2.03.15. The bane and the antidote

XV. THE BANE AND THE ANTIDOTE.

“Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all gwle and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” — 1 Peter 2:1-2. HIS is not a converting word, but a word for the converted. Here are precepts for practice. The deep things of God, both in the covenant of grace and in the conversion of men, have been fully set forth. But these are not left merely as the materials of a creed; they are employed as the power that shall purify the life. The particle “ wherefore “ is the visible link that connects doctrine and practice. Ye have been forgiven and renewed; therefore put off the evil and put on the good. “ Ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are his.” “ Let every man that hath this hope in him purify himself even as he is pure.” In accordance with the facts of human experience, and with the whole analogy of faith, the precept here is twosided. It points at once to the evil that must be discarded, and the good that must be admitted in its stead. That which has first possession must be expelled, in order that the faculties of the new man may have room to expand and operate. Following the order of nature, the apostle first names the tenants in possession, and serves them with a writ of ejectment.

These are arranged in three compartments, with the universal “ all “ attached to eacL

1. All malice.

2. AU gmle. and hypocrisies, and envies.

3. All evil speakings. The first term is general It indicates the soil in which the roots of bitterness grow — badness. The group of three under the second head represent evil thoughts teeming in the heart, like invisible seeds that lie in the ground ready to spring up on the first favourable opportunity. And the third is the issue of the inner thoughts by the readiest channel upon the outward life.

Alas, evil speaking floods the world as some weeds cover the fields in early summer! My heart was made sad in some journeys last year, as I saw many large tracts of grain almost hidden by a yellow sea of flowering weeds. For the time you think it is not possible that any of the comcan come to perfection. Even there, however, a harvest is reaped; but the harvest would have been heavier, if the fields had been clean. Evil speaking, like one dominant weed, covers the surface of society, and chokes in great measure the growth of the good seed.

Christians, ye are God’s husbandry — ploughed field: put away these bitter things in their seed-thoughts and in their matured actions, that ye may be fruitful unto him. K the multitude of words spoken by professing Christians in disparagement of their neighbours were reduced first by the omission of all that is not strictly true and fair; and next by the omission of all that is not spoken with a good object in view; and next by the omission of all that, though spoken with a good intention, is unwisely spoken, and mischievous in its results; — the remainder would, like Gideon’s army, be very small in number, but very select in kind. The residuum would consist only of the testimony of true men against wickedness, which truth and faithfulness, as in God*s sight, compelled them to utter. The positive precept that follows is conceived and expressed in the form of a most interesting and obvious analogy. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word.” The terms translated milk of the word certainly and simply mean, milk not in a literal but spiritual sense. It is the same epithet that is employed (Romans 12:1) to signify that the service or divine worship expected from Christians is not material offerings of sheep and goats, but a reasonable — that is, a spiritual in contradistinction from a material — service. It is an act of the human soul, worshipping God a Spirit, through faith in the one Mediator. So here, in making use of the word milk, the apostle does not leave it to be inferred, he expressly intimates that it is spiritual milk he means. And by further introducing “babes” into the analogy, he more clearly explains his meaning to be the food provided and suited for the young spiritual life, corresponding to the food provided in nature for a new-born child.

Spiritual hunger and thirst are as real as the corresponding appetites of the body, and as commanding. Saul of Tarsus, when that new hunger began its cravings in his soul, abandoned material food and drink for three whole days. The spiritual hunger was stronger than the natural, and overbore it. Such also was the experience of the Master himself when “ he waited at the well of Jacob.” Though hungry, he declined to eat the bread his disciples offered, because his appetite for another bread overbore and for the time silenced the appetites of nature. He was so satisfied with the act of imparting salvation to a lost sinner, that he forgot to eat his daily bread. So then the prescription which this beloved physician administers to invalids is spiritual or soul milk. We are not at a loss to understand his meaning; for Christ has presented himself alike to the newly converted and the experienced as the food whereby they must live and grow.

’’ Except ye eat the flesh and diink the blood of the Son of man, ye have no life in you.” As new-born babes desire the milk, and drink it, so the born again come to the Word, and get out of his fulness the supply of all their need.

Observe now the relation in which the negative and the positive stand to each other. Although the precept about putting off first meets our eye on the page, the act is not represented as taking precedence in point of time. It is neither first put off the evil, and then admit the good; nor first take in the good, and then get quit of the eviL The language of the text determines that the two acts are strictly simultaneous. The form of the sentence is — “ Laying aside these, desire this.” This is scientifically correct as well as scripturally true. The coming of Christ unto his own — to the throne of a human heart — “ is like the morning.” And how does the morning come? Is it first that the light comes, and then the darkness departs? or first the darkness departs, and then the light advances?

It is neither. As the light advances, the darkness recedes. The processes are strictly simultaneous; but in nature the advance of light is the cause, and the departure of darkness the effect. Such, also, is the rule in the spiritual sphere.

It is indeed tnie that evil must depart to let in the good; but it is the advance of the good that drives the evil before it. Christ is the stronger who overcomes the strong, and casts him out, and reigns in his stead. To take in the milk and retain also the envies and evil speakings, will give neither comfort nor growth. The effort to mmgle these opposites mars the happiness of many a life, and distorts all its testimony for the truth of the gospel. To pour in the milk on the head of these manifold corruptions still retained and cherished, produces neither health nor strength. The milk so mingled sours, and so disturbs. No man can serve two masters. As David’s house waxes stronger, the house of the deposed and apostate monarch must wax more feeble.