitude draws men's thoughtsaway from this shabby and transitory present, and fixes them on thesolemn majesties of that eternal future. Yes! and nothing else will. Take away the idea of resurrection, and the remaining idea ofimmortality is a poor, shadowy, impotent thing. There is no force init; there is no blessedness in it; there is nothing in it for a manto lay hold of. And, as a matter of fact, there is no vivid faith ina future life without belief in the resurrection and bodily existenceof the perfected dead. 

And we shall not let our thoughts willingly go out thither unless ourown personal wellbeing there is very sure to us. When we know thatfor us individually there is that house waiting for us to enter intoit, when the Lord comes, then we shall not be unwilling to turn ourhearts and our desires thither. We look at the things which are notseen, for we know that we have a house eternal. 

And such a certitude will also make a man willing to accept the elseunwelcome necessity of leaving the tent, and for a while doingwithout the mansion. It is that which the Apostle is speaking of insubsequent verses, on which I cannot enter now. He says--and thereinspeaks a universal experience--that men recoil from the idea ofhaving to lay aside this earthly body and be 'naked. ' But we knowthat we have that glorious mansion waiting for us, and that till theday comes when we enter upon it we may be lapt in Christ instead, and, in that so-called intermediate state, may have Him to surroundus, Him to be to us the medium by which we come into connection withanything external, and so can contentedly go away from our home inthe body; and go to our home in Christ. 'Wherefore, we are alwaysconfident, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to beat home with the Lord. '

Oh, brethren! do we think of our future thus? If we do, then let uslay to heart the final words of our teacher in this part of hisletter: 'Wherefore we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, tobe well-pleasing unto Him. '

THE PATIENT WORKMAN

 'Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God. '--2 COR. V. 5. 

These words penetrate deep into the secrets of God. They assume tohave read the riddle of life. To Paul everything which we experience, outwardly or inwardly, is from the divine working. Life is to him nomere blind whirl, or unintelligent play of accidental forces, nor isit the unguided result of our own or of others' wills, but is theslow operation of the great Workman. Paul assumes to know the meaningof this protracted process, that it all has one design which we mayknow and grasp and further. And he believes that the clear perceptionof the divine purpose, and the habit of looking at everything ascontributing thereto, will be a magic charm against all sorrow, doubt, despondency, or fear, for he adds, 'Therefore we are alwaysconfident. ' So let us try to follow the course of thought whichissues in such a blessed gift as that of a continual, courageousoutlook, and buoyant though grave lightheartedness, because wediscern what He means 'Who worketh all things according to thecounsel of His own will. '

I. The first thought here is, God's purpose in all His working; 'Hethat hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God. '

What is that 'self-same thing'? To understand it we must look backfor a moment to the previous context. The Apostle has been speakingabout the instinctive reluctance which even good men feel at prospectof dying and 'putting off the earthly house of this tabernacle. ' Hedistinguishes between three different conditions in which the humanspirit may be--dwelling in the earthly body, stripped of that, and'clothed with the house which is from Heaven, ' and to this last andhighest state he sees that for him and for his brethren there weretwo possible roads. They might reach it either through losing thepresent body, in the act of death, and passing through a period ofwhat he calls nakedness; or they might attain it by being'superinvested, ' as it were, with the glorious body which was to cometo saints with Christ when He came; and so slip on, as it were, thewedding garment over their old clothes, without having to denudethemselves of these. And he says that deep in the Christian heartthere lay reluctance to take the former road and the preference forthe latter. His longing was that that which is mortal might be'swallowed up of life, ' as some sand-bank in the tide-way may begradually covered and absorbed by the rejoicing waters. And then hesays, 'Now He that hath wrought us for this very thing, is God. '

Of course it is impossible that he can mean by this 'very thing' thesecond of the roads by which it was possible to reach the ultimateissue, because he did not know whether his brethren and he were todie or to be changed. He speaks in the context about death as apossible contingency for himself and for them, --'_If_ our earthlyhouse of this tabernacle were dissolved, ' and so on. Therefore wemust suppose that 'the self-same thing' of which he is thinking asthe divine purpose in all His dealings with us, is not the manner inwhich we may attain that ultimate condition, but the condition itselfwhich, by one road or another, God's children shall attain. Or, inother words, the highest aim of the divine love in all its dealingswith us Christian men, is not merely a blessed spiritual life, butthe completion of our humanity in a perfect spirit dwelling in aglorified body. Corporeity--the dwelling in a body by which the purespirit moves amidst pure universes--is the highest end of God's willconcerning us. 

That glorified body is described in our context in wonderful words, which it would take me far too long to do more than just touch upon. Here we dwell in a tent, there we shall dwell in a building. Here ina house made with hands, a corporeal frame derived from parents bymaterial transmission and intervention; there we shall dwell in abuilding of which God is the maker. Here we dwell in a crumbling claytenement, which rains dissolve, which lightning strikes, and windsoverthrow, and which finally lies on the ground a heap of tumbledruin. There we dwell in a building, God's direct work, eternal, andknowing no corruption nor change. Here we dwell in a body congruouswith, and part of, the perishable earthly world in which it abides, and with which it stands in relation; there we dwell in a housepartaking of the nature of the heavens in which it moves, a body thatis the fit organ of a perfect spirit. 

And so, says Paul, the end of what God means with us is not stated inall its wonderfulness, when we speak of spirits imbued with Hiswisdom and surcharged with His light and perfectness, but when we addto that the thought of a fitting organ in which these spirits dwell, whereby they can come into contact with an external universe, incorruptible, and so reach the summit of their destinedcompleteness. 'The house not made with hands, ' eternal, the buildingof God in the Heavens, is the end that God has in view for all Hischildren. 

II. So, then, secondly, note the slow process of the Divine Workman. 

The Apostle employs here a very emphatic compound term for 'hathwrought. ' It conveys not only the idea of operation, but the idea ofcontinuous and somewhat toilsome and effortful work, as if againstthe resistance of something that did not yield itself naturally tothe impulse that He would bestow. Like some sculptor with a hard bitof marble, or some metallurgist who has to work the rough ore till itbecomes tractable, so the loving, patient, Divine Artificer is hererepresented as labouring long and earnestly with a somewhat obstinatematerial which can and does resist His loving touch, and yet going onwith imperturbable and patient hope, by manifold touches, here alittle and there a little, all through life preparing a man for Hispurpose. The great Artificer toils at His task, 'rising early' andworking long, and not discouraged when He comes upon a black vein inthe white marble, nor when the hard stone turns the edge of Hischisels. 

Now I would have you notice that there lies in this conception a veryimportant thought, viz. God cannot make you fit for heaven all at ajump, or by a simple act of will. That is not His way of working. Hecan make a world so, He cannot make a saint so. He can speak and itis done when it is only a universe that has to be brought into being;or He can say, 'Let there be light, ' and light springs at His word. But He cannot say, and He does not say, Let there be holiness, and itcomes. Not so can God make man meet for the 'inheritance of thesaints in light. ' And it takes Him all His energies, for all alifetime, to prepare His child for what He wants to make of him. 

There is another thought here, which I can only touch, and that isthat God cannot give a man that glorified body of which I have beenspeaking, unless the man's spirit is Christlike. He cannot raise abad man at the resurrection with the body of His glory. By thenecessities of the case it is confined to the purified, because itcorresponds to their inward spiritual being. It is only a perfectspirit that can dwell in a perfect body. You could not put a bad man, Godless and Christless, into the body which will be fit for them whomChrist has changed first of all in heart and spirit into His ownlikeness. He would be like those hermit crabs that you see on thebeach who run into any kind of a shell, whether it fits them or not, in order to get a house. 

There are two principles at work in the resurrection of the dead. Theglorified body is not the physical outcome of the material body here, but is the issue and manifestation, in visible form, of the perfectand Christlike spirit. Some shall rise to glory and immortality, someto shame and everlasting contempt. If we are to stand at the lastwith the body of our humiliation changed into a body of glory, wemust begin by being changed in the spirit of our mind. As the mindis, so will the body be one day. But, passing from such thoughts asthese, and remembering that the Apostle here is speaking only aboutChristian people, and the divine operations upon them, we may stillextend the meaning of this significant word 'wrought' somewhatfurther, and ask you just to consider, and that very briefly, thethree-fold processes which, in the divine working, terminate in, andcontemplate, this great issue. 

God has wrought us for it in the very act of making us what we are. Human nature is an insoluble enigma, if this world is its only field. Amidst all the waste, the mysterious waste, of creation, there is nomore profligate expenditure of powers than that which is involved ingiving a man such faculties and capacities, if this be the only fieldon which they are to be exercised. If you think of what most of us doin this world, and of what it is in us to be, and to do, it is almostludicrous to consider the disproportion. All other creatures fittheir circumstances; nothing in them is bigger than theirenvironment. They find in life a field for every power. You and I donot. 'The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air haveroosting-places. ' They all correspond to their circumstances, but wehave an infinitude of faculty lying half dormant in each of us, whichfinds no work at all in this present world. And so, looking at men asthey are with eternity in their hearts, with natures that go reachingout towards infinity, the question comes up: 'Wherefore hast Thoumade all men in vain? What is the use of us, and why should we bewhat we are, if there is nothing for us except this poor present?'God, or whoever made us, has made a mistake; and strangely enough, ifwe were not made, but evolved, evolution has worked out facultieswhich have no correspondence with the things around them. 

Life and man are an insoluble enigma except on one hypothesis, andthat is that this is a nursery-ground, and that the plants will bepricked out some day, and planted where they are meant to grow. Thehearts that feel after absolute and perfect love, the spiritsthat can conceive the idea of an infinite goodness, the dumb desires, the blank misgivings that wander homeless amidst the narrowness ofthis poor earth, all these things proclaim that there is a regionwhere they will find their nutriment and expatiate, and when we lookat a man we can only say, He that hath wrought him for an infiniteworld, and an endless communion with a perfect good, is God. 

Still further, another field of the divine operation to this end isin what we roughly call 'providences. ' What is the meaning of allthis discipline through which we are passed, if there is nothing tobe disciplined for? What is the good of an apprenticeship if there isno journeyman's life to come after it, where the powers that havebeen slowly acquired shall be nobly exercised upon broader fields?Why should men be taken, as it were, and, like the rough iron fromthe ground, 'Be heated hot with hopes and fears, And plunged in baths of hissing tears, And battered with the shocks of doom, '

if, after all the process, the polished shaft is to be broken in two, and tossed away as rubbish? If death ends faculty, it is a pity thatthe faculty was so patiently developed. If God is educating us all inHis school, and then means that, like some wastrel boys, we shouldlose all our education as soon as we leave its benches, there islittle use in the rod, and little meaning in the training. Brethren!life is an insoluble riddle unless the purpose of it lie yonder, andunless all this patient training of our sorrows and our gladnesses, the warmth that expands and the cold that contracts the heart, thelight that gladdens and the darkness that saddens the eye and thespirit, are equally meant for training us for the perfect life of aperfect soul moving a perfect body in a perfect universe. Here is apillar in some ancient hall that has fallen into poor hands, and hashad a low roof thrown across the centre of the chamber at half itsheight. In the lower half there is part of a pillar that meansnothing; ugly, bare, evidently climbing, and passing through theaperture, and away above yonder is the carved capital and the greatentablature that it carries. Who could understand the shaft unless hecould look up through the aperture, and see the summit? And who canthink of life as anything but a wretched fragment unless he knowsthat all which begins here runs upwards into the room above, andthere finds its explanation and its completion?

But there is the third sphere of the divine operation. As in creationand in providence, so in all the work and mystery of our redemption, this is the goal that God has in view. It was not worth Christ'swhile to come and die, if nothing more was to come of it than theimperfect reception of His blessings and gifts which the noblestChristian life in this world presents. The meaning and purpose of theCross, the meaning and purpose of all the patient dealings of Hiswhispering Spirit, are that we shall be like our Divine Lord inspirit first, and in body afterwards. 

And everything about the experiences of a true Christian spirit ischarged with a prophecy of immortality. I have not time to dwell uponone point gathered from the context, that I intended to have insistedupon, viz. That the very desires which God's good Spirit works in abelieving soul are themselves confirmations of their own fulfilment. But if you notice at your leisure the verses that precede my text, you will find that the Apostle adduces the groanings of 'earnestdesire to be clothed with our house which is from Heaven, ' as a proofthat we _have_ 'a building of God, a house not made with hands. 'That is to say, every longing in a Christian heart when it is mostfilled with that Spirit, and most in contact with God, and which isthe answer of that heart to a promise of Christ--every such longingcarries with it the assurance of its own fulfilment. He that hathwrought it has wrought it in order that the desire may fit us for itsanswer, and that the open mouth may be ready for the abundant fillingwhich His grace designs. He works upon us, therefore, by making usdesire a gift, and then He gives that which He desires. So let uscherish these longings, not for the accident of escaping death, noras choosing the path by which we shall reach the blessed issue, butlonging for that great issue itself; and try to keep more distinctand clear before all our minds this thought, 'God means for me theparticipation in Christ's glorified Manhood, and my attaining of thatManhood is the end that He has in view in all that He does with me. '

III. So I must say one word about the last thought that is here, andthat is the certainty and the confidence. 'Therefore we are alwaysconfident, ' says the Apostle. 

'He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God. ' Then we maybe sure that as far as He is concerned, the work will not besuspended nor vain. _This_ man does not begin to build and isunable to finish. This workman has infinite resources, an unchangingpurpose, and infinite long-suffering. He will complete His task. 

In the quarries of Egypt you will find gigantic stones, half-dressed, and intended to have been transported to some great temple. But therethey lie, the work incomplete, and they never carried to their place. There are no half-polished stones in God's quarries. They are allfinished where they lie, and then borne across the sea, like Hiram'sfrom Lebanon, to the Temple on the hill. It is a certainty that Godwill finish His work; and since 'He that hath wrought us is God, ' wemay be sure that He will not stop till He has done. 

But it is a certainty that you can thwart. It is an operation thatyou can counterwork. The potter in Jeremiah's parable was making avessel upon his wheel, and the vessel was marred in his hand, and didnot turn out what he wanted it. The meaning of the metaphor, whichhas often been twisted to express the very opposite, is that thepotter's work may fail, that the artificer may be balked, that youcan counterwork the divine dealing, and that all His purpose in yourcreation, in His providence and in His gift of His Son for yourredemption, may come to nought as far as you are concerned. 'Ibeseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. ' 'In vainhave I smitten your children, ' wailed the Divine Love; 'they havereceived no correction. ' In vain God lavishes upon some of us Hismercies, in vain for some of us has Christ toiled and suffered anddied. Oh, brother! do not let all God's work on you come to nought, but yield yourselves to it. Rejoice in the confidence that He ismoulding your character, cheerfully welcome and accept theprovidences, painful as they may be, by which He prepares you forheaven. The chisel is sharp that strikes off the superfluous piecesof marble, and when the chisel cuts, not into marble, but into aheart, there is a pang. Bear it, bear it! and understand the meaningof the blow of the sculptor's mallet, and see in all life the divinehand working towards the accomplishment of His own loving purpose. Then if we turn to Him, amid the pains of His discipline and the joysof His gifts of grace, with recognition and acceptance of His meaningin them all, and cry to Him, 'Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever, forsake not the work of Thine own hands, ' we may be always confident, as knowing that 'the Lord will perfect that which concerneth us. '

THE OLD HOUSE AND THE NEW

 'We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. '--2 COR. V. 8. 

There lie in the words of my text simply these two things; theChristian view of what death is, and the Christian temper in which toanticipate it. 

I. First, the Christian view of what death is. 

Now it is to be observed that, properly speaking, the Apostle is nothere referring to the state of the dead, but to the act of dying. Thelanguage would more literally and accurately be rendered 'willing to_go from_ home, from the body, and to _go_ home, to the Lord. ' Themoment of transition of course leads to a permanent state, but it isthe moment of transition which is in view in the words. I need notremind you, I suppose, that the metaphor of the home is one which hasalready been dwelt upon in the early part of the chapter, where thecontrast is drawn between the transitory house of 'this tent, ' andthe 'building of God, ' the body of incorruption and glory which thesaints at the Resurrection day shall receive. So, then, the Christianview of the act of death is that it is simply a change of abode. 

Very clearly and firmly does Paul draw the line between the man andhis dwelling-place. Life is more than a result of organisation. Consciousness, thought, feeling, are more than functions of matter. No materialist philosopher has ever been, or ever will be, able toexplain within the limits of his system the strange differencebetween the cause and the effect; how it comes to pass that at theone end of the chain there is an impression upon a nerve, and at theother there is pain; how at the one end there is the throb of an inchof matter in a man's skull, and at the other end there are thoughtsthat breathe and words that burn, and that live for ever. That bringsus up to the edge of a gulf over which no materialist philosopher hasever been able to cast a bridge. The scalpel cannot cut deep enoughto solve this mystery. Conscience as well as instinct cry out againstthe theory that the worker and the tools are inseparable. For such atheory reduces human actions to mechanical results, and shatters allresponsibility. Man is more than his dwelling-place. You crush ashell on the beach with your heel, and you slay its tiny inhabitant. But you can pull down the tent, and pluck up its pegs, and roll upits canvas, and put it away in a dark corner, and the tenant isuntouched. The foolish senses crown Death as last, and lord of all. But wisdom says, 'Life and thought have gone away side by side, leaving doors and windows wide, ' and that is all that has happened. 

Still further, my text suggests that to the Christian soul thedeparture from the one house is the entrance into the other. The homehas been the body; the home is now to be Jesus Christ. And verybeautiful and significant with meanings, which only experience willfully unfold, is the representation that the Lord Christ Himselfassumes the place which the bodily environment has hitherto held. 

That teaches us, at all events, that there is a new depth andcloseness of union with Jesus waiting the Christian soul, when itlays aside the separating film of flesh. Here the bodilyorganisation, with its limitations, necessarily shuts us off from thecloseness of intercourse which is possible for a naked soul. We knownot how much separation may depend upon the immersing of the spiritin the fleshly tabernacle, but this we know, that, though here andnow, by faith which dominates sense, souls can live in Christ evenwhilst they live in the body; yet there shall come a form of union somuch more close, intimate, all-pervading, and all-encircling, as thatthe present union with Him by faith, precious as it is, shall be, asthe Apostle calls it in our context, 'absence from the Lord. ' 'Wehave to be discharged, ' says an old thinker, 'of a great deal of whatwe call body, and then we shall be more truly ourselves, ' and moretruly united to Him who, if we are Christian people at all, is theself of ourselves and the life of our lives. No man knows how closehe can nestle to the bosom of Christ when the film of flesh is rentaway. Just as when in some crowded street of a great city some grimybuilding is pulled down, a sudden daylight fills the vacant space, and all the site that had been shut out from the sky for many yearsis drenched in sunshine, so when 'the earthly house of thistabernacle' is ruinated and falls, the light will flood the placewhere it stood, and to be 'absent from the body' shall be to be'present with the Lord. '

May we go a step further and suggest that, perhaps, in the boldmetaphor of my text, there is an answer to the questions which sooften rack loving and parted hearts? 'Do the dead know aught of whataffects us here? and can they do aught but gaze on Him, and love, andrest?' If it be that there is any such analogy as seems to be dimlyshadowed in my text, between the relation of the body on earth to thespirit that inhabits it, and that of Jesus Christ to him who dwellsin Him, and is clothed by Him, then it may be that, as the flesh, sothe Christ transmits to the spirit that has Him for its homeimpressions from the outside world, and affords a means of actionupon that world. Christ may be, if I might so say, the sensorium ofthe disembodied spirit; and Christ may be the hand of the man whohath no other instrument by which to express himself. But all that isfancy perhaps, speculation certainly; and yet there seems to be ashadow of a foundation for at least entertaining the possibility ofsuch a thought as that Jesus is the means of knowing and the means ofacting to those who rest from their labours in Him, and dwell inpeace in His arms. But be that as it may, the reality of a closecommunion and encircling by the felt presence of Jesus Christ, which, in its blessed closeness, will make the closest communion here seemto be obscure, is certainly declared in the words before us. 

Then this transition is regarded in my text as being the work of amoment. It is not a long journey of which the beginning is 'to go_from_ home, from the body, ' and the end is 'to _go_ home, to theLord. ' But it is one and the same motion which, looked at from theone side, is departure, and looked at from the other is arrival. Theold saying has it, 'there is but a step between me and death. ' Thetruth is, there is but a step between me and _life_. The mighty angelin the Apocalypse, that stood with one foot on the firm land and theother on the boundless ocean, is but the type of the spirit in thebrief moment of transition, when the consciousness of two worldsblends, and it is clothed upon with the house which is from heaven, in the very act of stripping off the earthly house of thistabernacle. 

Nor need I remind you, I suppose, in more than a sentence, that thistransition obviously leads into a state of conscious communion withJesus Christ. The dreary figment of an unconscious interval for thedisembodied spirit has no foundation, either in what we know ofspirit, or in what is revealed to us in Scripture. For the one thingthat seems to make it probable--the use of that metaphor of 'sleepingin Jesus'--is quite sufficiently accounted for by the notions ofrepose, and cessation of outward activity, and withdrawal of capacityof being influenced by the so-called realities of this lower world, without dragging in the unfounded notion of unconsciousness. My textis incompatible with it, for it is absurd to say of an unconsciousspirit, clear of a bodily environment, that it is anywhere; and thereis no intelligible sense in which the condition of such a spirit canbe called being 'with the Lord. '

So, then, I think a momentary transition, with uninterruptedconsciousness, which leads to a far deeper and more wonderful andblessed sense of unity with Jesus Christ than is possible here onearth, is the true shape in which the act of death presents itself tothe Christian thinker. 

And remember, dear brethren, that is all we know. Nothing else iscertain--nothing but this, 'with the Lord, ' and the resultingcertainty that therefore it is well with them. It is enough for ourfaith, for our comfort, for our patient waiting. They live in Christ, 'and there we find them worthier to be loved, ' and certainly lappedin a deeper rest. 'Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. '

II. In the next place, note the Christian temper in which toanticipate the transition. 

'We are always courageous, and willing rather to leave our home inthe body, and to go home to the Lord. ' Now I must briefly remind youof how the Apostle comes to this state of feeling. He has beenspeaking about the natural shrinking, which belongs to all humanity, from the act of dissolution, considered as being the stripping off ofthe garment of the flesh. And he has declared, on behalf of himselfand the early Christian Church, his own and their personal desirethat they might escape from that trial by the path which seemedpossible to the early Christians--viz. That of surviving until thereturn of Jesus Christ from Heaven, when they would be 'clothed uponwith the house which is from Heaven, ' without the necessity ofstripping off that with which at present they are invested. Then hesays--and this is a very remarkable thought--that just because thisinstinctive shrinking from death and yearning for the glorified bodyis so strong in the Christian heart, that is a sign that there issuch a glorified body waiting for us. He says, 'we know that if ourhouse . .. Were dissolved, we have a building of God. ' And his reasonfor knowing it is this, '_for_ in this we groan. ' That is a boldposition to say that a yearning in the Christian consciousnessprophesies its own fulfilment. Our desires are the prophecies of Hisgifts. Then, on this certainty--which he deduces from the fact of thelonging for it--on this certainty of the glorious, ultimate body ofthe Resurrection he bases his willingness expressed in the text, togo through the unwelcome process of leaving the old house, althoughhe shrinks from it. 

So, then, Christian faith does not destroy the natural reluctance toput aside the old companion of our lives. The old house, though it besmoky, dimly lighted, and, by our own careless keeping, sluttish andgrimy in many a corner, yet is the only house we have ever known, andto be absent from it is untried and strange. There is nothing wrongin saying 'we would not be unclothed but clothed upon. ' Nature speaksthere. We may reverently entertain the same feelings which ourPattern acknowledged, when He said, 'I have a baptism to be baptizedwith, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished. ' And therewould be nothing sinful in repeating His prayer with His conditions, 'If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me. '

But then the text suggests to us the large Christian possessions andhope which counterwork this reluctance, in the measure in which welive lives of faith. There is the assurance of that ultimate home inwhich all the transiency of the present material organisation isexchanged for the enduring permanence which knows no corruption. The'tent' is swept away to make room for the 'building. ' The earthlyhouse is dissolved in order that there may be reared round thehomeless tenant the house eternal, 'not made with hands, ' God's ownwork, which is waiting in the heavens; because the power that shallframe it is there. Not only that great hope of the 'body of Hisglory, ' with which at the last all true souls shall be invested, butfurthermore, 'the earnest of the spirit, ' and the blessed experiencestherefrom, resulting even here, ought to make the unwelcome necessityless unwelcome. If the firstfruits be righteousness and peace and joyof the Holy Ghost, what shall the harvest be? If the 'earnest, ' theshilling given in advance, be so precious, what will the whole wealthof the inheritance which it heralds be when it is received?

For such reasons the transitory passage becomes less painful andunwelcome. Who is there that would hesitate to dip his foot into theice-cold brook if he knew that it would not reach above his ankles, and that a step would land him in blessedness unimagined tillexperienced?

Therefore the Christian temper is that of quiet willingness andconstant courage. There is nothing hysterical here, nothing morbid, nothing overstrained, nothing artificial. The Apostle says: 'I wouldrather not. I should like if I could escape it. It is an unwelcomenecessity; but when I see what I do see beyond, ' I am ready. Since soit must be, I will go, not reluctantly, nor dragged away from life, nor clinging desperately to it as it slips from my hands, nordreading anything that may happen beyond; but always courageous, andprepared to go whithersoever the path may take me, since I am surethat it ends in His bosom. He is willing to go from the home of thebody, because to do that is to go home to Christ. 

There are other references of our Apostle's, substantially of thesame tone as that of my text, but with very beautiful and encouragingdifferences. When he was nearer his end, when it seemed to him as ifthe headsman's block was not very far off, his _willingness_ hadintensified into 'having a _desire_ to depart and to be withChrist, which is far better. ' And when the end was all but reached, and he knew that death was waiting just round the next turn in theroad, he said, with the confidence that in the midst of the strugglewould have been vainglory, but at the end of it was a foretaste ofthe calm of Heaven, 'I have finished my course, I have kept thefaith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. 'That is our model, dear brethren, --'always courageous, ' afraid ofnothing in life, in death, or beyond, and therefore willing to gofrom home from the body and to go home to the Lord. 

Think of this man thus fronting the inevitable, with no excitementand with no delusions. Remember what Paul believed about death, aboutsin, about his own sin, about judgment, about hell. And then think ofhow to him death had made its darkness beautiful with the light ofChrist's face, and all the terror was gone out of it. Do you think soabout death? Do you shrink from it? Why? Why do you not take Paul'scure for the shrinking? If you can say, 'To me to live is Christ, 'you will have no difficulty in saying, 'and to die is gain. ' That isthe only way by which you can come to such a temper, and then youwill be willing to move from the cottage to the palace, and to waitin peace till you are shifted again into 'the building of God, thehouse not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. '

PLEASING CHRIST

 'We labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of Him. '--2 COR. V. 2. 

We do not usually care very much for, or very much trust, a man's ownstatement of the motives of his life, especially if in the statementhe takes credit for lofty and noble ones. And it would be rather adangerous experiment for the ordinary run of so-called Christianpeople to stand up and say what Paul says here, that the supremedesign and aim towards which all their lives are directed is toplease Jesus Christ. In his case the tree was known by its fruits. Certainly there never was a life of more noble self-abnegation, ofmore continuous heroism, of loftier aspiration and lowlier servicethan the life of which we see the very pulse in these words. 

But Paul is not only professing his own faith, he is speaking in thename of all his brethren. 'We, ' ought to include every man and womanwho calls himself or herself a Christian. It is this setting of thewill of Jesus Christ high up above all other commandments, andproposing to one's self as the aim that swallows up all other aims, that I may please Him--it is this, and not creeds, forms, opinions, professions, or even a faith that simply trusts in Him for salvation, that makes a true Christian. You are a Christian in the precisemeasure in which Christ's will is uppermost and exclusive in yourlife, and for all your professions and your orthodoxy and yourworship and your faith, not one hair's-breadth further. Here is thesignature and the common characteristic of all real Christians, 'Welabour that whether present or absent we may be well-pleasing toHim. '

So then in looking together at these words now, I take three points, the supreme aim of the Christian life; the concentration of effortwhich that aim demands; and the insignificance to which it reducesall external things. 

I. First, then, let me deal with that supreme aim of the Christianlife. 

The word which is, correctly enough, rendered 'accepted, ' may moreliterally, and perhaps with a closer correspondence to the Apostle'smeaning, be translated 'well-pleasing, ' and the aim is this, notmerely that we may be accepted, but that we may bring a smile intoHis face, and some joy and complacent delight in us into His heart, when He looks upon our doings. That pleasure of Jesus Christ in themthat 'fear Him, and in them that hope in His mercy' and do His willis a present emotion that fills His heart in looking upon Hisfollowers, and it will be especially declared in the solemn, finaljudgment. We must keep in view both of these periods, if we wouldrightly understand the sweep of the aim which ought to be uppermostin all Christian people. Here and now in our present acts, we shouldso live as to occasion a present sentiment of complacent delight inus, in the heart of the Christ who sees us here and now and always. We should so live as that at that far-off future day when we shall'all be manifested before the Judgment-seat of Christ, ' the Judge maybend from His tribunal, and welcome us into His presence with a wordof congratulation and an outstretched hand of loving reception. Setthat two-fold aim before you, Christian men and women, else you willfail to experience the full stimulus of this thought. 

Now such an aim as this implies a very wonderful conception of JesusChrist's present relations to us. It is a truth that we may ministerto His joy. It is a truth that just as really as you mothers are gladwhen you hear from a far-off land that your boy is doing well, andgetting on, so Jesus Christ's heart fills with gladness when He seesyou and me walking in the paths in which He would have us go. Weoften think about our dear dead that they cannot know of us andour doings here, because the sorrow that would sometimes come fromthe contemplation of our evil, or of our misfortunes, would troublethem in their serene rest. We know not how that may be, but this atleast we do know, that the Man Jesus Christ, who, like those dearones, 'was dead, and is alive for evermore, ' in His human nature hasknowledge of all His children's failures, as well as successes, andis affected with some shadow of regret, or with some reality ofdelight, according as they follow or stray from the paths in which Hewould have them walk. If it be so with Him it may be so with them;and though it be not so with them it must be so with Him. So thisstrange, sweet, tender, and powerful thought is a piece of plainprose, that Christ is glad when you and I are good. 

Does it need any word to emphasise the force of that motive to aChristian heart that loves the Master? Surely this is the great andblessed peculiarity of all the morality of Christianity that it hasall a personal bearing and aspect, and that just as the sum of allour duty is gathered up in the one command, 'Imitate Christ, ' so themotive for all our duty lies in 'If you love Me, keep Mycommandments, ' and the reward which ought to stimulate more thananything besides is the one thought, not, of what I shall get becauseI am good, but of what I shall give Him by my obedience, a joy in theheart that was stabbed through and through by sorrow for my sake. That we may please Him 'who pleased not Himself, ' is surely thegrandest motive on which the pursuit of holiness, and the imitationof Jesus Christ can ever be made to rest. Oh! how different, and howmuch more blessed such a motive and aim is than all the lower reasonsfor which men are sometimes exhorted and encouraged to be good! Whata difference it is when we say, 'Do that thing because it is right, 'and when we say, 'Do that thing because you will be happier if youdo, ' or when we say, 'Do it because He would like you to do it. ' Theone is all cold and abstract. To stand before a man and simply say:'Now go and do your duty, ' is a poor way of setting his feet upon arock and establishing his goings. Duty is not a word that stirs men'shearts, however it may awe their consciences. It rises up before uslike some goddess statuesque and serene, with purity, indeed, in herdeep and solemn eyes, but with nothing appealing to our affections inher stern lineaments. But when the thought of 'You ought' melts into'For my sake, ' and through the dissolving face of the cold marblegoddess there shine the beloved lineaments of Him who 'wears theGodhead's most benignant grace, ' the smile upon His face becomes amotive that touches all hearts. Transmute obligation into gratitude, and in front of duty and appeals to self put Christ, and all theharshness and difficulty and burden and self-sacrifice of obediencebecomes easy and a joy. 

Then let me remind you that this one supreme aim of pleasing JesusChrist can be carried on through all life in every varying form, great or small. A blessed unity is given to our whole being when thelittle things and the big things, the easy things and the hardthings, deeds which are conspicuous and deeds which no eye sees, areall brought under the influence of the one motive and made co-operantto the one end. Drive that one steadfast aim through your lives likea bar of iron, and it will give the lives strength andconsistency--not rigidity, because they may still be flexible. Nothing will be too small to be consecrated by that motive; nothingtoo great to own its power. You can please Him everywhere and always. The only thing that is inconsistent with pleasing Him is the thingwhich, alas! we do at all times and should do at no time, and that isto sin against Him. If we bear with us this as a conscious motive inevery part of our day's work it will give us a quick discernment asto what is evil, which I believe nothing else will so surely give. Ifyou desire life to be noble, uniform, dignified, great in itsminutest acts and solemn in its very trifles, and if you would havesome continual test and standard by which you can detect allspurious, apparent virtues, and discover lurking and maskedtemptations, carry this one aim clear and high above all else, andmake it the purpose of the whole life, to be well-pleasing unto Him. 

II. Now, in the next place, notice the concentrated effort which thisaim requires. 

The word rendered in my text 'labour' is a peculiar one, very seldomemployed in Scripture. It means, in its most literal signification, to be fond of honour, or to be actuated by a love of honour; andhence it comes, by a very natural transition, to mean to strive togain something for the sake of the honour connected with it. That isto say, it not only expresses the notion of diligent, strenuouseffort, but it reveals the reason for that diligence andstrenuousness in what I may call (for the word might almost be sorendered) the _ambition_ of being honoured by pleasing Christ. So that the 'labour' of my text covers the whole ground, not only ofthe act but of its motive. The concentration of effort which such anaim requires may be enforced by one or two simple exhortations. 

First, let me say that we ought, as Christian people, to cultivatethis noble ambition of pleasing Jesus Christ. Men have all got thelove of approbation deep in them. God put it there for a goodpurpose, not that we might shape our lives so as to get others to patus on the back, and say, 'Well done!' but that, in addition to theother solemn and sovereign motives for following the paths ofrighteousness, we might have this highest ambition to impel us on theroad. And it is the duty of all Christians to see to it that theydiscipline themselves so as, in their own feelings, to put high aboveall the approbation or censure of their fellows the approbation orcensure of Jesus Christ. That will take some cultivation. It is agreat deal easier to shape our courses so as to get one another'spraise. I remember a quaint saying in a German book. 'An oldschoolmaster tried to please this one and that one, and it failed. "Well, then, " said he, "I will try to please Christ. " And thatsucceeded. '

And let me remind you that a second part of the concentration ofeffort which this aim requires is to strive with the utmost energy inthe accomplishment of it. Paul did not believe that anybody couldplease Jesus Christ without a fight for it. His notion of acceptableservice was service which a man suppressed much to render, andovercame much to bring. And I urge upon you this, dear brethren, thatwith all the mob of faces round about us which shut out Christ'sface, and with all the temptations to follow other aims, and with theweaknesses of our own characters, it never was, is not, nor ever willbe, an easy thing, or a thing to be done without a struggle and adead lift, to live so as to be well-pleasing to Him. 

Look at Paul's metaphors with which he sets forth the Christianlife--a warfare, a race, a struggle, a building up of some greattemple structure, and the like--all suggesting at the least the ideaof patient, persistent, continuous toil, and most of them suggestingalso the idea of struggle with antagonistic forces and difficulties, either within or without. So we must set our shoulders to the wheel, put our backs into our work. Do not think that you are going to becarried into the condition of conformity with Jesus Christ in adream, or that the road to heaven is a primrose path, to be troddenin silver slippers. 'I will not offer unto the Lord that which dothcost me nothing, ' and if you do, it will be worth exactly what itcosts. There must be concentration of effort if we are to bewell-pleasing to Him. 

But then do not forget, on the other hand, that deeper than alleffort, and the very spring and life of it, there must be the openingof our hearts for the entrance of His life and spirit, by thepresence of which only are we well-pleasing to Christ. That whichpleases Him in you and me is our likeness to Him. According to theold Puritan illustration, the refiner sat by the furnace until hecould see in the molten metal his own face mirrored, and then he knewit was pure. So what pleases Christ in us is the reflection ofHimself. And how can we get that likeness to Himself except byreceiving into our hearts the Spirit that was in Christ Jesus, andwill dwell in us, and will produce in us in our measure the sameimage that it formed in Him? 'Work _out_ your own salvation, 'because 'it is God that worketh _in_ you. ' Labour, concentrateeffort, and above all open the heart to the entrance of thattransforming power. 

III. Lastly, let me suggest the utter insignificance to which thisaim reduces all externals. 

'We labour, ' says Paul, 'that whether present or absent, we may beaccepted. ' What differences of condition are covered by thatparenthetical phrase--'present or absent!' He talks about it as if itwas a very small matter, does he not? And what is included in it?Whether a man shall be in the body or out of it; that is to say, whether he be alive or dead. Here is an aim then, so great, so lofty, so all-comprehensive that it reduces the difference between living inthe world and being out of it, to a trifle. And if we stand so highup that these two varieties of condition dwindle into insignificanceand seem to have melted into one, do you think that there is anythingelse that will be very big? If the difference between life and deathis dwindled and dwarfed, what else do you suppose will remain?Nothing, I should think. 

So if we only, by God's help, which will be given to us if we wantit, keep this clear before us as the motive of all our life, then allthe possible alternatives of human condition and circumstance willsink into insignificance, and from that lofty summit will 'showscarce so gross as beetles' in the air beneath our lofty station. 

Whether we be rich or poor, solitary or beset by friends, happy orsad, hopeful or despairing, young or old, wearied or buoyant, learnedor foolish, it matters not. The one aim lifts itself before us, andthey in whose eyes shine the light of that great issue are carelessof the road along which they pass. Do you enlist yourselves in thecompany that fires at the long range, and all those that take aim atthe shorter ones will seem to be very pitifully limiting theirpowers. 

Then remember that this same aim, and this same result may be equallypursued and attained whether here or yonder. It is something to havea course of life which runs straight along, unbent aside, and not cutshort off, by the change from earth to Heaven. And this felicity heonly has who, amidst things temporal and insignificant, sees andseeks the eternal smile on the face of his unchanging Saviour. Onearth, in death, through eternity, such a life will be homogeneousand of a piece; and when all other aims are hull down below thehorizon, forgotten and out of sight, then still this will be thepurpose, and yonder it will be the accomplished purpose, of each, toplease the Lord Jesus Christ. 

My dear friend, remember that in its full meaning this aim regardsthe future, and points onward to that great judgment-seat where youand I will certainly each of us give account of himself. Do you thinkthat you will please Christ then? Do you think that when that daydawns, a smile of welcome will come into His eyes, and a glow ofgladness at the meeting into yours? Or have you cause to fear thatyou will 'call on the rocks and the hills to cover you from the faceof Him that sitteth on the Throne?'

We are all close by one another; our voices are very audible to eachother. Do you learn, Christian people, that the first, --or at least aprime--condition of all Christian and Christ-pleasing life, is awholesome disregard of what anybody says but Himself. The oldLacedæmonians used to stir themselves to heroism by the thought:'What will they say of us in Sparta?' The governor of some outlyingEnglish colony minds very little what the people that he is set torule think about him. He reports to Downing Street, and it is theopinion of the Home Government that influences him. You report toheadquarters. Never mind what anybody else thinks of you. Yourbusiness is to please Christ, and the less you trouble yourselvesabout pleasing men the more you will succeed in doing it. Be deaf tothe tittle tattle of your fellow soldiers in the ranks. It is yourCommander's smile that will be your highest reward. 

 'Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes, And perfect witness of all-judging Jove; As he pronounces lastly on each deed, Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed. '

THE LOVE THAT CONSTRAINS

 'The love of Christ constraineth us. '--2 COR. V. 14. 

It is a dangerous thing to be unlike other people. It is still moredangerous to be better than other people. The world has a little heapof depreciatory terms which it flings, age after age, at all men whohave a higher standard and nobler aims than their fellows. Afavourite term is 'mad. ' So, long ago they said, 'The prophet is afool; the spiritual man is mad, ' and, in His turn, Jesus was said tobe 'beside Himself, ' and Festus shouted from the judgment-seat toPaul that he was mad. A great many people had said the same thingabout him before, as the context shows. For the verse before my textis: 'Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we besober, it is for your cause. ' Now the former clause can only refer toother people's estimate of the Apostle. No doubt there were manythings about him that gave colour to it. He said that a dead Man hadappeared to him and spoken with him. He said that he had been carriedup into the third heaven. He had a very strange creed in the judgmentof the times. He had abandoned a brilliant career for a very poorone. He was obviously utterly indifferent to the ordinary aims ofmen. He had a consuming enthusiasm. And so the world explained himsatisfactorily to itself by the short and easy method of saying, 'Insane. ' And Paul explained himself by the great word of my text, 'The love of Christ constraineth us. ' Wherever there is a lifeadequately under the influence of Christ's love the results will besuch as an unsympathising world may call madness, but which are theperfection of sober-mindedness. Would there were more such madmen! Iwish to try to make one or two of them now, by getting some of you totake for your motto, 'The love of Christ constraineth us. '

I. Now the first thing to notice is this constraining love. 

I need not spend time in showing that when Paul says here 'The loveof Christ, ' he means Christ's love to him, not his to Christ. That isin accordance with his continual usage of the expression; and it isin accordance with facts. For it is not my love to Jesus, but Hislove to me, that brings the real moulding power into my life, and mylove to Him is only the condition on which the true power acts uponme. To get the fulcrum and the lever which will heave a life up tothe heights you have to get out of yourselves. 

Now Paul never saw Jesus Christ in this earthly life. Timothy, who isassociated with him in this letter, and perhaps is one of the 'us, 'never saw Him either. The Corinthian believers whom he is addressinghad, of course, never seen Him. And yet the Apostle has not theslightest hesitation in taking that great benediction of Christ'slove and spreading it over them all. That love is independent of timeand of space; it includes humanity, and is co-extensive with it. Unturned away by unworthiness, unrepelled by non-responsiveness, undisgusted by any sin, unwearied by any, however numerous, foilingof its attempts, the love of Christ, like the great heavens that bendabove us, wraps us all in its sweetness, and showers upon us all itslight and its dew. 

And yet, brethren, I would have you remember that whilst we thus tryto paint, in poor, poor words, the universality of that love, we haveto remember that it does not partake of the weakness that infects allhuman affections, which are only strong when they are narrow, and asthe river expands it becomes shallow, and loses the force in its flowwhich it had when it was gathered between straiter banks, so as thata universal charity is almost akin to a universal indifference. Butthis love that grasps us all, this river that 'proceedeth from theThrone of God and of the Lamb, ' flows in its widest reaches as deepand as impetuous in its career as if it were held within thenarrowest of gorges. For Christ's universal love is universal onlybecause it is individualising and particular. We love our nation bygeneralising and losing sight of the individuals. Christ loves theworld because He loves every man and woman in it, and His graceenwraps all because His grace hovers over each. 

 'The sun whose beams most glorious are Despiseth no beholder, '

but the rays come straight to each eyeball. Be sure of this: that Hewho, when the multitude thronged Him and pressed Him, felt thetremulous, timid, scarcely perceptible touch of one woman's wastedfinger on the hem of His garment, holds each of us in the grasp ofHis love, which is universal, because it applies to each. You and Ihave each the whole radiance of it pouring down on our heads, andnone intercepts the beams from any other. So, brethren, let us eachfeel not only the love that grasps the world, but the love thatempties itself on me. 

But there is one more remark that I wish to make in reference to thisconstraining love of Jesus Christ, and that is, that in order to seeand feel it we must take the point of view that this Apostle takes inmy text. For hearken how he goes on. 'The love of Christ constrainethus, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died, and that He died for all, ' etc. That is to say, the death of Christfor all, which is equivalent to the death of Christ for each, is thegreat solvent by which the love of God melts men's hearts, and is thegreat proof that Jesus Christ loves me, and thee, and all of us. Ifyou strike out that conception you have struck out from yourChristianity the vindication of the belief that Christ loves theworld. What possible meaning is there in the expression, 'He died forall?' How can the fact of His death on a 'green hill' outside thegates of a little city in Syria have world-wide issues, unless inthat death He bore, and bore away, the sins of the whole world? Iknow that there have been many--and there are many to-day--who notaccepting what seems to me to be the very vital heart ofChristianity--viz. The death of Christ for the world's sin, do yetcherish--as I think illogically--yet do cherish a regard for Him, which puts some of us who call ourselves 'orthodox, ' and are tepid, to the blush. Thank God! men are often better than their creeds, aswell as worse than them. But that fact does not affect what I amsaying now, and what I beg you to take for what you find it to beworth, that unless we believe that Jesus Christ died for all, I donot know what claim He has on the love of the world. We shall admireHim, we shall bow before Him, as the very realised ideal of humanity, though how this one Man has managed to escape the taint of theall-pervading evil remains, upon that hypothesis, very obscure. Butlove Him? No! Why should I? But if I feel that His death hadworld-wide issues, and that He went down into the darkness in orderthat He might bring the world into the light, then--and I am sure, on the wide scale and in the long-run only then--will men turn toHim and say, 'Thou hast died for me, help me to live for Thee. 'Brethren, I beseech you, take care of emptying the death of Christof its deepest meaning, lest you should thereby rob His character ofits chiefest charm, and His name of its mightiest soul-melting power. The love that constraineth is the love that died, and died for all, because it died for each. 

II. Now let me ask you to consider the echo of this constraininglove. 

I said a moment or two ago that Christ's love to us is theconstraining power, and that ours to Him is but the condition onwhich that power works. But between the two there comes somethingwhich brings that constraining love to bear upon our hearts. And sonotice what my text goes on to adduce as needful for Christ's love tohave its effect--namely, 'because we thus judge, ' etc. Then myestimate, my apprehension of the love of Christ must come in betweenits manifestation and its power to grip, to restrain, to impel me. IfI may use such a figure, He stands, as it were, bugle in hand, andblows the sweet strains that are meant to set the echoes flying. Butthe rock must receive the impact of the vibrations ere it can throwback the thinned echo of the music. Love must be believed and knownere it can be responded to. 

Now the only answer and echo that hearts desire is the love of thebeloved heart. We all know that in our earthly life. Love is as mucha hunger to be loved as the outgoing of my own affection. The twothings are inseparable, and there is nothing that repays love butlove. Jesus Christ wishes each of us to love Him. If it is true thatHe loves me, then, intertwisted with the outgoing of His hearttowards me is the yearning that my heart may go out towards Him. Dearbrethren, this is no pulpit rhetoric, it is a plain, simple fact, inseparable from the belief in Christ's love--that He wishes you andevery soul of man to love Him, and that, whatever else you bring, lipreverence, orthodox belief, apparent surrender, in the assay shop ofHis great mint all these are rejected, and the only metal that passesthe fire is the pure gold of an answering love. Brethren! is thatwhat you bring to Jesus Christ?

Love seeks for love, and our love can only be an echo of His. Hetakes the beginning in everything. If I am to love Him back again, Imust have faith in His love to me. And if that be so, then the trueway by which you, imperfect Christian people, can deepen andstrengthen your love to Jesus Christ is not so much by efforts towork up a certain warmth of sentiment and glow of affection, as bygazing, with believing eyes of the heart, upon that which kindlesyour love to Him. If you want ice to melt, put it out into thesunshine, If you want the mirror to gleam, do not spend all your timein polishing it. Carry it where it can catch the ray, and it willflash it back in glory. 'We love Him because He first loved us. ' Ourlove is an echo; be sure that you listen for the parent note, andlink yourselves by faith with that great love which has come downfrom Heaven for us all. 

But how can I speak about echoes and responses when I know that thereare scores of men and women whom a preacher's words reach who wouldbe ashamed of themselves, and rightly, if they exhibited the samecallousness of heart and selfishness of ingratitude to some human, partial benefactor as they are not ashamed to have exhibited alltheir lives to Jesus Christ. Echo? Yes! your heartstrings are setvibrating fast enough whenever, in the adjoining apartment, aninstrument is touched which is tuned to the same key as your heart. Pleasures, earthly aims, worldly gifts, the sweetnesses of humanlife, all these things set them thrilling, and you can hear themusic, but your hearts are not tuned to answer to the note that isstruck in 'He loved me and gave Himself for me. ' The bugle is blown, and there is silence, and no echo, faint and far, comes whisperingback. Brethren, we use no one else, in whose love we have any belief, a thousandth part so ill as we use Jesus Christ. 

III. Now, lastly, let me say a word about the constraining influenceof this echoed love. 

Its first effect, if it has any real power in our hearts and lives, will be to change their centre, to decentralise. Look what theApostle goes on to say: 'We thus judge that He . .. Died for all, thatthey which live should not live henceforth unto themselves. ' That isthe great transformation. Secure that, and all nobleness will follow, and 'whatsoever things are lovely and of good report' will come, likedoves to their windows, flocking into the soul that has ceased tofind its centre in its poor rebellious self. All love derives itspower to elevate, refine, beautify, ennoble, conquer, from the factthat, in lower degree, all love makes the beloved the centre, and notthe self. Hence the mother's self-sacrifice, hence the sweetreciprocity of wedded life, hence everything in humanity that isnoble and good. Love is the antagonist of selfishness, and thehighest type of love should be, and in the measure in which we areunder the influence of Christ's love will be, the self-surrenderinglife of a Christian man. I know that in saying so I am condemningmyself and my brethren. All the same, it is true. The one power thatrescues a man from the tyranny of living for self, which is themother of all sin and ignobleness, is when a man can say 'Christ ismy aim, ' 'Christ is my object. ' 'The life that I live in the flesh Ilive by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himselffor me. ' There is no secret of self-annihilation, which isself-transfiguration, and, I was going to say, deification, like thatof loving Christ with all my heart because He has loved me so. 

Again, let me remind you that, on its lower reaches and levels, wefind that all true affection has in it a strange power ofassimilating its objects to one another. Just as a man and woman whohave lived together for half a century in wedded life come to havethe same notions, the same prejudices, the same tastes, and sometimesyou can see their very faces being moulded into likeness, so, if Ilove Jesus Christ, I shall by degrees grow liker and liker to Him, and be 'changed into the same image, from glory to glory. '

Again, the love constrains, and not only constrains but impels, because it becomes a joy to divine and to do the will of the belovedChrist. 'My yoke is easy. ' Is it? It is very hard to be a Christian. His requirements are a great deal sterner than others. His yoke iseasy, not because it is a lighter yoke, but because it is padded withlove. And that makes all service a sacrament, and the surrender of myown will, which is the essence of obedience, a joy. 

So, dear friends, we come here in sight of the unique and blessedcharacteristic of all Christian morality, and of all its practicalexhortations, and the Gospel stands alone as the mightiest mouldingpower in the world, just because its word is 'love, and do as thouwilt. ' For in the measure of thy love will thy will coincide with thewill of Christ. There is nothing else that has anything like thatpower. We do not want to be told what is right. We know it a greatdeal better than we practise it. A revelation from heaven that simplytold me my duty would be surplusage. 'If there had been a law thatcould have given life, righteousness had been by the law. ' We want alife, not a law, and the love of Christ brings the life to us. 

And so, dear friends, that life, restrained and impelled by the loveto which it is being assimilated, is a life of liberty and a life ofblessedness. In the measure in which the love of Christ constrainsany man, it makes for him difficulties easy, the impossible possible, the crooked things straight, and the rough places plain. The dutybecomes a delight, and self ceases to disturb. If the love of God isshed abroad in a heart, and in the measure in which it is, that heartwill be at rest, and a great peace will brood over it. Then the willbows in glad submission, and all the powers arise to joyous service. We are lords of the world and ourselves when we are Christ's servantsfor love's sake; and earth and its good are never so good as when thepower of His echoed love rules our lives. Do you know and believethat Christ loves you? Do you know and believe that you had a placein His heart when He hung on the Cross for the salvation of theworld? Have you answered that love with yours, kindled by your faithin, and experience of, His? Is His love the overmastering impulsewhich urges you to all good, the mighty constraint that keeps youback from all evil, the magnet that draws, the anchor that steadies, the fortress that defends, the light that illumines, the treasurethat enriches? Is it the law that commands, and the power thatenables? Then you are blessed, though people will perhaps say thatyou are mad, whilst here; and you will be blessed for ever and ever. 

THE ENTREATIES OF GOD

 'Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech . .. By us: we pray . .. In Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. '--2 COR. V. 20. 

These are wonderful and bold words, not so much because of what theyclaim for the servants as because of what they reveal of the Lord. That thought, 'as though God did beseech, ' seems to me to be the onedeserving of our attention now, far rather than any inferences whichmay be drawn from the words as to the relation of preachers of theGospel to man and to God. I wish, therefore, to try to set forth thewonderfulness of this mystery of a beseeching God, and to put by theside of it the other wonder and mystery of men refusing the divinebeseechings. 

Before doing so, however, I remark that the supplement which standsin our Authorised Version in this text is a misleading andunfortunate one. 'As though God did beseech _you_' and 'we pray_you_' unduly narrow the scope of the Apostolic message, and confusethe whole course of the Apostolic reasoning here. For he has beenspeaking of a world which is reconciled to God, and he finds aconsequence of that reconciliation of the world in the fact that heand his fellow-preachers are entrusted with the word ofreconciliation. The scope of their message, then, can be no narrowerthan the scope of the reconciliation; and inasmuch as that isworld-wide the beseeching must be co-extensive therewith, and mustcover the whole ground of humanity. It is a universal message thatis set forth here. The Corinthians, to whom Paul was speaking, are, by his hypothesis, already reconciled to God, and the message whichhe has in trust for them is given in the subsequent words: 'We then, as workers together with God, beseech you also that ye receive notthe grace of God in vain. ' But the message, the pleading of thedivine heart, 'be ye reconciled to God, ' is a pleading that reachesover the whole range of a reconciled world. I take then, just thesetwo thoughts, God beseeching man, and man refusing God. 

I. God beseeching man. 

Now notice how, in my text, there alternates, as if substantially thesame idea, the thoughts that Christ and that God pray men to bereconciled. 'We are ambassadors on _Christ's_ behalf, as though_God_ did beseech you by us, we pray on _Christ's_ behalf. 'So you see, first, Christ the Pleader, then God beseeching, thenChrist again entreating and praying. Could any man have so spoken, passing instinctively from the one thought to the other, unless hehad believed that whatsoever things the Father doeth, these alsodoeth the Son likewise; and that Jesus Christ is the Representativeof the whole Deity for mankind, so as that when He pleads God pleads, and God pleads through Him. I do not dwell upon this, but I simplywish to mark it in passing as one of the innumerable strong andirrefragable testimonies to the familiarity and firmness with whichthat thought of the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the full revelationof the Father by Him, was grasped by the Apostle, and was believed bythe people to whom he spoke. God pleads, therefore Christ pleads, Christ pleads, therefore God pleads; and these Two are One in theirbeseechings, and the voice of the Father echoes to us in thetenderness of the Son. 

So, then, let us think of that pleading. To sue for love, to beg thatan enemy will put away his enmity is the part of the inferior ratherthan of the superior; is the part of the offender rather than of theoffended; is the part of the vanquished rather than of the victor; isthe part surely not of the king but of the rebel. And yet here, inthe sublime transcending of all human precedent and pattern whichcharacterises the divine dealing, we have the place of the suppliantand of the supplicated inverted, and Love upon the Throne bends downto ask of the rebel that lies powerless and sullen at His feet, andyet is not conquered until his heart be won, though his limbs bemanacled, that he would put away all the bitterness out of his heart, and come back to the love and the grace which are ready to pour overhim. 'He that might the vengeance best have taken, finds out theremedy. ' He against whom we have transgressed prays us to bereconciled; and the Infinite Love lowers Himself in that loweringwhich is, in another aspect, the climax of His exaltation, to praythe rebels to accept His amnesty. 

Oh, dear brethren! this is no mere piece of rhetoric. What facts inthe divine heart does it represent? What facts in the divine conductdoes it represent? It represents these facts in the divine heart, that there is in it an infinite longing for the creature's love, aninfinite desire for unity between Him and us. 

There are wonderful significance and beauty in the language of mytext which are lost in the Authorised Version; but are preserved inthe Revised. 'We are ambassadors' not only '_for_ Christ, ' but'_on Christ's behalf_. ' And the same proposition is repeated inthe subsequent clause. 'We pray you, ' not merely 'in Christ's stead, 'though that is much, but '_on His account_, ' which is more--asif it lay very near His heart that we should put away our enmity; andas if in some transcendent and wonderful manner the all-perfect, self-sufficing God was made glad, and the Master, who is His imagefor us, 'saw of the travail of His soul, and, ' in regard to one man, 'was satisfied, ' when the man lets the warmth of God's love in Christthaw away the coldness out of his heart, and kindle there ananswering flame. An old divine says, 'We cannot do God a greaterpleasure or more oblige His very heart, than to trust in Him as a Godof love. ' He is ready to stoop to any humiliation to effect thatpurpose. So intense is the divine desire to win the world to Hislove, that He will stoop to sue for it rather than lose it. Such isat least part of the fact in the divine heart, which is shadowedforth for us by that wonderful thought of the beseeching God. 

And what facts in the divine conduct does this great word represent?A God that beseeches. Well, think of the tears of imploring lovewhich fell from Christ's eyes as He looked across the valley fromOlivet, and saw the Temple glittering in the early sunshine. Think of'O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! . .. How often would I have gathered thychildren together . .. And ye would not. ' And are we not to see in theChrist who wept in the earnestness of His desire, and in the pain ofits disappointment, the very revelation of the Father's heart and thevery action of the Father's arm? 'Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ' That is Christbeseeching and God beseeching in Him. Need I quote other words, gentle, winning, loving? Do we not feel, when looking upon Christ, asif the secret of His whole life was the stretching out imploring andwelcoming hands to men, and praying them to grasp His hands, and besaved? But, oh, brethren! the fact that towers above all others, which explains the whole procedure of divinity, and is the keystoneof the whole arch of revelation; the fact which reveals in one triplebeam of light, God, man, and sin in the clearest illumination, is theCross of Jesus Christ. And if that be not the very sublime ofentreaty; and if any voice can be conceived, human or divine, thatshall reach men's hearts with a more piercing note of patheticinvitation than sounds from that Cross, I know not where it is. Christ that dies, in His dying breath calls to us, and 'the blood ofsprinkling speaketh better things than that of Abel'; inasmuch as itsvoice is, 'Come unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. '

Not only in the divine facts of the life and death of Jesus Christ, but in all the appeals of that great revelation which lies before usin Scripture; and may I say, in the poor, broken utterances of menwhose harsh, thin voices try to set themselves, in some measure, tothe sweetness and the fulness of His beseeching tones--doesGod call upon you to draw close to Him, and put away your enmity. Andnot only by His Word written or ministered from human lips, but alsoby the patient providences of His love He calls and prays you tocome. A mother will sometimes, in foolish fondness, coax her sullenchild by injudicious kindness, or, in wise patience, will seek todraw the little heart away from the faults that she desires not tonotice, by redoubled ingenuity of tenderness and of care. And so Goddoes with us. When you and I, who deserve--oh! so differenttreatment--get, as we do get, daily care and providential blessingsfrom Him, is not that His saying to us, 'I beseech you to cherish noalienation, enmity, indifference, but to come back and live in thelove'? When He draws near to us in these outward gifts of His mercy, is He not doing Himself what He has bid us to do; and what He nevercould have bid us to do, nor our hearts have recognised to be thehighest strain of human virtue to do, unless He Himself were doing itfirst? 'If thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give himdrink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. '

Not only by the great demonstration of His stooping and infinitedesire for our love which lies in the life and death of Jesus Christ, nor only by His outward work, nor by His providence, but by many aninward touch on our spirits, by many a prick of conscience, by many astrange longing that has swept across our souls, sudden as someperfumed air in the scentless atmosphere; by many an inward voice, coming we know not whence, that has spoken to us of Him, of His love, of our duty; by many a drawing which has brought us nearer to theCross of Jesus Christ, only, alas! in some cases that we might recoilfurther from it, --has He been beseeching, beseeching us all. 

Brethren! God pleads with you. He pleads with you because there isnothing in His heart to any of you but love, and a desire to blessyou; He pleads with you because, unless you will let Him, He cannotlavish upon you His richest gifts and His highest blessings. Hepleads with you, bowing to the level, and beneath the level, of youralienation and reluctance. And the sum and substance of all Hisdealings with every soul is, 'My son! give Me thy heart. ' 'Be yereconciled to God. '

II. And now turn, very briefly, to the next suggestion arising fromthis text, the terrible obverse, so to speak, of the coin: Manrefusing a beseeching God. 

That is the great paradox and mystery. Nobody has ever fathomed thatyet, and nobody will. How it comes, how it is possible, there is noneed for us to inquire. It is an awful and a solemn power that everypoor little speck of humanity has, to lift itself up in God's face, and say, in answer to all His pleadings, 'I will not!' as if thedwellers in some little island, a mere pin-point of black, barrenrock, jutting up at sea, were to declare war against a kingdom thatstretched through twenty degrees of longitude on the mainland. So we, on our little bit of island, our pin-point of rock in the great wasteocean, we can separate ourselves from the great Continent; or, rather, God has, in a fashion, made us separate in order that we mayeither unite ourselves with Him, by our willing yielding, or wrenchourselves away from Him by our antagonism and rebellion. Godbeseeches because God has so settled the relations between Him andus, that that is what He has to do in order to get men to love Him. He cannot force them. He cannot prise open a man's heart with acrowbar, as it were, and force Himself inside. The door opens fromwithin. 'Behold! I stand at the door and knock. ' There is an 'if. ''If any man open I will come in. ' Hence the beseeching, hence thewail of wisdom that cries aloud and no man regards it; of love thatstands at the entering in of the city, and pleads in vain, and says, 'I have called, and ye have refused. .. . How often would I havegathered . .. And ye would not. ' Oh, brethren! it is an awfulresponsibility, a mysterious prerogative, which each one of us, whether consciously or no, has to exercise, to accept or to refusethe pleadings of an entreating Christ. 

And let me remind you that the act of refusal is a very simple one. Not to accept is to reject; not to yield is to rebel. You have onlyto do nothing, to do it all. There are dozens of people in ourchurches and chapels listening with self-satisfied unconcern, whohave all their lives been refusing a beseeching God. And they do notknow that they ever did it! They say, 'Oh! I will be a Christiansometime or other. ' They cherish vague ideas that, somehow or other, they are so already. They have done nothing at all, they have simplybeen absolutely indifferent and passive. Some of you have heardsermons like this so often that they produce no effect. 'It is theright kind of thing to say. It is the thing we have heard a hundredtimes. ' Perhaps you wonder why I should be so much in earnest aboutthe matter, and then you go outside, and discuss me or the weather, and forget all about the sermon. And thus, once more, you rejectChrist. It is done without knowing it; done simply by doing nothing. My brother! do not stop your ears any more against that tender, imploring love. 

Then let me remind you that this refusing the beseeching of God isthe climax of all folly. For consider what it is, --a man refusing hishighest good and choosing his certain ruin. I am afraid that peoplehave been arguing and fighting so much of late years over disputablepoints in reference to the doctrine of future retribution that theindisputable fact of such retribution has lost much of its solemnpower. 

I pray you, brethren, to ask yourselves one question: Is thereanything, in the present or in the future condition of a man that isnot reconciled to God, which explains God's beseeching urgency? Whythis energy and intensity of divine desire? Why this which, if itwere human only, would be called _passionate_ entreaty? Why wasit needful for Jesus Christ to die? Why was it worth His while tobear the punishment of man's sin? Why should God and Christ, throughall the ages, plead with unintermittent voice? There must be someexplanation of it all, and here is the explanation, 'They that hateMe love _death_. ' 'Be ye reconciled to God, ' for enmity is ruinand destruction. 

And finally, dear friends, this turning away from Him that speakethfrom Heaven, of which some of you have all your lives been guilty, isnot only supreme folly, but it is the climax of all guilt. For therecan be nothing worse, darker, arguing a nature more averse orindifferent to the highest good, than that God should plead, and Ishould steel my heart and deafen mine ear against His voice. Thecrown of a man's sin, because it is the disclosure of the secrets ofhis deepest heart as loving darkness rather than light, is turningaway from the divine voice that woos us to love and to God. 

Oh! there are some of you that have heard that Voice too often to bemuch touched by it. There are some of you too busy to attend to it, who hear it not because of the clatter of the streets and the whir ofthe spindles. There are some of you that are seeking to drown it inthe shouts of mirth and revelry. There are some of you to whom itcomes muffled in the mists of doubt; but I beseech you all, look atthe Cross, _look at the Cross!_ and hear Him that hangs therepleading with you. 

Before the battle there comes out the captain of the twenty thousandto the King with the ten thousand, who in His loftiness is not afraidto stoop to sue for peace from the weaker power. My brother! themoment is precious; the white flag may never be waved before youreyes again. Do not; do not refuse! or the next instant the clarion ofthe assault may sound, and where will you be then?

It is vain for thee to rush against the thick bosses of the Almightybuckler. 'We beseech, in Christ's behalf, be ye reconciled with God. '