======================================================================== WRITINGS OF G CAMPBELL MORGAN - VOLUME 1 by G. Campbell Morgan ======================================================================== A collection of theological writings, sermons, and essays by G. Campbell Morgan (Volume 1), compiled for study and devotional reading. Chapters: 100 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 00.00. Morgan, G. Campbell - Library 2. 01.00.1. A First Century Message to Twentieth Century Christians 3. 01.00.2. INTRODUCTORY 4. 01.01. THE VISION AND THE VOICE 5. 01.02. THE EPHESUS LETTER 6. 01.03. THE SMYRNA LETTER 7. 01.04. THE PERGAMUM LETTER 8. 01.05. THE THYATIRA LETTER 9. 01.06. THE SARDIS LETTER 10. 01.07. THE PHILADELPHIA LETTER 11. 01.08. THE LAODICEA LETTER 12. 02.00. All Things New 13. 02.01. A Message to New Converts 14. 02.02. The New Fact 15. 02.03. The New Responsibility 16. 02.04. New Perils 17. 02.05. The New Resources 18. 02.06. New Activities 19. 03.00. Christian Principles 20. 03.000. Forward 21. 03.01. Chapter 1 22. 03.02. Chapter 2 23. 03.03. Chapter 3 24. 03.04. Chapter 4 25. 03.05. Chapter 5 26. 03.06. Chapter 6 27. 04.0.2. Discipleship 28. 04.0.3. Authors Note 29. 04.0.4. Contents 30. 04.01. Becoming a Disciple 31. 04.02. First Lessons 32. 04.03. The Method of Advancement 33. 04.04. The Disciple at Home 34. 04.05. The Disciple at Business 35. 04.06. The Disciple at Play 36. 04.07. The Disciple as a Friend 37. 04.08. The Disciple at Work for the Master 38. 04.09. The Disciple in Sorrow 39. 04.10. The Disciple in Joy 40. 04.11. The Disciple Going Home 41. 04.12. The Disciple in Glory 42. 05.0.0. Evangelism 43. 05.0.1. Contents 44. 05.01. The Evangel 45. 05.02. The Church Evangelistic 46. 05.03. The Evangelist 47. 05.04. The Evangelistic Service 48. 05.05. The Present Opportunity 49. 06.0.0. Gods Methods With Man 50. 06.0.1. Authors Note 51. 06.0.2. Contents 52. 06.01. Introductory 53. 06.02. From Creation to Christ 54. 06.03. The Dispensation of the Spirit 55. 06.04. The Coming of Christ 56. 06.05. Daniels Missing Week 57. 06.06. The Events of the Missing Week 58. 06.07. The Dawn of a Golden Age 59. 06.08. The Golden Age 60. 06.09. After the Thousand Years 61. 06.10. The Purifying Hope 62. 06.11. Appendix 63. 07.00.1. God's Perfect Will 64. 07.00.3. Dedication 65. 07.00.4. Prologue 66. 07.01. The Message Of The Old Testament 67. 07.02. The Message Of The New Testament 68. 07.03. A Threefold Demand 69. 07.04. Provides Perfection 70. 07.05. Procures Pleasure 71. 07.06. Promises Perpetuity 72. 07.07. Practicable Because Of Its Nature 73. 07.08. Practicable Because Revealed 74. 07.09. Practicable By New Life 75. 07.10. The Ultimate Realization 76. 07.11. Epilogue 77. 08.0.0. Life Problems 78. 08.0.1. Contents 79. 08.01. Self 80. 08.02. Enviroment 81. 08.03. Heredity 82. 08.04. Spiritual Antagonism 83. 08.05. Influence 84. 08.06. Destiny 85. 09.00. Living Messagess of the Books of the Bible 86. 09.000. Introduction 87. 09.01. Genesis 88. 09.02. Exodus 89. 09.03. Leviticus 90. 09.04. Numbers 91. 09.05. Deuteronomy 92. 09.06. Joshua 93. 09.07. Judges 94. 09.08. Ruth 95. 09.09. 1 Samuel 96. 09.10. 2 Samuel 97. 09.11. 1 Kings 98. 09.12. 2 Kings 99. 09.13. 1 Chronicles 100. 09.14. 2 Chronicles ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: 00.00. MORGAN, G. CAMPBELL - LIBRARY ======================================================================== Moody, Dwight L. - Library Moody, Dwight L. - Best Thoughts and Discourses Moody, Dwight L. - Bible Characters Moody, Dwight L. - Heaven Moody, Dwight L. - Men of the Bible Moody, Dwight L. - Moody’s Anecdotes and Illustrations Moody, Dwight L. - My Church Moody, Dwight L. - Pleasure Profit in Bible Study Moody, Dwight L. - Previaling Prayer Moody, Dwight L. - Secret Power Moody, Dwight L. - Sovereign Grace Moody, Dwight L. - Sowing and Reaping Moody, Dwight L. - The Holy Ghost Moody, Dwight L. - The Home-Work of DL Moody Moody, Dwight L. - The Ten Commandments Moody, Dwight L. - The Way to God Moody, Dwight L. - To the Work To the Work S. Bible Marking S. Biblical Word Study S. Biography of Dwight Lyman Moody S. Christ All in All S. CHRIST’S BOUNDLESS COMPASSION S. Christian Love S. Come Thou and All Thy House Unto the Ark S. Does God Answer Prayer? S. Dwight Moody on Masonry S. EIGHT “I WILLS” OF CHRIST S. Enduement for Service S. Good News for Everyone! S. Heaven Inhabitants S. Heaven: Its Hope S. Hell S. Humility S. Instantaneous Salvation S. Lost and Found S. Moody’s Stories S. NAAMAN THE SYRIAN S. ONE WORD — “GOSPEL” S. Popular Excuses to Avoid Salvation S. Prayers By Dwight L. Moody S. Repentance S. Rest S. Results of True Repentence S. Shall We Meet Our Loved Ones Again? S. That Gospel Sermon on the Blessed Hope S. THE BLOOD S. The Lord’s Work S. THE NEW BIRTH S. The Overcoming Life S. The Qualifications for Soul Winning S. The Reward of the Faithful S. The Seven I Wills of Jesus S. THE WAY OF SALVATION S. To the Afflicted S. Tomorrow May Be Too Late S. True Wisdom S. What Must I Do To Be Saved? S. What Think Ye of Christ S. Where Art Thou? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: 01.00.1. A FIRST CENTURY MESSAGE TO TWENTIETH CENTURY CHRISTIANS ======================================================================== A FIRST CENTURY MESSAGE TO TWENTIETH CENTURY CHRISTIANS By G. Campbell Morgan ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: 01.00.2. INTRODUCTORY ======================================================================== INTRODUCTORY IN order to a proper understanding of the purpose of the letters to the churches of Asia, it is necessary that some word should be spoken concerning the book in which they are to be found. This book contains the last messages of Christ to men. In some important ways it differs from any other in the Divine Library. John did not receive it by the inspiration of the Spirit in the ordinary sense of that expression, but directly from Jesus Christ, as He appeared to him while in exile in Patmos. The usual title, “The Revelation of St. John, the Divine” is misleading, as the opening words of the book will show, which read, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show unto His servants.” Perhaps no book has been more neglected than this Revelation of Jesus Christ, and yet it the only one that opens with a distinct and three-fold blessing pronounced, a blessing first, upon those who read, secondly, upon those who hear, thirdly, upon those who keep the things that are written therein. There must be some deep significance in this introductory pronouncement, and because of the difficulty of interpretation, the Church has no right to neglect her Master’s last message. Yet while it is true that no book has been so sadly neglected, it is also true that around no book has there waged more persistent controversy. So keen has that controversy been, that we find Christian people divided into distinct schools of thought about it, and we hear of Preterist, Presentist, Futurist, and Spiritual interpretations. These differences have no detailed place in our present discussion. Our business lies only with the messages to the churches. That we may see their place, some word must be said about the general character of the book. The book of Revelation is not primarily a book of Church truth. It is a book of judgment in the broadest sense of that word, judgment, that is, as the method and government of God. It reveals the consummation of the world’s history, and gives a panorama of God’s final dealings with the earth. We find ourselves largely back in the realm of Old Testament truth. Jehovah is introduced in language in keeping with the thoughts suggested by that name to the ancient Hebrew people, “Him which is and which was and which is to come.” The Holy Spirit is spoken of, not as the unified personality that men came to know through the work of Christ, and Who appears in the Epistles of the New Testament. He is seen rather as seven Spirits, that is, in the perfection of activity, and these Spirits, moreover, are before the throne. Jesus is the “faithful Witness, the First-born from the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth;” while the Church, loved and loosed from sin, is a kingdom of priests, perfected in their number, and save in the early chapters, occupying a place in glory. Thus God is revealed as supreme in the government of the universe, the Spirit as the light and activity of that government, and Jesus as the faithful Witness, and as ruling the kings of the earth. The outlook of Revelation is larger than the Church of Christ. It deals, not with the relation of God as Father to the company of saved in the Church, but to His larger relation as King and Governor of the whole earth. There has been a great deal of cloudy thinking and teaching on these subjects. Many seem to imagine that the Church and the Kingdom of God are one and the same thing. The fact is that the Kingdom of God is infinitely larger than V the Church, and includes that whole realm over which God is King, and in which that Kingship will finally be established. To-day the Church recognizes and submits to that Kingship. The time will come when all nations shall recognize and submit. The Church is an instrument to that end. And yet she is a complete entity within herself, having her specific vocation in future ages. The whole book of Revelation reveals the final stages in the work of God with humanity. No one has perfectly understood all its teaching. Its great principles are evident. It shows the final overthrow of evil, and the setting up of the eternal Kingdom of God. It moreover teaches us that that overthrow and that setting up will be realized through Jesus the anointed King. In all probability the key to the division of the book is to be found in the words, “Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter.” This verse divides the book, and marks the subjects upon which John was commissioned by Jesus to write. “The things which thou sawest.” “The things which are.” “The things which shall come to pass after these.” The first of these undoubtedly has reference • to the vision of glory that John looked upon, the second to the condition of things existent as described in the seven letters to the churches, and the things “after these” are the final things, the chronicle of which commences in Revelation 4:1. Let it be noted that in Revelation 1:19, the word “hereafter” is a translation of the two words μετὰ ταῦτα, and in Revelation 4:1, “after these things” is a translation of the same two words. Thus evidently the third division begins at the fourth chapter, and from there to the end we have unfulfilled prophecy. With this section of the book we have now nothing to do. Our particular subject is the second division, “the things which are.” Of this there have been three interpretations. First, that the epistles were actually written to seven churches at the time existing in Asia. Second, that the epistles contain an unfolding of the condition of the Church in successive stages of its history. Third, that the epistles give a picture of seven conditions of Church life to be found continuously in the history of the Church of Christ. My own conviction is that all these are true. I propose however, to consider them in the light of the first and third, that is to say, as letters written to actual churches, and as having perpetual application to some phase of Church life. While there is very little doubt that they do reveal a process in the history of the Church, upon that phase of their teaching I do not intend to touch. We shall first look at the vision which arrested John in the Isle of Patmos, then at the seven epistles, endeavouring to gather their message to the age in which we live; so that we are to give attention to a first century message to twentieth century Christians. In dealing with each of the epistles, we shall notice four distinct matters, Christ’s title. Christ’s commendation. Christ’s complaint. Christ’s counsel. These will not always be in this exact order, for in some cases either commendation or complaint is omitted, but for these as main points of interest we shall look in our studies. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: 01.01. THE VISION AND THE VOICE ======================================================================== THE VISION AND THE VOICE “And I turned to see the voice which spake with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the midst of the lampstands One like unto a Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle. And His head and His hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and His voice as the voice of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.” “The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven lampstands are seven churches.” — Revelation 1:12-16; Revelation 1:20. WHEN in the loneliness of Patmos John heard a voice behind him, he “turned to see . . . and having turned he saw.” The vision that fell upon him was present during all the messages he received for the churches, lending value and emphasis to these messages. If we therefore are to understand, we also must see the vision. Let us take a general survey, note the first impression produced, and then proceed to a careful examination of the central figure. “Having turned he saw seven golden lampstands. . . . One like unto a Son of man. . . . He had in His right hand seven stars.” He first beheld seven golden lampstands. “Lampstand” is a better translation, and far more perfectly conveys the true symbolism. A candlestick presupposes a kind of light which is selfconsumptive. (A lampstand presupposes a light which may be perpetually fed by oil, and in Scripture, oil is constantly emblematic of the Holy Spirit. Of these lampstands the Master Himself gives the interpretation. “The seven lampstands are seven churches.” Thus each individual church is seen as a centre of light. Then “in the midst of the lampstands” he saw “One like unto a Son of man.” Thus Christ is seen in all human sympathy, presiding over the churches in the exercise of their function. He moreover notices that in the right hand of the Son of man were seven stars, and here again we have the interpretation of the Lord, “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.” The first impression produced by the vision is peculiar, and apparently contradictory. It is evidently a night scene, as witness the lampstands and the stars, and yet it is a day scene, for behold, the countenance of the Son of man is “as the sun shineth in his strength.” John beheld as in a vision, the Church in its present relation and responsibility to Christ and the world. The night all around is the world’s darkness. The only light shining upon that darkness is that which comes from the lampstands. The vision of Christ’s face as that of the sun, is a revelation of what He is to His people. To them it is day time. “For ye are all sons of light, and sons of the day: we are not of the flight, nor of darkness.” The Church is here seen as the light bearer, with Christ as unifying Centre and directing Authority. Christ Himself in the midst of the seven lampstands creates their unity. The unity of the Church consists in the common relationship of each church to the Lord Himself Who is present in the midst. In His right hand He holds the messengers, and herein is revealed the true position that ministry occupies in the Christian Church, whether it be the ministry of authoritative teaching as given through the apostles, the ministry of prophetic utterance, the ministry of evangelization, or that of the pastoral office. Christ the truth, the angel His messenger, the Church that to which truth is made known by the messenger, and in which truth is embodied, that its light may fall upon the surrounding darkness. No man can be a messenger of the Master and the Church save as he is held in the right hand of Jesus, and interprets, not J his own idea concerning the Church’s wellbeing, nor the Church’s wish concerning its function, but the will of the Master. The messenger has no authority in himself, no authority which he derives from the Church over which he presides. His authority is the communicated authority of the Son of man, Who is Lord and Master of the whole. In the midst of the world’s night, the Church unified by the presence of the Lord, diversified in the seven lampstands, is a light shining in a dark place. This perfectly sets forth the one responsibility of every church of Jesus Christ. It is to be a medium through which the essential Light of the world shall shine upon the world’s darkness. A most important principle to be perpetually borne in mind by those who would fulfil the highest function of Church life is that the world waits for light, and the Church’s only capacity for shedding the light, 4 is that she should live in the day which the face of Christ creates for her. No church and no individual member of a church, can fling across the darkness one ray or gleam of light save as that church or that person lives in the sunshine created by the shining of His face. When the Master was here He said “I am the Light of the world.” That Light was eclipsed in the darkness of Calvary’s Cross, but from behind the dense cloud, it broke again to shine upon all those who receive life by the way of that Cross, and through them to flash upon the night of the world. Thus having seen the general scheme, before passing to a close consideration of the central Figure, we pause for a moment to look again at the lampstands and at the stars. Let it be emphasized that the lampstands are not the sources of light but the bearers of light, also that their number is seven, and that they are golden. So that if they do not in themselves create light, it is evident that the medium upon which the light is to rest, and from which it is to flash upon the darkness, must be heavenly and perfect. While we have no light of our own with which to help men in the darkness, for God’s light must shine upon and through us, we must in order to that shining, know what it is to partake of that nature which is symbolized by the gold of the sanctuary. Thus we have a symbolism of function, and a symbolism of character. The stars held in His right hand are symbols of the fact that ministry to be effective, must be of heavenly character, revolving solely around the central sun. In reverently examining the central figure, we notice first His position. He is “in the midst of the lampstands,” unifying them into one whole, and directing them by individual messages, showing His intimate acquaintance with the details of each. His general appearance is that of the Son of man. It is important to remember that this phrase occurs in the Gospel narratives with regard to the Master, eighty-five times, and of these, Christ Himself makes use of it eightythree. The first detail of the vision is a symbolism of function, and the second a symbolism of character. His function is suggested by His robing. “Clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle.” Two things are suggested by this double figure. The garment to the foot suggests the right to govern and to judge. It is the robing of judicial authority, not the robing of the priest. He is here seen as the central Authority in all Church life, having sole right to pronounce verdict and sentence upon all the service that the Church renders. The girdle is frequently mentioned in Scripture. Sometimes it is the girdle of the loins, and sometimes the girdle of the breasts. The j former is the symbol of activity and power, the latter that of faithfulness and affection. In this case the girdle is at the breasts, showing the fidelity of His love. This robing of the Son of Man reveals His judicial position among the churches, and that all the exercise of judicial right is based upon the faithfulness of the Eternal Love. A remarkable Scripture in the prophecy of Isaiah will serve to throw light upon the robing. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: and I will clothe him with Thy robe, and strengthen him with Thy girdle, and I will commit Thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.” There is of course no immediate connection between the subject dealt with in Isaiah and the one now under consideration, but we refer to it that we may have light upon the symbolism of the robe and the girdle in our vision. Jesus moves amid the churches with the robe reaching to His feet, marking the fact that He is the sole Governor of His people, having the right to pass His verdict upon their service, and reward or punish them as He will. The golden girdle about the breasts reveals the fact that every judgment He pronounces, and every sentence He passes, is based upon His infinite love and faithfulness. Christ is the one supreme Head, Ruler, Governor, among His people, and all His headship, and His rule, and His government are based upon His infinite and unfailing compassion. Passing from the symbolism of function to that of character we have the most marvellous and entrancing vision of Jesus Christ contained in Scripture. We can do no more than pass rapidly over, attempting to indicate the significance of the sevenfold glory revealed. “His head and His hair were white as white wool, white as snow.” “His eyes were as a flame of fire.” “His feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace.” “His voice as the voice of many waters.” “In His right hand seven stars.” “Out of His mouth proceeded a sharp twoedged sword.” “His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.” Here are seven points to which our attention is directed. His head, His hair, His eyes, His feet, His voice, His hand, His mouth, His countenance. Let us take them in their order. “His head and His hair were white as white wool, white as snow” Two facts are symbolized by this language, His purity and His eternity. The description is remarkably similar to that in the book of Daniel, describing the “Ancient of Days.” The hair white as wool is the mark of age, and yet of age that is not aged. This whiteness is moreover the symbol of purity, and these two facts are, in the last analysis, but one, for all eternal things are pure, and only purity can be eternal. The doomed things are the base, the impure, the unholy things, and in the glorious vision of the royal head of the Son of man, shining like some snow-capped mountain peak, far elevated, we see Him as Son of God also, His purity the basis of His eternity, His eternity the crowning of His purity. “His eyes were as a flame of fire” Here the suggestion is that of infinite and infallible knowledge, eyes that pierce and penetrate, from which no secret thing can possibly be hidden, eyes that being as a flame of fire, seeing through and through, detect all that is hidden from ordinary sight, separating with unerring accuracy the alloy from the pure gold. Thus the Son of man amid the churches is revealed as the One from Whom nothing can be hidden. There is no detail in the doings of a church, or in the life of an individual member, that He is not perfectly acquainted with. He has seen and rightly valued every deed of lowly service which the earthly records of the Church have found no place for. The steady, searching eyes of the great Son of man are ever upon the churches that bear His name, and absolutely nothing can be hidden from that gaze. “His feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace” The feet are the symbols of procedure, and indicate the continued activity of Christ among the churches, and through the churches, as He marches, the Leader of the hosts of God, toward His ultimate victory. These feet are of brass as though they burned in a furnace. Brass is invariably the type of strength, and the furnace of fire is symbolic of purification. Thus the Son of man is seen moving amid the churches ever toward the consummation upon which the heart of God is set, with such absolute purity, that He can never be contaminated with the evil upon which He treads, and with such tremendous strength that He can never be prevented by the opposition raised against Him. “His voice as the voice of many waters” This exquisitely beautiful statement I think I never appreciated until for the first time I stood near the mighty falls of Niagara, as the water sweeps from height to depth in calm persistent majesty with a cry that excludes all other sounds, possesses all your soul, and yet fills you with a deep peace and quiet. The mighty music of the many waters impressed me as nothing else, and as I listened there came to me with new meaning the words “His voice as the voice of many waters.” The suggestion is very beautiful. What is the voice of many waters? It is a perfect concord of divers tones; many waters, one voice. “God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son.” “His voice as the voice of many waters.” These waters have come from the hills of long ago in single streams, all their courses bent toward Him. In Him they mingle and they merge, and in Him is discovered the perfect harmony of the thousand melodies of the past. Close attention by a trained ear will detect each separate value, and it will be found that there is no subject upon which He has not something to say. He speaks to art, to music, to science, to literature, to all life, to each separately, and yet to each in its relation to all the rest. Many waters, many messengers, many messages, yet one voice, one word, one revelation. So moving amid the lampstands, with hair like wool, telling of His purity and eternity, with eyes as a flame of fire, searching and knowing every detail of all the life of the churches, with His feet like brass that burned in a furnace, moving toward the consummation, He speaks, and the infinite music is a perfect harmony of all the tones of the voice of God. “He had in His right hand seven stars” In all the symbolism of the old economy, the right hand is the mark of authoritative administration, and here has the same significance. In the centre of that hand of power rest the seven stars which are the angels of the churches, the place of perfect rest, perfect power, perfect protection. Oh, blessed, blessed place of rest for the Master’s messengers ! Oh, high and holy honour to lie in that right hand, and listen while He speaks, and still from the same vantage ground to repeat the words of His will. “Out of His mouth proceeded a sharp twoedged sword” We have heard the voice of many waters that speaks of revelation, of His uttering of the deep things of God. Here is symbolized another aspect of His speech to men, that namely of His pronouncement on the things of men. While He was yet on earth, He distinctly affirmed that by His words men should be judged, and the value of this symbolism will be better understood as we hear His verdicts concerning the churches amid whom He moves. It will then be seen how sharp that sword is, and how its double action condemns the fault and approves the excellence. “His countenance as the sun shineth in his strength” The countenance is the sum total of all the features of the face. The dome-like splendour of the forehead, crowned by the white hair, the flashing glory of the wondrous eyes, the marvellous expressiveness of the mouth, from which proceeds the sword-like speech, and the sound of the voice of many waters; take all these, and other things not described, in combination, and the result is a sun of light and glory, shining in strength. “God is a sun,” and the merging of the features of humanity into the perfect impression of the countenance, reveals in might and majesty the Deity of the Son of man. Take this picture and look at it again and again until the vision holds you in its marvellous power. His head and His hair white like wool, His purity and His eternity; His eyes like a flame of fire, His intimate knowledge, penetrating and piercing; His feet like burnished brass, signifying the procedure of strength and purity; His voice like the voice of many waters, a concord of perfect tones; in His hand seven stars, His administrative right, power and protection; from His mouth a sharp two-edged sword, keen and accurate verdicts concerning His people; His whole countenance as the sun, creating day, flashing light, bathing all the landscape with beauty. Such was the One Who moved amid the churches in the vision of the saint at Patmos, and such the One who still unifies the churches into the Church, by His presence and presidence. Thus the Lord is seen in all the fulness and the functions of His glory, presiding over the witnessing of the Church in the midst of darkness, and we now turn to a study of the messages He delivers, ever keeping this vision before us. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: 01.02. THE EPHESUS LETTER ======================================================================== THE EPHESUS LETTER “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write; “These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, He that walketh in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them which call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false; and thou hast patience and didst bear for My name’s sake, and hast not grown weary. But I have against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and will move thy lampstand out of its place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.” Revelation 2:1-7. AT the time of the writing of the epistle, Ephesus was the metropolis of Ionia, and undoubtedly a great and opulent city. All kinds of people were gathered there, the wealthy and the learned, as well as the poor and the illiterate. The general condition of life was that of a wealthy, cultured, and corrupt community. So far as the history of the church is concerned, we have a most interesting account of its planting and progress in the Acts of the Apostles. This account lies almost completely within chapters eighteen to twenty. Paul on his journeyings arrived in the city accompanied by Aquila and Priscilla. As his custom was, he went into the synagogue, and spoke to the assembled people of the one theme ever on his heart. Passing on his way, he left behind him these two people. Thus was first spoken the message of the risen and crucified Christ, and from such an apparently hurried commencement there came eventually a strong and remarkable church. The next event of note was the arrival of Apollos. He had learned of Jesus through the ministry of John, and was a man of splendid mental equipment and great oratorical power. In Ephesus he declared all he knew of truth with the result that a little group of men, attracted by the story he had to tell, imperfect though it was, were baptized with the baptism of John. Beyond that they made no progress. They were in all about twelve in number. Then came a crisis. Paul returned to Ephesus, Apollos having passed on to Achaia and Corinth. In the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of the Acts we have, briefly stated, the work he accomplished during a period of about three years. It is very interesting to notice the growth. He found twelve disciples, imperfectly instructed, not yet having received the Spirit of God, men who were followers of Christ so far as they had light. Apollos had preached the baptism of water to repentance as preparatory to entrance upon the Kingdom over which Jesus was to preside. Paul found them ignorant of the very essentials of Christianity, and asked them evidently in a tone of surprise and enquiry, “Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed.” And they replied “Nay, we did not as much as hear whether the Holy Ghost was given.” This called for further enquiry as to the nature of their baptism, and then finding that they had been baptized with John’s baptism, he led them into further light. How much they had gained from obedience to the light received is revealed by their readiness to obey the new light that fell. They were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus, and the apostle, laying his hands upon them, they received the Holy Spirit. Then Paul began to teach in the synagogue, and it is a remarkable fact that they suffered him to do this for three months. The effect of the preaching was as always. To those who were disobedient there came hardness, and a spirit of opposition was aroused. The apostle saw that the time had arrived for the outward formation of a church. He gathered the disciples out of the synagogue, and securing the school of Tyrannus, he began preaching there. During two years the church grew until it became a great centre of missionary operations. The Word of God sounded out through all Asia as the result of the teaching in Ephesus. Then mark what followed. Imitators arose, men desiring to accomplish the same results, but lacking the necessary power. Some of these took upon themselves the work of casting out evil spirits, using the name of Jesus saying, “I adjure you by Jesus Whom Paul preacheth.” But demons were not so to be deceived, and the startling answer came “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was, leaped on them, and mastered both of them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” Attempts to imitate the work of the Spirit through the servants of God always ends disastrously to those who make the attempt. From this experience the work blazed out again in new power. Fear fell upon all, and those that practiced magical arts, brought their books together and burned them. Then followed new opposition against Paul, the reason being that he had endangered the craftsmen’s art. Then Paul left Ephesus, and journeyed through Macedonia. Passing back through the same region, he paused at Miletus that he might there meet the elders of the church at Ephesus, and as he was to be no more with them, he gave them parting instructions. It is more than probable that at this time John came down and took oversight of the church. How long he remained it is impossible to decide. In all likelihood the message of Jesus to the church of Ephesus was sent about thirty-five years after Paul’s departure. It reveals the changes that had been wrought. To it we now turn our attention. The Lord introduces Himself as “He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, He that walketh in the midst of the seven golden lampstands.” Here as always there is a very remarkable fitness of selection. It is evident that the church at Ephesus is fulfilling the true ideal of Church order. Christ is seen as the unifying Centre and Director of the church, walking still amid the seven golden lampstands, and holding in His right hand the seven stars. No other things in that descriptive vision are mentioned concerning Him. The true Church order is still maintained, the ministry is in its proper and rightful place. Outwardly everything is as it should be. There is no flaw, no failure, in organization, in work, in attitude, so far as any visiting apostle could have discovered it, or so far as the world was concerned in watching it. Then follows our Lord’s commendation, a commendation so remarkable that I venture to think a careful consideration of it will leave us inclined to ask, Can there be anything wrong with this church? Had we visited it, in all probability we should have reported that it was the most remarkable church we had ever seen. The commendation is sevenfold. “I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them which call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false; and thou hast patience and didst bear for My name’s sake, and hast not grown weary.” One is startled at the completeness of the commendation. Consider it closely. “I know thy works.” This has reference to actual service being rendered. The church was not a comfortable club for the conserving of the life of a few saints. It was an active and aggressive congregation of the saints. “I know thy toil.” This word lies deeper, having reference to the effort that produces work even at the cost of pain. There are those who boast that their work and their gifts cost them nothing. Wherever that is true the work is worthless. These people at Ephesus could make no such boast, for behind the works lay the toil. They were not offering to the Master, to the church, to the world things worthless because costless. They were working at the price of toil. “And thy patience,” that is the attitude of persistence in the toil that produces the work. These first three words are closely linked,—”works, toil, patience.” And the words are the more wonderful as we remember they fall from the lips of Jesus. It is not merely the opinion of an apostle or a stranger. It is the definitely expressed verdict of the Lord of the church, the One Who with eyes of fire, scans every detail. I know your works, and that behind them there is the toil that speaks of pain, and enveloping that there is the patient endurance that makes work perpetual. And “I know that thou canst not bear evil men.” There is no impurity condoned within the borders of this church. It has no complicity with the evil things in Ephesus. They had guarded the fellowship of the saints against the unholy intrusion of impure men. They had not been lax in their discipline as to life. “Thou didst try them which call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false.” The church had been careful about its doctrine, careful about what it listened to, characterized by discernment and judgment of false teachers. Not only had their discipline been perfect as to the life of their members, but they had refused to tolerate the false teachers that had come to them. And yet again “Thou hast patience and didst bear for My name’s sake.” Their persistent fidelity had not been in circumstances that were always easy. Persecution had raged around them, and yet they had maintained their works. And then the last and most remarkable word, “Thou hast not grown weary.” They had a great reserve of strength. All the achievements had been under the impulse of, and in the power of unswerving fidelity. This description is surely most remarkable. The church at work, labouring at the work, patiently persistent in the labour that produced the work. The church refusing to have fellowship with evil men, observing the false philosophy of certain teaching and rejecting it. The church, persistent in its faithfulness and unwearying in its service. If the Master, visiting the church to which we belong uttered such words as these, should we not feel that they constituted the highest commendation that could possibly be passed? And yet once again, after the complaint which He makes, He adds something more to the commendation. “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” Some doubt exists as to the peculiar views of the Nicolaitans. Some light may be thrown upon the subject by reference to the letter to Pergamum. “I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also some that hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans in like manner.” My personal conviction is that the Nicolaitans were persons who excused certain forms of impurity, and made the grace of God a cloak for lasciviousness. I believe the heresy was that known in latter days as Antinomianism, which declares that grace is sufficient for salvation, and that life is of little moment. This heresy will be dealt with more fully in considering the letter to Pergamum. So wonderful a commendation seems to leave nothing to be desired. No eye but the penetrating eye of fire which is the eye of love would ever have detected the failure of the church at Ephesus, at this point. Subsequently that failure would have been detected even by the outsider. The living Lord was conscious of the incipient disease which others could only know as it manifested itself in the externalities. Light focused in a camera has revealed the presence of disease in the face of a child long before any symptoms appeared which a physician could have detected. So the searching light of the eyes of fire detected the absence of an essential quality in the life of the church. “I have against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.” That is all. No other sentence. No other word. Immediately He passes to the counsel which He has to give to the church. And yet how much He has said. Seeing the church now in the light of His declaration, all the radiance of the former things is over-shadowed. What is first love, and what is it to lose first love? First love is the love of espousal. First love is marital. In writing to the Corinthian church, Paul said, “For I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ.” That is first love. “I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” And this is the loss of pure love. “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ.” The elements of first love then are simplicity and purity. Now think for a moment of what this same man wrote to this church at Ephesus. After dealing with the relation of husbands to wives, and wives to husbands, he pens this marvellous statement, “This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the Church.” Now what is the mystery to which he refers. It is the mystery of love which has its most radiant revelation in the marriage relationship, and the apostle declares that that relationship is the most perfect symbol of that existing between Christ and His Bride. “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church.” Thus it is evident that Christ’s love for the Church is typified by the love of husband for wife. “Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.” Thus the love of the Church to Christ is typified by the love of the wife for the husband. What then is the love of Christ to the Church? Unselfish love, love in which there was no single thought of self. What then is the Church’s love for Christ? The response of love to the mystery of love, the submission of love to perfect love. First love is the love of espousal. Its notes are simplicity, and purity, marital love, the response of love to love, the subjection of a great love to a great love, the submission of a self-denying love to a love that denies self. First love is the abandonment of all for a love that has abandoned all. First love defies analysis. It loves, it knows not why, save that the lover has by love attracted love, and the responsive love is pure, unselfish, ardent, humble. The church at Ephesus had had its first love, the love of espousal, the love of simplicity, the love of singleness, the love in which no low motive lurked. First love is fair as the morning, bright with the promise of hope, a flame in the presence of which all other emotions and enthusiasms are included. It was this the Master missed. No soul can try to love Him. When you felt your need of Him as Saviour, and there dawned upon you the vision of His perfect love, and you found that the perfect salvation He offered was Himself given to you, your raptured soul was bound to Him by the excellency of His own character. In the consciousness of the infinite love of His heart your love was born, and the first flush of that young love of yours was pure, unselfish, humble, ardent, burning like a flame, consuming everything in its fervour and its fire. Now think of the infinite pathos of that one sentence of complaint. “Thou didst leave thy first love.” The emotion and the enthusiasm and the energy are lacking. Jesus recognizes this. Had Judas been a member of this church, he would have found nothing to criticize. He criticized Mary of Bethany, and why? Because the love of Mary of Bethany was the love that overstepped all the bounds of prudence and regularity. Love cannot be weighed in scales or measured with a foot rule. It overleaps the channel you cut for it, and laughs its way into meadows, leaving behind it the track of fertility and the fragrance of flowers. You cannot compress it into mathematical formulae. It sings in poetry, and forgets calculation. It worships in abandonment, and oversteps arithmetic. It is a vestal flame. It is the crowning consciousness of life. The church at Ephesus was still a remarkable church, but it lacked the element of that enthusiasm, which in the eyes of the calculating worldling, is imprudent. There are some people who imagine that this lack of enthusiasm is an advantage. May God have mercy on such. I pray the day may never come when the heroisms and enthusiasms of first love shall cease. Christ stands confronting this great church, and He says in effect, There is much of excellency, but I miss the first love. I do not hear the song at the unusual hour. I wait in vain for the aroma of some new box of spikenard. The church has become “Faultily faultless, icily regular, Splendidly null.” After Christ has spoken, we begin to reconsider the commendation, and even in that commendation now it is possible to detect omissions, things He did not say which He might have said, had they not left their first love. In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians we have inferentially a picture of a church in its first love. There were many irregularities of doctrine and of conduct, but there was a great enthusiasm. The apostle describing their condition says, “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labour of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here are the same things that Christ commends in Ephesus and yet how different. In the full rush of first love the apostle says of the Thessalonians “work of faith . . .labour of love . . . patience of hope.” But speaking to the church at Ephesus Jesus says “work . . . labour . . . patience.” What are the missing things? “The faith, the love, the hope.” In first love it is “work of faith.” First love lost, it is “work.” In first love it is “labour of love.” First love lost, it is “labour.” In first love it is “patience of hope.” With first love lost it is “patience.” The externalities remain, but the underlying sources have been weakened. Faith, out of which work grows, is faltering. Love, the principle of toil, is waning. Hope, the inspiration of perpetual patience, is dimmed. Now these three, faith, hope, and love alike centre in the Person. Where faith in Him is strong, works abide. Where love for Him is full, enduring toil continues. Where hope toward Him is perfect, patience is perpetual. As yet the outward manifestations are not, but the Master has discovered the inward backsliding. He says in effect, You have lost your first love, your works run on, but your faith in Me is not what it was, your labour is still evident, but the love is weakened; your patience is still evident, but your hope does not burn so brightly. And presently He will mark the full meaning of this. Unless you repent and get back to these first things, you will lose your lampstand. When the flame of love flickers, then its sisters, faith and hope grow faint, and presently the outward light will burn low, and the surrounding darkness be unilluminated. In the light of these statements moreover, other parts of the commendation may be reconsidered. Is it not more than likely that their very opposition to false men and doctrine partook of the nature of lack of love? I would speak very cautiously at this point, for the Lord commended these things, and they were right, but I am quite sure that there may be right things done in a wrong spirit. I seldom find men strenuously fighting what they are pleased to call heterodox teaching, and in bitter language denouncing false doctrine, without being more afraid for the men denouncing than for the men denounced. There is an anger against impurity which is impure. There is a zeal for orthodoxy which is most unorthodox. There is a spirit that contends for faith which is in conflict with faith. If men have lost their first love, they will do more harm than good by their defence of the faith. Behind the denunciation of sin there must always be the tenderness of first love if that denunciation is not to become evil in its bitterness. Behind the zeal for truth, there must always be the spaciousness of first love if that zeal is not to become narrowed into hate. There have been men who have become so self-centred in a narrowness that they are pleased to designate as holding the truth, that the very principle for which they contend has been excluded from their life and service. All zeal for the Master that is not the outcome of love to Him is worthless. His love is so perfect that nothing can take the place of love as a return. He who woos the bride can never have his heart satisfied with a servant. Activity in the King’s business will not make up for neglect of the King. He who has lost his first love cannot satisfy with work and labour and patience, and hatred of sin and orthodoxy. The Master waits for love. Your church may pass muster as one of those amid which He walks; but He, walking there pines for your love, and nothing satisfies Him but love. Oh the pathos of the picture! Christ in all His glory seeks amid the churches first for love. As He looks over the outward perfections of Ephesus He discovers that the spirit, the tone, the temper of the church is altered. No eye but His could have detected that the bloom was brushed away, and that the flame was less ardent. Surely this message needs to be repeated to all our churches to-day. Your work, your labour, your patience are all evident. Never were you busier. Never were your organizations more complete, but where is your first love? A friend of mine some years ago had a little daughter whom he dearly loved, and at the time of my story, she was between ten and eleven years of age. They were great friends, and were always found in each other’s company. But about this time there seemed to come some estrangement between them for which he could not account. He was not able to get her company as he had been. She seemed to shun him, and if he went for a walk, excused herself for she had something she must do at home. He grieved about it and could not understand it, and yet hardly cared to mention to her what was apparent to him. One day his birthday came, and in the morning of that day she came into his room, with her face wreathed in smiles and said “Father I have brought you a present.” She handed him a parcel, and unfastening it he found an exquisitely worked pair of slippers. He said “Darling, it was very good of you to buy these for me.” “Oh, Father,” said she, “I did not buy them. I have made them for you.” Then looking at her he said “Oh, now I think I understand. Is this what you have been doing for the last three months?” She replied “Yes, Father, but how did you know how long I had been at work on them?” He said “Because for three months I have wanted much of you, but have not been able to have it. You have been too busy. My darling, I like these slippers very much, but next time, buy the slippers, and let me have you all the days, I would rather have my child than anything she can make for me.” That story has ever been weighted for me with spiritual value. Some of us are so busy here and there about the business of the Lord that He cannot get us much for Himself. There is so much to be done. Do not misunderstand me. We are perfectly sincere in our devotion, and yet it seems to me as if sometimes He would say “I know your works, your labour, your patience, but I miss the first love.” Do you not remember your first love, with its great thrill, when all Nature seemed to sing a new song, and when your chief delight was to be alone with the Lord, to look into His face, and in silent adoration sit while you listened to His voice? Oh, if that old-time delight has passed, nothing can make up for it to Him or to you. And now briefly notice the counsel He gives to this church, an injunction, a warning, and a promise. The injunction may be expressed in three words, Remember, Repent, and Repeat. These of course are not the exact words that the Master used, but they will help us to bear in mind the terms of His counsel. “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen,” go back and think of the freshness of first love. Remind your heart of the light that never was on sea or land when you began to love Him. Go back to the rising life of the Spring-time. “Remember.” Oh, the tenderness of that word of Christ. Do not be satisfied any longer with the dead level of your orthodoxy, and your mechanical precision in service. “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen.” And then “repent.” Turn back in heart and purpose of the old attitude, the attitude of simplicity and purity, the abandonment of everything for love, the love of espousal, the first love that leaves father and mother and house and lands and everything for the loved one. Go back to that, return and do the first works. And what are the first works? Let Jesus tell us, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent.” Christ said in effect to these people, ‘Your lack of love proves your failure of faith. You do not believe in Me as you did, or you would love Me as of old. You have lost confidence. An absolute confidence always blossoms into a perfect love. And if the fruit of your love be smitten, it is because at the root of your faith is some disease.’ Then finally mark His solemn warning. “Or else I come to thee, and will move thy lampstand out of its place, except thou repent.” What is this He says? Remove thy lampstand? Yes, notwithstanding all the perfection of your work, and your labour, and your patience, notwithstanding your cold and icy purity, notwithstanding your orthodoxy, unless you love, that lampstand must be removed. It is impossible to witness for Christ in the darkness of the world except in the power of first love. It is not abundant works, nor even a passionate determination to witness against the sin of the world that serves Him. Unless there be first love the lampstand must be removed. It is a solemn warning. Oh, that we might rightly understand it, and see that it is not merely a capricious threatening, but the statement of an inevitable sequence. Loss of first love to Christ will inevitably issue in loss of love to the brethren, and cannot fail to dry up the rivers of compassion toward the outside world. It is the first love of the saint that is the true light that shines in a dark place. When men outside the Church can look at its community and say “see how these people love” then they will be attracted to the Centre upon which our love is set. Without first love we may retain ceaseless activity, immaculate purity, severest orthodoxy, but there will be no light shining in a dark place. It is not our doing that lightens the world. It is not our ceremonial cleanness that helps men. It is not our correctness in the holding of truth that helps a dying race. It is our love first for our Master, then for each other, and then for the world. Then notice the graciousness of the closing promise. “To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.” And how may a man overcome? By remembering, repenting, and repeating, by coming back to the beginnings. Then shall he have to eat of the tree of life. See how the great words gather together. Life, light, love. They are the very words that Jesus came to bring us, and it is only as we have life that we love, and only as we love that we shed forth light. The supreme lesson of this study for to-day is that for the maintenance of our position as light-bearers our communion with the Master in all the abandonment of first love must be maintained. “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: 01.03. THE SMYRNA LETTER ======================================================================== THE SMYRNA LETTER “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: “These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and lived again: I know thy tribulation, and thy poverty (but thou art rich), and the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Fear not the things which thou art about to suffer: behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.” Revelation 2:8-11. SMYRNA has been for long centuries a prosperous city. Originally an Ionian settlement, it passed for a period into obscurity. It was rebuilt by Alexander the Great and Antigonus, and almost immediately it became noted and wealthy. We have no account in Scripture of the planting of the church there, but history tells the story of the persecution of the church, and chronicles the fact of the martyrdom of Polycarp in his ninetieth year. History moreover clearly states the cause of the persecution, showing that it arose from the clamour of the pagan population, excited and incensed by the Jewish community. This statement is valuable as throwing much light upon some of the things incidentally referred to in the epistle itself. The Master addressing the church, speaks of Himself as “The first and the last, which was dead, and lived again.” These words are a repetition of those which He had addressed to John when, smitten with a great fear in the presence of His glory, he had become as one dead. This church is in the midst of a great sorrow, and the Lord announces Himself as the living One Who has passed through death, and therefore possesses the keys of death and of Hades. In approaching a people dwelling in the region and shadow of death, some of their number having already suffered martyrdom, others of them most certainly approaching the place of death through their loyalty to Him, He reminds them that He is Master of these darker matters also, and holds in His own hand the keys. The description is intended for the consolation of the afflicted people, and indeed out of this description by which our Lord introduces Himself to their notice, flows all the comfort that follows. They are in the midst of sorrow, and He first declares to them that He has been to the uttermost reach of it, and is alive again. They are under the shadow of death, and He tells them that He “has been dead, and is alive forevermore.” They are almost certainly in the midst of those perplexities and questionings which come to men when surrounded by sorrow. He tells them that He, having been dead, is now alive; and, moreover, that He holds the keys of death and of Hades, the symbols of solution and authority. He has unlocked the problem and is now Master of the situation. The Master’s method in commending this church at Smyrna is remarkable. He offers them no solution of the problem of their pain, and it may be said that the commendation is contained in a silence and a parenthesis. His approval of this church is manifest not so much by what He said, as by the fact that He had no complaint to make concerning them. Added to the silence there is one brief phrase, parenthetically interjected, four words only, “But thou art rich.” A careful investigation will show the value of this phrase, and who would not rather have that illuminative flashlight than all the eulogy that fell from His lips on the church at Ephesus? Here as ever, the value of the statement depends upon the fact that it was Christ Who uttered it. We shall only be able to understand the silence of Jesus and this parenthetical commendation by a careful examination of the surroundings. Let us endeavour to see it as He reveals it. Of it he says, “I know”—three things. “Thy tribulation, and thy poverty, and the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” Let us mention these separately. “I know thy tribulation.” “I know thy poverty.” “I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” Tribulation, poverty, reviling. These are the words which reveal the desperate condition of the church at the moment when the Master sent His message to them. First, “I know thy tribulation.” This is a strong word, not very often made use of. It signifies a pressure of persecution. Jesus did not say I know thy trials, the occasional testings of faith, those experiences which are common to all the saints and necessary for their perfecting, but “thy tribulation.” Our word tribulation suggests the stripe of the Roman whip, but the word that the Master used, suggested rather the pressure of the stones that grind the wheat, or that force the blood out of the grape. It is a word that throbs with meaning. These people were being pressed even to death on account of their loyalty to Christ, and as He looks at the church, He says in tones of infinite tenderness, “I know thy tribulation.” And yet again, “I know thy poverty.” And the word indicates actual beggary. Here it has no reference to a poverty of spirit. In all probability these people had suffered the loss of all things in the persecution that had broken out against them, loss of trade, loss of social position, loss almost of the bare necessaries of life, reduced to beggary, “I know thy poverty.” And once more, “I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” The use of the word blasphemy is somewhat peculiar here. Evidently the Lord uses the word, not in its specific sense as against God, but in its simplest sense, that of vilification or reviling. Here the Master reveals His intimate knowledge of the causes from which all the trouble has proceeded. In all probability the vilifying of the church by the synagogue had issued in the beggary of the little band of Christians by the pagans of Smyrna. The members of the Jewish synagogue, hating the Christian disciples would publish libelous statements concerning them as to their character, their purpose, and their modes of life. The stories told had aroused the pagan population, and in all likelihood, there had followed the confiscation of their goods which had reduced them to the point of actual want. It is profoundly interesting to notice the wonderful similarity existing between the experience of these people at Smyrna, and the experience of the Lord Himself. The consciousness of this seems to lie within the phrase “which is alive again.” Before beginning to speak to them, He reminded them of His own experience; and declared to them that He, having passed through it, has found it the gate of life. That through which they are passing is in many senses almost identical with that through which He has passed. The force which encompassed His death was the blasphemy of the Jews, acting upon a pagan nation, that stripped Him of all He possessed, and gave Him only death. The persecution that culminated in His own passing had begun within the synagogue, at the very centre of supposed religion, and had proceeded along the line of pagan power to its terrible issue. Thus addressing these people He says “I know,’’ and the force of the word is not merely that He knows by watching, but by His own experience, not alone by observing their suffering, but by having Himself passed through the same experience. I know for I have experienced the pain of vilification, and the want of poverty, and the final tribulation. I know all these to their deepest depths. Thus He would comfort them with a declaration of His consciousness of their condition, and His experimental sympathy therewith. With what summary conciseness and startling force He sums up in a sentence the truth concerning the condition of the Jews in Smyrna. They are “a synagogue of Satan,” and these are they that have persecuted His people. Mark the contrast. The church in Smyrna. A synagogue of Satan. The ecclesia of the living God, the gathered out people. A synagogue of Satan, the gathered together forces. It is a terrible indictment, called forth by the fact that they had vilified His people, and so had proved themselves under the leadership of the slanderer whose perpetual aim it is to degrade our God and His Christ. Thus He identified Himself with them in their sorrow and suffering, and thus in a sentence uttered the most severe condemnation of those who were causing the trouble. Now let us mark the commendation. First the silence, and what can be said concerning silence. It is more eloquent than all language. He has no word of complaint to utter. The character and conduct of the church at Smyrna was such as perfectly to satisfy the heart of the Lord, and how wonderful it is when we remember that tribulation and poverty and reviling make more terrible demands than any other circumstances, upon the spirit of those passing through it. There is no profounder proof of grace of character than that of being able to suffer wrongfully and yet to manifest a gracious spirit. How often have we all fallen at that very point. Repeatedly in the midst of suffering for righteousness sake, we have manifested unrightness of character and of conduct. Is not that the whole story of the failure of God’s wonderful servant Moses. “He spake unadvisedly with his lips.” And yet the people were doing wrong. There was no possible defence of their action, but in the presence of their wrong-doing, he did wrong, in that he manifested a provoked spirit. Christ watched these saints at Smyrna, persecuted, beggared, vilified, and yet had no fault to find with them. Their spirit under tribulation was such as to satisfy the heart of Christ. The finer graces of the Christian character are only revealed under bruising and pressure, as the fragrance of fine spices is only obtained through crushing. Christ pre-eminently became a sweet smelling savour to God through the terrible experiences of the Cross. His unprovoked and tender spirit was most perfectly seen amid the circumstances that were provocative of anger and resentment. So with these loved ones in Smyrna. Though under press and conflict, He found nothing to condemn, and in the silence there lies the highest eulogium. Of such value is this teaching that I pause to make a passing application. Some child of God, whelmed with great and crushing sorrows is longing for the sound of His voice, and there is nothing but silence. It may be that that silence is a sign, not of disapproval but of approval. Do not be cast down. If in the midst of tribulation and suffering there is no voice, it may be that the silence of the Lord is His highest commendation. There is an old and beautiful story of how a nun dreamed that she saw three other nuns at prayer. As they kneeled the Master approached them. As He came to the first of the three, He bent over her with tender solicitude, and smiles full of radiant love, speaking to her in words of softest tenderest music. Leaving her and approaching the next He only placed His hand upon her head, and gave her one look of tender approval. But the third woman He passed almost abruptly without word or glance. The woman in her dream said to herself, How tenderly the Lord must love this first of His children. The second He is not angry with, and yet for her has no endearments like those bestowed upon the first. She wondered how the third had grieved Him, so that He gave her no look, no passing word. As in her dream she attempted to account for the action of the Lord, the Master Himself confronted her, and addressing her said, “Oh woman of the world, —how wrongly hast thou judged. The first kneeling woman needs all the succour of My constant care to keep her feet in the way. The second has stronger faith and deeper love, but the third whom I seemed to pass abruptly by, has faith and love of finest fibre, and her I am preparing by swift processes for highest and holiest service. She knows and loves and trusts Me so perfectly as to be independent of words or looks.” Do not therefore be surprised if you have no vision. It may be that the vision granted is after all but proof of weakness. Peter, James, and John were taken to behold the vision of transfiguration. The common interpretation of this is that they were special apostles being prepared for special service, and while unable to contradict that, I should not personally be surprised in the perfect day to discover that the reasons for the Master’s special attention were to be found in their weakness rather than their strength. Not a word of commendation did He speak to the church in Smyrna, but a great silence as they passed through the fire proved His approval of the rightness of their spirit. And yet there was more than the silence, just that one word, that flash, that gleam of light, “but thou art rich.” It is as though He bent over them and whispered the great truth. Smyrna counts thee poor. I count thee rich. The blasphemy of the Jews and the persecution of pagans have robbed thee of everything, but thou hast lost nothing. I know the pinch of poverty, I know its pain, and yet I never lost the riches of spiritual wealth. While I was still upon the earth a man, I was a beggar, and yet My Father was with Me. “I know thy poverty (but thou art rich).” The words recall to our mind, the Lord’s conception of riches as revealed in His parable concerning the rich fool. He said to himself, “I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.” As though a life could be fed with goods! And yet the only place of worship for many is a dry goods store. Dry goods indeed! At the close of the parable Jesus said, “So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” Of goods these Smyrna saints had none, but they were rich toward God. “I know thy poverty,” thou hast no barns, no store-house, but thou hast all wealth. Again one calls to mind the word of James, the practical, far-seeing apostle. “Did not God choose them that are poor as to the world to be rich in faith.” This also is what the Master meant. “I know thy poverty,” you are poor as to the world. They have taken everything from you, but you are rich in faith, in the principle that possesses the unseen and imperishable things. And yet again, the words of Paul recur. His conception of his own position perfectly harmonizes with the Lord’s estimate of the people in Smyrna. “As poor”—so poor that he had to make tents to live, so poor that when someone is coming to see him, he has to ask them to bring that old cloak to protect him from the cold, and to keep him warm—”yet making many rich”—so rich that he is able to minister through tent-making without cost, so rich that he is more anxious about the parchments than about the cloak,—”especially the parchments.” “As having nothing,” he writes, “and yet possessing all things.” “I know thy poverty,” says Christ, you are poor, you have nothing, but you are rich, enriching others, possessing all things. All this is intensely interesting, but we have not yet touched the deepest note of exposition. Read again the old familiar words concerning the Master from the writings of Paul. “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might become rich.” The words used are exactly the same, the same for “rich” and the same for “poverty.” “He became poor,” “I know thy poverty.” “He was rich,” “but thou art rich.” “I know, I know your poverty. I have been poor with the actual poverty of beggary, but you are rich, for through that poverty of Mine, you have entered into that wealth of Mine, and even in the midst of all your poverty, you possess the abiding wealth. I know your poverty, for I have shared it. I know your wealth, for I have given it.” It is well to remember that the word “rich” in all these cases is the actual word which we use of the world’s wealth. It is the root word from which we derive our word plutocrat. According to Christ then, —wealth is enrichment of character, not possession of gold. He said in effect to these suffering people in Smyrna, You are the poorest people in Smyrna. You are the plutocrats of Smyrna. Others have the wealth of the world, the fulness of material things, but you have the true fulness. I love to think of this estimate of Christ, and to remember that the saints of —God are the true aristocrats and plutocrats of every age. An aristocrat is a man of best strength. A plutocrat is a full man. The best strength of the nation is ever to be found in the saints of Christ. The true fulness of the nation is to be reckoned by the number of its men and women who are living in fellowship with God. The riches of the saints are the riches that abide. The things the Christians of Smyrna had lost, they must have left behind them ere long, when they had passed from the stage of earthly action. The things that they possessed became theirs in fullest measure only through that passing. True wealth is the wealth that never tarnishes, never decays, never fades. Oh, glorious parenthesis of Jesus, a great silence of commendation, and a parenthesis of approbation. What words of counsel then has He to speak to people passing through such circumstances? Mainly two. First, “Fear not,” and secondly, “Be thou faithful unto death.” In reading this epistle I think the most startling thing to me was to discover that there is not a single promise to them that they should escape their suffering. Nay, He rather tells them that heavier trials are to come upon them, and the “fear not” is a preparatory word in advance of the present consciousness of need. He does not say “Fear not the things which thou hast suffered,” but “Fear not the things which thou art about to suffer.” There is no promise of succour. He does not say, Never mind, these things will soon be over. He comes rather with an announcement of another sorrow. Oh, the comfort of knowing that He is acquainted with the things that are yet to be, and that facing them He says “fear not.” There is no sorrow waiting for them that He is not acquainted with. I know thy present tribulation. I know thy present poverty, the present blasphemy I know. I know more. I know what lies hidden in the womb of the future, that “the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days.” Fear not these things then, the persecution will increase, the fearsome darkness will deepen, tribulation will be more severe, the pressure will yet be heavier. Fear not, and let the first comforting thought against fear be that I know and that I have told you. Then “Be thou faithful unto death,” live upon the principle of faith even to the bound of death. The word “faithful” here is from the root which means to be convinced. Fidelity is born of conviction, and conviction must have a groundwork and foundation. What then is this faithfulness enjoined? The faithfulness of the saints is the assurance of the faithfulness of Jesus. A deep conviction of His fidelity produces their fidelity. Wherever a man, woman, or child under any circumstances of pain or testing is deeply convinced of the fidelity of Christ, they are immediately and necessarily faithful themselves. It is as though He had said to them, You are going to be cast into prison, “the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried.” Be faithful, believe still. Live within the limit of a great assurance. Don’t question Me, don’t doubt Me, depend on Me. The Lord did not mean, Gather yourselves up and go through. He simply meant, Trust Me. He did not intend to advise them to gird up their loins and be determined that they would see the business through. That is ever a poor and sorry way of attempting to pass through times of testing. He meant rather, Trust Me, let Me be your courage. I am alive, and I was dead. I have gone to the limit of this matter. There is no depth I have not fathomed, no darkness I have not penetrated. Be faithful, follow Me, not in the effort of a strenuous determination, but with the ease of a simple trust. Then the gracious promise. “I will give thee the crown of life,” and the word is very full and very rich. This crown that He promises is the crown of royalty. It is more. It is the crown of royalty victorious. It is still more. It is the chaplet that adorns the brow of the victor who comes laden with spoils, the crown of royalty, the crown of victory, the crown of added wealth. It is the crown of life, life which reigns because it has won, and reigns moreover in possession of spoils obtained through conflict. The life is the crown. What wondrous light this flings back upon the process. This pressure of tribulation is not accidental and capricious. Out of the tribulation we shall have our triumph. Out of the darkness we shall come to light. That is the whole philosophy of suffering. This may be a message to some saints who are being sorely tried. And yet are you not already, as the mists clear from the valleys, finding your crown of life? I think to-day I see the meaning of past mysteries in my own life. Out of the pressure of tribulation we extract the new wine of the Kingdom, and out of the deep dark death experience in which the devil sifts and tries, there breaks a new capacity, an enlarged outlook, a new meaning in life, a new tone in the speech. Almost imperceptibly and yet surely, through the process of pain God is putting the horizon further back, and broadening and deepening the experience of life. That is the present value of pain, but its ultimate value is the fulness of which all this is but the foretelling. When presently all the tribulation is passed, and the painful processes of the little while are over, and the last grim pressure ceases, then we shall be crowned with life, then we shall know the meaning of life. All this must ever be emphasized by the perpetual memory of the words with which Christ addressed His suffering saints. Emphasizing His experimental acquaintance with the philosophies, He declares “I was dead, and behold, I am alive.” “I know thy tribulation!” Think of His tribulation. “I know thy poverty!” Think of His poverty. “I know the revilings of them which say they are Jews and they are not!” Think of the revilings heaped upon Him by them which said they were Jews. “Fear not!” Think of His unswerving faith in God. “Be thou faithful until death!” See Him faithful unto death. “I will give thee the crown of life!” See Him crowned with life, on the resurrection morning. This is the heart and centre of the great truth delivered to the suffering saints at Smyrna. I am your companion in distress. I am your comrade in the darkness. I know, and I am with you, and just beyond I will be with you still, leading you to the fountains of living waters. Then there was His added promise. “He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.” It always seems to me as though this were an inferential note of warning and threatening against the persecutors. These men of Smyrna will die, saints and sinners alike, but beyond death is death. The persecutors of Smyrna will pass through death to death. The believers of Smyrna being faithful to death, through death will find no second death, but instead thereof life. The saints are rich in poverty. They walk through darkness into light. They live beyond all death. As Christ holds the keys, we see through open doors, things as they really are. The great and wealthy men of Smyrna were not the persecuting pagans and the blasphemous Jews, but the suffering, tried, poverty-stricken saints, for they were wealthy in all essential things, and would pass through the pressure of death to the realization of endless life. Let all Smyrna face death, but only those whose principle of life is faith in Christ will pass unafraid through the first to find the second abolished. Of this epistle there can be no immediate application to the majority of those who hear these words. Sometimes it seems as though the very reproach of Christ has almost ceased. I am not sure that this is a healthy sign. It is doubtful if many people really suffer much to-day for Christ’s sake. I often hear men speak of the difficulties of their position in business, of the taunts and sneers of certain opposing ones, but are they really serious when they mention these things? When we think of the actualities of the persecution in Smyrna, and of the early days of the Christian era, ought we not to blush to speak of suffering to-day? And yet is there not a sadness in this very fact of absence of persecution? Is real Godliness more popular to-day, or is not that which is popular a kind of hybrid Christianity? I leave these questions for personal asking. And yet there is a sympathetic application of the epistle. During the Armenian massacres, and the martyrdom of native Christians in China, how one has thanked God again and again for the letter to Smyrna. Surely the One walking amid the lampstands said to all these, as robbed of earthly possessions, and brutally deprived of life they were still faithful to His name, “I know . . . but thou art rich.” I think I hear the voice of the thorn-crowned sounding in cadences of sweetest music over the hills and valleys of Armenia, and I think I hear that self-same voice, like the voice of many waters, breathing these words of strength to all His witnesses in China. Surely He met them at the portal of death, and crowned them with life. And yet there is an immediate application to all those who suffer for His name’s sake. From the meditation, let us gather one or two lessons of general import. First, outward adversity of a church or a people or a person is not a proof of essential poverty or weakness. It is not always the wealthy church financially that is the rich church. The material wealth of members does not create the true riches of the church. How often it has been that some struggling company of believers, fighting with poverty, contending for very existence, has been the truly rich and prosperous church. Then secondly, let us gather the inexpressible comfort that comes from this revelation of Christ’s identification with all His suffering saints. Wherever the Church passes through tribulation, He stands and says “I know.” And lastly, let us ever rejoice in His assertion that He holds the keys of all the things that most affright and oppress us, of the last foes, of death and of Hades, and the keys in His right hand are symbols of solution and authority. As we pass to the valley of the shadow, He approaches, holding these keys, and saying, “Fear not,” I have unlocked the problem. I have solved it, I have been into the deepest darkness, I know it. I have not borrowed these keys. They belong to Me. I have them for unlocking and for locking. Oh, suffering saints, and all who approach the shadow-land, fear not, fear not! Trust Him utterly, be faithful, confiding, even unto death, and through the dark chambers of death and of Hades, He will lead to light. Christ never tells us not to fear, until He Himself has fathomed all the mystery. I say to my child Do not be afraid, while yet in my own heart lurks a great fear that I dare not tell him of. This Christ never does. He has not fear, and therefore I need not fear but may sing with the Psalmist, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me: Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.” He has probed the shadow and the pain. Let Him lead on, even through tribulation and through death, to the life and the crowning that lie ahead. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: 01.04. THE PERGAMUM LETTER ======================================================================== THE PERGAMUM LETTER “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write; “These things saith He that hath the sharp two edged sword: I know where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s throne is: and thou holdest fast My name, and didst not deny My faith, even in the days of Antipas My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also some that hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans in like manner. Repent therefore; or else I come to thee quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it.” Revelation 2:12-17. PERGAMUM was an illustrious city of Mysia, given over almost entirely to wealth and fashion. Unlike Ephesus and Smyrna, it was not a centre of commerce. Aesculapius, the god of medicine, was worshipped there under the form of a serpent, and the special aspect of this worship was that of the study of the secret springs of life, and like all Nature worship, sincere as may have been the beginnings thereof, it had issued in corruption. This fact may serve to throw light upon some of the statements that occur in the letter. We have no account whatever of the planting of the church, and therefore can only look at it as seen in the epistle now under consideration. Christ speaks to the church as the One “that hath the sharp two-edged sword.” That sword as we have seen is the symbol of the discerning and executive power of truth. The fitness of this lies in the fact that the church is harbouring error. Not that the church has itself adopted the teaching, nor that she has as a corporate whole, committed herself to these heresies, but she has become guilty of Broad Churchism, attempting to find room within her pale for all sorts and conditions of men and faiths. Approaching the church as the One from Whose mouth proceeds the sword, He comes to deal with the false teachers within it. First let us notice His commendation. “I know where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s throne is: and thou holdest fast My name, and didst not deny My faith, even in the days of Antipas My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwelleth.” The Lord recognizes the peculiar dangers and difficulties surrounding these people. The underlying suggestion of the commendation is that it is an honourable thing to have held fast His name, and not have denied His faith. The inference is that if there was any place that it might have been probable that people should have ceased to hold His name, it would have been in these peculiar and difficult circumstances in which the church at Pergamum found itself at the time. The commendation consists in the twofold statement. “Thou holdest fast My name,” “Thou didst not deny My faith.” “My name, My faith.” And the emphasis of the commendation is discovered by consideration of the peculiar perils threatening these people. “I know where thou dwellest.” That statement in itself is full of comfort. In every circumstance of trial and tribulation and persecution and peril, we may hear the words of the Master, “I know where thou dwellest.” In this case the place is described by the startling phrase, “Where Satan’s throne is.” Satan has ever some base of operation, some central place for his throne. It is very difficult to refer to Satan without wanting to say a great deal about him, and much needs to be said in these days; and in a study of this epistle it is necessary to pause for a little upon this subject. Wasting no time over arguments concerning the personality of Satan, but accepting that as an established fact, there remains certain co-related facts which need restatement. First, Satan is not God, and therefore neither has he any of the essential powers of Deity. He is neither omniscient, omnipresent, nor omnipotent. He does not know as God knows. He is not everywhere as God is everywhere. He is not all-powerful as God is all-powerful. He is a fallen angel, “Lucifer, son of the morning, how art thou fallen.” In his fall and degradation, he has retained all the essential capacities of his unfallen state. The wisdom, the possibility of locomotion, and the marvellous power, which were his before he fell, are his to-day, but he is not God. He dragged with him in that awful fall hosts of the bright ones, and with the marvellous wisdom of that unfallen nature, now prostituted to base uses, he marshalls them for the doing of his work. To state the case bluntly, if the devil is here, he is not there. If the devil is there he is not here. His messengers cover all countries, and include all ranks of life in their operations, and these ramifications of evil are under the supreme control of Satan, who is the prince of the power of the air, the god of this world, the son of the morning, fallen as lightning from heaven. For the carrying out of his enterprises in the world, he has somewhere a place where his throne is, a base of operations. It may be that he has more than one such centre, and he himself will pass from point to point with the rapidity of lightning. He is ubiquitous, as we use the word of a general who, on the field of battle seems to be here, there, and everywhere, only more so. He is not omnipresent as God is without motion and without effort. At the time of the writing of this letter, for some strategic reason of his own, he had his seat at Pergamum. The Master knew it and indicated it. Truly the devil manifests a great deal more wisdom than Christian people very often. His throne will be at some strategic point from which he can best use his influence. Almost invariably that throne is at the centre of worldliness and worldly greatness. Wherever his throne is, is a place of peculiar peril. As it has been forcefully said, “In the greatest centres of worldly power, there his eye more peculiarly watches, his energy more peculiarly acts, his influence more peculiarly emanates.” Now this was the peril of the church at Pergamum. In Smyrna it was “a synagogue of Satan.” In Pergamum it is the “throne of Satan.” In Smyrna opposition to the Christian Church was veiled behind religion. The devil operated through the Jewish synagogue, and Christ with infinite scorn and contempt, spoke of that religious centre as the “synagogue of Satan.” In Pergamum it is quite a different matter. Satan’s throne is there, and the peril that threatens the church is not so much that of direct opposition as that of patronage. “Where Satan’s throne is,” the saints are in peril of entering into alliance with the forces under his control. The history of evil I think will prove the assertion that Satan loves to have his seat in the midst of worldly wealth, and all that stands for the feeding of the flesh life in men. The Master did not say to men what we often say, “Ye cannot serve God and the devil.” I do not question the accuracy of that statement, but it is worthy of notice that the Master said, “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.” Thus He revealed the antithesis between the two great forces which govern human lives, God and Mammon. God governs man through the spiritual side of man’s nature, and man can only be governed in the highest aspects of his life when he is so governed. Mammon, which stands for all the worldly power and worldly greatness, the things which the men of the world value, as a governing force issues in the degradation of man, proving he cannot be perfectly governed in flesh by the things that minister to flesh. The devil lurks behind Mammon, sets his throne up at the point where it gathers its force, and from there rules men. If you think to-day for a single moment of the great evils that are blighting our lands, and if you take time to think far enough back in the history of these things, you will discover that the invariable impulse of evil is Mammon, and the love of gold. Behind the drink traffic, behind the unholy and iniquitous crowding of the poor into dwellings of which our cities ought to be ashamed, behind the breath of vile impurity that spoils life as it passes across it, is Mammon, the love of gold; and behind that, using and manipulating it, the devil sits upon the throne of power. The peril which ever threatens a church situated in such a city is that it may enter into alliance with Mammon, and so pass under the control of Satan. Pergamum was perhaps the wealthiest city of the seven, and there was Satan’s throne, the base of his operations, the place from which he governed the goings of evil in that whole district. If you ask me where Satan’s throne is in England, I do not hesitate to say that it is in London. If you ask me where his throne is in America, it would be difficult to answer, for there seem to be several places, one in the East at least, one in the middle West, a strategic point, and others there may be on the far West coast, where the gates are opening towards yet further enterprises. Be sure of this that where the excellencies of God’s earth create special possibilities for man’s abuse, there the devil sets his throne. Having recognized this peril, let us now notice the commendation. “Thou holdest fast My name.” Christ’s name is ever the symbol of His nature, and this first word of commendation declares that the church at Pergamum has been loyal to the Person of Christ. There had been no denying of any part of the strange and mystic fact of His personality, that personality that can be compared to nothing, and that can have nothing compared to it. His name stands for a Person utterly separated from all others, and utterly unlike them in its totality, while akin to God and man in its duality. Christ says You have not denied My name. You are loyal to the central fact of Christianity. Thou holdest fast My name, which is the sign and symbol of My nature. Again, “Thou didst not deny My faith.” Note specially that He does not say, You have not denied your own faith, but “My faith.” In the letter to the Hebrews the writer speaks of Jesus as being the “Author and Finisher,” not of our faith, but “of faith.” That is to say, He lived and wrought upon the principle of faith, and through His victory, was the Author or the File-leader, as the word literally is, and Perfector, or Vindicator of faith as a principle of life. The faith of man exercised in His victory, is response to His faith. The fact that the church at Pergamum had not denied the faith, indicates that they were loyal, not only to the Person of Christ, but that they evidently rested in His accomplished purpose. His faith had operated to perfect realization of a Divine purpose of redemption. Their faith operated in Him for the appropriation of that redemption. The redemption was that of regeneration as justification, renewal as sanctification, realization as glorification. The force that was sufficient to bring Him to victory was that of His faith in God and His faith in men, faith, that is, in the wisdom and the love of God, and in the possibility of man brought under the influence of that wisdom and that love. This was the mighty principle that bore Him up and carried Him on, until His faith, triumphant even over death, became the life principle for ruined men, and their faith centred upon His victory, appropriated the value of His faith. His faith would have been denied by their lack of faith in Him. On the other hand, His faith is affirmed by that confidence in Him which created their character, and issued in conduct. “Thou holdest fast My name” is the commendation of Christ upon the loyalty of the men of Pergamum to His Person; the peculiar, separate, unique Person of Jesus Christ, the one and only Person of His order that the world has ever seen. The name of Jesus stands for His personality, for the human and the Divine, for the Divine and the human, for that strange mysterious combination that has baffled the theology of every successive century, and concerning which no final word has yet been said because no final word can ever be said, because no finite mind can grasp the infinite mystery of God incarnate. To that name these men had held fast. “Thou didst not deny My faith,” indicates their confidence in His mission, confidence in His atoning work. His name marks the glory of His Person. His faith marks the perfection of His purpose. It was a wonderful testimony that the Master bore to this church at Pergamum, where Satan’s throne was, the centre of wealth and power, the home of mystic thought and occult study. The church had been loyal to the Person of Christ, more mysterious than the mysteries of Pergamum, loyal to the faith of Christ, bringing men to the true springs of life, which these dwellers in the wealthy city were professing to give themselves over to discover. Now mark His complaint. “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.” That is one thing. “So hast thou also some that hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans in like manner.” That is the second thing. Let us examine them for they reveal one great fact to which the Lord objects in this church at Pergamum. It is necessary that we note carefully what is here said. A very tender and delicate distinction is drawn between the church and certain persons within the church. He has something against the church, but He is careful to show that it is not that the church holds the false doctrine, but that she has fellowship with those who do. Not “I have a few things against thee, because thou holdest the teaching of Balaam,” but “I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there some that hold the teaching of Balaam.” The church was loyal to the mission of Christ, and did not deny the faith, but what He had against them was that they were tolerating false views. What the church lacked was discipline. What cursed the church was a false charity. For the emphasis of this point notice the closing words of the Master, “Repent therefore; or else I come to thee quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.” With great delicacy and fine distinction He draws the line between the church and those holding the false doctrine, and yet He now declares it as being against the whole church, that it tolerates these people within its borders. What then is the doctrine which is being tolerated and to which our Lord takes objection? “Some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.” What is this teaching of Balaam? Let us look very carefully at the structure of the statement. “I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there some that hold the teaching of Balaam”—and then there really follows a parenthesis—”who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel.” Omit the parenthesis, and then read the statement. “I have a few things against thee, the book of Numbers, chapters twenty-two to twenty-four, and at the end of the twenty-fourth chapter it would appear as though that story is concluded, but it is not. Let me in few words epitomize the whole story. Balak, the king of Moab, a man under the influence of the sophistries and incantations of a certain class of men, sent for Balaam. He wanted Balaam to curse the nation that had come up out of Egypt, believing that a curse pronounced would work ruin upon Israel. We do not know who Balaam was. When Balak sent for him, it was that he might hire him. That word “hire” must be carefully remembered in the study. He offered him reward if he would curse Israel. Now what happened? God appeared to Balaam and warned him not to go. Balak sent his princes back to Balaam, offering him silver and gold and honours if he would but come. Balaam, lured by the hire, started, and on his way encountered that remarkable incident of the appearance of the angel, and the speech of the dumb ass. The result of Balaam’s conversation with the angel was that the angel warned him not to go. Balaam terrified, offered to go back, but now the angel said You must go forward. He came to Balak, and on a high cause thou hast there some that hold the teaching of Balaam, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.” Now is it to be understood that the Master meant that Balaam’s teaching was that men were to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication? I think not, although they are the exact things which logically followed the teaching of Balaam, and exactly the same perils which threatened the church at Pergamum. May we not reverently attempt to paraphrase the words of Christ, so that their meaning may be clearer to us? It is as though He had said, This is what I have against thee. You have people, who in order that they may eat of the things sacrificed to idols, and in order that they may indulge in the sin of fornication, are holding a doctrine which excuses the actual wrong. The wrong thing is the sacrificing to idols and the fornication, but behind the wrong conduct is the wrong creed, and they are holding the doctrine of Balaam in order to excuse or justify conduct which is wrong. If this be the interpretation then it remains that we should ask, What was the teaching of Balaam, which made possible such awful conduct? The story of Balaam is contained in the mountain seven sacrifices were offered, and he opened his mouth to curse, and instead spoke words of blessing. Balak took him to yet another mountain, with a like result. He hoped that a third place might bring the desired cursing and again the sevenfold sacrifice was offered, and Balaam spoke. There are however, no prophecies in the whole book of God more wonderfully beautiful than the things that then fell from his lips. The anger of Balak was naturally then kindled, and he said I called you to curse, and behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times. He rid himself of Balaam, who returned home. So ends the twenty-fourth chapter. What then is the doctrine of Balaam? Now the fact is that it has not appeared at all in the story as contained in these chapters. To discover it we must pass into chapter twenty-five, and there we read these startling words, “And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab “—that is, with the daughters of this king Balak, and his people. Now specially notice, “for they”—that is the children of Moab, and the daughters of Moab, “called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods; and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor; and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel” Now this is the strangest thing possible. Balaam, instead of cursing the people had blessed them, and the next thing we read is that these very people Moab wanted to destroy, are enticed to the lewd feasts of Moab, and to all the awful corruption that follows upon such a proceeding. How has this come about? The answer is to be found by passing still further to the thirty-third chapter, of the book of Numbers, and the sixteenth verse, and in the words therein contained, the whole mystery is solved. Moses is speaking, and he says, “Behold, these,” that is, the women of Moab, who caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord, in the matter of Peor” Here we touch the secret of the whole thing, and it is a startling revelation. It is evident that when Balaam utterly failed to curse, he went home with the lust of hire still in his heart, and began to corrupt Israel. This he did by persuading them to social alliances with Moab, saying that according to the prophecy he had been forced to utter, Moab would be unable to harm them. The doctrine of Balaam broadly stated was undoubtedly that seeing that they were the covenant people of God, they might with safety indulge themselves in social intercourse with their neighbours, for no harm could happen to them. Both Peter and Jude refer to Balaam, and they both tell us that the motive of his teaching was that of hire, but neither of them declare what the teaching was. There can be no reasonable doubt that in effect his declaration to the children of Israel was that their covenant with God was so sure, as would witness the blessing he had been compelled to pronounce, that they need not be anxious about their conduct. His teaching issued, as Jesus says, in the eating of things sacrificed to idols, and the committing of fornication. It was the perilous and damnable heresy that sin cannot violate a covenant. Then a second fact in the complaint, “So hast thou also some that hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans in like manner.” What that doctrine was I do not profess to know, but I know its issue, and I am not sure that the words “in like manner,” do not refer to the similarity between the teaching of the Nicolaitans, and that of Balaam, rather than to the fact that men held that doctrine, as well as the other. Technically there may have been a difference. The issue of both was the same. What then was the danger in the church at Pergamum? There were persons associated with the church, who held a doctrine which gave them license to indulge in sins which were the special peril of all life in Pergamum. There was the splendour of a great temple worship, with its seductive feasts, and impure gaieties. This question of things sacrificed to idols, and of fornication had arisen long before, and had been remitted to a special council of the church at Jerusalem. The story of that council is recorded in the Acts, chapter fifteen. Its decision was that while they did not desire to insist upon the rite of circumcision, they charged the Christians dwelling in these Asiatic cities that they should not eat things sacrificed to idols, nor commit fornication. In the first letter to the Corinthians, beginning with the sixth chapter, the apostle deals with this very subject of fornication, and of things sacrificed to idols, and he distinctly forbids them on apostolic authority, not merely to the one church at Corinth, but to all the churches of the district, for note well these words, “And so ordain I in all the churches.” Thus that church had the definite teaching of the apostle that it was wrong to eat the things sacrificed to idols, and yet it was tolerating persons who were finding a way to excuse these popular sins of the city. They held fast the name, they did not deny the faith, but they put false emphasis upon the value of the name, and false application of the force of the faith, claiming that these things were of such value and such force as to cover and make of no vital importance certain forms of popular wrong doing. Thus there was heresy in that church at Pergamum, the heresy which has come to be known in later days as the Antinomian heresy, the heresy which says, You are so safe in the name and in the faith, that it matters little about your conduct. You may mix with the sinners of Pergamum, and follow their habits, and yet share the benefits of the covenant. This is the teaching of Balaam, and it had its recrudescence in the church at Pergamum. The Lord is terribly severe in His denunciation. The church at Pergamum in its corporate capacity had not indulged in these forbidden sins, neither endorsed the teaching of Balaam. Its fault lay in its lack of discipline, in that it tolerated within its borders those holding the doctrine. The whole church did not hold the doctrine, but for some mistaken idea of expediency and policy, these people were permitting those who did hold it, to remain in fellowship. Said Christ, Thou hast them there. Thou art tolerating the people , who hold the doctrine, which can only issue in moral corruption. Turn now to the counsel. “Repent.” This word is addressed not to the people holding the doctrine, but to the church and to the angel. In what sense then can they repent? The only repentance possible to the church was that of the exclusion from its fellowship of the persons who held the pernicious teaching. That doctrine must not be tolerated. The warning is very solemn. “I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.” Unless you exercise your discipline as a church, and exclude these people, I will come and fight against them. What an inference of love lies behind this threat. It is as though the Lord would say, ‘Discipline these people, for the judgment will be swift and heavy, if they are not excluded.’ For the sake of the men that hold pernicious doctrine, they should be excluded from the church. There are men in the borders of our churches to whom we are doing incalculable harm by allowing them to remain there. We allow them to remain and they imagine that they are in a place of safety, when they are in the place of death. We are sometimes inclined to treat this warning as though it were not alarming, but I want to say that it is one of the most solemn in all these epistles. It is a warning that the Lord Jesus will come, and by exercise of righteous judgment, will remove what the church itself refuses to remove, The supreme illustration of the solemnity of it is to be found in the letter to the church at Corinth, where disorders had arisen, and Paul wrote words that must have made men tremble before them as to what should be done with the wrongdoers. In that same epistle you will find that the apostle marks this solemn fact, that Jesus Christ, in dealing in judgment with a church, has before now had to remove by death the wrong-doers for the purification of the church, and for the making possible for its testimony of light in the midst of the darkness of the age. If therefore I understand this message of the letter to the church at Pergamum, it is as though the Lord had said, Unless you repent and deal in discipline with these men, I must fight against them with the sword of My mouth, and that sword will not be found to be the method of argument, or a new enunciation of truth. It will be a judgment swift and sure upon the evil workers, in order that the church itself may be free and may be pure. Then the Lord, in Whose heart there was a great tenderness .even toward the evil doers, utters His promise. “To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna.” That is the first half of the promise, Divine sustenance. And why did Jesus speak of it as manna? Because manna was Divinely supplied, and yet had to be humanly gathered. Hidden manna, the Word of God upon which man lives, as against the doctrine of Balaam, in accepting which man perishes. The true bread, the bread of life. The applicability of this promise to these people is seen when it is remembered how the very heart of the false religion of Pergamum consisted in the attempt to feed upon secret mysteries of life. To those who overcome these subtle temptations, the Master promises that they shall feed upon hidden manna. And then the other portion of that sweet promise. “To him that overcometh . . .I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it.” The suggestiveness of that white stone is not perfectly clear. There have been many interpretations. Personally I would be inclined to think that they all have some value. From them let me select four. The white stone was given to a man who after trial was justly acquitted, and went forth clear from condemnation. The white stone was given to one who, returning from battle, having won victories, bore his triumphs with him. It was the reward of victory. The white stone was sometimes given to a man as the token that he was made a free man of the city. It indicated his free citizenship. And yet there is one other meaning, perhaps more beautiful than all, very sweet and tender. There was the white stone known as the tessara hospitalis. Two men, friends, about to part, would divide a white stone into two, each carrying with him half, upon which was inscribed the name of the friend. It may be that they would never meet again, but that stone in each case would be bequeathed to son, and sometimes generations after, a man would meet another, and they would find that they possessed the complementary halves of one white stone, and their friendship would be at once created upon the basis of the friendship made long ago. All these seem to me to be probably suggested by this white stone. First, the white stone of acquittal, which is justification. The white stone of victory, being triumph over all foes. The white stone of citizenship, which marks the freedom of the city of God. And then the white stone of unending friendship my name written on His half, His name written on mine. The central lesson of the study is a very solemn one. The Church of Jesus Christ must not tolerate within her borders those who lower the standard of truth’s requirements. This is not a question of holding the truth. The church at Pergamum was orthodox. It is a question of the right application of truth. The error of these men is one that in subtle form, threatens all churches even until this hour. It is that if a man’s creed be right, his conduct does not so much matter. Truth never excuses sin. All forms of sin are to be treated with ruthless and pitiless severity, and if a man holding any form of teaching, should attempt to excuse sin, he is to be excluded from the fellowship of the saints. Purity of doctrine has its danger. A man may be so loyal to the name and the faith, that almost before he knows it, his zeal for these things may make him blind to the presence of teaching which will undermine their value. The test of doctrine is purity of conduct and character. The seal of the Master has two sides, on each an inscription. On the one side the words are graven, “The Lord knoweth them that are His.” On the other side these other words, “Let him that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” Any attempt to efface this second side of the seal, is blasphemy, an error to be banished with exclusion from the fellowship of the Church. God’s order is the order of peace, but it is always peace based upon purity, for the wisdom that is from above is first pure and then peaceable. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: 01.05. THE THYATIRA LETTER ======================================================================== THE THYATIRA LETTER “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write; “These things saith the Son of God, Who hath His eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like unto burnished brass. I know thy works, and thy love and faith and ministry and patience, and that thy last works are more than the first. But I have against thee, that thou sufferest the woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess; and she teacheth and seduceth My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time that she should repent; and she willeth not to repent of her fornication. Behold, I do cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of her works. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto each one of you according to your works. But to you I say, to the rest that are in Thyatira, as many as have not this teaching, which know not the deep things of Satan, as they say; I cast upon you none other burden. Howbeit that which ye have, hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers; as I also have received of My Father: and I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.” Revelation 2:18-29. THYATIRA was a small city in Asia Minor. While we have no certain account of the planting there of the Christian Church, it may be it was an indirect result of the influence of Lydia. We remember how she, the “seller of purple of the city of Thyatira,” was one at the prayer meeting held on the banks of the river. There her heart was opened to receive the truth and obey it, and she and all her household were baptized and received into the fellowship of the Church. They belonged to Thyatira, though at the time they were living near Philippi. This of course is pure conjecture. Nothing has been definitely revealed, therefore again we are confined for our knowledge of the church to what appears of it in this letter of Jesus. In addressing the angel, the Lord announces Himself as the “Son of God, Who hath His eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like unto burnished brass.” “The Son of God.” This is the first time that He has made use of this description of Himself in these letters, and it marks the assertion of power and authority. He is the infallible One to Whose speech the church must pay attention. When John turned to see the vision, he “beheld One like unto a Son of man,” but yet the glory of the vision spoke also of the fact that He was Son of God. And now in this central letter of the seven, He makes use of the title of supreme authority. From the complete vision He selects two facts concerning Himself, which indicate the special meaning and value of the message He is about to deliver, “His eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like unto burnished brass,” the eyes of fire suggesting His intimate knowledge, His penetrating vision concerning the church, so that in the sentence He is about to pronounce, there can be no mistake, for His understanding of all the conditions is a perfect understanding. The eyes of fire pierce all the deeps of darkness, and know the profoundest secrets. He is also the One Who “hath His feet like unto burnished brass,” and by these statements He practically announces the fact that He is coming in judgment which is strong and pure. His eyes like a flame of fire, He sees perfectly and understands accurately. His feet like unto burnished brass, He marches to judgment, the King amid the seven golden lampstands, and the track of His coming is the track of fire. Righteous, pure, and final are all His judgments. Within the church at Thyatira there is an evil for which no remedial measures are sufficient. It is not one that admits of correction. There is nothing for it but destruction. It has permeated the whole fellowship. Nothing but judgment remains, and so He comes to definite and immediate dealing with this evil. His commendation commences with the usual words, “I know.” The general statement is “I know thy works.” Then follows an analysis, “and thy love and faith and ministry and patience.” And lastly, “thy last works are more than the first.” Three things are indicated in this commendation. First, the works of the church; secondly, the forces that lie behind the works—”thy love and faith and ministry and patience;” and lastly that those works have not decreased but increased. He thus approves the activity of the church, the principles upon which it is based, and the fact that in true order, it increases. His first approbation is of the church’s work, the things that are seen. His second of the hidden facts that lie behind the outward manifestation. Thirdly, He approves that which is always a sequence of such condition, that the last works are more than the first. “I know thy works.” He does not name or tabulate them. He declares His acquaintance with them. Also He recognizes that behind them lie the love and fidelity, the ministry and the patience, and the fact that because these works have these principles behind them, the last works are more than the first. Notice principally, though briefly, the principles He recognizes as lying behind the works of the church. “I know . . . thy love.” This is a statement of the church’s character. It is the fact that lies at the root, and out of which all springs. Underlying all the works there was a principle toward God and man which the Master had declared to be the sum and substance of the law of God. It was a church character. There was no breach, no division, no schism, but a wonderful manifestation of love. “I know . . . thy faith.” Again the force of the word is thy fidelity. Faith is here mentioned not as the principle out of which an attitude grows, but rather the attitude of fidelity that grows out of the principle of confidence. I know thy stedfastness, I know that in thee is manifested the opposite of fickleness. Too often works of love are alike occasional and spasmodic, but here they were characterized by constancy. In this case the love was not an accident, it was a habit. “I know . . . thy ministry,” and herein is a tender and beautiful touch. He was conscious of love in action, of deeds done because of love to God and man. There is a difference between this ministry and the general works already referred to. They are the peculiar and special activities of the church of Jesus Christ in its church capacity. The ministry referred to here is rather that of unofficial kindnesses and tendernesses of the members as amongst themselves, and in all probability toward the outsider also. It is possible to have a church characterized by works, and yet sadly devoid of this particular kind of ministry. There have been officials constantly zealous concerning all official work, and yet lacking the thousand tender touches which .fulfil this highest ministry. So many men are ready to spread a banquet, and slow to give a cup of cold water. But to this church the Master says, “I know . . . thy ministry, as well as thy works,” all the outpouring of the life in untabulated service. “I know . . . thy patience.” This is a great word upon which the Master seemed to set much value. He spoke of it to the church at Ephesus, and now again to this church at Thyatira. May we not define this patience as the spirit of peace under pressure. Surely Milton’s words may be taken as a perfect exposition of true patience. “Yet I argue not against Heaven’s hand or will. Nor bate a jot of heart or hope, But still bear up and steer right onward.” Patience is the capacity for being still when all around is tempest-tossed. Patience is the flower of fidelity. If fidelity is the activity of faith, patience is the condition of character resulting therefrom. It is that peace of heart under pressure of life which is so fair and fragrant a thing to us, and ever seems to give the heart of the Lord satisfaction and joy. And yet again. “I know . . . that thy last works are more than the first.” There had been progress and development resulting from this intermediate group of facts, the outward and evident activity of the church had broadened and deepened. Such was the Master’s commendation, and very beautiful it is. How tenderly the Lord recognizes all the best facts in the life of the church. How excellent a thing it would be if when, for any reason, we are called upon to criticize some assembly of the saints, we might take our Lord’s pattern, and utter first our commendation. This He always did unless there were no word of commendation that could be uttered. In His messages we ever discover His recognition of excellent things. But now we pass to the solemn words of this most mysterious epistle, the words of complaint. “But I have against thee, that thou sufferest the woman Jezebel.” That is all. Nothing more. There is no other complaint against this church. The whole paragraph which follows from the middle of the twentieth verse to the end of the twenty-third contains simply the statement of the facts of the case, which demonstrate our Lord’s right to complain against the church for suffering the woman. It cannot be over-emphasized that the sin of this church consisted in the fact that she raised no protest against the woman Jezebel, that she allowed an outsider to promulgate under her shelter the most terrible doctrine, with the most disastrous results. Jezebel did not belong to the church, She may have been a member of the congregation, even perhaps enrolled on the earthly list of the fellowship, but she had no living relation with the church because she did not belong to Christ. The church incurred a terrible responsibility by suffering her. Not the teaching, nor the result of the teaching did the Lord charge against the church, save as she becomes responsible for what she suffers. The wrong of this false toleration may be gathered from an examination of the woman, her work, and her judgment. In attempting to consider the woman Jezebel, we are at once found in the presence of all kinds of questionings and doubts and interpretations. Is the whole language figurative? Does Jezebel stand for an idea, or was she actually a woman, exerting evil influences through pernicious teaching in Thyatira? These things perhaps cannot be finally or satisfactorily answered. The greatest probability is that there was an actual woman. The marginal rendering of the message to the angel is, “Thou sufferest thy wife Jezebel,” and there are those who believe that this woman was indeed the wife of the angel of the church. Whether this be so or not, there can be little doubt of the existence of an actual woman. Whether her real name was Jezebel may be doubtful. It is probable that when the Master named the woman, He borrowed a name from the Old Testament in order to light up the fact of her character, and the influence she was exerting. Turn from these things that are doubtful, and let us examine the actual words of Christ. “Thou sufferest the woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess.” What is a prophetess, and why is the statement made in this form, “she calleth herself a prophetess?” There can be very little doubt that the woman claimed to be an inspired woman, who had received some new revelation. Some vision or enlightenment had been granted to her, denied to the apostles, and she was promulgating this new teaching. The result is carefully stated by the Lord in the words “she teacheth and seduceth.” The result of the teaching was the seduction of the servants of God, and the teaching was made forceful because the woman claimed that she was an inspired messenger. The name that the Master uses in referring to her, suggests an analogy with her Old Testament prototype. Let us think for a moment of the Jezebel of old. She was a daughter of the king of Tyre and Sidon, avowedly a teacher and worshipper of Baal. This worship of Baal was Nature worship, and as is the case with all Nature worship, it had become utterly degraded. Coming into relationship with the king of Israel by marriage, we learn from the ancient history of God’s people that she was not only his consort, but that she was associated with him in the government, with the result that she said in effect, ‘ Let us also set up the worship of Baal. I do not ask that the worship of Jehovah should be set aside, but by the side of it let us have opportunities for Nature worship.’ Her method was that of uniting the two worships. The purpose in her heart was that of the setting aside of the worship of Jehovah for the worship of Baal. Of all the women seen in Old Testament history, none was more brilliant, more daring, more unscrupulous than Jezebel. The name of this woman in the church at Thyatira drives us back to this woman of the old economy, and of her the Lord declares that she “teacheth and seduceth My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.” What was it that she was teaching? Nothing at the moment seems to be said on the point, but presently when the Master is pronouncing His judgment, He gives us a clue to the character of the teaching. “But to you I say, to the rest that are in Thyatira, as many as have not this teaching, which know not the deep things of Satan, as they say” What did the Lord mean by this “as they say?” He evidently refers to a claim set up within the teaching of Jezebel, that she had discovered some new deep hidden philosophy of life. Christ called it “the deep things of Satan.” This new revelation by inspiration, the end of which was to show how in the heathen systems were deep philosophies, and the result of which was to seduce the servants of God into complicity with the outward corruptions of heathendom, Christ characterizes as the “deep things of Satan.” It was evidently an attempt to graft on to Christianity as revealed in the Church, the mysteries of darkness by which Christianity was surrounded in that district. As there was the germ principle of Antinomianism dealt with in the church at Pergamum, so here there is the germ principle of the heresy of Gnosticism in the woman Jezebel. Here was an attempt made to fathom deep and underlying and unrevealed mysteries of life, and to make application of them under the name and sanction of the church, and the issue of the whole business was corruption. Truly there is nothing new under the sun. The latest of all heresies which names itself by conjunction of words, Christian and Science, of all the facts concerning which it is profoundly ignorant, is but the galvanizing of a mummy, under the inspiration of yet another woman, calling herself a prophetess. This latter day manifestation, dealt with philosophically, might be treated as the amusement of a passing hour, but the terrible effect it is producing among the servants of God, should call the Church to new attention to our Lord’s message to Thyatira, and the estimate it contains of His view of a church that suffers such awful teaching. What then according to the Master’s estimate was the result of this woman’s teaching? It was a lowering of the standard of separation between the church and the world. One uses the very word with bated breath, for it is a terrible word. “She teacheth and seduceth My servants to commit fornication.” In the prophecy of Hosea there is a startling revelation of the nature of spiritual fornication. It is God’s estimate of the sin of those who were betrothed to Him, when they return to the things from which they had turned to Him. People who should be satisfied with Christ, wholly possessed by Him, led by Him, taught by Him, are playing the harlot with the things that are against Him. The influence of the teaching of Jezebel was that the separated children of God, redeemed from the present evil world, called to separation from that world, were forming new alliances therewith, and the spirit of worldliness was spreading because of the toleration of the teaching of Jezebel. The members of the church at Thyatira were finding their way to the feasts in the heathen temple, eating the things sacrificed to idols, and descending even to the depth of the vices that ensued. The teaching which made this possible for them was not the teaching of Balaam, which said that the covenant was so sure and strong that sin could not break it. This denied the sinfulness of sin, affirming that within the things that seem to be evil are things of good. It was a practical denial of evil, in that it advocated union between the deep things, or mysteries of the outside world, and the mysteries which are the revelations of the Christian Church. And so the servants of God had become seduced by the teaching. First, the false teaching concerning the “deep things of Satan,” and then the seduction following. His people went over to the forces which were against Him, and committed harlotry and fornication in the spiritual realm by using freedom, bestowed by Him, for the violation of His will. His charge against the church was that notwithstanding these terrible facts, she was silent and tolerant. Then mark His words of judgment. These are introduced with a declaration of His patience, “And I gave her time that she should repent.” Then follows a statement that reveals the Speaker, reveals Him as the Son of God, and reveals Him as the One Whose eyes are as a flame of fire. She willeth not to repent of her fornication.” No one else could have said that. He Who knows even these deep things of Satan, declares that the will is hardened and set against repentance, and then, and never until then does He pronounce judgment. There is first a personal visitation. “Behold, I do cast her into a bed.” The symbolism is graphic and forceful and terrible. It suggests that the woman, who has taught and seduced His servants, shall find her destruction in the midst of the very corruption which she has created. More than that cannot be said. Then follows the fact that others will share in the doom. “And them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of her works.” The only way to escape the tribulation which He pronounces upon those who have been seduced, is that they shall repent of her works, and turn altogether from the things resulting from her teaching. And then the last and final word in this connection “I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts.” This description of the woman, her sin, and her judgment lies in a paragraph in the midst of the epistle, recording our Master’s reason for disapproval. The church’s wrong was that this woman had been permitted. Some of the children of God had been seduced, and yet no protest had been raised. It was a false charity, permitting the teaching of the woman, somewhere and somehow under the patronage of the church itself. The whole church was not contaminated with the doctrine. Of it He said some of His sweetest and strongest things. But in a false charity the woman Jezebel had been suffered. The church had not with sufficient clearness announced the fact that she had no dealing with the heresy taught, that between the inspired truth of which the church was the pillar and the ground, and the hysterical teaching from the self-styled prophetess, there was no complicity, and could be no union. Now let us turn to our Lord’s words of counsel, full of encouragement and gracious promise. “But to you I say, to the rest that are in Thyatira.” Thus to those who had not been influenced by the teaching, nor consented to its toleration, He said, “I cast upon you none other burden. Howbeit that which ye have, hold fast till I come.” Did He mean that they were to hold fast the burden until He came? Assuredly He did. What then is the burden? The truth as once for all delivered to them; and by saying, “I cast upon you none other burden,” He meant, Do not be led away by any new mysteries, or new perplexities, or new revelations. I have laid upon you the burden of truth sufficient for the moment. “I cast upon you none other burden.” Any new revelation that men claim as from Me, receive it not. Any new philosophy of life that fails to harmonize with that declared, reject. “Howbeit that which ye have,” the truth as revealed, My law of life, that hold fast. Do not suffer anyone to teach something which I forgot to say! “I will cast upon you none other burden.” Carefully note this. There seems to be almost a play upon words in what Jesus said; there is certainly familiarity with their root meaning. He says, Those of you who have not this teaching, that “know not the deep things of Satan”—that word, “deep things” is the word βάθος, that is, the profundities of Satan. And He then says, “I cast upon you none other burden.” That word “burden” is the word βάρος, which means an impression made. Both βάθος and βάρος spring from the original root βάσος. It is evident that He was speaking with an intimate knowledge of the history of the words, and indulging in a play upon them. It is as though He had said, These people are professing to discover some new deep things, which they will lay upon you. “I cast upon you none other deep things Herein is a great principle for the government of our intelligent life as Christian people. The thing claiming to be new, is therefore to be doubted. The message He has delivered is complete, the doctrine is enunciated, the mysteries are revealed, and whosoever, man or woman, would claim to reveal a new mystery, is the messenger of Satan. And yet again “Hold fast till I come.” How often this reference to His coming, and almost wherever found, it has some fresh light and meaning. It is as though He would say, Wait for the deeper things until I come. When I come I will unlock the mysteries, I will reveal the profundities. If I have not told you of them, it is because you cannot bear them yet. There are deep mysteries of life, and great and marvellous secrets, but you are not ready for their understanding. “I cast upon you none other burden.” You have all you can bear. “Howbeit that which ye have, hold fast till I come.” And then we shall know as we are known, and the mysteries, attempting to fathom which to-day we can find corruption only, will flame with light, and lead in the way of truth. The closing promise and the crowning statement follow. “And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers; as I also have received of My Father.” Notice the contrast. “Them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of her works.” “He that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works.” This is the promise of a coming authority, an authority to be delivered to the saints, when they have held fast to the trust committed to them, until God’s moment of consummation arrives. “I will give him the morning star.” We shall often walk in darkness. There will be many mysteries perplexing us. The burden we have is sufficient for the building of our character, for our growth in life, and ministry and works. The other things will wait. Presently He will give us the morning star. That expression only occurs three times in Scripture. In the book of Job, in the language of God, when He is causing His glory to pass before the astonished vision of His servant, He tells Job of the wonder-working age, when He laid the beams and wonders of Nature, and He says “When the morning stars sang together.” This was the song of the principalities and powers in the heavenly places as they wrought in the spaces of new creation. I go to the end of the Library, and I find that Jesus says, “I am the bright and the Morning Star.” He is the Prince of creation, He is the First-born, and if we will but wait, and not follow the last false philosophy of impertinent attempt to discover hidden things, He will give us the morning star. We shall know the secrets of life, the deepest problems, and discover His Lordship in all. How often has the Church of Christ imperiled her safety by giving undue heed to some new voice. I am growingly afraid of the men or the women who have seen a vision, and now feel called upon to declare it. Do not misunderstand me. I believe in visions. But let us before we speak of the vision be perfectly sure that it is not nightmare. The probability is that if you have a vision, you will not say much concerning it, but men will know that you have seen by the light that lingers on your face. Perfect light has shined upon man in Christ. With the shining of that light, all symbols and signs of the old covenant have passed, and the visions and the dreams have very largely ceased. The lower orders of material miracles have given place to the higher in the realms of spiritual triumph. Let us ever be careful how we give credence to a new voice. We must be loyal to Christ, and loyalty to Christ is loyalty to the inspired Word, and its mighty teachings. To deny Christ is to deny atonement, and to deny sin, and the only voice that denies these has learned its language and caught its tone in the deep things of Satan. Is not the voice of Jezebel to be heard in our churches to-day in more ways than one? Is there not sounding all around us a cry as against separation? Is there not a terrible tendency in church life to deny that the Master calls us to places of peculiarity and loneliness in our loyalty to Him? We may still retain our church relationship, and our name Christian, and because of some new voice, eat of things sacrificed to idols, without defilement, and have easy absolution, not by blood, from the filth of fornication. Is it really popular to-day to call church members into the place of separation from worldliness? Is there not a greater eagerness than ever to find some doctrine by submission to which we can be rid of sin, while still keeping it? Yet surely the New Testament is perfectly clear. “Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord And touch no unclean thing; And I will receive you, And will be to you a Father, And ye shall be to Me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil world.” “If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.” “Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a people for His own possession.” “Be ye yourselves holy in all manner of living.” Through the whole New Testament the call is to separation, to peculiarity, to a clear line of demarcation between the Church and the world. I fear that the voice of Jezebel is yet tolerated, and that the children of God are being seduced. Things at which our fathers shuddered are to-day being introduced as necessary to the social and financial success of the Church. In the name of God and humanity, let us keep the line clear and sharp, and know on which side we stand. Any doctrine, any philosophy, that makes it easy to sin, whether by excusing it, minimizing its enormity, or denying its existence is of hell, and not merely are those held guilty who teach the doctrine and practise the sin, but that church also which is not clear and outspoken in its protests against sin. The church that suffers the woman is guilty. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: 01.06. THE SARDIS LETTER ======================================================================== THE SARDIS LETTER “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write; “These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars: I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead. Be thou watchful, and stablish the things that remain, which were ready to die: for I have found no works of thine fulfilled before My God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and didst hear; and keep it, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. But thou hast a few names in Sardis which did not defile their garments: and they shall walk with Me in white; for they are worthy. He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess His name before My Father, and before His angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.” Revelation 3:1-6. THERE is a marked change in our Lord’s method of address to the church at Sardis. Hitherto He has commenced with words of commendation. Here He commenced with f words of condemnation. In the other churches evil had not been the habit, but rather the exception, and therefore it was possible first to commend. Here the case is reversed, and no word of commendation is addressed to the church as a church. The Lord addressed the church as “He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars,” and this commendation marks those aspects of His personality which characterize His dealing with a church in such condition. “He that hath the seven Spirits of God.” This description indicates His fulness of power, and also His fulness of wisdom. The church for lack of life, is full of unfulfilled works, and the Lord approaches them in all the plenitude of His power and His wisdom. “He that hath . . . the seven stars.” This symbol is suggestive at once of the perfection of ministry which He places at the disposal of the churches, and also therefore of His knowledge of all such ministry as the churches have received. His complaint is startling and terrible. “I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead.” With what changed emphasis we read the words “I know.” The whole tone of it has been full of tenderness and comfort. Now it is a trumpet blast of terror. “I know thy works.” The church at Sardis is not devoid of works. Indeed it is so full of them as to give it a name of being alive. In all probability there was full and correct organization, the ordinances of the church were regularly observed. They gathered upon the first day of the week for worship. They contributed systematically to the necessities of the work. In brief, it is most likely that to all outward appearances they fulfilled the description of the early Church in the Acts of the Apostles, in that they “continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine, in the breaking of bread, and in fellowship, and in prayers.” “Thou hast a name that thou livest.” There can be but one signification in this statement of Christ. Nothing is lacking as to external manifestation, and yet Christ says “And thou art dead” He Who seeks first for the inward life, finds nothing to satisfy His heart in this church. Scaffolding is of no value to Him if the building be making no progress behind it. The whiteness of a sepulcher does not attract Him if within there be nothing but dead bones. He seeks always for the inward, and only for the outward as it continues to be the expression of the inward. The breaking of bread is nothing save as there is the spiritual feeding upon Himself. The meeting for worship is valueless save as through the externals, the soul passes into communion with Him. Gifts are not accepted when they are the mere observance of a duty, and not the expression of the heart’s adoration. The life which expresses itself in love was absent, and so the church lacked what would be acceptable to Christ, and would satisfy for all the toil He had endured to win it for Himself. “Thou art dead.” Flowers there may be, but of wax, poor imitations of the flowers of God which grow and bloom and shed their fragrance. The form of manhood may be there, and the garments in which the form is draped be gorgeous, and all the trappings speak of royalty, and yet the body be loathsome to Christ, for the eye lacks lustre, the arm is nerveless, the heart is still, death reigns and corruption is already holding high carnival. “Thou hast a name that thou livest.” That is to say, that there was everything in Sardis that would satisfy the outside observer. “And thou art dead.” That is to say, there was nothing in Sardis that could satisfy the heart of Christ. This seems difficult to comprehend, but the explanation is to be found in the further words of Christ. “I have found no works of thine fulfilled, before My God.” There was great promise, but no result, that is, nothing fulfilled before God. Was there no prayer? On earth there were prayers, but they did not reach the heavens. Were there no songs? In all likelihood, the music was correct and elaborate, but no harmony was heard in the heavenly temple. Were there no gifts? In all probability gifts were bestowed with unfailing regularity, but they were not registered in the treasury of the inner sanctuary. Everything stopped short of the inner temple. All kinds of Committee meetings attended, but nothing done, nothing finished, nothing fulfilled. Resolutions, and promises, and a great showing upon paper, but nothing reaching fruitage before God, nothing that satisfied the Divine heart, nothing that answered the Divine purpose. Outward forms, ceremonies, organization; but death reigned. The essence of worship is that while it begins in the church, it takes hold upon heaven. If the hymn is simply a musical expression of pleasant feeling, there is no worship in it. But if upon the wings of sacred song our spirits find their way into the Holy of Holies, then that song is fulfilled before God. If the prayer we utter is a compilation of sentences, spoken for the fulfilment of duty, it is not prayer. But if the prayer, expressing a sense of need, finds its way above the mists and the mysteries of life, to the throne, it is fulfilled before God. If our gifts are bestowed that we may be kept square with duty, they are utterly refused in heaven. But if they express a sacrifice and a sympathy, though they be but small according to the arithmetic of men, they are counted of great worth in that temple where gifts are valued according to the givers. In the church at Sardis there were plans, schemes, programmes, but nothing fulfilled before God, no growth into the likeness of Christ, no enlargement of the church through the propagation of the Christ-life, no compassion for souls, no fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. There were many things fulfilled before men; indeed, the church had come to the place where it lived before men rather than before God, more anxious in all probability about their reputation in Sardis than their reputation in heaven, more desirous for the good opinion of neighbouring churches, than for the commendation of the Head of the Church. “Thou hast a name,” everything that will satisfy the craving for reputation, “and thou art dead,” nothing that gladdens the heart of God. Having thus in one swift sentence revealed the church’s lack, He continues in words of gracious counsel. “Be thou watchful, and stablish the things that remain, which were ready to die: for I have found no works of thine fulfilled before My God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and didst hear; and keep it, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” And then omitting the next verse, “He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will con fess his name before My Father, and before His angels.” His words of counsel contain, first, advice to the church; secondly, an incentive to obedience and a warning; and lastly, His promise to the overcomer. “Stablish the things that remain.” If the church was dead, what things remained? The unfulfilled things, the very forms and ceremonies which had given the church its name to live. Christ did not suggest that these people should put aside any of their externalities, but that they should fulfil them. They were not to cease assembling for worship, but they were to worship. They were still to send their help, and give their gifts, but these were to be the expressions of their devotion to their Lord, and not the price they paid for the good opinion of others. The forms were not wrong. They needed to be filled with power. The dry bones were necessary, but they needed to be clothed with flesh, and become instinct with life. The organization must not be neglected, but it should act in the power of vital force. There can, I think, be no other understanding of this expression, “the things that remain.” He cannot have reference to a faint life that needed revival, for He distinctly says “thou art dead.” This part of the message is not for the few in Sardis, for to them He has a special word. No, it is rather that in tender grace, He recognizes the outward symbol, the unfulfilled things, the very forms and ceremonies that have been earth-bound, and He says, Strengthen them, stablish them, fill them to the full. Be no longer satisfied with externals. That is ever Christ’s message to the formalist. He does not ask that outward form should be given up, or helpful rite abandoned. He will not suggest the setting aside of any form or ceremony that in itself is helpful. He has no criticism for these things. He permits the music and the methods, always providing that they are expressive of the deeper fact of life. These things He hates when they become the grave-clothes wrapped about death. The true ideal of worship is that of man communing with God. Through what forms that worship expresses itself is of little moment. Christ does not call the church at Sardis to abandon these, but to stablish them by making them instinct with life. Specially mark the significance of the words that follow, “which were ready to die.” This is a solemn note of warning. It indicates the fact that even these outward forms will cease, unless there be behind them the throb of life. They are ready to die, as all that is merely outward perishes. The very things that remain, the outward forms and ceremonies, which give the church a name to live, are ready to perish if the heart and life have passed away. It is always but a step from formalism to rationalism, and if external things lack internal force, they themselves will crumble to decay, and presently there will remain in Sardis not even a church having a name to live. No man can live long on ritual. How often has the Church had proof of this. Stretching over the hill-side yonder is a forest of mighty oaks, and among them I see one necessarily attracting attention by the magnificence of its form, and the splendour of its outward appearance. It is easily the king of the forest. But presently under stress of a sweeping storm that tree is bowed and broken. We approach, in wonder, to discover the reason, and find that through processes we did not observe, which were secret and silent in operation, an inward decay had long been at work. The life forces within had been weakened, and in the rush of the tempest the outward appearance was destroyed. So also with the Church. When its inward life force has ebbed away into orthodox organizations, it is ready to die, to perish. In the sight of Christ it is dead already, though it has yet a name to live; and when dead in His sight it will surely soon be seen to be dead even by those among whom for the moment it has a name to live. What is true of the Church is equally true of the individual. No man can become absorbed in the external to neglect of the inward and spiritual without being in danger of losing the external manifestation also. How often have we seen it! Men leave the plain and simpler forms of worship for outward magnificence of manifestation, hoping by these things to compensate for lack of spiritual power, and the next thing we hear of them is that they have abandoned their outward relation to the Church also. It is of little importance what the outward form may be, providing that the inner life is there, and that through the externalities it is finding full expression. Works unfulfilled before God must sooner or later manifest their emptiness before men. Therefore let the things that remain, which were ready to die be stablished. As an incentive to obedience, the Lord utters a solemn warning. “If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” How differently the promise of His coming sounds under different circumstances of Church life and Church character. When sacred things lose power, precious things lose blessing. When faith is dead, hope becomes dread. In the early first love of Christian experience, the thought of the advent of Christ is a thought of hope. When that love is lost, and death reigns, that which is the brightest star in the firmament to the trusting heart becomes a dread of darkness. The promise which produces a thrill of joy, becomes a thought of terror to the men who have fallen out of harmony with the Lord and Master. In Scripture the advent of Jesus is constantly described under two aspects. The last prophecy uttered before His first advent, has the same recognition of dual significance. “For, behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” What a terrible announcement. But yet listen again, for the prophet proceeds without break, “But unto you that fear My name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall.” What a contrast. On the one side a day of burning and destruction. On the other the sun rising with healing in its light. Are these two different advents? No, the difference is created by the condition of the people at the dawning of the day. To those who work wickedness the day would be one of burning and destructive heat. To those who fear His name the day would be of healing, the dawning of the morning, the breaking of light. The sun has two effects. It will burn up the parched ground until it becomes like a cinder. A plant in such ground, devoid of water, will be killed by the heat; but if a tree be planted by the rivers of water, and its roots go down and take hold of the springs of life, the sun will be the messenger of health and growth and advancement. So also with regard to the second advent. The church’s attitude toward the doctrine is always a revelation of the church’s spiritual condition; and the attitude of the individual soul toward the thought of the Lord’s return is always a revelation of that soul’s condition before God. If I have a name to live while I am dead, then His announcement “I will come!” is a thought of terror. But if I have life and love and loyalty, the promise of His coming is the promise of day break. In referring to the second advent the apostle of love wrote, “And now, my little children, abide in Him: that, if He shall be manifested, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” Two attitudes towards His coming are here revealed, “boldness,” “ashamed before Him.” The difference is created by the condition of those who wait for Him. If abiding in Him, then at His coming we shall have boldness. If not abiding in Him, we shall be ashamed before Him. This is a very searching test of our personal condition. If when we hear the coming of Jesus spoken of, it is as the voice of music in the soul, then are we fulfilling our works before God. If on the other hand, the mention of the possibility of His approach creates the desire to postpone that coming, it is because our relation to Him is formal rather than living. The soul that lives in Christ, and works with Him amid the defilement of a decadent age, never hears His message “Behold, I come quickly” without answering, “Even so come, Lord Jesus.” This announcement of His coming gives force to the word “Remember therefore how thou hast received and didst hear; and keep it and repent.” If the church hear His warning, and repent, and watch, and stablish the things remaining, the promise of His coming will have in it no terror, but be a veritable gospel of hope. But if the church abide in the realm of formalism, having a name, but lacking life, then the declaration that He will come can produce nothing but fear. To the overcomer the Master says “He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.” The man that overcomes is the one who remembers and repents. To such He promises the final robing, “He shall thus be arrayed in white garments,” and a recognition in the final roll-call, “I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.” The robing in white garments is symbolical not of the purity of Christ, but of the manifestation of the works of the saints, works purified by Christ, and revealed in the light of the Father’s house; and the names of such, Christ will confess in the presence of His Father and of the holy angels. Then there is also that tender word of commendation almost a parenthesis, not spoken to the whole church as describing it, but of a remnant that have not passed under the condemnation. “But thou hast a few names in Sardis which did not defile their garments: and they shall walk with Me in white; for they are worthy.” In the midst of the formalism of the many, there were a few who lived and fulfilled their works before God, who did not defile their garments, and to these the Master says, “They shall walk with Me in white for they are worthy.” In Scripture the robing of the saint is ever an expression of the saint’s own service and character. In the description of the white robed multitude in Revelation, it is said that their white robes are the righteousness of the saints, not the righteousness of God, but the righteousness of the saints. That is to say, that fidelity of character and of service shall presently have its outward manifestation. Is not some very beautiful light thrown upon the thought by the fact of the transfiguration of Jesus? On the holy mount His raiment became white and glistening, and the glory which the wondering disciples beheld was that of the outshining of His own perfection which made even the homely garment that He wore, flash with the splendour of heaven’s own whiteness. Those who on earth did not defile their garments, shall finally walk with Him in white. They shall come to the time when there shall be manifested in outward glory their inward loyalty to Christ. The chief thought of the church in Sardis had been that of popularity, of having a name. A few had been supremely anxious to be approved of Him, and concerning them He says, one day they shall be manifested in the glory of their own fidelity. That which is visible now to the eye of Christ shall finally be seen to be beautiful by others. There is an awful possibility threatening the life of all our churches, and the church at Sardis is an example of warning concerning it. It is a possibility, so subtle and insidious, that almost before knowing, the church may have drifted into the peril. It is that of a dead orthodoxy, a dead correctness. There may be flourishing finances, large numbers attending the services, varied and ever increasing organizations, correct expositions of truth, and yet the church may be dead. It may have a name to live. It may be such as will always be spoken of as a living church. Surrounding churches may flatter it, and it may even be deceived itself, and yet Christ may find in it no element of value. Such a statement as that, such a solemn and awful statement should lead us to ask in all seriousness, What are the true signs of life in the churches of Jesus Christ? If the presence of life may not be judged by these things, how may we know whether the church is living or dead? The evidences of life are at least fourfold. In a living church there will be growth, compassion, union, and emotion, There will be growth. The principle of life makes stagnation impossible. Growth in the individual character of the members, and growth in the membership of the church, not merely by accretion from without, but by expansion from within. That church is in a sorrowful condition that has added nothing to its membership through the propagative life forces of its own communion. The membership that only grows by the accident of removals and letters of introduction is in a terrible condition. If none are born again directly through the working of the church, we may almost certainly say that the church is dead. I say that in all seriousness, and without apology. I would be afraid to remain as pastor or member of a church if for any length of time there were none added to its fellowship upon confession of faith. In this matter the minister cannot be held wholly responsible. He may travail in birth for souls, but unless the church is in co-operative and living sympathy with him, there will be no result. But where the whole communion is serving in the power of a great life, then through the Sabbath School, through the varied agencies, through the living influence of individual members, the life will be propagated, and men and women will be gathered into the fellowship upon confession of faith. Whatever else may be true concerning the church, if there be no additions by new birth, the church is dead, though it have a name to live. Life is always propagative, and that is nowhere so actually and forcefully true as in the realm of Christianity. Another sign of life is that of compassion. The true consciousness of the Church is the consciousness of the Christ, and the consciousness of the Christ is that of love. That church which has no heart of compassion for the lost, is dead. The suburban church that attempts to buy off its own personal responsibility by making donations to send men down to work in slums which it does not care itself to touch, is dead. Such responsibility can never be delegated. A church into which only one class or caste of persons gathers for purely selfish preservation, is a libel upon the very name of Christ. Every church should be an asylum for the lost, a refuge for the broken-hearted, a home of welcome for the harlot and the publican. In God’s name let us take down the signs that label us churches of Christ if we have no compassion for such, and we have no compassion if it be not strong enough to overcome sentimental prejudices, which result from the mere accident of birth. A girl of good family and excellent opportunities, of much culture and refinement once said to me, when I asked her to visit in a neighbourhood characterized by suffering and sin, “I really could not do it. I am so sensitive. It makes me ill.” God have mercy on such idle pretence. Can any be more sensitive than Jesus the Saviour? Can any refinement be superior to that of the perfect One of Nazareth? I blush with shame at a sensitiveness which proves an absence of compassion. It is only as we find our pride and prejudices whelmed in the strong sweep of His great love that we shall ever be prepared to touch the depraved. We are dead indeed if we lack compassion. If the love of Christ is shed abroad in the heart, and the church is swept by that love, there is utter forgetfulness of all the things that are objectionable. Refinement that refuses to relieve is nothing more than cultured paganism. If there be love, there will also be union. Disintegration is a sign of death. If the church be filled with sections, and parties, and there be strifes and schism it is because of the lack of the life element. The prevalence of caste, and the existence of division within the borders of the church is a sure proof of its lack of life. In the full tide of Divine life, there is a constant consciousness of the unity of the Spirit. And yet again. Where there is life there is emotion. Sometimes it seems as though the day has come when the highest type of life is supposed to be that which is most free from the possibility of emotion, and yet how false is the idea. I am alive, and because I am alive, I weep, I sing, I laugh, I mourn. It is the dead that have no tears, no laughter, no music, no mourning. I have no patience with the man who boasts that his religion lacks emotion. The church without tears and laughter, Christ has little use for. I put these things together for they are together. You cannot have tears without laughter. You never found a man capable of humour that was not also capable of sorrow. And no church that lacks joy has compassion. The church that lives, thrills with emotion, is full of laughter, and full of tears, perpetually breaks into song, and is silent again in the silence of pain. The experience of the individual members is realized within the great union. If these things be lacking in the church, it is dead indeed. The signs of life are growth, compassion, union, and emotion. These being absent, there may be very many other things that give the church a name to live among men. But Christ, walking amid the lampstands, counts as nothing worth the externalities, and hungers for the growth, the compassion, the union, and the emotion that prove the life. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: 01.07. THE PHILADELPHIA LETTER ======================================================================== THE PHILADELPHIA LETTER “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; “These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and none shall shut, and that shutteth, and none openeth: I know thy works (behold, I have set before thee a door opened, which none can shut), and thou hast a little power, and didst keep My word, and didst not deny My name. Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, of them which say they are Jews, and they are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou didst keep the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. I come quickly: hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown. He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out thence no more: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God, and Mine own new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.” Revelation 3:7-13. THIS is the second epistle which contains no word of complaint. To the church at Smyrna, suffering amid persecution and tribulation, His message was wholly of His own love and strength. Again to the church at Philadelphia, He has nothing save commendation, and the announcement of preservation from the period of calamity and trial which is coming to the whole earth. The church being in true relationship to its Lord, He approaches it in His rightful character of the Supreme One Who directs the church’s activity. “These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and none shall shut, and that shutteth and none openeth.” Thus He announces three facts concerning Himself. Concerning His character; “He that is holy, He that is true concerning His official position; “He that hath the key of David:” concerning His administration; “He that openeth, and none shall shut, and that shutteth and none openeth.” Between these things there is a close connection. His character of holiness and truth is His right to Kingship. He is, moreover, King by the official act of God as witness His holding of the key of David. And because He is King in character, and by appointment, He exercises His Kingly office, and administers the affairs of His Kingdom. The relation between these facts must be remembered. First let us consider the Kingly character. “He that is holy, He that is true.” The first marks the essential fact, and the second the relative; holy in character, true in action; holy in Himself, true in His government. The two statements give us two sides of the one essential fact. These two statements constitute the complete whole which creates the true Kingliness of Christ, and gives Him what all other kings have lacked, the Divine right of Kingship. These two facets of the one fact are constantly revealed in New Testament thought. In the prophecy of Zacharias chronicled in Luke, in referring to the result of the coming of Christ it is said, that He should establish the people in “holiness and righteousness,” holiness the hidden fact, righteousness its outward manifestation; the rightness of character and conduct. “He that is holy,” that is, right in character. “He that is true,” that is, right in conduct. Holy, and therefore in Himself royal; true, and therefore making others loyal. By His holiness of character and truth of conduct He creates a consciousness which demands the loyalty of those who find Him as their King. It is always impossible to be loyal in all the broadest sense of the great word to that which is other than royal, also in the broadest sense of the word. No man who loves purity can be loyal to impurity. No man that has his heart set upon holy things can be loyal to that which is unholy. Loyalty must be the outcome of royalty. The royalty of earth is created by the accident of birth, or by the questionable right of conquest, and expresses itself in trappings and dwellings. Christ’s right to Kingship rests upon the bedrock of character. He and He alone is King by Divine right, because He is holy, He is true. The second Psalm announces the fact of God’s appointment of a King. “Yet have I set my King Upon My holy hill of Zion. I will tell of the decree: The Lord said unto Me, Thou art My Son; This day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance, And the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.” The twenty-fourth Psalm reveals the character of that King. “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, And hath not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of His salvation.” “I have set My King upon My holy hill of Zion.” “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.” This God-appointed King comes to the church at Philadelphia, and speaks of the deepest fact which constitutes His right to Kingship, “I am He that is holy.” And then He declares the necessary sequence, He that is true.” He then proceeds to announce that His position is official. “He that hath the key of David.” In Isaiah’s description of Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, already referred to in another connection, it is written, “I will clothe him with Thy robe, and strengthen him with Thy girdle, and I will commit Thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.” That is, government based upon life and upon resource. It is then added “And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.” From that prophecy the Lord quotes the words “He that hath the key of David,” and thus claims its fulfilment in His own Person. He it is, to Whom God has committed His government, of which fact the key is the symbol and the sign. And then in the last place He declares the fact of His administration. “He that openeth, and none shall shut, and that shutteth and none openeth.” Let it be most particularly noted that Jesus did not say “He that can open and none can shut, and that can shut, and none openeth.” That is obviously true, but He said something far stronger. He did not make a declaration of ability, but of activity. Not merely that He held an executive position, but that He was executing the work. “He that openeth, and none shall shut, and that shutteth and none openeth.” This is not a distinction without a difference, but a difference with a distinction. Philadelphia was a church like the other churches of the time, existing in the midst of the corruption of paganism, and surrounded by forces which perpetually threatened to overwhelm these assemblies gathered around the risen One. To it however the Lord comes, announcing Himself in all the Kingly majesty of actual administration, “He that openeth, and none shall shut, and that shutteth and none openeth.” These words should bring to us a great sense of confidence and safety, notwithstanding all the appearances which appall us. He is God’s King to-day, and though for a while man rejects Him, He nevertheless holds the reins of government, sitting upon the holy hill of Zion, King by right of character, King, as witness the key of office which He holds, He moreover acts in perpetual administration. He opens to-day, and He shuts to-day. Amid all the fret and restlessness of the age He is moving toward the final order, and that through the mysteries that enwrap us. Presently the crisis will arrive, and then the process will be vindicated. Let us ever comfort our hearts also with the threefold truth, of His character, “He that is holy, He that is true; of His official position, “He that hath the key of David;” and of His actual administration, “He that openeth, and none shall shut, and that shutteth and none openeth.” In examining the commendation, a little care must be taken to notice the structure. “I know thy works (behold, I have set before thee a door opened, which none can shut), and thou hast a little power, and didst keep My word, and didst not deny My name.” The words “Behold, I have set before thee a door opened, which none can shut,” being in parenthesis, must be omitted from the commendation. Of course these words cannot be altogether omitted, neither would it be wise to place them anywhere but where the Lord has placed them. The commendation then consists in this statement, “I know thy works . . . that thou hast a little power, and didst keep My word, and didst not deny My name.” Now in the parenthesis in the middle of that commendation comes the declaration concerning the opened door. The question arising is as to whether the Lord meant to say, that because they had kept His word, and not denied His name, He had opened a door; or that, having opened the door, they had kept His word and had not denied His name. Without desiring to dogmatize upon what must be a somewhat difficult matter, let me say that I hold the latter view, that the open door is not a reward for fidelity, but the opportunity in which this church has proved its faithfulness. The statement of reward comes further on in the epistle. It is as though the Lord had said, I set before you a door opened, which none could shut, and I know your works, you had a little power, and didst keep My word, and didst not deny My name. He opened the door in front of them, and they passed through it and filled the opportunity. He opened the door, and they, though having but little power, were yet true to His word, and loyal to His name. It is evident then that the commendation must be considered wholly in the light of the statement concerning the open door. What this open door was locally, it is impossible to state. We cannot go back and examine in detail the opportunity which the Lord gave the church. In all probability however it was some special opening for missionary enterprise. There is almost certainly a connection between the announcement of the Kingly character of Christ and His opening of the door. It is “He that holdeth the key of David,” which is the insignia of Kingship, Who has opened the door, and the suggestion is that of a passport given to His dominions for the transaction of His business. In the second Psalm already quoted of the announcement of the appointment of the King, the Divine promise concerning the King is made, “Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance, “And the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.” The key opens the territory of the King. He Who held the key had set before the church a door opened. He had given them entrance to some other of His dominions for the transaction of His business. The opening of the door is the King’s governmental preparation of the pathway, along which His messengers are to run to do His biddings, to herald His Gospel, to win His dominion for Himself. The opening of the door is the exercise of His executive right. Turn for a moment from the immediate and local application of these words. Let us think of them as the statement of a great principle. How wondrously in every successive century has the King opened the doors before His Church. In spite of human opposition, and human hatred, He has unlocked and flung wide open the doors of opportunity before His faithful people. Never has this been more conspicuous than in the past century. It is not for us here to stay to illustrate the truth. Those who would follow the thought should obtain Dr. Arthur T. Pierson’s book, “The Modern Mission Century,” one of the most thrilling romances ever written since the first chapter in the history of the open doors, called the Acts of the Apostles. The message of the book will cheer the heart, and nerve the arm. What the particular opening for the church at Philadelphia was, we have no means of knowing. The fact of value revealed is that there came to a church which was neither great nor strong, an opportunity which the church recognized and filled. But who are these that enter through the open door? Mark well His description. Jesus did not say to this church at Philadelphia, Thou art strong, but “Thou hast a little power.” But they were faithful to the opportunity in that they kept His word and did not deny His name. That is the true principle of success in Christian service. The greatest rewards that will ever come to churches or to men will be bestowed, not according to the greatness of the strength they had, or the greatness of the opportunity as it appeared to men, but according to fidelity to opportunity, and full use of the measure of strength possessed. The measure of strength was small, but entering the open door the church made use of all in loyalty to His word, and in maintaining the honour of His name. In this twofold statement there is a .revelation of the secret of success in all service, the keeping of the word, and loyalty to the name. Of the first of these there is a double explanation. The word of Christ is not kept merely by defending its letter but by realizing its spirit in obedience to its teaching. No man keeps the word of Christ in duty unless he keeps it as doctrine; and yet no man keeps the word of Christ as doctrine unless he possess it in all the details of duty. If life is to be according to the will of the King, there must be knowledge of His teaching. Knowledge of the teaching is only evident as life harmonizes therewith. There is great force in the word “keep.” The other phrase marks the fact which is correlative, “Thou didst not deny My name.” Holding the word of Christ must issue in unswerving loyalty to His name. Wherever there has been a tendency to undervalue the word, there has resulted the peril of insulting the name by degrading the personality. During recent years there has gone forward within the Church a certain kind of criticism of the words of Christ until we are not surprised, while strangely startled, that to-day the name of Jesus is being assailed by those who are questioning the essential facts concerning His Person and His nature. One hears of those who suggest that perhaps after all the story of miraculous conception is mythic. This is the necessary corollary of speaking of His words as partaking of the ignorance of His age. And such failure to keep the word and maintain the name inevitably reacts upon the Church in her fitness for service. His claim of Kingship is inseparably bound up with the miracles of His nature, and the authority of His speech. To deny these is to neglect the open doors. Infinitely better to have a little power, and use it within the doors He opens in loyalty to His teaching and Himself, than to have much power and use it as abetting the work of those who, robbing Him of His dignity, hinder His coming into His Kingdom. In passing to the Lord’s counsel to this church, we notice that He emphasizes His administration. “Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, of them which say they are Jews, and they are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.” Recognizing the difficult conditions under which this church has borne its witness, He declares His administrative activity, first with regard to the synagogue of Satan. This reference is of interest in as much as it closely resembles the Lord’s reference in His other epistle without complaint, that to the church at Smyrna. He then said “I know thy tribulation, and thy poverty, and the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” In writing to Philadelphia, there is no such detailed declaration, but the passing reference creates the idea that there were conditions, calculated to hinder the church at Philadelphia, similar to those which hindered and brought tribulation to the church at Smyrna. There the Jewish synagogue had stirred up a pagan population to oppose the work of the church. It is likely that something of the kind had also happened in Philadelphia. Concerning such He announces that the synagogue of Satan is yet to be compelled to recognize the church, “I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.” This is not the language of a great anger, nor that of vindictive administration. His ancient people who are hindering the work, are yet to be brought to the feet of the church, to learn how He has loved her. These administrative facts all lie in the realm of that great crisis, His second advent. To the church He says “Because thou didst keep the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” Recognizing the faithfulness of His people, He promises them exemption from the tribulation which is to come. While that promise may have had its partial fulfilment in the escape of the church at Philadelphia from some wave of persecution that swept over the district, its final fulfilment will undoubtedly be realized by those who, loyal to His word, and not denying His name, shall be gathered out of the world at His second coming before the judgment that must usher in the setting up of His Kingdom on the earth. “I come quickly” is the great announcement which unlocks the meaning of this promise of exemption from coming tribulation. There can be no interpretation of the administration by which He shall bring the synagogue of Satan to the feet of the church, or of the church’s being saved from tribulation save the thought contained in the announcement, “I come quickly.” In these words the Lord does for the church at Philadelphia what He has done for the Church again and again. He directs their attention to His second advent as the goal and crisis of victory. Through all the years of service the Church should ever wait for Him, hearing constantly the sound of His voice “I come quickly.” In view of that promise, consider the Master’s declaration of the present responsibility of the church. “Hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown.” To the church at Sardis He said the same thing, and yet how different the value and application of the announcement. To them it was a warning. To these it is a promise. To the church that was dead, it was a proclamation, calculated to startle them into obedience. To the church exercising its little strength in fulfilment of His gracious will, it was a declaration calculated to comfort them in obedience. Thus again it is evident that the doctrine of the advent of Jesus affects persons according to the condition of their life. One church is threatened, another is comforted by the announcement of His coming. In the little while that lies between the present moment and His advent, He marks their responsibility in the words “Hold fast that which thou hast.” What had they? A little power, His word, His name, His promise of return. These they were to hold fast, and the reason, “that no one take thy crown.” The crown referred to was that of reward for service. He had opened the door. They in little power had entered in and had fulfilled His will. He knew their works, that they had kept His word and did not deny His name. He had no complaint to make of them. He Himself was coming, and at His coming they would have their crowning. Not the crowning but the conflict is for to-day, but so surely as the conflict is maintained, and the things now possessed held fast, the crowning must come. Then lastly notice His promise to the overcomer. “He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out thence no more: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God, and Mine own new name.” The overcoming referred to in this case is not that of some evil in the church, but of the forces which are outside, and these will be finally overcome at His advent. As He has been speaking of that advent as the crisis at which all the rewards He promises will be bestowed upon the church, His promise to the overcomer is here that of those conditions of life to which they shall pass beyond that advent. First He promises them position, “I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God.” That is finality. The Bible does not speak of men as being pillars in His temple while on earth. Sometimes we have prayed for our children that they may become pillars in the house of God, and that will be, by and by, always providing that here they are trees of the Lord’s planting by the rivers of water. Then yonder they will have a position conspicuous and abiding, based upon the fact of their approximation to the character of God. Then secondly, “I will write upon him the name of My God,” this indicating the fact of likeness, and the reason of the position of prominence. And yet again, a definite and specific reward. “I will write upon him . . . the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God.” Those who have the right within that city, of permanent dwelling upon the basis of character, are not to be there as foreigners or aliens, but as those who have the city’s freedom, that freedom being the recognition of their overcoming. And yet once more, “I will write upon him . . . Mine own new name.” What strange and mystical statement is this? In the nineteenth chapter of this book of Revelation there is another reference to it. “He hath a name written, which no one knoweth but He Himself.” There are yet honours for Jesus unrevealed, and these are signified in that new name. This then is the name that He will write upon the overcomer. He will share with him all His honours and rewards. There is to be the most perfect oneness between the overcomer and the King. To suffer with Him will be to reign with Him o’er all the territory. To enter the door He opens to-day is to walk with Him in all the spacious realms o’er which He yet must reign. In this great and gracious promise to the overcomer, mark the reiteration of Christ’s personal pronoun. “I will write upon Him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God.” He came to do the will of His Father. He became the King upon the basis of the perfections of that will. And even in the unutterable anguish of the hour of His forsaking, there was still marked the relationship between Him personally and His Father, for even then He said “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” As He looks on to the ultimate triumph, all for Him lies within the fact of His relationship to God, and this is marked by that gracious word “My God.” To those who in little power, yet fulfil His purpose, He will give, as the reward of service, association with Himself in that union with His Father, which is the full glory and the final centre of perfect government. From this study there are certain abiding lessons to be remembered. The first is a word of comfort, the word that reminds us of the present administration of Christ. Oh, that we may turn back to our work with the music of that thought ever sounding in our hearts. Our crowning may depend on our fidelity, but God’s ultimate victory depends upon the King Whom He has set on His holy hill. Let there be no moment in which we imagine that He has either lost ground, or abandoned any part of the territory committed to Him. He cannot fail nor be discouraged till He have accomplished the uttermost purpose of His God, and though at times our eyes may fail to trace the method of His administration, let our hearts be ever comforted by remembering “He . . . openeth, and none shall shut, and He shutteth and none openeth.” If we are not able to see how He opens or how He shuts, it matters little. The fact is full of infinite and inexpressible comfort. God’s anointed King, though for a time hidden from the eyes of men, is carrying on His government. As of old, David the anointed king of Israel was for a time exiled from his kingdom, and took refuge in cave Adullam, so for to-day Christ is earth’s rejected King, but He is still God’s anointed King. The story of Adullam is full of significance. David, refused by his people, went up to the fastness in the mountains, and there three classes of people gathered round him, men in debt, men in danger, and men that were discontented. Not of much count in the eyes of the nation. In all probability it was looked upon as a happy exodus when they left for the cave. And yet how wonderful the story of their relation to David, and its results. Contact with him turned them into mighty men. The story of David and his mighty men is indeed a romance. The raw material was surely as poor as ever gathered to a man, but then the finished product there has seldom been anything finer. In process of time the glad day dawned when David left Adullam, and came to his crowning. Concerning that crowning a statement full of significance is made, “These all came to Hebron of one heart to make David king. “Our Lord is now rejected, And by the world disowned, By the many still neglected, And by the few enthroned.” But He is gathering to Himself a company of people in debt, in danger, and discontented, and those who have thus gathered to Him in the days of His rejection are by that contact and comradeship being transformed into His mighty men, and presently the morning will break when we shall gather with one heart to make Jesus King. Oh, take heart. Let there be fewer dirges sung in the sanctuary, and more paeans of praise. Let us have done with the lamentations of hope deferred, and putting on our garments of beauty, rise from the dust, and believe in our King. He at this moment holds the reins, and swaying the sceptre, administers the affairs of the Kingdom of God. Such is the comfort to be gathered from this epistle. Then there follows a solemn word, marking our responsibility “Hold fast that which thou hast.” Opposition is not over, Satan still has a synagogue. Open doors—and never had the Church such open doors as she has at this moment—open doors do not make strenuous fidelity unnecessary, but more than ever necessary. One of the most terrible facts of the present moment is that the Master is unlocking the doors all around, but the Church is not entering them as she should. Blindness to the fact is utterest folly. A great door and effectual is opened before the Church in India, that land of fascinating problems, and splendid opportunity. There we have undermined the false faiths by educational methods. At the present moment there are multitudes of men in that land, who have discovered the falsity of the faith of their fathers, and are now waiting for something else, and the Church is slow to bring to them the Evangel of the risen Christ. How terrible a thing it is to have taken away a faith, and yet not to be ready immediately to supply the lack. And India is but one instance. Surely never was it so true that the fields are white unto harvest but the labourers are few. The Church should stand ready before every door, so that the moment it is open, she may occupy the territory for Christ. When will those who prosecute the commerce of heaven, manifest the same wisdom as that of the merchant princes of the earth? If the Church is thus to be ready and responsive to the call of the King she must hold fast His word, and not deny His name. Alas, that we have too often allowed things essential to be neglected, while we have been dealing with things of minor or of no importance. Back to the word, back to the name. Then will the Church be what God intends she should be, “fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with banners.” The final word of value from the study is that the test of the Church’s loyalty to Christ is not the measure of her manifestation before men, but her fidelity to the opportunity her Lord creates. Infinitely better to have a little power only, all used for Christ, than much strength bestowed in other ways. If He have opened the door, then let us go through in all the strength we possess, remembering that our all, with the all of all the rest, shall make His all, that is, “the nations for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: 01.08. THE LAODICEA LETTER ======================================================================== THE LAODICEA LETTER “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write; “These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich; and white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest; and eye-salve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I reprove and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with My Father in His throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.”—Revelation 3:14-22. THIS last of the letters to the churches is in some sense saddest of them all, yet in other respects, it is most full of exquisite beauty. In every other epistle we find some word of commendation. Here there is absolutely none. This very fact seems to account for some of the tenderest and most wonderful words uttered by the Lord in the whole series. It is impossible to study this message without seeming to feel the heartbeat of the Son of God, and in none of the letters has there been more evident the yearning compassion of the Divine heart. Very little is known of the church at Laodicea. We have no account of its planting, but there are certain references to it in the New Testament which may throw some light on its history. It is certain that the church was known to Paul, and it is most probable that he visited it. The latter position is of course open to question. Very much depends on the view taken concerning his imprisonment. If the confidence expressed in the letter to the Philippians was fulfilled that he would again visit his children, it is quite probable that among the rest, he would see Laodicea. The references he makes to the church are most interesting in the light of this message of Jesus. In his letter to the church at Colosse there are no fewer than four references to the church at Laodicea. First in the Colossians 2:1-3. “For I would have you know how greatly I strive for you, and for them at Laodicea, . . . that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, even Christ in Whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.” It is thus evident that while writing to the church at Colosse, he has in mind the church at Laodicea. In the fourth chapter of the same epistle, in referring to Epaphras, the apostle says, “For I bear him witness, that he hath much labour for you, and for them in Laodicea.” It is well to remember in passing that the labour of Epaphras was that of prayer. In the fifteenth verse of the same chapter he writes “Salute the brethren that are in Laodicea,” and yet again in the sixteenth verse, “And when this epistle hath been read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye also read the epistle from Laodicea.” Now these references show us very clearly one or two things. The apostle was acquainted with the church, and undoubtedly was interested in it. There was some kind of connection between it and the church at Colosse. In all probability they were geographically contiguous. It is quite conceivable that they were related to each other as mother and daughter, the church at Colosse founding the church at Laodicea, or being founded by it. It is moreover evident that there was interest and fellowship existing between them so that when Epaphras, a member of the church in Colosse laboured in prayer, that they of that fellowship might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God, he also included in his petitions the sister church at Laodicea. Moreover it is probable that the apostle wrote to the church at Laodicea a special letter which has not been preserved, having most likely no perpetual value, for he distinctly charges the church at Colosse that the letter to the church at Laodicea is to be read to them also. The apostle’s interest in the church at Laodicea is marked in the first place by his prayer for them as for those at Colosse, that “their hearts may be comforted they being knit together in love, and unto all riches.” The one great peril threatening the church at Laodicea was its wealth, and it may safely be inferred that the apostle saw the peril and prayed that “their hearts might be comforted, they being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God even Christ,” that is to say, he desired for them that they might have the true wealth, knowing as he probably did, that they were already possessed of much earthly wealth. In the Authorized Version we have another reference to the church at Laodicea, which has been omitted from the Revised. It occurs at the close of the first letter to Timothy, and is of the nature of a note. “The first to Timothy was written from Laodicea which is the chiefest city of Phrygia, Pacatiana.” That note of course presupposes that Paul was set free from the imprisonment during which he wrote, and that he visited this church, and while among them wrote to Timothy who subsequently joined him, having been left in charge of the church at Ephesus. Our Revisers have omitted that statement, believing that there is no sufficient authority for it. This much however, is certain that the church at Laodicea was known to the apostle, that he was deeply interested in it, and that it had some intimate fellowship with the church at Colosse. In addressing Himself to this church, the Lord uses descriptive words, which at once arouse interest, and arrest attention. “These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God.” Here is nothing which symbolizes His manifested splendour. This is rather a declaration of His essential glory. The description creates a contrast. To abject failure He addresses Himself as the One incapable of failure. The statement is threefold; positive, relative, and declarative of authority. It is a profound proclamation of authority based upon the facts which are the cause and reason of all things. First the positive statement, “These things saith the Amen.” Secondly, the relative declaration, “the faithful and true witness.” Thirdly, the authoritative proclamation “the beginning of the creation of God.” He that is “the Amen.” This word has come from the Hebrew without translation, and to understand its value, we must seek to know its original meaning in that language. The root meaning is that of nursing, or building up, and the derived meaning in perpetual use to-day is that of something stablished, built up sure, positive. The word therefore takes us back to God as the nursing Mother and expresses the truth of the absolute stability and the actual correctness of everything that God has thought, and spoken, and done. It is an essential word, “the Amen.” All truth lies within its compass as to certainty. As a title of Christ it is equivalent in value to the statement which He made when he said “I am the truth.” It must ever be remembered that He did not say “I teach the truth,” nor, “I declare the truth,” nor “I explain the truth,” but “I am the truth.” Here we have the same thought put in a form, almost more august and splendid. He that is “the Amen,” the essential truth, truth expressed in a Person, truth from which there can be no appeal. The Amen is the conclusion, because it is the finality of nourishment, the perfection of edification, the last word, the end, to which nothing can be added. So Christ approaching this church declares in the first phase of declaration that from Him there can be no appeal. He is the Certainty, the Finality, the Ratification, the ultimate Authority, the Amen. Then follows the relative statement of the same great fact. “He is the faithful and true witness.” He is that, because He is the Amen. He is that, because He is the truth. He is the Amen, even though He never speak. He is the Truth, if He utter no word. But now that the truth has been spoken by Him it is a faithful and true witness that He has borne. He is the faithful and true Witness of God and of the Church. When He speaks there is no exaggeration, and no minimizing. What he says is faithful and true because He is faithfulness and truth. What He says will be exactly true, because He is in Himself absolute truth, and there is nothing beyond Him in all the realm of truth. The witness concerning all things in Him will be faithfulness and truth. He is the only One through Whom this perfect witness can be spoken. The church at Laodicea had failed in witness. Its condition had eclipsed the essential light that should have been shining in the darkness around, and the Master comes to it and addresses it as the faithful and true Witness. He is about to strip it of all the false appearance which deceives the eyes of many, but which cannot deceive Him. As in the old economy, by its last messenger, Jehovah said He would be a swift Witness against the sorcerers and evil doers, the witness of truth against evil, the One Who would drag the evil into the light of truth, so here as He comes to unmask the failure of the Laodicean people, He announces Himself as the One Who will neither exaggerate the condition, nor permit anything of it to remain hidden. Then the last phrase brings us back into the sublimity of majesty. As we read it, we are impelled to worship. “The beginning of the creation of God.” Having noticed the reference to Laodicea in Colossians, it becomes interesting to read Colossians in the light of Laodicea, and to notice how this very expression, “the beginning of the creation of God” is one of the pillars upon which the truth of the Colossian epistle rests. In that sublime and matchless statement concerning the glories of Christ, occurring in the first chapter of Colossians, verses fifteen to eighteen, these words occur, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation, for in Him were all things created, in the heavens, and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together, consist.” This betokens rank and right lying behind all other. If the heart ever questions the Deity of Christ it is well to go back and ponder this great statement. It is impossible to retain this in the Bible if Christ be anything less than God, and all the sublimity of these declarations lies in the suggestion within this title. Approaching the church at Laodicea He comes as the One Whose rank is infinitely beyond that of priest, prophet, or king. He speaks with the authority of cause and creation. Wherever the eye rests, whatever the mind is conscious of, is as to first cause the work of Christ. His footprints may be tracked through all creation, and every blush of beauty reveals the touch of His finger. There are no flowers but have in them witness to Him, no marvellous and majestic landscape entrancing the vision of men but that sings the solemn anthem of His power and His beauty. In all the precision of created things, the rolling seasons, the dawn of day, and the westering of the sun, in the emergence of Spring, from its garment of Winter, its procedure into the splendour of Summer, and its gorgeous robing in Autumnal glory is to be discovered the power of the Christ. Thus coming to a church conceited because of its wealth and independence. He sublimely announces His wealth and independence. If this church had but ears to hear, how it must have blushed with shame as the tawdriness of its wealth became apparent in the blinding splendour of His, and as the blasphemy of its independence was manifest, as the only One of independence declared Himself as the origin of all things. He speaks to them not as the King of a section, not as the One Who enunciates laws for one realm of the universe, but as the beginning of creation, the Cause and the Creator, Who is King of all creation, and enunciates for all the laws which condition life. To the church at Laodicea, lifeless, indifferent, cool, He speaks as the One Who is the Source of all life, the infinite Energy, the beginning of the creation of God. In this capacity of infinite majesty He speaks no single word of commendation. Many are the words of hope He utters. He has not lost all hope even for this fearful failure at Laodicea. But there is no commendation. His counsel and complaint run close together, alternating through all the message. Let us select the complaint, considering it first, and then passing to attention to His counsel. Three brief statements indicate the Lord’s complaint. First “Thou art,” and then “Thou sayest,” and yet again, “Thou art.” In the first He describes the general condition of the church. In the second He describes the church as the church thinks it is. In the third He reveals in minute and detailed truth the actualities. First His vision of the church as to its spirit, and not as to its externalities, then a revelation of the church’s belief concerning itself, and then the contrast, terrible and startling of His view of the church, even as to details. “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.” Such is the spiritual condition as He declares it. “Thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing.” That was their consciousness. “Thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked, and thou knowest it not.” That is their detailed condition in contrast with their supposed condition. These descriptions form our Lord’s complaint. “Thou art neither cold nor hot . . .thou art lukewarm.” Let us take these words and attempt to see what they really indicate. “Cold,” frozen, the thought of temperature lowered by evaporation lies within the word. “Thou art not frozen.” The church was not characterized by utter indifference. “Hot,” boiling. “Thou art not boiling.” The church was not characterized by fervent heat. It was not utterly indifferent. It had no fervent zeal. What then is the condition? Lukewarm, and we may with perfect accuracy render the word tepid. Thou art not frozen, thou art not boiling, thou art tepid. If there is anything abhorrent to the heart of Christ it is a tepid church. He would rather have the church frozen. I did not say that. He did. “I would thou wert cold.” He would rather have the church boiling. “I would thou wert . . . hot.” But this condition of being tepid is utterly repugnant to Him. No emotion, no enthusiasm, no urgency, no passion, no compassion. I am not sure that the condition of the church might not be expressed in a phrase I once heard fall from the lips of one who called himself a Christian. Said he when raising a protest against evangelistic work, with a very evident assumption of superiority and self-complacency, “You know, I am thoroughly evangelical but not evangelistic?” Exactly! Tepid. Evangelical but not evangelistic? It is a lie. No man is evangelical without being evangelistic. A man tells me that he is evangelical, that he believes in the ruin of man, and redemption provided by Christ, and in man’s responsibility, and yet is not evangelistic! Then he is the worst traitor in the camp of Christ, and that is why Christ hates tepid men and tepid churches. It was that condition that drove John Wesley into the lines of irregular itineracy, which became the regular march of the armies of God. It was that same condition that drove William Booth out into the work of the Christian Mission, which developed into the Salvation Army. I remember him once telling the story how he was made an enthusiast for salvation. Said he, “I was made a red hot Salvationist by an infidel lecturer. That lecturer said, “If I believed what some of you Christians believe, I would never rest day nor night telling men about it.” That sentence was the great sentence. William Booth heard, believed, acted. It was like a fire in his bones, and drove him out from that which was tepid to that which was boiling. Tepid is that condition in which conviction does not affect conscience, heart, or will. The Cross is not denied, but it is not vital. The Cross may have been worn as an ornament, as alas it is too often worn to-day, but these sleek saints had never themselves been nailed to a Cross. The silver cross, the golden Cross worn as an ornament upon the breast creates a pleasant sensation. A wooden cross and iron nails and agonizing death is a different matter. When the Cross is an ornament there is no death in it, but then there is no life in it. When the Cross ceases to be an ornament and becomes the death, then there is a passion that eventuates in contagious life. Sin? Oh certainly the fact of sin was admitted, but there was no hatred of sin. They would speak of sinners as persons to be pitied, but no finger would be lifted to save them. They would speak of sin as something objectionable, perhaps as a moral defect, or an obliquity of vision, but never as a damnable poison, rotting the foundations of life and bringing down into awful cataclasm all fair and lovely things. They were tepid, lukewarm in their creeds and neither cold nor hot in their conduct. Is it any wonder that Christ sighed over them “I would thou wert cold or hot.” In the light of this pronouncement the declaration of the church’s opinion of itself is terrible. Hear the language as Christ construed it, remembering He was the faithful and true Witness, and this is no exaggeration, but inward conviction. “I am rich,” possessing abundantly, “I have gotten riches,” the language of perfect self-satisfaction, “I have need of nothing,” independence. If we had visited the church at Laodicea in all probability they would have shown us the church premises, they would have told us how much they paid for the property, how much the church cost. They would have said, Whatever we want, we have. If we require new premises, we build them. We are independent. Did you suggest some form of service that would create new spiritual power, they would have been astonished. Did you propose a mission? No, certainly not, we do not want a mission here, we have need of nothing. A series of meetings for the deepening of spiritual life? Oh no, hold them in some other district, we have need of nothing. A time of special humiliation and prayer? We have no need of humiliation, we have need of nothing. That was the condition. They needed nothing because they had everything. Now listen again. Christ gives His view of their condition. “Thou are the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” First, “wretched” and the simple meaning of the word is oppressed with a burden. The burden they carried was the very wealth which they imagined carried them. Instead of wealth helping and lifting them, it hindered and degraded. As He with eyes of fire looked over the churches, of the one that was perhaps the wealthiest, He said it was a heavily burdened one. How different from the popular estimate. We have often heard of a church being heavily burdened with debt, but the Master speaks of one heavily burdened with wealth. Again “thou art miserable” and the word here means pitiable. The heart of the Lord was moved in pity toward them. He had no congratulation to offer them. His feeling toward them was one of commiseration. “Thou art poor,” and the word means poor as a pauper by the highway side is poor. From His standpoint of wealth the church was a cringing beggar, possessing nothing worth the having. “Thou art blind.” That is opaque, seeing nothing clearly, seeing nothing afar. Nearsighted is the word which perhaps most accurately expresses the thought, lacking vision, lacking light, devoid of the sense of the far distances, confined within narrow limits. And “thou art naked,” nude, stripped of the clothing of glory and beauty, which ought to adorn the church as the Bride of Jesus Christ. To other churches He has spoken of white raiment. This church has none. Presently the garments of purple, and the jewels of gold will become moth eaten and tarnished, and the church will be seen in the light of the eternities with no robe of purified service to cover it. Let it be specially noted that all these words which Christ uses to describe the church are words of pity. There is not an angry word among them. He is not angry with the condition of the church. All that, He is able to remedy. His anger is that they are satisfied with these things. Read the words yet once again, and note how they pulsate with the pity of His heart. “Wretched,” the condition that ever appeals to the sympathy of the tender-hearted. “Miserable,” in such a condition as to touch a sympathetic nature. “Poor,” a beggar by the highway side, to whom you can hardly refuse help. “Blind,” one groping the way, stretching out hands, that seem to compel you to stretch out yours in guiding kindness. “Naked,” making you long to fling some garment of warmth around the denuded form. Such people are saying, We are rich, and have gotten our riches, we do not need anything, and in that very fact lies the deepest note of misery that calls most loudly for a yet deeper compassion. I believe that Christ’s attitude to the church was one of profound pity. It was Keith who wrote of this church, “Sooner would a man in Sardis have felt that the chill of death was upon him, and have cried out for life, and called for the physician, than would a man of Laodicea; who would calmly count his even pulse, and think his life secure, when death was preying on his vitals.” This is a true picture of Laodicea. “I am rich,” “thou art poor;” “I am increased with goods,” “thou hast nothing;” “I have need of nothing,” “thou are pitiable, blind, naked.” Oh the revealing Christ! With what heart-searching does the infinite light of His infinite love fall upon the assemblies of His people. Now turn to our Lord’s counsel to the church, and in it even more supremely is His heart revealed. First, His wish expressed, “I would thou wert cold or hot.” Secondly, His declared intention, “I will spew thee out of My mouth.” Lastly, His immediate advice, “Buy of Me.” His wish expressed, “I would thou wert cold or hot.” Is not that a strange thing for Him to say? We could have understood it better if He had said, “I would thou wert hot.” And yet a deep abhorrence of the condition is revealed more forcefully by what He actually said. He would rather have had them cold. There is infinitely greater chance for someone who is cold than for someone who is lukewarm. There is more hope of the man outside the church in all the desolating dreariness of that coldness which is lack of life, and therefore of love, than for the man within the church who is near enough to its warmth not to appreciate it, and far enough away from its burning heat to be useless to God and man. A greater chance for the heathen who has not heard the Gospel than for the man who has become an evangelized heathen, if he disobey the claims of the Evangel. It is impossible to read this epistle without a sense throbbing through the heart of the wail of “I would.” We have heard Him say it before. While yet upon the earth, with a voice full of emotion, as He looked on Jerusalem, He cried, “How often I would have gathered thy children together . . . and ye would not!” “I would thou wert cold or hot.” He would infinitely rather have had to do with a frozen people, clamouring for warmth, than with this crowd of lukewarm rich folk, which having everything had need of nothing, and having nothing had need of everything. Then follows His declared intention, “I will spew thee out of My mouth,” or very literally, “I am about to spew thee out of My mouth.” This is not a question of casting a Christian from relation to Himself. It is the casting out of a church from her position of witness bearing. Christ amid the lampstands is speaking to the churches in their capacity of light bearers in the darkness of the night, and He says, I am about to reject thee from this work, about “to spew thee out of My mouth,” about to put thee away from the place of witness and testimony. In the form of the statement there is at once a declaration of a decision arrived at, and the intimation of a possible escape from the judgment pronounced. I am about to do it. It is a sentence pronounced, it is a doom descending. I am about to do it. It is not yet done. The blow has not fallen. The light is not yet extinguished. All this lends urgency to the actual words of counsel, as He now utters them, “I counsel thee to buy of Me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich; and white garments that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest; and eye-salve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see.” He now addresses Himself to the church as He sees her, not to the church as she thinks she is, and He confronts her in all fulness as the One possessing all she most sadly lacks, and in His counsel there is a declaration of the way by which all that is objectionable in their condition may be corrected. You are poor, buy My gold, that you may be rich. You are naked, buy My white raiment that you may be clothed. You are blind, buy My eye-salve that you may see. The church says “I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing.” He says “Thou art miserable and poor and blind and naked.” Buy gold from Me that you may be rich. They say We have gotten all we need, and He says You are naked, buy of Me the white garments that you may clothe yourself. They say We have need of nothing. He says You are blind, buy My eye-salve and anoint your eyes that you may see. The Lord would teach the church that the true wealth, the true raiment, the true wisdom, the true vision is Himself possessed in all the aspects of His perfection. As Paul had intimated in that letter to the Colossian church, which he desired to be read to the Laodiceans also “that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God even Christ.” If they would be wealthy, they must buy of Him gold refined by fire, they must be rich with what He is. If they would be clothed, it must be with white garments, which are woven out of loyal service rendered to Him, and in the strength of His love. If they would have wisdom they must seek from Him the eye-salve by which they may see things in their true values and perspective. So He approaches the church that He is about to spew out of His mouth in disdain, and opens before them the storehouse of His infinite riches and says If you are only conscious of your poverty, I have riches. If you are but conscious of your nakedness, I have clothing. If you are but conscious of your blindness, I have eye-salve. All that can hinder the church will be continuance in the vain delusion that she is rich and increased with goods and has need of nothing. The way back to blessing will be that the church should get down into the dust, into the place of humbling, into the place of heart-break, into the place where she shall indeed say I am poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked. Then He will comfort with His own heart’s love, and enrich with His own untold wealth, and clothe with His own white raiment of reward; and anoint with His own inspiration and vision. How graciously He offers to supply the need, and yet with what tender irony mingled with mighty compassion this statement of His ability confronts their false notion of their sufficiency. They said “We are rich.” He said “Buy My gold.” They said “We have need of nothing.” He said Seek all from Me. Then as in a flash, straight out of His heart of infinite love, comes a statement “As many as I love, I reprove and chasten.” If He had not loved the church at Laodicea He would have let her alone. He loved them notwithstanding all their failure, and His love was the reason of His rebuke and of His counsel. And then words follow, full of a great urgency, “Be zealous and repent.” It is as though the Master would do anything to arouse them from their lethargy. He calls them to zeal and to repentance. But how can these people come back? They have not far to travel, though their distance be great, for He is close at hand. Hear the words, the gracious words, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock? if any man hear My voice, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with Me.” What startling revelations lie within the compass of these words. First, He is excluded. They have everything in the church at Laodicea except Jesus Christ. He is outside the door. We should ever remember that while we have often preached the Gospel from this text, and I do not think it is wrong, that the words are first to the church and not to the individual. “Behold, I stand at the door,” the door of the church, “and knock,” outside it. Oh, this excluded Christ, excluded from His world, for they crucified Him; excluded from His church, for He is outside the door knocking. Yet He waits, and for what? For one man to let Him in. He is not waiting for a committee to pass a resolution. Then indeed the case might be hopeless. He waits for a man, “If any man hear My voice, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with Me.” I will first be his Guest “I will sup with him.” He shall be My guest, “and he with Me.” I will sit at the table which his love provides and satisfy My heart. He shall sit at the table which My love will provide, and satisfy his heart. Supposing a man in Laodicea opened that door, saying as he did so “I am convinced of our poverty. We have everything but Christ. I will admit Him, and spread the table for Him,” what would happen? The moment a man should open the door to Christ, the excluded Christ, and Christ should pass to communion and fellowship with that man, then that man in communion with Christ would excommunicate the church. We have often heard of churches excommunicating men. It is quite possible for one man to excommunicate the church by passing into the place of communion with the Lord. Then how may the church return to fellowship? By joining Christ and that man. Just as the one man came into communication With Christ, so also must the church by including Him Who so long has been excluded. In the Old Testament there is a remarkable illustration of this truth. There was a day when Moses by taking up the tabernacle of the Lord of Hosts, and pitching it without the camp, excommunicated the whole nation from the covenant. To that new centre he called those who sought the Lord into a new position of separation, and as the people returned around that centre in obedience, they were received back into fellowship. There came a day when Christ excommunicated the whole Hebrew nation, and the whole world. It was the day on which He suffered without the camp. Passing outside the camp He rent the veil, and called men to the inner place of worship by calling them back to Himself. Those following Him, entered the Holy of Holies. So this man in Laodicea who should open the door to Jesus would set up a new standard of life and power, and the only way for the excommunicated church to return would be to take the same position as that man. It is a solemn and awful crisis in the history of a church when in response to the patient calling of the excluded Lord one man shall open the door, and including the Christ, exclude those that have lost their loyalty to Him. There is but one way for such to return, and that is by coming to that man’s position. We read once in the life story of Jesus of how they excommunicated a man. So angry were they with the testimony that he bore to Jesus, that they cast him out of the synagogue. When Jesus heard of it, He found the man and said “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” And the man said, “And Who is He, Lord, that I may believe on Him?” And the reply fell with strange strength and sweetness upon the listening ear of that excommunicated man, “Thou hast both seen Him, and He it is that speaketh with thee,” and the man said “Lord, I believe, and he worshipped Him.” They cast him out of the synagogue the place of worship, but he found the one Centre of worship. It may be that the Laodicean church will exclude the man who includes the Christ. Then let that man have no sorrow in his heart save for the folly of the church. If there be no other way to find Christ than by leaving the Laodicean church then the sooner it be left, the better. To find Him is to find gold refined by fire, and clothing, so that there may be no shame of nakedness, and eye salve which broadens the outlook, and creates all visions. Oh, behold the vision. Apostasy confront with fidelity, falsehood confront with truth, decorated poverty face to face with infinite wealth, lukewarmness and hypocrisy with compassion and devotion. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” What dost thou want, oh, crowned One, knocking? A man, one man who will open that I may come in and sup with him, and he with Me. The last thing to be noticed is a promise to the overcomer. For these people the hardest battle had to be fought, and therefore the greatest reward is promised. The Lord seems to recognize that the difficulty of such life in such a church as Laodicea is the most terrible the saint ever has to fight, and so He makes to them the most gracious and remarkable promise. “He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with My Father in His throne.” Beyond this promise neither hope nor imagination can go. Is there not a suggestion here of the peculiar temptation that Jesus had to meet “as I also overcame?” How did He overcome? What can He mean? A hundred answers come to our thoughts, but do they fit the occasion? There seems to be but one that unlocks the mystery. He is talking to people whose supreme wrong is that they are attempting to take everything easily, they have no compassion, no enthusiasm, and He says to them “Overcome ... as I also overcame.” Is there not here every evidence of His remembrance of the subtlest temptation that came to Him? The enemy in the wilderness said “All these kingdoms will I give Thee” by an easy way, without the Cross, without the passion, without crucifixion. His own disciple brought to Him the same suggestion, Spare Thyself, what need for all this outpouring of life in a great passion and compassion. And even in Gethsemane we catch the echo of the tempter’s voice. I say this with all carefulness, ever remembering that temptation is not sin. I speak only of the echo of temptation as I seem to hear it in His prayer “Father if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” The enemy was ever saying to Him in one way or another Spare Thyself, why this strenuous life, why set your face like a flint toward Jerusalem, and be determined to tread the via dolorosa? But He overcame, and sat down with His Father in His throne, having taken the only pathway that could issue in the crowning, and now with all the mighty meaning of that fact, He says to the church at Laodicea, to this self-complaisant, self-satisfied, lukewarm, and tepid crowd “Overcome as I also overcame. Be zealous. Be hot, and you shall sit down with Me in My throne.” Very few words are necessary by way of application of the message of this letter to the age in which we live. The lessons are self-evident. I propose to do little more than gather them up, indicating each in brief sentences. Lukewarmness is in itself a contradiction of all we profess to believe. I do not think in the whole scheme of these letters there is anything of greater importance, or anything more needing emphasis to-day than this truth. The things we profess to believe are of such a nature that we cannot be lukewarm without practically denying them. Better be cold, be frozen. Better abandon all profession of interest in sacred things than to pretend to believe them and sing about them, and yet be lukewarm. We work far more harm to our age by tepid character than by open denial of Christ. It is not the people who are frozen, utterly indifferent, but the people who pretend to love Christ, those, forsooth, who are evangelical, but not evangelistic, who are hindering the progress of His Kingdom. Men who theorize around the atonement, and quarrel over the forms in which they express the truth, and never stretch out the hand to save the lost souls, these are the men who are cursing the Church, men who love to split hairs about election and free will, and yet let the millions drift and do nothing to rescue them. All the wrath of my heart could not equal the words of Christ to such as are lukewarm, “I am about to spew thee out of My mouth.” He loathes the unimpassioned regularity of the man who professes to believe the facts which constitute evangelical faith, and does not yield himself to the great claims lying within these truths. Lukewarmness is the worst form of blasphemy. Let the tepid churches call themselves clubs, and we shall know how to deal with them. Let tepid men leave the churches. Let them say they do not believe in Christ for that is the true statement. Let them say there is no sin, for of that position, their actions prove their acceptance. Anything to be rid of the insolent indifference which to Christ and men is calculated cruelty. And yet another thought, appalling and awful, abides with us as we turn from this study. It is that of the excluded Christ. Oh, how He has suffered, and how He suffers still. Of His own gracious will He was excluded from His heaven for the redemption of lost men; and then excluded from His nation by the blindness of that nation; and then excluded from His world by the apparent victory of the forces of evil. And now, alas, so often excluded from His very Church by the tepid indifference of those who imagine that they have everything while they have nothing. And yet once more. Oh, the matchless tenderness and patience of this selfsame Son of God. He is the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, and in this letter where He speaks from the standpoint of these primal facts, more than in any other, is revealed the unquenchable love of the heart of God. Insulted, excluded, and ready to spew out of His mouth that which is utterly loathsome, He yet waits, knocking still at the door, willing to enter into new fellowship with one man. To that simply stated fact, nothing that proves tenderness can be added. Yet we learn, moreover, that the only cure for lukewarmness is the re-admission of the excluded Christ. Apostasy must be confronted with His fidelity, looseness with conviction born of His authority, poverty with the fact of His wealth, frost with the mighty fire of His enthusiasm, and death with the life Divine that is in His gift. There is no other cure for the loneliness of heaven, for the malady of the world, for the lukewarmness of the Church than the readmitted Christ. Let us listen to the Son of man as He walks amid the lampstands. Let us beseech Him to say to us all He has to say. What He says to us shall be the truth, for He will preface it with the “I know,” and so true will be the statement following that initial word that we shall be compelled to say, This is the word of truth. If He has commendation for us, the uttering of it shall be our chief reward. If He speak words of complaint, heeding them, let us find our way to true and deep repentance. Let us listen principally for His words of counsel, and hearing them without reserve let us yield to Him our quick obedience. He also says to all the churches, “I will.” It is the word of His judgment. It is the word of His promise. This we know, that what He wills is best, so to His chastisements we render ourselves that we may find His great reward. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: 02.00. ALL THINGS NEW ======================================================================== All Things New A Message to New Converts 1901 In this 6 chapter work by Morgan (Congregationalist), he looks at the life of a new convert to Christ. He begins with a message to the new convert, then he examines the new fact, the new responsibility, the new perils, the new resources, and the new activities. CONTENTS 1. A Message to New Converts 2. The New Fact 3. The New Responsibility 4. New Perils 5. The New Resources 6. New Activities http://www.gcampbellmorgan.com/allthingsnew.html ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: 02.01. A MESSAGE TO NEW CONVERTS ======================================================================== 1. A Message to New Converts Nearly thirty years ago, I remember walking in the garden of my boyhood’s home, with a young man who had yielded himself to Christ in some Special Services which my father had been conducting. Suddenly he stopped, and plucking one of the leaves from a nasturtium plant, he laid it on my hand, and said to me "Isn’t that beautiful? I never knew how beautiful every leaf was until I gave myself to Christ." THat statement made a deep and abiding impression on my heart. I could not quite understand it then, but I never forgot it; and as the years have passed, I have learned what he meant. His new relations to Christ had set him in new relation to everything, and as he looked at one of the commonest of the garden treasures, he saw in it the power and the beauty of his Lord and Master. Old things had passed away, and all things had become new. It was a testimony to the breadth and beauty of that Kingdom into which he had but recently passed. To-day thousands who have yielded themselves to the loving constraint of the King are expereincing a new sense of freedom, for the sins of the past are pardoned; a new snse of power, for life more abundant has been given; a new sense of hope, for Chirst is crowned, and the heart at once detects His unconquerable Kingliness. At the outset of this life, a few words of brotherly counsel will be welcome, and such are the words I desire to write in this message. They are to be of the most practical kind, and will refer to the new facts in your life. Let me therefore first urge upon you htat having parted with the old things, you let them go. Let there be no lingering love for what you left behind, in the supreme moment when you enlisted under the banner of the King. Mark your determination to press on into possession of the new land by burning every bridge behind you. Make no provision for going back. Old habits, old haunts, old friendships, which have hindered in the past, mus tbe resolutely and forever forsaken. We all know the point of our weakness, and it is at that point that we need to concentrate. There can be no measure too stringent which has for its objec the severing of old ties once and forevr. I write thus strongly at the beginning, because I have seen so many mar their testimony for years, and some altogether relapse into the life of worldliness and sin, because at the beginning they locked up some evil thing in a secret compartment, promising not to use it, but refusing to part with it altogether. I bessech you, therefore, at the outset, hand every key over to the King, and let nothing remain in your life that has exerted an evil influence upon it in the past. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: 02.02. THE NEW FACT ======================================================================== II. The New Fact For one moment honestly face this fact. You have yielded yourself, spirit, soul, and body, to God. He has received what you have yielded. He is pledged to this. There need remain no doubt in your heart. In His receiving of your surrendered life, you have been by His grace, forgiven, justified, born anew, and sanctified. All the past is pardoned for the sake of Christ. You are cleared from guilt because your Saviour bore your punishment in His own body on the tree. You have received from Him, by the work of the Holy Spirit, a new life, which is the very life of Christ. In the purpose of God, you are sanctified, that is, set apart to Himself, for the accomplishment of His purpose in you and through you. Think honestly and gladly of these glorious facts and then consider THE NEW RESPONSIBILITY. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 15: 02.03. THE NEW RESPONSIBILITY ======================================================================== III. The New Responsibility. You have now one responsibility, and that is, loyalty to your Lord. One is your Master, even Christ. Understand that from this moment you are supremely responsible to Him alone. Let the negative side of this fact grip your conscience. You first care henceforth is not what man may think of you or plan for you. It is rather what He thinks of you, and what He plans for you. Nothing will be of more service to you in all the days to come, than that at the beginning your mind should be freed from the fear of men, not only from the feat of those who oppose, but also from the fear of those who honestly would desire to help you. Your laws of conduct are not to be taken from any human being, but immediately and directly from Him. Suffer no priest to dictate to you what you may, or what you may not do, but never decide for yourself what you may, or may not do. You have now the right of appeal in every momemnt of your life to your new King. You will find it easy to please Him. His yoke is easy, His burden is light, and as you learn of Him, you will find in very deed that He is meek and lowly of heart. You must not, however, allow this fact to make you negligent, but must rather watch constantly at His gates, and listen always for His voice, remembering that you are responsible to Him, and to Him alone. The nature of your new responsibility is twofold. You are responsible for the honor of His Name, and you are responsible for the extension of His Kingdom. You will fulfill the first part of the responsibility - the honoring of His Name -- by realizing His purposes for you in character. What you are, in temper, and in tone, will either honor or dishonor the sacred name you bear. You will fulfill the second part of this responsibility - the extension of His kingdom by your conduct. What you do all the time, and in every department of your life, will either have the effect of extending or hindering the extension of the territory over which He is King. You stand, then, responisble to your Lord for the honor of His Name, and the extension of His Kingdom. This at once leads us to name the NEW PERILS. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 16: 02.04. NEW PERILS ======================================================================== IV. New Perils Because you are now one of the King’s own, you have become a new centre of attack for His enemies. Where the devil left you alone, he will now seek to harm you. You will be more than ever conscious of temptation. The attacks will be fiercer, the methods will be subtler. The devil has one business in your life, and that is to break in upon your loyalty to your Master. It would be the worst kind of cowardice not to face this fact at the beginning of your Christian life. You have now to enter upon a new warfare with all the forces of darknes. Moreover, you have become a new point of light in the darkness of the world, and therefore a new point of interest to ungodly men. You will be watched as you have never been watched before. You will be persecuted in all probablity. You will be enticed from your allegiance, invited again and again to the old paths. If you yield, these men will despise you. If you stand firm, they will admire you, and it may be, by your honest conversation, that they will be won for the Kingdom of the Christ. You have entered then upon a life that has its own peculiar perils. It is well to understand this, for the victory is half won when the enemy is known. Perhaps my words so far have made some weak soul tremble in the presence of such responsibilioty, and such perils; but the glory of the Gospel lies in the fact that I have now to write the NEW RESOURCES. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 17: 02.05. THE NEW RESOURCES ======================================================================== V. The New Resources These are many. Let me deal briefly with the principal of htem as they include the rest. And first, never forget that if your responsibility is to your Master, the first fact of your new resources is the Master Himself. He is pledged to you. You may reckon on Him. By your act of surrender you admitted Him to the comradeship of your life, and passing into comradeship with you, He places at your disposal, actually, all the resources of His wisdom and His strength. Then also, the Holy Spirit, as the Administrator of the Kingdom of Christ, is yours. He indwells you. He is there for the express purpose of revealing Christ to you. He is there to give you light in every place of your darkness, to make real to you that comradeship of the Christ which is your inheritance in the kingdom. You have, moreover, the Church, with its blessed communion of saints. Here you will find the new friends of your new life. Within the Church you will discover openings for the exercise of all the gifts bestowed upon you in your creation. Here also you will find the fellowship of sympathy and of strength that you need. Man is made for comradeship with man, and the friendships that are purest and brightest and best, are friendships formed within the Church of Christ. And once again the mercy seat is open to you. Wherever you are, there is the place of prayer. You have to take no pilgrimage to a far-away shrine, neither have you to ask the permission of any priest to enter the sacred prcincts. The veil was rent in the hour of your Lord’s dying, and you have access through Him at all times, to the secret place of the Most High. You may come to that mercy-seat for confession in the hour of your sin, for worship at all times, and for intercession on every occasion of need. All these resources are yours, but having said so much, it is necessary to declare the practical application of these facts. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 18: 02.06. NEW ACTIVITIES ======================================================================== VI. New Activities All the former facts are glorious indeed. You, however, are still endowed with the gift of will, and these infinite resources will only be of practical value as you use them. You have to act. It will be under direction; it wil be with a definite purpose; but act you must. Pass then again over the facts already dealt with, in order to note your practical relation to them. First, your Master. If He be your Master then you are to trust Him. Never question His wisdom, but follow immediately, and without parleying. Never question His love, but if He lead you through nights of darkness, know that it is towards the dawning of a brighter light; and if the portion of His hand for you be pain, know that out of the pain He will bring a joy and satisfaction that could be found in no other way. Trust Him utterly, and obey Him instantly. Remember that your daily work is henceforth to be done for Him, and all the minutest details of your life are to be such as wait His inspection, and ask His approval. No words of mine can tell you the quiet holy gladness that will fill your soul, as you thus begin to live for Him. The commonest duties of home, and school, and office, and shop will create new experiences of delight as they are done for His sake. Then as to your perils. Have one policy with regard to the devil. Don’t argue with him; hit him. If you begin to parley, he is considerably older than you are; his experience is very varied; he will win. When he approaches, remember that you will prove your courage by silently abiding where your Master has put you, and if you do speak to him, be not wise above the wisdomo of your Lord, and let it be only to declare to him the "It is written" that conditions your position. Never forget, moreover, that it is "the foxes," "the little foxes," that "spoil the vines." Take them, therefore, and slay them without pity. Do not permit the bloom to be taken from the fruitage of your life. You will not find your adversary commence his attack by suggesting some heinous form of sin. He will taunt you, and try you with the little sins that do not seem to matter. Remember that there are no little sins, and give the enemy no occasion for triumph. As to the perils arising from your necessary intercourse with ungodly men and women, do not hesitate to confess Christ from the beginning. Make no apology for your Christianity. Glory in your relationship to the Lord; and yet in your confession, and in your attitude, be kind, courteous, gentle. Let there be no manifestation of Pharisaism in your claim to be Christian. Prove to those who watch you, that Christliness is readiness to serve the unworthy as well as the worthy. A helping hand often reveals a sanctified heart, and a bright, happy confession of Christ, coupled with eagerness to serve, will disarm criticism, and end persecution; and, what is of infinitely more value, win men more quickly than any other method. Then as to the resources at your disposal. Use them every one. This sacred comradeship with Christ, enter into all its blessedness, in the sense of what He is in fullness, and what you are in dependence and need. For al the pathway of life keep your eyes upon Him. Keep childlike enough to let Him take your hand, and lead you. Don’t imagine some fine bright morning, when no sorrow looms like a cloud upon your way, that now you can manage without Him for a few hours. Talk to Him constantly, not only in the special seasons of prayer, but on the street, in the railway train, anywhere, everywhere. Life your heart, look into His face, catch His smile, smile back at Him. Cultivate your comradeship, and if in your walk with Him, you fall, get up, and go on. The devil will at once say to you "Do you call yourself a Christian?" Heed not the suggested lie. You are a Christian. Your fall was an accident, not a habit. Your Lord would not have you fall, and had you been watching Him, and letting Him lead, you would not have fallen, "for He is able to guard you from stumbling." But the fact that you fell has not alienated His love. A while ago, my twelve months’ old laddie began to walk. With what delight watched the first tottering steps. One day, down he went, all in a heap, and I straightened my back, and disowned him, and disinherited him? That did not I. I picked him up, and set him on his feet, and kissed away his tears, and felt all the pain of his fall, and bade him try again. He tried, ad now he walks the better. And is my love to my child more tender than your Lord’s love to you? The illustration is the answer to the question. If you fall, get up, tell Him, have His forgiveness, and learn from your fal new dependence. Then as to the Church. The Church cannot help you as long as you stand outside, and criticise it. Join the Church, and that immediately. Do not wait until you have found a Church in all details perfect, for if you do, you will have to wait till the first morning after the resurrection. Yet, be careful what Church you join. The principle of selection is a very simple one. Find the Church in whihc you will most easily have communion with your Lord, the Church in which your spiritual life is likely to be strengthened most. I care nothing as to its ecclesiastical polity, nothing as to its form of worship. Neither magnificent ritual nor Puritan simplicity should attract you in themselves, but the enthroned and glorified Christ; and wherever you find you can come into communion with Him in worship most easily, there settle. Having joined the Church, do not expect to be nursed. Our Churches are too full of perambulator Christians, people who if they are not likely to be carred to the skies on flowery beds of ease, certainly seem as though they wanted to be nursed with great care and attention- incubator sort of people. Remember that Jesus said to the man at Bethesda not only "Rise, take up thy bed," but "walk." And so I pray you, while in the Church, sharing the privileges of its fellowship, let your dependence be on your Lord. In that fellowship, moreover, take no Christian as your example, nay, not even the best, for so surely as you do, sooner or later you will be disappointed. Let your Lord alone be the ideal of your life. He will never disappoint you. Having joined the Church, expect not merely to share the privileges of fellowship, but the responsibilities of service. Reconsider the whole question of your financial position in life, deciding first the proportion that you are able to devote to the work of God in the world. Then find your niche of service in the School, in the Mission Hall, in Open Air Work, in the Choir, anywhere, but somewhere, for Christ’s sake. And having found your niche, fill it. Never mind the man in the next niche. You won’t help the work of the Church by criticizing your fellow member. Do your work, do it well, do it faithfully. Your full-orbed service will be far more likely to stimulate the neglectful brother than any criticism you can offer upon his neglect. Then as to your Bible. Study it, take time to do so. Remember you cannot treat this Divine library as you have been in the habit of treating the circulating library of fiction. The Bible is not a Book to be taken up in spare moments to tickle the fancy, and please the imagination. It demands the disciple’s heart, it asks devotion. Answer its demands, and its treasures are illimitable, its delight such as no other reading can ever bring to the weary tired heart of man. And then, lastly, the mercy-seat. Be familiar with it. If it be possible, have your morning watch. I do not say one hour, I do not say five minutes. There is no time in the economy of God, and almanacs and calendars are encumbrances in the life of communion. But see to it that every day before you look upon the face of man, you look into the face of your Lord. And not only at the beginning, but in the midst of the strife of the day, break away if it be possible, to some secret place. End the day where you began it, at the mercy-seat. Find some attic, or lumber-room, or any other place safe from intrusion, and make that your Bethel. At the mercy-seat, attempt to hide nothing. You cannot hide, don’t imagine that you can. All the inner secrets are naked and open to the eyes of Him with Whom you have to do. Realize this, and speak to Him with contrition and repentance, of the things that you would hide from others. At the mercy-seat, moreover, praise God. Your song may seem to be of no account in the mighty chorus that ever beats intides of music upon the throne of the Eternal. But He hears it, and He wants to hear it. He waits for the sacrifices of praise, and small though your contribition may seem to be, without it to the Infinite ear a tone is missing in the orchestra, and He will never be satisfied until the harmonies are complete. Don’t disappoint God! Sing your song, and offer your praise. And yet again, at the mercy-seat intercede. Tell your own need. There roll your burden upon the Lord. But particularly pray for others by name, often, earnestly. He knows, and yet He would have you tell Him. He has told us to bring with us words, and come before Him, He has ordained that blessing shall come in answer to intercession. It was at infinite cost that He provided the mercy-seat. Don’t slight the love that prompted the provision, but make use of it in confession, in praise, and prayer. Now, in conclusion. In few words have I written to you of the new life. How delightful it would be to have you all to one’s self or to gather you in companies and talk to you, not for a bare half hour, but for days of htese sacred things. That is denied to any human teacher. I pray you, remember that the Teacher of teachers is ever with you, and as I point you to Him, let my last words be those of earnest and urgent entreaty. You have given yourself to God. Now give God a chance in your life. Let there be no mental reserve in your submission and surrender. Ruthlessly sweep on one side all interests and persons that would come between you and your Lord. Live from the beginning a life of passionate devotion. The one condition the Master loathes is that of luke-warmness. Never mind if men criticise and misunderstand. I f He shall understand and appreciate, that is all. Never forget your Lord’s love, His nearness, His interest, His power. Do everything in His strength. Risk everything for His sake. So live your life as a Christian, that if the Christ should fail, you would forthwith be bankrupt. He will not fail, and you will never be bankrupt. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 19: 03.00. CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES ======================================================================== Christian Principles By G. Campbell Morgan This series of Lectures was delivered in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New Pork, under the auspices of the Bible Teacher’s Training School. 1908 CONTENTS Foreword 1. The Spiritual Nature of Man 2. The Direct Dealing of Man with God: A Right and an Obligation 3. The Relation of Reason and Faith 4. The Preliminary Adjustment – Self Lost and Found 5. The Realisation of the Christ Life – Centre and Sphere 6. The Passion of Christ and His Church for the Kingdom of God ======================================================================== CHAPTER 20: 03.000. FORWARD ======================================================================== FOREWORD The difference between principles and rules is radical. Rules can be made, and therefore broken. Principles cannot be made, and can not be broken. Rules are things of time. Principles are matters of eternity. Rules are accidental. Principles are essential. In this series of lectures on Christian Principles my desire is to interpret those matters that obtain, subconsciously at least, in the thinking of all Christian souls, and of which it may be affirmed that the measure in which they do obtain, and the measure in which they are the master things of the life, is the measure in which Christianity is a living experience, and exerts a living influence. The historic facts and fundamental doc trines of the Christian faith will be taken for granted, and the lectures will consist of statements of the principal principles of life and service resulting there from. The authority to which these studies appeal is revelation; the things that God has said to man through His Word; the things which He has spoken in time past to the fathers by the prophets in divers places and divers portions, and the things He has said finally and perfectly in these latter days through His Son. Revelation is the declaration of things undiscoverable by investigation, but which harmonize finally with the things so discoverable. Speculation is unscientific, and not to be trusted in the search after truth. Investigation is a privilege and a duty. “ The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children,” and the measure of our ability to discover the secret things is the measure in which we have the right to enquire. But after all our enquiry, and all our investigation, there are still secret things, and out of the midst of these God has spoken to men, so much as it is necessary for them to know, and which they could not have discovered along the line of their own investigation. I repeat, therefore, that investigation is both a privilege and a duty. On the way it often halts, but honestly persisted in is always in harmony with revelation. There is no ascertained and absolutely established fact of science out of harmony with the revelation of the Bible. Of course that statement needs this qualification; we must be perfectly sure that we are dealing with established facts, and not with hypotheses, and we must be perfectly sure that we are dealing with the Bible, and not with some private interpretation of it. But wherever there is careful and honest investigation, even though it halt by the way, and has to wait, at last the truth discovered harmonizes with the truth revealed. We have to do in this series of lectures, not with the things which men have discovered by investigation, but with the things which God has revealed to us, for Christianity is supremely. Foreword a revelation; with the things discovered in so far as they harmonize with the things revealed, but with things revealed for the correction and interpretation of the things discovered. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 21: 03.01. CHAPTER 1 ======================================================================== THE SPIRITUAL NATURE OF MAN Revelation assumes the spiritual nature of man. It may be said that the Bible never formulates the doctrine, but reveals it in the account it gives of the origin of man, in the perpetual reference it makes to the nature of man, and in the whole of its teaching concerning the redemption of man. The psalmist, after contemplation of the vastness of the universe, exclaimed, “ When I consider Thy heaven, the work of Thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained, What is man?” The question was not asked in order to suggest the inferiority of man, but to introduce a statement which reveals his superiority to that universe, with which the psalmist suggested the comparison. “For Thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honour.” The same question was asked by quotation, by the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, and he answered finally thus: “ But now we see not yet all things subjected to him. But we be hold Him Who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that by the grace of God He should taste death for every man.” In each case the answers reveal man’s relation to the spiritual world primarily and fundamentally. The answer of the psalmist declares that man is but little lower than God, and affirms his superiority even to. that vast universe, which had made the psalmist enquire “ What is man? “ The outstanding words of the Bible agree with this central statement. The story of creation declares that after all preliminary processes, God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” At the very heart of New Testament teaching the great apostle describes man as “ spirit, soul, and body.” In these passages to which I am only making passing reference it is evident that the Bible recognizes the fact that man is essentially spirit. In making reference to the passage in Thessalonians, in which the apostle speaks of “ spirit, soul, and body,” we need to be careful not to imagine that three absolutely distinct entities are referred to as existing within man’s being. The apostle speaks of the spirit of the soul or mind, and of the body. He begins with the essential, which is the spirit; he then refers to the consciousness, the mind, the soul; and finally to the body. There is the most intimate interrelation between the three. The spirit is the essential, the body is the expressional, and the mind is the consciousness, which is either spiritual or fleshly, according to whether spirit pr flesh is in the ascendant in the life. The distinction between spirit and soul is sharply maintained throughout the Scriptures. In one of the hours of his greatest anguish, Job broke out into these words, “ I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.” In the great Magnificat Mary sang, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.’’ In the psalm of perfect praise there is a subconscious recognition of the same distinction, “ Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name.’’ The speaker there is not the soul. The soul is addressed. The essential personality is that of the one speaking to the soul. In the final injunction of the Roman letter concerning worship, the apostle wrote, “ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies,” so that neither is the body the final fact in personality. The body is to be presented by the person, the body is the property of the person, but it is not the person. The marginal reading of the passage already quoted runs, “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” The essential fact in personality is thus seen to be that of spirit; and the spirit’s highest act of expressed wor ship is the dedication of the body, and in the dedication of the body by the spirit there is a renewing of the mind. The difference between soul and spirit is recognized in the words of our Lord Himself. At the coming of the Greeks He said, “ Now is My soul troubled,” and a little later as He came nearer to the darkness of the awful passion, John declares that “ He was troubled in the spirit.” The teaching of revelation concerning the nature of man was most lucidly expressed by Justin Martyr, “ As the body is the house of the soul, so is the soul the house of the spirit.” In that sentence is crystallized the conception of man which the Bible presents. For the sake of illustration only, think of the ancient. He brew Tabernacle, with its outer court, with its holy place, with its holy of holies. I do not say that it was intended so to be, but it certainly may be used as a representation of individual human life. There is the outer court of the material, the physical, the body. There is the holy place of the consciousness, the mental, the soul. But there is the holy of holies, the spiritual essence, the central fact. Man essentially is spirit. He possesses a body and a mind; that mind being fleshly or spiritual, according to whether in the inner spiritual life he yield to the cry of the flesh, or answer the upward call of the spirit. God is a Spirit, and requires spiritual worship, which can only be rendered by spirit. Man is offspring of God. Man is therefore a spirit, and can worship God. Man is made in the image and likeness of God. God is Spirit, and man therefore essentially is not material, but spiritual. We are in the habit of using the word spiritual as an adjective, qualifying life, and describing it at its best; but everyone is living a spiritual life, all life finally being spiritual. I do not desire for a moment to deny the important and necessary distinction between the carnal and the spiritual life which Paul makes, but the carnal life is spiritual life, degraded to carnal things. At the centre of all human life, motiving it, impulsing it, driving it, is the spiritual fact. We may prostitute the spiritual to base uses. We may degrade the high and noble and essential to devilish purposes, but the supreme truth of human life, according to the teaching of the Word of God, is that as God is a Spirit, man also is a spirit. Now let us enquire, what are the connotations of spirit, or in other words, what is the aggregation of attributes expressed by the word? This is a question which it is very difficult to answer, perhaps impossible in words that must necessarily be uttered by material lips. Our word spirit has come to us through processes from the Latin word spiritus, which simply means a breathing, and is therefore the exact translation, as to intention, of the Greek word, which is a parabolic word. A parable consists of the placing of something by the side of something else. Here is something that I cannot see or understand perfectly, and I place by the side of it something similar to it, in order that I may understand the thing I can not see. “ The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” In that passage the Greek word for “ wind “ and the Greek word for “ Spirit “ are exactly the same. Yet it is perfectly evident that Jesus was using the wind as a parable of the Spirit, something put by the side of the Spirit which Nicodemus could not see, in order that he might understand something of His law, and something of His working. Canon Liddon with fine imagination has suggested that as Jesus sat on the housetop with Nicodemus in the silent hours of the night, the moaning of the wind was heard down the narrow streets of Jerusalem, and Christ, with that perfect and artless naturalness which always characterized His parabolic teaching, said in effect, Listen, you hear the wind as it blows. You hear the sound thereof, but know not whence it cometh and whither it goeth, so is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Spirit is a word signifying breathing. The wind is laid by the side of this tremendous and essential fact, in order that we may have some faint idea of its meaning. Yet wind, breath, air, are gross material things in the last analysis. We hear to-day of ether, permeating all material things, and scientists tell us that we may speak of the ether as a medium, which nevertheless permeates all substances, and is the medium of light and heat. Ether is far finer and rarer and more wonderful than air, and yet it also is gross and material by the side of spirit. It is, how ever, the simplest symbol of spirit for common man, that which most easily enables him to grasp the true idea. Spirit then, is immaterial being, but it is being. Immaterial, that is, imponderable, we cannot weigh it; intangible, the hand of the material cannot touch it; invisible, with the eyes of sense it cannot be seen. Then, says the materialist, it is non-existent, but does that follow? What are the evidences that man is spiritual? The very things which to-day are asserted as demonstrations of personality in man are as a matter of fact demonstrations that he is spiritual. Let us take three of these. First, unity; secondly, continuity; and finally, activity. These are the peculiar qualities of personality. The psychologist in his analysis of personality speaks of these things, not in such simple and easy terms, and consequently in more accurate terms. I claim that the very things that demonstrate personality are those which demonstrate spirituality. Think first of its unity. I am told that man has power to think, to love, and to choose. But these are not three separate and distinct matters, for they are three powers, or to use the term of the older metaphysicians, faculties. They are faculties possessed by one personality, and whether I think, or love, or choose, it is I who think and love and choose. I can not think and love and choose out of harmony with myself. I may contradict my thinking in my loving, I may violate my loving in my choosing; but it is I who have done it, and I am greater than my thinking, loving, or choosing. Every man is in himself a unity. The personality of any man may be broken up into its component parts, but the unity remains, and it is not fleshly, for this body of mine may be mutilated without the unity of my personality being disturbed by a hair’s breadth. It has often been pointed out, and is I know an old and commonplace illustration, but I use it again without hesitancy, that there is not one single material particle standing confronting you in the speaker which would have confronted you if the same man had occupied this position seven years ago. But the preacher is the same man. What is this then, which sloughs off the effete and reconstructs the new temple every seven years? Personality, and that is not material. I am not that at which men look. I am hidden by the things they see, a spiritual being. I can do without my body. My body cannot do without me. I am not my body. My body is not me. It is this doc trine of the spiritual nature of man that illumines for us the day of bereavement and sorrow. Then there is activity. All activity is primarily and fundamentally spiritual. I shall certainly carry you with me when I say that you have not exercised your hand within the last twenty-four hours without an activity of personality prior to the physical. There is an old riddle which we used to ask when we were children, Why does a man cross the road? the answer being, To get to the other side. That illustrates my argument. Crossing the road is not an accidental activity of the material, neither is it the result of wish or will within the realm of the physical. It is the result of thought preceding action, and because I do not believe that the seat of thought is the brain, but the spirit, the brain being the instrument only, I affirm that all activity is fundamentally spiritual, and that whatever a man does, he does as the result of spiritual decision. Deny the spiritual existence, and think of man as matter merely, then where is the principle of unity? where the secret of continuity? and where the origin of activity? The spiritual nature of man has its essential manifestations of thought and feeling and choice; or if we may once more make use of Kant’s analysis of personality, spiritual nature is intellectual, emotional, and volitional. All these act in concert, and we name the result reason. They act under a sense of a standard of right and wrong, and we name the result conscience. They recollect things of the past, and we call the result memory. They forecast the future, and we call the result anticipation. They are not the powers of the material, they are the activities of the spiritual. What then is the relation between spirit and body according to the revelation of Scripture? The body is the instrument of the spirit, its medium of impression and expression, that through which the spirit to-day gives expression of itself to things beyond itself, through other material media to other spiritual beings. Death, therefore, is simply the laying aside of a medium of expression, the act by which the spirit lays down the body. The Christian doc trine of resurrection declares, not that the self same body will be raised, but that out of the same body a new one will be formed. By some mysterious process that I do not profess to understand, out of the same body there will come another. The apostle’s argument by illustration from the bare grain in Corinthians, teaches that life clothes itself with that bare grain, and yet the bare grain dies, and out of itself reconstructs another and a fuller, and a larger medium of manifestation. Not the same grain comes again, but another out of it. So also concerning the resurrection of the body. He does not teach the actual and absolute restoration of the same particles, for if he did, we might with reason enquire which particles, those of to-day, or of seven years ago? He does, however, teach that out of this very body, by a method which he cannot explain, will come the new. If it be affirmed that this is beyond the possibility of belief, it is perfectly fair to enquire whether we believe that the bare grain reproduces itself a hundred fold. There is no necessity for me here to stay to discuss the question of bodily resurrection. I have but referred to it in order to emphasize the truth that man is not a body, that death is but an event in which the spirit lays down one medium of manifestation. It may be that in what we speak of as the intermediate state, the spirit holds communion only and actually with spiritual things, and consequently does not need anything in the nature of a material medium. Out in the ultimate, in the life which is to come, the spirits are to be “ clothed upon,” to use Paul’s great word, with a new medium. It may be on the other hand that between the unclothing that we call death, and the ultimate clothing at the resurrection, there is some spiritual body in which the departed spirits dwell. I cannot tell, but this I know, that when my loved one lays down the body, that casket of clay is not my loved one. For forty four years these eyes had looked at one face with reverence and with love, and I looked at it for the last time on the last day of 1907, and I said, No, that is not my father. Dear sacred dust, very precious, but my father broke the fetter, and passed on. That was all. During the last few days of his life he did not see quite clearly, and did not know perfectly those who stood about him. Oh, yes, says the materialist, everything was ending. No, says the Christian, the instrument was becoming imperfect, that is all. There are times when I cannot see quite clearly because the rain has fallen upon, or the fog has blurred the glasses that I wear. Do not blame me, blame the instrument. Thank God for the hour in which my father escaped from the worn-out medium of the earthly body, and went into life. I am not now dealing with the things which lie beyond, but it is well to remember that man makes his testing in the period in which his spirit inhabits the body in this earth. The breaking of the medium and the flinging of it away may be an awful thing. It may be a great and gracious thing. A closing word. We have touched the fringe of all this, but if it be true, if — and allow me once again to go back to Justin Martyr — if, as the body is the house of the soul, the soul is the house of the spirit, if in very deed and truth the essential and final thing is the spirit, what then? Then the message of Christianity is the supreme message, and all the things we preach are the supreme things. Then the first business of every human life is not to enquire What shall I eat, or what shall I drink, or wherewithal shall I be clothed? The first business of human life is the culture of the spirit; and because of sin the very first necessity thereto is the salvation of the spirit. A far more important thing than that I should have a place to lay my head, or bread to eat, is that this spirit of mine should be right with God. That is the meaning of the Bible; that is the message of Christianity; that is the reason of Calvary; that is the value of Pentecost. All these recognize the dignity of human life. They protest against the degrading influences of the materialistic ideal which treats a man as merely dust. What then of the body? This conception does not issue in the degradation of the body. It demands its ennoblement. “ Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? “was spoken to saints. But how does the body become the temple of the Holy Spirit? By the fellowship of the spirit of a man with the Spirit of God. The obvious deduction is that the body must be fitted for the spirit, and used by the spirit. The body is the medium through which the spirit, which is the essential life, makes its impression on others, and receives its impression from others. Then how careful I should be of the body. It must be guarded from all abuse, in order that it may be the fitting instrument of the spirit. And relatively, what is the application of this truth? If man is a spirit, the offspring of God Who is Spirit, the supreme thing in every human life is that man should answer God in fellowship of friendship, of service, of suffering if need be, and of ultimate victory. Some people professed irritation with a little card which was widely circulated in England during a great evangelistic campaign, conducted there a little while ago, on which was printed the words, “ Get right with God.” But that is the essence of the message which Christianity gives, and which the world needs to-day, in individual, social, and national life. All life out of harmony with God issues in dire disaster. And yet again, a man who is right with God is always right with his brother. A man who speaks about being right with God, yet who has had no consciousness or care about being right with others is a liar. I borrow that forceful description from inspired Writ, and it is interesting to remember that it was not Peter who wrote it. It was John of the mystic vision, of the beating heart, the man who wrote of love perpetually. It was he who said that a man who declares he loves God and does not love his brother, is a liar. Let the word burn itself upon our conscience, in case we forget it. The basis of brotherhood is not material, but spiritual. No man will have learned what it is to live as he ought to live with his fellow man until he has discovered his own spiritual nature, and that of his brother, in the discovery of the spiritual relationship between man and God. Here, as always, everything centres in Christ. He is the Revelation of the spiritual. Listen to His words, not merely His set discourses, but those incidental things that fell from His lips, and it will be seen how He lived perpetually in the spiritual, recognizing His relation to God, seeking first His Kingdom, speaking of Him as of His Father, for ever more at the centre of His life related to Him, and recognizing that relationship. It will be seen moreover, how that recognition of the fact affected His relation to others. He was no ascetic, shutting himself away from the af fairs of men, and attempting to realize His own sanctity by the guardianship of bricks and stones and mortar. He mixed familiarly among men, and so lived that the ascetics of His age said of Him that He was a gluttonous man and a wine bibber. Yet by His spiritual relationship He made things material flame and flash with glory, and shine in radiant purity. But He did more. He not only gave us a revelation, He acted in mediation, and when He through the eternal Spirit offered Himself to God, He made a way by which His banished ones might return, by which the spirits who had lost their way through their own rebellion might be brought back again into fellowship, and in the reconsciousness of the spirituality of their nature might begin to live from the true centre, and so affect in truth the whole circumference. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 22: 03.02. CHAPTER 2 ======================================================================== II. THE DIRECT DEALING OF MAN WITH GOD A RIGHT AND AN OBLIGATION When Professor James of Harvard University published his Gifford Lectures under the title of “ The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature,” the book created widespread interest. This was to be accounted for principally because of its standpoint, and on account of its conclusion; and also, of course, because of all the valuable matter presented and dealt with in its process. The standpoint of the book Professor James indicated in these words, “ I am neither a theologian, nor a scholar learned in the history of religions, nor an anthropologist. Psychology is the only branch of learning in which I am particularly versed. To the psychologist the religious propensities of man must be at least as interesting as any other of the facts pertaining to his mental constitution.” And a little further on, still in the introductory part of the book he wrote, “ Religion, therefore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to take it, shall mean for us the feeling, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend them selves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine.” As Christian believers we go a great deal further than either of these quotations seems to suggest; but the value of the book consisted in the fact that at last a scientific teacher was willing to admit that the people likely to know most about religion are religious people. It was an entirely new admission on the scientific side. Then after having gathered together all kinds of religious experience, Professor James stated his conclusions, and these may for our purpose be expressed in one very brief quotation, “ We and God have business with each other; and in opening ourselves to His influence our deepest testing is fulfilled.” This is not the dictum of a professor in a theological college, neither is it the statement of a Christian preacher from his pulpit. It is the deliberate and scientific conclusion of one of the most eminent psychologists of this age; and, moreover, it is his conclusion after careful examination of all kinds of religious experiences. The conclusion of the scientist is the commonplace of Christianity, and when I say commonplace I do not mean anything unimportant, but rather one of the fundamental axioms of Christianity. That conclusion is the reason of the Bible. It is the message of the Bible. It is the Bible in brief. All the men who wrote aforetime in divers places and portions, wrote because they believed they had business with God. That great truth is the explanation of the purpose of Incarnation. It is the ultimate reason in Atonement. Not that it explains the method of Atonement, but it accounts for Atonement. Accept that truth, and we begin to understand what sin is. Recognize that fact, and we may commence our study of the great subject of salvation. To believe that truth, and to live in the power of it, is Christianity. Having affirmed in our previous study the spiritual nature of man, we now proceed to consider that which is the first necessary deduction, namely, that the direct dealing of man with God is both his right and his obligation. I desire at the very commencement to place emphasis upon the two sides of that subject. Not merely is direct dealing on the part of man with God his right, it is also his obligation. Or to state the case from the other side, not merely is it his obligation, it is his birthright. The subject thus stated suggests to us the natural divisions for our consideration. First, man’s right of direct dealing with God; and secondly, man’s obligation to have direct dealing with God. In dealing with man’s right, I suggest three very simple lines of consideration. First, the nature of the case; secondly, the grace of the case; and finally, an application of the facts of the case. We begin in the simplest way by saying that in the very nature of the case, in the nature of God and in the nature of man, it follows by a sequence from which there can be no possibility of escape, that man has the right of direct, immediate, and personal access to God. The affirmation that God is a Spirit announces His essential Being, rather than reveals His character. It declares that God is free from the limitations of time and of space. But it is equally true that man is a spirit, that the central fact in human personality is not flesh, which is but a medium of expression; not the mind, which is but the consciousness; but the spirit. Man is essentially a spirit. He transcends his material nature, and immediately touches God. Man is more than physical, and in the more, lies all the mystery that perplexes him, baffles him, startles him, makes him afraid within himself. We do not, neither can we know ourselves. We have often said to our selves in hours of loneliness, What is this strange new mystery of possibility breaking out within my consciousness? We may account for it in the language of the hour by speaking of the over-soul; but in the simpler language of Scripture, it is the spiritual fact in man. The moment consciousness transcends material life, which it does perpetually, it is in the very neighbourhood, in the atmosphere, in the presence of God. The apostle expressed the truth far more simply when in the midst of the culture and learning of Athens he said, “ In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” Our being, then, is spiritual. The deduction of these truths has been most exquisitely made for us in language which so appeals to human nature in its deepest and truest, as to have become almost commonplace by quotation. “ Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with spirit can meet — Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.” The sublimity of Tennyson’s teaching in that quotation lies in the simplicity of the one declaration, “ Spirit with spirit can meet.” It is no new discovery. It is as old as the oldest book in the Bible. Eliphaz gave utterance to the same truth when he said to Job, “ Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace, Thereby good shall come unto thee.” While misinterpreting the condition in which Job found himself, Eliphaz nevertheless be sought him to rise superior to all the material limitation and suffering, and in himself to be come acquainted with God and be at peace. The final illustration of the truth fell from the lips of our Lord when He said to the woman of Samaria, “ God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.” “ In spirit,” that is, in the essential part of them, and “ in truth,” that is, in all life harmonizing with the spirit in the attitude of worship. The writer of the letter to the He brews expressed the same idea when he said, “ He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of them that seek after Him.” First then, the very necessities of the case, in the nature of God and man, make it evident that man can have direct access to God. But think of the grace of the case, which is even more wonderful for us as sinning men. Let me cite another statement from Professor James’ book. When he states his conclusions, he writes these very remarkable words. Referring to all religious experiences the world over he says, “ There is a certain uniform deliverance in which religions all appear to meet. It consists of two parts: first, an uneasiness; and secondly, its solution. The uneasiness reduced to its simplest terms, is a sense that there is something wrong about us, as we naturally stand. The solution is a sense that we are saved from the wrongness by making proper connection with the higher powers.” A most significant and remarkable conclusion, as the result of the examination of all kinds of religious experience, gathered from East and West, North and South, both emotional and intellectual. This man of science, reducing everything to the minimum, seeking not for the greatest common measure, but the least common multiple, says that he finds in all religions these two things, an uneasiness which consists of a sense that there is something wrong; a solution, which consists of a conviction that the wrong may be set right by proper connection with the higher powers. Christianity recognizes the wrong, and names it sin. Christianity declares that it is possible to make connection with the higher powers through the infinite grace, operating through the work of Jesus Christ. Consequently our declaration is that man may have access to God, notwithstanding the something wrong which perhaps he may not be able to explain, or the history of which he may not be perfectly sure, through the mediation of God in His Son, and by His Spirit. It is necessary that we should see the connection between this second statement and the first. By nature man can have access to God. I do not use the word nature now as Paul used it, but in a simpler way. That is not to criticise Paul. He, speaking of the natural man, means man fallen, or in Professor James’ words, man with “ something wrong “ about him. For the moment I do not so use the word, but rather as describing that which lies behind, the first ideal of man. Natural man has access to God, because God is a Spirit, and man is spirit, and “ Spirit with spirit can meet.” But experimentally the spirit of man does not meet with the Spirit of God. The truer language of experience is that of Job, “ Oh, that I knew where I might find Him.” I hear the infinite music of the eternal Spirit sobbing through the shell of human life, but I cannot speak and know I am heard, and I cannot hear so as to be perfectly sure that the speech was His. I have lost ability somehow, some when, some where. If I am a spirit, and He is a Spirit, and it is true that “ Spirit with spirit can meet,” then, to quote once again the language of the scientist, “ there is something wrong about us.” Whether you name it “ something wrong “ somewhere; or whether you call it “ continuous abnormality,” and that also is a quotation from a scientific writer; or whether you call it “ a kink in the moral nature,” and that is a quotation from magazine literature; or whether you call it in the sublime and dignified and awful language of Christian teaching, “ sin,” I care nothing. It is the fact that I have to deal with. Now the Christian revelation declares, “ God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Him self,” making it possible — may I quote the scientific language again — for man to make “proper connection with the higher powers,” to find his way back into the immediate and conscious fellowship which somehow he has lost. “ God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself,” meeting humanity in In carnation for the sake of humanity’s consciousness, revealing to humanity in the mystery of His dying the infinite process of His own pain whereby humanity’s sin is dealt with and put away. That mediation is perfected in the Spirit. “ Who among men knoweth the things of a ’man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him? even so the things of God none know eth, save the Spirit of God.” “Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, And which entered not into the heart of man, Whatsoever things God prepared for them that love Him.” The deep things, the profound things, the things of God, eye hath not seen. They are not discovered by looking with the look of sense. They are not heard by the listening which is merely the listening of the flesh. And into the heart of man with its emotion, and its intellect, and its volition, these things have not come. How strange it is that we so constantly quote that verse and leave it there, as though the statement in the New Testament is the statement of the Old, that the deep things of God man cannot know. The New Testament quotes it to correct it, enlarge it, carry it on, and the final word is this, that “ unto us God revealed them through the Spirit.” So that the teaching of Christianity is that the deep things of God are revealed by the Spirit. Thus through the mediation of the Son there is the mediation of the Spirit, and into the spiritual nature of a man there comes the light of the Spirit of God. Thus not only upon the basis of man’s nature by Divine intention, for that is lost, but upon the basis of God’s grace mediating through His Son, whereby the lost is found, once again, “ Spirit with spirit can meet.” Now what is the application of these facts? First I simply state the case I have been at tempting to argue. Every human being by nature and by grace may have direct dealings with God, and that both in the crises and in the commonplaces of life. In the crises we all more or less realize it. I think I have yet to meet the man who has any residuum of belief in religion, who will not admit that in some crisis of pain and anguish, of dire necessity, of awful choice, he has suddenly become conscious of God and of the fact that he could speak to Him. Many a soldier will tell you how that upon the battlefield in the hour of supreme peril, he suddenly knew and spoke to God. Many a surgeon will tell you, as one told me in referring to the actual case of an operation upon myself, that in the moment of supreme crisis he knew God’s presence and power. In a great crisis the spirit of man becomes naked to God, and knows it. I remember when I first became supremely conscious, awfully conscious of the spirituality of my own being. It was not in a prayer meeting, it was not in a convention. It was in the crisis of that awful dynamite explosion in New York, when my own wife was in the hotel that rocked and reeled. Never can I forget how when climbing the two stories over the wreckage and ruin and debris in order to reach the place of peril in which I knew she was, I became conscious that my body was a weight which I fain would have flung away to speed me in my effort to reach her. It was a crisis, and in the midst of it I knew that I was spirit, and that I could touch God, and speak to Him. The philosophy has yet to be invented that can rob me of that conviction. Not merely in the crises, however, is such access possible. It is equally so in the commonplaces. Perhaps I have no right to make the distinction between crisis and commonplace. Those are great words in which Elizabeth Bar rett Browning teaches us that such distinction is false. “ ’ There’s nothing great Nor small,’ has said a poet of our day, Whose voice will ring beyond the curfew of eve And not be thrown out by the matin’s bell, And truly I reiterate, nothing’s small! No lily-muffled hum of a summer bee, But finds some coupling with the spinning stars, No pebble at your foot, but proves a sphere, No chaffinch, but implies the cherubim, And (glancing on my own thin, veined wrist) In such a little tremor of the blood The whole strong clamour of a vehement soul Doth utter itself distinct.” Let that truth be recognized, and then remember that man has the right of access to God in the commonplaces, in the matter of friend ships, of habits, of whether we shall read this book or not, of whether we will take our amusement thus or so. Nothing’s small. Issues that make up testing hang upon the trifles of the passing moments, and man can get to God about all such trifles. That is the heart and centre of Christian experience. If that be one side of the truth of man’s right of access, there is another, and it is this, that because he has such right, he must refuse to permit anyone to interfere between himself and God. This is a necessary sequence. We cannot escape it, and we ought not to attempt to escape it. In the “ Comments of Bagshot “I read, “ Rights are ideals in terms of action. Man first becomes formidable in action when he conceives his ideals as his rights.” Are these things which we have been stating our ideals? Do we believe that the soul of man can speak to God immediately and directly? Do we believe that in the very nature of the case, “ Spirit with spirit can meet “? Do we believe that in the infinitude of grace as revealed in the Christian fact, a man can have communion with God? Is that our ideal? Then let us make it our right. When we do so we become formidable, we become strong. It is our duty to make our protest against all symbols which interfere between the spirit and God, and to make angry protest against men or spirits, who ask to stand between us and God. That is the essence — I had almost said of Puritanism. I will use a larger speech. It is the essence of Christianity that the spirit of a man has access to God, and must avail itself thereof. This principle is the destruction of priestism, whether Roman, Anglican, or Free. Man’s obligation of access is the second half of our consideration, although we have already touched upon it necessarily in considering the right of access. If man be spirit and God be Spirit, and man may find his way to God, he ought to find his way to God. First he owes it to God that he should do so. Surely it will be granted that there ought to be given to God the right to adjust his own. “ Will a man rob God? “ asked the prophet. It is still the question. The application in Malachi is very narrow, though quite sufficient for the time. A man may rob God far more terribly than in tithes and offerings. We rob God when we do not hold communion with Him, when we do not remit to Him for adjustment the spirit Direct Dealing of Man with God 53 which is His, offspring of His very life and essence and nature. Old King Lear in his madness said, “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is To have a thankless child.” That is very human, it is on the ordinary human level, and even there it is an awful truth, but in the highest application it tells the tragedy in the heavens of a godless life. It is that of God with a thankless child. I go back to Genesis and I read, “ Adam, where art thou? “and I never read it to-day without thinking of what my beloved friend, Dr. Henry Weston of Crozer, a man of whom I speak with reverence as a teacher, once said of that passage, that it was not the shout of a policeman, but the wail of a Father after His lost child. “ The God in Whose hand thy breath is, and Whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified,” was the charge against Belshazzar. We should in all likelihood have charged him with drunkenness, and asked him to sign a pledge, and in the interests of his nobles we might have started a Social Purity Crusade in Babylon. The prophet of God said that the root sin was neither drunkenness nor fornication, but that he had failed to glorify God. Every man who attempts to manage his life commits the sin of robbing God, and thus of harming Him. We owe it to God, moreover, because of the satisfaction which we ought to give Him in love. He hungers for love, He delights to bestow gifts in love, and we wound and wrong love when we do not find our way to Him in gratitude and in worship. But our obligation is not merely one toward God. We have an obligation to ourselves. If the spirit be the central thing in our lives, then the mental and the physical are concentric, and where this is so, there is perfect harmony. But if we make the physical the central in life, or if we make the mental the central, we become eccentric. It is the habit of the man of the world to speak of Christian men as eccentric. As a matter of fact, the Christian man is concentric, his spiritual life recognized as supreme, and set in right relation to the Spirit of God, then all the other circles are in their proper place. But if we put the centre of life in the flesh, or in the mind, we are necessarily eccentric. And yet once more. The obligation is not merely to God and self, but also to the universal order. If it be true that in my neglect of God I become eccentric, mark the far-reaching effect of one eccentricity in the spherical order. It is the history of all the false life of the city, of the country, of the world. It is all eccentric. I do not use the word as merely suggesting a relationship which is of no consequence. Eccentricity is chaos, ruin, disaster. We owe it then to the universal order that we bring our lives into right relationship to God. We may summarize quite briefly. Man can have dealings with God, and man must have dealings with God. Man can have such dealings. If I am asked for a final solution of how, I can no more give one than I can give the final explanation of the fact of my being, and that is a proper and fair comparison. I cannot explain the final mystery of my being. There are reaches of which I am conscious, but which I have not yet discovered, and which I am almost afraid to invade. As we cannot say the last things concerning ourselves, while yet we are certain of the fact of our existence, so neither can we say the last thing as to the method of our access to God, but the testimony of scientific investigation agrees with the declaration of revealed religion, that we have business with God, and that we can find our way to Him. It is equally true that man must have such dealings with God. Now at this point it is well that we should recognize a peculiar and subtle peril. There is a danger in freedom. When we claim the right of appeal to God, do we exercise that right? It is not enough that we sweep aside all the priests who fain would interfere. We must get to God for ourselves. We must ask Him about the habits of our lives. We must remit to Him all questions. One is sometimes afraid lest in the very vehemence of our protest against priestism there should lurk the danger of neglecting to remit all things to God for His arbitrament and arrangement. The real balance of life may thus be expressed, no interference between man and God. Man always submitted to God that He may govern. We rejoice that we are able to find access to God. Let us never fail to yield ourselves to the obligation of the great and gracious privilege.^ ======================================================================== CHAPTER 23: 03.03. CHAPTER 3 ======================================================================== III. THE RELATION OF REASON AND FAITH There is a prevalent idea that the exercise of faith is incompatible with the function of reason. In relation to Christianity this has been urged in offence and in defence. Those in op position have treated the idea as axiomatic, declaring that to exercise the function of faith is to abandon the right to think, and to contradict the rational process. This attitude of mind has been indicated by the assumption of the name free-thinker on the part of such as declare that they refuse to believe in anything that cannot be demonstrated by the process of reason. The attitude is understandable in such cases, even though one may not agree with the reasonableness of the proposition. On the other hand, it has been affirmed by certain who declare that they stand in defence of the Christian position, that faith and reason are finally unrelated. They declare that we have no right to apply the reason in matters of faith, that it is necessary to receive certain statements and believe them to be true, even though they have no basis in reason. These people declare that in matters of religion intellect is a peril, and that while men are justified in every other realm in making use of reason, they must turn away there from al together in matters of faith. Such an idea is absolutely false, and when those in opposition declare it to be the Christian position, they reveal an ignorance of the facts of the case which makes it impossible to enter into any rational discussion with them. Yet on the other hand, when it is urged in defence of the Christian position it practically abandons the very citadel, and so leaves the surrounding areas an easy prey to the enemies of religion. There is the closest inter-relation between reason and faith. Faith which is irrational is irreligious. Reason which is unbelieving is illogical. The relation between the two is so intimate that it is almost difficult to find a figure of speech which perfectly expresses it. Between reason and faith there is not merely friendly relation as between areas which are contiguous but yet never identical, or between parallel lines which move in the same direction but never come together, or between hemi spheres which, while constituting one whole, are yet always divided, as North from South, or East from West. None of these figures suggests the true relationship between reason and faith, that relationship being more immediate and perpetual than any of these. Per haps we come nearer to an illustration if we speak of the relation as that between two dimensions in one whole, as on the plane surface of things there is relation between length and breadth. This relation cannot be escaped, not withstanding Euclid’s definition, which perhaps was necessary in order to an argument, but was utterly false as a statement, namely that a line is length without breadth. It is inconceivable that there should be length with out breadth, or breadth without length. Things are not always as broad as they are long, but if they are long they are broad, or if they have breadth, they have length. As these two dimensions are always present, each related to the other, so that they cannot be separated, so also are reason and faith. In order that this inter-relationship may be apprehended, I propose first a brief and quite elementary discussion of the evident relation between reason and faith in the ordinary consciousness, quite apart at first from the application of the subject to the Christian position; and then secondly, as briefly and as simply, I shall attempt to state the relation between rea son and faith as suggested in Bible terms, finally making an application of the relation as a principle of Christian life. We begin, then, with the discussion of the relation in ordinary circumstances, and first of all attempt to come to an understanding of our terms in the most elementary way possible by enquiring first, What is reason? and secondly, What is faith? And first, then, What is reason? That enquiry I propose to answer by quoting a simple dictionary definition. The Century Dictionary defines reason as, “ An idea acting as a cause to create or confirm a belief.” I think it necessary parenthetically at this point to draw attention to the fact that neither I nor any Christian apologist inspired that definition. A second definition reads, “ Reason; an intellectual faculty, or such faculties collectively.” The first of these definitions describes what we should speak of in general terms as a reason, that is, a statement made as accounting for some result in action or in speech. The second definition refers to what we should speak of as the reason, that is, the capacity which apprehends and states a cause. In the presence of these definitions it is competent for us to enquire, How does the reason, which is “ an intellectual faculty, or such faculties collectively,” act in order to create a rea son, which is “ an idea acting as a cause to create or confirm a belief “? In answer to this enquiry let me first give you a quotation from Dr. Oman’s “ Problems of Faith and Freedom,” in which he says, “ Reason is not the mere universal law, but is a process by which we are always passing to more detailed knowledge, to more concrete conceptions, a process which is always widening to embrace the whole fulness of the truth.” I am quite aware that this statement does not explain the whole process of how the reason formulates a reason, but it indicates all that is essential to my present argument, namely, that reason is for ever conscious of vaster areas than it has apprehended, and is that intellectual activity which is able, from vantage ground already gained, to move on ward and outward for the inclusion of larger areas. When we speak then of reason as a faculty, we refer to the ability to apprehend truth, and to that which safeguards the consciousness from the acceptation of anything which is untrue, and when we refer to a reason we intend a truth apprehended. Let us take our second question quite as simply. What is faith? This enquiry the dictionary answers by the following definition, “ Faith is the assent of the mind to the truth of a proposition or statement for which there is not complete evidence.” Now even at the risk of being charged with impertinence I venture to change one word in that definition, and read, “ Faith is the assent of the mind to the truth of a proposition or statement for which there is not complete demonstration.” This may appear to be a mere quibbling with words, and yet whatever the philological value of these words may be, in our ordinary use of them there is a difference of suggestion between the terms evidence and demonstration. Taking the words only according to the popular use made of them, I maintain that there are many things for which there is abounding evidence, but of which there can be no final demonstration. Faith then is the assent of the mind to the truth of a proposition or statement for which there is not complete demonstration, but for which there is sufficient evidence. From that simple definition I make the deduction that faith is conviction of truth, resulting from the action of reason, which truth nevertheless cannot be finally and mathematically demonstrated. The reason apprehends a certain fact. Faith finding foothold upon that apprehension, apprehends a still larger matter than can be demonstrated by the reason, but never consents to accept as true anything which is not finally founded upon the reason. May I reverently make use of a very simple illustration of what I mean, when I declare that there are many things of which I am perfectly certain by faith founded on reason, while yet I cannot demonstrate to the logical satisfaction of any other person. The illustration I suggest is quite a personal one, which I leave every other man to make for himself. I look into the face of my mother, and I know she is my mother by the activity of faith based upon reason. It is absolutely impossible to demonstrate the fact, but the evidence is over whelming. The relation of reason and faith in matters of everyday life may thus be stated: Faith which has no foundation in reason is not faith. It is rather credulity. It is innocence, or ignorance, or insanity, in any case a negation of knowledge. On the other hand, reason that does not admit, or will not permit the larger deduction based upon its own activity, is either obtuse, or obstinate, or obscene, in any case the limitation of the intellectual. There is therefore the closest relationship in ordinary life between reason and faith. Every thing which a man believes in the highest and most intelligent sense of that word, he believes because; and in the moment in which the word because is used, there is suggested and admitted the fact of the activity of the reason, leading up to, and compelling the faith. If I believe this because of that, the that is the reason inspiring the faith, and the this is the truth which faith apprehends as it answers the illumination of reason. Thus faith must be based on reason, and reason must fulfil itself in faith. Thus it is evident that reason is compelled at times to allow itself to admit of larger areas than it is able perfectly to demonstrate, and in that admission it becomes faith. Thus what a man believes in the true sense of the word is always founded upon reason, but it is nevertheless a deduction including some truth more spacious than unaided reason is able to demon strate. Mark then the relation between the two. Reason is the creator of faith. Faith is always created. It cannot be compelled. There is a sense in which it is perfectly true that a man can will to believe, but it is equally true that he can only do so when the possibility of faith has been created by the activity of reason. It has been objected that the Christian declaration that faith is the gift of God is a statement out of harmony with the method of science. Yet as a matter of fact faith is always the gift of someone, or something, the result of a process. To believe because is a commonplace formula, expressing the fact of a cause or creator antecedent to the belief. In this sense reason creates faith. The appreciation of a fact, the conviction of the fact, and the vision of the fact, even though the fact be still unseen, are due to the activity of reason. Reason proceeding along its proper line of scientific investigation comes at last to a point where it is impossible to proceed further unaided, but from which it is necessary in honesty to include as reasonable, things which cannot be logically demonstrated. Let me at once confess that to my own mind the relation between reason and faith becomes more remarkably clear when we turn to the terms of Scripture. It has been objected with the smartness which can only be characterized as ignorance, that the term reason is not a. common one in Scripture. As a matter of fact, the idea is repeated perpetually. The word “ reason “ does occur in our Versions, and is a translation of a word perpetually occurring, though in the majority of instances translated in another way. Peter in his first letter speaks of being “ ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you.” Now the word there translated “ reason “ first occurs in somewhat strange surroundings in the midst of the King’s Manifesto, as recorded by Matthew. I quote the passage, not for the sake of its main statement of course, but that we may put our hand upon this particular word. “ Everyone that putteth away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, maketh her an adulteress.” In that passage the word translated “ reason “ in the letter of Peter, is rendered “ cause.” Later on in his gospel Matthew tells us that Jesus said, “ Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” There again the word occurs, and is translated “give account.” In the house of Cornelius Peter enquired, “ I ask therefore, with what intent ye sent for me?” Again the same word, but rendered “ intent.” The writer of the letter to the Hebrews declares, “ All things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do.” Here also is the identical word, but translated “ to do.” Once again, in the letter of Peter, from which we took our first illustration, he says, “ Who shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead,” and “ give account “ is the translation of the identical word. These are instances only of one use of a great New Testament word. A comparison of them will reveal that it is a use that always indicated reason. In some senses it would be interesting, and even valuable in all these passages to translate in the same way. “ Everyone that putteth away his wife, saving for the reason of fornication, maketh her an adulteress.” “ Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give a reason thereof in the day of judgment.” “ I ask therefore, with what reason ye sent for me? “ “ All things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with Whom we have to reason.” “ Who shall give a reason to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.” Such rendering illuminates the passages, but with them I have not now to deal. It certainly enables us to realize the New Testament recognition of reason. But now what is the word so translated? It is, as I have indicated, a common word in the New Testament, namely the word logos. The same word is used in the opening statements of the gospel according to John, “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This word is used in the New Testament in two ways, the suggestiveness of each never being wholly absent from either. Its first and perhaps simplest meaning is that of speech as language, the expression of truth for the under standing of others. Its second and perhaps deeper meaning, is that of the absolute Truth itself, and as Thayer indicates, in that sense the Greek word logos is the exact equivalent to the Latin word ratio, from which we obtain our words rational, and reason. Thus logos is speech, and the truth spoken; or to state in the other order, reason, and its expression. The inter-relation of ideas in either use already referred to, is that the Word incarnate was the Speech of God, but being the Speech of God was the Expression of eternal Truth. The Word as Reason must express itself in a Speech which is accurate and true. It is necessary in the study of the New Testament carefully to discriminate by reference to the context as to which sense is intended, when this word is used. Sometimes it refers to speech as a statement made, sometimes to the essential truth out of which the statement came, sometimes both ideas are most evidently present in the use of the word. Now the presence of the conception of reason is demonstrated, and its place in relation to faith is made perfectly clear. Ultimately reason in God is the intellectual cause out of which all His activity springs. In man it is the inspiration of that faith which produces action. The two ideas are brought into remarkabl erelation in the letter to the Hebrews, from which I have already made quotation. When the writer says, “ All things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do,” he does so after having declared, “ the Word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do.” If we take the first part of that whole declaration and its last, and translate the Greek word logos in the same way, we may read, “ The reason of God is living, and active...all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with Whom we have to reason.” I do not suggest that that would be an absolutely accurate and full expression of the meaning of the earlier part of the passage, where the phrase “ the Word of God “ does most evidently refer to His revelation of Himself, but the other quality is most certainly included, for the word logos as a revelation implies the expression of the infinite Wisdom or Reason of God. It is this which when expressed is “ living — active — piercing — quick to discern,” and it is with that, man has to reason. Thus the exercise of the human reason is, according to the teaching of this passage, to be in the light of the Divine Reason. Reason, therefore, in the Bible, is ultimately the Wisdom of God, that absolute Truth by which He for ever operates whether in creation, or redemption; and in man, it is the intellectual apprehension which produces conviction, and inspires conduct. But now turn to the New Testament word for faith. Faith is fundamentally conviction of truth. Romaine, in his book, “ The Triumph of Faith,” says, “ Faith signifies the believing the truth of the Word of God.” If we may venture to interpret Romaine’s use of the phrase “ the Word of God “ in the double sense indicated, we shall see what faith really is. It is conviction of the truth of the Word as the speech or revelation of God, and therefore it is conviction of the certainty of those larger areas which have expressed themselves, and yet not finally. No speech can ever express all the facts. It can express so much as to create a certainty of the existence of things unexpressed. The Word in that sense is the revealed demonstration of the “ secret things.” Faith convinced by the Word which is speech, is the certainty of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. In this connection it must of course be remembered that in the New Testament presentation of the doctrine of salvation, the term faith is always used in such a way as to indicate the necessity for the action of will. The Greek preposition eis used with the accusative al ways denotes motion into; and this is the uniform method of referring to the faith that saves. “ He that believeth into the Son “ is the true formula, and this indicates more than the conviction of truth which it presupposes, namely, the answer of the will to that conviction. In the present study, however, we are not dealing with this aspect of faith, but with that which precedes the answer of the will, and which in order to salvation must be expressed in that answer of the will. According to New Testament teaching then, it is evident that the relation between reason and faith is exactly the same as that already dealt with as existing between them in the common consciousness of ordinary human life. The ultimate Reason in the Universe is the Word of God, the thought of God, the intention of God, or let me venture to say it, the reasonableness of God; and this reasonableness of God is the outcome of the absolute truth of God. Thus the ultimate reason of everything is the reasonableness of truth. When that is seen, conviction is created, and that conviction embraces those more spacious areas of the essential and eternal facts which are evidenced, but which perhaps cannot be logically demonstrated. Thus faith is a deduction from reason expressed. Therefore faith is for ever created by reason, and reason creating faith, demands its rational deduction. Let us finally attempt in all simplicity to make an application of this relation as a principle of Christian life, and in order to do so, we will once again take the terms in separation. Christianity affirms fundamentally that human reason must for evermore be tested by the Divine Reason. The necessity for this Milton exquisitely expressed in “ Paradise Lost.” “ But God left free the will, for what obeys Reason is free, and reason He made right, But bid her well beware, and still erect, Lest by some fair-appearing good surprised She dictate false, and misinform the will To do what God expressly hath forbid.” The Christian position therefore, is not that man must not use his reason in matters of faith, but rather that man’s reason must for ever be corrected by the essential and eternal Reason; that all the thinking of man must be tested in order to accuracy, by the thinking of God. That thinking of God has been revealed to man in the Logos, in the Word, which was made flesh; the Word which was the Reason, and of which the Incarnation was an expression to man within the sphere of the possibility of his comprehension. Reason in God is infinite Wisdom. Of that the king sang, “ I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, Or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills was I brought forth, While as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, Nor the beginning of the dust of the world. When He established the heavens, I was there, When He set a circle upon the face of the deep, When He made firm the skies above, When the fountains of the deep became strong, When He gave to the sea its bound, That the waters should not transgress His commandment, When He marked out the foundations of the earth, Then I was by Him, as a Master Workman, And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him, Rejoicing in His habitable earth, And My delight was with the sons of men.” Of that the apostolic seer declared, “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that hath been made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men... There was the true Light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world... And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.” The infinite and underlying Wisdom which operated in creation became incarnate in Jesus, for revelation and redemption; and the Christian position is that the exercise of human reason needs to be tested by that revelation of the eternal Reason. In this sense faith in man is the gift of God. The Word creates it. The Word spoken brings conviction, and therein is the creation of faith which for evermore knows God Whom to know is life eternal. The exercise of faith is that of obedience, and therein begins the responsibility of man in the realm of conduct. If it be affirmed that the Christian preacher asks that men believe things he says because he says them, it is absolutely untrue. Our appeal is to the reason by the preaching of the Word. Human reason, brought into activity by the authority of the Revelation, exercises itself by the larger conclusion, which is nevertheless for evermore to react upon the details of conduct. All belief must be based upon reason. All reason must ultimately proceed to the activity of faith which apprehends an area larger than reason can discover. In conclusion let me make application of this study to those which have preceded it. Man’s spiritual nature includes the fact of his right of access to God, insisting upon it as obligatory. How is this right of access to be exercised? By the inter-related activity of reason and faith. Reason has to do with the things seen. Faith has to do with the things unseen. “ By faith we understand that the ages were framed by the Word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which do appear.” This larger conception is based upon a true understanding of the things which do appear. Reason deals with them, and compels the conviction that they are the outcome of things which are beyond the sphere of reason’s demonstration. “By faith... Moses endured as seeing Him Who is invisible.” His vision of the invisible was the result of his true apprehension of the meaning of things visible. The conviction of his parents which had preserved him, the observation of his people enslaved, the approach to God through the solitudes of the wilderness, the flaming glory of a burning bush, were all things under observation. Reason dealt with them, and discovered that there were things with which it could not deal touching all of them. Faith spread its wings, and soared, where the fine and heroic marching of reason ended, and thus he beheld the invisible and endured. Reason can deal with all the things that appear, but its final activity is the creation of a conviction that these came not out of themselves, but that behind the tangible is the intangible, beyond the ponderable is the imponderable, at the back of the revealed is the secret. Thus reason merges into faith, not by catastrophe, but necessarily. I cannot demonstrate, I cannot prove the existence of God, but faith born out of reason, affirms, and I know. I pass through the processes of reason as it investigates creation until faith discovers, for reason’s illumination, the Creator. God is a Spirit. Thus man has access to God. His reason apprehends the Word of God as an Expression. His faith has confidence in the essential truth, and knows the larger thing which cannot be finally demonstrated. Reason and faith therefore are the warp and woof in the fabric of the spiritual life. There are many things in the presence of which reason can offer no explanation. In such places let us ever be supremely careful not to make the judgment blind. Let it rather accept the deduction which it cannot emphatically demonstrate. The first call of God to the soul is the call of Reason. “ Come now, and let us reason together.” He never asks for faith save on that basis. When man has heard that call, and has opened all the faculties of his being thereto and is convinced, He demands the activity of the faith which He has thus created. Therefore to the man who is enquiring, who finds himself confronted by mystery and difficulty, the word of the Christian faith is, Have no hesitation or fear, bring to bear on all your problems the whole fact of your mind; but never forget that in Christ the ultimate Reason has been revealed. He is God’s Speech to man, and as a man permits his reason to be tested and corrected by Christ, he will find himself led onward to the point where his reason passes into confidence, and he finds a firmer faith his own. The faith that does not come from reason is for evermore to be doubted. The reason that never finds such faith is for evermore to be feared. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 24: 03.04. CHAPTER 4 ======================================================================== IV. THE PRELIMINARY ADJUSTMENT— SELF LOST AND FOUND It is necessary that we take time to define the central term in this subject. The word self is in constant use, and has many shades of meaning, which we express by coupling it with other words, as we speak of a self-centred man, or a self-denying life, of self-consciousness, of self-assertion, of self-abnegation. Our enquiry then is as to the first and simplest meaning of the word in such common use. It comes into modern English from the Anglo-Saxon, having blood relations in all sections of the Gothic or Teutonic branch of the Aryan family, being found with some slight modification of spelling in all of them. As to its origin nothing definite or final is known. Two suggestions have been made by philologists of eminence, which I propose to name be cause I think they may help us in our study. Skeat suggested that the word comes from the old form Selba, or Seliba, which again is made up of two words, Se, and Liba, meaning quite simply, left to self. But this, it is at once evident, is a definition which includes, in order to explanation, the word we are attempting to define, with another word, for se alone is the Gothic equivalent to the Latin se, meaning self. The word Liba, which radically means left, being added to se, intensifies the suggestiveness thereof by indicating the fact that it is self, with all other facts excluded. Seliba, therefore, means personality alone, left alone, considered in its actual being, without relation to other beings. The use of the word being in that connection is also suggestive, for the old Saxon word Liba is first cousin of lifan, which not merely means to leave, but to live. So that there is the suggestion in the word of existence, not merely exclusion of others, but the actuality and continuity of the thing left. Self therefore according to that definition, indicates some one being, complete in its loneliness, without reference to any other beings. Kluge suggested that our word self has come from the old Irish Selb, which radically means possession, and that therefore the thought suggested by the word is finally that of lordship, ownership, and consequently of power, that is, of doing, rather than of being. According to this definition the word self suggests the realization of being, the exercise thereof, but still within its own borders. The difficulty of defining the word is discovered by the fact that in attempting to do so, it is al most impossible to avoid making use of the word in the course of the definition. So that finally one is inclined to say self is self. For purposes of this study, however, I propose that we incorporate the two suggestions already referred to, for whatever the philological origin of the word may be, it is perfectly certain that in our use of it we do combine 88 Christian Principles both ideas. In that use self ever represents being and doing, and these in their inter-relation ships. It stands for the / am and the / can which constitute the sum total of conscious individual personality. I express the whole fact of my life when I say, / am, I can. It may be objected that there are other statements necessary to completeness of expression, such for instance as I think, I love, I act, but a moment’s reflection will show that these but serve to express the different possibilities of the I can, for in each case the I do is the outcome of the / can, I think being the activity of I can think, I love of / can love, I act of / can act. Therefore I repeat that the whole fact of conscious individual personality is encompassed and expressed in these two simplest of all sentences, / am, I can. In ordinary use, therefore, I submit that this word, self, suggests being and its necessary sequence of doing. Individuality has existence and potentiality. Self is that in any given instance which can say, / am, I can. In our study, then, the word self is used as indicating personality, such personality as has been defined in our previous considerations. Let these then be restated briefly. Every human personality is spiritual in nature, has a right of access to God, which is also an obligation, and has as the method of its intellectual activity both reason and faith. Out of these facts all the activity of human personality proceeds. While man may live without recognition of the spirituality of his nature, and without exercising the right or obeying the responsibility of his access to God, he cannot live and act save in the exercise of that spiritual nature, and having relation to God either false or true by his exercise of reason and faith. Leaving for the moment the first two of these principles it is perfectly patent that activity proceeds from the exercise of reason. Whereas the deepest truth of all is that as a man “ reckoneth within himself, so is he,” it is equally and consequently true that as a man reckoneth within himself, so doeth he. It is impossible in the case of rational beings that they should do anything which is not preceded by thought. The thinking may be subconscious, automatic, mechanical, but it is nevertheless present. The simplest acts of life are preceded by thought and decision. Therefore when we speak of self in this study, we refer to being, spiritual in nature, having a right of access to God, which is also an obligation, and having reason and faith as the method of the consciousness preceding all activity. A still further word by way of definition is necessary. The subject of the preliminary adjustment, self lost and found must be under stood not to indicate a discussion of the method by which man has passed into the condition in which he is conscious of something wrong, and of how it may be possible for that to be set right. Our subject is rather a discussion of the second half of that larger whole. We are to consider the subject of the preliminary readjustment of lives that are lost, the adjustment which Christ distinctly described as self being found by being lost, of life entered through the gate of death. This must be clearly before the mind even at the cost of tediousness of statement. I am not about to discuss how a man is lost in any evangelical sense of the word. To that I shall have to make passing reference, but in the whole argument it is taken for granted. I am rather desirous of stating the teaching of Christianity as to how a man lost, in the sense in which that word describes a common, human experience, may be found. The teaching of Christanity is that the lost life may be found by being lost in a new sense, thus ceasing to be lost in the sense already referred to. This, however, makes it necessary that we should insist upon the fact that Christianity be gins with man as lost. On that subject the word of Jesus is all-inclusive and final. “ The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” That description of the condition of humanity harmonizes with the conelusion of the scientist to which I have made reference, when he said that one of the common convictions of religious experience is that there is something wrong about us as we naturally stand. Christianity accounts for that fact by its doctrine of the fall, both the original fall and the continuous fall. That doctrine I do not now discuss, but accept the fact by whatever term it may be described. My purpose is to state the teaching of Christianity as to how the “ something wrong “ may be set right, how the lost may be found. In this study for purposes of simplicity and lucidity we confine ourselves exclusively to the teaching of Christ. Let me first of all then, in broad statement declare what that teaching was. He consistently affirmed that in order to man’s restoration to right relationship with God, it was necessary that self should be lost. He declared, moreover, that whenever man consented to the loss of self, self would be found. These are the commonplaces and simplicities of our holy religion, and yet there are no truths which have greater need of new and forceful statement, and insistent emphasis than these. That man must lose in order to find himself has long been emphasized, yet never over-emphasized. The other side of Christ’s statement that a man losing himself does assuredly find himself has certainly not had adequate enforcement in the general teaching of recent years; and yet it is the final truth of the whole declaration that a man through the gate way of death, does enter into life, by the process of losing self does find not life of another quality, but his own life, the life he possesses by the first creation of God. But let us first give attention to this teaching concerning the necessity for the losing of self. The fact of the necessity is emphasized by the consistent and superlative demands of Christ. It was the perpetual burden of His teaching, and in some of His recorded words, where it may not appear upon the surface, a little thought and honest attention will reveal the fact that the necessity was always present to His consciousness, and always emphasized in His teaching. When after His baptism He set His face toward public ministry. Matthew tells us, “ From that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent ye, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” I do not propose here to enter into any discussion of the long-continued controversy between the Roman and Protestant theologians as to whether repentance evangelically is Recipiocentia or Poenitentia, but at once declare my conviction that the Protestant theologians were right, and that the word which Christ is reported by Matthew to have used at the beginning of His ministry is the one that reveals the real meaning of repentance. That word simply means a change of mind, and we do no violence whatever to the text if we read, From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Change your mind, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. That is the first call of the Master as He begins His work with individual men. By no means the final call, but it is always first, and the reason for it is to be discovered in the recognition of a truth already referred to in the present study, namely, that as a man “ reckoneth within him self, so is he.” If a man’s character is to be remade, his conduct must be remade, but if his conduct is to be remade, it must be by there making of his creed. Of course it will be recognized that I use the word creed in its simplest, and therefore its truest sense, not of a statement compiled by some, and recited by others, but referring to the conception, the conviction of the mind. In this sense it will be seen that the first word of Christ was revolutionary. He called men to change their creed, their conviction, their conception. In effect He declared that at the centre of their life men were out of harmony with essential truth. Therefore their conduct was wrong, their character was wrong, and they were lost. That being the keynote of His ministry, it is interesting to follow Him, listening ever to what He has to say, and watching closely the effects He produces. Taking this latter first, one is impressed by the marvellous effect of His perpetual attractiveness. Wherever He went, men crowded after Him. But it is equally patent that He was for evermore repelling them, holding them back. Whenever the crowds gathered to Him, almost tumultuously assembling with such irresistible force did He draw them, He nevertheless withdrew from them, or sifted them, consistently revealing how hard a thing it really is for men to follow Him. When He saw the multitudes He left them and went up into a mountain, and as His disciples gathered to Him He taught them, not the multitudes, but the disciples; and the manifesto He gave them contains an ethic which, rightly interpreted, from beginning to end insists upon the necessity for a change of mind and a denial of self. The multitude followed Him and He turned and said to them, “ If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” He saw men trifling with sin, and revealed to them the only attitude toward sin which can possibly count in the tremendous process of remaking in or der to righteousness, “ If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee... If thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee.” An examination of the whole ministry of Christ in order to an appreciation of His teaching, will reveal the fact of His unvarying insistence upon the absolute necessity for denying self. In this connection let me make a remark which is old and almost commonplace, but yet which needs to be clearly understood. There may be all the difference in the world between a certain practice of self-denial, and denying self. The practice of self-denial may be cheap and easy, and may even contribute to the strengthening of the self-life. To deny self, on the other hand, is to deal with the whole of personality. When self is denied, neither wish, nor desire, nor call of the self-life is to be considered for a moment, save as it is yielded to the supreme arbitrament of the will of God. Thus in a word, radical, drastic, and revolutionary, Christ perpetually confronts human nature as He comes in order to save it. This is not a popular doctrine. Human nature says, I am my own master, I can please myself, I will not be a slave, and in answer Christ replies, You are not your own master, you cannot please yourself, you must be a slave. So consistent and imperative a demandproclaimed by Christ must be based upon some ab solute necessity. Let it then be carefully noted that wherever Christ declared the necessity either directly or inferentially, He did so by putting the man to whom He spoke, into comparison with Himself. “ If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up His Cross, and follow Me.” The comparison is self-evident. The man is to deny himself in order to follow Christ, which most evidently means that Christ is moving in one direction, while the man has been going in the other, which is but another way of saying that Christ’s ideal of life and that of the man to whom He appeals are not identical. That, moreover, is the profound significance of the familiar passage, “ Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” His appeal is to men who are wearing a false yoke, and He calls them to wear His yoke; and so throughout His teaching He perpetually placed Himself in comparison with men, and thus explained the meaning of the tremendous claim He made that men must deny them selves. What then is the revelation of this teaching? That the “something wrong” — and I again quote Professor James’ phrase — in human life is that self has found itself in a wrong way, and therefore the first necessity toward restoration is the denial of self, and the loss of life. Man having taken his being and doing, the / am and the I can of him, out of relationship to God, is out of orbit, is inarticulate. Therefore the man who says, I am my own master, I can please myself, I will be no man’s slave, is unable to master himself, never pleases himself, becomes the slave of forces which he does not know how to manage. To that man Christ says, Lose your life, in order that you may find it. Submit to the true Master that you may become master of yourself. Please God that you may find the true pleasure of life. Be His bond-slave in order that you may become His freeman. All this, however, becomes yet more clear as we turn to the other side of the consideration of the preliminary adjustment, and in this connection let me at once attempt to make definite and forceful the positive side of Christ’s teaching as contained in His superlative promise. “ He that loseth his life shall find it.” I have sometimes thought that there would be a value in a grotesque illumination of passages of Scripture. By that I mean the printing of a passage with one word which is generally considered unimportant, made to flame in letters of fire. If I were illuminating this particular text in this way, I would let all the words be in small and ordinary characters until I came to that last one of two letters, making the “ it “ arrest the attention, and demand consideration. Christ declares that a man losing his life shall find it. He does not say if you will consent to crucify the flesh, and crush the powers of your being, you shall find an other being, another kind of life, a new order of existence, but rather if you will lose your life, with its intellectual capacity, and its emotional power, and its volitional ability, you shall find it. Whatever may be the peculiar quality or quantity of your life, whether it be that of artistic temperament, or mechanical skill, you shall find it. All that a man is in his first creation by God, he becomes when he obeys the call of Christ, and denies him self. This may be stated in another way. No self centred man can paint a picture. There will always be something about it of inexactitude, of false impression, something of dust mingling with the colours, and robbing them of their brilliance. But if the artist will lose his life and paint no picture from self-governed motive, his picture will be true, in form and colour, in suggestion and inspiration, a veritable work of art. Christ has come to spoil no picture, to make discord in the midst of no music, to rob no man of his natural ability, but rather to create the picture, to make the music, and to find the man, and make him what God meant him to be. Account for the second birth as you will psychologically, experimentally it means the realization of the potentialities of the first birth. To return to our definition, self is the / am and the / can of individual conscious personality. A man yielded to Christ finds the / am and the / can. He finds the / am, that is the conflicting elements of his life are merged into a consistent and forceful whole, and instead of being at war within himself — and war is always hell, whether in a man, or a nation — he is at peace. He finds the I can, that is all his powers act with ease, and to the accomplishment of purpose, he thinks, he feels, he does. All this may best be apprehended by illustration, and I shall take my illustration from the New Testament, and from the experience of the man who was perhaps in the apostolic age, the most remarkable witness to the power of Christ. Paul declared “ By the grace of God I am what I am,” and “ I can do all things in Him which strengtheneth me.” There we have the / am and the / can of Paul’s fundamental personality. He found himself when he lost himself on the way to Damascus. Blinded by the light that fell about him, he heard the voice of the Nazarene, and in answer to His call said, “What shall I do, Lord?” That question is a revelation of the fact that he denied himself. In that moment Saul of Tarsus placed Another upon the throne of his being, and handed the keys of all the chambers of the citadel to the Nazarene. Judged by the standard of the lost world, Saul of Tarsus in that moment lost himself, he flung away his individuality, and gave up his independence, and the world is true in its thinking so far. But the years pass on, and I find him writing the words of essential personality, “ By the grace of God I am what I am.” “ I can do all things in Him which strengtheneth me.” His declaration “ by the grace of God I am what I am,” is not merely a declaration of the fact that Christ has triumphed. It is also a challenge to men to examine him, and find out what he really is, and he affirms, “ I am what I am.” He was a Hebrew, he was a Roman, he was a Greek. By blood he was a Hebrew, describing himself as “ Hebrew of Hebrews.” By citizenship he was a Roman, claiming all the rights and privileges of such relationship. By sympathy he was a Greek, speaking the language and profoundly interested in the philosophies. None of these facts were ended by his relationship to Christ. They were rather found and realized. I am Hebrew by the grace of God, and in my experience there is fulfilled the religious ideal which lay at the centre of Hebrew history and purpose. By the grace of God I am a Roman, and all Rome’s passion for government and power of empire is consecrated to the establishment of the Kingdom of God. By the grace of God I am a Greek, and all the Greek love of mystery and attempt to see to the heart of things is in me, enabling me to correct the false by the interpretation of the true. Then he also says, “ I can do all things.” And do not let us interpret the / can of Paul in a small way. The context reveals his meaning. He does not say, I can write letters, I can travel, I can preach. These were incidental things. He rather affirms, “ I know how to be abased, and I know also how to abound.” I am able to do the small thing, or to take the high situation. I can maintain my dignity in the hour when I am oppressed. I can retain my humility in the hour when I am enthroned. I can do all things. It is the word that tells of a throne found, and a kingdom administered. This losing of self then means adjustment to the essential and the eternal. It is return to orbit, of that which had wandered there from. It is articulation, the putting into joint of that which was out of joint. The man who claims to be his own master cannot realize himself, or find himself. The man who submits to Christ finds himself, and realizes his life. In dealing with the text “ They that have turned the world upside down have come hither also,” a preacher of rare insight made use of three divisions. First, the world is upside down anyhow; secondly, to turn it up side down therefore is to turn it right side up; thirdly, let us get at it. That is the whole philosophy of our subject. Christ found men upside down. He came to invert the order and put them on their feet, that they might see things in their true relationship, and live as they ought. This is preliminary only. There is much to do after a man’s order of life has been changed, after it has become articulate, but nothing can be done till that is done. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 25: 03.05. CHAPTER 5 ======================================================================== THE REALIZATION OF THE CHRIST LIFECENTRE AND SPHERE That preliminary adjustment, whereby man finds his life, consists in his restoration to God. That is made possible and accomplished by the work of Christ, for “ God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.” Man apprehends God through Christ. Therefore the restored or adjusted life of man is the Christ life. By the denial of self, through the infinite grace of God, man receives the value of the death of Christ, and the virtue of His life. Therefore he is correctly designated a Christian; that is, one who has received the life of Christ and henceforth is one with Him, in motive and in mind. It is significant that the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. A study of the book of the Acts of the Apostles shows that in consequence of the failure of the Church in Jerusalem to carry out the commission of Christ, God by the Holy Spirit moved His base of missionary operations to Antioch, laid an arresting hand upon a new instrument, and made Saul of Tarsus the pioneer missionary toward the uttermost part of the earth. The disciples in Antioch responded to the inspiration of the Christ life, and therefore necessarily became the instruments through which the witnesses were sent forth in fulfilment of His purpose. Whatever the attitude of the men of Antioch was toward the Church, it is evident that as they observed the disciples, they came to the conclusion that there was only one name which could exactly describe them, and that was the name Christian. This designation of the disciples was born of the fact that the outside world recognized their relationship to Him. This is only an illustration, but it is a striking one, that the life adjusted to God through Christ, no Christian Principles becomes in the deepest and truest sense Christian life. In the same connection it is equally interesting to remember that this Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the apostle, has in his writings consistently emphasized the fact that the life of a believer is the life of Christ. As to his own personal experience he declared in one brief statement, full of beauty and of suggestiveness, the whole story of his Christian life. “ To me to live is Christ.” That is an all-inclusive and exhaustive statement, which Frederic W. Myers has beautifully illustrated in his poem, the opening and closing lines of which tell the deepest story of the life and labours of the great missionary apostle. “Christ! I am Christ’s! and let the name suffice you, Ay, for me too He greatly hath sufficed. Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning, Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ.” Moreover, in his writings, when he had occasion to correct errors of any kind, Paul in variably did so by positive teaching concerning Christ, and by urging those to whom he wrote to the realization of that life in their own experience. This is seen in his correction of the errors of practical life in the Corinthian church; of the errors resulting from the influence of Judaizing teachers in the Galatian church; and of the errors existing as the result of the mixture of Judaism and Greek gnosticism in the church at Colosse. In the course of the letter to the Colossians there are certain statements which may be taken out of their context without doing any violence to their value, and linked together as revealing the all-inclusive truth concerning Christian experience. First by way of illustration, and not for a full examination, notice the inter-relation between two of these. “ It was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fulness dwell “; and “ in Him ye are made full.” The first is the apostle’s all-inclusive declaration concerning Christ. The second is his all-inclusive declaration concerning the resources of the believer. In the Christ all the fulness of God dwells. The believer is filled to the full in Him. There is another connection of passages possible from the same letter, which constitutes the theme of our present study. In the course of his argument in order to the correction of what he terms “philosophy and vain deceit,” the apostle made use of the words, “ Christ in you, the Hope of glory,” as suggesting the central, experimental mystery of Christian life, and later he wrote the words already quoted, “ In Him ye are made full.” If we take these statements again yet more briefly by the omission of some of the words unnecessary to our present meditation, we see that the apostle’s conception of Christian life is that Christ is its Centre and Sphere. “ Christ in you “ indicates the fact that He is the Cen tre. “ Ye in Him “ reveals the truth that He is the Sphere. It is well to say at this point that the word sphere is chosen, rather than circumference, or circle, because the use of the latter term is permissible only in the description of a plane surface, while a sphere is that which absolutely surrounds whatever stands at its centre, on every side and in every direction. In this sense Christ is the Sphere of the believer’s life. Christianity then, if I may use the somewhat mechanical and mathematical terms, is Christocentric, and Christo-spheric. Christ is at the centre of the believer’s life, the believer is at the centre of His life. Now it is perfectly evident that this statement is inclusive and exhaustive, and therefore altogether be yond the possibility of anything like detailed exposition in the course of one address. All I propose, therefore, is the statement of the double truth in its barest outlines of application, and as to its first principles of value in the life of the Christian. It is well that we should remember that whichever of these aspects we may consider, we are compelled to use the same terminology. If we speak of the life as being Christo-centric, then the believer is the sphere of the Christ, because Christ is the Centre of the life of the believer. If we speak of Christian life as being Christospheric, then the believer is the centre of the Christ, because Christ surrounds the believer’s life. The fact that Christian life is Christo-centric is the essential mystery and miracle and might of Christian experience. To think of Christianity only as a cult, which may be accepted as presenting theories which are acceptable to the intellectual comprehension, is to fail utterly to understand the real meaning thereof. To consider Christianity as the presentation of an ideal, or the enunciation of an ethic, is to have caught some gleam of truth, for both these things are so; but it is to fail altogether to discover the profoundest fact and meaning thereof. The consistent teaching of Christ Himself and of His apostles is that when self is denied Christ ascends the throne, assumes the responsibility, and by His own indwelling through the Holy Spirit communicates all the power necessary to obedience. Let us in the simplest way possible attempt to understand the real meaning of this conception. We may do this best by thinking of the believer, that is, of one individual as constituting the sphere of the life of Christ. Our knowledge of men commences in the realm of the physical. My first consciousness of a person other than myself is necessarily that of the physical. On the street or in the railway train, or in the midst of a multitude we have brief transitory acquaintance with human beings. If we happen to gaze into the eye of some stranger, we may catch some gleam of the spiritual nature, not enough to enable us to form any correct estimate, but enough to produce a sense of the mind, and therefore of the spirit of the one on whom we look. Even such illumination comes, however, through the physical. Thus I repeat, that to deal with a human being is first of all to be conscious of the material, the external, the manifest. Nevertheless in doing so we are perfectly sure of the fact, that what we are first conscious of, is not the essential. The essential is that which looks through the eye, listens through the ear, makes us feel through the touch. Be yond the physical medium is the spiritual essence. In dealing with that spiritual nature we first communicate with the intellectual, and thus approach the emotional, and finally reach the volitional, which is the central citadel of human personality. In dealing with the essential spiritual nature of any human being we necessarily first have to do with the intellectual, which is capable of observation and comprehension. The emotional is never reached save through the intellectual. It is perfectly true that the intellectual may be a spoiled instrument, flinging distorted visions upon the retina, and thus producing false emotion. All that, however, is not now under discussion, and does not interfere with the accuracy of the statement that the emotion of love or hate is always the result of an intellectual conception. Beyond, is that which is the final dignity of human personality, the power to choose, to decide, to elect, to determine. I need hardly stay to argue that every man has such power; it is so patent and self-evident that man may exercise his will as against the conviction of his intelligence, and in a contrary direction to that suggested by the driving power of the emotion. There is a sense in which the intellect and the emotion affect the choice of the will, but there is no escape from the fact that man is able to will by choosing as between the claims of conflicting emotions resulting from apparently contradictory intellectual conceptions. The weak man is the man who al lows his will to be wholly driven by his emotion. The strong man is the man who is able to say, What I would, I will not, I could wish to keep Onesimus for my own benefit, but I will send Onesimus back to Philemon. That is strength, and at the centre of every life is that capacity. Turning back once more to the external or physical we have what we speak of as the senses. The last home of sensation is the spirit, but the medium of the senses is the flesh. Sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, are all the servants of the intelligence. By each and all of these man apprehends things external to himself. That apprehension is intellectual conception, which creates emotional consciousness. Thus the senses indicate to the intelli gence, and through it influence the emotion, and finally make their appeal to the will, but they always await its decision. The weakened will says to the emotion, Gratify yourself. The strong will refuses the cry of the emotion whenever it is out of harmony with eternal principles. All this leads us in broadest and barest outline to a conception of that sphere of which in Christian life Christ is the Centre. Therefore in the moment in which a man denies himself, he yields that central citadel of his personality to Christ, Who takes up His abode at the centre of the life upon the throne of the will, and from thence administers the whole life. He interprets the meaning of all things for the intelligence. He inspires the emotion with the true reasons for its activity. He impulses the will in its choices toward conformity to the will of God. I have named that last, because it is last in the activity of human personality, and yet it is supreme. The conceptions of the intelligence are wholly changed when Christ at the centre of the life interprets the meaning of all of which through the media of the senses the intelligence becomes conscious. This has the widest application, but we will confine ourselves to human life. When one man looks upon another, what does he see? It depends entirely upon whether Christ sits at the centre of his being, and interprets to him the meaning of what he sees. If Christ be at the centre, the man who sees another man, sees the image of God, bruised it may be, almost out of all recognition, but still there. The hall mark of the Divine proprietorship is stamped upon every face plainly to the eyes of those at the centre of whose life Christ lives and reigns. That is what Christ always saw when He looked at men, and He gives all men in whom He dwells the same vision of others. But if Christ be not in him, what does a man see, when he sees a man? Well, it depends entirely upon what, out of his own self-life, he has made the dominant factor at its centre. If he is seeking for earthly wealth, when he sees a man he sees “ a hand.” He speaks of employing a thousand “hands.” He looks upon men as chattels to be possessed, instruments to be pressed into the work of enriching himself. If on the other hand the master passion of his life is the acquisition of knowl edge, he looks upon man as a specimen, to be dissected, analyzed, accounted for, placed. The intelligence is far more under the control of the will, and biassed by its purpose than we often think. Where that will is the throne of Christ, He interprets the Divine meaning of all the things of which the intelligence is conscious, setting them in their right place and proportion and perspective in the economy of God. That is true,not merely of the supreme fact upon which human eyes can look, a hu man being; but also of all things lower in the creative order, animals, or fields, or flowers, the mighty sea, or the dewdrop that glistens in the morning light upon the blade of grass. What is seen depends entirely upon whether Christ is at the centre of the life. If He be there, “ the old things have passed away, be hold, they are become new,” a new God, a new heaven, a new earth. “ Heaven above is softer blue, Earth around is sweeter green! Something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen, Birds with gladder songs o’erflow, Flowers with deeper beauties shine, Since I know as now I know, I am His, and He is mine.” The whole intelligence is illuminated with the new light of the Christ life. If someone shall answer, I have never experienced anything like that, it is perfectly evident that such an one has not been born again. Christianity to such may be a mere ethical convenience, which enables them to prevent other people defrauding them, and themselves to escape the unprofitable experience of imprisonment, or it may be the inspiration of a certain form of philanthropy, which is likely to be profitable. If Christ be in the life, He is the “ Hope of glory,” and the intelligence sees everywhere fringes of gold upon the clouds, and through all creation there flash and flame the beauties of the eternal order. But Christ at the centre of the life does more than interpret to the intelligence the meaning of things. By so doing He inspires the emotion, so that men are moved to approbation, and love of the things that harmonize with the character of God. When He sits at the centre of personality, man begins to love the things of light, the pure and the high, the noble and the true, and consequently all the activity of love toward relations, friends, toward men generally, and toward the world, is new. Said the apostle who understood the mystic relationships between Christ and the believer so perfectly, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” Yet this same apostle chronicles for us the fact that “ God so loved the world.” There seems to be a contradiction between these two statements, and yet spiritual intelligence is at once conscious that there is no contradiction. When Christ is at the centre of the life the emotions are purified, and act in consonance with the eternal reason of the Eternal Love. Then the love of the world is no longer the love of dust, issuing in the attempt to find spiritual satisfaction in material things. It is rather such love of the world as through serv ice and sacrifice attempts to restore it to consciousness of the love of God, and fellowship therewith. And so finally, Christ being at the cen tre of the life, interpreting the meaning of the things of which the intelligence is made conscious, by setting them in the light of the eternal order; inspiring the emotion, so that it acts only in harmony with the love and holiness of God, thus impulses the will in its choices. Christ at the centre of a human life means therefore His dominion over the external and the manifest, and consequently all the senses, and their medium the flesh, are under the do minion of the spiritual nature of man, which in turn is under the dominion of the Christ, and so, therefore, these very senses are brought into subjection to the will of Christ which is the will of God. If Christ be seated at the centre of the life, it is no longer possible for the eyes to look at things at which once they looked with eagerness, no longer possible for the ears to listen to things to which once they listened with interest, no longer possible for the tongue to utter words which once it ut tered with delight. All the senses of the physical being brought under the dominion of the spiritual, which is under the dominion of the Christ, become Christian, and the consequence is that through the material life, truth finds an expression when Christ Who is Truth sits King at the centre of the being. All that, however, is but the consideration in bare outline of one side of our great theme, that namely that Christian life is Christo-centric. It is not only true that Christ is the Centre of the believer’s life, it is also true that He is the Sphere of the believer’s life. This is a theme so vast that in the consciousness that I am only able to touch the fringe of it, I rec ommend to all interested in the truest spiritual interpretation of it, a book by my friend Dr. Arthur T. Pierson, entitled “ In Christ Jesus.” In it he gathers up the teaching of the seven groups of epistles, and with the aid of diagrams graphically sets forth what the phrase suggests according to New Testament teaching. While I value everything that has come from Dr. Pierson’s pen, I venture to say that nothing he has written in the department of the devotional life is so full and illuminative as this treatise. In this address we consider the fact only in broad and general outline. The believer stands in one great Sphere, which yet may be considered in two departments, which for the sake of illustration we may term concentric spheres. There is first the temporal sphere, and beyond that the eternal. These must not be thought of as separated into compartments, for the be liever already lives the life eternal. At the same time there are limitations in present experience, which after a while will cease. Now whether we think of what we have just described as the temporal sphere, or of the eter nal, we think of Christ, for in all the outlying reaches of the believer’s circumstances or sur roundings, using either word in its broadest sense, Christ is to be found. That is to say, that He is not only dictating at the centre of the believer’s life, He is energizing at its utmost extremity, and filling all the vast spaces which stretch beyond. To the believer therefore all interests are Christian, that is, having to do with Christ. All spiritual interests are homed in Him. The service of the saints is service rendered to the Christ, and indeed, the only sufficient inspiration for unceasing and suffering service, is love to Christ. By the Galilean Sea with the light of morning breaking over its waters, when Christ restored the wandering apostle, before committing to him his work, He did not say, Simon, lovest thou the men of the world? but “Lovest thou Me?” Christ is everywhere, so that the believer finds Him to be inspiration as well as dynamic. All therelations of time and space are Christian. A loved one leaves my side, and fellowship in service, which is immediate, ends, as my comrade passing over the seas enters upon some new toil in China, in India, but I am never far away from the absent one, because Christ in me is there also, and Christ in the absent one is around me. Thus all space is annihilated in the fellowship of the saints by that deep and profound consciousness. All the relations of time, moreover, are interpreted by the same fact. “ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, and for ever.” All the relations of force are governed by the same fact. There is no blossom of beauty upon which the eyes look, but that the Christ life is expressing it self through it. He is the First-born of creation, and therefore His nature manifests itself in all the beauty of the earth. Yet that is not all. Christ is far more than One Who stands behind all the developments of life, as originating Source. It is equally true that in Him all things consist. The bond of inter-relationship between all life and all lives is His essential Being. All the rhythmic order of the universe is created by the presence of the Christ, so that He is immanent, the Centre of the believer’s life, and transcendant, its Sphere. Wherever the Christian looks he sees the Christ. At dawning of the morning His face makes it more beautiful. When the sun goes westering, and the shadows of the evening are growing, the consciousness of His presence is sleep. When the battle thickens, He rides at the head of His battalions, and leads to victory. When peace is declared, it is His benediction falling upon the sons of men. Christ is everywhere, and to the man who knows what it is to have Christ in him, the Hope of glory, whether he look up or down or out or back Christ’s face is there. Yet so far reference has only been made to the first department, or to the sphere of the temporal. It is equally and superlatively true that He is the eternal Sphere. The believer in common with all men, thinks at times of the day of his passing, of that hour in which the external fact is laid aside, of his crossing of a boundary line, of a time when the ropes that moor the vessel to the shore are cut, and the life crosses the bar out to the limitless and immeasurable sea. Everyone so thinking, thinks of God. It is the time when the spiritual consciousness of man expects the unveiling of God, looks to come into some more intimate consciousness of, and relationship with Him. This is the secret of the dread of death in the heart of the sinner. The believer shares the conviction that beyond death there is a meeting with God, but the face that shines through the gloom is the selfsame One which has been seen through all the discipline of the pilgrim age. Christ is the Image of the invisible God, the Brightness of His Glory, the express Image of His Person. The Christ with Whom we have grown sacredly familiar in shop and of fice and workshop is the God Who will meet us when we cross the boundary line. I shall “ see my Pilot face to face When I have crost the bar,” and He is God. And then beyond, the ages, the continuously born and awful ages. Sometimes when we were children the thought of them filled us with fear. I remember lying awake at nights, and trying to think of what for ever meant, until my child brain nearly turned with dread, and it is still a thought filling the soul with awe, that of these ages that cannot cease rolling one after another in majestic order. But the Christian knows that these also are under the governance of God, and that referring to Christ an inspired writer has said, “ Through Whom also He made the ages.” I know not what the ages will be, but they have lost their terror for me. Sometimes I still endeavour to think of them. This is the age of God’s grace. It has lasted for nineteen hundred years. Presently it will end, and beyond it what? Who shall tell? As to those imme diately succeeding, our view may differ, but the fact of them, and of their continuity and succession none of us questions. Every ration alist believes that. Man’s rationalism only has to do with his own small personality. According to his own view it is he that ends, and not the ages. Now I see them coming, ever coming, lit with their own distinctive glory, all derived from the essential Being of Deity, but they are fashioned by the Christ. Every new age shall receive its quality, its quantity, its value, its new unfolding of the essential mystery of God, under His direction. Thus Christ is the Sphere of the believer’s life, so that whether he looks to the bound of the present and the temporal, or whether he looks beyond seeking for the face of God, or whether he thinks of the ages with their new creations and revelations, Christ is everywhere, turning the darkness of the present into the light of morning, interpreting the nature of God by the majesty and mercy of His own glance, and assuring the perfection of the ages by the fact that they are under His control. Finally and in a word, if Christ is the Sphere of the believer’s life, the believer is at the cen tre of His, compelling His consciousness, so that the Christ is made joyful or sorrowful by the believer, and compelling His activity in which He is first true to Himself as God, and therefore true to the believer. All language fails, and therefore let me without hesitation state this fact in such figurative terms as are necessarily imperfect, and yet illuminative. Christ has put the believer in His heart, where the crimson blood of His eternal love finds its centre and its home; and He has taken up His abode at the centre of the believer’s heart, for the purification of the streams of life, and the compelling of their conformity to the will of God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 26: 03.06. CHAPTER 6 ======================================================================== VI. THE PASSION OF CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD Our final study takes for granted all that have preceded it, and is intimately related to the last two. In dealing with the subject of preliminary adjustment we saw that the denial of self issues in the enthronement of the Christ, which includes the appropriation of His redemption and the apprehension of His revelation. In dealing with the subject of the realization of the Christ life we saw that the believer is both Christo-centric and Christospheric. Now it is a necessary outcome of these facts that the measure in which they are realized experimentally, is the measure of the identity of the consciousness of Christ and His Church. If Christ be indeed at the centre of the life; interpreting in the light of essential truth all the things of which the intelligence is conscious, inspiring the emotion so that it acts only in harmony with the love and holiness of God, and by this redemption and readjustment of natural processes, impelling the will; it fol lows that the consciousness of the one so indwelt must harmonize with that of the Indweller. This is the true explanation of the mystery of the Christian Church; revealing the secret of its vision, the inspiration of its emotion, and the nature of its passion. The Church is not an institution organized by the wit and wisdom of man, of which Christ occasionally makes use for the carrying on of His work. That conception of the Church, however modified the form in which it is expressed, is wholly inadequate. The Church of Christ is His very Body, the instrument through which He sees and feels and works in the midst of human history and activity. Therefore the consciousness of Christ is the consciousness of the Church, the consciousness of the Church is the consciousness of the Christ. It should at once be admitted that the utterance of such a statement, which is that of an apparently logical sequence, causes one almost to blush with shame, because we all know full well how often the consciousness of the Church is not that of the Christ; or to state the fact in the other way, the consciousness of the Christ is not that of the Church. The reason for this is that there are certain responsibilities which being fulfilled, the consciousness of the Church is that of the Christ, but being unfulfilled, Christ is paralyzed in His own Body, be cause the eye is dim, and the ear is heavy, and the hand is nerveless. While He was yet in the world, in the circumstances of early limitation, He declared, “ I have a baptism to be baptised with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! “Passing from that period of limited ministry through His passion baptism, He emerged into all the fulness of life beyond His Cross, and baptised into union with Himself by the out pouring of the Spirit a company of believing men and women, in order that they might be come the instruments through which He should continue His work in unstraitened and unlimited circumstances. Yet alas, how constantly we have straitened, limited, hindered Him! I do not propose, however, in this study to dwell upon the fact of these failures and limitations, sorrowful as they are, and demanding serious attention, but rather to speak of the great ideal, in order that we may see the Divine purpose concerning the Church in its relationship to Christ with regard to the Kingdom of God. For the purpose of this study I propose again to take two great statements of the New Testament out of their context, in order that we may consider them in the light of that context. In the second chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians Paul ends a wonderful declaration concerning the nature and theme of the Christian ministry with these words, “ We have the mind of Christ.” In the second chapter of the Philippian letter, he lays upon those to whom he writes as the supreme injunction of his communication this charge, “ Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Notice carefully the two statements, and the difference between them. The first is a declaration, and the second is an injunction. In the first the apostle affirms “ We have the mind of Christ.” In the’ second he enjoins “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” “ We have the mind,” “ Have the mind.” It at once becomes evident that these passages bring us face to face with the thoughts of resource and responsibility. Resource is indicated in the declaration, “ We have the mind of Christ.” Responsibility is revealed in the injunction, “ Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” While there is this difference, it is nevertheless true that both passages must be considered, each of them in the light of their context, in order that we may understand either the resource or the responsibility. In the Corinthian letter, in the passage of which this statement is the final declaration, the apostle has been arguing that the Christian message is one of wisdom. These people had separated themselves into small groups around the names of Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and Christ. He points out that such grouping results from the mistake of supposing that some one emphasis is the whole of truth. In the course of the argument he makes use of the phrase, “ wisdom of words,” which is most suggestive as it reveals the fact that the habit of disputation around words which obtained in the schools of Corinth, had invaded the Christian Church. In contradistinction to the “ wisdom of words,” Paul speaks of the “ Word of the Cross,” which gathers into the infinite music of its speech all the tones and emphases of Paul, and Cephas, and Apollos. The men of Corinth think of the Word of the Cross as being foolishness, but he declares that it is a wisdom, not of this age, nor of the rulers of the age, but the infinite, the essential Wisdom of God. He then shows that this can only be known by the interpretation of the Spirit of God. As none can know the things of a man save the spirit of the man which is within him, so none can know the deep things of God save the Spirit of God. These things, however, which could not be seen of the eye, or detected by the hearing of the ear, or discovered by the ingenuity of the heart of man, are revealed to us through His Spirit. Of this line of argument the all-inclusive and final word is, “ We have the mind of Christ.” *In the Philippian letter he is urging upon his children the necessity for unity of mind and heart and purpose. It is in some senses the most wonderful of all his letters. In the course of it the word sin never occurs, the -flesh is only mentioned to be dismissed, and there is no rebuke save the tender correction of disagreement between Euodia and Syntyche. It is a letter that was written in prison, and yet rises into anthem after anthem, and is bathed in the spirit of praise. In fact it is Paul’s great love letter. Its supreme message is that of calling his children to the true attitude of mind or consciousness, and when he expresses the profoundest desire of his heart for them, in briefest and simplest language he writes, “ Have this mind in you; which was also in Christ Jesus.” Then immediately, in a passage of stately and sublime grandeur he unveils before them that mind. “ Who being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He hum bled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the Cross.” Having thus glanced at the context of the passages, we pause to notice the fact that the word translated mind in the Corinthian passage is not the word which is translated mind in the Philippian quotation. While the words are different, and their intention is different, they are not contradictory, but intimately related, and indeed, complementary. The word made use of in the Corinthian letter is one which refers to mind essentially as understanding, as consciousness, not so much to the mind as an organ of consciousness, as to the knowledge resulting from its use. Indeed, we shall come nearest to the apostolic thought if we interpret the pas sage as meaning that we have the knowledge of Christ, that is to say that all He knows is made over to us, His consciousness is at our disposal. In the Philippian letter the word mind has another value. While it still presupposes the fact of intellectual apprehension, it suggests an activity, and we may interpret the meaning of the apostle by saying that he charges those to whom he writes, to have Christ’s exercise of mind. The distinction between the two words is thus evident. It is possible to have a knowledge which produces no effect, but this charge of the apostle reveals the fact that the knowledge of Christ is active in producing results, and he enjoins his Philippian children to have the exercise of mind of Christ. Thus the two thoughts with which we are brought face to face in the two passages are those first of the essential mind of Christ, His knowledge; and secondly, of the exercise of the mind of Christ, the activity which issues in definite results. Let us now with great reverence attempt to understand the mind of Christ. The contextual exposition of the first quotation will reveal the fact that the consciousness of Christ is that of the Wisdom of God, the deep things of God, known of the Spirit of God. It is at once evident that a statement of what these things are can only be made in general terms. The mind of Christ was first the consciousness of the things of the eternal order. His mind was that of truth and grace. I am not now dealing with the subject of the wonderful redemptive work by which He placed grace and truth at the disposal of a ruined race, but with the primary fact that these things were of the essence of His consciousness because they are the deep things of God, the things of the eternal order. So far as finite man is able to encompass an infinite matter, it may be affirmed that the profound essence of the consciousness of God is that of the simplicity of absolute truth, and the sublimity of overwhelming grace. Of Christ the fullest statement of truth is, that He is grace and He is truth. Of that inclusive whole, the part of which we think now, is that His mind was necessarily therefore the mind of grace and truth. Therefore as He knew these things of the eternal order He also and necessarily knew the order of the eternal things. He knew the meaning of the Kingdom of God as to the principles of His government, and the consequent experience of its administration. To attempt to break this up into such statement as shall enable us to apprehend its suggestiveness is difficult, because practically we have seen so little of the realization of the Kingdom of God in human history, even though nineteen centuries have run their course since its principles were enunciated by Christ, and its beauty manifested in the revelation of His life. It is nevertheless a phrase which is full of music and full of meaning. In our growing apprehension of Christ, we are coming increasingly to understand it. This, however, for the moment is not our theme, but rather insistence upon the fact that He knew perfectly the whole meaning of the rule of God, and therefore through all that was contrary to it, He saw the essential and eternal and glorious possibility. Here once more we may take the simplest of all illustrations, that of a single human life. When Christ looked at a man He saw everything that other men saw, but infinitely more. He knew what the Kingdom of God established in a human life really meant. He apprehended what the administration of the Kingship of God would mean in all the departments of human personality. That, as I have said, is but an illustration. Carry the thought out into the widest possible area, and it will be seen that Christ stood in the midst of discord, and was the more profoundly conscious of the discord because He heard perpetually the infinite harmony of the eternal music. In the midst of things sadly and awfully out of joint, He felt the pain and agony of it all, because He knew the power and glory of things articulate. Perfectly acquainted with the deep things of God, the things of His truth and grace, the 146 Christian Principles chaos was the more awful to Him. The sob and the sigh and the sin in the midst of which He lived were the more terrible to Him because He heard the music of the Divine order sounding in infinite anthems through His Spirit. The mind of Christ was the comprehension of the deep things of God, the knowledge of the breadth and beauty and beneficence of the Kingdom of God. The apostle declares “ We have the mind of Christ,” and the statement is staggering and al most overwhelming. The only interpretation of it which brings anything like a sense of relief is that contained in a declaration which we have considered in a previous study, “ Christ in you, the Hope of glory.” Christ’s knowledge is at our disposal, and is ours experimentally in the measure in which we are true to Him, and able to comprehend. There are spacious values and far-reaching meanings, all of which were naked and open to His mind, which we cannot include within the clear consciousness of our finite conceptions. But we know that the things He knows are true, and the measure in which He has been able to interpret these to us is the measure in our minds of the Hope of glory. The mind of Christ is hope in the hour of despair, a song of victory in the midst of battle, a vision of the ultimate in the process of the travail. We turn now to the consideration of the mind of Christ in its exercise, suggested by the charge in the Philippian letter. In the passage already quoted the apostle gives us insight into Christ’s exercise of mind, by declaring the things resulting there from. As with subdued and reverent spirits we see Christ in answer to His mind, laying aside His glory, and stooping to the lowest level of human woe, we come to understand something of His mind exercise. The first consciousness created by such contemplation is that the mind of Christ in the presence of human sin and sorrow is exercised by a profound discontent, born of a vast content. The content of the mind of Christ was that of His perfect satisfaction with the order of the eternal things. That we may put in another way, more within the compass of our everyday speech. Christ’s content of mind consisted of perfect rest in the will of God, of absolute conviction that that will is good and perfect and acceptable, of unquestioning certainty that if the Kingdom of God be established in a man, in society, in a nation, in a world, in a universe, therein is realized the highest and the noblest and the best. But such content issues necessarily in a profound and awful discontent with everything that is contrary to that good and perfect and acceptable will of God. The discontent is the agony of loyalty in the presence of anarchy, and it issues in a burning, consuming passion to correct all that which is contrary to grace and truth. This passion becomes a tremendous and irresistible impulse, driving the one in whom it burns out into strenuous grappling with the things which are against the Kingdom of God. That is the unveiling of the mind of Christ, given in the apostolic picture of the Passion of Christ 149 Philippian letter. The exercise of Christ’s mind is that of an overwhelming discontent, with all that is unlike God, born of a perfect content with the order of the Kingdom of God. A mind thus exercised inspires a life to the line of activity described in the passage. It is the activity of stripping off all the things of personal right and glory, of bending at infinite cost to sacrificial service, of suffering even death for the restoration of the true order of life. He emptied Himself, laying aside that which was His right in the mysterious and majestic relationships He bore to His Father, and taking upon Him the form of a servant, stooped still lower, passing principalities and powers, the unfallen servants, becoming man; and bending lower yet, shared his death, and that on its basest level, the death of the Cross. For ever flinging off the things of His own right, for ever serving, for ever stooping, for ever suffering, until He entered into a death grapple in the darkness with all the forces which are against the Divine order, and broke their power; until He had laid hold upon the central poison which had spoiled the Kingdom and neutralized it by the infinite pain of His passion. This was the mind of Christ, essentially a mind that knew the Divine order, and rejoiced therein, actively a mind in revolt against every thing which disturbed that order, and became the inspiration of service even to suffering, until the wrong was righted, and the way made for the restoration of the order. The mind of Christ in the exercise growing out of its essence, constituted His passion for the Kingdom of God. In order that we may understand what all this means to the Church as to responsibility, let us first recognize what it actually does mean experimentally as to resource. The first consciousness of the Christ life in the spirit of man is that of a profound content with the will of God. There takes possession of the entire being a sense of peace. That is invariably immediately succeeded by a new discontent. The content is due to the fact that the Christ illumined life has caught the vision of the things of the eternal order. This discontent is due to the fact that this vision of order reveals the tragedy of disorder. There is discontent with things in the personal life, in the home, in the city, in the nation, in the world, that are unlike the Kingdom of God. Such content and discontent demonstrate fellowship with the mind of Christ, the content resulting from His essential mind, and the discontent from His exercise of mind. The charge of the apostle, “ Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,” is a call to the exercises of mind which out of a great peace proceeds in a great war to ward the establishment of the ultimate peace. The Christian man is troubled and restless be cause he is not what he would be. This is the result of his vision of the beauty and the glory of Christ. That vision flashes its light upon all his own life, and gives him to know that there is territory not perfectly subdued to the Kingdom of God. Such consciousness creates a profound and restless discontent which issues in conflict through suffering in order to the establishment of the Kingdom. The more the Christian knows of the mind of Christ, the more he finds himself in hot and fierce rebellion against things in himself which are unlike Christ, — tones, and tempers, and territory, not yet under the perfect sway of the Kingship of God. That discontent is the first evidence of the activity of the mind of Christ in the believer. That, however, issues invariably in a wider discontent, that namely with everything that is unsubdued in all the circles that surround the individual life. Discontent with things in the home, and in the circle of friendships, which are not submitted to His government. Discontent with everything in the city and in the nation in rebellion against the Kingdom of God. If we would know what that means we are al ways safe if we take a little child and place it in the midst. The child is ever the key to civic and national life. Are we angry when we look at the slum in which the child has to live? If not, then at best we are but cultured pagans, even though we belong to some organized and visible church of Christ. If there is no hot anger in our hearts in the presence of the conditions in which children are born and live, even in so-called Christian lands, we lack the mind of Christ. Christ in the life, the Hope of glory, is also enemy of all the things which postpone the coming of the glory. And finally, taking the widest and most stupendous outlook of all. The mind of Christ in the believer produces discontent with every thing in the world which is unlike God, and contrary to His Kingdom. It does matter to Christ that people are living in the habitations of cruelty. It does matter to Christ that nations are yet without the knowledge of God which came to men through Him, and therefore have not only not entered into, but have not yet be gun to see the infinite beauty of the order of His Kingship. Does it matter to us? If this Christ life be in us, then our lives are characterized by perpetual restlessness in the presence of the world’s great need. But restlessness is not the ultimate. Discontent itself is of no avail. The restlessness must be curbed and harnessed for endeavour. The discontent must issue in stripping, serving, suffering. The Church of Christ, having the mind of Christ, is for evermore laying aside her own rights and privileges, stooping to sacrificial service, suffering even to death, in order that the Kingdom of this world may become the Kingdom of our God and His Christ. If our eyes have seen the glory of the Kingdom, and we have the clear vision of the eternal order of things, then as we turn to look at things as they are in the world, at the sin, the shame, the suffering, the heart becomes hot and restless and angry. But that is useless save as the fire becomes a force driving us into the midst of all the disorder, to proclaim the evangel which will breathe new hope into the sad despairing heart of humanity; and to communicate the dynamic which will lift humanity out of the disorder into the peace and glory of the Kingdom of God. My last word as to responsibility has to do, not with the Philippian charge, but with the Corinthian declaration, “ We have the mind of Christ,” and mark the necessity for it. It is indeed quite fashionable to-day to declare that cultured humanity is independent of the Christian religion. It is constantly affirmed that men and women are now refined and beautiful, even though they have turned entirely from Christianity. How is it, it is asked, that so many people are cultured and refined and beautiful and patient and gentle even though they are not Christians? Let me ask another thing. Having spoken of all that these people possess, what do they lack? They lack the sense of the necessity for worship, because they have lost the spiritual vision. Now that is the supreme tragedy of such life, not merely because human nature devoid of spiritual consciousness is blunted, but because the lack of spiritual vision means the absence of discontent in the presence of the sorrow and suffering of humanity. In place of it there is a content with things as they are, or that baser content, which declines to look upon suffering and sorrow. The content of those who live in the suburbs, and forget the slums; who live in luxury, and forget Lazarus; who command that no sackcloth shall be seen in the presence of the king, as did one of old. That is not Christianity. Christ’s mind brought Him to the slum, brought Him to the sorrow, brought Him to the sin, because it was the mind that knew ¦ the deep things of God. If we should have His exercise of mind, we must have His vision of the infinite and the spiritual. Our responsibility in this connection is that having His mind, we take time to know it. There is nothing the Church needs to-day more than time for contemplation and meditation, in order to dedication. That I may more force fully apply this conviction to others, let me speak in the first person singular, with all honesty and sincerity. I am often appalled and affrighted in my own life, at the little time — I will not say which I have, as though I would blame others — at the little time I make for contemplation and meditation. We cannot know any human face perfectly until we gaze upon it, and acquaint ourselves by contemplation with all the facts concerning it; and some of us have grown so busy that our knowledge of Christ is the occasional acquaintanceship with a face that often passes and repasses. God help us to sit down and look. The great word of the Hebrew letter is “ Consider Him.” If amid all the hurry and rush of service we will but take time to gaze in order to know, it will not be time wasted. When we rise from such contemplation the discontent will be more mighty because the vision is clearer, and the anger will be hotter against evil because the sense of God is acuter, and the compassion of the heart will be more tender because the sense of the Christ mind will be profounder. To have the mind of Christ in its essence and its exercise is to know no rest in the presence of sin and sorrow, until God’s day breaks, and His Kingdom is established. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 27: 04.0.2. DISCIPLESHIP ======================================================================== Discipleship BY Rev. G. Campbell Morgan Pastor of New Court Congregational ChurchTollington Park, London New YorkChicagoToronto Fleming H. Revell Company Publishers of Evangelical Literature Copyright, 1897, BY FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY ======================================================================== CHAPTER 28: 04.0.3. AUTHORS NOTE ======================================================================== To my Wife.-In whose unobtrusive and consistent discipleship I have found the in­spiration of service, and that sense of " sanc­tuary" in the home which has been largely the strength of service also,-I dedicate this, my first book. AUTHOR’S NOTE This booklet is not intended to be a contribution to theology, nor is it ad­dressed to theologians as such. Not that they or their work is undervalued. They-of varied schools-have placed the writer under a debt to them that he is unable to discharge. It is intended to be, along practical lines, an aid to the disciples of Jesus, and that, by endeavoring to show in some measure, the eminent practicability of being a Christian, in the power of the life communicated by and sustained in Christ through the Holy Spirit. It is further intended to reveal the actual effect on this present life, for ennobling it in all its relations, and filling it with all joy and beauty, of the ultimate intention of the Master for all His disciples.To the glory of God, and the help of fellow-disciples it is therefore prayer­fully sent forth on its mission. G. CAMPBELL MORGAN. New Court Congregationol Church, London. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 29: 04.0.4. CONTENTS ======================================================================== CONTENTS Ch. 01. BECOMING A DISCIPLE 02. FIRST LESSONS 03. THE METHOD OF ADVANCEMENT 04.THE DISCIPLE AT HOME 05.THE DISCIPLE AT BUSINESS 06. THE DISCIPLE AT PLAY 07.THE DISCIPLE AS A FRIEND 08.THE DISCIPLE AT WORK FOR THE MASTER 09.THE DISCIPLE IN SORROW 10. THE DISCIPLE IN JOY 11.THE DISCIPLE GOING HOME 12.THE DISCIPLE IN GLORY ======================================================================== CHAPTER 30: 04.01. BECOMING A DISCIPLE ======================================================================== I BECOMING A DISCIPLE At the feet of Jesus Is the place for me, There, a humble learner, Would I choose to be. -P. P. Bibs. "DISCIPLES" is the term consistently used in the four Gospels to mark the relationship existing between Christ and His followers. Jesus used it Himself in speaking of them, and they in speaking of each other. Neither did it pass out of use in the new days of Pentecostal power. It runs right through the Acts of the Apostles. It is interesting also to remember that it was on this wise that the angels thought and spoke of these men; the use of the word in the days of the Incarnation is linked to the use of the word in the apostolic age by the angelic message to the women, "Go, - tell His Disciples and Peter" (Mark 16:7). It is somewhat remarkable that the word is not to be found in the Epistles. This is to be accounted for by the fact that the Epistles were addressed to Christians in their corporate capacity as churches, and so spoke of them as members of such, and as the "saints" or separated ones of God. The term disciple marks an individual relation­ship, and though it has largely fallen out of use, it is of the utmost value still in marking that relationship, exist­ing between Christ and each single soul, and suggesting our consequent position in all the varied circumstances of everyday living. It is to that study we desire to come in this series of pa­pers. 1. The word itself (maqhthv) signifies a taught or trained one, and gives us the ideal of relationship. Jesus is the Teacher. He has all knowledge of the ultimate purposes of God for man, of the will of God concerning man, of the laws of God that mark for man the path of his progress and final crowning. Disciples are those who gather around this Teacher and are trained by Him. Seekers after truth, not merely in the abstract, but as a life force, come to Him and join the circle of those to whom He reveals these great secrets of all true life. Sitting at His feet, they learn from the unfolding of His lessons the will and ways of God for them; and obeying each successive word, they real­ize within themselves, the renewing force and uplifting power thereof. The true and perpetual condition of dis­cipleship, and its ultimate issue, were clearly declared by the Lord Himself "to those Jews which believed on Him." "If ye abide in My word, then are ye truly My disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31). Before considering the glorious en­duement the Teacher confers on every disciple, and the stern requirements that guard the entrance to discipleship, it is very important that we should have clearly outlined in our minds the true meaning of this phase of the relation­ship, which Jesus bears to His people. It is not that of a lecturer, from whose messages men may or may not deduce applications for themselves. It is not that of a prophet merely, making a Di­vine pronouncement, and leaving the is­sues of the same. It certainly is not that of a specialist on a given subject, declaring his knowledge, to the interest of a few, the amazement of more, and the bewilderment of most. It is none of these. It is that of a teacher-Himself pos­sessing full knowledge,-bending over a pupil, and for a set purpose, with an end in view, imparting knowledge step by step, point by point, ever work­ing on toward a definite end. That conception includes also the true ideal of our position. We are not casual lis­teners, neither are we merely interested hearers desiring information, we are dis­ciples, looking toward and desiring the same end as the Master, and therefore listening to every word, marking every inflection of voice that carries meaning, and applying all our energy to realizing the Teacher’s purpose for us. Such is the ideal. 2. Now let us consider the privileges that the Teacher confers upon those who become His disciples. I. The first is the establishment of those relations which make it possible for Him to teach and for us to be taught. The question of sin must be dealt with, and that which results from sin-our inability to understand the teaching. Christ never becomes a teacher to those who are living in sin. Sin as actual transgression in the past, must be pardoned, and sin as a principle of revolution within must be cleansed. So before He unfolds one word of the Divine law of life, or reveals in any particular the line of progress, He deals with this twofold aspect of sin. To the soul judging past sin, by confessing it and turning from it, He dispenses for­giveness, pronouncing His priestly abso­lution by virtue of His own atonement on the Cross. To the soul yielded to Him absolutely and unreservedly, con­senting to the death of self, He gives the blessing of cleansing from sin. This statement of His dealing with us is not intended to mark an order of proce­dure from pardon to cleansing. It is rather the declaration of the twofold as­pect of the first work of Christ for His disciples, the bestowment of the initial blessing. In practical experience, men constantly, though not invariably, and not necessarily, realize the first-named first in order. That is the result of the overwhelming and largely selfish desire of personal safety, a desire which is the natural and proper outcome of the di­vinely imparted instinct of self-preser­vation. Nevertheless they ought at once, for the higher reason of God’s glory, to seek to realize the deeper side of the one blessing, that of cleansing. But His patience is manifested in our folly. He forgives and graciously waits. When we look at Him again and say "Master, there is more in Thy cross than pardon," then He makes us con­scious of His power to cleanse. Certain it is, that there can be no real disciple­ship apart from the realization of the twofold blessing. Beyond this there lies the dullness of our understanding, our inability to comprehend the truths He declares. This He overcomes by the gift of the Holy Spirit, who makes clear to us the teaching of the Master. What a priceless gift this is. The dull­est natural intellect may be, and is, rendered keen and receptive Godward, by the incoming of the Holy Spirit. So He Himself provides for, and creates, the relationships of communion through cleansing, and intelligence through the indwelling of the Spirit, which constitute our condition for re­ceiving what He has to teach. II. The other great privilege to be remembered is that the school of Jesus is a technical school. He provides op­portunities for us to prove in practical life the truths He has to declare. This is a great essential in His method, with which we shall deal more fully in a sub­sequent chapter. It is another evidence of His abounding grace, that the prov­ing in technical details of the lessons He teaches, is just as much under His personal guidance and direction as the truth in theory is received directly from Him. 3. Now, upon what personal con­ditions may I become a disciple? I fain would have this enduement of pardon, cleansing, and illumination. How may this be? No school of man was ever so strictly guarded, so select, as this, yet none was ever so easy of access. No bar of race, or color, or caste, or age stands across the en­trance. Humanity constitutes the es­sential claim. And yet, because of the importance of the truths to be revealed, and of the necessity for the application of every power of the being to the understanding and realization of these truths, Jesus stands at the entrance, forbidding any to enter, save upon cer­tain conditions. Let us hear His three­fold word. I. "If any man cometh unto Me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and chil­dren, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, HE CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE" (Luke 14:26). II. "Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after Me, CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE" (Luke 14:27). III. "Whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE" (Luke 14:33). The new relationship must be su­perior, in the urgency of its claims to the claim of any earthly relationship; it must be considered and answered be­fore any claims of the self-life. The Teacher demands that we shall take up the cross and so follow on, even though the progress be through pain. More, we must take the deep spiritual vow of poverty, renouncing all, as possessions, counting every word He shall speak, and every truth He shall reveal, through whatsoever methods, as our chief and only wealth. In short, we must not be held, either by being pos­sessed by others, or possessing aught. There must be a clean severance from all entanglement, and an utter uncom­promising abandonment of ourselves to Him. Unless this be so, we cannot be His disciples. If this be our attitude, then, to us He gives pardon, cleansing, light; and so, becoming by relationship His disciples, and entering His school, we are ready for, and enter upon our course of instruction. If these conditions seem hard and severe, let it be remembered what de­pends upon them. Character and des­tiny depend upon this question of dis­cipleship. Not to impart information, and to satisfy curiosity, is Jesus the Teacher. It is because the truth sancti­fies and makes free that He reveals it, and because, apart from the revelation He has to make, there is no possible way of realizing God’s great purposes for us. Compare Himself and His teaching with the most sacred and beautiful of earth’s loves and posses­sions, and these are unworthy of a mo­ment’s thought. They must all come from between Him and ourselves, so that we may know and do His will. Such attitude does not rob us of the enjoyment of all these things, so far as in themselves they are right. It rather adds to our joy. Self, renders it impossible to know Christ, when other loves and interests intervene, and breeds dissatisfaction with all else and makes that very self sad and weak. CHRIST absolute, lights the whole being with His love, and joy, and beauty, and shines on other loves to their sanctification, and so, the abnega­tion of self is self’s highest develop­ment. So let us enter the school of Jesus, and, receiving His gifts, await His teaching. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 31: 04.02. FIRST LESSONS ======================================================================== II FIRST LESSONS Saviour and Master These sayings of Thine, Help me to make them Doings of mine; Words that like beams Of humanity shine, By them let me build up The holy, divine. -Paxton Hood. THE Sermon on the Mount-as it is popularly styled, though the title always seems inadequate and poor-was delivered specially to the disciples. The first and second verses of the fifth chapter of Matthew very clearly declare this, "And seeing the multitudes, He went up into the mountain; and when He had sat down, His disciples came unto Him: and He opened His mouth and taught THEM, saying." The multitude followed and gathered round this little group of Teacher and taught, but the teaching was for the disciples only-that is, for such as were brought into those necessary relations, of which our first chapter spoke, and so could follow and in some measure receive the won­drous words. In actual experience the teaching of this sermon is very far in advance even of this advanced age. Men have hardly begun to guess at the glory and beauty of this wonderful ideal, but in relation to the Teacher it is elementary and initial. All the wealth of His knowledge-knowledge that He is waiting to impart-lies be­yond anything said here. Here He deals with the first ideals of true life, and reveals to men the Divine purpose for them to-day. These are His FIRST LESSONS. Any exhaustive dealing with all the wonderful and delicate detail is impossible, and it is not indeed the pur­pose of this study. A general analysis of the whole, that we may catch its sweep and scope, and obtain an outline of the system, is what is possible and necessary. We shall now proceed to this consideration, noticing seven points of importance. This study should be taken with your Bible as your com­panion, tracing the teaching therein. 1. SUPREMACY OF CHARACTER (Matthew 5:1-12). The very first word that falls from His lips is a revelation of the will of God for man. "Blessed." "Happy." That is the Divine thought and intention for us. Sorrow, tears, pain, disappointment, all these may be, and are, of inestimable value in the Father’s discipline; but they are means to an end, made necessary by man’s sin. The end, in the purpose of God is bless­edness. Happiness is that after which all men in every age seek, and the first note in the Saviour’s teaching reveals it, as what God is seeking also. How, then, is it to be realized? This section contains the Master’s answer. Men hold two views of what happiness con­sists in, viz, having, and doing. To possess much, or to do some great thing, constitutes the sum of human blessedness according to popular the­ory. Our Teacher sweeps these con­ceptions away by absolutely ignoring them. No "blessed" of His lights up for man either the "having" or "doing" of man. Being is everything. A man’s happiness depends upon what he is in himself. These "blesseds" of Jesus touch human life in its lowliest phases, and reveal the highest possibil­ities even for such. Henceforth for the disciples of Jesus themselves, and for a basis of their estimate of others, char­acter is to be supreme. There is in­finite tenderness in this on its positive side, and it is stern and inexorable on the negative. Such teaching will pro­duce lives running contrary to all worldly estimate and custom, and dis­cipleship will mean persecution, and so the Teacher adds a "blessed" for those who suffer through character. 2. INFLUENCE THE INTENTION (Matthew 5:18-26). This grows out of the former, and is at once the statement of a fact and the declaration of an intention. The fact is that character tells upon others. If a man live in the atmosphere of the beatitudes of Jesus, his life being of the character described, he will, apart from any effort along the line of actual work, exert certain influences. This is not only a fact, it is part of the Divine intention. Salt savorless, light under a bushel, are worse than useless; this is, however, the statement of an impossible hypothesis. Salt savorless ceases to be salt. Light under a bushel goes out. This the Master intends us to under­stand, and hence the terrific force of His figures of speech. These symbols mark for us distinctly the influence that the blessed life ex­erts. Salt is antiseptic, pungent, pre­venting the spread of corruption, and making that portion where health bor­ders on disease smart. Remember ab­solute corruption never smarts. When men smart under the influence of the antiseptic life of righteousness, it is a sign for which we should be thankful, conscience is not altogether dead, they are not "past feeling." The disciples then are to be salt, preventing corrup­tion, and arousing the dormant sense of health. Light is here used, I think, in its sense of guidance. Men are groping after God in this age with no light of their own by which to find Him. Your life is to be a light, by the aid of which men come to glorify God. Let no man whose life fails to be antiseptic, and never helps another Godward, im­agine himself living within the circle of beatitudes. 3. THE NEW MORAL CODE (Matthew 5:17-48). Having thus seen the supremacy of character as the secret of happiness and the source of influence, we ask what are the laws which govern the de­velopment of such character. The new code of ethics is startling. The Mosaic law of conduct was easy to obey when compared to this. The former is done away in the sense in which the less is included in the greater. Greater it surely is. Let this section be carefully read, remembering the following points: - I. The righteousness of the disciples is to exceed that of the Pharisees, as inner purity exceeds external white­ness. II. Gifts on the altar do not ex­piate wrongdoing. III. To look on sin with desire is sin; in other words, suppression of sin is still sin, because it recognizes the presence of a principle antagonistic to God and excuses it. IV. Retaliation is forbidden, and love is to be the one law of relative life. No one can reverently study this ideal of life without seeing the necessity for the fulfilling of the conditions of entrance to discipleship. 4. SELF-STRICKEN (Matthew 6:1-34). This chap­ter may, and undoubtedly does, contain very much teaching along other lines, but the underlying principle is that of self-abnegation. Note how the injunc­tions run counter to every popular idea of life :- I. Alms are to be given privately, not blazoned abroad. II. Prayer is preeminently a matter ’twixt the soul and God; certainly not to be a means of advertising self’s piety. III. Men are still to fast, but with glad face, not "appearing" so to do, so that self is to have no glory for its denial of it­self. IV. Wealth is not to be held, save on trust. V. Self is to be smitten so that anxiety concerning necessities can­not exist. Surely never were self-con­sideration and self-consciousness so smitten hip and thigh as here. 5. RELATIVE CHARITY (Matthew 6:1-5). The consideration of my brother’s fault is to drive me to self-examination rather that to the passing of judgment on him. I am ever to count my fault a beam and his a mote. 6. THE OPEN TREASURE HOUSE (Matthew 7:7-14). With what light and glory of tender love does this section come to us. Just as one’s spirit is in danger of being overwhelmed with the sense of the impossibility of realizing such ideals, He reveals to us the wealth that lies at our disposal in the love and power of the Father, and in simplest and best understood words, He reveals our priv­ilege in that matter. "Ask." "Seek." "Knock." For daily help remember the acrostic here. Take the initial let­ters A, S, K, and reflect that the words for which they stand reveal the secret combination that admits us into the treasure house of love, where there is stored for us all that we need for the realization of the ideal. 7. WARNING (Matthew 7:15-23). What solemn words of warning are these. Siren voices will seek to lure us. No teaching but His can produce the true character. The truth of every message is to be tested by the life of the Teacher, and if failure is found there, we are to know him for "false" no matter how cleverly the sheep’s clothing conceals the devouring wolf. How careful we need to be, lest all should be marred by our being drawn aside by specious teaching which is contrary to His Will. These lessons are all initial, lying at the very foundation of all Christ has to teach men. In proportion as they are realized He is able to lead us forward to deeper truths. An English Bishop said that this Sermon on the Mount could not be applied to the State. Whatever the Bishop intended, there is a side on which he was perfectly cor­rect. These principles cannot be car­ried out in any State, save where the Kinghood of Jesus is recognized, and men are His disciples. None save dis­ciples can understand, much less obey His teaching. The crowds leaving the mountain were impressed with the au­thority of the teaching, but they were not captivated with its beauty, for all this was beyond their comprehension. Christianity did not come by force of arms, nor could it. Christianity will never come by Act of Parliament. The wisest of earth’s scholars, and the most astute of her politicians, can lift no finger to help the Kingdom of God save by coming in to the school of Jesus, and learning of Him by the inshining of the Holy Spirit. That lonely, laboring soul in back court, or isolated village, or far-off heathen hut, who is spelling out under the unique Teacher the lessons of this great deliverance, and so building character on these sayings of His, is doing more to realize on earth the Kingdom of God, and so to bring the golden age, than all the company of diplomatists and politicians, who are forgetful in all practical things of the Nazarene. To the learning of these first great lessons, let us set ourselves with all submission of spirit and sur­render of life. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 32: 04.03. THE METHOD OF ADVANCEMENT ======================================================================== III THE METHOD OF ADVANCEMENT No matter how dull the scholar whom He Takes into His school, and gives him to see; A wonderful fashion of teaching He hath And wise to salvation He makes us through faith. The wayfaring men though fools shall not stray, His method so plain, so easy His way. -Charles Wesley. THE subject of this chapter is not in­tended to suggest the idea that all the "First Lessons" with which the last chapter dealt are to be realized to the full, and that not till then progress may be made beyond. The thought is rather that of advancement in those first great lessons. They contain a statement of the full possibilities of character in these days of probation, and therefore it would be impossible to go beyond them in this respect. At the same time, it must be remembered that Jesus said very much beyond this to His disciples, giving them to know and understand many of the things of God that had to do with their ultimate destiny and the Divine purposes for the race; and after all His teaching at the last He had to leave them, saying, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." The teach­ing of the First Lessons is for the crea­tion of that character to which the deeper things of God become intelli­gible, and advancement in the under­standing and realization of these, fits us for receiving and understanding what­ever else may be beyond. The con­sideration of this chapter includes both these things, though directed principally to the former. How, then, can we advance? 1. RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE TEACHER MUST BE MAINTAINED. Failure to understand this is perhaps one of the subtlest dangers to which the disciple is exposed. The idea is com­mon that at some set time, through some special season of blessing, one enters into right relationships with Him, and that therefore, through all the coming days, these relationships abide. It is absolutely false. There is nothing in all the realms of life more delicate, more easy to interfere with than these relationships. As the most tremendous forces of which man knows anything are set in operation by simplest meth­ods, and may be hindered by means equally simple, so in relation to this greatest of all forces-the cleansing and illuminating force of contact with Jesus. By the simple method of cessation of activity I come into living contact with it, and by a moment’s self-assertion, I may hinder its working. Hence the need for living daily and hourly and every moment at the very place of be­ginnings, ever as a child depending upon Him, and ever as one of the weakest of those who love Him, abiding in Him. It is a glorious thing to know that my cleansing and illumination depend upon Him, and that the whole of my respon­sibility in this matter is marked by my maintaining personal relationship with Him. This, however, is inexorable. Daily personal communion there must be, and the means of such, study of His word, waiting upon Him in prayer, the cultivation of close fellowship, by tell­ing Him everything-joys as well as sorrows-and the periods of silence in which the soul simply waits and listens in the stillness for His voice, these can­not be neglected without a film, a veil, a cloud, a darkness coming between the soul and Himself, and so hindering the possibility of advancement. All this specially needs emphasizing in an age, characterized by its rush and unrest, its loss of the old spirit of medi­tation and quiet, a characterization that applies to Christendom to-day as evi­denced by over-organization, never ceasing rounds of societies, meetings, doings, and the lessening of the seasons of retirement and true worship. Per­sonal relationship cannot be maintained in crowds. The Master and I alone, must be a perpetual need, and for its realization opportunity must be made. 2. THE TRUTH TAUGHT MUST BE­COME INCARNATE IN THE DISCIPLES. As we insisted at the outset, discipleship is not a condition for amassing information. Every doctrine has its issue in some clearly defined duty, every theory taught reveals a practical appli­cation and responsibility. To the soul in right relationship with the Teacher, He reveals some new aspect of truth, and straightway there occurs some cir­cumstance in which that doctrine may be tested by duty; and as we are most real in ordinary circumstances,-our true selves appearing then, rather than in the heroic and extraordinary days of life,-it is in the simple and common­place experiences that these testing places are mostly to be found. All the circumstances and surroundings of the disciples are in the hands of the Su­preme Lord who teaches, and these He manipulates and arranges for the pur­pose of the advancement and develop­ment of His own. This is a great com­fort. He knows the capacity and weakness and strength of everyone in His school, and His examinations do not consist in a common testing for a common standard, and so are not com­petitive. They are rather individual, special care being taken with each one, and Peter will learn the supreme lesson of love with John, but the opportunity for manifesting it as a force in life will be separate and special in each case. Now, advancement is dependent al­ways on our obedience in these hours of testing, in our manifesting in actual practice the power of the truth we have heard in theory. No lesson is consid­ered learned in the school of Jesus, which is only committed to memory. That lesson only is learned which is incarnate in the life, and becomes beau­tiful in its realization and declaration in that way; and until this is so there can be no progress. "If any man will­eth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching" (John 7:17). This is so, because the teaching of Jesus is cumula­tive and progressive. To attempt to learn the lessons of to-morrow without knowledge of to-day’s would be the utmost folly. Just as no boy can intel­ligently do a problem in Euclid until he knows the definitions and accepts reasonably the axioms, and takes each successive step to the one in hand, so surely no disciple can possibly make progress in the truth of God, save as the first steps are taken. You cannot leave first principles and go on unto perfection, save as these first things have become principles, and not merely theories. Here we touch the secret of much of the failure in Christian living to-day. The powerlessness in service, the unat­tractiveness in life, what do they mean? Has the system of Jesus failed in these lives? Have the great lessons He came to teach humanity broken down in their application to human life? Take any single example-it may be that of your own experience. When you first became a disciple, your days were days of delight and joy, the words and will of the Master thrilled and comforted you, and you walked in His ways with a joy and gladness that filled the days with song. The people you touched in daily life saw the beauty of Jesus in you. Gentle, long-suffering, strong and pure, you incarnated His lessons, and your heart was glad, and other lives were influenced Godward. All has changed. Prayer is a duty. The scriptures are dull and burdensome. You have no quick sense of the Lord’s will. Your Christianity has become a restriction through which you would like to break, an encumbrance of which you would fain be rid. These are confessions you never make, but they tell the true inner story of your life. Now what does this really mean? Just this. Somewhere back in the past you will find a day when the Teacher gave you some new vision of truth that straightway revealed an opportunity for you to know the glory of that truth in the pathway of obedience. Something to be given up. Something to be done. Some word to be said. You paused, argued, dis­obeyed. No other lesson has been given, nor can be. Every other de­pended upon that. That was not final. It was preparatory, and until that is learned by obedience there can be no advancement, and so for weeks, per­chance months, aye, even years, you have been a disciple making no prog­ress, and there is no wonder that you are weary of it all. The Teacher’s love is marked in your case by His fidelity to himself and His own lessons. Time after time, in meet­ings, in conversations, in loneliness, He brings you back to that old point, and reiterates with a persistence and a pa­tience passing all human understand­ing:-"If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching." I have known all progress hindered for years because a letter was not written, and I saw the face of the disciple the day after that letter was despatched. The old light was restored, and the old joy returned as the great Teacher again began to reveal His will. 3. ADVANCEMENT CAN ONLY BE WITHIN THE LIMIT OF DIVINE PURPOSE. While it is true that God has for an ultimate purpose, some place of high service far on, and out of sight, a glory and fruition beyond these days of learning and probation, a being and a doing for which all the teaching and discipline of to-day are preparing us, it is also true that, as part of His great progressive movement, He has an immediate purpose in every life, some­thing for us to accomplish for Him here and now. It is to-day we are workers together with Him. There is no waste of time or material in the Divine meth­ods. Every step He takes us, every word He speaks to us, every testing He permits us, contributes something to­ward the development and progress of all. Joseph sold into slavery, David exiled from his kingdom, Job crouching under the whirlwind, Paul bearing the buffeting of Satan’s messenger, all are examples. These experiences were dark and mysterious for the time, and while they formed part of the individual training of these men, they were also in each case a necessary part of the Di­vine dealing with the larger circle. At the time, the principal consciousness was that of limitation, and consequent longing for larger revelation, but at last they all came to understand that for the sake of others they suffered and bore, and that was to them more than com­pensation for all the restriction and waiting. There are many things we know not now because the greater issues would be hindered by our knowing. So what is best, the Teacher holds in reserve, that we may moment by moment bear our share in this march of God to ultimate triumph and light. This section of our study is a most solemn one. So many disciples in name have ceased to be taught of Jesus, and we are all in such perpetual danger of slipping out of the real circle of disci­pleship, that we ought to ask ourselves the questions suggested by these three points on the subject of advancement. These questions should be asked regu­larly and always in the hour of loneli­ness with the Master. I. Am I in right relationship with the Teacher to-day? Do I still live at the Cross and know the power of its cleans­ing moment by moment, and so am I walking in the light, without which all the words of Jesus are dark sayings, and His testings crosses, burdens out of which I can only gather reasons for murmuring? II. If I am not in this place of main­tained fellowship, where did I depart therefrom? What word of His have I disobeyed? To that point let me re­turn, whether it be but an hour ago, or years, and there let me absolutely sur­render, at whatever cost, and do what He requires, however small, or however irksome it appears to be. III. Am I content to wait when His voice does not speak-and I cannot find the reason in myself-until He has ac­complished His present purpose in me, even though I understand it not just now? With matchless patience and pity, and tender love beyond all attempts at explanation, this Teacher waits, and stoops, and woos us, and ever for our highest good and deepest peace. Let us then, by consecrated watching, main­tain the attitude of advancement, and so, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, as we are able to bear, He will lead us on, until we come to the perfect light and life and love of God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 33: 04.04. THE DISCIPLE AT HOME ======================================================================== IV THE DISCIPLE AT HOME Thus it is with the homely life around, There hidden, Christ abides; Still by the single eye forever found That seeketh none besides. When hewn and shaped till self no more is found, Self, ended at Thy Cross; The precious freed from all the vile around, No gain, but blessed loss, Then Christ alone remains-the former things Forever passed away; And unto Him the heart in gladness sings All through the weary day. -H. Suso. So far we have considered the great essential facts of discipleship. There is a sense in which we hold most tena­ciously that view of Christianity which is spoken of to-day as "other-worldly. Man’s destiny lies beyond this life of probation, and toward that great issue the Master is ever working as He teaches us the lessons of His love. Yet it has ever been the glory of Christianity that it is intensely practical, touching the present life at every point with healing and beauty, sweetening all the streams by purifying the sources. In this and the following papers it will be ours to trace the effect of discipleship on the common relationships of life. We begin then with Home, because of its paramount importance. Perhaps there is no side of life more in danger of being neglected in this busy, many­sided age, than that of Home, and cer­tainly there is no side which we can less afford to neglect. No service for God is of any value which is contradicted by the life at home, neither have we any right to neglect home on the plea of multiplied engagements outside. The home of the disciple may be con­ducive to progress in grace, or it may be quite the reverse, and of course the duty will vary accordingly. Let us first look at the great ideal of the Christian home presented in the New Testament, and then make particular ap­plication of the same. 1. To the follower of Jesus Christ, there are certain central and unalter­able facts which will touch and influ­ence all the home relationships. Let us look first at these. I. The New Authority stands in the forefront. The Teacher has claimed an absolute and unvarying supremacy over the life. That initial condition of dis­cipleship now enters into every ques­tion, and from it there can be no devi­ation-no, not for a single moment. This authority is one that will set up the ideals of life, and declare the stand­ard of action in all the larger and more important matters of the days, and in the most simple and trifling details of the passing moments. This authority becomes the gauge and measure of all other government. The rightness or otherwise of any rule of life imposed on the disciple by any other person is to be tested by the Will of the Master. So my obligation to any person as a dis­ciple is limited or enforced by my su­preme obligation to Jesus. Responsibility to Him is higher than that of wife to husband, or child to parents, or serv­ant to master. These are all relation­ships of His approving, but His claim is first, and if any of these clash with that, they are to be sacrificed, this to abide. II. Then comes the New Attitude created toward others. The relation­ship of the disciple to Christ, as we have seen, is that of life. Now, this life is the life of Christ, and what it is in itself must now become the governing force, and so give new character to my feeling and acting toward others. His Life is Love. That Life, regnant in me, creates the disposition of love toward all. The old scheme of life was that of a preëminent sense of the importance of self, and all other interests were made subservient to that, and all other per­sons loved or disliked as they minis­tered to or interfered with that. Now, love governing, each will "esteem other better than himself," and the need of the outsider will become the touchstone of life. The light of Christ’s presence will reveal the shortcomings of myself, and the hitherto unrecognized excellences of others. So the attitude of the disciple will become like that of his Lord-the attitude of one who waits not to be ministered unto, but to min­ister, and the bearing of the cup of cold water to the thirsty will be the delight of all the days, opportunities for which will not be waited for, but sought. Out of these essential considerations there grows a new sense altogether of what home really is. It is to be the first, and perhaps the most simple and beautiful manifestation of the authority of Jesus. Every member of the home, recognizing that supreme Kingship, will find their relationship toward each other ennobled and purified as they live in the great realm of His love. Each willing to sink personal aims for the sake of the realization of the highest good of all, no one desiring to gratify any part of their own desire at the expense of another, self-abnegation, the individual law that realizes the general peace and restfulness, makes home at its highest and best. So the manifestation of the beauty of the kingdom of Jesus in real­ization of His beatitudes in the home being the supreme desire of each and all, personal blessedness is also realized, and every sacred tie of home becomes in itself more delightful and satisfying for Christ’s mission amongst His dis­ciples is ever the fulfilling, and never the destruction of all high and noble ideals. The real music and beauty of home are only known to those who are simple and faithful disciples of Jesus. III. What a glorious picture is pre­sented of a true home in the writings of the Apostle Paul. Himself a man, who for the highest reasons never per­haps knew the joy of such life, he never­theless understood its beauty, and if you will take the different words he writes in his Epistles as to the true position and duty of husband, wife, parent, child, master, servant, you will see the vision’ of the perfect home life. At the prin­cipal points let us look. (a). Take first the husband and wife in their relation to each other, and as parents toward their children. What more wonderful ideal than this can there be? "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it." That is true love. Absolute self-abnegation, the one over­mastering passion being that of the high­est good and greatest happiness of the wife. How impossible in such love the thousand little neglects which the life of women, and render them heavy with disappointed hope. How far more impossible the selfish brutality that too often has made home infinitely more like hell than heaven. Again, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own hus­bands, as unto the Lord." That can only be obeyed when the husband is loving with the Lord’s love. When that is so, see how beautifully there is recognized here the true view of woman’s love, as that which finds its highest man­ifestation in submission. Then the revelation of Paul’s writings concerning the relation of parents to children is a remarkable one and sorely needs re­stating in these days. It is that of the fathers responsibility. It is he who is to train them; and see how tenderly this is to be, not by the methods that will provoke anger, but in "nurture and admonition of the Lord." (b). Then the position of the child, simply marked by the one thought of obedience. What a glorious and tender thought it is. It implies an authority provided which frees the tender life from the responsibility of thinking and planning, and provides that it shall make advancement toward perfection, within the realm of a very definite and direct government. How grand a provision that is, perhaps we never fully realize until we have passed beyond it, and amid the strife of life, with its oft-re­curring crises, when we are sore be­wildered as to which path we ought to take, we long for the days of child­hood again, when we could ask. Father, Mother, and when in obeying them we knew we were doing that which pleased the Lord. That view of obedience as the Lord’s tender provision for their safety and development, should ever be presented to our dear disciple-children. What a responsibility it entails upon us parents that we seek our laws for them from the King. (c). Then there is the presence in the home of those who help and serve. The position of these is made very sacred in the school of Jesus. Most distinctly is it laid down that they can do "all things" as unto the Lord, and that ex­pression includes and lights up the most trivial duties that they are called upon to render. It is of such that the won­derful possibility is declared, that they may "adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour." How beautiful the life of some is, we know full well. Toward them the Christian master is to exercise the patience of his Master toward him­self, making demands on eager, loving service, not by threatening, but by lov­ing, Christly recognition of the holiness of their service, and its value to the Lord Himself. 2. This is a glorious picture. No such ideal of home has ever been pre­sented to the world. It has been real­ized in a large measure over and over again. No truer fore-glimpse of the heavenlies can be found than that of the Christian home, with all its deep love, quiet peace, and constant brightness and merriment. Discipleship has often to be maintained in very different home surroundings. The husband, wife, par­ent, child, servant, may either of them be the only disciple, and their relation­ship to Christ looked upon with pity, contempt, or even open opposition. The position of such is a very difficult one; but for this, as for all other cir­cumstances, the grace and power of Christ are sufficient. When this is so, there is a twofold responsibility resting upon the Christian,- I. Remembering the great ideals, there must be a realization of the Mas­ter’s will for the individual case. The Christ-life of love must govern and manifest itself toward others, even though there be no return on the part of the dearest earthly friends. II. Then, if that manifestation bring contempt and persecution, there is to be an absence of the revengeful spirit, and the presence of loving patience, that so the unbelieving may be won by the be­havior of the believing. The creation of true Christian homes is the splendid possibility of young discipleship. The question of marriage lies at the base of this. Unequal yoking together of the disciples of Jesus with unbelievers is one of the most disastrous matters for the Church and the world. And there should be no alliance of life even between believers unless the Lord’s will be so clearly revealed that there can be no mistaking it. The ideal Christian home, will ever have a door open to welcome the home­less ones of our great centres of popu­lation, that its atmosphere of love may help to guard and form the life of such. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 34: 04.05. THE DISCIPLE AT BUSINESS ======================================================================== V THE DISCIPLE AT BUSINESS Yea, we know that Thou rejoiced O’er each work of Thine; Thou didst ears and hands and voices For Thy praise design; Craftsman’s art and Music’s measure For Thy pleasure All combine. -F. Pott. THERE is no more common mistake, or more dangerous, than that work is in some way connected with the curse. Man was created for work. It is one of the very first laws of his being. Un­employed man is a contravention of the Divine purpose. Hence, before man fell, we see him in all the strength of his perfect being, at work. "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it" (Genesis 2:15). Sin brought weariness and disappointment, which made work a burden, but work itself is a Divine arrangement for the gladden­ing of life. This law abides under the Christian dispensation. No word Christ spoke can be construed into a word revoking it. It is rather taken up and enforced by Christ Himself and the apostles. In the "Sermon on the Mount" the Lord recognizes the power to work as a special gift which raises us above the level of birds and flowers. Of the fowls He said "Are not ye of much more value than they?" (Matthew 6:26); and of the flowers "If God doth so clothe the grass . . . . shall He not much more clothe you?" (Matthew 6:30). In each case, the teaching is not that we should neither "sow" nor "reap," and neither "toil" nor "spin" but that, having these powers and using them, how much more likely it is that our need should be supplied, rather than that of fowls or flowers. The philosophy of the sit­uation is that Christ recognizes all gifts and callings as from God, and looks upon them as the channels through which God will supply our need. Paul is most clear in his exposition of the will of God in these matters. In writ­ing to the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 2:10) he makes working the condition of eating, and in writing to the Ephesians (Ephesians 4:28) he places working in antithesis to stealing, and reveals the larger social responsibility when he says, that a man is to work not merely for his own support, but "that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need;" and in his first letter to Timothy (1 Timothy 5:8) he de­clares that "If any provideth not for his own, and specially his own house­hold, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever." Recognizing the great truth of the solidarity of humanity, that each per­son is part of the whole, that the whole is incomplete in the incompleteness of any, it is evident that all the great and increasing needs of humanity for this life are provided for by God in the gifts He has bestowed, to every man sever­ally as He will, His will ever being the well-being and happiness of the creature. Every ability to do something which will be for the support of the worker, and at the same time tribute to the legitimate needs of others, is a Divine gift, a Divine calling. Ca­pacity for brain work, dexterity of fingers, are each and in every variety of application, Divinely bestowed. To dig-whether with spade, or plough, or shaft and machinery for metals-is a calling of God. To construct with wood, or stone, or iron, for permanence or locomotion, is a Divine gift. To see a vision and paint it, to hear music and translate it, to catch glimpses of truth and embody them in form poetic, these and all the thousands of various gifts bestowed upon men are OF GOD. On every individual some gift is bestowed, save perchance upon those who, in these days of humanity’s sin and sorrow, are from their birth limited in their powers. Not only the preacher, but every man, has a calling of God, and the duty of each man to God, to the community, to himself, is to find that calling, and therein to abide. (See 1 Corinthians 7:20-24). This is the great Divine ideal from which humanity has wandered, to its sorrow, shame, and undoing; and as discipleship means a return to Divine ideals through the teaching and power of Jesus, we must now apply these principles to the disciple as he or she enters business. 1. The first serious question, then, for the disciple is, "What is the gift be­stowed upon me, the calling of God for me?" The answer to that is to be found within, rather than without. A gift ever means fitness. To every man God intends to make watches, He has given the necessary fineness of touch and nerve patience. To every woman He designs to teach, He has given the attractive force and lucid gift that fits her to hold and teach the children. Discipleship mean facility for discovering the gift of God. The trouble is that so many have thought that when we begin to touch these things our Teacher is uninterested, and so we have made the greatest blunders of our lives in choosing our occupation, rather than setting ourselves to discover the Divine calling. To the young disciple who reads this and who has not yet decided on life’s work, let me say in all simplicity and confidence, seek to find your right place in life by telling your Lord your sense of need, and asking for His direction. In this matter an enormous responsibility rests upon parents, that they seek to discover the Lord’s purpose for their boys and girls, and then train them for that position. This can only be done by patient watching for the manifestation of the God-bestowed powers of each life separately and this cannot be, when in tender years we send our children out of our homes to live, and so transfer our responsibility to others than those by God appointed. 2. The gift being discovered, now follows the necessity for persistent ap­plication for the most perfect develop­ment thereof. The disciple of Jesus, recognizing his calling in life as of God, cannot possibly treat it carelessly or with any measure of indifference. Every power of the will must be brought to bear on the application of the mind to the mastery of the subject in hand. A Christian carpenter will master the use of every tool, and lay himself out to embody in his work the very spirit of the Christ. A Christian doctor will leave no department of the great science neglected, or will devote himself with perfect consecration to that department for which God has given him the gift of a specialist. The great advantage of discipleship is to be found in the fact that if I recognize my calling as a Divine one, then I am sure that he who bestowed the gift under­stands it, and all my personal applica­tion to its mastery will be in the spirit of dependent prayer. Christian me­chanics, tradesmen, professional men, should be the finest in the world, and would be, if they lived in the power of their relationship to Christ. 3. Fully equipped for qualified serv­ice, the disciple now faces the sterner work of the years, and under the pres­ent conditions of life this is mostly done as the servant of others. Again, referring to Paul’s words (in 1 Corinthians 7:22-24), we see how that the disciple is to consider his higher relationship to God. He "is the Lord’s free man," and is "to abide with God" in his call­ing. Now, how does that affect his work? It lights it up with the glory of the Divine goodwill to men, so that each piece of work becomes a part of the Divine contribution to the need of the community, and if I measure cloth, or sell groceries, or paint a picture, or play an instrument, or set a limb, or anything that is an exercise of the Di­vine gift, I do it, not as a means of live­lihood first, but as part of God’s work, and so I become, down to the smallest detail of everyday life, "a worker to­gether with Him." Hold but that view of life’s work, and there can be no more "scamping" of work-no, not even to be in time for a prayer meeting. How does abiding with God in my calling affect my relation to my em­ployer? It makes me treat him as though he were in my place and I in his. Hear the Teacher’s own words:-"All things therefore, whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them" (Matthew 7:12). To that nothing can be added. 4. Finally, the disciple in business on his own account lives and acts within certain very clearly defined principles. He ever remembers that he is a steward of his Master. He possesses nothing, but holds on trust all he has, and is re­sponsible to Christ for the way he gets, the way he uses, and the measure of his getting or holding. No disciple of Jesus can amass a fortune simply for the sake of possession. He may be prosperous in his undertakings, but his prosperity must ever mean increased opportunity for Divine service. No disciple can oppress the hireling in his wages. That wage should be, not merely the measure of keeping his servant’s body and soul together, it should include provision for the culture of all that his being demands. A "liv­ing wage" in the common acceptation of that term, is not the measure for a Christian paymaster. A Christian cannot consent to enrich himself by taking advantage of the downfall or misfortune of another man. That man who strikes a bargain to his own profit which takes advantage of some pressing need on the part of another, is none of Christ’s. No Christian can take part in the monopolies of the day, which have as the very basis of their operations the enrichment of the few to the detriment of the many. There is nothing perhaps more devilish in commercial life to-day than the great monopolies. America is cursed by them, and England is threatened. No disciple of Christ can. touch them and abide in the teaching of Jesus. The twofold law of life, enunciated by our Teacher, will purify commerce throughout, and noth­ing short of that will ever do it. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. . . . Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matthew 22:37-40). These are said to be impossible ideals for business life to-day. We reply that the very essence and genius of disciple­ship is the realization of the impossible. It is just because the Church of Jesus Christ has stood in the presence of His teaching and said "Impossible" that She has become so weak and forceless in all the affairs of this busy age. Let us have a few men and women again who, like the early disciples in Pente­costal days, believe in Jesus and in the eternal wisdom of all His teaching, and who are prepared to suffer the loss of all things rather than disobey, and the potency and possibility of His ideals will begin to dawn on the world again as it did in those days, breaking up dynasties, revolutionizing empires, and turning the world upside down. Nowhere is such work more needed than in the realm of commerce, and no­where can we make better investment for the Master’s Kingdom to-day than by purifying rigidly that corner of the great realm which we touch. Let every disciple find his gift from God, cultivate it for God, exercise it abiding in God, and he will not only secure his own highest success, but will contribute his quota to the preparatory work of this dispensation for the coming of the King and the establishment of His Kingdom on earth. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 35: 04.06. THE DISCIPLE AT PLAY ======================================================================== VI THE DISCIPLE AT PLAY In that new childhood of the Earth Life of itself shall dance and play, Fresh blood in Time’s shrunk veins make mirth, And labor meet delight halfway. -J. Russell Lowell. So far there has seemed to be no con­tradiction of terms in the subjects which have come under our consideration. Among all sections of Christians there would be a concensus of opinion as to the rightness of considering "The Dis­ciple at Home" and "The Disciple at Business." I do not anticipate any con­flict of opinion concerning any subse­quent division of this subject. I can, however, imagine that there may be a doubt in the mind of some with regard to the title at the head of this chapter: and yet it is of such enormous impor­tance, that to omit it were not only to render the study incomplete, but to do positive injustice to the follower of Christ who, upon this of all subjects, is feeling his or her need of direct and wholesome teaching. The fact that large numbers of young people lose their spirituality here is due, not to the inconsistency of play, but rather to lack of clear teaching, and therefore of fail­ure to understand the true position of the child of God in reference thereto. Let us apply ourselves to a twofold consideration-firstly as to the fact of play in the life of discipleship, and then to the limits which are marked off for those who are learning of Christ in this as in all matters. 1. The very first truth to be under­stood and kept in mind is that of the purpose of Christ in the present pro­bationary stage of human life. I have already emphasized the fact that the Master is preparing us for an end, which is beyond the present life altogether. By that I abide. It must, however, be remembered that, while in Christ I gain more blessings than my fathers lost, the very first business of the great scheme of redemption and instruction is the restoration of man to the Divine ideal of human life here. The man who most truly manifests the beauties of human life in all its bearings, most truly proves his progress toward and preparation for the glory that has not yet been re­vealed. A human being developed on one side of his nature, to the damage or contraction of another, is by so much thwarting a Divine purpose, damaging a Divine ideal. This we readily admit in some cases. Such, for instance, as the development of flesh to the injury of spirit. It is just as true of a man who loses his power for stern work in his abandonment to play. It is equally true of a man who cannot play because his power to do so has become deadened by ceaseless toil. The power to laugh, to cease work, and frolic in forgetful­ness of all the conflict, to make merry, is a Divine bestowment upon man, and its absence in any case is as sure a mark of the blighting effects of sin, as is the frothy life of the devotee of miscalled pleasure who never contributes anything to the work of his generation. This power is based upon the wisdom of God, and His knowledge of the needs of the creatures of His band. To this all scientific statement bears witness. Every medical man knows the enormous value of prescribing change, exercise, cessation of toil, and pure amusement, in order that there may be better work, harder blows, more clear thinking, and that the sum total of the life may be of a higher order: and what is true medical science but a discovery of the laws of God for the well-being of the crea­tures of His love? Now Jesus did not come to contradict or set aside any great law of human life, and most cer­tainly not that which thus provides for the highest development of man. He has come to interfere here as everywhere else, and to restore play to its proper place in every life; and though He gave His followers no set of rules, He has given them in His teaching great principles, which will adjust these matters as perfectly as all others. Before turning to consider them, let me state with perfect clearness that especially in this age of ceaseless ac­tivity, which is over and over again more worldly than godly, and in the whirl and rush of which every man, whether he be a Christian or no, is nec­essarily caught up and carried forward, it is an absolute necessity, and therefore a solemn duty, that the follower of Christ should learn how to play within proper limits, that so he may be the stronger man for the stress of the age, and to confront its rush, and restless­ness, and weakness, with his testimony to the peace, and quietness, and tre­mendous force of the life possessed by, and matured in God. Perhaps I may put this most forcefully by a personal illustration. I find no final preparation for the delivery of the messages of God on Sunday-messages for which I must first solemnly have sought, not only by prayer, but also by stern application to study and thought-equal to a Saturday afternoon in company with some fellow-disciple, with my bag of clubs, "driving" a golf ball over, and sometimes into, "bunkers," "teeing up" and "holeing out;" and I can stride over the grass and through the heather and sand, sing­ing with perfect sincerity: "I feel like singing all the time, My tears are wiped away ; For Jesus is a friend of mine, I’ll serve Him every day." 2. Now as to the limits of play for the disciple. They are found by nat­ural sequence, in that condition of life in which I never for a moment forget that I am Christ’s, and my loyalty to Him is unquestioning and constant. How will that one great principle affect my play? In two ways:-firstly, in the realm of my personal realization of His purpose for me, and secondly, in my relationship with Him for the ac­complishment of His purpose in all those with whom I come in contact. I. As we have seen, the purpose of Jesus is the perfecting of my being. It follows, therefore, most clearly that my play must ever be recreative in char­acter, and never destructive. Further, the complexity of human life must be considered. Man is neither body, soul, nor spirit, separately He is body, soul, and spirit, and between these different sides of his complex nature there is the closest and most subtle inter-relation, so that he cannot possibly do injury to either side without injuring himself as a whole. To destroy my physical power is to weaken my mental, and that is for to-day, at any rate, to limit the oppor­tunity for the culture of the spiritual. Any form of play, then, that injures my physical powers or dwarfs my mental vigor, or takes away my spirit­ual sense, is impossible for me as a dis­ciple of Christ. That play, and only that, which recreates, and so fits fur larger service, is legitimate. II. Then further, I cannot in the power of the Christ-life live only for myself. I am not to seek recreation by any means which involves injury to my fellow-being, even though the doing thereof may seem to be of direct bene­fit to me. Let me not be misunder­stood. I do not say that because one man abuses lawn-tennis by waste of time thereat, I am not to play. I do say that if I see lawn-tennis has such a fascination for a friend of mine as to make him liable to neglect his sterner work, I am to be "narrow" enough to refuse to play with him unless he is playing upon the very conditions which make for his development only, as I play upon for mine. The relative law is that I only have fellowship, even in play, with a fellow-being upon the principles which are highest and best for him, and never upon what he sets up for himself, if they are lower than the highest. Neither can I consent to be amused in any form by that which is debasing the life of those who amuse me. I have purposely avoided naming any forms of play save those that would be looked upon as legitimate in proper time and place by almost every Chris­tian. This avoidance has been due to the fact that I very strongly desire in this, as in every detail of life, to throw the disciple upon the Master for direct guidance, and this because I am per­suaded there is no other safe course, because there is no other unfailing and infallible authority. Jesus makes a specialty of every individuality, and He alone can do this. That which may be perfectly lawful and right for me may be a sin to my brother, and that which I dare not do at the risk of losing my spiritual force, he may find con­ducive to his highest advancement. Let each one seek the Lord’s direct pleasure, and be true to that, and there can be no mistake; but by following human ex­amples, or making others the standard of what one may or may not do, one will be constantly liable to get into places of positive danger. These prin­ciples in application will be found most drastic, and yet will bring us into the air of perfect liberty. There are some forms of wordly amusement debasing and injurious in themselves, and some which are procured at the cost of the degradation and ruin of others. Against all these the disciple by word and life should be a constant protest. One of the surest ways to combat them, is to manifest in our lives the joyousness of discipleship, and that, in our power to play purely and perfectly, as surely in the light of the Divine love as when we pray or preach. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 36: 04.07. THE DISCIPLE AS A FRIEND ======================================================================== VII THE DISCIPLE AS A FRIEND I would joy in your joy: let me have a friend’s part In the warmth of your welcome of hand and of heart,- On your playground of boyhood unbend the brow’s care, And shift the old burdens our shoulders mast bear. -T. G. Whittier, OF all the words in our language which have been undergoing change of meaning, perhaps none have been more abused than this word "friend." Hav­ing as its root idea the thought of love -for it is really the present participle of the old Anglo-Saxon verb "freon," to love-it marked in old time the close union of two persons-other than rela­tives-in the bonds of sincere love for each other, love that made each, care for, and desire to serve, the other better than himself. It is now used too often in a loose way. A man is my friend to-day if he be but a passing acquaint­ance, or if we are on speaking terms. I want to write of the disciple as a friend in the older sense of comradeship-close heart-companionship. The word is a Bible word, and comes by transla­tion both from the Hebrew and the Greek, from words conveying this thought. The Hebrew word translated friend signifies an associate, and comes from the root "to pasture." So a friend is one of the flock, feeding together, sharing the very sustenance of life. The Greek word is the word lover, and so is in perfect harmony with the thought of the English word used for its translation. Man, by virtue of his humanity, all the world over, seeks for friendship. The life of the hermit, the recluse, is abnormal. It is contrary to the very genius of human nature for man to live alone. This desire for friendship grows out of the deepest necessity of his na­ture, he being created for others as well as for himself. Sympathy, love, service, are the very essentials of human nature at its best, and these demand an object. So, in the largest and most general sense man is not intended to be alone. Coming into a closer consideration of this great law, we find among men this further necessity for personal friend­ship. Every man could not be a close companion of every other. We have to do with the selective law of affinity. That is the subtle, almost undefinable somewhat, which draws two people to­gether in a brotherhood, sometimes closer than the brotherhood of blood. We say undefinable, because it is often difficult to know why two particular persons are such friends. Affinity may mean conformity, agreement, resem­blance; it is also the union of bodies of a dissimilar nature in one harmonious whole. This law of personal friendship has held in all time. David and Jona­than have had their forerunners and successors throughout the generations of human kind. Now, in this, as in all other matters, Christ comes to fulfill and not to destroy. He sent His dis­ciples out two by two, as I believe, on a recognition of this great necessity in human life, and to this time in all Christian service and Christian living, the strength and joy of a strong per­sonal friendship is almost beyond com­putation. 1. Facing the disciple in this matter of friendship is a great limitation. He cannot enter into any close bond, save with those who are, like himself, sub­mitted to Jesus Christ. This is the highest law of all to him, and nothing that can possibly interfere with his re­lation to his Lord must be tolerated for a moment. The claim itself looks hard and arbitrary, but the infinite wisdom and love thereof has been evidenced by the sad results accruing to those who have disregarded it, and have formed friendships with the world which have proved to be enmity against God. The reason is perfectly clear to those who have a true conception of what discipleship really is, and how radically it differs from all other life. 2. Remembering this, now for a mo­ment consider how discipleship is in itself a perfect qualification for the highest form of friendship. Given two disciples of Jesus, drawn toward each other by the natural law of affinity, and see how His work in them fits them for a friendship of the strongest and most lasting kind. I. There is the self-denial which He has enjoined upon them as the way of entrance upon discipleship, and the con­dition of its continuity. If self be. smitten to the death, the one most pro­lific source of dissension, and the break­ing up of friendship has gone. With what strength we can love and serve if we have lost our hold on self, with all its unceasing demands. II. Then the common consecration of the life to the kingship of Jesus. Two people, loving each other, and each able to say, "That life which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith," (Galatians 2:20), have the will and the impulse of One, and that One, in way and work, is ever love. III. Then yet further, there is com­munion of interest. It is written of the hosts that gathered to Hebron, that they were of "one heart to make David king." That common cause made a people, a nation, solid and strong. So with friendship in Jesus. The disciple has nothing to live for but by word, and deed, and prayer to bring on the day of his Lord’s crowning; and when two of these are brought into comradeship by natural law, and their friendship be­comes hot with the common fervor of a great purpose such as this, how strong and lasting must such friendship be. 3. Remembering the limitation and qualifications of friendship let us now proceed to consider the friendship of dis­ciples in itself. Each will cherish for the other a very high ideal of life, char­acter, and service, no less than the will of God in each. The prayer of Epaphras for the Colossian Christians "that ye may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God" (Colossians 4:12) is a delightful statement of the desire that disciple-comrades ever cher­ish for each other, and the friendship is ever looked upon as a means to that end. So the very heart of the golden rule is reached in such friendship, for each does to the other what he would the other should do to him. When this is so, there comes that delightful sense of rest and naturalness in each other’s company which is the very essence of friendship. Some years ago a friend gave me a quotation which I copied into my com­monplace book. It was from Mrs. Craik’s "Life for a Life," and I give it here as very beautifully expressing that thought. "Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pour them all right out just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away." That is the abiding condition of friends of Jesus. All necessity for re­serve and hiding is gone, in the abso­lute confidence born of the certainty of high unselfish love. This laying bare of each to each produces the true vision of each to each. I shall thus be able to recognize quickly all the excellencies in the character of my friend which perchance other persons may be slow to discover. He will see with clearest vision the points of my shortcoming and failure. Love is never blind, and we shall know each other more deeply and truly in that life of mutual love, than it is possible for man to know man by careful calculation or closest critical observation. It has been said that "Love will stand at the door and knock long after self-conscious dignity has fallen asleep" which is only another way of expressing Paul’s great word "Love suffereth long and is kind," and because this is true the clear vision of friendship ever makes demands on eager, consecrated service. The good recognized will be developed by fellow­ship, and where that good is costing my friend much sacrifice and suffering, by encouragement and fidelity. The short­coming will be matter concerning which the friend will mourn and pray in secret, and of which he will speak in such tones of tender love, that his brother will be won to the higher sur­render which ever means victory and advancement. So together, and by the reciprocity of this holy comradeship, there will be a building of each other up, and a several growth in grace. There is no higher or more wonderful description of the possibilities of true friendship in Jesus than that contained in Paul’s words to the Romans (Romans 12:15) "Rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep." That is true sympathy, and perfect sympathy between two is friendship. The word sympathy has too long been robbed of its glory by the narrowing interpreta­tion which has considered it only as the power "to weep with them that weep." That is the smaller and easier part of true sympathy. Sympathy is the power that projects life outside the circle of personality and shares the life of an­other, feeling the thrill of the other’s joy, and the pain of the other’s woe. That can only be realized when the friendship is in Jesus. There it can be, and is. Is my friend in trouble, in dif­ficulty, in temptation? I am his com­panion still, and the sorrow, the per­plexity, the anguish are mine also. Leave him now he has fallen? Impossible. When he fell, I fell, and I shall not feel erect again until he has made even that fall a "stepping-stone to higher things." Is my friend in joy, in prosperity, in victory? I am yet with him, and the rapture, the success, the triumph are mine because they are his. Be jealous of his promotion? Again impossible. If he rises so do I, and all his advancement is my greatest prog­ress, for we are one. Blessed is the man that hath such a friend. It is impossible to have many. I do not believe that it is the Divine ideal that we should. It is question­able whether any person, apart from the higher realm of relationship, ever has more than one. Such friendship cannot be separated. Oceans and con­tinents may divide. The mutual love laughs at these, and in daily service, prayer, and meditation, each is still with the other, and thinks, and plans, and works under the old. influences. This friendship knows nothing of con­ventionality’s little axioms, but abides in the great realm of love, and does things strange to the outside beholder. Such friendship cannot be broken. Death is but a pause, wherein the one hears from the great silence the old voice, and feels drawing him thither, the old love, and the other waits in the splendors of that silence, with the Lord, for the coming of the fellow-whose song will add to heaven’s music. Friendship is always beautiful, but the friendship of disciples, based upon the law of affinity, and conditioned and consummated in Christ, is peerless. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 37: 04.08. THE DISCIPLE AT WORK FOR THE MASTER ======================================================================== VIII THE DISCIPLE AT WORK FOR THE MASTER Thou shalt tell Me in the glory All that thou hast done Setting forth alone: returning Not alone. Thou shalt bring the ransomed with thee, They with songs shall come As the golden sheaves of harvest, Gathered home. -T. P. THIS is preëminently the "fussy" age. Every one must be doing something. Nothing more clearly reveals the spirit of the age than the contrast between the attitude of the thought of men to­ward work now, and say, fifty years ago. Then the busiest endeavored to make it appear that they did nothing. To-day the laziest are most eager for their friends to think of them as over­worked. Personally, taking the largest outlook, I think this is a decided im­provement, for it is an approximation to the Pauline ideal that a man must work or starve. It has touched the Church however, and there has wrought a great deal of mischief, if some good. There never was such a day of organ­izations, and meetings, and societies. Why, the alphabet is nearly exhausted in giving signs that stand for societies. We preachers are in danger of be­wilderment as we give out notices con­cerning Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., I. B. R. A., P. S. A., P. M. E., Y. P. S. C. E., S. S. U., and so on. Now, let no un­kind word be said of any branch of service. All the honest and consecrated work represented by these very letters I have quoted, we welcome with de­light and thank God for. Yet this very multiplication of work has in it an element of danger, and one of the perilous sides to it has been the setting of unsanctified and even unconverted persons to work. Side by side with this demand for workers has come a re­bound from that view of a "vocation" which culminated in priestism, and the fitness of a caste only for holy service. As is so often the case, the rebound has gone beyond proper limits. We have rightly contended for the rights of all believers to familiarity with the things of God, and freedom to serve. We have wrongly extended to those outside; the discipleship the opportunity of helping in the work of the Master. This has been to their detriment, giving them a sense of security to which they had no right, and it has also been to the serious injury of the work itself. We must return to first principles. Personal relation to Christ is vocation for service. Apart from it, there can be none. On that occasion, when the crowds, having come by sea to Capernaum "Seeking Jesus" asked Him "What must we do that we may work the works of God?" He said, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent" (John 6:24-29). Of that saying Dr. Westcott writes, "This simple formula contains the complete solution of the relation of faith and works. Faith is the life of works; works are the necessity of faith." It cannot be too strongly insisted upon, or too frequently urged, that they, and they only, who are disciples of Jesus, are called to, and fitted for, fel­lowship with Him in the great work to which He is pledged. If I am a dis­ciple, I am perforce a worker, for the new life which creates my personal dis­cipleship is the very life of Christ-compassionate, mighty, victorious. If I am not a disciple, I cannot do the work of God, for I am devoid of that life which alone is the Divine compas­sion for man, and the Divine energy for accomplishing the purposes of God. So much being granted, and the view gained, that the disciple at work for the Master is really the Master working through the disciple-that is, that there is oneness, we may now proceed to consider the aim, the methods, the strength, and the issue of the disciple’s work by a contemplation of the Mas­ter’s. 1. Christ makes a great statement in John 9:4. "We must work the works of Him that sent Me." This "We" of the revised version teaches us that Christ identifies us with self in His work, and we shall best un­derstand the force of these words by gaining a clear understanding of their setting. Take the paragraph John 8:1-59 and John 9:1-41. In John 8:1-11 we have the account of Christ’s dealing with the woman taken in adultery, in John 9:6 and on, that of His giving sight to the blind man. Now, examine the part that intervenes. The opening statement (John 8:12) and the closing (John 9:5) are identical. Growing out of that statement in John 8:1-59. we have a long controversy on inherited privileges and Divine Sonship. In John 9:1-41 the disciple’s question is in the same realm, though it deals with the other side, that of inherited sin. Christ dis­misses their speculations, and announces the fact of His work, and proceeds to illustrate it by another example, which at once answers their quibbling and reveals that work. This blind man is, as every man is, a revelation of human condition, and an opportunity for the display of the work of God. What, then, is the work of God? The remedying of the limitation and evil that is in the world, and the restoration of the natural-that is, the Divine pur­pose. The illustration is simple. The underlying revelation is sublime. The Divine rest of Genesis 2:1-2, was broken by man’s sin. From that point God has been at work. "My Father worketh even until now and I work" (John 5:17). This is not a small thing. It grasps all in its compass. It cost all in its effort. The Cross is the supreme expression of that Divine work, and that is only understood when it is seen as the eternal force by which man’s ruin and limitation are overtaken, and the first Divine ideal for humanity realized. In the disciples of Jesus there moves that great life that works with ceaseless and unconquerable en­ergy. "Thy will be done, Thy king­dom come," is the disciple’s prayer; it is also the aim of all his life and work. In the home, the business, the civic re­lation, national life, the Church, we are "workers together with Him," opening blind eyes, loosing prisoners, healing humanity’s wounds, toiling ever on toward the morning without clouds, in which God will rest in the accomplish­ment of His purposes. 2. If our aim is identical with that of the Master, it follows necessarily that our methods must be identical also. By reading carefully and in conjunction John 5:17-19; John 14:10, we find that all His works and words were done and spoken, not on His own initiative, but on the will of the Father. That is to say, Jesus not only worked toward the same great consummation as His Father, but along the same lines, by the same methods. How very wonderful are these words "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing." "The words that I say unto you I speak not from myself." From this position the enemy directly and indirectly perpetually sought to allure Him, and, thanks be to God, uni­formly and absolutely failed. In the wilderness He declined the kingdoms of this world, even though for these He had come, on any condition, or by any method save the divinely marked. It is just here where the evil of the "mixed multitudes" in our churches is manifest. The true disciple must be as particular about the methods of work as about the final issue; but so many have caught some faint idea of the Divine intention, and now are prepared to adopt any method that seems pol­itic and likely to achieve the end. And so the things that are worldly, sensual, devilish, are being pressed into the service of the churches-choirs of professionals, who give performances for their own glory, entertainments which approach as nearly as possible to the world; bazaars, too often another name for illicit trading. The devil’s most prolific move is the secularizing of the things of God, tempting men to seek to possess the kingdoms of Christ by falling down and worshipping him. The disciple worker will not expect to find any "near cuts" to success, any more than his Master did, but will travel ever by the way of the Cross of Offence and the Resurrection of Power. The methods for the disciple are three­fold, as it seems to me. I. The example of the life, in all its details loyal to the Master; II. The influence exerted by the character that is perpetually growing in grace, by unbroken attention to the lessons of the Teacher, and the resultant incarnation of those lessons; III. The specific urging of the claims of Christ upon others, so that no day passes in which an effort is not made to win a soul for Christ, by word spoken, or written, or intercession with God. 3. The next point is a remarkable one, and we approach it reverently, yet without hesitation. The strength in which the Master accomplished His work is that by which we are to ac­complish ours. It is worthy of special note that Luke, whose second treatise is that which gives us the account of the coming of the Holy Ghost, and of His acts through the first disciples, very clearly marks for us our Lord’s dependence upon that same Spirit. In Luke 4:1, we see Him returning from Jordan "full of the Holy Spirit," and "led by the Spirit in the wilderness" From that wilderness experience He enters upon the work of His public ministry, and in Luke 4:14, we are told He did so "In the power of the Spirit;" and in the passage He read in the synagogue at Nazareth, He claims the anointing of the Spirit for service (Luke 4:18). So, full of the Spirit "He lived, and led of the Spirit" He went fearlessly through all the great conflicts of human nature, and "anoint­ed of the Spirit" He undertook all specific service. Before leaving His disciples, in those wonderful discourses John has recorded, He promised them that His Spirit should come "to be with them forever" (John 14:16), and that His mission should be to reveal to them the person and teaching of the Master (John 16:13-14). Thus, then, the disciple goes forth to his work in the self-same strength as that in which the Master Himself went forth to His. The only understanding I can ever have of the purpose of God comes by the revealing of the Holy Spirit, and the only force by which I can accom­plish anything is that of the self-same Spirit. What a glorious reserve of power there is in the Spirit filled life, and the Spirit-anointed worker. All life becomes part of the great Divine activity. Daily duties can no longer be drudgery, for every commonplace con­tribution to the day’s necessities is done, for the hour present, and for the ages to come, toward that great con­summation for which God works. Special forms of service have new meaning and new delight; for no word inspired of the Spirit returns void, and no work energized by Him is lost or worthless. 4. Of the issue of our work, few words need be said. Again there is identity with Christ. "If we endure, we shall also reign with him" (2 Timothy 2:12). If Christ ultimately fails, then the piece of work you did yesterday and are doing to-day will perish. If He accomplish all His great purpose, then nothing I have done toward His end, by His methods, in His strength, can be lost. There will be a gracious and searching day of testing, when Love will burn up the hay, the wood, the stubble, and purify, to the bright­ness of the very home of God, the gold and silver and precious stones. Let us, then, do better work by liv­ing nearer to the King, and know more fully the privilege and joy of service by a completer abandonment to Him. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 38: 04.09. THE DISCIPLE IN SORROW ======================================================================== IX THE DISCIPLE IN SORROW Yet sweeter even now to see Thy Face, To find Thee now my rest My sorrow comforted in Thine embrace And soothed upon Thy breast, Lord there to weep is better than the joy Of all the sons of men ; For there I know the love without alloy I cannot lose again. -H. Suso. SORROW is the common heritage of humanity. In all ages, in all lands, under all conditions, man feels pain, and suffers anguish. Is sorrow, then, a part of the original Divine intention for man? Does God take pleasure in human suffering in itself? Assuredly not. He who created without sorrow, will also wipe all tears away. And yet to-day sorrow is a Divine provision hav­ing an infinite meaning and exerting a marvellous influence. What Cowper sang is certainly true: "The path of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown; No traveler ever reached that blest abode, Who found not thorns and briars on his road." Sorrow came in the track of sin, not the companion and ally thereof but God’s quick messenger, a sense of loss, opening at once the door back to the heart and home of His love. Sorrow is a deep sense of loss, the consciousness of lack, the natural experience of a God-forsaken life. Had there been no dethronement of the King, there could have been no sorrow, for the whole being, still and quiet in Him, could have had no sense of loss. When man committed the act of high treason, by listening to a voice that called in question the love and wisdom of the Divine authority, there sprang up in that in­stance the first sense of lust, ennui=(boredum), hunger, and sorrow, and it took the form of a desire to know what God had not revealed. And when, following that desire, instead of returning then and there to allegiance man passed through the door, seeking liberty, he found himself in a great darkling void, without God, and yet possessed of a nature making demands perpetually that neither he himself nor any other could satisfy. Sorrow, then, is the result of sin, but it is the benevolent, tender, purposeful messenger of the Eternal Love, who cannot see His offspring lose all, with­out causing within them this sense of loss, and so ever by that means attract­ing them homeward. Carry out that view of sorrow, and see how wondrously the person and work of Jesus agree thereto. The prophet, long before He came, spoke of Him, "A man of sor­rows, and acquainted with grief," and further declared "Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." (Isaiah 53:3-4). Turning from that sacred forthtelling of the purpose of the Messiah’s coming to the historical account of His life, and work, I find the very heart and centre of it reached when on Calvary’s Cross He cried from the darkness into which He had passed, seeking that which was lost, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" That is the greatest sorrow of all, there in the person of Christ all humanity’s sorrow and anguish and tears are centred. That is the expression of all agony. Beyond that there is no sor­row. And that is also the great cry of humanity’s sin;- God dethroned by man; man forsaken by God. Beyond that there is nothing. So He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows in that awful hour when He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. There all the world’s sin is borne and its sorrow felt. After that-silence. Surely a stillness in heaven, on earth, in hell,-and then "it is fin­ished" from His lips, and He, the con­queror, died by "laying down" His life. Sin is put away, and sorrow is recalled. Righteousness commences her new reign and joy follows in her wake, the glorious possibilities of humanity are opened up, for Christ has lived and died, and lives forever now, and is a priest "after the power of an endless life" (Hebrews 7:16). Yet while in that Cross there was the rediscovery of God to man, and the rending of the veil for man’s return, and all of healing provided, the appro­priation of the purchased possession is, in the wisdom of God, secured by proc­esses that cover centuries in man’s measurement, and so sin is still here, and sorrow must therefore remain also. What, then, is the disciple’s relation thereto? 1. To the disciple the realm of sorrow has become circumscribed, and that in a large measure. The great sorrows of humanity are personal and self-centred. Some loss experienced, some injury inflicted, some disappoint­ment realized, these are the common causes of sorrow. In proportion as self is subdued and God enthroned in the life, this class of sorrows becomes obsolete. The soul finds its all in God in­creasingly, and so is able not merely to be resigned but to rejoice in denials as well as in blessings bestowed. Very slow we may be, even in the school of Jesus, but this is the growing experience of those who are learning of Him and are submissive to His teaching; and witnesses, to the fact that God fills all the gaps, and brings the heart into perfect rest, are not wanting, neither are they few. "The heart at leisure from itself "is a heart that has so learned of Jesus as to rejoice in exactly the circumstances that in the old life caused the keenest sense of sorrow. 2. From this is seen the Mission of Sorrow. It is ever a disciplinary force, drawing the heart more and more toward God, as it creates a sense of the hollowness and uncertainty of all that has been held most dear. How won­drously this is manifest in the life of the believer. Take two persons-one whose will is rebellious and whose heart is unregenerate, the other a disciple of Jesus-and let them pass through iden­tical experiences of bereavement, afflic­tion, failure, and disappointment. In the one case the spirit becomes embit­tered. and callous and the character de­generates; in the other gentleness, love, tenderness are the results, and the very face catches a new glory and beauty. The one defiantly faces sorrow, and looking upon God’s messenger as an enemy attempts to destroy or banish it, and so sinks into hardness and hatred; the other is drawn to the heart of God, and finds the very pain is but God’s fire for the destruction of dross, and so rises into that ineffable sweetness and love which is such a revelation of the power of the God of Love. 3. What, then, is the secret of this effect of sorrow upon the life of the dis­ciple? The companionship of Jesus. He who touched the inner heart of all the world’s agony is ever present, un­derstanding the very deep meaning of that pain, the absence of God, knowing that every form of anguish was ex­pressed in that great cry on the Cross, and then revealing Himself to whatever form of the need is present. In your darkest anguish, O believing heart, what healed you? Was it not that Christ said to you "I am just what you have lost, and infinitely more"? and as you said, "Yes, my Lord, Thou art," did not all the horizon kindle with a new light, and all the pain as quietly ease as by the magic of His own touch? 4. Looking back over our sorrows since we entered the school of Jesus, there is yet another truth to be recognized, and that is the fact of their trans­mutation. When the Master was about to leave His earliest disciples, He said to them of the keenest pain of the time - the thought of His departure-"Your sorrow shall be turned into joy" (John 16:20). And was it not so? They learned in the coming of the Paraclete how expedient it was for them that He should go away, and so His going their greatest grief-became to them, in His ascension. and the consequent coming of Himself, into nearer, dearer relation by the indwelling Spirit, their greatest joy. In that promise was there not a statement of the whole philosophy of pain to a believing, trusting heart? How perpetually sorrow is turned into joy. Mark-not the sorrow removed, and so joy coming, but the sorrow itself becoming the joy. Have we not all had such experiences? Can we not look back and see that some of the hours that throbbed with agony were the most blessed of all the hours of life? That personal affliction, that grave, that blighting disappointment, that lonely hour of desolation, would you omit it from life’s experience if you could? No, a thousand times, no. That afflic­tion was my door to strength, that grave the prelude to resurrection power, that disappointment my finding His appoint­ment, that lonely hour the one in which I found JESUS ONLY. And so I come to understand that sorrow means my ignorance, my limitation, and by faith I learn to triumph even in the hour of darkness, having learned that God’s hand arranges warp and woof, and the perfect pattern He knoweth, and for the unfolding of that I wait and sing. 5. The disciple enters a new realm of sorrow. Union with Christ means a measure of "the fellowship of His suf­ferings" (Php 3:10). "A heart at leisure from itself" is a heart to "soothe and sympathize." Free from the blight of sorrow, seeing my sorrows as His choicest gifts and leaving them ever with Him, I come to understand the awful needs of humanity, and I go to His cross to be in some measure a sharer of His suffering for others. Out of that compassion comes all service that really does anything for humanity. There may be much activity in the self-life, but it is little worth. In the death of self on the cross, the new pain begins, and so long as I remain here, the sorrow and sin of the world must press on my heart, for His life now holds and gov­erns it. And what is the end? Through all earth’s pain and anguish what is com­ing? Let a seer of the old and new covenants each answer:- Isaiah: "The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sigh­ing shall flee away" (Isaiah 35:10). John: "And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning nor crying, nor pain any more: the first things are passed away." Hallelujah. Amen. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 39: 04.10. THE DISCIPLE IN JOY ======================================================================== X THE DISCIPLE IN JOY My heart is resting, O my God, I will give thanks and sing; My heart is at the secret source Of every precious thing. -Anna L. Waring. WHEN Eliphaz the Temanite said "Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward" (Job 5:7) he gave utter­ance to a conclusion arrived at after careful observation of the common lot of man; he did not declare the birth to trouble to be an essential of human na­ture per se. Under existing conditions man is so born, but that is contrary to the original purpose of God for Him. The Divine intention is the joy, the happiness, of all men. Sorrow is an interpolation in the Divine plan, neces­sary and beneficent as we saw in our last chapter. Joy is the normal condi­tion of man, God’s highest work. Sad and sorrowful as the earth is to-day in all lands and climes, man’s capacity for joy is evinced in the fact that, in the vast majority of lives, there are more days of happiness than sorrow. In the face of overwhelming disaster in all the regions of his being, man has set him­self with indomitable courage to wrest happiness in some form out of his cir­cumstances, and to cry, "Begone dull care." Much of the so-called happi­ness of men is inexpressibly sad, and poor, and sinful, yet the fact remains that the great bulk of humanity has set itself to seek for happiness, and in that fact lies the proof that for joy man was at first constructed. Every form of en­joyment that man has devised for him­self is his attempt to reconstruct out of hopeless wreckage and ruin the glorious past. Heartbreaking is the picture, yet it is a lurid and appalling testimony to the magnificent possibili­ties of his being. The man with the muckrake, missing the true vision of glory and brightness in the crown held out to him, does nevertheless witness to his capacity for the crown by his dili­gent attempt to gather the glitter of a straw, the color of purple, the shimmer of tinsel. Following the argument that sorrow is a sense of loss, we say that joy is the true condition of God’s hu­manity, and that as sorrow entered with the loss of the sense of God, so joy is restored as man finds God. 1. The disciple restored to com­munion with God, is restored to the place of joy. That is a remarkable word which the apostle uses in writing to Timothy (1 Timothy 1:11) "The blessed God." It might correctly be translated "The happy God." It marks for us a great fact in the character of God. He is blessed for evermore, happy in the very essential of His nature. Creation complete, He saw it "very good;" and the "rest" of God was not recuperation after toil, but complacency, satisfaction, happiness in His work. The inspired seers of the past saw Him, and, though the surroundings of His throne were to them, clouds and darkness, their con­ception of Him was ever that of glory, beauty, strength, love, peace, happi­ness. When man fell, that very happiness of God was the movement toward man’s recovery. Read the closing words of Zephaniah’s prophecy (Zephaniah 3:14-20), especially noting the seventeenth verse: "He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love; HE WILL JOY OVER THEE WITH SINGING." What words can be more beautifully ex­pressive than these of His blessed­ness. When Jesus, the express image of the Father came, He gave us in many a graphic picture the same conception. The glad Father, the rejoicing shep­herd, the happy woman, all teach the same truth. In the great charta of the kingdom, He pronounces upon His dis­ciples the same character. "Blessed" here may be as correctly rendered "Happy," and so those who are His to­day, are restored to living communion with the "Happy God" and are thus themselves brought into the place where it becomes possible for them to obey the apostolic word, "Rejoice in the Lord alway: again I will say Rejoice" (Php 4:4). All human joy is tarnished by the presence of the element of fear and dread. Man cannot escape from the deepest facts of his own nature, and therefore in the midst of every form of pleasure there comes the unnamable, disturbing element of fear and appre­hension. This may be concisely stated by saying, no man has power to per­fectly enjoy the present who cannot look the future in the face with assur­ance. So long as the undiscoverable hour of death haunts the consciousness of man with a vague terror, every glad­ness may be blighted in a moment by the recurrence of thoughts which man would fain banish. I do not speak of low forms of enjoyment, but of high. Love, friendship, home, nature, art, music, all suggest to the unforgiven soul the awful possibility of cessation, and then the unknown to-morrow becomes the tarnish on all gold, the blight on all fruit, the spectre of all hours. The disciple in union with Christ has found the solution of all this mystery. He is at peace with the end, and so is free for the true enjoyment of the "now." Because "to live is Christ," "to die is gain," and because "to die is gain" life is worth living, for the spectre has been transformed into the gentle angel who stands ever at the portal of larger and more generous life. 2. Now, how does this effect the life of the disciple? This twofold fact, of communion with the blessed God and the consequent casting out of fear from the life, introduces into all pure human joy the element which perfects the same. The greatest of earth’s joy is in earth’s love. The ties of home and family, the communion of friend and lover, how im­measurably are these joys intensified to the believer. The union of two in mar­riage, based upon the law of supreme affection between two, when these are both united in Christ to God, how holy, and restful, and satisfying to the heart. The presence in the house of children, when they are recognized as gifts of the Eternal Love, to be nurtured for the King, what glorious and genial sunshine it is. The growth, and development, and success of these when the King’s laws are obeyed, what pure and full joy they bring. And then the other great avenues of enjoyment-nature in her thousand varying moods, art in its wondrous possibilities, music in its in­terpretation of pure thought and high enthusiasm, how the disciple enters all because in his relationship to Christ he holds the mystic key which admits him to their inner secrets. Surely every­where and at all times the anointed soul can see and hear, and touch, with keenness and precision such as is un­known apart from Christ. Never allow the enemy to suggest to you that dis­cipleship is the limitation of joy. It is the one condition of human life to-day that opens every door of human delight and permits man to walk in the splendid spaces perfectly at home in the happi­ness of the "Happy God." 3. The greatness of this joy overtakes and overwhelms all the sorrows that re­main to us. "How many children have you?" asked one of a Christian father. Hear the reply, "Seven-five live with me, and two with Jesus." Surely this was rejoicing in sorrow. Did he not miss the prattle of the tongues now si­lent, and the patter of the little feet? Assuredly he did from his own home, but he heard them still by faith in the palace home of God, and the joy of possessing some treasure of his very own there, was more than compensa­tion. The joy of sorrow lies, moreover, in the fact that it preludes and prepares for the joy beyond. Of our beloved Lord it is said" Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame," and that marks our glad pathway through all the dis­ciplinary sorrow of probationary days. To us on every sorrow falls the light of the joy beyond, and that not merely as compensation, but as result. So, while we are ofttimes "sorrowful" we are "yet always rejoicing." 4. In our last study we spoke of the new sorrow that comes to the disciple in communion with Christ-viz:-that of sympathy with all the sin, and sor­row of suffering humanity. Now, we must also recognize the new joy that springs out of service. To me it is difficult to speak or write of that joy. Have you ever led one soul to Christ? Then you know more than all words can teach you of the essence of real joy. To tell the evangel, to pray with the seeker, to travail in birth for souls, to see the breaking of the light of God, to find another passing to His kingdom, this is life and joy indeed. Paul, the great missionary, the man who so won­drously, in those days of suffering and peril, laid his whole being upon the altar of His Master’s cross for other’s blessing, could think of no greater joy in heaven than that of souls newborn through his toil and suffering. "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye before our Lord Jesus at His coming? For ye are our glory and our joy" (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20). And surely that joy is the Divine joy. It is over a redeemed peo­ple that God "joys with singing," and it is in the accomplishment of the great purposes of the Eternal Love, that the Master "shall see of the travail of His soul, and BE SATISFIED." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 40: 04.11. THE DISCIPLE GOING HOME ======================================================================== XI THE DISCIPLE GOING HOME Soon the whole, Like a parched scroll, Shall before my amazed sight uproll, And, without a screen, At one burst be seen The Presence wherein I have ever been. -Thomas Whytehead. WHEN Bernard of Cluny wrote "Brief life is here our portion" as the opening words of his great hymn, he penned a fact that is an abiding con­sciousness with men of all ages and every clime. The glory of the hope, and certainty of the faith which charac­terize that hymn, are beyond the ex­perience of thousands, but that first statement finds an affirmative echo in every heart, whenever and wherever sung. That life is passing, the number of our appointed years becoming smaller, by a perfectly quiet and orderly, yet irrevocable and absolutely unalterable sequence, every person knows full well. That the last year, the last break of day, the last moment will come; and moreover, that not a single one among the millions of the race now moving on toward the end can tell the year or day or hour of that end, these are solemn and self-evident truths. That end, called death, is at once the greatest certainty, and the greatest mystery of all. To the consciousness of the natural man there is no escape from it, and yet around it has gathered, for the thinkers of all ages, and the teachers of all systems, and for those also, the many, who will not think, and who seek no teachers, a great darkness and mystery, so that man naturally shrinks from it, and by every means in his power seeks to put off the day which is the last. Yet, as man strives to do this he knows how futile is the strife, and so, by a sort of common consent, unwritten and yet binding, man is en­deavoring by a forced forgetfulness to banish death and its awful dread. What then is the attitude of the disciple to-ward this fact of the onward movement of this present life toward an end? 1. The answer may be very briefly stated first as a matter of fact. The disciple dares contemplate that end; no longer shrinking from thought of it, he calmly faces it, questions it, smiles at it, and standing in its presence con­fronts it without fear or fainting. More than that, the disciple thus facing the end, from that very contemplation seems to catch a new radiance as of a light that never was on land or sea, his gaze into what the world has ever thought of as dark and mysterious, giving to his eye a brightness which tells of visions’ that add their lustre and their hope to all the experiences of the passing hour, so that to him, the contemplation of the end, instead of shadowing all the pleas­ures of the moment, fills the darkest day with light, and makes every hour of sorrow an occasion of rejoicing. To the truth of this the experience of the Master Himself, and the writers of the New Testament, and the followers of Jesus in each successive century bear unequivocal testimony. Let us confine ourselves to the experience of the Lord, and the testimony of New Testa­ment writers. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 12:2) gives us an in­spired and remarkable vision of our; Lord’s view of the end of His human life. He saw the "Cross" and "Shame," and "endured" the one, "despising" the other, for the "Joy" that was set before Him. Of course this has a much wider application, but it certainly con­tains this revelation of our Master’s view of the end of His life,-the dark­est and most mysterious end of all-that what bulked most largely on His vision was a "Joy" that lit the dark­ness, and negatived the "shame." The experience of the writers of the New Testament, as revealed in their writings, is on the same plane. Paul’s writings abound with such conceptions. "I reckon that the sufferings .... are not worthy to be compared with the glory ...." (Romans 8:18). "To die is gain" (Php 1:21). ".... My departure is come .... henceforth . . . . a crown" (2 Timothy 4:6-8). These passages should of course be read in their entirety, and they are but examples of many others, all reveal­ing the same truth. Peter, looking forward, speaks of "A living hope . . . . an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away" (1 Peter 1:8-9). James, lights up the darkness of trying circumstances with the thought of the end, saying "Be patient . . . . until the coming of the Lord" (1 Peter 5:7). John, exulting in pres­ent blessedness, views the end, and from the vision gathers new hope and purifying power "Beloved, now are we children of God . . . . we shall be like Him" (1 John 3:2). Jude sees be­yond the present period of growth one of perfection "Him that is able . . . . to set you before the presence of His glory, without blemish" (1 John 3:24). To this strong, courageous, and victo­rious outlook of the earliest saints may be added the testimony of the disciples of all the ages. 2. So far we have made a statement only. Let us now endeavor to under­stand this attitude of the Lord and His disciples. There are two statements of the New Testament, which are so re­markable on account of their clear un­mistakable meaning, that we will con­sider them only, as being sufficient to account for all we have said. The first is contained in the words of Jesus Him­self to Martha at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:26). Let us in all simplicity and straightforwardness read these words "Whosoever . . . . believeth in Me SHALL NEVER DIE." The other is a statement by Paul (2 Timothy 1:10). ". . . . Our Saviour Jesus Christ, Who ABOLISHED DEATH." Nothing can be simpler or more force­ful. Our Lord, speaking to Martha meant just what the words convey in our translation, that to the soul believ­ing on Him there is no dying. Death is not to that soul what it seems to humanity at large. The life that one already lives, is the very life of God and eternity, and there is no death. That is precisely the thought of Paul. The word "ABOLISHED" literally means rendered entirely useless, robbed of its power to act. 3. How has this been brought about, and how are the disciples of Jesus able to appropriate the stupendous miracle as an experience? On the day of Pen­tecost, Peter declared the fact of the resurrection of Jesus, not only to be the work of God, but to have been an absolute necessity by virtue of what Jesus was in Himself (Acts 2:24). "Whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death, because IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE THAT HE SHOULD BE HOLDEN OF IT." So much for the reason of the Master’s own view of the future. Now read Hebrews 2:14-15. "Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." There we see how through His death He has given us victory over death, and taken from us its fear. Before He left His disciples He made that great declaration, "Be­cause I live, ye shall live also" (John 14:19). Therefore we are brought into the place of His victorious life, through the overcoming of His victo­rious death. If then He has abolished death, what now remains? It is still certain that these probationary days will end, this life of limitation and testing come to a conclusion, all this changing scene pass away, and still it is true that the end is not known as to its time. Wherein do we differ then, as disciples of Jesus, from the crowd? In this, that instead of death being the end, HE Himself stands waiting for us and ever approaches us, and whether we are among the number of those "that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord," or "them that are fallen asleep," still the end of the present is Himself, for to sleep is just to be "absent from the body, at home with the. Lord," not to die, and to remain to His coming is just to "meet the Lord in the air." So when evening comes to the disciple and he turns his back upon the glories of the western sky and faces the east, it is not cold, and dark, and cheerless, but full of light, for the sun fills all the horizon, and so to the child of trust "There is no night." Disciples then are not called upon to prepare for death, but for HIM, and that hope purifies, refines, illumines all the hours with the radiance of the Eternal Day. We cannot fear death then, for to us all is changed. The end has become the beginning, mystery is transformed into the vestibule of reve­lation, rest from labor is entry upon highest work, and at eventide there is the light of the Eternal morning in which is the disciple’s home. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 41: 04.12. THE DISCIPLE IN GLORY ======================================================================== XII THE DISCIPLE IN GLORY Bear me on thy rapid wing Everlasting Spirit, Where the choirs of angels sing And the saints inherit. -Anon. How little we know, comparatively, of the hereafter. "Life and incorrup­tion have been brought to light" in the Gospel of Jesus, and death has been transformed from a foe to a friend, but the Revelation is characterized by its silence with regard to the future rather than by its declarations. It is as though God would not draw men toward righteousness either by threatened pun­ishment, or promised reward. Enough, however, has been said to give us to understand the terrors of being lost, and the blessedness of being saved. Of the occupation of the disciple of Jesus in that life that lies beyond, more has been said than appears on the surface. There is one passage of Scrip­ture which is constantly being half-quoted, or quoted from the Old Testa­ment, when surely we should quote it with Paul’s expository word. Let us examine this. (Isaiah 64:4). "For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him." Now to whatever that may refer, Paul writing to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) dis­tinctly goes on to say that these hidden things are revealed to us by the Spirit, and yet this quotation is used almost invariably to prove that we can know nothing of the future of the blessed. Again, let closer attention be given to these passages and the correct and much more beautiful rendering of the Revised Version be accepted, and it will at once be discovered that there is no reference whatever either by Isaiah, or by Paul’s use of Isaiah’s words to the future life. Both are referring to the wonders of the wonder-working God in the progress of events which men could not perceive or hear, save by the spirit of God, who revealed them in due time to those who waited for Him. That men did not see the working of GOD in history, witness the attitude of the disciples of Jesus, until the Holy Spirit came and illuminated that history. This is the broad principle of the teaching of the passages, and it may be applied to the case now under consid­eration. To the casual, unenlightened reader the Scripture says very little of the future. To the Spirit-taught it says far more than we can comprehend, and the purpose of this chapter is to indicate the lines of that teaching rather than to attempt to exhaust the great theme. In our first ten divisions we have dealt with the disciple in his probationary life. That is by far, and of necessity, the smaller part of his ex­istence. Probation is of the greatest importance, but it ever presupposes something far more important stretch­ing out beyond, and the great fact of discipleship is, that it is a process of preparation of one who is not a citizen of the earth, of one whose home and place of service lie out beyond the shadows that seem to bound the vision to-day. In our last chapter we have seen him meeting the Master at the end of probation. May we now close this study by very reverently looking within the veil, so far as it has been lifted, at the occupation and final destiny of those, who through all this gracious discipline have been so patiently trained by the greatest of all, nay, the only Teacher of humanity. 1. The abolishing of death makes it perfectly certain that there can be no unconscious gap in the existence of the believer. What we have too constantly spoken of as death, by virtue of its be­ing the meeting of the disciple and his Lord-without the limitations of mater­ial trammels, which are always in some sense a clog to the development of the Spirit life-in that state where faith is lost in sight, and hope in full fruition dies, becomes clearer, fuller conscious­ness. The phrases of the New Testa­ment which describe that state give us most suggestive and valuable teaching concerning it. Let us take two of these, both from the writings of Paul. I. 2 Corinthians 5:8. "Absent from the body . . . . at home with the Lord." The use of the phrase "at home," in­stead of the word "present" as in the authorized version, is necessary to ensure consistency of translation for the whole passage, as it is the same word translated "at home" in 2 Corinthians 5:6. What a perfect and beautiful thought of the first consciousness of the dis­ciple in that larger life. "At home." The word analyzed conveys the idea of being among one’s own people, and that is the true thought. We move in that gracious transition into the condition of being perfectly at rest in the Lord’s presence. In all the high spiritual as­pects of our life, we have been strang­ers here. There we shall be "at home." Here our relationships have been those of sojourners in tents, strangers, and our sense of the Lord’s presence, blessed as it has been, compared to what it will be then, has been partial, limited. There we shall fit in to all the conditions toward which He has led us and for which He has trained us, and so there we shall first fully comprehend the meaning of much of the training of to-day. Oh the luxury of it. Only those who have been away from their earthly homes for awhile know how in­tensely sweet is the sense of being "at home" again. The one atmosphere in which there is freedom from the sense of disquietude and unrest. And yet more marvellous is the grace of it. The "at home" just beyond the shadows is "with the Lord." That I, who feared and shunned, and alas, slighted and contemned Him, am at last to be "at home" with Him passes all telling in its evidence of His great grace. II. Php 1:23. "To depart, and be with Christ." This word to depart is undoubtedly used here in the sense of loosing a ship from its moorings, and so Tennyson repeated the Pauline con­ception when he wrote, "And let there be no moaning of the bar When I put out to sea, And may there be no sadness of farewell When I embark." What then is this embarking and unloosing? Do I drift into unconscious­ness for a season? No, I am with Christ. " I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar." Note the immediateness of it. Dr. Moule says, "Not a space, but a mathe­matical line, divides the state of faith this side death from the state of sight that side." So then the first conscious­ness of the disciple in the New Life is that of the Master in clear and un­clouded vision. 2. What then is the present condition and occupation of those who have de­parted? Between the time of their leaving this scene, and the morning of the Resurrection there is an interval. It is an interval of incompleteness, for as yet they have not received their Resurrection bodies. We have already seen that this interval is spent in a closer connection with, and clearer vision of Christ. The nature of the oc­cupation is the subject of our considera­tion now. In the closing words of Hebrews 11:39-40, a great principle is declared with regard to those who have gone before. Its ap­plication by the writer of this Epistle is to that great company of the heroes and heroines of faith of whom he has been speaking. It may also safely be applied to all those who in this Chris­tian Era have fallen on sleep or will do so. "That apart from us they should not be made perfect." In this applica­tion of the passage we are to under­stand that the perfecting of the dis­ciples will only be when the Lord gathers to Himself the whole company of them. The occupation therefore of those who thus wait, in blessedness, for the end of the age, and the gathering into the glory of the whole Church of Christ may be gathered by a line of reasoning to the correctness of which Scripture itself bears testimony. They are closer to Christ, and there­fore their understanding of His work and service must be much clearer. This better knowledge must necessarily pro­duce a deeper sympathy. The first propulsion of the Christ-life in the soul of the regenerate on earth was a movement of compassion toward the souls for whom He died, and an act of service on their behalf in some definite form or other. Now that their posses­sion by Christ is so much more com­plete, it surely follows that their love for those whom He so wondrously loves, is far more intense. Can we possibly think of them as having this deeper love and yet being inactive? Assuredly not. The things that interest and oc­cupy Him, must interest and occupy them supremely; and so we can only think of them as raised into a region of higher service within the same great redemptive circle in which they moved while still on the earth. I give it as my firm conviction that all our loved ones gone before, are serving the cause of the work and purpose of God among men in a better way than they ever did while sojourners here below. Does not this view light up for us many dark events in our own lives? Those, whom God has wondrously blessed here, and then suddenly called away just when we were feeling they could not be spared, have not ceased their work as we thought, but have been promoted to some higher place and work. To this view of the occupation of the departed that word of (Revelation 14:13) agrees. "That they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them." The immediate application is to the number of the saints who will suffer martyrdom in a subsequent era, but the truth has a present application as well, and the inner teaching may perhaps best be gathered by a paraphrase, the result of a careful analysis of the words actually used: "They rest from that toil which is painful and reduces the strength, but their works, their activities, accompany them." That is to say their activity does not cease, but only that form of it which brings weariness and suffering, and so we think of beloved servants of God, singers, teachers, preachers, sud­denly, and to all human seeming prematurely removed from earth, no longer as beyond the province of redemptive service, but as more than ever fully oc­cupied in clearer light and fuller oppor­tunity. 3. This condition of incompleteness, for them and for us, will end when "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). It is there that the Church will be gathered into one complete and conscious whole, " Some from earth, from glory some, Severed only Till He Come." and so He will "present the Church to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27). That will be an event of the utmost importance as we shall now see in its bearing on the future. 4. That surely is finality. No, every­thing lies beyond that in the vocation of the Church. All to that point in the history of individual disciples and of the whole Church has been prepar­atory. It is then that the Church is ready to begin her great mission in the purpose and counsel of God. The let­ter to the Ephesians is specially occu­pied in dealing with this great and stupendous fact. The first three chap­ters deal with the vocation in itself, and the remainder make application of the fact of that calling to all the de­tailed life of the believer in view thereof, while yet in this place of prep­aration and discipline. Let us then in concluding this study on Discipleship, very reverently read the words in the first three chapters of that Epistle which light up for us the great future. (Ephesians 1:18). In this verse occurs a phrase full of suggestiveness, and lead­ing to the statements which follow. "The riches of the glory of His inher­itance in the Saints." That our inher­itance is in Him, it is easy for us to un­derstand, but we are at once arrested by the statement that He has an inher­itance in us. And ye that is the fact. God has an inheritance in His people, and Paul’s prayer is that these Ephesian Christians may have "the eyes of their heart enlightened, that they may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His inherit­ance in the Saints, and what the ex­ceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe" The "calling" of God is the vocation of the Church. As the Church fulfils that vocation, God will enter into His inheritance in her. This will be realized by the power "which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead." In the paragraphs which follow, Paul proceeds to deal with the final purpose of God, and with the process by which this will be achieved. We are now interested only in that final purpose, in the fulfilling of which God will Himself possess His inheritance in His people, and so we take the three verses which de­clare it. (Ephesians 2:7). "That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." The phrase "in the ages to come" has reference to the ages of the Eternal future. What future dispensations there may be, and what the movement of the ages none can tell but God Himself. Whatever these may be, the Church is to be the medium of shewing forth therein "the riches of His grace." "When those ages are to learn the love of God’s heart they are to do so by the testi­mony borne by the ransomed Church to His "kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Our vocation then contains within it the mission of shewing to the ages yet unborn that love of God which He has exhibited to us in Jesus. (Ephesians 3:10.) ". . . . Now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the Church the manifold wis­dom of God." This reveals another phase of vocation. The Church is to reveal to the unfallen intelligences, the principalities and powers of the heaven-lies the manifold wisdom of God. These shining ones whose glories so far exceed anything of which we have dreamed, whose powers of comprehension are so wondrous, will only know through the revelation of the Church, in all its ful­ness the manifold wisdom of God. (Ephesians 3:21.) "Unto. Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations forever and ever." Briefly stated then, the vocation of the Church, beyond all the preparation of this life, beyond that intermediate state in which some now are, in that time when the Church shall be completed and com­plete, is to reveal the grace and wisdom of God to the beings of other dwelling places, the high unfallen ones of the heavenlies, and that not to one age only, but to the ages of the ages as they are known only to the mind of God. In all eternity that great "Now" of God embracing our "past" and "future," there has been no such proof of the grace of His heart and the wisdom of His workings as that of the ransoming and uplifting in spotless purity of fallen man, and those so ransomed and up­lifted are to be the witnesses to the great future of intelligence concerning wondrous and overwhelming truths. What an enormous range of possibility does this view of the Church’s future open up before our vision. Our finite surroundings make it impossible for us to comprehend all the infinite spaces that appear only to us as blue sky, or darkling night. What worlds are there, what high forms of pure spirits, what spaces still beyond, and what yet deeper spheres of habitable places. Thought is bewildered at the daring of its own flight. Then what changes and move­ments among all these in the procession of the ages. Remember that to these worlds and these beings and these ages we are to be the messengers of the grace and wisdom and glory of God. In that view the future loses its sense of dread, and one looks on to the new opportuni­ties for art, and music, and poetry, and above all perchance of preaching, that are coming to the ransomed ones when the discipline of time is merged into the fitness of eternity, with reverent and holy desire. Some one may say that is pure imagining. Well it certainly is imagination well within the limit of the possibilities of these words of the apostle, who had been caught up into the third heaven and had seen things unutterable. Mark how he closes this section. (Ephesians 3:20-21.) "Now unto Him that is able TO DO exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or THINK, accord­ing to the power that worketh in us, unto Him, be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for­ever and ever." So that the wildest flights of thought are far short of the possibilities of what God is able "to do." This is but a faint glimpse then of the glory of which Paul said "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed to usward" (Romans 8:18), but it is enough to turn the heart of the disciple with fuller purpose of consecration to that Beloved. One who with a perfect knowledge of that future, too splendid yet for our comprehension, is teaching and training us ever with that in view. How better can we close this contem­plation of discipleship, in its beginning, progress and consummation, than in the words of Paul to these Ephesians (Ephesians 4:1). "I therefore . . . . beseech you to walk worthy of the VOCATION wherewith ye were called." THE END ======================================================================== CHAPTER 42: 05.0.0. EVANGELISM ======================================================================== EVANGELISM by G. Campbell Morgan ======================================================================== CHAPTER 43: 05.0.1. CONTENTS ======================================================================== Contents 1. The Evangel 2. The Church Evangelistic 3. The Evangelist 4. The Evangelistic Service 5. The Present Opportunity ======================================================================== CHAPTER 44: 05.01. THE EVANGEL ======================================================================== 1 The Evangel The hour is characterized by renewed interest in evangelistic work. Men of all shades of opinion, and men who do not seem to have very profound opinions of any sort, are nevertheless turning their attention towards the great subject of evangelism. I suppose there are a few people in the Christian Church who have no particular interest in the subject. All I can say of such is, that they are living in the mental mood of at least ten years ago. A new interest in evangelistic work is manifesting itself in different ways. Some people are giving themselves to prayer, that God will give us “an old-fashioned revival.” On the other hand, a great many people, equally devoted and sincere, yet who are out of harmony with what they speak of as the older methods of theological thinking, are nevertheless looking for some visitation. These, instead of praying for an old-fashioned revival are attempting to forecast the lines of what they call “the new evangelism.” Now I do not want to be unkindly critical, for I am profoundly conscious that the underlying fact in each case is of supreme value, but I would never pray for an old-fashioned revival, nor would I attempt to forecast the lines of a new evangelism. But why not pray for an old-fashioned revival? Because I want God’s next new thing. Then why not forecast the lines of a new evangelism? Because one evangel is enough for all time. If a man is praying for an old-fashioned revival, in all probability when God’s visitation comes, he will not be conscious of it. I can quite imagine how forty years ago, men remembering the marvelous movement under Finney, might have prayed for an old-fashioned revival such as that which accompanied his preaching. Then it is more than likely that when God raised up Dwight Lyman Moody, such men would be out of sympathy with all his methods for a long while, for the notes of the two movements were utterly different. Or to go back still further before the great awakening under Finney, perhaps some prayed for an old-fashioned revival, like that under Wesley and Whitefield. If so, they almost certainly lacked sympathy with the new notes at first. God fulfills Himself in many ways. In every new awakening there are fresh manifestations of God, new unfoldings of truth meeting the requirements of the age. The evangel is always fresh as the break of day, and yet as old as the continuity of day-break through the ages. We ought to be so living that when God begins His great triumphant march, we shall fall in with the first battalion, and have part in the first victories. It is equally false to speak of a new evangelism, because there is to be no new evangel. When I read what that very brilliant, and very devoted Christian man, Dr. John Watson, says the lines of the new evangelism are to be, I am in agreement with all he does say, and out of agreement in that there are things he does not say. All he says is true. But there are important things he omits. The next great movement will have within it the notes of the social and the ethical. But there will not be omitted from it the notes of blood redemption, and spiritual regeneration. These are the truths we have to keep in mind. When I hear of men speaking of a new evangelism, it is well to ask their definition of the term evangelism. When I see that Mr. B. Fay Mills has gone out into evangelistic work the first impulse of the heart is to rejoice. But when I find that he is simply preaching a doctrine of a social kingdom, without insistence upon the necessity for regeneration, then it is time we declare our separation. To say that the new evangelism is to be ethical, and by that to seem to criticise the old, is to prove a misunderstanding of the old, and also a misunderstanding of the deepest necessity of the times in which we live and serve. When a man tells me the next revival will be ethical, does he mean to say that the last was not? If the great movements under Wesley, Whitefield, Finney, Moody were not ethical, what were they? They were movements that took hold of vast masses of men, and moved them out of back streets into front ones, and if that was not ethical, surely nothing can be so. Beginning with the regeneration of the man, they changed his environment, and made him a citizen of whom any city might have been proud. That is the true ethical note. In approaching a constructive statement concerning the evangel, I must ask you to take two things for granted: first, the finality of Christianity; and secondly, that the New Testament is the authoritative interpretation thereof. By the finality of Christianity I mean that the writer of the letter to the Hebrews is correct in his estimate as declared in his opening sentences. God speaks to man. He has spoken to men in the past in divers portions, and in divers manners. All the messages of prophets, seers, and psalmists, of rites, ceremonies, and symbols were but broken lights of essential truth. But He has spoken unto us by His Son, and He has no more to say to men than He has said in Jesus Christ. That does not mean for a single moment that we have perfectly understood the message of the Son yet. I believe that there is more light and truth to break out from the words of Jesus, and from the fact of Christ in the world, than men have ever seen. But God has said everything He has to say, and any new so-called revelation in conflict with that spoken by God in His Son is thereby proven to be not of the Spirit of God, but from beneath and of the devil. In the second place it must also be accepted that the New Testament is the authoritative interpretation of Christianity. I hear a good deal today about the Christian consciousness as the true court of appeal in matters of faith and practice. I am searching for that Christian consciousness. Is it that of the Pope, or my own? Is it consensus of opinion? Then where shall I find it expressed? I decline to accept it as expressed in any creed. Where then is it? The fact is that the Christian consciousness is a variable quantity according to differing experiences, and is therefore wholly unreliable as a criterion of creed or character or conduct. The Christian consciousness must ever be judged by a standard, and that is to be found in the New Testament. If you once take away the New Testament as the final court of appeal in matters of faith and practice, you will lose the Christian consciousness in half a century. It has been done once. The New Testament was lost to the churches in the dark ages. Then Luther arose, and following the restoration of the New Testament there came back the Christian consciousness. The court of appeal is the New Testament. What is the Christian evangel? There is a preliminary question which I shall first attempt to answer. What is an evangel? This word evangel has come to us from the Latin evangelium, which simply means a gospel, for the word was introduced to the language during the ecclesiastical period. So we must pass back behind this word as it came to us from the Latin, and find it as it stands upon the pages of our Greek Testament. There it simply means a good message. A good message! There is no note of sadness in an evangel. There is not a tone of terror in an evangel. An evangel is good news. An evangel is a good message. In the New Testament the thought is invariably that of glad tidings, of good news, of a message that ought to fill the hearts of those who hear it with hope and gladness and joy. The word, and cognate words, are used by the writers of the New Testament who deal specially with the subject of the work of Christ in its first application to the needs of men. And these words are singularly absent from those writings which deal with the deeper truths of Christian experience. Take the Gospels, which we speak of as synoptic, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and you will find the words recurring all the way through, evangel, or evangelist, or some cognate word. But in the Gospel of John, the word is never used simply because the Gospel of John deals with the mystery of Christ’s Person, and this can only be appreciated by those born again. The evangel is the wicket gate of the kingdom. So also with the other writings. Paul, and Peter in his first epistle, and the writer of the letter to the Hebrews have these words, and this because they are in all these writings dealing with the initial facts. But they are signally absent from the writings of John and James and Jude, and the second letter of Peter. All this indicates the principal thought of evangelism, and the value of the word as it lies in the New Testament. The evangel is not denunciatory of sin. It is not pronunciatory of punishment. It is annunciatory of salvation. That is its great value. This is not to say that the preacher will not have to discuss the subject of sin, will not have to proclaim the punishment of sin. But it is to say that the preacher who deals with and denounces sin, will never end his message with such denunciation. He proclaims God’s evangel when he announces the fact that Christ is able to save from sin, and consequently from its penalty. So also the evangelist may have, and indeed will have to deal with the severer aspects of truth. He will have to tell men that to such as have heard the evangel, to such as have been confronted with the claims of Jesus Christ, there can be no escape if they turn their back upon that which is God’s uttermost in the way of saving men. But he will never proclaim that alone. He must super-add the great and glorious and hopeful declaration that their sins were borne by the One Who hung on the tree, and being so borne, in the infinite mercy and justice of God they may go free. An evangel, therefore, is good news to such as need it. Joy is in it, the note of hope, of optimism. It comes to a man in the darkness, and brings him light. It comes to a man in bondage, and announces the way of escape. It comes to a man under the sentence of death, and tells him that the sentence has been remitted. What then is the Christian evangel as revealed to us in the New Testament? It has four essential notes. The first is that of a vision; the second, that of a value; the third, that of a virtue; and the fourth, that of a victory. The evangel proclaims first, the Lordship of Christ; secondly, the Cross of Christ; thirdly, the resurrection of Christ; and finally an indwelling Christ by the Holy Spirit. First, the Lordship of Jesus. Now you may say to me, But have you put these in their right order? Is it not true that the first business of the evangel is to preach the Cross of Christ? I do not think so. I believe that the first note of the true evangel is that of announcing to men the Lordship of Christ. I am quite willing to grant you that very largely that has been omitted from much evangelistic preaching which has been blessed by God, and yet I am profoundly convinced that the evangelist who is going to take hold of the masses must return to the old apostolic method of preaching Jesus as Lord first. But it may be objected He cannot be Lord of a man’s life until the man is saved. Quite true, but the vast majority of people will never begin to feel their need of His salvation until they have been brought to stand in the light of the claim of His Lordship, and so I insist upon the putting of this first. This was the apostolic method. In Acts 2:1-47 we have the first sermon preached in the power of the outpoured Spirit, which is a perfect pattern for true Christian homiletics to the end of time. It is from first to last an appeal to the men who were listening. Peter was not preaching in front of the people and wondering whether they would like it. He was preaching to them. And the difference between the preaching that does nothing and the preaching that does something is the difference between preaching before people, and preaching to people. Let us look at its structure. It has two divisions. First, “This is that.” Secondly, “He hath shed forth this.” “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel,” the present manifestation set in its relation to old time prophesying. This day of Pentecost is the fulfillment of the past. “He hath shed forth this.” The past was fulfilled through Jesus. He was the centre, and heart, and life of the first sermon. And the final word of the sermon, to which everything led up was, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus Whom ye crucified. Thus on the day of Pentecost Peter was proclaiming the Lordship of Christ. Confronting blind belief, and flippant scepticism, and idle curiosity, and surging sorrow, and blinding sin, and masterful passion, and everything else, he said “Jesus is Lord.” That was the first note. The evangelist, therefore, has first to confront this age and say to it, There is one King, one Lord, one Master, one seat of authority, one tribunal to which men may make their appeal. One Who upholds in His hands the balance of justice, from Whose verdict there can be no appeal, and Who is at this moment the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not a small theme. Start in to preach that, and you will find you will not finish it next Sunday morning; no, nor in a month’s sermons. Buddha and Confucius will have a great rest, and Browning and Tennyson and all the others with their rush lights will not allure you from the great essential light, the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We have not merely to claim that Jesus is Lord, but we have to demonstrate that He is Lord. We have to show to this age in the light of a new century, with all its advance, and progress, and civilization, that Jesus Christ is Lord not merely because God has appointed Him King—though that is true—but because of His inherent royalty. God did not appoint Jesus to Kingship capriciously. He appointed Him to Kingship because He is King in the very fibre of His nature, in the very fact of His personality. We challenge the world today, and we say that the Jesus of the New Testament, the Jesus of the virgin birth, the virtuous life, the vicarious dying, and the victorious resurrection, stands amid this age, with all its fierce light, its boasted civilization, and its new psychology, facile princeps, the crowned Lord because of the supernal glory of His own character. But you tell me that these things are not authentic, that you have abandoned the Gospel of John, that Matthew and Mark and Luke are not to be trusted, and that in all probability that Man never existed. Very well. Then my business is to find the man who imagined this Man, for the man who imagined Him must be as great as the Man imagined. You do not get away from the Person revealed when you think you have done away with the books. He stands out in the midst of this age, our Master and Lord, and there never has been one like Him. And you and I have to tell men to test all sides of their nature by Jesus Christ. They have to bring up to His royalty their intellect, their emotion, their will. They have to test their creed, their character, their conduct by Him. He has moved into this new century with all its electric gaudiness, with the supernal loveliness of the King of men. And no man dare come into the presence of the Man of Nazareth revealed in the Gospels, and say, I am mightier or better than Thou, or, I know more than Thou knowest, O Man of Nazareth. He is the Lord of men, and our business is to proclaim it, to insist upon it, to die for it if need be. But if you stop there you are not preaching the Gospel. See what follows. If Jesus is indeed preached as Lord, there must always be as the issue of it an application of the truth to individual needs. No man ever yet stood searched by the light of that revelation of life without having to bow his head with shame, and say, I am a sinner. To preach the living Lordship of Christ is to create the necessity for His Cross. Do we sufficiently realize this? If I said that the first note of the evangel is the Lordship of Christ, I am quite willing to grant that the heart of the evangel is the Cross. This age is peculiarly characterized by a loose sense of sin amongst men. We have today to preach to people who are not really willing to admit that they are sinners: pleasant, refined, cultured people, whom we hardly feel inclined to tell that they are sinners, and who, if we did, would not feel quite like believing it. There are people who will never have any consciousness of sin as long as we keep them at Mount Sinai. But there is not a man but that, if you bring him into the presence of Jesus Christ, and say That is your King, His law is your standard, His realization of life is your ideal, will go down in the presence of that and will say, I am a sinner. I have the profoundest sympathy for the young man in the Gospel who said, “All these things have I kept from my youth up.” I was born in a Christian family, and through that gracious fact—never to be undervalued—was strangely and wonderfully delivered from many of the more vulgar methods of sin, and I want to say to you, in all honesty, and all sincerity, I never trembled when I heard the law of Moses. But when I came into the presence of the radiant loveliness of Christ, when I heard his teaching, when I saw His perfection, then I said, If that is what I ought to be, O my God, how have I sinned! I stand in the presence of an external ethical code such as that of Moses, and I do not tremble. But whenever I come near the Incarnate Purity, into the presence of the Incarnate Love, I am ashamed, debased, bowed in the dust. Brethren, we must preach Christ as Lord, and there will come to our people a sense of sin, a consciousness of inability, of failure, of breakdown. There is no other way of bringing men into this consciousness. Then, thank God, we have the next note of the evangel. Oh, how shall we tell it? May God keep us living so near to it that it shall always be to us an element of astonishment! Were the whole realm of Nature mine, That were a present far too small, Love so amazing, so Divine, Demands my life, my soul, my all. “Love so amazing!” Are we amazed at that Love? Are we astonished at that Love? Think of it, that ideally perfect One, that infinite Lord and Master, went down to death. If you are only preaching His Lordship, that is not enough. If all you have to preach to men is His example, that is not enough. Unless there is all that the New Testament claims there is in that death, then that death is the severest reflection upon the goodness of God that the world has ever seen. Unless there is a meaning in it, such as the New Testament declares to be in it, then in the presence of the Cross, I lose my faith in God. If death is simply the tragic ending of so beautiful a life, and nothing more, then God has done nothing when He ought to have done something. But when I take the New Testament, and see what Christ says about His own death, and what the inspired writers of the New Testament say, and when there comes superadded to the Christ’s estimate and the estimate of the apostles, the answer of my heart to the inner meaning of the Cross, then I know that the Cross is the heart and centre of a great evangel. We are to tell men we fail, but the One Who never failed took our place. You cannot get away from the words vicarious atonement. The Cross is supremely the heart and centre of our great evangel. But I am told today that there are men so cultured and refined that they do not care to talk about blood; men who cut out from the singing of the Church such hymns as, “There is a fountain filled with blood,” who object to sing, Not all the blood of beasts. Why do you object to those things? You say they lack refinement? Refinement! Do you go to the Cross for refinement? You go to the Cross to see what sin is. Is blood objectionable? Of course it is. Is the brutal murder of a perfect man awful? Certainly it is. But why was it necessary? Because of sin. Sin is not refined, and I come to the Cross to know the meaning of my own sin. I find my sin when I stand in the presence of the light of the Cross. But I never know its meaning until I see the Lord Christ crucified. Certainly there is no refinement in it. We must get back to the Cross to know all its ruggedness, to know all its brutality, its blood-baptism. It is only there that the heart finds the conscience cleaned. I am going to put this superlatively. I am talking out of my deepest conviction when I say that if God would forgive me without the Cross then I never can be satisfied with His forgiveness. My own conscience is not at rest. There is that sin in the past, and if God says, I will forgive on the basis of pity, that is not enough, for it is there still. But when God says to me, It is not there, He, the Son of My love took it. He in Whom was no sin, was made sin, and in the passion of His death, in the agony of His baptism, in the blood of the brutal Cross, all of which had no place in His life, He was dealing with your sin, then my heart begins its song, the song that will never end while eternity lasts. My conscience demands this Cross, and God answers that deepest human consciousness of mine, which He Himself had made. We must be very suspicious of any new evangel that has no Cross in it. There is yet another thing, and I am trying to trace them as they come in the order of experience. A man stands erect until he sees the vision of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then he is afraid until he sees the value of the Cross of Christ, and he says, I am a sinner forgiven. Now what else? I have to live in the same place, in the midst of circumstances against me, suffering the same temptations, still within the midst of forces which will entice me to sin, though I am forgiven. Then we must preach the value of the resurrection, that He “brought life and immortality to light,” that men may have life, not merely eternal life, but life as a force and virtue, a power and possibility in the life. I like my Lord’s words better than any other, “I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly … I lay down My life for the sheep” and if I “lay it down,” I will “take it again.” And that is what He did, He laid it down in death, and took it again in resurrection. If righteousness is imputed to me because He died for me, holiness and a new righteousness are imparted to me because He lives in me. And that is the great message we have to bear to men today. There are thousands of men who will hardly thank you for the doctrine of forgiveness unless you can tell them there is salvation from the slavery of sin. And yet once again. A man will say, I saw the vision, and I knew I was a sinner. I have received the value and am forgiven by the Cross. There has been imparted to me its virtues, and I am enabled to do the things I could not do. But what other forces are there? Must I fight this battle alone? And there comes the crowning declaration of the evangel, never to be put off as a second subject, as a second blessing, or anything else. Right here in line is the coming to man of Jesus by the Holy Spirit, that Spirit to be the Paraclete, the Advocate, the One Who in the life is the dynamic, the force that shall produce the coming victory in the man. What then shall I say to the men to whom I preach the evangel? One thing only, Submit to the Lord Christ. And if a man do that what then? Then the Lord Christ by the Holy Spirit will make over to him the value of His dying, will communicate to him the virtue of His living, will pour into him the victory of the indwelling Spirit. These three things are the necessary consequence of the submission of life to His Lordship. Men will not be saved by understanding the atonement. Men will not be saved by explaining the mystery of resurrection. Men will not be saved by explanation of the mystery of how the Spirit comes. They will just be saved by yielding to the Lord Christ. In the moment of yielding, He makes over to them all the virtues and values. I have attempted to speak of the New Testament evangel. Let me close by saying, the evangel is the only one that meets the essential needs of human nature in any age. It is ageless. You cannot say it is old or new. It must be zealously guarded from addition or subtraction. To add conditions to the evangel of the New Testament, or to curtail it, is to make it valueless and vicious. To deprive the evangel of any note is to make it inoperative. If you are preaching an evangel with no vision of the Lord Christ, it is emasculated. If you are preaching an evangel without the value of His death, it is ænemic. If you are preaching an evangel with no virtue in it, it is sentimental. If you are preaching an evangel with no victory, it is hopeless. If we have this great whole, the vision of the Lord, the value of His cross, the virtue of His life, the victory of His indwelling by the Spirit, you have yet to find me the city, the village, the nation, the people, the man, or the child, that will not have such good news as they are waiting for, and apart from which there can be no hope. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 45: 05.02. THE CHURCH EVANGELISTIC ======================================================================== 2 The Church Evangelistic Evangelism apart from the Church is impossible. Christ was, and is the one Evangelist. He now fulfills His great work of proclaiming the good tidings through His Body, which is the Church. In the four Gospels we have a picture of Christ, and at the opening of His second treatise Luke makes use of words which indicate for us the character of the Gospel narrative, and suggest that of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. “The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which He was received up.” That sentence reveals to us the character of the Gospel story. The “former treatise” is the story of the beginning of the doing and the teaching of Jesus. The latter is therefore by inference the story of the continuity of the doing and teaching of Christ. In the Gospel Jesus is seen—to use His own suggestive word—“straitened” until His baptism should be accomplished. In the book of the Acts of the Apostles the same Jesus is seen no longer straightened, for the passion-baptism is accomplished, and He risen, ascended, enthroned, has come into new relationship with men by the Holy Spirit, to continue His work through the Church by the Spirit. Consequently the evangel proclaimed by Christ in measure during His life, is proclaimed by Christ in fullness through the Church by the Holy Spirit in this age. Evangelism apart from the Church is apart from Christ, and is therefore no evangelism. There can be no evangelism save that of Jesus Christ, and that can only be spoken by Christ Himself through His people by the Holy Spirit. Anything calling itself evangelism which is not the outcome of that new life of Christ, realized in the soul of men, and spoken through men by Christ, is not evangelism. Unattached and unauthorized evangelism, even by individual members of the Church of Christ, is to say the least, unwise, and not the most fruitful of permanent results. I do not desire to criticize unkindly any movement that acts independently of the churches, although I do not hesitate to say that I have grave suspicion of everything that boasts that it is undenominational. I have a very great love for everything that is inter-denominational, which is quite another matter. But all unattached, freelance work, unauthorized and ungoverned by the Church, is not the best work possible, and tends to disorder and confusion. We must hold to the very highest doctrine of the Church, or our evangelism will be weak and one-sided. Believing therefore that the relation between the Church and evangelistic work is all important, we will carefully consider the Church as to its creation, its nature, and its purpose. The New Testament deals with the Church in two ways, as Catholic and as local; the whole Church of the Living God, and a church in any given locality. Sometimes I am asked what church I belong to. When I reply, I am a Catholic Churchman, I have seen people look surprised. Yet that is exactly what I am. Catholic means universal. The Catholic Church is the whole Church. Such a phrase as “Roman Catholic” constitutes an absurd contradiction of terms. If Catholic, then not Roman. If Roman only, then by no means Catholic. That is equally true of the term “Anglican Catholic.” The New Testament deals with the whole Church, but it also deals with the local church. The word Church is used sometimes of the whole Church of God, and sometimes of a church in a given locality, as in Ephesus, in Corinth, in Thessalonica, in Philippi. So far as the records reveal, the Lord only twice in the course of His public ministry referred to the Church. He used the word Church once in its catholic sense, and once in its local sense, so that the general New Testament uses of the word harmonize with that of Christ. The first occasion was when Peter had made the supreme confession of the Messiahship of Jesus, “Thou art the Christ.” At that parting of the ways the first half of our Lord’s work was accomplished. He had taught a little group of men, the nucleus of His Kingdom, that He was the Christ, the Anointed, the Messiah of God. And then He immediately commenced to teach them a new thing, to bring them into view of the pathway through which the Messiah should accomplish the purpose of God. He began to talk to them of the Cross, but before mentioning the Cross He said to Peter, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” That is a perfect, final, and all-inclusive declaration concerning the Church. First, “Upon this rock I will build My Church.” Secondly, “the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it,” not one thing repeated, but two distinct facts about the Church. I think we have too often read the passage as though the Lord said the same thing twice over. But if you follow the figure carefully, you will find that Jesus was absolute Master of metaphor. There was no blunder, and no intellectual inaccuracy in the figures He used. “On this rock,” that is the declaration of the impregnable strength of His Church against the attacks from without. “I will build,” that is an affirmation of the certainty of its perfection and completion. But what follows? The same thing repeated in another form? By no means. “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” That does not mean that the Church is impregnable against attack, but rather that she is unconquerable when she goes forth to attack. An attacking force never carries its own gates up to besiege a city. If Hades is contemplating an attack upon the Church, it will not carry its gates with it. The idea is not that Hades will attack the Church, but that the Church will attack Hades, and as she does so, the very gates of Hades will yield before her. Thus we have two declarations about the Church by the Master; she is built by Christ on the rock, and when she goes forth on the conquests of Christ, she conquers all intervening foes, and finally the last enemy, the very gates of Hades, shall yield to her. She shall conquer through life, through death, and unto the endless ages. That is the Church I belong to, the Church impregnable, unconquerable, marching out in perpetual triumph into the ages beyond. That is Christ’s estimate of the Church. On a subsequent occasion Jesus mentions the Church again. “If thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone; if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses, or three, every word may be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church; and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican.” That is the church local. It is impossible to tell to the whole catholic Church anything between your brother and yourself; but it can be told and it ought to be told to the local church if that brother is refusing to listen. It is a perfect picture of the church’s discipline. The church is to be so constituted, a fellowship of souls in Christ, that the wrong doing of one is felt by, and affects the whole; and the purity of the entire Church must be maintained, even at the cost of the excommunication of a brother who persists in wrong doing. Thus we learn from the words of Jesus, that the Church is the building of Christ on the rock, that the Church is the aggressive force which Christ leads to ultimate victory, that the Church within herself is a fellowship exercising discipline, caring for her own internal life, and able to exercise final and Divine authority in the case of all those in membership. These things are true of the catholic Church, and also of the local Church. From these first uses of the word in the New Testament it is at once seen that the local church is a model of the catholic Church, that all the truths concerning the catholic Church are true in measure and in degree of the local church, and if we would understand what the function and the force of the local church is, we shall have to attempt to get a vision of the function and the force of the catholic Church. Now as I pass from these words of Jesus, one or two words concerning the use of the word in the Acts of the Apostles will be in order. In the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and the forty-seventh verse, “And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved,” the word church is inserted in King James’ Version. It is not in the original text. Its introduction is of the nature of exposition, and translators almost invariably break down when they attempt exposition. The statement there is that, “the Lord added together them that were being saved,” and the translators thought it must be “added to the Church.” Seeing the word Church was not there in the original, the English and American revisers altered it, and put “added to them,” that is, to the disciples. That also is only true in a secondary sense. The thought is that He added them to Himself. Of course it is true that when He adds a man to Himself, He adds him to the Church. Through the Acts of the Apostles the word Church is used sometimes of the catholic and sometimes of the local church, and the local is always treated as a part and model of the catholic. The actual word ecclesia is used of the congregation of Israel in the wilderness once. In the nineteenth chapter the word is used in the purely Greek sense, “Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was in confusion.… But if ye seek anything about other matters, it shall be settled in the regular assembly.… When he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.” That word assembly is ecclesia. I am not suggesting that the translation is improper. I think it is wise that the word assembly is used on this occasion. What was the assembly here referred to? It was the gathering together of the members of one particular trade. It is the first record we have, so far as I know, of a trade union meeting, and the word assembly indicates the truth. The reference is not to the great promiscuous crowd which was congregated to see what was going on, but that particular and select number, bound together by a common purpose under a common impulse. The Greek word is there used in its simplest form. It means a called out assembly. It is the assembly of the silversmiths, and it is the assembly of the town government. That is the word ecclesia, in its simple etymological intention. That word has been taken hold of by the Christian fact, and has become the great word for the Church. And it means very simply, an assembly of people, called out, selected from the rest. In the letter to the Ephesians we have a picture of the Church in these wonderful words, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all, and in all.” There is nothing in all the New Testament that is more wonderful in its revelation of the nature of the true Church. Notice first the apostle describes the Church, as “one body.” What is the body? Christ and every believer. Not the believers without Christ. The body includes the Head. Of course if we speak of the Head and the body, then for the single moment we mean by the body, all except the Head; but in the statement “there is one body,” in this passage the apostle is taking in the whole fact, Christ Who is the Head, and all members. “One Spirit,” that is the life of the one body, the intelligence of the one body, the emotion of the one body, the will of the one body. “He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit,” so that the whole body of the Church is one with the Head, and the Head is one with the body, and that one unifying Spirit of God, in Christ and in all believers, creates the one body. One dominating life that of the Spirit, in Christ and in the believer, unifying Christ and the believer, and all believers with each other, because all are united to Christ. “One body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling,” that is to say, there is one calling for Christ and the believer, for the whole Church which is the body. In the former part of the epistle that calling is declared to be that of showing to the ages to come the grace of God, and teaching the principalities and powers in the heavenlies the manifold wisdom of God. That will be the work of Christ and His people forever. One body, Christ and all the members. One Spirit, filling the whole body up to its last reach. One calling, the eternal calling of Christ in union with the Church, and the Church in union with Christ. This is a general statement concerning the organism, the life, the calling of the Church. The apostle next shows how individual members become members of the Church, how the units enter this living unity. “One Lord,” the Object of faith; “one faith,” set upon the one Lord; “one baptism,” the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that unites the faithful soul with the living Lord. That is the whole process. The first note in the evangel is that of the Lordship of Christ. Jesus is Lord by virtue of the splendour of His character, by virtue of the victory of His Cross, by virtue of the power of His resurrection. That “one Lord,” is presented to the soul as the Object of faith. The answer of faith to the vision of the Lord is the whole of human responsibility. That is the “one faith.” Its nature is that of believing on Him, or receiving Him as Lord. It is the act of the will in surrender. That act of faith is responded to by the “one baptism,” that baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby the soul believing on the Lord is made a member of the Lord Himself. Thus the individual enters the Church. The one Lord is presented to him. He believes. The Spirit baptizes him, and he is a member. The human responsibility is belief, the Divine answer is the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby that man is merged into the Christ life, and becomes a member of Jesus Christ. “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” Thus is He building His Church. Man cannot admit into the catholic Church. No one is admitted into the Church by water baptism, nor by vote of a church meeting, nor by the decision of a session. A person enters the Church when the Holy Spirit baptizes him into Christ. All the other things may be necessary in order that the discipline of the local church may be maintained. There ought to be solemn recognition of some kind when a man joins the outward and visible church, but all such matters are outward and visible recognitions of the inward and invisible facts. The only condition on which any person should be admitted to a local church is that evidence is given of membership in the catholic Church by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Once again, “One God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all, and in all.” That is the last fact of the sevenfold unity. It indicates the glorious realization of the purpose and plan of God in His government of, operation through, and union with the ransomed society. This great Church of the firstborn is being built, and as yet man has never seen it. We see parts of it, but the scaffolding is all about it yet; and sometimes it seems as though there were more scaffolding than Church. But when He comes, all the scaffolding will go; and the glorious Church of the firstborn, made up of ransomed souls baptized into the life of Christ, the great entity and unity through which God will manifest Himself to ages and to principalities, will be revealed in all its radiant splendour. Let us now think of the local church in the light of this. Every church is, as is the catholic Church, an assembly of those submitted to the Lordship of Christ. That is the gate, that is the entrance, that is the foundation fact. A local church is therefore an assembly of souls submitted to the Lordship of Christ. That does not tell all the story, but it gives the key to the whole truth. Everything else follows, and to understand that, let us go back to our evangel. The first note is that of the Lordship of Christ. Men submit to that Lordship by believing on Him. Then not only do they see the vision of the Lord, but share the value of His death, and the virtue of His life, and the victory of His presence. In the fifth chapter of Romans we see how these things are realized within the Church in the living members who are baptized into union with Christ. The tenth verse, “For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved in His life.” The seventeenth verse, “For if, by the trespass of one, death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One.” “Reconciled by His death,” “reign in life.” Now as an aid to memory let us take three words, reconciled, regenerate, regnant. These words mark the truth in the case of every individual believer. The individual believer submitted to the Lordship of Christ, is reconciled to God by the value of His death, regenerate by the virtue of His life communicated, regnant by the indwelling Christ through the Holy Spirit. Now believing that a church is an assembly of such persons, what results follow? Every church is intended to be within itself a manifestation of all the purposes and the facts of the Kingdom of God. A church is an assembly of persons, who in the power of the indwelling life of Christ, realizing the ideals of Jesus, obey the teaching of Jesus, and take part in the activities of Jesus. It is here where perhaps the Church has most sadly failed in the past, and where the failure of the Church today is most apparent. We have too largely looked upon the negative side, which has to do almost exclusively with such facts as constitute the saving of the individual from sin, and from punishment. These are most important facts. But the great society of God, vitally one, essentially one, socially one, aggressively one, where is it at the present hour? The Church ought to be a society accepting the ideals of Jesus, and realizing them in the power of His life; consequently a society of people obeying the moral code of Jesus, and therefore a society of people manifesting to the world the breadth and beauty and beneficence of the Kingship of God in and through Jesus Christ. Is that what the Church is? That is what the Church ought to be, for that is the Divine intention. But someone will say, What has all this to do with the evangelistic Church. And the very fact of the question reveals the weakness of the hour. The Church has largely failed in evangelism because the Church has not realized within her own borders the force of her own life. We ask how is it that the masses refuse to listen to her evangel, and are treating her in so marked a degree, with contempt? Because the masses see perfectly well that she is not obedient to her own Master’s ideals, and does not realize His purpose. That is the severest criticism, and it ought to make us blush, and hide our heads with shame, that the Church is not fulfilling her Master’s ideals. The evangelistic Church is the Church which shares Christ’s life, and in the power of it obeys His law, and thus manifests Him to the world. Thus alone can the Church engage in His work, and carry out His enterprises. When the Church realizes and manifests her Lord, in her personal membership, and corporate capacity, then, and then only is she doing His work, the work of seeking and saving the lost. That is the evangelistic Church, and that is the true Church of Jesus Christ. The purpose of the Church is certainly that of conserving the life of the saints, but this only in order that every saint, and all the saints, may be strong for carrying out the purposes and the work of Jesus Christ. “Ye shall be My witnesses,” not witnesses as talkers merely, but evidences, credentials, demonstrations, proofs among men. The only Church which is truly evangelistic is the Church which realizes within her own borders all the will of her Lord and Master Jesus Christ. Strength of spiritual life always issues in the manifestation through the Church to the world of the facts of the Kingship of God in Christ, and the power of Jesus Christ to deal with all the things in human life that are contrary to the mind and will of God. The Church is to be aggressive, capturing men, fighting against wrong, urging everywhere and always the claims of Jesus Christ, and this she can only be as within her own borders there is realized the purposes of God. In conclusion, the evangelical Church is necessarily evangelistic. There are some things so patent they ought not to need stating. Yet there seems to be a prevalent idea that it is possible for a church to be evangelical and not evangelistic. It is not possible. A friend of mine in the ministry, a man of whose scholarship and whose devotion there can be no doubt, talking to me about evangelistic work, accounting for his own lack of interest said, “Well I am profoundly evangelical, but I am by no means evangelistic.” There would seem to be many who take that view. Let me say to you, my brethren, that this is an absurd contradiction of terms. No man is truly evangelical unless he is evangelistic also. What did my friend mean? He meant that he held the evangelical doctrines of our holy faith, but he was not interested in the specific work of winning men to Christ. Now what are the foundation doctrines of our holy faith? Evangelical faith affirms the death of Christ was rendered necessary by the ruin of the race, and that it is God’s provision for man’s salvation. It moreover declares that His life is at the disposal of men for their new life of holiness. Are we evangelical? Do we believe that Jesus died in order that He might save men? If not, then we cannot claim to be evangelical. But if we do, can we seriously assert that holding the doctrines, we are yet content to do nothing for the men for whom Christ died? Knowing that we have the deposit of truth, the great evangel, equal to the salvation of men, are we careless about making it known? Some times one reads an advertisement which declares a sure and certain cure for cancer has been discovered. A man so advertising is wholly despicable. In the first place because the assertion is a lie, but secondly because if it is true, he is a rogue to hold for purposes of personal gain a secret which should immediately be given to the world for the cure of that awful disease. And a man tells me he is evangelical, he holds the truth about salvation, and is thankful to God for the salvation of his own poor miserable soul. I deny it. If the Cross of Christ in his own life has meant deliverance, cleansing, purity, that consciousness will drive any man out into evangelistic work and effort. Evangelism demands a Church, and wherever the Church of Jesus Christ is, there is an instrument for evangelistic work, because there is a company of men and women in whom the evangel has won its victory, and through whom it is manifested as a life, and proclaimed as a message. Let me say to all ministers, you will find you must have your church act with you if you are going to do any evangelistic work. And to church members, it is no use wasting breath in the criticism of a minister because he is not doing evangelistic work. Let the Church fall into line. One of the first missions of the ministry will be to bring his church into sympathy, and that will often need a great deal of common sense and patience. No church ought to be allowed to exist that has not added to its membership by confession of faith. If a church is existing only by letters of transfer, it is time the doors were closed, and “Ichabod, the glory of the Lord has departed” was inscribed across them. This evangelism must begin in the churches. The churches themselves must be turned back to the work of evangelism. We are trusting too much to organizations outside the Church. It is in the Church the work must be done. We shall have to travail in birth for the souls of our own people. When in our own church life all the forces of the Christ life are operative without hindrance, then men will be brought under the sound and power of the great and glorious evangel. May God make all our churches, churches after the pattern of the catholic Church, “one body, one Spirit, one calling,” and “God over, through, in all,” moving to His purpose, accomplishing that purpose through the Spirit of Jesus Christ. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 46: 05.03. THE EVANGELIST ======================================================================== 3 The Evangelist The doctrine of New Testament ministry lies wholly within that of the Church. The ministry serves the Church under the Lordship of Christ. That is not to say that ministers are servants of the Church in the sense of obeying the Church. They do serve the Church but they obey the Lord Christ. From that statement two initial truths are to be deduced and remembered: First, the ministry has no right to lord it over God’s heritage; and secondly, God’s heritage has no right to lord it over the ministry. I have of set purpose used Peter’s phrase. Writing to the elders and the bishops he says, “neither lording it over the charge allotted to you.” The word “charge” there is kleros, the word from which we derive our word clergy. According to Peter, the whole Church was the clergy, and bishops were men who were to serve the clergy, and not lord it over them. Every believer is in the priesthood, and the whole Church is the clergy, and yet within the whole Church there is a distinct ministry. Our present subject is concerned principally with that section of the Christian ministry indicated by the word evangelist. But in order properly to understand the function of the evangelist we must take time to set that particular aspect of the ministry in relation to the whole. There is too often a measure of friction between the evangelist and those who are exercising other gifts of the ministry, and this friction acts in two ways. Pastors and teachers sometimes entertain a feeling almost amounting to contempt for evangelists. The evangelist on the other hand, very often manifests a contempt for pastor and teacher. Now this is all utterly false; contrary to the spirit of the New Testament, contrary to the spirit of love, contrary to the spirit of wisdom, contrary to the Spirit of God. If we may but see the interrelationship of these gifts, that a man is in the ministry, not by his own choice, but by the choice of the Holy Spirit, and that the work of each is not contradictory to the work of the rest, but complementary rather, then we shall be a long way towards understanding the true place of the evangelist, and making for him his proper place in the work of the Church of Jesus Christ. “He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry.” This is the reading of the King James Version, and we have interpreted it as though these gifts were bestowed in order that those receiving them might perfect the saints, and do the work of the ministry. As a matter of fact what the apostle meant was that these gifts are bestowed on men in the Church, in order that they may by their ministry perfect the Church, so that the Church may do the work of the ministry. The fullest fact of ministry includes the whole Church, and the men within it who have received special gifts, have received them in order that they may perfect the Church to its work of ministry. The translation of the Revisers makes this much more clear, “He gave some apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering.” “He gave some apostles.” The specific work of the apostles was the perfecting of the doctrine, the fundamental basis of teaching. “He gave some, prophets.” The work of the prophet was the perfecting of the forthtelling, the declaration of the truth. “He gave some, evangelists.” The work of the evangelist is the perfecting of the number of the Church by calling men into relationship with Christ. “He gave some, pastors and teachers.” Their work lies wholly within the Church, and is that of perfecting the character of the members of the Church in order that the whole Church may be perfectly equipped for its ministry. These are the true orders of the Christian ministry. These are the fundamental and spiritual orders, and we must recognize them if there is to be any fulfillment of the whole function of our ministry. But now let us enquire how a person in the Church becomes a minister within the Church. Let us turn to Corinthians, in the first letter, chapter twelve. Here we have a chapter that always ought to be read side by side with this fourth chapter of Ephesians, on the subject of Church order. In that chapter you will find that the apostle, beginning a section concerning the spiritualities, deals first with the Lordship of Jesus, and then with the ministry of the Spirit of God, and as a sub-section thereof, with the gifts bestowed by the Spirit. He is dealing with gifts far larger than those of the ministry to which he refers in Ephesians. In the course of his argument he makes a statement of vital importance, that the Spirit bestows these gifts upon “each one severally even as He will.” In Ephesians the same principle is declared, that “He gave some, apostles; He gave some, prophets; He gave some, evangelists; He gave some, pastors and teachers.” The whole emphasis of the truth is that capacity for ministry in any form is a gift, and it is a gift bestowed by the Head of the Church through the Holy Spirit according to His own pleasure. Therefore no man can choose to be a minister of Jesus Christ, as any man may choose the profession of medicine, or of law. No man ever really enters the Christian ministry in the deep spiritual sense of the term, save as he receives a gift from the Head of the Church by the Holy Spirit which perfectly equips him for the work he has to do. We are hearing a great deal in these days of the dearth of men entering our theological seminaries. I have been asked if I would not urge upon young men that they should give themselves to the ministry, urge them to adopt the ministry as a calling in life which is high, and holy, and beautiful. And my reply always is, I dare not urge any man. No man can enter the ministry of his own will and choice. The only way in which a man can possibly enter the ministry is when the Holy Spirit of God bestows upon him a gift from the Head of the Church. By that gift he is made a minister of Jesus Christ. Nothing short of that makes a minister, and that being so, nothing can prevent his being a minister, except his own disobedience to the heavenly calling. I would very solemnly urge young men to consider well whether or not they have not had the gift and the calling, and are refusing it. Has there come upon your soul somewhere, somewhen, a burning passion to preach the Word, a great constraint, a sure conviction that you can preach it; and have you allowed some secular calling, some material advantage to persuade you that you can still be a good Christian and make money? It is at the peril of your soul you stay there. If once the gift is bestowed then “woe” is that man if he “preach not the Gospel. Notice in the next place that these gifts refer to special spiritual qualifications for the doing of special spiritual service. What is a gift bestowed upon a man? What is the gift of the apostle, the gift of the prophet, the gift of the evangelist, the gift of the pastor and teacher? I do not mean what is the specific value or the distinction between these, but what is the underlying quality in each? What is gift? The gifts are certainly not such as may be designated natural endowments. They are spiritual quantities and qualities, bestowed for the doing of spiritual work. A man receives the gift of an apostle. Then in him there is a spiritual force, a spiritual vision, a spiritual fitness that his brethren have not, which fits him for doing a distinctly spiritual work, the work of the apostolate. So with all of them, the gift is a spiritual qualification. But while it is true that the gift is bestowed, and is not merely a natural endowment, it is also perfectly certain that the Spirit of God never bestows a spiritual gift for service except upon men who have natural endowments that will enable them to use it. There is nothing in the economy of God out of joint and out of place. There is perfect harmony between God’s first creation and the bestowment of special spiritual gifts. The new birth does not mean the death of everything essential and noble in the first birth, but its life. So also when God bestows the gift of the apostle, or the prophet, or the evangelist, or the pastor and teacher upon a man, the gift will be bestowed upon men who have natural aptitudes and fitness and endowments for their work. A young man in my church tells me God has called him to preach. Then I immediately give him opportunities to preach. I find him an occasion in the Mission Hall, or in a cottage; and in oversight with me there will be my brethren in the diaconate, and they will hear him, not critically, but with the solicitude of a great and passionate desire to help him. And if after a little while we find that the man has no natural endowment I would say to him in love and in all honesty, My friend, you have evidently made a mistake. God has never called you to preach, or you would be able to preach. We have been making the terrible mistake of putting a man through the theological seminary, and when he has completed his course we find, and he finds that he is not a preacher, and so he write essays to the end of time. Essays are excellent things, but the writing and reading of them is not preaching. We must find the men with natural endowments and the spiritual gifts. If a man has that twofold equipment, and is responsive to the heavenly vision, you cannot stop him preaching, and you cannot stop his preaching with power. The gift is a spiritual quantity and quality, bestowed upon a man having natural endowments. The gift of the pastor and teacher will be a spiritual quality of appreciation of truth bestowed upon a man who is a born teacher and a born shepherd. The gift of the prophet will be an appreciation of truth in its application to the needs of his age, bestowed upon a man, who if he is not a preacher must be a speaker somewhere or other. It is affirmed that men with absolutely no gift of speech, receiving the spiritual gift have become great preachers. Personally I have never known such a case. I was told in England some years ago by a dear man who held very strongly that all spiritual power in service was spiritual merely, that there was no connection between man’s natural capacity and the spiritual gift, and the instance cited was D. L. Moody, and I was told he had no natural gifts of oratory, that everything he had was the spiritual equipment. I am not undervaluing the spiritual equipment, but if D. L. Moody had gone into politics instead of preaching, you would have found that he would have swayed vast audiences, and that he was a man of natural endowment. A gift is a spiritual quantity and quality bestowed by the Head of the Church at His own will through the Holy Spirit upon those who are naturally endowed to receive it. That is the fundamental truth concerning the vocation and the force and the power of the Christian ministry. Let us now notice the inter-relation of these gifts. The apostle was the first messenger. The work of the apostle consisted in the proclaiming of truth first, and then in the committal to sacred writings of the truth. It is written in the Acts of the Apostles that the early disciples “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching.” In that phrase we have the indication of one part of the work of the apostolate. I am inclined to say the gift of the apostolate is still conferred under certain circumstances for specific work. At the birth of all great missionary movements there has been an apostle, a first messenger, one with a specific gift to go forth and tell at the beginning the doctrines of the Way. Then we have the work of the prophet. The peculiar and distinctive note of prophetic utterance is that a man who is a prophet foretells the truth from God without any reference to the pleasure or anger of the people. This is the prophetic note. You find it in the old prophecies. “Whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.” The prophet is not an evangelist. The prophet does not come down into personal dealing, and constraint of individual lives. The prophet is a man whose voice is lifted in an age, pouring out truth, compelling the age at least to hear it. Whether it will obey or not is not his responsibility. That is the characteristic note of the prophet in all dispensations. And God has never been without prophets in this Christian era. The evangelist is a name signifying a man who tells the glad tidings always with a view to constraining the man who listens by the evangel, to that of which the evangel bears testimony. I am inclined to think that the opportunity of the evangelist is today often made by the prophet; that in prophetic utterances and prophetic ministry there is an arousing of conscience and inquiry, and to that the evangelist comes with his personal and individual message of the Lordship of Christ; the value of His Cross; the virtue of His resurrection; and the glorious victory of His indwelling. And the evangelist is therefore the one who in the name of the Church tells men and women outside how they may come inside, declares the glorious glad news of the infinite Gospel. As in response to the message of the evangel, men crowd to the Christ, owning Him Lord, receiving the value of His death, the virtue of His life, the assurance of victory, then the pastor and teacher begins to teach it them, and train them, and to watch over them. There are two words that mark the work of the pastor and teacher; overseer, and pastor. He is one who watches, and feeds the flock of God. John Milton, when speaking of false pastors, and their failure in the ministry describes them in a most remarkable phrase. He speaks of them as “blind mouths.” And he says, “The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed.” It is a terrible indictment, and that because it is scriptural. It appears a contradiction in terms, “blind mouths.” It is not so, for as Ruskin points out, Milton brought together the two facts in the work of the pastor and teacher. His first work is to watch over the flock, but Milton says he is “blind.” His second work is to feed the sheep, but Milton says instead of doing that he is trying to be fed himself, he is a “mouth.” Let no evangelist think that the pastor and teacher who year by year patiently feeds the flock is not doing God’s work because he is not doing that of the evangelist. And let no pastor and teacher think that the men passing over the country like a flame of fire, proclaiming salvation and constraining men to acceptance, are sensational merely. Oh this great Church of Jesus Christ, if we could only realize it, with its great gifts; the apostle, the first messenger to the new region; the prophet, the perpetual voice proclaiming truth, the evangelist, the perpetual voice calling men to the Christ, the pastor and teacher, instructing, leading, guiding, and culturing the saints. But I must leave that larger outlook. I have at least said enough to show the place of the evangelist, and to show there is no antagonism between the work of the different orders. I once heard W. L. Watkinson, one of the most wonderful preachers in England today, with a marvelous gift of sanctified satire, say in a great congregation of ministers, “The pity is we do not understand each other.” He continued, “I go to one man in the regular pastorate, and I say to him, ‘What do you think of these special men’ and he replies with a curl of his lip, ‘Sensation.’ ” And then I come to a special man and I say to him, “What do you think of that quiet man down there’ and he says, ‘Oh, stagnation!’ ” And that tells the truth of the attitude too often indulged in against each other. In the light of this great truth of the complementary nature of the gifts we ought to recognize the fact that every man in the ministry, while he will have one specific gift above all others, will yet have sympathy with all the rest, for I still believe that the Holy Spirit confers gifts of this order upon the Church, giving some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Happy indeed is that church whose ecclesiastical order will allow it to make room for a man to exercise the gift God has bestowed, and unhappy is that Church who wants each of its ministers to be something of a prophet, and something of an evangelist, and something of a pastor and teacher, and thus making him something of each, makes him the whole of nothing. We want room for the orderliness of the Spirit of God in our ecclesiastical arrangements. But now where this is established, and we see the interrelation of these gifts, and how there is no conflict but perfect harmony where the whole Church and ministry is under the dominance of the Spirit, we may turn to the specific gift of the evangelist. In the New Testament only two men are definitely spoken of as evangelists. Philip is called an evangelist, and in the final charge of Paul to Timothy, he says “Fulfill thy ministry, do the work of an evangelist.” It is at least significant that the two men who are called evangelists are in entirely different circumstances, and suggests as I think, the two types of the evangelist. Philip was a man at large. He was not definitely in charge of any Church, nor was he, as I believe, set apart by any apostolic function to his work. He was an evangelist, prepared by the impartation of a qualification for telling the Gospel, to tell the Gospel. He moves from place to place. He goes to Samaria, then he speaks to the individual eunuch, and is caught away to Azotus. Then we find him moving up through Caesarea, at last settling down, his children coming up after him, and uttering the same great Gospel. That is one evangelist as I see him in the Acts of the Apostles. The other is a man, who is in oversight of the Church at Ephesus, placed in oversight through certain difficulties arising there, and the letter of the apostle is written to instruct him in his work. I am inclined to think that the more special work of Timothy was that of the evangelist, moving from place to place. But Paul saw the necessity of a certain oversight at Ephesus, and sent him there. And he writes to him of his charge, the church; and instructs him as to how he shall take oversight; but the last thing the apostle urges is that he shall not forget that though he is now in oversight of the church through certain ecclesiastical difficulties, he is to fulfill his ministry, and do the work of an evangelist. It is at least significant that these two men are described by the term evangelist, the one moving from place to place, and the other settled in oversight of a church. Having simply referred to that by way of illustration, in order that we may understand that the evangelist may be a man called to move from point to point, or he may be a man placed by God in the oversight of a church, I want to speak of this gift itself. I have said of all these gifts that they are spiritual quantities and qualities. There is no specific description in the New Testament of either of these gifts bestowed. We may however safely argue from the work the nature of the gift. A man who receives the gift of the evangelist is one to whom there is given a clear understanding of the evangel, a great passion in his heart results from the clear vision, a great optimism fills his soul, born of his confidence in the power of Christ to save every man; and growing out of that passion and that confidence a great constraint seizes him to tell somebody, to tell everybody the glad news of salvation by Jesus Christ. Those peculiar qualities are not found in all men called to the ministry. Every man will have sympathy along these lines. There are however other forms of spiritual gifts, as we have seen. But where this is the all-consuming fire, there you have an evangelist. Granted that a man has the gift, on what line is he to be trained for the exercise thereof? He must be trained in theory and in practice, and the training of theory and practice must go side by side during the whole time of his preparation for the exercise of his gift. Wherever possible I would give a man the profoundest and fullest academic training possible, but I would put each theological seminary in, or not far from a great city, and I would send the theological students down into the slums to teach and to preach. There are men advising us to save men by education, and the latest thing I hear suggested is salvation by psychology. This kind of suggestion is however, always confined to theory and does not get beyond the book in which it is discussed. A good many books issue from the press which would never see the light if while the man was thinking out his problem he had to go into the slum district or suburban quarter for the definite business of saving men. A man must be trained, but the man who has this passion must exercise it, he must use it. A man who has this constraint must not be hindered from going out to exercise the gift, or else the gift within him will burn down to cinders and ashes. While exercising his gift, let him be trained in every way. The evangelist ought to be a man, a whole man, a man who is to be a perfect instrument for that perfect Gospel he is called to preach. He is to train physically, to train mentally, and above everything else, to train spiritually. We have no right to think that while all the other vocations of life, of the lawyer, of the doctor, of the business man, demand preparatory hard work and training, that we can successfully put untrained men into the work of the ministry. If God takes hold of a man He has called to the work, and it is really impossible for him to obtain training, and he becomes a veritable flame of fire, that is no reason why other men should shirk training, and slip carelessly into the work of the evangelist. The very magnificence of your Gospel, the very majesty of your work demands that you should take time, take your whole being, and attempt to make it a fit instrument for the proclamation of the great Gospel. I would like to say a good deal about physical training. If a man is going to preach this evangel, he has no right to trifle with his physical powers. My body is to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, Who through me, will proclaim this evangel, and I am to see to it so far as I am able, that in all its powers it is an instrument fit for the Master’s work. And so with the mind. Ignorance is not a qualification for evangelism. My dear young brother, are you looking forward to an evangelistic ministry? Then I plead with you, gird up the loins of your mind, and obtain all the knowledge possible. No single branch of knowledge is out of place to the man who is going to do the work of an evangelist. You may gather illustrations from all sciences, from all literature, and if you are only living close to the centre, and close to Christ, you will see light gleaming and breaking everywhere. Don’t hurry through training in order to do this work, but while the training goes on, let there be exercise all the while, and through the process you will gain in strength, and become presently an evangelist proclaiming the message with the vigour of physical strength, with the acumen of mental equipment, and with the dynamic of spiritual force. Such are the men for whom the world waits at this moment, for the preaching of this great Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then if this is the gift and the training of the evangelist, what is his work? The evangelist is to go forth and preach the Lordship of Christ, preach Him as Lord until men in the presence of His Lordship become conscious of their own failure. Then begins the great commission of declaring to them that by His Cross salvation has come to them, that all they are not, they may be, and all they are, they need not be, that the things they would not be but are, can be cancelled in blood, the things they would be, but are not, they may be by life in the Spirit. Oh this is a great message, the evangel of the Cross. But is the proclamation all? By no means! The evangelist must constrain men to obey. There must be that wonderful wooing note that breaks men’s hearts, and sweeps them to Christ. That is the final and most remarkable note of the real evangelist, by which he constrains men. Not merely the declaration of the evangel, not merely the announcement of the Lordship of Christ, and the declaration of the Cross, but the ability to take hold of men, and compel them to Christ. Of course some worldly critic will call this personal magnetism. That however is not all the truth. It is the constraint of the personality of Christ through the personality of the consecrated men which wins. Think of the great evangelists, stern men very often, and yet their sternness always melted into tears. Every great evangelist has been of that nature. The late Robert W. Dale of Birmingham, England, greatest of our theologians said to me, sitting in his study one day, “I think I have only known one evangelist that I felt had the right to speak of a lost soul.” And I said, “Who was it?” He replied, “It was D. L. Moody, and it was because he never spoke of the possibility of a man being lost without tears in his voice.” He turned from fiery denunciation of sin into quiet plaintive tearful heart-broken constraint. It is the great equipment. It is the great secret. If all this be true, what manner of man is the evangelist to be in his own character? First of all he must himself be a credential of the Gospel he preaches. It is no use my preaching the Lordship of Christ unless I am loyal to Him. I may eloquently describe His Kingship, I may with acumen defend Him against the attacks of others; but if my life is not loyal, my eloquence is sounding brass, a tinkling cymbal, a blasphemy and an impertinence. And the man who preaches the Cross must be a crucified man. You may preach the Cross and it is nothing but a Roman gibbet unless you preach it from yourself. It is the crucified man that can preach the Cross. Said Thomas “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails … I will not believe.” Dr. Parker of London said that what Thomas said of Christ, the world is saying about the Church. And the world is saying to every preacher: Unless I see in your hands the print of the nails I will not believe. It is true. It is the man who is at the end of himself, who has got to the end of reputation, and the end of earthly ambition, the man who has died with Christ, he it is that can preach the Cross of Christ. And yet more. Not only loyal to His Lordship, and not only realizing the power of His Cross, but revealing the glory of His resurrection in a life rising above the things of this life, triumphing every day; not merely the man of the Cross, but the man of the Easter morning. Are you, dear brother mine, preacher of the evangel, are you an Easter morning man? It is not the Cross only. It is the Cross and resurrection. Have you come to resurrection by the way of the Cross? Is the radiance of its glory on your brow? Is the song of an assured victory in your heart? If you are doubting, you cannot inspire faith. If you are not sure how this thing is going to turn out, no one will be persuaded. You must be the man of certainty, a man on the resurrection side of the grave, the old life behind. You remember the old story of a boy flying his kite. He could not see it. A gentleman passing said to him, “What are you doing?” “Flying my kite.” “Oh but,” he said, “you cannot see it.” “No, but I feel its pull.” It is the man who feels the pull of the unseen things that is going to preach this Gospel, and the only man who does that will be the man who by the way of the Cross, has come out into the resurrection life. And consequently the evangelist is a man not only preaching the possibility of victory by the indwelling Christ, he is in himself truly optimistic in the power of personal realization of victory. Pessimism paralyzes power in evangelistic preaching; but this great optimism of the indwelling of Christ is a perpetual power. And all this means the necessity for unceasing vigilance. The man who is to be an evangelist, the voice of the Church, proclaiming the glad news, how zealously and jealously he must guard the gift committed to him. What personal examination and correction are necessary if this work is to be perfectly done. Oh the subtle and insidious foes of the minister, sloth, ambition, pride, distraction, these are the things that spoil us. My brothers, how we must guard against them. How the evangelist needs to live in perpetual fellowship with God. How he needs earnestly to devote himself to the hardworking, brain-sweating study of his message. And how the evangelist needs to be perpetually on the watch for souls. Let me gather up and conclude. Sympathy with the evangelist is in every man gifted by the Spirit, though all may not have the specific gift. The varieties create the harmonies. Harmony is a concord of differences. So whether you have that specific gift or no, you have sympathy with it if you are Christ’s own minister. At least keep that sympathy alive and warm. Don‘t let anything freeze it out, paralyze it. My special word is to you, my brothers, perhaps to a few only, whom God has called to this special work. Let your spirit be carefully guarded. And yet more strongly let me say that you as a witness in the Church, having the gift of the evangelist, ought to be able to inspire everyone you meet, men and women in your Church, with the sympathy and passion that consumes you. That is your first and greatest work even as an evangelist. And as there is no calling more wonderful than that of the evangelist, therefore none demands more in cost and in toil. And now this final word to those in whose hearts there burns the sympathy. By your prayer, by your co-operation, by your determined attempt to sweep everything out of the highway, help these men who are called and gifted for the proclamation of the message. And if in the pastor of your church you have discovered a man in whose heart there is this great passion and constraint, driving him to win souls, oh, I beseech you, don’t hinder him, don‘t bind him, don’t prevent him, don’t demand that he shall put that which is a gift of evangelism into its wrong use of taking care of you, but rather in your co-operation with him, catch the same spirit, carry on the same great glorious work. Thus all of us in measure, while some by specific equipment, may be evangelists of the Cross. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 47: 05.04. THE EVANGELISTIC SERVICE ======================================================================== 4 The Evangelistic Service This is the phase of our subject which personally I should prefer to omit. I freely confess to a fear of the study of methods. I am well aware that such a study is necessary, but I am always a little afraid lest we should attempt to press into some ready-made method, the infinite Spirit of God. “The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” These words of our Master have very wide application. They indicate the spontaneity of the work of the Spirit. No man can tell whence the wind cometh, or whither it goeth. No man can foretell the line along which the Spirit of God will operate toward the accomplishment of the Divine purpose. It is nevertheless true that no man will make the wind his servant save as he learns the true method of answering its law. The wind bloweth where it will, but if I want the wind to be my servant, and propel my boat across the sea I must know how to construct my boat and my sail to catch the wind. And so while the Spirit of God is the one Worker, without whom nothing can be done along the line of true evangelism, it is nevertheless true that it is important that we should discover those methods with which He works most easily and naturally, and in proportion as we do this we shall be able to co-operate with Him in all His great work and purpose. In dealing with the conduct of an evangelistic service, it must be distinctly understood that I would not attempt to compel every man to use one method, and above all, I would not attempt to suggest that I have discovered the final or best method by which the Spirit may work. I want to speak first of all of the place of evangelistic services in the course of the regular ministry, and then of the work of evangelism at special seasons in the life of a church or community. The presence in our congregations of those not actually and personally submitted to Christ, must always create the necessity for such service. Nothing can be more paralyzing to the life of a minister himself, or to the congregations that assemble regularly to hear him as he preaches the word, than that he should come to think, or should so preach as to make his people think, that definite decision for Christ is not important in every individual life. There is a very great peril along that line to all of us in the work of the regular ministry. I am very thankful to be able to speak to you from the standpoint of twelve years’ experience in the settled work of the ministry. I know exactly what it is to face a congregation Sabbath after Sabbath. There is nothing more full of delight than that kind of work, but there is a danger that we take too much for granted about the people to whom we preach, and if we are not careful we shall drift into the opinion that because these people are attending services, therefore there is no need for the direct appeal of the evangel to be made to them. We must ever remember that it is necessary that every individual person should come into personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We must remember that no child is born a Christian. That is not for one single moment to enter into any discussion as to the question whether or no the children of Christian people are born within a covenant. I believe they are, but they are not born Christians; and whereas I very strongly hold,—and my own life’s experience is the most remarkable testimony to the truth of the fact,—that where a child is born of Christian parents, and is trained in a Christian home, the actual acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord by that child is likely to be natural and simple, without revulsion, without earthquake shock, soft as the kiss of morning on the brow of Nature, sweet as the passing zephyr over the fields of flowers, yet there must be definite submission, and no child because born of Christian parents, is therefore a Christian. In all our preaching we need to remember that the dear children of our own members, coming with them to worship—and there is no fairer sight to my own eyes than that of seeing father and mother and children sitting before me Sabbath after Sabbath—must each one for himself and herself, at some age of understanding and discretion, yield their own life to Jesus Christ, or else they can never be Christians. Now with that conviction in the heart of the minister, he will at once see how there must be in his preaching, even though he be a pastor and teacher principally, a desire for the salvation of these, and there must be occasionally some message, some appeal, some opportunity given to those who sit under his ministry, to make an immediate decision and a definite confession of Jesus Christ. No man can have as the burden of his preaching the Lordship of Christ, whether the special quality be that of the prophet, or that of the evangelist, or that of the pastor and teacher, without bringing to the consciences of those who hear him a conviction of sin. In the first of these lectures I laid special emphasis upon the first note of the evangel, the Lordship of Christ. It is the great theme of preaching. It is the message of the prophet to his age. It is the message of the evangelist to the individual. It is the message of the pastor and teacher, to his people. The prophet proclaims that Jesus is Lord over all the affairs of men. The evangelist proclaims that Jesus is Lord in the realm of the salvation of the individual. The pastor and teacher insists upon the Lordship of Christ in the actual life of the believer. And no man can preach that Lordship in all the spaciousness of its meaning, without those who hear him coming into the consciousness of sin. Now wherever as the result of the preaching of the Lordship of Christ, conviction of sin results in the consciences of those who hear, there at once is created the necessity for the proclamation of the way of salvation, or in other words, there is the opportunity for the evangelistic service. Therefore I submit that the minister of Jesus Christ ought occasionally to hold meetings where he urges immediate decision, and gives the opportunity for the same. We must not be led astray from the essential work of the Christian ministry by imagining we have some gift which liberates us from responsibility about the decision of the men and women who listen to us. There is no gift that does not include within it something of the evangelistic necessity, of urging the claim of Christ upon individuals. I hold no regular ministry is complete in which there is never an opportunity for immediate decision on the part of those who are brought into contact with the fact of the Lordship of Christ, and who hear the evangel of salvation. As to time and season, my own conviction is that in the work of the regular ministry in the vast majority of cases it is not wise to decide that on every Sunday night there shall be an evangelistic service. There are exceptions to this rule. The local circumstances must always decide. In the Moody church of Chicago, where Sunday by Sunday there is gathered together a promiscuous crowd, no Sabbath evening passes without an evangelistic appeal, and without decisions for Christ. Some persons imagine that because it is done there, it ought to be so everywhere. That by no means follows. Neither do I think it wise to hold an evangelistic service at stated intervals. That is too mechanical an arrangement. The pastor who is living in fellowship with the Spirit of God, and who is seeking to receive his messages direct from God, will discover when the moment has come in which he must declare the evangel, and make his appeal. That is the occasion for the evangelistic service. If I may refer to my own experience as a pastor, I have gone on from Sunday to Sunday, sometimes for one or two months with an evangelistic service after each evening service. On the other hand there have been periods when only once in the month or perhaps twice, such services have been held, and sometimes months would pass with no such service. I never went to my pulpit knowing whether I would have such a service or not. I went with a burden and a message, and having endeavoured to lead and train my church in co-operation with me, they were never surprised if I had an after-meeting. If I did hold one, I found my officers and workers ready to do the necessary work. There are a thousand men who have not the specific gift of the evangelist, who yet are able to do evangelistic work occasionally as opportunity occurs. There are a thousand men who have not the particular quality that draws to their church the promiscuous and large multitude, but who nevertheless, are in the ministry by the gift and appointment of God, and their special work will be that of preaching regularly to a congregation composed very largely of the same people, but into which strangers will constantly be coming. There is no congregation made up of saints, consequently there will be in all congregations an element of those interested but not submitted, and the minister must ever have on his heart the burden of such people. A great many ministers say to me, We don’t feel we can conduct evangelistic services like that. How shall we do it? First of all by the use of your natural endowments. There are men who have remarkable powers of persuasion at an election, who yet say they cannot urge men to decision for Christ. If you have influenced a man to vote as he ought to vote for the good of the country, you should be able to win a man for Christ. A man in the ministry of Jesus Christ, whose heart has been touched with the Spirit of God, must feel the compassion of the heart of Christ towards men, and must feel the winning and drawing power of the Christ over men. If a minister have no compassion for men, no yearning for souls, no knowledge of what it is to travail in birth for the souls of men, he should search his own heart and life, and see what it means, for there must be something wrong between him and his Lord, or that compassion and power of constraint would most certainly be there. As to the conduct of an after-meeting. The first thing necessary is that the minister should preach so as to make one necessary. It is no use conducting an after-meeting after any sort of preaching. If decision has been urged in the preaching, then I cannot help thinking that if in the power of the Spirit an appeal be made for immediate response, it will be realized. Two or three years ago it was my privilege to take part in the simultaneous mission arranged for by the Free Church Council of England. Some people will tell you that mission was a failure. That is only partially true. I am quite prepared to admit that it did not succeed in any large extent, in reaching the vast masses of the unchurched people. There were exceptions of course, but both in London and the provinces there were whole regions, residential regions very often, as well as slum regions, which were hardly touched at all. But the movement was a glorious success in that it aroused in the hearts of hundreds of pastors an interest in evangelistic work, and turned them to evangelism in their own churches. The provincial mission which I conducted was held in the Town Hall of the city. There were united in that mission all the Free Churches. God greatly blessed the services, and many were brought to Christ. The last meeting I held was with the ministers, a conference in which they asked what they could do to take up and carry on the work. I suggested that on the next Sunday night every man, whether he had ever done so before or not, should preach to his own congregation with the distinctive and avowed purpose of persuading many of them whom he loved, but who as yet had not yielded to Christ, to yield to Him at once. To this they agreed, and on that next Sunday night every minister preached to his own people an evangelistic sermon, held an after-meeting, and through all the city men and women were saved. I believe that every minister who would prayerfully hold such a service in his own church, and among his own people, would have actual and definite results. Now as to evangelistic services at special seasons. Such seasons may arise in some individual church, or in some union movement among the churches. I do not propose now to discuss the union movements. I am not discrediting them. I thank God for all of them which are so much blessed in my own country, and in this. For the splendid work being done by Dr. Torrey and Mr. Alexander I thank God perpetually. But what I am principally interested in is a new devotion to evangelistic work in our churches, and consequently I want to confine myself very largely to the special mission of evangelism in the church. In the work of a faithful ministry there will come special seasons when the minister and office bearers alike will have borne in upon them the conviction that the time is ripe for harvest. The movement may begin with some woman who prays, and keeps on praying quietly and alone, making no talk about it, until a conviction that God is beginning to work takes possession of the whole church. That is the occasion for the work of the special evangelist. Very many feel that the minister himself is the true man for the work. It may be so in some instances, but it is more fitting in the majority of cases that the minister should seek for some man to co-operate with him, whose gift is specifically that of the evangelist. Now as to method and management. When the church is conscious of imminent Divine visitation there must be the most careful and watchful preparation. It should begin in the gathering together of the church for united prayer. I think that when the church is conscious of Divine visitation, of the movement of the Spirit of God, there need be no indecent hurry. Nothing is lost by a time of waiting, during which the church is gathered together for solemn preparation by consecration and intercession. Then there must be systematic preparation as to the needs of the whole neighbourhood. If a church in a district or neighbourhood is going to hold a series of special meetings, that is the moment in which that church stretches out in actual endeavour to reach the whole neighbourhood. Every house in the neighbourhood will receive invitations to the services, and it will be seen that an invitation shall reach every person, not once or twice, but a dozen times before the services begin. That is very detailed and technical I know, but it is along such lines of hard work, and consecrated prayerful preparation that the greatest blessings have come to services held in connection with individual churches. During the course of the meetings every member of the church should be a worker. It may be urged that that is a counsel of perfection which can never be carried out. At least let it be a counsel of perfection, and let every church attempt to realize it. It may be objected that it is not necessary that every church member should be a worker. And yet nothing is more important. There are many kinds of workers wanted in connection with evangelistic meetings, house-to-house visitors; Christian men and women in the choir to sing the Gospel; Christian men as ushers; specially trained and qualified enquiry room workers; and beyond all these, a band of men and women, who unable to help in any of the ways indicated, shall labour together with the rest, in earnest pleading prayer. The church membership should be called together, and the burden of this matter laid upon them in the spirit of prayer. Then let arrangements be made. Finding out what each is fitted for, allot “to every man his work.” The importance of house-to-house visitation is very great. Let the visitation be courteous and kind, and yet insistent as to the claims of Jesus Christ, devoid of arrogance, but characterized by a winning courteous manner. Let that be done time after time, until it shall be impossible for any human being in the neighbourhood of the church to say “no man careth for my soul. As to the singing. If there is one thing not wanted in evangelistic work it is a number of unconverted men and women to lead the singing. Christian men and women are needed, who in all their singing show the tender and matchless power of Jesus Christ, and they should be gathered out of the church. Then as to the stewards and ushers. Are we not sometimes a little in danger of forgetting the importance of them? The way a man is met at the door and shown to his chair, may decide him for or against God. The way a man is welcomed or repulsed may attract him to Christ or drive him from Christ. In all such special services there should be the greatest care taken that those attending should be welcomed by those who manifest the love of Christ. You may have all your angular, peculiar, crochetty sidesmen when the church only is there, but you want the men of gracious strength, and tender heart, and loving welcome, and genial face, and sweet Christian life to welcome men into the house of God when you are going to urge them to decision for Jesus Christ. And finally the enquiry room workers. Let me utter here a solemn word of warning. Make your enquiry room secure against the intrusion of any person unknown. Let anybody have the right to enter the enquiry room, and all the fads and fanatics of the district will be there first. I was jealously, zealously careful to guard my enquiry room against the intrusion of any person not known to myself. That means there must be preparation by the minister of his workers, and there ought to be an enquiry room class in which he shall meet a chosen band and instruct them in the method of dealing with souls. These need appointing and arranging for with great wisdom and care. If the membership is not exhausted by these appointments, then all the rest can pray. I am greatly impressed today as I meet with men whom God is using, and find their experience coinciding so closely with my own. I crave today more than I ever did in my life, with a greater longing than I ever felt, to know that men and women are praying for me. In New York recently three men came to me, and these three men looked into my face and said, “For five years we three have prayed for you every day by solemn covenant.” I cannot tell you what it meant to me. If our evangelistic work is going to be a success we must get our people regularly and systematically to pray. Epaphras agonized in prayer. Now it is not given to everyone to spend long hours in prayer. Thank God for the men and women who can do it. God does not mean everybody should do that. But we can form the habit of prayer, so that we can pray here, there, anywhere, everywhere. Let the members band themselves together to pray. It has often been pointed out that it is a remarkable thing that when Paul preached on Mar’s Hill, there were few if any converts, but when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost thousands were swept into the Kingdom of God; and it is an interesting question why in the one case so few, and in the other so many were attracted and influenced. No one would like to suggest that Peter was more abandoned to God than Paul. Peter preached in the midst of a company of praying men and women, and Paul did not. And account for it as you will, go into the mystery and philosophy of it as you will, the fact remains that the Holy Spirit of God works more easily in the atmosphere of praying men and women than without them. Then the combined business acumen of the church members should be consecrated to this work. Oh, when will all the business ability in the church be consecrated to the work of the Church? Some men think that they need their business ability for their business, and that it is enough to give a check to the church. If a man is offering for sale something that he wants to make profit out of for himself, he will push it in front of your eyes wherever you go. I cannot travel any distance without seeing the virtues of some soap extolled under my eyes wherever I look. If I could only get hold of the business acumen, and turn it into account for the kingdom of God. I don’t quite like the comparison, but I am going to use it. When the Church begins to run the business of Jesus Christ like the world runs the business of selling soap, we shall do something. I will tell you a story out of my own experience. I went at one time to conduct a series of special services in a district in England. I was to be there for two weeks. One of the officers wrote to me just before I went, and he said, “Our chapel has been renovated, and very beautifully renovated, and we are afraid the crowds may spoil it, and we are going to have the services only for one week.” Oh, the shame of it! The preservation of paint of more importance than the salvation of souls! Let the business men of the Church recognize that they are in business partnership with Jesus Christ, and let them apply all the push and go which they use in their own business to the business of the Kingdom. That should be so always, but specially in the time of the special mission. Such preparation is mechanical, but it is the mechanism through which the Holy Spirit of God may do His work. The work of the evangelistic mission in our churches first demands all our consecrated endeavour. If we attempt to do it in any other way, we shall fail as we deserve to do. If for instance we say we will hold some special services, and then issue two hundred and fifty bills, four inches square, and open the doors and imagine we have done everything, we are demonstrating our unbelief in our own enterprise, and the world is very apt to measure the importance of those things by the standard of the Church’s estimate of their value. We must put into the work of saving men and women sinew and brain, and muscle, and blood, and then we shall begin to move the world. Finally I want to say something as to the actual conduct of an evangelistic service, whether it be the occasional service in the regular work of the pastorate, or whether in the special series. In an evangelistic service the whole conduct of the service must be conducive to the one business of winning men. I begin with the smaller matters first. The physical conditions must be remembered. The building in which the evangelistic service is to be held must be one in which it is possible for people to be physically comfortable. There was a good man in Sheffield, England, named Tom Graham, remarkable in his success in winning souls, who used to say something not elegant in expression, but perpetually true, “I never knew a man saved with cold feet.” It is of prime importance that we attend to the physical conditions. The building must be such as people can at least be comfortable in, and by being comfortable forget the physical and attend to the spiritual. As long as a man is conscious of the physical it is very hard for him to attend to the spiritual. The building must be properly warmed and ventilated. The physical conditions must be of the best. The next point of importance is that those who enter the building to an evangelistic service should be welcomed. The caretaker and the ushers must be chosen with great care if this is to be so. Then accommodation must be provided, and so far as possible those coming must be courteously seated, and attended to. We must in love make men feel that they are more welcome to this service than they ever were in a saloon or theatre. Then further in the evangelistic service the general tone of the proceedings should be carefully guarded. There should be an absence of merely stilted dignity on the part of the minister and the office bearers of the church. D. L. Moody once said that dignity was not one of the fruits of the Spirit anyhow. If a poor man comes into the church and is patronized, the chances of winning him are greatly reduced. And yet the tone should not only be free from stilted dignity, it should be free from all undue frivolity. Nothing should be done by speaker, singer, or anyone else for the sake of simply raising a laugh. I am sorry for the man who lacks a sense of humour, but humour should be the play of summer lightning, clearing the air, and not the degradation of the pulpit into an entertainment, in which the main object is to make people laugh. The tone should be that of a reverent gladness, the hymns pulsating with hope, the attitude of every man taking part in the work that of one who believes in God, and in the possibilities of the man that has come in. Reverent and hopeful in all things let the true evangelistic service be. And once again. The whole of the service in the hands of the evangelist should conduce to the one matter in hand, of winning men for Christ, the singing, the Scripture, and prayer, and the sermon. I do not believe that it is wise in an evangelistic service that the evangelist should hand the conduct of the singing over to any second man. In the actual service he should select his own hymns, such as will lead up to his subject, and such as will appeal to the people on the line thereof. I would have half an hour’s singing before the service proper begins, under the charge of the director, but the moment I come to the platform as the evangelist, I want to select my own hymns. I don’t want a hymn sung absolutely out of harmony with anything I am going to say. There needs to be this harmony. So also with the matter of the Scripture reading. So also with the prayer prayed. An evangelist will be very careful about whom he asks to pray. It is a great mistake to take hold of the Rev. Mr. So and So, who does not believe in evangelistic meetings, and get him to lead in prayer in order to enlist his sympathy. I don’t want to do him good just now. I am after this sinner here, and I want the man to pray who knows the way into the secret place, who knows how to get at the heart of God. All these things are important. I do not think we can afford to miss a single detail. And as to the sermon. In an evangelistic service it must be one aimed at the capture of the will for Jesus Christ. Different congregations will demand different methods. One method of presenting truth will appeal to one class of the community, and quite another method will be necessary for another class. Thomas Chapness says that the most remarkable text on how to be a soul winner is the text, “I will make you fishers of men.” I once heard him speak on that text, and in the course of his sermon he said, ‘A fisher is very careful about his bait. If I want to catch a codfish, I fling them out a bait as big as a clock weight, and they swallow it. But if I am going for salmon I have a fly, and whip the stream with delicacy and art.’ There are some preachers who will appeal along the line of the intellect and reason. There are men caught on the flood tide of emotion. But back of the intellect and emotion is the citadel, the will, and it is for that the preacher strives. Whether he captures the will through the intellect or through the emotion depends upon the persons addressed and on the preacher; but the supreme business is to appeal to the will, and to bring it into submission to the Lordship of Christ. The business of the evangelist is to get a verdict for Jesus Christ there and then. To the realization of that everything else must therefore be subservient in the sermon. The preacher’s literary reputation, the preacher’s rhetorical reputation, yes, the preacher’s theological reputation. The evangelist in the preaching of the evangelistic sermon will not be principally occupied with literary form, or rhetorical expression, or even of theology as such. His business will be to get that man for Christ, and when that is remembered, the sermon will get its true tone, its true quality. One other word. The true evangelist will be very careful to avoid the possibility of a passion for numbered results spoiling his message. I sometimes fear lest the desire to have large statistical returns may tend to make a man make the way of salvation unduly easy. I think there is a danger. We have been preaching ‘Believe,’ and we have not sufficiently said ‘Repent,’ ‘repent,’ ‘repent,’ and we have still to preach this truth, that unless a man will turn to God from idols, then his faith though he boast of it, is dead and worthless. There is no question of precedence. The quality of faith must be that of repentence, and the dynamic of repentance must be that of faith, and when we urge upon men that they believe on the Lord Jesus, we must say that belief means submission to the Lordship, and that means turning from every other lord that has held dominion over the soul. We must not lower the claim of truth as presented to the people. Therefore the evangelistic sermon must be as carefully prepared as any other sermon. We cannot dare to imagine that we have the right to face a great crowd of people, and declare the evangel unless we have taken solemn time to know the evangel, its terms, its content, and its message to men. When some of our best trained men, the most highly equipped mentally turn to aggressive evangelism, then we shall have the most successful evangelists. A word about the after-meeting. I feel very strongly that the best method of conducting an after-meeting is that of making it an after-meeting rather than a continuance of the first meeting. That runs counter to many ideas. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Personally I do not like an after-meeting at which any are unwillingly present. I ask that all those who would like to stay behind do so. I never make an appeal (or very rarely under pressure of circumstances) until I have given an opportunity to everybody to go who desires to do so. It is sometimes said that by such means we miss so many men upon whom the Spirit of God has put His constraint. I do not believe it, and I would rather have a dozen people constrained, convicted, and converted, than a hundred caught in some emotional movement, in which movement there was no real depth of conviction and result. The after-meeting is to give men and women an opportunity to decide for Christ and confess Him immediately and openly. Here occurs the place for enquiry room work. There is no sacramental virtue in an enquiry room. The enquiry room is simply for enquiring souls to come that they may be intelligently dealt with about the spiritual perplexities. And that makes necessary the training of enquiry room workers. You cannot deal intelligently and correctly with a hundred at once. Every case has an individual problem, and there are two words that cover the ground of such work, and these are the words diagnosis and direction. By diagnosis I mean that the intelligent enquiry room worker will take hold of the case and find out where the particular difficulty is. It is not at all wise to say, ‘All you have to do is to believe.’ The difficulty in each case must be discovered, and there needs careful, spiritual, proper training, in order that it may be done. When the difficulty is found out, then there must be the quiet clear pointing of that soul to Christ. Then whether in the after-meeting or in the enquiry room, there is a point where preacher or worker must stand aside, and leave the soul with God alone. I have seen people go with their Bible to an enquirer, and say, ‘Now do you see that verse?’ ‘Oh, yes.’ ‘Well, can you read that verse?’ ‘Oh, yes.’ ‘Read that verse.’ And that person will read that verse, and then the worker says ‘Now do you believe that?’ ‘Yes, I believe that.’ ‘Then you are saved.’ Now we have no business to tell any man he is saved. There is a point where we have to stand aside and let God and the man deal alone with each other. We can help, lead, point, counsel, warn, plead, but at last regeneration is the coming of God to the soul that comes to Him, and we have to draw aside and leave the individual to God. I close as I began. I do not like lectures on methods, and I pray you, receive what I have said only as I have attempted to show principles, and not as I have attempted to lay down rules. But the great and supreme matter is this, that every church of Jesus Christ ought to have in it evangelistic work going on regularly or periodically, and add to its membership by such as are led to Christ individually and directly. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 48: 05.05. THE PRESENT OPPORTUNITY ======================================================================== 5 The Present Opportunity It is always difficult to measure correctly the times in which we live. It has been said that no man can write the history of his own times. Consequently it is not easy for one to understand the spirit of his own age, and yet those who are called to lead must know something of that spirit; indeed, it is one of the essential qualifications for leadership. When the tribes came up to make David king at Hebron, it is said of the children of Issachar that they “had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do,” and immediately afterwards it is further said, “all their brethren were at their commandment.” That is to say, the men that led were the men of Issachar, and all the rest of the tribes were willing to follow their lead. That was the qualification of leadership, “men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.” To any of us God calls to leadership, and I do not mean only conspicuous examples, but those called into the ministry of the Word in any form, one of the prime qualifications is an understanding of the times. It is pre-eminently difficult to form an estimate in spiritual matters. There is a wide application in the words of Jesus, “The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” There are things about the blowing of the wind we do not know, so also with regard to the spirit of the age. And yet the Master rebuked the men who did not understand their own age. He said, Ye hypocrites, “When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather, for the heaven is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the heaven is red and lowering. Ye know how to discern the face of the heaven; but ye cannot discern the signs of the times. Recognizing both the difficulty and necessity then, I want to speak first of the spirit of the age, and then to ask, Have we an evangel that meets the demand? The spirit of an age is not always to be discovered at first glance, or by a merely casual survey of the field. Much that is about us is the issue of a past, and the true spirit of an age is not to be defined by the general consensus of opinion, but by the single voices which are beginning to sound, which for the moment are startling and full of surprise. If I casually survey the age, the first thing which I notice is its materialism. We are cursed by materialism. Commercial prosperity has seemed as though it would grind under its heel all spiritual life. That is the general outlook. Yet if a man should say that the spirit of the age is that of materialism, he has missed the deepest note. He has not heard the deepest voice, but has taken the casual outlook. A general survey is not what we need. It was said of President McKinley that he was a great statesman, because he had the faculty of putting his ear to the ground, and listening for the things that were coming. It was a remarkable capacity. A man who knows how to listen for the new voices, and see the fresh visions is the true statesman. In the words of the Bible he is a man “who has understanding of the times,” and knows what the people ought to do. We don‘t want to be led astray by the clamour of the mob. We want to listen for the new voices, the voices which are forming public opinion. If that be understood, I want to say three things. I think that the spirit of the age is characterized first, by a revolt against materialism. That is the very opposite of the first impression. Yet I believe that to be the note which is sounding clearly at the present moment. And next there is abroad a new passion for the practical. Call it altruism, utilitarianism if you will. I prefer the other phrase because it is more simple. And the third fact is that there is a great sense present in the hearts of men today, of some coming visitation. These three notes mark the spirit of the age in which we are called to live and serve; first, a revolt against materialism; second, a new passion for that which is practical; and finally, a great, mystic, mysterious sense of some coming visitation. First of all I suppose having referred to materialism, and then having declared that there is a revolt against materialism, it is perfectly fair to ask me to demonstrate my statement. One of the evidences that there is a revolt against materialism in the air is the marvelous and astounding growth of Christian Science. As to Christian Science itself I hold it to be characterized by an absence of the Christian, and an ignorance of science. But here is a great movement, and it is fair that we should ask, What does it mean? I have traveled in your railways over eighty thousand miles, and visited cities, and touched all sections of the Christian ministry, and there is hardly a place where Christian Science is not successful. It is not only that they gather into their fold fanatics or people characterized by neurosis, but some of the sweetest and best Christians have also gone over to them. What is the secret? Christian Science stands for two things: the negation of sin, and the affirmation of the spiritual. That is an attempt to get at the heart of it. It says, There is no material, everything is spiritual. Matter does not exist. It is a mental fault, a mental miscalculation to imagine you have matter. Thus they emphasize the spiritual, falsely emphasizing it as we believe, and absurdly too, but this very emphasis of the spiritual has been the attraction of a people tired of materialism. The materialism of the past said, Matter is everything, but today Christian Science says, No, matter is nothing, the spiritual is everything. The argument we hold to be ridiculous and absurd and laughable, but the underlying principle is the thing that draws the multitudes, a reaffirmation of the spiritual. And then the negation of sin. Here is where we supremely join issue with Christian Scientists. They are calling something Christian which denies atonement, because it denies sin. Any theory that denies the sin of man, and denies the Cross of Christ is something to be dreaded. And yet even though they deny the atonement of Christ, they endeavour to get rid of sin by denial. I do not hesitate to affirm that if the Christian Church had only been true to the Gospel of spirituality, and the Gospel of holiness, there would have been no room for Christian Science. And yet the presence of it in our midst is evidence of a revolt against materialism, and though it is but a will-o-the-wisp, that dances among the quagmires, men would rather have the will-o-the-wisp than the dense black darkness of materialism. It is a sign of the times. But still far more striking is it that the affirmations of science at the present hour most remarkably demonstrate the truth that the age is characterized by revolt from materialism. Huxley, Spencer, Tyndal, Darwin twenty-five years ago denied the reality of anything except matter. We heard much of the atom, of the protoplasmic germ, of the fortuitous concurrence of atoms, and these were given to us as the final solution of which man was capable, of the whole riddle and mystery of the universe. Lord Kelvin, the nestor of British scientific thought, perhaps the most remarkable living man of science, has said, that “Science positively affirms creative power, and makes everyone feel a miracle in himself.” He says, “It is not in dead matter that man lives, moves or has being, but in the creative and directive power, which science compels them to accept as an article of scientific belief.” The latest scientific pronouncement of the age is that there is something at the back of matter, that there is a spiritual force behind. Science has not yet gone far enough to define, but it has absolutely abandoned the position of twenty-five years ago, that all that is, is the accidental coming together of atoms. Darwin’s evolutionary theory has passed. The evolutionary theory has not passed but has come to stay. It is probably true in certain realms. But the evolutionary theory of Darwin is not held by reputable scientific men today. That some germ of truth lies within the theory there can be no longer any doubt, but we are now coming to see that while the evolutionary theory may have an application to the material realm, it does not account for spiritual life at any point. And the scientist is acknowledging it. Two very remarkable books have recently been issued. First that of Professor James of Harvard University, entitled, “Varieties of Religious Experiences.” This is a book written not from the standard of a Christian man, a book written not by a professor in a Christian Theological Seminary, but by a professor of psychology, plainly and simply upon the basis of scientific study of the psychological problems of life. He has gathered up all kinds of religious experiences, and after carefully and systematically examining his data, has made his deductions. Let me read you one sentence from the part of the book in which the Professor gives his conclusions. He claims they are scientific conclusions based upon an examination of data. “We and God have business with each other, and in opening ourselves to His influence, our deepest destiny is fulfilled.” Here is a scientific testimony that thousands of men are reading in this land today. Men that call themselves scientists, take this book up, and they read that after examination of the experiences of men, the professor has come to this twofold conclusion, first that man has dealings with God, and that human life can only fulfill its deepest destiny when man is submitted to the government of God. The influence of such a deduction by so eminent a scientific thinker is bound to be that of creating a revolt from materialism in the minds of thousands of the thinking youth of our colleges and universities. And yet once again, there has issued from the press, since Prof. James’ book, a book by Frederic W. H. Myers. The history of Myers is an interesting one. He was an Oxonean, and a pronounced High Churchman and during that period of his High Churchism, he wrote the poem of “St. Paul,” to me at least one of the most exquisite pieces of poetry in the English language. After that he passed into agnosticism, reverent agnosticism, never attacking Christianity, but declaring himself to be unsure. There he lived for years, became interested in the work of the Psychical Research Society, of the phenomena of spiritual existences as they manifested themselves in ordinary life, and outside the church. He has left two volumes, published after his death, the title of which reveals the subject. “Human Personality, and its Survival of Bodily Death.” Such a book is received by scientists, they will read this book, and they will not all agree that he has proved his case. But as Myers says, twenty-five years from now no reputable scientist will question the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead. In the next twenty-five years we have to speak to people in whom there will be a reawakened sense of the reality of the spiritual. There is nothing more encouraging than this, that in the world of purely scientific investigation there is a re-affirmation of all the things we stand for. The next note of the age is a passion for the practical. I need hardly stay, in speaking to American audiences, to prove the truth of this. You have a passion for the practical, for you have no respect for ancient things. Americans have no respect for institutions merely as such, and I confess I have the profoundest sympathy with them. It is the altruistic spirit which governs this great people, and it is in the van-guard of humanity at the present moment. The cry today is for an ethical and social Gospel. Everywhere men are crying for a social and ethical Gospel, for something that touches all needs of men’s lives. There is a passion everywhere for something that conditions actual life, and affects the details of every man’s doings. It is a true passion. The passion for the practical is manifesting itself in England in a new antagonism to Christianity. Robert Blatchford is writing the most definite articles of attack on Christianity. He is rousing the whole of the pulpits in England to consider and answer them. So strong a paper as the “British Weekly” has thought it necessary to devote space to answering these attacks. What is it this man is attacking? He is attacking the miraculous and supernatural elements in Christianity, the virgin birth of our Holy Lord, and His resurrection. Why? Because Christianity fails to do what he thinks she ought to do; and consequently this very antagonism of his is a new sign of the passion for the practical. And lastly there is a sense of coming visitation, of which we hear from all sides and from divers voices. Mistakes of interpretation there may be, but the general fact is recognized. Men everywhere are looking for something, they hardly know what. Thus I hold that today the age is characterized by revolt against materialism, by a passion for the practical, and by a sense of daybreak at hand. Now let me ask, Does our evangel fit the needs of the age? Have we any need to find a new evangel, or what shall we do? I submit that the evangel of Jesus Christ exactly answers the need created by the spirit of the age, for it is a protest against materialism, and an assertion of the variety of the spiritual; it is practical, or it is nothing; and the visitation that is to come must have as its essential notes the very evangel committed to us to declare. The evangel is exactly in harmony with the spirit of the age in its revolt against materialism. What is the Gospel that we have to preach? What are the notes of the Gospel? The first note in the evangel of Jesus Christ is the assertion of His Lordship. The preaching of the Lordship of Christ will answer this cry for spirituality. Kelvin has affirmed the Divinity of creation or the Deity at back of creation. Jesus long ago stood among the flowers and birds, and said, God clothes these flowers, and feeds these birds. The last scientific assertion synchronizes with the simple statement of the Nazarene long years ago, that at back of the flower, and bird, and everything, is God. Dr. James says, “We have dealings with God.” That is the last affirmation of psychological science. Listen, “Seek ye first His Kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” That is the answer of our King. The last affirmation of psychological science harmonizes with what He taught. Frederic Myers in his posthumous work affirms in this day human personality to be stronger than death, to exist after the death of the body, that man does not cease to exist when his body ceases to exist. That is the whole declaration of two great volumes. Listen. “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.” In neither of these cases did Jesus Christ defend what these men are affirming. They refer to them as discoveries. He referred to them incidentally, as established verities. What this age needs is to show that Jesus is Lord in the intellectual realm, and that the last things scientists are saying, are in harmony with the things Jesus Christ said centuries ago. He was not the half-educated and half-ignorant Galilean peasant some would have us believe, but supreme among men in the intellectual realm; and stated as the common-places of His knowledge, things which they have taken nineteen hundred centuries to spell out. He affirmed the reality of the spiritual. He told men what they need is eternal life, and eternal life is not a quantity, but a quality, life that touches the infinite, that is homed in God, that takes in eternity. All this sighing after the spiritual is to be answered by preaching Jesus Christ as Lord, and bringing men into submission to Him. He will lead them into life, and they will find they have an answer to their deepest cry, the sense of the spiritual. And then as to the passion for practical things. How is it manifested? We are told we must have a social and ethical Gospel. Where will you find it? It is a remarkable thing that these very men when they tell us what they want, refer to the Sermon on the Mount. Whose Gospel was that? It is the Gospel of our King. You say you want a practical Gospel, that this age must have a social and ethical Gospel. Well, here it is. But Christianity as it delivers its message is more practical than the men who are crying for practical things. Men are saying, We want an ethical and social Gospel. We don’t want to hear about the Cross. We have had enough of the Cross. Give us something social and practical. Christ is so practical that He never asks men to obey His laws unless they are regenerate. Christ takes into account the paralysis in human life. You cannot build up a regenerated society unless you have regenerated men. You will find that Christianity is pre-eminently practical. It does not attempt to construct a living society out of dead matter, neither does it attempt to realize a pure order among corrupt men, neither does it attempt to give a perfect ethic to paralyzed individuals. It takes hold of the man first, and remakes him, and then remakes society. It takes hold of the man fast bound in sin, and breaks his chains, and then tells him to walk upright. Men will never be influenced by a social Gospel until they have heard and obeyed the Gospel of regeneration. Let us thank God for the wider outlook of the age in which we live. Oh how many children are crying in the night, and with no language but a cry. Our business is to interpret the cry of the child to itself. Men want something. They will sob out all sorts of foolish things, and tell us what they think they want. Never let us forget that they will never have the satisfactory answer to their profoundest and widest prayer save along the line of personal regeneration. It is a sad thing indeed when a minister of Jesus Christ thinks of himself as an interesting entertainer, an intellectual instructor of his people merely, or a social reformer, or a political agent merely. He ought to have something else to do. The principal work to which he is called wherever he may be sent, is that of bringing individuals into touch with spiritual realities, and in proportion as he is able to lead men to Christ individually, he is answering the cry of the age for the spiritual, for the practical; and contributing to that great visitation for which men are sighing and waiting in the darkness. The voices of the age are full of hope. I know the other side. I know the pressure of the burden, and the apparent strength of sin. These are but the symptoms of a day. God is moving towards victory. May He make us fellow workers with Him. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 49: 06.0.0. GODS METHODS WITH MAN ======================================================================== GOD’S METHODS WITH MAN: In Time--Past, Present, and Future. by Rev. G. Campbell Morgan, AUTHOR OF "The Hidden Years at Nazareh"; "Discipleship" ETC., ETC. MORGAN AND SCOTT LTD Office of The Christian 12, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, AND 30 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.CMCMVIII ======================================================================== CHAPTER 50: 06.0.1. AUTHORS NOTE ======================================================================== Author’s Note These addresses were delivered in substance at Northfield, and reported stenographically. They were then revised and expanded, and were afterward delivered in my own church. A flood of letters, books, and pamphlets poured in upon me: some from enquirers; some from those who have differed from positions taken up; and very many from those who have been helped. These letters have all been acknowledged, except in cases where that was rendered impossible by anonymity. However, I was and am determined not to be tempted into controversy of any kind, either by letter or in print, seeing that I am far from claiming that hearers or readers are bound to accept my convictions as absolute truth. I simply desire to enunciate what I believe to be the teaching of the New Testament. The final court of appeal is not any man’s interpretation, but God’s Book; and I may have something yet to learn upon certain points. If those whom I address search the Scriptures for proof of my statements, and do not come to the same conclusions as myself, we may yet rejoice together in that we shall thereby know the Word of God more perfectly, and moreover that “what we know not now, we shall know hereafter.” G. Campbell Morgan. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 51: 06.0.2. CONTENTS ======================================================================== God’s Methods with Man CONTENTS 1. Introductory 2. From Creation to Christ 3. The Dispensation of the Spirit 4. The Coming of Christ 5. Daniel’s Missing Week 6. The Events of the Missing Week 7. The Dawn of a Golden Age 8. The Golden Age 9. After the Thousand Years 10. The Purifying Hope 11. Appendix ======================================================================== CHAPTER 52: 06.01. INTRODUCTORY ======================================================================== 1. INTRODUCTORY Ere God had built the mountains, Or raised the fruitful hills; Before He filled the fountains That feed the running rills— In Me, from everlasting, The wonderful I AM, Found pleasures, never wasting; And Wisdom is My name. When, like a tent to dwell in, He spreads the skies abroad, And swathed about the swelling Of ocean’s mighty flood— He wrought by weight and measure; And I was with Him then: Myself the Father’s pleasure, And Mine, the sons of men. Thus Wisdom’s words discover Thy glory and Thy grace, Thou everlasting Lover Of our unworthy race. Thy gracious eye surveyed us, Ere stars were seen above; In wisdom Thou hast made us, And died for us in love. And couldst Thou be delighted With creatures such as we— Who, when we saw Thee, slighted And nailed Thee to a tree? Unfathomable wonder, And mystery divine! The voice that speaks in thunder Says—“Sinner, I am thine!” Cowper. For a correct estimate of the present times, and a true conception of future events, we must have a clear understanding of the things that are past. We are in danger of living too much in the present, and of looking upon the Divine activities as if they were haphazard or accidental, as our own always are, save as we are under the control of the Spirit of God. We seem to have contracted the idea that in the history of the race God has been making experiments with men; and that when one plan has failed, He has adopted another. Such false conceptions arise from the fact that, mentally and spiritually, we live too much in the circle of our own times, and are forgetful of all that has gone before. The corrective is found in studying history from the Divine standpoint. Nothing yields a more chaotic, uncertain, and unsatisfactory result than a view merely from the human side; while, on the contrary, order, beauty, and progress, are seen only as we take the Divine outlook. The Chart which accompanies these Lectures is intended as an aid to the mind through the avenue of the eye. It is a comparatively simple delineation of the events with which we have to deal, and is intended to represent the whole stream of time. The portion of a circle colored blue represents the past eternity. The beginning of time is marked by a small green circle, signifying a state of earthly perfection, the garden of Eden as it came from the hand of God. Human history runs on in epochs—from the Fall of man to the Flood; from the Flood to the call of Abraham; from the call of Abraham to Moses; and the reign of Law to the coming of Christ. From the point where human sin begins, the red line marks the presence of sacrifice, the blood of “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” At the end of the period of Law, the Cross is uplifted; and a line ascending indicates the return of Jesus to the heavens. So far as humanity is concerned, that line is black, announcing the culmination of sin; and, in contrast, we have the gold which tells of heavenly glory accomplished by that Cross of Jesus Christ. A circle, showing the sphere of the Holy Spirit’s dispensation, is colored red, because the whole earth to-day, as viewed from the Divine standpoint, is under the blood of Christ’s Cross. God is dealing with man, entirely and everywhere, under the shelter and shadow of that Cross. A thin, green line from Eden to Calvary marks the fact that throughout human history God has never left the earth without witnesses who have been loyal to Him. That line becomes, in the period of the Spirit’s work, a golden one; for the testimony is now of a heavenly, as distinct from the former earthly, character. A line half gold, half purple, indicates the priestly work of Jesus Christ in the heavens during this period. The device of a tongue of fire represents the Spirit as connecting the exalted Christ and the earth on which we live. This dispensation ends with the coming of Christ, and the ascent of the Church to meet Him, marked by a line, the black of which signifies the mystery of the rapture to the unregenerate, and the blue and gold, the glory the Church now enters upon with Christ. Then sets in a short period of tribulation upon the earth, indicated by a black section; at the end of which Christ and His Church come to the mid-heavens; He Himself descends to the earth; and we have the Millennium, a green circle with the star of gold, showing that while an earthly glory is set up, the Kingdom of Heaven will be realized under the direct rule of Christ and His people. The red line of blood is taken up and continued on our Chart immediately upon the end of this dispensation. At the end of the Millennium there will be a short period of further trouble upon the earth, again marked by a black section. A golden section indicates the fullness of the times, the glorious reign of Christ, and then the great eternities set in, when God shall be all in all. It is well to approach this subject reverently, humbly, and apart from controversy. The Bible we shall regard throughout as the authoritative revelation of God concerning His dealings with men. We shall turn neither to the right hand nor to the left to defend the statements of the Word of God. At the outset, however, there are certain principles to which assent must be given, in order to a true understanding of the whole scheme of these studies. First, the one abiding, eternal, unchangeable fact—God is. It is necessary thus to get down to the bed-rock for a sound structure. Then we must recognize the truth of Divine Sovereignty. The God from Whose thought all good things come, has never handed over anything to other government than His own. It may be that, for awhile, the prince of the power of the air has seemed to rule; but let it never be forgotten that God is upon His throne, high and lifted up, still holding in His hands the reins of government. Not only in His own heavens, not only on this earth, but in the deepest abyss itself, God is absolutely Sovereign. The next point is that this rule cannot be set aside; it will continue forever, notwithstanding all opposition. Lastly, because God is, and because He still holds the reins of government, there must come the final triumph of His Kingdom and of His will. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 53: 06.02. FROM CREATION TO CHRIST ======================================================================== 2. FROM CREATION TO CHRIST I looked: aside the dust-cloud rolled— The Waster seemed the Builder too; Upspringing from the ruined Old I saw the New. T was but the ruin of the bad,— The wasting of the wrong and ill; Whate’er of good the old time had Was living still. The outworn rite, the old abuse, The pious fraud transparent grown, The good held captive in the use Of wrong alone— These wait their doom, from that great law Which makes a past time serve to-day; And fresher life the world shall draw From their decay. But life shall on and upward go; Th’ eternal step of Progress beats To that great anthem, calm and slow, Which God repeats. God works in all things: all obey His first propulsion from the night: Wake thou and watch!—the world is grey With morning light! J. G. Whittier. “The Reformer.” In thought we enter the dread silence of eternity past; and as the voices of earth are hushed, we have in that silence one consciousness—God is love. Every movement of creation began there. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The phrase “the beginning” carries us behind all dates. The first certainty is that God created—when, no man can tell: how far back, is beyond all computation. Behind the beginning of material things—God. Those who would put science and revelation in opposition say to us, “You tell us that the world is six thousand years old; but here is a piece of rock which must be thousands of years older.” We reply that we do not count our six thousand years from the creation of matter, but from that of man. Your rock may be as old as you please. Our claim is that, beyond your longest stretch of years, is God—creating. Yet another change—“The earth was waste and void; darkness was upon the face of the waters.” It may be well to tabulate the statements of Genesis 1:1-2 : 1. “In the beginning God.” The only satisfactory statement possible concerning the countless ages of the past. The light of the New Testament enables us to make a further assertion concerning that past eternity, viz, “God is love.” 2. “God created the heaven and the earth.” That declares the origin of all of which we know anything beside God Himself. No date is fixed, nor can be. 3. “The earth was waste and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” Between this and the former, some unchronicled event has transpired; for “waste and void” are words which cannot describe the first conditions of any creation of God. 4. “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” The chaotic earth was not God-forsaken, but watched by the unwearying vigilance of the Eternal Spirit. How long this lasted none can tell. We come now to a point with which we are more immediately concerned, “And God said.” Here we have for the first time Divine thought expressed in speech. The Word of God, the Logos. In John’s Gospel is an important statement bearing on this fact—John 1:1 : “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” By the Logos God brings order out of disorder, and beauty out of the darkness. The Word of God sounded over the chaotic earth; and, in response to that Word, there arose order, beauty, everything that we see to-day, only in its perfection. Read in this connection, Proverbs 8:1-36, where the Word of God is spoken of as Wisdom. Observe the declarations of that wonderful passage, that in all God’s creative acts, “I (Wisdom) was daily His delight.” Thus we have creation by God, through Christ, the Wisdom or the Word of God; the earth thoroughly furnished, and man placed thereon. So time begins. Accepting absolutely the Bible story, which fits in with reason, experience, and hope, we find man created in the image of God and placed amid perfect environment. He lives in the Divine favor, holding unbroken communion with God, and dwelling in the realm of loyalty to Him. Some say that man was a non-moral being until he fell; but we contend that the moment he stood in the garden of Eden, with its testing point for character in the forbidden tree, and the Divine denial of its fruit upon his soul, he knew that the realms of right and of wrong were bounded by obedience and disobedience. He was a moral being the moment he took up his position there. God did not tempt, but tested, man—an absolute necessity in the nature of the case, for man is a being with a will. Man’s will is paralyzed, robbed of its glory and magnificence, save as he has opportunity to use it. Tennyson says: “Our wills are ours, we know not how; Our wills are ours to make them Thine.” But man chose to make his will his own, in contradiction to the Divine will; becoming, by that action, immoral. He fell, was driven forth; and, from that moment, the reign of conscience set in. Man took his place outside the garden of Eden, to face the future with its conflict and need. His position was that of a sinner; and the Divine dealing was no longer with one innocent, but with a law-breaker. Straightway the blood line was over the earth, pointing to the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and to be slain in the fullness of time. God brought to the man and woman in the garden coats of skins; and there could have been no such clothing save as there had first been the sacrifice of life and the shedding of blood. The sacrifices, which ever pointed on to Christ’s Cross, began here with man’s sin. Man went out from the garden, with his hope set on the future, comforted by the announcement that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head. God sent into life new ministries of sorrow and toil, that man might, by the consciousness of loss, be drawn back to the Divine heart. The story of the earth from Eden to the Flood, covering about 1665 years, is known to us all. During that period two races of men were developed. First, we have the line from Adam through Cain, tending to corruption and degradation. There is also the line through Seth, which culminates in Enoch, at the seventh generation, who “walked with God, and was not, for God took him.” From Enoch the line of demarcation became less and less distinct until in the days of Noah humanity had reached an awful depth of degradation. Genesis 6:11; Genesis 6:5 : “And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” “And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” God now destroyed the whole race by the Flood, with the exception of an elect company, by whom the continuity of the race was preserved, and on whom a new era had dawned. Hitherto man’s conscience had been under blood. Blood and sacrifice still held their place, but God imposed upon man the duty of mutual self-government. Let us turn to one passage only, in Genesis 9:5-6 : “Surely your blood, the blood of your lives, will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it: and at the hand of man, even at the hand of every man’s brother, will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man.” That is a new arrangement. Men are now to be governed mutually. Every man is to exercise care for his brother: and if man slay his brother-man, other men are to see that he pays the penalty with his life. Thus God safeguards the life of each by making all responsible for the lives of individuals. It is a new commencement, with corruption and evil put away by the Flood. Soon after the Deluge, the tower of Babel rose. Some assert that its object was security against the effects of any future flood. Genesis 11:4 shows, however, the thought in the minds of the builders. “Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” It was not that they hoped to escape another judgment which might be coming upon them; but they desired solidarity. To-day we hear a great deal about the “solidarity of humanity”; and the endeavor to secure it by putting God out of His own world is a very old piece of history. Apart from Him, the only really cohesive force for humanity is absent, and confusion must be the result. These men were scattered throughout the whole earth, and their tongues were confounded. Some of our friends are seeing very serious difficulties to-day as regards that confusion of tongues. Personally, I see no more objection to this record than to the account of the Pentecostal gift of tongues; and if men are prepared to question one, why not the other? Here there came into human history the element of nationality. We talk proudly to-day about our patriotism. Patriotism is after all one of the greatest curses the world has ever seen, and is but another name for selfishness. What is the Divine ideal? “He hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth.” All nationality and patriotic pride have sprung from Babel, and the attempt to do without God. Supposing all nationality were swept from the world to-day, what would follow? Disarmament, and peace. Then there would be real unity; and until that is realized, “brotherhood” outside the Christian Church is an anomaly and foolishness. God scattered these Babel builders in their attempt to secure solidarity without Him. From Babel to Abraham there was a development of national pride, self-interest, and consequent animosities. In the call of Abraham, we find God taking one man upon the principle of faith. Faith is the confidence of man in God, which results in his submission and obedience. The world had lost this principle, and, as we have seen, the latest unfolding of unbelief was the attempt to secure unity apart from the Divine. As a result the solidarity of the race was lost, and a company of nations, with prejudices, and pride, began to conflict with each other. God’s purpose in calling Abraham was that of creating a new nation, held together by this unifying principle of faith, that through them the nations of the earth might learn the blessedness and peace of the Divine Kingship. That is the true story of the calling of Abraham and the creation of Israel as a nation. I solemnly protest against the common mistake concerning the calling of Israel to God’s service, that God abandoned the world, and took but a few people for Himself. God called Abraham and said, “I will bless thee and make thee a blessing; and in thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” As at the first God’s Spirit brooded over chaos before order was evolved therefrom, so His unwearied love never ceases toward man. Israel was created to influence other nations for God, itself being within His kingdom. Israel, however, rebelled against God’s rule; and ended in Egypt and in slavery. Through unbelief and sin, the whole nation went down into bondage. After four hundred years, God wrought deliverance for them; and then the period of Law set in, and the nation was brought under the direct Kingship of God. Thus was instituted the most marvellous government the world has ever seen. Very wonderful was that period in the wilderness, when a great and mighty people were trained as God’s children, and were prepared for all that lay before them. Their law was given them by God, and they lived within its sphere. They came into the promised land, and then degeneracy set in. They grew tired of theocracy, and demanded a monarchy. We have a King, said they, but He is in the heavens; these nations have kings who are with them in courts, robes, and palaces. Give us such an one! They had their desire, and passed through earthly kingship into the realm of corruption, and ultimately into renewed captivity. At last God’s kingly rule passed from them altogether; and the times of the Gentiles set in, with Media, Persia, Greece, and Rome, in the ascendant. Still the line of witnesses for God ran on, in a few souls true to Him, such as Anna, Simeon, the shepherds, and others who looked for the day of the Messiah. Now came the last message, that of John, followed by the King Himself with the same words, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He declared its laws, and gave evidences of its benefactions, as He healed men, drove out devils, and applied heaven’s solace to earth’s sorrows and travail for His brief ministry of three and a half years. How did it end? “He came unto His own, and they that were His own received Him not,” but gave Him the death of the Cross. The evident lessons of our study are two—first, human failure; second, Divine progress. Look where you will in human history, you find failure. The Fall and the Flood, Corruption and the Cross. Every time humanity is put upon a new footing it fails. Has God failed? Not once; everything has been preparatory and progressive. Let us retrace our steps. The Cross and all that it means was prepared for throughout Judaic history. This one nation of Israel learned, through battle and smoke, murmuring and forgiveness, captivity and deliverance, the great truth that there is but one God. Monotheism is the lesson which humanity has learned through Israelitish history. From the time when Israel came back out of Babylon, she never again set up idols. When that truth was enshrined for the world in the chosen nation, then the one God became flesh. God was preparing through the wonderful history of their times for the Incarnation. What of the failure that preceded the Flood? Sin worked itself out to the utmost head of corruption. God allowed it to have its own free working, and then He swept it away, and started man upon the next stage of history, having behind him that terrific example of what sin is when it is left to its own course. I am bold to say that human corruption, so far as its actual effects upon men’s lives are concerned, has never reached the awful depths of degradation which prevailed before the flood, when the sons of men were holding intercourse with evil spirits. Thus we have sin manifested and the one God seen; while the Incarnate Word takes that sin upon Himself, that the world may ever know, from that point onward, the meaning of sin as well as the meaning of God and His Divine government. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 54: 06.03. THE DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT ======================================================================== 3. THE DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT When God of old came down from heaven, In power and wrath He came; Before His feet the clouds were riven, Half darkness and half flame. But when He came the second time, He came in power and love; Softer than gale at morning prime Hover’d His Holy Dove. The fires that rushed on Sinai down In sudden torrents dread, Now gently light, a glorious crown, On every sainted head. Like arrows went those lightnings forth, Winged with the sinner’s doom; But these, like tongues o’er all the earth, Proclaiming life to come. And as on Israel’s awe-struck ear The voice, exceeding loud, The trump, that angels wake to hear, Thrilled from the deep, dark cloud; So, when the Spirit of our God Came down His flock to find, A voice from heaven was heard abroad, A rushing, mighty wind. It fills the Church of God; it fills The sinful world around; Only in stubborn hearts and wills No place for it is found. Keble.“Christian Year.” We now come to deal with the central circle in our Chart, marking the present dispensation. The thin line continued across it, is golden instead of green, showing that God’s chosen people are now of heavenly, rather than earthly, character. Above is a line which marks the present High Priestly work of Jesus Christ in the heavens, this line having its purple or priestly side toward the earth. The device of a divided tongue of fire shows that the whole dispensation is that of the Spirit. Let me remind you of the events immediately following the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. There was the resurrection from among the dead; and then the forty days which He spent among His disciples, every day of which undoubtedly had some very definite meaning. It is of the greatest interest to trace His appearances during that period to various persons, upon different occasions, in different places and ways. The ten days of waiting, between His ascension and the ushering in of the Spirit’s dispensation, were for the disciples days of weakness and of foolishness. These men whom Christ had called to Himself had no wisdom to know what to do, even if they had possessed the power to accomplish anything. God, in infinite wisdom, left them for ten days, enjoining them to wait for “the promise of the Father,” and until they were endued with “power from on high.” We are all familiar with the story of Pentecost and its effects upon these men in the upper room: the rushing mighty wind, filling the whole house where they were assembled, and the appearance of parting tongues of fire sitting upon each of them. The wondrous power, that came upon Christ’s followers, the new Spirit that possessed them, and the marvellous deeds of early apostolic days are well known to every one of us. It is our aim to get a general view of the whole dispensation thus inaugurated. By His coming at the day of Pentecost upon that company of men and women in the upper room, the Holy Ghost formed the Church of Jesus Christ. There had been no Church prior to that coming of the Spirit. Individual Jewish disciples had gathered around the Lord during the days of His ministry, and He prepared them for the ushering in of this wondrous dispensation. As they gathered together day by day in the upper room, they were a collection of separate individual souls; but “when the day of Pentecost was fully come,” and the Spirit fell upon them, He united them into one whole body, the Church of Jesus Christ. The Spirit came to create the Church, to be the bond of its life; and, from that time to this, men have only entered the Church of Jesus Christ through the new creation of the Spirit. Avoiding anything like controversy, we still find it necessary to say in passing, that no person was ever admitted to the Church of Jesus Christ by water baptism, or by votes of members. There can be no admission into spiritual union by that which is purely material. We admit persons into Church fellowship, not in order that they may become members of the Church of Christ, but because they are already such. For the sake of a very important distinction, I repeat that by the coming of the Spirit the Church was formed; and that same Spirit has, from that day to this, admitted into the Church of Jesus Christ such souls as, convinced by Himself, have believed upon Christ and have been therefore born again of the Spirit. So began the dispensation in which we live. What is the difference between the Spirit’s relation to this present dispensation and to former ones? This question is very important; because we are in danger of imagining that God has, in some way, been working in sections of Himself while dealing with men. This is not so: the Spirit had direct dealings with every dispensation that has passed away. Psalms 33:6 : “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” There can be very little doubt that, in order to carry the true sense of the word there to English readers, breath should have a capital B, as referring to the Holy Spirit; and, in that declaration of the Psalmist, we have the union of God the Father, with the Word of God, and the Spirit of God in creation. Genesis 6:3 : “And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for that he also is flesh.” I do not refer you to that verse to deal with it in its setting, to which I make only passing reference. It is continually being quoted as applicable to this dispensation and to individual life therein. Sermons have been preached from this passage, to prove that God now withdraws His Spirit from living men. Such use is contrary to Scripture, and a denial of the great lines of order upon which God proceeds and from which He never deviates in His dealings with men. In its setting, it plainly refers, some one hundred and twenty years before the event, to the time when judgment should set in by the Flood. But I quote it to show that in the old dispensation God dealt with man by His Spirit for special reasons and on particular occasions. Numbers 11:25 : “And the Lord came down in the cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and put it upon the seventy elders; and it came to pass that when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied.” The Authorized Version adds, “and did not cease”; but the Revised Version makes an important alteration, “they did so no more.” The elders only prophesied when the Spirit was upon them. We read further that when Eldad and Medad, who were not ordained, began prophesying (Numbers 11:27-29): “There ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. And Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, one of his chosen men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them. And Moses said unto him, Art thou jealous for my sake? Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets.” Why did these men prophesy? Because the Spirit of God had come upon them. The Spirit on the elders made them prophets; but when He was taken from them, they ceased to prophesy. Forgive the use of a word to which I particularly object, but I employ it in its common acceptation: the Spirit upon the laity made them prophets. (It is high time that we drop the unholy distinction between clergy or ministers and “the laity”). The Spirit came, of old, that men, in or out of orders as God chose, should become His messengers to the age in which they lived. Another interesting reference to the work of the Spirit in the old dispensation occurs in Exodus 31:1-5 : “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: and I have filled him with the Spirit of God.” What for? “In wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all manner of workmanship.” The anointing of the Spirit to be a brassworker, carpenter, stonecutter, and everything else! Would to God we believed it, in this day, more than we do! In the old dispensation, men who had special work to do were fitted for it, even to the details of material things, by the coming upon them of the Spirit of God. Such illustrations might be multiplied; and they form a most interesting study. Under the old dispensation the Spirit was given to certain men for specific work or the delivery of special messages; and when the work was done, He was withdrawn. He was then, if I may use the phrase, a visitor to men, coming by the will of God, accomplishing the Divine purpose. But godly men of those days looked for something further, even in connection with the Spirit of God. Here is a prophecy containing a promise made to them: Joel 2:28-30 : “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit.” That was a promise made to the old dispensation, but not fulfilled in it; and it is a supreme instance, but not the only one, of such a promise. Jeremiah 31:1-40, and the wondrous chapters toward the close of Ezekiel’s prophecy, show how men of old waited, not only for the coming Messiah, but for the giving of the Holy Ghost, as never before. From Creation through the reign of conscience, on to the period of law, the Spirit worked among men upon occasion, convincing of sin, revealing the will of God, fitting for specific service to be rendered to God; but that was all. Pentecost, however, was a fulfillment of the prophecy in Joel. Peter, speaking to the assembled crowd concerning the sights which they had seen and the sounds which they had heard, said, in answer to a criticism from some in that crowd (Acts 2:14-16): “Ye men of Judæa, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and give ear unto my words. For these are not drunken, as ye suppose; seeing it is but the third hour of the day; but this is that which hath been spoken by the prophet Joel.” At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came in His fullness as He had never come before, to be for this dispensation not a visitor but a resident in the Church. That event was equal in importance to the Incarnation itself, was closely allied to it, and was its direct consequence. Bring together those remarkable statements: “The Word was made flesh”; “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” Now that Divinity has come to humanity, and humanity in the person of the incarnate Logos is linked to Divinity—the Spirit of God can be poured out upon all flesh. The two events are so closely joined in essence that neither can be correctly understood apart from the other. By the coming of that Spirit on the day of Pentecost as the result of the finished work of the Son of God, we enter upon the Spirit’s dispensation—that in which we live to-day. The Holy Spirit is to-day the Revealer and the Administrator of the absent King Whom the world still rejects. Never let it be forgotten that we are living in a world which has cast out the King. We are the direct descendants of the people who joined in saying, “We will not have this Man to reign over us.” The fact that the earth has cast Him out abides unto this time; but God, in grace, has turned the wrath of man into that which praises Him, taking hold of human failure and transforming it into Divine victory. The heavens have received the King for a time; but while He is hidden from the eyes of men for awhile, the Living One is being made real to all peoples of the earth in this generation. How? By the living Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, the Administrator of the King in His absence. He makes Christ, and not Himself, the consciousness of the believer. His one work is to uplift, unveil, reveal Jesus to the hearts of His people; to realize within the character of those who are born again all Jesus is, by bringing them under the blessed rule of the King Himself. Sometimes friends ask me to recommend them a book upon the Holy Spirit. My reply is, “Read John’s Gospel, chapters 14 to 16; for there you have weighty statements concerning the Holy Ghost from the lips of the Master Himself.” Take John 14:16 : “I will make request of the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter.” In Scripture there are untranslatable words, having in them infinite depths of meaning, which can never be put into any number of words; and this term, “the Comforter,” is one of them. You may make it “Intercessor” or “Advocate,” if you will; but it means both, and infinitely more than the two together. It is the word which reveals the work of the Spirit in the life of the believer. John 14:16-17 : “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth: Whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you.” John 14:26.—“But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you.” So that the one work of the Spirit of God is to teach things concerning Christ, and to bring to remembrance and understanding the words which fell from His lips. This proves that there is a twofold aspect of the Spirit’s work—a truth which I can now only outline. First, there is His work in the world and with the people of the world; and then there is His work in the Church and with the people of the Church. Read the word of the apostle in 1 Timothy 4:10 : “For to this end we labor and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, Who is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe.” We see, then, that the work of Jesus Christ has a twofold aspect—He is the Saviour of all men, He is the Saviour specially of those who believe. If therefore the Spirit of God comes to take up Christ’s work, to apply it and make Him real, the same double office will characterize the Spirit’s operations. Because we have lost sight of this truth, some have fallen away from the hope of the Church—the return of our Lord Himself. First, there is the work of the Spirit in the Church; then His work upon all flesh. Referring again to Acts 2:1-47, the Spirit fell—upon whom? Upon the waiting disciples, baptizing them in His fullness, filling them as He came, equipping them for life and for service by His coming, creating by that inflow the Church. But presently the little company broke up and went from the upper room, and as Peter preached to the crowd, the people were moved and swayed. How? By Peter’s preaching? Assuredly not. If Peter had preached the day before, he might have uttered the same words, but they would not have produced that effect. How, then, was the crowd swayed? The Spirit of God was dealing with it; for Peter’s preaching was in power and in demonstration of the Spirit. What is demonstration? Making plain. Peter uttered what he had to declare—his witness concerning the Master—and the Spirit made it plain to those who heard. It is such demonstration of the Spirit which still marks the true sphere of preaching. How often some of us have labored to make the Gospel simple: and what an endless pity it is that we do not leave such work to the Holy Ghost! I sometimes feel that in our passionate desire to make God’s word plain we may be thwarting the Divine purpose and hindering the Divine activity. When the Holy Spirit equips a preacher, He gives him words; while the preacher who is responsive, utters the word, the Spirit makes it plain. That is what Paul meant when he said that he had not come to the Corinthians with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but with the story of the Cross, made clear, real, and forceful, by the Spirit of God Himself. For a moment let us look more closely at the twofold nature of the Spirit’s sphere. What He is doing in the Church we have already seen in the reference which has been made to John 14:16—He is the Comforter. If we turn to John 16:13-14, we get a very important statement. “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth: for He shall not speak from Himself.”—What wonderful words concerning the Spirit of God!—“but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak: and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come.” The next verse declares the work of the Spirit in the Church— “He shall glorify Me: for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you.” Beloved, how much do you know of Jesus Christ—how much of the beauty of His character, of the tenderness of His love, of the majesty of His person? All that you have learned concerning Christ, you know only by the teaching of the Spirit of God. No man can call Him Lord save by the Spirit; and no man can know Him save by the Spirit. The first work of the Holy Ghost, then, is to make Christ to the believing heart —a living, bright reality, More dear, more intimately nigh Than e’en the sweetest earthly tie.” That being the work of the Spirit in the believer, truth becomes to us, not a commodity to be stored, but a great sanctifying, purifying force in our lives. When the Spirit of God comes to the soul and says “Jesus is Lord,” the soul responds “Jesus is Lord.” It is not that the soul has found out a secret, but rather that it has passed into a new realm of life; and the whole of its being goes down before the Lordship of Jesus thus revealed. So, from then until now, the Spirit has been revealing Christ and reproducing Him within the characters and lives of the members of the Church. Is that all of His work? Nay; look again at John 16:8-11. Here you have the larger outlook upon the Spirit’s operations. Jesus says: “And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment”—not “to come.” If I can impress that upon you, it will be something done. That passage is continually being misquoted, by the addition of the words “to come.” The force of the statement may be gathered from our Lord’s own explanation: “Of sin, because they believe not on Me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father; of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged”—not “shall be.” It is not of judgment to come, but of judgment past, that the Spirit is to convict the world. The work of the Spirit in the world, as distinct from the Church, is that of bringing men into direct contact with Christ in these three particulars. i. Sin. Because He is the Saviour from sin, refusal to believe in Him is the specific sin which lies at the root of all others. By belief I do not mean an intellectual assent to the historic statements concerning Him, but the surrender of the whole being to Him in perfect confidence. Unbelief, then, is the attitude of life unsurrendered and disobedient. ii. Righteousness. Because He has ascended to the Father, righteousness is now possible to all who believe in Him. Thus belief is not only for the putting away of sin, it is also for the bringing in of righteousness. iii. Judgment. He has judged the prince of the world, and henceforth all who believe in Him share His triumph over evil. The great enemy of the race has been bruised by the Saviour of men. The demonstration of these truths to men is the work of the Holy Spirit. How did you find your way to Jesus Christ? Using some sermon, tract, or other human instrumentality, the Spirit convicted you of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment accomplished by the Cross; and you, through Christ, entered freely into the region of purity, power, and blessing. In our present dispensation the Spirit of God is doing this twofold work; He is selecting—I use the word without a moment’s hesitation, but you may use the word “electing” if you please—the members of the Church of Christ; but He is doing infinitely more. He is preparing the whole earth for the return of the King, as in every land He works through the disciples of Christ. He is thus undermining false religions and preparing the hearts of men. Nations are getting ready for Christ. For example, the messengers of the Cross have influenced the great teaching centres of India, where thousands are flinging away false religions. Alas! that many such should be drifting into agnosticism and atheism. We can almost hear the footfall of the King as He comes to bring in all the wondrous dispensation which is to succeed this present preparatory one. Look where you will, and you find triumphs of the Cross by the power of the Spirit’s work, and there are signs of readiness on every hand for the dawn of the day of God and the advent of the King. Let us remember, then, that the twofold work of the Spirit is to make Jesus real to this age. He does this in the Church, by revealing Christ increasingly, growingly, progressively to believers, that they may be transformed into Christ’s likeness. He does it in the world, by preparing everywhere for the return of the King. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 55: 06.04. THE COMING OF CHRIST ======================================================================== 4. THE COMING OF CHRIST I woke, and the night was passing, And over the hills there shone A star all alone in its beauty When the other stars were gone— For a glory was filling the heavens That came before the day, And the gloom and the stars together Faded and passed away. Only the star of the morning Glowed in the crimson sky— It was like a clear voice singing, “Rejoice! for the Sun is nigh!” O children! a Star is shining Into the hearts of men— It is Christ with a voice of singing, “Rejoice! for I come again! “For the long, long night is passing, And there cometh the golden day; I come to My own who love Me, To take them all away. “It may be to-day or to-morrow, Soon it will surely be; Then past are the tears and the sorrow— Then Home forever with Me.” Hymns of Ter Steegen and others. “The Morning Star.” All Christian people are looking for the Millennium. It is an integral part of Christian teaching and of the living creed of the Church of Jesus Christ, that Jesus shall reign where’er the sun Doth his successive journeys run. There is no difference of opinion among evangelical Christians concerning the certainty of that great future event which constitutes the hope of the world as well as of the Church. There are varying views as to how the Millennium will be ushered in; as to how the state of blessedness, foretold by prophets, and distinctly taught by the teachers of the new dispensation, will be brought about. All Christian people believe in the second advent of Jesus Christ, but differ concerning the time of His coming, the conditions under which He will appear, and the purpose of that advent. Probably the most popular view in current theology is, that the Gospel will be carried by missionaries of the Cross into land after land, until not only all peoples have heard the glad tidings, but, by the preaching thereof, have been brought into subjection to Jesus Christ. Those who hold this view necessarily believe that His advent will be post-millennial. Let me say, in passing, that this view of the coming of Christ is only two hundred years old, theologically; for, prior to the period indicated, it was the general belief of the Church that the Millennium would be ushered in by His advent. We are, however, not particularly interested in theological views as held then or now; but we are intensely anxious to know what is the teaching of the New Testament about this most important subject. In the first place, then, let us examine Paul’s first Letter to the Thessalonians, to which we must refer more than once: 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 : “For they themselves report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you; and how ye turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven.” The words revealed the threefold attitude of every believer in Jesus Christ, in the early days of Christianity. There was, first of all, the turning to God from idols; next, the serving of the living God; and, third, the waiting for His Son from heaven. That was a declaration of the position of the believer with regard to the past, the present, and the future. He had turned from the idols of the past to God; in the then present days he was serving God; and to-morrow—the coming of the King! There was repentance, turning from idols to God; there was the consistent Christian walk through the days, serving the living God; but there was, above it all, shining upon it in beauty, the hope which maketh not ashamed—waiting for the Son from heaven. Now, with regard to the first two of those three positions, thousands of God’s people are fulfilling them, in the measure in which it is possible to do so when the third is forgotten or denied. There has been the turning from idols to God; there is the serving of the living God in daily walk; and yet, alas! alas! for years the Church has lost its hope, and has not been living as a people waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. If that be the Church’s true attitude, the coming of Jesus Christ must necessarily be distinctly taught in the New Testament. I do not set any very particular value upon the figures which follow, but they are interesting for passing notice. In the New Testament there are no less than three hundred and eighteen distinct references to the coming of Jesus Christ. If you divide your New Testament into verses, one in twenty-five has to do with that blessed hope of the Church. And if you take these two letters to the Thessalonians—the part of the New Testament which deals specifically with this great subject—one verse in four has a direct reference to the return of the Master. Perhaps one of the most remarkable contributions, theologically, to the discussion of this whole subject in recent years—remarkable because of the source from which it has come—is the book which Professor Denney has written upon the epistles to the Thessalonians, in the Expositor’s Bible Series. He has emphatically declared that the hope of the Church in those days was most unmistakably a hope that Jesus would soon come. He says, “It was this hope which more than anything gave its color to the primitive Christianity, its unworldliness, its moral intensity, its command of the future even in this life.” And again, “That attitude of expectation is the bloom, as it were, of the Christian character. Without it, there is something lacking; the Christian who does not look upward and onward wants one mark of perfection.” I feel that something must here be said about the authority of the New Testament in this connection. I was speaking a little while ago, about this great subject of the return of the Lord, to a friend of mine, one who is in the ministry, a man of undoubted culture and also of spiritual devotion. He told me he thought it was a very beautiful dream, but only a dream. “Surely,” said I, “you agree with me that it is taught in the pages of the New Testament: for instance, in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians.” His reply was, “I fully grant you that when Paul wrote his letters to the Thessalonians he believed the next event of importance in the history of man would be the coming of Jesus Christ.” I said to him, “What do you mean by saying that Paul believed it?” He replied, “If you read his letter to the Galatians, written at a much later period of his life, you will find that he makes no direct reference to this subject, and has evidently outgrown that early belief.” That was to me an appalling position with regard to the inspiration of the New Testament. I said to my friend, “Then you believe that Paul’s inspiration was nothing more than his own particular view of truth at a certain period in his life.” “That is exactly what I believe.” “Well,” said I, “how do you know that, if Paul had lived ten years longer, he would not have outgrown his view of Christian liberty as declared in the letter to the Galatians?” I submit that every epistle from the pen of Paul was called forth by the necessities of local circumstances. In writing to Thessalonica, he was seeking to correct those who had wrong views of the return of their Lord; while, in his epistle to Galatia, he dealt with Christian people who were becoming enslaved by Judaism. Every epistle had its specific bearing upon local conditions; and I absolutely deny that there was any growth, on the line of my friend’s remarks, in the writings of the apostle. At the very last, when death seemed imminent, Paul still lived in the belief that his Master would come; and when he spoke ever and anon of the possibility of death, it was by no means a denial of his earlier position as manifested in his writings that the Church’s hope is the coming of Jesus Christ. The subject is so full and many-sided, one hardly knows which particular point to take in order to emphasize the fact that the next immediate event for which the Church (and the world, moreover) waits, is the return of the Lord Himself. May I ask you to read the seven parables contained in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter. 13. They give us a sevenfold aspect of the Kingdom during this dispensation. What, then, is the general teaching of these parables? Do any or all of them imply that this dispensation is to be one in which the whole world shall be gathered into the Kingdom of God, by preaching? Careful examination affords evidence that such is not their teaching, whether we take them singly or collectively. The first four parables which deal with outward manifestations in this dispensation were spoken to the multitude, two being afterward explained to the disciples; the last three view things from a Divine standpoint, and can only be fully understood by those who are linked in life with the King, and so were spoken to the disciples alone. Does the first parable, that of the sower, teach that, at the end of the age, all men everywhere shall be won to the Kingdom? Assuredly not. There is mixture of good and evil—some seed falling upon good ground, some upon secondary ground, and some upon utterly fruitless soil; so that there shall be a harvest reaped out of the world, rather than the whole world be won. In the next parable, that of the wheat and the tares, the truth assumes another form. Here are two sowings going forward—not only the sowing of wheat, but that of tares by an enemy; and when the servants came and said to the Master, “Shall we root up the tares?” He replied, “No, let both grow together till the harvest.” “The harvest is the end of the age,” said Jesus to His disciples; “and at that time there shall be separation between wheat and tares.” There is no teaching there that the sowing results in all wheat; but difference in kind, mixture, and final separation, are clearly marked. Then there is the parable of the mustard seed which became a great tree. A tree, in Scripture, is always the figure of power. Nebuchadnezzar is spoken of under that similitude, and the king of Assyria, and Pharaoh; the great dynasties and forces of the earth are represented as trees. Our Lord simply teaches that Christendom shall become a great power and force—nothing more. I suggest, for your consideration, that the fowls of the air are emblems of evil and not of good; and that their lodging in the branches of the tree teaches the corruption of even Christendom itself. Much stress is continually laid upon the parable of the leaven, as teaching that Christianity must gradually win the whole world to Christ. Is it probable that, when the Lord has already given utterance to three parables which distinctly teach mixture of good and evil, He should contradict the whole scheme of the first three by the fourth? The Kingdom of Heaven is not represented by leaven; we must have the whole picture if we would know what our Lord intended to teach. The woman who uses the leaven, the leaven itself, and the meal into which it is put—all the parts of the parable must be considered in order to a just view of its meaning. Leaven here, as everywhere else in Scripture, is a type not of good but of evil; and if you will carefully search your Bible, you will find that in no single instance is there variation from this principle. The symbolism of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is never self-contradictory. If any have doubts as to the inspiration and authority of Scripture, they may find in what I have just said a point of profitable intellectual study. The symbolism of Scripture, with regard to color, numbers, figures of speech, in every case displays the closest harmony. In this particular case our Lord uses leaven as a type of evil. His picture is that of the manifestation of the Kingdom as being corrupted. With every desire to avoid fanciful interpretation, my own view of the case is that the woman who mixes the leaven with the meal represents the whole system of ecclesiasticism; and I believe it will be found that no part of the Church of Jesus Christ has escaped the corrupting and evil influence of that leaven. The master does not say, “Until the whole is corrupted, but until the whole is leavened”; and thus again you have the idea of mixture apart from the ultimate triumph of either good or evil. Our Lord now turns from the crowd and speaks three parables to the disciples alone. First, a man finds treasure hidden in a field, and straightway sells all that he has, and buys the field that he may obtain the treasure. We will take the second of these parables in conjunction with the first; for it reveals the same aspect of truth. A merchantman seeking goodly pearls, finds one of great price, sells all that he has, and buys that pearl. These men of the parable are commonly regarded as types of the sinner seeking Christ. Indeed, one of our hymns runs: I’ve found the pearl of greatest price; My heart doth sing for joy. Such an interpretation pre-supposes that a sinner can buy the field and the pearl; but this contradicts the whole scheme of redemption as made known in Jesus Christ. He who finds the treasure in the field, and discovers the pearl of great price, is Christ. How can I purchase Him, if He be the pearl and I the merchantman? What have I to sell which will procure for me any right or inheritance in the Son of God? Nothing, verily. He emptied Himself of His glory, made Himself of no reputation, and purchased us with His own blood. Ah! wonder of wonders, mysterious grace, only He can understand wherein the Church is His pearl of great price. I know nothing more calculated to humble us in the dust than His estimate of us; for, as we know and live near to Him, we are increasingly constrained to say that we are nothing worth. He graciously declares, however, that we are worthy the purchase of His precious blood. If that be the true interpretation, again we have selection from the dispensation. The buying of the field to possess the treasure, and the purchase of the pearl. He has not only bought the hidden treasure, but the field. The whole world is His by redemption price. His work is not ended in it and with it, when He has gathered out the hidden treasure. He has other things to say to the earth, other deeds to do, other victories to win; but the gathering out of the Church is the special work of this dispensation, as revealed in the parables we have just considered. The last parable was spoken by Christ to His workers, who were to be like fishermen flinging a great net into the sea. Is the net designed to bring all fish into a state of goodness? No, it encloses both good and bad; then, at the end of the age, separation is to be made between the two. My sketch of these seven parables fails, because of its brevity to do justice to them; and they will well repay careful and prayerful consideration. The main thought, however, to be derived from them, and which I would fain impress upon God’s people, is that our age does not issue in the conquest of the world for Christ; but in the gathering out of an elect remnant, leaving for a succeeding era another Divine work full of significance and blessedness. Bearing in mind the features indicated upon our Chart as characteristic of the present dispensation, a question of supreme interest arises. In an age of mixture, progressive selection, and ultimate separation, what is the next event for which we are to look? The return of the Lord Himself. Let us rapidly trace the character of the age as revealed by various passages of Scripture. In 1 Corinthians 11:28, we have a phrase that bounds the Table of the Lord; and, as we sometimes sing, Thus that dark betrayal night With the last advent we unite, By one blest chain of loving rite— Until He come. The conflict of the Church and of the believer is to end at Christ’s appearing, or epiphany, a word used only by Paul among New Testament writers—sometimes (as here) in reference to the coming of Christ for His people; at other times, in regard to His coming with them. How long is patience to have its perfect work? “Until the coming of the Lord” (James 5:7). How long am I to serve in the King’s will in this age? “Trade ye herewith till I come” (Luke 19:13). When am I to be crowned? The apostle Paul says that he is to receive his crown at Christ’s appearing—again using the word Epiphany (2 Timothy 4:8). When shall we enjoy reunion with departed loved ones? When “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Then it is that we are to be “together with them caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” What ever you think of as characteristic of Christian life and service in this age, you find to be bounded in the New Testament, never by death, always by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh that believers had not lost their bright hope of the Lord’s return, while they faithlessly and continually talk of death as their portion! True, we may “fall on sleep,” and no man knoweth the hour of Christ’s coming, save the Father; but the one bright hope of faithful Christian hearts is ever this—the Lord Himself shall come. In his first epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul shows that there is a most distinct difference between the hope of the Church or the coming of Christ for His people, and the day of the Lord—His coming with them. The two things are clearly seen on our Chart, where the coming of the Lord is indicated by His descent from the heavens and the ascent of His people to meet Him in the air; but the apocalypse of Christ, or “day of the Lord,” is marked by a second line which shows His coming to earth with His people. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 : “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” We need not pause; no one can possibly confound that statement with the thought of death—a thing which is there abolished. It is not death to which we are to go, but to the Lord Himself. The next chapter begins: “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that aught be written unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” Here is a very distinct difference between the “coming” and the “day” of Christ. The coming of Christ is His parousia, His presence; His coming in person into the midst of His people, that He may gather them to be with Himself. “But,” says the apostle, “while ye comfort one another with these words, I need not write to you of the times and seasons. For ye know that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night.” The day of the Lord is, in one sense, begun by His coming; but it is a whole period which stretches out beyond that coming, the Millennium itself being included in the phrase. The context is against any supposition that the day of the Lord and the day of Judgment are periods of twenty-four hours. We know that the day of grace has extended over nearly nineteen hundred years; and the day of Judgment will last, at least, a thousand years. What we are waiting for, however, is—the King Himself. After the resurrection the disciples asked Jesus, “Wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” and He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.” This expression, “times and seasons,” is no haphazard one; but in the mouth of Jesus and from the pen of the apostle it refers to the whole providential arrangement marked out by God from beginning to end, and upon which this dispensation is an unmeasured interpolation—certainly, there is no measurement for the latter in Scripture. Continual pushing on and pulling back of dates has done more than anything else to bring this blessed truth into discredit. What, then, are we to do? Comfort one another with these words—the Lord Himself shall come. The duration of this age being known only to God, all His redeemed ones are to be ever living according to the Divine will, with their eye upon its consummation—the coming of the Master. The people of Thessalonica misinterpreted Paul’s first epistle, thinking that the day of Christ had come because they were in tribulation. Paul therefore wrote a second letter wherein he corrected this error, showing how that day must be preceded by certain signs, and that the Church waiting for her Lord, will not pass through the tribulation, but will be taken from the earth before it comes. In 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 is a further wonderfully clear and concise distinction between the “coming” and the “day” of Christ. The words themselves are more important than anything which can be said about them: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 : “Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him; to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is now present; let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the sun of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God.” Before “that day” dawns, the final apostasy (the definite article is very distinct) is to be inaugurated by the revealing of the man of sin—not a system, but an individual. Paul tells us that this “mystery of lawlessness doth already work; only there is one that restraineth now until he be taken out of the way.” Surely, to make Rome that restraining power would be setting Satan to cast out Satan, and evil to hinder evil. No; it is the Holy Spirit of God Who is restraining and checking the individualization of lawlessness. But when the Church shall be withdrawn from among men, the Holy Spirit will depart with it; for the Comforter, in accordance with the words of Jesus, abides with believers forever. Then shall the unchecked mystery of iniquity be manifested, and focused in one who will assume the very place of Christ in God’s temple. My aim has been to set forth Christ’s coming to take His people away from the world, as the next event in history for which His Church should look. I stay but a moment to deal with a common misrepresentation of this truth. Some will say, “Then, God is beaten, inasmuch as comparatively few are being gathered into His Church.” That is a very shortsighted view. God has never for a moment been defeated in the course of human history. Event has followed event in God’s progressive work of redemption and regeneration, all the details of which have been necessary. The Millennium cannot be realized until the preparatory work of this dispensation has been accomplished; and this embraces not only the gathering out of the Church, but the preaching of the Gospel among all nations, and the undermining of all false institutions and evil systems of religion. Men may not realize that their passionate desire for the dawn of a golden age is excited by the preaching of the Gospel; but it is so nevertheless. All pure and holy ambition, as manifested in the attempts of thinkers to discover the secrets of true life, has sprung from the Gospel of the grace of God. The great words which to-day indicate the higher movements of the times, such as brotherhood, disarmament, socialism, solidarity, are the children of the living Word of God, the offspring of the Logos. Every gleam of light that is falling upon the darkness of men is a part of the essential Light. They are but broken lights of Thee; And Thou, O Lord, art more than they.” All dreams of a golden age have their inspiration in the Gospel of the Kingdom. In order that this longing of humanity may be satisfied, the Church must be taken away to allow of sin working out its full and most fearful manifestation. Then shall Christ appear with His people, to destroy antichrist by the brightness of His coming and to set up His golden reign upon the earth. No other outlook can be so full of roseate views and of hope for the Church and the world, as this triumph of God’s rule and the accomplishment of His purposes in the way which He hath aforetime declared. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 56: 06.05. DANIELS MISSING WEEK ======================================================================== 5. DANIEL’S MISSING WEEK “Lo, ’tis the heavenly army, The Lord of Hosts attending: ’Tis He—the Lamb, The great I AM, With all His saints descending. To you, ye kings and nations, Ye foes of Christ, assembling, The host of light, Prepared for fight, Come with the cup of trembling. “Praise to the Lamb forever! Bruised for our sin and gory, Behold His brow, Encircled now With all his crowns of glory— Beneath His feet reposing, The whole redeemed creation Are now at rest, Forever blessed, And sing His great salvation.” Sir E. Denney. Between the coming of Christ for His people and His millennial reign there will be a short interval of seven years, full of interest because of the events transpiring upon the earth and in the heavens. On our Chart the interval as depicted does not show the correct proportion of time. The part with which we have been dealing is, as far as dates serve, drawn to scale; but this seven years’ interval, if proportionately marked, would be hardly visible. The coming of Christ for His people concludes a dispensation, but it does not end His activities upon the earth. The period of selection and preparation closes, and the Day of Judgment and national dealing is ushered in. In Matthew 12:18-19, we have a quotation of a prophecy concerning the Messiah: Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen; My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased: I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He shall declare judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry aloud; Neither shall any one hear His voice in the streets.” I make a pause there of set purpose. What immediately follows is often quoted as if closely connected with the portion we have read; but it has nothing to do with the dispensation in which we live. “A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench,” is interpreted as if it referred to Christ’s dealings now with men and women whose aspirations after Him are weak but will not be despised. I believe that to be an incorrect interpretation of the words, and ask you to notice particularly what is their real intention. There should be no stop save a comma at the word quench. Mark the construction, “A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory.” Then, there is to be a day when He will do such things; and in that verse you have another aspect of the work of Jesus Christ revealed. In the present day He does not strive nor cause His voice to be heard in the streets: neither will He break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, till—there is an emphasis on that word which we must regard if we are to understand the passage—“till He send forth judgment unto victory.” There is another dispensation of Christ’s work in which He will do these very things. Some will say, “Surely there is no time coming when Christ will break and quench in such manner.” No; not in the sense in which we have regarded the reed and the flax. We have misunderstood the words, in supposing that they apply to sinners weakly feeling after Him. The bruised reed refers to His enemies; the smoking flax to His opponents. In Isaiah 42:1-4, you will find the original of the quotation: and the whole context there, as in Matthew, proves that “bruised reed” and “smoking flax” represent Christ’s enemies, with magnificent satire in this description of them. What is a reed? Weakness. What is a bruised reed? Weakness weakened. What is flax? That which is easily destroyed. What is smoking flax? That which has within itself the elements of its own destruction. In His day of grace and mercy God will not break a bruised reed; it is bruised, and will be broken in due time. Neither will He, at this time, quench that which is already smouldering unto consuming. The great and beautiful truth which we have so often endeavored to enforce by those words abides; but we must be true to Scripture as it stands, and not attempt to enforce truth by misapplication thereof. In the time yet to come, beyond this day of grace and mercy, Christ will break and quench His enemies; and He will sweep before the majesty of His coming, as chaff of the threshing floor, the evil things which so affright us by their tremendous hold upon our age. In that day, yet to come, He will send forth judgment unto victory. The same truth is taught in Luke 4:18-19. At the beginning of His ministry, in the Synagogue at Nazareth, our Lord read from the book of the prophet Isaiah words which revealed the scope and character of the dispensation that His first advent inaugurated: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor: He hath sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Turn to the place from which the quotation comes, Isaiah 61:1-2, and you find that the words, “And the day of vengeance of our God,” were omitted from Christ’s reading as recorded in Luke. Our translators have confined their punctuation to a comma at the end of the words, “the acceptable year of the Lord,” and of course there was no stop corresponding to ours in the roll from which Jesus read; but at the point indicated, He ceased reading and closed the book. In publicly reading the words of a Hebrew prophet who hundreds of years before had foretold the coming of Christ, no one else would have ended there, for Messiah’s work includes proclamation of God’s day of vengeance. Christ’s immediate purpose, however, was to indicate the first aspect of His mission, “the acceptable year of the Lord,” as then beginning in Himself. With equal certainty shall the Messiah once more take up that old-time prophecy, and fulfill it to the letter as regards “the day of vengeance of our God.” The scriptures with which we have dealt reveal two aspects of Christ’s work. “He shall not strive nor cry; neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets”—the story of His work to-day: “Till He send forth judgment unto victory”—the story of His work to-morrow. “The acceptable year of the Lord”—His work to-day; “The day of vengeance of our God”—His work to-morrow—beyond His coming to gather out His Church. In popular conception the Day of Judgment is a period of twenty-four hours, in which men are gathered together to hear sentence pronounced upon them; but it is really as much a dispensation as is this day of grace. There is no reason to regard the one “day” as limited to the ordinary acceptation of the term any more than the other; indeed, such an interpretation robs the phrase of its majesty and beauty. What, think you, does the world wait for to-day? God’s day of judgment. What do the oppressed masses need most? God’s day of judgment. What is the groaning, sorrowing population of our earth asking for to-day? God’s day of judgment. We shall deal more fully with the subject when we speak of the golden age in which the King Himself shall rule. This is the day of grace, and, at its close, the day of judgment will dawn, and will be characterized, by the direct, positive government of the King Himself; but prior to His appearing with his people to enter upon that day, there will be the interval of which we must now more particularly speak. Some of us still keep the book of Daniel in our Bibles, esteeming it as equal in Divine authority and profitable teaching with every other Scripture. Turn to Daniel 9:1-27. The first two verses are introductory: “In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; in the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by the books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years.” Daniel 9:3-19 record Daniel’s prayer of contrition and penitence concerning the sin of his people. In Daniel 9:20-23 we have an account of the appearance of the angel Gabriel to Daniel, bringing words from God regarding the future. Daniel 9:24 contains a general statement: “Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.” The Divine programme thus given to Daniel, as a representative of the Jewish nation, has a very obvious bearing upon our subject. We are familiar with the prophetic “week” as a period of seven years; therefore 490 years was the time assigned for the accomplishment of the prophecy. To say nothing of the interval between the delivery of this message and the crucifixion of our Lord, 1897 years have passed, and yet that programme is evidently not completed. But I ask you to consider a very remarkable set of figures in connection with this prophecy: Daniel 9:25.—“Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the anointed One, the Prince, shall be seven weeks: and three-score and two weeks.” Now, what really happened? Exactly forty-nine years elapsed between the command to rebuild and the completion of the work by Nehemiah. There we have the seven “weeks.” From the time when Nehemiah completed his commission to the death of Christ was exactly 434 years, or sixty-two weeks. Thus we have, in fulfillment of that prophecy, from the command for rebuilding Jerusalem to the Cross, exactly 483 years, as history testifies. What is left, as compared with Daniel 9:24? One week: that is to say, I have the account of sixty-nine “weeks” (the 483 years just mentioned), but the seventieth week is missing. Where is it? My purpose is to show that the missing week comes at the end of the present age, an age which is an unmeasured interpolation upon God’s times and seasons. As I have said before, prophetic truth has been much discredited by presumptuous attempts to fix a date for our Lord’s return. Both Christ Himself (Acts 1:7) and His servant Paul (1 Thessalonians 5:1) have declared that it is not for us to know measurements which, in the wisdom of God, are not revealed. God will, in His renewed dealings with His earthly people, resume the “times and seasons” which were broken in upon when man rejected Christ. Reverting to Daniel 9:1-27, let us look at Daniel 9:26. “After the three-score and two weeks”—see Daniel 9:25 —“shall the anointed One be cut off:” The Authorized Version adds “and not for Himself,” a mis-translation which is corrected in the Revised, all Hebrew scholars agreeing that it should read, “and shall have nothing”: that is, He shall not then possess the kingdom or be the acknowledged King, but shall be cast out. At that point in the verse comes a colon, and then we read, “And the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and his end shall be with a flood, and even unto the end shall be war; desolations are determined. And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week.” From that colon to the first semicolon are words prophetic of the destruction of Jerusalem soon after the death of Messiah, not by the Prince, but by the people of the Prince. Then the prophecy passes on to events at the close of this age, when the Prince himself shall be manifested. The semicolon of Daniel is the comma which follows Isaiah’s “acceptable year of the Lord.” Here is the division between the dispensations; and at the close of the present age, when Jesus takes His Church to be with Himself, then “times and seasons” shall be resumed, Daniel’s week (delayed, in the eternal counsels of God) shall run its course upon the earth, God shall accomplish His ancient purposes, and the prophecies spoken to His people in other dispensations shall be fulfilled to the letter. Signs of the times show that our unmeasured age is nearing its completion by the coming of the Master; but He teaches us to name no date. Many among the people of God shrink from any reference to the book of Revelation; but therein we shall find Daniel’s interval between the coming of Christ and the reign of Christ viewed from a new standpoint. When this neglected book is approached, the purpose seems too often to be that men may explain it away by reading into it metaphor, figure, and allegory: Revelation 1:3 : “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein.” The only book in the Bible that opens with a distinct blessing pronounced upon those who read its pages; and yet what part of the canon of Scripture is so neglected? Shall we not be among those who diligently, prayerfully, and humbly search what God would teach us in that last book of His Word? There is a key which must be used before we can understand what seems to be a labyrinth. Revelation 1:19 : “Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter”—the commission directly given to John, by Jesus Christ. How shall the things mentioned be divided? “The things which thou sawest” are the visions of Jesus (Revelation 1:1-20); and “the things which are” relate to visions of the churches (Revelation 2:1-29, Revelation 3:1-22). Those letters of John were written to churches actually existing at the time, and the first application is to such communities; but the epistles reveal a sevenfold condition of Church life which is repeated with varying emphasis at one time or another in every successive age of the Church until to-day. They reveal progress, good or bad, in Church life and movement. We may find both Laodicean and Philadelphian churches now. “The things which are” exist in the present dispensation; but from chapter 4 to the end of the book, we have “the things which shall come to pass hereafter.” It is to me, personally, a matter of surprise that the revisers have retained the word hereafter in Revelation 1:19, because the Greek words are “meta tauta.” The very first words of Revelation 4:1-11 are “after these things,” a phrase which excites little critical attention until it is compared with the Greek of Revelation 1:19. In both instances the words are “meta tauta,” meaning “after these things”; and, as I have already intimated, the last section of the book extends from the beginning of Revelation 4:1-11, where the door is opened in heaven, “after these things.” What, then, are “these things”? The dispensation of the Church upon earth, in its varied aspects. “After these things I saw, and behold a door opened in heaven.” From the beginning of 4 to the end of 19 a remarkable series of events follows on the earth. The Church of Jesus Christ is then in the heavens. She is seen ever and anon in some place of heavenly glory; while upon the earth vials are being poured, trumpets are sounding. Revelation 19:11-15, give an account of the end of the interval with which this chapter deals: “And I saw the heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He that sat thereon, called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He hath a name written, which no one knoweth but He Himself. And He is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood: and His name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron; and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.” He came to Bethlehem’s manger to preach “the acceptable year of the Lord”; He will come with the armies of heaven, to proclaim “the day of vengeance of our God.” He came long years ago, a lonely Man, our brother man; He did not cry nor lift up His voice in the streets; He will come again to break the bruised reed of iniquity, to quench the smoking flax of opposition. Another dispensation in the great plan of our King and Master will open when He comes to the earth with His gathered people. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 57: 06.06. THE EVENTS OF THE MISSING WEEK ======================================================================== 6. THE EVENTS OF THE MISSING WEEK True is it that no heart may comprehend The glory God prepareth for His own, And what will happen when this age shall end; But yet in vision Jesus hath made known How fair and holy shall His Church descend, Lit up with light of precious jasper stone. And He shall make His Church all heavenly fair, With gold and pearls and every radiant stone, And reign in Holiness and Glory there, And shine as suns and stars have never shone; And He shall lead His Bride, His joy and care, With blissful singing to His Father’s throne. With eyes undimmed shall she her God behold, Behold Him face to face, and walk by sight, Not trusting only, as in days of old, But seeing with her eyes eternal Light, The great Salvation mystery shall unfold In that high vision of Love infinite. Hymns of Ter Steegen and others. “The Blessed Hope.” Our last chapter dealt with the “week” of years between the Parousia of Christ and His Apocalypse. Let us now consider the events of the interval, both on earth and in heaven. Fear and wonder will take possession of those who are left when our Lord comes for His Church. There will be on every hand strange questionings, producing conviction in thousands of souls, turning them, even during that terrible time, with their faces toward God. We might easily give free play to imagination concerning the effect produced upon those who remain. Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters, will be missing, taken away to meet the Lord in the air; and the consternation ensuing may be readily pictured. Rev. John MacNeil of Australia, who has recently gone to his rest, has a very graphic passage in one of his books, describing this period when the taking away of a mother from her daughter may be instrumental in turning the latter from frivolous worldiness to the knowledge of God and the service of Christ. But we are more interested in the effect produced upon the character of the age by taking from the world those who are found waiting for the coming of Christ. The influence of Christian character on the present age is revealed under the figures used by Christ Himself with regard to His people. He calls them the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Remove the light, and darkness ensues; take away the antiseptic, and there will be unlimited opportunity for extension of corruption and development of evil. The presence of godly men and women is to-day affecting the life of London to a larger extent than we think. We all feel that we are doing comparatively little for God in our great city. Doubtless I speak to many who have labored in London for more years than I have lived; but the twelve months spent here have burdened me with a conception of its need which by its vastness almost discourages effort. Still, the life of the great city is enormously influenced for good by its godly citizens. The effect of the Church’s removal must be twofold—many will turn to the Saviour; but, on the other hand, many will throw off the restraint which up to that time will have rested upon them. Corruption and evil of every kind will increase. It is in this way that the man of sin will be revealed. 2 Thessalonians 2:7-10 : “For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work; only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, … whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that are perishing.” There may have been historic and local applications of these words, but it is the Holy Spirit Who hinders the full manifestation of that mystery; and the end of my quotation gives, in very solemn terms, the marks of the lawless one’s coming and rule. Coincident with the Thessalonian prophecy are the words in Daniel 11:36 : “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods: and he shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished.” Now turn to 1 John 2:18 : “Little children, it is the last hour: and as ye heard that antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last hour.” 1 John 2:22.—“Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, even he that denieth the Father and the Son.” 1 John 4:3 : “Every spirit which confesseth not Jesus, is not of God: and this is the spirit of the antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it cometh; and now it is in the world already.” The spirit of antichrist is the mystery of lawlessness, the essential spirit of evil and of opposition to God; and it has been in the world from the moment of the Fall until now. The late F. W. Robertson, of Brighton, in one of his remarkable sermons, traces the diversity of manifestations which the spirit of antichrist has had in various ages, such as power, idolatry, or mammon; but it is ever the self-same attempt to underwork good by evil. In that sense, the mystery of iniquity, the spirit of lawlessness, antichrist, is at work to-day; but when the Church is removed and the Spirit of God in His dispensational fullness is consequently taken away from the earth, there will be nothing to hinder the working of that Satanic power which will become concrete and incarnate in the person of one man. I have already referred in these addresses to a work which I recommend every one to read as being a most valuable contribution to the consideration of this whole subject, namely, Professor Denney’s book, in the Expositor’s Bible Series, upon Thessalonians. He emphasizes the fact that when Paul wrote to Thessalonica, he most certainly regarded antichrist as a person to be manifested at a given time. (With the Professor’s explanation of Paul’s intention we agree; from his interpretation of the fulfillment we differ.) This will be in the interval between the coming of Jesus for His people and His appearing with them. Daniel 9:1-27; Daniel 10:1-21; Daniel 11:1-45 discovers a great world-power which arises during that period conquering the earth and entering into convenant with the Jews gathered into Jerusalem, in their unbelief; and it is a remarkable sign of the present times that there are now more Jews in Palestine, driven thither by persecution, than in the days of Nehemiah. In the midst of the seven years antichrist will break the covenant, cause sacrifice and oblation to cease; and a terrible period of suffering will follow—Jacob’s day of trouble and calamity. Then, Daniel 9:27 : “Upon the wing of abominations shall come one that maketh desolate; and even unto the consummation, and that determined, shall wrath be poured out upon the desolator.” Here we have in an individual the most awful manifestation of evil the world has ever seen; one claiming to have Divine power and yet directly energized by Satan. During the latter part of the “week” will come the breaking of seals, sounding of trumpets, and pouring out of vials described in Revelation. These seven years will see a marvellous gathering to God of stricken, smitten, and afflicted men. The hundred and forty-four thousand of the Jewish nation will be sealed; and the great multitude, which no man can number, out of every nation, shall be brought to Christ. Let us read John’s account of this multitude in Revelation 7:13-17 : “And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, These which are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and whence came they? And I say unto him, My Lord, thou knowest. And He said to me, These are they which come out”— and here the Revised Version makes an essential correction, as compared with the Authorized, by using the definite article: “Of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He that sitteth on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat: for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life: and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.” We have been singing these words in our anthems, and continually reading them as if they applied to this dispensation; but it is only true in a general sense. Undoubtedly the Church shall have all tears wiped from her eyes; but the passage refers to the great company of those who come, not through trials such as yours and mine, but, by God’s grace, out of the great tribulation which follows the taking away of the Church and the revealing of the man of sin. How is this ingathering to be accomplished? I give you my answer with reserve, because many devout students of prophetic truth differ from me here. Personally, I am convinced that not all Christian people will be taken to be with Christ on His return, but only those who by the attitude of their lives are ready for His appearing. They who remain and pass through the tribulation will be awakened by the stupendous events of their times to the privilege and responsibility of witnessing for the truth in that age. Even in the day of Jewish sorrow God will dwell with His ancient people, who will then become heralds of the Cross; and under stress of plague, famine, and suffering beyond imagination, an innumerable multitude will “wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Those years will be such as the world has never seen—first, in regard to the manifestation of evil in forms more awful than we have ever known; and, secondly, in the marvellous crowding to Jesus Christ of a “great multitude which no man can number.” What of the Church during that time of tribulation? She is in the heavens with her Lord, all the retarding forces and probationary days of earth being ended; and Revelation 4:1-11; Revelation 5:1-14; Revelation 6:1-17; Revelation 7:1-17; Revelation 8:1-13; Revelation 9:1-21; Revelation 10:1-11; Revelation 11:1-19; Revelation 12:1-17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-20; Revelation 15:1-8; Revelation 16:1-21; Revelation 17:1-18; Revelation 18:1-24; Revelation 19:1-21 gives a view to her position. During that interval the judgment-seat of Christ will be set up; and it is most important to distinguish between that, the bema, and the great white throne. The former is for the Church, and is set up directly she is taken from the earth; while the latter, which is an entirely different thing, comes after the Millennium. 2 Corinthians 5:10-11 : “For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God.” These words do not refer to the general Judgment. If you examine the beginnings of the epistles, you will find that in each case the writing is addressed to the saints, and it is of them the apostle speaks when he says, “We must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ.” As sinners, our judgment was accomplished at the Cross of Christ, in view of which the Spirit convinces of judgment, not “to come,” but past. To the bema of Christ, we His servants must come; and all our services will be tested by His eyes of fire. This need not affright, but should fill us with godly fear and heart-searching as to the kind of work we are doing for God. “We must all be made manifest”; for God does not dissociate our work from ourselves. Outward effort counts for nothing unless I am a Christ-soul; and then my life is my work. The question for each one should be, Of what sort is my life? If it is self-centred and unwatchful, so also is my work—“wood, hay, stubble” (1 Corinthians 3:12). But if my life is surrendered to the King, if I am loyal to Him and absolutely under His control, mine is King’s work—“gold, silver, precious stones.” I like to connect this scene at the bema of Christ with John’s vision of the Master, in the book of Revelation, where He is pictured as with eyes of fiery flame. Here is a man whose whole Christian life of service has been “wood, hay, and stubble”; and the eye of fire consumes it. The man is saved, yet so as through fire. There is another whose work has been “gold, silver, and precious stones”; and the eye of the Master purifies it of dross, burns out evil, until the work sparkles with beauty even under the glance of the King Himself. Then shall Christ’s Church, not only redeemed but purified by the fire of His eye, be presented faultless, without spot, blemish, or wrinkle, in the white light of His Father’s glory and holiness. Jude 1:24-25 describes this much better than any words of mine can possibly do. “Now unto Him that is able to guard you from stumbling,”—not falling—“and to set you before the presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory.” Revelation 19:7-8, gives what I believe to be the next event: “Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” The dress of the Bride in this remarkable ceremony of eternal union with her Lord will be that which was purified in the fire at the judgment-seat. To this succeeds the apocalypse of Jesus, “Behold, He cometh with His saints.” Thus we have traced the course of events upon the earth—the full manifestation of evil, the consequent sore tribulation, and a great gathering out of both Jew and Gentile; while in the heavens the Church has been brought to judgment, purified, presented to the Father, and eternally united to Jesus Christ. I hope it has been made clear that, during that period, the world is by no means God-forsaken. Every mundane event will be directly under Divine control; and through all the awful chaos, which will be far more terrible than anything hitherto known, God will be working toward the consummation—the coming of Jesus to set up His own reign. I shall probably repeat again and again my personal conviction that ours is an unmeasured dispensation as far as man is concerned. “Times and seasons,” which ended for awhile with the cutting off of Messiah, will be resumed when He takes away His Bride who is also rejected of men. While that is so, the signs of the times seem to indicate in the most definite manner that our age now nears its close. The general unrest plainly points to the coming of Jesus. Another portend is the return, long and distinctly foretold, of the Jew to Palestine, in a state of unbelief. Ritualism in all its varied forms is one of the surest signs of the end of this age. When the heart and spirit of true religion has gone, men ever attempt to replace it by outward show. The revival of sacerdotalism, the new assumptions of the Romish Church, and the Romanizing of the Anglican Church to so large an extent—(mourned by devout souls within her communion, quite as intensely as by those outside it)—all point to a consummation close at hand. Another proof that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh may be found in the fact that never has there been a time when all the forces of evil were allying themselves as they are to-day. The spirit of lawlessness is more and more throwing off restraint, raising its proud head, and laughing at the testimony of the living Church of Jesus Christ. To take one example—twenty years ago those who were fighting hard against the blighting drink traffic knew where to plant their blows; but it is no longer so. The action which turned breweries into limited liability companies has permitted the roots and ramifications of this giant evil to invade our churches until we do not know where the mischief ends. Without entering into party politics, we may see how banded iniquities contrive to win their own victories in elections, whichever side they may favor. It is no less a sign of the times, that never was spirituality more marked in the Church of Jesus Christ than it is to-day; and to that blessed fact I bear testimony with fervent gladness. Everywhere, true men and women are hungering and thirsting after God, as never before. Let there be the spiritual declaration of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the purposes of God, and men are found eager to hear, learn, and obey. The great spiritual movements of the last twenty years—Keswick, Northfield, Southport, Star Hall, and the holiness movement of the Salvation Army—all prove that God is giving the promised latter rain, that the end of the age draws nigh, and that the King Himself will soon appear. We stand, as did the men of old, in the valley, and ask the same question as they: “Watchman, what of the night?” Men of God upon the heights of vision, seers of the present day, looking out upon the great horizon, send back to us the old answer, “The morning cometh; the night also.” The signs of the times are such as reveal the power of spirituality, side by side with the development of evil; but, thank God, beyond the night that comes is the larger day and gladder age for man. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 58: 06.07. THE DAWN OF A GOLDEN AGE ======================================================================== 7. THE DAWN OF A GOLDEN AGE The day of the Lord is at hand, at hand! Its storms roll up the sky; The nations sleep starving on heaps of gold; All dreamers toss and sigh; The night is darkest before the morn; When the pain is sorest the child is born— And the Day of the Lord at hand. Gather you, gather you, hounds of Hell, Famine, and Plague, and War; Idleness, Bigotry, Cant, and Misrule, Gather, and fall in the snare! Hireling and Mammonite, Bigot and Knave, Crawl to the battlefield, sneak to your grave, In the Day of the Lord at hand. Who would sit down and sigh for a lost age of gold, While the Lord of all ages is here? True hearts will leap up at the trumpet of God, And those who can suffer, can dare. Each old age of gold was an iron age, too, And the meekest of saints may find stern work to do, In the Day of the Lord at hand. C. Kingsley. “The Day of the Lord.” What will be the condition of things upon the earth at the appearing of our Lord? The world will be groaning under the most awful despotism it has ever known; for the removal of the Church will have issued in the triumph of Gentile power centred in the antichrist, who shall exercise unparalleled rule over the nations, and who will then be at the zenith of his fame. Half-way through Daniel’s missing week of years the man of sin will break his covenant with the unbelieving Jews, gathered in Jerusalem, who will become a persecuted, oppressed, and despised people. During this period, too, there is to be terrible martyrdom of those who, through the stress of the times, yield to the claims of Christ, as presented by His remaining witnesses. All the latest discoveries of science and the developments of earthly progress, so-called, will be pressed into the service of antichrist. Some of us have read certain books, the titles of which I cannot recall for the moment, in which the authors have allowed their fancy loose rein with regard to coming wars. I believe that in a popular periodical a story of this kind has been running, the writer working out in a speculative way what is likely to be the ultimate issue of the present arming of the nations and the endeavor to find new and improved methods for the expeditious slaughter of men. Think of the high efficiency attained upon the great continent of Europe in warlike machinery! In the writings referred to, there is, unconsciously it may be, an element of truth. The lawless one will avail himself of all the results of scientific research and invention, and Christ shall return with His saints to find the peoples of the earth crushed under the iron heel of an oppression far more terrible than all the previous experience can furnish, and exceeding the wildest flights of imagination. In this connection we may refer again to the Scripture quoted in a former section of these studies—2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 : “For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work; only there is one that restraineth now, until He be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of His coming.” That is to say, by the epiphany of His Parousia, or the brightness of His presence. It is not that such destruction comes by Christ’s Parousia, as the appearing to His people is called, but by that stage of His coming elsewhere spoken of as His Apocalypse or Manifestation. Among the old prophetical writings, Zechariah 14:1-5 exactly foretells the same event. “Behold, a day of the Lord cometh, when thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee by the valley of my mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the holy ones with thee.” That is an Old Testament prophecy of this Apocalypse of the Lord with His holy ones; and now we may turn to a New Testament prediction, part of which has several times engaged our attention. Revelation 19:11-21; Revelation 20:1-4 : “And I saw the heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He that sat thereon, called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He hath a name written, which no one knoweth but He Himself. And He is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood: and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His garment and on His thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords. “And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid heaven, Come and be gathered together unto the great supper of God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, and small and great. “And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat upon the horse, and against His army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought the signs in his sight, wherewith he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image: they twain were cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone: and the rest were killed with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, even the sword which came forth out of His mouth: and all the birds were filled with their flesh. “And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan”—the name is repeated and given in varied form that there may be no mistake—“and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished: after this he must be loosed for a little time. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” I have quoted that long passage of Scripture because I believe the Word of God, if we will but read it with simplicity, is more clear and powerful than anything that can be said about it. In the zenith of the power of antichrist, Jesus will be revealed from heaven with the whole company of His saints, coming to set up His own blessed reign upon the earth. His appearing will be the destruction of the man of sin, and the confusion of the confederacy of the nations against God and His Christ. He will scatter before His coming the evil which has been brought to so prominent a head during the period of that missing “week.” That will be the day of Christ’s vindication before all the earth, when “every eye shall see Him, and they which pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him” (Revelation 1:7). The Master has been hidden now for nineteen hundred years; and the scoffing world says, “Where is the promise of His coming?” Men are asking us if we really still believe in Christ as we used to do. Alas! that the infidelity of the ungodly should have crept into the very Church itself; so that there are not wanting those who have tried to undermine our holy faith, by seeking to rob it of everything that is supernatural and beyond explanation by laws which men think they understand. But as surely as God is upon His throne, Jesus, “this same Jesus,” the Man of Nazareth and Capernaum, the Man of the city and of the village, He Whom crowds heard speak in the olden days, is coming back to our earth, accompanied by His saints. Christ’s people also shall be vindicated when it is seen that “the foolish things, the weak things, and the things which are not,” in the estimation of earth to-day, will prove to be things of wisdom, things of strength, and things that are. Then, too, shall the earth have its opportunity as never before. May I warn you against spiritualizing this truth? Christ will indeed be the King of kings upon this earth. He will be as directly and positively a Ruler as any monarch whose name is upon our lips to-day; but His sway will be more absolute and powerful. With all my heart and soul I believe that the only effective rule for humanity is an absolute monarchy; but the trouble is, that we have never yet found the monarch. For a little while the heavens have received Christ, the only One worthy of unlimited rule; but the King of men is coming back, in infinite compassion for the world which drove Him out. For His coming, not only the Church, but the whole creation waits. The Revised Version gives a far wider meaning and greater force than does the Authorized to Paul’s words in Romans 8:19, “The earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing [the Apocalypse or revelation] of the sons of God.” To-day the sons of God, as such, are unknown, or despised and persecuted; but when the Master comes, they will be revealed with Him—and it is for this consummation that the earth is waiting. When He comes to set up His Kingdom and to judge, not with the hearing of the ear or the seeing of the eye, but with righteous judgment, then what solution of problems, what healing of wounds, what blessing for poor, oppressed humanity! Following upon the end of Gentile power and policy, in the destruction of the man of sin, and the sweeping away of all war by the great battle of Armageddon, comes the restoration of God’s ancient people of Israel to their true position among the nations. I do not say the restoration of the Jew—that is not comprehensive enough; but of the whole Israel of God. The ten tribes, lost for centuries, shall be found and restored to their land, for the fulfillment of God’s purposes for Israel, and through Israel, for the race. I know that some doubt this truth, and say that Israel as a nation has been finally cast off. Can God desert those to whom He has made oath? Absolutely impossible! Can He be defeated? Never! God’s purposes may be thwarted and hindered; but, despite all human failure and folly, they must eventually be realized. The prophecies of the Old Testament concerning God’s ancient people have never been wholly fulfilled; and it cannot be that the inspired Word of the living God should prove a failure. Deuteronomy 6:4-5, has a direct bearing on this subject. “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” That is the Divine purpose for Israel. The unity of God is a great abiding fact, there coupled with heart and soul love for Him on the part of the nation. Connect with that passage Isaiah 43:12-13 : “I have declared, and I have saved, and I have showed, and there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and I am God. Yea, since the day was I am He; and there is none that can deliver out of My hand: I will work, and who shall let it?” Israel is God’s chosen nation for manifesting Him to the world, and that revelation is to be made by their own loyalty to Him, and by their absolute freedom from the corrupting practices which have obtained among other people. Such an ideal has never yet been fully carried into practical effect; but because it is Divine, it has yet to be realized. Before suggesting to you a few principles of interpretation for distinguishing the Bible prophecies concerning Israel which have not yet been realized, I ask, Are such predictions to be fulfilled? If not, we are driven into one of two positions. Either they are not inspired, or, being inspired, God has made a mistake. I decline to adopt either alternative. I have given up reading any book outside the Bible for proof of its inspiration. This blessed Book is gripping my inner consciousness more and more, and is compelling my obeisance to what must indeed be (and not merely contain) the very Word of God. The second alternative being obviously untenable, it follows that the prophecies are intended to be fulfilled. The distinguishing principles suggested, then, are as follows:— Prophecies speaking of God’s Israel as a whole, in fullness of blessing, are yet future. All the glorious predictions concerning the triumph and magnificence of Israel, are unfulfilled. They must and will be realized to the letter. References not merely to the restoration of the nation, but to its conversion, are to a state of things not yet realized, because God’s ancient people are not yet regenerate in heart and life. They will be when they acknowledge Him as Saviour and as King, Whom to-day they are rejecting. When the prophecy speaks of Israel as restored to wander no more, it refers to the future. Descriptions of the utter and final overthrow of Israel’s enemies are unfulfilled. When the coming of Messiah is connected with national deliverance, the prophecy is unfulfilled. To some of us it is remarkable that the nation did not understand its own prophets. How did a devout Jew of the olden times read Isaiah 53:1-12, with its picture of the suffering One? Well, he passed it over because he did not understand it, after the manner of many Christians in our own day, in regard to other matters in the Book, touching Israel’s future glory and government. Part of Jewish prophecy has been fulfilled in the coming of the rejected One; but all predictions which connect His coming with national deliverance are still unfulfilled. When it is declared that Israel, as a whole, shall be a channel of blessing to all other nations, the prophecy is unfulfilled. When the prophecy was uttered after the return from Babylon, it remains to be fulfilled. Take two instances in illustration. First, the beautiful passage in Isaiah 49:18-22. “Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and gird thyself with them, like a bride. For, as for thy waste and thy desolate places and thy land that hath been destroyed, surely now shalt thou be too strait for the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children of thy bereavement [the lost tribes] shall yet say in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, an exile, and wandering to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where were they?” [Mark that question.] “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up Mine hand to the nations, and set up My ensigns to the peoples, and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.” While I am not able positively to deny that we, as a nation, are identical with the lost ten tribes, I am by no means satisfied of it; but I have no quarrel with those who hold that view. At all events, God knows where they are; and back to the old land for which He has declared His love, shall come the scattered earthly people—not the two tribes, not Judah alone, but all the Israel of God. The second example is Zechariah 8:7-8 : “Thus saith the Lord of Hosts: Behold, I will save My people from the east country, and from the west country: and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.” That is a prophecy never yet fulfilled; and I believe one of the very first things after the Apocalypse of Jesus with His saints, and when the man of sin has been destroyed, will be the gathering of God’s ancient people to their own city. The consideration of God’s purpose therein must be reserved for future study; but I may say here that the gathered ones will become the greatest missionaries the world has ever had. They will preach the everlasting gospel, and be God’s messengers to other peoples, carrying all the truth of the Kingdom which they rejected when Christ came of old. Revelation 20:2-3, shows that when the King comes and has destroyed the very incarnation of earthly evil, an angel from heaven will lay hold upon Satan and bind him for a thousand years, so that his deceiving of the nations shall cease during that period. Passing by, for the present, his subsequent loosing for a little season, it is one of the most glad and blessed prospects, that Christ is to inaugurate His reign upon the earth, by locking away from the nations the arch-enemy of the human race. Let me repeat that this coming of its King is earth’s greatest hope. I have every confidence in the victory of righteousness, not on account of the organizations of the present day, but because I have faith in God and in the consummation of His purposes, by this coming of Christ to set up His reign among men. Surely He cometh, and a thousand voices Call to the saints, and, to the deaf, are dumb; Surely He cometh, and the earth rejoices, Glad in His coming, Who hath sworn, “I come.” This hath He done, and shall we not adore Him? This shall He do, and shall we yet despair? Come, let us quickly fling ourselves before Him; Cast at His feet the burden of our care. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 59: 06.08. THE GOLDEN AGE ======================================================================== 8. THE GOLDEN AGE Hail to the Lord’s anointed Great David’s greater Son! Hail, in the time appointed, His reign on earth begun! He comes to break oppression, To set the captive free, To take away transgression, And rule in equity. He comes with succor speedy To those that suffer wrong; To help the poor and needy, And bid the weak be strong; To give them songs for sighing, Their darkness turn to light, Whose souls condemned and dying Were precious in His sight. Arabia’s desert ranger To Him shall bow the knee; The Ethiopian stranger His glory come to see; With offerings of devotion, Ships from the isles shall meet, To pour the wealth of ocean In tribute at His feet. Kings shall fall down before Him, And gold and incense bring; All nations shall adore Him, His praise all people sing: For He shall have dominion O’er river, sea, and shore, Far as the eagle’s pinion Or dove’s light wings can soar. J. Montgomery. Antichrist destroyed, Israel restored, and Satan bound—the personal reign of Christ will begin. Of that reign it is difficult to give anything approaching a full and direct description. A study of Old Testament prophecy may help Bible students to form some idea of the glories of that time. Let us look at a few of the chief features as thus revealed, considering first the Millennial order, and then taking some glimpses at the blessings resulting. Jesus will be King, in as direct and positive a sense as any ruler the world has ever known, but with larger empire and more autocratic sway. He will be Judge as well as King, and the final Arbitrator in any disputes that may arise among men. In Luke 1:32-33, we read: “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” That announcement made to Mary concerning Jesus has never yet been fulfilled, but will be when the time comes for His personal reign. He will be the King of God’s ancient people gathered to Jerusalem; and, through them, the Governor of the whole earth. Psalms 72:1-20 has first application to King Solomon, but can only find lasting fulfillment in Jesus Christ. It opens with the words, Give the King Thy judgments, O God, And Thy righteousness unto the King’s Son.” Then, in Psalms 72:8-9 we have this prediction, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, And from the River unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; And His enemies shall lick the dust.” In Zechariah 9:9 we read, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, even upon a colt the foal of an ass.” The next verse contains a quotation from the Psalm just mentioned which confirms the application of that Psalm to Christ, because He has already literally fulfilled the foregoing words of Zechariah which speak of the mode of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. “And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off; and He shall speak peace unto the nations: and His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” The remainder of the prophecy in that latter verse will be fulfilled in the Millennium. Zechariah 8:1-8 reveals the centre of government. “And the word of the Lord of Hosts came to me, saying, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great fury. Thus saith the Lord: I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called The city of truth; and the mountain of the Lord of Hosts The holy mountain. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts: There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts: If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvellous in Mine eyes? saith the Lord of Hosts. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts: Behold, I will save My people from the east country, and from the west country: and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.” Palestine, reinhabited by the nation of Israel, is to be redivided; and each tribe will return, not to the section of land previously occupied, but to a portion which stretches from the sea-board across the land. Jerusalem is to be rebuilt, and will possess a temple far larger and more magnificent than before, the size of which is given by Ezekiel. The city will not merely be the seat of rule exercised over Israel; but the metropolis of government for the whole earth, and the centre for the world-wide worship of God. In the past its sacrifices and oblations pointed on to Christ; but these, restored in the Millennium, will be offered in memory of the work which Jesus accomplished by His Cross. In Jerusalem Christ’s laws and decisions are to be made and given; and from thence edicts will go forth affecting the whole of mankind. All Gentile nations will come into a place of blessing as a result of this restored nationality of Israel. You will find promise of this in Genesis 22:18 : “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” That prophecy has never been realized, except, to some extent, in the first advent of Christ; but it awaits complete and very literal fulfillment in the age to come. The same truth is taught in Isaiah 56:6-7 : “Also the strangers, that join themselves to the Lord, to minister unto Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from profaning it, and holdeth fast by My covenant; even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon Mine altar: for Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all peoples.” As to the method of government, all the nations of the earth will be subdued to Christ’s rule and will pay tribute to Jerusalem and to its King. It does not necessarily follow that they will all be loyal in heart. Sin will still be upon the earth, but held in repression, to be dealt with at the close of the Millennium. The great deceiver of the nations having been bound, and cast for a thousand years into the abyss, Christ will exercise autocratic rule through His chosen administrators: that is, through His ancient people, and, in some measure, through His heavenly people, the Church, who will be associated with Him in His reign over the earth. “Know ye not,” says Paul, “that the saints shall judge the world?” (1 Corinthians 6:2). Having thus briefly considered the Millennial order, let us endeavor to see some of its glorious advantages by reference to the visions of the prophets. Amid the groaning of oppressed men under the foolish and iniquitous forms of government which have blighted human life, how we long for a single Authority, just and final. That is exactly what the earth will have for a thousand years, when the One, rejected of old, is King in actuality. The principles which will regulate government in that age are briefly and clearly stated in Isaiah 11:1-4 : “And there shall come forth a Shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a Branch out of his roots shall bear fruit: and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord: and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears: but with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked.” Then for the first time in the history of man, righteousness and judgment will be perfectly wedded. To-day the law, made for the sinner, too often hits the saint. Human judgment is always given upon evidence which results from a fallible seeing of the eye and hearing of the ear. But Christ, as an omniscient, as well as omnipotent Judge, will know the secret inward motives of the hearts of men. When cases are brought to Him by His administrators, His decision will, therefore, be perfect in equity. “With righteousness shall He judge the poor.” He shall pronounce His sentence strictly on the basis of that intimate knowledge which cannot characterize the judgments of this age, under limited forms of government. We sometimes say oppressed nations need mercy and pity. Nay, it is rather strict, impartial judgment that is required. The most merciful thing in the economy of God is, that when His King comes to execute judgment and truth, the exercise of these attributes will be based upon His infinite, unmistakable knowledge of the hearts, thoughts, and intents of men. Another phase of blessing is revealed in Romans 8:19-23 : “For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Creation is to be freed from its groaning and travailing in pain; the blight upon nature will be removed; and a perfect manifestation of its beauty will take the place of all it now suffers in company with fallen humanity. Turning to Old Testament words on the subject, read Isaiah 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the basilisk’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” You cannot spiritualize that passage. It is a plain statement of the fact that, under the sway of our Redeemer, the ferocity of wild beasts shall depart, and nature itself shall feel the blessed influence of the reigning Prince of Peace. I have been asked whether the Golden Age will be marked by dietetic abstinence from flesh. While I do not believe in vegetarianism for to-day, except under certain conditions, I may express the belief that nature itself will then be free from everything which savors of cruelty; for, “they shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain.” Certain it is that the lower animals will be vegetarians, for, “The lion shall eat straw like the ox.” I dare not linger upon these attractive pictures of nature restored, but must take them in rapid sequence. Isaiah 30:24-25 : “The oxen likewise and the young asses that till the ground shall eat savory provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. And there shall be upon every lofty mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.” Isaiah 41:18-20 : “I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, the pine, and the box tree together: that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.” Isaiah 65:25 : “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, saith the Lord.” These passages, taken almost at haphazard from among many, are predictions of what shall surely come to pass. When man, God’s crowning work, first sinned, he dragged down all creation in his fall; but when Jesus shall come again, to reign in the power of His Cross, Passion, and Atonement (for that is to be the strength of His rule), then the whole creation shall feel the touch of His presence, and shall respond to His redemptive work. Ferocity shall be driven from the beasts, roses shall bloom in the desert; and the whole of nature which to-day is blighted and cursed by sin shall be perfected in beauty, because the King, Who has redeemed man and the earth, shall Himself be Governor. What of man in that period of the Millennium? His physical being is to share in the general blessedness: Isaiah 65:20 : “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old, and the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” Premature death shall be unknown, and physical vitality shall be strong and generous. There are three verses which speak of the children under the reign of Jesus. Psalms 72:4 : “He shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy.” Isaiah 11:8 : “The sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the basilisk’s den.” Zechariah 8:5 : “And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.” What is the King’s ideal for child-life? Play! With what shall they play? With that from which to-day we carefully and necessarily guard our little ones. “The weaned child shall put his hand on the basilisk’s den”; while a little dimpled fist shall be entwined in the mane of the lion to lead about that royal playmate! What a glorious picture of child-life in the day of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ! In Isaiah 65:21-22 we have a glimpse of millennial social conditions: “They shall build houses”—well, that goes on now—“and inhabit them.” The persons who do this to-day are few and far between. “They shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree shall be the days of My people, and My chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.” It will be a great change; but when Jesus is King, profit shall go to the toilers. There will also be unparalleled commercial activity: Zechariah 14:20-21 : “In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holy unto the Lord; and the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holy unto the Lord of Hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of Hosts.” The sanctuary will be free from the trafficker, and the trade of the nation will be characterized by being “Holy unto the Lord.” Another note to the same effect is sounded in Ezekiel 34:24-26 : “And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land”—that is, men who prey upon the people shall then have no existence—“and they shall dwell securely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing.” See the security of life under the government of Jesus, when men sleep in the woods with no sense of dread. A closing glimpse comes through Amos 9:11; Amos 9:13-14 : In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old.… Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.” A poetic description of the prosperity that shall attend man’s labors in the coming days of the King. I have found it increasingly difficult to confine myself to a comprehensive view of topics, any one of which might have occupied more than a whole chapter of this book. I have tried to give a general survey of the years when nature shall be freed from the curse; man realize full physical strength; profits go to the toilers; commerce be consecrated to God; men dwell in security; prosperity bring the plowman upon the heels of the reaper; and, above all, when missionary enterprise shall be at its highest and best—when God’s ancient people shall go forth to all lands with the story of the Cross for the healing of the nations; when, hearing that story, men of distant lands shall take hold upon him that is a Jew, and shall say—“We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” These glimpses of happy times to come require me to repeat that sin will not be exterminated during that period; but instead of being rampant, as it is to-day, daring to lift its head and laugh in the face of righteousness, it shall lick the dust and be kept in check by the presence of the Master. Then shall men know, as never before, the possibilities of humanity and of the earth under the righteous reign of God’s own King. In conclusion, it is always of practical value to know God’s ways of dealing with men. If all this is to happen under the reign of Jesus by and by, surely those who have already crowned Him King may, even to-day, know something of the blessedness of the reign that is coming. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 60: 06.09. AFTER THE THOUSAND YEARS ======================================================================== 9. AFTER THE THOUSAND YEARS Crown Him with many crowns, The Lamb upon His throne Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns All music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing Of Him who died for thee, And hail Him as thy chosen King Through all eternity. Crown Him, the Lord of Love! Behold His hands and side; Rich wounds, yet visible above In beauty glorified: No angel in the sky Can fully bear that sight, But downward bends his burning eye At mysteries so bright. Crown Him, the Lord of Peace! Whose power a sceptre sways From pole to pole—that wars may cease— Absorbed in prayer and praise; His reign shall know no end, And round His piercèd feet Fair flowers of Paradise extend Their fragrance ever sweet. Crown Him, the Lord of Heaven! One with the Father known, And the blest Spirit, through Him given, From yonder glorious throne! All hail! Redeemer, hail! For Thou hast died for me; Thy praise shall never, never fail Throughout eternity. M. Bridges. A scholarly and lucid exposition of this subject is contained in a book written by Mr. George F. Trench; and from the name of that volume I have borrowed the title of the present chapter. In the course of these studies we have dealt with seven dispensations of God; and we have seen that in the last of them, the Millennium, men will have in fullest measure all the things which have gone before: Conscience, History, Direct Divine Guidance, Law and Ritual, the presence of Jesus as King, and the Ministry of the Holy Spirit. To understand the events which succeed the thousand years nothing more is needed than an intelligent reading of plain and simple statements in the book of Revelation, commencing at 20:7, and ending at 22:7: Revelation 20:7-10 : “And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beasts and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night unto the ages of the ages” (margin). We have seen that the Golden Age is to be characterized by the direct government of Christ. Sin will still be in the earth; but it will be held in repression and summarily punished as soon as manifested. The nations which Christ will rule with a rod of iron will be, to a large extent, disloyal in heart; so that when Satan is loosed for a little season he will straightway deceive them. True, there will be everywhere those who refuse enlistment under his banners; but the picture here is that of an enormous apostasy, the most fearful ever seen. The armies of the nations will gather together against Jerusalem. Not after the old fashion of patriarchal days will this warfare be waged; but express trains, ocean liners, and all the latest developments of science will be impressed for the service of the armies gathered from the four corners of the earth. There is no doubt that to some who have dreamed of the Millennium as a finality, the outlook afterward is disappointing; but ere the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in all its glory can be ushered in, the unbelief and disloyalty which lurk in the hearts of men must be brought to a final head. A study of the long list of apostasies—the Fall, the Flood, Babel, the Crucifixion of Christ, the Manifestation of antichrist, and this Revolt of the Nations under the personal leadership of the devil—opens before us an awful depth of human depravity, and should lead to heart-searching in the sight of God as to how far the elements of rebellion and sin still abide within us. A short, swift, burning sentence dismisses the rebellious host, “Fire came down out of heaven and devoured them.” The second stage of development which claims our attention is found recorded in Revelation 20:11-15 : “I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat upon it, from Whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.” What marvellous scenes are these, in the closing drama of evil! They reveal the last stages in its outworking and destruction. First, the rebel nations swept away; and then the dead, small and great, gathered before the throne. Can there be found in the whole realm of literature anything more striking than the description of that great Judgment day? A scholar, discussing the Book of God, as literature, said that while it is wonderful for its vivid imagination and magnificent conception, it is not equal in these respects to some of the old Greek writers. One present in the company where this was said, asked for an example from these writers; and the words were quoted from Homer—“Great Jove frowned, and half the sky was black.” As against that sentence these words from the Apocalypse were given—“I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat upon it, from Whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.” Surely from the standpoint of magnificent conception the inspired Word is far more wonderful than Homer. In this scene notice that earth and heaven have fled away, and man is upheld in front of that throne by the omnipotence of God, and has no rock behind which to hide himself. In that final judgment of evil no man is rewarded because of his work. There are rewards for work; but they will be distributed elsewhere. The only escape from the doom of that day is a name written in the Book of Life; and those who possess that blessing are not present for judgment. Mark the clear distinction between the books, by the writing contained in which the dead are judged, and the Book of Life. Names entered in the latter are found there only by virtue of the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. Then are death, Hades, and all whose names are not written in the Book, cast into the lake of fire. That is the end of evil, and yet it is but the beginning of the glorious condition of humanity. In Revelation 21:1 we have the third event after the thousand years: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more.” The former heaven and earth have fled away from the face of Him Who sat upon the throne, for purification and reconstruction, not by water as at the Flood, but by fire. When the heavens and the earth, described by Peter as those “wherein dwelleth righteousness,” are seen, the full purposes of God for humanity will be unfolded. Next, we read of “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.” In Revelation 21:10-24 we have a wonderful description of that city; and any attempt to spiritualize it is out of harmony with the whole proper prophetic treatment of the book of Revelation. It is the city for which Abraham looked and for which we look; and it is not spiritual but material, as far as spiritualized people need material things. We may no more discuss this than the resurrected body of Jesus, which was palpable to the touch of Thomas, yet was spiritual enough to stand in the midst of His disciples without the opening of doors. The city’s dimensions work out at fifteen hundred miles in width as well as in length, large enough to cover the whole of Europe. Making Jerusalem the centre, it would about cover the whole area promised to Abraham. I incline to the idea of a pyramidal rather than a cubiform elevation. Some regard the promise that death shall cease, as applying to the Millennium; whereas the old prophets tell us that in that period the sinner shall be accursed and the child shall die. But in this City of God, the great ultimate place of the Kingdom of the Christ, there shall be no death, pain, nor curse, because there is no sin. “The nations shall walk amidst the light thereof” (Revelation 21:24). In that city, the earthly dwelling-place of a heavenly people, the old Jewish idea of Israel as betrothed and married to God, and the truth of the Church as the Bride of the Lamb, will each find fulfillment. Thus, our fifth point shows the kings and the nations of the earth in the light of the city, bringing into it all their glory and honor. Now comes a verse (Revelation 21:27) the beauty and value of which are too often obscured by hasty reading. “There shall in nowise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie.” It does teach that no unclean person and no liar shall be able to pass into the city; but that is the smallest part of its meaning. How came the mystery of sin into Eden? He who worketh abomination made a lie and tainted the brightness of the garden; and the stream of evil outworked into all human history. Into that fair city, Christ’s all-glorious Bride, shall no unclean thing come. No temptation to sin shall ever be allowed to assault the dwellers in that home of the future. This truth reveals a Divine purpose more glorious even than the blessedness of the Millennium. A seventh point of progression: Revelation 22:2 : “On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” A difficulty seems to arise here in the sacred story. What can the nations need of healing in the perfect Kingdom, where sin shall be cast out? On the authority of a Greek scholar of repute we may substitute the word health for healing1—“The leaves of the tree were for the health of the nations.” Healing pre-supposes disease, while health does not. Revelation 22:3-4 : “And there shall he no curse any more: and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein: and His servants shall do Him service; and they shall see His face; and His name shall be on their foreheads.” Remember that these are only passing glimpses of the glory of a kingdom on earth, beyond the Millennium, the great white throne, and the final casting-out of evil. This is a picture of the fullness of the times, when all things shall be subdued to the sway of Jesus. There are passages in the Epistles which can only refer to this period. Hebrews 2:6-8 contains a quotation from Psalms 8:1-9, where four facts concerning man are stated: i. “Thou madest Him a little lower than the angels.” ii. “Thou crownedst Him with glory and honor”; iii. “And didst set Him over the works of Thy hands.” iv. “Thou didst put all things in subjection under His feet.” Reading further, we find Paul applying the fourfold statement to Jesus Christ. “What is man?” asks the psalmist; and, by inference, the reply affirms that there is no knowledge of man until we see Jesus. “We behold Him who hath been made a little lower than the angels”; so that the first of the four prophecies has been fulfilled: “Even Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor”; then the second is fulfilled. “But now we see not yet all things subjected to Him.” Therefore the prophecy of that psalm, uttered before Christ came to earth, has only partially been fulfilled. In the Messianic dispensation Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death. Here and now we see Him with His personal crown of glory and honor. In the period of Millennial splendor He shall be set over the works of God’s hands. In the time beyond the Millennium all things will be subjected to Him. There are three other passages in the writings of Paul, which have reference to this period: 1. Ephesians 1:20-23 : “… which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come: and He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.” This purpose of God stands, though as yet it has not been fully realized, nor will it be during that Millennium in which hearts will be disloyal. It remains, therefore, to be fulfilled in the glorious Kingdom, beyond the destruction of evil and the great white throne. 2. In the same category is Php 2:5-11 : “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” That will never be until the Millennium is past and the great Kingdom comes which lies in the fullness of time beyond. 3. The last scripture in this connection is Colossians 1:13-20 : “Who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” The issues of that deliverance and translation may be traced in the succeeding verses. “In Whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the Head of the Body, the Church: Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preëminence. For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fullness dwell; and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.” Jesus Christ will never be defeated. There is nothing of God’s creation which will not be subjected to Him through Christ; no partial fulfillment of the words we have just read can satisfy the Divine heart. Not until Christ shall have banished evil, brought in the new heavens and the new earth, and given the City of God to the earth, will our Lord’s work be complete and His glory at the highest. Then shall come the time when Christ will hand over the Kingdom to the Father. When? I do not know. Mr. Trench expresses his belief that the period of the Kingdom will be far longer than the whole stream of time past, but acknowledges that nothing may be dogmatically stated on this point. Probably the glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ, wherein all things are reconciled unto the Father by Him, will extend through ages of which we can have no conception. But there is an end, concerning which revelation was made to the apostle Paul; and apart from his words about this, we have no light upon the subject, as far as I know. He says, 1 Corinthians 15:24 : “Then cometh the end, when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power.” Christ will abolish these things, not merely in connection with evil, but absolutely. When He is supreme Monarch and there is no other power, friendly or hostile, in existence, then shall the Son also be subject to the Father, that God may be all in all. Who shall tell the majesty and glory of God’s purpose? Let us cease to have circumscribed ideas regarding God and His Christ. He to whom a thousand years are but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the night, is moving on, despite our fret and worry. For I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.” Who shall tell what lies beyond the handing of the Kingdom to God? Did you ever dream that there must come in the endless and illimitable time—which is not time, but eternity—a moment of weariness, a sense of monotony? Nay, think also of endless space. The sensitized film reveals stars which no astronomer has ever examined. Reach the furthest limit thus marked, and space is still before you. God is there, as here, limitless and unexhausted; and where He is, is love. All the things of which we have spoken are but the passing of His breath. While God and Love live on, there never can come weariness to the children of His love. “And every one that hath this hope set on Him, purifieth himself, as He is pure.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 61: 06.10. THE PURIFYING HOPE ======================================================================== 10. THE PURIFYING HOPE I’m waiting for Thee, Lord, The beauty to see, Lord; I’m waiting for Thee, for Thy coming again. Thou’rt gone over there, Lord, A place to prepare, Lord; Thy home I shall share at Thy coming again. ’Mid danger and fear, Lord, I’m oft weary here, Lord, The day must be near of Thy coming again: ’Tis all sunshine there, Lord, No sighing nor care, Lord, But glory so fair, at Thy coming again. Whilst Thou art away, Lord, I watch and I pray, Lord— Oh, hasten the day of Thy coming again! This is not my rest, Lord, A pilgrim confess’d, Lord, I wait to be blest, at Thy coming again. Our loved ones before, Lord, Their troubles are o’er, Lord, I’ll meet them once more at Thy coming again: The blood was the sign, Lord, That marked them as Thine, Lord, And brightly they’ll shine at Thy coming again. E’en now let my ways, Lord, Be bright with Thy praise, Lord, For brief are the days ere Thy coming again: I’m waiting for Thee, Lord, Thy beauty to see, Lord, No triumph for me like Thy coming again! Anonymous. Many persons will ask, What is the practical value of this teaching? The answer to that question is found in 1 John 2:28-29; 1 John 3:1-3. “And now, my little children, abide in Him; that, if He shall be manifested, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one also that doeth righteousness is begotten of Him. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God: and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is. And every one that hath this hope set on Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” I fear that the question to which I have used these verses as a reply too often reveals the fact that the one asking has a wrong conception of the nature and value of truth. It is not a commodity to be stored, but a purifying and sanctifying force, bringing men into harmony with the will of God. The man who seeks mere possession of, apart from obedience to, truth, must fail in his quest. When God reveals Himself to man, obedience prepares for the reception of further and deeper revelations. In this connection we call to mind the declaration of our Lord, “The truth shall make you free”; and the words of His great intercessory’ prayer, “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth.” It is not a point of indifference as to whether any given view be correct or not. It is of the utmost importance that we devoutly, humbly, and yet earnestly, search out the will of God in the truth of God. What, then, is the particular value of the study of Bible teaching concerning things to come? John, who had such clear understanding of the affinity between Jesus and the believer, says that the hope of the Church is to be the reason for, and the power of, purity of individual life in its members. The Greek word translated hope in the passage referred to undoubtedly has the same meaning as the Anglo-Saxon hopa. The word is often used in a light way which ignores its true meaning. Hope is a confident anticipation of good things to come, with corresponding effort to reach and attain them. It is not a mere consciousness in the mind, that something of value is to take place in the future. It is the setting of life and purpose toward that which the mind has come to understand and appreciate. The return of our Lord Jesus Christ is uniformly regarded by the apostles as the hope of the Church, though they may treat of it under varied aspects, such as the reward of workers, the destruction of evil, meeting with loved ones gone before, and the inexpressible delight of the Lord’s presence. Let us examine a few of such passages: (i) Romans 8:17-25 : “—heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward. For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For by hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Evidently, in the mind of the apostle, the completion of redemption—that is, the redemption of the body—is the hope of the Church. (ii.) Titus 2:11-13 : “For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.” In this case the apostle links the Church’s hope with the epiphany of the glory. (iii.) Hebrews 10:19-23 : “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which He dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having a great Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our body washed with pure water: let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for He is faithful that promised.” The translation in the Authorized Version, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith,” is inexplicable, when the Greek word there used is rendered hope in every other New Testament passage. Faith has been mentioned in Hebrews 10:22; and, in its fullness, we are to draw near into the holy place. It is the confession of our hope that we are to hold fast; and the nature of that hope is evident from Hebrews 10:25 and Hebrews 10:35-37 : “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh.… Cast not away therefore your boldness, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise. For yet a very little while, He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry.” The coming of the Blessed One is the hope which we are to hold fast, as we come to God in fullness of faith. (iv.) 1 Peter 1:3; 1 Peter 1:5 : “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His great mercy begat us again unto a living Hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” The hope of the Church is, in this aspect, a salvation to be revealed in all its fullness when Jesus Christ Himself shall come. (v.) Reverting to the verses with which we started, in the words “He that hath this hope,” the apostle of love refers to the day when we shall see Christ as He is, and be like Him. It is this hope toward which the Church looks with confidence and takes her way through days of patient waiting. An alteration, apparently trivial, and yet of vital importance to a right estimate of this hope, is made in 1 John 3:3. Instead of “this hope in him,” as in the Authorized, we have “this hope set on Him,” and the pronoun should have a capital letter, for it refers to Jesus Christ as the revelation of the Father. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God”; and the argument proceeds, from the Father through the Son, to the point of hope’s purifying effect. Then, this hope “maketh not ashamed.” There is no uncertainty about it, and it cannot be hindered. That which has become the Church’s beacon, casting a ray of glory upon her dark night, is no false light luring to destruction. This hope, being set upon God in His purpose and arrangement, and not upon our individual life, the circumstances of a day, the conditions of a century, or the changing policy of ecclesiasticism, is lifted clear away from the strife of party and from human uncertainty. As sure as God is, the hidden Man Christ Jesus, the King Whom the heavens have received for a season, must come again: and the light and the glory of that promise is the hope of the Church. If it be indeed true that Jesus is coming; and if, in the wisdom of God, the date of His return has been absolutely hidden from man—how should we live as those to whom God has given that coming as the supreme and only hope of our life? The question answers itself. This is a purifying hope, because it regulates the attitude of the believer’s life toward Christ. Through all the passing years we are to wait for Him, expecting that at any moment, above the din and strife of earth, we may hear His call. There is no other purifying hope. I take it for granted that no true child of God cherishes the sordid ambitions of worldly men, such as the hope of wealth or of fame. Yet our hope may be set upon an opening for ourselves in the mission field or in the service of humanity at home. As long as hope is set upon service, it is not fixed upon Christ, and He should hold full and absolute possession of our hearts. Our lives may be so occupied with things good in themselves, that we do not see the King. In the will of God, however, there is but one attitude for the believer—that of the pilgrim, with loins girt and staff in hand, waiting for the break of day, the coming of the King. Do not misunderstand me. If we are truly waiting for Jesus, we shall not be careless of those for whom He died: and we shall not dare disobey His word which bids us preach the gospel to every creature. But, as far as individual life is concerned, the coming One should fill the heart’s vision through all the days and moments. How will this affect our behavior? I would suggest questions rather than attempt to answer them; for your own minds and hearts will be busy on this point. How should I transact my business, knowing that even as I make an entry in my ledger I may be interrupted by the call of my Master? How should I take my recreation when, at any moment, He may summon me from it to His own presence? The purifying effect of such considerations are evident. We are to serve our generation, live in our homes, do our business, and take our recreation, in readiness to leave all at any moment. Some one says, “That will make a very strained sort of life.” I think not. Mr. Wesley was once asked by a lady, “Suppose that you knew you were to die at twelve o’clock to-morrow night, how would you spend the intervening time?” “How, madam?” he replied; “why, just as I intend to spend it now. I should preach this night at Gloucester, and again at five to-morrow morning; after that I should ride to Tewkesbury, preach in the afternoon, and meet the societies in the evening. I should then repair to friend Martin’s house, who expects to entertain me, converse and pray with the family as usual, retire to my room at ten o’clock, commend myself to my heavenly Father, lie down to rest, and wake up in glory.”1 No man lived a more strong and beautiful life than did John Wesley, and his view of death was that whenever it came he would be found at his duty; and the transition from that duty to heaven’s service would be a natural one. Instead of death, let the Lord be expected; and the true attitude of life will be that of quiet pursuit of duty and constant readiness to greet Him. But you say to me, “Would you like Jesus to come and find you playing with your children?” Why not? I know of no occupation that I believe would be more pleasing to the heart of my King! It would be a proof of my belief in the blessedness of His reign, when the children are to have a perfect playtime. When Jesus went from earth, the clouds at which His disciples gazed were riven, and an angel appeared, saying: “Why stand ye looking into heaven? This Jesus … shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven!”— that is, in the clouds, not merely in a spiritual sense. Thus, at the earliest moment in the “little while,” the attitude of star-gazing was rebuked; and His disciples were sent to the discharge of duty, to look for Him from the midst of loyal service. Alas! that some who profess to believe in the coming of the Lord, should give up all the things which they were intended to sanctify. We are to be busy about our appointed task; to influence our day and generation as far as in us lies, by a reproduction in the power of the Spirit of the pure character of Jesus Christ; and all the while to have a listening ear for the Master’s call, and the longing to welcome Him when He comes. This hope also lights up circumstances. Are you entrusted by God with the great responsibility of riches? Expecting the Lord’s return, you will use that wealth for Him. Are your days filled with stress of poverty and necessity for careful planning in regard to means? In the light of that promise, even poverty is transfigured. I am not now discussing the great questions of poverty and wealth. I regard poverty as a curse! God never meant any one to be poor, in the sense of that pinching, grinding want, which gives a man heart-ache and brain-ache. There is plenty in the world for every man to live in comfort, and all lack is the result of human mismanagement. The light of that coming upon friendship forbids unholy alliances and ennobles sanctified comradeship; and when it falls upon the graves where our sacred dust rests, how beautiful they become! We shall meet in “the morning.” Some from earth, from glory some: Severed only till He come.” The bright rays of this truth shine for me upon some of the most perplexing problems of the Book of God and of the times in which we live. In my New Testament I find the free-will of man and the sovereignty of God both distinctly taught. These things were long a source of perplexity to me. The view which I strongly hold, that Christ is coming for His Church, an elect company out of the multitude of the saved, has solved for me a most difficult problem. I believe that Divine election has reference to membership in the Church of the Firstborn, not to personal salvation; and I believe, therefore, that there will be great multitudes saved by the finished work of Christ who are not members of that sacred body. Christ’s coming throws light upon other problems in the Book, in current theological thought, and in present-day life. How can we find comfort in missionary enterprise unless we believe in Christ’s coming and the more blessed dispensation which lies beyond? Let the societies add to their statistics the facts that within a year the heathen have multiplied in a ratio far exceeding the number of converts made; and that the proportion of Christians to the mass of mankind is smaller to-day than it was fifty years ago. Where is your comfort, in view of these facts? Along such a vista of missionary work God appears as being beaten out of His own world! We believe that the King is doing work preparatory to His coming. He is gathering out His Church, and in a thousand ways making straight His paths by the proclamation of the Gospel in all lands, so that when the ancient people of God shall become His messengers to all peoples they will find a readiness to receive the message as the result. In this view we have hope for the nations of the earth and for the ages which lie ahead. The light of this truth falls also upon the chaos and unrest of our age—arming of nations, mutual distrust, “wars, and rumors of wars.” Man is failing in governmental power; and the hope of the world is that Jesus will come to rule within the lines or His own royal policy. Once take firm hold of this great truth of the coming of the King, and it affords a bright outlook along every avenue of life and brings gladness to the weary heart. Our responsibility is marked in the passage to which I have more than once referred: 1 John 2:28 : “And now, my little children, abide in Him; that, if He shall be manifested, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” The if casts no doubt upon His appearing, but is indicative of a coming at any time. An alternative possibility is here suggested as to the attitude of Christians at that coming. They may “have boldness” or “be ashamed.” With regard to the first: the word “boldness” (in place of confidence, A. V.), by no means conveys the whole force of the original. The idea is that we may have the freedom of speech which comes of the perfect familiarity of friendship. We all know how the diffidence and awkwardness which come of the sense of being out of place, paralyze speech. This, I imagine, would be the position of most of us if granted a personal interview with Queen Victoria. Not only should we be at a loss in regard to deportment, but we should wonder what to say, and be anxious as to whether we had said it aright or not. May God help us so to abide in Christ that when He comes we may not feel the awkwardness which arises from the constraint of being strangers to Him, but that we may be able to say—This is our Master, we have known him by faith and now we see Him. We have poured in to His listening ear the tale of our sorrows in the day of mystery and darkness, and now we may talk with Him face to face (see Isaiah 25:9). Mark the other possibility, “… and not be ashamed from Him at His coming” (the preposition is apo, away from). The picture is that of persons so conscious of unreadiness that they dare not face Him. The root meaning of the word ashamed is disgraced, so that it is allowable to read, “and not be disgraced from Him at His coming.” This is not addressed to the outside world, but to the believer in Christ. In that verse there is a very clear division which, to my mind, answers the question whether believers may not pass through the great tribulation. Some will be ready to enjoy freedom of access to Christ and familiarity with Him; but the “little children” of God who have been living only in the elements of the world will be disgraced at His appearing. What are we to do, as Christian men and women, in the light of these two possibilities? I give two passages from the Epistle, as my closing words: “My little children, abide in Him”; “Every one that hath this hope set on Him purifieth himself.” Those who are abiding in Christ here on earth, who purify themselves as He is pure, separated ones cut clean adrift from the ungodliness of the age, loyal of heart to the King in the days of waiting for Him—these are the men and women who will have boldness in the day of His coming. Who shall draw the line? I do not. It is for each of us to make application of this truth in solitude. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 62: 06.11. APPENDIX ======================================================================== 11. APPENDIX BEING AN ADDRESS GIVEN AT THE CLOSE OF THE SERIES IN ANSWER TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS SENT IN Come, Holy Ghost—for moved by Thee The prophets wrote and spoke— Unlock the truth, Thyself the key: Unseal the sacred Book.” Wesley. The interest taken in the important subject of God’s dispensational dealings with man has been evidenced by the questions that have reached me in response to my invitation. I am very glad to say that, as far as one may judge from the tone of the writers, not a single query has been sent for the sake of controversy. Some friends have written differing from positions I have taken; and that was only to be anticipated. God’s truth is too wonderful to be so formulated that it shall be intelligible in its entirety to every one. Thank God, however, it is our joyful hope that when the Lord doth bring again Zion, we shall see eye to eye. The same question has come in varied forms from many persons. It has been no easy task to analyze and classify, as a necessary preliminary. No attempt has been made to deal with irrelevant questions bearing upon the wider field of prophecy, in topics not directly related to the exact line of study we have taken. I have selected fourteen typical questions which call for answers of varying length in accordance with their relative importance. 1. Is it not clear that half Daniel’s missing week has already gone in the three-and-a-half years of our Lord’s earthly ministry? Many hold that view; but, personally, I cannot do so, because of the clear and distinct division of the “weeks” in Daniel 9:26-27. “And after the three-score and two weeks shall the Anointed One be cut off, and shall have nothing.” The Authorized Version says Messiah shall be “cut off, but not for Himself”—words which are certainly not justified by the original. The sense is that He shall be without dominion. “And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary”: that is, the people who are guided by the same principle of government that eventually characterizes the rule of antichrist. This scripture, thus far, was undoubtedly fulfilled in the coming of the Roman legions and the destruction which came upon Jerusalem after the death of Christ. “And his end shall be with a flood, and even unto the end shall be war; desolations are determined. And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week: and for the half of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” The whole “week” lies in the future. The prince, or antichrist, is to make a covenant for a week which he will break in the midst of that period, and then will follow the half-week of terrible persecution and tribulation of which we have spoken at length. I have also dealt very fully with the seventy sevens of Daniel; and I therefore only touch upon them to say that they consist— Of the forty-nine years which commenced with the permission given to Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem, and ended with the completing of the wall. Of the four hundred and thirty-four years from thence to the cutting off of Messiah, making four hundred and eighty-three years in all. Thus, there is one “week” left; and, according to the teaching which I find in this scripture, that must be the whole “week” in which antichrist sets up his rule, keeping the covenant for the first half, and becoming an oppressor in the second. 2. Does 1 John 3:1-2, teach that the vision of Christ is to be the transforming power? Let us read the verses. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God: and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.” The question is concerned with what follows. “Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is.” Now read 1 John 3:2 again, and substitute because as the exact equivalent of for. This will enable us to see that the statement may be taken in two ways. It may mean that we are quite sure we shall be like Christ, from the very fact that we are to see Him; or it may signify that seeing Him will cause us to be like Him. I do not dogmatize about these differing interpretations. While I long held and preached that the vision of Christ would change the believer, it now seems to me that this transformation must first take place; and the fact that I am to see Him is the proof that I shall be like Him. If my vision of Christ on the resurrection morning is to be the cause of my transformation, the pre-supposition is that I shall not be changed until I look at Him; that though the time be immeasurably short, yet my first view of Him will be in my unchanged condition. This is, in some aspects, a beautiful thought, but incorrect, as I think. I believe we shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye; and that, when changed by the power of God, we shall look at Christ. John tells us that we shall be like Christ because only those bearing His likeness can see Him; and we are to have that blessed sight. It is the pure in heart who see God. I offer no hard and fast dictum on the point: but I find that almost all who have any right to deal with the original tongue lean to this exposition rather than to the other. 3. What Scripture authority is there for supposing that some Christians may have to pass through the tribulation? Are not all believers members of the body of Christ? That is the question which has come from most places—India, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the United States, as well as from my own immediate neighborhood—showing that it has been exercising the minds of a large number of God’s children. On the other hand, I may say before dealing with it that I have had many letters agreeing with the view I hold, that the Church is an elect body which is to be taken out of the world, while many Christians remain through the tribulation. It is difficult, briefly, to sketch the view which I derive from the New Testament. I must begin at a point which seems to be irrelevant, but I think you will see that it leads up to the answer. I only seek to lay before you the reasons for my conviction in this respect. The truth concerning the Church or Body of Jesus Christ is peculiar, as far as the teaching of the New Testament is concerned, to the writings of the apostle Paul. It is needful to remember that upon the statement just made is raised the structure which I commend to your notice. Jesus Christ did not preach about the Church at all. He went everywhere preaching the Kingdom, and He mentioned the Church only twice. Once, when He uttered a prophecy which was so magnificent as to embrace within itself all other prophecies concerning the Church, and yet was so simple that we can always remember it, He said to Peter, “Thou art a stone, and upon this Rock I will build my Church.” We must never forget the distinct difference between a piece of stone, petros, and the solid rock, petra. The Church’s security lies in its being built on the Rock, and its ultimate triumph as an aggressive force is declared in the words, “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it”; “The last enemy that shall be abolished is death”—and therefore death is not to prevail against the Church. The other reference is when Christ speaks of discipline among His own disciples. If your offending brother refuses to hear you alone or in company with another, you are to bring the matter before the Church. In those two passages containing all that ever fell from Christ’s lips on this point, we have (1) the Church’s security; (2) its victorious conquest; and (3) its authority to excommunicate the man or woman who persists in sin. New Testament writers others than Paul make no reference to the Catholic Church of the Firstborn, the great mystic Body of Christ; but only mention local churches, under the Greek word Ecclesia, meaning assembly. John writes about the Bride, but never names the Church. The Gospel of the Church was peculiarly and specially committed to Paul. May I ask you to follow me patiently through some of his statements on the subject. The Epistle to the Romans as to its argument ends with Romans 16:23. Then follows the benediction, Romans 16:24, in the Authorized, omitted from the Revised. The last three verses are undoubtedly Paul’s words, but are an added doxology containing a very important statement, not worked out here, but in subsequent letters: “Now to Him that is able to stablish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be the glory forever. Amen.” The apostle there made use of a remarkable phrase, “my gospel,” in connection with an allusion to a mystery which he does not immediately unfold. That passage gives us the keyword “mystery.” Now turn to 1 Corinthians 2:7-10. “But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory: which none of the rulers of this world knoweth: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory: but as it is written, Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them that love Him.” A common misquotation which I have heard made even by eminent preachers adds “to conceive” after “heart of man”; but it is unwarrantable to use the words as a statement by Paul that no one can have any idea of things to come. He has something more to say, and should not be interrupted; therefore read on: “But unto us God revealed them through the Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” Through the Holy Spirit this hidden mystery is to be understood, and it is to spiritual men only that it can ever be revealed. A further step is taken in the epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, where the mystery is unfolded. Ephesians 1:9; Ephesians 3:1-4; Ephesians 3:9 : “Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to his good pleasure which He purposed in Him.… For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus in behalf of you Gentiles,—if so be that ye have heard of the dispensation of that grace of God which was given me to you-ward; how that by revelation was made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ; … and to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery,” or, preferably, as the margin gives it, “the stewardship of the mystery which from all ages hath been hid in God.” Thus the apostle shows that the mystery hidden in past ages had been revealed to him, that he was commissioned to teach it; and that his was the stewardship of declaring it to the Church. In Ephesians 5:1-33, where he has been speaking to husbands and wives, he says, concerning the great prototype of that relationship, “This mystery is great; but I speak in regard of Christ and of the Church” (Ephesians 5:21). In Ephesians 6:19-20, he asks for prayer, “that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.” Then, in his Epistle to the Colossians, Paul refers to the mystery and to its unfolding in another aspect. Colossians 1:26-27 : “Even the mystery which hath been hid from all ages and generations: but now hath it been manifested to His saints, to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 2:2 : “That their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, even Christ.” Colossians 4:3 : “Withal praying for us also, that God may open unto us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds.” We have had the statement laid down that to Paul was committed the gospel of the mystery of the Church—of a people to be gathered out of the world and united, by the bonds of the very life of Christ, to Christ Himself, to be forevermore in such close association with Him, that the great apostle can only describe the union by speaking of Jesus as the Head, and of those gathered to Him as forming the Body. Such is the mystery that has come up from the eternities: that kings, rulers, and priests never saw; that apostles, even in the time of Jesus, did not understand; and that God committed to this one man. After his conversion Paul was, first of all, united with those apostles who were called directly from Judaism; and for a certain period, in common with them, he preached the Gospel of the Kingdom. But there was a point where he ceased to proclaim the Kingdom, and began to preach “my gospel” of the Church. Careful reading of the Acts will show that in early days the first apostles were linked with Judaism; and it was through the revelation which God gave to Paul that there came a break between that system and the Church. It has been said that if Christ takes some Christians away and leaves others, it will rend His Body and break up the Church. Now, I have been very careful to avoid saying that members of the inner sacred Church of the Firstborn, or Christ’s Body, will be left behind. Let me say emphatically that I believe the Body will not be rent, and that the Church of the Firstborn cannot be broken; that when the Master comes, the whole Church will go to meet Him. Who, then, will be left? Many Christian people who are not members of that Church of the Firstborn. The question which naturally arises is, What constitutes membership of that Body? The answer is in a word—Election. Read the words of the man to whom was committed the Gospel of the Church: Romans 8:28-30 : “We know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained”—predestined, as it is in the Authorized Version—“and whom He foreordained, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” There you have the perfect working of God: His sovereign, supreme election, from the past eternity right up to the glory, from eternity unto eternity: from the past sovereignty of God in foreknowing and foreordaining and selecting and electing—we cannot get away from these words, and must not be afraid of them—right on into the coming eternity, when God crowns His chosen with glory and honor. You read things like that in no writer save Paul: and he is referring to the Church, this company which God is gathering out into closest union with His Son. In the Book of Revelation you have the living creatures round the throne, with circle after circle of inhabitants beyond them. The living creatures mark the inner circle of the Church which God has selected, elected, chosen, and which Jesus is coming to gather unto Himself. Now we ask, Whom does God foreordain? Read the words which I momentarily omitted from that passage in Romans: “Foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son.” God’s election of certain persons to constitute His Church is not capricious, but has regard to character. He foreordained those whom He foreknew, in order that they might be conformed to the image of His Son. Are there not hundreds of thousands of people in the world—forgive me, I will not say in the world, but in our churches—who are not conformed to the image of His Son? Assuredly there are. Are they not Christians? I think they are, I believe they are God’s own children: but they are not conformed to the image of His Son, and will be left behind when the Master comes. He will gather out that inner mysterious unity, His own Catholic Church, made up of such men and women as He has predestined, foreordained; and He will gather them because they are conformed to the image of His Son. We must not make Paul’s theology broader than it is in fact. Do not imagine that he writes about all Christian people; but remember that his subject is the inner circle of believers who are “blameless and harmless, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world.” The whole of Paul’s teaching is concerned with the Church; and the revelation of the mystery which he received when he was taken up into the third heaven has never been given to any other man save through his teaching. In that conception of the Church I find, for my own part, a solution of the apparent difficulty of the doctrine of election, and a very clear statement of the character of those who will be caught away to be with the Lord when He comes to gather His own. Are there other scriptures favoring this view? I believe all the teaching of the Word to be in harmony therewith. Let us take two examples: Hebrews 9:27-28 : “And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment; so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for Him, unto salvation.” Christ will appear the second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for Him. The force of the teaching here is intensified by the Revised Version, in which “wait” is substituted for “look.” Are there not hundreds of Christians who are not waiting for Him, and who would say: “Do not talk to us about these things; we do not believe in them, and do not wish to wait for Him”? There are scores of Christian people to whom the certainty of Christ’s coming to-morrow morning would bring consternation. If there is one thing they would wish to postpone, it is that coming. As I have already shown, those who are truly waiting for Christ are not star-gazers, but men and women conformed to His likeness, living as He did, doing His work, watching for Him in the midst of active service. Certain expositors tell us that of the virgins (Matthew 25:1-46) five were good and five bad. Nay, verily. The five foolish virgins were separated from the crowd and had lamps and oil. Their lamps were not gone, but going, out. They had everything necessary, but not a sufficiency. When the five wise virgins had gone into the wedding and the five foolish ones knocked at the door, the Master said, “I know you not”: that is to say, He had shut the door upon them as far as that dispensation was concerned; but they were not lost. Jesus said, “The Kingdom of heaven is likened unto ten virgins,” not the Kingdom of heaven, unto five; and the kingdom of earth, unto five. In the following parable of the talents, a number of men are needed for another picture of the Kingdom of heaven. It was one of the Lord’s own servants who did not use the one talent, but buried it, and was consequently turned into outer darkness. There is no reason to suppose that the “outer darkness” refers to Gehenna, the place of eternal loss; but to the tribulation, in contrast to the light in the marriage chamber of the Lamb. We cannot dwell upon the interesting study, but it may well teach us the importance of careful reading. Let us not imagine that we know all contained in this Book of God. For myself, I find that a single verse will often hold me in a way that permits no escape from it. Every time a man gets on his knees before God, with this Book in his hand, he will make fresh discoveries of his own ignorance. We cannot read it as we would peruse the latest novel: for the Book of God will demand careful search, patient attention, and continued labor with heart and mind if we are to know it. I have dealt at much length with this question of believers passing through the tribulation, because of its great importance in my own view, and having regard to the wide interest indicated by the many quarters from which it has come. 4. What relation do little children bear to the truth of the Lord’s coming? A beautiful question, to which, however, no definite answer can be given from Scripture, save by deduction and inference. I gather from the work and words of Jesus that all children who have not willfully sinned will be taken away from the tribulation, and that irrespective of parentage. I believe that the children of the most ungodly men and women in the world are Christ’s by virtue of what He accomplished upon the Cross. There is a point at which such children will need to be born again from above, and that is, when they reach the place of responsibility. I have a boy in my own home who certainly has not yet reached that point; and my personal conviction of the tenderness of the heart of my God assures me (but I speak without dogmatism even here) that if He should take me, He would not leave my child, who has no knowledge of right and wrong, to pass through the tribulation. I simply rely upon my own view of the great heart of God and the work and words of Jesus Christ. 5. In view of prophecy, how near may the coming of Christ be? I have said again and again that no man can fix the date of the advent of Christ. According to Mr. Dimbleby, the times of the Gentiles end upon Good Friday in this present Eastertide (1898). He was very careful to guard himself against any assumption that the Parousia would take place then. I neither affirm nor deny his conclusion; but I do say that we have no single line of teaching which conclusively proves the place or time of Christ’s coming. In Daniel’s image we have the head of gold, representing the Babylonian empire; the breast and arms of silver, as the Medo-Persian kingdom; the belly and thighs of brass, as the Macedonian monarchy; and the legs of iron, as the Roman rule. There can be no doubt that all these have been fulfilled and have passed away. The feet and toes, a mixture of iron and of clay, are in the times of the fullness of the Gentiles; and all the rest of the image is gone. How is this image to end? By the Stone cut without hands out of the mountain, striking the feet and breaking the whole thing into pieces. The image is simply symbolical of earthly power, to be ended by the coming of Jesus Christ, not for but with His people. He will come and take His Church away, and then seven years must pass before the Stone will smite the image unto its destruction. That issue, however, does not fix the time of our Lord’s coming for his people, which may be before the ten toes (kingdoms) have run their course, or afterward. All we know is, that before the image of worldly power can be demolished, Christ, the Stone cut without hands from the mountain, must smite that image. But no man knoweth the day or the hour of Christ’s coming; consequently, the only word which He speaks to His own people is, “Watch: for in such an hour as ye know not the Son of Man cometh!” 6. Can we hasten the coming of the Lord? If so, how? In 2 Peter 3:11-12, we have words bearing on that question. “Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God.” In the Authorized Version you have it “hastening unto,” but the marginal reading of the Revised Version is, I believe, far nearer the original idea than either of the others—“earnestly hastening the coming of the day of God.” Yes, I think it is possible to hasten the coming of the Master, by His Bride being ready for Him, as it has been put in that hymn of El Nathan’s: Let all that look for, hasten The coming joyful day, By earnest consecration, To walk the narrow way. The moment His Bride—the Body, the Church—is ready, He will come. I believe that is the true force of the word in the Epistle of Peter—not hastening unto, but “hastening” the coming. 7. When the present dispensation ends, and the Spirit is withdrawn, will His office and work, as set forth in John 14:1-31; John 15:1-27; John 16:1-33, be superseded by the personal ministry of Christ? When the Spirit is gone, who will carry on His work? The Spirit is withdrawn only in a dispensational sense. Every successive age with which we have dealt on the Chart included within itself all that had gone before; and the Millennium will have in it all the richness, glory, and beauty, of everything that has preceded it. The Spirit will be withdrawn in this one way—as a presence in the world which prevents the full outworking of evil. Immediately the Spirit is withdrawn, antichrist will work mightily through the seven years; but in the Millennium, itself, it is by the same Holy Spirit that men will be brought into living contact with Jesus Christ. 8. To what does Enoch’s prophecy refer, as recorded in Jude? To the coming of the Lord to set up His kingdom upon the earth. “Behold the Lord came with ten thousand of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all.” 9. What judgment is referred to in Matthew 25:1-46 in the parable of the sheep and the goats? And at what period in your Chart does that judgment come? There is nothing more commonly misinterpreted than that parable. It contains no single word about the dead; but is exactly what it professes to be—a picture of the time when Christ shall come and all nations shall be gathered before Him. It is the judgment, not of individuals, nor of the Church, but of the nations of the earth, when Christ comes at the end of Jacob’s trouble. The basis of judgment for the nations is to be their treatment of Christ’s brethren, the Israelitish nation. Of course, in all Jewish truth there is an undercurrent of application to God’s children in general; but we should be careful how we apply the words “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto Me.” They do not belong to this dispensation, but to the next; and there is nothing in them which has any very close bearing upon our present position. 10. Who will be the victims of the final apostasy after the thousand years? It is distinctly stated in Revelation 20:7-8, that when Satan is loosed, he will deceive the nations. During that period of the Millennial reign, the nations will be subject to Christ, but not all of them will be loyal in heart to Him; and when Satan is loosed, it will be to deceive such disloyal nations. That the obedience to the government of Christ during the Millennial period will be feigned is clearly taught in such passages as Psalms 18:44; Psalms 66:3, where the Hebrew word translated “submit” is the same translated elsewhere, “deceive,” “dissemble,” “deal falsely,” “lie.” All the nations will be under the government of the “Rod of iron,” and will be compelled to submit therefore. In heart, however, the great mass will be rebellious to the end, and will eagerly avail themselves of the opportunity of outwardly throwing off the yoke and entering upon actual conflict, when it presents itself in the unloosing of Satan. 11. Is there any possibility of a raptured saint being deceived and finally lost? Absolutely no possibility, because the raptured saints will have entered into a state which shall fit them for the New Jerusalem, into which nothing that worketh abomination or maketh a lie can come—that is, there will be for them no further temptation to sin. This, of itself, answers the other part of the question—Would Hebrews 6:4-7 refer to such a time? Certainly not. 12. 1 Corinthians 15:24-27; Revelation 20:14. Do not these Scriptures, taken in conjunction, teach that Christ delivers up the Kingdom at the destruction of death, before the new heavens and the new earth? I do not think that is a necessary sequence. The “then” of Corinthians does not mean immediate action. There is another “then” which bears out my view, in 1 Corinthians 15:23. “Each in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; then they that are Christ’s at His coming. Then cometh the end.” That is, as I believe, in the period of which we have no measurement, beyond the great white throne, and beyond the creation of the new heavens and the new earth. 13. Does the final triumph of Jesus Christ include the ultimate reconciliation and subjection of every soul of man to Him so that not one shall be utterly and eternally lost? My correspondent uses two words, “reconciliation” and “subjection.” The final triumph of Jesus does include the “subjection” of every soul of man to Him; for, God has exalted Christ “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” But the final triumph of Jesus Christ does not necessarily include the “reconciliation” of every soul to Him. There will be souls unreconciled who will yet be subject. It is an awful topic to deal with; but the possibility is clearly taught in the New Testament that a soul may, by its own free will, be alienated from Jesus Christ; and that, nevertheless, He may have out of that soul the honor which comes from subjection apart from reconciliation. In passing, and in connection with the great theme which we are only touching upon, let me say to Bible students that we must be very careful how we use the word “eternity.” We have fallen into great error in our constant use of that word. There is no word in the whole Book of God corresponding with our “eternal,” which, as commonly used among us, means absolutely without end. The strongest Scripture word used with reference to the existence of God, is—“unto the ages of the ages,” which does not literally mean eternally. Let us, however, remember that the self-same word, which is thus used in connection with the existence of God, is also applied to the loss of the human soul. Men have divided the Church, separated from each other, and persecuted one another, upon a thought conveyed by an English word which has no equivalent in the Bible. But who shall grasp “the ages of the ages,” or say that when a limit is reached, if limit there be, it is not that other ages upon ages may be born? God is subject to no limitation, and our finite thought must utterly fail to fathom the ages which He inhabits. We have no right to dogmatize upon anything beyond what is written; nor should we use a human word to express Divine things in the great future, concerning which we know so little. I repeat, it is a solemn possibility that a soul may, by its own deliberate, unchanging choice, pass into the ages of the ages, without God and without hope, and yet be subject to Christ, while unreconciled to Him. 14. According to 1 Corinthians 15:26, the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. What about him that hath the power of death? We are told that Satan has the power of death—and I take the inference of my correspondent to be this: if death is the last thing to be abolished, then the one who has the power of it must first be abolished. I venture to think that what is implied in the question does not follow. In the passage referred to, we have enemies under Christ’s feet, and enemies abolished. There may be enemies who will never be abolished, though they be under His feet. Christ must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. Lucifer, the son of the morning, must be put under His feet. And so must the souls of men who deliberately rebel against Him; but it is not said that He shall abolish them. He will abolish death; and, in that case, there can be no dying, even for rebel souls. I have endeavored to answer the whole of the questions selected according to the light which I have. We now, for the present, take leave of this great subject of prophecy. Maintaining the spirit of readiness for Divine leading in regard to lines of teaching, we may, at a future day, return to the subject in some other aspect. But, in conclusion, let me say that truth should never make us proud. We may be very confident that we hold the truth; but the surest way to deny its power is to be bitter and unloving toward those who differ from us. Let us remember that Truth is Christ, and Christ is Truth; that Christ is God, and God is Love; therefore Truth is Love, and Love is Truth. In proportion as you may hold the Truth, you will become loving toward those who differ from you. All the wrangling, ostensibly for the sake of Truth, which has split and divided certain sections of the Church, until men therein scarcely know where they stand, is evidence that Truth has never been properly understood by them. Truth should not be stored as a commodity or as something of which to boast. While we feel that the teaching of the Word of God is very clear, let us remember that we are only scholars spelling out the alphabet in the school of Jesus Christ. We may rest assured that, in the day when we have full knowledge granted unto us, we shall discover that the men of whom we were the most afraid, have held Truth which we, perchance, have never known. Our duty toward our brother and his toward us, if we be loyal to Christ, is—that we love each other still, though we may not agree in our views. Should nothing else be accomplished by this series of lectures, we may be profoundly thankful if they lead to searching of the Word of God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 63: 07.00.1. GOD'S PERFECT WILL ======================================================================== God’s Perfect Will by G. Campbell Morgan Copyright 1901 *This book is in the Public Domain due to when it was originally published. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 64: 07.00.3. DEDICATION ======================================================================== DEDICATION TO MY FOUR CHURCHES Stone Rugeley Birmingham: Westminster Road London: New Court All of which have in varied ways contributed to making of the ministry which has endeavoured to express some of the music which lies within the inexhaustible theme of GOD’S PERFECT WILL For their patience, their help, their affection, I shall thank God - if I rightly understand the unseen things - forever G. CAMPBELL MORGAN ======================================================================== CHAPTER 65: 07.00.4. PROLOGUE ======================================================================== PROLOGUE There is no phrase more often in use in Christian thought and speech than that of “The Will of God.” It constantly recurs in our reading of Scripture; our hymns are very many of them concerned with it; and in prayer we give utterance to it again and again. This familiarity has in some measure robbed us of a keen sense of its vital importancc. Its meaning is all too little realized. In common with many of the most sacred things, it has largely become a kind of fetish that is worshipped because it has a sound of piety; while the fact that it is the supreme subject of revelation, and the one and only abiding law of life, is forgotten. Notions that are false in themselves, and, therefore, pernicious in their effects, are held concerning it. These are not the result of thought, but rather of the lack of thought. There are many who imagine that the Will of God is something apart from human interests, to which men are to be resigned whenever they happen to be brought into contact with it. Frances Ridley Havergal said that “there is always a sigh of regret in resignation.” This is perfectly true; and that conception of the Will of God which looks upon it as a Divine interference to which we are to be resigned, is evil in its effects. How many there are who only think of their relation to the Will of God in times of sorrow and trial. They are perfectly sincere, therefore, when they sing - “If Thou shouldst call me to resign What most I prized - it ne’er was mine; I only yield Thee what was Thine: Thy will be done!” Yet the very words of the hymn reveal the fact that the singer does not truly understand the safety, the blessedness, the delight of dwelling in the circle of the Divine Will. The one and only law of life that sets a man free from all the forces that blight and destroy is the Will of God. Show me a man who lives for one day wholly, utterly, in word and thought and deed in the Will of God, and I will show you a man who is antedating heaven, and who for that day reaches the plane of life which is at once broadest, freest, and gladdest. The word of God is given to man not that he may have a correct theory, but that he may have the truth. Truth is a sanctifying force, and a man holds the truth only when he is held by the truth. When truth possesses a man, all its glory and beauty are manifested through his life and character. The truth the Bible reveals is the Will of God for man. Sanctification by truth is the bringing of man into the Will of God. “The means of grace” are means to an end, that end being the realization of the Will of God. Every one of them tends to that issue. “The hope of glory” is the hope that ultimately the Will of God will be done upon the earth as in the heaven, or that the spirit of man, passing into the heavenly state, shall realize all the full blessedness of that Will. All prayer lies within the two petitions of the pattern prayer the Master taught His disciples: “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done.” There is no prayer beyond that. It may be divided into sentences and syllables, and made to fit the necessity of the hour; but when prayer moves the heart of God, it is because it is confined within that compass. Allow your imagination to carry you back to the past ages. Amid the silences of that immeasurable eternity you are conscious of perfect peace, perfect happiness, perfect love. The explanation is to be found in the fact that the Will of God was perfectly done. None can declare the genesis of evil, but its nature is clearly known - it is rebellion against the Will of God. The mystery of how that first came to be, is absolutely inscrutable, but the fact is established beyond question. We are but infinitesimal portions of the universe of God, but the being of the smallest particle of created things is conditioned in His Will, and its success or failure depends upon its realization of, or failure to realize, that Will. The supreme subject in every life, then, is that His Will should be discovered and obeyed. To-day we are bearing much on every hand on such subjects as the filling of the Spirit, holiness, power for service. This is cause for gratitude; but, after all, these are means to an end, and that end is the Will of God. A Spirit-filled man is a most glorious being; but by that condition he has not reached the goal, he has only become equipped for fulfilling the essential of his life. Holiness is to be sought and found. A holy man is not, however, to rest in his holiness. It is health for perpetual obedience. Power for service is a great blessing, but service as response to the Will of God is the supreme matter. The most vital consideration for every human life is as to whether we are, and do, that which accords with the Will of God. John declares (1 John 2:17) that the doing of the Will of God is the condition of permanence amid the perishing and passing of the world. We are conscious that all around is perishing; yea, and we ourselves, as to bodily powers, pass away. We are also conscious of a passionate desire for permanence. The possessive pronouns are at once a revelation of that desire, and a confession of weakness. “My house”; and it is gone! "My child"; and it is dead! There is permanence only in the Will of God, and there only can we fully use the possessive pronoun, “My Lord and my God.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 66: 07.01. THE MESSAGE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT ======================================================================== THE MESSAGE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT The Old Testament declares the beginnings of created things, and gives us the history of the race from Creation to four hundred years prior to the coming of Christ. The underlying current of truth running through all its pages has to do with the one subject of the Will of God. Let the panorama of life move before the eye of the mind. Note well its darkness and light, its places of agony and of rapture. Mark the deeds which appal, and the heroisms which thrill. From beginning to end, the character of the picture is determined by the relation of men or nations to the Will of God. This is the great message of the Old Testament, that all the rivers that have made sad the life of man have had their source in his departure from that “good and perfect and acceptable Will of God”; and all the streams that have made glad the probationary pilgrimage of individuals, or the cities wherein men have dwelt, have sprung from the throne of God, which is the seat of His government. The historical books tell the story of the wandering of man from God again and again, and show how all such wandering issued in disaster. They also reveal the one unending purpose of God to bring man back into harmony with that Will. The methods were many; the intention one. The devout of all the ages breathed, if not in words yet in spirit, the same prayer "Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done." The very essence of evil lay in the rebellion of the human heart against that Kingdom and that Will. The devotional books are all occupied with the same theme. The songs find their keynote in the kinghood and throne of God. “The Lord reigneth.” “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.” These and kindred phrases tell the character of the music. When the song is of human experience at its best, it is ever of the joy and peace to be found in the law of God. “Oh how I love Thy law.” “Thy commandment is exceeding broad.” When the music becomes a dirge, it is because in individual or national life God has been forgotten. “When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring.” “The fool in said in his heart, There is no God.” Or, if you read aright the prayers, they are all part and parcel of the aspiration of man, after a realization of the Divine purpose and pathway. “Teach me to do Thy will, O God.” “Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation.” The prophetic books have a like significance. The burden that oppressed these men, until they delivered themselves in words of flaming fire, was a burden of Divine judgment and government. Nations that had forgotten God were called back to allegiance. Nations persisting in their waywardness were told of their doom. The perpetual cry of the prophets was, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord.” These men spake as the oracles of God, without fear or faltering, and their message was ever a “Thus saith the Lord”; and the secret of their daring and devotion the fact that each could say, “The Lord, before Whom I stand.” Or if we take another method of considering the message of the Old Testament, we shall arrive at the same result. Range before your vision all the hosts of the men of all the centuries. They stand now in imagination like a long chain of hills stretching far back to the first man Adam "which was the son of God." Such an outlook at once reveals certain men that stand out from among their fellows, their heads raised above them, capped with the pure snows, and catching first and keeping last the light of the sun. Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, and others that space forbids our naming. What makes the difference between these and their fellows? In every case the measure of their superiority is the measure of their understanding of, and obedience to, the Will of God. Adam erect, is so because he fulfils the purpose of God. Abel received, is so because he lives a life God-centered rather than self-centered. Enoch’s distinction is revealed in his brief biography, “Enoch walked with God.” Noah, also, amid the most appalling corruption, believed God, and was saved in the works of obedience that grew out of his faith. Abraham became the father of the faithful because he went out, not knowing whither he went, confident alone in the wisdom and rightness of the word of God. Moses, having himself learned to wait for the guidance of God, gave the world a code of ethics which remains the foundation of morality to this day, because it was first written with the finger of God. David’s memory is revered more for his harp than his crown, and that because, through it, he sang of the law of his God. Elijah still stands as the type of rough, magnificent character, because he was the messenger of law to an apostate age. These were all great, inasmuch as they abode in the Will of God; and the things that smirch the escutcheon of each, were of the nature of disobedience or wandering from the Divinely-marked pathway. Thus, from the song of new-born earth to the fiery warning of Malachi, the Old Testament brings us face to face with the supreme subject. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 67: 07.02. THE MESSAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT ======================================================================== THE MESSAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT If the Old Testament is occupied with the Will of God as its supreme subject, the New Testament is in all its parts an unveiling and exposition thereof, both as to nature and possibility. For the purpose of a general survey, we shall divide the New Testament into its three principal sections of historic, didactic, and prophetic books. These include 1. Historic. The Gospels and Acts. 2. Didactic. The Epistles. 3. Prophetic. The Revelation. In the first we have the story of the life of Jesus, and the first chapter in His larger life resulting from the work He accomplished. Also His teaching, containing unified truth, which became clear in the subsequent light of the Spirit’s teaching. In the second we have the unfolding of truth for the individual believer and the Church, by men indwelt and inspired by the Holy Spirit. In the third we have, for the most part, visions of the closing scenes of the present dispensation and the accomplishment of Divine purposes through Divine power. In all of these the subject is the Will of God. The life of Jesus realized it, and His teaching declared its nature and necessity. The men whose doings are recorded in the Acts lived wholly in, and only for, that Will. The consummation of all is the triumph of righteousness and love by the complete submission of humanity thereto. I. Historic. Taking these in the order named, we come first to the historic books. The roots of the New are in the Old. We therefore go back to the Psalms for the keynote of these books. “Sacrifice and offering Thou hast no delight in; mine ears hast Thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I am come; in the roll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do Thy will, O my God.” None will deny that this belongs to the New Testament, for we are agreed that these words had their perfect fulfilment in the person and experience of Jesus. Underlying everything in the fourfold Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is the perpetual sounding of this note of perfect music, “I delight to do Thy will, O my God.” In the life of Jesus it was the reason for all He did, and the inspiration of all He said. Whether living as a boy in His mother’s home, or working as a man at His trade of carpenter; whether going to the Jordan for baptism, or to the wilderness for temptation; whether preaching to the crowds, or working wonders of love among the needy - His life was perpetually filled with delight in the Will of God. Once only in the history of the human race has there been a life true to the Divine ideal. That was the life of Jesus. When His mother found Him in the Temple, He said to her, “Wist ye not that I must be in My Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49). His Father’s Will for Him was that He should be a disciple among the teachers of His people, and that was the explanation of His tarrying behind at Jerusalem. When He faced and overcame temptation, He did so in the strength of the fact that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). And when His disciples urged Him upon one occasion to eat, He replied, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34). He needed bread; but the supreme necessity was that He should do the Will of God. That was the sustenance of His deepest life. In reply to the criticisms of His enemies, He dared to say, “He that sent Me is with Me; He hath not left Me alone; for I do always the things that are pleasing to Him” (John 8:29). The Will of God was equally the sum and substance of His teaching. Indeed, it is impossible to separate between His teaching and Himself. He said, “I am the Truth,” not “I teach the truth.” When I see what He is, I know what He is going to teach me; and when I hear what He teaches, I know what He is. His Sermon on the Mount is the Magna Charta of the Will of God, the most wonderful words that ever fell on the ears of man. “Happy!” (Matthew 5:3). That is the first of them, and it is the keynote of all that follows, declaring immediately what is the Will of God for man. In solemn words He sets the doing of that Will at the very wicket of the kingdom, not as password - there are no words that will pass men into heaven’s kingdom - but as the condition upon which men may enter: “Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21); and closes with that most wonderful claim for Himself, “Every one, therefore, which heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, which built his house upon the rock” (Matthew 7:24). Thus the Gospels unveil the perfect ideal in life and teaching of the man who does the Will of God. The Acts of the Apostles opens with the significant words, “The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach” (Acts 1:1). The reference Luke makes to a “former treatise” is of course to his Gospel, and he declares that Gospel to be the story of beginnings only. The inference is that the second treatise is a story of continuation; and this we discover to be so as we read, for the history is one of the doing of the Will of God by Spirit-filled men. What men they were! They moved the world! Study that wonderful fifth chapter. What a state the priests were in! Nothing so troubles the priest as to come in contact with men doing the Will of God. They said to Peter and the rest, “We straitly charged you not to teach in this name: and behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your teaching” (Acts 5:28). There is no finer testimony to apostolic work on record. A mere handful of men had filled Jerusalem with their teaching, and it was teaching that gripped, for the priests continued-“and intend to bring this Man’s blood upon us” (Acts 5:28). In Peter’s answer, in a brief sentence he reveals the secret of these phenomena that so perplexed and baffled the priests, “We must obey God!” (Acts 5:29). That is the secret. These men shook kingdoms to their foundations and turned the world upside down, their enemies being witness; and the reason of their success lay in their abandonment to the Will of God. II. Didactic. Turning to the didactic writings, we find the same great theme in all. Take illustrations from the writings of Peter, James, and John. 1. PETER. “Forasmuch then as Christ suffered in the flesh, arm ye yourselves also with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that ye no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God” (1 Peter 4:1-2). That is Peter’s conception of the meaning of the Christ-life. 2. JAMES. “Go to now, ye that say, today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that” (James 4:13-15). James does not deny that we have to make arrangements for today and tomorrow. He insists that concerning them all we should say, “If the Lord will.” 3. JOHN. “The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (John 2:17). John declares the Will of God to be the place of permanence, and all outside that Will is doomed to perish. From these turn to the Pauline letters, and still the theme is the same: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2). The apostle’s object in calling us to surrender ourselves is that we may prove the goodness, acceptability, and perfectness of the Will of God. “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray and make request for you, that ye may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Colossians 1:9). That is the burden of his prayer-not for Colossian believers only, but also for all those in whom he was interested. The distinctive glory of the letter to the Hebrews is that it deals with the bringing in of “better things” which shall make men “perfect in every good thing to do His will” (Hebrews 13:21). Jude looks forward in his doxology to that day in which the Church shall be presented “before the presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy” (Jude 1:24). All these writers agree, that the Will of God fulfilled in human life is the purpose of Christ in His people, and through His people in the world. III. Prophetic. Lastly, we turn to the prophetic book of the Revelation. Of this there are many interpretations, but there are points of perfect agreement. To one of these we now come. “And the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God that sitteth on the throne, saying, Amen; Hallelujah. And a voice came forth from the throne, saying, Give praise to our God, all ye His servants, ye that fear Him, the small and the great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah; for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth.” (Revelation 14:4-6).Differences of opinion exist as to the methods by which that glorious consummation is to be reached, but we all believe the time is coming when the Lord God Omnipotent shall reign and His Will be done. “Amen; Hallelujah.” These words reveal the source of the blessedness of that glad day. God on the throne, and humanity saying “Amen” in consent, and “Hallelujah” in praise. We commenced this study in the Psalms. Let us return there for a moment in conclusion. “Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, to give thanks unto Thy holy name, and to triumph in Thy praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel from everlasting even to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen, Hallelujah” (Psalms 106:47-48, margin). Now read again the song of the Apocalypse, “And the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God that sitteth on the throne, saying, Amen; Hallelujah” (Revelation 14:4). Ransomed and redeemed humanity saying “Amen” so be it, to the Will of God; and after the Amen, “Hallelujah” praise the Lord. That is the consummation. The Old prays for it; the New predicts and prepares for it. We may dream dreams of its splendour, but no dream can compass the reality, it is too great. Humanity, in every beating pulse, every fibre of its being, every drawing breath, saying “Amen” to the Will of God, “Hallelujah” to His government. Thus Old and New, the one Bible, declares that the Divine Will is the only law of human life that satisfies the heart of God and ensures the well-being of man. This very fact is that which gives supreme importance to Holy Scripture, and should condition all attempts to study it. There is, undoubtedly, room for devout criticism, study of the question of dates, and authorship; and there should ever be the widest toleration for different interpretations of many of the mysteries dealt with, which are, after all, beyond the possibility of full and final statement. To treat the Bible, however, as literature merely, or to read it with a view to formulating certain systems of belief, is to fail to realize its highest value, or to touch its deepest significance. On its every page there is unfolded something of the Divine order, method, and purpose in the government of man. While the chronicles reveal the fault and failures of sinning men, all through there moves the Spirit of God, revealing the fact of His Kingship; and in every message of Psalmist, Seer, or Prophet, there is the unmistakable call to loyalty and obedience. It is only as this is remembered, and the study of the Book is approached with sincere desire to discover the purpose of God in human life, and the laws which make that purpose possible of realization, that the Book answers its highest intention. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 68: 07.03. A THREEFOLD DEMAND ======================================================================== A THREEFOLD DEMAND In our previous studies we have seen that the supreme subject of Scripture is the Will of God. As a revelation to man, it declares that human life is only perfectly conditioned as it discovers that Will, and yields implicit obedience thereto. In the present study we shall ask certain questions from the standpoint of conscious human need. Let it be granted that law in some form is a necessity; that anarchy of individual or social being is chaos and confusion; the question at once arises as to the highest and best law possible. A rough-and-ready division of the mass of men to-day will reveal three classes. First, there are those who are the slaves of others. Human opinion is the test of all their doing and speaking. Conventionality holds them in an iron grip. They will do, or refuse to do, anything according to the opinion of some one else. The habit of the crowd becomes the rule of life. Or it may be that some one person is looked to as lawgiver; that person being sometimes called priest, at others teacher. The craving is for authority outside one’s own personality; and this is sought in many ways. Then there are those who affect to despise the opinion of others, and are openly and avowedly self-confident. They care not what others do, they are capable of making their own programme, conducting their own affairs. These are the people who make time-tables for themselves and form resolutions and surround themselves with a whole system of self-created safety laws. Lastly, there are those who decline to be governed by the opinion of others, and who have absolutely abandoned attempting to control themselves by selfmade programmes and regulations, and whose whole lives are conditioned in the prayer of the Psalmist of old: “Teach me to do Thy Will; for Thou art my God” (Psalms 143:10). The test as to which of these is really the highest law of life is to be found within the consciousness of man himself. There are certain aspirations of the human heart which are ever present. They may be distorted or dwarfed, but in some form they abide as the necessary and unalterable desires of human nature. The law of life which realizes and satisfies these, to the fullest possible extent must of necessity be the best. These aspirations may be summarized under three heads - Perfection, Pleasure, Perpetuity. I. Perfection. The first aspiration of every human life is for Perfection. How strange and inexplicable, by the way, is the fear some excellent people have of the word. With what bated breath, and what aloofness of fear, is one often asked if one really believes in Christian perfection. And yet what else can one believe in who believes in Christ? Try other phrases - Christian imperfection, for instance. Will not some one explain that for us? Or, if you prefer, take another form of the negative - imperfect Christianity. Alas, yes, there is much of it; but who will say they believe in it? Let us have done with this unholy fear of a phrase, and at once say that nothing can satisfy the deepest demand of our human nature except its perfection. It is the common passion of the race, often partially realized and constantly abused, but perpetually present. Who is there that would not immediately secure physical perfection if that were possible? To be vigorous, proportioned, and beautiful, would be a blessing no sane person would despise. Mental perfection is much less coveted because harder to attain, yet none would refuse to make some effort to attain it if it were within measurable distance. Spiritual perfection is alas most neglected, probably because it moves on the highest plane; yet no person, upon calm reflection. would deliberately reject this if they were once convinced of its accessibility. This, then, is the first demand by which we propose to test any law or philosophy of life. It must be of such a nature as to ensure the ultimate perfection of our being, not on one side merely, but in its tripartite character of spirit, soul, and body. II. Pleasure. The second demand is for Pleasure. This is a perfectly legitimate demand because it comes out of the deepest necessities of human nature, and is common to men everywhere, under most diversified conditions of life. In all ages, in all lands, and under all circumstances of life, man desires and seeks after happiness. It is very doubtful if a single exception can be found to this rule in the ranks of the human family. We occasionally hear of such a thing as misanthropy; and some there are who even venture to affirm that they have seen a misanthrope. Some of us have never had such a sorrowful experience, thank God! There are men who seem to have no fellowship with the ordinary pursuits of pleasure, and are devoid of humor of a certain kind, but it has been discovered often that in some hidden and least expected place they have had their treasurehouse of happiness. That it was not of the nature of the things that make other men happy does not matter for a moment. Even if it be granted that there are some human beings who are all that is intended by the word misanthrope, the true facts of their condition are quaintly revealed in the saying that they are only happy when miserable, for out of their discontent they are attempting to minister to the universal craving for pleasure. Man was not made for sorrow. It is, we believe, a Divine ministrant of blessing, and in many cases precedes gladness; but the transient character of sorrow in the purpose of God is marked by the glorious promise that He will wipe all tears away. The heart of man was made for peace, and joy, and love; and through all the foolish blundering of popular pleasure-seeking, it is after these men seek. By this also, therefore, we test the laws of life that are proposed to us. They must secure for us the highest and fullest pleasure; not that which is unsubstantial and evanescent, but the deep and the abiding; and the law which most perfectly does this is the best, and to it we will yield our wholehearted allegiance. III. Perpetuity. The last demand is that of Perpetuity. Man is everywhere, and at all times, and in every way, at war with decay. The hatred of death, and the loathing of the grave, mark the fact that man has capacity for life, and therefore feels rebellious against the faintest suggestion of its cessation. How men strive after perpetuity! The search of old for the elixir of life was a pathetic proof of this craving; and in cases where men have been unable to hope for actual continuity of being, they have sought to perpetuate their existence in the memory of others by writings and works, and even by monuments erected. We cry out for the beyond. Horizons are always a menace to our peace. We crave the infinite. Deeply conscious of the perishing nature of everything around us; seeing the dark sentence, “passing away,” writ large upon our most valued treasures, and feeling ourselves ceaselessly moving through the pages of our life’s story to the dreaded word FINIS - we sigh, and sob, and fret, and demand some place that passes not; some treasure that vanishes not away; some secret of being that will enable us to say, We abide, masters of death. True it is, that thousands of us seem to float easily through the days, unconscious of these cravings, content to drift and not to know. Yet this is but false seeming. Carefully observe the first ordinary, every-day, matter-of-fact man in any crowd in any city, in any land. Keep close to him, that you may watch him. Presently, in a moment of loneliness. when the things unseen come near in overwhelming reality, or when he faces death and feels it imminent, or when some cherished hope is suddenly blighted, that man will lift his eyes and gaze wistfully toward the future. In those eyes shine the light of his true being, and the passion for perpetuity is revealed as being the true and perpetual sub-consciousness of his life. That law of life which could answer that demand, and make man master of all the forces of disintegration and decay, is assuredly the highest and the best; and when we find it, to it we will abandon ourselves with whole-hearted devotion. Thus standing within the realm of my own being, turning a deaf ear for the moment to all the babel of outside voices, I hear the speech of my true life, and learn its deepest demands; and I solemnly, deliberately, and positively declare that if the Will of God for man be, as the Bible declares it to be, the highest philosophy of human life, it must meet this threefold demand, and secure to me the perfection of my being, the highest and abiding pleasure, and that victory over the elements of death and decay which shall ensure my perpetuity. In three subsequent chapters we shall endeavour to show that this is exactly what the Will of God does, and what any other law of life fails to do. In concluding the present study, it will be sufficient to summarize the subjects of the next three thus: 1. God’s Will is perfect, because by Him man was created, and He therefore is alone able to make such laws as shall ensure man’s perfection. 2. God’s Will is perfect, because He is love, and Love only can make laws for man which will provide him with perfect pleasure. 3. God’s Will is perfect, because He is, and the Eternal alone can make laws which take in all the past, present, and future, so as to secure perpetuity. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 69: 07.04. PROVIDES PERFECTION ======================================================================== PROVIDES PERFECTION In considering the threefold demand dealt with in the last chapter, we come first in order to the demand for perfection. The answer of the Will of God to that demand may be briefly stated. God’s Will is perfect, because by Him man was created, and He, therefore, is alone able to make such laws as shall ensure man’s perfection. This is coming down to a statement of the simplest kind. We all profess to believe that God has given us our being, and in a deep conviction of that truth lies the reason why we should yield ourselves wholly to His government in order that we may attain perfection of being. Perhaps it is necessary to emphasize this initial fact, for oftentimes the teacher’s greatest difficulty is to get men to accept the truth of the truth they accept. When Daniel, as the interpreter of the Divine message to Belshazzar, named the sin of that monarch which was about to be punished, he did not mention the sins of impurity, drunkenness, or sacrilege, though of all these he had been guilty. He declared the sin which lies at the root of all sins, because it has to do with man’s relation to God.“The God in Whose hand thy breath is, and Whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified” (Daniel 5:23). In that charge we are reminded of the fact that our very being, in all its powers and possibilities, is of Divine origin. Paul, preaching to the Athenians on Mars’ Hill, makes the same statement, in terms, if possible, more explicit “In Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). We are the creation of God. Spirit, soul, and body, each in its own possibility; and the one being, resulting from the union, is the result of Divine conception and creation. Every human being is a concrete thought of God. God therefore knows the potentiality of each of us, and the line of our development, and it is only as we are able to discover His Will and obey it, that we shall move along the one to the full realization of the other. The folly of conditioning conduct by the thoughts or wishes of other human beings is apparent in the light of this fact. To the declaration of John that “No man hath seen God at any time” (John 1:18), we all agree. Not so readily do we assent to the assertion that no man hath seen man at any time, yet it is equally true. The outward form and tone of voice are familiar, but my essential friend who tabernacles in the body I touch, and conveys his thought through the medium of the speech I hear, I have never yet seen. No man knows perfectly and completely his fellow-man. The mother that bore me, the wife of my heart, the children of my love, do not know me. They are all familiar with the sound of my voice, the touch of my hand, and the fall of my foot on the stair; but all the deeps that lie behind, held for ever sacred from the possibility of intrusion, of these they have no final and complete knowledge. And yet, forsooth, we are perpetually in danger of taking our law of life from the opinion of some mortal who has no adequate knowledge of the perils and possibilities of our complex nature. Oh, the folly of it! As well let the blacksmith repair our watch, or the collier tune our harp, as allow man, ignorant of the essence and intention of our complex life, to arrange for its conduct. The interference of a human being between another and God is an impertinence and a blasphemy, whatever the name by which the interferer is called, whether it be priest, or teacher, or friend. Equally foolish is man’s attempt to govern himself, for it is equally true that no man has seen himself, neither does any man know himself. The old Greek philosopher said his last and best thing when he said, “Man, know thyself,” because he thus brought man face to face with the impossible; and when a man is brought there, he is in the place where it is possible for him to acquaint himself with God and be at peace. In our younger days we imagine that we know the possibilities of our being, and are able to plan and arrange the whole line of progress. The years are startling revealers. As they pass, we discover new powers for good and evil that had lain dormant within, and of which we had absolutely no consciousness until some crisis aroused and called forth to action the sleeping forces. How we trembled when we found that there was the power of murder lying hidden in our heart! How we suffered when we came to know of a surety that, in spite of all our earlier boasting, we too had the making of the traitor within, and might have kissed the Master to His death! Ah, those days of time-tables, and programmes, and pledges, and promises, when we proudly said we were masters of ourselves. Through what disappointments, and agonies, and wounds, some of us have come to our first real knowledge, that we are ignorant of ourselves, and cannot therefore govern ourselves. This drives us to one conclusion. Our demand for perfection can only be met by our living, and moving, and having our being wholly within the Will of God. Our neighbour’s law fails through the limitation of his knowledge. Our own programme collapses because of our ignorance. The Will of God moving within the realm of His perfect knowledge leads us on to perfection, and will at last set us in His presence unafraid. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 70: 07.05. PROCURES PLEASURE ======================================================================== PROCURES PLEASURE Man’s nature is such that, in addition to perfection, it demands pleasure. How that demand is met in the Will of God may thus be declared: God’s Will is perfect, because He is love, and only Love can, and Love can only, make laws for man which will provide him with perfect pleasure. That is a double proposition. Let us, consider it. I. Only love can make laws for man which will provide him with perfect pleasure. Disinterestedness lies at the heart of all pure love. “Love . . . seeketh not its own.” It is almost impossible to discuss the true nature of love from the midst of the limitations of human life as we know it. It is so easy to judge love by the partial realization of it that has come within our consciousness. We love those that love us, those that please us, those that like us; and at the root of all this, in the last analysis, there is but a refined form of selfishness. The Divine fact of love is infinitely greater than these human limitations. Occasionally it seems to take possession of a human heart, and is then the subject of wonder to all men. Love, however, must ever be judged from its essential being and manifestation in the character of God. There it is wholly unselfish, and consists of perfect affection for an object, without ulterior motive. There only is Shakespeare’s description of it fully realized. “Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixèd mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken.” When love becomes the motive of law, then law conditions the true happiness of the one that is loved. To do this, love is never blind, but takes the largest possible outlook, and acts in its government not only for the present moment, but for all the issues of that moment; not only! or the final issues, but also for all the present moments that contribute to its making. No other motive for law is equal to meeting the demand for pleasure. Righteousness, apart from its relation to love, may do many cruel things. The doctrine of the survival of the fittest, in its higher aspect, is a protest against unrightness; but it has within itself no remedy for failure, and ruthlessly sweeps away all the weak and fallen. The majesty and dignity of kingship will not ensure the pleasure of the subject in all cases. Law growing from selfishness will, in the nature of things, only bring happiness to those who minister to the self-seeking propensity of the lawgiver. No law that my fellow-man can make for me is perfectly to be trusted to ensure my pleasure, because I am never certain of the hidden and yet powerful motive that may give birth to that law. Love only can condition the life of the subject in perfect happiness. II. Love can only make laws for man which will provide him with perfect pleasure. Its very nature, as we have already seen, makes this a necessity. Herein lies the proof our present proposition. The Will of God ensures the pleasure of man, because God is love. This is, perhaps, at once the simplest and sublimest statement that revelation has made concerning the nature of God. Theologians have spoken of love as an attribute of Deity. Should it not rather be spoken of as the essence of the Divine, of which the attributes are the component parts? As a man’s character is the sum and substance of his characteristics, so is the essence of the Divine the sum and substance of Divine attributes. Holiness, justice, beneficence-all these and others lie within the compass of love. To deny either is to deny love. To deny love is to contradict all. If, then, God is love, His Will is the Will of love; and the common mistake that law and love are in any sense antagonistic must be once and for ever abandoned. There is no divergence between the two. Browning sang truly- “I report, as a man may, of God’s work: All’s love, but all’s law.” In the economy of God, love is law, and law is love. The twofold denomination of John is not without significance. We speak of him as the Apostle of Love. Jesus called him a Son of Thunder. There is no contradiction in the thoughts. There was never yet an apostle of love who was not also a son of thunder. In the writings of John, the two words most often occurring are the words “commandment” and “love,” and there is no contradiction, but rather unity of thought in the fact. The law of God being then the expression of His love, seeks the perfect happiness of all those who obey it. When Jesus upon the Mount enunciated the ethics of His kingdom, the first word that fell from His lips indicated the purpose of His heart. It was the word “Happy.” To make man happy is the purpose of God, and for the realization of that purpose Jesus came to live, to teach, to die. The law He enunciated was the most stringent and exacting that humanitv had ever heard, and it was so because love makes no peace with aught that harms, and is the most relentless foe of every foe of the loved one. Every prohibition of God, and every command He lays upon men, have their reason in His good-will toward men. Nothing is denied to the subjects of His kingdom capriciously, or merely for the satisfaction of some motive outside these subjects. Love prohibits that which, if permitted, would blight the life and mar the pleasure. It is also true that every commandment calling to paths of duty is the outbreathing of love. There are moments when such pathways are rough and thorny and tortuous; but love never sends men along them save when, in the way, something is to be gained which will more than compensate for the suffering, and which can only be gained through the suffering. “Every joy or trial Falleth from above, Traced upon our dial By the Sun of love.” Man’s capacity for pleasure finds its full satisfaction when his life is surrendered to the Will of God. There is first the immediate delight of obedience. The response to love is in itself the essence of delight. This is illustrated from all that we know of love in the human relation, but its highest realization is to be found in this realm of submission to the government of God. Infinite meaning lies within the words of Christ, “I delight to do Thy will, O my God.” Not only is there this joy of love’s response to love, there is also the hope of consummation: for if the present will of love be delightful, the perfect issue of love will be the perfection of delight. Consequently, through all the mystery that often surrounds the obedience of to-day, there shines the glow of the perfect consummation which alone can satisfy the Eternal Love. The heaven towards which we look is, as to our own condition, realized capacity and realized functions of being. The powers which are to-day suggestions, prophecies, will then be possessions; and these all, moving within the realm of the Divine intention, will create the highest delight of which the spirit of man is capable. It is in this sense that the old word of the Psalmist is true: “In Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.” Not, however, to the future merely do we look for this answer to the second demand of our nature. Here and now, to abide in the Will of God is to find the secret of happiness in all life. Submission to the King involves the finding of the mystic key that opens every avenue of pure delight, for in His Will the powers which He in love created are no longer prostituted to ignoble purposes, but serve the purpose of that love creation. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 71: 07.06. PROMISES PERPETUITY ======================================================================== PROMISES PERPETUITY The third demand of man is for perpetuity. That also is secured by those who dwell wholly within the Will of God. The argument may be simply stated thus: God’s Will is perfect, because He is, and the Eternal alone can make laws which include the past, present, and future, so as to secure perpetuity. Nothing is more restful to the heart of man than the sense of the eternity of God. The thought is utterly beyond our perfect comprehension, for the mind of man cannot grasp the thought of eternity. The very fact, however, of our inability to do so is the reason of the security we feel when we remember that God is Himself eternal. The secrets of the past, all unknown to us, are ever present to His omniscient mind. Upon the mystery of the future the light of His perfect knowledge rests; and the problems of to-day that fret and trouble us are seen by Him in their relation to the past and to the future, and for that reason cease to be to Him perplexing, as they are to us. In the eternity of God, time has but one significance, it is perpetually and unceasingly “Now.” The name by which He revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush is full of significance. He is the “I AM.” Combining this fact with those considered in previous chapters, of His Creatorship and His love, we argue at once that the laws He makes for the creatures of His hand and the children of His love, are laws that will take in the sum of things, and so condition the present, that it shall hold within it the power and the promise of the future. Every present law of God for man is based upon the fact of the past, and moves towards the purpose of the future. What He wills for each person to-day takes into account all the forces and facts of the past. Previous failings in the individual life; tendencies inherited from the generations that have gone; the accumulated forces that propel men from the dead centuries-are all present to the mind of God, when He arranges the programme of individual lives. So also the future is known to Him. The true line of life’s development with all the lines that cross and thwart it. Words that we often have to make use of are never required in the vocabulary of God. We speak of contingency, exigency, accident. He cannot be surprised. Nothing happens, in the sense in which we use that word. He marks the approach of every foe, knows whence it comes, sets the limit of its opposition; saying ever to Satan, as He said in the case of Job, “So far mayest thou go; only here and there thou shalt stay thy hand.” It follows, necessarily, that where life is governed only within the Will of God, every date and every event become links in the chain of a perfect whole. All contribute to a finality. It is impossible here and now for us to discover the relation of the present moment either to past or to future. But that relation is always present to the mind of God. We are permitted occasional gleams of light upon this truth as the years of our life pass on. The light falls in the act of retrospection. Looking back to-day to the events of years that have passed, we begin to discover their meaning. They are seen to be part of the Divine mosaic. The keen disappointment, the whelming sorrow, came after all as a necessity out of the past, and hold within themselves the elements that make the present, and colour all the future. The present place of service and of blessing could not have been but for the events that seemed to create confusion. From this distance we see how God was moving in the infinite order of His ceaseless love, and what we thought confusion was but the sign of His progress. What light is flung upon the pathway of each day if once this fact is understood. The day is not done with when its sun sets. The deeds of any given hour are not fully comprehended in the passing of its sixty minutes. If the deeds of the days have been those planned by God, then they are days, the full blossoming of which will be found in the perfect light of the everlasting day. It has been said that every flower that decks the sod has its root far back in eternity. So also every human life, in the Will and purpose of God, is linked to the past and to the future, and His laws for it forget no fact of all the ages. Need anything further be written to prove the wisdom of abandoning life to His Will? See how all other laws fail when placed in comparison with this. The best-loved friend I have cannot compass within the facts of certain knowledge the events of the next hour. They may advise, but their advice is necessarily tentative. They would go this way if-and how much depends upon the if. A thousand chances may prove the folly of their wisdom, the shortsightedness of their policy. This is never so with the soul that has no law save that of the Divine Will. “He always wins who sides with God, To him no chance is lost.” The same criticism will apply to selfmade programmes. One might, perchance, make a programme for one’s own life for a week if one knew all that could possibly happen within that week. Seeing, however, that that knowledge does not extend to the next minute, the folly of a self-governed life becomes apparent. Of course it is necessary that we should have our programme and our plan and our arrangement, but the more necessary thing is that all such should be prefaced by the old-fashioned and almost obsolete letters D.V. “If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that. . . . To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” Thus James states the true attitude of man towards his future and his God. If our plans are made with this reservation, how often we shall have to thank God for their spoiling; how perpetually has He broken up our programme in order that His Will should be done, and how true we have found it to be that- “God’s Will is sweetest to us when It triumphs at our cost.” The restfulness and peace of this attitude of surrender to the Divine Will lies in the fact that the Eternal God, Who in infinite love has created us, has done so for eternal comradeship with Himself; and if He govern the life, He will bring it, notwithstanding all the forces that seem to be against it, to the place of full and undying existence. There is no other law of life that will secure this. “The world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the Will of God abideth for ever.” From the centre of that Will man may look out upon change and decay, upon death and destruction, and know that he is perfectly safe from them all; yea, master of every one. “Things that once were wild alarms Cannot now disturb my rest; Closed in everlasting arms, Pillowed on the loving breast. Oh to lie for ever here, Doubt and care and self resign, While He whispers in my ear I am His, and He is mine! “His for ever, only His, Who the Lord and me shall part; Ah, with what a rest of bliss Christ can fill the loving heart! Heaven and earth may fade and flee, First-born light in gloom decline, But while God and I shall be, I am His and He is mine.!” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 72: 07.07. PRACTICABLE BECAUSE OF ITS NATURE ======================================================================== PRACTICABLE BECAUSE OF ITS NATURE For the reasons as stated, we grant that the Will of God should be the best law of life for man. Having granted so much, a new question immediately arises: Is the doing of the Will possible to man? An ideal that cannot be realized may be a vision of beauty, but it lacks the essential element that creates the true ideal-that, namely, of practicability. Men do not climb after the inaccessible. Men make no effort to mount to the moon. Grant the accessibility, and distance becomes an incentive to climbing. The Will of God is practicable for three reasons: 1. Because of its nature. 2. Because it is revealed. 3. Because of supernatural power, communicated to those who will to do it. We proceed to deal with these three statements in these three chapters. The Will of God includes and conditions all that God has created. Doing the Will of God does not consist in the developmcnt of the spiritual side of man’s nature, at the expense of the other sides. The apostle prayed for the Thessalonian Christians, that their “spirit and soul and body” might “be preserved entire, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We are suffering from the art of the Old Masters. They gave men a wrong conception of God and of sainthood. Take, for instance, what Ruskin speaks of as “that infinite monstrosity and hypocrisy, Raphael’s cartoon of the charge to Peter.” Let me give you an analysis of his criticism on the picture: (1) Twelve apostles, when only seven were present. (2) Curled hair and sandals, after a night in sea mists. (3) Dresses with trains-an apostolic fishing costume. (4) No fire of coals, but an Italian landscape with villas and churches. (5) The apostles not round Christ, but in a line to be shown. That is a fair sample of the conception of sainthood which the Old Masters gave the world. They lifted men and women out of the ordinarv experiences of human life, and put them upon impossible planes. This was due to a misconception of the Will of God. These Old Masters did not understand that God does not call men away from the commonplaces of the busy days, but conditions their life within them, until the meanest thing flashes and gleams with the glory of the heavens. Another illustration is that offered by Monasticism. The monastic system was the outcome of a pure and holy desire, but it was based upon a misconception of God. Men desired to serve their age by prayer; and to do so, retired from the hurry and rush of life, turning their back upon marriage, parenthood, home, and friendship. It was a fatal mistake. When men retire from the conflict to pray, they cut the nerves of prayer. Men only pray with prevailing power, who do so amid the sobs and sighing of the race. If the genesis of monasticism was a pure desire, its history proves that it ended in lewd and awful corruption. These illustrations are given to show that any conception of God that makes it necessary for man to depart from the commonplaces of life to find Him, are wrong. The Old Masters saw no possibility of the identity of an actual fisherman and an apostle. The monks went alone to pray, because they thought that God was out of the midst of the strife. “The parish priest, of austerity, Climbed up in the high church-steeple, To be nearer God, so that he might Hand His word down to the people. And in sermon script he daily wrote What he thought was sent from heaven; And he dropped it down on the people’s heads Two times one day in seven. In his age God said, ‘Come down and die’; And he cried out from the steeple, ‘Where art Thou, Lord?’ and the Lord replied, ‘Down here among My people.’” The Will of God touches us at every point in our life, because He is interested in all its details. This is illustrated by some of the most simple and exquisite statements of Scripture. “Put Thou my tears into Thy bottle.” “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.” “Thou knowest my going out and my coming in.” “Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising.” God among His people gathering up their tears, ordering their steps, knowing their going out, their coming in, their down-sitting, their uprising. Then hear the words of Jesus. “The very hairs of your head are numbered.” “Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your Father.” “Take no anxious thought; . . . your Father knoweth that you have need.” If these sentences teach anything, they teach the intense interest of God in the smallest detail of the life of His children, in what we eat, in what we wear, in our recreation, in our homes, in the hidden facts of character. He is so interested, that He takes us one by one, and thinks of, and arranges for, every detail of our life. To Him there are no little things. What we call great things are but the perfect union of the small ones, and every small one has the element which makes the greatness of the great ones. “. . . Nothing’s small: No lily-muffled hum of a summer-bee, But finds some coupling with the spinning stars; No pebble at your foot, but proves a sphere; No chaffinch, but implies the cherubim.” By this interest in, and arrangement for, all the details of every individual life, God makes His Will the simplest, the easiest, the most practical law of life. It is within that Will that man, in the best sense of the word, may be natural, true to the possibilities of his own being, unafraid. One other word as to the nature of the Will of God. Not only does it include and condition all that He has created in infinite wisdom, it also manipulates all circumstances. The proof of this is to be found, in the majority of cases, by retrospection. Looking back, how marvellous is the mosaic of the Divine arrangement! In the midst of the darkness yonder we thought the light had for ever failed, and yet we were but in the ante-chamber of clearer vision. Another day we counted ourselves defeated, but to-day we see that the defeat was in itself the greatest victory. God’s transmutations run through the years. He is ever bringing gold for brass, silver for iron, brass for wood, iron for stones. All contradictory circumstances He presses into the service of progression. It was not idly written in the Song of Solomon, “As the lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters.” The thorn and the lily both live in the same soil, in the same atmosphere. Both receive the same ministry from without, and yet how different the result. To those outside the Will of God, sorrow, trouble, disappointment, come; and the tendency is to harden and embitter. To those living in the Will of God, the same sorrow, the same trouble, the same disappointment, come; and the effect is that of transformation into new grace, and tenderness, and beauty. Sorrow is a minister, creating character for those who dwell in the Will of God; for such, sorrow is turned into joy. The Will of God, including and conditioning all God has created, and manipulating all circumstances, is a possible and practicable law of life for man. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 73: 07.08. PRACTICABLE BECAUSE REVEALED ======================================================================== PRACTICABLE BECAUSE REVEALED While the fact that the Will of God includes and conditions all His creation is a most blessed one, yet it is not sufficient to prove its practicability. One person may be deeply interested in the history of another, but this fact is of little practical use to the one in whom this interest is taken, unless it is made known. I may have plans which are the very best possible for my children, but the first conditions of their being carried into effect by these children is that I should make them known to them. In the very nature of the case, the Will of God for ever human life must be the best; and because of His intimate acquaintance with, and interest in, every part of the being He has created, it must be possible to do that Will if it can be known. That this Will may be discovered by every human being is the distinct claim of Christianity. The central verity of Christianity is Christ, and He is the revelation in a Person of God’s Will for man. Moreover, the perpetual method of God with man is that of revealing to him immediately the Divine intention and purpose concerning him. We say, therefore, that the Will of God is practicable because it is revealed. In the life of Jesus there was a perfect unfolding of the thought that was in the heart of God when He said “Let Us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1:26). He was indeed the “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15); “the very image of His substance” (Hebrews 1:3). “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). This is John’s testimony concerning Him. It is a sad commentary upon the blindness of the human heart through sin, that the vast mass of the people who came into contact with Him during the years of His sojourn upon the earth, saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him. Through the process of the centuries, and by the teaching of the Spirit, men are coming to understand the wonderful glory and beauty of His Person and character, and are now recognizing that all perfection of life, individually, socially, religiously, finds in Him its first and chief expression. Individually, He yielded Himself wholly to the claim of God, and then faced life’s duties and responsibilities with a courage and devotion that transmuted the common things of the passing days into service so sacred, that it contributed to the final glories of the ages to come. He toiled upon the earth as a man, interested in the flowers of the field, and the birds of the air, and the children of the street. Gentle and strong, trusted of the weakest, feared of all tyrants, He moved without strife of words, or lifting up the voice in self-advertisement, through the Divinely marked programme of the waiting years, to the cross of ultimate pain, which He made the centre and source of all healing for wounded and broken humanity. He was the supreme illustration of the possibilities of individual life conditioned ever and only in the Will of God. In all social relationships His action was such as to reveal God’s Will in an entirely new light to men, thus revolutionizing human thought and human society. Without staying for a single illustration, let the mind dwell for one moment on His unvarying attitude towards women; and then remember how, since the years of His human life, woman the world over has lived in a new realm, for the day of her final emancipation dawned with His appearing. His obedience to government was exhibited in the paying of taxes, and was startlingly proved by the fact that when they would encompass His Death, His enemies had to fall back upon a religious charge, having no civil one to prefer against Him. His attitude of tenderness towards all sinners incurred the condemnation of the religious enthusiasts of His day, who had so misread the heart of God as to imagine that love was for the good, and nothing but stern anger and vindictiveness for the fallen. Religiously He gave us a radiant revelation of the truth so hard for men to learn, that religion is not an addendum to life, but is life itself. With Him God was first; and there was no second. The critics of the ages may be challenged to discover a single action of His life as chronicled that was not true to the keyword of that life, “I must be about My Father’s business.” In that perfect life God revealed His Will for every human being. It was not the life of an angel visitor. Its glory lay in the fact of its humanness, and that fact brings it within the realm of the possible to every son and daughter of the human race. Not only once in a person has the Will been revealed; it is perpetually and immediately revealed to all such as desire to know it. The work of the Holy Spirit is ever that of indicating to man the intention and purpose of God for him. This may be stated in another way. The Holy Spirit is to “take of the things of Christ and reveal them to men”; and this is infinitely more than explaining the doctrines concerning Him. It is the showing to individual souls of the way, in which, under all the circumstance of life, Christ would think, or act, or speak. Jesus was, and is, the “Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” and thus He is perpetually the revelation of the Divine Will to men. It does not necessarily follow that when the light falls upon the spirit of man he understands the source of the light. The light is the first fact; the understanding of the source follows. The little child may play with the golden sunshine, and yet have no knowledge of the sun. That will come in the process of the years. Let any person, if it be possible, go back in life to that moment when the conscience first detected the difference between right and wrong. That shining of the light of right was the outshining of the glory of Christ’s perfection upon the spirit, and the consequent revelation of the Will of God. All this was not then understood, but enough was understood to make man responsible. If in that moment the right was chosen, Christ was obeyed, and the Will of God was done. If the wrong was chosen, the light was insulted, and the government of God rebelled against. Thus God does reveal His Will to man, and man chooses between obedience and disobedience. The measure and clearness of personal revelation depends upon this act of man. To obedient souls the light becomes perpetually brighter, for he “that doeth the Will shall know of the teaching.” To those who disobey, the light dies away, until they stumble in darkness upon the mountains, and imagine God does not reveal His Will to man; whereas the truth is, that having “loved the darkness rather than the light,” they have become blind. To the soul new-born the will of God is revealed again, not as a perfect and final programme of life, but in a claim demanding immediate obedience, and then by successive revelations concerning the pathway of life. So that a man may say, as he steps out upon his new life, One step I see before me, ’Tis all I need to see. When Saul of Tarsus was apprehended of Jesus Christ, he was not told that he was to become the apostle to the Gentiles, the mightiest missionary of the Cross, the greatest theologian of the Church. Jesus said to him, “Rise, enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.” The next step was marked. Taking this, another was revealed; and so ever on, until at last, saying, “I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith” he passed to the place of perfect light and perfect life. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 74: 07.09. PRACTICABLE BY NEW LIFE ======================================================================== PRACTICABLE BY NEW LIFE In writing to the Philippians, Paul says, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure” (Php 2:13). This statement occurs between two injunctions. The first has reference to personal salvation, and the second declares the duty of man in relation to the world. The first reads, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” ; and the second, “Do all things without murmurings and disputings; that ye may be blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world.” The declaration referred to brings both the positive and relative statements within the realm of practical possibility, “For it is God which worketh in you.” This Divine inworking makes the human outworking easy, and simple, and delightful. For every demand made upon us as Christian men and women, there is sufficient, overwhelming supply in the communication of Divine energy. "God worketh in you." This implies the actual presence of God at the centre of our being. The very simplicity of these words renders them difficult of understanding; for no man understands the complex and marvellous mechanism of his own personality. God worketh in you-not outside, but in-in the place where thought is born, and the throne of the will is set up, and the affections have their seat; in the inward shrine of the being God worketh. Put emphasis now on another word. “God worketh in you.” He is there, not merely holding possession while we work, but also to “Direct, control, suggest each day, All we design, or do, or say; That all our powers, with all their might, In His sole glory may unite.” "God worketh in you." The value of this statement may be learned by inserting another word in place of “in.” “For it is God which worketh for you.” By this alteration the message is robbed of its power in a moment. To work for us, may be to work apart from us, without consultation with us. This is suggestive of duality, which is not always necessarily a harmony. Try another preposition. “It is God which worketh with you.” That would indicate some one by the side of us, willing, when the burden becomes too heavy, to help to bear it; willing when the pathway becomes difficult, to come into consultation. This also is suggestive of dual personality, and perchance conflict. "God which worketh in you" implies perfect union. God in you, creating desire, energizing the will, so that the will becomes, not merely as a poetical sentiment, but as a glorious fact, the Will of God. That is, indeed, the supreme glory of the Christian position-“it is God which worketh,” not “for” merely; not “with” only; but “it is God which worketh in you.” "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do." Two facts are here stated which are yet one, for willing and doing are always united. “To will” that touches the inner life, the springs of action; “to do” that touches the outer life, the streams of action. Think first of the inner, “to will.” This word has within it the thought of active determination of what is to be done. Not determination apart from ourselves, but God in us, taking hold of our wills, creating our desires-sometimes through indirect agencies-giving us desire in a certain direction, affecting and moulding our wills, drawing them into the avenues of true action, by His own indwelling. “It is God which worketh in you to will.” If this be true, then the will, so created, must necessarily result in the harmony of our wills with His own. The work of God does not end here. "It is God which worketh in you to will and to do." As the thought of the inworking God, willing, touches the springs of action, so necessarily the thought of God doing touches the streams of action. “It is God which worketh in you to will and to work.” It might truthfully be translated “to effectually work.” The suggestion is not of the doing that fails, but of the doing that succeeds: not of the effort that tries, but of the effort which triumphs. This union of the purified will, and the energized life, is equal to the accomplishment of the double purpose: “Work out your own salvation,” and “be blameless and harmless . . . in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” The poor, weak, paralysed, sin-smitten soul rises into the dignity of a new life, confronts the future with hope, faces his enemies with defiance, and says: “I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me. I will work out my own salvation: I will live the life which is blameless, harmless, without rebuke, because it is God which worketh in me to will and to do.” What will be the result? “His good pleasure;” that which gives His heart satisfaction. If we shrink from that, we shrink from all the blessedness within the thought. “His good pleasure,” the thing that pleases Him. Go back to the story of creation. When God had made the earth, and put man upon it, “God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good” -God’s good pleasure. God was pleased with His own work; found delight in its perfection. There came a day when God could say this no more-a day when sin had entered. The sigh and sob of humanity began amid the trees of the garden of God, and the great surging sorrow of the race was born amid the hills of perfection. From then onward the heart of God was not at rest until, long, weary, and yet necessary centuries having passed, there came “the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, the quickening Spirit.” If we would know the good pleasure of God, man must be seen in all his perfection. In Christ we have the revelation of perfect manhood. Think of His perfection of tenderness, His beauty of character, of all the great overwhelming strength which centered in His sacred Person. In beholding Him, behold the “good pleasure of God.” “It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” To make us what Jesus was, God works within us; and until that is finally accomplished, the heart of God will never be at rest concerning us: not until that moment dawns, which must come for all who put their trust in Him, when the perfect Son of the living God shall present the many sons whom He brings to glory, in the presence of His glory, without blemish in exceeding joy. That is the intended issue; that is the consummation; that is the crowning and the joy. This view of life contained within vital Christianity is a declaration of our possibilities. We are equal to this, because God is equal to it. We have nothing which we have not received; but we have received something in our creation which makes us equal to that. Before any being can reach the altitude of true success, there must be within that being the possibility of reaching the altitude. We are made in the image of the invisible God, with the stamp of Divine possession upon us. Shall we not swing the heart’s door widely open that He may come in, to work in us “both to will and to work, for His good pleasure”? The Ultimate Realization "Twill all be right At last: When weary night Is past, When light shall dawn And cometh morn Upon that peaceful shore, Where storm and cloud no more Oppress the soul. "Twill all be shown Some day; Each step unknown Of way By which Christ led Where feet oft bled. Where fell the bitter tear. As sorrow’s doubt and fear So oft made sad. “Then shall we see His throne; Then shall we be His own: When endeth night And dawneth light. That day of days so dear May even now be near, We watch and pray. “Dear heart, why sad? Christ comes. Dear heart, be glad; Christ comes. The hour draws nigh Of midnight cry. Then ends our brief life-pain, Then comes eternal gain, Where reigns our King.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 75: 07.10. THE ULTIMATE REALIZATION ======================================================================== THE ULTIMATE REALIZATION So far we have considered the subject of the Word of God within the compass of probationary life. The perfection possible to-day is that of condition which ensures progress; and the possibility of progress ever speaks of something not yet attained. The supreme consciousness of those who to-day are most certainly living within the Will of God is that of incompleteness. All is partial, limited. By comparison with the exceeding worth and beauty of our Lord, we feel that our worship is almost worthless, and we are constantly constrained to say that, Hosannas languish on our tongues, And our devotion dies. And when we have done the fullest day’s work possible to us, having, so far as we know, filled the hours with sacrificial service, we yet have to say, “At best we are unprofitable servants.” When we have walked in the Will as revealed to us for the present moment, we are always conscious that His ultimate Will is so much better than any present realization. This sense of shortcoming is in itself an incentive to diligence. It is because we have “not yet apprehended” . . . that “forgetting the things which are behind,” we “press on toward the goal.” This pushing towards the goal, however, does not mark dissatisfaction with the discipline of the pathway. Abiding in the Will of God, we recognize that all the circumstances of life are necessary for our perfecting, and are overruled by Infinite Love. Stayed upon Jehovah, Hearts are fully blest, Finding as He promised, Perfect peace and rest. The questions yet will arise, What is to be the issue? Whither does the pathway tend? It is with this subject that the present chapter deals, not exhaustively, but by suggestion. Much has been written on the future condition of the saints. Richard Baxter wrote a treatise, in four parts and forty-six chapters, full of thought and beauty; and many others have contributed to the valuable literature. Our thought in this chapter is to be confined to the subject of the doing of the Will of God; and there are four facts recorded in the New Testament which are illuminative of the subject. I. Unclouded Vision. Paul says, “For now we see in a mirror darkly; but then face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12); and John declares, “We shall see Him even as He is” (1 John 3:2). After faith has had its perfect work, it will be swallowed up in sight. to-day we love, not having seen. Conscious of His presence, apprehending in some measure His love and beauty, we walk by faith amid the mists and mysteries, or underneath the blue, which is also the limitation of vision. “Soon the whole, Like a parched scroll, Shall before my amazed sight uproll; And, without a screen, At one burst be seen The Presence wherein I have ever been.” II. Perfect Correspondence. The first result of this, according to John, will be that of perfect correspondence with our Master. “We shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2). In the moment of vision, the word of the Master on the Mount of Beatitudes-whether that word was promise or command, or both-will be fulfilled in our experience; “ye shall be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” All the possibilities of our being will be fulfilled. Everything that was in the thought of God for us, as to capacity, will be realized, and we shall thus be prepared to fulfil the highest functions of our life. As to-day it is true that where there is no vision, the people perish; and the constant cry of the human heart is that of Philip, “Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us”; and the immediate consciousness of the soul that has even the partial vision of God, seeing through a glass darkly, is that of healing; so at last the full and unclouded vision will be final salvation, perfect healing, and absolute satisfaction. Nay, does not the thought of the apostle overtake and run ahead of all these thoughts, glorious as they are. “We shall be like Him.” Nothing can be added to this. It defies analysis. If an uninspired statement, it is the most daring blasphemy of the mind of man. If the word is Spirit-taught, it is the most gracious unveiling of the infinite love of God. Like Him, and therefore fitted for fellowship of thought and action; like Him, and so falling into line with all His mighty movements through the unexplored spaces and the unborn ages. III. Full Knowledge. Paul speaks of another result accruing from unclouded vision. “Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I have been known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). The messages of the Spirit to the Church, delivered through human agents, are all messages which met the need of the writer, and so appeal to thousands of similar temperaments. The Spirit’s declaration of correspondence through John answers the question of spiritual devotion. The Spirit’s message of full knowledge through Paul answers the problem of mental activity. Through all the system of Paul’s writing his mind is discovered active, alert, mighty, pressing on, desiring to know. He thinks of the Spirit as “knowing the deep things of God.” His perpetual prayer for his children in the faith is that they may have full knowledge of God; and here, after describing in language that seems as though it might be a part of the poetry of heaven,the nature and the activity of love, his active mind reasserts itself, and he seems to lift his eyes and gaze away to the land of light, and exult in the consciousness that “Then I shall know even as also I have been known.” Thus we learn that the condition of heaven will be that of perfect light. The problems that vex us to-day; the perpetually recurring mysteries that demand repeated acts of faith-these will all find their answer, not so much in the process of teaching or revealing, but in the vision of the Master Himself. Seeing, we shall know. Seeing face to face, we shall know even as we are known. IV. Unceasing Service. Out of these grows the fourth glorious fact, that of unceasing service. “They serve Him day and night in His temple” (Revelation 7:15). “His servants shall do Him service; and they shall see His face” (Revelation 22:3-4). It is not within the purpose of this volume to discuss the nature of the service. The fact is enough. We shall see Him, and want to serve. We shall be like Him, and be able to serve. We shall know, and be prepared to serve. Inspiration for service in vision; equipment for service in correspondence; preparation for service in knowledge! Thus Himself will be the reason of all the service of the new life, and therefore His Will will be the plane of heaven’s activity. Then we shall be where we would be; Then we shall be what we should be; Things which are not now, nor could be, Then shall be our own. The last words of the fourth book of the Psalms declare the call of God to men, “Let all the people say, Amen; Hallelujah” (Psalms 106:48, R.V., marg.). Let there be acquiescence in the Divine Will, followed by a note of praise. This is the order of faith’s activity-first, Amen; and then in faith, Hallelujah. Praise grows out of obedience and submission; resolute obedience in the power of faith is ever preparing for the song. There is nothing better in this world, no higher experience, than that we should, to every revelation of the Will of God, utter our whole-hearted Amen, and crown it with our joyous Hallelujah. But presently, in the light of the unclouded vision; in the power of a perfect correspondence to the likeness of our Lord; in the light of full knowledge, and in the gladness of unceasing service-we shall reverse the order of these great words. “After these things I heard as it were a great voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Hallelujah. And a second time they say, Hallelujah. . . . And the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God that sitteth on the throne, saying, Amen; Hallelujah . . . And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah” (Revelation 14:1-6). Here first the song, and then the submission, and yet again the song. It is that vision of the perfect consummation that inspires the song. At last all opposing forces are overcome, and the kingdom of the heavens is realized through all the vast realms over which it is God’s right to reign. At last the prayer taught by Christ is answered, the Name is hallowed, the kingdom come, the Will is done, and the unending Hallelujah follows the unlimited Amen. Then begins the absolutely perfect service of which all the imperfect service of these probationary days is the hardly articulate prophecy. Then life moves unchecked, unhindered, toward highest forms of expression and most glorious inter-relation, because it is absolutely homed in the Will of God. Bear me on Thy rapid wing, Everlasting Spirit! Where bright choirs of angels sing, And Thy saints inherit; Waiting round the Eternal throne, joys immortal are their own: This the cry of every one- ‘Glory to the Incarnate Sonl’ Four and twenty elders rise From their princely station, Shout His glorious victories- Sing His great salvation, Cast their crowns before the throne, Cry, in reverential tone, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy One, Glory be to God alone!’ Hark! the thrilling symphonies Seem within to seize us; Add we to their holy lays- Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! Sweetest note in angels’ song, Sweetest sound on mortal tongue, Sweetest anthem ever known, Jesus, Jesus reigns alone. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 76: 07.11. EPILOGUE ======================================================================== EPILOGUE All life’s urgency is concentrated on the present moment. to-day is all that we possess. Yesterday has passed from us. To-morrow is not ours. God’s time for His people is indicated by the two words “now” and “to-day.” Our study, therefore, of the subject of the Will of God is of practical and immediate importance in its bearing on the interests of the present. If we remember “all the way which the Lord our God hath led us,” it is only in order that, taking warning from our failures, and deriving encouragement from the unfailing faithfulness of God, we may “forget the things that are behind” in our devotion to present duty. If we contemplate the coming glory, it is only that its light may be a source of inspiration to us as we “run with patience the race that is set before us.” The Will of God is the supreme subject in every life. The Old and New Testaments alike testify to its importance. Within that Will man finds perfection, pleasure, permanence. It is practicable because of its nature, its revelation, and the fact of its being accompanied with the gift of life, which makes it possible to obey. It is glorious, indeed, for heaven itself lies within the compass of its thought. There remains one subject of immediate practical moment. How may we know the Will of God for to-day, in all the details of the hours as they come and go; and how may we discover it in any crises that may arise? Two preliminary conditions must be fulfilled, those, namely, of desire and devotion. The desire must amount to readiness to obey. The devotion must be of that practical nature that seeks to know and at all cost follows to do. These conditions being fulfilled, light may be expected in three ways: From the Word of God. From the immediate illumination of the indwelling Spirit. From the combination of circumstances. Let us examine these separately, and then in their inter-relation. I. The Three Indications. (1) The Word of God. For the most part, the Bible does not lay down rules of human conduct; it enunciates principles. There are exceptions to be found, arising out of some local circumstances that demanded clear and explicit statement of duty. But as the Bible is a Book for all time and habits and manners change, the framing of rules, which must necessarily change with change of local conditions, would have defeated the high end in view. The enunciation of principles, on the other hand, which never change with changing circumstances, calls forth on the part of man, in every successive generation, his reasoning and reflective powers, and answers the purpose of righteousness. In coming to the Word of God, therefore, for understanding of the Will of God, we are not to search for texts to defend private judgments. Nor are we, on the other hand, to play tricks with the Bible, in order to discover accidental messages to help us in forming judgments. We are regularly, and devotionally, and intelligently, to study, in order that we may discover the revelation of principles. Where this is done as a habit of the life, the mind will act under the power of these principles, and the conclusions arrived at will be in harmony with the intention of God. (2) The Illumination of the Spirit. The doctrine of the inner light is not sufficiently taught. To the individual believer, who is, by the very fact of relationship to Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, there is granted the direct impression of the Spirit of God on the spirit of man, imparting the knowledge of His Will in matters of the smallest and greatest importance. This has to be sought and waited for. It is at this point that it may be well for the seeker to take counsel with some fellow-Christian, who in prayer and conversation may be enabled to thrown light upon the problem. It should, however, be remembered that others can only give testimony as to their view of the problem suggested. Such testimony is of great value. It cannot, however, be final, and should only be given as contributing thought, which may aid in solution. No Spirit-taught man or woman will pretend to be able to decide for a second person. Each must at last, having received help, it may be, from conference with other Christians, pass into some place of utter loneliness, where only the voice of the Spirit is heard. To such waiting, a clear and definite answer must come. (3) The Combination of Circumstances. In the fact of the Divine government, this may be spoken of as the opening and shutting of doors. There is no room for doubt that God does, in infinite wisdom and power, manipulate the facts and details of all human lives, in such a way as to make “all things work together for good to them that love God.” The open door does not necessarily mean the easy pathway. This is a common mistake. One has often heard persons say the way is made plain, and by “plain” they mean easy. And vet, those who know most of the immediate government of God, will confess that the most plain pathway has often been the most difficult. The open door is an opportunity created, which is in harmony with the principles of the Divine government as declared in Scripture, and the desire for which has been created in that fellowship with God into which no other interest has been allowed to enter. This is a most solemn consideration, and needs the severest caution. There is no realm of human life into which the enemy more successfully passes, and in which he works more destruction, than that of motive. Desires based upon motives other than the highest will often discover open doors which are quite other than those which God would open. II. The Threefold Indication. The value of the three indications dealt with, lies in the fact that not in any one of them is to be discovered the warrant for action, but in their combination. (1) With regard to the Word of God, many principles of action therein recognized are not meant for all men at all times. There must also be the inner light and the open door. (2) With regard to the leading of the Spirit, it cannot be too constantly reaffirmed that such leading is never contradictory to the truth of Scripture. There is so much idle talk to-day about the leading of the Lord, that at this point one would desire to speak most strongly and solemnly. Some awful instances of gross immorality have resulted from people following what they imagined to be the guidance of the Holy Spirit, even though the action was in direct disobedience to the most emphatic statements and requirements of the law of God. This is blasphemy of the worst kind. Whenever, therefore, it is supposed that the Spirit is leading, it is of the gravest importance that such leading should be tested by the principles of the Word. And again, the Spirit never leads without opening the doors sooner or later. There may have been the waiting of long discipline-and abiding in the Will of God means rejoicing in all such discipline-and patient waiting for His opening of the door, even when the light is clearly shining as to the Spirit’s ultimate intention. (3) The open door that necessitates departure from Scriptural teaching is the work of the devil; and no matter how remarkable the success that appears to follow efforts ostensibly made in the interests of the kingdom of God, if the base of operation is not loyalty to the revealed Will of God in Holy Scripture, the fabric erected is but “hay, wood, stubble,” to be destroyed in the cleansing fire at last. And yet again, the open door, in harmony with the principles of Scripture, is not to be entered, save as a personal call is heard, and one is able to say, I do this because I have the witness of God’s Spirit with my spirit that He so wills it. Thus to summarize. We have ever the threefold test, which is invaluable as to everyday details, and in the crises of life; the truth of God, contained in the Word of God; the purpose of God indicated by the Spirit of God; the govemment of God exhibited in the opening of doors by God. One perpetual condition remains, that of obedience. This word, it will be seen, is not here lightly used. It presupposes a desire to know and to do, expressing itself in devotion to seek and to obey. Such obedience will ever be based on the perfect confidence of the spirit of man in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit. Where this confidence exists, the obedience will be unquestioning, immediate, complete. The tendency of the age is to softness. Some may read this final message, and turning from it say, This is not easy. Easy! When did Christ suggest ease to men in the method of their own making? Did He not solemnly warn those who would follow Him to count the cost, and indicate that the pathway of His footprints necessitated the denial of self and the taking of the Cross? If the perfection of character, and pleasure of life, and permanence of being for which we profess to be desirous, are ever to be realized, it will be by strenuous action; time, thought, energy, are all, necessary. Let the end be as the beginning. There is but one thing that matters. It is that God’s Will should be done. To that end let every one cast sloth away, and, “girding up the loins of the mind, be sober and set the hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The ultimate issue will be perfect compensation for all the toil of the pathway that leads thereto. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 77: 08.0.0. LIFE PROBLEMS ======================================================================== Life Problems by G. Campbell Morgan ======================================================================== CHAPTER 78: 08.0.1. CONTENTS ======================================================================== Contents Self Environment Heredity Spiritual Antagonism Influence Destiny ======================================================================== CHAPTER 79: 08.01. SELF ======================================================================== 1. Self “When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained: What is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that Thou visitest him?” —Psalms 8:3-4 In Psalms 8:4 the writer enunciates the first great problem of every human life, and it is a problem which encompasses all others. The old philosophers and teachers summed up their philosophy and teaching in that one phrase, “Man, know thyself.” And if man can but know himself, there will be no problem that he has not solved. When man truly knows himself, and has unravelled the mysteries of his own existence, and fathomed all the deeps of his own being, then, surely, he will also have discovered God, the Creator and Sustainer. By that knowledge of himself, he will have learned also the problem of his brother-man, and so have entered into the realization of the great brotherhood of humanity. By that knowledge of himself, and of the possibilities of his nature, he will have come to understand that strange, almost meaningless expression, so often upon our lips, and so little understood, “Eternity.” When man knows himself, then he will have discovered also the secrets of nature, and will be at home amid all their varied and varying avenues. Tennyson sang truly— Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the cranny; Hold you here in my hand, Little flower, root and all— And if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is.” And therefore it is that I repeat: The first problem that faces the thinking mind is the problem of Self. Who am I? What am I? Whence came I? Whither go I? What mean these strange conflicting elements within my nature? How is it that one day I love, and within an hour I hate? What is the meaning of all these strange contradictory experiences as I take my way through life? Our present consideration is confined within very narrow limits. We shall endeavor to answer the psalmist’s question, “What is man?” in the light of the New Testament revelation. “What is man?”—not, What is man, blighted, dwarfed, broken, sin-stained, as we know him? That will be a subject for future consideration; but what is man in himself—what is the Divine ideal? When, far away in the past, God said, in that Eternal Counsel of His own being, “Let us make man,” what had He in His thought and on His heart? “What is man?” In order that we may understand the problem as it presents itself today, it is absolutely necessary that we get further back in the question, and ask the original intention and meaning of the creation of man. I cannot understand fallen man, sinful and heartbroken, save as I have the vision of man unfallen, without sin, whole in heart and affection toward God. “What is man?” For the sake of the youngest reader, let me take the simplest illustration. Were I a stranger to this land, and were I suddenly brought here from some of the dark places of the earth, did I know nothing of civilization, naught of all the progress of this rapidly fading century, and were I placed first of all in connection with our great railway system on some point where an hour before there had been a fearful wreck, would it be fair to say to me as I gazed upon the wreck of the locomotive and train scattered in confusion, “That is a train”? Every child will see how absurd it would be. That is the wreckage, the result of the accident, and it is the very splendor of the construction that has made that wreckage so profound and appalling. If I want to know what a train is, I must find out before the accident. “What is man?” It is not fair to point to man as you see him to-day, with the blemish and blight of sin upon him; with the dimness of sin in his eye, and the weariness of sin in his physical frame; with his mental vigor enfeebled, and spiritual power benumbed. “What is man?” That is the question; and in order to answer it, I must get behind the present condition of affairs, and come to understand what man is in himself, so far as the thought and intention of God are concerned. We shall therefore, in the first place, consider the problem as stated; and secondly, we shall direct our attention to a close inspection of that problem; and thirdly and lastly, we shall endeavor to apply that problem to personal consciousness. I First of all, will you notice the psalmist’s statement of the problem, because it is full of interest. He approaches his question from certain points of observation, and it is only as we understand these points that we shall gather the full force and meaning of his question. You notice what his first observation is. “When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou has ordained: What is man?” The second observation, “Thou art mindful of man, Thou visitest him.” “What is man?” Take these two points of vision for a moment and look at them closely. “When I consider Thy heavens”—and I suppose the psalmist had a right to say that. I suppose he had considered God’s heavens. I do not deem that very many of us would have any right to make use of those words as our own. There may be here one, and there another, who have considered the heavens. We have all, in some of those old moments of simplicity—childhood’s moments—gone outside the door and gazed some night at the star-bespangled heavens. And we have in those days—some of you have almost forgotten them—felt the thrill, the awe, and the impressiveness of the silent eloquence of the night. “When I consider Thy heavens” in their countless numbers, in their perfect order, in their absolute freedom—so far as man has ever been able to detect—from conflicting interests, in the infinite music of the spheres that stretch beyond my ken; “When I consider Thy heavens,” not only in their essential wonder, but “When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained: what is man?” And the answer comes clearly to every heart as the question is proposed. Man is small, frail, vanishing; and we answer the psalmist’s question in his own language, from another of his psalms, “Surely man at his best estate is altogether vanity.” Man comes and goes, a bubble on the stream, on which for a few passing moments the lights and shadows play; and then he is “forgotten, as a dream dies at the opening day.” The stars upon which we look to-day are the self-same orbs of light upon which our savage forefathers gazed. But men have come and gone in quick succession, until it seems as if the cold stars upon the plain of heaven have laughed at man in his going and coming. I stand at the foot of the mountain which lifts its head beyond the cloud, and catches on its summit the first gleam of the king of day in his rising, and I say, “What am I?” That mountain has been there through the passing of the ages, and I am here and shall be gone before the sun melts the snow upon its summit. “What is man?” But the psalmist has another point of observation. “Thou art mindful of him; Thou visitest him.” If the heavens are wonderful, they are the “work of Thy fingers.” The extremities of Divine power have done these things, but Thou Thyself art mindful of man. Thou hast manipulated the orbs of night, and the procession of the centuries without effort, without weariness, without journeying; but Thou visitest him. “What is man?” Frail, insignificant, vanishing, laughed at by material grandeur, and yet, attracting God, so that the Eternal is “mindful of him and visits him.” Thus the problem is stated; and I want you to see very clearly how close is the connection between these two points of observation, and how, moreover, had there not been two points of observation, the wonder never would have been. If man were obviously greater than the universe, surely, then, he is equal with God; and I am not surprised God is “mindful of him and visits him.” On the other hand, if God does not visit this man, then I ask no question about him. He is part of the perishing around me. He lives his little life, and has his day, and is lost, so far as identity and personality are concerned. He returns to Mother Earth, and mixes again with the first elements that have composed him for a few passing years, and we shall never know him again. If that be so I ask no question. He is the fairest flower that has blossomed on the earth; the most blessed form of materialism that any have ever seen, and that is all: but when I see him frailer than matter, weaker than the mountains, smaller than the stars, vanishing in the presence of the fastnesses of nature, and yet God visits him, and is mindful of him (and to mingle the sweet music of the Old and New Testaments, God puts his tears into His bottle, numbers the hairs of his head, directs his steps), then have I to wonder, and am constrained to ask with the psalmist of old, “What is man?” This statement of the problem is necessary in order to arrest the careless and indifferent who are taking their own life and being for granted, as something purely accidental. Let us face this twofold vision and its problem—less than stars and systems, and suns, and order, and yet such that attracts God, so that He is mindful of and visits him. “What is man?” II Now I propose finding my definition in the New Testament, and I shall only trouble you to look at it in order to remember the phrase. In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, he makes use of a phrase of infinite meaning, as I believe, giving us in his own clear, lucid way a definition which answers the question propounded in this psalm of olden times—“The God of peace sanctify you wholly”; and then he proceeds to give us an exposition of his own phrase “wholly.” What does he mean when he says that sanctification has to be wholly complete? “May your spirit, soul, and body be preserved entire, without blame, unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I am not discussing this text; I am simply lifting out of it—in order that we may study the problem that faces us—that one phrase, “your spirit, soul, and body.” And upon this occasion the original words are used most carefully; and that is why I take this phrase and ask you to look at it for a moment or two. Spirit, soul, and body. That is man. Shall we take each of these and consider them briefly, only for the purpose of our argument; and that we may follow the line of thought we shall not take them in the apostle’s order, but we shall, reversing the order, take first body, then soul, and then spirit. Body. “What is man?” We have too long answered the question carelessly, and have said body and soul, and too long been misusing a word by talking about saving the soul. Now what a man needs to have saved in that evangelical sense of the word, is not the soul, but the spirit. Let the spirit be regenerated, and then soul and body alike are saved; but it is important that we should look at this vision and consider these words—body, soul, and spirit. The body is of the earth, and therefore earthy, and yet it is the highest form of earth-life. Let us be very simple and childlike as we think about that lowest form of human personality—physical power. It was the psalmist who said we are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” and yet how few of us realize that that is true; how few have set themselves, quietly and thoughtfully, to think of the marvellous and matchless mechanism of their own frames! This is the day of invention and of progress, when man is engaged in a continuous whirl of discovery; and according to the very latest book by Mr. Bellamy, “Equality,” the time is coming when we shall not work, but press a button and everything will be done for us. May I be dead before the day comes! That is all I wish. But we are discovering everywhere, and men are perpetually inventing new forms of machinery. But the mechanism of my hand has never been equalized in the dream of any inventor; and what is true of me is true of every one. Take the hand, and you will find that the thumb faces every finger so that I can pick from the ground the smallest thing that my hand can lift, and also grasp the lever that moves great masses of matter. You remember when you had those first visions of physiology that so entranced some of you that you never left the study, and finally mastered it, and entered upon a profession that has served humanity and is always an adornment. Some saw the vision and were afraid, and drew back. Think of it for a moment, the body of man, and remember there is no flower that blossoms upon the sod so fair; no tree that grows in the wood so wondrous in its powers of endurance. “Oh,” but you say, “there are trees growing to-day that were old when we began to be”; but they have never faced such storms as you have. All the wind that blows, the rain that splashes, and the changes of atmosphere that tell upon the oak, are child’s play compared to the mental anguish and heart-break that have swept across your life; and yet you have endured. With God a thousand years are as a day; and with man, as compared to the oak, a thousand years are as a day. One day has in it of force and meaning more than all the life the plant or the tree lives in its long succession of the seasons. So if you think of the material side of man’s existence, he is more wonderful in his strength, as in his beauty, than anything else God has made. And yet what is this frame of mine? It is the carbon upon which the light of God is to play and have its work. As is the carbon to the electric light, so is the body of man to the spirit of man. Only that, nothing more! It is the basis of life, that upon which the rest manifests itself for the time being, and only for the time being. This body of mine, surpassing in its wonder all human understanding, is for to-day, not to-morrow. In God’s great to-morrow, I must have a body of another form—no longer the earthly and material, but the heavenly and the spiritual. This is the tabernacle for the spirit in the day of its probation. More marvellous in its mechanism, as we have said, than sun, stars, tree, or plant, or any other form of matter; and yet being but the lowest stratum in the complex life of man. Soul.—This word “soul”—the Greek word—is a word that always refers to the animal life of man, the conscious force, that within which feels pain or joy. You will agree that the animal life in man far exceeds, in every way, all other forms of animal life. Remember that man, as an animal, without any reference to the great crowning glory, is capable of art, and music, and literature, and imagination. All these things may flourish even though a man be spiritually dead. I want to save that phrase now, because it is on your mind. I may forget to correct it. Some one says, “Do you mean to say that these may all find full play in an unspiritual man? “By no means. I say the best art the world has ever known has been inspired, and under the dominion of spirit. The finest poetry that men have ever penned has been written when the life was under the dominion of the highest form of its complex nature—spirit. But this I do say, within the mental range of the soul life there may be art, music, literature, and imagination, all the while the spirit of man is dead in trespasses and sins. This is no new story or theory. If you trace your way back to Genesis you will find how Enoch was the seventh from Adam through Seth; and of Enoch it was said, “he walked with God.” Lamech lived about the same time, he being the seventh from Adam through Cain; and you study his times and find how there was industry, and art, and the enfranchisement of woman—all without God. And that old story has been repeated ever since. A man can be an artist, a poet, a literary genius, a messenger to his fellow-men on high moral lines, even though the spirit is dead. But, so far, we have only touched upon the body and soul. What next? Spirit.—That which is divine; the free breath of God. Divine in its possibilities and powers, the supreme glory of every human life, unheard of by any form of lower life than man—the spirit. If I meet a man in the road, I meet first of all his bodily presence. That appeals to me through the avenue of my sight. But when presently we pause and hold converse, I reach his soul—the mental side of the man—through the avenue of his speech; but when I have lived with him and tabernacled with him, I shall reach, if it be alive and prospering there, his spirit, not through the avenue of sight or speech, but through the avenue of the influence he will exert upon me. Thus the easiest thing which I can come in contact with is his body, the physical side of his nature, fearful, wonderful, majestic. More difficult to realize is brotherhood in the region of the mind; but most subtle and hard to reach is the kindred touch of spirit that is the crowning glory of every human being. What is man? Less than the heavens, and yet so wondrous in himself that God is mindful of him and visits him. Man is body—of the earth; he is soul—the highest form of animal life; he is spirit—offspring of God, created not only by Him, but in His image. “What is man?” He is the union of the spiritual and the material. He is the crown of all nature, and in man nature blossoms into God. You may have your evolutionary theory at this point, if you like; you may take your lowest form of life back to what scientists speak of as protoplasm. Ruskin said it would spoil a good deal of the scientific aspect of things if the words of the teachers were explained. Protoplasm means, “first stuck together.” It may be well to remember that. Go back to them, because I should like to know what was stuck together, and who stuck them. But get back to your “first stuck together,” and watch it upward, if you like. I am not going to quarrel with it. I don‘t know enough to say whether it is true; but whether it is true or not, one thing is certain, that behind all is God. Let me travel up through every point of beauty, growing grander and grander until it is lost in man, and in man all nature touches God. For in man there is the Divine spark, the Divine nature; and every man, woman, and child is a part of God, created in His image, and touched with His life and spirit. Nature touches God nowhere but in man, in that sense there is nothing of the Divine on the earth save man; and in the heaven that lies above us and the light that is beyond the shadow, there is nothing, so far as we know, of earth but man. So man becomes the strangest and grandest of the works of God, in his own being marrying earth and heaven, linking matter to spirit, and being in himself at once of the earth and of the heavens—the strangest and most marvellous combination of the skill and work of the Divine. If man sin, then all nature will go down with him, trees, and flowers—on all will be the chill of man’s sin. Well does the writer of the New Testament say that “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now.” Then, when spirit is dominant in man, he is at his best. Spirit is supreme; and soul and body are subservient to spirit. And when spirit is supreme, man has dominion, as the psalmist says, and the writer of the Hebrews repeats “over all things.” Then if man be spirit in his complex and essential being, he is immortal, and there is no death. “Oh,” you say, “but there is death. Men have died through all the ages.” My friends, that is not a part of our study. “What is man?” I do not ask what he is in his fall. Remember, “the wages of sin is death.” Death came in because of sin in man himself; in the essential glory of the Divine creation there is no death, transition rather. This life is a probation, a time of testing and trial, in which all the magnificence of his own being comes before his own vision. Then, when the testing time is over, and the work is done, comes the change—the transition, that leaves behind the process of probation, and takes up new work in the Kingdom of the Eternal, fulfilling the purpose of God, and stepping out to unknown regions of which man in all his dreams can say nothing, for God has hidden these things. “What is man?” Body, soul, and spirit. III What is my personal consciousness, in view of such a study? I am not what I have described. That is not the story of my life. Well, that is precisely what the writer of the letter to the Hebrews teaches. He quotes the psalm from which our text is taken. “What is man that Thou art mindful of him, and visitest him?” and then he declares, “We see not yet all things put under his feet.” I pray you notice that it does not in the first place mean the feet of Jesus; the writer is speaking of man—“Now we see not all things subjected to him”—all things are not yet subjected to man—“but we see Jesus, Who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned.” Oh, if I could put into that all the music it contains! We have looked at the vision, and we are not that which has been described. But we see “Jesus, Who has been made a little lower than the angels,” come to our level—and how do we see Him? Crowned. Then there is one Man to whom all things have been put in subjection; one Man Who has fulfilled His Divine ideal; one Man in the presence of the Eternal God Who is there, not by the right of pardon purchased for Him, but by the right of His own strong, pure life. We do not see all things put in subjection to man; but we see Jesus crowned. And why is He crowned? Will you hear those closing words of that same most wonderful chapter, 8th verse, “Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet;” and then on to the 18th verse, “For in that He Himself hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.” He is crowned. And because He is crowned He is able to bring the power of His own resurrection life into my life. He is able to take me, wreck as I am, ruined as I am, failure as I am, and by discipline remould and remake me out of the wreckage of my sin. “He is able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him.” My possibility: Man—body, soul, and spirit. My failure: I have sinned. My possession in Christ: He is able to succor. Now I would like to say solemnly, in conclusion, and leave the question in all its simplicity—On which plane of life are you living—body, soul, or spirit? The great crowd of men to-day are living on the lowest; but a large number are living on the second—soul, mental culture—and thank God, there are those who are living on the third—spirit. That is the supreme thing. Where dost thou live, my brother? For bodily satisfaction, or mental culture, or spiritual growth? For only as thou livest on the third and greatest, can the others be all that they may be, and all that is God’s will that they should be. If hitherto thou hast lived in the realm of the physical, the fleshly, the carnal, the material, I call you in the name of the “crowned Man” Who is able to “succor you who are tempted” to His Cross, and to His side, and to His Kingdom. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 80: 08.02. ENVIROMENT ======================================================================== 2. Environment “For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.” —Acts 17:28. We have considered the problem of Self. We now turn to the consideration of the forces which affect a man from without—his environment. We shall deal with Environment, firstly, as a popular conception; secondly, as a Divine revelation; and then we shall discuss the relation of these two views. I Primarily, let us take the popular idea—an idea based upon facts which are patent to all observers, and evident to every one of us, not merely from our observation of the lives of others, but from our own experience. Man is acted upon and changed by the everyday surroundings of his life. This is seen in a striking way in the effect produced upon a man by the company with which he associates. If that company is refined and cultured, he will, almost in spite of himself, become in some measure refined. If, on the other hand, a man, born in refined life, choose to make companions of the debased, sordid, and brutal, he will undoubtedly weave into his own character those elements of baseness, sordidness, and brutality. Every man is made, in some measure, by the company he keeps. Again, a man’s character is moulded, imperceptibly to himself it may be, but most surely, by his daily occupation. There are some people more clever than others, who profess to be able to tell you to what profession a man belongs as they look at him in the street. There certainly are men who carry the profession they follow stamped on their face and marked in their bearing. I am not, however, speaking so much of what can be seen on the surface, as of the deep inner reality of the case; and I say that a man is very largely moulded in character by his occupation. Is was my lot, some years ago, to conduct a Mission at Crewe, where those magnificent locomotives of the North-Western Railway Company are built; and there for fourteen days I came into contact, for the most part, with men who worked in those shops. It was a remarkable fact that these men were not prepared to take for granted any single thing I said. Neither were they prepared to accept an ideal of life simply because it was the ideal of another man. With hard-headed shrewdness they followed me as I dealt with them; and not until they were clearly convinced of the reasonableness of the plan of salvation, and of its actual suitability to their known needs, were they prepared to make any confession of faith. These men spent six days of the week in doing work that could not be loosely performed. Every small piece of the machinery of those majestic engines had perfectly to complement and fit its neighbor. There was exactitude in these men’s lives for six days, and when they began to touch spiritual verities they brought to their study the same precision of observation that they applied to the work that their hands undertook. They were moulded mentally by their occupation. In 1896 I stood in one of the great slaughter-yards of Chicago; and as I looked at things which I do not propose to describe to you, I felt that no man could work perpetually in this atmosphere without being brutalized; and I was told afterward that there were justices in that neighborhood who had declined to take the evidence of some of these men when they knew their employment. A man is moulded and made by his occupation. You will agree with me that a man’s character is moulded and fashioned by his reading. Men and women make or mar their lives by the books they read in their spare time. Literature that is frothy, sensational, light, will create character that is frothy, sensational, light. On the other hand, a book of solid thought and set purpose—a book that cannot be taken up flippantly for five minutes now and then, but arrests the kingly quality of mental power, and demands undivided attention—will produce character that is strong, true, and abiding. It is indisputable also that a man is made or marred by the place of his abode. The man who lives in the tenement-house or the slum is of necessity a widely different character from the man who is born in the cottage on the hillside, amid the clustering roses and trailing honeysuckle, and the sweetness of the garden with all fragrant herbs. Thus all through life man is being influenced by his surroundings. Out of these facts certain teachers have been deducing a philosophy of life which, at the first blush, seems to be plausible, possible, and even probable. That philosophy may thus be stated:—If a man is influenced by his surroundings, all you have to do to effect the transformation of the man is to re-make them. Remove the man out of a slum to a model dwelling in the country or the suburbs; take him out of his workshop—which is a veritable death-trap on account of its unhealthy conditions—and put him into one that is well ventilated with all modern appliances, and the atmosphere of which is pure and sweet; take him away from the neighborhood where crime is rampant, and plant him among the green fields; hang a few pictures on the walls of his house; supply him with a bath; and you will re-make the man. That is the popular doctrine of environment. It has been said that the doctrine of environment was smashed to pieces in the Garden of Eden; and it is perfectly true. God did not start man in a factory, or a tenement-house, or a slum; He started him in a garden where there was the most perfect environment for all his complex nature; for physical life is ever at its best in the country, though we say it who live amid the grime and toil of the city. Surely mental vigor has ever been most perfectly developed when it has escaped from the restless crowd to the loneliness of mountains and forests, and has dwelt “near to Nature’s heart.” I think it is much easier to pray under the blue, and the trees on the greensward, than where the houses congregate so thickly that your vision of Nature is limited; and you forget the blue, and the tree, and the green. In this perfect environment of the garden God put man, without hereditary taint; and yet he failed. We need not go so far back as the Garden of Eden, but come to later times; and, out of Bible history, take one man who started his life with environment more complete than that of any other man; who had his kingdom prepared for him by the heroic warrior-spirit of his father, and who entered, not only upon the kingdom so prepared, but upon the heritage of his father’s penitence and tears; a man who came to the building of the House of God, prompted by High Heaven, and took up a work which his father had not been allowed to touch on account of the failure in his life. What splendid opportunities for the development of an unique personality; and yet I have no hesitation in asserting that of all the miserable failures recorded in the Book of Truth, no failure was ever more miserable or complete than that of Solomon. Perfect environment was not sufficient. When, in this country, our politicians and thinkers were facing the great problems of educating the people, it was the Iron Duke, a man of stern will, the hero of many a hard-fought battle, and yet a man of keen perception, who said, “Gentlemen, if you are only going to educate the children, you are only going to make them clever devils.” And what he said was true. The whole history of man proves that environment is not sufficient. If you take a man from the slum and put him in the suburb, he will, unless you touch him in the very centre of his being with some marvellous regenerative force, by his very presence in the suburb degrade it to the level of the slum. So that the popular doctrine of environment is one which experience has proved to be futile. II We turn to our second consideration, that of Environment as a Divine revelation. We have it in our text, “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” If that teach us anything, it teaches us that every human being has the living God as true environment. Now we are face to face with something that is so familiar, that it has lost its power to touch and move our hearts. No one will quarrel with that statement; and, believe me, the most difficult task is to get people to believe the things they think they do believe. If you make an announcement that will challenge men’s credulity, they are aroused to attention; but if you tell them the things in which they believe, they go away unbelieving, simply because of their familiarity. “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” Then our first environment is God. “In Him we live.” What is life? None can tell. Life is a perpetual mystery that baffles the thinkers and scientists of every age. Whether you take the life of plant, or animal, or the higher life of man, you are still in the presence of mystery. No man has ever seen life, or been able to analyze it. A scientific observer sat for long and weary years in his laboratory in Germany, taking the component parts of man’s material nature and endeavoring to combine these parts so as to produce life; but he failed. You stand by the bedside of a dying man. He is alive: he is dead. What has happened? None can solve the riddle. No one saw pass away from him the principle that made the difference between clay and humanity. While our text does not give us final and detailed explanation of this problem of life, it declares a great principle concerning it. “In Him we live”—that which is life, that which differentiates between us who live, and the dead bodies that wait for burial in our city, is that which is in God. It is “in Him we live.” Then, to bring that great essential truth more closely to our notice, the apostles write, “In Him we live, and move.” No hand is uplifted save under Divine energy; no step is taken except in the power of God. We have found our way from various homes and various circumstances into this House of Prayer, and the energy that has brought us here—very little as it seemed in its distribution among the units, but enormous in its mass—was the energy of God. And then again, repeating the whole fact, he adds, “and have our being.” Then the first environment, the nearest fact, the supreme truth in every life is “GOD.” All other environment is false and partial, and therefore does not touch the man himself. Falling back for a moment upon our first study in this series, think of man at his best, with the body kept under in its proper place; that is to say, physical and mental life-power subservient to the spirit. When spirit dominates, what then? Then God is conscious environment, and everything else in man answers that first influence. It is in God that man lives, and moves, and has his being; and so, nearer to him than the book he reads, than the house in which he dwells, than the occupation of all the days, than the companions of his life—nearer than all is God. It is in “Him man lives, and moves, and has his being.” As we have combatted the false deduction that is made from the ordinary statement of environment, we now proceed to make a true deduction from this Divine relation. The man who consciously abides in God is superior to every other environment, master of every other force that comes against his life. The man in the slum, what shall we do with him? Take him out of it? No; we will lead him by the way of the Cross into living communion with God. He will re-make the man, and within a very few days or weeks he will change his own environment by moving from the slum somewhere else. The man whose work and reading and all his nature is tending to degrade and debase him—what shall we do with him? Begin with the environment? No; begin with the man. Restore him to right relationship with the Omnipotent, the Omnipresent, and the Omniscient. Let him, not merely as a dead theory, but as a living fact, “live, and move, and have his being in God,” and with all-conquering might he will put the foot of his manhood upon the neck of every adversary from without, and will re-make all his environment in that Divine strength. The law of environment still holds, but there is a higher law of environment; and when man obeys the higher law, all the lower laws become subservient, and contribute, not to his disaster and defeat, but to his making. May we reverently take as our supreme example of that fact the one perfect Man, our adorable Redeemer, and compare Him with the man of Old Testament history whom we have mentioned. One would hardly care to compare Jesus with Solomon, were it not that Jesus did so Himself. “A greater than Solomon is here.” Now mark the difference in this particular consideration. Solomon started, as we have said, in perfect environment, and he failed. Think, if you will, of the environment of the life of Jesus Christ from the standpoint of His peculiar mission to the world, and you will see that from first to last everything, humanly speaking, was against Him. A man of the people, born a peasant, and all through life suffering poverty—and poverty then, as now, was a crime in the eye of the crowd. When He gathered His own disciples round Him they never understood Him; and in the critical, tragical moment of His life, they all forsook Him and fled. Solomon, through perfect environment, comes to the days of shadow; and listen, he gives you the story of his failure: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, saith the preacher.” Jesus comes to the close of His sojourn on the earth, and what does He say? “All authority is given unto Me, in heaven and in earth.” Contrast the two statements: “Vanity of vanities.” “All authority given to Him.” The former is the language of a man who through his own sin lost the sense of his true environment, and so became the slave of all the varied surroundings of his position. The latter is the experience of the perfect, victorious Man who lived in the true environment. He consciously lived, and moved, and had His being in God, so that He could say, “I am alone, yet not alone, for My Father is with Me”; and in that environment He was Master of every other—He put His hand upon every opposing force, and transmuted it by the power and magnificence of His pure manhood into an occasion of victory, into a stepping-stone to the very throne of the universe. We may go from that one notable illustration to others from every age of the Christian Church. Every true Christian is an illustration of this same great fact of men and women moving out of the realm of the false into the true, and becoming victors over the very forces that hitherto had damaged and debased them. Out of circumstances that thwarted and hindered, God has made His fairest saints. III Now, thirdly and lastly, let us look at the inter-relation of these questions. Environment must have a basis on which to work. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that there is in front of us a garden, well watered, carefully tilled, properly tended. The soil is rich and fertile. I am going to bring into that garden something that I may plant there; and I hold in my hands two things: a pebble that I have picked from the seashore—smooth and beautiful in form—and an acorn that has just been shaken from the oak by autumn’s blast. I suppose for the moment that I do not know the nature of these two things. They are about the same size; they are not unlike in appearance; there may be a difference in their weight, but in most respects they appear to the casual observer to be very much alike. I put the pebble in the garden; I put the acorn in the garden. The environment is the same in both cases, the soil is the same, and the same sun with shafts of light will penetrate the soil, and the same soft showers will reach the pebble and the acorn. But you have already solved my riddle, and this is no problem to you. The acorn will burst its shell in spring; and we pass rapidly over the intervening centuries, and there it stands, a proud oak battling against the blasts of winter, and in its turn shedding acorns on the ground. Where is the pebble? No one has disturbed its resting-place. It is there still, a lonely pebble. The environment is the same—what, then, is the difference? Environment must have a basis. In the pebble there was no germ of life; in the acorn there was. The perfect environment of soil and light and air upon the pebble produced no result; but upon the acorn it produced the springing of life out of death. “In God we live, and move, and have our being”; and there is no exception. It is not the preacher, the Church members, the Christian people merely, that in God do “live, and move, and have their being.” Every soul—the most profligate man, the most licentious man, the most greedy man, the most ungodly man, “lives, and moves, and has his being in God.” Life to one man means growth, advancement, movement ever on, until that man is as a tree planted by the rivers of water, and his influence is going out, not only in his own generation, but to the generation of generations. The other man, living in the same environment, is unmoved thereby. God Himself cannot act upon that man so as to produce the fruit, and life, and beauty that are being produced in an identical environment in the case of his brother man. Now, wherein lies the difference? In the one the spirit-life is dead. To use an expression of Scripture, so glibly quoted, and yet so little trembled at, that man is “dead in trespasses and sins.” His lower life is there, the physical basis is there; but that never consciously touches God. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. The mental vigor is still there—keen and wondrous; but that never consciously touches God, for “no man by searching can find out God.” The spirit neglected, starved, is dead; and that man living in God never feels Him, never responds to the tender, gracious influences of the Divine heart and the Divine strength. This man, on the other hand, has spirit dominant, and has recognized that man is more than matter and mental power, and recognizing it, has yielded himself to Divine control, and in that act of yielding he has been born again. He has passed from death unto life; he has become a new creature. For him “old things have passed away and all things have become new,” so that he touches God and feels the Eternal, and communes with the Divine; and that touch, that feeling, that communion, are creating character, and building it for the palace and the home of the Eternal. One man lives in his environment consciously, because his own spirit is quickened by the Eternal Spirit of God. The other, living in the same environment, does not know it, because he is dead in his trespasses and in his sins. In a few closing sentences I want to make a personal application of this study in order that I may help some soul who feels the contradiction and the difficulty of environment. Man is saying: “Certainly I could be a Christian IF I could get out of this position; if I could get out of this business; this particular situation in which I am engaged, where there are ungodly men round about me. If I only lived in your home instead of mine, I could be a Christian. My environment is against me.” If you cannot be a Christian where you are, you cannot be a Christian anywhere. God is no more in my home than in thine. “It is so easy to be Christians while we are in the sanctuary, and the very breath of eternity is upon us and God is at hand. To-morrow in the city, in the workshop, in the office, on the mart, it is very hard.” God is no more in the sanctuary than He is in your shop, or your office, or the mart; and it is no more difficult to pray when ungodly men are thronging around you than it is to pray here. So long as you are longing for freedom from your present environment to be a Christian, you will never find the deliverance you seek. What, then, is needed? That you should believe what you think you believe. The most difficult thing to get a man to believe is the thing which he thinks he does believe. You believe in God—you live, and move, and have your being in Him. Believe that—believe that only, believe that supremely, and then begin life in that belief. And in that belief, believe above everything else that Hell is nigh, but God is nigher, Circling you with hosts of fire.” The poor trembling servant of the prophet, when he saw the “host with horses and chariots round about the city,” said, “Alas, my master! how shall we do?” It was a false vision of environment. But the prophet had the true vision. He replied: “Fear not; for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” Then he prayed, “Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes that he may see.” The servant looked, and “behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” That is the lesson. God is superior to the slum or the tenement; to ungodly companions or influence God is greater than the sneer of the mocker. Live in God consciously, and thou hast found the environment that is highest and closest and strongest, the environment which is superior to all others. Yes; but how can I get to God? “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” “Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” May God help us to believe the things we think we believe. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 81: 08.03. HEREDITY ======================================================================== 3. Heredity “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” —Romans 5:19-21 The subject as announced is that of Heredity; but I want to take another word, Inheritance, because it is a larger word in its application to these great truths. Heredity tells only half of the story of human inheritance. Something else must be told concerning every soul, and the telling of that something else is the telling of the provision of God’s love. Every babe is, as Charles Kingsley sang, “heir of all the ages gain”; and every child starts out upon the journey of life with certain inheritances, for which he has either to thank or curse his forerunners. Whether we go back to the old theological statement of this doctrine, and speak of the fall of man, and of the effect that fall has produced upon the whole human race right to this time, or no, we must all admit this truth. It is being preached to us, both from the pulpit and the scientific platform, that man is connected with those who have gone before him so closely that he is influenced directly and positively by them. I am not attempting to explain the mystery of it—that is not my domain; I announce the fact. This paragraph includes the whole problem; and in forceful, clear, intelligent language makes a statement concerning it to which we are bound to pay attention, because of its paramount importance. Our scheme is, firstly, to consider this subject of heredity as a part of human inheritance; secondly, to consider the apostle’s statement concerning grace as complementary; and thirdly, to endeavor to deduce from that twofold consideration the possibilities which lie before every one of us, as we face life with all its mystery and its conflict. I In the first place, we shall consider the Biblical statement of the law of heredity. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.” There are hundreds of men to-day who put their hand upon that verse and quarrel with its theological statement, who, nevertheless, are preaching this great doctrine of heredity. Magazine writers tell us that what a man is, what a man does, and what a man will finally become, depend upon the color of his hair, upon the form of his physical being, upon what some one was before him. But if you tell them that doctrine is acknowledged, recognized here in the theology of Paul, those men are astonished; and yet it is so. “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.” When life becomes something more to me than a game; when I cease to look upon the days as opportunities for play—and every man does sooner or later feel that life is more than a game, the world other than a mere playground—then I look out upon my future and hear the call of the Divine. Within the heart of the thinking man as he faces life, there sound voices calling him to high and noble living. He may not be able to understand or explain them; he may not detect from whence they come, or whose they are—those strange, luring voices—but they are there. Then that man awakens to find that he is not free from vices which he has not chosen; he realizes that there lies within the confines of his own individuality—in what realm he can hardly tell; whether physical, mental, or spiritual, he is hardly cognizant in those early days—a tendency that propels him, and inclinations that draw him along certain lines of life. Let us understand that those inclinations and tendencies—the dominant inclinations and tendencies of that man’s life—may not be evil. A man may find, some summer morning, when the king of day is just lighting the mountains with his coming glory, edging them with a golden hue, and the dew is quivering and sparkling upon the grass, and the voice of the bird is all that breaks the hushed stillness—he may find that within him there dwells the sacred muse. He was a born poet; but he never discovered it until that morning. How did it happen? You cannot explain the mystery. You may philosophize concerning it, and argue about it; but there it is. It may be that he discovered—on some evening when the sun went westering, bathing the clouds with a wondrous glory, tinging them with gold, and telling the weary watchers that behind the darkness there was the very splendor of God—that he was an artist; he was that before, but he had not recognized it. He had inherited it. It had come to him after skipping—in some strange and unaccountable fashion—one or more generations, bringing into his life the poetry of those who had gone before; the power to see, which some forerunner had. But almost more constantly man awakens to find that the thing within him—which is there without his consent, without his creating—is an evil thing. He awakes to find that a certain desire in his life, which in itself is natural—and to say that, using the word natural in its true sense, is to say that it is pure—is distorted and out of shape. He awakes to find that there is a passionate desire, making demands, and crying with force and energy and unceasing earnestness, “Give me, satisfy me; meet my need”; in other words, a man awakes to find that lust, and passion, and greed, and evil are in him. He looks out upon life, heavily handicapped from the first, without a chance. Let us look these things squarely in the face, for this is the true story of many a man’s life. Take the most familiar illustrations that you have dealt with yourself again and again; the story of how a man awakens to find that he was born a drunkard, and another man awakens to find that he was born impure. He cannot deny it. If the great crowd have never realized these things, it is because the fires of passion have not been intense, because in their lives there has been no consuming sense of this great fact—but there it is. I talked to a man some year or two ago who was drinking. I shall never forget the way he appalled me, as with passionate earnestness he looked into my face and, said, “Sir, don’t talk to me about drink.” “But why?” I asked. “Because,” he said, “you are ignorant concerning it.” “But what do you mean?” “You talk to me about a desire for it, and you know nothing of what you are talking about. Do you know that my father and his father both committed suicide while in delirium tremens? Drink!” he said; “you put a glass of wine there, and tell me of a certainty, upon the oath of God, that if I drink I will be shot—I would drink it!” We have to face these facts. Young men who are going from our city and country homes are suddenly overwhelmed, and fall in the conflict. Why? They did not choose the sinful things; but suddenly, under certain conditions of life, they find a devil in them that had been sleeping. Somehow he is aroused, and he masters them. They have inherited evil tendencies from some one gone before. So that I say to-day men are starting in life from this standpoint without the semblance of a chance; they are handicapped in the race from the beginning, and from before their birth. That is exactly what the apostle says here: “By one man’s disobedience”—and whether that man be Adam or your father, it does not affect the matter—“By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.” That is the great law: sinners by birth; sinners by the very force that dwells within them, and for which they are not responsible. Such is the story of the lives of thousands of our fellow-men to-day. What have we to say to these things? What has the preacher to say? What has the Church of Jesus Christ to say? What has the gospel of Jesus Christ to say? II It has to say that there is another truth which Jesus Christ came to proclaim, side by side with that first one; and that the man who only declares that, tells but half the common truth of every life and soul of man. And what is the other truth? It is contained in this same passage to the Romans, and Romans 5:20, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound”; and that statement of Romans 5:20 is linked to the second half of Romans 5:19 : “So by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Where sin abounded grace did much more abound.” In order that we may understand the force of this gospel of the grace of God—and this really is the gospel of the grace of God—we must get back from that position upon which we have been standing, and consider it from a different standpoint. First of all we must come to understand that God always deals with man personally and individually. This seems a very difficult statement in face of what we have been saying. Those of you who have read Ezekiel 18:1-32, will remember that it opens with a challenge on the part of God to the people of Israel, and the challenge is this: “How say ye, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?” That proverb has not dropped out of use; men are perpetually using it. You will hear it in conversation to-day and to-morrow. You will hear the story of some young man’s wrongdoing, and hear some one commenting upon it; and of the wrongdoing of his father, saying, with a wise look and a shake of the head, that has more in it than all the speech: “Yes, the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” “Well, but,” you say, “is it not true?” Absolutely untrue. That proverb that is binding and misleading men is absolutely false. There is no truth in it. “Surely, but it is in the Bible?” Twice. It is both in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. But it is there in order that it may be contradicted. You search the context out for yourselves. It is not a clear, lucid, true, correct statement of God’s dealing with men to say, “The fathers eat, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” God does not punish a son for his father’s wrongdoing. “Oh, but surely that is not correct. Do we not read in Exodus, where the law is given, ‘I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children even unto the third and fourth generation.’ Does it not say that?” No. “Oh, but it does.” Find it and read it. I will let any man read it who can find it. It does not say it at all; it is not in the Book, my friend. “Then, what does it say?” Listen, “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me.” And you have no right to miss out these five words, and rob the whole passage of its essential meaning. What is its essential meaning? If the generations continue to hate, they will have punishment; and it goes still further—“and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me.” And that is what Ezekiel says. God says: “All souls are Mine; I take man by man, individually”; and if the father is a good man and the son is evil, the son shall be punished; and if the father is an evil man, and the son is righteous, the son is not to be punished for the evil of the father, but he is to live. But is not this more difficult of comprehension; for remember, I emphasize it and abide by it. I want you to see that God does not visit the iniquity of the father upon the children; that God does not smite, and strike, and burn a man, even in this life, because his father was evil. Why, the whole conception is blasphemy. Then what are we to do? We are side by side and face to face with two apparently contradictory statements. Man does not start fair in life; he is handicapped through hereditary tendencies in his blood. If he sin, he is punished; and yet you tell me that God takes man by himself, and deals with him without reference to what his father was. Perfectly true. I am not going to call into question the character of God, to lay this down as something I am bound to discover somewhere or other, in some way or other. If this law be a law of life from which I cannot escape, that I inherit the tendencies to wrong from my father; and if it be also law that God takes me, and deals with me, and punishes or rewards me, without any reference to my connection with my father, then in order to do that, He must, somewhere and somehow, provide an antidote to the poison which is already in my veins. He must bring to me, side by side with the tendencies to wrong, something that shall be at any rate as strong as that tendency, and that is able to overcome it. That is the logical statement of the thing as I understand it; that is, if God be “just”—I will not say “love.” I want to put this superlatively, especially to some young man feeling the force of some hereditary taint, and help him, as the gospel has helped me. I have a tendency to a form of evil in my nature and in my blood; and then I come here and I read, “God will not punish my father if I go wrong. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” And I take my stand in one of those solemn moments of life to which man comes when he rises in his true dignity, and, realizing he has a right to deal with God, he says, in the presence of the Holy One, “I did not choose to be born with this tendency to evil. It is here without my choice and without my consent; and if Thou, O God, art going to deal with me upon the pure line of righteousness, without reference to the things I have received from my forefathers, then, if Thou art a just God, Thou must provide an antidote of force greater than the force that is born within me, that will quench its fires and set me free; and I am bold to say, if the gospel has no message like that, it is no gospel for me.” It may be a gospel for a man who has not experienced the fires of passion. From a gospel that merely says, “Copy this perfect example,” I turn away; for it cannot be mine because of the fires that exhaust my physical power, dethrone my mental vigor, paralyze my brain, and dim my vision. I must have a negation of evil, stronger than the negation of good that flows in my veins, and throbs in my nerves, and masters me, whether I will or not. Now, that much I say, God must do what my text tells me He has done. Just as “by one man’s sins or disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” What is this story, then? It is the old story that I need not stay to tell. It is the story of the coming from heaven of God to tabernacle in human flesh, and live human life, and meet human temptation, and overcome all that temptation. It is the story of God suffering for sin; it is the story of the Cross upon which the pure life of the one perfect Man was given as a ransom for many, so that by His coming, and His pure living, and His sacrificial dying, He has brought to every soul a second inheritance, the inheritance of powerful, forceful, valuable righteousness. Am I born to passion’s fires? I am also born to the quenching power of the love of Jesus. Am I born with tendencies to wrong? I am also born to that Holy Spirit as a birthright which can hold, keep, and purify me, and present me at last in the very presence of God. Do you tell me to-night that your father, or his father, or some one generations back, was given over to some fearful form of sin, and that, although it has been slumbering for two generations, it has reappeared in your life; and do you tell me, with a wail of anguish, that that is your inheritance—that awful form of sin, that has gripped you with irresistible tenacity, and thwarted you at every turn? My brother, I tell you that there is another inheritance; that you are born to the life of Christ. When you come here, the story is so old that men have begun to be uninterested. Oh, how one longs, not for a new theology, but for a new setting and phrasing of it, that shall arrest the thought of men to-day! I am not here to preach morality as a beautiful thing—every one believes it. We are all agreed upon that. I do not think there is anybody, I do not care how far down he may be, who does not believe that purity, and righteousness, and morality, are lovely attributes of man’s nature. I am not here to talk about that, I announce this fact: that where there is a man fast bound with chains of sin and passion and lust, Christ by the power of His Holy Spirit can shatter those chains, and quench those fires, and set that man free. You, my brother, have a twofold inheritance: you have the inheritance to evil which has mastered you hitherto, and thwarted your best intentions; and you have also the inheritance in the power of Jesus Christ that is to come in, and be the force that releases you. Oh, accept it, will you, not as theory, but as fact proven again and again in the past nineteen hundred years; proven again and again in this very year. If we could only institute a strict enquiry, there are thousands of souls who would testify to this fact: “I was the slave of sin, of lust, of passion, of greed, of unrighteousness; but Jesus Christ coming into my life by the power of the Holy Spirit, has set me free.” And when they have borne their testimony, we will be hard and critical, and say, “That is the testimony of thy own lips; so now tell me what do thy neighbors and friends say? Let the worldly man come in and tell me how that man lives who is a Christian, and the testimony from the world will be overwhelming.” “We have seen the transformation wrought by the Son of God; we have seen our neighbors—irascible, sour, hard-hearted—become tender, sweet, loving, compassionate, like the very Son of God Himself.” The testimony is on every hand. Have we not a right to apply a scientific test to that matter, as to all others? If we can find one man, a thousand men, a million men, in the course of the ages of the Christian era, who have been absolutely transformed, perfectly re-made, changed, so that there was no comparison between what they are and what they were, have we not a right to say something has wrought this? And have we not a right to accept that great united testimony as it comes upon us—that what has wrought it has been the grace of God? My brother, I want you to see the force of this. It is not merely that there is for you an inheritance of a power to be righteous which is equivalent to the power of evil. I like the grandeur and the overwhelming magnificence of Paul’s expression, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” What are the possibilities that grow out of it? Let us simply put our hands on them. That is all we can do. “That,” in the last verse, “as sin hath reigned, grace may reign through righteousness unto eternal life.” There are three points, then, of the result of the coming into this life of the power of the grace of Jesus Christ. The three points are these: (1) Regnant sin is deposed, and (2) in its place the grace of Jesus Christ takes the throne and reigns; and (3) the result is “eternal life”; and that eternal life is not merely life that is long-continued, but life that is broad and wide and magnificent in its possibilities. III Now, to gather up the great lessons that I want to inscribe upon your hearts and mine. You have inherited a tendency to evil. I grant it you. You didn’t choose it. You were born with it. Now listen: God never yet has, and never will, punish any man for inheriting anything. In the next place, let me say that heredity is not the final word. Reverting to what I said at the commencement—the color of your hair, and the shape of your head, and your temperament, are not all the story of your own life. What is the other side? The grace of God; the Spirit of God. Grace is the complement; grace is the negative of sin. You are born with a tendency to sin, but you are also born into the birthright of the life and passion of the Son of God; and so Jesus Christ becomes the touchstone of character. Reject Him, and you are a victim to those tendencies which are slumbering within your own nature; but accept Him, and you may put your conquering foot upon every enemy that faces you, and in His name have the victory. Thus Christ becomes the touchstone of judgment. The question before the throne of eternal righteousness will be, “What did this man and that man do with Jesus?” It will not be available for me to say in the day of that final judgment, “O God, I was born with a tendency to the sin that ruined me: is there no excuse for me?” for the answer of the impartial Judge would be, “If thou wast born with a tendency to sin, thou wast also born into the birthright of the conquering life of Jesus Christ, and thou didst deliberately choose to reject the life and cling to the death; then that choice seals thy doom” and so, by this provision of grace, every man still stands alone in his responsibility to God. Every man has this chance—the chance of what Jesus did for him upon the Cross of His passion. The whole truth concerning my inheritance is not told until I have understood that it is a twofold inheritance, from Adam and from Jesus Christ. With this difference, that my inheritance from those who have gone before me comes to me along the line of succession; but my inheritance in Jesus Christ He has trusted to no line of succession, but He brings it to me Himself, by the power of His Spirit, and deals with me in direct personal communion. Dost thou feel that passion fires are slumbering within thee? Give thyself to the Son of God; and by His Holy Spirit He will quench the fires, and hold you in the hollow of His own pierced hand, and make you pure as He Himself is pure, in the day that He presents you to His Father. All tendency to sin may be overcome, and is overcome when souls are surrendered to the Christ of God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 82: 08.04. SPIRITUAL ANTAGONISM ======================================================================== 4. Spiritual Antagonism “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” —Matthew 4:1 “For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.” —Hebrews 2:18 Perhaps one of the greatest and most mysterious problems of life is that of spiritual antagonism. Beyond the disabilities of environment and heredity there is yet this other. To every soul there comes from without an intelligent suggestion of evil, enticement toward evil, provision for evil. Quite apart from the temptations which come to us from the ordinary environment of everyday living, or from the tendencies toward evil with which we are born, there is this subtlest, profoundest danger; in other words, we have to contend not only with the world and the flesh, but also with the devil. There are great mysteries concerning the existence of these spiritual adversaries which I do not stay to discuss. Let it only be said, here and now, that to my own heart one of the great sources of hope, in life and work and outlook, is to be found in the supreme conviction that I hold of the existence of actual spiritual enemies. Did I not believe in the existence of Satan and his emissaries, then I must believe that all the dark and dreadful deeds that smirch the page of human history have their origin in human nature. This I do not believe. Outside our planet there is evil, sin, wrong; these are not the natural products of that great creation of God, of which we form not only a part, but the crown and glory: evil is not indigenous to the soil of the earth, it is an importation; and its existence in other realms is a mystery, absolutely beyond the possibility of our explaining or understanding. We have to face the fact of its existence, side by side with that other sublimer fact, that our aspirations are Godward. We have endeavored, so far, to think of the evil that is around and within; now we consider these spiritual antagonisms, and desire to learn how we are to combat these forces, so as to gain complete victory over them. Jesus came to reveal God to man. He came also to reveal man to man. Apart from Him—His person, His character, His teaching—we can have no true conception of the Divine ideal for man; but in Him we have a concrete example of the great thought that possessed the mind of Deity when God said, “Let us make man.” May I take you one step further upon the line of the truth that Jesus is the Revealer, and say that He came not only to reveal God and Man, but also those very spiritual forces that oppose us? It is only as we study the life and conflict of the perfect Man that we are able to understand all the subtlety and the power of the enemies that are against us. Out of obscurity into brightest light He dragged these forces; and from His dealing with them we are to learn our relationship to them, and the possibility of our triumph over them. Man had been tempted and tried in all the ages. Prior to His coming, these forces had ever been busy spoiling the work of God and marring its beauty. He came and revealed the enemies in the light of His pure life. No part of that revelation of Satan is more startling, more vivid, more commanding, than the story to which this first verse of Matthew 4:1-25 is the introduction. He went, the last Adam, no longer to the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden, but to the loneliness and the deadly desolation of the wilderness, in order that His humanity might pass beyond the stage of innocence into that of holiness; that He might not only be innocent and pure, but triumphant over the forces of evil that had wrecked all before. Satan confronted Him with threefold temptation—to make stones into bread; to secure the kingdoms of the world; to fling Himself from the pinnacle of the temple. With that story, so familiar to us all, as a background, we shall proceed to consider, firstly, the revelation of evil that Jesus gives; secondly, His conquest of evil: and from that twofold consideration we shall draw the comfort of the second verse that I have chosen, “That He Himself having suffered being tempted, is able to succor them that are tempted.” I What, then, is the revelation of evil that we have in this wilderness scene? (1) That evil as represented by Satan in his attack upon the Christ is audacious effrontery. The devil is impulsed by everything foreign to the nature of God. “God is Love”; but Satan is the embodiment of cruel hate. “God is Light”; but Satan’s suggestions are of the very nature of darkness. “God is Liberty”; but if you scrutinize these temptations, you will find that they are designed to enslave. Jesus is the realization of all the will and purpose of the Father. “God is Love”; at once He is the tenderest and strongest expression of that love. “God is Light”; He is the most perfect outshining of that light. “God is Liberty”; He is the Son, making men free indeed. Through all the years of His life, prior to this hour of temptation, He has lived in the fierce light of the Eternal Throne of purity and righteousness, and no single flaw has there been in His obedience. Yet such is the insolence of hell, that it will attempt to blight even such beauty. We learn, therefore, that no regard for conduct will prevent his approach; no purity of yesterday will be sufficient to hinder him from attempting to render the soul impure. (2) In the second place, we have a revelation of the subtlety of evil. Evil chooses its time of attack. There is no moment when the soul of man is more susceptible to the onslaught of evil than after some high vision and ecstasy. Jesus had come from the seclusion of Nazareth to the waters of His baptism, where He had heard the voice of the Father saying, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” The moment when we are most in danger of attack is the moment immediately following some new vision of God. The devil chooses his time. The subtlety is more clearly evinced, however, in the fact that he advances upon legal lines. A hungry man must provide bread for himself. “If Thou be the Son of God,” says the tempter, “command these stones that they be made bread.” That is the first temptation; satisfaction for physical need—not a desire for luxury, but necessity—bread. He does not come to the pure Soul in the awful loneliness of the wilderness with a temptation to evil in some repulsive form, but with a suggestion that He should provide something that is right in itself. Make for Thyself bread, O hungry Man; tired and weary with the waiting and loneliness of forty days—bread! Not only does he advance upon legal lines, but he bases his temptation upon the very highest relationships. “If Thou be the Son of God”—he does not say, “Yield Thy Sonship, set it aside”; but use it, and use it not for what appears to be wrong, but for that which is a natural demand—make bread. “If Thou wilt fall down and worship me, all these kingdoms, which in panoramic view I have stretched before Thy vision, shall be Thine.” Here, also, he appeals to something which is right. It is to possess these kingdoms that this Man has come; it is to hold the sceptre of government over these kingdoms that He has lived, moved, and had His being among men. Satan only offers Him that which is right, when he suggests to Him that He should take the kingdoms. Again, you will notice that he proceeds along the line of righteousness. He takes Him to the high mountain—the Soul in loneliness—and shows Him the kingdoms of the earth, and suggests, not that He should give up fealty and worship, but that He shall worship, and that He shall worship one who appears to have a right over these kingdoms. Once more he brings Him to a high pinnacle of the temple, and says, “If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down; for it is written, ‘He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee; and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.’ ” What can be more beautiful in a beautiful soul, more pure in a pure soul, more saintly in a saint, than that the beautiful, pure, saintly One should abandon Himself to the strength and tenderness of the Father? “Here is an opportunity for Thee to prove the Fatherhood of Thy Father, the tenderness of His love, the strength of His arm. Step out upon Him, cast Thyself down, go out of the common ruts in which men so long have travelled in their trust, or in their failure, and, by a magnificent renunciation of Thy life, test thy Father’s love.” No, these temptations are not coarse, low, vulgar, in the common acceptation of those words; they are high, spiritual, subtle, insidious, far-reaching temptations. Their meaning and force can only be learned as we consider the resistance of Christ to every one of them. We need to know the subtlety of the foe with whom we have to deal. (3) Then, again, mark his persistence. The conflict does not begin in the wilderness. For thirty years this Man has faced temptation in some form or other. Every day there has come against that pure Soul some force of evil, and backward each has been driven, unable to storm the impenetrable barrier of Christ’s mighty purity. In every case He has put the conquering foot of His humanity upon the neck of His enemies, scattering irretrievable ruin in their camp; and yet Satan will come again, even though He is now anew baptized with the Spirit from on high. With strange and awful persistence he will dog His footsteps to the last. After that temptation, we read, “The devil left Him for a little season.” Do you know when he finally left Him? He left Him on the Resurrection morning, and never till then. He followed Him to Gethsemane; and I hear the echo of his temptation in the prayer of the Christ, “If it be possible let this cup pass from Me.” He followed Him to the Cross; and the presence of this relentless, uncompromising, persistent foe is to be detected in that agonized prayer of the Son of God: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Never—until back from Hades and the shades of black darkness the conquering Man came, holding in His own pierced right hand the keys of darkness and death—did these forces leave Him or cease their attempts to conquer and spoil the life of the Son of God. (4) But I have another word to say about evil as revealed in that temptation. Not only do I find its effrontery, subtlety, and persistence, but its folly. See the folly of evil when compared with righteousness. Mark how Satan, subtle beyond our comprehension, has only three avenues of attack; for, remember, these are typical, and no soul in the history of the world has ever been tempted except along one of these—Bread, Office, Trust. That is the threefold attack of the devil from the first to the last. Physical, mental, spiritual. He has never yet understood the omnipotence of a soul “homed” in God. That pure white Soul in the wilderness cannot be beaten so long as He abides in God. Satan himself has not measured the depth, the infinity, the boundless spaces of the Most High, or he never would have commenced the struggle between his own comparative weakness, and the almightiness of God and righteousness. Then we are to remember that these forces that are coming against us are characterized by their marvellous effrontery. When you feel you are safest from the attack of Satan, you are most in danger of becoming a victim to his wiles. Show me the man who has had some spiritual experience—call it conversion or second blessing, or anything you please—and who, coming out of that experience, says, “Now am I safe. I have passed the region of temptation; I have gained the mastery”: and I show you the man in supremest danger. It is the man who clings tenaciously, out of the agonized sense of his own weakness, who is strong; and not the man who stands erect, and says temptation can have no power on him. Satan has no respect for any building, or convention, or religious frame of mind man has ever possessed. The pure soul of Jesus was met with temptation when the Divine voice had been heard, and the Divine approval declared. Remember also, that these foes are subtle beyond all our knowing. Oh, we are so sure the devil cannot overcome us in certain ways; and we are quite right. Here is one man standing up in the great consciousness of his strength, and being very angry with the man who has failed. The man who never felt the fire and thirst for drink moving in his veins, pronounces his small anathema upon the drunkard in his cups, and says that Satan cannot tempt him like that. And he will never try! He is not such a fool! But he has tempted thee, and thou art falling—falling of pride and self-sufficiency, as thou dost dare to pass thy sentences upon thy fallen brother. Do not forget, the devil will not attack thee upon the place where thou art strongest. He will come where the door is weakest in its fastenings, and smite the chain on the link where the flaw is hidden. Remember this, too: his temptations are always based upon that which is right. I believe if young men only learned that secret of temptation, it would be a great help to them. He suggests that you should do something. Now, everything is primarily right. It is perfectly right to have bread; to get the governments; and to trust God. As to his persistency. Dear child of God, hast thou been following for forty, or even fifty, years in His footsteps? Thou art not safe. The devil will still dog your pathway. Upon the very approach to the pearly gates he will suggest a lie and a blasphemy. Remember also his folly; but that will be more clearly seen as we think for a moment how the conquest of evil is revealed in this same story. II How was it that this Man conquered? And the answer can be given in a very few sentences. It is the simplicity of the method that is its grandeur and its strength. First of all, Jesus conquered because, as the prophet Isaiah said of Him, “He was keen of scent in the fear of the Lord.” He recognized a temptation to evil when He was asked to make bread. He was asked to satisfy a right craving in a wrong way. God had led Him by the Spirit into the wilderness to fast. To feed when God said fast, was to sin. This may appear a matter of small moment, but it is the basis of all evil. There is no essential evil. Evil is forevermore a prostitution of right. Evil is an abuse of a good gift. Bread? Certainly; but if God has said fast, then there must be no bread, even though death come on apace. It was in the attempt to draw Him from the will of God that the temptation was centred; and Jesus, “keen of scent in the fear of the Lord,” detected, by reason of His habitual communion with God, by reason of the Divine atmosphere in which He lived and moved and had His being—the evil that those not living so might have missed. My brother, if you are to overcome, you must live with God, and must become “keen of scent in the fear of the Lord.” How often people have said to me, and I dare say you have heard it also, “But I was tempted, and I fell before I knew it.” Quite true. It has been the story of many a sin in my own life. I was in the mire before I knew it. I ought to have known it. Had I been living in God, and depending on God when the slightest breath of evil came, I should have detected it. “To be forewarned is to be forearmed.” To be conscious of your enemy is to be halfway to being victorious over him. Jesus lived in the Divine, and detected the evil. Again, He had one refuge from all attacks; and that refuge was the Divine will. Whatever the attack, He remained there. He dwelt within the stronghold of the Divine government; and within that stronghold no force was able to overcome Him; and no attack, however violent, could shake the foundations of eternal righteousness and eternal justice, as evidenced in the will of God. “Command these stones that they be made bread.” “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’ ” “My life is not the life you think it is. O Satan; you imagine My life is physical, and needs bread. That is the probationary basis upon which life is being created and fashioned. Man does not live by bread alone”: and so He abode in the will of God, refusing every alluring call. Staying there, He became more than Conqueror over the forces that assailed Him. III Now the gospel message for us is that of Hebrews. “He has suffered being tempted, and now He is able to succor.” How can He succor? I can only answer this in sentences. Given the soul that yields to Him, what are the methods by which He succors that soul in the hour of temptation? First, He cleanses the nature; secondly, He restores that soul to its true environment, and makes it conscious of God; and then—oh, let me put it simply, I do not want any one to miss this, as the supreme thought of this study—then He, by His Spirit, takes up His abode within, and fights the battle and gets the victory. When the enemy comes in like a flood, He lifts up His standard against him. And so, when I am victorious over the assaults of spiritual antagonism, it is not because I am strong, but because I have given the key of the citadel into the hands of the thorn-crowned King, and He locks the door and Himself holds it; and when the enemy seeking spiritual devastation comes against me to assault my soul, and blight my life, and mar my character, it is not I that live, but Christ that liveth in me; and He repeats the conquest of the wilderness, and scatters my foes like chaff before the wind. Thy secret place of victory, O my soul, is not the place where thou shalt assert thy strength; it is the place where thou shalt assert the strength of thy Master, and put Him as thy shield for evermore to quench the fiery darts of the evil one, and make Him the Captain of thy salvation to strike thy blow for thee, and get for thee thy victory. The whole story of victory over spiritual antagonism is clearly put in these words: “Submit thyself unto God; resist the devil, and he will flee from thee.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 83: 08.05. INFLUENCE ======================================================================== 5. Influence “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” —Romans 5:19 We now proceed to consider the facts of heredity and environment from another standpoint; no longer as they affect us, but as through us they affect others. “No man liveth unto himself.” Lonely, isolated life is an absolute impossibility by the very nature of man—an impossibility which has been proven in every successive generation, in all lands, and among all peoples. The life of every man is affecting, as well as being affected by, other persons. We desire to acquaint ourselves with the true Christian position in regard to this subject of our influence. We shall firstly then state the case; secondly, examine it; and thirdly, consider solemnly the responsibilities entailed upon every one of us. I “As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” The simple statement of the text is that man is a centre and source of influence. The federal heads of the human race—the representative men through all the ages—are held up to our view, not only that the apostle may make a great theological statement; but in order that we may see them to be what they really are—each of them typical men. The statement is not merely a declaration that we have inherited from Adam tendencies to sin, and from Christ redemptive forces. It is that, but it is much more: namely, an announcement that the positions they occupied were typical and representative of the position that every man, woman, and child occupies also. By disobedience the first man wrought havoc amid those that followed him. By obedience the second has produced the wondrous results which have made the desert blossom as the rose, and rivers of water to spring in dry and solitary places. The influence, in each case, was determined by the life. Disobedience begat disobedience; obedience was the generating force of obedience. From the breaking of law arose not only sin in the individual case, but in the influence exercised; and, therefore, in succeeding generations. From the keeping of law comes the righteousness which has restored man to communion with God. This is true, not only in the one supreme example of the life of the Christ, but in all the men who have heard His voice, and been obedient to Him. Every man is a new starting-point for good or for bad in the history of the human race. I am the heir of all the ages past. I am also a starting-point for ages to come. I have inherited forces without having been consulted. I shall also transmit to other ages by the effect of my life to-day, and by the influence that I am exerting upon those who touch me at every point, forces which will either make or mar the human race; which will be for the uplifting or degradation of untold thousands of my kind. It is a principle of which one must speak in the first person singular, in order to lead thought in the line of individual application. It is not for me merely to declare a theory, but for us to isolate ourselves; and, in the presence of God to face this fact, “No man liveth unto himself.” Every one of us exerts influences which will have their effect upon other lives, and the generations yet unborn will be lifted nearer God or thrust into deeper darkness, because we have lived and moved and had our being on this earth. II So far we have stated the philosophy of the subject. Let us now make application of the same to our everyday life. We spoke of heredity so far as it affects us. Let us now remember that we, too, are transmitting forces, tendencies, biases, to those who come after us. Your disposition—whatever that may be, you know; your supreme tendencies—whatever they are, you know also; your character—all these influences are being repeated by the very fact of your life. Human life is for evermore going out and touching other human life, taking hold of it, moulding it, and repeating itself upon it. Two men cannot live together in close companionship for many years without each becoming somewhat what the other is. True that the stronger will impress itself more deeply on the weaker; but the stronger will partake something of the weaker likewise. It is a common everyday truth which has, perhaps, its supreme illustration in the consideration of child-life. How often we are driven, if we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, to get among the children for the learning of our lessons. It becomes necessary that we do as the Master did by the seashore—call the child, who plays amid the pebbles, and put it into the midst of the disciples, that they may learn the lessons of the Kingdom. It is impossible for any man, whatever his position in the realm of thought may be, to deny that men bequeath to their children their dispositions, their tendencies, their character. We agree that we have received these things from those that have gone before us. In common honesty, and by a logical sequence, from which there can be no possible escape, we must also agree that we are transmitting them to those who are following us. Not only is it true of heredity, but also of environment. You communicate your ideal to your friend; and the man who works with you, and hears your conversation, and watches your habits of life, will take from you your estimate of human life, and of the hereafter. All the history of social life witnesses to this. But all this is so commonplace and ordinary. We have heard it so many times before; we were warned by our fathers and mothers, and told in the Sabbath-school class, and have heard it from preachers incessantly, that we have an influence. But may we not thrust this closer home, and say there is one inexorable law that men have not believed, although they have heard it perpetually—of the effect of influence—and that inexorable law may be written off in this form: I am only able to exert the influence of my true self. How many a man imagines he can influence his neighbor by what he says to him! He cannot. How many a man dreams he can influence children by the precepts that fall from his lips! Child-life is never so influenced. One step further. How many a man imagines he can influence his children, friends, neighbors, acquaintances, by what he desires they should think him to be! No man does so influence any of his fellows. How many a man, for many long years, has kept up an outward appearance of morality and respectability yea, even of religion, while his hear has not been cleansed; and in the deep recesses of his nature there have lurked, dominating all the impulses of that life, things low, and base, and impure! Tell me, how has that man influenced other men? Has he influenced them by what he has appeared to be, or by what he has really been? Without a moment’s hesitation, I assert he has influenced men by what he has been within himself. Not by the appearance which was a lie, but by the baseness which was the truth of his life has he influenced children, and friends, and acquaintances. You may take that truth and turn it in another form, if you will; and I know this other side is a more startling thing to orthodox believers than the first. Here is a man who tells me he is not a Christian; but who, when the King begins to analyze these little words of human speech—that have never given utterance to the deep things of human life—will be found to have meant, “I am not what Christianity has too often seemed to be, a contradiction of Jesus Christ.” But that man by sweetness of life, pureness of thought, and uprightness of living, has been exerting an influence upon others; and in the name of the influence he has exerted, notwithstanding the denial of his lips, I claim him as one of Christ’s men. When we reach the Judgment-seat of Jesus Christ, we shall have a great many startling surprises; and what one of the “old fathers” said will be true again and again. “Methinks I shall see three wonders developed—and the first wonder will be that I have ever reached its shining shore; the second, that I shall miss large numbers that I thought were going there; and the third will be that I shall meet large numbers that I never thought to see there.” Do not let us forget that. Christ came to create—not a creed, not a formula of doctrine, not a profession in orthodoxy which may become the most veritable heterodoxy, but—character. Oh that we could write that in letters of living flame across the sky, that all men might see it! What a man is, is the one question with God; and if through the bungling mistakes of so-called Christendom pure souls have been driven from our Shibboleths; if they have found righteousness all unknowingly through Jesus Christ, and have exerted an influence that has drawn men to God—I claim them as Christ’s own men by the influence they have exerted. Does not the Master give His positive sanction to influence as a supreme test, when He says, “He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad.” Did He not mean to say, “If a man gathers with Me, he is with Me”; even though, perchance, the disciples said, “We had better destroy him with our fire, because he followeth not with us”; and the Master rebuked them, and said, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.” If a man is base, and impure, and sordid, and evil in himself, then all his church-membership and all his profession is as nothing. Men will be moved, not by what a man says, nor by what a man says he is, but by what he actually is. I claim that this is an inexorable law of influence—that a man exerts upon other people the influence of what he is, and not the influence of what he says, or even of what he says he is. We must all exert influence, whether we will or no. You cannot shut yourself up from other men unless you actually betake yourself away from them. It is impossible, in this age, with humanity so inter-related as it is. Take the simplest illustration, and think of how many men you have to do with on any given day: think of the men who call at your door and leave the necessities of life for you; and the men who come to your office to see you on business; and the men of whom you ask your way in the street; and the man who drives you: and remember you never touch a man without influencing him. F. B. Meyer has said, that the extra sixpence to the cabman has done more for Christianity than his preaching on many occasions. Think it out. You influence every man you touch by the way you look at him, and speak to him; and all the time the influence you are exerting is welling up out of your actual self, and you cannot prevent it. If thou knowest that thou art impure, know this also, that thy impurity is contagious. Thou canst not conceal in thy breast impurity and say, “I will be impure here, and not influence others.” It spreads like the contagion of a fever, unknown as to the moments of its going, but deadly in the effects it produces. III What, then, is the duty that this great truth of influence entails upon every one of us? Does it not contain a rousing call to self-examination? Perfect collectivism can only grow out of the perfecting of individualism. You never can have a society organized to perfection. It must grow to perfection through the growth of the individuals that form it. If that be true—and who will deny it?—then collectivism, society at large, has a right to make distinct and forceful demands upon every single individual. Society has a right to say to every soul, “Soul, for our sake, for the sake of the larger whole, be pure and strong.” No man has a right to say he is master of himself, that he may please himself. The larger law, the more binding law, is that law that demands purity from the individual, for the sake of society. To exert a destructive influence is the most terrible sin that is possible to any man. No man has any right to perpetuate evil. If the influence of your life is an impure one, by the necessity of your own character, one of two things you should certainly do. You should either go to the great source of purification, or take yourself away from home, and friends, and society, and live out all the remainder of your impure days in the desert place, in order that the foul influence of your soul may not contaminate other men. “No man liveth unto himself”—let me repeat the solemn words—and society has a right with myriad-tongued voice to call on thee, “O soul of man, be pure and strong and true, not merely for thy own sake, but for the sake of the world.” My influence is tested by my relationship to this text. I shall exert a pure, strong influence upon my fellow-men, if I am an obedient soul. I shall exert an impure influence upon them, notwithstanding all other influences, if I am a disobedient soul. What I want to press upon your attention, and your thought, is—your responsibility in this matter. Men do not come to Jesus Christ—as witness the whole history of the preaching of His Cross,—until they feel deep in their own spirit the need of His wondrous work. It was not idly spoken in the early days that repentance toward God should come before faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Nor was it idly spoken hundreds of years before the Master came, when the prophet, addressing the people of his time, said, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord.” Until men have seen their own individual helplessness, there will be no coming to the rivers of cleansing and the life of Christ for the power that is necessary for pure, strong living. Then fore, I charge upon you again, in conclusion, this solemn warning—not only that you are exerting an influence, but that you are responsible for that influence. Oh. my brother, if you have an impure past behind you, if you are weakened by the unholiness of bygone days, with not only your reputation, which matters little, but your character, which matters much, stained, and dwarfed, and deformed, and belittled by evil—I pray you to be heroic enough to say, “I will not transmit my own folly and my own sin to succeeding generations.” I ask you, is your life an impure life? Then, if you have no longer any care for your own soul’s highest welfare; if the desire within your heart for the “whatsoever things” that are pure, and high, and noble, and of good report, has been extinguished; if the flame that trembled Godward has died upon the altar of your own heart so that you love not purity, but revel in impurity—I call upon you again from another standpoint. In committing thine own suicide thou art also committing murder. If thou hast no love for thyself, wilt thou not, O man, for the sake of the little ones glancing around in your path, in need of a friend and guide; for the sake of those children whose lives are being touched by your life every day—wilt thou not seek purity for the sake of others; and, if not, then the devoutest prayer that I can pray for thee is that God will move thee from the scene of life ere the contagion has spread too far. There can be no more solemn and heart-searching enquiry than upon this subject of influence. Will you face this great fact, that your life is making or marring others, and you are responsible? Says some one, “I know my own impurity, but I have received it; I know my own wrong, but it is the result of the position I have occupied in life. The bloom was brushed away before I knew its value, and I have become impure almost unconsciously.” Will you hear again the old message, full of tenderness and God’s own music? “To the house of Israel”—that is, to the children of faith—“there is opened a fountain for sin and for uncleanness.” I do not mean to say that you can be so transformed that you will stand erect immediately in all the vigor and glory of ideal manhood: that is impossible. There are Christians who have been following Christ for months, ay, for years, who are still suffering limitations as the result of their sin in the days gone by. Some of us, alas! alas! will carry to the grave the scars of the wounds of our own mad folly in years that have now almost faded from our memory; but into the secret chambers of the being there will come, to those who open Wide the door, the purifying power of the Spirit of God. He comes to put away transgression; to cleanse the heart; to transmute the base and the debased into the purified and the clean. And how? Tell me, how can this be? It is not for me to attempt to explain the alchemy of the Divine work. I cannot do it. I know the laws of the Kingdom, and them I can announce to you. I know that within the sphere where these laws operate there is abundance of cleansing, and power; but how God works I cannot tell. I cannot tell you all the mystery of the healing and the purifying work of the incoming Spirit. Canst thou tell me why the violet, hiding its head beneath the hedgerow, is of tender and beauteous hue; and why the lily growing in your garden is fleecy white? Canst thou tell me how life perfumes yon flower, so tiny that you hardly see it, and refuses to perfume the gorgeous flower that blossoms on your lawn? Hast thou no explanation for God’s working? You may count the petals on the rose and tell the story of floriculture and cultivation, but behind all your schemes is the touch of the Divine, the presence of God; and as thou canst not explain the painting or scenting of the flowers, and the working behind the thousand mysteries of beauty and nature, neither can I tell you how God will come into your soul and purify it. What, then, is the law of His coming? It is the one simple law of absolute abandonment of self to His Kingship, His government, and His will—that thou mayest be what the Man of Nazareth, and Capernaum, and the Wilderness, of the Market Place, and Gethsemane, and Calvary, intended, so that thou shalt be an obedient child. Cease thy proud rebellion against the will of God; and, committing thyself to Him, without question as to the form and fashion of His remaking of thee, trust His will and wondrous love, and lean on His almighty power. In so doing thou shalt fulfill His law, and out of that obedience shall come the cleansing of thy nature; the putting away of thy sin; the commencement of that new life which shall exercise an influence—pure, and strong, and high, and lovely—which shall stretch out far beyond the little years of thy life, into God’s great eternity. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 84: 08.06. DESTINY ======================================================================== 6. Destiny “And He saith unto me, Seal not up the words or the prophecy of this Book; for the time is at hand. He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness yet more: and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy yet more: and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness yet more: and he that is holy, let him be made holy yet more. Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to each man according as his work is.” —Revelation 22:10-12 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which He sent and signified to His servant John, has to do, for the most part, with things yet to come—with the end of the present age, and the ushering in of the new and golden day. The awful pronouncement contained in the central of these three verses, has special reference to the sealing of character that will take place at the advent of Jesus Christ—using that word advent in its largest sense, a sense embracing the varied aspects of His second coming. That coming of Christ will be a decisive moment to millions; fixing their character unalterably and for ever. All men wait in the purpose and counsel of God for the coming of Jesus. There have been events in history, of which we speak as remarkable and epoch-making. In the great movement and purpose of God, the last great event was the Incarnation—the first advent—and the next will be the Return of the Lord—the second advent. The present dispensation is one which takes its meaning and its character from the first, and will find its comsummation and its crowning in the second. Let it be borne in mind that this is not the first of the dispensations of God, neither is it the last; and the ultimate Divine purpose for humanity is not to be accomplished in this dispensation of the Spirit. There have been revealed to us, in hints, and pictures, and symbols, and in a few direct and forceful words, the fact of other. Divine movements, even when the catholic Church of Jesus Christ is completed, and the specific and special dispensation of the Holy Spirit is at an end. But we, of course, are interested principally in the dispensation in which we live; and of all peoples of the earth, none are more deeply involved in the conditions and movements of this age, because it has pleased God in His government of the nations, and His selection of peoples for the carrying out of His purposes, to set upon us the choicest of His blessings, and to cause us to live in the brightest light, even of this Christian era. Therefore, while in a study such as this, other themes will suggest themselves, and other problems arise—such as the position of the heathen, dead, and living, at the coming of Christ, and the new conditions obtaining after His advent—we must turn from all of these, keeping our attention fixed upon this fact: that the verse which we have now to consider is one that has to with the present dispensation only, and specially with those people on the earth who have actually lived within its light, and therefore have known, theoretically, its method and its meaning. At the coming of Jesus Christ, all the great forces of which we have spoken in previous discourses—the forces which counteract heredity, environment, and create right influence—will be withdrawn in the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit. Beyond that withdrawal there will be new dispensations and movements of the Divine. But we, for all practical purposes, in the consideration of the greatest of all subjects, that of our destiny, have only to do with the dispensation in which we live. Men and women are passing away from the scene of their probation; a probation spent in the light of the gospel truth. These men and women, as they pass beyond the action of these forces of the Spirit in grace, abide in exactly the same condition as that in which death finds them, until the second advent of Jesus ends this dispensation and ushers in the new. Human life, shorter or longer, according to Divine arrangement, is a period granted to beings—the meaning of whose existence stretches far out beyond the fleeting years of that life—in which to create their own character, their own eternity; and thus each one has the power to make his own future. Let us, first of all, consider what probation is, in order that we may secondly consider how destiny grows therefrom; and in the third and last place, make an application of this consideration to our present attitude. I We have said that this present life of ours is the life of probation. It is well that we should understand the character of that probation. In this series of papers we have taken those verses in the writings of the apostle which hold Jesus Christ and Adam before us as being heads of the race—we have spoken of them, one as the child of disobedience, the other of obedience; transmitting the forces of their own lives to others, and each answering to environment—in one case to the true, and in the other to the false; in one case being wrecked, in the other victorious; and from these two typical cases we have drawn certain lessons which apply to ourselves. Let it be remembered that the probation of Adam and of Christ both differed from ours. Each stood upon his own responsibility, the first man, as we believe, having a perfect start, with no tendencies inherited that would conspire to wreck his life—with the most perfect environment that man has ever known, for the creation of the tested and victorious character which God was seeking. Jesus Christ Himself embarked upon human life as a child—passing through boyhood and manhood up to maturity; but, nevertheless, because He ever dwelt in the true environment—that of the presence of God consciously known—He stood upon His own responsibility. It is not so with us. We are born with tendencies which we did not choose, and which, propelling us, force us along the lines of action against which our better nature rebels. We are surrounded from birth with certain influences that play upon us before we understand the meaning of them, or have learned to deal with them for the making or marring of our character. What, then, is probation to us? It is an opportunity for the play of the forces of grace upon characters which are ruined from the outset. I need not stay to discuss the awful fact of the ruin of character at the beginning. All the mystery and the meaning of it, who shall tell? We simply face the fact that the tendency of human nature is to wrong, rather than to right; that the whole human race leans downward by the fallen nature into which it is born, rather than soars upward and heavenward. Yet, side by side with that fact, is the other fact of which we have been speaking, that God has put into operation forces for the re-making of character, which are superior to anything inherited—superior to any surroundings; so that the soul coming into living contact with those forces may rise superior to inheritance, and overcome all contradictory environment. Between these two sets of forces each one of us stands; and the action of either upon our character will depend entirely upon our will. Amid the wreckage of human nature there is one vital element remaining—that which lifts humanity above the level of all other creation, and makes it almost Divine—the element of will! That has not been wrecked or ruined. Man still has his will—warped, bent, inclined to evil, it may be; but remaining, so that if a man will yield himself to the forces of evil, they will work upon his life and blast his character: or, if a man will yield to the grace of God and to the power of the Holy Spirit, then those forces will make his character. Between these forces each man stands in the days of probation, having still his will, and being able to choose definitely for himself whether he will be marred by evil or made by good; whether he will become the slave of evil, losing his power of will in slavery to the evil he chooses; or, whether he will become the bond-slave of Jesus Christ, his will yielded to Kingly dominion, and so learn under that blessed constraint to love the things that make for fair and strong character. My use of probation is described by the phrase of the text: “He that is unrighteous; he that is righteous.” It cannot, in either case, be construed into meaning, “He that is in his nature righteous or unrighteous”; for every man enters upon life with his will between these forces, and his nature ready to respond to the one or to the other, as his will directs. It does mean that he who has refused the grace of God, and chosen deliberately the forces of evil, is the man who is unrighteous, because he has been borne along in the current to which he has committed himself. On the other hand, he who has, by an action of the will, surrendered himself to the currents of grace and the forces of purity, is rendered righteous by those very forces to which he has committed himself. My probation is not the probation of a perfect being, standing entirely alone. It is that of a man who begins life with an inheritance that hinders, and also with grace that can overcome that inheritance; with an environment that tends to degrade, and with another environment which is able to negative the force of the first: and upon the action of his will depends the issue. II Out of that conception of probation grows the necessity for a solemn consideration of destiny. A man’s destiny is created by his use of probation. There is a moment when the Divine fiat goes forth, and probation ends—and where a man is at that moment, his character is fixed, not in degree, but in direction—and that Divine word is never spoken until I have irrevocably chosen for myself. God never draws the line across human probation until the set determination, the whole sweep of the will, has decided what that final character is to be; but the moment God draws that line, then in that chosen direction man moves on; only he that is unrighteous is to be still more unrighteous, and he that is righteous is to be still more righteous. The one thought that I want to fix indelibly upon your minds is this—Destiny is fixed by the choice of the human will, which selects for itself its heaven or hell. Thus each one of us is building character forever. Those who are yielding to the forces around that mar the life, do so absolutely of their own free choice. Note, then, the awful responsibility of their action. They are not choosing for the moment only, but for the morrow, and for the next day, and the next, for the years that lie ahead, and the ages that are beyond! It can all be altered now; but the day is coming when we shall no longer have the opportunity of choosing. When is that day of destiny? None can say. That secret nestles within the heart of God; only He knows the point that marks the end of man’s probation. This much is certain; probation will never end until the soul has deliberately chosen with the force of eternity; then there is no drawing back. No words more full of infinite meaning ever fell from the lips of Jesus Christ than these, “He that sinneth against the Holy Ghost is in danger of eternal sin.” Not, as we have it, “eternal damnation,” but “eternal sin.” It is possible for the will of man—so magnificent is that will in its construction, so marvellous in its powers—deliberately to choose evil; and to choose it so completely with such utter abandonment to it as to pass out into unknown ages of pain and misery. There is no word in the Bible that exactly fits with our word eternal. The strongest word that we have is age-long; and no man has any right to do other than leave the issues of the eternities with God. In the ages that baffle our contemplation, there are men who will deliberately choose evil; and the progression of evil beyond will multiply and enlarge, and there will be no drawing back. Destiny is being created by the choice you are making now. We act as though moments came to us to be smiled or sobbed away, as the case may be, and then to be done with forever. It is not so. Montgomery sang truly when he sang— Tis a mistake: time flies not, He only hovers on the wing: Once born, the moment dies not, ’Tis an immortal thing.” So that the moment, here and now present, in which I choose good or evil, purity or pollution, has its blossoming beyond this life altogether. That is the true view of human life. We have treated it as though it were fleshly, carnal; as though such things were the sum and substance. What awful madness! Life is the workshop of eternity; the time for making destiny; and the result will be in accordance with the deliberate choice of the individual will for evil or for good. This law of probation and destiny operates through all the region of human life. Do we not see it operating in lower matters? We have an old saying that, “The boy is father to the man.” It is perfectly true. We are but “children of a larger growth.” What the boy is—in temperament, in character, in the essentials of his life—he will be in manhood’s days. At thirty, we are told, a man’s habits are fixed and his character formed; and it is remarkably true in the realm of Christianity that the majority of people who are Christians were born again before they had reached thirty years of age. I do not know whether that has ever occurred to you. After that age, the number is very small as compared with the company of those who join Christ’s army when the glory of youth is on their brow. It is infinitely harder to get a man who has gone over the borders of thirty years to turn to God than it is to lead a boy to Christ. May I not turn aside and say here to every father and mother: Do not forget that. While those bairns are round your knee at home, train their thoughts in the right direction. Get the boys and girls who gather in your class, teacher, and fill the opportunity of service they present to you, as though you knew their eternal destinies hung upon what you do for them now; for it is possible that you will not be able easily to change their course at a later period. I make reverent and thankful allowances for grace. In some cases men have not only passed thirty years, but have reached the allotted span of three-score years and ten, and yet have found the purifying grace of God; but by comparison it is a rare occurrence. Let me repeat, and leave this point with that repetition, that the vast majority of people who yield themselves to Christ, do so on the sunny side of the thirtieth milestone of their life’s journey. So you have the law at work already. Character is tending to permanence; and when a man once chooses, it is difficult for him to go back upon his choice. It is a terrible law; but we are bound to face it. Question the wisdom of it, if you dare; but the fact remains, and the fact of law is the proof of its wisdom—for all law is of God. Every time I choose, it becomes harder work to go back upon my choice; and the further I go along the line, whether of right or of wrong, the harder it is to turn back from that line. The choice made freely, now becomes a bond and a bias. I choose again in the same direction, and to-morrow it is harder to turn back than it is to-day; and so character is tending to permanence: and every hour is sealing it upon us in a way that, if we did but realize it as we ought, would appal us, and drive us to heart-searching before God. At the coming of Jesus Christ, when we appear before Him, He will simply pronounce upon us the sentence which we have already deliberately chosen. At the judgment-bar of Jesus Christ no witnesses will be called. Why not? Because none will be needed. We do not see each other as we really are. We look at faces, and upon them we see character, to some extent; but behind the story of the faces is the story of motive, and intention, and aspiration, of determination and of will. These are things we do not see. We cannot penetrate their hiding-place. No man has seen God at any time! No man has seen his brother-man at any time! When we arraign a criminal in one of our Courts of Justice, we call our witnesses, and the judge will sum up, and the jury will base their decision upon evidence given as to the hearing of the ear, and the seeing of the eye. No other judgment than that is possible. All sentences pronounced, all decisions arrived at, are concluded upon the evidence which comes from the seeing of the eye and the hearing of the ear. How different the judgment of the Eternal! Out of the old Hebrew prophecies hear this great word: “And He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears.” When men come to the bar of God, they will not come wondering what the verdict will be, or what the sentence to be pronounced. That verdict and sentence will not depend upon the words spoken by witnesses. The facts of their character will be at once verdict and sentence. The Judge will pronounce upon them the sentence which they have already pronounced upon themselves by their choice. This principle is revealed in Matthew’s account of the judgment of the nations (see chap. 25). The King will say not, “Cursed are ye”—He has never pronounced such a curse at all, but “Depart, ye cursed”—cursed before the word is spoken. How cursed? Cursed by their own choice, by taking into their own life the forces of evil; by surrendering themselves to the forces that make for evil; and so rendering themselves insensible to the need of the suffering “least of His brethren”: cursed, not by God, but by themselves: literally suicides, because they have yielded themselves to the awful forces that mar and spoil human nature. “Come, ye blessed”: not “Blessed are ye”; but “Ye are blessed by your own choice.” To those that choose, in the probation of grace, the forces that make and remake and build, God extends the sweet invitation of His “Come”; but to the others He gives the terrible command to “Depart” No witnesses will be called; for all souls will stand naked in the presence of the Judge, and will come to the judgment-seat with sentence already decided by the deliberate choice of their own free will. We are on our way straight to the place of judgment; and, of our own choice, deliberately move to the right or to the left. There is to be no selective separation by Divinity. There is to be selective separation by the spirits of men and women themselves. “He that is righteous, let him be righteous still; but he that is unrighteous, let him be unrighteous still.” And a man is righteous because he has yielded himself to the forces of righteousness; or, he is unrighteous because he has yielded himself to the forces of unrighteousness. Thus we build our character, and create our own destiny, and prepare our own eternity. III In these busy days that seem to come and go with ever-increasing rapidity, and which we treat as though they were opportunities for the indulgence of carnal appetites merely, you hear men talk about “killing time.” Oh, better kill anything than time; better waste anything than the moments lit as yet with the light of hope; better fritter away any wealth that happens to be in your possession, than these days overflowing with the grace and tenderness of God; for every day is an opportunity to choose, and each choice is the building of another stone into the foundation work, on which eternity will erect the structure, a structure true to the character of the foundation laid. Is it not true that at the judgment-throne of Jesus Christ all extenuating circumstances will be taken into account? Assuredly it is! The greatest joy I have as I look upon that judgment-throne is the joy that comes from the certainty that I shall be judged, not upon testimony received, but on the essential facts of my life and choice. No single factor which has made it difficult or easy for me to choose will be left out of account. The place of my birth, my parentage, the opportunities granted, the use made of them—everything will be taken into account, and the bases of judgment for men and women dwelling in these lands of privilege, and for those living in the heart of heathen countries, will be the same in this sense, that God will judge men righteously and justly, according to the opportunities they have had. It is that very identity of eternal justice which will differentiate between the responsibilities of the one class and of the other. God will not expect from that man who has never heard the sound of Jesus’ name, the same report of himself at the Great White Throne as He will from you, who have been familiar with Him. Certainly, extenuating circumstances will be taken into account; but, remember this: Jesus said, speaking of the Spirit, “When He is come, He will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” Now, that is one of the phrases which is perpetually misquoted. Almost every one puts in two words which rob it of its force and meaning. People say, “Of righteousness, and of judgment to come.” The judgment of which He spoke was not to come, but judgment accomplished: “The prince of this world is judged.” When, therefore, we speak of this as the day of grace, let us remember, it is the day of grace because judgment is pronounced already upon evil, by the victory of Jesus. If we deliberately make choice of evil, then must we share the judgment passed upon evil now, at the Great White Throne, and forever; but if we choose to yield to the authority of the Vanquisher of evil, then are we lifted into the sphere of His resurrection life, which is the life of absolute victory over all the forces that are against us. How does this affect the plea of extenuating circumstances? If a man is to set up this plea he must apply it, not to half the case, but to the whole; not merely to the forces that were against, but also to those which were for him. The man who pleads extenuating circumstances, and who continues in his wrongdoing because of that plea, by that very action makes it impossible that those extenuating circumstances should be allowed. What would you say of a man who, tempted to the breaking of the law of the land, says, “I am driven to this crime; it will be all right, the judge will take into account the extenuating circumstances, and, therefore, I will do it”? The judge would say, “By that deliberate choice, you denied the extenuating circumstances; for had they been, the act would have been sudden and swift, and repented of.” He that chooses deliberately to do wrong, because of excuses he may be able to plead, proves there was no necessity for the wrongful act. The man who has time to calculate upon extenuating circumstances has more than time to put himself into treaty and contact with the forces of grace, which are superior to all such circumstances. God can excuse no man who, pleading excuses in order that he may do these evil things, does not tell the whole story of the case. The strict justice that will make all allowance, also demands that we shall make full use of the forces that God has put into operation for us, and which lie close to our hand. There is no thought of the future so full of solemn heart-searching power as this of permanence of character. Do you choose impurity in any of its forms? Then you choose it, not for to-day, but forever. Do you choose purity at any cost? Then you choose it, not for to-day, but forever. The issue of this momentous choice lies beyond all time and all scenes that fade. How this lifts my present life into the most lurid and awful light! What am I here for? I am here that I may prepare for all that lies beyond. What does to-morrow bring to me? Business hours, do you say? Opportunities for hard work, and beyond that, rest? Nay, verily: to-morrow brings, if its light shall dawn, further hours to choose, not for to-day, but forever. I choose as I stand here in the pulpit. You choose as you sit in the pews. And our choice does not end with the selection of this or of that, it runs out into the eternities. The ultimate issue of every action of every day is not what it seems to be in the view of men and women whose vision is bounded by the horizon of probational life; but the true issue of these doings of to-day is the character that exists hereafter. Have I, then, to build my own character, to construct my own eternity, to make for myself my heaven or my hell? Assuredly I have! Then how long will God give me in which to do it? How long will He allow me in which to build and create that destiny? Not an hour; not a moment. Now is the only word that God speaks to human souls. “But,” you say, “I cannot build character in an hour; I cannot undo what has been done in the past in a moment. How can I?” Now! It is here to undo or do; to break down or to build up. In God’s now, ever present with you, never far away, this moment you can will. Beyond that you can do nothing. But in the plan of God that is enough! You will, and force responds to your will. You say, “I will take the way of sin”; and immediately all the disintegrating forces of sin begin to play with your moral fibre and rob you of the force to will anything but that which you have now “willed.” Or, you say, “I will be righteous,” and then the stronger forces of grace begin their work upon you; to build up where you have broken down; to repair the ruined structure of your character: and so every moment is a moment in which I am to will, and every crisis is a crisis in which I am to will; and to my will respond forces of evil or forces of righteousness, according to the way I will. How, then, shall we “will”? There, on the one hand, stretches the path—easy and flowery and filled with music, so men tell us—a path that needs no heroism. If I will that, then that is the issue as well as the crisis: and away to the other side stretches the path that is rough and thorny—so men tell us—the path that demands nerve, and is shadowed with conflict and strife. If I will that, then that is the issue as well as the crisis. But that is not the true story of either of these paths. I have simply for a moment taken the popular conception of them. Hear another story of this path, so flowery and radiant with light and color, and vibrating with music. “The way of transgressors is hard”—not the end of it, but the way itself. Hunger, dissatisfaction, disappointments, are its concomitants; and the soul is never at rest. Well, if I choose it, that is the issue as well as the crisis. What of this other path? It is the path of perfect peace, where harmony is substituted for strife, and the storms are swallowed up in peace, “the peace of God which passeth all understanding”; and if I will that, that is the issue as well as the crisis. The one leads to the everlasting hunger, and the other to the everlasting rest. God, in Christ, bends over man in infinite pity—over the man whom He has created in His own image, endowing him with power to will, and He says, “Wilt thou be made whole?” and I turn my back to the allurements of this side that leads to evil and to hunger, and I say, “O Nazarene, Thou hast conquered by an infinitude of love; and if out of the wreckage of my life Thou canst create character that abides, I give myself to Thee, and I ‘will’ to follow Thee.” That path leads right on to the eternal rest. I choose in the pulpit; and you cannot help me. You must choose in the pew; and I cannot help you. God help preacher and people alike to choose aright. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 85: 09.00. LIVING MESSAGESS OF THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE ======================================================================== Living Messages of the Books of The Bible GENESIS TO MALACHI BY G. Campbell Morgan, D. D. Copyright © 1912 by Fleming H. Revell Company ~ out-of-print and in the public domain ~ No Evidence of a Current Copyright for the Printed Book Found This book was originally published prior to 1924, it is therefore in the public domain and free to be posted in its entirety despite recent publication. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1. Genesis 2. Exodus 3. Leviticus 4. Numbers 5. Deuteronomy 6. Joshua 7. Judges 8. Ruth 9. 1 Samuel 10. 2 Samuel 11. 1 Kings 12. 2 Kings 13. 1 Chronicles 14. 2 Chronicles 15. Ezra 16. Nehemiah 17. Esther 18. Job 19. Psalter 20. Proverbs 21. Ecclesiastes 22. Song of Songs 23. Isaiah 24. Jeremiah 25. Ezekiel 26. Daniel 27. Hosea 28. Joel 29. Amos 30. Obadiah 31. Jonah 32. Micah 33. Nahum 34. Habakkuk 35. Zephaniah 36. Haggai 37. Zechariah 38. Malachi ======================================================================== CHAPTER 86: 09.000. INTRODUCTION ======================================================================== INTRODUCTION WITH regard to the Scriptures of the Old Testament, Paul wrote, "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope." He thus clearly revealed the true mission of these sacred writings in our day, as he declared that they "were written for our learning, that we might have hope." Their mission is that of teaching, in order to the inspiration of hope. This view of the value of the Old Testament Scriptures reveals a most important conception of their nature. The apostle did not suggest that the writers of olden times wrote with the men of later ages in their thought. They wrote for their own age, and for the men by whom they were surrounded. Nevertheless the apostle declared that these things were written for us. It is evident, therefore, that he believed that behind the authors there was an Author; that encompassing the minds of the men who wrote in different places, and at different times, was one master Mind; and that this Author had in view not only the age in which these things were written, but all successive ages. The peculiar value of these ancient writings for the present time is that they inspire hope in those who read. Hope is an attitude of mind in the midst of conflict, danger, and difficulty. In the age of GOD’s ultimate victory, hope will be changed into sight and possession. What a man sees, he no longer hopes for. The sacred writings of the Hebrew people contain the stories of men in the midst of conflict and peril, reveal the confidences that filled them with hope, tell of the victories they won, of the defeats they suffered; and the supreme value of these Scriptures is that they create hope for those who are still upon the pilgrimage, who are still in the thick of the battle, who are still carrying on the work of building. The words and works of GOD in ancient times, the victories men won, and the defeats they suffered, all serve to fill the heart with hope, as they reveal the way of victory, and utter the word of warning. The apostle with equal clearness revealed the method by which the Scriptures of the old economy fulfilled this mission. This is indicated by the words "patience and comfort," which speak of endurance encouragement. The meaning of endurance is perhaps best illustrated for us by the eleventh chapter of the letter to the Hebrews. To read that chapter is to pass in review the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures. The great outstanding names are mentioned, and others are referred to, whose names are not given. Throughout the whole chapter, faith is revealed as the principle of victory. All these men are seen passing through circumstances of difficulty and of danger, with their eyes set upon an ultimate purpose, which they supremely desired to be accomplished. None of them reached the ultimate goal, but they died contented, having seen it from afar, and having endured, in their movement towards it, "as seeing Him Who is invisible." The final declaration of the chapter shows that the men of faith to-day are in the same process. Referring to those named, the writer said, "These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." (Hebrews 11:39-40) Thus the things written aforetime produce in the minds of those who are continuing the conflict the quality of endurance. The word encouragement is perhaps even more full of suggestiveness. It is closely allied to the word in the New Testament which is used of the HOLY SPIRIT, the word Paraclete. All the spacious value of the word Paraclete, as used of the HOLY SPIRIT, is contained in the word encouragement when used in reference to the Scriptures of truth. It suggests appeal and advocacy. The things written aforetime make their perpetual appeal to men as they advocate the true principle of life in the midst of conflict. To summarize, the Scriptures of the Old Testament were written by many men in varied circumstances. These men were thinking in all probability, for the most part, of their own age. They wrote songs of their own sorrows and aspirations. They wrote the history of their own times, declaring the faults and sins of the people, as well as their victories. These things they wrote for their own age. That, however, is not all the story. Encompassing them, teaching, guiding, instructing, was the One Who knew all the ages, and saw the long process clearly to the consummation; and therefore they contain living messages to us. In these writings of the old economy the final message is not to be found, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds" (Hebrews 1:1-2). The final message is the word of the Son, and in it all those of the past merge into perfect harmony; yet these things written aforetime help us to understand more perfectly the allinclusive message of the Son. From this general study we may now make certain deductions which will have a direct bearing upon this series of studies in the messages of the Old Testament. As to origin we believe the Old Testament Scriptures to be human in workmanship, but Divine in compulsion. The holy men of old wrote with perfect naturalness things of their own age, but they wrote better and more comprehensively than they knew. Any careful study of the New Testament will show how these writers perpetually quoted from the Old in such a manner as to show that its statements were more full of meaning than the men who wrote them knew. The quotation immediately preceding the passage which we have been considering is a remarkable illustration of this fact. "The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me " was a human statement describing a then present experience. Yet the writer was guided, perhaps all unconsciously, by the great master Mind, in order that ultimately the final and supreme suffering should be more perfectly understood. Wherever there is Divine compulsion behind human workmanship, that workmanship becomes more than human; it is Divine. As to history, we believe the Old Testament to be accurate in statement and faithful in presentation. Again, to take one illustration, we believe that the Hebrew race, which, having lost its nationality, has never been overwhelmed by, or absorbed into, other races, sprang from that one man who was the friend of GOD, and who at His call went forth from his own land a pilgrim of faith. We moreover believe that the present "scattered and peeled " condition of that race is the direct outcome of the sins and failures chronicled accurately and faithfully in the Old Testament. As to religion, we believe the Old Testament to be a foreshadowing of, and process towards, the ultimate revelation which is contained in the New Testament. CHRIST Himself is the Goal towards which all the religious thinking of the Old Testament Scriptures moves. Finality in religion is not found in the things written aforetime. The symbolism of the ancient worship is a foreshadowing of that which is to come after. - The messages of the prophets and psalmists are whispers which merge into perfect music only when the Son Who is in the bosom of the Father declares the GOD Who has never been seen. - All the highways through the centuries lead on towards the city, but the city itself, the city of GOD, can only be built by the King Himself. From the darkness, through the twilight, men moved towards the perfect light. Through all the ages GOD followed His perpetual method, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. Through all the centuries He said in effect to men what CHRIST actually said to His disciples: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." Thus, quietly and surely, if slowly, GOD moved on to the final Word, Who was made flesh. We do not go back to the Old Testament to find the religion of to-day. We do go to it to discover the highways which led to finality in religion. As to value, we therefore believe the Old Testament Scriptures to be a revelation of GOD and man preparatory to the final revelation of the New. To read the Old Testament writings from Genesis to Malachi, and to have no acquaintance with the New, is still to be imperfectly acquainted with GOD and man. - At the heart of the Old Testament may be found the insignificant "What is man?" - At the heart of the New is the great exclamation, "Behold the Man." Yet the Old is of value as it reveals clearly the true principle of human life, the real reason of human sorrow, all the highways that lead towards human redemption. So also the revelation of GOD in the Old Testament is valuable, but incomplete. He is introduced by the simple statement of His infinite Majesty as Creator. In the presence of that first statement man stands a submissive worshipper, but yet without any intimate knowledge of GOD. The Word must become flesh, must be seen, be looked upon, be handled, be touched, ere man will know GOD. The chief value of the revelation of man and of GOD in the Old Testament is that it makes perfectly clear man’s need for GOD, and GOD’s method with man. Yet it leaves us crying with Job for a "Daysman" able to put His hand upon man in his helplessness, and upon GOD in His holiness, and make them both one. Recognizing these values and limitations of the Old Testament Scriptures, we proceed to our study, upon the assumption that every book has some direct and living message having application not to its own age merely, but to every succeeding one. The principles abide; their applications vary with the varying ages. We desire, then, in our new series to discover in each book the central truth, and to make application of it to the age in which we live. The method to be followed, therefore, will be that of stating the permanent values, and from these deducing the living message. end of introduction *** ======================================================================== CHAPTER 87: 09.01. GENESIS ======================================================================== CHAPTER ONE THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS A. THE PERMANENT VALUES THE LIVING MESSAGE 1. Theology I. GOD and Man are Intimately related. The Science of GOD. i. GOD created Man in His own Image 2. Cosmogony ii. GOD governs Man for Man’s own Good. The Science of the Universe. iii. GOD loves Man. 3. Anthropology The Science of Man. II. Man realizes his own Life by Faith in 4. Sociology GOD. The Science of Society. i. Faith the simple Law of Life. 5. Hamartiology ii. Failure in Faith is Failure in Life. The Science of Sin. iii. Faith may differ in expression. 6. Ethnology Abraham, Obedient. The Science of Races. Isaac, Passive.. 7. Soteriology Jacob, Restless The Science of Salvation. NOTE: Faith is the basis upon which GOD can work out His will in man, NOTE: These subjects are dealt with in and man can work out his salvation Genesis fundamentally, and not finally. from GOD. IT is perpetually being asked to-day whether there are any permanent values in the book of Genesis. In the light of later revelation is there any reason for retaining this book, except, perhaps, that of interest in an ancient writing which has yet no vital relationship to our own times? In answer to that enquiry it may at once be stated that the whole system of the Christian religion depends upon the accuracy of certain statements made in this book. Without them that system is an erection without a foundation, conclusions without premises. These declarations, at once the simplest and the profoundest in the book, constitute its permanent values, not merely because all subsequent Scripture depends upon them; but also because if there were no other writings, these statements supply us with answers to questions which must arise to the thinking mind. The permanent values may be stated briefly and concisely, in order that the living message may be deduced therefrom. There can be little doubt that there are very many people who have no particular desire to destroy the book of Genesis, who are interested in it as a collection of stories, having been familiar with it from childhood, who have, nevertheless, never realized of what vital importance it is, and how much it contains of supreme value. Its values may thus be technically tabulated. The book contains the foundation truths of: - theology, - cosmogony, - anthropology, - sociology, - hamartiology, - ethnology, - soteriology. These words are used with the express purpose of indicating the profound conviction that Genesis is preeminently a scientific book. None of these subjects are dealt with finally, but all are presented fundamentally. Genesis supplies men with the rudiments of the science of GOD. - It offers a theory of the origin of the universe. - It says the first thing concerning the science of man. - It lays the foundations of the science of society. - It reveals the simplest matters of the science of sin. - It introduces the study of the science of races. - Finally, it presents the initial truths concerning the science of salvation. The essential value of the book is the fundamental character of its teaching on all these matters. Its declarations meet us at the point where knowledge, proceeding along the line of investigation, fails; and present truths undiscovered by investigation. Investigation is a perfectly proper exercise of the human mind. All that men are doing in their attempt to discover the underlying secrets of nature and life is in harmony with the purpose of GOD in the creation of human intellect. It is nevertheless conceded that man ever arrives at a point beyond which he is unable to go. It is at this point that Genesis speaks in the terms of revelations made to man, rather than a record of discoveries made by man. Processes and consummations will be dealt with in subsequent revelation, or discovered by further investigation. To possess the book of Genesis alone is not to be acquainted with the final truth on any of the subjects named. It is to have the initial word which no subsequent discoveries contradict, and without which all later declarations are meaningless. In order to illustrate this let us pass over the ground in briefest statement by enquiring what the book supplies in each department, and what are the things lacking. As to theology. Genesis presents GOD as Creator, King, and determined Redeemer; and upon these fundamental facts all Christian theology depends. -The nature of GOD is not revealed. - His methods are not declared. - His ultimate purpose is not stated. As to cosmogony. Genesis declares that the whole universe has come into being by the will and act of GOD. The hall-mark of the Divine handiwork is upon every blade of grass and upon every flaming constellation. Nothing is stated in detail concerning - the process of creation, or - the period occupied, or - the ultimate purpose. As to anthropology. Genesis teaches that man is a mingling of dust and Deity by the will and act of GOD; a being placed under authority, and having dominion over all things beneath him: a being responsible, therefore, to GOD. - Nothing is said concerning the laws which regulate the interaction of the physical and the psychical. - Nothing is declared concerning man’s ultimate destiny. As to sociology. Genesis reveals the truth that the first circle of society is the family, based upon the marriage relationship; and that the true nation is made up of families which recognize their inter-responsibility under the Divine government. The application of these principles to varied and complex conditions is not to be found in this book. As to hamartiology. Genesis affirms that sin in the case of man is failure of faith in the goodness of GOD, and consequent rebellion against His government. The ultimate issues of sin in individual destiny are not declared. As to ethnology. Genesis records the breakup of the unity of the race, following upon an attempted confederacy of godlessness. The ultimate issue in its scattering is not described. As to soteriology. Genesis makes it perfectly plain that human salvation must come from GOD, and through man. In whispers and symbols and shadows, man is taught that having sinned, his only hope is that GOD will be his Redeemer. Nothing is distinctly said concerning the method or finality. To deny the accuracy of these fundamental statements is to lose the meaning of all subsequent teaching. If GOD is not Creator, King, and Redeemer, there is no resting place for man other than the restlessness of agnosticism. On the way to agnosticism, human speculations may retain the name of religion; but the logical outcome of the denial of these fundamental assertions concerning GOD is denial of the existence of GOD. To deny what this book teaches concerning the origin of the universe is to be compelled to attempt to account for the things seen by some undefined action and interaction within the universe, which has behind it no personality. To deny that man is a mysterious mingling of dust and Deity by the will and act of GOD is necessarily to be compelled to think of him as the last product of animal evolution; and therefore as himself an animal, and nothing more. If the teaching be denied that human society is founded on the family, and based upon the marriage relationship, then sociology becomes chaotic, and spurious socialism denies the sanctity of or necessity for the marriage relationship. If the teaching be incorrect that sin is rebellion against GOD, based upon unbelief, then necessarily the terms in which it has been described by the Christian faith must be modified, until eventually it is declared to be nonexistent, none other than the under side of good. Failure to accept the teaching that national divisions are finally the outcome of a false attempt at unity, based upon self-sufficient rebellion against GOD, must ultimately result in affirming those divisions to be good which, nevertheless, have been productive of all wars and kindred evils. To deny the suggestions concerning human salvation as possible only through the intervention of GOD is ultimately to abandon the idea of salvation as either unnecessary or altogether impossible. There is a sense in which these things do not constitute the message of this book to our own age, although they do constitute its permanent values. For the sake of argument, let us suppose that this book is the only inspired word ever given to man. What is its ultimate message? It teaches with unvarying definiteness - first, the immediate relation between GOD and man; and - secondly, that the great principle for the realization of human life is such faith in GOD as expresses itself in obedience to His throne. This book of first things declares the immediate relation between GOD and man. It is perfectly true that subsequent books state this more fully, and deal with it more explicitly. When we pass from the sublime stateliness of these original statements, through the giving of the law, the establishing of worship; through the thunder of the prophets, and the wailing minor threnody of their pleadings with humanity; and still on to the matchless and final splendour of the brief words spoken by the Man of Galilee; through the unveiling of the meaning of these words by the Spirit, in the apostolic writings, we find this truth wrought out in greater detail and with mightier force. Nevertheless, all that the law indicated, all that the prophets enforced, all that JESUS said, and all that the apostles expounded, depend absolutely for accuracy upon the teaching of this truth as contained in this book. If that first fact of man’s relationship to GOD is not established, then everything that followed was false dreaming, mistaken enthusiasm, or mischievous vaporizing. The three main divisions of the book, as indicated in the study of its content are: - Generation, - Degeneration, - Regeneration. It is at once evident that the supreme message every where is that GOD has to do with man; man has to do with GOD. In the first division we see the story of creation, tracing everything from the material order to man, and then describing man as to his nature and office; and behind all the processes of creation suggested, GOD is declared; and immediately presiding over the final movement by which man appears, GOD is seen. That is the first great truth. Man is related to GOD, for He created him, and He alone perfectly understands him, and consequently He only can govern him. The message of Genesis to our own age is, first of all, that of man’s immediate relation to GOD. We need Genesis because it is difficult sometimes to believe that any such relation exists. We look into the faces of men and women, the flotsam and jetsam of our great cities, at both ends of the social scale, and there seems to be no trace of Deity. If in that statement there seems to be something of personal satisfaction, it is by no means intended. Therefore let a personal word be spoken. To look into one’s own heart is to find it most difficult to believe that man is "offspring of GOD." Nevertheless, when this book affirms that GOD said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," and that He made him to have dominion; that He placed him in circumstances where he should be reminded of his relation to GOD, and called upon to respond thereto; I know that I am reading the deepest truth of my own life. This conception of the relation between man and GOD creates that consciousness of what sin is, which fills the soul with fear. The determined prostitution of powers which are akin to GOD, to purposes of evil, is terrible indeed; and this message concerning the true nature of man must create a profound conviction of the awfulness of sin. It is, nevertheless, a message of hope, for it suggests the possibility of renewal. - to be without GOD is indeed to be without hope. - to believe the truth that man is related to GOD is to know the renewal of hope. In this first message then, there is thunder, but in it there are also tears. It is because man loses his sense of essential relation to GOD that sin and sorrow continue. If we could say to the men of this age, in His image, after His likeness, as we ought, there would necessarily follow the profoundest and deepest conviction of sin, and the most genuine return to Him; and therefore to holiness of character, and righteousness of life. The second message is an inevitable sequence of the first. It is, indeed, a corollary, something which is inseparable therefrom. As man is related to GOD by creation and government, it follows that the true secret for the realization of his life is that of faith, which expresses itself in obedience. This is at once taught as we pass into the second division of the book, that dealing with Degeneration. Man’s confidence in GOD was first shaken when the enemy said, "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden?" and declared, "Ye shall not surely die." He called in question the goodness and truth of GOD, and thereby attacked the confidence of a human being. When faith wavered, through listening to a slander upon GOD, the issue was an act of disobedience. Faith and obedience are always joined together. "Trust and obey, For there’s no other way" may be so simple a statement as to be considered doggerel rather than poetry. It is, nevertheless, the philosophy of Genesis, and of the Christian religion. When trust failed, obedience ceased; and immediately there passed over all life a blasting and a mildew, and humanity failed to realize itself. Thus the fundamental truth is taught that man can only realize his own God-created life by trusting GOD, and walking in the way of His commandment. In the final division of the book, that dealing with the beginnings of Regeneration, the principal subject is that of the life stories of individual and representative men, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Throughout all these the supreme revelation is that of GOD seeking to restore men to obedience by restoring them to the main principle of human life, that of faith in Himself. Faith is seen having different methods of expression. - in the case of Abraham, seven communications were made to him, and his faith was always obedient without questioning. - two communications were made to Isaac, whose faith was passive. To him GOD spoke merely by way of ratification. - five communications were made to Jacob, whose faith was restless; and these always came after a period of wandering, in order to restore him. The one principle is found in all; - in Abraham an obedient faith, - in Isaac a passive faith, - in Jacob a restless faith; and because that principle was present, GOD was able to work for the remaking of these men, and they were able to find their way back into conscious relationship with Him. Thus the book reveals the fact that faith is the basis upon which GOD can work His will in man, and upon which man can realize the will of GOD. All this is carried out in greater detail in subsequent books of the Bible, but this is the simple and almost overwhelming message of Genesis to the men of this age. - first, that man is not wholly of the dust, but that between him and GOD there is immediateness of relationship; and - secondly, that man only finds himself, and realizes the true meaning of his own life as he places his confidence in GOD, and obeys Him with unquestioning loyalty. Hear, then, the final message of the book. Oh, man, thou art of GOD. Thou canst only enter into thine own life and realize it as thy confidence is reposed in Him, and thy obedience is yielded to Him. That is the truth which this book utters to all men as a philosophy of life. To those who have fallen, and are excluded from their own life because they are out of fellowship with GOD, it declares that as they return to the principle of faith in GOD, they will find their feet placed again upon the highway that leads them home. Not that they will be able to rebuild the ruined temple, or reconstruct the wasted years, but He will be able to do these things when they trust and obey. The book of Genesis declares that the just shall live by faith. Without faith it is impossible to please GOD. These principles underlie every story, and constitute the living message of the whole book. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 88: 09.02. EXODUS ======================================================================== CHAPTER TWO THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS A. THE PERMANENT VALUES B. THE LIVING MESSAGE I. The Divine Method with the Race, I. The Sovereignty of God and the Responsibility of the Race i. The Method. i. His Righteousness. a. The Creation of a Testimony. a. In Purpose. b. The Guarding of the Testimony. b. In Plan. ii. The Responsibility. ii. His Judgment. a. Created by the Testimony. a. Wisdom. b. Limited by the Testimony. b. Power. II. The Divine Method with the Instrument, II. The Salvation of Man and the Responsibility of the Instrument i. The Method. i. Worship. a. A progressive Revelation of Himself. a. GOD at Center. b. A direct and minute Administration b. Life concentric of Affairs. ii. Obedience. ii. The Responsibilities. a. Simple and complete. a. Worship. b. Against Opposition. b. Obedience. III. The Divine Method with the Individual, and the Responsibility of the Individual i. The Method. a. Opportunities for Choice. b. Ratification of Choice. ii. The Responsibilities. a. Choice. b. Creation of Destiny. IN the book of Exodus nothing is commenced, nothing is finished. To read it, having no acquaintance with the book preceding it, or with those following, would be to be conscious of incompleteness. The first word "Now" immediately suggests relation to something which has gone before. The last phrase, "Throughout all their journeys," connects with what is to follow, for the book contains no account of the journeys referred to. These facts help us to understand the message of the book. It is a part of a larger whole, and its supreme value is its revelation of the procedure of GOD in human history. There are two ways in which we may consider the story it tells. We may think of it as a record of the doings of men, or as the record of the doings of GOD. To adopt the former method is to be impressed with the sense of failure. The story of Moses is one of failure and weakness, save when he was victorious and strong as the result of his relationship to GOD. The greatness of the man can only be accounted for in that illuminative, word of the psalmist, "Thy gentleness hath made me great." Aaron is a perpetual revelation of weakness. The story of the people is one of unceasing failure, caused by their inability to rise to the height of the revelations they received, and manifest in their eager haste to confess themselves able to keep the commandments of GOD, and their equally eager haste to break those commandments. To take the other standpoint, that of the Divine procedure, is to discover the line of progress, and to observe the method by which GOD was moving forward towards the accomplishment of an ultimate purpose. Thus the chief value of the book is its revelation of the fact that human progress has ever been the result of the grace and the patience of GOD. Its permanent values, then, are its revelations of the methods of GOD, and the responsibilities of man. Let us consider these values, and from them deduce the living message of the book. The principles of the Divine procedure are eternally the same. His methods change as they follow the law of adaptation to new ages, and consequently new requirements. In this book we are observing these methods in their earliest stages; and we shall notice them in three particulars which may thus be stated. - the Divine method with the race, and the responsibility of the race in the light thereof. - the Divine method with the instrument, and the responsibility of that instrument. - the Divine method with the individual, and the responsibility of the individual. As to the Divine method with the race. This book is the story of the nation. In our analysis it has been termed the emergence of the nation. In the final division of Genesis, that of Regeneration, we have the account of the calling of a man, the creation of a family, and the multiplication of the families; until at its close we see a multitude of people in the land of Goshen, their moral fiber being tempered by suffering; as yet without national consciousness or national power. In Exodus the story of the emergence of this multitude into a nation is told. - its first division reveals a people in bondage; - its second tells the story of deliverance from bondage, by the hand of GOD; and - its last gives an account of their organization into national life. It is important that we should understand the meaning of the creation of this nation. It cannot be too often emphasized that it was not the election of a nation from among others in order that upon that nation GOD might lavish His love while He abandoned the others. The purpose of GOD was far wider than that of the creation of this nation; it was that of the creation of a testimony through this nation, for the sake of the others. The Divine intention was the creation of a people who under His government should reveal in the world the breadth and beauty and beneficence of that government; a people who, gathered in their national life about His throne and His altar, obeying His commands and worshipping Him, should reveal to outside nations the meaning of the Kingship of GOD. It was not the selection of a pet, but the creation of a pattern. The story, then, of the nation is that of the creation of a testimony, and the Divine ensurance of its proclamation through both the failure and the success of the people. The method is to human seeming a long and tedious one, but it is the only one possible. It is that which GOD has ever followed. He constantly embodies a truth in an instrument; either a man, a society, or a nation; in order that other men, other societies, other nations may understand it. The responsibilities of the races, in the midst of which the testimony is borne, are created and limited by that testimony. The method of GOD with the instrument was that of progressive revelation of Himself. That movement is clearly marked in this book of Exodus. The first distinct revelation was that made to a man by the mystery of the burning bush and the declaration, "I AM"; the vision of a bush ablaze with fire, and yet not consumed: a voice declaring essential being, and giving no explanation. A little further on there was a further unveiling of the meaning of the first word, "I AM," in the exposition of the values of the name JEHOVAH. That great name had been known as a name, but its intention had not been understood. This truth was revealed to Moses in a passage full of beauty, which opens and closes with the simple declaration, "I am the Lord"; and in its course affirms His power to lead His people out, and to bring them in. That is to say, the name was explained as revealing the fact of GOD’s ability to become to His people whatever their need demanded. For a clear statement of the values of the name JEHOVAH the student may with profit turn to the article in the Emphasized Bible Mr. Rotherham. This was the second stage of Divine Self-revelation to this people. The "I AM" of the burning bush, full of infinite majesty, in the presence of which man could only worship, was now seen to be the One who becomes what His people need, the One who enters into all their circumstances with them, in strong ability. Later on, after the deliverance, and as the work of organization was about to commence, GOD revealed Himself to them as the GOD of grace in His declaration, "Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people . . . and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation." Almost immediately following, and with startling suddenness there is a further revelation as He manifested Himself as the GOD of law. The people imagined they were able to keep the covenant He proposed to make with them. They did not know their own weakness, and consequently, almost immediately after He had spoken of making them His own peculiar treasure, the word went forth which commanded that they should not be allowed to touch the mountain from the midst of which the thunder of His law was to be uttered. Yet again, Moses and the elders were permitted to go into the very presence of GOD. There is perhaps no more wonderful chapter in the whole book than that which gives the account of how these men saw GOD while "He laid not His hand" upon them. There is no description of what they saw, but they saw Him. Thus they came one step further along the line of revelation, and discovered that the infinite mystery of the Being of the burning bush was also personal, in some such way that they might see and eat in His presence, while they were unable to describe what they had seen. The personality of GOD was not there fully unveiled. All its deepest meaning was not yet revealed; but the fact was declared and made real to the consciousness. Still later to Moses, on behalf of the people, the Lord proclaimed the glory of His essential nature, in that matchless passage: "The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation" (Exodus 34:6-7) Finally, the overwhelming and stupendous fact of the glory of GOD was demonstrated in the hour when, the tabernacle having been reared according to pattern, the Divine presence filled it, and the priests were unable to stand and minister in His presence. This rapid survey helps us to see that while all the details, such as the technicalities of the legal code, and the minutiae of the instructions concerning the construction of the tabernacle, are important, the supreme method of GOD in dealing with the instrument through which He should reveal Himself among the nations was that of unveiling the truth concerning Himself to them, ever leading them a little deeper into the mystery, giving them some new gleam of its light, offering them fresh unveilings, and so conducting them into higher realms of spiritual apprehension. Side by side with this unveiling of Himself, His method is seen to be that of direct and minute administration of the affairs of their lives. The responsibility of the instrument may now be stated in the briefest way as twofold; that, namely, of worship and obedience. Finally, Exodus reveals the Divine method with, and the consequent responsibility of, the individual. There are two notable illustrations - Pharaoh and Moses. GOD’s method with each was the same, while the issue was different. The case of Pharaoh is that of a man strong, acute, but rebellious - a man who acted wholly by sight and upon the basis of policy. GOD’s attitude towards him was that of giving him every opportunity to make his own choice, and work it out into destiny. His method with Moses was the same. He was a man strong, capable, and obedient. Instead of acting by sight, and on the basis of policy, he "endured as seeing Him who is invisible," and thus lived and triumphed by faith. With him the dealings of GOD were ever those of a great patience as He led him on, step by step, until His gentleness had made him great. - GOD’s patience condemned Pharaoh. - GOD’s patience crowned Moses. The Divine method with these two representative men, both of them notable leaders, was that of giving each man his opportunity of choice; not leaving him wholly to the dictates of his own lust and desire, but attempting, by patience and persuasion, to direct his choice. Therefore human responsibility is clearly revealed to be that of choice, and ultimately, therefore, that of the creation of destiny. The history of these two men is indeed a remarkable revelation of abiding truth. - one faulty, failing, sometimes even cowardly, rose into a strange dignity and nobleness of character, because he chose to submit to the government of GOD. - the other strong, astute, moved with determination towards destruction, not because GOD elected him to destruction, but because he refused GOD’s ministry and patience, and the prolonged opportunity which was given to him. The living message of Exodus is twofold. - it reveals the fact of the sovereignty of GOD, and - the true method for the saving of men. In Genesis we found the fundamental revelation of man’s immediate relationship to GOD, and the declaration that faith is the one principle by which man may realize his life. These same truths are in Exodus, but with a changed emphasis. The GOD to whom man is related is declared to be Sovereign. Man in his failure is taught that his faith must express itself in worship and obedience. The whole truth concerning GOD revealed in the book of Exodus may be expressed concisely in the stately language of the psalmist: "Clouds and darkness are round about Him: Righteousness and judgment are the habitation [foundation] of His throne." The two words by the use of which the psalmist describes the throne of GOD are most suggestive - "righteousness and judgment." These are the two elements in the method of GOD with His people which are clearly revealed in the book of Exodus, and which in combination constitute the foundation of His throne. The meaning of righteousness is so apparent as to need little explanation. Perhaps its value in this connection may be more clearly seen by abbreviating the word. To omit the central syllable is to have the word, rightness; and once again, to drop the final one is to have the simple word, right. As a matter of fact, this is the simple and essential meaning of the Hebrew word. Right, then, is one element in the strength of the foundation of the throne of GOD. This whole book delivers that message with unvarying insistence. The government of GOD is right, in purpose and in method. In its operation there is no deviation from that which is strictly, absolutely, eternally. essentially right. The other word "judgment" helps to an understanding of the word right. We are in perpetual danger of misinterpreting the meaning of judgment by emphasizing only one of its values. The Hebrew word translated "judgment" literally means verdict. That by no means expresses all the values which by use it came to represent. It does, however, suggest the root principle that lies within it - that, namely, of discrimination. This particular word signifying verdict comes from another which means to judge, to come to a decision, to find a verdict, to pronounce sentence. For our understanding of the intention of the great declaration we may with advantage make use of a word which at first seems to be entirely foreign, but which in reality catches the very heart of the meaning - the word method. Righteousness and method are the foundation of His throne. We all use the word judgment in that sense in regard to our fellow men, and in so doing are more true to its real intention than we are when we use it in regard to GOD, as though it simply indicated His punishment of man. Of some man whom we hold in high esteem we say that he is a man of rare judgment. That is the true use of the word. We do not mean by that that his one characteristic is that of visiting evil with punishment, although we do know that the man of true judgment will be angry with wrong. The fact that GOD is a GOD of judgment does most certainly include within it the truth that He is angry in the presence of wrong; and moreover, that He will visit upon sin His hot indignation. The supreme demonstration of this truth, as of all others, is to be found in CHRIST, who was capable of saying, "Depart, ye cursed," as surely as "Come, ye blessed." Judgment, however, means that, and infinitely more. Taken in conjunction with righteousness, it shows that in His government all His activity is that of method, based upon right. As the GOD of judgment He led and exalted Moses, and led and cast down Pharaoh. In this book of Exodus we see the government of GOD based upon righteousness and judgment, illustrated in His dealing with His people. His government is that of wisdom. This is revealed in His selection of time, places, and instruments. In the first five verses of Exodus is a list of names of those who went into Egypt with Jacob, followed by these words, "And Joseph was in Egypt already." It is perfectly true that he was there through the hatred and crime of his brethren, but this book reveals the deeper reason of his being there; and GOD is seen seated high upon His throne of righteous method, selecting a man, and a time, and a place. This surely was Joseph’s understanding of all the painful story, for when his brethren came eventually into his presence, he said, "It was not you that sent me hither, but God." Throughout the whole of this book it is manifest that no contingencies surprise Him, no exigencies find Him unprepared; but that in all circumstances and in all conditions, He is perfect in wisdom and in power; and that in His operation the largest and smallest things are taken account of, and pressed into service. One illustration. of this will suffice. Ere the people could become a nation it was necessary that their moral fiber should be stiffened. For this GOD was strong and patient enough to wait four centuries. The hour approaching for their deliverance, He opened a door through the cry of a baby, as that cry touched a woman’s heart, and admitted a Hebrew to the Court of Pharaoh. This GOD is the GOD we adore, manipulating ages and events, and compelling them to minister to things of a moment; and at the same time, touching the tiniest and simplest things of life, and compelling them to issues which include centuries. As to the saving of man, Exodus teaches that faith expresses itself in worship and obedience. This is not a haphazard choosing of words. Thou shalt worship and obey is the all-inclusive command of the sovereign GOD. Worship consists in putting GOD at the center of the life; and service in seeing to it that all the life is centered in Him. That was the supreme revelation to the men of this nation. At its center there was an ark. The nations knew eventually that there was something strange and mystic connected with that ark; and attempted to capture it, with what difficulty and trouble to themselves subsequent books reveal. It was only an ark, but it was the symbol of the truth that at the center of human life GOD must be enthroned. That is worship in its first movement. It is not, however, completed until it expresses itself in obedience. To place the ark beneath the curtains at the center of the encampment, and then to go away to break the law is not worship; it is blasphemy. The ark being placed there, and GOD being recognized, He must be obeyed in every department and activity of the life. To study the ethical code of this book is to discover that in all the minutest matters of food and raiment and habits and friendship, the will of GOD must be discovered and obeyed. Moreover, the story teaches that obedience must be persistent even against opposition. This is perhaps most remarkably revealed in the story of how Moses persisted in his determination to obey the command of GOD in spite of the opposition raised by Pharaoh. Pharaoh attempted to prevent their going away to worship. He first declared they should not go. Then under compulsion, in effect he said, You may worship in your own way, but you must do it in the land. The answer of Moses declared their determination to go three days’ journey, according to the Divine command. Then Pharaoh suggested compromise as he urged that if they must go outside his land, they should not go far away. Again the answer was one which insisted upon the three days’ journey. Yet again Pharaoh proposed that if they must go themselves they should leave their children behind. To this they refused to give one moment’s attention, and again the declaration was made, "We and our children." Finally, Pharaoh’s last appeal was made, to leave their cattle; and to that the ultimate answer was given, "There shall not an hoof be left behind." This story is indeed a living message to our own age revealing the necessity for absolute and uttermost obedience. The call of GOD is to separation, and the world urges us to remain in the land, and be neighborly. It is ours to reply that friendship with the world is enmity against GOD. Then we are told that if we insist upon being peculiar it is not necessary to compel our children to be so. GOD grant that our answer may ever be, "We and our children." The last suggestion of the enemy is that we should leave our cattle, that it is necessary for us to conduct our business according to the spirit of the age. The final answer of the Christian is ever that which declares that not a hoof shall be left behind. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 89: 09.03. LEVITICUS ======================================================================== CHAPTER THREE THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS A. THE PERMANENT VALUES B. THE LIVING MESSAGE I. Recognition of Sin, and Revelation of its I. Concerning Sin Nature Man and his Need. i. The Fact of Sin recognized by the whole Book. i. Sin is Unlikeness to GOD. a. Offerings. ii. Sin is Distance from GOD. b. Priests. iii. Sin is Wrong done to GOD. c. People. d. Feasts. e. Signs. ii. The Nature of Sin revealed, in that all these II. Concerning Redemption things indicate Relationship between GOD and i. Redemption is founded on Man; and thus reveal that by Sin Man is excluded Righteousness from ii. Redemption therefore is only Nearness. possible by Blood - i. e. Knowledge. by Life poured out. Communion. iii. Redemption is in order to iii. The revealing Light, the Holiness of GOD. Holiness. (The Hebrew Word 159 times.) II. Recognition of Redemption, and Revelation of its Nature GOD and His Provision. i. The Fact of Redemption, the Key to the whole Book. ii. The Nature of Redemption revealed in the Method. Substitution. Imputation. Death. iii. The unnamed Love revealed. THE opening words of Leviticus reveal the necessity for acquaintance with the book of Exodus: "And the LORD called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation." If we had read this statement without such acquaintance we should at once enquire, Who is the Lord? Who is Moses? What is the tent of meeting? Having read Exodus, we have no need to ask these questions. The book of Exodus ends with the story of the covering cloud; and there is really no break between the close of that book, and the beginning of Leviticus. The book of Leviticus deals with the first half of the second part of the message of Exodus, having to do wholly with worship. In common with the books already considered, Leviticus has no final teaching. Its instructions leave us unable to worship in the way in which it declares we ought to worship. It reveals the underlying necessities of the case, and thus prepares the way for all that fuller unfolding of the true method of worship, which came in the fullness of time by the mission of CHRIST. We shall follow the method adopted in dealing with Genesis and Exodus, and ask first, what are the permanent values of the book; and from these deduce its living message to our own age. There are two supreme values. - first, a recognition of sin, and a revelation of its nature; and - secondly, a recognition of redemption, and a revelation of its nature; or, more briefly, sin and redemption, the fundamental matters concerning man and his need, and GOD and His provision. On the subject of sin there is much with which Leviticus does not deal. Indeed, there are mysteries connected therewith which the Bible does not attempt to explain. We have no final teaching in the Scriptures of Truth concerning the genesis of sin in the universe. I use the word sin rather than evil, because it indicates a moral wrong, whereas evil includes not only the moral wrong, but all suffering and sorrow resulting therefrom. The Bible makes it perfectly clear that suffering and sorrow are the result of sin. It gives us, however, no explicit teaching concerning the origin of sin. Neither does the Bible enter into any details concerning the ultimate issues of the presence of sin in the universe. We do find, however, all that it is necessary for man to know, and the simplest thing stands revealed upon the pages of this book of Leviticus. The fact of sin is recognized from beginning to end. If there be no such thing as culpable moral perversion, then this book is a farrago of nonsense. To pass in review its five divisions is to be conscious of sin. The offerings described were rendered necessary by the sin of those who were commanded to bring them. The mediation of the priests as between the soul and GOD was called for as the result of sin. The laws of separation recognized the sin from which the people must be separated, in order that their separation from GOD might be cancelled. The feasts of consecration emphasize the benefits gained as the result of escape from sin. The nature of sin is revealed in that in all these things the fundamental relationship between GOD and man is taken for granted; and yet the necessity for man’s redemption and restoration to GOD is revealed. Sin is, therefore, so far as man’s experience is concerned, exclusion from nearness to GOD, from knowledge of GOD, from communion with GOD. In the light of the New Testament we know far more of these matters than the book of Leviticus reveals; but in this book they are stated in their first simplicity, and fundamental values. The whole economy of worship, as herein set forth, emphasized the fact of the distance of GOD from man, because of sin; and of man’s consequent need of some process by which he might be brought back to GOD. The creation of a way of entrance indicates the necessity for its making. The necessity for its making reveals the fact that sin separates between man and GOD. The truth stands out in clear and awful relief by virtue of another fact. The revealing light throughout the book of Leviticus is that of the holiness of GOD. The awful word is stamped upon its page, occurring more often in this than in any other book of the Divine Library, either in the Old or the New Testament. The Hebrew word, translated "holy" more often than in any other way, but sometimes by other words, occurs over one hundred and fifty times in the course of the twenty-seven chapters. This is a mechanical and technical suggestion, but if the word be marked in the reading of the book with a blue pencil, it will be seen how the thought is interwoven with the texture from first to last. The superlative instance of its use occurs in the midst of the commandments which have to do with the ordinary and every-day cleanliness of the people. In connection with matters so apparently prosaic, the great word is spoken, "Be ye holy; for I am holy." The holiness of GOD shines like a white, fearful light upon the whole book. It is in contrast with that holiness that the sin of man is seen and understood. Because of the absolute holiness of GOD, man in his sin is excluded from His presence. According to the teaching of this book, sin is fundamentally, essentially, wrong done to GOD. This recognition of the fact of sin, and revelation of its nature, constitutes the background which throws up into clear relief the teaching concerning redemption. The whole scheme of worship as set forth in Leviticus serves to place before the mind of humanity, - first, the idea of redemption, as existing in the purpose and economy of GOD; and - secondly, that in process of time it would be wrought out into visibility and actuality in the history of man. The supreme value of the book, therefore, is its revelation to man of the Divine purpose of redemption. The offerings constituted provision for approach: - the mediation of the priest was the method for the appropriation of the provision. - the laws of separation revealed the conditions upon which such appropriation might be made. - the feasts of consecration revealed the benefits of approach; and - the symbols of ratification were the signs of restored relation. The thought running throughout the whole economy is that of man, who has sinned, and so been excluded from GOD, being brought back to Him. The offerings indicated the provision of a method by which man might be brought back into nearness to, and knowledge of, and communion with GOD. The first three revealed the ideal relationship: - the burnt, speaking of complete devotion; - the meal, of established communion; and - the peace, of the experience growing therefrom. The final two suggested the method by which those away from communion might be restored; both the sin and the trespass offerings in different applications teaching the possibility of the canceling of sin, and the restoration of the soul to GOD. Whether our interpretation of the individual significance of the offerings agrees or not, we shall all agree that the underlying teaching is that of the possibility of restored approach to GOD. The priesthood was that by which it was possible for man to appropriate the provision. No man was permitted to bring his own offering to GOD. It was necessary that there should be one to stand between the sinner and GOD, and present the offering. The thought is still that of the possibility; and the fact that a mediating ministry is created, by which the provision for approach can be appropriated, is a revelation of the purpose of GOD. The same underlying thought is discoverable in the conditions laid down, upon which conditions man might avail himself of the mediation of the priests; and also in the feasts which symbolized restored relationship, and the signs which ratified the same. It is of the utmost importance that this one unifying revelation of the book of Leviticus should never be lost sight of. While there is great value in a minute and detailed examination of all the ancient economy of worship, we need to be most careful that, while attending to details, we do not lose sight of the consistent revelation of the fact of redemption as provided by GOD, existing in His purpose, and wrought out in His plan. A general survey of the book with that unifying truth in mind will reveal the nature of that redemption by which sinning man is brought back to GOD. Three words indicate the consistent method. They are: - substitution, - imputation, - death. For the moment I am not discussing the question as to whether this is the true method of human redemption, but am simply endeavoring to emphasize what this book suggests. The first thought is undoubtedly that of substitution. Every sacrifice was that of a life standing in the place of another. In order to the restoration of a sinning man to GOD, some one must take his place as a sinning man. This substitution is closely associated with imputation. In the ceremonies of this ancient ritual there were constantly included acts which suggested the transference of the guilt of man to the life which stood in his place. Finally, the one substituted, and to whom the guilt was imputed, must die. That was the one and only way of redemption suggested by all the economy of the Hebrew worship. It is well that we should remember that all the sacrifice of animals was that of sinless life. No animal has ever sinned. It is moreover true, and to be considered most carefully, that all the consciousness of the animals who died through the long years of the Hebrew observance of these religious rites was, in the last analysis, consciousness homed in GOD. No animal feels pain of which GOD is unconscious. "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now . . . The Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." To put GOD away from His universe, as distant from it, and unconscious of it, and then blame Him for asking for the slaughter of animals, is to break in upon the teaching of unity obtaining in the universe. Of all the suffering of sinless life GOD was more conscious than the life that suffered, or the men who watched the suffering. Whether the devout souls of those bygone days were conscious of it or not, through all that ancient economy there was a revelation of the awful truth of the passion of GOD in the presence of human sin, which had its final manifestation and method in the suffering and death of CHRIST. Therefore, in this book of Leviticus there is most evidently present, though unnamed, a recognition of the love out of which the work of redemption proceeds. It is unnamed, for the word love does not occur in the book; but it is present, for the whole economy is evidence thereof. The only sufficient reason for redemption, and the only sufficient impulse for suffering, is love. I am aware that this is a theological question, and that other reasons have been assigned for GOD’s work of redemption. I am only able to state that which is the profound conviction of my own heart, that the final explanation of the Divine provision of redemption is to be found in the all-inclusive statement of the New Testament, "God is love." The holiness of GOD might have been vindicated, and the last demand of His righteousness satisfied, by the absolute annihilation of everything that had failed. The deepest meaning in the mystery of redemption, as shadowed in the book of Leviticus, is expressed by the prophet Hosea, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" Though love is not mentioned in Leviticus, if I study it until I am overawed by the white light of infinite holiness, overwhelmed by the insistence upon righteousness, indicated by the blood and suffering, by fire and ashes, I am being taught that GOD’s heart of love compelled Him to make a way back to His home and heart for sinning man, even though the process was one of infinite cost. The living message of the book is already declared, in some senses, when its permanent values are recognized. This book speaks to us of sin and of redemption. Concerning sin it has a threefold declaration: - sin is unlikeness to GOD. - sin is distance from GOD. - sin is wrong done to GOD. Sin is unlikeness to GOD. That is taught in Leviticus by all the economy of worship, which insists first of all upon the fact that GOD may only be thought of as distanced from man. While we have already declared that the supreme teaching of Leviticus is that of GOD’s determination to bring man near to Himself, it is perfectly evident that such determination is in itself an evidence of existing distance. The ceremony which commenced with the erection of the tabernacle, and continued through all the ritual, is one that emphasizes the fact that GOD is unlike man. GOD is thought of as within the holy of holies, protected from the approach of man by veils, and by laws so stringent, that any violation of them has the death penalty attached to it. Man is thus excluded from GOD, because of the dissimilarity in character between them. Man made in the image and the likeness of GOD is a being on whom the image is defaced, and in whom the likeness is unrecognizable. Sin is distance from GOD. We have dwelt on the one aspect of that truth in emphasizing the teaching of the book concerning the distance of GOD from man, by the unlikeness of man to GOD. There is another side to this, however, that, namely, of man’s distance from GOD in experience. Because he is excluded from intimate fellowship he does not know GOD, does not love GOD, does not serve GOD. All this, moreover, is a condition out of which it is impossible for him to rise, save by the way of redemption, according to the purpose and power of GOD. Sin is wrong done to GOD. This is the supreme message of the book of Leviticus concerning sin. The sinfulness of sin is always emphasized in its aspect of relation between man and GOD. While it is perfectly true that it is difficult for the finite mind to comprehend the fact that wrong can be done to GOD, it is nevertheless true that the whole teaching of the Hebrew economy of worship emphasizes the fact that wrong done to man is ultimately wrong done to GOD. Thus sin is wrong done to GOD in Himself, and in His creatures. If it be held that sin consists only in wrong done to our fellow men, it will inevitably ultimately weaken the sense of sin, and its degree will be decided by the character of the man wronged. The only way in which the keen sense of the heinousness of sin against our brother can be kept alive in the heart is by the perpetual recognition of the fact that he also belongs to GOD. If upon every face is seen the impress of the Divine relationship as revealed in Genesis; and if, therefore, it is perpetually remembered that to hurt my brother is to harm GOD, the sinfulness of sin against man will be recognized. On the other hand, if this be lost sight of, men will be seen everywhere as separated units; and distinctions will be made as between sin against one man, and sin against another. To recognize the truth of what Leviticus teaches, that sin is finally wrong done to GOD, will be to get the only sense of its awfulness, which has in it anything calculated to produce repentance in the presence of wrong done, and a motive for the doing of right. The whole truth was ultimately summarized by CHRIST in His epitome of the law and the prophets, by quotation from the ancient writings, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And . . . thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The book of Leviticus says little about wrong to the neighbour; not that it is forgotten, but that its true meaning is only recognized, as sin is known as wrong done to GOD. The psalmist saw deeply into the true meaning of sin when he said, "Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned." It was that fundamental conviction of the meaning of sin which created his keen consciousness of the wrong he had done to Bathsheba and to Uriah. Take away from the heart of man the sense that when he sins it is against GOD, and he will grow careless about Bathsheba and Uriah. The message of Leviticus concerning redemption is naturally connected with this message concerning sin. This also is threefold: - redemption is founded upon righteousness. - redemption is only possible by blood - that is, by life poured out. - redemption is in order to holiness. Redemption is founded upon righteousness. It is not the operation of a pity which says that sin is of no consequence. There can be no restoration of man to GOD, save upon the basis of right; and the activity of tenderness is always that of the severity of righteousness. Redemption is only possible by blood. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews gathered up the whole message of the Levitical economy in the words, "without shedding of blood there is no remission." The shedding of blood is life given up. It is necessary to make this statement emphatically, because it is now sometimes asked whether it is not permissible to say that we are saved by life, rather than by blood, seeing that the old economy declared that "the blood is the life"? While that is perfectly true, it would still be utterly false to say that the teaching of Leviticus is that a man is saved by life. It teaches rather that he can only be saved by life given up, given up through suffering - not by blood, but by blood-shedding. The ancient symbolism was indeed awful and appalling, but the final weight of awe and horror ought to be that of the sin which made such symbolism necessary, in order to teach its real meaning to GOD. There are those who speak of the doctrine of salvation by the shedding of blood as being objectionable and vulgar. The shedding of blood is objectionable; it is awful, it is dastardly; but it is the ultimate expression of the activity of sin; and the whole meaning of the appalling truth is that sin, in the universe, touches the very life of GOD with wounding. I know the book of Leviticus is terrible reading; it is a tragic story of blood and fire. It is time that this living message was heard anew, that sin smites GOD in the face, and wounds Him in the heart; and that redemption is the outcome of the tender compassion, which receives the wounding, and bends over the sinner, pardoning him by virtue of that infinite and unfathomable mystery of which the shedding of blood is the only equivalent symbolism. Redemption is in order to holiness. The final note of the message of Leviticus is that redemption does not excuse man from holiness, but that it is the method by which man is made holy. To fulfill all the requirements of the external ritual, and yet continue in sin, would be to commit the most heinous sin of all. Leviticus speaks forevermore: - of the awfulness of sin in the light of the holiness of GOD, - of the plenteous redemption springing from the love of GOD, and - of the possibility of holiness of life, created by communion with GOD. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 90: 09.04. NUMBERS ======================================================================== CHAPTER FOUR THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS A. THE PERMANENT VALUES B. THE LIVING MESSAGE I. Warning. The Paralysis of Doubt I. Of Comfort i. The Facts. i. GOD cannot be defeated. a. Discontent due to Jack of ii. GOD’s Methods are perfect. Confidence in GOD. iii. GOD’s Provisions are sufficient. b. Disaster due to distorted Vision of Circumstances and GOD. ii. The Secrets. a. Mixed Motives. b. Mixed Multitudes. iii. The Results. a. A narrowed Outlook produced Discontent. b. The Judgment of Sight produced Panic. II. Comfort. The Patience of the Lord II. Of Warning i. Provision. i. The Crisis of Kadesh-Barnea a. Order arranged. comes. b. Purity demanded. a. To the Individual. c. Worship provided for. b. To the Church. d. Movement ordered. ii. Everything depends upon our ii. Patience. Attitude to GOD. a. The Methods. iii. Our Attitudes towards the Opporb. The Fact. tunity reveal our Attitude towards iii. Persistence. GOD. a. Back to Kadesh-Barnea. iv. If we are failing, why? b. The whole Process to Messiah Mixed Motives. assured. Mixed Multitudes. AGAIN it is necessary to draw attention to the close connection between this book and those which have preceded it. The story is a continuation of that which has gone before. In order to see this clearly, let us read two verses in close connection, the former being the seventeenth verse of the fortieth chapter of Exodus, and the latter the first verse of the first chapter in Numbers. "And it came to pass, in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up." "And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt." The tabernacle was finished, and the glory of the Lord descended and filled it on the first day of the first month of the second year; and the command to Moses to number the people with a view to their passing over into possession of the land was given in the same year in the second month on the first day. Thus there was a month between the story with which Exodus ends and that with which Numbers begins. The book of Numbers opens and closes in the same region geographically. In the opening part of the book we find the Israelites on the margin of the land. At the close of the book we find them again on the margin of the land. In the first part of the story they were perfectly prepared, so far as organization was concerned, for passing into the land. At the close of the book they are seen perfectly prepared, so far as organization is concerned, for passing into the land. Between the beginning and the end of the book there is an interval of about forty years. These were years of arrested progress in the history of the nation, and of definite progress in the Divine Self-revelation; and therefore in the Divine process. Let us carefully note the connection of this book of Numbers, not merely as to its record of historic facts, but in its relation to the process of revelation. Genesis teaches two principal truths: - first, the essential relation between GOD and man; - secondly, that faith is the principle upon which man lives, for the pleasing of GOD, and the realization of his own life. Exodus takes up that principle of faith, and expounds it more fully; giving us a vision of GOD in government, and of those human attitudes to that government which are inclusively expressed in the word "faith." Divine government is seen as proceeding upon the foundation of righteousness and judgment. The human attitudes of the life of faith are those of worship and obedience. The book of Leviticus deals with worship, revealing: - first, the fact of sin as constituting the need of man; and - finally, the fact of redemption as constituting the provision of GOD for meeting that need. Thus, while Exodus reveals the human attitudes of worship and obedience, Leviticus deals with worship, and Numbers with obedience. While Numbers tells a sad story of disobedience, its message is one concerning the importance of obedience. It shows how, under the government of GOD, disobedience was overruled to obedience by discipline. The message of Numbers we shall endeavor to discover, as on previous occasions, by dwelling first upon the permanent values of the book, which consist in its revelations of the paralysis of doubt, and the patience of the Lord. It is a book of warning, as it deals with the former; and a book of comfort, as it reveals the latter. In considering the warning of the book, we begin with the second division, which consists of the story of exclusion and wandering. The first fact recorded is that of the incipient discontent existing among the people. One month after the filling of the tabernacle with the glory of GOD, that marvellous revelation of His actual presence amongst them, the Lord heard their murmuring. At first there was no definite statement of complaint. The unrest had not broken out into organized manifestation. That came later. There was wide-spread discontent due to doubt, which was really lack of confidence in GOD. We must not underestimate the difficulty of the position those people occupied. The process of organizing a disorganized people into national consciousness is never an easy one to the people themselves. There is a freedom in slavery which men miss when they emerge into the freedom which abolishes slavery. When the slaves were set free in the United States of America, the Government had to face a problem which they have not solved until this moment. The Negroes came out of slavery, in which there was freedom - evil freedom, pernicious freedom, freedom from the necessity for thought, or planning, or organization - into a liberty in which there was necessity for organization and order. The process is not an easy one, and the work is not yet accomplished [1912]. So the Israelites had been slaves in the land of Goshen; their tasks were appointed, and their taskmasters compelled their obedience. Their difficulties had been great, their bondage cruel, but they were free from the necessity for thought and arrangement. Having escaped from the taskmaster, they imagined that freedom meant escape from rule. They had been taught in the year of their encampment under the shadow of the mountain that they had to submit to law, and it was irksome to them, and they became discontented. This discontent resulted from lack of perfect confidence in GOD. Then follows the story of Kadesh-Barnea and the disaster that overtook them there. The spies were sent, the minority and majority reports were submitted; and as is almost invariably the case, the minority report was the true one. The majority declared the land to be fair and beautiful, but impossible of possession, because of the giants and the walled cities. The men of the minority also saw the giants, and the walled cities, but they saw GOD. The majority had lost the clear vision of GOD, and therefore were filled with fear by the Anakim and the walled cities. With the loss of clear vision there was the loss of perfect confidence. The secrets of this failure were mixed motives and mixed multitudes. Murmuring is the expression of selfishness. Selfishness is due to a lack of singleness of motive. Had these people perfectly appreciated the fact that they were being created a nation to fulfill the purpose of GOD in the world, and had they been utterly abandoned to that as the one single motive, there had been no murmuring. When they murmured, it was for the fleshpots, for "the leeks and the onions and the garlic." They attempted compromise between being a nation of the Lord, and a people seeking their own comfort. These mixed motives issued in murmuring. There were not only mixed motives, there were mixed multitudes. They are found first in Exodus, and last in Nehemiah. When coming out of Egypt, the Israelites were accompanied by mixed multitudes. In Leviticus we find one graphic picture of the result, a mixed marriage between an Israelitish woman and an Egyptian man, with offspring which violated the law of GOD, and brought fresh punishment in consequence. These mixed multitudes fell to murmuring. The results were a narrowed outlook producing discontent, and the judgment of sight producing panic. Such is the first permanent value of the book of Numbers. It reveals to us the fact that when men lose their vision of GOD, doubt produces discontent and disaster. When we turn to the other side of the story, we find the comfort of the patience of the Lord. That is an all-inclusive definition. - notice first the provision that the Lord made for these people, as recorded in the first ten chapters. - notice next the patience of the Lord, as revealed in chapters eleven to twenty-five. - notice finally the persistence of the Lord, as manifested in chapters twenty-six to thirty-six. The provision of the Lord consisted: - in the order of the camp arranged; - the purity of the camp demanded; - the worship of the camp provided for; and - the movement of the camp ordered, immediately under Divine guidance by the cloud. The patience of GOD is the supreme revelation of the book. This patience is not incompetent carelessness, but powerful carefulness. Its methods are many. - He punished the people for wrong-doing, but always towards the realization of purpose. - He placed them in circumstances which developed the facts of their inner life, until they knew them for themselves. That is the meaning of the forty years in the wilderness. They were not years in which GOD had withdrawn Himself from the people and refused to have anything to do with them. Every year was necessary for the teaching of a lesson, and the revealing of a truth. As Moses declared to them, "Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy GOD hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments or no." His method was also that of the adaptation of laws to new surroundings. The story of the daughters of Zelophehad illustrates this. GOD listened to the complaint of these women, and made provision for them, adapting His laws - do not misunderstand that phrase, never lowering the standard of righteousness - adapting His laws to meet the requirements of the people, as they passed on their way. Finally, His patience was evidenced by the supernatural protection of these people. The resources of GOD were all at their disposal. Whatever they needed, He supplied. Thus through all the years we see the overruling of the patient GOD; not patient in the self-centered method of abandoning a failing people, leaving them, if possible, to work out their own salvation; but with the patience that refused to abandon them, and thus enabled them to work out their own salvation. The patience of GOD was persistent. He led them back finally to Kadesh-Barnea; and thus the whole process necessary to the ultimate coming of the Messiah, and the full realization of the Divine purpose, was assured. Thus we find, as we read the book of Numbers, two things forever sounding in our ears: - the paralysis of doubt, and - the patience of the Lord. From these I deduce the living message of the book to our own age. I begin with the last first. Numbers speaks to this age a threefold message of comfort: - it declares that GOD cannot ultimately be defeated. - it reveals the fact that His methods are perfect. - it says to all trusting souls that His provisions are sufficient, if they will but appropriate them. It declares that GOD cannot be defeated. We saw in Exodus that GOD cannot be defeated by the opposition of enemies, as we studied His majestic procedure against the obstinacy of Pharaoh. There are those who believe this, but who are not quite sure that He cannot be defeated by the failure of His instruments. The book of Numbers corrects this false impression. It is the story of a failing people. At the very outset, one month from the descent of the glory, they murmured through lack of faith. Was the purpose of GOD defeated? By no means. There are senses in which those who bear His name, and deliver His message may - measuring always by human standards - postpone the issue; but they can never finally prevent it. As I read this book, I watch the movements of GOD, and my heart sings a song of joy as I see that He cannot ultimately be defeated. It teaches me, in the next place, that GOD’s methods are perfect. Note some of the emphases of that revelation. GOD will not spoil the result even by sparing Moses. There is no greater comfort than that to be derived from the conviction that GOD will never allow His love to interfere with His absolute loyalty to the principles of His own Being. It is, however, equally true that He will not fail to recognize fidelity in the midst of infidelity. The men who bore the majority report died in the wilderness; but Caleb and Joshua were preserved, and finally entered the land. Yet again, GOD will not cast off the frailest, while there remains any opportunity for bringing them into harmony with His mind and will. While there is the remotest chance of my remaking, He waits for me, and bears with me in tender love through the processes of pain, by which He works to purge me from dross, and realize in me that upon which His heart is set. GOD ordinarily works through natural processes, but interferes by supernatural means whenever it is necessary for Him to do so. It is the fashion of the hour to deny the stories of past supernatural interventions, on the ground that there are no such operations of GOD to-day. It would be more correct to say that men are so blind that they do not see the goings of GOD. We still speak of remarkable coincidences which, if we did but view from the true height, we should discover every remarkable interpositions of GOD. The final note of comfort is the revelation of the book that GOD’s provisions are sufficient for the fulfillment of all the needs of life and service. He has always proved Himself sufficient in resource for such souls as have really put their trust in Him, for the needs of their own life, and the demands of their service. Turning to the warning message of the book of Numbers, the first point of emphasis must be that the crisis at Kadesh-Barnea always comes to the individual, and to the Church of GOD. Personally I think we are justified in carrying that statement further, and saying that it comes also to the nation, and that Russell Lowell was right when he sang, "Once to every man and nation Comes the moment to decide." We, however, will confine ourselves to its application to the individual, and to the Church. With regard to the individual, I only pause to say that the crisis inevitably comes when faith is confronted by walled cities and Anakim, and is called upon to proceed against them in simple confidence in GOD. What we do in the crisis always depends upon whether we see the difficulties in the light of GOD, or GOD in the shadow of the difficulties. The crisis comes over and over again to the Church of GOD. In the past she has sometimes passed into possession, but too often has passed back to the beggarly experiences of the wilderness. At this hour the whole Church is at Kadesh-Barnea. GOD is calling her to go out and possess the nations in the name of the CHRIST, with a new urgency, created by the opening of all the doors of opportunity. At this moment in very deed the whole land is before us. What are we going to do? Everything depends upon whether we see the walled cities and the giants, or GOD. Nothing less than a triumphant faith, born of a clear vision of GOD Himself, will enable us to go forward. It is only faith which can cooperate towards infinite issues. Sight can do small things. Faith alone is equal to infinite things. Sight can build a coffee-tavern in a slum, and perhaps it is worth doing; but to suggest to sight the building of the city of GOD is to fill it with panic in the presence of all the difficulties. The question of the hour for the Church is one as to her relationship to GOD. The question of the hour in foreign missions is not a question of finance; it is not a question of men. It is only whether the Church is prepared to obey in faith. If we listen to the reports of men who judge by sight, we shall do nothing. We shall be told that the task of evangelizing Japan is hopeless, because the ethic of its own religion is sufficient for its need. We shall be told that it is a perilous thing to enter China, because revolt is incipient everywhere, and presently will manifest itself in rebellion. We shall be told of unrest in India, and that missionaries ought not to imperil their lives by going there. In brief, we shall hear only of the walled cities and the Anakim. Oh, for Calebs and Joshuas, who are prepared to say, Anakim, yes; walled cities, certainly; hindrance upon hindrance; but these all in the light of GOD. Oh, for the spirit of Paul, who wrote: "I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries," He saw the open door, and the adversaries; and both of them combined to constitute the reason of his determined tarrying at the post of duty. The living message of this book of Numbers is that everything depends upon our attitude towards GOD. Let that, however, be stated, for the purpose of heart investigation, in another way. Our attitude towards opportunities reveals our attitude towards GOD. - are we murmuring and discontented with the method of the Divine government? Let us beware lest the fire of GOD break forth upon us in anger. - are we afraid in the presence of the problems at home, and the tremendous opportunities abroad? Then let us remember that our fear is born of our lack of faith. The man discontented with all that the life of faith means looks back to the land of bondage, and sighs for the leeks and onions and garlic. His lust for these is evidence of his lack of fellowship with GOD. The man who is looking at the lands to be possessed, and recognizing all the glory of the fruitage, and the beauty of the pasture, but will not go up because of the difficulties, has lost his vision of GOD. They were discontented and afraid - why? The answer of Numbers is the answer of to-day. False attitudes are created by mixed motives and mixed multitudes. Mixed motives. I speak, as GOD is my witness, to my own heart. Art thou afraid of the toilsome pathway, and the weary battle, and the bruising? Then it is because selfishness is still dominant. When the eye is single, the heart undivided, and love unified upon the one principle of winning GOD’s victory, there is no halting, no turning back. The old Hebrew phrase, "a pure heart," is "an undivided heart." In order to do GOD’s work in the world, we need the undivided heart. Turning from the individual to the Church; the reason of her halting is the mixed multitudes. We shall always be paralyzed as long as we consent to be patronized by worldliness inside the Church. We shall never be strong while into the assemblies, where we consider our missionary obligation, we admit the counsel of men of sight. GOD is ready. Are we? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 91: 09.05. DEUTERONOMY ======================================================================== CHAPTER FIVE THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY A. THE PERMANENT VALUES B. THE LIVING MESSAGE I. GOD’s Love of Man the Motive of I. The Affirmations His Government This the Burden of the Retrospective i. GOD’s Laws are the Expression of and Prospective Sections. His Love. i. The Retrospective. Necessarily. a. History. Deuteronomy 4:37 Perfectly. b. Law. Deuteronomy 10:12-15. ii. Man’s Love is demonstrated by ii. The Prospective. Obedience. a. The Song. Only Love will submit to their b. The Blessing. Severity. II. Man’s Love of GOD the Motive of His Obedience the final Proof of Obedience Confidence. This emphasized in the Retrospective as to Law; and in the introspective as to II. The Arguments Covenant-keeping. i. The Revelations of History. i. Law. Deuteronomy 5:10. Quoted from Exodus. ii. The Issues of Law. " Deuteronomy 6:5 The Comprehensive. " Deuteronomy 10:12. Relation to Love of GOD. " Deuteronomy 11:1, Deuteronomy 11:13, Deuteronomy 11:22; Deuteronomy 13:3; Deuteronomy 19:9 "Thou shalt love." III. The Appeal ii. Covenant. i. Know GOD. Deuteronomy 30:6. The circumcised heart ii. Love GOD. " Deuteronomy 30:15-16, Deuteronomy 30:19-20 The principle of choice iii. Obey GOD. THE opening and closing statements of Deuteronomy constitute the boundaries of the book, and give us the key to its interpretation. Its opening words are: "These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab." Its closing declaration, written in all probability by the hand of Joshua, is, "And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, In all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel." The book contains the final words of Moses to the chosen people, and they are words resulting from his "face to face" friendship with the Lord. This friendship, with its intimate knowledge of GOD - a knowledge which gleams through all these final words - was the result of the process and progress of revelation. Moses could not have delivered these prophecies on the day after he had escaped from Egypt. He had much to learn. The messages recorded in Deuteronomy repeat things already said, but with a new tone and a new emphasis, and there is felt a new atmosphere in their utterance. The tone, emphasis, and atmosphere are due to the fact that progressively Moses had come to such full knowledge of GOD that the man who wrote the last page of the book of Deuteronomy had to say of him that he was a prophet who knew GOD "face to face." It would be an interesting theme to trace carefully the development, and to notice the progress of Moses’ knowledge of GOD. I shall content myself with two or three brief sentences, indicating not so much his progress, as the processes which resulted therein. When three months old, the child was committed to the Nile, by faith in GOD, as the writer of the letter to the Hebrews tells us. By sweet art the mother contrived to nurse the boy. How long that continued, we do not know. Quite long enough, in all probability, for her to have soothed him to sleep with stories of his own people, and to have implanted in his mind thoughts of GOD which could never be obliterated. His training in the Egyptian court played no unimportant part in his discovery of truth concerning GOD. It was training by contrast. In the Mosaic economy the influence of Egyptian forms of worship is to be discovered. For instance, Egypt in its religious rites made use of sacred arks, but they contained a piece of stone, a serpent, water from the Nile, or something material, and often base. In the loneliness of the wilderness GOD taught His servant that in all these things there were the form, the possibility, the principle; but that they needed to be corrected at the center. When he constructed the sacred ark according to pattern, it received holy things, the symbols of a holy GOD, who could only be approached by sacrifice. Thus at the court of Pharaoh, he was prepared for the contrasts which were to follow. Then came the forty years in the wilderness. I do not sympathize with those who pity Moses as he left the court of Egypt, and went down into the wilderness. There was far more grandeur in the rough, rugged mountains, and GOD’s overarching sky, than in anything Egypt possessed. In the quiet meditation of those forty years he came nearer to GOD, gazing upon the wonders of nature, touching the fringes of His force, and baring his soul to the influences of His majesty. Next in order came the more direct visions and revelations which were necessary for his work. First, that at the burning bush, and the uttering of the unutterable fact, "I AM THAT I AM." For forty years he had been in the presence of GOD, had seen His might diffused through mountains and plains, in storms and calms, in stars and stones, until at last, in one solitary scrub bush in the wilderness, there gleamed the Glory that he had never seen - a Presence spoke, and the voice said: "I AM THAT I AM." A little later the word "I am" was linked with the great name of the Lord. Then Moses discovered that the GOD, the fringes of whose garments he had touched for forty years, and whose glory had burned in the bush, and whose voice he had heard out of the mystic splendour, was a GOD ready to become everything His people needed. After a while he longed for a fuller revelation, and cried out of the depth of his heart hunger, "Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory," and GOD answered, "I will make all My goodness pass before thee." Then he learned that GOD’s glory is His goodness. Then followed another forty years of wilderness wandering, during which he discovered that the foundation of the throne of GOD was righteousness and judgment, saw the goodness of GOD, marked His patience, learned His heart; and finally, out of that full knowledge, delivered his last messages to his people. These discourses constitute a survey of the whole economy of GOD in relation to His people. There are six of them, falling into three groups: - the first two are retrospective; - the second two are introspective; - the last two are prospective. Through all, there runs a new note of love. The former facts are repeated; the sovereignty of GOD is insisted upon; the obedience of man is called for; but these facts are now set in relation to love. This is no mere piece of imagination. The word love, as indicating relationship between GOD and man, occurs only once in Exodus, when GOD declares that He shows "mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments"; and as indicating relationship between man and man, once in Leviticus: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The word love is a lonely stranger in the first four books. Everything is changed in the book of Deuteronomy. Its supreme and overwhelming message is that of love. To understand this will enable us to state the permanent values, and to deduce the living message. The permanent values are two: - first, that GOD’s love of man is the motive of His government; and - secondly, that man’s love of GOD is the motive of his obedience. GOD’s love of man is the motive of His government. This is the special burden of the retrospective and prospective sections. In the close of the first discourse, which was a retrospect of the history of the people, Moses declared: "Because He loved thy fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them, and brought thee out with His Presence, with His great power, out of Egypt." By that statement he revealed his conviction that the inspiration of GOD’s government was His love. The next discourse was a resume of laws, in which there was no lowering of the standard of righteous requirement, but remarkable interpretation of the meaning of the laws upon which He still insisted: "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? Behold, unto the Lord thy God belongeth the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that therein is. Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as at this day." Insisting upon the necessity for their obedience to the laws which he had reviewed, he declared that they were the outcome of the love of GOD. Thus, as he looked back over the history, he said that it was a history of the government of love; and as he recapitulated the laws, he declared that they were the outcome of love. The last two discourses consist of the song and the blessing. In that song, love is never mentioned; but it breathes the spirit of love from beginning to end. It is a song of GOD’s triumph over unfaithfulness. Paean and dirge alternate throughout; the story of the Divine faithfulness, and of human unfaithfulness. Is there any love song ever sung so mighty as that which tells of love, which triumphs over the unfaithfulness of the loved one? That is the deepest truth about GOD, and Moses celebrated it in his final song. These people were to be dispersed, and Moses foretold the dispersion; and then, at the command of GOD, wrote the song, and taught it to the people. A song will linger in the heart long after a code of ethics has been forgotten. Many a man who has broken all the laws of his country and his GOD, in some distant land, has been wooed back to mother and to GOD by some old song. So Moses wrote the song of a love that through pain, if necessary, will proceed towards the fulfillment of its own high purpose. The last words of Moses were of blessing only. His eyes were fixed upon the far distant day when the tribes should be restored, and fulfill the first Divine ideal. In the midst of the blessing is a great declaration, "He loveth the peoples." Thus, whether it be a review of history, a resume of laws, a song for the future, or a foretelling of restoration, the last great message of the man who knew GOD "face to face" was that GOD’s love was the motive of His government. The other fact is equally true, and equally manifest. Man’s love of GOD is the motive of his obedience. This is emphasized in the retrospective and introspective divisions of the book; and in each case in one discourse preeminently. Man’s love of GOD as the motive of obedience is declared in the repetition of laws, "Showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments . . . Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thine heart." - the tremendous truth which Israel was destined to teach the world was that of the unity of GOD: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." - the outcome of that truth of the unity of GOD is the command, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy GOD with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." The nation and the individual were to be unified by the love of one GOD. Further on in this discourse promises are made, and the condition was ever, "If ye shall . . . love the Lord your God." The expression of love is obedience to law. Man’s love of GOD is the only sufficient motive for his obedience to the laws of GOD. In dealing with the covenant, Moses declared "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live," and so revealed the secret of its keeping. Then in his last prophetic utterance he again insisted upon the fact that the only motive sufficiently strong to enable a man to keep the law of GOD is that of love to GOD. The permanent values in this case constitute the living message. To repeat the values is to utter the message: - GOD’s love of man is the motive of His government. - Man’s love of GOD is the motive of his obedience. In order to emphasize these truths, let us hear again the affirmations of this book, listen to its arguments, and attend to its appeal. What, then, are the affirmations? The first is that GOD’s laws are the expressions of His love, and that for two reasons. Because GOD is love, He cannot make a law that is not an expression of His love; and because man needs law, GOD, being love, must provide it. To make man, and put him down in the world without government, would be to leave him to work out his own ruin. He needs law because he is finite, and infinite issues lie all about him; and it is necessary that he should know the laws of the infinite in order to obey them. Love, then, is the inspiration of GOD’s government of a nation, or of a man. The affirmation of the book, on the other side, is that man’s love of GOD is the motive of his obedience. Nothing but love will submit to the severity of GOD’s law. It is a severe law. It besets me behind and before, and will not allow me to escape. "O Love, that will not let me go." There is a stern ring in that word as well as a tender tone. So severe is the law of GOD that nothing but love will submit to it. Obedience is the final demonstration of confidence; and confidence is never perfect unless it is the confidence of absolute love. So that obedience to law on the part of man is demonstration of his love of GOD; and the love of GOD is the motive of his obedience. The arguments of this book are those of all human history. The historian needs an interpreter. The singers are the interpreters of history. In this song Moses argued for the love of GOD by reviewing His methods. In our own times, Browning has sung in other words the same great theme: "I have gone the whole round of Creation: I saw and I spoke! I, a work of GOD’s hand for that purpose, received in my brain And pronounced on the rest of His handiwork - returned Him again His creation’s approval or censure; I spoke as I saw. I report, as a man may of GOD’s work - all’s love, yet all’s law! Now I lay down the judgeship He lent me. Each faculty tasked To perceive Him has gained an abyss where a dewdrop was asked, Have I knowledge? Confounded, it shrivels at wisdom laid bare. Have I forethought? How purblind, how blank, to the Infinite care! Do I task any faculty highest to image success? I but open my eyes - and perfection, no more and no less, In the kind I imagined, full-fronts me, and GOD is seen GOD In the star, in the stone, in the flesh, in the soul and the clod. And thus, looking within and around me, I ever renew (With that stoop of the soul which, in bending, upraises it too) The submission of Man’s nothing - perfect to GOD’s All-Complete, As by each new obeisance in spirit I climb to His feet." All’s love, but all’s law. The seers are always the singers. I have already referred to one of George Matheson’s hymns. Let us not miss the strength of that hymn, while we glory in its tenderness. "O Love, that will not let me go." Do not let us sing that as though love only knew the method of a tender caress. We must sing all the hymn if we would know what the first line means. "O Love, that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee; I give Thee back the life I owe, That in Thine ocean’s depths its flow May richer, fuller be. "O Light, that followest all my way, I yield my flickering torch to Thee; My heart restores its borrowed ray, That in Thy sunshine’s blaze its day May brighter, fairer be. "O Joy, that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to Thee; I trace the rainbow through the rain, And feel the promise is not vain That morn shall tearless be. "O Cross, that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from Thee; I lay in dust life’s glory dead, And from the ground there blossoms red Life that shall endless be." Love, then, is law gripping me, binding me to the cross, compelling me to lay life’s glory in the dust of death, and so ensuring the blossoming of red life. The first appeal of the book is to love of GOD. It is objected that love cannot be commanded. That is true. Love is born when least expected. We love, because He first loved. On the other hand, love can be refused. We may not love, even though He first loves. The message then is, "Harden not your heart." Do not blind yourself to GOD’s love. Detect it in the rainbow and in the rain, in the cross and in the red life that blossoms from the ground. Having detected it, answer it. The final appeal of Deuteronomy shows how love is answered. It is by obedience. In answer to love, and in the power of love, obey. There is a reflex action in this sacred matter. To obey in answer to love is to come to love the One obeyed; and so more perfectly to obey, out of more perfect love. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 92: 09.06. JOSHUA ======================================================================== CHAPTER SIX THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA A. THE PERMANENT VALUES B. THE LIVING MESSAGE I. "The Lord is a Man of War" I. "The Lord is a Man of War" i. Its Reason. His perpetual War with Sin. The Foe of Sin to-day as ever. a. The Extermination of the Canaanites. Personal. 1. After Probation. Genesis 1516, Social. 18, 19. Civic. 2. Because of Corruption. Leviticus National. Joshua 18:24-25, Joshua 18:27 b. His dealing with His Own. ii. Its Instruments. a. Men loyal to Him. b. The Forces of the Universe. iii. Its Methods. II. "The Just shall live by Faith" a. Restraint of natural Powers, within the Personally Bounds of His Government. Relatively. b. Restraint of the Lust of a conquering Army. To exercise righteous influence, and produce the result of righteous conditions, II. "The Just shall live by Faith" faith is necessary. i. Acceptance of the Standard of GOD’s Holiness. ii. Abandonment to the Government of GOD’s Will. iii. Achievement in the Strength of GOD’s Might THE second division of the Hebrew Scriptures, designated The Prophets, fell into two sections. The first was called The Earlier Prophets, and comprised Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel, and I and II Kings. In some arrangements the book of Ruth was included with that of Joshua. In others it was counted as one of the five rolls constituting the Hagiographa, or book of Psalms. The placing of the historical books of the Old Testament in the division known as the Prophets indicated the fact that they were considered to be prophetic in the full sense of the word. History is prophetic in that it has a teaching value. To read from the true standpoint is to observe the method of GOD, and to learn the principles of human life. The book of Joshua is a link between the death of Moses and the death of Joshua, and covers a period of from forty-five to fifty years in the history of the ancient people. Joshua was born in slavery, and the first years of his life were spent in the midst of the hard and terrible conditions in which his people lived in Egypt. He was about forty years of age at the time of the exodus and was one of the minority who brought the true report of the land, when the spies were sent forth. The book bearing his name tells the story of the coming of the chosen people into the land and their settlement therein. In order to the discovery of its permanent values, we must again presuppose acquaintance with its content, and proceed to enquire what are the impressions which as a whole it makes upon the mind. It is a book crowded with incident, and there are general impressions inevitably resulting from its study which I propose to indicate by two quotations, one taken from an earlier book, and the other from a later one. The first is from the song the Israelites sang on the borders of the Red Sea, after they had crossed, "The Lord is a Man of war." The other is from the prophecy of Habakkuk, "The just shall live by his faith." In the song sung upon the banks of the Red Sea by the delivered people, there emerges into definite statement a great truth, never lost sight of through the whole Bible, "The Lord is a Man of war." In the prophecy of Habakkuk, the truth which emerged as a principle in Genesis is crystallized into a definite statement. The permanent values of the book of Joshua, then, are that it illustrates these two truths, thus impressing them upon the mind, and revealing the intimate relationship between them. Let us take the first of these statements and examine it carefully. This book is criticized by those who declare that its teaching concerning the attitude of Joshua, and the activity of the people under his command, are out of harmony with the truth concerning GOD revealed by our Lord JESUS CHRIST. It is hardly necessary for me to say that I join issue with that conclusion altogether. I hold, on the contrary, that this book, rightly read, interprets the meaning of that side of truth concerning the Lord which we sometimes find it difficult to understand. Let it first be recognized that this conception of GOD runs through the whole Bible. It emerges into clear statement in the song after the crossing of the Red Sea. It is manifest in all the history of the Hebrew people, as written for us in this book, and in the book of Judges, in I and II Samuel, in I and II Kings, and in that priestly repetition of the story of the Kings which we have in I and II Chronicles. The people were commanded to battle, led in battle, punished in battle, under the direct government of GOD. This conception of GOD is celebrated by the Old Testament writers. One supreme instance is found in that matchless twenty-fourth Psalm, "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." It was held, moreover, by the prophet Isaiah, who declared, "By fire will the Lord plead, and by His sword, with all flesh." The thought runs through the new Testament in spiritual fervor, though material forms of expression are absent. The underlying fact is manifested in the anger of JESUS, and suggested in the phrase "the wrath of God." The same conception obtains in the last book of the Bible, when material symbolism and spiritual truth so wonderfully merge in the passage, "I saw the heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He that sat thereon, called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He hath a name written, which no one knoweth but He Himself. And He is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood,: and His name is called The Word of GOD. And the armies which are in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God." This conception of GOD as a warlike One, a GOD of battles, capable of anger, moving forth ever and anon in definite punishment by the sword, runs through all the Bible. It has been questioned and criticized, always through partial, and consequently false views of GOD. It is affirmed that this conception of GOD is out of harmony with the truth declared emphatically by the revelation of JESUS CHRIST, and in the words "God is love." I affirm, on the contrary, that if this conception be inaccurate, if in certain given circumstances, and in the presence of certain conditions, GOD is not a GOD of war, then He cannot be a GOD of love. All the references to Him as a GOD of war in the Bible, and all the activities attributed to Him, spring from one simple fountainhead; and that is the eternal and undying love of His heart. In this book of Joshua that supreme fact is clearly manifest and explained. GOD is perpetually at war with sin. That is the whole explanation of the extermination of the Canaanites. The story of that extermination must be read in connection with the things chronicled in previous books, and in the light of the actual facts as to the condition of the people in Canaan. In a vision recorded in Genesis, Abraham was told of the captivity of his descendants, and that they should suffer hardship in a strange land for four hundred years, and then be brought back into the land to possess it. In the course of that declaration it was said, "The iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full." In that incidental word we have the key to the situation. The people who dwelt in Canaan, when Joshua led GOD’s people in, had filled to the full the cup of iniquity. Their corruption is revealed in Leviticus, in the warnings uttered to the Hebrews against the evil things they would find in the land; "Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out from before you: and the land is defiled: therefore do I visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomiteth out her inhabitants." And again, in a parenthesis which flashes its light upon the whole story, (" For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled"). These are distinct declarations of GOD, that the people were to be exterminated because of the evils existing in the land. There was absolute immorality and atrocious cruelty. The Assyrian records, which have comparatively recently been brought to light, reveal the condition of Phoenicia. The whole truth concerning the purging of the land by the Hebrew people under the command of GOD is stated by Dr. Moorhead thus, "It was terrible surgery this; but it was surgery and not murder - the excision of the cancer that the healthy part might remain." That exactly explains what happened when the Hebrew people dispossessed the corrupt peoples who occupied the land of Canaan. Then it must be remembered that this was not done until after long probation. The land had not been without definite teaching and warning. Melchizedek had lived in Canaan, king of righteousness and king of Salem. Abraham had dwelt there. Solemn warning had been given in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the fame of which had spread through the length and breadth of the land. Blind to the light, deaf to the voice, these people had persisted in sin, until they had become absolutely immoral and atrociously cruel; and for the sake of succeeding generations and the surrounding nations, it was necessary to excise the cancer, and give the opportunity of healthy life. GOD is seen in this book of Joshua as a warlike One proceeding to battle, not for a capricious purpose, not for the enlargement of territory, for the whole earth is His; but in order to change and end the corrupt condition of affairs in the larger interests of the oncoming centuries, and of the whole human race. It was a conflict as between truth and liberty on the one hand, and lying and licentiousness on the other. One or the other had to go down in the struggle, and GOD moved forward as a warlike One, using these people as His scourge to purify the land, and to plant in that little strip of country a people who, whatever their faults were, should yet become the depository of the truth which should at last permeate the world, and give men everywhere the opportunity for life, which it was necessary they should have. Moreover, it must be observed that GOD was not merely clearing a land in order to find a home for people upon whom He had set His heart. Solemn warnings were given to the Israelites perpetually by word and by deed, that if they turned to the sins of the people they had exterminated, they in their turn should be cast out. That is precisely what happened. They did turn, in spite of the law, in spite of the leading of GOD, to the abominations which they found in the land, failed to bear the testimony which they were created to bear, and consequently to-day are a people "scattered and peeled." GOD was as surely against Israel as against Canaan when, in the person of one member of the nation, she turned with lusting eyes to the things of evil. That solemn halt and awful defeat at Ai teach the lesson of the meaning of GOD’s warlike nature as surely as did the stories of the sweeping out of the men who were already in the land. As a matter of fact, the dealing of GOD with His own is almost severer than His dealing with the Canaanites. One man had coveted a Babylonish garment and a wedge of gold, had grasped something of the spoil for the enrichment of himself, and had hidden it in his tent; and the whole march of Israelites was halted by defeat; and until the evil thing was found and destroyed, and the sinning man had expiated his offense by the very death that the Hebrew people were inflicting upon the sinners of the land, there could be no going forward. GOD is the terrible foe of sin, refusing to make truce with it, after probation and long patience visiting in judgment corrupt peoples, and punishing with severity the very instrument raised up for the carrying out of His work, whenever it becomes contaminated by sin. GOD’s rule is ever the expression of His righteousness, impulsed by love. Supposing these people had been allowed to remain and retain their power; supposing there had never been brought into existence the people who were to receive the oracles of revelation, what would have been the history of the world by now? By that very purging, by those drastic measures of wrath against iniquity persisted in after long probation, GOD gave the race its new opportunity, as He prepared the way for the coming of the One in whom His love was to be incarnate, and His anger to be most perfectly manifest. GOD used as His instruments men so far as they were loyal to Him. He also pressed into service the forces of the universe, in so far as they were necessary for the carrying out of His purpose; the restraint of a river while His hosts crossed over, the trembling of the earth until the walls of the city fell, the lengthening of the day until the battle was won. It may be said that GOD does not to-day divide rivers, or cause mountains to tremble, or stay the sun in his going. These interventions were but representative of a method. GOD does not repeat Himself unless there be absolute necessity for it. Yet who shall say that the earthquake is not still His minister, the lightning His sword, and the hurricane His chariot. Is it not possible that, if we had the illuminated eye, we should discover that the things we describe as catastrophes are but evidences of the goings of GOD in supernatural strength, for the accomplishment of some far-off purpose upon which His heart of love is set? Once more, notice the methods which are remarkable in relation to these people. Notice the peculiar restraint of the natural force of His appointed soldiers, within the bounds of His government. Is it possible to conceive of anything much more foolish than attempting to take a city by the blowing of rams’ horns and the marching of men? Yet that is not the way to state the case. Let us rather enquire whether it is possible to conceive of anything more heroic than the ability to walk seven days round a city, without striking a blow, after having won a battle by the sword on the other side of Jordan? I cannot laugh at the story as being unlikely. I am rather amazed at the picture of the restrained soldiers of GOD, content to do His bidding, while leaving to Him the issues. When at last the walls trembled, no one imagined that the blast of the rams’ horns had shaken them, no one imagined that the tramp of feet round them had made them tremble. They knew, and we know, that these men were being taught that GOD operates for the accomplishment of His purposes through the obedient and heroic faith of men who will obey Him, however foolhardy their action may appear in the eyes of men. The restraint of the lust of a conquering army is equally remarkable. Compare the Assyrian records, to which we have already made reference, and see what the men of that very district did in the day of victory, how they treated their captives. The contrast is almost startling. "The Lord is a Man of war." - His purpose is righteous. - His instruments are controlled by righteousness. - His methods are righteous. I see Him in this book of Joshua moving in resistless fury against sin, in the interests of the nations, of the race at large, and of the unborn centuries, in order that truth might have its opportunity in the world, in the interests of man. The other truth that "the just shall live by his faith" has become patent by this statement of the first permanent value of the book. This truth emerged in Genesis, was expressed in clear statement by Habakkuk, and enforced by threefold citation in the apostolic writings. The declaration means that the power of the righteous life is faith. It is by faith in GOD that the righteous lives. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews has this passage "the just shall live by his faith" - that is, he shall live the righteous life, by faith. The power of righteousness is faith. The book of Joshua is a remarkable interpretation of this fact, and it is especially valuable to notice the interpretation of faith which this book offers. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews declares "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down," and that statement touches the keystone of the victories of Joshua. The first strategic battle was won at Jericho. Beyond that, the whole land stretched out before them. This being granted, carefully observe what this history of the conquest of the land teaches concerning faith: - faith is the acceptance of GOD’s standard of holiness. - faith is abandonment to the government of GOD’s will. - faith is achievement in the strength of GOD’s might. It is first acceptance of GOD’s standard of holiness. In the first words of Joshua addressed to these people, he warned them of the perils which awaited them in the land to which they came, and charged them that they must be pure and strong. In his last discourse the same passionate abandonment to the standard of GOD’s holiness is manifest. That is faith. Faith is not an attitude which asks for mercy, and professes to receive it, while careless about holiness. Faith finds the grip of its anchorage in the holiness of GOD. That is the underlying secret of the strength and victories of Joshua. Faith is also abandonment to the government of GOD’s will. We have already referred to this, as revealed in the story of the taking of Jericho. The men who were content to do such things as they did were men of faith. In the stirring days of the evangelical revival, when the Wesleys and Whitefields were passing like flames of fire through the country, they sang: "Fools and madmen let us be, Yet is our sure trust in Thee." That is faith; to be willing to do things at which the wisdom of the world scoffs, if GOD command. In that way GOD’s victories are won, and in no other. Faith finally, therefore, is achievement in the strength of GOD’s might. All the victories of righteousness through the centuries testify to this fact. The permanent values of the book of Joshua constitute its living message, and therefore 1 need but repeat them in a few final sentences. To-day "The Lord is a Man of war." At this hour He is the foe of sin in personal, social, civic, and national life. At this moment, in this individual life of mine and in the world at large, He is moving forward in unabated, undeviating, unceasing hostility to sin. Blessed be His name! Thank GOD that He will not make peace with sin in my heart. How I have tried to evade some issue with Him, to plead the excuse, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes. and the children’s teeth are set on edge"; to urge the difficulty of the circumstances in which I am; to plead my infirmity. All the while GOD is a Man of war, smiting sin, refusing to make truce with it, accepting no white flag of surrender offered to Him, except that of the abandonment of sin, and all because He loves me. The moment you can persuade me that GOD Almighty will excuse sin in my life, I cease to believe in His love. He is the foe of sin in me, in London, in England, in the world. If in these days His methods are not exactly the methods of the past, let it never be forgotten that even to-day every army that marches is under His control; that He girds Cyrus outside the covenant as surely now as in the days of old. I bless His name for the thunder of His authority, and for the profound conviction that He is fierce and furious in His anger against sin, wherever it manifests itself. To-day also, as in the ancient days, "the just shall live by his faith." Personally that is true. If a man is to have the victory of the righteous life he must win it by faith, by accepting GOD’s standard of holiness, by abandoning the life to the government of GOD’s will. Then and then only, will he achieve victory in GOD’s power. It is equally true relatively. To exercise a righteous influence, and to produce the result of righteous conditions, we must have faith in GOD. Blot GOD out of your propaganda, refuse to have His name and the name of His CHRIST mentioned, when you gather together to discuss the amelioration of social conditions, and confusion is written across your assembly. It is only as GOD is recognized in His holiness, and obeyed in His law, that righteous conditions can obtain in personal, or social, or national life. May we hear the message, and answer it with all our hearts to the glory of His name. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 93: 09.07. JUDGES ======================================================================== CHAPTER SEVEN THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES A. THE PERMANENT VALUES B. THE LIVING MESSAGE I. The Deterioration of a Nation I. As to the Nation i. Its Manifestation. A Warning a. Cause. Religious Apostasy. i. The Process of Deterioration. b. Course. Political Disorganization. ii. The Process of Restoration. c. Curse. Social Chaos. ii. Its Characteristics. a. Blindness. Religious. b. Folly; Political. c. Immorality. Social. II. The Administration of GOD II. As to the Administration of GOD. i. Its Methods. A Message of Hope. a. Punishment. i. He forever moves towards Purpose. b. Mercy. ii. His Methods are still the same. c. Deliverance. Punishment. ii. Its Purpose. Mercy. a. The last Statement. Judges 21:25; Judges 17:6; Deliverance. Judges 18:1; Judges 19:1 b. The next Book. c. Its Ultimate. David. JESUS. THE central division in the lecture on the content of this book gives the history of the Hebrew people from Joshua to Samson, in a series of seven cycles. Each one runs the same course - of sin, of punishment, of deliverance. The permanent values must be deduced from this division. That is not to undervalue the introduction or the appendix. These are necessary for the complete picture, but for our present purpose we shall confine ourselves to these seven cycles. The permanent values may be summarized under two heads. The book reveals to us first, the deterioration of the nation; and secondly, the administration of GOD. In considering the book of Joshua, we found that its first revelation was summarized in that ancient declaration "The Lord is a Man of war," and we saw GOD in perpetual conflict with sin; while its second value was expressed in the statement "the just shall live by faith," faith being the acceptance of GOD’s standard of holiness. abandonment to the government of GOD’s will, and achievement in the strength of GOD’s might. In dealing with the first of these values, we saw that the hostility of GOD to sin was manifested not only to the sin of the people who were to be exterminated, but also to the sin of the people who were to be the instruments of that extermination. That fact is brought out into clear relief in this book. Here we see GOD in constant conflict with the sin of these people, and yet as constantly working for their deliverance. The lessons of this book, then, may be summarized by the quotation of two Scriptures, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: But sin is a reproach to any people," and, "The Lord executeth righteousness, And judgment for all that are oppressed.’ Take the first, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: But sin is a reproach to any people." The meaning of the first half of the verse is plain - "Righteousness exalteth," lifteth up, setteth on high. The meaning of the second part has been somewhat obscured by the use of the word "reproach." The Hebrew word is nowhere else so translated. Its usual translation seems to suggest no possible connection with reproach. In the refrain of Psalms 136:1-26, "His mercy endureth forever," the word "mercy" is the same as that translated "reproach" in this text. I am not suggesting that we should read this text "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a mercy to any people." I have rather drawn attention to the peculiarity of the word in order to say that I believe there is the profoundest significance in its use. The word is derived from a root which means to bow or bend the neck. It is a pictorial word, and its meaning must always be interpreted by the setting in which it is found. - the neck may be bent in condescension, the bending of superiority to inferiority. - it may be done in courtesy, the bending of a friend to a friend. - it may be done in submission, the bending of a slave to the yoke. I believe that when this word was written by Solomon, he employed it for its root value, rather than for its generally accepted value. The thought then would be, Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin bends the neck of any people. Thus the word stands in direct contrast to the word "exalteth." Righteousness makes erect; sin bows the neck. Some may object that one word can have two opposite meanings. I will tell you a story. A boy said to his father, "Father, what does cleave mean?" "To cleave means to cut into two," replied the father. "Why, father," exclaimed the boy, "I thought that a man must cleave to his wife!" Forgive the homely illustration of the fact that this word must be interpreted by the context. To cleave is either to make one of two, or to make two of one. The other text reveals the truth that fills our heart with hope, "The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed." I place the emphasis for my present purpose upon the word "executeth." GOD is an Administrator as well as a Lawgiver. The seven cycles of this book show how sin bows the neck of a nation, as they reveal the cause, the course, and the curse of deterioration. The cause of deterioration was religious apostasy. Its course was political disorganization. Its curse was social chaos and crime. The first movement of religious apostasy was toleration of things that were out of harmony with the holiness of GOD. In the earlier chapters the declaration is made five or six times, "they drave them not out." They tolerated the presence in the land of the corrupt peoples, whom they had been commanded to exterminate. That was the first evidence of religious apostasy. It always is. Religious apostasy never begins with intellectual questioning. I have the profoundest respect for the man who is face to face with intellectual doubt and difficulty. Let him alone. If he be true, he will "beat his music out," and "find a stronger faith his own." Religious apostasy begins with toleration for the things that are out of harmony with the holiness of GOD. This was followed by admiration of the things tolerated, until admiration became conformity; and in that strip of land which ought to have been swept clean of corruption, altars to Baal, and idol places of worship were erected by the people raised up to end these very abominations. Religious apostasy is always the first movement in national deterioration, and it is inevitably followed by political disorganization. This manifested itself in the case of Israel almost immediately. After the passing of Joshua they ceased to act as one people. They began to live in their own small territory and to fight for their own selfish ends. Civil war almost exterminated the tribe of Benjamin. The nation was broken up into factions, and so was no longer able to act in perfect unity of thought and purpose; and consequently was weak in the presence of enemies, and suffered defeat. The curse was experienced in internal lawlessness. One graphic touch tells how the highways were deserted, and men walked along the byways, which means that lawlessness was so rampant that men had to find their way by stealth to evade the highway robbers who filled the land. Crimes were committed everywhere, while stubbornness of heart characterized the people. Mark their strange blindness. One of the most startling things in the book of Judges is the speed with which they forgot. They seem to have forgotten the taking of Jericho, and the victory on the other side of the Jordan. They seem, moreover, to have forgotten their earlier history, the deliverance from Egypt, and the wonderful years in the wilderness in which they were taught that the throne of GOD must be recognized as the center of their life. They were blind, moreover, to the present activity of GOD, hardly recognizing the hand of His judgments. This blindness and their religious apostasy were related to each other, as effect to cause. Mark the folly of these people. This was evidenced by their limited survey, and by their selfishness. Religious apostasy is always limited survey. To have a home policy and a foreign policy which leave GOD out of the reckoning is to be blind indeed. The outcome of such blindness is selfishness. These people sought their own personal aggrandizement when they forgot GOD. Finally mark the immorality, which was the inevitable outcome of their blindness and folly, and to which we have referred in speaking of the curse of social chaos. Thank GOD, however, there is something more in the book of Judges than all this, or it would be a heart-breaking picture. The administration of GOD is revealed throughout, and concerning it there are three matters to be specially noted: - punishment, - mercy, and - deliverance. This is one of the books of the Bible which we must burn and fling away if we deny that GOD does directly, immediately, and definitely punish sin. It nevertheless reveals matters of supreme importance, in order to a correct appreciation of the method and purpose of punishment. The punishment of GOD is poetic. That which fell upon these people was the necessary result of their own sin. They bent the neck to low ideals of religion, and were compelled to bend the neck to the rule of the people to whose immorality they had stooped. The people they ought to have driven out, but whom they tolerated and admired, and to whom they conformed themselves, became their tyrants. GOD visited them by bringing upon them the scourge of an idolatrous people, because they had stooped to idolatry. The punishment of GOD is severe. During the years before Gideon was raised up, these people with so great a birthright were compelled to take refuge in caves, not daring to show themselves, being hunted upon the mountains of their own land, and having to hide their heads for very fear. - . That is an illustration of the severity of GOD’s punishment. Yes, but there is another word to be uttered. Not only was the punishment poetic and severe, it was remedial. It always aimed at bringing the people back to a consciousness of sin and of GOD Through all these processes the Lord is seen watching and waiting in mercy for His people, hearing them the moment they cry to Him, and answering them immediately with deliverance. That brings us to the final matter in the administration of GOD - His deliverance. Deliverance was wrought at the right moment, by the right instrument, to the right issue. I do not pause to dwell upon the fact that it was wrought at the right moment, for we have already seen that He acted, directly the people turned to Him in penitence. It is intensely interesting, however, to notice how the deliverance was wrought by the right instrument. To look at the conditions in the midst of which the judges were raised up is ever to see how the right man was found for the accomplishment of the work. The story of Shamgar is told in one verse. He was a rough, rugged hero, fitted to his times, accomplishing revolution, and so correcting the people. Then there was the wonderful alliance between Deborah and Barak in an age which lacked enthusiasm and enterprise. Deborah was a woman of poetry and flame, and with a fine scorn laid a whip of scorpions round the men who skulked, when they ought to have been fighting. Barak was a strategist and adviser. Deborah without Barak would have kindled enthusiasm, but would have accomplished nothing. Barak would have done absolutely nothing without Deborah. Then came Gideon in the most strenuous hour of all the period, and proved his heroism first by his fear. Never criticize Gideon for demanding proof on proof. He was a man so afraid of himself, that he must have proof on proof; but so sure of GOD, that he was content with three hundred men, and lamps and pitchers and trumpets, to lead an attack upon a great host. The story of Jephthah is full of power. I am always sorry for Jephthah. He was a man with the iron in his soul, born into the world not in the proper way, and therefore despised by his legitimate brethren, he had become a freebooter and an outlaw. Yet he was a man of remarkable, honest, rugged strength. When GOD wanted a leader in those days of lawlessness, He took this man, whom his brothers had despised, and made him the instrument of deliverance. The story of Samson is full of sadness, as it reveals a nation utterly deteriorated, and a man unable to deliver. A most significant word is written concerning him, "He shall begin to deliver Israel." He never succeeded. One of the most tragic things in the Bible is written of him, a statement that makes the soul blanch with fear as nothing else does, "He wist not that the Lord was departed from him." Oh, the tragedy of it. It may come to you, it may come to me, if we play with evil things, when we ought to be fighting the Lord’s battles. We should not have looked for anyone of these men where GOD looked for them. They who wear soft raiment are in kings’ palaces. When GOD wants a prophet, He takes a herdsman; when a leader, He finds a shepherd; when apostles, He calls fishermen. In order to see the purpose of the administration of GOD, look at the last verse in the book of Judges, "Every man did that which was right in his own eyes." The same thing is written four times in the appendix. It is said that this reveals nothing more than that the book of Judges was written in the time of the kings; and that the writer, looking back, accounted for the chaos by the fact that there was no king. That is truly the human side of it; but there is the Divine side of it. "Every man did that which was right in his own eyes"; that is, religious apostasy, political disorganization, social chaos. The book of Ruth follows that of Judges, and may be described as the idyll of the king. How does it end? With David the king. What is its issue? JESUS, far off down the centuries. So at last there came a King, and no man is any longer to do that which is right in his own eyes, but is to crown Him and obey Him. That is the ending of religious apostasy, of political disorganization, and of social chaos. So the lines run out from this book of Judges, through the idyll of the king, to the coming of the King. Again, the permanent values constitute the living message. The book of Judges is full of teaching for this day, and for this nation. It first of all utters a warning, revealing to us, if we have eyes to see, and ears to hear, and hearts to understand, the process of deterioration. It is as true of our own nation as of Israel, that if there is religious apostasy, there must be political disorganization, and this issues in social chaos. In other words, social failure is rooted in religious apostasy. Therefore the process of restoration must begin with the cause, and so change the course, and remove the curse. When I am told that I am to leave my pulpit, and give myself to social propaganda, I say, No, I have no time and no right, however much my heart may break in the presence of social conditions, to waste time and energy fooling with the fringe of things. It is for the Christian preacher and the Christian Church to cry aloud, Back to GOD, and so back to political emancipation, and to social order. Then there is in this book a message full of hope as to the administration of GOD. He is forever moving towards the ultimate goal, and never loses sight thereof. His methods are still the same. He still punishes by war, catastrophe, reaction. Take up the newspaper to-day, and read the sad and awful story of suicide after suicide on the other side of the sea. What does it mean? The nemesis of impure commercial methods. GOD is surely abroad in the world, making men their own executioners, when there is no other way of checking the floods of vice. Yet He is forevermore a GOD ready to pardon. If this nation could but be turned back to Him, He would visit us again with His own salvation and uplifting. Finally, let us remember that GOD always finds the providential man at the right moment. When the punishment has done its work, and the discipline has wrought a sense of wrong in the heart of the people, He finds the deliverer. We cannot produce him. Let us be careful lest we stone him when he comes, for he will not appear where we are looking, but from some unexpected quarter. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 94: 09.08. RUTH ======================================================================== CHAPTER EIGHT THE MESSAGE OF RUTH A. THE PERMANENT VALUES B. THE LIVING MESSAGE I. The Secrets of Saintship I. Circumstances neither make nor mar Saints GOD, the Sufficiency of the Trusting. i. The Difficulties. a. Ruth. 1. A Moabitess. 2. Seeing GOD’s People in Circumstances of Suffering and Want. 3. Coming in Poverty to a People hostile. b. Boaz. II. The one Principle of Victory Is 1. Living in Times of Degeneracy. Faith 2. "A mighty Man of Wealth." The Laws of Faith. 3. Legal difficulties threatening Love for An open Mind. Ruth. A personal Decision. ii. The Characters. Practical Application a. Ruth. A Woman in all the Grace Persistent Courage and Beauty of Womanhood. b. Boaz. A Man in all the Strength and Glory of Manhood. iii. The Secret. a. Ruth. 1. An open Mind. 2. A personal Choice. 3. Loyalty. In spite of Difficulties. III. The Value of one life b. Boaz. to GOD only known In the 1. Loyalty. In midst of Difficulties. fuller Life beyond 2. His Relation to GOD and his Fellowmen. 3. Caution and Courage. II. The Values of Saintship The Trusting; The Instruments of GOD. Boaz and Ruth. Obed. Jesse. David. NEVER measure the value of a book by its bulk. This little brochure of a few pages is one of the rarest and most beautiful idylls in literature, even after translation. In seeking for its living message it is most necessary that we should have in mind a well-defined outline of the picture it represents. The background is revealed in the opening words, "And it came to pass in the days when the judges judged." That places the story in that period in the history of the Hebrew people which we considered in our lecture on the book of Judges. The events chronicled transpired in troublous, stormy, and difficult times; in the midst of religious apostasy, political disorganization, and social chaos. That in itself is suggestive, reminding us that GOD has never left Himself without witness. In the darkest days, the light has never been totally extinguished. The subsidiary foreground of the book presents the persons of Elimelech and Naomi, Mahlon and Chilion, and Orpah; and the events of famine, emigration, and the sorrows following; the return of only one of those who had departed, accompanied by a stranger to the land; and finally the story of the wooing and the wedding. In the immediate foreground two figures stand out in bold relief, Ruth and Boaz. The picture is of the Rosa Bonheur type, only a few lines, strong, clear, definite; yet full of light and shade. To think of the book of Ruth is to think of Ruth and Boaz. Ultimately, observing the historic movement and the processes of GOD, it is seen that these two in their union constituted a highway for GOD, through perils, for the accomplishment of purpose. Taking the book thus, there are two permanent values which I shall suggest. - first, the book teaches the secrets of saintship; GOD is the sufficiency of trusting souls. - secondly, it teaches the values of saintship; trusting souls are the instruments of GOD. I must not be tempted into a long discussion of what is meant by saintship, but content myself with a simple yet inclusive definition. A saint is a person separated to the will of GOD. Ruth and Boaz lived the life of saintship in circumstances of the utmost difficulty, finding their sufficiency for such life in GOD. Ruth was a Moabitess, of an accursed race, who according to the law of Moses was not allowed to enter the congregation of the covenant. While this story finally teaches that no such disability remains when faith in GOD is exercised, we must not forget the difficulty as it existed for Ruth; how the people would be likely to look at her, how she herself, as she came into contact with the religion of the Hebrew people, would realize the greatness of her distance. Again, there was nothing calculated to allure her, from the standpoint of material prosperity. Those she had known of the people of the Lord had been compelled to leave their land on account of famine. From them she knew of the perils of those who had remained in the land, and all the sadness of their condition. She came back with Naomi into poverty, and to people who in all probability were hostile to them both. Thus the saintship of Ruth was in spite of difficulties, and flourished amid circumstances calculated to discourage her. Boaz lived amid people of privilege in times of degeneracy. Perhaps there are no circumstances in which it is harder to live the life of the saint. It is to-day easier to live a godly life in the midst of worldly men and women, than in the midst of worldly Christians. Then again, he was a mighty man of wealth, and consequently able to procure whatever would contribute to the ease of his material existence. That condition is always perilous to the life of faith. It is to-day easier to live an out-and-out Christian life in circumstances of stress and strain, than in those of ease and luxury. Once more notice carefully the legal difficulties threatening his love for Ruth. There was a nearer kinsman than he, who had first right; and appeal must be made to him ere Boaz could claim Ruth. There is a fine loyalty to principle manifested in this man’s dealings in this particular. How easy it would have been for him to sacrifice principle in order to win. Thus both Ruth the Moabitess, and Boaz the man of Judah were saints, in spite of difficulties peculiar to each. How full of beauty they were. Ruth was a woman capable of love, characterized by modesty, of fine gentleness, of splendid courage; a woman in all the grace and beauty of womanhood. Boaz was a man of integrity, of courtesy, of tender passion, of courage; a man in all the strength and glory of manhood. The secret in each case was that of the sufficiency of GOD for such as trust Him. In the case of Ruth three things are clearly manifest: - first, she was a woman of an open mind, willing to receive the teaching of Naomi. - secondly, she was a woman who at a crisis made her own choice against all the prejudices of her nationality, against the persuasion of Naomi, to whom she owed the very light of her religion; separating herself of her own free will from Moab, and transferring herself to Judah and to the Lord. - finally, she was persistently, patiently, and definitely loyal to her choice. She turned her back upon the land of her birth and childhood, with all its associations and acquaintances, and followed Naomi until she had put the waters of Jordan between herself and Moab. To this woman of open mind, GOD revealed Himself; and she, answering in obedient faith, found Him sufficient through all dangers and difficulties, and lived the life of a saint, full of beauty. In the case of Boaz also three things are worthy of notice: - first, his loyalty to GOD in the midst of difficulties. In the hour when men took the name of GOD upon their lips, while their lives were out of harmony with their profession, here was a man absolutely loyal; a man true in the midst of untruth; a man of faith in the midst of an age of faithlessness. - secondly, he was a man who made application of his relation to GOD in his relation to his fellow men. He greeted the men who worked for him in terms which disclosed his relation to GOD. Yet he was neither a slovenly nor a careless man. He saw immediately the stranger in his fields. He took personal oversight of all his affairs, yet he lived a life so godly as to be able to greet his workmen in terms which revealed his relationship to GOD. - finally, he was a man of caution and of courage. The two things are never far apart. Caution is the very soul of courage. Courage is the true expression of caution. All these things reveal the fact that, trusting GOD, Boaz found Him sufficient to enable him to live a goodly life in circumstances of difficulty. Thus the secret of the grace and beauty of Ruth, and the strength and manliness of Boaz lie in the fact that in differing circumstances, they both lived upon the same principle of simple yet sublime faith in GOD. Such souls as these are the instruments through which GOD is ever able to move towards the accomplishment of His purposes. The story of the ultimate values of the faith of Ruth, and Boaz is told in the ending of this book. Boaz and Ruth, Obed, Jesse, David. So we see the very footsteps of Almighty GOD. Boaz the Hebrew, and Ruth the Moabitess in union, become the highway for GOD towards the ultimate realization of His purposes. The living message may be stated in three propositions: First, circumstances neither make nor mar saints. The difficulty of the life of saintship to the wealthy man is answered by the story of Boaz. The difficulty of the life of faith to a poor woman is answered by the story of Ruth. The difficulty of living a godly life when the early training has been in the atmosphere of godliness is often affirmed, and that with a great amount of reason. There have been hours when I have envied the loyalty, the devotion, the splendour of the Christian life of some man whose conversion was a volcanic eruption, after which he left behind him forever the vulgarities of the old life, and entered into the graces of the new with surprising fullness of experience. It is possible to have been brought up in the atmosphere of Christianity and so to lack the reason for that ceaseless watchfulness which exists in the case of those who have lacked such training. How shall we answer those who urge this difficulty? By telling the story of Boaz. Some, on the other hand, urge quite another reason, that of irreligious training. They lack the advantages that others had. They were never sung to sleep in infancy with songs of the CHRIST. After conversion they came into a strange atmosphere, and have to learn the way, and therefore so much cannot be expected from them as from others. How shall we answer those who thus speak? By telling the story of Ruth. The difficulties of privilege in the case of Boaz. The difficulties of limitation in the case of Ruth. Yet by faith they were non-existent, they were cancelled, they did not obtain. The privileged man shines with the luster of sainthood; the woman lacking all such privilege, flashes in the beauty and glory of saintship. Why? Because GOD is the mightiest environment of any human life. Because GOD is an inheritance, possessing which, all poverty is cancelled, and all other wealth is made as of .no account. So I repeat my first proposition. Circumstances can neither make nor mar saints. - if we cannot begin our saintship in the land of Moab, we shall never be saints in the land of Judah. - if a man cannot be a saint as a wealthy man, though he lose all his wealth, poverty will not make a saint of him. - if a man cannot be a saint as a poor man, wealth, if it comes to him, will in all probability damn him. Therefore as a necessary sequence to the first proposition, I make the second. The principle of victory is faith. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." - faith is the principle that takes hold upon GOD, and appropriates all His resources. - faith takes hold of that in GOD which man needs, and enables GOD to take hold of that in man which He needs. From both of these people I learn something of the laws of faith. An open mind; a personal decision; direct application of the things believed to the details of every-day life; persistent courage in the face of all difficulty. Faith is not a sentiment about which we sing. It is an attitude of life, based upon the conviction of the soul. Finally the book teaches the value to GOD of that life, which makes the great surrender, and follows Him in faith. The value of such a life can never be known until we pass within the veil. Remember again the sequence with which this book closes; Obed, Jesse, David. Boaz and Ruth had passed into the light ere David came, the king for whom the nation was waiting, yet the sequence did not end with David. A little later a prophet from some height of vision broke into a great song. "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel." Far down the centuries there shone a light at midnight, and songs were heard, and in the direct line of the man of Judah and of privilege, and the woman of Moab and of limitation, to Bethlehem came the King. They did not see the issues. They did not live to reap the ultimate harvest of their fidelity, but GOD found foothold in the man and woman of faith, and in their united lives. That is the principle of which I think we need to be reminded, in order to encourage our hearts in the midst of work. We talk about results. If all the results of my ministry can be statistically stated, it is a dire failure. Paul was a saint, cribbed, cabined and confined in prison. It is impossible to read his letters without being conscious of a certain amount of restlessness as he made appeal to his loved ones, "remember my bonds." A man whose motto was, The Regions Beyond, whose piercing eye saw the far distances, and who was profoundly conscious of the value of the evangel, who knew and wrote "I am debtor . . . I am ready;" was yet imprisoned, and had to content himself with writing letters. To-day those letters are of greater value than all his work. He did not know that presently they would be gathered together, and would constitute the great exposition of the evangelical faith for all the centuries. Robert Morrison wrote in his diary, "This day I entered with Mr. Laidler to learn Latin. I paid ten shillings and sixpence, and am to pay one guinea per quarter. I know not what may be the end. GOD only knows." That ten shillings and sixpence was the beginning of that linguistic education which made Morrison the translator of the Bible, and opened the way for all the work which has been done in China during the past century. These are but instances, yet take the comfort of them. May this be my last word. Remember that of the work you do to-day you cannot see the issue, if it is work wrought by faith in GOD. It may be in the great city of London, or in some hidden hamlet among the hills that your life will be lived, small, unknown, never published, never noticed either in the religious or irreligious press, and yet you may be GOD’s foothold for things of which you cannot dream, which if told you now you would not possibly believe. The one cry of my heart and of thy heart, comrade of faith, according to this book, should be a cry for out-and-out abandonment to Him, in order that by our loyalty He may win the victories of His royalty. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 95: 09.09. 1 SAMUEL ======================================================================== CHAPTER NINE THE MESSAGE OF I SAMUEL A. THE PERMANENT VALUES B. THE LIVING MESSAGE I. The Lord Reigning by Adaptation and I. The Absolutism of GOD Advance i. Samuel. i. Revealed. a. Hanna - A Woman’s Faith The Lord’s No Territory out of His Foothold. Jurisdiction. A Woman’s Song His Interpretation. No Persons beyond His Control. b. The New Order. The Prophet. No Event escaping His Overruling. c. His Work. 1. Preparation. ii. Interpreted. 2. Reformation. Operating towards Accomplishment. 3. Foundation of Kingdom. Including adverse Forces and Facts. ii. Saul. Creating its own Agents. a. The Man. 1 Physical Strength. Fitful and Failing. 2. Mental Acumen. Moods and Madness. 3. Spiritual Life. Torpor and Death. b. The Kingdom. Disaster. iii. David. a. The Training. 1. A Shepherd in the Fields. 2. A Courtier at the Palace. 3. An Outlaw in Exile. b. The Progress. II. Man Cooperating by Failure and by Loyalty II. The Relation of Man i. Samuel. i. The ultimate Victory of GOD is a. Opportunity. - parentage - Call - Appointment. independent of the Attitudes of b. Response. - Loyal. Individuals or Peoples towards c. Issues. - Messages of GOD delivered Him. - Work of GOD advanced. ii. The place of Individuals or ii. Saul. Peoples in that ultimate. Victory a. Opportunity - Call and Anointing - Friendship is dependent upon their Attitude for Samuel - Popularity and towards Him personal Equipment. b. Response. - Vacillation - Self-will - Disobedience c. Issues. - His Failure a Revelation - His Death a Warning iii. David. a. Opportunity - Call and Anointing - Waiting and Suffering. - Crisis of Battle with Amalek. b. Response - Obedience - Patience - Action. c. Issues - An Instrument in the Lord’s Progress. THE two books of Samuel constitute one story. The first gives the history of the transition from Theocracy to Monarchy. The inwardness of that transition is revealed by a paragraph in the eighth chapter "Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah: and they said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not be King over them." Two brief statements from that passage, "Make us a king to judge us like all the nations," and "They have rejected Me, that I should not be King over them," tell the story of the transition, as to the human desire which produced it, and as to the Divine attitude towards it. The nation asked for "a king to judge us like all the nations." The reason for their existence as a nation was that they should be unlike the nations. The unlikeness consisted in the fact that this nation had as its only King JEHOVAH, the Lord. The real meaning of their request is therefore interpreted by the language of the Lord to Samuel, "They have rejected Me, that I should not be King over them." The days of the judges were days of religious apostasy, political disorganization, and social chaos; and religious apostasy in the case of these people meant that they refused to obey the King eternal, immortal, invisible. This attitude expressed itself in the request they brought to Samuel, "Make us a king to judge us like all the nations." Sin ever issues in an attempt to substitute the false for the true. That is the history of idolatry. Every idol is witness to man’s need of GOD. The lack of GOD creates the necessity for putting something in His place. These men, turning from GOD as King, desired a king like the nations. The first book of Samuel tells the story of the immediate issues of this desire. The permanent values of the book may be exclusively expressed in two statements: - its supreme revelation is that of the Lord reigning by adaptation, in order to advance. - its second value is that it reveals the fact that, under the government of GOD, men cooperate with Him towards the final issues, either by failure or loyalty. It would appear as though the first of these statements - namely, that the Lord reigns by adaptation in order to advance - contradicts His declaration concerning the people, "They have rejected Me, that I should not be King over them," and yet it is by no means a contradiction. It is one thing to reject the Lord, but is quite another to dethrone Him. The first is possible. The second is impossible. This is the supreme lesson of the book. The people, chosen to exhibit the breadth, the beauty, and the beneficence of His government, rejected Him from being King, but they did not dethrone Him. As I watch the movement of this story, gathering around the three central figures, Samuel, Saul and David, the supreme revelation is not of these men, but of the Lord reigning by the adaptation of His method to the requirements of the hour, and so through disobedience or obedience through success or failure, through men loyal or rebellious, moving quietly, steadily, and surely on. As our analysis of the book suggests, the whole movement gathers round three personalities, and centering our attention upon them for the purpose of this study, we must yet keep in mind the prevailing conditions. The story of Samuel is introduced by that of Hannah. Hannah was a woman whose faith became the Lord’s foothold, and whose song became the Lord’s interpretation. While it is the glad thanksgiving of a woman whose prayer has been heard and answered, it is infinitely more. All the values of the book are gathered up into this song of the GOD who reigns, and concerning whom she affirms: "The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: He bringeth low, He also lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, He lifteth up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, And inherit the throne of glory." The song moves on: "The adversaries of the LORD Shall be broken to pieces; Out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: The LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; And he shall give strength unto his king, And exalt the horn of his anointed." Samuel was a prophet. Peter, speaking the presence of the assembled multitude in Jerusalem, said, "The prophets from Samuel and them that followed after." In that reference he included the whole of the Hebrew prophets, beginning with Samuel. There is a sense in which there had been prophets before him; indeed, Moses himself was a prophet of whom it is said there never arose another like him. Yet, in one particular respect, Samuel was the first of the prophetic order. The kings were never mediators between GOD and man. The people rejected the Lord from being King, and so passed out close communion and intimate relationship with Him; and He consented in order to the fulfilling of His purpose, but He never recognized the king as standing between Himself and them. He chose their kings for them, He allowed the lust for a king to work itself out in the ultimate disaster of the centuries, but He never spoke to men through the king, but always through the prophets. With Samuel, then, the prophet emerges as the authoritative representative of the Lord. Samuel as prophet, became the king-maker, finding Saul and anointing him; finding David, and anointing him; and henceforward, when a Divine message had to be delivered to the people, it did not come directly from GOD to the king, but to the king and all the people, through the prophets. In the economy of GOD, the prophet’s office was always superior to that of the king. Thus, when the Lord was rejected by the will of the people, and they clamored for a king like the other nations, He took this man, the child of a woman’s simple faith, trained him through quiet days in the temple courts, called him while yet a boy, and gave him a strange message to deliver, and made him at last the one to anoint Saul a king after the people’s own heart, and David a king after GOD’s own heart. The prophets became the mediators, the messengers, the interpreters of the law. They stood between GOD and the people. Thus the Lord reigned; and adapting His methods, found Samuel, equipped him for his work, and delivered His message through him. The history of Saul is one of the most tragic recorded in the Bible, full of fascination and of tremendous power in its appeal to individual life. In placing this man upon the throne, GOD answered the prayer of the people’s rebellion. "Make us a king to judge us like all the nations." Consequently, in the economy of GOD, Saul became a revelation, an interpretation, and a discipline. The meaning of the Psalmist’s Word is revealed in the method, "He gave them their request; But sent leanness into their soul." Saul stands out upon the page of Israel’s history, an object lesson in the real meaning of the choice. He was a man of enormous physical strength, yet fitful and failing from first to last, a man of undoubted mental acumen, yet a man of moods, who presently became a madman; a man as to spiritual life characterized from the very beginning by torpor and slowness, and at last, so devoid of spiritual illumination and power that he turned his back upon the Lord, and consulted a witch who muttered and worked incantations. He was a revelation to the people of what the possession of a king like the nations really meant. Then look at the kingdom under Saul. After he was chosen, for a time they were practically without a king. He manifested his weakness by hiding among the stuff when he ought immediately to have taken hold of the scepter. I am perfectly well aware that others interpret that story differently. They affirm that Saul was a man of such extreme modesty that after he was appointed he went back to work in quietness, without taking the kingdom. Such modesty is sin. It is as great a sin to urge modesty, and keep in the background when GOD calls to the foreground as it is to go to the front, when GOD’s appointment is in the rear. Then came the period of the wars - wars ending ultimately in the most terrible disaster. Under Saul’s reign the kingdom became disorganized. When we come to David again we see adaptation and advance. Once again GOD gave His people a king, but this time a man after His own heart. The king of GOD’s choosing was a shepherd, whose youthful days had been spent in the fields; a courtier who, passing from the fields to the palace, became Saul’s son-in-law; an outlaw for long years, to use his own graphic description, hunted like "a partridge in the mountains." Through all these processes GOD was preparing him for a kingdom, not merely to reign over it, but to realize it. As a shepherd, he loved the sheep under his care, and rescued them from the paw of the lion and the bear. In the king’s palace he became accustomed to courtly ways. As an outlaw he was prepared through discipline, and created a new type for the future strength of the kingdom. Thus GOD was remaking the kingdom in a cave, while the nation was going to pieces round the king after their own heart. The kingdom itself was thus being prepared for renewal through disaster. The special note in all this is that of the Lord reigning, moving definitely forward, pressing into the service of His own progress, towards the fulfillment of His purpose, Samuel, Saul, David; governing by adaptation; taking hold of the child of faith and making him a prophet; taking hold of physical magnificence, and by its failures making it a revelation of the sin that had been committed; taking hold of the shepherd lad, and by processes making him king. Thus GOD ever sits high enthroned, and moves in victory across disaster towards ultimate purpose. The second value of this book is but the obverse side of the first, teaching that man cooperates with GOD by failure, and by loyalty. Again our examination centers round the three personalities, and its purpose is not so much to show the result of their attitude as the process of GOD. Samuel found his opportunity in his parentage, his call, his appointment. He responded to his opportunity by loyalty. The issues were that the messages of GOD were delivered to the people, and the work of GOD was advanced. Saul found his opportunity in his call and anointing, in Samuel’s friendship for him, and in his popularity and personal equipment. He responded by vacillation, by self-will, by disobedience. The issues were the revelation of his failure and the warning of his death. David’s opportunities were his call and anointing, his long waiting and suffering, and finally the crisis of the battle with Amalek in the hour of Saul’s death. He responded by obedience and patience, and at the decisive moment by definite action. The issues were that he became the instrument of the Lord’s progress, a man through whom GOD moved forward towards ultimate realization. That rapid survey shows that each man had his opportunity; each man made his response thereto; two of them the response of obedience, one that of disobedience: but whether by failure or by loyalty, men cooperate with GOD towards the final winning of His victory. If a man does not cooperate with GOD loyally, he is compelled by the supremacy of His throne, by the sovereignty of His government, to cooperate even through his own disaster and defeat. I may quite briefly state the living message of this book. The permanent values constitute that living message. Let me state them in other terms. In this book I see the absolutism of GOD, and the relation of man to that absolutism. It first reveals the absolutism of GOD. There is no territory outside His jurisdiction; no person beyond His control, or who finally escapes His government; no event outside His consciousness, or beyond His overruling. This book not only reveals these things, it interprets them. It shows that this absolutism of GOD is operating towards accomplishment, includes in its operation all adverse facts and forces, and creates its own agents whenever it is necessary so to do. It is this living message that we need supremely today. What, then, is the relation of man to this absolutism of GOD? The ultimate victory is independent of the attitudes of individuals or peoples towards Him. Through Samuel, Saul and David, He moved right on towards the Anointed and the ultimate Kingdom. The ultimate destiny of individuals is dependent upon their attitude towards Him. - Samuel was obedient, and was used and saved. - Saul was disobedient, and was used and destroyed. - David was obedient, and was used and saved. It does not at all matter what my attitude towards GOD is, as to His ultimate victory. It matters everything as to my ultimate destiny. Everything depends upon me as to my own destiny. Nothing depends upon me ultimately as to His victory. He will press into His service for His final victory all souls who are loyal to Him, and they will share in the rapture of His victory. He will press into the service of His ultimate victory all souls in rebellion, and they will share in the wrath of His victory. So my responsibility must be, so far as my own destiny is concerned, the responsibility of obedience. This book inspires a great song, which can best be uttered in the words of the Psalmist, "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 96: 09.10. 2 SAMUEL ======================================================================== CHAPTER TEN THE MESSAGE OF II SAMUEL A. THE PERMANENT VALUES B. THE LIVING MESSAGE I. GOD’s Opportunity is created by the I. The Lesson of I Samuel recognized Attitude of Man towards them i. The Statement of the Principle. 2 Samuel 22:26-28. That the ultimate Victory of GOD is ii. The Illustration. independent of the Attitudes of a. The Attitudes of David. Individuals or Peoples towards Him. 1. Conception of Supremacy. 2 Samuel 22:1-16. 2. Conviction of Righteousness. 2 Samuel 22:17-27. 3. Confidence in Mercy. 2 Samuel 22:28-46. 4. Conformity of Desire. 2 Samuel 22:47-51. b. The Answers of GOD. 1. The Exercise of Sovereignty. 2 Samuel 22:1-3. 2. The Exercise of Righteousness. 2 Samuel 22:21-28. 3. The Exercise of Mercy. 2 Samuel 22:35-36. 4. The Exercise of Salvation. 2 Samuel 22:51. iii. All the Resources of GOD operative in the life of a Man in right Attitude. Thus the Man becomes the Instrument of GOD. II. Man’s Opportunity Is created by the II. The supreme Matter for Service Attitude of GOD towards him is the Attitude of the Soul i. The Statement of the Principle. ii. The Illustration. a. The Attitudes of the Lord. 1. Purpose. 2 Samuel 23:1. 2. Power. 2 Samuel 23:2. 3. Principle. 2 Samuel 23:3-4. 4. Persistence. 2 Samuel 23:5. b. The Answers of David. 1. Consent. 2. Cooperation. 3. Conformity. 4. Confidence. iii. All the possibilities of Man realized, III. The Triumph of a Man Is the of the Attitude of GOD. Thus Triumph of GOD over him GOD is able to operate through him. THE first book of Samuel closes with the introduction of David. We saw him in preparation for his life-work; in the fields as shepherd; in the palace as musician and courtier; in the wilderness as outlaw. He was fitted for the position to which he was appointed, and for which he had been anointed. In the second book, we have the history of his specific contribution to the purpose of GOD. The question of preliminary preparation for service is not in view here, but rather the service resulting therefrom. We have already seen the threefold process of preparation in the fields, in the palace, in exile. - in the fields, the essential spirit of a king, that of the shepherd, had its training. - in the palace, the incidentals of kingliness were cultivated. - in the exile, fiber was toughened, and the king was prepared for government. All these values are in this story. David is here the shepherd of his people, the center of the court, and the strong ruler. The story of the book begins with the crisis that brought David into his specific work. Our attention, then, is fixed upon him fulfilling the office of king under the direct government of GOD, and from that standpoint there are two permanent values in the study. - the book teaches us first that GOD’s opportunity is created by the attitude of man towards Him; and - secondly, that man’s opportunity is created by the attitude of GOD towards him. In the appendix to this book are two Psalms which are of great use, as they state the principles which the story illustrates. As in the first book of Samuel the whole of its values are suggested in Hannah’s song, with which it opens; so in the second book the values are crystallized in David’s songs, with which it closes. Let us begin with the first statement, that GOD’s opportunity is created by the attitude of man towards Him. That principle emerges into clear declaration in the first of the two Psalms: "With the merciful Thou wilt show Thyself merciful, With the upright man Thou wilt show Thyself upright; With the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure; And with the froward Thou wilt show Thyself froward. And the afflicted people Thou wilt save: But Thine eyes are upon the haughty, that Thou mayest bring them down." All of which means that GOD is to a man what the man is to GOD. That is the principle. The story of David perfectly illustrates it. The attitude of David towards GOD is revealed as fourfold: - there is manifested first, his conception of the supremacy of GOD; - secondly, his conviction of the righteousness of GOD; - thirdly, his confidence in the mercy of GOD; and - finally, his conformity of desire to the will of GOD. There were times when faith faltered, and he did foolish things, when his passion mastered him, when he fell into fearful sin; but underneath the faltering faith I find faith which never faltered; deeper than the passion was the passionate desire for holiness; profounder than any sin, however heinous, was the attitude of soul which could say, "My soul followeth hard after Thee." David’s conception of the Divine supremacy I need not stay to illustrate. It may be stated superlatively. There is no instance recorded in which he called in question the crown rights of the Lord. His conviction of the righteousness of GOD never wavered. Foolish things he did, awful sins he committed, but he never doubted the righteousness of GOD’s dealing with him. Charged with sin by the prophet of GOD, he confessed it, and bent himself to the stroke of GOD, convinced of the absolute rightness of the Divine character and method. He had perfect confidence in GOD’s mercy. If there is one demonstration of confidence in mercy more powerful than another, it is willingness to be punished. "Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord; for His mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man." That submission to the stroke of GOD is the finest revelation of his confidence in the tenderness of the Divine heart. His deepest desire perpetually was for conformity to the will of GOD. A man of passion, he fell into dark deeds of crime; yet through all the long processes of punishment, through the sin of his children, and the breaking of his heart in consequence, he never murmured against the stroke of GOD, but in perfect confidence in His mercy. and unceasing conformity of desire after His will, he endured. That attitude created the Divine opportunity. - over a man who had a conception of His supremacy, GOD was able to exercise His sovereignty, taking him up, setting him upon the throne, and leading him in the administration of his kingdom. - towards the man convinced of His righteousness, it was possible for GOD to exercise that rightness in all His dealing with him. - to the man with desire conformed to aspiration after Himself, GOD was able to come as Saviour. Thus all the forces of GOD are seen operating in the life of a man in right attitude towards Him, and so this man became the instrument of GOD through whom He accomplished His wider purpose. How I thank GOD that it was written of David that he was a man after GOD’s own heart. There are men in the Bible of whom had it been written, it could never have helped me as it does when I see it written of David - a man who did so fall and fail and stoop to sin. Why does it help me? Because it excuses sin? A thousand times no! but because it shows me that GOD’s measurement of a man, and GOD’s ability to deal with a man, depend upon the deepest aspiration in that man’s heart; and that GOD takes the measurement of a man by what he wills to be, and not by the faltering and failing of the moment. Even David could look up into the face of GOD, and say, "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me." This is the first great revelation of the book, that GOD’s opportunity to make me and use me is created by the deep, underlying, positive attitude of my life towards Him. Now we may turn to the other side. Whence came these attitudes of David towards GOD? How is it that they came to be such, as I have attempted to epitomize as: - a conception of supremacy, - a conviction of righteousness, - a confidence in mercy, - a conformity of desire. The attitude of GOD towards David created David’s attitude towards GOD. This attitude David described in the second of the two Psalms already referred to. Let us rapidly survey it. It first declares the purpose of GOD: "David, the son of Jesse, saith, And the man who was raised on high saith, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet Psalmist of Israel." It then reveals a secret of power: "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, And His word was upon my tongue." It then affirms a principle of kingship: "The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spake to me: He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God, He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; As the tender grass springeth out of the earth, by clear shining after rain." It finally declares the Divine persistence: "Although my house be not so with God; Yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in all things, and sure; For this is all my salvation, and all my desire, Although He maketh it not to grow." These are the attitudes of GOD towards David as he understood them: - purpose, - power, - principle and - persistence, and they created his attitude towards GOD. The purpose of GOD as manifested. The singer evidently recognized that his appointment to kingship was Divine, and poetically he describes that, both as to the man upon whom the choice of GOD rested, and the ultimate issue of the choice. He did not sing of the anointed of the GOD of Israel, but of the anointed of the GOD of Jacob; that is, the GOD of the man Jacob in all his meanness chose David to be king; and in the fact as stated there is a suggestion of his consciousness of his own unworthiness. The man so anointed became not the sweet Psalmist of Jacob, for songs cannot proceed out of meanness, but the sweet Psalmist of Israel, for GOD can change Jacob to Israel, and so make possible all songs. That was the Divine purpose, and David’s assurance of it created his attitude towards GOD. The power of GOD as known. The statement "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was upon my tongue," is poetically true to his previous description of himself as "the sweet Psalmist of Israel," but it contains the whole philosophy of godly life. It is not merely a statement that he was inspired when he sang his song, but that the inspiration of his life was that of the Spirit of the Lord, and the expression of it was the word spoken. The New Testament equivalent of the verse is, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure." Thus the singer was assured, in the second place, that GOD’s power was commensurate with all His purpose. The principle of GOD for his guidance. The king who rules righteously and in the fear of GOD is a benediction to his people; the benediction of the rising sun in the morning, when there are no clouds. The king who rules his people righteously is like sunlight after rain. It is somewhat difficult in this country to appreciate the beauty of the figure. In the country of David all the land is parched and burned and brown after the summer drought. Then there comes a day of sweet, silent rain, followed by clear shining; and suddenly, like a flash of emerald, all the earth is green. This was the singer’s picture of the result of the exercise of kingship in the fear of GOD, and in righteousness. This does not seem to help us, yet the principle is applicable to all. When GOD would prepare David for the exercise of kingship, He did so by giving him a picture of the final King; and whatever He wills that we should be, and do for Him, He reveals to us the pattern in His Son. The persistence of GOD. Notwithstanding this threefold revelation of purpose, power, and principle, David was compelled to say, "My house be not so with God; yet -" Thank GOD for that "yet"! There is all the Gospel in it for my heart! "Yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure." Thus David affirmed finally his confidence in the persistence of the Lord. How did he answer these attitudes of GOD, which created his opportunity? He heard the purpose, and consented to it. Saul the anointed king hid behind the stuff. David the anointed king moved right on with his eye upon the goal, never turning back. Conscious of the Divine power, he answered it, and cooperated with it. He felt the power, and responded to it. "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was upon my tongue." Mark well the intimate relationship between these things. Whittier sang beautifully of men who die with all their music in them. I do not criticize Whittier. There are people who die with all their music in them, who never had their chance to sing. But if we have music in us, and can express it, we have no business to die with it in us. "It is God which worketh in you . . . work out." That is the principle of salvation - to be what GOD saved us to be! The principle of kingship is revealed, and while David certainly failed, he yet conformed thereto. Think of the condition of the kingdom when he came to it; then see it as he left it. From utter political and social chaos he had brought it to its highest realization. Solomon stands out upon the page of Bible history in lonely and wonderful splendour in certain directions; but as king he was a disastrous failure, so much so that when he died the kingdom was rent in twain. Solomon was the Lorenzo de Medici of Hebrew history, solacing the people for lack of liberty with shows and pageantry; and GOD help the people when they are so seduced. David lifted Israel to its heroic age, to its finest and its best. He was imperfect, and his kingdom was imperfect, but by comparison he answered the revelation of that principle so that it was fulfilled in measure in his history. His answer to the persistence of GOD was that of his perfect confidence in it. It was that confidence which made him write his penitential Psalms. When we speak of David’s sins let us in all fairness speak also of his penitence. When we would know how deep his penitence was, let us hear his declaration, "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned." That is the language of a man dealing with the profoundest things of life. Of course, if men deal with the surface ripples only, they will say that GOD is not harmed by human sin; but to know GOD is finally to exclaim of every sin, "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned." Yet such a confession demonstrates the consciousness of the persistence of GOD in mercy. I would be overwhelmed by my sin, and by my sin made careless of sin, and ultimately by my sin made to continue in sin, were it not that I know the infinite goodness of GOD is set upon delivering me, if I will but stand in right attitude towards Him. Thus GOD was able to operate through David, His opportunity being created by David’s attitude towards Him; yet that attitude of David towards GOD was the result of His attitude towards David. The deepest truth of all in this revelation of inter-relationship is that of GOD’s attitude towards a man. Man’s responsibility is created thereby. His responsibility is that of his attitude, and that in turn decides the Divine action. The living message of this book is patent. In order to understand it, one of the lessons of the first book of Samuel must be remembered, namely, that the ultimate victory of GOD is independent of the attitude of individuals or peoples towards Him. With that clearly in mind, it will be recognized that the supreme matter for cooperation in service is the attitude of the Son towards GOD. Fitness for service is created in the conformity of the life to the will of GOD. Conformity of the life depends wholly upon the attitude of the soul towards GOD. The conformity of my life to the will of GOD: - does not depend upon my ability, but upon my abandonment; - not upon my persuading GOD to do something, but upon my allowing myself to be persuaded by GOD to be something. The attitude of conformity is that of being willing to know to be, to do His will. By that attitude GOD measures a man, and through that attitude acts with a man. That doctrine is a two-edged sword. GOD measuring me not as man would measure me. I am prone to measure a man by the last sin I has committed. GOD never does. He measures by the attitude of his soul. This doctrine is full of comfort, but it is awful in its severity. What is my attitude towards GOD? Have I lived clean life? Would I, if I had had the chance to live a filthy one? That is the question. Half the purity in which some men boast is a question of birth and of environment. We talk of other men living in the underworld. The question is, would we live there if we could? If so, GOD measures us as in the underworld. This is fire. It scorches, it burns. GOD have mercy on me, a sinner. Yes, but are you down? Have you committed a sin? Are your Christian friends not quite so friendly as they were, in consequence; yet all the while do you want to go right? Then that attitude of your soul is GOD’s measurement of you. Yes, but do not let us slip out by that door, if all the while we want to do the evil thing. Let us be careful. GOD help us to discriminate. We need supremely to guard against disproportionate excuse or accusing. Now do you not see the sin of the priestcraft? Who is to come in between the soul and GOD? I am only an interpreter of principles. I dare not bare my soul to you, and would not have you bare yours to me. David was a man after GOD’s own heart, because of the posture of his soul; and GOD at last fulfilled the underlying desire of his heart. The triumph of a man is the triumph of GOD over him, and man only wins when he yields to Him. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 97: 09.11. 1 KINGS ======================================================================== CHAPTER ELEVEN THE MESSAGE OF I KINGS A. THE PERMANENT VALUES B. THE LIVING MESSAGE I. The failing Government of Man I. As to Human Government i. See Chart of Content. If GOD be out of count, every Method ii. The successive Methods. ends in Disaster. a. Solomon. Material Magnificence. b. Rehoboam. Autocracy. c. Jeroboam. Democracy. d. Judah. Succession and Policy. e. Israel. Intrigues, Murders, and Rebellion. iii. Disruption. Disintegration. Disaster. II. The unfailing Government of GOD II. As to Divine Government i. The prophetic Voices. The abandonment of the Thrones of Earth. a. Ahijah. 1 Kings 11:26-39. b. Shemaiah. 1 Kings 12:21-24. c. "The Man of God." 1 Kings 13:1-10. The Witness of Truth. d. Ahijah. 1 Kings 14:4-16. e. Jehu. 1 Kings 16:1-4. f. Elijah. 1 Kings 17:1-24, 1 Kings 18:1-46, 1 Kings 19:1-21, 1 Kings 20:1-43, 1 Kings 21:1-29. Direct Interference. g. Micaiah. 1 Kings 22:8-28. ii. The direct Interference. a. Appearances to Solomon, and Building of Temple. b. Adversaries raised up against Solomon. c. Death of Abijah. d. Withdrawal of Rain, and consequent Famine. e. Carmel and Fire. f. Appearance to Elijah in Earthquake. g. Spirit of Lying in Prophets to entice Ahab to Battle. THIS book is bounded by death. Opening with the death of David, and doing with the death of Ahab, it covers a period of a little more than a century and half. The story which it tells is that of a nation passing from affluence and influence to poverty and paralysis. In order to discover the permanent values of this book we must keep before the mind two thrones - that on earth with its succession of kings, and that in the heavens with one King. In looking at the former we see the failing government of men, and in looking at the latter we see the unfailing government of GOD. In order that we may see the two thrones let us glance at a very simple chart: LORD Samuel. (Saul). Nathan. DAVID. Ahijah. Solomon. Shemaiah. Rehoboam. Jeroboam. A man of GOD. | | Abijam. Nadab. Jehu. Asa. Baasha. | Elah. | Zimri. | Omri. Elijah. Jehoshaphat. Ahab. A son of prophet. Micaiah. Ahaziah. There the Lord stands for the one Throne and the abiding King. Deflected from the Throne is the throne set up on earth, with the names of the succeeding kings as far as Ahab, where our present book ends. Beneath the name of the Lord are the names of the prophets through whom He delivered His messages, and maintained His connection with the people through this period in which, to use His own words, the nation had rejected Him from being King. Turning our attention first to the throne on the earth, we observe the succession of kings. The Lord first gave them Saul, a king after their own heart. Then with David, the man after GOD’s own heart, commenced the succession which reached the point of supreme darkness in Ahab. This is a story of disruption, disintegration, and disaster. On the other hand, in fixing our attention upon the Throne in the heavens, we see the one King maintaining His rule; and, through the prophets, from Samuel to Elijah, declaring His message. This is a story of government, grace, and guidance. In this order let us consider the teaching of the two thrones. Looking first at the earthly throne, we notice the successive methods of government. In some senses there is only one, that of monarchy; but monarchs have different methods. Our English government to-day is described as a monarchy; so also is the Russian; but no one will suggest that their methods are the same. As a matter of fact, the King of England has nothing like the executive power of the President of the United States of America. While in this book we have the story of kings, their methods are quite different. As we look at these methods we shall see a nation, having rejected the Lord from being King, attempting to govern itself. The people named the name of the Lord, built His temple, sang His songs, and offered His sacrifices; but men may do all these, and be infidel. This nation still used the terminology, and observed the ceremonial of the worship of the Lord, but attempted to govern itself. The story of David occupied our attention in our last lecture. In observing the successive methods, therefore, we commence with Solomon. His method was that of material magnificence. There may be some senses in which that description may seem incomplete, yet I think it includes the whole story. Let the facts be recalled. First there was the organization of the kingdom, and the building of the temple. Through both these processes there was the multiplication of riches, and the manifestation of display. The failure of Solomon began long before it became outward, patent, manifest. From the beginning there may be detected the activity of that sensual nature which issued in such inevitable and disastrous ruin. He was called Solomon the Magnificent, the Wise, the Peaceful; but the true story of his reign is told in one brief, almost startling sentence, when "all the congregation of Israel came, and spake unto Rehoboam, saying, Thy father made our yoke grievous." For something like a parallel to the reign of Solomon, we may go to Italy and look at Florence under the sway of Lorenzo de Medici. Lorenzo was also a magnificent man, a philosopher and a scholar; but in cruel despotism he robbed the people of Florence of their liberty, silencing and solacing them with pageantry, shows, and pomp. Mrs. Oliphant describes the condition of affairs in graphic words when she writes, "Fair Florence lying in bonds or, rather, dancing in them, with smear of blood upon her garments and loathsome song upon her lips." It was against that condition of affairs that Savonarola raised his voice in protest. That is very largely the story also of Solomon’s reign. All that Samuel had told the people concerning the effect of kingship was fulfilled in even more marked degree under Solomon than under Saul. He attempted to govern the people by magnificent display and material grandeur; and failure is seen in the disruption of the kingdom, following upon long continued disaffection, immediately Solomon was removed. To Rehoboam the people gathered in discontent, saying, "Thy father made our yoke grievous." To their complaint he replied, "My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." Here a new method of government emerges, that of autocracy. Rehoboam’s language was essentially that of the autocrat, and he was the almost necessary offspring of Solomon. In Jeroboam another method is seen. Of course, it must be remembered that he was Divinely called. GOD distinctly announced to him by the prophet that He would rend the kingdom in twain, because of the corruption of the reign of Solomon; that He would leave one tribe for Rehoboam that a lamp might be maintained for the house of David; and that the rest of the people should gather to him, and he should reign over them. Nevertheless, he immediately turned aside from allegiance to the Lord, and attempted to govern on other lines. His first act was that of political accommodation in the realm of religion. "Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." This is a revelation of his constant method of appeal to democracy. - Rehoboam was an autocrat, who believed that the people should trust in princes. - Jeroboam was a democrat, who believed that princes should trust in the people. Neither of them trusted in the Lord, and they failed equally. The result of Rehoboam’s autocracy was that the people said, "What portion have we in David? . . . To your tents, O Israel." The issue of Jeroboam’s democracy was that the people had their religion made easy, were content with calves, and became corrupt. As to the rest. In Judah, Abijam, Asa, and Jehoshaphat constituted a succession of kings reigning by policy, with GOD largely shut out of their thoughts. Asa’s reign was in many respects better than that of Abijam, yet there was manifest ultimately a fear and cowardice, which led him to a base act of compromise. Jehoshaphat walked timidly in paths of right, failing to act with thoroughness, and finally entered into an unholy alliance with the king of Israel. The story of those kings of Judah is that of government by policy. Turning to Israel we find even more terrible failure in a succession of men who cared nothing for the welfare of the kingdom, and esteemed the throne only as a prize for personal possession. There was succession by intrigue and murder of men who absolutely ignored the Throne of the Lord, and led the people further and further into evil. With Omri, a man elected by popular acclaim, there was a new beginning, but it was a new beginning of the old sin and folly. Then we come to Ahab and Jezebel, a marvellous combination of strength and wit; in both, tremendous force of character was prostituted to base purposes, and the whole nation groaned under the dominion, and was enslaved by it. At last Ahaziah succeeded, but the story of sin and folly, of idolatry and disaster ran on. Government by man means disruption, disintegration, and disaster. He cannot govern himself. Whether by material magnificence, or by the assumption of autocratic power, or by appeal to democratic desire, or in any other way, all government of man by man is a disastrous failure. This is the story writ large upon the page of the first book of Kings. Turning to the Throne in the heavens we observe the unfailing government of GOD. This is manifest first in the voices of prophecy which break in upon the confused Babel with suddenness, in distinct proclamations. - Ahijah declared that after the death of Solomon the kingdom would be rent in twain, and later foretold the death of the son of Jeroboam. - Shemaiah warned Rehoboam not to fight against Jeroboam. - A nameless man of GOD appeared suddenly to Jeroboam, and prophesied against the altar. - Jehu pronounced the doom to fall upon Baasha. - Elijah, in the hour when the darkness was deepest, appeared suddenly as a flash of lightning at midnight. He proclaimed the Lord in tones of thunder; and vindicated Him at Carmel, and in the matter of Naboth’s vineyard. - A son of the prophets rebuked Ahab for allowing Benhadad to escape. - Micaiah, in spite of all that was done to prevent him, declared the coming scattering of Israel upon the mountains. In these appearances of the prophets, and their testimony borne, I see the Lord governing independently of the throne of earth, when that throne was occupied by men who forgot Him. The government of the Lord was more than that of testimony. It operated in direct interferences. He appeared to Solomon, and the building of the temple resulted therefrom. The story of Solomon’s punishment begins with the declaration, "The Lord raised up an adversary unto Solomon." In the withdrawal of rain and the consequent famine, and in the awe-inspiring scenes on Carmel, the Lord declared Himself by direct interference in the affairs of the sinning people. Thus, high lifted above the forces of battle, pressing into His service spirits of evil as well as forces of good, bringing men from distant lands as adversaries, manipulating history even while men in history had rejected Him, is seen the One enthroned Lord. The throne on earth never rightly filled, occupied by a succession of men who attempted all methods of government, each in succession disastrously failing; the Throne in heaven filled, and never shaken. Over all the chaos GOD reigned towards order. The living message of this book is not about the temple in its structure, interesting though that story is. It is not merely a history of the Hebrew nation. That also is interesting and important in some senses. This book has something to say to us about human government and about Divine government, which it is well for us to hear and heed. Concerning human government it declares one thing. If GOD be out of count, every method ends in disaster. In the earlier part of Solomon’s reign attention was given to religious forms and ceremonies, to internal development, to commercial treaties, to intellectual attainment. Yet all failed because GOD was out of count. Religious forms and ceremonies are grave-cloths if the spirit be not right with GOD. A nation cannot be governed by insisting that it shall adopt religious forms or ceremonies. Neither can a nation be governed by internal development, or commercial treaties, or ships which ply to Tarshish bringing back apes and peacocks, and with them disaster and ruin. Government based upon human autocracy must end in revolution sooner or later, when the people, oppressed by one of their number who does not understand them, and cannot govern them in their own interests but only in his own, begin to straighten themselves in the power of an inherent relationship to Deity. Shut GOD out of the question, and democracy will be the most awful tyranny the world has ever seen. We are to-day dealing with forces we hardly understand. Socialism that is godless will be a reign of terror indeed. Once teach men to consolidate and combine for their own interests, without reference to the Throne of GOD, and the result will be the utmost disaster. Man cannot govern himself, for he does not know himself. How then can he govern others of whom he knows so much less, or how can two govern a third, or a multitude govern itself? It cannot be. There are forces and facts in one human being that defy the government of all human beings. If man put GOD out of count, I care not whether his method of government be autocracy or democracy, whether it be individualism or socialism, it will fail disastrously. On the other hand, the book of Kings has a living message concerning Divine government. Of course it cannot tell all the glorious issue of such government, because it is in itself a story of failure. We have to come a good deal further on before we see the issue. The world has never yet seen it realized, but it will see it. It is because we believe that, some of us love to revel amid the mystic mysteries of the Apocalypse, even though we do not profess to understand all its suggestiveness. One man, the seer of the Galilean lake, on the lonely island of Patmos, its shores washed by waters, looked and saw the city of GOD coming down out of Heaven from GOD, and heard the greatest chorus that poets have ever sung, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God." That day has not yet come. It is coming. GOD help us to share the travail which makes it come. This book of Kings does not give us that vision of the ultimate, but it does reveal GOD’s method in the midst of failure. It is first that of abandonment of the throne of earth. He acted in separation from it. This abandonment was not capricious. So long as the kings were in rebellion, so long as they forgot Him and His Throne, and sought to establish government without Him, He abandoned them in order that their evil choice might work itself out into manifestation. This book, moreover, teaches us that GOD bears perpetual witness to truth in the midst of falsehood, and ever causes some measure of light to shine in the midst of darkness. He keeps alive in the consciousness of at least a remnant the fact of Himself and of His government. Forgive me if I try to impress that final lesson upon your memory in the simplest way. My story constitutes a small picture, but it is a microcosm of the problem. I knew a case of a woman bereaved of her husband in the midst of the battle of life. The outlook to her was that of utter and absolute disaster. Full of despair, she passed days in silence and in weeping, until her girlie about seven years old came one day to her side, and looking into the tear-dimmed eyes said, Mother, is GOD dead? Putting her arms about the child, the woman said, Darling, you are His messenger to me. "The Lord reigneth." Do not let us forget, however dark the outlook may be, GOD is not dead. "The Lord reigneth." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 98: 09.12. 2 KINGS ======================================================================== CHAPTER TWELVE THE MESSAGE OF II KINGS A. THE PERMANENT VALUES B. THE LIVING MESSAGE I. The Failure of Man I. "Where there is no vision, the i. Its Cause. The lost Sense of the Lord. people perish" a. Illustrated in their Kings. Proverbs 29:18. b. Manifested in their Idolatries and Alliances. The lost Vision of GOD. c. Evident in their Inability to detect the Hand Degraded Ideals of the Lord. Deadened Conscience. ii. Its Manifestations. The lost Ideal of Nationality. Defeated Purposes. a. Righteousness undervalued. b. Sin lightly esteemed c. Pride of Nationality. iii. Its Hopelessness. The lost Sensitiveness of Conscience. a. The prophetic Period. "Who hath believed . . . ?" b. The Reformation. Superficial. c. The religious Order. Neglected. iv. Its Issue. The lost Vision. a. Conquered. b. Captive. c. Castaway. II. The Victory of GOD II. "He shall not fall nor be i. Its Cause. His Purpose. discouraged" 42:4. ii. Its Method. His Persistence. The enthroned Lord iii. Its Hopefulness. His Principles. Power. iv. Its Issues. His Power. Knowledge. Activity. As we have already said, the two books of Kings appear in the Hebrew Bible as one, and tell a continuous story. Our second book, therefore, forms a sequel to the first. In the first we have the history of about a century and a half, and in the second of about three centuries. Once again the two thrones are in view. - the first - steadfast, immovable, always abounding in activity and in progress; - the second - trembling, failing, and at last abolished. The early part of the history of this period, contained in the first book of Kings, emphasizes the facts of the failing government of man, and the unfailing government of GOD. The latter part, contained in the second book, emphasizes the results issuing in each case. The permanent values of the second book, then, are its revelations of the failure of man, and the victory of GOD. I confess to the difficulty of an embarrassment of riches in approaching this study. This was the period of the prophets. All the great prophetic messages preserved for us were delivered during this period. That fact creates the difficulty of interpreting the message of this book. Read the book apart from the prophecies, and it is disappointing indeed. Read the book as the background of the prophecies, and then we see in the background man’s failure, and in the foreground GOD’s great and overwhelming victory. Let us notice what this book teaches concerning the failure of man, as to its cause, its manifestations, its hopelessness, and its issue. The cause of human failure was the lost sense of the Lord: - its manifestation was the lost ideal of nationality; - its hopelessness was the lost sensitiveness of conscience; and - its issue was the lost vocation. The fact of the people’s lost sense of the Lord is illustrated in their kings. There were exceptions. Joash, Amaziah, Jotham, Hoshea served the Lord; but even of them it is written, "not like David," or that "the high places were not taken away." These did not utterly fail, yet failed partially, either by compromise, or some measure of backsliding. Two names stand out as the names of kings who followed the Lord - those of Hezekiah and Josiah; yet even they failed in some degree. Apart from these, the story of the kings is that of men who had no vision of GOD. - they persisted in courses of evil. - they turned their back upon the principles of righteousness. - they multiplied transgression through the length and breadth of the land. Men occupied the throne on earth, who had lost their vision of the Throne in the heavens. This lost sense of the Lord was manifested also in the idolatries and alliances of the people. No man who has a clear vision of GOD turns to an idol. An idol is always a substitute for something else, an attempt to fill a vacuum. There is a sense in which idolatry is a perpetual proof of man’s capacity for GOD. That is not to excuse idolatry. It is rather to show the heinousness of its sin. At the back of every sin there lies a possibility of good. That does not mean that sin is something to be pitied, petted, pampered. If man prostitutes something that is good, hell is the proper result. Idolatry is a demonstration of the capacity for GOD; but when a man turns to an idol, it is because he has lost his vision of GOD. Hosea spoke of Ephraim as "a silly dove," "a cake not turned," but he declared that Ephraim would get back to GOD, and then would say, "What have I to do any more with idols?" That is always the language of the man who sees GOD. The groves and the Baalim, the worshippers of Moloch and the children passing through the fire, all mean that the people had lost their vision of the Lord. Once again, the fact that the cause of the failure was a lost sense of the Lord is evident in the inability of the people to detect the hand of GOD as it fell upon them in punishment. Isaiah declared that GOD had laid His hand upon them, until they were a mass of bruises and sores from head to foot, and enquired, "Why should ye be stricken any more?" The second fact grows immediately out of the first. The result of the lost vision of GOD is the lost ideal of national life; righteousness is undervalued, sin is lightly esteemed, and a false pride of nationality exists. Jonah, the son of Amittai, was a prophet to the people of GOD. One brief verse tells of the fact that he prophesied. The burden of the prophecy is not given. That of Jonah which lives is not the prophecy he delivered, but the story he wrote of his prophetic vision to Nineveh. It was not written for the sake of Nineveh, but for the sake of Israel. It was written for Israel in a time when she was characterized by two contradictory attitudes. - the first was that of a false exclusiveness; she did not believe there could be any pity or mercy in the heart of GOD for any other than herself. - the second was that of failure to be exclusive as GOD meant her to be; she was forming alliances with other nations, contrary to the Divine command and will. The story of Jonah and Nineveh is the condemnation of exclusiveness. These people had lost the true ideal of nationality; the ideal given by GOD to Abraham in His first covenant; the ideal repeated when the nation emerged into national life; the ideal constantly kept before the mind by all the religious economy and prophetic utterances; the ideal which was expressed in the words, "I will bless thee and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing." When these people lost their clear vision of GOD, they lost their understanding of the meaning of their own national life. Then look at the hopelessness of the situation. Remember that this was the great prophetic period. In order that we may see this I have prepared a simple chart. THE LORD THE KINGS Samuel. (Saul) Nathan. David Ahijah Solomon A man of GOD. Rehoboam. Jeroboam. Shemaiah. Abijam. Nadab. Jehu Asa Baasha. Elah. Zimri. Omri. Elijah. Jehoshaphat. Ahab and A son of prophets. Jezebel. Micaiah. Ahaziah. ________________________________________________________________________ Elisha. Jehoram. Jehoram. A son of prophets Ahaziah. Jehu. Athaliah. Joel. Joash. Amaziah Jehoash. Jonah. Jonah. Jeroboam II Amos (Interregnum). Hosea Uzziah. Obadiah (?) (Interregnum). Zechariah Shallum Menahem. Isaiah. Jotham Pekahiah. Micah. Pekah. Ahaz. (Interregnum). Isaiah Hezekiah Hoshea. | | Manasseh. | Nahum (?) Captivity Amon Zephaniah Huldah. Josiah. Jeremiah. Habakkuk. Jehoahaz. Jehoiakim. (Daniel). Jehoiachim. Ezekiel. Zedekiah. ||| Captivity. The two thrones are suggested and the two processes are seen. On the one side a line of prophets, on the other a succession of kings. On that of the kings - Saul, David, Solomon, the division under Rehoboam and Jeroboam, and then through Kings of Israel and Judah to the captivity in each case. That is the throne on the earth. Now turn to the other side, and see the Throne in the heavens. GOD dealt with His people through the prophets. In the inner column are the names of the prophets mentioned in the books of Kings. They are Samuel, Nathan, Ahijah, a man of GOD, Shemaiah, Jehu, Elijah, a son of prophets, Micaiah, Elisha, a son of prophets, Jonah, Isaiah, and the prophetess Huldah. The outer column begins with the second book of the Kings, and contains the names of men who were speaking during the period, but who are not named in the text: Joel, Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Obadiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk; and in exile, Daniel and Ezekiel. The immediate result of the ministry of these men was almost nothing. Isaiah, in that part of his prophecy in which he described the result of his own preaching, enquired - and it is the story of all the prophetic ministry - "Who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?" Mark the hopelessness of the case, the lost sensitiveness of conscience that could listen to such messages as these, and yet continue in the sin of rebellion and in forgetfulness of GOD. Think of another fact. The reformations were all superficial. Immediately Hezekiah had passed away, the people returned to their old ways of evil. Josiah conducted a remarkable reformation, and yet it is a significant fact that Zephaniah never referred to it. The reason is to be found in the story of Huldah the prophetess. When the reformation was proceeding, and the book of the law was discovered, they sent to Huldah, and she, inspired of GOD to deliver her message, said in effect that there was no real value in the reformation; that the king meant well, and would be rewarded, but that the people were not following GOD. The condition of the religious life of the period is seen more clearly in Chronicles, the two books that deal with the life of the people from the Temple standpoint. When Hezekiah began his reformation he commenced with the Temple, and before anything else could be done it took the whole company of priests and Levites sixteen days to carry rubbish therefrom, which simply means that the Temple had become a lumber store. In the days when Josiah carried out his reformation, the book of the law was found. Mark the significance of this fact, that it had to be found! Moreover, its teaching so astonished Josiah that he halted in the middle of his work to enquire from the prophetess Huldah. The people had so forgotten the law of their GOD that, when it was found, they were absolutely unfamiliar with it. Finally the issue of the failure was that of the loss by the nation of its vocation. I cannot tell the story in detail, but three words sum it up: - conquered, - captive, - castaway! Is there a sadder story in all the history of the world than that? But look at the other side, that of the victory of GOD. The secret of that victory is discovered by going back to the beginnings. When GOD promised Abraham that He would bless him and make him a blessing, and that through his seed the whole world should be blessed, "He sware by Himself." We have a light upon that ancient declaration in the letter to the Hebrews, when the writer declared "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us," GOD entered into a covenant with Abraham. He will fulfill His covenant. He will be true to Himself. He will allow nothing ultimately to thwart the purpose of His love. He remembered His covenant throughout the whole of the process. Then notice the method of GOD. "The Lord testified . . . by all the prophets, and by all the seers." In that method there was included His judgments, the awful visitations which these people never seem to have understood; and His tender mercy, directly the people turned to Him, He turned to them, and was ready to receive them. The principle of the Divine activity was its perpetual hopefulness. In the prophecy of Hosea this is clearly revealed. In the wonderful love song of the Lord we touch the hidden spring of everything, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" That is the inspiration of GOD’s victory. It is that determination of love, and that hopefulness of GOD, which issue in His victory. Finally observe the issues. The national ideal was preserved in captivity, and is preserved until this hour. There is no study more fascinating than that of the Hebrew people. Scattered over the face of the earth, and neutralized among strange people, their nationality cannot be destroyed. GOD preserves them wherever they go. They are still His, and His mark is upon them. Even in captivity the national ideal was preserved. He preserved the seed for the fulfillment of His purpose, until at last the promise to Abraham was fulfilled. The prophetic utterances constitute a literature for the ages. There are senses in which the Hebrew prophets have a more living message to this age than the Christian apostles have. The apostolic writings are for the Church. The prophets speak still to the nations: - Joel, with his far-flung vision of the Day of the Lord; - Jonah, with his condemnation of exclusiveness; - Amos, the herdsman of Tekoah, who thundered concerning national accountability; - Hosea, who interpreted the sin of the God-forgetting people as spiritual adultery; - Obadiah, with his curse on cowardice; - Isaiah, the prophet of the Theocracy; - Micah, dealing with authority, false and true; - Nahum, with his vindication of the Lord’s vengeance; - Zephaniah, with the message of the severity and goodness of GOD; - Jeremiah, the prophet of failure; - Habakkuk, with his problems of faith. These constitute a literature for all time, and it was made in the age when these people so signally failed. Let me state briefly what seem to me to be the living messages of this book. I do so by two quotations that come right out of the period. - this is the first, ""Where there is no vision, the people perish." - the second is, "He shall not fail nor be discouraged." Let us see the setting of these two quotations. The first one is found in the Proverbs of Solomon, not in the collection of proverbs which he collected himself, but in the second collection which the men of Hezekiah, King of Judah, copied out. Mark the suggestiveness of this. Solomon, the man by whom all the seeds of disruption were sown, wrote down as a proverb, "Where there is no vision the people perish." Go to the beginning of the period in the first book of Samuel, "The word of the Lord was precious in those days" - that is, it was rare in those days; "there was no open vision." That is how the period began. There was no vision of GOD. Come to the end, the last period, the Lamentations of Jeremiah: "Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord." That is the story of it all. What, then, is the message of the book? If the vision of GOD be lost, the issue must be: - degraded ideals, - deadened consciences, - defeated purposes. That is the national teaching of the book. "Where there is no vision the people perish," abandon observance of the Sabbath, abandon themselves to their own appetites, until a nation like our own becomes drugged with drink, while it does not know that it is drunk. Thank GOD the book has another message. Isaiah, the greatest prophet of the period, declared of the Lord, "He shall not fail nor be discouraged." The man who said this was the man whose writing commences, "The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos." This man could make this declaration in the midst of all the decadence of his age, because, to use his own words, "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne." That vision ultimately enabled him to say: "Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed away from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not, neither is weary." - That is power. "There is no searching of His understanding." That is knowledge. "He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might He increaseth strength. Even the youths," - who seem as though one never can tire them - "shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint." Nothing finer than that was ever written, and it was written in that awful period of human failure by the man who saw the throne and the Lord. That is the living message of the hour: - "The Lord fainteth not, neither is weary." - "He shall not fail nor be discouraged." If we are to serve our age, we must see GOD; and seeing Him, we shall ever be inspired by the certainty of the ultimate victory. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 99: 09.13. 1 CHRONICLES ======================================================================== CHAPTER THIRTEEN THE MESSAGE OF I CHRONICLES A. THE PERMANENT VALUE B. THE LIVING MESSAGE The Condemnation of Rationalism The importance of the Recognition of GOD in the The Revelation of the supreme importance Life of a Nation of the Recognition of GOD in the national Life of the chosen People. I. The Demonstration of the Genealogies I. Because of the Fact of the i. The Elections of GOD. Divine Activity ii. Their Principles. i. That is a Reason. a. Of Exclusion. ii. That is a Hope. b. Of Inclusion. iii. Their Purpose. a. The Ultimate in view. b. All Details towards the Ultimate. II. The Illustration of David II. Because of the Effect upon the i. David presented in his Strength. National Life a. The national Crowning. i. Moral Standards. b. The Capture of Jebus. ii. Character of Individuals. c. The mighty Men. iii. Conception of Social Relationships. d. The Gathering of the People. ii. David’s deepest Life. a. His master Passion- Care for the Ark. - Desire to build b His Submission - The Method of GOD. - The Answer of David. c. His Service - The Gathering of Treasure. - The Arrangements. IN order that we may understand this book, and discover its permanent value and living message, it is important that we should know when it was written, for in the discovery of the when, we shall in all probability find the answer to the why. There is internal evidence that it was written in close association with the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. In the section at the commencement which deals with the genealogies, names occur which clearly indicate this. In the sixth chapter it is written: "Azariah begat Seraiah, and Seraiah begat Jehozadak; and Jehozadak went into captivity, when the Lord carried away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar." This was evidently written by one looking back upon the captivity. If that is borne in mind, we shall begin to see the reason of the peculiarities of both this book and the one which follows it. There is the closest connection between the story contained in Chronicles and that told in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah; a much closer connection than that between Kings and Ezra and Nehemiah. II Chronicles ends with a proclamation of Cyrus, King of Persia, which made possible the rebuilding of the house of GOD in Jerusalem. That proclamation is the commencement of the book of Ezra. There can be little doubt that the story in Chronicles was written at the return from captivity, in order to encourage the people to build the house of GOD, for its central subject is the temple of GOD. Thus we find the key to these two books of Chronicles. Notice the peculiarities without entering into details. In the books of Chronicles, Israel, the Northern Kingdom, is out of sight. There are references to it, but only when it is absolutely necessary to show relationship to Judah. Judah is in view, only to fix attention upon David. David is the central personality. Judah the nation; David the personality. Yet the purpose of the writer was not that of dealing with Judah or with David, but of dealing with the temple of GOD. David is referred to in order that there may be brought into clear vision the master passion of his life, the building of the temple. It has sometimes been said that the books of Kings are of prophetic origin, because of their prophetic outlook; and that the books of Chronicles are of priestly origin, because of their priestly outlook. That is quite true, but it is only a secondary truth. The deeper truth is that in Kings we have history simply, while in Chronicles we see the relation of the nation to religious life; the writer’s one object being to bring into prominence all the facts concerning the temple, in order to show how absolutely important was that temple to the life of the people. The sub-titles, which I suggested in our previous study of the contents of the books, suggest this; the Temple desired and approached; and the Temple possessed and abandoned. The first book has one preeminent value. It reveals the supreme importance of the recognition of GOD in the national life of the chosen people. Other books have taught the fact of the relation of GOD and the nation, but this book reveals the importance of the recognition of that fact by the people. We shall notice first how the genealogies demonstrate the importance of recognizing GOD; and secondly, how the story of David illustrates the same truth. If we take the first ten chapters, and consider them carefully, we see that their value does not consist in the stringing together of names. Through all there is evidence of a Divine movement, persistent and startling, which compels us to pause and enquire. They begin with Adam and end with Nehemiah; and there is constant selection, election, choice; the turning aside of the current; the starting of a new movement. Beginning with Adam, we remember the names of his sons, Cain, Abel, Seth. Of these, neither Cain nor Abel is mentioned. There is selection, and the name chosen is that of Seth. From him the Divine procedure moves through Enoch to Noah; then on through Sherri to Abram and Isaac; then through Judah to Jesse and David; then Solomon and Rehoboam, to captivity. Among the tribes of Levi there is distinct selection to purpose. Three sons of Levi, Kohath, Gershon, Merari, are chosen. From Adam to Zedekiah the writer reveals the fact that GOD made successive selections, ever starting the stream on a new course by choosing individuals. The principle of inclusion was always that of character, based upon obedience; and wherever there was such character based upon obedience, all disability was cancelled. The principle of exclusion was that all rights and privileges are cancelled by disobedience. Privileges of descent, of relationship, never count in the economy of GOD. The one thing that counts is obedience, and the character that grows out of it. The purpose of selection, as revealed in these genealogies, is that from the beginning the ultimate is in view. It is perfectly evident as one studies at all carefully these new beginnings and new developments, that the apparently crooked way is yet the straight way to the goal. The straight way would have followed the inheritance through the first-born, and that would often have been the straight way to failure and defeat. Whenever GOD made a new selection, setting aside rights and privileges in which men made their boast, choosing men who were not in the line of ordinary human expectation, He did so because His mind was set upon the ultimate goal. All the details of Divine selection led to the ultimate goal. All this demonstrates the necessity for the recognition of GOD in the national life. To gather up the history suggested in the genealogies is to see confusion, disaster, failure. It is a picture that fills the heart with heaviness, and the spirit with sorrow. To look higher, and see how through all, GOD is moving; selecting, changing, making perpetual progress towards His goal, is to see that the ultimate fact in all the centuries is the fact of GOD; and these genealogies show that the way of permanence for human life, and the way of stability for national life, is the way of recognition of Him. GOD moved onward in spite of human failure. Men were ruined or made, in proportion as they recognized Him. Thus, before the story of the king in whose heart was a passion for the temple is told, there is this strange and almost weird section of ten chapters, filled with names. Through all the generations of men, through century after century, GOD is seen selecting, changing, interfering, moving quietly onward towards the ultimate goal. Turn from this demonstration of the fact of the Divine interference and government to the illustration afforded by the story of David. The king is presented in all his strength. There are four pictures of him: The first is that of the national crowning. All the story of the preparation has been told - the shepherd life, the period at the court of Saul, the long, weary exile as outlaw hiding in Adullam, the seven preparatory years reigning over the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Now at Hebron all Israel crowns him. The next picture is that of the capture of Jebus. David takes a stronghold which was thought to be impregnable, and makes it forevermore the earthly center of Hebrew national life and aspiration. The third picture is that of the mighty men, in which is revealed David’s influence on personal character. He had gathered to Adullam men in debt, in danger, discontented; and when we read the story of the mighty men in Chronicles, we see the mightier man, David, who made them what they were. The last picture is that of the multitudes as they march to the standard of the new king. - they were men who "could use both the right hand and the left," which speaks of the careful training they had received. - they were "mighty men of valour, men trained for war," which suggests disciplined strength. - they were men who "could handle shield and spear," which means they were experts in offensive and defensive warfare. This is the picture of people influenced by a great and mighty king. The book is not so much dealing with the greatness of the people in itself, as revealing it in order that the greatness of David may be seen. All this has been told in order to lead to something else. Beginning with the story of the ark, there is revealed David’s attitude towards the temple. There we touch the deepest thing in his life. He was a king, a warrior, a poet; but none of these tells the story of the deepest thing in his heart, or reveals its master passion. Notice his care for the ark of GOD. Notice his desire to build the temple of GOD. These are not the master passions of his life, but they are expressions thereof. The master passion of this king, warrior, shepherd is that of a profound recognition of the relation of the nation to GOD, and of the necessity that it should never forget GOD. That is why he cared for the ark. That is why he desired to build the temple. The strength of that master passion is revealed in his submission to GOD. When he said it was in his heart to build a house for GOD, Nathan the prophet said, "Do all that is in thine heart." But neither King David, nor Prophet Nathan, great as was their desire for the temple, understood the full meaning thereof. GOD forbade his building, but revealed anew to him how he had been led by GOD. Immediately David began to do something for GOD, and the very thing he wanted to do, even though he did not build the temple. The actual last work was, in the wisdom of GOD, committed to Solomon, but from that moment David was at the work he longed to do. His willingness not to begin the building was a revelation of his recognition of the importance of his work, and of his absolute abandonment to the will of GOD. Yet he worked in gathering treasure, in making arrangements, in choosing the site, in appointing the Levites, in setting in order the service of song, in appointing the porters, and the keepers of the treasure. Ezra, or whomsoever the author of this book may have been, wanted to show the importance of that of which the temple was but the outward symbol - the nation’s recognition of GOD. David became for the moment in his eyes the embodiment of the national idea, the national purpose. The master passion of David was that of recognizing GOD, and expressing the recognition. Paul summarized the whole story of David’s life in the sentence so often quoted, "He . . . served his own generation by the will of God." He was shepherd, warrior, poet; but in all these things he answered the master passion. - as king he reigned always under the conviction of the throne of GOD, and the supremacy of the Lord. - he was a warrior, carrying out the Divine purpose. - he was a poet, and "The Lord reigneth" is the very key-note of his poetry. Because he knew the national importance of this recognition, he cared for the ark, and desired the temple. The living message of this book is quite patent if we have discovered its permanent value. With no uncertain sound it speaks to us to-day of the absolute importance of the recognition of GOD in the life of the nation. If you are inclined to say that this book is applicable to the Hebrew nation, and to no other, I pray you think again of the wonderful prophecy of Amos. The mistake Israel made was that of thinking that GOD governed the Hebrew nation, and had no care for others. The message of Amos was that of national accountability; and ere he delivered his message to Judah and Israel, he swept the ever-decreasing circles around them, beginning with all the distant nations, and showing how GOD governed them also. If that be true of the nations long ago, it is equally true to-day. It is important that the nation should recognize GOD, because of the fact of the Divine activity. Begin wherever you will, and look at the centuries, and you discover the same principle at work in all human history, GOD choosing, selecting, lifting up, casting down. The great word of the prophet of old is the word of to-day. Speaking to Cyrus, the man outside the covenant, He said, "I will gird thee, though thou hast not known Me." That is the story of all human history. GOD is lifting up and casting down. Another word of one of the old Hebrew prophets declared, "I will overturn, overturn, overturn until He come whose right it is." GOD has not given up overturning. The Divine hand is at work now as surely as in the first ten chapters of Chronicles, selecting a new man and making a new start; and if he fails, selecting another, and again moving forward. If the firstborn son in the proper succession is not ready for the work, he is flung aside; and if the man of privilege does not answer his opportunity, he is cast away upon the scrap-heap, and GOD finds an obscure man, and marches on towards the ultimate. That is a gospel to my heart. That is comfort to my soul. That is the thing that cures the heart of its panic. GOD is still choosing, selecting, guiding, controlling. That is why the nation should recognize Him. Oh, the madness of trying to arrange without Him, of shutting Him out of view. It is important that the nation should recognize GOD, not merely because of the fact of His government, but because of the effect of the recognition of GOD upon national life. Take GOD out of the national life, and the national thinking, and what will happen? You will have no moral standard at all. Talking quite recently to one of the responsible Ministers of the Crown on the subject of the teaching in the Day Schools of this country, speaking not from the standard of a Christian man, but from the standpoint of a statesman, he said: "If there is no Bible, where is your text-book of morals? There is the supreme difficulty. We must teach morals, and there is no text-book or standard in the world if we take the Bible away." When the nation has lost its moral standard, it has lost the strength of individual character; it has lost its conception of social relationships. It is useless to talk of a new social order unless at its very basis is the conviction and the consciousness of the throne of GOD and the government of GOD. That is the supreme message of this book. The thing of importance in any nation is the building of the temple, the creation of the opportunity for the people to deal with GOD. The political propaganda which begins by attacking or neglecting GOD, and a national recognition of Him, is absolutely pernicious. The man who worships is the true patriot, whether he be a king, a statesman, or a commoner. The man who loves his nation and serves it, is the man who serves GOD. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 100: 09.14. 2 CHRONICLES ======================================================================== CHAPTER FOURTEEN THE MESSAGE OF II CHRONICLES A. THE PERMANENT VALUE B. THE LIVING MESSAGE The Condemnation of Rationalism The Importance of formal Religion in the Life of a Nation The Revelation of the absolute Importance of the Recognition of GOD which was merely formal in the Life of the chosen People. I. The Demonstration by Contrast. Solomon I. The Discovery of the Point of Application i. Solomon’s Inheritance. Cf. 2 Chronicles 5:13-14 and Acts 2:1-4. a. The Conditions. b. The supreme Inheritance. II. The Manifestations of Formalism ii. Solomon’s Greatness. a. In Relation to GOD. III. The Disaster of Formalism b. In Relation to the People. Therefore, "Strengthen the things that iii. Solomon’s Service. remain." a. The Temple built. b. Administration from that Center. iv. Solomon’s Failure. a. Its Cause. b. Its Course. II. The Illustration in History The Kings of Judah. Rehoboam to Zedekiah. i. The Rending of the Kingdom. a. Jeroboam. Substitution of false Form. b. Rehoboam. Retention of the true Form. ii. The Degeneracies. a. Observance of the Form, and Neglect of the Facts. b. Growing Neglect of the Forms. iii. The Reformations. a. Always beginning at the House of GOD. b. The appalling Revelations of each Beginning. iv. The ultimate Disaster. a. The House burned with Fire. b. The People carried away. THE general atmosphere of the second book of Chronicles is the same as that of the first. The temple of Solomon had long been in ruins. At the time of writing, the temple of Zerubbabel was about to be erected. The books give one continuous story; yet in the two we have two phases of one great truth. - in the first we have the revelation of the importance of the temple to the national life. - in the second we have the revelation of how absolutely useless the temple was. That is a paradox, a contradiction; and to recognize it is to be able to understand the permanent value of this book. - the first book of Chronicles is the condemnation of rationalism in national life. The second book is the condemnation of ritualism in national life. - in the first book I see the necessity for a nation’s remembrance of GOD, and recognition of His government in all its affairs. In the second book I have a revelation of the absolute folly and failure of the nation which recognizes GOD formally, but does not answer the symbolism of its recognition by the actuality of its conduct and character. That is the difference between rationalism and ritualism. - rationalism says, We can manage without GOD. - ritualism says, We must adopt the terminology which suggests GOD, and having done that, it is careless of that actual dealing with Him, which is vital to national life. In the first division of the book we have the story of Solomon, and it constitutes a demonstration by contrast of the impotence and uselessness of formal religion. In the second division, which gives us the history of the Kings of Judah, we have illustration in history. Take first this demonstration by contrast. In looking at the details we notice four things: - Solomon’s inheritance, - his greatness, - his service, - his failure. As to Solomon’s inheritance. A superficial statement is that he came to the throne and the kingdom. That is perfectly correct so far as it goes. The throne and the kingdom created his opportunity for fulfilling the supreme purpose of his life. Solomon’s supreme inheritance was that of the work of building the temple, for the recognition of GOD on the part of the nation. He came to be king over a people recognizing the supremacy of the throne of the Lord. His father David had prepared for the building of the temple, the master passion of his life having been that of the recognition of the relation of national strength to submission to the throne of GOD. The government of the people from the beginning of their national existence was closely associated with the formula of worship. Moses was the lawgiver. His first work was the building of the tabernacle, and the setting in the center of the nation of all the symbols of its relation to GOD. When Solomon commenced to reign he did not offer his first sacrifice at the place where the ark was, the temporary tent which David had erected, but at the old tabernacle, long neglected. That action of Solomon was significant. The tabernacle had symbolized the people’s relationship to GOD, and by going to it he expressed his conviction that their national greatness and strength depended upon their relation to the throne of GOD. His temple was to be the successor of Moses’ tabernacle. Solomon’s inheritance, then, was the opportunity, right, and privilege of building that temple which was to remind the people of their relation to GOD. Then as to Solomon’s greatness. The beginning was a wonderful one. The greatness of the man is revealed in the simplicity of his heart as he made his plea for wisdom. It is seen, moreover, in the fact that, as a king, he bore his people on his heart in intercession before GOD. His service consisted of the building of the temple; and then in the administration of his kingdom from that center. That we need not stay to describe. All the details are simply set forth by the chronicler. His failure was disastrous, and was caused by the violation, in his own self-centered life, of the truth the temple expressed. Even in the days of prosperity there are evidences of weakness, as a man of sensual passion is seen playing upon the edge of the awful things that ultimately ruined him. The whole failure of Solomon was due to the fact that he answered the cry of his own selflife, and in doing so violated the principle of Divine government, to which the temple he had erected bore witness before himself and his people. The temple became, in the case of Solomon, a form and nothing more. Consequently, it became not merely of no use, but a paralysis in the life of the king, and a poison in the life of the nation. Turn to the second division of the book. It tells the story of Judah from Rehoboam to Zedekiah. - The sin of Jeroboam in Israel consisted of the substitution of a false form of worship for the true. - Rehoboam retained the true form in Judah. Throughout the history there is the observance of the form, and the neglect of the fact. This issued in growing neglect of the form. We never find nations or men long observe a form when it becomes devoid of power. Mere formalism must die sooner or later. The issue is irreligion, infidelity. It was so here. All the reformations began at the house of GOD. - Asa renewed the altar, and restored the dedicated vessels to their place. - Jehoshaphat instituted a series of special missions all through the country, sending men to read and explain the book of the law through the towns and villages. - Joash restored the house after Athaliah’s destruction of it. - Hezekiah opened the doors, and assembled the people for worship. - Josiah repaired the house of the Lord. In each case the revelations of the beginnings of the reformations are appalling. - Asa renewed the altar, and restored the dedicated vessels. That implies a broken altar and desecrated vessels. - Jehoshaphat felt it necessary to send special prophetic messengers through the country to interpret the book of the law, which reveals the prevailing ignorance of the law. - Joash restored the house of the Lord after Athaliah’s destruction. That means that the house had been destroyed. - Hezekiah opened the doors, which means that while the house still stood; the people had become so utterly weary of formalism, that the doors had been closed. Mark the marvel of the story of Josiah. In the midst of a reformation that must have been very partial, they found the book of the law; and finding it, and reading in it, the king was so startled at the awful condition of his people that he halted the whole reformation, in order to find out from the prophetess Huldah the meaning of this law, and the effect likely to be produced by his reformation. Thus all through the story we see the people getting lower, in spite of the fact that at the commencement of this period of history the temple was built and established, and became the central symbol of their religious life. Finally there came the ultimate disaster. The house was burned with fire, and the people were carried away into captivity. In the first book the story is told of the passionate desire of the man after GOD’s own heart to build the temple, knowing as he did the importance of the recognition by the nation of the fact of GOD. In the second. book the aspiration of David becomes the achievement of Solomon. The passionate desire of the old man becomes the actual deed of the young man. I stand in the earlier chapters almost amazed at the splendour and beauty of the temple, and I listen to the songs of the singers, and watch the worship of the worshippers, and I thank GOD with David that the house is built. Yet immediately I see the nation beginning to fall, and gradually, stage after stage, sinking lower, until the house is burned and the chosen nation is cast away. If the first book teaches that it was necessary that these people should recognize GOD, the second teaches us that when the recognition was that of form and ceremony, it was worse than useless. That to me is the permanent value of this book, which thrills and throbs through all its history, and upon all its pages. The living message of the book is that of the impotence of formal religion in the life of a nation. Let us first discover the point of application. In the thirteenth verse of the fifth chapter I read, "It came even to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good: for His mercy endureth forever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord." It was a great moment. - the temple finished, - its worship of song perfected, - all the notes of the instruments and voices merged into one great ascription of praise. - then the glory filled the house. In the Acts I read, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them." The connection between these two passages is evident. Doubtless there is disparity, but there is also similarity. The two temples; The first was natural, the last spiritual. The temple in the olden days, made according to the pattern of GOD, in the unity of worship crowned with the glory of GOD, and filled with His presence; the symbol in the center of the nation of the presence and government of GOD. That is the Old Testament picture. Observe the New Testament picture. Again the temple, no longer of material things, but of living stones, merged into the habitation of GOD by the baptism of the Spirit, a perfect unity. As the temple in Chronicles was the center and criterion of national life, so the Church of GOD is the center and criterion of national life, if she do but understand her vocation, and fill her position. The application of the first book of Chronicles is to the nation. The message delivered to the nation was this, If you think by policy and diplomacy to maintain your strength without recognizing GOD, you are doomed to disaster. Now the message is to the Church. It is a warning to the spiritual Church lest she should become formal, and so fail to establish the nation. I have no desire to use any phrase in a controversial sense here, but I am bound, in the interpretation of truth as I see it in the Bible, to say this, the Bible knows nothing of the establishment of the Church by the State, but it teaches forevermore that the Church must establish the nation. In order to do this, formal religion is infinitely worse than none. By formal religion: - I mean high Church doctrine without full Church life. - I mean Puritan philosophy without Puritan experience. - I mean a Nonconformist conscience without conduct conformed to CHRIST. These things are the essence of ritualism. What is high Church doctrine without full Church life? The doctrine of the Church that is forevermore arguing for the correctness of its views, and cursing the man who does not share them! That is a formalism which curses a nation. What is Puritan philosophy without Puritan experience? There are some who think the Puritan philosophy consisted in a passion for destroying buildings. Nothing of the kind. The Puritan philosophy is that man is spiritual, and has the right of access to GOD who is Spirit, without the intervention of man or ceremony. Oh, the dignity of it! But if that is our philosophy, and we do not go to GOD, our philosophy becomes paralysis instead of power. Sometimes I am a little tired of hearing about the Puritanism of the Free Churches. I want to see it in the life of those who know what it is to have commerce with GOD. What do I care about the accidentals in the Puritan movements of long ago - the speech, the dress, the iconoclasm? If a man looks at these things only, he has never seen the Puritan movement. The Puritan movement was that of strenuous saints, who refused to let anyone come between themselves and GOD. Hold that philosophy to be a fine one, and live six days a week as though there were no GOD, and that is a ritualism which is a peril to a nation. What is a Nonconformist conscience without Christian conduct? The presence of the crowd at the platform meeting when we show our superiority to other people, and its absence from the service of worship, and its neglect of the worship of work. We need the conscience sensitive to the call of CHRIST, the conscience that worships, and then strips itself to serve. If I am forevermore talking about my conscience, and boasting in my freedom, and fighting merely for the shibboleths of freedom; that is ritualism, and I have no room to criticize the man who is a ritualist in some other section of the Church. The disaster of formalism. What is it? It is not merely that the Church is a failure. That, of course, is a disaster. I am not, however, prepared to shed tears over the failure of a system. I am prepared to shed them over the fact that when the system fails, the work is not done. That is the supreme and final agony. If the Church of GOD is not what it ought to be, we have a nation without salt and without light, a nation rushing headlong to Godlessness, characterized by base ideals and ignoble conduct; by cowardice in the presence of a wrong, and carelessness about the importance of right. If that be the national condition, the blame is with the Church of GOD. I do not say the churches, but the Church, which is the Temple of GOD. If she were instinct with the life of CHRIST, and allowed that life to fill and flood and flow through her, the nation could no longer be careless. I go back to the creation of the temple, and what followed in Jerusalem. The multitudes were amazed, perplexed, critical. The tragedy of the hour is that the Church does not amaze London, does not perplex London, does not make London critical. Why not? Because of her formalism. The world has done with formalism. Whether it be her theatres, her public houses, or anything else, she means business; and a world that means business is never going to be influenced by a Church that is playing. What we need is the Church, the Temple, filled with the Presence, flaming in its glory, flashing in its light, communicating its fire. Then we shall be able to say to the evil statesman, You dare not! We shall be able to say to vested interests, Disgorge! But formalism can do none of these things. What then is the message of the second book of Chronicles? What is the living word? "Strengthen the things that remain." ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/writings-of-g-campbell-morgan-volume-1/ ========================================================================