11 CHAPTER V

CHRIST: AUTHOR AND PERFECTER OF FAITH The third quartet of names mentioned in the introduction outlines Christ’s relations to the believer. Of this quartet the first pair —" Author" and "Perfecter " — connotes his relations in the matter of actual salvation. In the eleventh chapter the author tells his readers that they need endurance, and points out to them examples of men who did endure though they waited long for the promises. In this long catalogue of believing worthies occur the names of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, as those who endured in expectation. Then follows a long line of heroes who not only endured but actively strove, contending against evil with the hope of making their faith a reality. Advancing to the twelfth chapter, the purport of which is to incite faith to greater and more definite aim, there is held up the stimulus of example found in the cloud of witnesses named in the eleventh chapter; the appeal of opportunity which appears in the race set before them and which implies both hope and contest; and the inspiration arising from comtemplating the double office of Christ as the Author and Perfecter of their faith. For the continuous exercise of enduring faith it is not enough that there be a race at the end of which there is held out a prize, nor is it sufficient to be encompassed about with a cloud of faithful witnesses who endured before us. They are as but a cloud, a large multitude of indistinguishable individuals who are now distant from us, and with whom close personal communion is now impossible. Even faith cannot discern the individual saints that compose the cloud, but for its stimulus and complete strengthening it can look to Jesus, the perfect example, the perfect helper, since it is he who begins the work of faith within us, and it is he who will perfect that work of faith until the conflict closes. CHRIST: THE AUTHOR OF FAITH It is a compound word, and means PrinceLeader, as when one inaugurates a procession and leads it forward to its goal. The word alludes to what the writer has already told us in the second chapter of the Epistle concerning Jesus where he is called the captain or leader of our salvation, who, being perfected through sufferings "brings many sons unto glory." Faith’s Primordial. Christ is the Author of faith because from within his own experience there is manifested that immutable faith which in the act of regeneration is incorporated within the soul of the believer, a faith that never fails because it is born of the eternal verities of Christ’s own nature and returns to him for its fulfillment. In chapter five, verses seven to nine, is the tragic picture of Christ’s conflict of discipline through which he passed in order to become the Author of the faith that saves: "Who in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear, though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation." This picture fills us with amazement and awe and seems to forbid any attempt at explanation, lest, by any gloss of our own devising, we ascribe to Christ’s suffering something which does not belong to it. It is not for us to fathom the depth of his agony. With the disciples we may go with him to Gethsemane. With Peter, James, and John we may accompany him into the garden, but with them we must tarry while he goes "a little farther" to the spot where, "being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became as it were great drops of blood falling down upon the ground." (Luke 22:44). It is not for the eyes of men to look upon that scene nor can its terrible significance be encompassed by their thoughts. We simply know that something tremendously and eternally important was being done by our Lord on our behalf. In the darkness, through prayers, crying and tears, his faith struggled upward, holding its unshaken grip upon God. And though he was a Son, yet, through suffering he must be prepared to be the Saviour of men. Being made perfect through this experience he became the Author of the faith that saves. It is this faith — this faith begotten in agony, tested by dire emergency, triumphant through prayer and suffering — which is divinely and livingly set within the soul, making endurance possible. And not only is this faith inaugurated by the death experience of Christ the foundation and guarantee of the ultimate salvation of the believer, but it is the vital, nuclear fact of the whole creational order. That striking expression in Revelation 13:8, "And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, every one whose name hath not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain," has a more extensive significance than is commonly attached to it. The slaying of the Lamb is the foundation of the world. That is to say, the act of creation itself involved the sacrifice of God through his Son Jesus Christ. With great force one has said: "In creation God goes forth from himself, as it were, in the person of the eternal Son, to return to himself in a perfected spiritual world wherein selfsacrificing love has proved itself by pain. The whole process of creation, the history of the world, as the Bible teaches it, is the movement of humanity back to its home in God. Now creation is the work of God the Son; that is, it is the giving of his life that the glorious purpose of a perfected spiritual world may be realized. ’Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered the kingdom up to God, even the Father.’ The beginning was the laying down of the life of God the Son; creation implies limitation and limitation is sacrifice. The sacrifice did not end with the creation of the heavens and the earth. It only began there, but it culminated on Calvary and will end only when Christ ’hath put all enemies under his feet.’ The conception of the Lamb slain is the warp and the woof of the moral and the spiritual history of the world." Here then is the grounding of the faith that endures unto triumph. It is the faith originated and vouched by the Lamb whose slaying is the world’s primal under-pinning. Faith’s Ingraftment. The sacrifice of Christ is the act of God done in the person of the Son as a complete and solemn condemnation of sin through death. On the cross the sin of man is judged and condemned as a thing not to be tolerated in God’s universe. This divine act of condemnation has its initiative and inspiration in the divine love. "God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." (Romans 8:3). Therefore the forgiveness of sin is made possible through the condemnation of sin endured by Christ, the divine sacrifice. In this sacrifice which Christ made every hindrance to the forgiveness of sin is removed except one, and that hindrance is the will of the individual. The whole human race is already redeemed in that the sins of the whole race have been condemned in the sacrifice of Christ who suffered as the representative of the race. That is therefore a very feeble gospel indeed which preaches that God is ready to forgive sin and waits to redeem. The true and mighty gospel declares that God has redeemed. If then this be true, and if Christ died for all, are all saved? By no means. In the " Gospel of the Divine Sacrifice" Dr. Charles Cuthbert Hall says: "The individual, as an individual, the man, the woman, the child, is saved only when the personal will consents to the righteousness of sin’s condemnation as accomplished in Christ’s sacrifice; when the person identifies himself or herself, by faith, with the humiliated, suffering, crucified Saviour; dying with Christ, as it were, unto sin, as unto an accursed and intolerable condition, and rising with Christ, as it were, into newness of life to walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit." The only escape from the condemnation of sin is in Christ. Disbelieving him we bare ourselves to its penalty. On this point Christ’s own words are to be received at full value: "He that believeth on him is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:18). The individual, then, must identify himself with Christ in his death by believing on him as the sacrifice for sin. But this means the condemning of himself, for in identifying himself with Christ he assumes God’s attitude toward sin. Will he do this, or will he turn from Christ, hardened in heart, proud in spirit, to trust in his own righteousness? On this decision depends finally the salvation of the individual, and this decision is reached only through consent of the will. What inducement then to surrender to Christ’s redemptive work is presented to the will? What really is the point of appeal which the gospel makes? The answer to this question is that the attitude of Christ dying on our behalf constitutes the strongest appeal that can possibly be made. In this connection let it be remembered that the atonement presents God in an attitude of love, not hate. The atonement is the expression on earth of the love that filled God’s heart from before the foundation of the world. It is the external effort of divine love to save men from that sin which makes them the object of divine wrath. Put these two scriptures side by side: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness." (Romans 1:18). "God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through him." (Romans 5:8-9). The one shows the attitude of God toward sin; the other shows the attitude toward the sinner. Toward sin there is the revelation of wrath; toward the sinner there is the revelation of love. Jesus then is not the victim interposing to shield guilty sinners from an angry God, but a willing Saviour sent by the loving Father to redeem sinners from their sins. This view of the atonement reveals the cross making a two-fold revelation: The exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the marvelous love of God, and at the same time furnishing an escape from the penalty of sin so startling as to quicken the dead feelings of the sinner when every other resource has failed. Sin lures its victim into an insensibility of its terrors so deep that a mere appeal to reason is as fruitless of an arousal as a bonfire of straw at its base would be toward melting an Alpine glacier. The cross makes its first appeal to the feelings in revealing the horror and blasphemy of sin. "And when they had crucified him they sat and watched him there." And what is the interpretation of the spectacle which they beheld? And what is sin there seen to be? It plaits a crown of thorns and presses it on the brow of the Son of God. It spits upon his face. It smites him on the head. It drives the nails into his hands. It robs him of his garments, and gambles for his seamless vesture. To fill up its measure, with a spear it pierces his bosom. Such is the attitude of sin toward God. Rehearsing these things on the Day of Pentecost Peter tells these deicides of their heinous deed, saying, f Him ye did crucify and slay," (Acts 2:23), adding that "God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified." (Acts 2:36). Thus brought face to face with their sin in the slaying of Jesus, they saw it as they had never seen it before, and when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and cried out for mercy and forgiveness. Thus their feelings were aroused, stirred by this tremendous and lurid appeal, so that they were ready to receive the message and obey its commands. So it was then, and so it continues to be. The story of the suffering Christ interprets his sin to the sinner, awakens his conscience, and reveals the need of salvation. The face of the Man of Sorrows, pallid with fatigue, seamed with grief, scarred with wounds, marvelous in pity, compassionate in willingness to suffer — on his face are interwritten the story of man’s sin, and the story of God’s abounding love. "But God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8). The story of the conversion of Red Owl, the great orator of the lower Sioux Indians, but brings up-todate this act of that scene at Pentecost. Red Owl for a long time refused to attend the services of the mission chapel lest he should impair his influence among his people. Once he stalked sullenly into the mission school building, and stopping before a picture, "Ecce Homo," asked, "What is that? Why are his hands bound? Why are those thorns on his head?" The teacher patiently told him the story of the love of Christ for sinners. Red Owl was deeply moved, and came again and again to ask about Jesus. One day, as the missionary was riding over the prairie, he saw a new-made grave, and over it was a plain wooden cross. He was told that Red Owl was dead. He had been taken suddenly ill, and one day said to his young men: "That story which the white man has brought into our country is true. I have it in my heart. When I am dead I wish you to put a cross over my grave that the Indians may see what is in Red Owl’s heart." This little story illustrates how Christ is the Author of faith, and shows how the captain of salvation carries his conquest even into savage hearts. "I know that I am saved, because I was present when it took place, and I know that Christ saved me because he was there too," a man was heard to say, and he spoke truly. Christ is always there when a sinner is saved. He is the Author of the faith which lays hold on salvation. In regeneration Christ is thus inaugurated in the heart and becomes the inaugurator of the great salvation which he achieved in the atonement. What was sufficient becomes efficient. The Effective Ideal. As the Author of faith Christ does not stop with saving us from the penalty of our sins, leaving us to drift without a chart or compass. He not only opens up a way, pointing it out and starting us in it, he himself is the Way. He is the perfect example of that faith which his followers are to imitate, and he is the effective motive of the life they are to live. In all life’s vicissitudes Christ’s example is the ideal and inspiration of the Christian; and especially in the realm of suffering does his sympathy make appeal which transforms sorrow into gladness, and transfigures pain with joy. Having learned obedience with the things which he suffered he is touched by the feeling of our infirmities, and is able to succor those who suffer and are tried. The sorrow of Christ was the sorrow of man, and as such it is akin to all our sorrows. The very perfection of his humanity enabled him unhindered to explore by means of experience the poignant possibilities of sorrow. And, therefore, in a world filled with sorrow, where it is impossible to escape the insistent sounds and sights of grief; where the tragic element is unceasingly present; where "Never morning wore
To evening, but some heart did break;"
where forever some hope is being grimly wrecked, some human body is quivering in mortal anguish, and some home is being plunged into fathomless woe; in this world of these varied agonies, there is a strange, strong comfort to be found in contemplating that picture painted by the prophet and known as the Man of Sorrows, or in reading that terrible, majestic narrative, "Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and began to be sorrowful and sore troubled. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." (Matthew 26:36-38). For those who grieve and suffer there is a most powerful attraction in response to the appeal, "Looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (12:2). "Looking unto Jesus." The word means weigh in the balance. "Weigh this in the balance. Compare this quality of faith with your own. Consider who he was and what you are. When you have well understood the difference, remember that he endured, as you endure, by faith. He put his trust in God. He was faithful to him who had constituted him what he became through his assumption of flesh and blood. He offered prayers and supplications to him who was able to save him out of death, yet piously committed himself to the hands of God. The gainsaying of men brought him to the bloody death of the cross. You also are marshaled in battle array, in the conflict against the sin of the world. But the Leader only has shed his blood — as yet. Your hour may be drawing nigh! Therefore be not weary in striving to reach the goal! Faint not in enduring the conflict!" ("The Expositor’s Bible.") And while he is the soul’s inspiration in trial, he is more. Indeed he is more than the ideal rising before us calling us up unto himself, more than a model to be yearned after and aimed at objectively. He is in addition to all these the soul’s subjective motive, being within us the hope of glory. As the Author of our faith he does more than approach us externally, but in "the hidden man of the heart" he carries forward his blessed work of transformation. CHRIST: THE PERFECTER OF OUR FAITH This name is wide in its meaning, and affords an outlook upon a field immense in its scope and bearings. "Perfecter of our faith." He who inaugurates will carry to completion. The ending must be worthy of the beginning. He is the Perfecter because he himself has been "perfected for ever more," (Hebrews 7:28) and because of the sacrifice which he has made: "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews 10:14). The work which the Perfecter accomplished on behalf of men is generally regarded as a threefold work of reconciliation: First, it is a work accomplished for us, bringing us into harmony with God, and may be stated as the reconciliation between God and man which results in justification. Second, it is a work accomplished in us, harmonizing us with ourselves, and may be stated as the correcting of the schism wrought in man’s nature by sin so that man comes into unison with himself, and this we may call sanctification. Third, it is a work accomplished for the whole universe in which we live. The reconciliation of all things, including man’s physical body which has been disordered and distorted by sin. And this operation as it affects man may be called adoption, or the redemption of the body. Since justification is a fact already accomplished for every believer, and not to be reversed, it is with reference to sanctification and the redemption of the body that Christ is called the Perfecter of faith. The work of salvation which Christ inaugurates as Author he finishes as Perfecter. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. With him there are no fragments, no "broken arcs," no unfinished tasks. "He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Php 1:6). THE LONG FOUGHT BATTLE This continuous work of grace in the soul begins with regeneration and is carried on until the believer stands glorified in the image of Christ. In regeneration though the soul is brought into right relations with God, and its sinful disposition made holy, there still remain evil tendencies which are to be subdued only through a lifelong conflict. Coming in when the soul surrenders in conversion Christ sets up his throne, and then begins the progressive warfare for final victory. "That spirit which he made to dwell in us yearneth for us even unto jealous envy," is the marginal reading of James 4:5, and may be taken as teaching that God’s love, like all other love, longs and demands to have the object of its love wholly for its own, and is jealous of every encroachment upon its rights. In the Christian two men meet in one, but he is to "put away the old man" and "put on the new man." (Ephesians 4:22-24). It is related that when Bourdaloue was probing the conscience of Louis XIV, applying to him the words of Paul, "For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practice," and, intending to paraphrase them, added, " I feel two men in me," the king interrupted the great preacher with the memorable exclamation: "Ah! those two men, I know them well!" Bourdaloue gravely answered: "It is already something to know them, Sire; but this is not enough, one of these two men must perish." In saying this the bold preacher spoke the truth of God. One of the two must perish. In this conflict victory is certain because Christ has undertaken in our behalf, and he will not fail nor be discouraged. "Now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David: and David waxed stronger and stronger, but the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker." (2 Samuel 3:1). The war was long, but it terminated in victory for David because God was on David’s side. In achieving this triumph over evil, even though God be on our side, we must have a share in the conflict. We must be co-workers and co-warriors with God, working out our salvation because it is God who works in us to will and to work according to his good pleasure. To accept Christ is to receive an impulse which energizes the will for the highest and noblest exertion. The perfection of Christian character therefore is conditioned on the cooperation of the human with the divine. This appears in 2 Timothy 2:19 : "Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his: and, Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness." The picture here presented is that of the temple of Christian character, upon whose foundation are written on opposite sides two significant inscriptions. The one declaring God’s power, wisdom, and purpose of salvation. The other declaring the purity and holy activity on the part of the believer, in whom God’s purpose is to be fulfilled. Standing upon this doublesealed foundation the character of the Christian "groweth into a holy temple in the Lord." Setting the Poem to Music. In this upward yearning after holiness Christ is the inspiration. In this conflict Christ is the believer’s nourisher, support and guide. That is a most beautiful confession which Henry Drummond makes of his faith: "The recoverableness of a man at his worst is the gift of Christ; the forgiveness of sins comes by Christ’s cross; the power to set the heart right is Christ’s grant; the hope of immortality springs from Christ’s grave; religion means a personal trust in God, a personal debt to Christ, a personal dedication to his cause." This gift and cross and hope and trust and dedication form the warp into which our own endeavors and strivings must be woven so as to result in the sanctified life. Our creeds must be transformed into deeds. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10). Instead of saying workmanship let us use the word that is almost Greek in its very form, and say we are God’s poem. God is the poet, we are the poem. But a poem is written with the view to be sung. When it is sung it then becomes a harmony and triumph. Only when, as God’s poems, we are set to music do we attain the end which God ordained and designed for us. "Created in Christ Jesus for good works." We are the poems, the good works are the music. By this scripture it must not be inferred that good works are the object of the new creation, but that they are involved in it as an inseparable condition upon which the new creation itself was accomplished. A common error with regard to the doctrine of sanctification is the contention that the Christian may in this life become perfectly free from sin. The only answer to be urged against this view is found in the five-fold exhortation of the context in which we are urged to look to Jesus. We are urged: First, to " lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us." Second, to "run with patience the race which is set before us." Third, to look unto Jesus. Forth, to consider him that hath endured. Fifth, to strive against sin. All these exhortations are evidently made on the assumption that we may not be free from sin and from the necessity of striving against it, until the race shall have been finished and we have entered in glory with him who endured and sat down on the throne. Against the doctrine of "final perseverance" is opposed the error of apostasy or " falling from grace," in support of which is cited the following passage: "For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." (6:4-6). Only two things need be said about this scripture: First, it is an impliably hypothetical case as is shown in verse nine which says: "But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak." And second, if this and similar passages teach the possibility of apostasy, they go still farther and teach the impossibility of restoration, since he who apostatizes has apostatized forever. The above and all other objections to the doctrine of progressive sanctification and final perseverance must disappear when we remember that they are conditioned not upon ourselves, but upon Christ. Of the one he is the motive, of the other he is the inspiration. In regard to these two doctrines in a very particular sense he is the Perfecter. The very name means one who stands at the end and sees the work completed. This conception of Christ is the mightiest incentive to all righteous life. "The soul, whose sight all quickening grace renews,
Takes the resemblance of the good she views
As diamonds stripped of their opaque disguise,
Reflect the noonday glory of the skies."
The man who spends months in the great art galleries of the world living in the presence of the masterful pictures, carefully studying their proportion and beauty, will be astonished what daubs the so-called works of art, which he used to admire, appear to be when he comes back to look at them. And so he who has been in communion with Jesus Christ, contemplating his grace, glory, and faithfulness, will not be over-tempted by the coarse pleasures offered to him in the world. It is said that there are certain kinds of sea weeds which lie at the bottom of the sea, and, as their flowering time approaches, they elongate their stalks, rise to reach the light, and float upon the surface. When they have flowered and fruited they sink again into the depths. Whoever has Christ in his soul will not, can not, remain in the depths, but must rise to the source of the life which dwells within. Like the sea weeds he will rise to the place where his heart can flower. "One indeed I knew
In many a subtle question versed,
Who touched a jarring lyre at first,
But ever strove to make it true:
Perplexed in faith, but pure in deeds,
At last he beat his music out."
"To Wit, the Redemption of our Body." After consideration of the nature of Christ’s work in reconciliation which results in the believer’s spiritual sanctification, there remains to be noticed his mission of reconciliation which is operative in all creation and which concerns man directly as it relates to the redemption of the body. Christ came to save men’s bodies as well as their souls, or, more correctly, Christ came to save men — souls and bodies together. Of his thirty-two recorded miracles no fewer than twenty-three, or more than two-thirds of the whole, were of healing, and it is quite certain that those on record are only a few in comparison with the many of which the details are not given. Said Jesus, "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." "To save the world." That was the errand of Christ. Not merely to save a certain number of people out of the world and to bear them safely away to another world* but to save the world. "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." (Romans 8:22-23). Too wide application can hardly be given to this scripture which entitles us to the expectation that our salvation is to have an immense scope, including the earth and all its tribes of life — the physical world as well as the social world and the moral world. It is a true insight of faith in the Perfecter of faith which makes the poet say: "The world we live in wholly is redeemed; Not man alone, but all that man holds dear: His orchards and his maize: forget-me-not And heartsease in his garden, and the wild Aerial blossoms of the untamed wood, That make its savagery so homelike; all Have felt Christ’s sweet love watering their root: His sacrifice has won both earth and heaven, Nature in all its fullness is the Lord’s. There are no Gentile oaks, no Pagan pines; The grass beneath our feet is Christian grass; The wayside weed is sacred unto him. Have we not groaned together, herbs and men, Struggling through stifling earth-weights unto light, Earnestly longing to be clothed upon
With one high possibility of bloom?"
In his book " The Meaning and Message of the Cross," Dr. Henry C. Mabie discusses ably the question of the relation of the reconciling work of Christ to the redemption of the body, and says, "That there is such a relation close and organic, embracing even the whole cosmos, is undoubtedly the teaching of the scriptures. As the natural death common to our mortal state springs out of sin, so the cure of death —’ the last enemy that shall be destroyed ’— is organically connected in revelation with the redeeming work of Christ." On the same subject Dr. James Orr, in his notable book "God’s Image in Man," has a passage which is substantially as follows: "The ripest philosophy concerning man, and especially as he is revealed in the Bible, is coming to see that the body is as really a part of man’s personality as is the soul. It is not a mere vesture serving as a temporary prison-house of the soul, but is a part of ourselves. The soul, indeed, may survive the body, but man was not created incorporeal spirit. The soul was designed to inhabit the body, and was never intended, in the whole of its life, to subsist apart from it. Hence, death also, in the true Biblical point of view, is not something natural to man, but must be regarded as something violent and unnatural, the rupture of that which was never meant to be disjoined. Even while the soul, after physical death has ensued, survives the body, the soul is still regarded as, in a real sense, imperfect and weakened, in a condition temporarily awaiting its final rehabilitation. So, when we apprehend the real import of Christ’s death in behalf of mankind, we behold that everywhere in the New Testament the very kernel of his reconciling death is found in his submission to death, and for the manifest reason that death was that in which was expressed the judgment of God upon the sin of our race." In coming, therefore, to save man, not in part, but in whole, Christ submits to death for the evident reason that death was that in which was expressed the judgment of God upon the sin of the race; thus being " made sin for us" and " becoming a curse for us," he abolished death and "brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." (2 Timothy 1:10). In the light of this teaching a very practical question clamoring for consideration in this hour is, when may we expect this result of the reconciling work of Christ, the redemption of the body, to take place? In discussing this question grateful acknowledgment is made to Dr. Mabie in his book mentioned above. By some it is urged that nothing but a lack of faith stands in the way of realizing the bodily new creation which is germinal in the new spiritual birth. Indeed that by an act of faith the perfect health of the body may be fully claimed and realized at any time. While protesting against such sweeping claims made by the socalled faith cure devotees, it does not seem wise to antagonize or abuse in a wholesale way the belief in the divine healing of the body. Doubtless there is much that should be opposed and much more which sadly needs correction in regard to this belief, but we shall lose nothing and probably gain much more by conceding cordially that "in principle the work of Christ covers all results that may be embraced under the health, the moral perfection, and even the glorification of the human body as an object of redemption. It should be urged, however, that this result is included in the work of Christ only potentially, and that we should not look for its complete manifestation in the present time." There is no doubt that God in his compassion may and does in many instances answer prayer in the healing of sickness. Experience attests the truth of this statement. Sometimes in a most extraordinary way Jesus has made himself known among us as the Great Physician, able and willing to restore. With grateful, joyful hearts many can speak out of the most precious experiences and say: "The healing of his seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain,
We touch him in life’s throng and press,
And we are whole again."
On the other hand experience demonstrates with equal certainty that these results are exceptional since in every case all men finally succumb to disease and death. However, these exceptional results should be received as evidences of God’s superhuman grace to the suffering, and should be a source of cheer to all Christian hearts. Sometimes he hears our prayers in the healing of our friends, sometimes we know that though we have prayed earnestly, our friends are not healed. What conclusion shall we draw? Possibly it would be better not to draw conclusions nor undertake to make up the case until all the facts have been brought in. One thing is clear, that though our Lord imparted to the early disciples the power to heal, this power was not always exercised. On the island of Melita Paul prayed for the father of Publius, laid his hands on him, and healed him of his sickness. Here he healed a heathen man whom he had never known before, and whom possibly he never saw again. On another occasion he did not heal his friend, Trophimus, who had been a faithful witness and patient sufferer on behalf of Christianity. "Trophimus I left at Miletus, sick." Here the heathen stranger was restored, while the Christian friend was not restored. The father of Publius at Melita was healed while Trophimus was left at Miletus sick. Why did Paul heal the one and not the other? The answer is not given. One thing is certain, that the healing power was not used all the time even by those who possessed it unmistakably. The fact that Trophimus was left sick at Miletus is not recorded as an indictment against the faith of Paul, nor against the faith of Trophimus. One other thing may be said with regard to those who exercised this healing power in the apostolic days. They all finally died, as did-those who had been healed. The only possible inference then is that this healing power was exceptional, then as now. But while this is the case it should not weaken our faith in Christ as the Healer and Redeemer. In the roll call of faith in the eleventh chapter a long list of heroes is given and their mighty deeds are celebrated. They subdued kingdoms, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the dangers of the sword, and achieved other noble triumphs. Yet is said, "These all died." The fact of their death is not mentioned as an indictment against their faith. Indeed it is not presumed that faith would save them from suffering imprisonment, stoning, affliction, ill treatment, and death, but that it would save them through these things by holding before them the hope " that they might obtain a better resurrection." This then is the triumph of faith. Faith’s finest utterance is heard when the suffering soul exclaims: "Though he slay me, yet will I wait for him." (Job 13:15). One thing is certain, and it is this: That experience and scripture teach that it is not God’s purpose for us to live in this present world without suffering and to be translated finally into glory without dying, "Inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die." (9:27). In this world of suffering and death Christ himself trod uncomplainingly, seeking and giving no explanation except in these words: "Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory?" (Luke 24:26). There is Consolation. Though experience and scripture do teach that suffering and death are inevitable, we are not left without alleviation and comfort, and we do wrong to ourselves while dishonoring our Saviour if we do not accept the consolations which are offered. It is very easy in affliction to become impatient and petulant, thus aggravating our souls and intensifying our sufferings. When disease comes in and the bodily functions become disturbed it is the tendency for human nature to fall into depression and brood over its ills. This inclination thus to nurse our ailments until they become chronic, to allow heart and mind and faith to become flatulent while the bodily tissues relax and weaken, is a frightful evil and should be resisted. The most effective preventative of this deplorable condition is found in the fact of the work of Christ in reconciling and eliminating discord and schism in the world, including physical afflictions, and in the further blessed fact that by his indwelling within us through his Spirit he so enlarges and strengthens the soul as to result in its quickened vitality, while the physical being is correspondingly invigorated; and even in cases where prayer is not specifically answered and health restored, a greater triumph than regained health is achieved, as the sufferer, whose strength is ebbing away day by day, can say in high hopefulness and joyous confidence in God: "Wherefore we faint not: but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). Never has this writer witnessed more positive evidence of the presence and power of Christ as the Perfecter of faith than he has beheld in the sick-room. A Field that Promises Victory. In the matter of preserving bodily health, as in the matter of the progressive sanctification of the spirit, there is necessity for working together with the Lord of life and faith, both by prayer and the use of means at hand. As we approach nearer the true interpretation of the words and works of Christ we appreciate more perfectly the place of the healing art in the progress of the gospel. It is a notable fact that learning and Christianity were long in finding their proper and helpful attitude toward each other; but this attitude once discovered, Christianity became the fosterer of learning, as is evidenced in its being the founder of practically all the great universities in the world; while on the other hand learning has been the aggressive and faithful coadjutor of Christianity in their common warfare against ignorance and unbelief, so Whittier sings: "Nor heeds the sceptic’s puny hands,
While near the school the church-spire stands;
Nor fears the blinding bigot’s rule,
While near the church-spire stands the school."
Even so medical science and the healing art are coming into closer fellowship with Christianity. On the foreign mission fields the medical missionary has gone hand in hand with the evangelist, and often in advance of him, so that it has been said that China was opened to the gospel " at the point of a lance." Responding to this reflex influence from the mission fields, in the home lands the physician and the pastor are coming to know as never before the common aim of their mission, and the day is near at hand when not only the church and school must stand side by side, but the church and hospital will be built together, with the result that a church will be thought derelict in duty if it fails to make provision for alleviating the bodily sufferings not only of its own members, but as far as practicable of the entire community. In this field we are to win our next great victories for Christ, and here will be furnished the complete answer to the propaganda of Christian Scientists and other faith curers. In that day, JEsculapius will not be called the god of the healing art, but Jesus Christ will still further come into his own and be recognized as the Lord Healer and head of the noble medical profession. Not until then will we know him as the Perfecter of faith even in this world under present conditions. Looking for the High Dawn. "High dawn." That is what sailors call day-light first seen above a bank of clouds. That is what we are looking for in our present estate. The apostles and all the early Christians looked for it, and called it "the coming of the day of Jesus Christ." "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." (Romans 8:22-23). Here we are brought face to face with an awful mystery which we do not understand because it has been left unexplained. It is declared that the whole creation is groaning and longing for deliverance from the slavery of death, but that this groaning shall at last cease, and the longed-for liberty be gained. At that time the children of God, now patiently awaiting the redemption of the body, shall be glorified in common with all creation. Within this present period of waiting we are, so to speak, imprisoned, but though the day of deliverance is delayed, there is no cause for despair, but we are urged to look forward expectantly. "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to usward." (Romans 8:18). While we wait we hope, the ground for hope being Christ, since from him we have received the firstfruits of our salvation and already hold in our bodies the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, that is to say, the resurrection of the body. "Thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he subjected all things unto him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we see not yet all things subjected to him." (2:8). What a glorious word is here spoken on the exaltation of Christ. If the question be raised whether or not this reference bears upon the deliverance from death we may look for answer in the latter part of the verse, "But now we see not yet all things subjected to him." The inference is that though all things are not actually put under him, yet they are potentially, and in this assurance we may wait for the potential redemption of our bodies to become actual. Lest, however, we should be depressed by the delay of that for which we look, the writer adds: "But we behold Jesus," and he is the archetype and guarantee of what we ourselves are to be. We see him who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, and while we look upon him who has been thus perfected and so becomes the Perfecter of our faith, the truth dawns upon us that "he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." (2:11). We are then related to him, bound up with him, contained in him, so that all which he has accomplished both actual and potential has been for us, and though we suffer here until at last death overtakes us, we will not merely "pull the drapery of our couch around us and lie down to pleasant dreams," but will rather rise in certain faith in him who has overcome all things. And though we die we will die with the note of triumph on our lips: "O grave, where is thy victory,
O death, where is thy sting!"
confident that at last we shall be perfect in him who is the Perfecter, and, in body as well as in spirit, be made like him who has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. The Foci of Faith’s Ellipse. To the Hebrew Christians these things must have brought joy and comfort as they were urged to look to Christ, the Author and Perfecter of their faith. We, in common with them, are prone to suffer much because of our small conception of Christ. We have undertaken to measure him by standards far too small. The enrichment of Christian life depends upon enlargement of the view of Christ. Possibly no two words could have been chosen which would more fittingly serve as the foci of the infinite ellipse of imaginative faith than these two here used, Author and Perfecter. A single illustration culled from the period of trial in the history of the Jewish people will serve to show how complete and farreaching is the work which Christ undertakes for his people. In Zechariah 4:9 these words are found: "Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you." Here the prophet Zechariah gives the word of assurance to the men grown old in service who had taken the first spadeful of soil out of the earth in preparation for that second house which in some humble fashion was to replace and represent the finished glory of Solomon’s temple. This man who had laid the foundation of the temple, declared the prophet, should, though estopped for twenty years by the hostility of the surrounding people, live " to bring forth the head stone with shoutings of ¹ Grace unto it.’" This good word spoken for the advantage of this builder of the temple has a bearing upon the work of that mightier temple builder, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. More broadly than they knew spoke his neighbors around Nazareth when they called him "the carpenter," since it is he who is building the eternal temple of God and of him it may be truly said, "His hands have laid the foundation of the house, and his hand shall also finish it." To John in Patmos he declared, " I am Alpha and Omega,"— the first letter of the Greek alphabet and the last letter of the Greek alphabet. Between these two all the other letters are included as well as all the words that can be formed from these letters. All comes from him and is included in him. He underlies everything, and in him all things consist. He has laid the foundation and his hands shall also finish it. Why should those Hebrew Christians fear even though their nation is scattered, and their capital city destroyed? Why should any Christian fear or doubt, seeing that he is engrasped within the purpose and program of him who is here styled the Author and Perfecter?