,,expositions ,,of ,,holy ,,scripture ,,alexander ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d41 ,litt4 ,d4 ,,romans ,,corinthians 7,to ,,ii ,corinthians1 ,chap4 ,v7 ,,expositions ,,of ,,holy ,,scripture ,,alexander ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d41 ,litt4 ,d4 ,,romans ,,contents ,,the ,,witness ,,of ,,the ,,resurrection 7,romans i4 #d1 ,r4,v47 ,,privilege ,,and ,,obligation 7,romans i4 #g7 ,,paul',s ,,longing 7,romans i4 #aa1 #ab7 ,,debtors ,,to ,,all ,,men 7,romans i4 #ad7 ,,the ,,gospel ,,the ,,power ,,of ,,god 7,romans i4 #af7 ,,world-,,wide ,,sin ,,and ,,world-,,wide ,,redemption 7,romans iii4 #ai-bf7 ,,no ,,difference 7,romans iii4 #bb7 ',,let ,,us ,,have ,,peace' 7,romans v4 #a1 ,r4,v47 ,,access ,,into ,,grace 7,romans v4 #b7 ,,the ,,sources ,,of ,,hope 7,romans v4 #b-d7 ,a ,,threefold ,,cord 7,romans v4 #e7 ,,what ,,proves ,,god',s ,,love 7,romans v4 #h7 ,,the ,,warring ,,queens 7,romans v4 #ba7 ',,the ,,form ,,of ,,teaching' 7,romans vi4 #ag7 ',,thy ,,free ,,spirit' 7,romans viii4 #b7 ,,christ ,,condemning ,,sin 7,romans viii4 #h7 ,,the ,,witness ,,of ,,the ,,spirit 7,romans viii4 #af7 ,,sons ,,and ,,heirs 7,romans viii4 #ag7 ,,suffering ,,with ,,christ1 ,a ,,condition ,,of ,,glory ,,with ,,christ 7,romans viii4 #ag7 ,,the ,,revelation ,,of ,,sons 7,romans viii4 #ai7 ,,the ,,redemption ,,of ,,the ,,body 7,romans viii4 #bc7 ,,the ,,interceding ,,spirit 7,romans viii4 #bf7 ,,the ,,gift ,,that ,,brings ,,all ,,gifts 7,romans viii4 #cb7 ,,more ,,than ,,conquerors 7,romans viii4 #cg7 ,,love',s ,,triumph 7,romans viii4 #ch1 #ci7 ,,the ,,sacrifice ,,of ,,the ,,body 7,romans xii4 #a7 ,,transfiguration 7,romans xii4 #b7 ,,sober ,,thinking 7,romans xii4 #c7 ,,many ,,and ,,one 7,romans xii4 #d1 #e7 ,,grace ,,and ,,graces 7,romans xii4 #f-h7 ,,love ,,that ,,can ,,hate 7,romans xii4 #i1 #aj1 ,r4,v47 ,a ,,triplet ,,of ,,graces 7,romans xii4 #aa7 ,,another ,,triplet ,,of ,,graces 7,romans xii4 #ab7 ,,still ,,another ,,triplet 7,romans xii4 #ac-ae7 ,,still ,,another ,,triplet 7,romans xii4 #af1 ,r4,v47 ,,still ,,another ,,triplet 7,romans xii4 #ag1 #ah1 ,r4,v47 ,,still ,,another ,,triplet 7,romans xii4 #ai-ba7 ,,love ,,and ,,the ,,day 7,romans xiii4 #h-ad7 ,,salvation ,,nearer 7,romans xiii4 #aa7 ,,the ,,soldier',s ,,morning-,,call 7,romans xiii4 #ab7 ,,the ,,limits ,,of ,,liberty 7,romans xiv4 #ab-bc7 ,,two ,,fountains1 ,,one ,,stream 7,romans xv4 #d1 #ac7 ,,joy ,,and ,,peace ,,in ,,believing 7,romans xv4 #ac7 ,,phoebe 7,romans xvi4 #a1 #b1 ,r4,v47 ,,priscilla ,,and ,,aquila 7,romans xvi4 #c-e7 ,,two ,,households 7,romans xvi4 #aj1aa7 ,,tryphena ,,and ,,tryphosa 7,romans xvi4 #ab7 ,,persis 7,romans xvi4 #ab7 ,a ,,crushed ,,snake 7,romans xvi4 #bj7 ,,tertius 7,romans xvi4 #bb1 ,r4,v47 ,,quartus ,a ,,brother 7,romans xvi4 #bc7 ,,the ,,witness ,,of ,,the ,,resurrection ',declared to be the ,son of ,god with power1 444 by the resurrection of the dead4'--,,romans i4 #d 7,r4,v474 ,it is a great mistake to treat ,paul's writings1 and especially this ,epistle1 as mere theology4 ,they are the transcript of his life's experience4 ,as has been well said1 the gospel of ,paul is an interpretation of the significance of the life and work of ,jesus based upon the revelation to him of ,jesus as the risen ,christ4 ,he believed that he had seen ,jesus on the road to ,damascus1 and it was that appearance which revolutionised his life1 turned him from a persecutor into a disciple1 and united him with the ,apostles as ordained to be a witness with them of the ,resurrection4 ,to them all the ,resurrection of ,jesus was first of all a historical fact appreciated chiefly in its bearing on ,him4 ,by degrees they discerned that so transcendent a fact bore in itself a revelation of what would become the experience of all ,his followers beyond the grave1 and a symbol of the present life possible for them4 ,all three of these aspects are plainly declared in ,paul's writings4 ,in our text it is chiefly the first which is made prominent4 ,all that distinguishes ,christianity2 and makes it worth believing1 or mighty1 is inseparably connected with the ,resurrection4 ,i4 ,the ,resurrection of ,christ declares ,his ,sonship4 ,resurrection and ,ascension are inseparably connected4 ,jesus does not rise to share again in the ills and weariness of humanity4 ,risen1 ',he dieth no more2 death hath no more dominion over ,him4' ',he died unto sin once'2 and ,his risen humanity had nothing in it on which physical death could lay hold4 ,that ,he should from some secluded dimple on ,olivet ascend before the gazing disciples until the bright cloud1 which was the symbol of the ,divine ,presence1 received ,him out of their sight1 was but the end of the process which began unseen in morning twilight4 ,he laid aside the garments of the grave and passed out of the sepulchre which was made sure by the great stone rolled against its mouth4 ,the grand avowal of faith in ,his ,resurrection loses meaning1 unless it is completed as ,paul completed his 'yea rather that was raised from the dead1' with the triumphant 'who is at the right hand of ,god4' ,both are supernatural1 and the ,virgin ,birth corresponds at the beginning to the supernatural ,resurrection and ,ascension at the close4 ,both such an entrance into the world and such a departure from it1 proclaim at once ,his true humanity1 and that 'this is the ,son of ,god4' ,still further1 the ,resurrection is ,god's solemn ',amen' to the tremendous claims which ,christ had made4 ,the fact of ,his ,resurrection1 indeed1 would not declare ,his divinity2 but the ,resurrection of ,one who had spoken such words does4 ,if the ,cross and a nameless grave had been the end1 what a reductio ad absurdum that would have been to the claims of ,jesus to have ever been with the ,father and to be doing always the things that pleased ,him4 ,the ,resurrection is ,god's last and loudest proclamation1 ',this is ,my beloved ,son3 hear ye ,him4' ,the ,psalmist of old had learned to trust that his sonship and consecration to the ,father made it impossible that that ,father should leave his soul in ,sheol1 or suffer one who was knit to ,him by such sacred bonds to see corruption2 and the unique ,sonship and perfect self-consecration of ,jesus went down into the grave in the assured confidence1 as ,he ,himself declared1 that the third day ,he would rise again4 ,the old alternative seems to retain all its sharp points3 ,either ,christ rose again from the dead1 or ,his claims are a series of blasphemous arrogances and ,his character irremediably stained4 ,but we may also remember that ,scripture not only represents ,christ's ,resurrection as a divine act but also as the act of ,christ's own power4 ,in ,his earthly life ,he asserted that ,his relation both to physical death and to resurrection was an entirely unique one4 ',i have power1' said ,he1 'to lay down my life1 and ,i have power to take it again'2 and yet1 even in this tremendous instance of self-assertion1 ,he remains the obedient ,son1 for ,he goes on to say1 ',this commandment have ,i received of ,my ,father4' ,if these claims are just1 then it is vain to stumble at the miracles which ,jesus did in ,his earthly life4 ,if ,he could strip it off and resume it1 then obviously it was not a life like other men's4 ,the whole phenomenon is supernatural1 and we shall not be in the true position to understand and appreciate it and ,him until1 like the doubting ,thomas1 we fall at the feet of the risen ,son1 and breathe out loyalty and worship in that rapturous exclamation1 ',my ,lord and my ,god4' ,,ii4 ,the ,resurrection interprets ,christ's ,death4 ,there is no more striking contrast than that between the absolute non-receptivity of the disciples in regard to all ,christ's plain teachings about ,his death and their clear perception after ,pentecost of the mighty power that lay in it4 ,the very fact that they continued disciples at all1 and that there continued to be such a community as the ,church1 demands their belief in the ,resurrection as the only cause which can account for it4 ,if ,he did not rise from the dead1 and if ,his followers did not know that ,he did so by the plainest teachings of common-sense1 they ought to have scattered1 and borne in isolated hearts the bitter memories of disappointed hopes2 for if ,he lay in a nameless grave1 and they were not sure that ,he was risen from the dead1 ,his death would have been a conclusive showing up of the falsity of ,his claims4 ,in it there would have been no atoning power1 no triumph over sin4 ,if the death of ,christ were not followed by ,his ,resurrection and ,ascension1 the whole fabric of ,christianity falls to pieces4 ,as the ,apostle puts it in his great chapter on resurrection1 ',ye are yet in your sins4' ,the forgiveness which the ,gospel holds forth to men does not depend on the mercy of ,god or on the mere penitence of man1 but upon the offering of the one sacrifice for sins in ,his death1 which is justified by ,his ,resurrection as being accepted by ,god4 ,if we cannot triumphantly proclaim ',christ is risen indeed1' we have nothing worth preaching4 ,we are told now that the ethics of ,christianity are its vital centre1 which will stand out more plainly when purified from these mystical doctrines of a ,death as the sin-offering for the world1 and a ,resurrection as the great token that that offering avails4 ,paul did not think so4 ,to him the morality of the ,gospel was all deduced from the life of ,christ the ,son of ,god as our ,example1 and from ,his death for us which touches men's hearts and makes obedience to ,him our joyful answer to what ,he has done for us4 ,christianity is a new thing in the world1 not as moral teaching1 but as moral power to obey that teaching1 and that depends on the ,cross interpreted by the ,resurrection4 ,if we have only a dead ,christ1 we have not a living ,christianity4 ,,iii4 ,resurrection points onwards to ,christ's coming again4 ,paul at ,athens declared in the hearing of supercilious ,greek philosophers1 that the ,jesus1 whom he proclaimed to them1 was 'the ,man whom ,god had ordained to judge the world in righteousness1' and that ',he had given assurance thereof unto all men1 in that ,he raised ,him from the dead4' ,the ,resurrection was the beginning of the process which1 from the human point of view1 culminated in the ,ascension4 ,beyond the ,ascension stretches the supernatural life of the glorified ,son of ,god4 ,olivet cannot be the end1 and the words of the two men in white apparel who stood amongst the little group of the upward gazing friends1 remain as the hope of the ,church3 ',this same ,jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen ,him go into heaven4' ,that great assurance implies a visible corporeal return locally defined1 and having for its purpose to complete the work which ,incarnation1 ,death1 ,resurrection1 and ,ascension1 each advanced a stage4 ,the ,resurrection is the corner-stone of the whole ,christian faith4 ,it seals the truths that ,jesus is the ,son of ,god with power1 that ,he died for us1 that ,he has ascended on high to prepare a place for us1 that ,he will come again and take us to ,himself4 ,if we1 by faith in ,him1 take for ours the women's greeting on that ,easter morning1 ',the ,lord hath risen indeed1' ,he will come to us with ,his own greeting1 ',peace be unto you4' ,,privilege ,,and ,,obligation ',to all that be in ,rome1 beloved of ,god1 called to be saints4'--,,romans i4 #g4 ,this is the address of the ,epistle4 ,the first thing to be noticed about it1 by way of introduction1 is the universality of this designation of ,christians4 ,paul had never been in ,rome1 and knew very little about the religious stature of the converts there4 ,but he has no hesitation in declaring that they are all 'beloved of ,god' and 'saints4' ,there were plenty of imperfect ,christians amongst them2 many things to rebuke2 much deadness1 coldness1 inconsistency1 and yet none of these in the slightest degree interfered with the application of these great designations to them4 ,so1 then1 'beloved of ,god' and 'saints' are not distinctions of classes within the pale of ,christianity1 but belong to the whole community1 and to each member of the body4 ,the next thing to note1 ,i think1 is how these two great terms1 'beloved of ,god' and 'saints1' cover almost the whole ground of the ,christian life4 ,they are connected with each other very closely1 as ,i shall have occasion to show presently1 but in the meantime it may be sufficient to mark how the one carries us deep into the heart of ,god and the other extends over the whole ground of our relation to ,him4 ,the one is a statement of a universal prerogative1 the other an enforcement of a universal obligation4 ,let us look1 then1 at these two points1 the universal privilege and the universal obligation of the ,christian life4 ,i4 ,the universal privilege of the ,christian life4 ',beloved of ,god4' ,now we are so familiar with the juxtaposition of the two ideas1 'love' and ',god1' that we cease to feel the wonderfulness of their union4 ,but until ,jesus ,christ had done ,his work no man believed that the two thoughts could be brought together4 ,does ,god love any one8 ,we think the question too plain to need to be put1 and the answer instinctive4 ,but it is not by any means instinctive1 and the fact is that until ,christ answered it for us1 the world stood dumb before the question that its own heart raised1 and when tortured spirits asked1 ',is there care in heaven1 and is there love8' there was 'no voice1 nor answer1 nor any that regarded4' ,think of the facts of life2 think of the facts of nature4 ,think of sorrows and miseries and pains1 and sins1 and wasted lives and storms1 and tempests1 and diseases1 and convulsions2 and let us feel how true the grim saying is1 that ',nature1 red in tooth and claw1 ,with rapine1 shrieks against the creed' that ,god is love4 ,and think of what the world has worshipped1 and of all the varieties of monstrosity1 not the less monstrous because sometimes beautiful1 before which men have bowed4 ,cruel1 lustful1 rapacious1 capricious1 selfish1 indifferent deities they have adored4 ,and then1 ',god hath established1' proved1 demonstrated ',his love to us in that while we were yet sinners ,christ died for us4' ,oh1 brethren1 do not let us kick down the ladder by which we have climbed2 or1 in the name of a loving ,god1 put away the ,christian teaching which has begotten the conception in humanity of a ,god that loves4 ,there are men to-day who would never have come within sight of that sunlight truth1 even as a glimmering star1 away down upon the horizon1 if it had not been for the ,gospel2 and who now turn round upon that very ,gospel which has given them the conception1 and accuse it of narrow and hard thoughts of the love of ,god4 ,one of the ,scripture truths against which the assailant often turns his sharpest weapons is that which is involved in my text1 the ,scripture answer to the other question1 ',does not ,god love all8' ,yes6 yes6 a thousand times1 yes6 ,but there is another question1 ,does the love of ,god1 to all1 make ,his special designation of ,christian men as ,his beloved the least unlikely8 ,surely there is no kind of contradiction between the broadest proclamation of the universality of the love of ,god and ,paul's decisive declaration that1 in a very deep and real manner1 they who are in ,christ are the beloved of ,god4 ,surely special affection is not in its nature1 inconsistent with universal beneficence and benevolence4 ,surely it is no exaltation1 but rather a degradation of the conception of the divine love1 if we proclaim its utter indifference to men's characters4 ,surely you are not honouring ,god when you say1 ',it is all the same to ,him whether a man loves ,him and serves ,him1 or lifts himself up in rebellion against ,him1 and makes himself his own centre1 and earth his aim and his all4' ,surely to imagine a ,god who not only makes ,his sun to shine and ,his rains and dews to fall on the unthankful and the evil1 that ,he may draw them to love ,him1 but who also is conceived as taking the sinful creature who yet cleaves to his sins to ,his heart1 as ,he does the penitent soul that longs for ,his image to be produced in it1 is to blaspheme1 and not to honour the love1 the universal love of ,god4 ,god forbid that any words that ever drop from my lips should seem to cast the smallest shadow of doubt on that great truth1 ',god so loved the world that ,he gave ,his ,son6' ,but ,god forbid1 equally1 that any words of mine should seem to favour the1 to me1 repellent idea that the infinite love of ,god disregards the character of the man on whom it falls4 ,there are manifestations of that loving heart which any man can receive2 and each man gets as much of the love of ,god as it is possible to pour upon him4 ,but granite rock does not drink in the dew as a flower does2 and the nature of the man on whom ,god's love falls determines how much1 and what manner of its manifestations shall pass into his true possession1 and what shall remain without4 ,so1 on the whole1 we have to answer the questions1 ',does ,god love any8 ,does not ,god love all8 ,does ,god specially love some8' with the one monosyllable1 ',yes4' ,and so1 dear brethren1 let us learn the path by which we can pass into that blessed community of those on whom the fullness and sweetness and tenderest tenderness of the ,father's heart will fall4 ',if a man love ,me1 he will keep ,my words2 and ,my ,father will love him4' ,myths tell us that the light which1 at the beginning1 had been diffused through a nebulous mass1 was next gathered into a sun4 ,so the universal love of ,god is concentrated in ,jesus ,christ2 and if we have ,him we have it2 and if we have faith we have ,him1 and can say1 ',neither life1 nor death1 nor things present1 nor things to come1 nor height1 nor depth1 nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of ,god which is in ,christ ,jesus our ,lord4' ,,ii4 ,then1 secondly1 mark the universal obligation of the ,christian life4 ',called to be saints1' says my text4 ,now you will observe that the two little words 'to be' are inserted here as a supplement4 ,they may be correct enough1 but they are open to the possibility of misunderstanding1 as if the saintship1 to which all ,christian people are 'called' was something future1 and not realised at the moment4 ,now1 in the context1 the ,apostle employs the same form of expression with regard to himself in a clause which illuminates the meaning of my text4 ',paul1 a servant of ,jesus ,christ' says he1 in the first verse1 'called to be an ,apostle' or1 more correctly1 'a called ,apostle4' ,the apostleship coincided in time with the call1 was contemporaneous with that which was its cause4 ,and if ,paul was an ,apostle since he was called1 saints are saints since they are called4 ',the beloved of ,god' are 'the called saints4' ,i need only observe1 further1 that the word 'called' here does not mean 'named' or 'designated' but 'summoned4' ,it describes not the name by which ,christian men are known1 but the thing which they are invited1 summoned1 'called' by ,god to be4 ,it is their vocation1 not their designation4 ,now1 then1 ,i need not1 ,i suppose1 remind you that 'saint' and 'holy' convey precisely the same idea3 the one expressing it in a word of ,teutonic1 and the other in one of classic derivation4 ,we notice that the true idea of this universal holiness which1 ipso facto1 belongs to all ,christian people1 is consecration to ,god4 ,in the old days temple1 altars1 sacrifices1 sacrificial vessels1 persons such as priests1 periods like ,sabbaths and feasts1 were called 'holy4' ,the common idea running through all these uses of the word is belonging to ,god1 and that is the root notion of the ,new ,testament 'saint' a man who is ,god's4 ,god has claimed us for ,himself when ,he gave us ,jesus ,christ4 ,we respond to the claim when we accept ,christ4 ,henceforth we are not our own1 but 'consecrated'--that is1 'saints4' ,now the next step is purity1 which is the ordinary idea of sanctity4 ,purity will follow consecration1 and would not be worth much without it1 even if it was possible to be attained4 ,now1 look what a far deeper and nobler idea of the service and conditions of moral goodness this derivation of it from surrender to ,god gives1 than does a ,god-ignoring morality which talks and talks about acts and dispositions1 and never goes down to the root of the whole matter2 and how much nobler it is than a shallow religion which in like manner is ever straining after acts of righteousness1 and forgets that in order to be right there must be prior surrender to ,god4 ,get a man to yield himself up to ,god and no fear about the righteousness4 ,virtue1 goodness1 purity1 righteousness1 all these synonyms express very noble things2 but deep down below them all lies the ,new ,testament idea of holiness1 consecration of myself to ,god1 which is the parent of them all4 ,and then the next thing to remind you of is that this consecration is to be applied all through a man's nature4 ,yielding yourselves to ,god is the talismanic secret of all righteousness1 as ,i have said2 and every part of our complex1 manifold being is capable of such consecration4 ,i hallow my heart if its love twines round ,his heart4 ,i hallow my thoughts if ,i take ,his truth for my guide1 and ever seek to be led thereby in practice and in belief4 ,i hallow my will when it bows and says1 ',speak1 ,lord6 ,thy servant heareth6' ,i hallow my senses when ,i use them as from ,him1 with recognition of ,him and for ,him4 ,in fact1 there are two ways of living in the world2 and1 narrow as it sounds1 ,i venture to say there are only two4 ,either ,god is my centre1 and that is holiness2 or self is my centre1 in more or less subtle forms1 and that is sin4 ,then the next step is that this consecration1 which will issue in all purity1 and will cover the whole ground of a human life1 is only possible when we have drunk in the blessed thought 'beloved of ,god4' ,my yielding of myself to ,him can only be the echo of ,his giving of ,himself to me4 ,he must be the first to love4 ,you cannot argue a man into loving ,god1 any more than you can hammer a rosebud open4 ,if you do you spoil its petals4 ,but ,he can love us into loving ,him1 and the sunshine1 falling on the closed flower1 will expand it1 and it will grow by its reception of the light1 and grow sunlike in its measure and according to its nature4 ,so a ,god who has only claims upon us will never be a ,god to whom we yield ourselves4 ,a ,god who has love for us will be a ,god to whom it is blessed that we should be consecrated1 and so saints4 ,then1 still further1 this consecration1 thus built upon the reception of the divine love1 and influencing our whole nature1 and leading to all purity1 is a universal characteristic of ,christians4 ,there is no faith which does not lead to surrender4 ,there is no aristocracy in the ,christian ,church which deserves to have the family name given especially to it4 ',saint' this1 and ',saint' that1 and ',saint' the other--these titles cannot be used without darkening the truth that this honour and obligation of being saints belong equally to all that love ,jesus ,christ4 ,all the men whom thus ,god has drawn to ,himself1 by ,his love in ,his ,son1 they are all1 if ,i may so say1 objectively holy2 they belong to ,god4 ,but consecration may be cultivated1 and must be cultivated and increased4 ,there is a solemn obligation laid upon every one of us who call ourselves ,christians1 to be saints1 in the sense that we have consciously yielded up our whole lives to ,him2 and are trying1 body1 soul1 and spirit1 'to perfect holiness in the fear of the ,lord4' ,paul's letter1 addressed to the 'beloved in ,god1' the 'called saints' that are in ,rome1 found its way to the people for whom it was meant4 ,if a letter so addressed were dropped in our streets1 do you think anybody would bring it to you1 or to any ,christian society as a whole1 recognising that we were the people for whom it was meant8 ,the world has taunted us often enough with the name of saints2 and laughed at the profession which they thought was included in the word4 ,would that their taunts had been undeserved1 and that it were not true that 'saints' in the ,church sometimes means less than 'good men' out of the ,church6 ',seeing that we have these promises1 dearly beloved1 let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit2 perfecting holiness in the fear of the ,lord4' ,,paul',s ,,longing#a ',i long to see you1 that ,i may impart unto you some spiritual gift1 to the end ye may be established2 #ab4 ,that is1 that ,i may be comforted together with you1 by the mutual faith both of you and me4'--,,romans i4 #aa1 #ab4 ,i am not wont to indulge in personal references in the pulpit1 but ,i cannot but yield to the impulse to make an exception now1 and to let our happy circumstances mould my remarks4 ,i speak mainly to mine own people1 and ,i must trust that other friends who may hear or read my words will forgive my doing so4 ,in taking such a text as this1 ,i desire to shelter myself behind ,paul1 and in expounding his feelings to express my own1 and to draw such lessons as may be helpful and profitable to us all4 ,and so there are three things in this text that ,i desire to note3 the manly expression of ,christian affection2 the lofty consciousness of the purpose of their meeting2 and the lowly sense that there was much to be received as well as much to be given4 ,a word or two about each of these things is all on which ,i can venture4 ,i4 ,first1 then1 notice the manly expression of ,christian affection which the ,apostle allows himself here4 ,very few ,christian teachers could or should venture to talk so much about themselves as ,paul did4 ,the strong infusion of the personal element in all his letters is so transparently simple1 so obviously sincere1 so free from any jarring note of affectation or unctuous sentiment that it attracts rather than repels4 ,if ,i might venture upon a paradox1 his personal references are instances of self-oblivion in the midst of self-consciousness4 ,he had never been in ,rome when he wrote these words2 he had no personal relations with the believers there2 he had never looked them in the face2 there were no sympathy and confidence between them1 as the growth of years4 ,but still his heart went out towards them1 and he was not ashamed to show it4 ',i long to see you1'--in the original the word expresses a very intense amount of yearning blended with something of regret that he had been so long kept from them4 ,now it is not a good thing for people to make many professions of affection1 and ,i think a public teacher has something better to do than to parade such feelings before his audiences4 ,but there are exceptions to all rules1 and ,i suppose ,i may venture to let my heart speak1 and to say how gladly ,i come back to the old place1 dear to me by so many sacred memories and associations1 and how gladly ,i reknit the bonds of an affection which has been unbroken1 and deepening on both sides through thirty long years4 ,dear friends6 let us together thank ,god to-day if ,he has knit our hearts together in mutual affection2 and if you and ,i can look each other1 as ,i believe we can1 in the eyes1 with the assurance that ,i see only the faces of friends1 and that you see the face of one who gladly resumes the old work and associations4 ,but now1 dear brethren1 let us draw one lesson4 ,unless there be this manly1 honest1 though oftenest silent1 ,christian affection1 the sooner you and ,i part the better4 ,unless it be in my heart ,i can do you no good4 ,no man ever touched another with the sweet constraining forces that lie in ,christ's ,gospel unless the heart of the speaker went out to grapple the hearts of the hearers4 ,and no audience ever listen with any profit to a man when they come in the spirit of carping criticism1 or of cold admiration1 or of stolid indifference4 ,there must be for this simple relationship which alone binds a ,nonconformist preacher to his congregation1 as a sine qua non of all higher things and of all spiritual good1 a real1 though oftenest it be a concealed1 mutual affection and regard4 ,we have to thank ,god for much of it2 let us try to get more4 ,that is all ,i want to say about the first point here4 ,,ii4 ,note the lofty consciousness of the purpose of their meeting4 ',i long to see you1 that ,i may impart unto you some spiritual gift4' ,paul knew that he had something which he could give to these people1 and he calls it by a very comprehensive term1 'some spiritual gift'--a gift of some sort which1 coming from the ,divine ,spirit1 was to be received into the human spirit4 ,now that expression--a spiritual gift--in the ,new ,testament has a variety of applications4 ,sometimes it refers to what we call miraculous endowments1 sometimes it refers to what we may call official capacity2 but here it is evidently neither the one nor the other of these more limited and special things1 but the general idea of a divine operation upon the human spirit which fills it with ,christian graces--knowledge1 faith1 love4 ,or1 in simpler words1 what ,paul wanted to give them was a firmer grasp and fuller possession of ,jesus ,christ1 ,his love and power1 which would secure a deepening and strengthening of their whole ,christian life4 ,he was quite sure he had this to give1 and that he could impart it1 if they would listen to what he would say to them4 ,but whilst thus he rises into the lofty conception of the purpose and possible result of his meeting the ,roman ,christians1 he is just as conscious of the limitations of his power in the matter as he is of the greatness of his function4 ,these are indicated plainly4 ,the word which he employs here1 'gift' is never used in the ,new ,testament for a thing that one man can give to another1 but is always employed for the concrete results of the grace of ,god bestowed upon men4 ,the very expression1 then1 shows that ,paul thought of himself1 not as the original giver1 but simply as a channel through which was communicated what ,god had given4 ,in the same direction points the adjective which accompanies the noun--a 'spiritual gift'--which probably describes the origin of the gift as being the ,spirit of ,god1 rather than defines the seat of it when received as being the spirit of the receiver4 ,notice1 too1 as bearing on the limits of ,paul's part in the gift1 the propriety and delicacy of the language in his statement of the ultimate purpose of the gift4 ,he does not say 'that ,i may strengthen you1' which might have sounded too egotistical1 and would have assumed too much to himself1 but he says 'that ye may be strengthened1' for the true strengthener is not ,paul1 but the ,spirit of ,god4 ,so1 on the one hand1 the ,christian teacher is bound to rise to the height of the consciousness of his lofty vocation as having in possession a gift that he can bestow2 on the other hand1 he is bound ever to remember the limitations within which that is true--viz4 that the gift is not his1 but ,god's1 and that the ,spirit of the ,lord is the true ,giver of all the graces which may blossom when ,his word1 ministered by human agents1 is received into human hearts4 ,and1 now1 what are the lessons that ,i take from this8 ,two very simple ones4 ,first1 no ,christian teacher has any business to open his mouth1 unless he is sure that he has received something to impart to men as a gift from the ,divine ,spirit4 ,to preach our doubts1 to preach our own opinions1 to preach poor platitudes1 to talk about politics and morals and taste and literature and the like in the pulpit1 is profanation and blasphemy4 ,let no man open his lips unless he can say3 ',the ,lord hath showed me this2 and this ,i bring to you as ,his word4' ,nor has a ,christian organisation any right to exist1 unless it recognises the communication and reception and further spreading of this spiritual gift as its great function4 ,churches which have lost that consciousness1 and1 instead of a divine gift1 have little more to offer than formal worship1 or music1 or entertainments1 or mere intellectual discourse1 whether orthodox or 'advanced1' have no right to be2 and by the law of the survival of the fittest will not long be4 ,the one thing that warrants such a relationship as subsists between you and me is this1 my consciousness that ,i have a message from ,god1 and your belief that you hear such from my lips4 ,unless that be our bond the sooner these walls crumble1 and this voice ceases1 and these pews are emptied1 the better4 ',i have1' says1 ,paul1 'a gift to impart2 and ,i long to see you that ,i may impart it to you4' ,oh6 for more1 in all our pulpits1 of that burdened consciousness of a divine message which needs the relief of speech1 and longs with a longing caught from ,christ to impart its richest treasures4 ,that is the one lesson4 ,and the other one is this4 ,have you1 dear friends1 received the gift that ,i have1 under the limitations already spoken of1 to bestow8 ,there are some of you who have listened to my voice ever since you were children--some of you1 though not many1 have heard it for well on to thirty years4 ,have you taken the thing that all these years ,i have been--,god knows how poorly1 but ,god knows how honestly--trying to bring to you8 ,that is1 have you taken ,christ1 and have you faith in ,him8 ,and1 as for those of you who say that you are ,christians1 many blessings have passed between you and me through all these years2 but1 dear friends1 has the chief blessing been attained8 ,are you being strengthened day by day for the burdens and the annoyances and the sorrows of life by your coming here8 ,do ,i do you any good in that way2 are you better men than when we first met together8 ,is ,christ dearer1 and more real and nearer to you2 and are your lives more transparently consecrated1 more manifestly the result of a hidden union with ,him8 ,do you walk in the world like the ,master1 because you are members of this congregation8 ,if so1 its purpose has been accomplished4 ,if not1 it has miserably failed4 ,i have said that ,i have to thank ,god for the unbroken affection that has knit us together4 ,but what is the use of such love if it does not lead onwards to this8 ,i have had enough1 and more than enough1 of what you call popularity and appreciation1 undeserved enough1 but rendered unstintedly by you4 ,i do not care the snap of a finger for it by comparison with this other thing4 ,and oh1 dear brethren6 if all that comes of our meeting here ,sunday after ,sunday is either praise or criticism of my poor words and ways1 our relationship is a curse1 and not a blessing1 and we come together for the worse and not for the better4 ,the purpose of the ,church1 and the purpose of the ministry1 and the meaning of our assembling are1 that spiritual gifts may be imparted1 not by me alone1 but by you1 too1 and by me in my place and measure1 and if that purpose be not accomplished1 all other purposes1 that are accomplished1 are of no account1 and worse than nothing4 ,,iii4 ,and now1 lastly1 note the lowly consciousness that much was to be received as well as much to be given4 ,the ,apostle corrects himself after he has said 'that ,i may impart unto you some spiritual gift1' by adding1 'that is1 that ,i may be comforted 7or rather1 encouraged7 together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me4' ,if his language were not so transparently sincere1 and springing from deep interest in the relationship between himself and these people1 we should say that it was exquisite courtesy and beautiful delicacy4 ,but it moves in a region far more real than the region of courtesy1 and it speaks the inmost truth about the conditions on which the ,roman ,christians should receive--viz4 that they should also give4 ,there is only one ,giver who is only a ,giver1 and that is ,god4 ,all other givers are also receivers4 ,paul desired to see his ,roman brethren that he might be encouraged2 and when he did see them1 as he marched along the ,appian ,way1 a shipwrecked prisoner1 the ,acts of the ,apostles tells us1 ',he thanked ,god and took courage4' ,the sight of them strengthened him and prepared him for what lay before him4 ,paul's was a richly complicated nature--firm as a rock in its will1 tremulously sensitive in its sympathies2 like some strongly-rooted tree with its stable stem and a green cloud of fluttering foliage that moves in the lightest air4 ,so his spirit rose and fell according to the reception that he met from his brethren1 and the manifestation of their faith quickened and strengthened his4 ,and he is but one instance of a universal law4 ,all teachers1 the more genuine they are1 the more sympathetic they are1 are the more sensitive of their environment4 ,the very oratorical temperament places a man at the mercy of surroundings4 ,all earnest work has ever travelling with it as its shadow seasons of deep depression2 and the ,christian teacher does not escape these4 ,i am not going to speak about myself1 but this is unquestionably true1 that every ,elijah1 after the mightiest effort of prophecy1 is apt to cover his head in his mantle and to say1 ',take me away2 ,i am not better than my fathers4' ,and when a man for thirty years1 amidst all the changes incident to a great city congregation in that time1 has to stand up ,sunday after ,sunday before the same people1 and mark how some of them are stolidly indifferent1 and note how others are dropping away from their faithfulness1 and see empty places where loving forms used to sit--no wonder that the mood comes ever and anon1 ',then1 said ,i1 surely ,i have laboured in vain and spent my strength for nought4' ,the hearer reacts on the speaker quite as much as the speaker does on the hearer4 ,if you have ice in the pews1 that brings down the temperature up here4 ,it is hard to be fervid amidst people that are all but dead4 ,it is difficult to keep a fire alight when it is kindled on the top of an iceberg4 ,and the unbelief and low-toned religion of a congregation are always pulling down the faith and the fervour of their minister1 if he be better and holier1 as they expect him to be1 than they are4 ',he did not many works because of their unbelief4' ,christ knew the hampering and the restrictions of ,his power which came from being surrounded by a chill1 unsympathetic environment4 ,my strength and my weakness are largely due to you4 ,and if you want your minister to preach better1 and in all ways to do his work more joyfully and faithfully1 the means lie largely in your own hands4 ,icy indifference1 ill-natured interpretations1 carping criticisms1 swift forgetfulness of one's words1 all these things kill the fervour of the pulpit4 ,on the other hand1 the true encouragement to give a man when he is trying to do ,god's will1 to preach ,christ's ,gospel1 is not to pat him on the back and say1 ',what a remarkable sermon that was of yours6 what a genius6 what an orator6' not to go about praising it1 but to come and say1 ',thy words have led me to ,christ1 and from thee ,i have taken the gift of gifts4' ,dear brethren1 the encouragement of the minister is in the conversion and the growth of the hearers4 ,and ,i pray that in this new lease of united fellowship which we have taken out1 be it longer or shorter--and advancing years tell me that at the longest it must be comparatively short--,i may come to you ever more and more with the lofty and humbling consciousness that ,i have a message which ,christ has given to me1 and that you may come more and more receptive--not of my words1 ,god forbid--but of ,christ's truth2 and that so we may be helpers one of another1 and encourage each other in the warfare and work to which we all are called and consecrated4 ,footnote #a3 ,preached after long absence on account of illness4 ,,debtors ,,to ,,all ,,men ',i am a debtor both to the ,greeks and to the ,barbarians1 both to the wise and to the unwise4'--,,romans i4 #ad4 ,no doubt ,paul is here referring to the special obligation laid upon him by his divine call to be the ,apostle to the ,gentiles4 ,he was entrusted with the ,gospel as a steward1 and was therefore bound to carry it to all sorts and conditions of men4 ,but the principle underlying the statement applies to all ,christians4 ,the indebtedness referred to is no peculiarity of the ,apostolic order1 but attaches to every believer4 ,every servant of ,jesus ,christ1 who has received the truth for himself1 has received it as a steward1 and is1 as such1 indebted to ,god1 from whom he got the trust1 and to the men for whom he got it4 ,the only limit to the obligation is1 as ,paul says in the context1 'as much as in me is4' ,capacity1 determined by faculties1 opportunities1 and circumstances1 prescribes the kind and the degree of the work to be done in discharge of the obligation2 but the obligation is universal4 ,we are not at liberty to choose whether we shall do our part in spreading the name of ,jesus ,christ4 ,it is a debt that we owe to ,god and to men4 ,is that the view of duty which the average ,christian man takes8 ,i am afraid it is not4 ,if it were1 our treasuries would be full1 and great would be the multitude of them that preached the ,word4 ,it is no very exalted degree of virtue to pay our debts4 ,we do not expect to be praised for that2 and we do not consider that we are at liberty to choose whether we shall do it or not4 ,we are dishonest if we do not4 ,it is no merit in us to be honest4 ,would that all ,christian people applied that principle to their religion4 ,the world would be different1 and the ,church would be different1 if they did4 ,let me try1 then1 to enforce this thought of indebtedness and of common honesty in discharging the indebtedness1 which underlies these words4 ,paul thought that he went a long way to pay his debts to humanity by carrying to everybody whom he could reach the ',name that is above every name4' ,i4 ,now1 first1 let me say that we ,christians are debtors to all men by our common manhood4 ,it is not the least of the gifts which ,christianity has brought to the world1 that it has introduced the new thought of the brotherhood of mankind4 ,the very word 'humanity' is a ,christian coinage1 and it was coined to express the new thought that began to throb in men's hearts1 as soon as they accepted the message that ,jesus ,christ came to give1 the message of the ,fatherhood of ,god4 ,for it is on that belief of ,god's ,fatherhood that the belief of man's brotherhood rests1 and on it alone can it be secured and permanently based4 ,here is a ,jew writing to ,latins in the ,greek language4 ,the phenomenon itself is a sign of a new order of things1 of the rising of a flood that had surged over1 and in the course of ages would sap away and dissolve1 the barriers between men4 ,the ,apostle points to two of the widest gulfs that separated men1 in the words of my text4 ',greeks and ,barbarians' divides mankind1 according to race and language4 ',wise and unwise' divides them according to culture and intellectual capacity4 ,both gulfs exist still1 though they have been wonderfully filled up by the influence1 direct and indirect1 of the ,gospel of ,jesus ,christ4 ,the fiercest antagonisms of race which still subsist are felt to belong to a decaying order1 and to be sure1 sooner or later1 to pass away4 ,i suppose that the gulf made by the increased culture of modern society between civilised and the savage peoples1 and1 within the limits of our own land1 the gulf made by education between the higher and the lower layers of our community--,i speak not of higher and lower in regard to wealth or station1 but in regard to intellectual acquirement and capacity--are greater than1 perhaps1 they ever were in the past4 ,but yet over the gulf a bridge is thrown1 and the gulf itself is being filled up4 ,high above all the superficial distinctions which separate ,jew and ,gentile1 ,greek and ,barbarian1 educated and illiterate1 scientific and unscientific1 wise and unwise1 there stretches the great rainbow of the truth that all are one in ,christ ,jesus4 ,fraternity without ,fatherhood is a ghastly mockery that ended a hundred years ago in the guillotine1 and to-day will end in disappointment2 and it is little more than cant4 ,but when ,christianity comes and tells us that we have one ,father and one ,redeemer1 then the unity of the race is secured4 ,and that oneness which makes us debtors to all men is shown to be real by the fact that1 beneath all superficial distinctions of culture1 race1 age1 or station1 there are the primal necessities and yearnings and possibilities that lie in every human soul4 ,all men1 savage or cultivated1 breathe the same air1 see by the same light1 are fed by the same food and drink1 have the same yearning hearts1 the same lofty aspirations that unfulfilled are torture2 the same experience of the same guilt1 and1 blessed be ,god6 the same ,saviour and the same salvation4 ,because1 then1 we are all members of the one family1 every man is bound to regard all that he possesses1 and is1 and can do1 as committed to him in stewardship to be imparted to his fellows4 ,we are not sponges to absorb1 but we are pipes placed in the spring1 that we may give forth the precious water of life4 ,cain is not a very good model1 but his question is the world's question1 and it implies the expectation of a negative answer--',am ,i my brother's keeper8' ,surely1 the very language answers itself1 and1 although ,cain thinks that the only answer is ',no1' wisdom sees that the only answer is ',yes4' ,for if ,i am my brother's brother1 then surely ,i am my brother's keeper4 ,we have a better example4 ,there is another ,elder ,brother who has come to give to ,his brethren all that ,himself possessed1 and we but poorly follow our ,master's pattern unless we feel that the mystic tie which binds us in brotherhood to every man makes us every man's debtor to the extent of our possessions4 ,that is the ,christian truth that underlies the modern ,socialistic idea1 and1 whatever the form in which it is ultimately brought into practice as the rule of mankind1 the principle will triumph one day2 and we are bound1 as ,christian men1 to hasten the coming of its victory4 ,we are debtors by reason of our common humanity4 ,,ii4 ,we are debtors by our possession of the universal salvation4 ,the principle which ,i have already been laying down applies all round1 to everything that we have1 are1 or can do4 ,but its most stringent obligation1 and the noblest field for its operations1 are found in reference to the ,christian man's possession of the ,gospel for the joy of his own heart1 and to the duties that are therein involved4 ,christ draws men to ,himself for their own sakes1 blessed be ,his name6 but not for their own sakes only4 ,he draws them to ,himself1 that they1 in their turn1 may draw others with whose hands theirs are linked1 and so may swell the numbers of the flock that gathers round the one ,shepherd4 ,he puts the dew of ,his blessing into the chalice of the tiniest flower1 that it may 'share its dewdrop with another near4' ,just as every particle of inert dough as it is leavened becomes in its turn leaven1 and the medium for leavening the particle contiguous to it1 so every ,christian is bound1 or1 to use the metaphor of my text1 is a debtor to ,god and man1 to impart the ,gospel of ,jesus ,christ4 ',greek and ,barbarian1' says ,paul1 'wise or unwise'2 all distinctions vanish4 ,if ,i can get at a man1 no matter what colour1 his race1 his language1 his capacity1 his acquirements1 he is my creditor1 and ,i am defrauding him of what he has a right to expect from me if ,i do not do my best to bring him to ,jesus ,christ4 ,this obligation receives additional weight from the proved adaptation of the ,gospel to all sorts and conditions of men4 ,alone of all religions has ,christianity proved itself capable of dominating every type of character1 of influencing every stage of civilisation1 of assuming the speech of every tongue1 and of wearing the garb of every race4 ,there are other religions which are evidently destined only to a narrow field of operations1 and are rigidly limited by geographical conditions1 or by stages of civilisation4 ,there are wines that are ruined by a sea voyage1 and can only be drunk in the land where the vintage was gathered2 and that is the condition of all the ethnic religions4 ,christianity alone passes through the whole earth1 and influences all men4 ,the history of missions shows us that4 ,there has yet to be found the race that is incapable of receiving1 or is beyond the need of possessing1 or cannot be elevated by the operation of1 the ,gospel of ,jesus ,christ4 ,so to all men we are bound1 as much as in us is1 to carry the ,gospel4 ,the distinction that is drawn so often by the people who never move a finger to help the heathen either at home or abroad1 between the home and the foreign field of work1 vanishes altogether when we stand at the true ,christian standpoint4 ,here is a man who wants the ,gospel2 ,i have it2 ,i can give it to him4 ,that constitutes a summons as imperative as if we were called by name from ,heaven1 and bade to go1 and as much as in us is to preach the ,gospel4 ,brethren6 we do not obey the command1 ',owe no man anything1' unless1 to the extent of our ability1 or over the whole field which we can influence at home or abroad1 we seek to spread the name of ,christ and the salvation that is in ,him4 ,,iii4 ,we are debtors by benefits received4 ,i am speaking to men and women a very large proportion of whom get their living1 and some of whom amass their wealth1 by trade with lands that need the ,gospel4 ,it is not for nothing that ,england has won the great empire that she possesses--won it1 alas6 far too often by deeds that will not bear investigation in the light of ,christian principle1 but won it4 ,what do we owe to the lands that we call 'heathen'8 ,the very speech by which we communicate with one another2 the beginning of our civilisation2 wide fields for expanding population and emigration2 treasures of wisdom of many kinds2 an empire about which we are too fond of crowing and too reluctant to recognise its responsibilities--and ,manchester its commerce and prosperity6 ,did ,god put us where we are as a nation only in order that we might carry the gifts of our literature1 great as that is2 of our science1 great as that is2 of our law1 blessed as that is2 of our manufactures1 to those distant lands8 ,the best thing that we can give is the thing that all of us can help to give--the ,gospel of ,jesus ,christ4 ',who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this8' ,,iv4 ,lastly1 we are debtors by injuries inflicted4 ,many subject-races seem destined to fade away by contact with our race2 and if we think of the nameless cruelties1 and the iliad of woes which ,england's possession of this great ,colonial ,empire has had accompanying it1 we may feel that the harm in many aspects outweighs the good1 and that it had been better for these men to be left suckled in creeds outworn1 and ignorant of our civilisation1 than to receive from us the fatal gifts that they often have received4 ,i do not wish to exaggerate1 but if you will take the facts of the case as brought out by people that have no ,christian prejudices to serve1 ,i think you will acknowledge that we as a nation owe a debt of reparation to the barbarians and the unwise4 ,what about killing ,african tribes by the thousand with the vile stuff that we call rum1 and send to them in exchange for their poor commodities8 ,what about introducing new diseases1 the offspring of vice1 into the ,south ,sea ,islands1 decimating and all but destroying the population8 ,is it not true that1 as the prophet wailed of old about a degenerate ,israel1 we may wail about the beach-combers and other loafers that go amongst savage lands from ,england--',through you the name of ,god is blasphemed among the ,gentiles4' ,a ,hindoo once said to a missionary1 ',your ,book is very good4 ,if you were as good as your ,book you would conquer ,india in five years4' ,that may be true or it may not1 but it gives us the impression that is produced by godless ,englishmen on heathen peoples4 ,we are taking away their religion from them1 necessarily1 as the result of education and contact with ,european thought4 ,and if we do not substitute for it the one faith that elevates and saves1 the last state of that man will be worse than the first4 ,we can almost hear the rattle of the guns on the north-west frontier of ,india to-day4 ,there is another specimen of the injuries inflicted4 ,this is not the place to talk politics1 but ,i feel that this is the place to ask this question1 ',are ,christian principles to have anything to do in determining national actions8' ,is it ,christian to impose our yoke on unwilling tribes who have as deep a love for independence as the proudest ,englishmen of us all1 and as good a right to it8 ,are punitive expeditions and ,maxim guns instalments of our debt to all men8 ,i wonder what ,jesus ,christ1 who died for ,afridis and ,orakzais and all the rest of them1 thinks about such conduct8 ,brethren1 we are debtors to all men4 ,let us do our best to influence national action in accordance with the brotherhood which has been revealed to us by the ,elder ,brother of us all2 and let us1 at least for our own parts1 recognise1 and1 as much as in us is1 discharge the debt which1 by our common humanity1 and by our possession of the universal ,gospel we owe to all men1 and which is made more weighty by the benefits we receive from many1 and by the injuries which ,england has inflicted on not a few4 ,else shall we hear rise above all the voices that palliate crime1 on the plea of ',state necessity1' the stern words of the ,master1 ',in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of poor innocents4' ,we are debtors2 let us pay our debts4 ,,the ,,gospel ,,the ,,power ,,of ,,god#a ',i am not ashamed of the ,gospel of ,christ3 for it is the power of ,god unto salvation to every one that believeth4'--,,romans i4 #af4 ,to preach the ,gospel in ,rome had long been the goal of ,paul's hopes4 ,he wished to do in the centre of power what he had done in ,athens1 the home of wisdom2 and with superb confidence1 not in himself1 but in his message1 to try conclusions with the strongest thing in the world4 ,he knew its power well1 and was not appalled4 ,the danger was an attraction to his chivalrous spirit4 ,he believed in flying at the head when you are fighting with a serpent1 and he knew that influence exerted in ,rome would thrill through the ,empire4 ,if we would understand the magnificent audacity of these words of my text we must try to listen to them with the ears of a ,roman4 ,here was a poor little insignificant ,jew1 like hundreds of his countrymen down in the ,ghetto1 one who had his head full of some fantastic nonsense about a young visionary whom the procurator of ,syria had very wisely put an end to a while ago in order to quiet down the turbulent province2 and he was going into ,rome with the notion that his word would shake the throne of the ,csars4 ,what proud contempt would have curled their lips if they had been told that the travel-stained prisoner1 trudging wearily up the ,appian ,way1 had the mightiest thing in the world entrusted to his care6 ,romans did not believe much in ideas4 ,their notion of power was sharp swords and iron yokes on the necks of subject peoples4 ,but the history of ,christianity1 whatever else it has been1 has been the history of the supremacy and the revolutionary force of ideas4 ,thought is mightier than all visible forces4 ,thought dissolves and reconstructs4 ,empires and institutions melt before it like the carbon rods in an electric lamp2 and the little hillock of ,calvary is higher than the ,palatine with its regal homes and the ,capitoline with its temples3 ',i am not ashamed of the ,gospel of ,christ1 for it is the power of ,god unto salvation4' ,now1 dear friends1 ,i have ventured to take these great words for my text1 though ,i know1 better than any of you can tell me1 how sure my treatment of them is to enfeeble rather than enforce them1 because ,i1 for my poor part1 feel that there are few things which we1 all of us1 people and ministers1 need more than to catch some of the infection of this courageous confidence1 and to be fired with some spark of ,paul's enthusiasm for1 and glorying in1 the ,gospel of ,jesus ,christ4 ,i ask you1 then1 to consider three things3 7#a7 what ,paul thought was the ,gospel8 7#b7 what ,paul thought the ,gospel was8 and 7#c7 what he felt about the ,gospel8 ,i4 ,what ,paul thought was the ,gospel8 ,he has given to us in his own rapid way a summary statement1 abbreviated to the very bone1 and reduced to the barest elements1 of what he meant by the ,gospel4 ,what was the irreducible minimum8 ,the facts of the ,death and ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ1 as you will find written in the fifteenth chapter of the ,first ,epistle to the ,corinthians4 ,so1 then1 to begin with1 the ,gospel is not a statement of principles1 but a record of facts1 things that have happened in this world of ours4 ,but the least part of a fact is the visible part of it1 and it is of no significance unless it has explanation1 and so ,paul goes on to bind up with the facts an explanation of them4 ,the mere fact that ,jesus1 a young ,nazarene1 was executed is no more a gospel than the other one1 that two brigands were crucified beside ,him4 ,but the fact that could be seen1 plus the explanation which underlies and interprets it1 turns the chronicle into a gospel1 and the explanation begins with the name of the ,sufferer2 for if you want to understand ,his death you must understand who it was that died4 ,his death is a thought pathetic in all aspects1 and very precious in many4 ,but when we hear ',christ died according to the ,scriptures1' the whole symbolism of the ancient ritual and all the glowing anticipations of the prophets rise up before us1 and that death assumes an altogether different aspect4 ,if we stop with ',jesus died1' then that death may be a beautiful example of heroism1 a sweet1 pathetic instance of innocent suffering1 a conspicuous example of the world's wages to the world's teachers1 but it is little more4 ,if1 however1 we take ,paul's words upon our lips1 ',brethren1 ,i declare unto you the ,gospel which ,i preached 444 how that ,christ died 444 according to the ,scriptures1' the fact flashes up into solid beauty1 and becomes the ,gospel of our salvation4 ,and the explanation goes on1 ',how that ,christ died for our sins4' ,now1 ,i may be very blind1 but ,i venture to say that ,i1 for my part1 cannot see in what intelligible sense the ,death of ,christ can be held to have been for1 or on behalf of1 our sins--that is1 that they may be swept away and we delivered from them--unless you admit the atoning nature of ,his sacrifice for sins4 ,i cannot stop to enlarge1 but ,i venture to say that any narrower interpretation evacuates ,paul's words of their deepest significance4 ,the explanation goes on1 ',and that ,he was buried4' ,why that trivial detail8 ,partly because it guarantees the fact of ,his ,death1 partly because of its bearing on the evidences of ,his ,resurrection4 ',and that ,he rose from the dead according to the ,scriptures4' ,great fact1 without which ,christ is a shattered prop1 and 'ye are yet in your sins4' ,but1 further1 notice that my text is also ,paul's text for this ,epistle1 and that it differs from the condensed summary of which ,i have been speaking only as a bud with its petals closed differs from one with them expanded in their beauty4 ,and now1 if you will take the words of my text as being the keynote of this letter1 and read over its first eight chapters1 what is the ,apostle talking about when he in them fulfils his purpose and preaches 'the ,gospel' to them that are at ,rome also8 ,here is1 in the briefest possible words1 his summary--the universality of sin1 the awful burden of guilt1 the tremendous outlook of penalty1 the impossibility of man rescuing himself or living righteously1 the ,incarnation1 and ,life1 and ,death of ,jesus ,christ as a sacrifice for the sins of the world1 the hand of faith grasping the offered blessing1 the indwelling in believing souls of the ,divine ,spirit1 and the consequent admission of man into a life of sonship1 power1 peace1 victory1 glory1 the child's place in the love of the ,father from which nothing can separate4 ,these are the teachings which make the staple of this ,epistle4 ,these are the explanations of the weighty phrases of my text4 ,these are at least the essential elements of the ,gospel according to ,paul4 ,but he was not alone in this construction of his message4 ,we hear a great deal to-day about ,pauline ,christianity1 with the implication1 and sometimes with the assertion1 that he was the inventor of what1 for the sake of using a brief and easily intelligible term1 ,i may call ,evangelical ,christianity4 ,now1 it is a very illuminating thought for the reading of the ,new ,testament that there are the three sets of teaching1 roughly1 the ,pauline1 ,petrine1 and ,johannine1 and you cannot find the distinctions between these three in any difference as to the fundamental contents of the ,gospel2 for if ,paul rings out1 ',god commendeth ,his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners ,christ died for us1' ,peter declares1 ',who ,his own self bare our sins in ,his own body on the tree1' and ,john1 from his island solitude1 sends across the waters the hymn of praise1 ',unto ,him that loved us and washed us from our sins in ,his own blood4' ,and so the proud declaration of the ,apostle1 which he dared not have ventured upon in the face of the acrid criticism he had to front unless he had known he was perfectly sure of his ground1 is natural and warranted--',therefore1 whether it were ,i or they1 so we preach4' ,we are told that we must go back to the ,christ of the ,gospels1 the historical ,christ1 and that ,he spoke nothing concerning all these important points that ,i have mentioned as being ,paul's conception of the ,gospel4 ,back to the ,christ of the ,gospels by all means1 if you will go to the ,christ of all the ,gospels and of the whole of each ,gospel4 ,and if you do1 you will go back to the ,christ who said1 ',the ,son of ,man came not to be ministered unto1 but to minister1 and to give ,his life a ransom for many4' ,you will go back to the ,christ who said1 ',and ,i1 if ,i be lifted up from the earth1 will draw all men unto ,me4' ,you will go back to the ,christ who said1 ',the bread that ,i will give is ,my flesh1 which ,i will give for the life of the world4' ,you will go back to the ,christ who bade ,his followers hold in everlasting memory1 not the tranquil beauty of ,his life1 not the persuasive sweetness of ,his gracious words1 not the might of ,his miracles of blessing1 but the mysterious agonies of ,his last hours1 by which ,he would have us learn that there lie the secret of ,his power1 the foundation of our hopes1 the stimulus of our service4 ,now1 brethren1 ,i have ventured to dwell so long upon this matter1 because it is no use talking about the ,gospel unless we understand what we mean by it1 and ,i1 for my part1 venture to say that that is what ,paul meant by it1 and that is what ,i mean by it4 ,i plead for no narrow interpretation of the phrases of my text4 ,i would not that they should be used to check in the smallest degree the diversities of representation which1 according to the differences of individual character1 must ever prevail in the conceptions which we form and which we preach of this ,gospel of ,jesus ,christ4 ,i want no parrot-like repetition of a certain set of phrases embodied1 however great may be their meanings1 in every sermon4 ,and ,i would that the people to whom those truths are true would make more allowance than they sometimes do for the differences to which ,i have referred1 and would show a great deal more sympathy than they often do to those1 especially those young men1 who1 with their faces toward ,christ1 have not yet grown to the full acceptance of all that is implied in those gracious words4 ,there is room for a whole world of thought in the ,gospel of ,christ as ,paul conceived it1 with all the deep foundations of implication and presupposition on which it rests1 and with all the1 as yet1 undiscovered range of conclusions to which it may lead4 ,remember that the ,cross of ,christ is the key to the universe1 and sends its influence into every region of human thought4 ,,ii4 ,what ,paul thought the ,gospel was4 ',the power of ,god unto salvation4' ,there was in the background of the ,apostle's mind a kind of tacit reference to the antithetical power that he was going up to meet1 the power of ,rome1 and we may trace that in the words of my text4 ,rome1 as ,i have said1 was the embodiment of physical force1 with no great faith in ideas4 ,and over against this carnal might ,paul lifts the undissembled weakness of the ,cross1 and declares that it is stronger than man1 'the power of ,god unto salvation4' ,rome is high in force2 ,athens is higher2 the ,cross is highest of all1 and it comes shrouded in weakness having a poor ,man hanging dying there4 ,that is a strange embodiment of divine power4 ,yes1 and because so strange1 it is so touching1 and so conquering4 ,the power that is draped in weakness is power indeed4 ,though ,rome's power did make for righteousness sometimes1 yet its stream of tendency was on the whole a power to destruction and grasped the nations of the earth as some rude hand might do rich clusters of grapes and squeeze them into a formless mass4 ,the tramp of the legionary meant death1 and it was true in many respects of them what was afterwards said of later invaders of ,europe1 that where their horses' hoofs had once stamped no grass ever grew4 ,over against this terrific engine of destruction ,paul lifts up the meek forces of love which have for their sole object the salvation of man4 ,then we come to another of the keywords about which it is very needful that people should have deeper and wider notions than they often seem to cherish4 ,what is salvation8 ,negatively1 the removal and sweeping away of all evil1 physical and moral1 as the schools speak4 ,positively1 the inclusion of all good for every part of the composite nature of a man which the man can receive and which ,god can bestow4 ,and that is the task that the ,gospel sets to itself4 ,now1 ,i need not remind you how1 for the execution of such a purpose1 it is plain that something else than man's power is absolutely essential4 ,it is only ,god who can alter my relation to ,his government4 ,it is only ,god who can trammel up the inward consequences of my sins and prevent them from scourging me4 ,it is only ,god who can bestow upon my death a new life1 which shall grow up into righteousness and beauty1 caught of1 and kindred to1 ,his own4 ,but if this be the aim of the ,gospel1 then its diagnosis of man's sickness is a very much graver one than that which finds favour amongst so many of us now4 ,salvation is a bigger word than any of the little gospels that we hear clamouring round about us are able to utter4 ,it means something a great deal more than either social or intellectual1 or still more1 material or political betterment of man's condition4 ,the disease lies so deep1 and so great are the destruction and loss partly experienced1 and still more awfully impending over every soul of us1 that something else than tinkering at the outsides1 or dealing1 as self-culture does1 with man's understanding or1 as social gospels do1 with man's economical and civic condition1 should be brought to bear4 ,dear brethren1 especially you ,christian ministers1 preach a social ,christianity by all means1 an applied ,christianity1 for there does lie in the ,gospel of ,jesus ,christ a key to all the problems that afflict our social condition4 ,but be sure first that there is a ,christianity before you talk about applying it4 ,and remember that the process of salvation begins in the deep heart of the individual and transforms him first and foremost4 ,the power is 'to every one that believeth4' ,it is power in its most universal sweep4 ,rome's ,empire was wellnigh ubiquitous1 but1 blessed be ,god1 the dove of ,christ flies farther than the ,roman eagle with beak and claw ready for rapine1 and wherever there are men here is a ,gospel for them4 ,the limitation is no limitation of its universality4 ,it is no limitation of the claim of a medicine to be a panacea that it will only do good to the man who swallows it4 ,and that is the only limitation of which the ,gospel is susceptible1 for we have all the same deep needs1 the same longings2 we are fed by the same bread1 we are nourished by the same draughts of water1 we breathe the same air1 we have the same sins1 and1 thanks be to ,god1 we have the same ,saviour4 ',the power of ,god unto salvation to every one that believeth4' ,now before ,i pass from this part of my subject there is only one thing more that ,i want to say1 and that is1 that you cannot apply that glowing language about 'the power of ,god unto salvation' to anything but the ,gospel that ,paul preached4 ,forms of ,christianity which have lost the significance of the ,incarnation and ,death of ,jesus ,christ1 and which have struck out or obscured the central facts with which ,i have been dealing1 are not1 never were1 and1 ,i may presumptuously venture to say1 never will be1 forces of large account in this world4 ,here is a clock1 beautiful1 chased on the back1 with a very artistic dial-plate1 and works modelled according to the most approved fashion1 but1 somehow or other1 the thing won't go4 ,perhaps the mainspring is broken4 ,and so it is only the ,gospel1 as ,paul expounds it and expands it in this ,epistle1 that is 'the power of ,god unto salvation4' ,dear brethren1 in the course of a sermon like this1 of course1 one must lay himself open to the charge of dogmatising4 ,that cannot be helped under the conditions of my space4 ,but let me say as my own solemn conviction--,i know that that is not worth much to you1 but it is my justification for speaking in such a fashion--let me say as my solemn conviction that you may as well take the keystone out of an arch1 with nothing to hold the other stones together or keep them from toppling in hideous ruin on your unfortunate head1 as take the doctrine that ,paul summed up in that one word out of your conception of ,christianity and expect it to work4 ,and be sure of this1 that there is only one ,name that lords it over the demons of afflicted humanity1 and that if a man goes and tries to eject them with any less potent charm than ,paul's ,gospel1 they will turn upon him with ',jesus ,i know1 and ,paul ,i know1 but who are you8' ,,iii4 ,what ,paul felt about this ,gospel4 ,his restrained expression1 ',i am not ashamed1' is the stronger for its very moderation4 ,it witnesses to the fixed purpose of his heart and attitude of his mind1 whilst it suggests that he was well aware of all the temptations in ,rome to being ashamed of it there4 ,think of what was arrayed against him--venerable religion1 systematised philosophies1 bitter hatred and prejudice1 material power and wealth4 ,these were the brazen armour of ,goliath1 and this little ,david went cheerily down into the valley with five pebble stones in a leathern wallet1 and was quite sure how it was going to end4 ,and it ended as he expected4 ,his ,gospel shook the kingdom of the ,roman1 and cast it in another mould4 ,and there are temptations1 plenty of them1 for us1 dear friends1 to-day1 to bate our confidence4 ,the drift of what calls itself influential opinion is anti-supernatural1 and we all are conscious of the presence of that element all round about us4 ,it tells with special force upon our younger men1 but it affects us all4 ,in this day1 when a large portion of the periodical press1 which does the thinking for most of us1 looks askance at these truths1 and when1 on the principle that in the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is the king1 popular novelists become our theological tutors1 and when every new publishing season brings out a new conclusive destruction of ,christianity1 which supersedes last season's equally complete destruction1 it is hard for some of us to keep our flags flying4 ,the ice round about us will either bring down the temperature1 or1 if it stimulates us to put more fuel on the fire1 perhaps the fire may melt it4 ,and so the more we feel ourselves encompassed by these temptations1 the louder is the call to ,christian men to cast themselves back on the central verities1 and to draw at first hand from them the inspiration which shall be their safety4 ,and how is that to be done8 ,well1 there are many ways by which thoughtful1 and cultivated1 students may do it4 ,but may ,i venture to deal here rather with ways which all ,christian people have open before them8 ,and ,i am bold to say that the way to be sure of 'the power of ,god unto salvation' is to submit ourselves continually to its cleansing and renewing influence4 ,this certitude1 brethren1 may be contributed to by books of apologetics1 and by other sources of investigation and study which ,i should be sorry indeed to be supposed in any degree to depreciate4 ,but the true way to get it is1 by deep communion with the living ,god1 to realise the personality of ,jesus ,christ as present with us1 our ,friend1 our ,saviour1 our ,sanctifier by ,his ,holy ,spirit4 ,why1 ,paul's ,gospel was1 ,i was going to say1 altogether--that would be an exaggeration--but it was to a very large extent simply the generalisation of his own experience4 ,that is what all of us will find to be the ,gospel that we have to preach4 ',we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen4' ,and it was because this man could say so assuredly--because the depths of his own conscience and the witness within him bore testimony to it--',he loved me and gave ,himself for me1' that he could also say1 ',the power of ,god unto salvation to every one that believeth4' ,go down into the depths1 brother and friend2 cry to ,him out of the depths4 ,then you will feel ,his strong1 gentle grip lifting you to the heights1 and that will give power that nothing else will1 and you will be able to say1 ',i have heard ,him myself1 and ,i know that this is the ,christ1 the ,saviour of the world4' ,but there is yet another source of certitude open to us all1 and that is the history of the centuries4 ,our modern sceptics1 attacking the truth of ,christianity mostly from the physical side1 are strangely blind to the worth of history4 ,it is a limitation of faculty that besets them in a good many directions1 but it does not work anywhere more fatally than it does in their attitude towards the ,gospel4 ,after all1 ,jesus ,christ spoke the ultimate word when ,he said1 ',by their fruits ye shall know them4' ,and it is so1 because just as what is morally wrong cannot be politically right1 so what is intellectually false cannot be morally good4 ,truth1 goodness1 beauty1 they are but three names for various aspects of one thing1 and if it be that the difference between ,b4,c4 and ,a4,d4 has come from a ,gospel which is not the truth of ,god1 then all ,i can say is1 that the richest vintage that ever the world saw1 and the noblest wine of which it ever drank1 did grow upon a thorn4 ,i know that the ,christian ,church has sinfully and tragically failed to present ,christ adequately to the world4 ,but for all that1 ',ye are ,my witnesses1 saith the ,lord'2 and nobler manners and purer laws have come in the wake of this ,gospel of ,jesus ,christ4 ,and as ,i look round about upon what ,christianity has done in the world1 ,i venture to say1 ',show us any system of religion or of no religion that has done that or anything the least like it1 and then we will discuss with you the other evidences of the ,gospel4' ,in closing these words1 may ,i venture relying on the melancholy privilege of seniority1 to drop for a minute or two into a tone of advice8 ,i would say1 do not be frightened out of your confidence either by the premature paean of victory from the opposite camp1 or by timid voices in our own ranks4 ,and that you may not be so frightened1 be sure to keep clear in your mind the distinction between the things that can be shaken and the kingdom that cannot be moved4 ,it is bad strategy to defend an elongated line4 ,it is cowardice to treat the capture of an outpost as involving the evacuation of the key of the position4 ,it is a mistake1 to which many good ,christian people are sorely tempted in this day1 to assert such a connection between the eternal ,gospel and our deductions from the principles of that ,gospel as that the refutation of the one must be the overthrow of the other4 ,and if it turns out to be so in any case1 a large part of the blame lies upon those good and mistaken people who insist that everything must be held or all must be abandoned4 ,the burning questions of this day about the genuineness of the books of ,scripture1 inspiration1 inerrancy1 and the like1 are not so associated with this word1 ',god so loved the world 444 that whosoever believeth in ,him should not perish1 but have everlasting life1' as that the discovery of errors in the ,second ,book of ,chronicles shakes the foundations of the ,christian certitude4 ,in a day like this truth must change its vesture4 ,who believes that the ,dissenting ,churches of ,england are the highest1 perfect embodiment of the ,kingdom of ,god8 ,and who believes that any creed of man's making has in it all and has in it only the everlasting ,gospel8 ,so do not be frightened1 and do not think that when the things that can be shaken are removed1 the things that cannot be shaken are at all less likely to remain4 ,depend upon it1 the ,gospel1 whose outline ,i have imperfectly tried to set before you now1 will last as long as men on earth know they are sinners and need a ,saviour4 ,did you ever see some mean buildings that have by degrees been gathered round the sides of some majestic cathedral1 and do you suppose that the sweeping away of those shanties would touch the solemn majesty of the medival glories of the building that rises above them8 ,take them away if need be1 and it1 in its proportion1 beauty1 strength1 and heavenward aspiration1 will stand more glorious for the sweeping away4 ,preach positive truth4 ,do not preach doubts4 ,you remember ,mr4 ,kingsley's book ,yeast4 ,its title was its condemnation4 ,yeast is not meant to be drunk2 it is meant to be kept in the dark till the process of fermentation goes on and it works itself clear1 and then you may bring it out4 ,do not be always arguing with the enemy4 ,it is a great deal better to preach the truth4 ,remember what ,jesus said3 ',let them alone1 they are blind leaders of the blind1 they will fall into the ditch4' ,it is not given to every one of us to conduct controversial arguments in the pulpit4 ,there are some much wiser and abler brethren amongst us than you or ,i who can do it4 ,let us be contented with1 not the humbler but the more glorious1 office of telling what we have known1 leaving it1 as it will do1 to prove itself4 ,you remember what the old woman1 who had been favoured by her pastor with an elaborate sermon to demonstrate the existence of ,god1 said when he had finished2 ',well1 ,i believe there is a ,god1 for all the gentleman says4' ,as one who sees the lengthening shadows falling over the darkening field1 may ,i say one word to my junior brethren1 with all whose struggles and doubts and difficulties ,i1 for one1 do most tenderly sympathise8 ,i beseech them--though1 alas6 the advice condemns the giver of it as he looks back over long years of his ministry--to be faithful to the ,gospel how that ',jesus ,christ died for our sins according to the ,scriptures4' ,dear young friends1 if you only go where ,paul went1 and catch the inspiration that he caught there1 your path will be clear4 ,it was in contact with ,christ1 whose passion for soul-winning brought ,him from heaven1 that ,paul learned his passion for soul-winning4 ,and if you and ,i are touched with the divine enthusiasm1 and have that aim clear before us1 we shall soon find out that there is only one power1 one name given under heaven among men whereby we can accomplish what we desire--the name of ',jesus ,christ that died1 yea1 rather1 that is risen again1 who is even at the right hand of ,god1 and also maketh intercession for us4' ,if our aim is clear before us it will prescribe our methods1 and if the inspiration of our ministry is1 ',i determine not to know anything among you save ,jesus ,christ and ,him crucified1' then1 whether men will hear or whether they will forbear1 they shall know that there hath been a ,prophet among them4 ,footnote #a3 ,preached before ,baptist ,union4 ,,world-,,wide ,,sin ,,and ,,world-,,wide ,,redemption ',now we know1 that what things soever the law saith1 it saith to them who are under the law2 that every mouth may be stopped1 and all the world may become guilty before ,god4 #bj4 ,therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in ,his sight3 for by the law is the knowledge of sin4 #ba4 ,but now the righteousness of ,god without the law is manifested1 being witnessed by the law and the prophets2 #bb4 ,even the righteousness of ,god which is by faith of ,jesus ,christ unto all and upon all them that believe2 for there is no difference3 #bc4 ,for all have sinned1 and come short of the glory of ,god3 #bd4 ,being justified freely by ,his grace1 through the redemption that is in ,christ ,jesus2 #be4 ,whom ,god hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in ,his blood1 to declare ,his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past1 through the forbearance of ,god2 #bf4 ,to declare1 ,i say1 at this time ,his righteousness2 that ,he might be just1 and the justifier of him which believeth in ,jesus4'--,,romans iii4 #ai-bf4 ,let us note in general terms the large truths which this passage contains4 ,we may mass these under four heads3 ,i4 ,paul's view of the purpose of the law4 ,he has been quoting a mosaic of ,old ,testament passages from the ,psalms and ,isaiah4 ,he regards these as part of 'the law1' which term1 therefore1 in his view1 here includes the whole previous revelation1 considered as making known ,god's will as to man's conduct4 ,every word of ,god1 whether promise1 or doctrine1 or specific command1 has in it some element bearing on conduct4 ,god reveals nothing only in order that we may know1 but all that1 knowing1 we may do and be what is pleasing in ,his sight4 ,all ,his words are law4 ,but ,paul sets forth another view of its purpose here2 namely1 to drive home to men's consciences the conviction of sin4 ,that is not the only purpose1 for ,god reveals duty primarily in order that men may do it1 and ,his law is meant to be obeyed4 ,but1 failing obedience1 this second purpose comes into action1 and ,his law is a swift witness against sin4 ,the more clearly we know our duty1 the more poignant will be our consciousness of failure4 ,the light which shines to show the path of right1 shines to show our deviations from it4 ,and that conviction of sin1 which it was the very purpose of all the previous ,revelation to produce1 is a merciful gift2 for1 as the ,apostle implies1 it is the prerequisite to the faith which saves4 ,as a matter of fact1 there was a far profounder and more inward conviction of sin among the ,jews than in any heathen nation4 ,contrast the wailings of many a psalm with the tone in ,greek or ,roman literature4 ,no doubt there is a law written on men's hearts which evokes a lower measure of the same consciousness of sin4 ,there are prayers among the ,assyrian and ,babylonian tablets which might almost stand beside the ,fifty-first ,psalm2 but1 on the whole1 the deep sense of sin was the product of the revealed law4 ,the best use of our consciousness of what we ought to be1 is when it rouses conscience to feel the discordance with it of what we are1 and so drives us to ,christ4 ,law1 whether in the ,old ,testament1 or as written in our hearts by their very make1 is the slave whose task is to bring us to ,christ1 who will give us power to keep ,god's commandments4 ,another purpose of the law is stated in verse #ba1 as being to bear witness1 in conjunction with the prophets1 to a future more perfect revelation of ,god's righteousness4 ,much of the law was symbolic and prophetic4 ,the ideal it set forth could not always remain unfulfilled4 ,the whole attitude of that system was one of forward-looking expectancy4 ,there is much danger lest1 in modern investigations as to the authorship1 date1 and genesis of the ,old ,testament revelation1 its central characteristic should be lost sight of2 namely1 its pointing onwards to a more perfect revelation which should supersede it4 ,,ii4 ,paul's view of universal sinfulness4 ,he states that twice in this passage 7vs4 #bj to #bd71 and it underlies his view of the purpose of law4 ,in verse #bj he asserts that 'by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified1' and in verses #bc and #bd he advances from that negative statement to the positive assertion that all have sinned4 ,the impossibility of justification by the works of the law may be shown from two considerations3 one1 that1 as a matter of fact1 no flesh has ever done them all with absolute completeness and purity2 and1 second1 that1 even if they had ever been so done1 they would not have availed to secure acquittal at a tribunal where motive counts for more than deed4 ,the former is the main point with ,paul4 ,in verse #bc the same fact of universal experience is contemplated as both positive sin and negative falling short of the 'glory' 7which here seems to mean1 as in ,john v4 #dd1 xii4 #dc1 approbation from ,god74 ',there is no distinction1' but all varieties of condition1 character1 attainment1 are alike in this1 that the fatal taint is upon them all4 ',we have1 all of us1 one human heart4' ,we are alike in physical necessities1 in primal instincts1 and1 most tragically of all1 in the common experience of sinfulness4 ,paul does not mean to bring all varieties of character down to one dead level1 but he does mean to assert that none is free from the taint4 ,a man need only be honest in self-examination to endorse the statement1 so far as he himself is concerned4 ,the ,gospel would be better understood if the fact of universal sinfulness were more deeply felt4 ,its superiority to all schemes for making everybody happy by rearrangements of property1 or increase of culture1 would be seen through2 and the only cure for human misery would be discerned to be what cures universal sinfulness4 ,,iii4 ,so we have next ,paul's view of the remedy for man's sin4 ,that is stated in general terms in verses #ba1 #bb4 ,into a world of sinful men comes streaming the light of a 'righteousness of ,god4' ,that expression is here used to mean a moral state of conformity with ,god's will1 imparted by ,god4 ,the great1 joyful message1 which ,paul felt himself sent to proclaim1 is that the true way to reach the state of conformity which law requires1 and which the unsophisticated1 universal conscience acknowledges not to have been reached1 is the way of faith4 ,the message is so familiar to us that we may easily fail to realise its essential greatness and wonderfulness when first proclaimed4 ,that ,god should give righteousness1 that it should be 'of ,god1' not only as coming from ,him1 but as1 in some real way1 being kindred with ,his own perfection2 that it should be brought to men by ,jesus ,christ1 as ancient legends told that a beneficent ,titan brought from heaven1 in a hollow cane1 the gift of fire2 and that it should become ours by the simple process of trusting in ,jesus ,christ1 are truths which custom has largely robbed of their wonderfulness4 ,let us meditate more on them till they regain1 by our own experience of their power1 some of the celestial light which belongs to them4 ,observe that in verse #bb the universality of the redemption which is in ,christ is deduced from the universality of sin4 ,the remedy must reach as far as the disease4 ,if there is no difference in regard to sin1 there can be none in regard to the sweep of redemption4 ,the doleful universality of the covering spread over all nations1 has corresponding to it the blessed universality of the light which is sent forth to flood them all4 ,sin's empire cannot stretch farther than ,christ's kingdom4 ,,iv4 ,paul's view of what makes the ,gospel the remedy4 ,in verses #ba and #bb it was stated generally that ,christ was the channel1 and faith the condition1 of righteousness4 ,the personal object of faith was declared1 but not the special thing in ,christ which was to be trusted in4 ,that is fully set forth in verses #bd-bf4 ,we cannot attempt to discuss the great words in these verses1 each of which would want a volume4 ,but we may note that 'justified' here means to be accounted or declared righteous1 as a judicial act2 and that justification is traced in its ultimate source to ,god's 'grace1'--,his own loving disposition--which bends to unworthy and lowly creatures1 and is regarded as having for the medium of its bestowal the 'redemption' that is in ,christ ,jesus4 ,that is the channel through which grace comes from ,god4 ',redemption' implies captivity1 liberation1 and a price paid4 ,the metaphor of slaves set free by ransom is exchanged in verse #be for a sacrificial reference4 ,a propitiatory sacrifice averts punishment from the offerer4 ,the death of the victim procures the life of the worshipper4 ,so1 a propitiatory or atoning sacrifice is offered by ,christ's blood1 or death4 ,that sacrifice is the ransom-price through which our captivity is ended1 and our liberty assured4 ,as ,his redemption is the channel 'through' which ,god's grace comes to men1 so faith is the condition 'through' which 7ver4 #be7 we make that grace ours4 ,note1 then1 that ,paul does not merely point to ,jesus ,christ as ,saviour1 but to ,his death as the saving power4 ,we are to have faith in ,jesus ,christ 7ver4 #bb74 ,but that is not a complete statement4 ,it must be faith in ,his propitiation1 if it is to bring us into living contact with ,his redemption4 ,a gospel which says much of ,christ1 but little of ,his ,cross1 or which dilates on the beauty of ,his life1 but stammers when it begins to speak of the sacrifice in ,his death1 is not ,paul's ,gospel1 and it will have little power to deal with the universal sickness of sin4 ,the last verses of the passage set forth another purpose attained by ,christ's sacrifice2 namely1 the vindication of ,god's righteousness in forbearing to inflict punishment on sins committed before the advent of ,jesus4 ,that ,cross rayed out its power in all directions--to the heights of the heavens2 to the depths of ,hades 7,col4 i4 #bj72 to the ages that were to come1 and to those that were past4 ,the suspension of punishment through all generations1 from the beginning till that day when the ,cross was reared on ,calvary1 was due to that ,cross having been present to the divine mind from the beginning4 ',the judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted1' or left unpunished4 ,there would be a blot on ,god's government1 not because it was so severe1 but because it was so forbearing1 unless ,his justice was vindicated1 and the fatal consequences of sin shown in the sacrifice of ,christ4 ,god could not have shown ,himself just1 in view either of age-long forbearance1 or of now justifying the sinner1 unless the ,cross had shown that ,he was not immorally indulgent toward sin4 ,,no ,,difference ',there is no difference4'--,,romans iii4 #bb4 ,the things in which all men are alike are far more important than those in which they differ4 ,the diversities are superficial1 the identities are deep as life4 ,physical processes and wants are the same for everybody4 ,all men1 be they kings or beggars1 civilised or savage1 rich or poor1 wise or foolish1 cultured or illiterate1 breathe the same breath1 hunger and thirst1 eat and drink1 sleep1 are smitten by the same diseases1 and die at last the same death4 ,we have all of us one human heart4 ,tears and grief1 gladness and smiles1 move us all4 ,hope1 fear1 love1 play the same music upon all heart-strings4 ,the same great law of duty over-arches every man1 and the same heaven of ,god bends above him4 ,religion has to do with the deep-seated identities and not with the superficial differences4 ,and though there have been many aristocratic religions in the world1 it is the great glory of ,christianity that it goes straight to the central similarities1 and brushes aside1 as of altogether secondary importance1 all the subordinate diversities1 grappling with the great facts which are common to humanity1 and with the large hopes which all may inherit4 ,paul here1 in his grand way1 triumphs and rises above all these small differences between man and man1 more pure or less pure1 ,jew or ,gentile1 wise or foolish1 and avers that1 in regard of the deepest and most important things1 'there is no difference1' and so his ,gospel is a ,gospel for the world1 because it deals with all men on the same level4 ,now ,i wish to work out this great glory and characteristic of the ,gospel system in a few remarks1 and to point out to you the more important of these things in which all men1 be they what or who they may1 stand in one category and have identical experiences and interests4 ,i4 ,first1 there is no difference in the fact of sin4 ,now let us understand that the ,gospel does not assert that there is no difference in the degrees of sin4 ,christianity does not teach1 howsoever some of its apostles may seem to have taught1 or unconsciously lent themselves to representations which imply the view that there was no difference between a man who 'did by nature the things contained in the law1' as ,paul says1 and the man who set himself to violate law4 ,there is no such monstrous teaching in the ,new ,testament as that all blacks are the same shade1 all sin of the same gravity1 no such teaching as that a man that tries according to his light to do what is right stands on exactly the same level as the man who flouts all such obligations1 and has driven the chariots of his lusts and passions through every law that may stand in his way4 ,but even whilst we have to insist upon that1 that the teaching of my text is not of an absolute identity of criminality1 but only an universal participation in criminality1 do not let us forget that1 if you take the two extremes1 and suppose it possible that there were a best man in all the world1 and a worst man in all the world1 the difference between these two is not perhaps so great as at first sight it looks4 ,for we have to remember that motives make actions1 and that you cannot judge of these by considering those1 that 'as a man thinketh in his heart1' and not as a man does with his hands1 'so is he4' ,we have to remember1 also1 that there may be lives1 sedulously and immaculately respectable and pure1 which are white rather with the unwholesome leprosy of disease than with the wholesome purity of health4 ,in ,queen ,elizabeth's time1 the way in which they cleaned the hall of a castle1 the floor of which might be covered with remnants of food and all manner of abominations1 was to strew another layer of rushes over the top of the filth1 and then they thought themselves quite neat and respectable4 ,and that is what a great many of you do1 cover the filth well up with a sweet smelling layer of conventional proprieties1 and think yourselves clean1 and the pinks of perfection4 ,god forbid that ,i should say one word that would seem to cast any kind of slur upon the effort that any man makes to do what he knows to be right1 but this ,i proclaim1 or rather my text proclaims for me1 that1 giving full weight and value to all that1 and admitting the existence of variations in degree1 the identity is deeper than the diversity2 and there is 'not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not4' ,oh1 dear friends6 it is not a question of degree1 but of direction2 not how far the ship has gone on her voyage1 but how she heads4 ,good and evil are the same in essence1 whatever be their intensity and whatever be their magnitude4 ,arsenic is arsenic1 whether you have a ton of it or a grain2 and a very small dose will be enough to poison4 ,the ,gospel starts with the assertion that there is no difference in the fact of sin4 ,the assertion is abundantly confirmed4 ,does not conscience assent8 ,we all admit 'faults1' do we not8 ,we all acknowledge 'imperfections4' ,it is that little word 'sin' which seems to bring in another order of considerations1 and to command the assent of conscience less readily4 ,but sin is nothing except fault considered in reference to ,god's law4 ,bring the notion of ,god into the life1 and 'faults' and 'slips' and 'weaknesses1' and all the other names by which we try to smooth down the ugliness of the ugly thing1 start up at once into their tone1 magnitude1 and importance1 and stand avowed as sins4 ,well now1 if there be1 therefore1 this universal consciousness of imperfection1 and if that consciousness of imperfection has only need to be brought into contact with ,god1 as it were1 to flame thus1 let me remind you1 too1 that this fact of universal sinfulness puts us all in one class1 no matter what may be the superficial difference4 ,shakespeare and the ,australian savage1 the biggest brain and the smallest1 the loftiest and the lowest of us1 the purest and the foulest of us1 we all come into the same order4 ,it is a question of classification4 ',the ,scripture hath concluded all under sin1' that is to say1 has shut all men up as in a prison4 ,you remember in the ,french ,revolution1 all manner of people were huddled indiscriminately into the same dungeon of the ,paris prisons4 ,you would find a princess and some daughter of shame from the gutters2 a boor from the country and a landlord1 a count1 a marquis1 a savant1 a philosopher and an illiterate workman1 all together in the dungeons4 ,they kept up the distinctions of society and of class with a ghastly mockery1 even to the very moment when the tumbrils came for them4 ,and so here are we all1 in some sense inclosed within the solemn cells of this great prison-house1 and whether we be wise or foolish1 we are prisoners1 whether we have titles or not1 we are prisoners4 ,you may be a student1 but you are a sinner3 you may be a rich ,manchester merchant1 but you are a sinner2 you may be a man of rank1 but you are a sinner4 ,naaman went to ,elisha and was very much offended because ,elisha treated him as a leper who happened to be a nobleman4 ,he wanted to be treated as a nobleman who happened to be a leper4 ,and that is the way with a great many of us2 we do not like to be driven into one class with all the crowd of evildoers4 ,but1 my friend1 'there is no difference4' ',all have sinned and come short of the glory of ,god4' ,,ii4 ,again1 there is no difference in the fact of ,god's love to us4 ,god does not love men because of what they are1 therefore ,he does not cease to love them because of what they are4 ,his love to the sons of men is not drawn out by their goodness1 their morality1 their obedience1 but it wells up from the depths of ,his own heart1 because 'it is ,his nature and property1' and if ,i may so say1 ,he cannot help loving4 ,you do not need to pump up that great affection by any machinery of obedience and of merits2 it rises like the water in an ,artesian well1 of its own impulse1 with ebullient power from the central heat1 and spreads its great streams everywhere4 ,and therefore1 though our sin may awfully disturb our relations with ,god1 and may hurt and harm us in a hundred ways1 there is one thing it cannot do1 it cannot stop ,him from loving us4 ,it cannot dam back ,his great love1 which flows out for ever towards all ,his creatures1 and laves them all in its gentle1 strong flood1 from which nothing can draw them away4 ',in ,him we live1 and move1 and have our being1' and to live in ,him1 whatever else it may mean--and it means a great deal more--is most certainly to live in ,his love4 ,a man can as soon pass out of the atmosphere in which he breathes as he can pass out of the love of ,god4 ,we can no more travel beyond that great over-arching firmament of everlasting love which spans all the universe than a star set in the blue heavens can transcend the liquid arch and get beyond its range4 ',there is no difference' in the fact that all men1 unthankful and evil as they are1 are grasped and held in the love of ,god4 ,but there is a difference4 ,sin cannot dam ,god's love back1 but sin has a terrible power in reference to the love of ,god4 ,two things it can do4 ,it can make us incapable of receiving the highest blessings of that love4 ,there are many mercies which ,god pours 'upon the unthankful and the evil4' ,these are ,his least gifts2 ,his highest and best cannot be given to the unthankful and the evil4 ,they would if they could1 but they cannot1 because they cannot be received by them4 ,you can shut the shutters against the light2 you can close the vase against the stream4 ,you cannot prevent its shining1 you cannot prevent its flowing1 but you can prevent yourself from receiving its loftiest and best blessings4 ,and another awful power that my sin has in reference to ,god's love is1 that it can modify the form which ,god's love takes in its dealings with me4 ,we may force ,him to do ',his work1' ',his strange work1' as ,isaiah calls it1 and to punish when ,he would fain only succour and comfort and bless4 ,just as a fog in the sky does not touch the sun1 but turns it to our eyes into a fiery ball1 red and lurid1 so the mist of my sin coming between me and ,god1 may1 to my apprehension and to my capacity of reception1 solemnly make different that great love of ,his4 ,but yet there is no difference in the fact of ,god's love to us4 ,,iii4 ,thirdly1 there is no difference in the purpose and power of ,christ's ,cross for us all4 ',he died for all4' ,the area over which the purpose and the power of ,christ's death extend is precisely conterminous with the area over which the power of sin extends4 ,it cannot be--blessed be ,god6--that the raven ,sin shall fly further than the dove with the olive branch in its mouth4 ,it cannot be that the disease shall go wider than the cure4 ,and so1 dear friends1 ,i have to come to you now with this message4 ,no matter what a man is1 how far he has gone1 how sinful he has been1 how long he has stayed away from the sweetness and grace of that great sacrifice on the ,cross1 that death was for him4 ,the power of ,christ's sacrifice makes possible the forgiveness of all the sins of all the world1 past1 present1 and to come4 ,the worth of that sacrifice1 which was made by the willing surrender of the ,incarnate ,son of ,god to the death of the ,cross1 is sufficient for the ransom price of all the sins of all men4 ,nor is it only the power of the ,cross which is all embracing1 but its purpose also4 ,in the very hour of ,christ's death1 there stood1 clear and distinct1 before ,his divine omniscience1 each man1 woman1 and child of the race4 ,and for them all1 grasping them all in the tenderness of ,his sympathy and in the clearness of ,his knowledge1 in the design of ,his sufferings for them all1 ,he died1 so that every human being may lay his hand on the head of the sacrifice1 and know 'his guilt was there1' and may say1 with as triumphant and appropriating faith as ,paul did1 ',he loved me1' and in that hour of agony and love 'gave ,himself for me4' ,to go back to a metaphor already employed1 the prisoners are gathered together in the prison1 not that they may be slain1 but ',god hath included them all1' shut them all up1 'that ,he might have mercy upon all4' ,and so1 as it was in the days of ,christ's life upon earth1 so is it now1 and so will it be for ever4 ,all the crowd may come to ,him1 and whosoever comes 'is made whole of whatsoever disease he had4' ,there are no incurables nor outcasts4 ',there is no difference4' ,,iv4 ,lastly1 there is no difference in the way which we must take for salvation4 ,the only thing that unites men to ,jesus ,christ is faith4 ,you must trust ,him1 you must trust the power of ,his sacrifice1 you must trust the might of ,his living love4 ,you must trust ,him with a trust which is self-distrust4 ,you must trust ,him out and out4 ,the people with whom ,paul is fighting1 in this chapter1 were quite willing to admit that faith was the thing that made ,christians1 but they wanted to tack on something besides4 ,they wanted to tack on the rites of ,judaism and obedience to the moral law4 ,and ever since men have been going on in that erroneous rut4 ,sometimes it has been that people have sought to add a little of their own morality2 sometimes to add ceremonies and sacraments4 ,sometimes it has been one thing and sometimes it has been another2 but there are not two ways to the ,cross of ,christ1 and to the salvation which ,he gives4 ,there is only one road1 and all sorts of men have to come by it4 ,you cannot lean half upon ,christ and half upon yourselves1 like the timid cripple that is not quite sure of the support of the friendly arm4 ,you cannot eke out the robe with which ,he will clothe you with a little bit of stuff of your own weaving4 ,it is an insult to a host to offer to pay for entertainment4 ,the ,gospel feast that ,christ provides is not a social meal to which every guest brings a dish4 ,our part is simple reception1 we have to bring empty hands if we would receive the blessing4 ,we must put away superficial differences4 ,the ,gospel is for the world1 therefore the act by which we receive it must be one which all men can perform1 not one which only some can do4 ,not wisdom1 nor righteousness1 but faith joins us to ,christ4 ,and1 therefore1 people who fancy themselves wise or righteous are offended that 'special terms' are not made with them4 ,they would prefer to have a private portion for themselves4 ,it grates against the pride of the aristocratic class1 whether it be aristocratic by culture--and that is the most aristocratic of all--or by position1 or anything else--it grates against their pride to be told3 ',you have to go in by that same door that the beggar is going in at'2 and 'there is no difference4' ,therefore1 the very width of the doorway1 that is wide enough for all the world1 gets to be thought narrowness1 and becomes a hindrance to our entering4 ,as ,naaman's servant put a common-sense question to him1 so may ,i to you4 ',if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing1 wouldest thou not have done it8' ,ay6 that you would6 ',how much more when ,he says ,wash and be clean6' ,there is only one way of getting dirt off1 and that is by water4 ,there is only one way of getting sin off1 and that is by the blood of ,jesus ,christ4 ,there is only one way of having that blood applied to your heart1 and that is trusting ,him4 ',the common salvation' becomes ours when we exercise 'the common faith4' ',there is no difference' in our sins4 ,thank ,god6 'there is no difference' in the fact that ,he grasps us with ,his love4 ,there is no difference in the fact that ,jesus ,christ has died for us all4 ,let there be no difference in our faith1 or there will be a difference1 deep as the difference between ,heaven and ,hell2 the difference between them that believe and them that believe not1 which will darken and widen into the difference between them that are saved and them that perish4 ,,let ,,us ,,have ,,peace ',let us have peace with ,god through our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4'--,,romans v4 #a4 7,r4,v474 ,in the rendering of the ,revised ,version1 ',let us have peace with ,god through our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1' the alteration is very slight1 being that of one letter in one word1 the substitution of a long 'o' for a short one4 ,the majority of manuscripts of authority read 'let us have1' making the clause an exhortation and not a statement4 ,i suppose the reason why1 in some inferior ,,mss41 the statement takes the place of the exhortation is because it was felt to be somewhat of a difficulty to understand the ,apostle's course of thought4 ,but ,i shall hope to show you that the true understanding of the context1 as well as of the words ,i have taken for my text1 requires the exhortation and not the affirmation4 ,one more remark of an introductory character3 is it not very beautiful to see how the ,apostle here identifies himself1 in all humility1 with the ,christians whom he is addressing1 and feels that he1 ,apostle as he is1 has the same need for the same counsel and stimulus that the weakest of those to whom he is writing have8 ,it would have been so easy for him to isolate himself1 and say1 ',now you have peace with ,god2 see that you keep it4' ,but he puts himself into the same class as those whom he is exhorting1 and that is what all of us have to do who would give advice that will be worth anything or of any effect4 ,he does not stand upon a little molehill of superiority1 and look down upon the ,roman ,christians1 and imply that they have needs that he has not1 but he exhorts himself too1 saying1 ',let all of us who have obtained like precious faith1 which is alike in an ,apostle and in the humblest believer1 have peace with ,god4' ,now a word1 first1 about the meaning of this somewhat singular exhortation4 ,there is a theory of man and his relation to ,god underlying it1 which is very unfashionable at present1 but which corresponds to the deepest things in human nature1 and the deepest mysteries in human history1 and that is1 that something has come in to produce the totally unnatural and monstrous fact that between ,god and man there is not amity or harmony4 ,men1 on their side1 are alienated1 because their wills are rebellious and their aims diverse from ,god's purpose concerning them4 ,and--although it is an awful thing to have to say1 and one from which the sentimentalism of much modern ,christianity weakly recoils--on ,god's side1 too1 the relation has been disturbed1 and 'we are by nature the children of wrath1 even as others'2 not of a wrath which is unloving1 not of a wrath which is impetuous and passionate1 not of a wrath which seeks the hurt of its objects1 but of a wrath which is the necessary antagonism and recoil of pure love from such creatures as we have made ourselves to be4 ,to speak as if the ,new ,testament taught that 'reconciliation' was lop-sided--which would be a contradiction in terms1 for reconciliation needs two to make it--to talk as if the ,new ,testament taught that reconciliation was only man's putting away his false relation to ,god1 is1 as ,i humbly think1 to be blind to its plainest teaching4 ,so1 there being this antagonism and separation between ,god and man1 the ,gospel comes to deal with it1 and proclaims that ,jesus ,christ has abolished the enmity1 and by ,his death on the ,cross has become our peace2 and that we1 by faith in that ,christ1 and grasping in faith ,his death1 pass from out of the condition of hostility into the condition of reconciliation4 ,with this by way of basis1 let us come back to my text4 ,it sounds strange2 ',therefore1 being justified by faith1 let up have peace4' ',well1' you will say1 'but is not all that you have been saying just this1 that to be justified by faith1 to be declared righteous by reason of faith in ,him who makes us righteous1 is to have peace with ,god8 ,is not your exhortation an entirely superfluous one8' ,no doubt that is what the old scribe thought who originated the reading which has crept into our ,authorised ,version4 ,the two things do seem to be entirely parallel4 ,to be justified by faith is a certain process1 to have peace with ,god is the inseparable and simultaneous result of that process itself4 ,but that is going rather too fast4 ',being justified by faith let us have peace with ,god1' really is just this--see that you abide where you are2 keep what you have4 ,the exhortation is not to attain peace1 but retain it4 ',hold fast that thou hast2 let no man take thy crown4' ',being justified by faith' cling to your treasure and let nothing rob you of it--'let us have peace with ,god4' ,now a word1 in the next place1 as to the necessity and importance of this exhortation4 ,there underlies it1 this solemn thought1 which ,christian people1 and especially some types of ,christian doctrine1 do need to have hammered into them over and over again1 that we hold the blessed life itself1 and all its blessings1 only on condition of our own cooperation in keeping them2 and that just as physical life dies1 unless by reception of food we nourish and continue it1 so a man that is in this condition of being justified by faith1 and having peace with ,god1 needs1 in order to the permanence of that condition1 to give his utmost effort and diligence4 ,it will all go if he do not4 ,all the old state will come back again if we are slothful and negligent4 ,we cannot keep the treasure unless we guard it4 ,and just because we have it1 we need to put all our mind1 the earnestness of our will1 and the concentration of our efforts1 into the specific work of retaining it4 ,for1 consider how manifold and strong are the forces which are always working against our continual possession of this justification by faith1 and consequent peace with ,god4 ,there are all the ordinary cares and duties and avocations and fortunes of our daily life1 which1 indeed1 may be so hallowed in their motives and in their activities1 as that they may be turned into helps instead of hindrances1 but which require a great deal of diligence and effort in order that they should not work like grains of dust that come between the parts of some nicely-fitting engine1 and so cause friction and disaster4 ,there are all the daily tasks that tempt us to forget the things that we only know by faith1 and to be absorbed in the things that we can touch and taste and handle4 ,if a man is upon an inclined plane1 unless he is straining his muscles to go upwards1 gravitation will make short work of him1 and bring him down4 ,and unless ,christian men grip hard and continually that sense of having fellowship and peace with ,god1 as sure as they are living they will lose the clearness of that consciousness1 and the calm that comes from it4 ,for we cannot go into the world and do the work that is laid upon us all without there being possible hostility to the ,christian life in everything that we meet4 ,thank ,god there is possible help1 too1 and whether our daily calling is an enemy or a friend to our religion depends upon the earnestness and continuousness of our own efforts4 ,but there is a worse force than these external distractions working to draw us away1 one that we carry within1 in our own vacillating wills and wayward hearts and treacherous affections and passions that usually lie dormant1 but wake up sometimes at the most inopportune periods4 ,unless we keep a very tight hand upon ourselves1 certainly these will rob us of this consciousness of being justified by faith which brings with it peace with ,god that passes understanding4 ,in the ,isle of ,wight massive cliffs rise hundreds of feet above the sea1 and seem as if they were as solid as the framework of the earth itself4 ,but they rest upon a sharply inclined plane of clay1 and the moisture trickles through the rifts in the majestic cliffs above1 and gets down to that slippery substance and makes it like the greased ways down which they launch a ship2 and away goes the cliff one day1 with its hundreds of feet of buttresses that have fronted the tempest for centuries1 and it lies toppled in hideous ruin on the beach below4 ,we have all a layer of 'blue slipper' in ourselves1 and unless we take care that no storm-water finds its way down through the chinks in the rocks above they will slide into awful ruin4 ',being justified1 let us have peace with ,god1' and remember that the exhortation is enforced not only by a consideration of the many strong forces which tend to deprive us of this peace1 but also by a consideration of the hideous disaster that comes upon a man's whole nature if he loses peace with ,god4 ,for there is no peace with ourselves1 and there is no peace with man1 and there is no peace in face of the warfare of life and the calamities that are certainly before us all1 unless1 in the deepest sanctuary of our being1 there is the peace of ,god because in our consciences there is peace with ,god4 ,if ,i desire to be at rest--and there is no blessedness but rest--if ,i desire to know the sovereign joy of tranquillity1 undisturbed by my own stormy passions or by any human enmity1 and to have even the 'beasts of the field at peace with' me1 and all things my helpers and allies1 there is but one way to realise the desire1 and that is the retention of peace with ,god that comes with being justified by faith4 ,lastly1 a word or two as to the ways by which this exhortation can be carried into effect4 ,i have tried to explain how the peace of which my text speaks comes originally through ,christ's work laid hold of by my faith1 and now ,i would say only three things4 ,retain the peace by the exercise of that same faith which at first brought it4 ,next1 retain it by union with that same ,lord from whom you at first received it4 ,very significantly1 in the immediate context1 we have the ,apostle drawing a broad distinction between the benefits which we have received from ,christ's death1 and those which we shall receive through ,his life4 ,and that is the best commentary on the words of my text4 ',if when we were enemies1 we were reconciled to ,god by the death of ,his ,son1 much more1 being reconciled1 we shall be saved by ,his life4' ,so let our faith grasp firmly the great twin facts of the ,christ who died that ,he might abolish the enmity1 and bring us peace2 and of the ,christ who lives in order that ,he may pour into our hearts more and more of ,his own life1 and so make us more and more in ,his own image4 ,and the last word that ,i would say1 in addition to these two plain1 practical precepts is1 let your conduct be such as will not disturb your peace with ,god4 ,for if a man lets his own will rise up in rebellion against ,god's1 whether that divine will command duty or impose suffering1 away goes all his peace4 ,there is no possibility of the tranquil sense of union and communion with my ,father in heaven lasting when ,i am in rebellion against ,him4 ,the smallest sin destroys1 for the time being1 our sense of forgiveness and our peace with ,god4 ,the blue surface of the lake1 mirroring in its unmoved tranquillity the sky and the bright sun1 or the solemn stars1 loses all that reflected heaven in its heart when a cat's paw of wind ruffles its surface4 ,if we would keep our hearts as mirrors1 in their peace1 of the peace in the heavens that shine down on them1 we must fence them from the winds of evil passions and rebellious wills4 ',oh6 that thou wouldest hearken unto ,me1 then had thy peace been like a river4' ,,access ,,into ,,grace ',by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand4'--,,romans v4 #b4 ,i may be allowed to begin with a word or two of explanation of the terms of this passage4 ,note then1 especially1 that also which sends us back to the previous clause1 and tells us that our text adds something to what was spoken of there4 ,what was spoken of there8 ',the peace of ,god' which comes to a man by ,jesus ,christ through faith1 the removal of enmity1 and the declaration of righteousness4 ,but that peace with ,god1 which is the beginning of everything in the ,christian view1 is only the beginning1 and there is much to follow4 ,while1 then1 there is a progress clearly marked in the words of our text1 and 'access into this grace wherein we stand' is something more than1 and after1 the 'peace with ,god1' mark next the similarity of the text and the preceding verse4 ,the two great truths in the latter1 ,christ's mediation or intervention1 and our faith as the condition by which we receive the blessings which are brought to us in and through ,him1 are both repeated1 with no unmeaning tautology1 but with profound significance in our text--',by whom also we have access'--as well as--'the peace of ,god'--'access by faith into this grace4' ,so then1 for the initial blessing1 and for all the subsequent blessings of the ,christian life1 the way is the same4 ,the medium and channel is one1 and the act by which we avail ourselves of the blessings coming through that one medium is the same4 ,now the language of my text1 with its talking about access1 faith1 and grace1 sounds to a great many of us1 ,i am afraid1 very hard and remote and technical4 ,and there are not wanting people who tell us that all that terminology in the ,new ,testament is like a dying brand in the fire1 where the little kernel of glowing heat is getting covered thicker and thicker with grey ashes4 ,yes2 but if you blow the ashes off1 the fire is there all the same4 ,let us try if we can blow the ashes off4 ,this text seems to me in its archaic phraseology1 only to need to be pondered in order to flash up into wonderful beauty4 ,it carries in it a magnificent ideal of the ,christian life1 in three things3 the ,christian place1 'access into grace'2 the ,christian attitude1 'wherein we stand'2 and the ,christian means of realising that ideal1 'through ,christ' and 'by faith4' ,now let us look at these three points4 ,i4 ,the ,christian ,place4 ,there is clearly a metaphor here1 both in the word 'access' and in that other one 'stand4' ',the grace' is supposed as some ample space into which a man is led1 and where he can continue1 stand1 and expatiate4 ,or1 we may say1 it is regarded as a palace or treasure-house into which we can enter4 ,now1 if we take that great ,new ,testament word 'grace1' and ponder its meanings1 we find that they run something in this fashion4 ,the central thought1 grand and marvellous1 which is enshrined in it1 and which often is buried for careless ears1 is that of the active love of ,god poured out upon inferiors who deserve something very different4 ,then there follows a second meaning1 which covers a great part of the ground of the use of the phrase in the ,new ,testament1 and that is the communication of that love to men1 the specific and individualised gifts which come out of that great reservoir of patient1 pardoning1 condescending1 and bestowing love4 ,then there may be taken into view a meaning which is less prominent in ,scripture but not absent1 namely1 the resulting beauty of character4 ,a gracious soul ought to be1 and is1 a graceful soul2 a supreme loveliness is imparted to human nature by the communication to it of the gifts which are the results of the undeserved1 free1 and infinite love of ,god4 ,now if we take all these three thoughts as blended together in the grand metaphor of the ,apostle1 of the ample space into which the ,christian man passes1 we get such lessons as this4 ,a ,christian life may1 and therefore should1 be suffused with a continual consciousness of the love of ,god4 ,that would change everything in it4 ,here is some great sweep of rolling country1 perhaps a ,highland moor3 the little tarns on it are grey and cold1 the vegetation is gloomy and dark1 dreariness is over all the scene1 because there is a great pall of cloud drawn beneath the blue4 ,but the sun pierces with his lances through the grey1 and crumples up the mists1 and sends them flying beneath the horizon4 ,then what a change in the landscape6 ,all the tarns that looked black and wicked are now infantile in their innocent blue and sunny gladness1 and every dimple in the heights shows1 and all the heather burns with the sunshine that falls upon it4 ,so my lonely doleful life1 if that light from ,god1 the beam of ,his love1 shines down upon it1 rises into nobility1 and flashes into beauty1 and is calm and fair and great1 as nothing else can make it4 ,you may dwell in love by dwelling in ,god1 and then your lives will be fair4 ,you have access into the grace2 see that you go there4 ,they tell us that nightingales sing by the wayside by preference1 and we may have in our lives1 singing a quiet tune1 the continual thought of the love of ,god1 even whilst life's highway is dusty and rough1 and our feet are often weary in treading it4 ,a ,christian life may be1 and therefore should be1 suffused with the sense of the abiding love of ,god4 ,take the other meaning of the word1 the secondary and derived meaning1 the communication of that love to us1 and that leads us to say that a ,christian life may1 and therefore should1 be enriched with continual gifts from ,god's fullness4 ,i said that the ,apostle was using a metaphor here1 regarding the grace as being an ample space into which a man was admitted1 or we may say that he is thinking of it as a great treasure-house4 ,we have the right of entrance there1 where on every side1 as it were1 lie ingots of uncoined gold1 and masses of treasure1 and we may have just as much or as little as we choose4 ,it is entirely in our own determination how much of the wealth of ,god we shall possess4 ,we have access to the treasure-house2 and this permit is put into our hands3 ',be it unto thee even as thou wilt4' ,the size of the sack that the man brings1 in the old story1 determined the amount of wealth that he carried away4 ,some of you bring very tiny baskets and expect little and desire little2 you get no more than you desired and expected4 ,that wealth1 the fullness of ,god1 takes the shape of1 as well as is determined in its measure by the magnitude of1 the vessel into which it is put4 ,it is multiform1 and we get whatever we desire1 and whatever either our characters or our circumstances require4 ,the one gift assumes all forms1 just as water poured into a vase takes the shape of the vase into which it is poured4 ,the same gift unfolds itself in an infinite variety of manners1 according to the needs of the man to whom it is given2 just as the writer's pen1 the carpenter's hammer1 the farmer's ploughshare1 are all made out of the same metal4 ,so ,god's grace comes to you in a different shape from that in which it comes to me1 according to our different callings and needs1 as fixed by our circumstances1 our duties1 our sorrows1 our temptations4 ,so1 brethren1 how shameful it is that1 having the possibility of so much1 we should have the actuality of so little4 ,there is an old story about one of our generals in ,india long ago1 who1 when he came home1 was accused of rapacity because he had brought away so much treasure from the ,rajahs whom he had conquered1 and his answer to the charge was1 ',i was surprised at my own moderation4' ,ah6 there are a great many ,christian people who ought to be ashamed of their moderation4 ,they have gone into the treasure-house2 stacks of jewels1 jars of gold on all sides of them--and they have been content to come away with some one poor little coin1 when they might have been 'rich beyond the dreams of avarice4' ,brethren1 you have 'access' to the fullness of ,god4 ,whose fault is it if you are empty8 ,then1 further1 ,i said there was another meaning in these great words4 ,the love which may suffuse our lives1 the gifts1 the consequence of that love1 which may enrich our lives1 should1 and in the measure in which they are received will1 adorn and make beautiful our lives4 ,for 'grace' means loveliness as well as goodness1 and the ,god who is the fountain of it all is the fountain of 'whatsoever things are fair1' as well as of whatsoever things are good4 ,that suggests two considerations on which ,i have no time to dwell4 ,one is that the highest beauty is goodness1 and unless the art of a nation learns that1 its art will become filthy and a minister of sin4 ,they talk about ',art for ,art's sake4' ,would that all these poets and painters who are trying to find beauty in corruption--and there is a phosphorescent glimmer in rotting wood1 and a prismatic colouring on the scum of a stagnant pond--would that all those men who are seeking to find beauty apart from goodness1 and so are turning a divine instinct into a servant of evil1 would learn that the true gracefulness comes from the grace which is the fullness of ,god given unto men4 ,but there is another lesson1 and that is that ,christian people who say that they have their lives irradiated by the love of ,god1 and who profess to be receiving gifts from ,his full hand1 are bound to take care that their goodness is not 'harsh and crabbed1' as not only 'dull fools suppose' it to be1 but as it sometimes is1 but is musical and fair4 ,you are bound to make your goodness attractive1 and to show that the things that are 'of good report' are likewise the 'things that are lovely4' ,,ii4 ,and so1 now1 turn to the second point here1 viz4 the ,christian attitude4 ',the grace wherein ye stand'2 that word is very emphatic here1 and does not merely mean 'continue1' but it suggests what ,i have put into that phrase1 the ,christian attitude4 ,two things are implied4 ,one is that a life thus suffused by the love1 and enriched by the gifts1 and adorned by the loveliness that come from ,god1 will be stable and steadfast4 ,resistance and stability are implied in the words4 ,one very important item in determining a man's power of resistance1 and of standing firm against whatever assaults may be hurled against him1 is the sort of footing that he has4 ,if you stand on slippery mud1 or on the ice of a glacier1 you will find it hard to stand firm2 but if you plant your foot on the grace of ,god1 then you will be able to 'withstand in the evil day1 and having done all to stand4' ,and how does a man plant his foot on the grace of ,god8 simply by trusting in ,god1 and not in himself4 ,so that the secret of all steadfastness of life1 and of all successful resistance to the whirling onrush of temptations and of difficulties1 is to set your foot upon that rock1 and then your 'goings' will be established4 ,jesus ,christ brings to us1 in the gift of life in ,him1 stability which will check the vacillations of our own hearts4 ,we go up and down1 we yield when pressure is brought to bear against us1 we are carried off our feet often by the sudden swirl of the stream1 and the fitful blast of the wind4 ,but ,his grace comes in1 and will make us able to stand against all assaults4 ,our poor natures1 necessarily changeable1 and sinfully vacillating and weak1 will be uniform1 in the measure in which the grace of ,god comes into our hearts4 ,just as in these so-called petrifying wells1 they take a bit of cloth1 a bird's nest1 a billet of wood1 and plunge it into the water1 and the mineral held in solution there infiltrates into the substance of the thing plunged in1 and makes it firm and inflexible3 so let us plunge our poor1 changeful1 vacillating resolutions1 our wayward1 wandering hearts1 our passions1 so easily excited by temptation1 into that great fountain1 and there will filter into our flexibility what will make it firm1 and into our changefulness what will give in us some faint copy of the divine immutability1 and we shall stand fast in the ,lord and in the power of ,his might4 ,further1 in regard to this attitude1 which is the result of the possession of grace1 we may say that it indicates not only stability and steadfastness1 but erectness1 as in opposition to crouching or bowing4 ,a man's independence is guaranteed by his dependence upon1 and his possession of1 that communicated grace of ,god4 ,and so you have the fact that the phase of the ,christian teaching which has laid most stress on the decrees and sovereign will of ,god1 on divine grace in fact1 and too little upon the human side--the phase which is roughly described as ,calvinism--has underlain the liberties of ,europe1 and has stiffened men into the rejection of all priestly and civic domination4 ',where the ,spirit of the ,lord is1 there is liberty1' and if a man has in his heart the grace of ,god1 then he stands erect as a man4 ',ye are bought with a price2 be ye not the servants of men4' ,the ,christian democracy1 the ,christian rejection of all sacerdotal and other domination1 flows from the access of each individual ,christian to the fountain of all wisdom1 the only source of law and command1 the inspirer of all strength1 the giver of all grace4 ,by faith ye stand4 ',stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith ,christ has made you free4' ,,iii4 ,lastly1 and only a word2 we have here the ,christian way of entrance into grace4 ,i have already remarked on the emphasis with which1 both in my text and in the preceding clause1 there are laid down the two conditions of possessing this grace1 or the peace which precedes it3 ',by ,christ--through faith4' ,notice1 too1 that ,jesus ,christ gives us 'access4' ,now that expression is but an imperfect rendering of the original4 ,if it were not for its trivial associations1 one might read instead of 'access1' introduction1 'by whom we have introduction into this grace wherein we stand4' ,the thought is that ,jesus ,christ secures us entry into this ample space1 this treasure-house1 as some court officer might take by the hand a poor rustic1 standing on the threshold of the palace1 and lead him through all the glittering series of unfamiliar splendour1 and present him at last in the central ring around the king4 ,the reality that underlies the metaphor is plain4 ,we sinners can never pass into that central glory1 nor ever possess those gifts of grace1 unless the barrier that stands between us and ,god1 between us and ,his highest gifts of love1 is swept away4 ,i recall an old legend where two knights are represented as seeking to enter a palace1 where there is a mysterious fire burning in the middle of the portal4 ,one of them tries to pass through1 and recoils scorched2 but when the other essays an entrance the fierce fire sinks1 and the path is cleared4 ,jesus ,christ has died1 and ,i say it with all reverence1 as ,his blood touches the fire it flickers down and the way is opened 'into the holiest of all1 whither the ,forerunner is for us entered4' ,he both brings the grace and makes it possible that we should go in where the grace is4 ,but ,jesus ,christ's work is nothing to you unless your personal faith comes in1 and so that is pointed to in the second of the clauses here3 ',by faith we have access4' ,that is no arbitrary appointment4 ,it lies in the very nature of the gift and of the recipient4 ,how can ,god give access into that grace to a man who shrinks from being near ,him2 who does not want 'access1' and who could not use the grace if he had it8 ,how can ,god bestow inward and spiritual gifts upon any man who closes his heart against them1 and will not have them8 ,my faith is the condition2 ,christ is the ,giver4 ,if ,i ally myself to ,him by my faith1 ,he gives to me4 ,if ,i do not1 with all the will to do it1 ,he cannot bestow ,his best gifts any more than a man who stretches out his hand to another sinking in the flood can lift him out1 and set him on the safe shore1 if the drowning man's hand is not stretched out to grasp the rescuer's outstretched hand4 ,brethren1 ,god is infinitely willing to give the choicest gifts of ,his love to us all1 to gladden1 to enrich1 to adorn1 to make stable and erect4 ,but ,he cannot give them unless you will trust ,him4 ',it pleased the ,father that in ,him should all fullness dwell4' ,that alabaster box is brought to earth4 ,it was broken on the ,cross that 'the house' might be 'filled with the odour of the ointment4' ,our faith is the only condition2 it is only the condition1 but it is the indispensable condition1 of our being anointed with that fragrant anointing4 ,he1 and ,he only1 can give us the fullness of ,god4 ,,the ,,sources ,,of ,,hope ',we rejoice in hope of the glory of ,god4 #c4 ,and not only so1 but we glory in tribulations also3 knowing that tribulation worketh patience2 #d4 ,and patience1 experience2 and experience1 hope4'--,,romans v4 #b-d4 ,we have seen in a previous sermon that the ,apostle in the foregoing context is sketching a grand outline of the ideal ,christian life1 as all rooted in 'being justified by faith1' and flowering into 'peace with ,god1' 'access into grace1' and a firm stand against all antagonists and would-be masters4 ,in our text he advances to complete the outline by sketching the true ,christian attitude towards the future4 ,i have ventured to take so pregnant and large a text1 because there is a very striking and close connection throughout the verses1 which is lost unless we take them together4 ,note1 then1 'we rejoice in hope1' 'we glory in tribulation4' ,now1 it is one word in the original which is diversely rendered in these two clauses by 'rejoice' and 'glory4' ,the latter is a better rendering than the former1 because the original expression designates not only the emotion of joy1 but the expression of it1 especially in words4 ,so it is frequently rendered in the ,new ,testament by the word 'boast1' which1 of course1 has unpleasant associations1 which scarcely fit it for use here4 ,so then you see ,paul regards it as possible for1 and more than possibly characteristic of1 a ,christian1 that the very same emotion should he excited by that great bright future hope1 and by the blackness of present sorrow4 ,that is strong meat2 and so he goes on to explain how he thinks it can and must be so1 and points out that trouble1 through a series of results1 arrives at last at this1 that if it is rightly borne1 it flashes up into greater brightness the hope which has grasped the glory of ,god4 ,so then we have here1 not only a wonderful designation of the object around which ,christian hope twines its tendrils1 but of the double source from which that hope may come1 and of the one emotion with which ,christian people should front the darkness of the present and the brightness of the future4 ,ah6 how different our lives would be if that ideal of a steadfast hope and an untroubled joy were realised by each of us4 ,it may be4 ,it should be4 ,so ,i ask you to look at these three points which ,i have suggested4 ,i4 ,that wonderful designation of the one object of ,christian hope which should fill1 with an uncoruscating and unflickering light1 all that dark future4 ',we rejoice in hope of the glory of ,god4' ,now1 ,i suppose ,i need not remind you that that phrase 'the glory of ,god' is1 in the ,old ,testament1 used especially to mean the light that dwelt between the cherubim above the mercy-seat2 the symbol of the divine perfections and the token of the ,divine ,presence4 ,the reality of which it was a symbol is the total splendour1 so to speak1 of that divine nature1 as it rays itself out into all the universe4 ,and1 says ,paul1 the true hope of the ,christian man is nothing less than that of that glory he shall be1 in some true sense1 and in an eternally growing degree1 the real possessor4 ,it is a tremendous claim1 and one which leads us into deep places that ,i dare not venture into now1 as to the resemblance between the human person and the ,divine ,person1 notwithstanding all the differences which of course exist1 and which only a presumptuous form of religion has ventured to treat as transitory or insignificant4 ,let me use a technical word1 and say that it is no pantheistic absorption in an impersonal ,light1 no ,nirvana of union with a vague whole1 which the ,apostle holds out here1 but it is the closest possible union1 personality being saved and individual consciousness being intensified4 ,it is the clothing of humanity with so much of that glory as can be imparted to a finite creature4 ,that means perfect knowledge1 perfect purity1 perfect love1 and that means the dropping away of all weaknesses and the access of strange new powers1 and that means the end of the schism between 'will' and 'ought1' and of the other schism between 'will' and 'can4' ,it means what this ,apostle says3 ',whom ,he justified them ,he also glorified1' and what ,he says again1 ',we all1 beholding as in a glass'--or rather1 perhaps1 mirroring as a glass does--'the glory1 are changed into the same image4' ,the very heart of ,christianity is that the ,divine ,light of which that ,shekinah was but a poor and transitory symbol has 'tabernacled' amongst men in the ,christ1 and has from ,him been communicated1 and is being communicated in such measure as earthly limitations and conditions permit1 and that these do point on assuredly to perfect impartation hereafter1 when 'we shall be like ,him1 for we shall see ,him as ,he is4' ,the ,three could walk in the furnace of fire1 because there was ,one with them1 'like unto the ,son of ,god4' ',who among us shall dwell with the everlasting fire1' the fire of that divine perfection8 ,they who have had introduction by ,christ into the grace1 and who will be led by ,him into the glory4 ,now1 brethren1 it seems to me to be of great importance that this1 the loftiest of conceptions of that future life1 should be the main aspect under which we think of it4 ,it is well to speak of rest from toil2 it is well to speak of all the negations of present unfavourable1 afflictive conditions which that future presents to us4 ,and perhaps there is none of the aspects of it which appeals to deeper feelings in ourselves1 than those which say 'there shall be no night there1' 'there shall be no tears there1 neither sorrow nor sighing'2 'there shall be no toil there4' ,but we must rise above all that1 for our heaven is to live in ,god1 and to be possessors of ,his glory4 ,do not let us dwell upon the symbols instead of the realities4 ,do not let us dwell only on the oppositions and contradictions to earth4 ,let us rather rise high above symbols1 high above negations1 to the positive truth1 and not contented with saying ',we shall be full of blessedness2 we shall be full of purity2 we shall be full of knowledge1' let us rather think of that which embraces them all--we shall be full of ,god4 ,so much1 then1 for the one object of ,christian hope4 ,we have here-- ,,ii4 ,the double source of that hope4 ,observe that the first clause of my text comes as the last term in a sequence4 ,it began with 'being justified by faith4' ,the second round of the ladder was1 'we have peace with ,god4' ,the third1 'we have access into this grace4' ,the fourth1 'we stand1' and then comes1 'we rejoice in hope of the glory of ,god4' ,that is to say1 to put it into general words1 and1 of course1 presupposing the revelation in ,jesus ,christ as the basis of all1 without which there is no assured hope of a future beyond the grave1 then the facts of a ,christian man's life are for him the best brighteners of the hope beyond4 ,of course1 that is so4 ',justified by faith'--'peace with ,god'--'access into grace'2 what1 in the name of common-sense1 can death do with these things8 ,how can its blunted sword cut the bond that unites a soul that has had such experiences as these with the source of them all8 ,nothing can be more grotesque1 nothing more incongruous1 than to think that that subordinate and accidental fact1 whose region is the physical1 has anything whatever to do with this higher region of consciousness4 ,and1 further than that1 it is absolutely unthinkable to a man in the possession of these spiritual gifts1 that they should ever come to a close2 and the fact that in the precise degree in which we realise as our very own possession1 here and now1 these ,christian emotions and blessings1 we instinctively rise to the belief that they are 'not for an age1 but for all time1' and not for all time1 but for eternity1 is itself1 if not a proof1 yet a very strong presumption1 if you believe in ,god1 that a man who thus 'feels he was not made to die' because he has grasped the ,eternal1 is right in so feeling4 ,if1 too1 we look at the experiences themselves1 they all have the stamp of incompleteness1 and suggest completeness by their own incompleteness4 ,the new moon with its ragged edge not more surely prophesies its completed silver round1 than do the experiences of the ,christian life here1 in their greatness and in their smallness1 declare that there come a time and an order of things in which what was thwarted tendency shall be accomplished result4 ,the tender green spikelet1 pushing up through the brown clods1 does not more surely prophesy the waving yellow ear1 nor the broad highway on which a man comes in the wilderness more surely declare that there is a village at the end of it1 than do the facts of the ,christian life1 here and now1 attest the validity of the hope of the glory of ,god4 ,and so1 brethren1 if you wish to brighten that great light that fills the future1 see to it that your present ,christianity is fuller of 'peace with ,god1' 'access into grace1' and the firm1 erect standing which flows from these4 ,when the springs in the mountains dry up1 the river in the valley shrinks2 and when they are full1 it glides along level with the top of its banks4 ,so when our ,christian life in the present is richest1 our ,christian hope of the future will be the brighter4 ,look into yourselves4 ,is there anything there that witnesses to that great future2 anything there that is obviously incipient1 and destined to greater power2 anything there which is like a tropical plant up here in #de degrees of north latitude1 managing to grow1 but with dwarfed leaves and scanty flowers and half shrivelled and sourish fruit1 and that in the cold dreams of the warm native land8 ,reflecting telescopes show the stars in a mirror1 and the observer looks down to see the heavens4 ,look into yourselves1 and see whether1 on the polished plate within1 there are any images of the stars that move around the ,throne of ,god4 ,but let us turn for a moment to the second source to which the ,apostle traces the ,christian hope here4 ,i must not be tempted to more than just a word of explanation1 but perhaps you will tolerate that4 ,paul says that trouble works patience1 that is to say1 not only passive endurance1 but brave persistence in a course1 in spite of antagonisms4 ,that is what trouble does to a man when it is rightly borne4 ,of course the ,apostle is speaking here of its ideal operation1 and not of the reality which alas6 often is seen when our tribulations lash us into impatience1 or paralyse our efforts4 ,tribulation worketh patience1 'and patience experience4' ,that is a difficult word to put into ,english4 ,there underlies it the frequent thought which is familiar in ,scripture1 of trouble of all kinds as testing a man1 whether as the refiner's fire or the winnower's fan4 ,it tests a man1 and if he bears the trouble with patient persistence1 then he has passed the test and is approved4 ,patient perseverance thus works approval1 or proof of the man's ,christianity1 and1 still more1 proof of the reality and power of the ,christ whom his ,christianity grasps4 ,and so from out of that approval or proof which comes1 through perseverance1 from tribulation1 there rises1 of course1 in that heart that has been tested and has stood1 a calm hope that the future will be as the past1 and that1 having fought through six troubles1 by ,god's help the seventh will be vanquished also1 till at last troubles will end1 and heaven be won4 ,brethren1 there is the true point of view from which to look1 not only at tribulations1 but at all the trials1 for they too bring trials1 that lie in duty and in enjoyment1 and in earthly things4 ,they are meant to work in us a conviction1 by our experience of having been able to meet them aright1 of the reality of our grasp of ,god1 and of the reality and power of the ,god whom we grasp4 ,if we took that point of view in regard to all the changes of this changeful life1 we should not so often be bewildered and upset by the darkest of our sorrows4 ,the shining lancets and cruel cutting instruments that the surgeon lays out on his table before he begins the operation are very dreadful4 ,but the way to think of them is that they are there in order to remove from a man what it does him harm to keep1 and what1 if it is not taken away1 will kill him4 ,so life1 with its troubles1 great and small1 is all meant for this1 to make us surer of1 and bring us closer to1 our ,god1 and to brace and strengthen us in our own personal character4 ,and if it does that1 then blessed be everything that produces these results1 and leads us thereby to glorying in the troubles by which shines out on us a brighter hope4 ,so there are the two sources1 you see3 the one is the blessedness of the ,christian life1 the other the sorrows of the outward life1 and both may converge upon the brightening of our ,christian hope4 ,our rainbow is the child of the marriage of the sun and the rain4 ,the ,christian hope comes from being 'justified by faith1 having peace with ,god 444 and access into grace1' and it comes from tribulation1 which 'worketh patience1' and patience which 'worketh approval4' ,the one spark is struck from the hard flint by the cold steel1 and the other is kindled by the sun itself1 but they are both fire4 ,and so1 lastly1 we have here-- ,,iii4 ,the one emotion with which the ,christian should front all the facts1 inward and outward1 of his earthly life4 ',we glory in the hope1' 'we glory in tribulation1' ,i need not dwell upon the lesson which is taught us here by the fact that the ,apostle puts as one in a series of ,christian characteristics this of a steadfast and all-embracing joy4 ,i do not believe that we ,christian people half enough realise how imperative a ,christian duty1 as well as how great a ,christian privilege1 it is to be glad always4 ,you have no right to be anxious2 you are wrong to be hypochondriac and depressed1 and weary and melancholy4 ,true2 there are a great many occasions in our ,christian life which minister sadness4 ,true2 the ,christian joy looks very gloomy to a worldly eye4 ,but there are far more occasions which1 if we were right1 would make joy instinctive1 and which1 whether we are right or not1 make it obligatory upon us4 ,i need not speak of how1 if that hope were brighter than it commonly is with us1 and if it were more constantly present to our minds and hearts1 we should sing with gladness4 ,i need not dwell upon that great and wonderful paradox by which the co-existence of sorrow and of joy is possible4 ,the sorrows are on the surface2 beneath there may be rest4 ,all the winds of heaven may rave across the breast of ocean1 and fret it into clouds of spume against a storm-swept sky4 ,but deep down there is stillness1 and yet not stagnation1 because there is the great motion that brings life and freshness2 and so1 though there will be wind-vexed surfaces on our too-often agitated spirits1 there ought to be deeper than these the calm setting of the whole ocean of our nature towards ,god ,himself4 ,it is possible1 as this ,apostle has it1 to be 'sorrowful1 yet always rejoicing4' ,it is possible1 as his brother ,apostle has it1 to 'rejoice greatly1 though now for a season we are in sorrow through manifold temptations4' ,look back upon your lives from the point of view that your tribulation is an instrument to produce hope1 and you will be able to thank ,god for all the way by which ,he has led you4 ,now1 brethren1 the plain lesson of all this is just that we have here1 in these texts1 a linked chain1 one end of which is wrapped around our sinful hearts1 and the other is fastened to the ,throne of ,god4 ,you cannot drop any of the links1 and you must begin at the beginning1 if you are to be carried on to the end4 ,if we are to have a joy immovable1 we must have a 'steadfast hope4' ,if we are to have a 'steadfast hope1' we must have a present 'grace4' ,if we are to have a present 'grace1' and 'access' to the fullness of ,god1 we must have 'peace with ,god4' ,if we are to have 'peace with ,god1' we must have the condemnation and the guilt taken away4 ,if we are to have the condemnation and the guilt taken away1 ,jesus ,christ must take them4 ,if ,jesus ,christ is to take them away1 we must have faith in ,him4 ,then you can work it backward1 and begin at your own end1 and say1 ',if ,i have faith in ,jesus ,christ1 then every link of the chain in due succession will pass through my hand1 and ,i shall have justifying1 peace1 access1 the grace1 erectness1 hope1 and exultation1 and at last ,he will lead me by the hand into the glory for which ,i dare to hope1 the glory which the ,father gave to ,him before the foundation of the world1 and which ,he will give to me when the world has passed away in fervent heat4' ,a ,,threefold ,,cord ',and hope maketh not ashamed2 because the love of ,god is shed abroad in our hearts by the ,holy ,ghost which is given unto us4'--,,romans v4 #e4 ,we have seen in former sermons that1 in the previous context1 the ,apostle traces ,christian hope to two sources3 one1 the series of experiences which follow 'being justified by faith' and the other1 those which follow on trouble rightly borne4 ,those two golden chains together hold up the precious jewel of hope4 ,but a chain that is to bear a weight must have a staple1 or it will fall to the ground4 ,and so ,paul here turns to yet another thought1 and1 going behind both our inward experiences and our outward discipline1 falls back on that which precedes all4 ,after all is said and done1 the love of ,god1 eternal1 self-originated1 the source of all ,christian experiences because of the work of ,christ which originates them all1 is the root fact of the universe1 and the guarantee that our highest anticipations and desires are not unsubstantial visions1 but morning dreams1 which are proverbially sure to be fulfilled4 ,god is love2 therefore the man who trusts ,him shall not be put to shame4 ,but you will notice that here the ,apostle not only adduces the love of ,god as the staple1 so to speak1 from which these golden chains hang1 but that he traces the heart's being suffused with that love to its source1 and as1 of course1 is always the case in the order of analysis1 that which was last in time comes first in statement4 ,we begin at the surface1 and go down and down and down from effect to cause1 and yet again to the cause of that cause which is itself effect4 ,we strip off1 as it were1 layer after layer1 until we get to the living centre--hope comes from the love1 the love comes from the ,spirit in the heart4 ,and so to get at the order of time and of manifestation1 we must reverse the order of analysis in my text1 and begin where it ends4 ,so we have here three things--the ,spirit given1 the love shed abroad by that ,spirit1 and the hope established by that love4 ,now just look at them for a moment4 ,i4 ,the ,spirit given4 ,now1 the first point to notice here is that the ,revised ,version presents the meaning of our text more accurately than the ,authorised ,version1 because1 instead of reading 'is given1' it correctly reads 'was given4' ,and any of you that can consult the original will see that the form of the language implies that the ,apostle is thinking1 not so much of a continuous bestowment1 as of a definite moment when this great gift was bestowed upon the man to whom he is speaking4 ,so the first question is1 when was that ,spirit given to these ,roman ,christians8 ,the ,christian ,church has been split in two by its answers to that question4 ,one influential part1 which has taken a new lease of life amongst us to-day1 says 'in baptism1' and the other says 'at the moment of faith4' ,i am not going to be tempted into controversial paths now1 for my purpose is a very different one1 but ,i cannot help just a word about the former of these two answers4 ',given in baptism1' say our friends1 and ,i venture to think that they thereby degrade ,christianity into a system of magic1 bringing together two entirely disparate things1 an external physical act and a spiritual change4 ,i do not say anything about the disastrous effects that have followed from such a conception of the medium by which this greatest of all ,christian gifts is effected upon men4 ,since the ,spirit who is given is life1 the result of the gift of that ,spirit is a new life1 and we all know what disastrous and debasing consequences have followed from that dogma of regeneration by baptism4 ,no doubt it is perfectly true that normally1 in the early ,church1 the ,divine ,spirit was given at baptism2 but for one thing1 that general rule had exceptions1 as in the case of ,cornelius1 and1 for another thing1 though it was given at baptism1 it was not given in baptism1 but it was given through faith1 of which in those days baptism was the sequel and the sign4 ,but ,i pass altogether from this1 and fall back on the great words which1 to me at least1 if there were no other1 would determine the whole answer to this question as to when the ,spirit was given3 ',this spake ,he of the ,holy ,ghost1 which they that believe on ,him should receive'2 and ,i would ask the modern upholders of the other theory the indignant question which the ,apostle ,paul fired off out of his heavy artillery at their ancient analogues1 the circumcisers in the ,galatian ,church3 ',this only would ,i know of you3 ,received ye the ,holy ,spirit by the works of the law1 or by the hearing of faith8' ,the answer which the evangelical ,christian gives to this ancient question suggested by my text1 ',when was that ,divine ,spirit bestowed8' is congruous with the spirituality of the ,christian faith1 and is eminently reasonable4 ,for the condition required is the opening of the whole nature in willing welcome to the entrance of the ,divine ,spirit1 and as surely as1 wherever there is an indentation of the land1 and a concavity of a receptive bay1 the ocean will pour into it and fill it1 so surely where a heart is open for ,god1 ,god in ,his ,divine ,spirit will enter into that heart1 and there will shed ,his blessed influences4 ,so1 dear brethren1 and this is the main point to which ,i wish to direct your attention1 the ,apostle here takes it for granted that all these ,roman ,christians knew in themselves the truth of what he was saying1 and had an experience which confirmed his assertion that the ,divine ,spirit of ,god was given to them when they believed4 ,ah6 ,i wonder if that is true about us professing ,christians2 if we are aware in any measure of a higher life than our own having been breathed into us2 if we are aware in any measure of a ,divine ,spirit dwelling in our spirits1 moulding1 lifting1 enlightening1 guiding1 constraining1 and yet not coercing8 ,we ought to be1 ',know ye not that the ,spirit dwelleth in you1 except ye be rejected8' ,brethren1 it seems to me to be of the very last importance1 in this period of the ,church's history1 that the proportion between the ,church's teaching as to the work of ,christ on the ,cross1 and as to the consequent work of the ,spirit of ,christ in our hearts and spirits1 should be changed4 ,we must become more mystical if we are not to become less ,christian4 ,and the fact that so many of us seem to imagine that the whole ,gospel lies in this1 that ',he died for our sins according to the ,scriptures1' and have relegated the teaching that ,he1 by ,his ,spirit1 lives in us1 if we are ,his disciples1 to a less prominent place1 has done enormous harm1 not only to the type of ,christian life1 but to the conception of what ,christianity is1 both amongst those who receive it1 and amongst those who do not accept it1 making it out to be nothing more than a means of escape from the consequences of our transgression1 instead of recognising it for what it is1 the impartation of a new life which will flower into all beauty1 and bear fruit in all goodness4 ,there was a question put once to a group of disciples1 in astonishment and incredulity1 by this ,apostle1 when he said to the twelve disciples in ,ephesus1 ',did you receive the ,holy ,ghost when you believed8' ,the question might well be put to a multitude of professing ,christians amongst us1 and ,i am afraid a great many of them1 if they answered truly1 would answer as those disciples did1 ',we have not so much as heard whether there be any ,holy ,ghost4' ,and now for the second point in my text-- ,,ii4 ,the love which is shed abroad by that ,spirit4 ,now1 ,i suppose ,i do not need to do more than point out that 'the love of ,god' here means ,his to us1 and not ours to ,him1 and that the metaphor employed is but partially represented by that rendering 'shed abroad4' ',poured out' would better convey ,paul's image1 which is that of a flood sent coursing through the heart1 or1 perhaps1 rather lying there1 as a calm deep lake on whose unruffled surface the heavens1 with all their stars1 are reflected4 ,of course1 if ,god's love to us thus suffuses a heart1 then there follows the consciousness of that love2 though it is not the consciousness of the love that the ,apostle is primarily speaking of1 but that which lies behind it1 the actual flowing into the human heart of that sweet and all-satisfying ,love4 ,this ,divine ,spirit that dwells in us1 if we are trusting in ,christ1 will pour it in full streams into our else empty hearts4 ,surely there is nothing incongruous with the nature either of ,god or of man1 in believing that thus a real communication is possible between them1 and that by thoughts the occasions of which we cannot trace1 by moments of elevation1 by swift1 piercing convictions1 by sudden clear illuminations1 ,god may speak1 and will speak1 in our waiting hearts4 ',such rebounds the inmost ear ,catches often from afar4 ,listen1 prize them1 hold them dear2 ,for of ,god1 of ,god1 they are4' ,but we must not forget1 too1 that1 according to the whole strain of ,new ,testament thinking1 the means by which that ,divine ,spirit does pour out the flashing flood of the love of ,god into a man's heart is1 as ,jesus ,christ ,himself has taught us1 by taking the things of ,christ and showing them to us4 ,now1 as ,i said about a former point of my sermon1 that the ,apostle was taking for granted that this gift of the ,spirit belonged to all ,christian people2 so here again he takes for granted that in every ,christian heart there is1 by a divine operation1 the presence of the love1 and of the consciousness of the love1 of ,god4 ,and1 again1 the question comes to some of us stunningly1 to all of us warningly1 ,is that a transcript of our experience8 ,it is the ideal of a ,christian life2 it is meant that it should be so1 and should be so continuously4 ,the stream that is poured out is intended to run summer and winter1 not to be dried up in drought1 nor made turbid and noisy in flood1 but with equable flow throughout4 ,i fear me that the experience of most good people is rather like one of those tropical wadies1 or nullahs in ,eastern lands1 where there alternate times of spate and times of drought2 and instead of a flashing stream1 pouring life everywhere1 and full to the top of its banks1 there is for long periods a dismal stretch of white sun-baked stones1 and a chaos of tumbled rocks with not a drop of water in the channel4 ,the ,spirit pours ,god's love into men's spirits1 but there may be dams and barriers1 so that no drop of the water comes into the empty heart4 ,our ,quaker friends have a great deal to say about 'waiting for the springing of the life within us4' ,never mind about the phraseology3 what is meant is profoundly true1 that no ,christian man will realise this blessing unless he knows how to sit still and meditate1 and let the gracious influence soak into him4 ,thus being quiet1 he may1 he will1 find rising in his heart the consciousness of the love of ,god4 ,you will not1 if you give only broken momentary sidelong glances2 you will not1 if you do not lie still4 ,if you hold up a cup in a shaking hand beneath a fountain1 and often twitch it aside1 you will get little water in it2 and unless we 'wait on the ,lord1' we shall not 'renew our strength4' ,you can build a dam as they do in ,holland that will keep out1 not only the waters of a river1 but the waters of an ocean1 and not a drop will come through the dike4 ,brethren1 we must keep ourselves in the love of ,god4 ,lastly1 we have here-- ,,iii4 ,the hope that is established by the love poured out4 ,i need not dwell at any length upon this point1 because1 to a large extent1 it has been anticipated in former sermons1 but just a word or two may be permitted me4 ,that love1 you may be very sure1 is not going to lose its objects in the dust4 ,the old ,psalmist who knew so much less than we do as to the love of ,god1 and knew nothing of the whispers of a ,divine ,spirit within his heart charged with the message of the love as it was manifested in ,jesus ,christ1 had risen to a height of confidence1 the beauty of the expression of which is often lost sight of1 because we insist upon dealing with it as merely being a ,messianic prophecy1 which it is1 but not merely3 ',thou wilt not leave my soul in ,sheol1 neither wilt ,thou suffer ,thy beloved' 7for that is the real meaning of the word translated 'thy ,holy ,one'7--',thou wilt not suffer the child of ,thy love to see corruption4' ,death's bony fingers can untie all true lover's knots but one2 and they fumble at that one in vain4 ,god will not lose ,his child in the grave4 ,that love1 we may be very sure1 will not foster in us hopes that are to be disappointed4 ,now1 it is a fact that the more a man feels that ,god loves him1 the less is it possible for him to believe that that love will ever terminate1 or that he shall 'all die4' ,in the lock of a canal1 as the water pours in1 the vessel rises4 ,in our hearts1 as the flood of the full love of ,god pours in1 our hopes are borne up and up1 nearer and nearer to the heavens4 ,since it is so1 we must find in the fact that the constant and necessary result of communion with ,him here on earth is a conviction of the immortality of that communion1 a very1 very strong guarantee for ourselves that the hope is not in vain4 ,and if you say that that is all merely subjective1 yet ,i think that the universality of the experience is a fact to be taken into account even by those who doubt the reality of the hope1 and for ourselves1 at all events1 is a sufficient ground on which to rest4 ,we have the historical fact of the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ4 ,we have the fact that wherever there has been earthly experience of true communion with ,god1 there1 and in the measure in which it has been realised1 the thermometer of our hopes of immortality1 so to speak1 has risen4 ',god is love1' and ,god will not bring the man that trusts ,him to confusion4 ,and may we not venture to say that1 contemplating the analogous earthly love1 we are permitted to believe that that divine ,lover of our souls desires to have ,his beloved with ,him1 and desires that there be no separation between ,him and them1 either1 if ,i might so say1 in place or in disposition8 ,as certainly as husband and wife1 lover and friend1 long to be together1 and need it for perfection and for rest1 so surely will that divine love not be satisfied until it has gathered all its children to its breast and made them partakers of itself4 ,there are many1 many hopes that put the men who cherish them to shame1 partly because they are never fulfilled1 partly because1 though fulfilled1 they are disappointed1 since the reality is so much less than the anticipation4 ,who does not know that the spray of blossom on the tree looks far more lovely hanging above our heads than when it is grasped by us8 ,who does not know that the fish struggling on the hook seems heavier than it turns out to be when lying on the bank8 ,we go to the rainbow's end1 and we find1 not a pot of gold1 but a huddle of cold1 wet mist4 ,there is one man that is entitled to say3 ',to-morrow shall be as this day1 and much more abundant4' ,who is he8 ,only the man whose hope is in the ,lord his ,god4 ,if we open our hearts by faith1 then these three lines of sequence of which we have been speaking will converge1 and we shall have the hope that is the shining apex of 'being justified by faith1' and the hope that is the calm result of trouble and agitation1 and the hope that1 travelling further and higher than anything in our inward experience or our outward discipline1 grasps the key-word of the universe1 ',god is love1' and triumphantly makes sure that 'neither death nor life1 nor angels1 nor principalities1 nor powers1 nor things present1 nor things to come1 nor height1 nor depth1 nor any other creature1 shall be able to separate us from the love of ,god which is in ,christ ,jesus our ,lord4' ,,what ,,proves ,,god',s ,,love ',god commendeth ,his love toward us1 in that1 while we were yet sinners1 ,christ died for us4'--,,romans v4 #h4 ,we have seen in previous sermons on the preceding context that the ,apostle has been tracing various lines of sequence1 all of which converge upon ,christian hope4 ,the last of these pointed to the fact that the love of ,god1 poured into a heart like oil into a lamp1 brightened that flame2 and having thus mentioned the great ,christian revelation of ,god as love1 ,paul at once passes to emphasise the historical fact on which the conviction of that love rests1 and goes on to say that 'the love of ,god is shed abroad in our hearts by the ,holy ,ghost which is given to us1 for when we were yet without strength1 in due time ,christ died for the ungodly4' ,then there rises before him the thought of how transcendent and unparalleled a love is that which pours its whole preciousness on unworthy and unresponsive hearts4 ,he thinks to himself--',we are all ungodly2 without strength--yet1 ,he died for us4 ,would any man do that8 ,no6 for1' says he1 'it will be a hard thing to find any one ready to die for a righteous man--a man rigidly just and upright1 and because rigidly just1 a trifle hard1 and therefore not likely to touch a heart to sacrifice2 and even for a good man1 in whom austere righteousness has been softened and made attractive1 and become graciousness and beneficence1 well6 it is just within the limits of possibility that somebody might be found even to die for a man that had laid such a strong hand upon his affections4 ,but ,god commendeth ,his love in that while we were yet sinners ,christ died for us4' ,now1 when ,paul says 'commend1' he uses a very significant word which is employed in two ways in the ,new ,testament4 ,it sometimes means to establish1 or to prove1 or to make certain4 ,but 'prove' is a cold word1 and the expression also means to recommend1 to set forth in such a way as to appeal to the heart1 and ,god does both in that great act4 ,he establishes the fact1 and ,he1 as it were1 sweeps it into a man's heart1 on the bosom of that full tide of self-sacrifice4 ,so there are two or three points that arise from these words1 on which ,i desire to dwell now--to lay them upon our hearts1 and not only upon our understandings4 ,for it is a poor thing to prove the love of ,god1 and we need that not only shall we be sure of it1 but that we shall be softened by it4 ,so now let me ask you to look with me1 first1 at this question-- ,i4 ,what ,paul thought ,jesus ,christ died for4 ',died for us4' ,now that expression plainly implies two things3 first1 that ,christ died of ,his own accord1 and being impelled by a great motive1 beneficence2 and1 second1 that that voluntary death1 somehow or other1 is for our behoof and advantage4 ,the word in the original1 'for1' does not define in what way that death ministers to our advantage1 but it does assert that for those ,roman ,christians who had never seen ,jesus ,christ1 and by consequence for you and me nineteen centuries off the ,cross1 there is benefit in the fact of that death4 ,now1 suppose we quote an incident in the story of missionary martyrdom4 ,there was a young lady1 whom some of us knew and loved1 in a ,chinese mission station1 who1 with the rest of the missionary band1 was flying4 ,her life was safe4 ,she looked back1 and saw a ,chinese boy that her heart twined round1 in danger4 ,she returned to save him2 they laid hold of her and flung her into the burning house1 and her charred remains have never been found4 ,that was a death for another1 but ',jesus died for us' in a deeper sense than that4 ,take another case4 ,a man sets himself to some great cause1 not his own1 and he sees that in order to bless humanity1 either by the proclamation of some truth1 or by the origination of some great movement1 or in some other way1 if he is to carry out his purpose1 he must give his life4 ,he does so1 and dies a martyr4 ,what he aimed at could only be done by the sacrifice of his life4 ,the death was a means to his end1 and he died for his fellows4 ,that is not the depth of the sense in which ,paul meant that ,jesus ,christ died for us4 ,it was not that ,he was true to ,his message1 and1 like many another martyr1 died4 ,there is only one way1 as it seems to me1 in which any beneficial relation can be established between the ,death of ,christ and us1 and it is that when ,he died ,he died for us1 because ',he bare our sins in ,his own body on the tree4' ,dear brethren1 ,i dare say some of you do not take that view1 but ,i know not how justice can be done to the plain words of ,scripture unless this is the point of view from which we look at the ,cross of ,calvary--that there the ,lamb of ,sacrifice was bearing1 and bearing away1 the sins of the whole world4 ,i know that ,christian men who unite in the belief that ,christ's death was a sacrifice and an atonement diverge from one another in their interpretations of the way in which that came to be a fact1 and ,i believe1 for my part1 that the divergent interpretations are like the divergent beams of light that fall upon men who stand round the same great luminary1 and that all of them take their origin in1 and are part of the manifestation of1 the one transcendent fact1 which passes all understanding1 and gathers into itself all the diverse conceptions of it which are formed by limited minds4 ,he died for us because1 in ,his death1 our sins are taken away and we are restored to the divine favour4 ,i know that ,jesus ,christ is said to have made far less of that aspect of ,his work in the ,gospels than ,his disciples have done in the ,epistles1 and that we are told that1 if we go back to ,jesus1 we shall not find the doctrine which for some of us is the first form in which the ,gospel finds its way into the hearts of men4 ,i admit that the fully-developed teaching followed the fact1 as was necessarily the case4 ,i do not admit that ,jesus ,christ 'spake nothing concerning ,himself' as the sacrifice for the world's sins4 ,for ,i hear from ,his lips--not to dwell upon other sayings which ,i could quote--,i hear from ,his lips1 ',the ,son of ,man came not to be ministered unto1 but to minister'--that is only half ,his purpose--'and to give ,his life a ransom instead of the many4' ,you cannot strike the atoning aspect of ,his death out of that expression by any fair handling of the words4 ,and what does the ,lord's ,supper mean8 ,why did ,jesus ,christ select that one point of ,his life as the point to be remembered8 ,why did ,he institute the double memorial1 the body parted from the blood being a sign of a violent death8 ,i know of no explanation that makes that ,lord's ,supper an intelligible rite except the explanation which says that ,he came1 to live indeed1 and in that life to be a sacrifice1 but to make the sacrifice complete by ,himself bearing the consequences of transgression1 and making atonement for the sins of the world4 ,brethren1 that is the only aspect of ,christ's death which makes it of any consequence to us4 ,strip it of that1 and what does it matter to me that ,he died1 any more than it matters to me that any philanthropist1 any great teacher1 any hero or martyr or saint1 should have died8 ,as it seems to me1 nothing4 ,christ's death is surrounded by tenderly pathetic and beautiful accompaniments4 ,as a story it moves the hearts of men1 and 'purges them1 by pity and by terror4' ,but the death of many a hero of tragedy does all that4 ,and if you want to have the ,cross of ,christ held upright in its place as the ,throne of ,christ and the attractive power for the whole world1 you must not tamper with that great truth1 but say1 ',he died for our sins1 according to the ,scriptures4' ,now1 there is a second question that ,i wish to ask1 and that is-- ,,ii4 ,how does ,christ's death 'commend' ,god's love8 ,that is a strange expression1 if you will think about it1 that ',god commendeth ,his love towards us in that ,christ died4' ,if you take the interpretation of ,christ's death of which ,i have already been speaking1 one could have understood the ,apostle if he had said1 ',christ commendeth ,his love towards us in that ,christ died4' ,but where is the force of the fact of a man's death to prove ,god's love8 ,do you not see that underlying that swift sentence of the ,apostle there is a presupposition1 which he takes for granted8 ,it is so obvious that ,i do not need to dwell upon it to vindicate his change of persons1 viz4 that ',god was in ,christ1' in such fashion as that whatsoever ,christ did was the revelation of ,god4 ,you cannot suppose1 at least ,i cannot see how you can1 that there is any force of proof in the words of my text1 unless you come up to the full belief1 ',god was in ,christ reconciling the world to ,himself4' ,suppose some great martyr who dies for his fellows4 ,well1 all honour to him1 and the race will come to his tomb for a while1 and bring their wreaths and their sorrow4 ,but what bearing has his death upon our knowledge of ,god's love towards us8 ,none whatever1 or at most a very indirect and shadowy one4 ,we have to dig deeper down than that4 ',god commends ,his love 444 in that ,christ died4' ',he that hath seen ,me hath seen the ,father4' ,and we have the right and the obligation to argue back from all that is manifest in the tender ,christ to the heart of ,god1 and say1 not only1 ',god so loved the world that ,he' sent ,his ,son1 but to see that the love that was in ,christ is the manifestation of the love of ,god ,himself4 ,so there stands the ,cross1 the revelation to us1 not only of a ,brother's sacrifice1 but of a ,father's love2 and that because ,jesus ,christ is the revelation of ,god as being the 'eradiation of ,his glory1 and the express image of ,his person4' ,friends6 light does pour out from that ,cross1 whatever view men take of it4 ,but the omnipotent beam1 the all-illuminating radiance1 the transforming light1 the heat that melts1 are all dependent on our looking at it--,i do not only say1 as ,paul looked at it1 nor do ,i even say as ,christ looked at it1 but as the deep necessities of humanity require that the world should look at it1 as the altar whereon is laid the sacrifice for our sins1 the very ,son of ,god ,himself4 ,to me the great truths of the ,incarnation and the ,atonement of ,jesus ,christ are not points in a mere speculative theology2 they are the pulsating vital centre of religion4 ,and every man needs them in his own experience4 ,i was going to have said a word or two here--but it is not necessary--about the need that the love of ,god should be irrefragably established1 by some plain and undeniable and conspicuous fact4 ,i need not dwell upon the ambiguous oracles which-- ',nature1 red in tooth and claw1 ,with rapine' gives forth1 nor on how the facts of human life1 our own sorrows1 and the world's miseries1 the tears that swathe the earth1 as it rolls on its orbit1 like a misty atmosphere1 war against the creed that ,god is love4 ,i need not remind you1 either1 of how deep1 in our own hearts1 when the conscience begins to speak its not ambiguous oracles1 there does rise the conviction that there is much in us which it is impossible should be the object of ,god's love4 ,nor need ,i remind you how all these difficulties in believing in a ,god who is love1 based on the contradictory aspects of nature1 and the mysteries of providence1 and the whisperings of our own consciousness1 are proved to have been insuperable by the history of the world1 where we find mythologies and religions of all types and gods of every sort1 but nowhere in all the pantheon a ,god who is ,love4 ,only let me press upon you that that conviction of the love of ,god1 which is found now far beyond the limits of ,christian faith1 and amongst many of us who1 in the name of that conviction itself1 reject ,christianity1 because of its sterner aspects1 is historically the child of the evangelical doctrine of the ,incarnation and sacrifice of ,jesus ,christ4 ,and if it still subsists1 as ,i know it does1 especially in this generation1 amongst many men who reject what seems to me to be the very kernel of ,christianity--subsists like the stream cut off from its source1 but still running1 that only shows that men hold many convictions the origin of which they do not know4 ,god is love4 ,you will not permanently sustain that belief against the pressure of outward mysteries and inward sorrows1 unless you grasp the other conviction that ,christ died for our sins4 ,the two are inseparable4 ,and now lastly-- ,,iii4 ,what kind of love does ,christ's death declare to us as existing in ,god8 ,a love that is turned away by no sin--that is the thing that strikes the ,apostle here1 as ,i have already pointed out4 ,the utmost reach of human affection might be that a man would die for the good--he would scarcely die for the righteous4 ,but ,god sends ,his ,son1 and comes ,himself in ,his ,son1 and ,his ,son died for the ungodly and the sinner4 ,that death reveals a love which is its own origin and motive4 ,we love because we discern1 or fancy we do1 something lovable in the object4 ,god loves under the impulse1 so to speak1 of ,his own welling-up heart4 ,and yet it is a love which1 though not turned away by any sin1 is witnessed by that death to be rigidly righteous4 ,it is no mere flaccid1 flabby laxity of a loose-girt affection1 no mere foolish indulgence like that whereby earthly parents spoil their children4 ,god's love is not lazy good-nature1 as a great many of us think it to be and so drag it in the mud1 but it is rigidly righteous1 and therefore ,christ died4 ,that ,death witnesses that it is a love which shrinks from no sacrifices4 ,this ,isaac was not 'spared4' ,god gave up ,his ,son4 ,love has its very speech in surrender1 and ,god's love speaks as ours does4 ,it is a love which1 turned away by no sin1 and yet rigidly righteous and shrinking from no sacrifices1 embraces all ages and lands4 ',god commendeth'--not 'commended4' ,the majestic present tense suggests that time and space are nothing to the swift and all-filling rays of that great ,light4 ,that love is 'towards us1' you and me and all our fellows4 ,the ,death is an historical fact1 occurring in one short hour4 ,the ,cross is an eternal power1 raying out light and love over all humanity and through all ages4 ,god lays siege to all hearts in that great sacrifice4 ,do you believe that ,jesus ,christ died for your sins 'according to the ,scriptures'8 ,do you see there the assurance of a love which will lift you up above all the cross-currents of earthly life1 and the mysteries of providence1 into the clear ether where the sunshine is unobscured8 ,and above all1 do you fling back the reverberating ray from the mirror of your own heart that directs again towards heaven the beam of love which heaven has shot down upon you8 ',herein is love1 not that we loved ,god1 but that ,he loved us1 and gave ,his ,son to be the propitiation for our sins4' ,is it true of us that we love ,god because ,he first loved us8 ,,the ,,warring ,,queens ',as sin hath reigned unto death1 even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by ,jesus ,christ our ,lord4'--,,romans v4 #ba4 ,i am afraid this text will sound to some of you rather unpromising4 ,it is full of well-worn terms1 'sin1' 'death1' 'grace1' 'righteousness1' 'eternal life1' which suggest dry theology1 if they suggest anything4 ,when they welled up from the ,apostle's glowing heart they were like a fiery lava-stream4 ,but the stream has cooled1 and1 to a good many of us1 they seem as barren and sterile as the long ago cast out coils of lava on the sides of a quiescent volcano4 ,they are so well-worn and familiar to our ears that they create but vague conceptions in our minds1 and they seem to many of us to be far away from a bearing upon our daily lives4 ,but you much mistake ,paul if you take him to be a mere theological writer4 ,he is an earnest evangelist1 trying to draw men to love and trust in ,jesus ,christ4 ,and his writings1 however old-fashioned and doctrinally hard they may seem to you1 are all throbbing with life--instinct with truths that belong to all ages and places1 and which fit close to every one of us4 ,i do not know if ,i can give any kind of freshness to these words1 but ,i wish to try4 ,to begin with1 ,i notice the highly-imaginative and picturesque form into which the ,apostle casts his thoughts here4 ,he1 as it were1 draws back a curtain1 and lets us see two royal figures1 which are eternally opposed and dividing the dominion between them4 ,then he shows us the issues to which these two rulers respectively conduct their subjects2 and the question that is trembling on his lips is ',under which of them do you stand8' ,surely that is not fossil theology1 but truths that are of the highest importance1 and ought to be of the deepest interest1 to every one of us4 ,they are to you the former1 whether they are the latter or not4 ,i4 ,so1 first1 look at the two ,queens who rule over human life4 ,sin and ,grace are both personified2 and they are both conceived of as female figures1 and both as exercising dominion4 ,they stand face to face1 and each recognises as her enemy the other4 ,the one has established her dominion3 ',sin hath reigned4' ,the other is fighting to establish hers3 ',that ,grace might reign4' ,and the struggle is going on between them1 not only on the wide field of the world2 but in the narrow lists of the heart of each of us4 ,sin reigns4 ,the truths that underlie that solemn picture are plain enough1 however unwelcome they may be to some of us1 and however remote from the construction of the universe which many of us are disposed to take4 ,now1 let us understand our terms4 ,suppose a man commits a theft4 ,you may describe it from three different points of view4 ,he has thereby broken the law of the land2 and when we are thinking about that we call it crime4 ,he has also broken the law of 'morality1' as we call it2 and when we are looking at his deed from that point of view1 we call it vice4 ,is that all8 ,he has broken something else4 ,he has broken the law of ,god2 and when we look at it from that point of view we call it sin4 ,now1 there are a great many things which are sins that are not crimes2 and1 with due limitations1 ,i might venture to say that there are some things which are sins that are not to be qualified as vices4 ,sin implies ,god4 ,the ,psalmist was quite right when he said2 ',against ,thee1 ,thee only have ,i sinned'2 although he was confessing a foul injury he had done to ,bathsheba1 and a glaring crime that he had committed against ,uriah4 ,it was as to ,god1 and in reference to ,him only1 that his crime and his vice darkened and solidified into sin4 ,and what is it1 in our actions or in ourselves considered in reference to ,god1 that makes our actions sins and ourselves sinners8 ,remember the prodigal son4 ',father6 ,give me the portion of goods that falleth to me4' ,there you have it all4 ,he went away1 and 'wasted his substance in riotous living4' ,to claim myself for my own2 to act independently of1 or contrary to1 the will of ,god2 to try to shake myself clear of ,him2 to have nothing to do with ,him1 even though it be by mere forgetfulness and negligence1 and1 in all my ways to comport myself as if ,i had no relations of dependence on and submission to him--that is sin4 ,and there may be that oblivion or rebellion1 not only in the gross vulgar acts which the law calls crimes1 or in those which conscience declares to be vices1 but also in many things which1 looked at from a lower point of view1 may be fair and pure and noble4 ,if there is this assertion of self in them1 or oblivion of ,god and ,his will in them1 ,i know not how we are to escape the conclusion that even these fall under the class of sins4 ,for there can be no act or thought1 truly worthy of a man1 situated and circumstanced as we are1 which has not1 for the very core and animating motive of it1 a reference to ,god4 ,now1 when ,i come and say1 as my ,bible teaches me to say1 that this is the deepest view of the state of humanity that sin reigns1 ,i do not wish to fall into the exaggerations by which sometimes that statement has been darkened and discredited2 but ,i do want to press upon you1 dear brethren1 this1 as a matter of personal experience1 that wherever there is a heart that loves1 and leaves ,god out1 and wherever there is a will that resolves1 determines1 impels to action1 and does not bow itself before ,him1 and wherever there are hands that labour1 or feet that run1 at tasks and in paths self-chosen and unconsecrated by reference to our ,father in heaven1 no matter how great and beautiful subsidiary lustres may light up their deeds1 the very heart of them all is transgression of the law of ,god4 ,for this1 and nothing else or less1 is ,his law3 ',thou shalt love the ,lord thy ,god with all thy heart1 and with all thy soul1 and with all thy strength1 and with all thy mind4' ,i do not charge you with crimes4 ,you know how far it would be right to charge you with vices4 ,i do not charge you with anything2 but ,i pray you to come with me and confess3 ',we all have sinned1 and come short of the glory of ,god4' ,i suppose ,i need not dwell upon the difficulty of getting a lodgment for this conviction in men's hearts4 ,there is no sadder1 and no more conclusive proof1 of the tremendous power of sin over us1 than that it has lulled us into unconsciousness1 hard to be broken1 of its own presence and existence4 ,you remember the old stories--,i suppose there is no truth in them1 but they will do for an illustration--about some kind of a blood-sucking animal that perched upon a sleeping man1 and with its leathern wings fanned him into deeper drowsiness whilst it drew from him his life-blood4 ,that is what this hideous ,queen does for men4 ,she robes herself in a dark cloud1 and sends out her behests from obscurity4 ,and men fancy that they are free whilst all the while they are her servants4 ,oh1 dear brethren6 you may call this theology1 but it is a simple statement of the facts of our condition4 ',sin hath reigned4' ,and now turn to the other picture1 ',grace might reign4' ,then there is an antagonistic power that rises up to confront the widespread dominion of this anarch of old4 ,and this ,queen comes with twenty thousand to war against her that has but ten thousand on her side4 ,again ,i say1 let us understand our terms4 ,i suppose1 there are few of the keywords of the ,new ,testament which have lost more of their radiance1 like quicksilver1 by exposure in the air during the centuries than that great word ,grace1 which is always on the lips of this ,apostle1 and to him had music in its sound1 and which to us is a piece of dead doctrine1 associated with certain high ,calvinistic theories which we enlightened people have long ago grown beyond1 and got rid of4 ,perhaps ,paul was more right than we when his heart leaped up within him at the very thought of all which he saw to lie palpitating and throbbing with eager desire to bless men1 in that great word4 ,what does he mean by it8 ,let me put it into the shortest possible terms4 ,this antagonist ,queen is nothing but the love of ,god raying out for ever to us inferior creatures1 who1 by reason of our sinfulness1 have deserved something widely different4 ,sin stands there1 a hideous hag1 though a queen2 ,grace stands here1 'in all her gestures dignity and love1' fair and self-communicative1 though a sovereign4 ,the love of ,god in exercise to sinful men3 that is what the ,new ,testament means by grace4 ,and is it not a great thought8 ,notice1 for further elucidation of the ,apostle's conception1 how he sacrifices the verbal correctness of his antithesis in order to get to the real opposition4 ,what is the opposite of ,sin8 ,righteousness4 ,why does he not say1 then1 that 'as ,sin hath reigned unto death1 even so might ,righteousness reign unto life'8 ,why8 ,because it is not man1 or anything in man1 that can be the true antagonist of1 and victor over1 the regnant ,sin of humanity2 but ,god ,himself comes into the field1 and only ,he is the foe that ,sin dreads4 ,that is to say1 the only hope for a sin-tyrannised world is in the out-throb of the love of the great heart of ,god4 ,for1 notice the weapon with which ,he fights man's transgression1 if ,i may vary the figure for a moment4 ,it is only subordinately punishment1 or law1 or threatening1 or the revelation of the wickedness of the transgression4 ,all these have their places1 but they are secondary places4 ,the thing that will conquer a world's wickedness is nothing else but the manifested love of ,god4 ,only the patient shining down of the sun will ever melt the icebergs that float in all our hearts4 ,and wonderful and blessed it is to think that1 in whatsoever aspects man's sin may have been an interruption and a contradiction of the divine purpose1 out of the evil has come a good2 that the more obdurate and universal the rebellion1 the more has it evoked a deeper and more wondrous tenderness4 ,the blacker the thundercloud1 the brighter glows the rainbow that is flung across it4 ,so these two front each other1 the one settled in her established throne-- ',fierce as ten furies1 terrible as hell--' the other coming on her adventurous errand to conquer the world to herself1 and to banish the foul tyranny under which men groan4 ',sin hath reigned4' ,grace is on her way to her dominion4 ,,ii4 ,notice the gifts of these two ,queens to their subjects4 ',sin hath reigned in death' 7as the accurate translation has it72 ',grace reigns unto eternal life4' ,the one has established her dominion1 and its results are wrought out1 her reign is1 as it were1 a reign in a cemetery2 and her subjects are dead4 ,if you want a modern instance to illustrate an ancient saw1 think of ,armenia4 ,there is a reign whose gifts to its subjects are death4 ,sin reigns1 says ,paul1 and for proof points to the fact that men die4 ,now1 ,i am not going to enter into the question here1 and now1 whether physical death passes over mankind because of the fact of transgression4 ,i do not suppose that this is so4 ,but ,i ask you to remember that when the ,bible says that ',death passed upon all men1 for all have sinned1' it does not merely mean the physical fact of dissolution1 but it means that fact along with the accompaniments of it1 and the forerunners of it1 in men's consciences4 ',the sting of death is sin1' says ,paul1 in another place4 ,by which he implies1 ,i presume1 that1 if it were not for the fact of alienation from ,god and opposition to ,his holy will1 men might lie down and die as placidly as an animal does1 and might strip themselves for it 'as for a bed1 that longing they'd been sick for4' ,no doubt1 there was death in the world long before there were men in it4 ,no doubt1 also1 the complex whole phenomenon gets its terror from the fact of men's sin4 ,but it is not so much that physical fact with its accompaniments which ,paul is thinking about when he says that 'sin reigns in death1' as it is that solemn truth which he is always reiterating1 and which ,i pray you1 dear friends1 to lay to heart1 that1 whatever activity there may be in the life of a man who has rent himself away from dependence upon ,god--however vigorous his brain1 however active his hand1 however full charged with other interests his life1 in the very depth of it is a living death1 and the right name for it is death4 ,so this is ,sin's gift--that over our whole nature there come mortality and decay1 and that they who live as her subjects are dead whilst they live4 ,dear brethren1 that may be figurative1 but it seems to me that it is absurd for you to turn away from such thoughts1 shrug your shoulders1 and say1 ',old-fashioned ,calvinistic theology6' ,it is simply putting into a vivid form the facts of your life and of your condition in relation to ,god1 if you are subjects of ,sin4 ,then1 on the other hand1 the other queenly figure has her hands filled with one great gift which1 like the fatal bestowment which ,sin gives to her subjects1 has two aspects1 a present and a future one4 ,life1 which is given in our redemption from ,death and ,sin1 and in union with ,god2 that is the present gift that the love of ,god holds out to every one of us4 ,that life1 in its very incompleteness here1 carries in itself the prophecy of its own completion hereafter1 in a higher form and world1 just as truly as the bud is the prophet of the flower and of the fruit2 just as truly as a half-reared building is the prophecy of its own completion when the roof tree is put upon it4 ,the men that here have1 as we all may have if we choose1 the gift of life eternal in the knowledge of ,god through ,jesus ,christ ,his ,son1 must necessarily tend onwards and upwards to a region where ,death is beneath the horizon1 and ,life flows and flushes the whole heaven4 ,brother6 do you put out your whole hand to take the poisoned gift from the claw-like hand of that hideous ,queen2 or do you turn and take the gift of life eternal from the hands of the queenly ,grace8 ,,iii4 ,how this queenly ,grace gives her gifts4 ,you observe that the ,apostle1 as is his wont--,i was going to say--gets himself entangled in a couple of almost parenthetical or1 at all events1 subsidiary sentences4 ,i suppose when he began to write he meant to say1 simply1 'as ,sin hath reigned unto death1 so ,grace might reign unto life4' ,but notice that he inserts two qualifications3 'through righteousness1' 'through ,jesus ,christ our ,lord4' ,what does he mean by these8 ,he means this1 first1 that even that great love of ,god1 coming throbbing straight from ,his heart1 cannot give eternal life as a mere matter of arbitrary will4 ,god can make ,his sun to shine and ,his rain to fall1 'on the unthankful and on the evil1' and if ,god could1 ,god would give eternal life to everybody1 bad and good2 but ,he cannot4 ,there must be righteousness if there is to be life4 ,just as sin's fruit is death1 the fruit of righteousness is life4 ,he means1 in the next place1 that whilst there is no life without righteousness1 there is no righteousness without ,god's gift4 ,you cannot break away from the dominion of ,sin1 and1 as it were1 establish yourselves in a little fortress of your own1 repelling her assaults by any power of yours4 ,dear brethren1 we cannot undo the past2 we cannot strip off the poisoned garment that clings to our limbs2 we can mend ourselves in many respects1 but we cannot of our own volition and motion clothe ourselves with that righteousness of which the wearers shall be worthy to 'pass through the gate into the city4' ,there is no righteousness without ,god's gift4 ,and the other subsidiary clause completes the thought3 'through ,christ4' ,in ,him is all the grace1 the manifest love1 of ,god gathered together4 ,it is not diffused as the nebulous light in some chaotic incipient system1 but it is gathered into a sun that is set in the centre1 in order that it may pour down warmth and life upon its circling planets4 ,the grace of ,god is in ,christ ,jesus our ,lord4 ,in ,him is life eternal2 therefore1 if we desire to possess it we must possess ,him4 ,in ,him is righteousness2 therefore1 if we desire our own foulness to be changed into the holiness which shall see ,god1 we must go to ,jesus ,christ4 ,grace reigns in life1 but it is life through righteousness1 which is through ,jesus ,christ our ,lord4 ,so1 then1 brother1 my message and my petition to each of you are--knit yourself to ,him by faith in ,him4 ,then ,he who is 'full of grace and truth' will come to you2 and1 coming1 will bring in ,his hands righteousness and life eternal4 ,if only we rest ourselves on ,him1 and keep ourselves close in touch with ,him2 then we shall be delivered from the tyranny of the darkness1 and translated into the ,kingdom of the ,son of ,his love4 ',,the ,,form ,,of ,,teaching' '444 ,ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you4'--,,romans vi4 #ag4 ,there is room for difference of opinion as to what ,paul precisely means by 'form' here4 ,the word so rendered appears in ,english as type1 and has a similar variety of meaning4 ,it signifies originally a mark made by pressure or impact2 and then1 by natural transitions1 a mould1 or more generally a pattern or example1 and then the copy of such an example or pattern1 or the cast from such a mould4 ,it has also the other meaning which its ,english equivalent has taken on very extensively of late years1 such as1 for instance1 you find in expressions like ',an ,english type of face1' meaning thereby the general outline which preserves the distinguishing characteristics of a thing4 ,now we may choose between these two meanings in our text4 ,if the ,apostle means type in the latter sense of the word1 then the rendering 'form' is adequate1 and he is thinking of the ,christian teaching which had been given to the ,roman ,christians as possessing certain well-defined characteristics which distinguished it from other kinds of teaching--such1 for instance1 as ,jewish or heathen4 ,but if we take the other meaning1 then he is1 in true ,pauline fashion1 bringing in a vivid and picturesque metaphor to enforce his thought1 and is thinking of the teaching which the ,roman ,christians had received as being a kind of mould into which they were thrown1 a pattern to which they were to be conformed4 ,and that that is his meaning seems to me to be made a little more probable by the fact that the last words of my text would be more accurate if inverted1 and instead of reading1 as the ,authorised ,version does1 'that form of doctrine which was delivered you1' we were to read1 as the ,revised ,version does1 'that form whereunto ye were delivered4' ,if this be the general meaning of the words before us1 there are three thoughts arising from them to which ,i turn briefly4 ,first1 ,paul's ,gospel was a definite body of teaching2 secondly1 that teaching is a mould for conduct and character2 lastly1 that teaching therefore demands obedience4 ,take1 then1 these three thoughts4 ,i4 ,first1 ,paul's ,gospel was a definite body of teaching4 ,now the word 'doctrine1' which is employed in my text1 has1 in the lapse of years since the ,authorised ,version was made1 narrowed its significance4 ,at the date of our ,authorised translation 'doctrine' was probably equivalent to 'teaching1' of whatever sort it might be4 ,since then it has become equivalent to a statement of abstract principles1 and that is not at all what ,paul means4 ,he does not mean to say that his gospel was a form of doctrine in the sense of being a theological system1 but he means to say that it was a body of teaching1 the nature of the teaching not being defined at all by the word4 ,therefore we have to notice that the great1 blessed peculiarity of the ,gospel is that it is a teaching1 not of abstract dry principles1 but of concrete historical facts4 ,from these principles in plenty may be gathered1 but in its first form as it comes to men fresh from ,god it is not a set of propositions1 but a history of deeds that were done upon earth4 ,and1 therefore1 is it fitted to be the food of every soul and the mould of every character4 ,jesus ,christ did not come and talk to men about ,god1 and say to them what ,his ,apostles afterwards said1 ',god is love1' but ,he lived and died1 and that mainly was ,his teaching about ,god4 ,he did not come to men and lay down a theory of atonement or a doctrine of propitiation1 or theology about sin and its relations to ,god1 but ,he went to the ,cross and gave ,himself for us1 and that was ,his teaching about sacrifice4 ,he did not say to men ',there is a future life1 and it is of such and such a sort1' but ,he came out of the grave and ,he said ',touch ,me1 and handle ,me4 ,a spirit hath not flesh and bones1' and therefore ,he brought life and immortality to light1 by no empty words but by the solid realities of facts4 ,he did not lecture upon ethics1 but ,he lived a perfect human life out of which all moral principles that will guide human conduct may be gathered4 ,and so1 instead of presenting us with a hortus siccus1 with a botanic collection of scientifically arranged and dead propositions1 ,he led us into the meadow where the flowers grow1 living and fair4 ,his life and death1 with all that they imply1 are the teaching4 ,let us not forget1 on the other hand1 that the history of a fact is not the mere statement of the outward thing that has happened4 ,suppose four people1 for instance1 standing at the foot of ,christ's ,cross2 four other 'evangelists' than the four that we know4 ,there is a ,roman soldier2 there is a ,pharisee2 there is one of the weeping crowd of poor women1 not disciples2 and there is a disciple4 ,the first man tells the fact as he saw it3 ',a ,jewish rebel was crucified this morning4' ,the second man tells the fact3 ',a blaspheming apostate suffered what he deserved to-day4' ,the woman tells the fact3 ',a poor1 gentle1 fair soul was martyred to-day4' ,and the fourth one tells the fact3 ',jesus ,christ1 the ,son of ,god1 died for our sins4' ,the three tell the same fact2 the fourth preaches the ,gospel--that is to say1 ,christian teaching is the facts plus their explanation2 and it is that which differentiates it from the mere record which is of no avail to anybody4 ,so ,paul himself in one of his other letters puts it4 ,this is his gospel3 ,jesus of ,nazareth 'died for our sins according to the ,scriptures1 and ,he was buried1 and rose again the third day1 according to the ,scriptures4' ,that is what turns the bald story of the facts into teaching1 which is the mould for life4 ,so on the one hand1 dear brethren1 do not let us fall into the superficial error of fancying that our religion is a religion of emotion and morality only4 ,it is a religion with a basis of divine truth1 which1 being struck away1 all the rest goes4 ,there is a revolt against dogma to-day1 a revolt which in large measure is justified as an essential of progress1 and in large measure as an instance of progress2 but human nature is ever prone to extremes1 and in the revolt from man's dogma there is danger of casting away ,god's truth4 ,christianity is not preserved when we hold by the bare facts of the outward history1 unless we take with these facts the interpretation of them1 which declares the divinity and the sacrifice of the ,son of ,god4 ,and on the other hand1 let us keep very clear in our minds the broad and impassable gulf of separation between the ,christian teaching as embodied in the ,scripture and the systems which ,christianity has evolved therefrom4 ,men's intellects must work upon the pabulum that is provided for them1 and a theology in a systematised form is a necessity for the intellectual and reasonable life of the ,christian ,church4 ,but there is all the difference between man's inferences from and systematising of the ,christian truth and the truth that lies here4 ,the one is the golden roof that is cast over us2 the other is too often but the spiders' webs that are spun across and darken its splendour4 ,it is a sign of a wholesome change in the whole sentiment and attitude of the modern ,christian mind that the word 'doctrine1' which has come to mean men's inferences from ,god's truth1 should have been substituted as it has been in our ,revised ,version of my text1 by the wholesome ,christian word 'teaching4' ,the teaching is the facts with the inspired commentary on them4 ,,ii4 ,secondly1 notice that this teaching is in ,paul's judgment a mould or pattern according to which men's lives are to be conformed4 ,there can be no question but that1 in that teaching as set forth in ,scripture1 there does lie the mightiest formative power for shaping our lives1 and emancipating us from our evil4 ,christ is the type1 the mould into which men are to be cast4 ,the ,gospel1 as presented in ,scripture1 gives us three things4 ,it gives us the perfect mould2 it gives us the perfect motive2 it gives us the perfect power4 ,and in all three things appears its distinctive glory1 apart from and above all other systems that have ever tried to affect the conduct or to mould the character of man4 ,in ,jesus ,christ we have in due combination1 in perfect proportion1 all the possible excellences of humanity4 ,as in other cases of perfect symmetry1 the very precision of the balanced proportions detracts from the apparent magnitude of the statue or of the fair building1 so to a superficial eye there is but little beauty there that we should desire ,him1 but as we learn to know ,him1 and live nearer to ,him1 and get more familiar with all ,his sweetness1 and with all ,his power1 ,he towers before us in ever greater and yet never repellent or exaggerated magnitude1 and never loses the reality of ,his brotherhood in the completeness of ,his perfection4 ,we have in the ,christ the one type1 the one mould and pattern for all striving1 the 'glass of form1' the perfect ,man4 ,and that likeness is not reproduced in us by pressure or by a blow1 but by the slow and blessed process of gazing until we become like1 beholding the glory until we are changed into the glory4 ,it is no use having a mould and metal unless you have a fire4 ,it is no use having a perfect ,pattern unless you have a motive to copy it4 ,men do not go to the devil for want of examples2 and morality is not at a low ebb by reason of ignorance of what the true type of life is4 ,but nowhere but in the full-orbed teaching of the ,new ,testament will you find a motive strong enough to melt down all the obstinate hardness of the 'northern iron' of the human will1 and to make it plastic to ,his hand4 ,if we can say1 ',he loved me and gave ,himself for me' then the sum of all morality1 the old commandment that 'ye love one another' receives a new stringency1 and a fresh motive as well as a deepened interpretation1 when ,his love is our pattern4 ,the one thing that will make men willing to be like ,christ is their faith that ,christ is their ,sacrifice and their ,saviour4 ,and sure ,i am of this1 that no form of mutilated ,christianity1 which leaves out or falteringly proclaims the truth that ,christ died on the ,cross for the sins of the world1 will ever generate heat enough to mould men's wills1 or kindle motives powerful enough to lead to a life of growing imitation of and resemblance to ,him4 ,the dial may be all right1 the hours most accurately marked in their proper places1 every minute registered on the circle1 the hands may be all right1 delicately fashioned1 truly poised1 but if there is no main-spring inside1 dial and hands are of little use1 and a ,christianity which says1 ',christ is the ,teacher2 do you obey ,him8' is as impotent as the dial face with the broken main-spring4 ,what we need1 and what1 thank ,god1 in 'the teaching' we have1 is the pattern brought near to us1 and the motive for imitating the pattern1 set in motion by the great thought1 ',he loved me and gave ,himself for me4' ,still further1 the teaching is a power to fashion life1 inasmuch as it brings with it a gift which secures the transformation of the believer into the likeness of his ,lord4 ,part of 'the teaching' is the fact of ,pentecost2 part of the teaching is the fact of the ,ascension2 and the consequence of the ,ascension and the sure promise of the ,pentecost is that all who love ,him1 and wait upon ,him1 shall receive into their hearts the ',spirit of life in ,christ ,jesus' which shall make them free from the law of sin and death4 ,so1 dear friends1 on the one hand1 let us remember that our religion is meant to work1 that we have nothing in our creed that should not be in our character1 that all our credenda are to be our agenda2 everything believed to be something done2 and that if we content ourselves with the simple acceptance of the teaching1 and make no effort to translate that teaching into life1 we are hypocrites or self-deceivers4 ,and1 on the other hand1 do not let us forget that religion is the soul of which morality is the body1 and that it is impossible in the nature of things that you shall ever get a true1 lofty1 moral life which is not based upon religion4 ,i do not say that men cannot be sure of the outlines of their duty without ,christianity1 though ,i am free to confess that ,i think it is a very maimed and shabby version of human duty1 which is supplied1 minus the special revelation of that duty which ,christianity makes2 but my point is1 that the knowledge will not work without the ,gospel4 ,the ,christian type of character is a distinct and manifestly separate thing from the pagan heroism or from the virtues and the righteousnesses of other systems4 ,just as the musician's ear can tell1 by half a dozen bars1 whether that strain was ,beethoven's1 or ,handel's1 or ,mendelssohn's1 just as the trained eye can see ,raffaelle's magic in every touch of his pencil1 so ,christ1 the ,teacher1 has a style2 and all the scholars of ,his school carry with them a certain mark which tells where they got their education and who is their ,master1 if they are scholars indeed4 ,and that leads me to the last word4 ,,iii4 ,this mould demands obedience4 ,by the very necessity of things it is so4 ,if the 'teaching' was but a teaching of abstract truths it would be enough to assent to them4 ,i believe that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles1 and ,i have done my duty by that proposition when ,i have said ',yes6 it is so4' ,but the 'teaching' which ,jesus ,christ gives and is1 needs a good deal more than that4 ,by the very nature of the teaching1 assent drags after it submission4 ,you can please yourself whether you let ,jesus ,christ into your minds or not1 but if you do let ,him in1 ,he will be ,master4 ,there is no such thing as taking ,him in and not obeying4 ,and so the requirement of the ,gospel which we call faith has in it quite as much of the element of obedience as of the element of trust4 ,and the presence of that element is just what makes the difference between a sham and a real faith4 ',faith which has not works is dead1 being alone4' ,a faith which is all trust and no obedience is neither trust nor obedience4 ,and that is why so many of us do not care to yield ourselves to the faith that is in ,jesus ,christ4 ,if it simply came to us and said1 ',if you will trust ,me you will get pardon1' ,i fancy there would be a good many more of us honest ,christians than are so4 ,but ,christ comes and says1 ',trust ,me1 follow ,me1 and take ,me for your ,master2 and be like ,me1' and one's will kicks1 and one's passions recoil1 and a thousand of the devil's servants within us prick their ears up and stiffen their backs in remonstrance and opposition4 ',submit' is ,christ's first word2 submit by faith1 submit in love4 ,that heart obedience1 which is the requirement of ,christianity1 means freedom4 ,the ,apostle draws a wonderful contrast in the context between the slavery to lust and sin1 and the freedom which comes from obedience to ,god and to righteousness4 ,obey the ,truth1 and the ,truth1 in your obeying1 shall make you free1 for freedom is the willing submission to the limitations which are best4 ',i will walk at liberty for ,i keep ,thy precepts4' ,take ,christ for your ,master1 and1 being ,his servants1 you are your own masters1 and the world's to boot4 ,for 'all things are yours if ye are ,christ's4' ,refuse to bow your necks to that yoke which is easy1 and to take upon your shoulders that burden which is light1 and you do not buy liberty1 though you buy licentiousness1 for you become the slaves and downtrodden vassals of the world and the flesh and the devil1 and while you promise yourselves liberty1 you become the bondsmen of corruption4 ,oh6 then1 let us obey from the heart that mould of teaching to which we are delivered1 and so obeying1 we shall be free indeed4 ',,thy ,,free ,,spirit' ',the law of the ,spirit of life in ,christ ,jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death4'--,,romans viii4 #b4 ,we have to distinguish two meanings of law4 ,in the stricter sense1 it signifies the authoritative expressions of the will of a ruler proposed for the obedience of man2 in the wider1 almost figurative sense1 it means nothing more than the generalised expression of constant similar facts4 ,for instance1 objects attract one another in certain circumstances with a force which in the same circumstances is always the same4 ,when that fact is stated generally1 we get the law of gravitation4 ,thus the word comes to mean little more than a regular process4 ,in our text the word is used in a sense much nearer the latter than the former of these two4 ',the law of sin and of death' cannot mean a series of commandments2 it certainly does not mean the ,mosaic law4 ,it must either be entirely figurative1 taking sin and death as two great tyrants who domineer over men2 or it must mean the continuous action of these powers1 the process by which they work4 ,these two come substantially to the same idea4 ,the law of sin and of death describes a certain constancy of operation1 uniform and fixed1 under the dominion of which men are struggling4 ,but there is another constancy of operation1 uniform and fixed too1 a mighty antagonistic power1 which frees from the dominion of the former3 it is 'the law of the ,spirit of life in ,christ ,jesus4' ,i4 ,the bondage4 ,the ,apostle is speaking about himself as he was1 and we have our own consciousness to verify his transcript of his own personal experience4 ,paul had found that1 by an inexorable iron sequence1 sin worked in himself the true death of the soul1 in separation from ,god1 in the extinction of good and noble capacities1 in the atrophying of all that was best in himself1 in the death of joy and peace4 ,and this iron sequence he1 with an eloquent paradox1 calls a 'law1' though its very characteristic is that it is lawless transgression of the true law of humanity4 ,he so describes it1 partly1 because he would place emphasis on its dominion over us4 ,sin rules with iron sway2 men madly obey it1 and even when they think themselves free1 are under a bitter tyranny4 ,further1 he desires to emphasise the fact that sin and death are parts of one process which operates constantly and uniformly4 ,this dark anarchy and wild chaos of disobedience and transgression has its laws4 ,all happens there according to rule4 ,rigid and inevitable as the courses of the stars1 or the fall of the leaf from the tree1 is sin hurrying on to its natural goal in death4 ,in this fatal dance1 sin leads in death2 the one fair spoken and full of dazzling promises1 the other in the end throws off the mask1 and slays4 ,it is true of all who listen to the tempting voice1 and the deluded victim 'knows not that the dead are there1 and that her guests are in the depth of hell4' ,,ii4 ,the method of deliverance4 ,the previous chapter sounded the depths of human impotence1 and showed the tragic impossibility of human efforts to strip off the poisoned garment4 ,here the ,apostle tells the wonderful story of how he himself was delivered1 in the full rejoicing confidence that what availed for his emancipation would equally avail for every captived soul4 ,because he himself has experienced a divine power which breaks the dreadful sequence of sin and of death1 he knows that every soul may share in the experience4 ,no mere outward means will be sufficient to emancipate a spirit2 no merely intellectual methods will avail to set free the passions and desires which have been captured by sin4 ,it is vain to seek deliverance from a perverted will by any republication1 however emphatic1 of a law of duty4 ,nothing can touch the necessities of the case but a gift of power which becomes an abiding influence in us1 and develops a mightier energy to overcome the evil tendencies of a sinful soul4 ,that communicated power must impart life4 ,nothing short of a ,spirit of life1 quick and powerful1 with an immortal and intense energy1 will avail to meet the need4 ,such a ,spirit must give the life which it possesses1 must quicken and bring into action dormant powers in the spirit that it would free4 ,it must implant new energies and directions1 new motives1 desires1 tastes1 and tendencies4 ,it must bring into play mightier attractions to neutralise and deaden existing ones2 as when to some chemical compound a substance is added which has a stronger affinity for one of the elements1 a new thing is made4 ,paul's experience1 which he had a right to cast into general terms and potentially to extend to all mankind1 had taught him that such a new life for such a spirit had come to him by union with ,jesus ,christ4 ,such a union1 deep and mystical as it is1 is1 thank ,god1 an experience universal in all true ,christians1 and constitutes the very heart of the ,gospel which ,paul rejoiced to believe was entrusted to his hands for the world4 ,his great message of ',christ in us' has been wofully curtailed and mangled when his other message of ',christ for us' has been taken1 as it too often has been1 to be the whole of his ,gospel4 ,they who take either of these inseparable elements to be the whole1 rend into two imperfect halves the perfect oneness of the ,gospel of ,christ4 ,we are often told that ,paul was the true author of ,christian doctrine1 and are bidden to go back from him to ,jesus4 ,if we do so1 we hear ,his grave sweet voice uttering in the upper-room the deep words1 ',i am the ,vine1 ye are the branches'2 and1 surely1 ,paul is but repeating1 without metaphor1 what ,christ1 once for all1 set forth in that lovely emblem1 when he says that 'the law of the ,spirit of life in ,christ ,jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death4' ,the branches in their multitude make the ,vine in its unity1 and the sap which rises from the deep root through the brown stem1 passes to every tremulous leaf1 and brings bloom and savour into every cluster4 ,jesus drew ,his emblem from the noblest form of vegetative life2 ,paul1 in other places1 draws his from the highest form of bodily life1 when he points to the many members in one body1 and the ,head which governs all1 and says1 ',so also is ,christ4' ,in another place he points to the noblest form of earthly love and unity4 ,the blessed fellowship and sacred oneness of husband and wife are an emblem sweet1 though inadequate1 of the fellowship in love and unity of spirit between ,christ and ,his ,church4 ,and all this mysterious oneness of life has an intensely practical side4 ,in ,jesus1 and by union with ,him1 we receive a power that delivers from sin and arrests the stealthy progress of sin's follower1 death4 ,love to ,him1 the result of fellowship with ,him1 and the consequence of life received from ,him1 becomes the motive which makes the redeemed heart delight to do ,his will1 and takes all the power out of every temptation4 ,we are in ,him1 and ,he in us1 on condition1 and by means1 of our humble faith2 and because my faith thus knits me to ,him it is 'the victory that overcomes the world' and breaks the chains of many sins4 ,so this communion with ,jesus ,christ is the way by which we shall increase that triumphant spiritual life1 which is the only victorious antagonist of the else inevitable consequence which declares that the 'soul that sinneth it shall die1' and die even in sinning4 ,,iii4 ,the process of the deliverance4 ,following the ,r4,v4 we read 'made me free1' not 'hath made me4' ,the reference is obviously1 as the ,greek more clearly shows1 to a single historical event1 which some would take to be the ,apostle's baptism1 but which is more properly supposed to be his conversion4 ,his strong bold language here does not mean that he claims to be sinless4 ,the emancipation is effected1 although it is but begun4 ,he holds that at that moment when ,jesus appeared to him on the road to ,damascus1 and he yielded to ,him as ,lord1 his deliverance was real1 though not complete4 ,he was conscious of a real change of position in reference to that law of sin and of death4 ,paul distinguishes between the true self and the accumulation of selfish and sensual habits which make up so much of ourselves4 ,the deeper and purer self may be vitalised in will and heart1 and set free even while the emancipation is not worked out in the life4 ,the parable of the leaven applies in the individual renewal2 and there is no fanaticism1 and no harm1 in ,paul's point of view1 if only it be remembered that sins by which passion and externals overbear my better self are mine in responsibility and in consequences4 ,thus guarded1 we may be wholly right in thinking of all the evils which still cleave to the renewed ,christian soul as not being part of it1 but destined to drop away4 ,and this bold declaration is to be vindicated as a prophetic confidence in the supremacy and ultimate dominion of the new power which works even through much antagonism in an imperfect ,christian4 ,paul1 too1 calls 'things that are not as though they were4' ,if my spirit of life is the ',spirit of life in ,christ1' it will go on to perfection4 ,it is ,spirit1 therefore it is informing and conquering the material2 it is a divine ,spirit1 therefore it is omnipotent2 it is the ,spirit of life1 leading in and imparting life like itself1 which is kindred with it and is its source2 it is the ,spirit of life in ,christ1 therefore leading to life like ,his1 bringing us to conformity with ,him because the same causes produce the same effects2 it is a life in ,christ having a law and regular orderly course of development4 ,so1 just as if we have the germ we may hope for fruit1 and can see the infantile oak in the tightly-shut acorn1 or in the egg the creature which shall afterwards grow there1 we have in this gift of the ,spirit1 the victory4 ,if we have the cause1 we have the effects implicitly folded in it2 and we have but to wait further development4 ,the ,christian life is to be one long effort1 partial1 and gradual1 to unfold the freedom possessed4 ,paul knew full well that his emancipation was not perfect4 ,it was1 probably1 after this triumphant expression of confidence that he wrote1 ',not as though ,i had already attained1 either were already perfect4' ,the first stage is the gift of power1 the appropriation and development of that power is the work of a life2 and it ought to pass through a well-marked series and cycle of growing changes4 ,the way to develop it is by constant application to the source of all freedom1 the life-giving ,spirit1 and by constant effort to conquer sins and temptations4 ,there is no such thing in the ,christian conflict as a painless development4 ,we must mortify the deeds of the body if we are to live in the ,spirit4 ,the ,christian progress has in it the nature of a crucifixion4 ,it is to be effort1 steadily directed for the sake of ,christ1 and in the joy of ,his ,spirit1 to destroy sin1 and to win practical holiness4 ,homely moralities are the outcome and the test of all pretensions to spiritual communion4 ,we are1 further1 to perfect holiness in the fear of the ,lord1 by 'waiting for the ,redemption1' which is not merely passive waiting1 but active expectation1 as of one who stretches out a welcoming hand to an approaching friend4 ,nor must we forget that this accomplished deliverance is but partial whilst upon earth4 ',the body is dead because of sin1 but the spirit is life because of righteousness4' ,but there may be indefinite approximation to complete deliverance4 ,the metaphors in ,scripture under which ,christian progress is described1 whether drawn from a conflict or a race1 or from a building1 or from the growth of a tree1 all suggest the idea of constant advance against hindrances1 which yet1 constant though it is1 does not reach the goal here4 ,and this is our noblest earthly condition--not to be pure1 but to be tending towards it and conscious of impurity4 ,hence our tempers should be those of humility1 strenuous effort1 firm hope4 ,we are as slaves who have escaped1 but are still in the wilderness1 with the enemies' dogs baying at our feet2 but we shall come to the land of freedom1 on whose sacred soil sin and death can never tread4 ,,christ ,,condemning ,,sin ',for what the law could not do1 in that it was weak through the flesh1 ,god sending ,his own ,son in the likeness of sinful flesh1 and for sin1 condemned sin in the flesh4'--,,romans viii4 #c4 ,in the first verse of this chapter we read that ',there is no condemnation to them that are in ,christ ,jesus4' ,the reason of that is1 that they are set free from the terrible sequence of cause and effect which constitutes 'the law of sin and death'2 and the reason why they are freed from that awful sequence by the power of ,christ is1 because ,he has 'condemned sin in the flesh4' ,the occurrence of the two words 'condemnation' 7ver4 #a7 and 'condemned' 7ver4 #c7 should be noted4 ,sin is personified as dwelling in the flesh1 which expression here means1 not merely the body1 but unregenerate human nature4 ,he has made his fortress there1 and rules over it all4 ,the strong man keeps his house and his goods are in peace4 ,he laughs to scorn the attempts of laws and moralities of all sorts to cast him out4 ,his dominion is death to the human nature over which he tyrannises4 ,condemnation is inevitable to the men over whom he rules4 ,they or he must perish4 ,if he escape they die4 ,if he could be slain they might live4 ,christ comes1 condemns the tyrant1 and casts him out4 ,so1 he being condemned1 we are acquitted2 and he being slain there is no death for us4 ,let us try to elucidate a little further this great metaphor by just pondering the two points prominent in it--,sin tyrannising over human nature and resisting all attempts to overcome it1 and ,christ's condemnation and casting out of the tyrant4 ,i4 ,sin tyrannising over human nature1 and resisting all attempts to overcome it4 ,paul is generalising his own experience when he speaks of the condemnation of an intrusive alien force that holds unregenerate human nature in bondage4 ,he is writing a page of his own autobiography1 and he is sure that all the rest of us have like pages in ours4 ,heart answereth unto heart as in a mirror4 ,if each man is a unity1 the poison must run through all his veins and affect his whole nature4 ,will1 understanding1 heart1 must all be affected and each in its own way by the intruder2 and if men are a collective whole1 each man's experience is repeated in his brother's4 ,the ,apostle is equally transcribing his own experience when in the text he sadly admits the futility of all efforts to shake the dominion of sin4 ,he has found in his own case that even the loftiest revelation in the ,mosaic law utterly fails in the attempt to condemn sin4 ,this is true not only in regard to the ,mosaic law but in regard to the law of conscience1 and to moral teachings of any kind4 ,it is obvious that all such laws do condemn sin in the sense that they solemnly declare ,god's judgment about it1 and ,his sentence on it2 but in the sense of real condemnation1 or casting out1 and depriving sin of its power1 they all are impotent4 ,the law may deter from overt acts or lead to isolated acts of obedience2 it may stir up antagonism to sin's tyranny1 but after that it has no more that it can do4 ,it cannot give the purity which it proclaims to be necessary1 nor create the obedience which it enjoins4 ,its thunders roll terrors1 and no fruitful rain follows them to soften the barren soil4 ,there always remains an unbridged gulf between the man and the law4 ,and this is what ,paul points to in saying that it 'was weak through the flesh4' ,it is good in itself1 but it has to work through the sinful nature4 ,the only powers to which it can appeal are those which are already in rebellion4 ,a discrowned king whose only forces to conquer his rebellious subjects are the rebels themselves1 is not likely to regain his crown4 ,because law brings no new element into our humanity1 its appeal to our humanity has little more effect than that of the wind whistling through an archway4 ,it appeals to conscience and reason by a plain declaration of what is right2 to will and understanding by an exhibition of authority2 to fears and prudence by plainly setting forth consequences4 ,but what is to be done with men who know what is right but have no wish to do it1 who believe that they ought but will not1 who know the consequences but 'choose rather the pleasures of sin for a season1' and shuffle the future out of their minds altogether8 ,this is the essential weakness of all law4 ,the tyrant is not afraid so long as there is no one threatening his reign1 but the unarmed herald of a discrowned king4 ,his citadel will not surrender to the blast of the trumpet blown from ,sinai4 ,,ii4 ,christ's condemnation and casting out of the tyrant4 ,the ,apostle points to a triple condemnation4 ',in the likeness of sinful flesh1' ,jesus condemns sin by ,his own perfect life4 ,that phrase1 'the likeness of the flesh of sin1' implies the real humanity of ,jesus1 and ,his perfect sinlessness2 and suggests the first way in which ,he condemns sin in the flesh4 ,in ,his life ,he repeats the law in a higher fashion4 ,what the one spoke in words the other realised in 'loveliness of perfect deeds'2 and all men own that example is the mightiest preacher of righteousness1 and that active goodness draws to itself reverence and sways men to imitate4 ,but that life lived in human nature gives a new hope of the possibilities of that nature even in us4 ,the dream of perfect beauty 'in the flesh' has been realised4 ,what the ,man ,christ ,jesus was1 ,he was that we may become4 ,in the very flesh in which the tyrant rules1 ,jesus shows the possibility and the loveliness of a holy life4 ,but this1 much as it is1 is not all4 ,there is another way in which ,christ condemns sin in the flesh1 and that is by ,his perfect sacrifice4 ,to this also ,paul points in the phrase1 'the flesh of sin4' ,the example of which we have been speaking is much1 but it is weak for the very same reason for which law is weak--that it operates only through our nature as it is2 and that is not enough4 ,sin's hold on man is twofold--one that it has perverted his relation to ,god1 and another that it has corrupted his nature4 ,hence there is in him a sense of separation from ,god and a sense of guilt4 ,both of these not only lead to misery1 but positively tend to strengthen the dominion of sin4 ,the leader of the mutineers keeps them true to him by reminding them that the mutiny laws decree death without mercy4 ,guilt felt may drive to desperation and hopeless continuance in wrong4 ,the cry1 ',i am so bad that it is useless to try to be better1' is often heard4 ,guilt stifled leads to hardening of heart1 and sometimes to desire and riot4 ,guilt slurred over by some easy process of absolution may lead to further sin4 ,similarly separation from ,god is the root of all evil1 and thoughts of ,him as hard and an enemy1 always lead to sin4 ,so if the power of sin in the past must be cancelled1 the sense of guilt must be removed1 and the wall of partition between man and ,god thrown down4 ,what can law answer to such a demand8 ,it is silent2 it can only say1 ',what is written is written4' ,it has no word to speak that promises 'the blotting out of the handwriting that is against us'2 and through its silence one can hear the mocking laugh of the tyrant that keeps his castle4 ,but ,christ has come 'for sin'2 that is to say ,his ,incarnation and ,death had relation to1 and had it for their object to remove1 human sin4 ,he comes to blot out the evil1 to bring ,god's pardon4 ,the recognition of ,his sacrifice supplies the adequate motive to copy ,his example1 and they who see in ,his death ,god's sacrifice for man's sin1 cannot but yield themselves to ,him1 and find in obedience a delight4 ,love kindled at ,his love makes likeness and transmutes the outward law into an inward 'spirit of life in ,christ ,jesus4' ,still another way by which ,god 'condemns sin in the flesh' is pointed to by the remaining phrase of our text1 'sending ,his own ,son4' ,in the beginning of this epistle ,jesus is spoken of as 'being declared to be the ,son of ,god with power according to the ,spirit of holiness'2 and we must connect that saying with our text1 and so think of ,christ's bestowal of ,his perfect gift to humanity of the ,spirit which sanctifies as being part of ,his condemnation of sin in the flesh4 ,into the very region where the tyrant rules1 the ,son of ,god communicates a new nature which constitutes a real new power4 ,the ,spirit operates on all our faculties1 and redeems them from the bondage of corruption4 ,all the springs in the land are poisoned2 but a new one1 limpid and pure1 is opened4 ,by the entrance of the ,spirit of holiness into a human spirit1 the usurper is driven from the central fortress3 and though he may linger in the outworks and keep up a guerilla warfare1 that is all that he can do4 ,we never truly apprehend ,christ's gift to man until we recognise that ,he not merely 'died for our sins1' but lives to impart the principle of holiness in the gift of ,his ,spirit4 ,the dominion of that imparted ,spirit is gradual and progressive4 ,the ,canaanite may still be in the land1 but a growing power1 working in and through us1 is warring against all in us that still owns allegiance to that alien power1 and there can be no end to the victorious struggle until the whole body1 soul1 and spirit1 be wholly under the influence of the ,spirit that dwelleth in us1 and nothing shall hurt or destroy in what shall then be all ,god's holy mountain4 ,such is1 in the most general terms1 the statement of what ,christ does 'for us'2 and the question comes to be the all-important one for each1 ,do ,i let ,him do it for me8 ,remember the alternative4 ,there must either be condemnation for us1 or for the sin that dwelleth in us4 ,there is no condemnation for them who are in ,christ ,jesus1 because there is condemnation for the sin that dwells in them4 ,it must he slain1 or it will slay us4 ,it must be cast out1 or it will cast us out from ,god4 ,it must be separated from us1 or it will separate us from ,him4 ,we need not be condemned1 but if it be not condemned1 then we shall be4 ,,the ,,witness ,,of ,,the ,,spirit ',the ,spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit1 that we are the children of ,god4'--,,romans viii4 #ah4 ,the sin of the world is a false confidence1 a careless1 complacent taking for granted that a man is a ,christian when he is not4 ,the fault1 and sorrow1 and weakness of the ,church is a false diffidence1 an anxious fear whether a man be a ,christian when he is4 ,there are none so far away from false confidence as those who tremble lest they be cherishing it4 ,there are none so inextricably caught in its toils as those who are all unconscious of its existence and of their danger4 ,the two things1 the false confidence and the false diffidence1 are perhaps more akin to one another than they look at first sight4 ,their opposites1 at all events--the true confidence1 which is faith in ,christ2 and the true diffidence1 which is utter distrust of myself--are identical4 ,but there may sometimes be1 and there often is1 the combination of a real confidence and a false diffidence1 the presence of faith1 and the doubt whether it be present4 ,many ,christians go through life with this as the prevailing temper of their minds--a doubt sometimes arising almost to agony1 and sometimes dying down into passive patient acceptance of the condition as inevitable--a doubt whether1 after all1 they be not1 as they say1 'deceiving themselves'2 and in the perverse ingenuity with which that state of mind is constantly marked1 they manage to distil for themselves a bitter vinegar of self-accusation out of grand words in the ,bible1 that were meant to afford them but the wine of gladness and of consolation4 ,now this great text which ,i have ventured to take--not with the idea that ,i can exalt it or say anything worthy of it1 but simply in the hope of clearing away some misapprehensions--is one that has often and often tortured the mind of ,christians4 ,they say of themselves1 ',i know nothing of any such evidence3 ,i am not conscious of any ,spirit bearing witness with my spirit4' ,instead of looking to other sources to answer the question whether they are ,christians or not--and then1 having answered it1 thinking thus1 ',that text asserts that all ,christians have this witness1 therefore certainly ,i have it in some shape or other1' they say to themselves1 ',i do not feel anything that corresponds with my idea of what such a grand1 supernatural voice as the witness of ,god's ,spirit in my spirit must needs be2 and therefore ,i doubt whether ,i am a ,christian at all4' ,i should be thankful if the attempt ,i make now to set before you what seems to me to be the true teaching of the passage1 should be1 with ,god's help1 the means of lifting some little part of the burden from some hearts that are right1 and that only long to know that they are1 in order to be at rest4 ',the ,spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit1 that we are the children of ,god4' ,the general course of thought which ,i wish to leave with you may be summed up thus3 ,our cry ',father' is the witness that we are sons4 ,that cry is not simply ours1 but it is the voice of ,god's ,spirit4 ,the divine ,witness in our spirits is subject to the ordinary influences which affect our spirits4 ,let us take these three thoughts1 and dwell on them for a little while4 ,i4 ,our cry ',father' is the witness that we are sons4 ,mark the terms of the passage3 ',the ,spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit--4' ,it is not so much a revelation made to my spirit1 considered as the recipient of the testimony1 as a revelation made in or with my spirit considered as co-operating in the testimony4 ,it is not that my spirit says one thing1 bears witness that ,i am a child of ,god2 and that the ,spirit of ,god comes in by a distinguishable process1 with a separate evidence1 to say ,amen to my persuasion2 but it is that there is one testimony which has a conjoint origin--the origin from the ,spirit of ,god as true source1 and the origin from my own soul as recipient and co-operant in that testimony4 ,from the teaching of this passage1 or from any of the language which ,scripture uses with regard to the inner witness1 it is not to be inferred that there will rise up in a ,christian's heart1 from some origin consciously beyond the sphere of his own nature1 a voice with which he has nothing to do2 which at once1 by its own character1 by something peculiar and distinguishable about it1 by something strange in its nature1 or out of the ordinary course of human thinking1 shall certify itself to be not his voice at all1 but ,god's voice4 ,that is not the direction in which you are to look for the witness of ,god's ,spirit4 ,it is evidence borne1 indeed1 by the ,spirit of ,god2 but it is evidence borne not only to our spirit1 but through it1 with it4 ,the testimony is one1 the testimony of a man's own emotion1 and own conviction1 and own desire1 the cry1 ,abba1 ,father6 ,so far1 then1 as the form of the evidence goes1 you are not to look for it in anything ecstatic1 arbitrary1 parted off from your own experience by a broad line of demarcation2 but you are to look into the experience which at first sight you would claim most exclusively for your own1 and to try and find out whether there there be not working with your soul1 working through it1 working beneath it1 distinct from it but not distinguishable from it by anything but its consequences and its fruitfulness--a deeper voice than yours--a 'still small voice1'--no whirlwind1 nor fire1 nor earthquake--but the voice of ,god speaking in secret1 taking the voice and tones of your own heart and your own consciousness1 and saying to you1 ',thou art my child1 inasmuch as1 operated by ,my grace1 and ,mine inspiration alone1 there rises1 tremblingly but truly1 in thine own soul the cry1 ,abba1 ,father4' ,so much1 then1 for the form of this evidence--my own conviction4 ,then with regard to the substance of it3 conviction of what8 ,the text itself does not tell us what is the evidence which the ,spirit bears1 and by reason of which we have a right to conclude that we are the children of ,god4 ,the previous verse tells us4 ,i have partially anticipated what ,i have to say on that point1 but it will bear a little further expansion4 ',ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear2 but ye have received the ,spirit of adoption1 whereby we cry ,abba1 ,father4' ',the ,spirit itself1' by this means of our cry1 ,abba1 ,father1 'beareth witness with our spirit1 that we are the children of ,god4' ,the substance1 then1 of the conviction which is lodged in the human spirit by the testimony of the ,spirit of ,god is not primarily directed to our relation or feelings to ,god1 but to a far grander thing than that--to ,god's feelings and relation to us4 ,now ,i want you to think for one moment1 before ,i pass on1 how entirely different the whole aspect of this witness of the ,spirit of which ,christian men speak so much1 and sometimes with so little understanding1 becomes according as you regard it mistakenly as being the direct testimony to you that you are a child of ,god1 or rightly as being the direct testimony to you that ,god is your ,father4 ,the two things seem to be the same1 but they are not4 ,in the one case1 the false case1 the mistaken interpretation1 we are left to this1 that a man has no deeper certainty of his condition1 no better foundation for his hope1 than what is to be drawn from the presence or absence of certain emotions within his own heart4 ,in the other case1 we are admitted into this 'wide place1' that all which is our own is second and not first1 and that the true basis of all our confidence lies not in the thought of what we are and feel to ,god1 but in the thought of what ,god is and feels to us4 ,and instead1 therefore1 of being left to labour for ourselves1 painfully to search amongst the dust and rubbish of our own hearts1 we are taught to sweep away all that crumbled1 rotten surface1 and to go down to the living rock that lies beneath it2 we are taught to say1 in the words of the book of ,isaiah1 ',doubtless ,thou art our ,father--we are all an unclean thing2 our iniquities1 like the wind1 have carried us away'2 there is nothing stable in us2 our own resolutions1 they are swept away like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor1 by the first gust of temptation2 but what of that8--'in those is continuance1 and we shall be saved6' ,ah1 brethren6 expand this thought of the conviction that ,god is my ,father1 as being the basis of all my confidence that ,i am ,his child1 into its widest and grandest form1 and it leads us up to the blessed old conviction1 ,i am nothing1 my holiness is nothing1 my resolutions are nothing1 my faith is nothing1 my energies are nothing2 ,i stand stripped1 and barren1 and naked of everything1 and ,i fling myself out of myself into the merciful arms of my ,father in heaven6 ,there is all the difference in the world between searching for evidence of my sonship1 and seeking to get the conviction of ,god's ,fatherhood4 ,the one is an endless1 profitless1 self-tormenting task2 the other is the light and liberty1 the glorious liberty1 of the children of ,god4 ,and so the substance of the ,spirit's evidence is the direct conviction based on the revelation of ,god's infinite love and fatherhood in ,christ the ,son1 that ,god is my ,father2 from which direct conviction ,i come to the conclusion1 the inference1 the second thought1 ,then ,i may trust that ,i am ,his son4 ,but why8 ,because of anything in me8 ,no3 because of ,him4 ,the very emblem of fatherhood and sonship might teach us that that depends upon the ,father's will and the ,father's heart4 ,the ,spirit's testimony has for form my own conviction3 and for substance my humble cry1 ',oh ,thou1 my ,father in heaven6' ,brethren1 is not that a far truer and nobler kind of thing to preach than saying1 ,look into your own heart for strange1 extraordinary1 distinguishable signs which shall mark you out as ,god's child--and which are proved to be ,his ,spirit's1 because they are separated from the ordinary human consciousness8 ,is it not far more blessed for us1 and more honouring to ,him who works the sign1 when we say1 that it is to be found in no out-of-rule1 miraculous evidence1 but in the natural 7which is in reality supernatural7 working of ,his ,spirit in the heart which is its recipient1 breeding there the conviction that ,god is my ,father8 ,and oh1 if ,i am speaking to any to whom that text1 with all its light and glory1 has seemed to lift them up into an atmosphere too rare and a height too lofty for their heavy wings and unused feet1 if ,i am speaking to any ,christian man to whom this word has been like the cherubim and flaming sword1 bright and beautiful1 but threatening and repellent when it speaks of a ,spirit that bears witness with our spirit--,i ask you simply to take the passage for yourself1 and carefully and patiently to examine it1 and see if it be not true what ,i have been saying1 that your trembling conviction--sister and akin as it is to your deepest distrust and sharpest sense of sin and unworthiness--that your trembling conviction of a love mightier than your own1 everlasting and all-faithful1 is indeed the selectest sign that ,god can give you that you are ,his child4 ,oh1 brethren and sisters6 be confident2 for it is not false confidence3 be confident if up from the depths of that dark well of your own sinful heart there rises sometimes1 through all the bitter waters1 unpolluted and separate1 a sweet conviction1 forcing itself upward1 that ,god hath love in ,his heart1 and that ,god is my ,father4 ,be confident2 'the ,spirit itself beareth witness with your spirit4' ,,ii4 ,and now1 secondly1 ,that cry is not simply ours1 but it is the voice of ,god's ,spirit4 ,our own convictions are ours because they are ,god's4 ,our own souls possess these emotions of love and tender desire going out to ,god--our own spirits possess them2 but our own spirits did not originate them4 ,they are ours by property2 they are ,his by source4 ,the spirit of a ,christian man has no good thought in it1 no true thought1 no perception of the grace of ,god's ,gospel1 no holy desire1 no pure resolution1 which is not stamped with the sign of a higher origin1 and is not the witness of ,god's ,spirit in his spirit4 ,the passage before us tells us that the sense of ,fatherhood which is in the ,christian's heart1 and becomes his cry1 comes from ,god's ,spirit4 ,this passage1 and that in the ,epistle to the ,galatians which is almost parallel1 put this truth very forcibly1 when taken in connection4 ',ye have received1' says the text before us1 'the ,spirit of adoption1 whereby we cry1 ,abba1 ,father4' ,the variation in the ,epistle to the ,galatians is this3 ',because ye are sons1 ,god hath sent forth the ,spirit of ,his ,son into your hearts1 crying 7the ,spirit crying71 ,abba1 ,father4' ,so in the one text1 the cry is regarded as the voice of the believing heart2 and in the other the same cry is regarded as the voice of ,god's ,spirit4 ,and these two things are both true2 the one would want its foundation if it were not for the other2 the cry of the ,spirit is nothing for me unless it be appropriated by me4 ,i do not need to plunge here into metaphysical speculation of any sort1 but simply to dwell upon the plain practical teaching of the ,bible--a teaching verified1 ,i believe1 by every ,christian's experience1 if he will search into it--that everything in him which makes the ,christian life1 is not his1 but is ,god's by origin1 and his only by gift and inspiration4 ,and the whole doctrine of my text is built on this one thought--without the ,spirit of ,god in your heart1 you never can recognise ,god as your ,father4 ,that in us which runs1 with love1 and childlike faith1 and reverence1 to the place 'where ,his honour dwelleth1' that in us which says ',father1' is kindred with ,god1 and is not the simple1 unhelped1 unsanctified human nature4 ,there is no ascent of human desires above their source4 ,and wherever in a heart there springs up heavenward a thought1 a wish1 a prayer1 a trembling confidence1 it is because that came down first from heaven1 and rises to seek its level again4 ,all that is divine in man comes from ,god4 ,all that tends towards ,god in man is ,god's voice in the human heart2 and were it not for the possession and operation1 the sanctifying and quickening1 of a living divine ,spirit granted to us1 our souls would for ever cleave to the dust and dwell upon earth1 nor ever rise to ,god and live in the light of ,his presence4 ,every ,christian1 then1 may be sure of this1 that howsoever feeble may be the thought and conviction in his heart of ,god's ,fatherhood1 he did not work it1 he received it only1 cherished it1 thought of it1 watched over it1 was careful not to quench it2 but in origin it was ,god's1 and it is now and ever the voice of the ,divine ,spirit in the child's heart4 ,but1 my friends1 if this principle be true1 it does not apply only to this one single attitude of the believing soul when it cries1 ,abba1 ,father2 it must be widened out to comprehend the whole of a ,christian's life1 outward and inward1 which is not sinful and darkened with actual transgression4 ,to all the rest of his being1 to everything in heart and life which is right and pure1 the same truth applies4 ',the ,spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit' in every perception of ,god's word which is granted1 in every revelation of ,his counsel which dawns upon our darkness1 in every aspiration after ,him which lifts us above the smoke and dust of this dim spot1 in every holy resolution1 in every thrill and throb of love and desire4 ,each of these is mine--inasmuch as in my heart it is experienced and transacted2 it is mine1 inasmuch as ,i am not a mere dead piece of matter1 the passive recipient of a magical and supernatural grace2 but it is ,god's2 and therefore1 and therefore only1 has it come to be mine6 ,and if it be objected1 that this opens a wide door to all manner of delusion1 and that there is no more dangerous thing than for a man to confound his own thoughts with the operations of ,god's ,spirit1 let me just give you 7following the context before us7 the one guarantee and test which the ,apostle lays down4 ,he says1 ',there is a witness from ,god in your spirits4' ,you may say1 ,that witness1 if it come in the form of these convictions in my own heart1 ,i may mistake and falsely read4 ,well1 then1 here is an outward guarantee4 ',as many as are led by the ,spirit of ,god1 they are the sons of ,god'2 and so1 on the regions both of heart and of life the consecrating thought1--,god's work1 and ,god's ,spirit's work--is stamped4 ,the heart with its love1 the head with its understanding1 the conscience with its quick response to the law of duty1 the will with its resolutions1--these are all1 as sanctified by ,him1 the witness of ,his ,spirit2 and the life with its strenuous obedience1 with its struggles against sin and temptation1 with its patient persistence in the quiet path of ordinary duty1 as well as with the times when it rises into heroic stature of resignation or allegiance1 the martyrdom of death and the martyrdom of life1 this too is all 7in so far as it is pure and right7 the work of that same ,spirit4 ,the test of the inward conviction is the outward life2 and they that have the witness of the ,spirit within them have the light of their life lit by the ,spirit of ,god1 whereby they may read the handwriting on the heart1 and be sure that it is ,god's and not their own4 ,,iii4 ,and now1 lastly1 this divine ,witness in our spirits is subject to the ordinary influences which affect our spirits4 ,the notion often prevails that if there be in the heart this divine witness of ,god's ,spirit1 it must needs be perfect1 clearly indicating its origin by an exemption from all that besets ordinary human feelings1 that it must be a strong1 uniform1 never flickering1 never darkening1 and perpetual light1 a kind of vestal fire burning always on the altar of the heart6 ,the passage before us1 and all others that speak about the matter1 give us the directly opposite notion4 ,the ,divine ,spirit1 when it enters into the narrow room of the human spirit1 condescends to submit itself1 not wholly1 but to such an extent as practically for our present purpose is wholly to submit itself to the ordinary laws and conditions and contingencies which befall and regulate our own human nature4 ,christ came into the world divine3 ,he was 'found in fashion as a man1' in form a servant2 the humanity that ,he wore limited 7if you like71 regulated1 modified1 the manifestation of the divinity that dwelt in it4 ,and not otherwise is the operation of ,god's ,holy ,spirit when it comes to dwell in a human heart4 ,there too1 working through man1 it 'is found in fashion as a man'2 and though the origin of the conviction be of ,god1 and though the voice in my heart be not only my voice1 but ,god's voice there1 it will obey those same laws which make human thoughts and emotions vary1 and fluctuate1 flicker and flame up again1 burn bright and burn low1 according to a thousand circumstances4 ,the witness of the ,spirit1 if it were yonder in heaven1 would shine like a perpetual star2 the witness of the ,spirit1 here in the heart on earth1 burns like a flickering flame1 never to be extinguished1 but still not always bright1 wanting to be trimmed1 and needing to be guarded from rude blasts4 ,else1 brother1 what does an ,apostle mean when he says to you and me1 ',quench not the ,spirit'8 what does he mean when he says to us1 ',grieve not the ,spirit'8 ,what does the whole teaching which enjoins on us1 ',let your loins be girded about1 and your lights burning1' and ',what ,i say to you1 ,i say to all1 ,watch6' mean1 unless it means this1 that ,god-given as 7,god be thanked67 that conviction of ,fatherhood is1 it is not given in such a way as that1 irrespective of our carefulness1 irrespective of our watching1 it shall burn on--the same and unchangeable8 ,the ,spirit's witness comes from ,god1 therefore it is veracious1 divine1 omnipotent2 but the ,spirit's witness from ,god is in man1 therefore it may be wrongly read1 it may be checked1 it may for a time be kept down1 and prevented from showing itself to be what it is4 ,and the practical conclusion that comes from all this1 is just the simple advice to you all3 ,do not wonder1 in the first place1 if that evidence of which we speak1 vary and change in its clearness and force in your own hearts4 ',the flesh lusteth against the spirit1 and the spirit against the flesh4' ,do not think that it cannot be genuine1 because it is changeful4 ,there is a sun in the heavens1 but there are heavenly lights too that wax and wane2 they are lights1 they are in the heavens though they change4 ,you have no reason1 ,christian man1 to be discouraged1 cast down1 still less despondent1 because you find that the witness of the ,spirit changes and varies in your heart4 ,do not despond because it does2 watch it1 and guard it1 lest it do2 live in the contemplation of the ,person and the fact that calls it forth1 that it may not4 ,you will never 'brighten your evidences' by polishing at them4 ,to polish the mirror ever so assiduously does not secure the image of the sun on its surface4 ,the only way to do that is to carry the poor bit of glass out into the sunshine4 ,it will shine then1 never fear4 ,it is weary work to labour at self-improvement with the hope of drawing from our own characters evidences that we are the sons of ,god4 ,to have the heart filled with the light of ,christ's love to us is the only way to have the whole being full of light4 ,if you would have clear and irrefragable1 for a perpetual joy1 a glory and a defence1 the unwavering confidence1 ',i am ,thy child1' go to ,god's throne1 and lie down at the foot of it1 and let the first thought be1 ',my ,father in heaven1' and that will brighten1 that will stablish1 that will make omnipotent in your life the witness of the ,spirit that you are the child of ,god4 ,,sons ,,and ,,heirs ',if children1 then heirs2 heirs of ,god1 and joint-heirs with ,christ4'--,,romans viii4 #ag4 ,god ,himself is ,his greatest gift4 ,the loftiest blessing which we can receive is that we should be heirs1 possessors of ,god4 ,there is a sublime and wonderful mutual possession of which ,scripture speaks much wherein the ,lord is the inheritance of ,israel1 and ,israel is the inheritance of the ,lord4 ',the ,lord hath taken you to be to ,him a people of inheritance1' says ,moses2 ',ye are a people for a possession1' says ,peter4 ,and1 on the other hand1 ',the ,lord is the portion of my inheritance1' says ,david2 ',ye are heirs of ,god1' echoes ,paul4 ,on earth and in heaven the heritage of the children of the ,lord is ,god ,himself1 inasmuch as ,he is with them for their delight1 in them to make them 'partakers of the divine nature1' and for them in all ,his attributes and actions4 ,this being clearly understood at the outset1 we shall be prepared to follow the ,apostle's course of thought while he points out the conditions upon which the possession of that inheritance depends4 ,it is children of ,god who are heirs of ,god4 ,it is by union with ,christ ,jesus1 the ,son1 to whom the inheritance belongs1 that they who believe on ,his name receive power to become the sons of ,god1 and with that power the possession of the inheritance4 ,thus1 then1 in this condensed utterance of the text there appear a series of thoughts which may perhaps be more fully unfolded in some such manner as the following1 that there is no inheritance without sonship1 that there is no sonship without a spiritual birth1 that there is no spiritual birth without ,christ1 and that there is no ,christ for us without faith4 ,i4 ,first1 then1 the text tells us1 no inheritance without sonship4 ,in general terms1 spiritual blessings can only be given to those who are in a certain spiritual condition4 ,always and necessarily the capacity or organ of reception precedes and determines the bestowment of blessings4 ,the light falls everywhere1 but only the eye drinks it in4 ,the lower orders of creatures are shut out from all participation in the gifts which belong to the higher forms of life1 simply because they are so made and organised as that these cannot find entrance into their nature4 ,they are1 as it were1 walled up all round2 and the only door they have to communicate with the outer world is the door of sense4 ,man has higher gifts simply because he has higher capacities4 ,all creatures are plunged in the same boundless ocean of divine beneficence and bestowment1 and into each there flows just that1 and no more1 which each1 by the make and constitution that ,god has given it1 is capable of receiving4 ,in the man there are more windows and doors opened out than in the animal ,he is capable of receiving intellectual impulses1 spiritual emotions2 he can think1 and feel1 and desire1 and will1 and resolve3 and so he stands on a higher level than the beast below him4 ,not otherwise is it in regard to ,god's kingdom1 'which is righteousness1 and peace1 and joy in the ,holy ,ghost4' ,the gift and blessing of salvation is primarily a spiritual gift1 and only involves outward consequences secondarily and subordinately4 ,it mainly consists in the heart being at peace with ,god1 in the whole soul being filled with divine affections1 in the weight and bondage of transgression being taken away1 and substituted by the impulse and the life of the new love4 ,therefore1 neither ,god can give1 nor man can receive1 that gift upon any other terms1 than just this1 that the heart and nature be fitted and adapted for it4 ,spiritual blessings require a spiritual capacity for the reception of them2 or1 as my text says1 you cannot have the inheritance unless you are sons4 ,if salvation consisted simply in a change of place2 if it were merely that by some expedient or arrangement1 an outward penalty1 which was to fall or not to fall at the will of an arbitrary judge1 were prevented from coming down1 why then1 it would be open to ,him who held the power of letting the sword fall1 to decide on what terms ,he might choose to suspend its infliction4 ,but inasmuch as ,god's deliverance is not a deliverance from a mere arbitrary and outward punishment3 inasmuch as ,god's salvation1 though it be deliverance from the penalty as well as from the guilt of sin1 is by no means chiefly a deliverance from outward consequences1 but mainly a removal of the nature and disposition that makes these outward consequences certain1--therefore a man cannot be saved1 ,god's love cannot save him1 ,god's justice will not save him1 ,god's power stands back from saving him1 upon any other condition than this that his soul shall be adapted and prepared for the reception and enjoyment of the blessing of a spiritual salvation4 ,but the inheritance which my text speaks about is also that which a ,christian hopes to receive and enter upon in heaven4 ,the same principle precisely applies there4 ,there is no inheritance of heaven without sonship2 because all the blessings of that future life are of a spiritual character4 ,the joy and the rapture and the glory of that higher and better life have1 of course1 connected with them certain changes of bodily form1 certain changes of local dwelling1 certain changes which could perhaps be granted equally to a man1 of whatever sort he was4 ,but1 friends1 it is not the golden harps1 not the pavement of 'glass mingled with fire1' not the cessation from work1 not the still composure1 and changeless indwelling1 not the society even1 that makes the heaven of heaven4 ,all these are but the embodiments and rendering visible of the inward facts1 a soul at peace with ,god in the depths of its being1 an eye which gazes upon the ,father1 and a heart which wraps itself in ,his arms4 ,heaven is no heaven except in so far as it is the possession of ,god4 ,that saying of the ,psalmist is not an exaggeration1 nor even a forgetting of the other elements of future blessedness1 but it is a simple statement of the literal fact of the case1 ',i have none in heaven but ,thee6' ,god is the heritage of ,his people4 ,to dwell in ,his love1 and to be filled with ,his light1 and to walk for ever in the glory of ,his sunlit face1 to do ,his will1 and to bear ,his character stamped upon our foreheads--that is the glory and the perfectness to which we are aspiring4 ,do not then rest in the symbols that show us1 darkly and far off1 what that future glory is4 ,do not forget that the picture is a shadow4 ,get beneath all these figurative expressions1 and feel that whilst it may be true that for us in our present earthly state1 there can be no higher1 no purer1 no more spiritual nor any truer representations of the blessedness which is to come1 than those which couch it in the forms of earthly experience1 and appeal to sense as the minister of delight--yet that all these things are representations1 and not adequate presentations4 ,the inheritance of the servants of the ,lord is the ,lord ,himself1 and they dwell in ,him1 and there is their joy4 ,well then1 if that be even partially true--admitting all that you may say about circumstances which go to make some portion of the blessedness of that future life--if it be true that ,god is the true blessing given by ,his ,gospel upon earth1 that ,he ,himself is the greatest gift that can be bestowed1 and that ,he is the true ,heaven of heaven--what a flood of light does it cast upon that statement of my text1 ',if children1 then heirs'2 no inheritance without sonship6 ,for who can possess ,god but they who love ,him8 who can love1 but they who know ,his love8 who can have ,him working in their hearts a blessed and sanctifying change1 except the souls that lie thankfully quiet beneath the forming touch of ,his invisible hand1 and like flowers drink in the light of ,his face in their still joy8 ,how can ,god dwell in any heart except a heart which has in it a love of purity8 ,where can ,he make ,his temple except in the 'upright heart and pure'8 ,how can there be fellowship betwixt ,him and any one except the man who is a son because he hath received of the divine nature1 and in whom that divine nature is growing up into a divine likeness8 ',what fellowship hath ,christ with ,belial8' is not only applicable as a guide for our practical life1 but points to the principle on which ,god's inheritance belongs to ,god's sons alone4 ',blessed are the pure in heart1 for they shall see ,god'2 and those only who love1 and are children1 to them alone does the ,father come and does the ,father belong4 ,so much1 then1 for the first principle3 ,no inheritance without sonship4 ,,ii4 ,secondly1 the text leads us to the principle that there is no sonship without a spiritual birth4 ,the ,apostle ,john in that most wonderful preface to his ,gospel1 where all deepest truths concerning the ,eternal ,being in itself and in the solemn march of ,his progressive revelations to the world are set forth in language simple like the words of a child and inexhaustible like the voice of a god1 draws a broad distinction between the relation to the manifestations of ,god which every human soul by virtue of his humanity sustains1 and that into which some1 by virtue of their faith1 enter4 ,every man is lighted by the true light because he is a man4 ,they who believe in ,his name receive from ,him the prerogative to become the sons of ,god4 ,whatever else may be taught in ,john's words1 surely they do teach us this1 that the sonship of which he speaks does not belong to man as man1 is not a relation into which we are born by natural birth1 that we become sons after we are men1 that those who become sons do not include all those who are lighted by the ,light1 but consist of so many of that greater number as receive ,him1 and that such become sons by a divine act1 the communication of a spiritual life1 whereby they are born of ,god4 ,the same ,apostle1 in his ,epistles1 where the widest love is conjoined with the most firmly drawn lines of moral demarcation between the great opposites--life1 light1 love--death1 darkness1 hate--contrasts in the most unmistakable antithesis the sons of ,god who are known for such because they do righteousness1 and the world which knew not ,christ1 nor knows those who1 dimly beholding1 partially resemble ,him4 ,nay1 he goes further1 and says in strange contradiction to the popular estimate of his character1 but in true imitation of that ,incarnate love which hated iniquity1 ',in this the children of ,god are manifested and the children of the devil'--echoing thus the words of ,him whose pitying tenderness had sometimes to clothe itself in sharpest words1 even as ,his hand of powerful love had once to grasp the scourge of small cords4 ',if ,god were your ,father1 ye would love ,me3 ye are of your father1 the devil4' ,these are but specimens of a whole cycle of ,scripture statements which in every form of necessary implication1 and of direct statement1 set forth the principle that he who is born again of the ,spirit1 and he only1 is a son of ,god4 ,nothing in all this contradicts the belief that all men are the children of ,god1 inasmuch as they are shaped by ,his divine hand and ,he has breathed into their nostrils the breath of life4 ,they who hold that sonship is obtained on the condition which these passages seem to assert1 do also rejoice to believe and to preach that the ,father's love broods over every human heart as the dovelike ,spirit over the primeval chaos4 ,they rejoice to proclaim that ,christ has come that all1 that each1 may receive the adoption of sons4 ,they do not feel that their message to1 nor their hope for1 the world is less blessed1 less wide1 because while they call on all to come and take the things that are freely given to them of ,god1 they believe that those only who do come and take possess the blessing4 ,every man may become a son and heir of ,god by faith in ,jesus ,christ4 ,but notwithstanding all the mercies that belong to us all1 notwithstanding the divine beneficence1 which1 like the air and the light1 pervades all nature1 and underlies all our lives1 notwithstanding the universal adaptation and intention of ,christ's work1 notwithstanding the wooing of ,his tender voice and the unceasing beckoning of ,his love1 it still remains true that there are men in the world1 created by ,god1 loved and cared for by ,him1 for whom ,christ died1 who might be1 but are not1 sons of ,god4 ,fatherhood6 what does that word itself teach us8 ,it speaks of the communication of a life1 and the reciprocity of love4 ,it rests upon a divine act1 and it involves a human emotion4 ,it involves that the father and the child shall have kindred life--the father bestowing and the child possessing a life which is derived2 and because derived1 kindred2 and because kindred1 unfolding itself in likeness to the father that gave it4 ,and it requires that between the father's heart and the child's heart there shall pass1 in blessed interchange and quick correspondence1 answering love1 flashing backwards and forwards1 like the lightning that touches the earth and rises from it again4 ,a simple appeal to your own consciousness will decide if that be the condition of all men4 ,are you1 my brother1 conscious of anything within you higher than the common life that belongs to you because you are an immortal soul8 ,can you say1 ',from ,god's hand ,i have received the granting and implantation of a new and better life8' ,is your claim verified by this1 that you are kindred with ,god in holy affections1 in like purposes1 loving what ,he loves1 hating what ,he hates1 doing what ,he wills1 accepting what ,he sends1 longing for ,himself1 and blessed in ,his presence8 ,is your sonship proved by the depth and sincerity1 the simplicity and power1 of your throbbing heart of love to your ,father in heaven8 ,or are all these emotions empty words to you1 things that are spoken in pulpits1 but to which you have nothing in your life corresponding8 ,oh then1 my friend1 what am ,i to say to you8 ,what but this8 no sonship except by that spiritual birth2 and if not such sonship1 then the spirit of bondage4 ,if not such sonship1 why then1 by all the tendencies of your nature1 and by all the affinities of your moral being1 if you are not holding of heaven1 you are holding of hell2 if you are not drawing your life1 your character1 your emotions1 your affections1 from the sacred well that lies up yonder1 you are drawing them from the black one that lies down there4 ,there are heaven1 hell1 and the earth that lies between1 ever influenced either from above or from below4 ,you are sons because born again1 or slaves and 'enemies by wicked works4' ,it is a grim alternative1 but it is a fact4 ,,iii4 ,thirdly1 no spiritual birth without ,christ4 ,we have seen that the sonship which gives power of possessing the inheritance and which comes by spiritual birth1 rests upon the giving of life1 spiritual life1 from ,god2 and unfolds itself in certain holy characters1 and affections1 and desires1 the throbbing of the whole soul in full accord and harmony with the divine character and will4 ,well then1 it looks very clear that a man cannot make that new life for himself1 cannot do it because of the habit of sin1 and cannot do it because of the guilt and punishment of sin4 ,if for sonship there must be a birth again1 why1 surely1 the very symbol might convince you that such a process does not lie within our own power4 ,there must come down a divine leaven into the mass of human nature1 before this new being can be evolved in any one4 ,there must be a gift of ,god4 ,a divine energy must be the source and fountain of all holy and of all ,godlike life4 ,christ comes1 comes to make you and me live again as we never lived before2 live possessors of ,god's love2 live tenanted and ruled by a divine ,spirit2 live with affections in our hearts which we never could kindle there2 live with purposes in our souls which we never could put there4 ,and ,i want to urge this thought1 that the centre point of the ,gospel is this regeneration2 because if we understand1 as we are too much disposed to do1 that the ,gospel simply comes to make men live better1 to work out a moral reformation1--why1 there is no need for a ,gospel at all4 ,if the change were a simple change of habit and action on the part of men1 we could do without a ,christ4 ,if the change simply involved a bracing ourselves up to behave better for the future1 we could manage somehow or other about as well as or better than we have managed in the past4 ,but if redemption be the giving of life from ,god2 and if redemption be the change of position in reference to ,god's love and ,god's law as well1 neither of these two changes can a man effect for himself4 ,you cannot gather up the spilt water2 you cannot any more gather up and re-issue the past life4 ,the sin remains1 the guilt remains4 ,the inevitable law of ,god will go on its crashing way in spite of all penitence1 in spite of all reformation1 in spite of all desires after newness of life4 ,there is but one ,being who can make a change in our position in regard to ,god1 and there is but one ,being who can make the change by which man shall become a 'new creature4' ,the ,creative ,spirit that shaped the earth must shape its new being in my soul2 and the ,father against whose law ,i have offended1 whose love ,i have slighted1 from whom ,i have turned away1 must effect the alteration that ,i can never effect--the alteration in my position to ,his judgments and justice1 and to the whole sweep of ,his government4 ,no new birth without ,christ2 no escape from the old standing-place1 of being 'enemies to ,god by wicked works1' by anything that we can do3 no hope of the inheritance unless the ,lord and the ,man1 the 'second ,adam from heaven1' have come6 ,he has come1 and ,he has 'dwelt with us1' and ,he has worn this life of ours1 and ,he has walked in the midst of this world1 and ,he knows all about our human condition1 and ,he has effected an actual change in the possible aspect of the divine justice and government to us2 and ,he has carried in the golden urn of ,his humanity a new spirit and a new life which ,he has set down in the midst of the race2 and the urn was broken on the cross of ,calvary1 and the water flowed out1 and whithersoever that water comes there is life1 and whithersoever it comes not there is death6 ,,iv4 ,last of all1 no ,christ without faith4 ,it is not enough1 brethren1 that we should go through all these previous steps1 if we then go utterly astray at the end1 by forgetting that there is only one way by which we become partakers of any of the benefits and blessings that ,christ has wrought out4 ,it is much to say that for inheritance there must be sonship4 ,it is much to say that for sonship there must be a divine regeneration4 ,it is much to say that the power of this regeneration is all gathered together in ,christ ,jesus4 ,but there are plenty of people that would agree to all that1 who go off at that point1 and content themselves with this kind of thinking--that in some vague mysterious way1 they know not how1 in a sort of half-magical manner1 the benefit of ,christ's death and work comes to all in ,christian lands1 whether there be an act of faith or not6 ,now ,i am not going to talk theology at present1 at this stage of my sermon2 but what ,i want to leave upon all your hearts is this profound conviction1--,unless we are wedded to ,jesus ,christ by the simple act of trust in ,his mercy and ,his power1 ,christ is nothing to us4 ,do not let us1 my friends1 blink that deciding test of the whole matter4 ,we may talk about ,christ for ever2 we may set forth aspects of ,his work1 great and glorious4 ,he may be to us much that is very precious2 but the one question1 the question of questions1 on which everything else depends1 is1 ,am ,i trusting to ,him as my divine ,redeemer8 am ,i resting in ,him as the ,son of ,god8 ,some of us here now have a sort of nominal connection with ,christ1 who have a kind of imaginative connection with ,him2 traditional1 ceremonial1 by habit of thought1 by attendance on public worship1 and by ,i know not what other means4 ,ceremonies are nothing1 notions are nothing1 beliefs are nothing1 formal participation in worship is nothing4 ,christ is everything to him that trusts ,him4 ,christ is nothing but a judge and a condemnation to him who trusts ,him not4 ,and here is the turning-point1 ,am ,i resting upon that ,lord for my salvation8 ,if so1 you can begin upon that step1 the low one on which you can put your foot1 the humble act of faith1 and with the foot there1 can climb up4 ,if faith1 then new birth2 if new birth1 then sonship2 if sonship1 then an heir of ,god1 and a joint-heir with ,christ4' ,but if you have not got your foot upon the lowest round of the ladder1 you will never come within sight of the blessed face of ,him who stands at the top of it1 and who looks down to you at this moment1 saying to you1 ',my child1 wilt thou not cry unto ,me ,abba1 ,father8' ,,suffering ,,with ,,christ1 ,a ,,condition ,,of ,,glory ,,with ,,christ '444,joint heirs with ,christ3 if so be that we suffer with ,him1 that we may be also glorified together4'--,,romans viii4 #ag4 ,in the former part of this verse the ,apostle tells us that in order to be heirs of ,god1 we must become sons through and joint-heirs with ,christ4 ,he seems at first sight to add in these words of our text another condition to those already specified1 namely1 that of suffering with ,christ4 ,now1 of course1 whatever may be the operation of suffering in fitting for the possession of the ,christian inheritance1 either here or in another world1 the sonship and the sorrows do not stand on the same level in regard to that possession4 ,the one is the indispensable condition of all2 the other is but the means for the operation of the condition4 ,the one--being sons1 'joint-heirs with ,christ1'--is the root of the whole matter2 the other--the 'suffering with ,him1'--is but the various process by which from the root there come 'the blade1 and the ear1 and the full corn in the ear4' ,given the sonship--if it is to be worked out into power and beauty1 there must be suffering with ,christ4 ,but unless there be sonship1 there is no possibility of inheriting ,god2 discipline and suffering will be of no use at all4 ,the chief lesson which ,i wish to gather from this text now is that all ,god's sons must suffer with ,christ2 and in addition to this principle1 we may complete our considerations by adding briefly1 that the inheritance must be won by suffering1 and that if we suffer with ,him1 we certainly shall receive the inheritance4 ,i4 ,first1 then1 sonship with ,christ necessarily involves suffering with ,him4 ,i think that we entirely misapprehend the force of this passage before us1 if we suppose it to refer principally or merely to the outward calamities1 what you call trials and afflictions1 which befall people1 and see in it only the teaching1 that the sorrows of daily life may have in them a sign of our being children of ,god1 and some power to prepare us for the glory that is to come4 ,there is a great deal more in the thought than that1 brethren4 ,this is not merely a text for people who are in affliction1 but for all of us4 ,it does not merely contain a law for a certain part of life1 but it contains a law for the whole of life4 ,it is not merely a promise that in all our afflictions ,christ will be afflicted1 but it is a solemn injunction that we seek to know 'the fellowship of ,his sufferings1 and be made conformable to the likeness of ,his death1' if we expect to be 'found in the likeness of ,his ,resurrection1' and to have any share in the community of ,his glory4 ,in other words1 the foundation of it is not that ,christ shares in our sufferings2 but that we1 as ,christians1 in a deep and real sense do necessarily share and participate in ,christ's4 ,we 'suffer with ,him'2 not ,he suffers with us4 ,now1 do not let us misunderstand each other1 or the ,apostle's teaching4 ,do not suppose that ,i am forgetting1 or wishing you to account as of small importance1 the awful sense in which ,christ's suffering stands as a thing by itself and unapproachable1 a solitary pillar rising up1 above the waste of time1 to which all men everywhere are to turn with the one thought1 ',i can do nothing like that2 ,i need to do nothing like it2 it has been done once1 and once for all2 and what ,i have to do is1 simply to lie down before ,him1 and let the power and the blessings of that death and those sufferings flow into my heart4' ,the ,divine ,redeemer makes eternal redemption4 ,the sufferings of ,christ--the sufferings of ,his life1 and the sufferings of ,his death--both because of the nature which bore them1 and of the aspect which they wore in regard to us1 are in their source1 in their intensity1 in their character1 and consequences1 unapproachable1 incapable of repetition1 and needing no repetition whilst the world shall stand4 ,but then1 do not let us forget that the very books and writers in the ,new ,testament that preach most broadly ,christ's sole1 all-sufficient1 eternal redemption for the world by ,his sufferings and death1 turn round and say to us too1 ',be planted together in the likeness of ,his death2 you are crucified to the world by the ,cross of ,christ2 you are to fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of ,christ4' ,he ,himself speaks of our drinking of the cup that ,he drank of1 and being baptized with the baptism that ,he was baptized with1 if we desire to sit yonder on ,his throne1 and share with ,him in ,his glory4 ,now what do the ,apostles1 and what does ,christ ,himself1 in that passage that ,i have quoted1 mean1 by such solemn words as these8 ,some people shrink from them1 and say that it is trenching upon the central doctrine of the ,gospel1 when we speak about drinking of the cup which ,christ drank of4 ,they ask1 ,can it be8 ,yes1 it can be1 if you will think thus3--,if a ,christian has the ,spirit and life of ,christ in him1 his career will be moulded1 imperfectly but really1 by the same ,spirit that dwelt in his ,lord2 and similar causes will produce corresponding effects4 ,the life of ,christ which--divine1 pure1 incapable of copy and repetition--in one aspect has ended for ever for men1 remains to be lived1 in another view of it1 by every ,christian1 who in like manner has to fight with the world2 who in like manner has to resist temptation2 who in like manner has to stand1 by ,god's help1 pure and sinless1 in so far as the new nature of him is concerned1 in the midst of a world that is full of evil4 ,for were the sufferings of the ,lord only the sufferings that were wrought upon ,calvary8 ,were the sufferings of the ,lord only the sufferings which came from the contradiction of sinners against ,himself8 ,were the sufferings of the ,lord only the sufferings which were connected with ,his bodily afflictions and pain1 precious and priceless as they were1 and operative causes of our redemption as they were8 ,oh no4 ,conceive of that perfect1 sinless1 really human life1 in the midst of a system of things that is all full of corruption and of sin2 coming ever and anon against misery1 and wrong-doing1 and rebellion2 and ask yourselves whether part of ,his sufferings did not spring from the contact of the sinless ,son of man with a sinful world1 and the apparently vain attempt to influence and leaven that sinful world with care for itself and love for the ,father4 ,if there had been nothing more than that1 yet ,christ's sufferings as the ,son of ,god in the midst of sinful men would have been deep and real4 ',o faithless generation1 how long shall ,i be with you8 how long shall ,i suffer you8' was wrung from ,him by the painful sense of want of sympathy between ,his aims and theirs4 ',oh that ,i had wings like a dove1 for then ,i would fly away and be at rest1' must often be the language of those who are like ,him in spirit1 and in consequent sufferings4 ,and then again1 another branch of the 'sufferings of ,christ' is to be found in that deep and mysterious fact on which ,i durst not venture to speak beyond what the actual words of ,scripture put into my lips--the fact that ,christ wrought out ,his perfect obedience as a man1 through temptation and by suffering4 ,there was no sin within ,him1 no tendency to sin1 no yielding to the evil that assailed4 ',the ,prince of this world cometh1 and hath nothing in ,me4' ,but yet1 when that dark ,power stood by ,his side1 and said1 ',if thou be the ,son of ,god1 cast ,thyself down1' it was a real temptation and not a sham one4 ,there was no wish to do it1 no faltering for a moment1 no hesitation4 ,there was no rising up in that calm will of even a moment's impulse to do the thing that was presented2--but yet it was presented1 and1 when ,christ triumphed1 and the tempter departed for a season1 there had been a temptation and there had been a conflict4 ,and though obedience be a joy1 and the doing of ,his ,father's will was ,his delight1 as it must needs be in pure and in purified hearts2 yet obedience which is sustained in the face of temptation1 and which never fails1 though its path lead to bodily pains and the 'contradiction of sinners1' may well be called suffering4 ,we cannot speak of our ,lord's obedience as the surrender of ,his own will to the ,father's1 with the implication that these two wills ever did or could move except in harmony4 ,there was no place in ,christ's obedience for that casting out of sinful self which makes our submission a surrender joined with suffering1 but ,he knew temptation4 ,flesh1 and sense1 and the world1 and the prince of this world1 presented it to ,him2 and therefore ,his obedience too was suffering1 even though to do the will of ,his ,father was ,his meat and ,his drink1 ,his sustenance and ,his refreshment4 ,but then1 let me remind you still further1 that not only does the life of ,christ1 as sinless in the midst of sinful men1 and the life of ,christ1 as sinless whilst yet there was temptation presented to it--assume the aspect of being a life of suffering1 and become1 in that respect1 the model for us2 but that also the ,death of ,christ1 besides its aspect as an atonement and sacrifice for sin1 the power by which transgression is put away and ,god's love flows out upon our souls1 has another power given to it in the teaching of the ,new ,testament4 ,the ,death of ,christ is a type of the ,christian's life1 which is to be one long1 protracted1 and daily dying to sin1 to self1 to the world4 ,the crucifixion of the old manhood is to be the life's work of every ,christian1 through the power of faith in that ,cross by which 'the world is crucified unto ,me1 and ,i unto the world4' ,that thought comes over and over again in all forms of earnest presentation in the ,apostle's teaching4 ,do not slur it over as if it were a mere fanciful metaphor4 ,it carries in its type a most solemn reality4 ,the truth is1 that1 if a ,christian1 you have a double life4 ,there is ,christ1 with ,his power1 with ,his ,spirit1 giving you a nature which is pure and sinless1 incapable of transgression1 like ,his own4 ,the new man1 that which is born of ,god1 sinneth not1 cannot sin4 ,but side by side with it1 working through it1 working in it1 leavening it1 indistinguishable from it to your consciousness1 by anything but this that the one works righteousness and the other works transgression1 there is the 'old man1' 'the flesh1' 'the old ,adam1' your own godless1 independent1 selfish1 proud being4 ,and the one is to slay the other6 ,ah1 let me tell you1 these words--crucifying1 casting out the old man1 plucking out the right eye1 maiming self of the right hand1 mortifying the deeds of the body--they are something very much deeper and more awful than poetical symbols and metaphors4 ,they teach us this1 that there is no growth without sore sorrow4 ,conflict1 not progress1 is the word that defines man's path from darkness into light4 ,no holiness is won by any other means than this1 that wickedness should be slain day by day1 and hour by hour4 ,in long lingering agony often1 with the blood of the heart pouring out at every quivering vein1 you are to cut right through the life and being of that sinful self2 to do what the ,word does1 pierce to the dividing asunder of the thoughts and intents of the heart1 and get rid by crucifying and slaying--a long process1 a painful process--of your own sinful self4 ,and not until you can stand up and say1 ',i live1 yet not ,i1 but ,christ liveth in me1' have you accomplished that to which you are consecrated and vowed by your sonship--'being conformed unto the likeness of ,his death1' and 'knowing the fellowship of ,his sufferings4' ,it is this process1 the inward strife and conflict in getting rid of evil1 which the ,apostle designates here with the name of 'suffering with ,christ1 that we may be also glorified together4' ,on this high level1 and not upon the lower one of the consideration that ,christ will help us to bear outward infirmities and afflictions1 do we find the true meaning of all that ,scripture teaching which says indeed1 ',yes1 our sufferings are ,his'2 but lays the foundation of it in this1 ',his sufferings are ours4' ,it begins by telling us that ,christ has done a work and borne a sorrow that no second can ever do4 ,then it tells us that ,christ's life of obedience--which1 because it was a life of obedience1 was a life of suffering1 and brought ,him into a condition of hostility to the men around ,him--is to be repeated in us4 ,it sets before us the ,cross of ,calvary1 and the sorrows and pains that were felt there2--and it says to us1 ,christian men and women1 if you want the power for holy living1 have fellowship in that atoning death2 and if you want the pattern of holy living1 look at that ,cross and feel1 ',i am crucified to the world by it2 and the life that ,i live in the flesh ,i live by the faith of the ,son of ,god4' ,such considerations as these1 however1 do not necessarily exclude the other one 7which we may just mention and dwell on for a moment71 namely1 that where there is this spiritual participation in the sufferings of ,christ1 and where ,his death is reproduced and perpetuated1 as it were1 in our daily mortifying ourselves in the present evil world--there ,christ is with us in our afflictions4 ,god forbid that ,i should try to strike away any word of consolation that has come1 as these words of my text have come1 to so many sorrowing hearts in all generations1 like music in the night and like cold waters to a thirsty soul4 ,we need not hold that there is no reference here to that comforting thought1 ',in all our affliction ,he is afflicted4' ,brethren1 you and ,i have1 each of us--one in one way1 and one in another1 all in some way1 all in the right way1 none in too severe a way1 none in too slight a way--to tread the path of sorrow2 and is it not a blessed thing1 as we go along through that dark valley of the shadow of death down into which the sunniest paths go sometimes1 to come1 amidst the twilight and the gathering clouds1 upon tokens that ,jesus has been on the road before us8 ,they tell us that in some trackless lands1 when one friend passes through the pathless forests1 he breaks a twig ever and anon as he goes1 that those who come after may see the traces of his having been there1 and may know that they are not out of the road4 ,oh1 when we are journeying through the murky night1 and the dark woods of affliction and sorrow1 it is something to find here and there a spray broken1 or a leafy stem bent down with the tread of ,his foot and the brush of ,his hand as ,he passed1 and to remember that the path ,he trod ,he has hallowed1 and thus to find lingering fragrances and hidden strengths in the remembrance of ,him as 'in all points tempted like as we are1' bearing grief for us1 bearing grief with us1 bearing grief like us4 ,oh1 do not1 do not1 my brethren1 keep these sacred thoughts of ,christ's companionship in sorrow1 for the larger trials of life4 ,if the mote in the eye be large enough to annoy you1 it is large enough to bring out ,his sympathy2 and if the grief be too small for ,him to compassionate and share1 it is too small for you to be troubled by it4 ,if you are ashamed to apply that divine thought1 ',christ bears this grief with me1' to those petty molehills that you sometimes magnify into mountains1 think to yourselves that then it is a shame for you to be stumbling over them4 ,but on the other hand1 never fear to be irreverent or too familiar in the thought that ,christ is willing to bear1 and help you to bear1 the pettiest1 the minutest1 and most insignificant of the daily annoyances that may come to ruffle you4 ,whether it be a poison from one serpent sting1 or whether it be poison from a million of buzzing tiny mosquitoes1 if there be a smart1 go to ,him1 and ,he will help you to endure it4 ,he will do more1 ,he will bear it with you1 for if so be that we suffer with ,him1 ,he suffers with us1 and our oneness with ,christ brings about a community of possessions whereby it becomes true of each trusting soul in its relations to ,him1 that 'all mine 7joys and sorrows alike7 are thine1 and all thine are mine4' ,,ii4 ,there remain some other considerations which may be briefly stated1 in order to complete the lessons of this text4 ,in the second place1 this community of suffering is a necessary preparation for the community of glory4 ,i name this principally for the sake of putting in a caution4 ,the ,apostle does not mean to tell us1 of course1 that if there were such a case as that of a man becoming a son of ,god1 and having no occasion or opportunity afterwards1 by brevity of life or other causes1 for passing through the discipline of sorrow1 his inheritance would be forfeited4 ,we must always take such passages as this--which seem to make the discipline of the world an essential part of the preparing of us for glory--in conjunction with the other undeniable truth which completes them1 that when a man has the love of ,god in his heart1 however feebly1 however newly1 there and then he is fit for the inheritance4 ,i think that ,christian people make vast mistakes sometimes in talking about 'being made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light1' about being 'ripe for glory1' and the like4 ,one thing at any rate is very certain1 it is not the discipline that fits4 ,that which fits goes before the discipline1 and the discipline only develops the fitness4 ',god hath made us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light1' says the ,apostle4 ,that is a past act4 ,the preparedness for heaven comes at the moment--if it be a momentary act--when a man turns to ,christ4 ,you may take the lowest and most abandoned form of human character1 and in one moment 7it is possible1 and it is often the case7 the entrance into that soul of the feeble germ of that new affection shall at once change the whole moral habitude of that man4 ,though it be true1 then1 that heaven is only open to those who are capable--by holy aspirations and divine desires--of entering into it1 it is equally true that such aspirations and desires may be the work of an instant1 and may be superinduced in a moment in a heart the most debased and the most degraded4 ',this day shalt thou be with ,me in ,paradise1'--fit for the inheritance6 ,and1 therefore1 let us not misunderstand such words as this text1 and fancy that the necessary discipline1 which we have to go through before we are ready for heaven1 is necessary in anything like the same sense in which it is necessary that a man should have faith in ,christ in order to be saved4 ,the one may be dispensed with1 the other cannot4 ,a ,christian at any period of his ,christian experience1 if it please ,god to take him1 is fit for the kingdom4 ,the life is life1 whether it be the budding beauty and feebleness of childhood1 or the strength of manhood1 or the maturity and calm peace of old age4 ,but 'add to your faith1' that 'an entrance may be ministered unto you abundantly4' ,remember that though the root of the matter1 the seed of the kingdom1 may be in you2 and that though1 therefore1 you have a right to feel that1 at any period of your ,christian experience1 if it please ,god to take you out of this world1 you are fit for heaven--yet in ,his mercy ,he is leaving you here1 training you1 disciplining you1 cleansing you1 making you to be polished shafts in ,his quiver2 and that all the glowing furnaces of fiery trial and all the cold waters of affliction are but the preparation through which the rough iron is to be passed before it becomes tempered steel1 a shaft in the ,master's hand4 ,and so learn to look upon all trial as being at once the seal of your sonship1 and the means by which ,god puts it within your power to win a higher place1 a loftier throne1 a nobler crown1 a closer fellowship with ,him 'who hath suffered1 being tempted1' and who will receive into ,his own blessedness and rest them that are tempted4 ',the child1 though he be an heir1 differeth nothing from a servant1 though he be lord of all2 but is under tutors and governors4' ,god puts us in the school of sorrow under that stern tutor and governor here1 and gives us the opportunity of 'suffering with ,christ1' that by the daily crucifixion of our old nature1 by the lessons and blessings of outward calamities and change1 there may grow up in us a still nobler and purer1 and perfecter divine life2 and that we may so be made capable--more capable1 and capable of more--of that inheritance for which the only necessary thing is the death of ,christ1 and the only fitness is faith in ,his name4 ,,iii4 ,finally1 that inheritance is the necessary result of the suffering that has gone before4 ,the suffering results from our union with ,christ4 ,that union must needs culminate in glory4 ,it is not only because the joy hereafter seems required in order to vindicate ,god's love to ,his children1 who here reap sorrow from their sonship1 that the discipline of life cannot but end in blessedness4 ,that ground of mere compensation is a low one on which to rest the certainty of future bliss4 ,but the inheritance is sure to all who here suffer with ,christ1 because the one cause--union with the ,lord--produces both the present result of fellowship in ,his sorrows1 and the future result of joy in ,his joy1 of possession of ,his possessions4 ,the inheritance is sure because ,christ possesses it now4 ,the inheritance is sure because earth's sorrows not merely require to be repaid by its peace1 but because they have an evident design to fit us for it1 and it would be destructive to all faith in ,god's wisdom1 and ,god's knowledge of ,his own purposes1 not to believe that what ,he has wrought us for will be given to us4 ,trials have no meaning1 unless they are means to an end4 ,the end is the inheritance1 and sorrows here1 as well as the ,spirit's work here1 are the earnest of the inheritance4 ,measure the greatness of the glory by what has preceded it4 ,god takes all these years of life1 and all the sore trials and afflictions that belong inevitably to an earthly career1 and works them in1 into the blessedness that shall come4 ,if a fair measure of the greatness of any result of productive power be the length of time that was taken for getting it ready1 we can dimly conceive what that joy must be for which seventy years of strife and pain and sorrow are but a momentary preparation2 and what must be the weight of that glory which is the counterpoise and consequence to the afflictions of this lower world4 ,the further the pendulum swings on the one side1 the further it goes up on the other4 ,the deeper ,god plunges the comet into the darkness out yonder1 the closer does it come to the sun at its nearest distance1 and the longer does it stand basking and glowing in the full blaze of the glory from the central orb4 ,so in our revolution1 the measure of the distance from the farthest point of our darkest earthly sorrow1 to the throne1 may help us to the measure of the closeness of the bright1 perfect1 perpetual glory above1 when we are on the throne3 for if so be that we are sons1 we must suffer with ,him2 if so be that we suffer1 we must be glorified together6 ,,the ,,revelation ,,of ,,sons ',for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of ,god4'--,,romans viii4 #ai4 ,the ,apostle has been describing believers as 'sons' and 'heirs4' ,he drops from these transcendent heights to contrast their present apparent condition with their true character and their future glory4 ,the sad realities of suffering darken his lofty hopes1 even although these sad realities are to his faith tokens of joint-heirship with ,jesus1 and pledges that if our inheritance is here manifested by suffering with him1 that very fact is a prophecy of common glory hereafter4 ,he describes that future as the revealing of a glory1 to which the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared2 and then1 in our text he varies the application of that thought of revealing and thinks of the subjects of it as being the 'sons of ,god4' ,they will be revealed when the glory which they have as joint-heirs with ,christ is revealed in them4 ,they walk1 as it were1 compassed with mist and cloud1 but the splendour which will fall on them will scatter the envious darkness1 and 'when ,christ who is our life shall appear1 then shall ,his co-heirs also appear with ,him in glory4' ,we may consider-- ,i4 ,the present veil over the sons of ,god4 ,there is always a difference between appearance and reality1 between the ideal and its embodiments4 ,for all men it is true that the full expression of oneself is impossible4 ,each man's deeds fall short of disclosing the essential self in the man4 ,every will is hampered by the fleshly screen of the body4 ',i would that my tongue could utter the thoughts that arise in me1' is the yearning of every heart that is deeply moved4 ,contending principles successively sway every personality and thwart each other's expression4 ,for these1 and many other reasons1 the sum-total of every life is but a shrouded representation of the man who lives it2 and we1 all of us1 after all efforts at self-revelation1 remain mysteries to our fellows and to ourselves4 ,all this is eminently true of the sons of ,god4 ,they have a life-germ hidden in their souls1 which in its very nature is destined to fill and expand their whole being1 and to permeate with its triumphant energy every corner of their nature4 ,but it is weak and often overborne by its opposite4 ,the seed sown is to grow in spite of bad weather and a poor soil and many weeds1 and though it is destined to overcome all these1 it may to-day only be able to show on the surface a little patch of pale and struggling growth4 ,when we think of the cost at which the life of ,christ was imparted to men1 and of the divine source from which it comes1 and of the sedulous and protracted discipline through which it is being trained1 we cannot but conclude that nothing short of its universal dominion over all the faculties of its imperfect possessors can be the goal of its working4 ,hercules in his cradle is still ,hercules1 and strangles snakes4 ,frost and sun may struggle in midwinter1 and the cold may seem to predominate1 but the sun is steadily enlarging its course in the sky1 and increasing the fervour of its beams1 and midsummer day is as sure to dawn as the shortest day was4 ,the sons of ,god1 even more truly than other men1 have contending principles fighting within them4 ,it was the same ,apostle who with oaths denied that he 'knew the man1' and in a passion of clinging love and penitence fell at ,his feet2 but for the mere onlooker it would be hard to say which was the true man and which would conquer4 ,the sons of ,god1 like other men1 have to express themselves in words which are never closely enough fitted to their thoughts and feelings4 ,david's penitence has to be contented with groans which are not deep enough2 and ,john's calm raptures on his ,saviour's breast can only be spoken by shut eyes and silence4 ,the sons of ,god never fully correspond to their character1 but always fall somewhat beneath their desire1 and must always be somewhat less than their intention4 ,the artist never wholly embodies his conception4 ,it is only ,god who 'rests from ,his works' because the works fully embody ,his creative design and fully receive the benediction of ,his own satisfaction with them4 ,from all such thoughts there arises a piece of plain practical wisdom1 which warns ,christian men not to despond or despair if they do not find themselves living up to their ideal4 ,the sons of ,god are 'veiled' because the world's estimate of them is untrue4 ,the old commonplace that the world knows nothing of its greatest men is verified in the opinions which it holds about the sons of ,god4 ,it is not for their ,christianity that they get any of the world's honours and encomiums1 if such fall to their share4 ,they are unknown and yet well-known4 ,they live for the most part veiled in obscurity4 ',the light shineth in darkness1 and the darkness comprehendeth it not4' ,they are ,god's hidden ones4 ,if they are wise1 they will look for no recognition nor eulogy from the world1 and will be content to live1 as unknown by the princes of this world as was the ,lord of glory1 whom they slew because their dim eyes could not see the flashing of the glory 'through the veil1 that is to say1 ,his flesh4' ,but no consciousness of imperfection in our revelation of an indwelling ,christ must ever be allowed to diminish our efforts to live out the life that is in us1 and to shine as lights in the world2 nor must the consciousness that we walk as 'veiled1' lead us to add to the thick folds the criminal one of voluntary silence and cowardly hiding in dumb hearts the secret of our lives4 ,,ii4 ,the unveiling of the sons of ,god4 ,that unveiling is in the text represented as coming along with the glory which shall be revealed to usward1 and as being contemporaneous with the deliverance of the creation itself from the bondage of corruption1 and its passing into the liberty of the glory of the children of ,god4 ,it coincides with the vanishing of the pain in which the whole creation now groans and travails1 and with the adoption--that is1 the redemption of our body4 ,then hope will be seen and will pass into still fruition4 ,all this points to the time when ,jesus ,christ is revealed1 and ,his servants are revealed with ,him in glory4 ,that revelation brings with it of necessity the manifestation of the sons of ,god for what they are--the making visible in the life of what ,god sees them to be4 ,that revelation of the sons of ,god is the result of the entire dominion and transforming supremacy of the ,spirit of ,god in them4 ,in the whole sweep of their consciousness there will in that day be nothing done from other motives2 there will be no sidelights flashing in and disturbing the perfect illumination from the candle of the ,lord set on high in their being2 there will be no contradictions in the life4 ,it will be one and simple1 and therefore perfectly intelligible4 ,such is the destined issue of the most imperfect ,christian life4 ,the ,christian man who has in his experience to-day the faintest and most interrupted operation of the spirit of life in ,christ ,jesus has therein a pledge of immortality1 because nothing short of an endless life of progressive and growing purity will be adequate to receive and exemplify the power which can never terminate until it is made like ,him and perfectly seeing ,him as ,he is4 ,but that unveiling further guarantees the possession of fully adequate means of expression4 ,the limitations and imperfections of our present bodily life will all drop away in putting on 'the body of glory' which shall be ours4 ,the new tongue will perfectly utter the new knowledge and rapture of the new life2 new hands will perfectly realise our ideals2 and on every forehead will be stamped ,christ's new name4 ,that unveiling will be further realised by a divine act indicating the characters of the sons of ,god by their position4 ,earth's judgments will be reversed by that divine voice1 and the great promise1 which through weary ages has shone as a far-off star1--',i will set him on high because he hath known my name'--will then be known for the sun near at hand4 ,many names loudly blown through the world's trumpet will fall silent then4 ,many stars will be quenched1 but 'they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament4' ,that revelation will be more surprising to no one than to those who are its subjects1 when they see themselves mirrored in that glass1 and so unlike what they are here4 ,their first impulse will be to wonder at the form they see1 and to ask1 almost with incredulity1 ',lord1 is it ,i8' ,nor will the wonder be less when they recognise many whom they knew not4 ,the surprises when the family of ,god is gathered together at last will be great4 ,the ,israel of ,captivity lifts up her wondering eyes as she sees the multitudes flocking to her side as the doves to their windows1 and1 half-ashamed of her own narrow vision1 exclaims1 ',i was left alone2 these1 where had they been8' ,let us rejoice that in the day when the sons of ,god are revealed1 many hidden ones from many dark corners will sit at the ,father's table4 ,that revelation will be made to the whole universe2 we know not how1 but we know that it shall be2 and1 as the text tells us1 that revelation of the sons of ,god is the hope for which 'the earnest expectation of the creature waits' through the weary ages4 ,,the ,,redemption ,,of ,,the ,,body ',the adoption1 to wit1 the redemption of our body4'--,,romans viii4 #bc4 ,in a previous verse ,paul has said that all true ,christians have received 'the ,spirit of adoption4' ,they become sons of ,god through ,christ the ,son4 ,they receive a new spiritual and divine life from ,god through ,christ1 and that life is like its source4 ,in so far as that new life vitalises and dominates their nature1 believers have received 'the ,spirit of adoption1' and by it they cry ',abba1 ,father4' ,but the body still remains a source of weakness1 the seat of sin4 ,it is sluggish and inapt for high purposes2 it still remains subject to 'the law of sin and death'2 and so is not like the ,father who breathed into it the breath of life4 ,it remains in bondage1 and has not yet received the adoption4 ,this text1 in harmony with the ,apostle's whole teaching1 looks forward to a change in the body and in its relations to the renewed spirit1 as the crown and climax of the work of redemption1 and declares that till that change is effected1 the condition of ,christian men is imperfect1 and is a waiting1 and often a groaning4 ,in dealing with some of the thoughts that arise from this text1 we note-- ,i4 ,that a future bodily life is needed in order to give definiteness and solidity to the conception of immortality4 ,before the ,gospel came men's belief in a future life was vague and powerless1 mainly because it had no ,gospel of the ,resurrection1 and so nothing tangible to lay hold on4 ,the ,gospel has made the belief in a future state infinitely easier and more powerful1 mainly because of the emphasis with which it has proclaimed an actual resurrection and a future bodily life4 ,its great proof of immortality is drawn1 not merely from ethical considerations of the manifest futility of earthly life which has no sequel beyond the grave1 nor from the intuitions and longings of men's souls1 but from the historical fact of the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ1 and of ,his ,ascension in bodily form into heaven4 ,it proclaims these two facts as parts of ,his experience1 and asserts that when ,he rose from the dead and ascended up on high1 ,he did so as 'the first-born among many brethren1' their forerunner and their pattern4 ,it is this which gives the ,gospel its power1 and thus transforms a vague and shadowy conception of immortality into a solid faith1 for which we have already an historical guarantee4 ,stupendous mysteries still veil the nature of the resurrection process1 though these are exaggerated into inconceivabilities by false notions of what constitutes personal identity2 but if the choice lies between accepting the ,christian doctrine of a resurrection and the conception of a finite spirit disembodied and yet active1 there can be no doubt as to which of these two is the more reasonable and thinkable4 ,body1 soul1 and spirit make the complete triune man4 ,the thought of the future life as a bodily life satisfies the longings of the heart4 ,much natural shrinking from death comes from unwillingness to part company with an old companion and friend4 ,as ,paul puts it in #bnd ,corinthians1 ',not for that we would be unclothed1 but clothed upon4' ,all thoughts of the future which do not give prominence to the idea of a bodily life open up but a ghastly and uninviting mode of existence1 which cannot but repel those who are accustomed to the fellowship of their bodies1 and they feel that they cannot think of themselves as deprived of that which was their servant and instrument1 through all the years of their earthly consciousness4 ,,ii4 ',the body that shall be' is an emancipated body4 ,the varied gifts of the ,spirit bestowed upon the ,christian ,church served to quicken the hope of the yet greater gifts of that indwelling ,spirit which were yet to come4 ,chief amongst these our text considers the transformation of the earthly into a spiritual body4 ,this transformation our text regards as being the participation by the body in the redemption by which ,christ has bought us with the great price of ,his blood4 ,we have to interpret the language here in the light of the further teaching of ,paul in the great ,resurrection chapter of #ast ,corinthians1 which distinctly lays stress1 not on the identity of the corporeal frame which is laid in the grave with 'the body of glory1' but upon the entire contrast between the 'natural body1' which is fit organ for the lower nature1 and is informed by it1 and the 'spiritual body1' which is fit organ for the spirit4 ,we have to interpret 'the resurrection of the body' by the definite apostolic declaration1 ',thou sowest not that body that shall be444 but ,god giveth it a body as it hath pleased ,him'2 and we have to give full weight to the contrasts which the ,apostle draws between the characteristics of that which is 'sown' and of that which is 'raised4' ,the one is 'sown in corruption and raised in incorruption4' ,natural decay is contrasted with immortal youth4 ,the one is 'sown in dishonour1' the other is 'raised in glory4' ,that contrast is ethical1 and refers either to the subordinate position of the body here in relation to the spirit1 or to the natural sense of shame1 or to the ideas of degradation which are attached to the indulgence of the appetites4 ,the one is 'sown in weakness1' the other is 'raised in power'2 the one is 'sown a natural body1' the other is 'raised a spiritual body4' ,is not ,paul in this whole series of contrasts thinking primarily of the vision which he saw on the road to ,damascus when the risen ,christ appeared before him8 ,and had not the years which had passed since then taught him to see in the ascended ,christ the prophecy and the pattern of what ,his servants should become8 ,we have further to keep in view ,paul's other representation in #bnd ,corinthians v41 where he strongly puts the contrast between the corporeal environment of earth and 'the body of glory1' which belongs to the future life1 in his two images3 'the earthly house of this tabernacle'--a clay hut which lasts but for a time1--and 'the building of ,god1 the house not made with hands and eternal4' ,the body is an occasion of separation from the ,lord4 ,these considerations may well lead us to1 at least1 general outlines on which a confident and peaceful hope may fix4 ,for example1 they lead us to the thought that that redeemed body is no more subject to decay and death1 is no more weighed upon by weakness and weariness1 has no work beyond its strength1 needs no sustenance by food1 and no refreshment of sleep4 ',the ,lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them1' suggests strength constantly communicated by a direct divine gift4 ,and from all these negative characteristics there follows that there will be in that future bodily life no epochs of age marked by bodily changes4 ,the two young men who were seen sitting in the sepulchre of ,jesus had lived before ,adam1 and would seem as young if we saw them to-day4 ,similarly the redeemed body will be a more perfect instrument for communication with the external universe4 ,we know that the present body conditions our knowledge1 and that our senses do not take cognisance of all the qualities of material things4 ,microscopes and telescopes have enlarged our field of vision1 and have brought the infinitely small and the infinitely distant within our range4 ,our ear hears vibrations at a certain rate per second1 and no doubt if it were more delicately organised we could hear sounds where now is silence4 ,sometimes the creatures whom we call 'inferior' seem to have senses that apprehend much of which we are not aware4 ,balaam's ass saw the obstructing angel before ,balaam did4 ,nor is there any reason to suppose that all the powers of the mind find tools to work with in the body4 ,it is possible that that body which is the fit instrument of the spirit may become its means of knowing more deeply1 thinking more wisely1 understanding more swiftly1 comprehending more widely1 remembering more firmly and judging more soundly4 ,it is possible that the contrast between then and now may be like the contrast between telegraph and slow messenger in regard to the rapidity1 between photograph and poor daub in regard to the truthfulness1 between a full-orbed circle and a fragmentary arc in regard to the completeness of the messages which the body brings to the indwelling self4 ,but1 once more1 the body unredeemed has appetites and desires which may lead to their own satisfaction1 which do lead to sordid cares and weary toil4 ',the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh4' ,the redeemed body will have in it nothing to tempt and nothing to clog1 but will be a helper to the spirit and a source of strength4 ,glorious work of ,god as the body is1 it has its weaknesses1 its limitations1 and its tendencies to evil4 ,we must not be tempted into brooding over unanswered questions as to ',how do the dead rise1 and with what body do they come8' ,but we can lift our eyes to the mountain-top where ,jesus went up to pray4 ',and as ,he prayed the fashion of ,his countenance was altered1 and ,his raiment became white and dazzling'2 and ,he was capable of entering into the ,shekinah cloud and holding fellowship therein with the ,father1 who attested ,his ,sonship and bade us listen to ,his voice4 ,and we can look to ,olivet and follow the ascending ,jesus as ,he lets ,his benediction drop on the upturned faces of ,his friends1 until ,he again passes into the ,shekinah cloud1 and leaving the world1 goes to the ,father4 ,and from both ,his momentary transfiguration and ,his permanent ,ascension we can draw the certain assurance that ',he shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation1 that it may be conformed to the body of ,his glory1 according to the working whereby ,he is able even to subdue all things unto ,himself4' ,,iii4 ,the redeemed body is a consequence of ,christ's indwelling ,spirit4 ,it is no natural result of death or resurrection1 but is the outcome of the process begun on earth1 by which1 'through faith and the righteousness of faith1' the spirit is life4 ,the context distinctly enforces this view by its double use of 'adoption1' which in one aspect has already been received1 and is manifested by the fact that 'now are we the sons of ,god1' and in another aspect is still 'waited' for4 ,the ,christian man in his regenerated spirit has been born again2 the ,christian man still waits for the completion of that sonship in a time when the regenerated spirit will no longer dwell in the clay cottage of 'this tabernacle1' but will inhabit a congruous dwelling in 'the building of ,god not made with hands1 eternal in the heavens4' ,scripture is too healthy and comprehensive to be contented with a merely spiritual regeneration1 and is withal too spiritual to be satisfied with a merely material heaven4 ,it gives full place to both elements1 and yet decisively puts all belonging to the latter second4 ,it lays down the laws that for a complete humanity there must be body as well as spirit2 that there must be a correspondence between the two1 and as is the spirit so must the body be1 and further1 that the process must begin at the centre and work outwards1 so that the spirit must first be transformed1 and then the body must be participant of the transformation4 ,all that ,scripture says about 'rising in glory' is said about believers4 ,it is represented as a spiritual process4 ,they who have the ,spirit of ,god in their spirits because they have it receive the glorified body which is like their ,saviour's4 ,it is not enough to die in order to 'rise glorious4' ',if the ,spirit of ,him that raised up ,jesus from the dead dwell in you1 ,he that raised up ,christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by ,his ,spirit that dwelleth in you4' ,the resurrection is promised for all mankind1 but it may be a resurrection in which there shall be endless living and no glory1 nor any beauty and no blessedness4 ,but the body may be 'sown in weakness1' and in weakness raised2 it may be 'sown in dishonour' and in dishonour raised2 it may be sown dead1 and raised a living death4 ',many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake1 some to everlasting life1 and some to shame and everlasting contempt4' ,does that mean nothing8 ',they that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation4' ,does that mean nothing8 ,there are dark mysteries in these and similar words of ,scripture which should make us all pause and solemnly reflect4 ,the sole way which leads to the resurrection of glory is the way of faith in ,jesus ,christ4 ,if we yield ourselves to ,him1 ,he will plant ,his ,spirit in our spirits1 will guide and growingly sanctify us through life1 will deliver us by the indwelling of the ,spirit of life in ,him from the law of sin and death4 ,nor will ,his transforming power cease till it has pervaded our whole being with its fiery energy1 and we stand at the last men like ,christ1 redeemed in body1 soul1 and spirit1 'according to the mighty working whereby ,he is able to subdue all things unto ,himself4' ,,the ,,interceding ,,spirit ',the ,spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered4'--,,romans viii4 #bf4 ,pentecost was a transitory sign of a perpetual gift4 ,the tongues of fire and the rushing mighty wind1 which were at first the most conspicuous results of the gifts of the ,spirit1 tongues1 and prophecies1 and gifts of healing1 which were to the early ,church itself and to onlookers palpable demonstrations of an indwelling power1 were little more lasting than the fire and the wind4 ,does anything remain8 ,this whole great chapter is ,paul's triumphant answer to such a question4 ,the ,spirit of ,god dwells in every believer as the source of his true life1 is for him 'the ,spirit of adoption' and witnesses with his spirit that he is a child of ,god1 and a joint-heir with ,christ4 ,not only does that ,spirit co-operate with the human spirit in this witness-bearing1 but the verse1 of which our text is a part1 points to another form of co-operation3 for the word rendered in the earlier part of the verse 'helpeth' in the original suggests more distinctly that the ,spirit of ,god in ,his intercession for us works in association with us4 ,first1 then-- ,i4 ,the ,spirit's intercession is not carried on apart from us4 ,much modern hymnology goes wrong in this point1 that it represents the ,spirit's intercession as presented in heaven rather than as taking place within the personal being of the believer4 ,there is a broad distinction carefully observed throughout ,scripture between the representations of the work of ,christ and that of the ,spirit of ,christ4 ,the former in its character and revelation and attainment was wrought upon earth1 and in its character of intercession and bestowment of blessings is discharged at the right hand of ,god in heaven2 the whole of the ,spirit's work1 on the other hand1 is wrought in human spirits here4 ,the context speaks of intercession expressed in 'groanings which cannot be uttered1' and which1 unexpressed though they are1 are fully understood 'by ,him who searches the heart4' ,plainly1 therefore1 these groanings come from human hearts1 and as plainly are the ,divine ,spirit's voicing them4 ,,ii4 ,the ,spirit's intercession in our spirits consists in our own divinely-inspired longings4 ,the ,apostle has just been speaking of another groaning within ourselves1 which is the expression of 'the earnest expectation' of 'the adoption1 to wit1 the redemption of our body'2 and he says that that longing will be the more patient the more it is full of hope4 ,this1 then1 is ,paul's conception of the normal attitude of a ,christian soul2 but that attitude is hard to keep up in one's own strength1 because of the distractions of time and sense which are ever tending to disturb the continuity and fixity of that onward look1 and to lead us rather to be satisfied with the gross1 dull present4 ,that redemption of the body1 with all which it implies and includes1 ought to be the supreme object to which each ,christian heart should ever be turning1 and ,christian prayers should be directed4 ,but our own daily experience makes us only too sure that such elevation above1 and remoteness from earthly thoughts1 with all their pettinesses and limitations1 is impossible for us in our own strength4 ,as ,paul puts it here1 ',we know not what to pray for'2 nor can we fix and focus our desires1 nor present them 'as we ought4' ,it is to this weakness and incompleteness of our desires and prayers that the help of the ,spirit is directed4 ,he strengthens our longings by ,his own direct operation4 ,the more vivid our anticipations and the more steadfast our hopes1 and the more our spirits reach out to that future redemption1 the more are we bound to discern something more than human imaginings in them1 and to be sure that such visions are too good not to be true1 too solid to be only the play of our own fancy4 ,the more we are conscious of these experiences as our own1 the more certain we shall be that in them it is not we that speak1 but 'the ,spirit of the ,father that speaketh in us4' ,,iii4 ,these divinely-inspired longings are incapable of full expression4 ,they are shallow feelings that can be spoken4 ,language breaks down in the attempt to express our deepest emotions and our truest love4 ,for all the deepest things in man1 inarticulate utterance is the most self-revealing4 ,grief can say more in a sob and a tear than in many weak words2 love finds its tongue in the light of an eye and the clasp of a hand4 ,the groanings which rise from the depths of the ,christian soul cannot be forced into the narrow frame-work of human language2 and just because they are unutterable are to be recognised as the voice of the ,holy ,spirit4 ,but where amidst the ,christian experience of to-day shall we find anything in the least like these unutterable longings after the redemption of the body which ,paul here takes it for granted are the experience of all ,christians8 ,there is no more startling condemnation of the average ,christianity of our times than the calm certainty with which through all this epistle the ,apostle takes it for granted that the experience of the ,roman ,christians will universally endorse his statements4 ,look for a moment at what these statements are4 ,listen to the briefest summary of them3 ',we cry1 ,abba1 ,father'2 ',we are children of ,god'2 ',we suffer with ,him that we may be glorified with ,him'2 ',glory shall be revealed to usward'2 ',we have the first-fruits of the ,spirit'2 ',we ourselves groan within ourselves'2 ',by hope were we saved'2 ',we hope for that which we see not'2 ',then do we with patience wait for it'2 ',we know that to them that love ,god all things work together for good'2 ',in all these things we are more than conquerors'2 ',neither death nor life444 nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of ,god4' ,he believed that in these rapturous and triumphant words he was gathering together the experience of every ,roman ,christian1 and would evoke from their lips a confident ',amen4' ,where are the communities to-day in whose hearing these words could be reiterated with the like assurance8 ,how few among us there are who know anything of these 'groanings which cannot be uttered6' ,how few among us there are whose spirits are stretching out eager desires towards the land of perpetual summer1 like migratory birds in northern latitudes when the autumn days are shortening and the temperature is falling6 ,but1 however we must feel that our poor experience falls far short of the ideal in our text1 an ideal which was to some extent realised in the early ,christian ,church1 we must beware of taking the imperfections of our experience as any evidence of the unreality of our ,christianity4 ,they are a proof that we have limited and impeded the operation of the ,spirit within us4 ,they teach us that ,he will not intercede 'with groanings which cannot be uttered' unless we let ,him speak through our voices4 ,therefore1 if we find that in our own consciousness there is little to correspond to those unuttered groanings1 we should take the warning3 ',quench not the ,spirit4' ',grieve not the ,holy ,spirit of ,god in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption4' ,,iv4 ,the unuttered longings are sure to be answered4 ,he that searcheth the heart knows the meaning of the ,spirit's unspoken prayers2 and looking into the depths of the human spirit interprets its longings1 discriminating between the mere human and partial expression and the divinely-inspired desire which may be unexpressed4 ,if our prayers are weak1 they are answered in the measure in which they embody in them1 though perhaps mistaken by us1 a divine longing4 ,apparent disappointment of our petitions may be real answers to our real prayer4 ,it was because ,jesus loved ,mary and ,martha and ,lazarus that ,he abode still in the same place where ,he was1 to let ,lazarus die that ,he might be raised again4 ,that was the true answer to the sisters' hope of ,his immediate coming4 ,god's way of giving to us is to breathe within us a desire1 and then to answer the desire inbreathed4 ,so1 longing is the prophecy of fulfilment when it is longing according to the will of ,god4 ,they who 'hunger and thirst after righteousness' may ever be sure that their bread shall be given them1 and their water will be made sure4 ,the true object of our desires is often not clear to us1 and so we err in translating it into words4 ,let us be thankful that we pray to a ,god who can discern the prayer within the prayer1 and often gives the substance of our petitions in the very act of refusing their form4 ,,the ,,gift ,,that ,,brings ,,all ,,gifts ',he that spared not ,his own ,son1 but delivered ,him up for us all1 how shall ,he not with ,him also freely give us all things8'--,,romans viii4 #cb4 ,we have here an allusion to1 if not a distinct quotation from1 the narrative in ,genesis1 of ,abraham's offering up of ,isaac4 ,the same word which is employed in the ,septuagint version of the ,old ,testament1 to translate the ,hebrew word rendered in our ,bible as 'withheld1' is employed here by the ,apostle4 ,and there is evidently floating before his mind the thought that1 in some profound and real sense1 there is an analogy between that wondrous and faithful act of giving up and the transcendent and stupendous gift to the world1 from ,god1 of ,his ,son4 ,if we take that point of view1 the language of my text rises into singular force1 and suggests many very deep thoughts1 about which1 perhaps1 silence is best4 ,but led by that analogy1 let us deal with these words4 ,i4 ,consider this mysterious act of divine surrender4 ,the analogy seems to suggest to us1 strange as it may be1 and remote from the cold and abstract ideas of the divine nature which it is thought to be philosophical to cherish1 that something corresponding to the pain and loss that shadowed the patriarch's heart flitted across the divine mind when the ,father sent the ,son to be the ,saviour of the world4 ,not merely to give1 but to give up1 is the highest crown and glory of love1 as we know it4 ,and who shall venture to say that we so fully apprehend the divine nature as to be warranted in declaring that some analogy to that is impossible for ,him8 ,our language is1 ',i will not offer unto ,god that which doth cost me nothing4' ,let us bow in silence before the dim intimation that seems to flicker out of the words of my text1 that so ,he says to us1 ',i will not offer unto you that which doth cost ,me nothing4' ',he spared not ,his own ,son'2 withheld ,him not from us4 ,but passing from that which1 ,i dare say1 many of you may suppose to be fanciful and unwarranted1 let us come upon the surer ground of the other words of my text4 ,and notice how the reality of the surrender is emphasised by the closeness of the bond which1 in the mysterious eternity1 knits together the ,father and the ,son4 ,as with ,abraham1 so in this lofty example1 of which ,abraham and ,isaac were but as dim1 wavering reflections in water1 the ,son is ,his own ,son4 ,it seems to me impossible1 upon any fair interpretation of the words before us1 to refrain from giving to that epithet here its very highest and most mysterious sense4 ,it cannot be any mere equivalent for ,messiah1 it cannot merely mean a man who was like ,god in purity of nature and in closeness of communion4 ,for the force of the analogy and the emphasis of that word which is even more emphatic in the ,greek than in the ,english ',his own ,son1' point to a community of nature1 to a uniqueness and singleness of relation1 to a closeness of intimacy1 to which no other is a parallel4 ,and so we have to estimate the measure of the surrender by the tenderness and awfulness of the bond4 ',having one ,son1 ,his well-beloved1 ,he sent ,him4' ,notice1 again1 how the greatness of the surrender is made more emphatic by the contemplation of it in its double negative and positive aspect1 in the two successive clauses4 ',he spared not ,his ,son1 but delivered ,him up1' an absolute1 positive giving of ,him over to the humiliation of the life and to the mystery of the death4 ,and notice how the tenderness and the beneficence that were the sole motive of the surrender are lifted into light in the last words1 'for us all4' ,the single1 sole reason that bowed1 if ,i may so say1 the divine purpose1 and determined the mysterious act1 was a pure desire for our blessing4 ,no definition is given as to the manner in which that surrender wrought for our good4 ,the ,apostle does not need to dwell upon that4 ,his purpose is to emphasise the entire unselfishness1 the utter simplicity of the motive which moved the divine will4 ,one great throb of love to the whole of humanity led to that transcendent surrender1 before which we can only bow and say1 ',thanks be unto ,god for ,his unspeakable gift4' ,and now1 notice how this mysterious act is grasped by the ,apostle here as what ,i may call the illuminating fact as to the whole divine nature4 ,from it1 and from it alone1 there falls a blaze of light on the deepest things in ,god4 ,we are accustomed to speak of ,christ's perfect life of unselfishness1 and ,his death of pure beneficence1 as being the great manifestation to us all that in ,his heart there is an infinite fountain of love to us4 ,we are1 further1 accustomed to speak of ,christ's mission and death as being the revelation to us of the love of ,god as well as of the ,man ,christ ,jesus1 because we believe that ',god was in ,christ reconciling the world1' and that ,he has so manifested and revealed the very nature of divinity to us1 in ,his life and in ,his person1 that1 as ,he ,himself says1 ',he that hath seen ,me hath seen the ,father4' ,and every conclusion that we draw as to the love of ,christ is1 ipso facto1 a conclusion as to the love of ,god4 ,but my text looks at the matter from rather a different point of view1 and bids us see1 in ,christ's mission and sacrifice1 the great demonstration of the love of ,god1 not only because ',god was in ,christ1' but because the ,father's will1 conceived of as distinct from1 and yet harmonious with1 the will of the ,son1 gives ,him up for us4 ,and we have to say1 not only that we see the love of ,god in the love of ,christ1 but ',god so loved the world that ,he sent ,his only begotten ,son' that we might have life through ,him4 ,these various phases of the love of ,christ as manifesting the divine love1 may not be capable of perfect harmonising in our thoughts1 but they do blend into one1 and by reason of them all1 ',god commendeth ,his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners1 ,christ died for us4' ,we have to think not only of ,abraham who gave up1 but of the unresisting1 innocent ,isaac1 bearing on his shoulders the wood for the burnt offering1 as the ,christ bore the ,cross on ,his1 and suffering himself to be bound upon the pile1 not only by the cords that tied his limbs1 but by the cords of obedience and submission1 and in both we have to bow before the ,apocalypse of divine love4 ,,ii4 ,so1 secondly1 look at the power of this divine surrender to bring with it all other gifts4 ',how shall ,he not with ,him also freely give us all things8' ,the ,apostle's triumphant question requires for its affirmative answer only the belief in the unchangeableness of the ,divine heart1 and the uniformity of the ,divine purpose4 ,and if these be recognised1 their conclusion inevitably follows4 ',with ,him ,he will freely give us all things4' ,it is so1 because the greater gift implies the less4 ,we do not expect that a man who hands over a million of pounds to another1 to help him1 will stick at a farthing afterwards4 ,if you give a diamond you may well give a box to keep it in4 ,in ,god's gift the lesser will follow the lead of the greater2 and whatsoever a man can want1 it is a smaller thing for ,him to bestow1 than was the gift of ,his ,son4 ,there is a beautiful contrast between the manners of giving the two sets of gifts implied in words of the original1 perhaps scarcely capable of being reproduced in any translation4 ,the expression that is rendered 'freely give1' implies that there is a grace and a pleasantness in the act of bestowal4 ,god gave in ,christ1 what we may reverently say it was something like pain to give4 ,will ,he not give the lesser1 whatever they may be1 which it is the joy of ,his heart to communicate8 ,the greater implies the less4 ,farther1 this one great gift draws all other gifts after it1 because the purpose of the greater gift cannot be attained without the bestowment of the lesser4 ,he does not begin to build being unable to finish2 ,he does not miscalculate ,his resources1 nor stultify ,himself by commencing upon a large scale1 and having to stop short before the purpose with which ,he began is accomplished4 ,men build great palaces1 and are bankrupt before the roof is put on4 ,god lays ,his plans with the knowledge of ,his powers1 and having first of all bestowed this large gift1 is not going to have it bestowed in vain for want of some smaller ones to follow it up4 ,christ puts the same argument to us1 beginning only at the other end of the process4 ,paul says1 ',god has laid the foundation in ,christ4' ,do you think ,he will stop before the headstone is put on8 ,christ said1 ',it is your ,father's good pleasure to give you the ,kingdom4' ,do you think ,he will not give you bread and water on the road to it8 ,will ,he send out ,his soldiers half-equipped2 will it be found when they are on their march that they have been started with a defective commissariat1 and with insufficient trenching tools8 ,shall the children of the ,king1 on the road to their thrones1 be left to scramble along anyhow1 in want of what they need to get there8 ,that is not ,god's way of doing4 ,he that hath begun a good work will also perfect the same1 and when ,he gave to you and me ,his ,son1 ,he bound ,himself to give us every subsidiary and secondary blessing which was needed to make that ,son's work complete in each of us4 ,again1 this great blessing draws after it1 by necessary consequence1 all other lesser and secondary gifts1 inasmuch as1 in every real sense1 everything is included and possessed in the ,christ when we receive ,him4 ',with ,him1' says ,paul1 as if that gift once laid in a man's heart actually enclosed within it1 and had for its indispensable accompaniment the possession of every smaller thing that a man can need1 ,jesus ,christ is1 as it were1 a great ,cornucopia1 a horn of abundance1 out of which will pour1 with magic affluence1 all manner of supplies according as we require4 ,this fountain flows with milk1 wine1 and water1 as men need4 ,everything is given us when ,christ is given to us1 because ,christ is the ,heir of all things1 and we possess all things in ,him2 as some poor village maiden married to a prince in disguise1 who1 on the morrow of her wedding finds that she is lady of broad lands1 and mistress of a kingdom4 ',he that spared not ,his own ,son1' not only 'with ,him will give1' but in ,him has 'given us all things4' ,and so1 brethren1 just as that great gift is the illuminating fact in reference to the divine heart1 so is it the interpreting fact in reference to the divine dealings4 ,only when we keep firm hold of ,christ as the gift of ,god1 and the ,explainer of all that ,god does1 can we face the darkness1 the perplexities1 the torturing questions that from the beginning have harassed men's minds as they looked upon the mysteries of human misery4 ,if we recognise that ,god has given us ,his ,son1 then all things become1 if not plain1 at least lighted with some gleam from that great gift2 and we feel that the surrender of ,christ is the constraining fact which shapes after its own likeness1 and for its own purpose1 all the rest of ,god's dealings with men4 ,that gift makes anything believable1 reasonable1 possible1 rather than that ,he should spare not ,his own ,son1 and then should counterwork ,his own act by sending the world anything but good4 ,,iii4 ,and now1 lastly1 take one or two practical issues from these thoughts1 in reference to our own belief and conduct4 ,first1 ,i would say1 ,let us correct our estimates of the relative importance of the two sets of gifts4 ,on the one side stands the solitary ,christ2 on the other side are massed all delights of sense1 all blessings of time1 all the things that the vulgar estimation of men unanimously recognises to be good4 ,these are only makeweights4 ,they are all lumped together into an 'also4' ,they are but the golden dust that may be filed off from the great ingot and solid block4 ,they are but the outward tokens of ,his far deeper and true preciousness4 ,they are secondary2 ,he is the primary4 ,what an inversion of our notions of good6 ,do you degrade all the world's wealth1 pleasantness1 ease1 prosperity1 into an 'also8' ,are you content to put it in the secondary place1 as a result1 if it please ,him1 of ,christ8 ,do you live as if you did8 ,which do you hunger for most8 ,which do you labour for hardest8 ',seek ye first the ,kingdom and the ,king1 and all 'these things shall be added unto you4' ,let these thoughts teach us that sorrow too is one of the gifts of the ,christ4 ,the words of my text1 at first sight1 might seem to be simply a promise of abundant earthly good4 ,but look what lies close beside them1 and is even part of the same triumphant burst4 ',shall tribulation1 or distress1 or persecution1 or famine1 or nakedness1 or peril1 or sword8' ,these are some of the 'all things' which ,paul expected that ,god would give him and his brethren4 ,and looking upon all1 he says1 ',they all work together for good'2 and in them all we may be more than conquerors4 ,it would be a poor1 shabby issue of such a great gift as that of which we have been speaking1 if it were only to be followed by the sweetnesses and prosperity and wealth of this world4 ,but here is the point that we have to keep hold of--inasmuch as ,he gives us all things1 let us take all the things that come to us as being as distinctly the gifts of ,his love1 as is the gift of ,christ ,himself4 ,a wise physician1 to an ignorant onlooker1 might seem to be acting in contradictory fashions when in the one moment he slashes into a limb1 with a sharp1 gleaming knife1 and in the next sedulously binds the wounds1 and closes the arteries1 but the purpose of both acts is one4 ,the diurnal revolution of the earth brings the joyful sunrise and the pathetic sunset4 ,the same annual revolution whirls us through the balmy summer days and the biting winter ones4 ,god's purpose is one4 ,his methods vary4 ,the road goes straight to its goal2 but it sometimes runs in tunnels dank and dark and stifling1 and sometimes by sunny glades and through green pastures4 ,god's purpose is always love1 brother4 ,his withdrawals are gifts1 and sorrow is not the least of the benefits which come to us through the ,man of ,sorrows4 ,so again1 let these thoughts teach us to live by a very quiet and peaceful faith4 ,we find it a great deal easier to trust ,god for ,heaven than for earth--for the distant blessings than for the near ones4 ,many a man will venture his soul into ,god's hands1 who would hesitate to venture to-morrow's food there4 ,why8 ,is it not because we do not really trust ,him for the greater that we find it so hard to trust ,him for the less8 ,is it not because we want the less more really than we want the greater1 that we can put ourselves off with faith for the one1 and want something more solid to grasp for the other8 ,live in the calm confidence that ,god gives all things2 and gives us for to-morrow as for eternity2 for earth as for heaven4 ,and1 last of all1 make you quite sure that you have taken the great gift of ,god4 ,he gives it to all the world1 but they only have it who accept it by faith4 ,have you1 my brother8 ,i look out upon the lives of the mass of professing ,christians2 and this question weighs on my heart1 judging by conduct--have they really got ,christ for their own8 ',wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread1 and your labour for that which satisfieth not8' ,look how you are all fighting and scrambling1 and sweating and fretting1 to get hold of the goods of this present life1 and here is a gift gleaming before you all the while that you will not condescend to take4 ,like a man standing in a market-place offering sovereigns for nothing1 which nobody accepts because they think the offer is too good to be true1 so ,god complains and wails3 ,i have stretched out ,my hands all the day1 laden with gifts1 and no man regarded4 ',it is only heaven may be had for the asking2 ,it is only ,god that is given away4' ,he gives ,his ,son4 ,take ,him by humble faith in ,his sacrifice and ,spirit2 take ,him1 and with ,him ,he freely gives you all things4 ,,more ,,than ,,conquerors ',nay1 in all these things we are more than conquerors through ,him that loved us4'--,,romans viii4 #cg4 ,in order to understand and feel the full force of this triumphant saying of the ,apostle1 we must observe that it is a negative answer to the preceding questions1 ',who shall separate us from the love of ,christ8 ,shall tribulation1 or distress1 or persecution1 or famine1 or nakedness1 or peril1 or sword8' ,a heterogeneous mass the ,apostle here brigades together as an antagonistic army4 ,they are alike in nothing except that they are all evils4 ,there is no attempt at an exhaustive enumeration1 or at classification4 ,he clashes down1 as it were1 a miscellaneous mass of evil things1 and then triumphs over them1 and all the genus to which they belong1 as being utterly impotent to drag men away from ,jesus ,christ4 ,to ask the question is to answer it1 but the form of the answer is worth notice4 ,instead of directly replying1 ',no6 no such powerless things as these can separate us from the love of ,christ1' he says1 ',no6 ,in all these things1 whilst weltering amongst them1 whilst ringed round about by them1 as by encircling enemies1 we are more than conquerors4' ,thereby1 he suggests that there is something needing to be done by us1 in order that the foes may not exercise their natural effect4 ,and so1 taking the words of my text in connection with that to which they are an answer1 we have three things--the impotent enemies of love2 the abundant victory of love2 ',we are more than conquerors'2 and the love that makes us victorious4 ,let us look then at these three things briefly4 ,i4 ,first of all1 the impotent enemies of love4 ,there is contempt in the careless massing together of the foes which the ,apostle enumerates4 ,he begins with the widest word that covers everything--'affliction4' ,then he specifies various forms of it--'distress1' straitening1 as the word might be rendered1 then he comes to evils inflicted for ,christ's sake by hostile men--'persecution1' then he names purely physical evils1 'hunger' and 'nakedness1' then he harks back again to man's antagonism1 'peril1' and 'sword4' ,and thus carelessly1 and without an effort at logical order1 he throws together1 as specimens of their class1 these salient points1 as it were1 and crests of the great sea1 whose billows threaten to roll over us2 and he laughs at them all1 as impotent and nought1 when compared with the love of ,christ1 which shields us from them all4 ,now it must be noticed that here1 in his triumphant question1 the ,apostle means not our love to ,christ but ,his to us2 and not even our sense of that love1 but the fact itself4 ,and his question is just this3--,is there any evil in the world that can make ,christ stop loving a man that cleaves to ,him8 ,and1 as ,i said1 to ask the question is to answer it4 ,the two things belong to two different regions4 ,they have nothing in common4 ,the one moves amongst the low levels of earth2 the other dwells up amidst the abysses of eternity1 and to suppose that anything that assails and afflicts us here has any effect in making that great heart cease to love us is to fancy that the mists can quench the sunlight1 is to suppose that that which lies down low in the earth can rise to poison and to darken the heavens4 ,there is no need1 in order to rise to the full height of the ,christian contempt for calamity1 to deny any of its terrible power4 ,these things can separate us from much4 ,they can separate us from joy1 from hope1 from almost all that makes life desirable4 ,they can strip us to the very quick1 but the quick they cannot touch4 ,the frost comes and kills the flowers1 browns the leaves1 cuts off the stems1 binds the sweet music of the flowing rivers in silent chains1 casts mists and darkness over the face of the solitary grey world1 but it does not touch the life that is in the root4 ,and so all these outward sorrows that have power over the whole of the outward life1 and can slay joy and all but stifle hope1 and can ban men into irrevocable darkness and unalleviated solitude1 they do not touch in the smallest degree the secret bond that binds the heart to ,jesus1 nor in any measure affect the flow of ,his love to us4 ,therefore we may front them and smile at them and say3 ',do as thou wilt1 devouring time1 ,with this wide world1 and all its fading sweets'2 'my flesh and my heart faileth1 but ,god is the strength of my heart1 and my portion for ever4' ,you need not be very much afraid of anything being taken from you as long as ,christ is left you4 ,you will not be altogether hopeless so long as ,christ1 who is our hope1 still speaks ,his faithful promises to you1 nor will the world be lonely and dark to them who feel that they are lapt in the sweet and all-pervading consciousness of the changeless love of the heart of ,christ4 ',shall tribulation1 or distress1 or persecution8'--in any of these things1 'we are more than conquerors through ,him that loved us4' ,brethren1 that is the ,christian way of looking at all externals1 not only at the dark and the sorrowful1 but at the bright and the gladsome4 ,if the withdrawal of external blessings does not touch the central sanctities and sweetness of a life in communion with ,jesus1 the bestowal of external blessedness does not much brighten or gladden it4 ,we can face the withdrawal of them all1 we need not covet the possession of them all1 for we have all in ,christ2 and the world without ,his love contributes less to our blessedness and our peace than the absence of all its joys with ,his love does4 ,so let us feel that earth1 in its givings and in its withholdings1 is equally impotent to touch the one thing that we need1 the conscious possession of the love of ,christ4 ,all these foes1 as ,i have said1 have no power over the fact of ,christ's love to us1 but they have power1 and a very terrible power1 over our consciousness of that love2 and we may so kick against the pricks as to lose1 in the pain of our sorrows1 the assurance of ,his presence1 or be so fascinated by the false and vulgar sweetnesses and promises of the world as1 in the eagerness of our chase after them1 to lose our sense of the all-sufficing certitude of ,his love4 ,tribulation does not strip us of ,his love1 but tribulation may so darken our perceptions that we cannot see the sun4 ,joys need not rob us of ,his heart1 but joys may so fill ours1 as that there shall be no longing for ,his presence within us4 ,therefore let us not exaggerate the impotence of these foes1 but feel that there are real dangers1 as in the sorrows so in the blessings of our outward life1 and that the evil to be dreaded is that outward things1 whether in their bright or in their dark aspects1 may come between us and the home of our hearts1 the love of the loving ,christ4 ,,ii4 ,so then1 note next1 the abundant victory of love4 ,mark how the ,apostle1 in his lofty and enthusiastic way1 is not content here with simply saying that he and his fellows conquer4 ,it would be a poor thing1 he seems to think1 if the balance barely inclined to our side1 if the victory were but just won by a hair's breadth and triumph were snatched1 as it were1 out of the very jaws of defeat4 ,there must be something more than that to correspond to the power of the victorious ,christ that is in us4 ,and so1 he says1 we very abundantly conquer2 we not only hinder these things which he has been enumerating from doing that which it is their aim apparently to do1 but we actually convert them into helpers or allies4 ,the 'more than conquerors' seems to mean1 if there is any definite idea to be attached to it1 the conversion of the enemy conquered into a friend and a helper4 ,the ,american ,indians had a superstition that every foe tomahawked sent fresh strength into the warrior's arm4 ,and so all afflictions and trials rightly borne1 and therefore overcome1 make a man stronger1 and bring him nearer to ,jesus ,christ4 ,note then1 further1 that not only is this victory more than bare victory1 being the conversion of the enemy into allies1 but that it is a victory which is won even whilst we are in the midst of the strife4 ,it is not that we shall be conquerors in some far-off heaven1 when the noise of battle has ceased and they hang the trumpet in the hall1 but it is here now1 in the hand-to-hand and foot-to-foot death-grapple that we do overcome4 ,no ultimate victory1 in some far-off and blessed heaven1 will be ours unless moment by moment1 here1 to-day1' we are more than conquerors through ,him that loved us4' ,so1 then1 about this abundant victory there are these things to say3--,you conquer the world only1 then1 when you make it contribute to your conscious possession of the love of ,christ4 ,that is the real victory1 the only real victory in life4 ,men talk about overcoming here on earth1 and they mean thereby the accomplishment of their designs4 ,a man has 'victory1' as it is phrased1 in the world's strife1 when he secures for himself the world's goods at which he has aimed1 but that is not the ,christian idea of the conquest of calamity4 ,everything that makes me feel more thrillingly in my inmost heart the verity and the sweetness of the love of ,jesus ,christ as my very own1 is conquered by me and compelled to subserve my highest good1 and everything which slips a film between me and ,him1 which obscures the light of ,his face to me1 which makes me less desirous of1 and less sure of1 and less happy in1 and less satisfied with1 ,his love1 is an enemy that has conquered me4 ,and all these evils as the world calls them1 and as our bleeding hearts have often felt them to be1 are converted into allies and friends when they drive us to ,christ1 and keep us close to ,him1 in the conscious possession of ,his sweet and changeless love4 ,that is the victory1 and the only victory4 ,has the world helped me to lay hold of ,christ8 ,then ,i have conquered it4 ,has the world loosened my grasp upon ,him8 ,then it has conquered me4 ,note then1 further1 that this abundant victory depends on how we deal with the changes of our outward lives1 our sorrows or our joys4 ,there is nothing1 per se1 salutary in affliction1 there is nothing1 per se1 antagonistic to ,christian faith in it either4 ,no man is made better by his sorrows1 no man need be made worse by them4 ,that depends upon how we take the things which come storming against us4 ,the set of your sails1 and the firmness of your grasp upon the tiller1 determine whether the wind shall carry you to the haven or shall blow you out1 a wandering waif1 upon a shoreless and melancholy sea4 ,there are some of you that have been blown away from your moorings by sorrow4 ,there are some professing ,christians who have been hindered in their work1 and had their peace and their faith shattered all but irrevocably1 because they have not accepted1 in the spirit in which they were sent1 the trials that have come for their good4 ,the worst of all afflictions is a wasted affliction1 and they are all wasted unless they teach us more of the reality and the blessedness of the love of ,jesus ,christ4 ,,iii4 ,lastly1 notice the love which makes us conquerors4 ,the ,apostle1 with a wonderful instinctive sense of fitness1 names ,christ here by a name congruous to the thoughts which occupy his mind1 when he speaks of ,him that loved us4 ,his question has been1 ,can anything separate us from the love of ,christ8 ,and his answer is1 ,so far from that being the case1 that very love1 by occasion of sorrows and afflictions1 tightens its grasp upon us1 and1 by the communication of itself to us1 makes us more than conquerors4 ,this great love of ,jesus ,christ1 from which nothing can separate us1 will use the very things that seem to threaten our separation as a means of coming nearer to us in its depth and in its preciousness4 ,the ,apostle says ',him that loved us1' and the words in the original distinctly point to some one fact as being the great instance of love4 ,that is to say they point to ,his death4 ,and so we may say ,christ's love helps us to conquer because in ,his death ,he interprets for us all possible sorrows4 ,if it be true that love to each of us nailed ,him there1 then nothing that can come to us but must be a love-token1 and a fruit of that same love4 ,the ,cross is the key to all tribulation1 and shows it to be a token and an instrument of an unchanging love4 ,further1 that great love of ,christ helps us to conquer1 because in ,his sufferings and death ,he becomes the ,companion of all the weary4 ,the rough1 dark1 lonely road changes its look when we see ,his footprints there1 not without specks of blood in them1 where the thorns tore ,his feet4 ,we conquer our afflictions if we recognise that 'in all our afflictions ,he was afflicted1' and that ,himself has drunk to its bitterest dregs the cup which ,he commends to our lips4 ,he has left a kiss upon its margin1 and we need not shrink when ,he holds it out to us and says ',drink ye all of it4' ,that one thought of the companionship of the ,christ in our sorrows makes us more than conquerors4 ,and lastly1 this dying ,lover of our souls communicates to us all1 if we will1 the strength whereby we may coerce all outward things into being helps to the fuller participation of ,his perfect love4 ,our sorrows and all the other distracting externals do seek to drag us away from ,him4 ,is all that happens in counteraction to that pull of the world1 that we tighten our grasp upon ,him1 and will not let ,him go2 as some poor wretch might the horns of the altar that did not respond to his grasp8 ,nay what we lay hold of is no dead thing1 but a living hand1 and it grasps us more tightly than we can ever grasp it4 ,so because ,he holds us1 and not because we hold ,him1 we shall not be dragged away1 by anything outside of our own weak and wavering souls1 and all these embattled foes may come against us1 they may shear off everything else1 they cannot sever ,christ from us unless we ourselves throw ,him away4 ',in this thou shalt conquer4' ',they overcame by the blood of the ,lamb1 and by the word of ,his testimony4' ,,love',s ,,triumph ',neither death1 nor life1 nor angels1 nor principalities1 nor powers1 nor things present1 nor things to come1 nor height1 nor depth1 nor any other creature1 shall be able to separate us from the love of ,god4'--,,romans viii4 #ch1 #ci4 ,these rapturous words are the climax of the ,apostle's long demonstration that the ,gospel is the revelation of 'the righteousness of ,god from faith to faith1' and is thereby 'the power of ,god unto salvation4' ,what a contrast there is between the beginning and the end of his argument6 ,it started with sombre1 sad words about man's sinfulness and aversion from the knowledge of ,god4 ,it closes with this sunny outburst of triumph2 like some stream rising among black and barren cliffs1 or melancholy moorlands1 and foaming through narrow rifts in gloomy ravines1 it reaches at last fertile lands1 and flows calm1 the sunlight dancing on its broad surface1 till it loses itself at last in the unfathomable ocean of the love of ,god4 ,we are told that the ,biblical view of human nature is too dark4 ,well1 the important question is not whether it is dark1 but whether it is true4 ,but1 apart from that1 the doctrine of ,scripture about man's moral condition is not dark1 if you will take the whole of it together4 ,certainly1 a part of it is very dark4 ,the picture1 for instance1 of what men are1 painted at the beginning of this ,epistle1 is shadowed like a canvas of ,rembrandt's4 ,the ,bible is ',nature's sternest painter but her best4' ,but to get the whole doctrine of ,scripture on the subject1 we have to take its confidence as to what men may become1 as well as its portrait of what they are--and then who will say that the anthropology of ,scripture is gloomy8 ,to me it seems that the unrelieved blackness of the view which1 because it admits no fall1 can imagine no rise1 which sees in all man's sins and sorrows no token of the dominion of an alien power1 and has1 therefore1 no reason to believe that they can be separated from humanity1 is the true ',gospel of despair1' and that the system which looks steadily at all the misery and all the wickedness1 and calmly proposes to cast it all out1 is really the only doctrine of human nature which throws any gleam of light on the darkness4 ,christianity begins indeed with1 ',there is none that doeth good1 no1 not one1' but it ends with this victorious pan of our text4 ,and what a majestic close it is to the great words that have gone before1 fitly crowning even their lofty height6 ,one might well shrink from presuming to take such words as a text1 with any idea of exhausting or of enhancing them4 ,my object is very much more humble4 ,i simply wish to bring out the remarkable order1 in which ,paul here marshals1 in his passionate1 rhetorical amplification1 all the enemies that can be supposed to seek to wrench us away from the love of ,god2 and triumphs over them all4 ,we shall best measure the fullness of the words by simply taking these clauses as they stand in the text4 ,i4 ,the love of ,god is unaffected by the extremest changes of our condition4 ,the ,apostle begins his fervid catalogue of vanquished foes by a pair of opposites which might seem to cover the whole ground--'neither death nor life4' ,what more can be said8 ,surely1 these two include everything4 ,from one point of view they do4 ,but yet1 as we shall see1 there is more to be said4 ,and the special reason for beginning with this pair of possible enemies is probably to be found by remembering that they are a pair1 that between them they do cover the whole ground and represent the extremes of change which can befall us4 ,the one stands at the one pole1 the other at the other4 ,if these two stations1 so far from each other1 are equally near to ,god's love1 then no intermediate point can be far from it4 ,if the most violent change which we can experience does not in the least matter to the grasp which the love of ,god has on us1 or to the grasp which we may have on it1 then no less violent a change can be of any consequence4 ,it is the same thought in a somewhat modified form1 as we find in another word of ,paul's1 ',whether we live1 we live unto the ,lord2 and whether we die1 we die unto the ,lord4' ,our subordination to ,him is the same1 and our consecration should be the same1 in all varieties of condition1 even in that greatest of all variations4 ,his love to us makes no account of that mightiest of changes4 ,how should it be affected by slighter ones8 ,the distance of a star is measured by the apparent change in its position1 as seen from different points of the earth's surface or orbit4 ,but this great ,light stands steadfast in our heaven1 nor moves a hair's-breadth1 nor pours a feebler ray on us1 whether we look up to it from the midsummer day of busy life1 or from the midwinter of death4 ,these opposites are parted by a distance to which the millions of miles of the world's path among the stars are but a point1 and yet the love of ,god streams down on them alike4 ,of course1 the confidence in immortality is implied in this thought4 ,death does not1 in the slightest degree1 affect the essential vitality of the soul2 so it does not1 in the slightest degree1 affect the outflow of ,god's love to that soul4 ,it is a change of condition and circumstance1 and no more4 ,he does not lose us in the dust of death4 ,the withered leaves on the pathway are trampled into mud1 and indistinguishable to human eyes2 but ,he sees them even as when they hung green and sunlit on the mystic tree of life4 ,how beautifully this thought contrasts with the saddest aspect of the power of death in our human experience6 ,he is ,death the ,separator1 who unclasps our hands from the closest1 dearest grasp1 and divides asunder joints and marrow1 and parts soul and body1 and withdraws us from all our habitude and associations and occupations1 and loosens every bond of society and concord1 and hales us away into a lonely land4 ,but there is one bond which his 'abhorred shears' cannot cut4 ,their edge is turned on it4 ,one ,hand holds us in a grasp which the fleshless fingers of ,death in vain strive to loosen4 ,the separator becomes the uniter2 he rends us apart from the world that ,he may 'bring us to ,god4' ,the love filtered by drops on us in life is poured upon us in a flood in death2 'for ,i am persuaded1 that neither death nor life shall be able to separate us from the love of ,god4' ,,ii4 ,the love of ,god is undiverted from us by any other order of beings4 ',nor angels1 nor principalities1 nor powers1' says ,paul4 ,here we pass from conditions affecting ourselves to living beings beyond ourselves4 ,now1 it is important for understanding the precise thought of the ,apostle to observe that this expression1 when used without any qualifying adjective1 seems uniformly to mean good angels1 the hierarchy of blessed spirits before the throne4 ,so that there is no reference to 'spiritual wickedness in high places' striving to draw men away from ,god4 ,the supposition which the ,apostle makes is1 indeed1 an impossible one1 that these ministering spirits1 who are sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation1 should so forget their mission and contradict their nature as to seek to bar us out from the love which it is their chiefest joy to bring to us4 ,he knows it to be an impossible supposition1 and its very impossibility gives energy to his conclusion1 just as when in the same fashion he makes the other equally impossible supposition about an angel from heaven preaching another gospel than that which he had preached to them4 ,so we may turn the general thought of this second category of impotent efforts in two different ways1 and suggest1 first1 that it implies the utter powerlessness of any third party in regard to the relations between our souls and ,god4 ,we alone have to do with ,him alone4 ,the awful fact of individuality1 that solemn mystery of our personal being1 has its most blessed or its most dread manifestation in our relation to ,god4 ,there no other ,being has any power4 ,counsel and stimulus1 suggestion or temptation1 instruction or lies1 which may tend to lead us nearer to ,him or away from ,him1 they may indeed give us2 but after they have done their best or their worst1 all depends on the personal act of our own innermost being4 ,man or angel can affect that1 but from without4 ,the old mystics called prayer 'the flight of the lonely soul to the only ,god4' ,it is the name for all religion4 ,these two1 ,god and the soul1 have to 'transact1' as our ,puritan forefathers used to say1 as if there were no other beings in the universe but only they two4 ,angels and principalities and powers may stand beholding with sympathetic joy2 they may minister blessing and guardianship in many ways2 but the decisive act of union between ,god and the soul they can neither effect nor prevent4 ,and as for them1 so for men around us2 the limits of their power to harm us are soon set4 ,they may shut us out from human love by calumnies1 and dig deep gulfs of alienation between us and dear ones2 they may hurt and annoy us in a thousand ways with slanderous tongues1 and arrows dipped in poisonous hatred1 but one thing they cannot do4 ,they may build a wall around us1 and imprison us from many a joy and many a fair prospect1 but they cannot put a roof on it to keep out the sweet influences from above1 or hinder us from looking up to the heavens4 ,nobody can come between us and ,god but ourselves4 ,or1 we may turn this general thought in another direction1 and say1 ,these blessed spirits around the throne do not absorb and intercept ,his love4 ,they gather about its steps in their 'solemn troops and sweet societies'2 but close as are their ranks1 and innumerable as is their multitude1 they do not prevent that love from passing beyond them to us on the outskirts of the crowd4 ,the planet nearest the sun is drenched and saturated with fiery brightness1 but the rays from the centre of life pass on to each of the sister spheres in its turn1 and travel away outwards to where the remotest of them all rolls in its far-off orbit1 unknown for millenniums to dwellers closer to the sun1 but through all the ages visited by warmth and light according to its needs4 ,like that poor1 sickly woman who could lay her wasted fingers on the hem of ,christ's garment1 notwithstanding the thronging multitude1 we can reach our hands through all the crowd1 or rather ,he reaches ,his strong hand to us and heals and blesses us4 ,all the guests are fed full at that great table4 ,one's gain is not another's loss4 ,the multitudes sit on the green grass1 and the last man of the last fifty gets as much as the first4 ',they did all eat1 and were filled'2 and more remains than fed them all4 ,so all beings are 'nourished from the ,king's country1' and none jostle others out of their share4 ,this healing fountain is not exhausted of its curative power by the early comers4 ',i will give unto this last1 even as unto thee4' ',nor angels1 nor principalities1 nor powers1 shall be able to separate us from the love of ,god4' ,,iii4 ,the love of ,god is raised above the power of time4 ',nor things present1 nor things to come1' is the ,apostle's next class of powers impotent to disunite us from the love of ,god4 ,the rhythmical arrangement of the text deserves to be noticed1 as bearing not only on its music and rhetorical flow1 but as affecting its force4 ,we had first a pair of opposites1 and then a triplet2 'death and life3 angels1 principalities1 and powers4' ,we have again a pair of opposites2 'things present1 things to come1' again followed by a triplet1 'height nor depth1 nor any other creature4' ,the effect of this is to divide the whole into two1 and to throw the first and second classes more closely together1 as also the third and fourth4 ,time and ,space1 these two mysterious ideas1 which work so fatally on all human love1 are powerless here4 ,the great revelation of ,god1 on which the whole of ,judaism was built1 was that made to ,moses of the name ',i ,am that ,i ,am4' ,and parallel to the verbal revelation was the symbol of the ,bush1 burning and unconsumed1 which is so often misunderstood4 ,it appears wholly contrary to the usage of ,scriptural visions1 which are ever wont to express in material form the same truth which accompanies them in words1 that the meaning of that vision should be1 as it is frequently taken as being1 the continuance of ,israel unharmed by the fiery furnace of persecution4 ,not the continuance of ,israel1 but the eternity of ,israel's ,god is the teaching of that flaming wonder4 ,the burning ,bush and the ,name of the ,lord proclaimed the same great truth of self-derived1 self-determined1 timeless1 undecaying ,being4 ,and what better symbol than the bush burning1 and yet not burning out1 could be found of that ,god in whose life there is no tendency to death1 whose work digs no pit of weariness into which it falls1 who gives and is none the poorer1 who fears no exhaustion in ,his spending1 no extinction in ,his continual shining8 ,and this eternity of ,being is no mere metaphysical abstraction4 ,it is eternity of love1 for ,god is love4 ,that great stream1 the pouring out of ,his own very inmost ,being1 knows no pause1 nor does the deep fountain from which it flows ever sink one hair's-breadth in its pure basin4 ,we know of earthly loves which cannot die4 ,they have entered so deeply into the very fabric of the soul1 that like some cloth dyed in grain1 as long as two threads hold together they will retain the tint4 ,we have to thank ,god for such instances of love stronger than death1 which make it easier for us to believe in the unchanging duration of ,his4 ,but we know1 too1 of love that can change1 and we know that all love must part4 ,few of us have reached middle life1 who do not1 looking back1 see our track strewed with the gaunt skeletons of dead friendships1 and dotted with 'oaks of weeping1' waving green and mournful over graves1 and saddened by footprints striking away from the line of march1 and leaving us the more solitary for their departure4 ,how blessed then to know of a love which cannot change or die6 ,the past1 the present1 and the future are all the same to ,him1 to whom 'a thousand years1' that can corrode so much of earthly love1 are in their power to change 'as one day1' and 'one day1' which can hold so few of the expressions of our love1 may be 'as a thousand years' in the multitude and richness of the gifts which it can be expanded to contain4 ,the whole of what ,he has been to any past1 ,he is to us to-day4 ',the ,god of ,jacob is our refuge4' ,all these old-world stories of loving care and guidance may be repeated in our lives4 ,so we may bring the blessedness of all the past into the present1 and calmly face the misty future1 sure that it cannot rob us of ,his love4 ,whatever may drop out of our vainly-clasping hands1 it matters not1 if only our hearts are stayed on ,his love1 which neither things present nor things to come can alter or remove4 ,looking on all the flow of ceaseless change1 the waste and fading1 the alienation and cooling1 the decrepitude and decay of earthly affection1 we can lift up with gladness1 heightened by the contrast1 the triumphant song of the ancient ,church3 ',give thanks unto the ,lord3 for ,he is good3 because ,his mercy endureth for ever6' ,,iv4 ,the love of ,god is present everywhere4 ,the ,apostle ends his catalogue with a singular trio of antagonists2 'nor height1 nor depth1 nor any other creature1' as if he had got impatient of the enumeration of impotencies1 and having named the outside boundaries in space of the created universe1 flings1 as it were1 with one rapid toss1 into that large room the whole that it can contain1 and triumphs over it all4 ,as the former clause proclaimed the powerlessness of ,time1 so this proclaims the powerlessness of that other great mystery of creatural life which we call ,space1 ,height or depth1 it matters not4 ,that diffusive love diffuses itself equally in all directions4 ,up or down1 it is all the same4 ,the distance from the centre is the same to ,zenith or to ,nadir4 ,here1 we have the same process applied to that idea of ,omnipresence as was applied in the former clause to the idea of ,eternity4 ,that thought1 so hard to grasp with vividness1 and not altogether a glad one to a sinful soul1 is all softened and glorified1 as some solemn ,alpine cliff of bare rock is when the tender morning light glows on it1 when it is thought of as the ,omnipresence of ,love4 ',thou1 ,god1 seest me1' may be a stern word1 if the ,god who sees be but a mighty ,maker or a righteous ,judge4 ,as reasonably might we expect a prisoner in his solitary cell to be glad when he thinks that the jailer's eye is on him from some unseen spy-hole in the wall1 as expect any thought of ,god but one to make a man read that grand one hundred and thirty-ninth ,psalm with joy3 ',if ,i ascend into heaven1 ,thou art there2 if ,i make my bed in ,sheol1 behold1 ,thou art there4' ,so may a man say shudderingly to himself1 and tremble as he asks in vain1 ',whither shall ,i flee from ,thy ,presence8' ,but how different it all is when we can cast over the marble whiteness of that solemn thought the warm hue of life1 and change the form of our words into this of our text3 ',nor height1 nor depth1 shall be able to separate us from the love of ,god4' ,in that great ocean of the divine love we live and move and have our being1 floating in it like some sea flower which spreads its filmy beauty and waves its long tresses in the depths of mid-ocean4 ,the sound of its waters is ever in our ears1 and above1 beneath1 around us1 its mighty currents run evermore4 ,we need not cower before the fixed gaze of some stony god1 looking on us unmoved like those ,egyptian deities that sit pitiless with idle hands on their laps1 and wide-open lidless eyes gazing out across the sands4 ,we need not fear the ,omnipresence of ,love1 nor the ,omniscience which knows us altogether1 and loves us even as it knows4 ,rather we shall be glad that we are ever in ,his ,presence1 and desire1 as the height of all felicity and the power for all goodness1 to walk all the day long in the light of ,his countenance1 till the day come when we shall receive the crown of our perfecting in that we shall be 'ever with the ,lord4' ,the recognition of this triumphant sovereignty of love over all these real and supposed antagonists makes us1 too1 lords over them1 and delivers us from the temptations which some of them present us to separate ourselves from the love of ,god4 ,they all become our servants and helpers1 uniting us to that love4 ,so we are set free from the dread of death and from the distractions incident to life4 ,so we are delivered from superstitious dread of an unseen world1 and from craven fear of men4 ,so we are emancipated from absorption in the present and from careful thought for the future4 ,so we are at home everywhere1 and every corner of the universe is to us one of the many mansions of our ,father's house4 ',all things are yours1 444 and ye are ,christ's2 and ,christ is ,god's4' ,i do not forget the closing words of this great text4 ,i have not ventured to include them in our present subject1 because they would have introduced another wide region of thought to be laid down on our already too narrow canvas4 ,but remember1 ,i beseech you1 that this love of ,god is explained by our ,apostle to be 'in ,christ ,jesus our ,lord4' ,love illimitable1 all-pervasive1 eternal2 yes1 but a love which has a channel and a course2 love which has a method and a process by which it pours itself over the world4 ,it is not1 as some representations would make it1 a vague1 nebulous light diffused through space as in a chaotic half-made universe1 but all gathered in that great ,light which rules the day--even in ,him who said3 ',i am the ,light of the world4' ,in ,christ the love of ,god is all centred and embodied1 that it may be imparted to all sinful and hungry hearts1 even as burning coals are gathered on a hearth that they may give warmth to all that are in the house4 ',god so loved the world'--not merely so much1 but in such a fashion--'that'--that what8 ,many people would leap at once from the first to the last clause of the verse1 and regard eternal life for all and sundry as the only adequate expression of the universal love of ,god4 ,not so does ,christ speak4 ,between that universal love and its ultimate purpose and desire for every man ,he inserts two conditions1 one on ,god's part1 one on man's4 ,god's love reaches its end1 namely1 the bestowal of eternal life1 by means of a divine act and a human response4 ',god so loved the world1 that ,he gave ,his only begotten ,son1 that whosoever believeth in ,him should not perish1 but have everlasting life4' ,so all the universal love of ,god for you and me and for all our brethren is 'in ,christ ,jesus our ,lord1' and faith in ,him unites us to it by bonds which no foe can break1 no shock of change can snap1 no time can rot1 no distance can stretch to breaking4 ',for ,i am persuaded1 that neither death nor life1 nor angels1 nor principalities1 nor powers1 nor things present1 nor things to come1 nor height1 nor depth1 nor any other creature1 shall be able to separate us from the love of ,god1 which is in ,christ ,jesus our ,lord4' ,,the ,,sacrifice ,,of ,,the ,,body ',i beseech you1 therefore1 brethren1 by the mercies of ,god1 that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice1 holy1 acceptable unto ,god1 which is your reasonable service4'--,,romans xii4 #a4 ,in the former part of this letter the ,apostle has been building up a massive fabric of doctrine1 which has stood the waste of centuries1 and the assaults of enemies1 and has been the home of devout souls4 ,he now passes to speak of practice1 and he binds the two halves of his letter indissolubly together by that significant 'therefore1' which does not only look back to the thing last said1 but to the whole of the preceding portion of the letter4 ',what ,god hath joined together let no man put asunder4' ,christian living is inseparably connected with ,christian believing4 ,possibly the error of our forefathers was in cutting faith too much loose from practice1 and supposing that an orthodox creed was sufficient1 though ,i think the extent to which they did suppose that has been very much exaggerated4 ,the temptation of this day is precisely the opposite4 ',conduct is three-fourths of life1' says one of our teachers4 ,yes4 ,but what about the fourth fourth which underlies conduct8 ,paul's way is the right way4 ,lay broad and deep the foundations of ,god's facts revealed to us1 and then build upon that the fabric of a noble life4 ,this generation superficially tends to cut practice loose from faith1 and so to look for grapes from thorns and figs from thistles4 ,wrong thinking will not lead to right doing4 ',i beseech you1 therefore1 brethren1 that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice4' ,the ,apostle1 in beginning his practical exhortations1 lays as the foundations of them all two companion precepts3 one1 with which we have to deal1 affecting mainly the outward life2 its twin sister1 which follows in the next verse1 affecting mainly the inward life4 ,he who has drunk in the spirit of ,paul's doctrinal teaching will present his body a living sacrifice1 and be renewed in the spirit of his mind2 and thus1 outwardly and inwardly1 will be approximating to ,god's ideal1 and all specific virtues will be his in germ4 ,those two precepts lay down the broad outline1 and all that follow in the way of specific commandments is but filling in its details4 ,i4 ,we observe that we have here1 first1 an all-inclusive directory for the outward life4 ,now1 it is to be noticed that the metaphor of sacrifice runs through the whole of the phraseology of my text4 ,the word rendered 'present' is a technical expression for the sacerdotal action of offering4 ,a tacit contrast is drawn between the sacrificial ritual1 which was familiar to ,romans as well as ,jews1 and the true ,christian sacrifice and service4 ,in the former a large portion of the sacrifices consisted of animals which were slain4 ,ours is to be 'a living sacrifice4' ,in the former the offering was presented to the ,deity1 and became ,his property4 ,in the ,christian service1 the gift passes1 in like manner1 from the possession of the worshipper1 and is set apart for the uses of ,god1 for that is the proper meaning of the word 'holy4' ,the outward sacrifice gave an odour of a sweet smell1 which1 by a strong metaphor1 was declared to be fragrant in the nostrils of ,deity4 ,in like manner1 the ,christian sacrifice is 'acceptable unto ,god4' ,these other sacrifices were purely outward1 and derived no efficacy from the disposition of the worshipper4 ,our sacrifice1 though the material of the offering be corporeal1 is the act of the inner man1 and so is called 'rational' rather than 'reasonable1' as our ,version has it1 or as in other parts of ,scripture1 'spiritual4' ,and the last word of my text1 'service1' retains the sacerdotal allusion1 because it does not mean the service of a slave or domestic1 but that of a priest4 ,and so the sum of the whole is that the master-word for the outward life of a ,christian is sacrifice4 ,that1 again1 includes two things--self-surrender and surrender to ,god4 ,now1 ,paul was not such a superficial moralist as to begin at the wrong end1 and talk about the surrender of the outward life1 unless as the result of the prior surrender of the inward1 and that priority of the consecration of the man to his offering of the body is contained in the very metaphor4 ,for a priest needs to be consecrated before he can offer1 and we in our innermost wills1 in the depths of our nature1 must be surrendered and set apart to ,god ere any of our outward activities can be laid upon ,his altar4 ,the ,apostle1 then1 does not make the mistake of substituting external for internal surrender1 but he presupposes that the latter has preceded4 ,he puts the sequence more fully in the parallel passage in this very letter3 ',yield yourselves unto ,god1 and your bodies as instruments of righteousness unto ,him4' ,so1 then1 first of all1 we must be priests by our inward consecration1 and then1 since 'a priest must have somewhat to offer1' we must bring the outward life and lay it upon ,his altar4 ,now1 of the two thoughts which ,i have said are involved in this great keyword1 the former is common to ,christianity1 with all noble systems of morality1 whether religious or irreligious4 ,it is a commonplace1 on which ,i do not need to dwell1 that every man who will live a man's life1 and not that of a beast1 must sacrifice the flesh1 and rigidly keep it down4 ,but that commonplace is lifted into an altogether new region1 assumes a new solemnity1 and finds new power for its fulfilment when we add to the moralist's duty of control of the animal and outward nature the other thought1 that the surrender must be to ,god4 ,there is no need for my dwelling at any length on the various practical directions in which this great exhortation must be wrought out4 ,it is of more importance1 by far1 to have well fixed in our minds and hearts the one dominant thought that sacrifice is the keyword of the ,christian life than to explain the directions in which it applies4 ,but still1 just a word or two about these4 ,there are three ways in which we may look at the body1 which the ,apostle here says is to be yielded up unto ,god4 ,it is the recipient of impressions from without4 ,there is a field for consecration4 ,the eye that looks upon evil1 and by the look has rebellious1 lustful1 sensuous1 foul desires excited in the heart1 breaks this solemn law4 ,the eye that among the things seen dwells with complacency on the pure1 and turns from the impure as if a hot iron had been thrust into its pupil2 that in the things seen discerns shimmering behind them1 and manifested through them1 the things unseen and eternal1 is the consecrated eye4 ',art for ,art's sake1' to quote the cant of the day1 has too often meant art for the flesh's sake4 ,and there are pictures and books1 and sights of various sorts1 flashed before the eyes of you young men and women which it is pollution to dwell upon1 and should be pain to remember4 ,i beseech you all to have guard over these gates of the heart1 and to pray1 ',turn away mine eyes from viewing vanity4' ,and the other senses1 in like manner1 have need to be closely connected with ,god if they are not to rush us down to the devil4 ,the body is not only the recipient of impressions4 ,it is the possessor of appetites and necessities4 ,see to it that these are indulged1 with constant reference to ,god4 ,it is no small attainment of the ,christian life 'to eat our meat with gladness and singleness of heart1 praising ,god4' ,in a hundred directions this characteristic of our corporeal lives tends to lead us all away from supreme consecration to ,him4 ,there is the senseless luxury of this generation4 ,there is the exaggerated care for physical strength and completeness amongst the young2 there is the intemperance in eating and drinking1 which is the curse and the shame of ,england4 ,there is the provision for the flesh1 the absorbing care for the procuring of material comforts1 which drowns the spirit in miserable anxieties1 and makes men bond-slaves4 ,there is the corruption which comes from drunkenness and from lust4 ,there is the indolence which checks lofty aspirations and stops a man in the middle of noble work4 ,and there are many other forms of evil on which ,i need not dwell1 all of which are swept clean out of the way when we lay to heart this injunction3 ',i beseech you present your bodies a living sacrifice1' and let appetites and tastes and corporeal needs be kept in rigid subordination and in conscious connection with ,him4 ,i remember a quaint old saying of a ,german schoolmaster1 who apostrophised his body thus3 ',i go with you three times a day to eat2 you must come with me three times a day to pray4' ,subjugate the body1 and let it be the servant and companion of the devout spirit4 ,it is also1 besides being the recipient of impressions1 and the possessor of needs and appetites1 our instrument for working in the world4 ,and so the exhortation of my text comes to include this1 that all our activities done by means of brain and eye and tongue and hand and foot shall be consciously devoted to ,him1 and laid as a sacrifice upon ,his altar4 ,that pervasive1 universally diffused reference to ,god1 in all the details of daily life1 is the thing that ,christian men and women need most of all to try to cultivate4 ',pray without ceasing1' says the ,apostle4 ,this exhortation can only be obeyed if our work is indeed worship1 being done by ,god's help1 for ,god's sake1 in communion with ,god4 ,so1 dear friends1 sacrifice is the keynote--meaning thereby surrender1 control1 and stimulus of the corporeal frame1 surrender to ,god1 in regard to the impressions which we allow to be made upon our senses1 to the indulgence which we grant to our appetites1 and the satisfaction which we seek for our needs1 and to the activities which we engage in by means of this wondrous instrument with which ,god has trusted us4 ,these are the plain principles involved in the exhortation of my text4 ',he that soweth to the flesh1 shall of the flesh reap corruption4' ',i keep under my body1 and bring it into subjection4' ,it is a good servant2 it is a bad master4 ,,ii4 ,note1 secondly1 the relation between this priestly service and other kinds of worship4 ,i need only say a word about that4 ,paul is not meaning to depreciate the sacrificial ritual1 from which he drew his emblem4 ,but he is meaning to assert that the devotion of a life1 manifested through bodily activity1 is higher in its nature than the symbolical worship of any altar and of any sacrifice4 ,and that falls in with prevailing tendencies in this day1 which has laid such a firm hold on the principle that daily conduct is better than formal worship1 that it has forgotten to ask the question whether the daily conduct is likely to be satisfactory if the formal worship is altogether neglected4 ,i believe1 as profoundly as any man can1 that the true worship is distinguishable from and higher than the more sensuous forms of the ,catholic or other sacramentarian churches1 or the more simple of the ,puritan and ,nonconformist1 or the altogether formless of the ,quaker4 ,i believe that the best worship is the manifold activities of daily life laid upon ,god's altar1 so that the division between things secular and things sacred is to a large extent misleading and irrelevant4 ,but at the same time ,i believe that you have very little chance of getting this diffused and all-pervasive reference of all a man's doings to ,god unless there are1 all through his life1 recurring with daily regularity1 reservoirs of power1 stations where he may rest1 kneeling-places where the attitude of service is exchanged for the attitude of supplication2 times of quiet communion with ,god which shall feed the worshipper's activities as the white snowfields on the high summits feed the brooks that sparkle by the way1 and bring fertility wherever they run4 ,so1 dear brethren1 remember that whilst life is the field of worship there must be the inward worship within the shrine if there is to be the outward service4 ,,iii4 ,lastly1 note the equally comprehensive motive and ground of this all-inclusive directory for conduct4 ',i beseech you1 by the mercies of ,god4' ,that plural does not mean that the ,apostle is extending his view over the whole wide field of the divine beneficence1 but rather that he is contemplating the one all-inclusive mercy about which the former part of his letter has been eloquent--viz4 the gift of ,christ--and contemplating it in the manifoldness of the blessings which flow from it4 ,the mercies of ,god which move a man to yield himself as a sacrifice are not the diffused beneficences of ,his providence1 but the concentrated love that lies in the person and work of ,his ,son4 ,and there1 as ,i believe1 is the one motive to which we can appeal with any prospect of its being powerful enough to give the needful impetus all through a life4 ,the sacrifice of ,christ is the ground on which our sacrifices can be offered and accepted1 for it was the sacrifice of a death propitiatory and cleansing1 and on it1 as the ancient ritual taught us1 may be reared the enthusiastic sacrifice of a life--a thankoffering for it4 ,nor is it only the ground on which our sacrifice is accepted1 but it is the great motive by which our sacrifice is impelled4 ,there is the difference between the ,christian teaching1 'present your bodies a sacrifice1' and the highest and noblest of similar teaching elsewhere4 ,one of the purest and loftiest of the ancient moralists was a contemporary of ,paul's4 ,he would have re-echoed from his heart the ,apostle's directory1 but he knew nothing of the ,apostle's motive4 ,so his exhortations were powerless4 ,he had no spell to work on men's hearts1 and his lofty teachings were as the voice of one crying in the wilderness4 ,whilst ,seneca taught1 ,rome was a cesspool of moral putridity and ,nero butchered4 ,so it always is4 ,there may be noble teachings about self-control1 purity1 and the like1 but an evil and adulterous generation is slow to dance to such piping4 ,our poet has bid us-- ',move upwards1 casting out the beast1 ,and let the ape and tiger die4' ,but how is this heavy bulk of ours to 'move upwards'2 how is the beast to be 'cast out'2 how are the 'ape and tiger' in us to be slain8 ,paul has told us1 ',by the mercies of ,god4' ,christ's gift1 meditated on1 accepted1 introduced into will and heart1 is the one power that will melt our obstinacy1 the one magnet that will draw us after it4 ,nothing else1 brethren1 as your own experience has taught you1 and as the experience of the world confirms1 nothing else will bind ,behemoth1 and put a hook in his nose4 ,apart from the constraining motive of the love of ,christ1 all the cords of prudence1 conscience1 advantage1 by which men try to bind their unruly passions and manacle the insisting flesh1 are like the chains on the demoniac's wrists--',and he had oftentimes been bound by chains1 and the chains were snapped asunder4' ,but the silken leash with which the fair ,una in the poem leads the lion1 the silken leash of love will bind the strong man1 and enable us to rule ourselves4 ,if we will open our hearts to the sacrifice of ,christ1 we shall be able to offer ourselves as thankofferings4 ,if we will let ,his love sway our wills and consciences1 ,he will give our wills and consciences power to master and to offer up our flesh4 ,and the great change1 according to which ,he will one day change the body of our humiliation into the likeness of the body of ,his glory1 will be begun in us1 if we live under the influence of the motive and the commandment which this ,apostle bound together in our text and in his other great words1 ',ye are not your own2 ye are bought with a price1 therefore glorify ,god in your body and spirit1 which are ,his4' ,,transfiguration ',be not conformed to this world2 but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind1 that ye may prove what is that good1 and acceptable1 and perfect will of ,god4'--,,romans xii4 #b4 ,i had occasion to point out1 in a sermon on the preceding verse1 that the ,apostle is1 in this context1 making the transition from the doctrinal to the practical part of his letter1 and that he lays down broad principles1 of which all his subsequent injunctions and exhortations are simply the filling up of the details4 ,one master word1 for the whole ,christian life1 as we then saw1 is sacrifice1 self-surrender1 and that to ,god4 ,in like manner1 ,paul here brackets1 with that great conception of the ,christian life1 another equally dominant and equally comprehensive4 ,in one aspect1 it is self-surrender2 in another1 it is growing transformation4 ,and1 just as in the former verse we found that an inward surrender preceded the outward sacrifice1 and that the inner man1 having been consecrated as a priest1 by this yielding of himself to ,god1 was then called upon to manifest inward consecration by outward sacrifice1 so in this further exhortation1 an inward 'renewing of the mind' is regarded as the necessary antecedent of transformation of outward life4 ,so we have here another comprehensive view of what the ,christian life ought to be1 and that not only grasped1 as it were1 in its very centre and essence1 but traced out in two directions--as to that which must precede it within1 and as to that which follows it as consequence4 ,an outline of the possibilities1 and therefore the duties1 of the ,christian1 is set forth here1 in these three thoughts of my text1 the renewed mind issuing in a transfigured life1 crowned and rewarded by a clearer and ever clearer insight into what we ought to be and do4 ,i4 ,note1 then1 that the foundation of all transformation of character and conduct is laid deep in a renewed mind4 ,now it is a matter of world-wide experience1 verified by each of us in our own case1 if we have ever been honest in the attempt1 that the power of self-improvement is limited by very narrow bounds4 ,any man that has ever tried to cure himself of the most trivial habit which he desires to get rid of1 or to alter in the slightest degree the set of some strong taste or current of his being1 knows how little he can do1 even by the most determined effort4 ,something may be effected1 but1 alas6 as the proverbs of all nations and all lands have taught us1 it is very little indeed4 ',you cannot expel nature with a fork1' said the ,roman4 ',what's bred in the bone won't come out of the flesh1' says the ,englishman4 ',can the ,ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots8' says the ,hebrew4 ,and we all know what the answer to that question is4 ,the problem that is set before a man when you tell him to effect self-improvement is something like that which confronted that poor paralytic lying in the porch at the pool3 ',if you can walk you will be able to get to the pool that will make you able to walk4 ,but you have got to be cured before you can do what you need to do in order to be cured4' ,only one knife can cut the knot4 ,the ,gospel of ,jesus ,christ presents itself1 not as a mere republication of morality1 not as merely a new stimulus and motive to do what is right1 but as an actual communication to men of a new power to work in them1 a strong hand laid upon our poor1 feeble hand with which we try to put on the brake or to apply the stimulus4 ,it is a new gift of a life which will unfold itself after its own nature1 as the bud into flower1 and the flower into fruit2 giving new desires1 tastes1 directions1 and renewing the whole nature4 ,and so1 says ,paul1 the beginning of transformation of character is the renovation in the very centre of the being1 and the communication of a new impulse and power to the inward self4 ,now1 ,i suppose that in my text the word 'mind' is not so much employed in the widest sense1 including all the affections and will1 and the other faculties of our nature1 as in the narrower sense of the perceptive power1 or that faculty in our nature by which we recognise1 and make our own1 certain truths4 ',the renewing of the mind1' then1 is only1 in such an interpretation1 a theological way of putting the simpler ,english thought1 a change of estimates1 a new set of views2 or if that word be too shallow1 as indeed it is1 a new set of convictions4 ,it is profoundly true that ',as a man thinketh1 so is he4' ,our characters are largely made by our estimates of what is good or bad1 desirable or undesirable4 ,and what the ,apostle is thinking about here is1 as ,i take it1 principally how the body of ,christian truth1 if it effects a lodgment in1 not merely the brain of a man1 but his whole nature1 will modify and alter it all4 ,why1 we all know how often a whole life has been revolutionised by the sudden dawning or rising in its sky1 of some starry new truth1 formerly hidden and undreamed of4 ,and if we should translate the somewhat archaic phraseology of our text into the plainest of modern ,english1 it just comes to this3 ,if you want to change your characters1 and ,god knows they all need it1 change the deep convictions of your mind2 and get hold1 as living realities1 of the great truths of ,christ's ,gospel4 ,if you and ,i really believed what we say we believe1 that ,jesus ,christ has died for us1 and lives for us1 and is ready to pour out upon us the gift of ,his ,divine ,spirit1 and wills that we should be like ,him1 and holds out to us the great and wonderful hopes and prospects of an absolutely eternal life of supreme and serene blessedness at ,his right hand1 should we be1 could we be1 the sort of people that most of us are8 ,it is not the much that you say you believe that shapes your character2 it is the little that you habitually realise4 ,truth professed has no transforming power2 truth received and fed upon can revolutionise a man's whole character4 ,so1 dear brethren1 remember that my text1 though it is an analysis of the methods of ,christian progress1 and though it is a wonderful setting forth of the possibilities open to the poorest1 dwarfed1 blinded1 corrupted nature1 is also all commandment4 ,and if it is true that the principles of the ,gospel exercise transforming power upon men's lives1 and that in order for these principles to effect their natural results there must be honest dealing with them1 on our parts1 take this as the practical outcome of all this first part of my sermon--let us all see to it that we keep ourselves in touch with the truths which we say we believe2 and that we thorough-goingly apply these truths in all their searching1 revealing1 quickening1 curbing power1 to every action of our daily lives4 ,if for one day we could bring everything that we do into touch with the creed that we profess1 we should be different men and women4 ,make of your every thought an action2 link every action with a thought4 ,or1 to put it more ,christianlike1 let there be nothing in your creed which is not in your commandments2 and let nothing be in your life which is not moulded by these4 ,the beginning of all transformation is the revolutionised conviction of a mind that has accepted the truths of the ,gospel4 ,,ii4 ,well then1 secondly1 note the transfigured life4 ,the ,apostle uses in his positive commandment1 ',be ye transformed1' the same word which is employed by two of the ,evangelists in their account of our ,lord's transfiguration4 ,and although ,i suppose it would be going too far to assert that there is a distinct reference intended to that event1 it may be permissible to look back to it as being a lovely illustration of the possibilities that open to an honest ,christian life--the possibility of a change1 coming from within upwards1 and shedding a strange radiance on the face1 whilst yet the identity remains4 ,so by the rippling up from within of the renewed mind will come into our lives a transformation not altogether unlike that which passed on ,him when ,his garments did shine 'so as no fuller on earth could white them'2 and ,his face was as the sun in his strength4 ,the life is to be transfigured1 yet it remains the same1 not only in the consciousness of personal identity1 but in the main trend and drift of the character4 ,there is nothing in the ,gospel of ,jesus ,christ which is meant to obliterate the lines of the strongly marked individuality which each of us receives by nature4 ,rather the ,gospel is meant to heighten and deepen these1 and to make each man more intensely himself1 more thoroughly individual and unlike anybody else4 ,the perfection of our nature is found in the pursuit1 to the furthest point1 of the characteristics of our nature1 and so1 by reason of diversity1 there is the greater harmony1 and1 all taken together1 will reflect less inadequately the infinite glories of which they are all partakers4 ,but whilst the individuality remains1 and ought to be heightened by ,christian consecration1 yet a change should pass over our lives1 like the change that passes over the winter landscape when the summer sun draws out the green leaves from the hard black boughs1 and flashes a fresh colour over all the brown pastures4 ,there should be such a change as when a drop or two of ruby wine falls into a cup1 and so diffuses a gradual warmth of tint over all the whiteness of the water4 ,christ in us1 if we are true to ,him1 will make us more ourselves1 and yet new creatures in ,christ ,jesus4 ,and the transformation is to be into ,his likeness who is the pattern of all perfection4 ,we must be moulded after the same type4 ,there are two types possible for us3 this world2 ,jesus ,christ4 ,we have to make our choice which is to be the headline after which we are to try to write4 ',they that make them are like unto them4' ,men resemble their gods2 men become more or less like their idols4 ,what you conceive to be desirable you will more and more assimilate yourselves to4 ,christ is the ,christian man's pattern2 is ,he not better than the blind1 corrupt world8 ,that transformation is no sudden thing1 though the revolution which underlies it may be instantaneous4 ,the working out of the new motives1 the working in of the new power1 is no mere work of a moment4 ,it is a lifelong task till the lump be leavened4 ,michael ,angelo1 in his mystical way1 used to say that sculpture effected its aim by the removal of parts2 as if the statue lay somehow hid in the marble block4 ,we have1 day by day1 to work at the task of removing the superfluities that mask its outlines4 ,sometimes with a heavy mallet1 and a hard blow1 and a broad chisel1 we have to take away huge masses2 sometimes1 with fine tools and delicate touches1 to remove a grain or two of powdered dust from the sparkling block1 but always to seek more and more1 by slow1 patient toil1 to conform ourselves to that serene type of all perfectness that we have learned to love in ,jesus ,christ4 ,and remember1 brethren1 this transformation is no magic change effected whilst men sleep4 ,it is a commandment which we have to brace ourselves to perform1 day by day to set ourselves to the task of more completely assimilating ourselves to our ,lord4 ,it comes to be a solemn question for each of us whether we can say1 ',to-day ,i am liker ,jesus ,christ than ,i was yesterday2 to-day the truth which renews the mind has a deeper hold upon me than it ever had before4' ,but this positive commandment is only one side of the transfiguration that is to be effected4 ,it is clear enough that if a new likeness is being stamped upon a man1 the process may be looked at from the other side2 and that in proportion as we become liker ,jesus ,christ1 we shall become more unlike the old type to which we were previously conformed4 ,and so1 says ,paul1 ',be not conformed to this world1 but be ye transformed4' ,he does not mean to say that the nonconformity precedes the transformation4 ,they are two sides of one process2 both arising from the renewing of the mind within4 ,now1 ,i do not wish to do more than just touch most lightly upon the thoughts that are here1 but ,i dare not pass them by altogether4 ',this world' here1 in my text1 is more properly 'this age1' which means substantially the same thing as ,john's favourite word 'world1' viz4 the sum total of godless men and things conceived of as separated from ,god1 only that by this expression the essentially fleeting nature of that type is more distinctly set forth4 ,now the world is the world to-day just as much as it was in ,paul's time4 ,no doubt the ,gospel has sweetened society2 no doubt the average of godless life in ,england is a better thing than the average of godless life in the ,roman ,empire4 ,no doubt there is a great deal of ,christianity diffused through the average opinion and ways of looking at things1 that prevail around us4 ,but the ,world is the world still4 ,there are maxims and ways of living1 and so on1 characteristic of the ,christian life1 which are in as complete antagonism to the ideas and maxims and practices that prevail amongst men who are outside of the influences of this ,christian truth in their own hearts1 as ever they were4 ,and although it can only be a word1 ,i want to put in here a very earnest word which the tendencies of this generation do very specially require4 ,it seems to be thought1 by a great many people1 who call themselves ,christians nowadays1 that the nearer they can come in life1 in ways of looking at things1 in estimates of literature1 for instance1 in customs of society1 in politics1 in trade1 and especially in amusements--the nearer they can come to the un-,christian world1 the more 'broad' 7save the mark67 and 'superior to prejudice' they are4 ',puritanism1' not only in theology1 but in life and conduct1 has come to be at a discount in these days4 ,and it seems to be by a great many professing ,christians thought to be a great feat to walk as the mules on the ,alps do1 with one foot over the path and the precipice down below4 ,keep away from the edge4 ,you are safer so4 ,although1 of course1 ,i am not talking about mere conventional dissimilarities2 and though ,i know and believe and feel all that can be said about the insufficiency1 and even insincerity1 of such1 yet there is a broad gulf between the man who believes in ,jesus ,christ and ,his ,gospel and the man who does not1 and the resulting conducts cannot be the same unless the ,christian man is insincere4 ,,iii4 ,and now lastly1 and only a word1 note the great reward and crown of this transfigured life4 ,paul puts it in words which1 if ,i had time1 would require some commenting upon4 ,the issue of such a life is1 to put it into plain ,english1 an increased power of perceiving1 instinctively and surely1 what it is ,god's will that we should do4 ,and that is the reward4 ,just as when you take away disturbing masses of metal from near a compass1 it trembles to its true point1 so when1 by the discipline of which ,i have been speaking1 there are swept away from either side of us the things that would perturb our judgment1 there comes1 as blessing and reward1 a clear insight into that which it is our duty to do4 ,there may be many difficulties left1 many perplexities4 ,there is no promise here1 nor is there anything in the tendencies of ,christ-like living1 to lead us to anticipate that guidance in regard to matters of prudence or expediency or temporal advantage will follow from such a transfigured life4 ,all such matters are still to be determined in the proper fashion1 by the exercise of our own best judgment and common-sense4 ,but in the higher region1 the knowledge of good and evil1 surely it is a blessed reward1 and one of the highest that can be given to a man1 that there shall be in him so complete a harmony with ,god that1 like ,god's ,son1 he 'does always the things that please ,him1' and that the ,father will show him whatsoever things ,himself doeth2 and that these also will the son do likewise4 ,to know beyond doubt what ,i ought to do1 and knowing1 to have no hesitation or reluctance in doing it1 seems to me to be heaven upon earth1 and the man that has it needs but little more4 ,this1 then1 is the reward4 ,each peak we climb opens wider and clearer prospects into the untravelled land before us4 ,and so1 brethren1 here is the way1 the only way1 by which we can change ourselves1 first let us have our minds renewed by contact with the truth1 then we shall be able to transform our lives into the likeness of ,jesus ,christ1 and our faces too will shine1 and our lives will be ennobled1 by a serene beauty which men cannot but admire1 though it may rebuke them4 ,and as the issue of all we shall have clearer and deeper insight into that will1 which to know is life1 in keeping of which there is great reward4 ,and thus our apostle's promise may be fulfilled for each of us4 ',we all with unveiled faces reflecting'--as a mirror does--'the glory of the ,lord1 are changed 444 into the same image4' ,,sober ,,thinking ',for ,i say1 through the grace that is given unto me1 to every man that is among you1 not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think2 but to think soberly1 according as ,god hath dealt to every man the measure of faith4'--,,romans xii4 #c4 ,it is hard to give advice without seeming to assume superiority2 it is hard to take it1 unless the giver identifies himself with the receiver1 and shows that his counsel to others is a law for himself4 ,paul does so here1 led by the delicate perception which comes from a loving heart1 compared with which deliberate 'tact' is cold and clumsy4 ,he wishes1 as the first of the specific duties to which he invites the ,roman ,christians1 an estimate of themselves based upon the recognition of ,god as the ,giver of all capacities and graces1 and leading to a faithful use for the general good of the 'gifts differing according to the grace given to us4' ,in the first words of our text1 he enforces his counsel by an appeal to his apostolic authority2 but he so presents it that1 instead of separating himself from the ,roman ,christians by it1 he unites himself with them4 ,he speaks of 'the grace given to me1' and in verse #f of 'the grace given to us4' ,he was made an ,apostle by the same giving ,god who has bestowed varying gifts on each of them4 ,he knows what is the grace which he possesses as he would have them know2 and in these counsels he is assuming no superiority1 but is simply using the special gift bestowed on him for the good of all4 ,with this delicate turn of what might else have sounded harshly authoritative1 putting prominently forward the divine gift and letting the man ,paul to whom it was given fall into the background1 he counsels as the first of the social duties which ,christian men owe to one another1 a sober and just estimate of themselves4 ,this sober estimate is here regarded as being important chiefly as an aid to right service4 ,it is immediately followed by counsels to the patient and faithful exercise of differing gifts4 ,for thus we may know what our gifts are2 and the acquisition of such knowledge is the aim of our text4 ,i4 ,what determines our gifts4 ,paul here gives a precise standard1 or 'measure' as he calls it1 according to which we are to estimate ourselves4 ',faith' is the measure of our gifts1 and is itself a gift from ,god4 ,the strength of a ,christian man's faith determines his whole ,christian character4 ,faith is trust1 the attitude of receptivity4 ,there are in it a consciousness of need1 a yearning desire and a confidence of expectation4 ,it is the open empty hand held up with the assurance that it will be filled2 it is the empty pitcher let down into the well with the assurance that it will be drawn up filled4 ,it is the precise opposite of the self-dependent isolation which shuts us out from ,god4 ,the law of the ,christian life is ever1 'according to your faith be it unto you'2 'believe that ye receive and ye have them4' ,so then the more faith a man exercises the more of ,god and ,christ he has4 ,it is the measure of our capacity1 hence there may be indefinite increase in the gifts which ,god bestows on faithful souls4 ,each of us will have as much as he desires and is capable of containing4 ,the walls of the heart are elastic1 and desire expands them4 ,the grace given by faith works in the line of its possessor's natural faculties2 but these are supernaturally reinforced and strengthened while1 at the same time1 they are curbed and controlled1 by the divine gift1 and the natural gifts thus dealt with become what ,paul calls charisms4 ,the whole nature of a ,christian should be ennobled1 elevated1 made more delicate and intense1 when the ',spirit of life that is in ,christ ,jesus' abides in and inspires it4 ,just as a sunless landscape is smitten into sudden beauty by a burst of sunshine which heightens the colouring of the flowers on the river's bank1 and is flashed back from every silvery ripple on the stream1 so the faith which brings the life of ,christ into the life of the ,christian makes him more of a man than he was before4 ,so1 there will be infinite variety in the resulting characters4 ,it is the same force in various forms that rolls in the thunder or gleams in the dewdrops1 that paints the butterfly's feathers or flashes in a star4 ,all individual idiosyncrasies should be developed in the ,christian ,church1 and will be when its members yield themselves fully to the indwelling ,spirit1 and can truly declare that the lives which they live in the flesh they live by the faith of the ,son of ,god4 ,but ,paul here regards the measure of faith as itself 'dealt to every man'2 and however we may construe the grammar of this sentence there is a deep sense in which our faith is ,god's gift to us4 ,we have to give equal emphasis to the two conceptions of faith as a human act and as a divine bestowal1 which have so often been pitted against each other as contradictory when really they are complementary4 ,the apparent antagonism between them is but one instance of the great antithesis to which we come to at last in reference to all human thought on the relations of man to ,god4 ',it is ,he that worketh in us both to will and to do of ,his own good pleasure'2 and all our goodness is ,god-given goodness1 and yet it is our goodness4 ,every devout heart has a consciousness that the faith which knits it to ,god is ,god's work in it1 and that left to itself it would have remained alienated and faithless4 ,the consciousness that his faith was his own act blended in full harmony with the twin consciousness that it was ,christ's gift1 in the agonised father's prayer1 ',lord1 ,i believe1 help ,thou mine unbelief4' ,,ii4 ,what is a just estimate of our gifts4 ,the ,apostle tells us1 negatively1 that we are not to think more highly than we ought to think1 and positively that we are to 'think soberly4' ,to arrive at a just estimate of ourselves the estimate must ever be accompanied with a distinct consciousness that all is ,god's gift4 ,that will keep us from anything in the nature of pride or over-weening self-importance4 ,it will lead to true humility1 which is not ignorance of what we can do1 but recognition that we1 the doers1 are of ourselves but poor creatures4 ,we are less likely to fancy that we are greater than we are when we feel that1 whatever we are1 ,god made us so4 ',what hast thou that thou didst not receive8 ,now1 if thou didst receive it1 why dost thou glory1 as if thou hadst not received it8' ,further1 it is to be noted that the estimate of gifts which ,paul enjoins is an estimate with a view to service4 ,much self-investigation is morbid1 because it is self-absorbed2 and much is morbid because it is undertaken only for the purpose of ascertaining one's 'spiritual condition4' ,such self-examination is good enough in its way1 and may sometimes be very necessary2 but a testing of one's own capacities for the purpose of ascertaining what we are fit for1 and what therefore it is our duty to do1 is far more wholesome4 ,gifts are ,god's summons to work1 and our first response to the summons should be our scrutiny of our gifts with a distinct purpose of using them for the great end for which we received them4 ,it is well to take stock of the loaves that we have1 if the result be that we bring our poor provisions to ,him1 and put them in ,his hands1 that ,he may give them back to us so multiplied as to be more than adequate to the needs of the thousands4 ,such just estimate of our gifts is to be attained mainly by noting ourselves at work4 ,patient self-observation may be important1 but is apt to be mistaken2 and the true test of what we can do is what we do do4 ,the just estimate of our gifts which ,paul enjoins is needful in order that we may ascertain what ,god has meant us to be and do1 and may neither waste our strength in trying to be some one else1 nor hide our talent in the napkin of ignorance or false humility4 ,there is quite as much harm done to ,christian character and ,christian service by our failure to recognise what is in our power1 as by ambitious or ostentatious attempts at what is above our power4 ,we have to be ourselves as ,god has made us in our natural faculties1 and as the new life of ,christ operating on these has made us new creatures in ,him not by changing but by enlarging our old natures4 ,it matters nothing what the special form of a ,christian man's service may be2 the smallest and the greatest are alike to the ,lord of all1 and ,he appoints ,his servants' work4 ,whether the servant be a cup-bearer or a counsellor is of little moment4 ',he that is faithful in that which is least1 is faithful also in much4' ,the positive aspect of this right estimate of one's gifts is1 if we fully render the ,apostle's words1 as the ,revised ,version does1 'so to think as to think soberly4' ,there is to be self-knowledge in order to 'sobriety1' which includes not only what we mean by sober-mindedness1 but self-government2 and this aspect of the apostolic exhortation opens out into the thought that the gifts1 which a just estimate of ourselves pronounces us to possess1 need to be kept bright by the continual suppression of the mind of the flesh1 by putting down earthly desires1 by guarding against a selfish use of them1 by preventing them by rigid control from becoming disproportioned and our masters4 ,all the gifts which ,christ bestows upon ,his people ,he bestows on condition that they bind them together by the golden chain of self-control4 ,,many ,,and ,,one ',for we have many members in one body1 and all members have not the same office3 #e4 ,so we1 being many1 are one body in ,christ1 and every one members one of another4'--,,romans xii4 #d1 #e4 ,to ,paul there was the closest and most vital connection between the profoundest experiences of the ,christian life and its plainest and most superficial duties4 ,here he lays one of his most mystical conceptions as the very foundation on which to rear the great structure of ,christian conduct1 and links on to one of his profoundest thoughts1 the unity of all ,christians in ,christ1 a comprehensive series of practical exhortations4 ,we are accustomed to hear from many lips3 ',i have no use for these dogmas that ,paul delights in4 ,give me his practical teaching4 ,you may keep the ,epistle to the ,romans1 ,i hold by the thirteenth of ,first ,corinthians4' ,but such an unnatural severance between the doctrine and the ethics of the ,epistle cannot be effected without the destruction of both4 ,the very principle of this ,epistle to the ,romans is that the difference between the law and the ,gospel is1 that the one preaches conduct without a basis for it1 and that the other says1 ,first believe in ,christ1 and in the strength of that belief1 do the right and be like ,him4 ,here1 then1 in the very laying of the foundation for conduct in these verses we have in concrete example the secret of the ,christian way of making good men4 ,i4 ,the first point to notice here is1 the unity of the derived life4 ,many are one1 because they are each in ,christ1 and the individual relationship and derivation of life from ,him makes them one whilst continuing to be many4 ,that great metaphor1 and nowadays much forgotten and neglected truth1 is to ,paul's mind the fact which ought to mould the whole life and conduct of individual ,christians and to be manifested therein4 ,there are three most significant and instructive symbols by which the unity of believers in ,christ ,jesus is set forth in the ,new ,testament4 ,our ,lord ,himself gives us the one of the vine and its branches1 and that symbol suggests the silent1 effortless process by which the life-giving sap rises and finds its way from the deep root to the furthest tendril and the far-extended growth4 ,the same symbol loses indeed in one respect its value if we transfer it to growths more congenial to our northern climate1 and instead of the vine with its rich clusters1 think of some great elm1 deeply rooted1 and with its firm bole and massive branches1 through all of which the mystery of a common life penetrates and makes every leaf in the cloud of foliage through which we look up participant of itself4 ,but1 profound and beautiful as our ,lord's metaphor is1 the vegetative uniformity of parts and the absence of individual characteristics make it1 if taken alone1 insufficient4 ,in the tree one leaf is like another2 it 'grows green and broad and takes no care4' ,hence1 to express the whole truth of the union between ,christ and us we must bring in other figures4 ,thus we find the ,apostle adducing the marriage tie1 the highest earthly example of union1 founded on choice and affection4 ,but even that sacred bond leaves a gap between those who are knit together by it2 and so we have the conception of our text1 the unity of the body as representing for us the unity of believers with ,jesus4 ,this is a unity of life4 ,he is not only head as chief and sovereign1 but ,he is soul or life1 which has its seat1 not in this or that organ as old physics teach1 but pervades the whole and 'filleth all in all4' ,the mystery which concerns the union of soul and body1 and enshrouds the nature of physical life1 is part of the felicity of this symbol in its ,christian application4 ,that commonest of all things1 the mysterious force which makes matter live and glow under spiritual emotion1 and changes the vibrations of a nerve1 or the undulations of the grey brain1 into hope and love and faith1 eludes the scalpel and the microscope4 ,of man in his complex nature it is true that 'clouds and darkness are round about him1' and we may expect an equally solemn mystery to rest upon that which makes out of separate individuals one living body1 animated with the life and moved by the ,spirit of the indwelling ,christ4 ,we can get no further back1 and dig no deeper down1 than ,his own words1 ',i am 444 the life4' ,but1 though this unity is mysterious1 it is most real4 ,every ,christian soul receives from ,christ the life of ,christ4 ,there is a real implantation of a higher nature which has nothing to do with sin and is alien from death4 ,there is a true regeneration which is supernatural1 and which makes all who possess it one1 in the measure of their possession1 as truly as all the leaves on a tree are one because fed by the same sap1 or all the members in the natural body are one1 because nourished by the same blood4 ,so the true bond of ,christian unity lies in the common participation of the one ,lord1 and the real ,christian unity is a unity of derived life4 ,the misery and sin of the ,christian ,church have been1 and are1 that it has sought to substitute other bonds of unity4 ,the whole weary history of the divisions and alienations between ,christians has surely sufficiently1 and more than sufficiently1 shown the failure of the attempts to base ,christian oneness upon uniformity of opinion1 or of ritual1 or of purpose4 ,the difference between the real unity1 and these spurious attempts after it1 is the difference between bundles of faggots1 dead and held together by a cord1 and a living tree lifting its multitudinous foliage towards the heavens4 ,the bundle of faggots may be held together in some sort of imperfect union1 but is no exhibition of unity4 ,if visible churches must be based on some kind of agreement1 they can never cover the same ground as that of 'the body of ,christ4' ,that oneness is independent of our organisations1 and even of our will1 since it comes from the common possession of a common life4 ,its enemies are not divergent opinions or forms1 but the evil tempers and dispositions which impede1 or prevent1 the flow into each ,christian soul of the uniting ',spirit of life in ,christ ,jesus' which makes the many who may be gathered into separate folds one flock clustered around the one ,shepherd4 ,and if that unity be thus a fundamental fact in the ,christian life and entirely apart from external organisation1 the true way to increase it in each individual is1 plainly1 the drawing nearer to ,him1 and the opening of our spirits so as to receive fuller1 deeper1 and more continuous inflows from ,his own inexhaustible fullness4 ,in the old ,temple stood the seven-branched candlestick1 an emblem of a formal unity2 in the new the seven candlesticks are one1 because ,christ stands in the midst4 ,he makes the body one2 without ,him it is a carcase4 ,,ii4 ,the diversity4 ',we have many members in one body1 but all members have not the same office4' ,life has different functions in different organs4 ,it is light in the eye1 force in the arm1 music on the tongue1 swiftness in the foot2 so also is ,christ4 ,the higher a creature rises in the scale of life1 the more are the parts differentiated4 ,the lowest is a mere sac1 which performs all the functions that the creature requires2 the highest is a man with a multitude of organs1 each of which is definitely limited to one office4 ,in like manner the division of labour in society measures its advance2 and in like manner in the ,church there is to be the widest diversity4 ,what the ,apostle designates as 'gifts' are natural characteristics heightened by the ,spirit of ,christ2 the effect of the common life in each ought to be the intensifying and manifestation of individuality of character4 ,in the ,christian ideal of humanity there is place for every variety of gifts4 ,the flora of the ,mountain of ,god yields an endless multiplicity of growths on its ascending slopes which pass through every climate4 ,there ought to be a richer diversity in the ,church than anywhere besides2 that tree should 'bear twelve manner of fruits1 yielding its fruit every month for the healing of the nations4' ',all flesh is not the same flesh4' ',star differeth from star in glory4' ,the average ,christian life of to-day sorely fails in two things3 in being true to itself1 and in tolerance of diversities4 ,we are all so afraid of being ticketed as 'eccentric1' 'odd1' that we oftentimes stifle the genuine impulses of the ,spirit of ,christ leading us to the development of unfamiliar types of goodness1 and the undertaking of unrecognised forms of service4 ,if we trusted in ,christ in ourselves more1 and took our laws from ,his whispers1 we should often reach heights of goodness which tower above us now1 and discover in ourselves capacities which slumber undiscerned4 ,there is a dreary monotony and uniformity amongst us which impoverishes us1 and weakens the testimony that we bear to the quickening influence of the ,spirit that is in ,christ ,jesus2 and we all tend to look very suspiciously at any man who 'puts all the others out' by being himself1 and letting the life that he draws from the ,lord dictate its own manner of expression4 ,it would breathe a new life into all our ,christian communities if we allowed full scope to the diversities of operation1 and realised that in them all there was the one ,spirit4 ,the world condemns originality3 the ,church should have learned to prize it4 ',one after this fashion1 and one after that1' is the only wholesome law of the development of the manifold graces of the ,christian life4 ,,iii4 ,the harmony4 ',we being many are one body in ,christ1 and every one members one of another4' ,that expression is remarkable1 for we might have expected to read rather members of the body1 than of each other2 but the bringing in of such an idea suggests most emphatically that thought of the mutual relation of each part of the great whole1 and that each has offices to discharge for the benefit of each4 ,in the ,christian community1 as in an organised body1 the active co-operation of all the parts is the condition of health4 ,all the rays into which the spectrum breaks up the pure white light must be gathered together again in order to produce it2 just as every instrument in the great orchestra contributes to the volume of sound4 ,the ,lancashire hand-bell ringers may illustrate this point for us4 ,each man picks up his own bell from the table and sounds his own note at the moment prescribed by the score1 and so the whole of the composer's idea is reproduced4 ,to suppress diversities results in monotony2 to combine them is the only sure way to secure harmony4 ,nor must we forget that the indwelling life of the ,church can only be manifested by the full exhibition and freest possible play of all the forms which that life assumes in individual character4 ,it needs all1 and more than all1 the types of mental characteristics that can be found in humanity to mirror the infinite beauty of the indwelling ,lord4 ',there are diversities of operations1' and all those diversities but partially represent that same ,lord 'who worketh all in all1' and ,himself is more than all1 and1 after all manifestation through human characters1 remains hinted at rather than declared1 suggested but not revealed4 ,still further1 only by the exercise of possible diversities is the one body nourished1 for each member1 drawing life directly and without the intervention of any other from ,christ the ,source1 draws also from his fellow-,christian some form of the common life that to himself is unfamiliar1 and needs human intervention in order to its reception4 ,such dependence upon one's brethren is not inconsistent with a primal dependence on ,christ alone1 and is a safeguard against the cultivating of one's own idiosyncrasies till they become diseased and disproportionate4 ,the most slenderly endowed ,christian soul has the double charge of giving to1 and receiving from1 its brethren4 ,we have all something which we can contribute to the general stock4 ,we have all need to supplement our own peculiar gifts by brotherly ministration4 ,the prime condition of ,christian vitality has been set forth for ever by the gracious invitation1 which is also an imperative command1 ',abide in ,me and ,i in you'2 but they who by such abiding are recipients of a communicated life are not thereby isolated1 but united to all who like them have received 'the manifestation of the ,spirit to do good with4' ,,grace ,,and ,,graces ',having then gifts1 differing according to the grace that is given to us1 whether prophecy1 let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith2 #g4 ,or ministry1 let us wait on our ministering2 or he that teacheth1 on teaching2 #h4 ,or he that exhorteth1 on exhortation2 he that giveth1 let him do it with simplicity2 he that ruleth1 with diligence2 he that showeth mercy1 with cheerfulness4'--,,romans xii4 #f-h4 ,the ,apostle here proceeds to build upon the great thought of the unity of believers in the one body a series of practical exhortations4 ,in the first words of our text1 he1 with characteristic delicacy1 identifies himself with the ,roman ,christians as a recipient1 like them1 of 'the grace that is given to us1' and as1 therefore1 subject to the same precepts which he commends to them4 ,he does not stand isolated by the grace that is given to him2 nor does he look down as from the height of his apostleship on the multitude below1 saying to them1--,go4 ,as one of themselves he stands amongst them1 and with brotherly exhortation says1--,come4 ,if that had been the spirit in which all ,christian teachers had besought men1 their exhortations would less frequently have been breath spent in vain4 ,we may note ,i4 ,the grace that gives the gifts4 ,the connection between these two is more emphatically suggested by the original ,greek1 in which the word for 'gifts' is a derivative of that for 'grace4' ,the relation between these two can scarcely be verbally reproduced in ,english2 but it may be1 though imperfectly1 suggested by reading 'graces' instead of 'gifts4' ,the gifts are represented as being the direct product of1 and cognate with1 the grace bestowed4 ,as we have had already occasion to remark1 they are in ,paul's language a designation of natural capacities strengthened by the access of the life of the ,spirit of ,christ4 ,as a candle plunged in a vase of oxygen leaps up into more brilliant flame1 so all the faculties of the human soul are made a hundred times themselves when the quickening power of the life of ,christ enters into them4 ,it is to be observed that the ,apostle here assumes that every ,christian possesses1 in some form1 that grace which gives graces4 ,to him a believing soul without ,christ-given gifts is a monstrosity4 ,no one is without some graces1 and therefore no one is without some duties4 ,no one who considers the multitude of professing ,christians who hamper all our churches to-day1 and reflects on the modern need to urge on the multitude of idlers forms of ,christian activity1 will fail to recognise signs of terribly weakened vitality4 ,the humility1 which in response to all invitations to work for ,christ pleads unfitness is1 if true1 more tragical than it at first seems1 for it is a confession that the man who alleges it has no real hold of the ,christ in whom he professes to trust4 ,if a ,christian man is fit for no ,christian work1 it is time that he gravely ask himself whether he has any ,christian life4 ',having gifts' is the basis of all the ,apostle's exhortations4 ,it is to him inconceivable that any ,christian should not possess1 and be conscious of possessing1 some endowment from the life of ,christ which will fit him for1 and bind him to1 a course of active service4 ,the universality of this possession is affirmed1 if we note that1 according to the ,greek1 it was 'given' at a special time in the experience of each of these ,roman ,christians4 ,the rendering 'was given' might be more accurately exchanged for 'has been given1' and that expression is best taken as referring to a definite moment in the history of each believer namely1 his conversion4 ,when we 'yield ourselves to ,god1' as ,paul exhorts us to do in the beginning of this chapter1 as the commencement of all true life of conformity to ,his will1 ,christ yields ,himself to us4 ,the possession of these gifts of grace is no prerogative of officials2 and1 indeed1 in all the exhortations which follow there is no reference to officials1 though of course such were in existence in the ,roman ,church4 ,they had their special functions and special qualifications for these4 ,but what ,paul is dealing with now is the grace that is inseparable from individual surrender to ,christ1 and has been bestowed upon all who are ,his4 ,to limit the gifts to officials1 and to suppose that the universal gifts in any degree militate against the recognition of officials in the ,church1 are equally mistakes1 and confound essentially different subjects4 ,,ii4 ,the graces that flow from the grace4 ,the ,apostle's catalogue of these is not exhaustive1 nor logically arranged2 but yet a certain loose order may be noted1 which may be profitable for us to trace4 ,they are in number seven--the sacred number2 and are capable of being divided1 as so many of the series of sevens are1 into two portions1 one containing four and the other three4 ,the former include more public works1 to each of which a man might be specially devoted as his life work for and in the ,church4 ,three are more private1 and may be conceived to have a wider relation to the world4 ,there are some difficulties of construction and rendering in the list1 which need not concern us here2 and we may substantially follow the ,authorised ,version4 ,the first group of four seems to fall into two pairs1 the first of which1 'prophecy' and 'ministry1' seem to be bracketed together by reason of the difference between them4 ,prophecy is a very high form of special inspiration1 and implies a direct reception of special revelation1 but not necessarily of future events4 ,the prophet is usually coupled in ,paul's writings with the apostle1 and was obviously amongst those to whom was given one of the highest forms of the gifts of ,christ4 ,it is very beautiful to note that by natural contrast the ,apostle at once passes to one of the forms of service which a vulgar estimate would regard as remotest from the special revelation of the prophet1 and is confined to lowly service4 ,side by side with the exalted gift of prophecy ,paul puts the lowly gift of ministry4 ,very significant is the juxtaposition of these two extremes4 ,it teaches us that the lowliest office is as truly allotted by ,jesus as the most sacred1 and that ,his highest gifts find an adequate field for manifestation in him who is servant of all4 ,ministry to be rightly discharged needs spiritual character4 ,the original seven were men 'full of faith and of the ,holy ,ghost1' though all they had to do was to hand their pittances to poor widows4 ,it may be difficult to decide for what reason other than the emphasising of this contrast the ,apostle links together ministry and prophecy1 and so breaks a natural sequence which would have connected the second pair of graces with the first member of the first pair4 ,we should have expected that here1 as elsewhere1 'prophet1' 'teacher1' 'exhorter1' would have been closely connected1 and there seems no reason why they should not have been so1 except that which we have suggested1 namely1 the wish to bring together the highest and the lowest forms of service4 ,the second pair seem to be linked together by likeness4 ,the 'teacher' probably had for his function1 primarily1 the narration of the facts of the ,gospel1 and the setting forth in a form addressed chiefly to the understanding the truths thereby revealed2 whilst the 'exhorter' rather addressed himself to the will1 presenting the same truth1 but in forms more intended to influence the emotions4 ,the word here rendered 'exhort' is found in ,paul's writings as bearing special meanings1 such as consoling1 stimulating1 encouraging1 rebuking and others4 ,of course these two forms of service would often be associated1 and each would be imperfect when alone2 but it would appear that in the early ,church there were persons in whom the one or the other of these two elements was so preponderant that their office was thereby designated4 ,each received a special gift from the one ,source4 ,the man who could only say to his brother1 ',be of good cheer1' was as much the recipient of the ,spirit as the man who could connect and elaborate a systematic presentation of the truths of the ,gospel4 ,these four graces are followed by a group of three1 which may be regarded as being more private1 as not pointing to permanent offices so much as to individual acts4 ,they are 'giving1' 'ruling1' 'showing pity1' concerning which we need only note that the second of these can hardly be the ecclesiastical office1 and that it stands between two which are closely related1 as if it were of the same kind4 ,the gifts of money1 or of direction1 or of pity1 are one in kind4 ,the right use of wealth comes from the gift of ,god's grace2 so does the right use of any sway which any of us have over any of our brethren2 and so does the glow of compassion1 the exercise of the natural human sympathy which belongs to all1 and is deepened and made tenderer and intenser by the gift of the ,spirit4 ,it would be a very different ,church1 and a very different world1 if ,christians1 who were not conscious of possessing gifts which made them fit to be either prophets1 or teachers1 or exhorters1 and were scarcely endowed even for any special form of ministry1 felt that a gift from their hands1 or a wave of pity from their hearts1 was a true token of the movement of ,god's ,spirit on their spirits4 ,the fruit of the ,spirit is to be found in the wide fields of everyday life1 and the vine bears many clusters for the thirsty lips of wearied men who may little know what gives them their bloom and sweetness4 ,it would be better for both giver and receiver if ,christian beneficence were more clearly recognised as one of the manifestations of spiritual life4 ,,iii4 ,the exercise of the graces4 ,there are some difficulties in reference to the grammatical construction of the words of our text1 into which it is not necessary that we should enter here4 ,we may substantially follow the ,authorised and ,revised ,versions in supplying verbs in the various clauses1 so as to make of the text a series of exhortations4 ,the first of these is to 'prophesy according to the proportion of faith'2 a commandment which is best explained by remembering that in the preceding verse 'the measure of faith' has been stated as being the measure of the gifts4 ,the prophet then is to exercise his gifts in proportion to his faith4 ,he is to speak his convictions fully and openly1 and to let his utterances be shaped by the indwelling life4 ,this exhortation may well sink into the heart of preachers in this day4 ,it is but the echo of ,jeremiah's strong words3 ',he that hath my word1 let him speak my word faithfully4 ,what is the chaff to the wheat8 saith the ,lord4 ,is not my word like as fire1 saith the ,lord1 and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces8' ,the ancient prophet's woe falls with double weight on those who use their words as a veil to obscure their real beliefs1 and who prophesy1 not 'according to the proportion of faith1' but according to the expectations of the hearers1 whose faith is as vague as theirs4 ,in the original1 the next three exhortations are alike in grammatical construction1 which is represented in the ,authorised ,version by the supplement 'let us wait on1' and in the ,revised ,version by 'let us give ourselves to'2 we might with advantage substitute for either the still more simple form 'be in1' after the example of ,paul's exhortation to ,timothy 'be in these things'2 that is1 as our ,version has it1 'give thyself wholly to them4' ,the various gifts are each represented as a sphere within which its possessor is to move1 for the opportunities for the exercise of which he is carefully to watch1 and within the limits of which he is humbly to keep4 ,that general law applies equally to ministry1 and teaching and exhorting4 ,we are to seek to discern our spheres2 we are to be occupied with1 if not absorbed in1 them4 ,at the least we are diligently to use the gift which we discover ourselves to possess1 and thus filling our several spheres1 we are to keep within them1 recognising that each is sacred as the manifestation of ,god's will for each of us4 ,the divergence of forms is unimportant1 and it matters nothing whether 'the ,giver of all' grants less or more4 ,the main thing is that each be faithful in the administration of what he has received1 and not seek to imitate his brother who is diversely endowed1 or to monopolise for himself another's gifts4 ,to insist that our brethren's gifts should be like ours1 and to try to make ours like theirs1 are equally sins against the great truth1 of which the ,church as a whole is the example1 that there are 'diversities of operations but the same ,spirit4' ,the remaining three exhortations are in like manner thrown together by a similarity of construction in which the personality of the doer is put in the foreground1 and the emphasis of the commandment is rested on the manner in which the grace is exercised4 ,the reason for that may be that in these three especially the manner will show the grace4 ',giving' is to be 'with simplicity4' ,there are to be no sidelong looks to self-interest2 no flinging of a gift from a height1 as a bone might be flung to a dog2 no seeking for gratitude2 no ostentation in the gift4 ,any taint of such mixed motives as these infuses poison into our gifts1 and makes them taste bitter to the receiver1 and recoil in hurt upon ourselves4 ,to 'give with simplicity' is to give as ,god gives4 ',diligence' is the characteristic prescribed for the man that rules4 ,we have already pointed out that this exhortation includes a much wider area than that of any ecclesiastical officials4 ,it points to another kind of rule1 and the natural gifts needed for any kind of rule are diligence and zeal4 ,slackly-held reins make stumbling steeds2 and any man on whose shoulders is laid the weight of government is bound to feel it as a weight4 ,the history of many a nation1 and of many a family1 teaches that where the rule is slothful all evils grow apace2 and it is that natural energy and earnestness1 deepened and hallowed by the ,christian life1 which here is enjoined as the true ,christian way of discharging the function of ruling1 which1 in some form or another1 devolves on almost all of us4 ',he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness4' ,the glow of natural human sympathy is heightened so as to become a 'gift1' and the way in which it is exercised is defined as being 'with cheerfulness4' ,that injunction is but partially understood if it is taken to mean no more than that sympathy is not to be rendered grudgingly1 or as by necessity4 ,no sympathy is indeed possible on such terms2 unless the heart is in it1 it is nought4 ,and that it should thus flow forth spontaneously wherever sorrow and desolation evoke it1 there must be a continual repression of self1 and a heart disengaged from the entanglements of its own circumstances1 and at leisure to make a brother's burden its very own4 ,but the exhortation may1 perhaps1 rather mean that the truest sympathy carries a bright face into darkness1 and comes like sunshine in a shady place4 ,,love ,,that ,,can ,,hate ',let love be without hypocrisy4 ,abhor that which is evil2 cleave to that which is good4 #aj4 ,in love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another2 in honour preferring one another4'--,,romans xii4 #i-aj 7,r4,v474 ,thus far the ,apostle has been laying down very general precepts and principles of ,christian morals4 ,starting with the one all-comprehensive thought of self-sacrifice as the very foundation of all goodness1 of transformation as its method1 and of the clear knowledge of our several powers and faithful stewardship of these1 as its conditions1 he here proceeds to a series of more specific exhortations1 which at first sight seem to be very unconnected1 but through which there may be discerned a sequence of thought4 ,the clauses of our text seem at first sight strangely disconnected4 ,the first and the last belong to the same subject1 but the intervening clause strikes a careless reader as out of place and heterogeneous4 ,i think that we shall see it is not so2 but for the present we but note that here are three sets of precepts which enjoin1 first1 honest love2 then1 next1 a healthy vehemence against evil and for good2 and finally1 a brotherly affection and mutual respect4 ,i4 ,let love be honest4 ,love stands at the head1 and is the fontal source of all separate individualised duties4 ,here ,paul is not so much prescribing love as describing the kind of love which he recognises as genuine1 and the main point on which he insists is sincerity4 ,the 'dissimulation' of the ,authorised ,version only covers half the ground4 ,it means1 hiding what one is2 but there is simulation1 or pretending to be what one is not4 ,there are words of love which are like the iridescent scum on the surface veiling the black depths of a pool of hatred4 ,a ,psalmist complains of having to meet men whose words were 'smoother than butter' and whose true feelings were as 'drawn swords'2 but1 short of such consciously lying love1 we must all recognise as a real danger besetting us all1 and especially those of us who are naturally inclined to kindly relations with our fellows1 the tendency to use language just a little in excess of our feelings4 ,the glove is slightly stretched1 and the hand in it is not quite large enough to fill it4 ,there is such a thing1 not altogether unknown in ,christian circles1 as benevolence1 which is largely cant1 and words of conventional love about individuals which do not represent any corresponding emotion4 ,such effusive love pours itself in words1 and is most generally the token of intense selfishness4 ,any man who seeks to make his words a true picture of his emotions must be aware that few harder precepts have ever been given than this brief one of the ,apostle's1 ',let love be without hypocrisy4' ,but the place where this exhortation comes in the apostolic sequence here may suggest to us the discipline through which obedience to it is made possible4 ,there is little to be done by the way of directly increasing either the fervour of love or the honesty of its expression4 ,the true method of securing both is to be growingly transformed by 'the renewing of our minds1' and growingly to bring our whole old selves under the melting and softening influence of 'the mercies of ,god4' ,it is swollen self-love1 'thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think1' which impedes the flow of love to others1 and it is in the measure in which we receive into our minds 'the mind that was in ,christ ,jesus1' and look at men as ,he did1 that we shall come to love them all honestly and purely4 ,when we are delivered from the monstrous oppression and tyranny of self1 we have hearts capable of a ,christlike and ,christ-giving love to all men1 and only they who have cleansed their hearts by union with ,him1 and by receiving into them the purging influence of ,his own ,spirit1 will be able to love without hypocrisy4 ,,ii4 ,let love abhor what is evil1 and cleave to what is good4 ,if we carefully consider this apparently irrelevant interruption in the sequence of the apostolic exhortations1 we shall1 ,i think1 see at once that the irrelevance is only apparent1 and that the healthy vehemence against evil and resolute clinging to good is as essential to the noblest forms of ,christian love as is the sincerity enjoined in the previous clause4 ,to detest the one and hold fast by the other are essential to the purity and depth of our love4 ,evil is to be loathed1 and good to be clung to in our own moral conduct1 and wherever we see them4 ,these two precepts are not mere tautology1 but the second of them is the ground of the first4 ,the force of our recoil from the bad will be measured by the firmness of our grasp of the good2 and yet1 though inseparably connected1 the one is apt to be easier to obey than is the other4 ,there are types of ,christian men to whom it is more natural to abhor the evil than to cleave to the good2 and there are types of character of which the converse is true4 ,we often see men very earnest and entirely sincere in their detestation of meanness and wickedness1 but very tepid in their appreciation of goodness4 ,to hate is1 unfortunately1 more congenial with ordinary characters than to love2 and it is more facile to look down on badness than to look up at goodness4 ,but it needs ever to be insisted upon1 and never more than in this day of spurious charity and unprincipled toleration1 that a healthy hatred of moral evil and of sin1 wherever found and however garbed1 ought to be the continual accompaniment of all vigorous and manly cleaving to that which is good4 ,unless we shudderingly recoil from contact with the bad in our own lives1 and refuse to christen it with deceptive euphemisms when we meet it in social and civil life1 we shall but feebly grasp1 and slackly hold1 that which is good4 ,such energy of moral recoil from evil is perfectly consistent with honest love1 for it is things1 not men1 that we are to hate2 and it is needful as the completion and guardian of love itself4 ,there is always danger that love shall weaken the condemnation of wrong1 and modern liberality1 both in the field of opinion and in regard to practical life1 has so far condoned evil as largely to have lost its hold upon good4 ,the criminal is pitied rather than blamed1 and a multitude of agencies are so occupied in elevating the wrong-doers that they lose sight of the need of punishing4 ,nor is it only in reference to society that this tendency works harm4 ,the effect of it is abundantly manifest in the fashionable ideas of ,god and ,his character4 ,there are whole schools of opinion which practically strike out of their ideal of the ,divine ,nature abhorrence of evil1 and1 little as they think it1 are thereby fatally impoverishing their ideal of ,god1 and making it impossible to understand ,his government of the world4 ,as always1 so in this matter1 the authentic revelation of the ,divine ,nature1 and the perfect pattern for the human are to be found in ,jesus ,christ4 ,we recall that wonderful incident1 when on ,his last approach to ,jerusalem1 rounding the shoulder of the ,mount of ,olives1 ,he beheld the city1 gleaming in the morning sunshine across the valley1 and forgetting ,his own sorrow1 shed tears over its approaching desolation1 which yet ,he steadfastly pronounced4 ,his loathing of evil was whole-souled and absolute1 and equally intense and complete was ,his cleaving to that which is good4 ,in both1 and in the harmony between them1 ,he makes ,god known1 and prescribes and holds forth the ideal of perfect humanity to men4 ,,iii4 ,let sincere and discriminating love be concentrated on ,christian men4 ,in the final exhortation of our text 'the love of the brethren' takes the place of the more diffused and general love enjoined in the first clause4 ,the expression 'kindly affectioned' is the rendering of a very eloquent word in the original in which the instinctive love of a mother to her child1 or the strange mystical ties which unite members of a family together1 irrespective of their differences of character and temperament1 are taken as an example after which ,christian men are to mould their relations to one another4 ,the love which is without hypocrisy1 and is to be diffused on all sides1 is also to be gathered together and concentrated with special energy on all who 'call upon ,jesus ,christ as ,lord1 both their ,lord and ours4' ,the more general precept and the more particular are in perfect harmony1 however our human weakness sometimes confuses them4 ,it is obvious that this final precept of our text will be the direct result of the two preceding1 for the love which has learned to be moral1 hating evil1 and clinging to good as necessary1 when directed to possessors of like precious faith will thrill with the consciousness of a deep mystical bond of union1 and will effloresce in all brotherly love and kindly affections4 ,they who are like one another in the depths of their moral life1 who are touched by like aspirations after like holy things1 and who instinctively recoil with similar revulsion from like abominations1 will necessarily feel the drawing of a unity far deeper and sacreder than any superficial likenesses of race1 or circumstance1 or opinion4 ,two men who share1 however imperfectly1 in ,christ's ,spirit are more akin in the realities of their nature1 however they may differ on the surface1 than either of them is to another1 however like he may seem1 who is not a partaker in the life of ,christ4 ,this instinctive1 ,christian love1 like all true and pure love1 is to manifest itself by 'preferring one another in honour'2 or as the word might possibly be rendered1 'anticipating one another4' ,we are not to wait to have our place assigned before we give our brother his4 ,there will be no squabbling for the chief seat in the synagogue1 or the uppermost rooms at the feast1 where brotherly love marshals the guests4 ,the one cure for petty jealousies and the miserable strife for recognition1 which we are all tempted to engage in1 lies in a heart filled with love of the brethren because of its love to the ,elder ,brother of them all1 and to the ,father who is ,his ,father as well as ours4 ,what a contrast is presented between the practice of ,christians and these precepts of ,paul6 ,we may well bow ourselves in shame and contrition when we read these clear-drawn lines indicating what we ought to be1 and set by the side of them the blurred and blotted pictures of what we are4 ,it is a painful but profitable task to measure ourselves against ,paul's ideal of ,christ's commandment2 but it will only be profitable if it brings us to remember that ,christ gives before ,he commands1 and that conformity with ,his ideal must begin1 not with details of conduct1 or with emotion1 however pure1 but with yielding ourselves to the ,god who moves us by ,his mercies1 and being 'transformed by the renewing of our minds' and 'the indwelling of ,christ in our hearts by faith4' ,a ,,triplet ,,of ,,graces ',not slothful in business2 fervent in spirit2 serving the ,lord4'--,,romans xii4 #aa4 ,paul believed that ,christian doctrine was meant to influence ,christian practice2 and therefore1 after the fundamental and profound exhibition of the central truths of ,christianity which occupies the earlier portion of this great ,epistle1 he tacks on1 with a 'therefore' to his theological exposition1 a series of plain1 practical teachings4 ,the place where conduct comes in the letter is profoundly significant1 and1 if the significance of it had been observed and the spirit of it carried into practice1 there would have been less of a barren orthodoxy1 and fewer attempts at producing righteous conduct without faith4 ,but not only is the place where this series of exhortations occur very significant1 but the order in which they appear is also instructive4 ,the great principle which covers all conduct1 and may be broken up into all the minutenesses of practical directions is self-surrender4 ,give yourselves up to ,god2 that is the ,alpha and the ,omega of all goodness1 and wherever that foundation is really laid1 on it will rise the fair building of a life which is a temple1 adorned with whatever things are lovely and of good report4 ,so after ,paul has laid deep and broad the foundation of all ,christian virtue in his exhortation to present ourselves as living sacrifices1 he goes on to point out the several virtues in which such self-surrender will manifest itself4 ,there runs through the most of these exhortations an arrangement in triplets--three sister ,graces linked together hand-in-hand as it were--and my text presents an example of that threefoldness in grouping4 ',not slothful in business2 fervent in spirit2 serving the ,lord4' ,i4 ,we have1 first1 the prime grace of ,christian diligence4 ',not slothful in business' suggests1 by reason of our modern restriction of that word 'business' to a man's daily occupation1 a much more limited range to this exhortation than the ,apostle meant to give it4 ,the idea which is generally drawn from these words by ,english readers is that they are to do their ordinary work diligently1 and1 all the while1 notwithstanding the cooling or distracting influences of their daily avocations1 are to keep themselves 'fervent in spirit4' ,that is a noble and needful conception of the command1 but it does not express what is in the ,apostle's mind4 ,he does not mean by 'business' a trade or profession1 or daily occupation4 ,but the word means 'zeal' or 'earnestness4' ,and what ,paul says is just this--',in regard to your earnestness in all directions1 see that you are not slothful4' ,the force and drift of the whole precept is just the exhortation to exercise the very homely virtue of diligence1 which is as much a condition of growth and maturity in the ,christian as it is in any other life4 ,the very homeliness and obviousness of the duty causes us often to lose sight of its imperativeness and necessity4 ,many of us1 if we would sit quietly down and think of how we go about our 'business1' as we call it1 and of how we go about our ,christian life1 which ought to be our highest business1 would have great cause for being ashamed4 ,we begin the one early in the morning1 we keep hard at it all day1 our eyes are wide open to see any opening where money is to be made2 that is all right4 ,we give our whole selves to our work whilst we are at it2 that is as it should be4 ,but why are there not the same concentration1 the same wide-awakeness1 the same open-eyed eagerness to find out ways of advancement1 the same resolved and continuous and all-comprehending and dominating enthusiasm about our ,christianity as there is about our shop1 or our mill1 or our success as students8 ,why are we all fire in the one case and all ice in the other8 ,why do we think that it is enough to lift the burden that ,christ lays upon us with one languid finger1 and to put our whole hand1 or rather1 as the prophet says1 'both hands earnestly1' to the task of lifting the load of daily work8 ',in your earnestness be not slothful4' ,brethren1 that is a very homely exhortation4 ,i wonder how many of us can say1 ',lord6 ,i have heard1 and ,i have obeyed ,thy precept4' ,,ii4 ,diligence must be fed by a fervent spirit4 ,the word translated 'fervent' is literally boiling4 ,the metaphor is very plain and intelligible4 ,the spirit brought into contact with ,christian truth and with the fire of the ,holy ,spirit will naturally have its temperature raised1 and will be moved by the warm touch as heat makes water in a pot hung above a fire boil4 ,such emotion1 produced by the touch of the fiery ,spirit of ,god1 is what ,paul desires for1 and enjoins on1 all ,christians2 for such emotion is the only way by which the diligence1 without which no ,christian progress will be made1 can be kept up4 ,no man will work long at a task that his heart is not in2 or if he does1 because he is obliged1 the work will be slavery4 ,in order1 then1 that diligence may neither languish and become slothfulness1 nor be felt to be a heavy weight and an unwelcome necessity1 ,paul here bids us see to it that our hearts are moved because there is a fire below which makes 'the soul's depths boil in earnest4' ,now1 of course1 ,i know that1 as a great teacher has told us1 ',the gods approve the depth and not the tumult of the soul1' and ,i know that there is a great deal of emotional ,christianity which is worth nothing4 ,but it is not that kind of fervour that the ,apostle is enjoining here4 ,whilst it is perfectly true that mere emotion often does co-exist with1 and very often leads to1 entire negligence as to possessing and manifesting practical excellence1 the true relation between these is just the opposite--viz4 that this fervour of which ,i speak1 this wide-awakeness and enthusiasm of a spirit all quickened into rapidity of action by the warmth which it has felt from ,god in ,christ1 should drive the wheels of life4 ,boiling water makes steam1 does it not8 ,and what is to be done with the steam that comes off the 'boiling' spirit8 ,you may either let it go roaring through a waste-pipe and do nothing but make a noise and be idly dissipated in the air1 or you may lead it into a cylinder and make it lift a piston1 and then you will get work out of it4 ,that is what the ,apostle desires us to do with our emotion4 ,the lightning goes careering through the sky1 but we have harnessed it to tram-cars nowadays1 and made it 'work for its living1' to carry our letters and light our rooms4 ,fervour of a ,christian spirit is all right when it is yoked to ,christian work1 and made to draw what else is a heavy chariot4 ,it is not emotion1 but it is indolent emotion1 that is the curse of much of our 'fervent' ,christianity4 ,there cannot be too much fervour4 ,there may be too little outlet provided for the fervour to work in4 ,it may all go off in comfortable feeling1 in enthusiastic prayers and ',amens6' and ',so be it1 ,lords6' and the like1 or it may come with us into our daily tasks1 and make us buckle to with more earnestness1 and more continuity4 ,diligence driven by earnestness1 and fervour that works1 are the true things4 ,and surely1 surely there cannot be any genuine ,christianity--certainly there cannot be any deep ,christianity--which is not fervent4 ,we hear from certain quarters of the ,church a great deal about the virtue of moderation4 ,but it seems to me that1 if you take into account what ,christianity tells us1 the 'sober' feeling is fervent feeling1 and tepid feeling is imperfect feeling4 ,i cannot understand any man believing as plain matter-of-fact the truths on which the whole ,new ,testament insists1 and keeping himself 'cool1' or1 as our friends call it1 'moderate4' ,brethren1 enthusiasm--which properly means the condition of being dwelt in by a god--is the wise1 the reasonable attitude of ,christian men1 if they believe their own ,christianity and are really serving ,jesus ,christ4 ,they should be 'diligent in business1 fervent'--boiling--in spirit4 ,,iii4 ,the diligence and the fervency are both to be animated by the thought1 ',serving the ,lord6' ,some critics1 as many of you know1 no doubt1 would prefer to read this verse in its last clause 'serving the time4' ,but that seems to me a very lame and incomplete climax for the ,apostle's thought1 and it breaks entirely the sequence which1 as ,i think1 is discernible in it4 ,much rather1 he here1 in the closing member of the triplet1 suggests a thought which will be stimulus to the diligence and fuel to the fire that makes the spirit boil4 ,in effect he says1 ',think1 when your hands begin to droop1 and when your spirits begin to be cold and indifferent1 and languor to steal over you1 and the paralysing influences of the commonplace and the familiar1 and the small begin to assert themselves--think that you are serving the ,lord4' ,will that not freshen you up8 ,will that not set you boiling again8 ,will it not be easy to be diligent when we feel that we are 'ever in the great ,taskmaster's eye'8 ,there are many reasons for diligence--the greatness of the work1 for it is no small matter for us to get the whole lump of our nature leavened with the good leaven2 the continual operation of antagonistic forces which are all round us1 and are working night-shifts as well as day ones1 whether we as ,christians are on short time or not1 the brevity of the period during which we have to work1 and the tremendous issues which depend upon the completeness of our service here--all these things are reasons for our diligence4 ,but the reason is3 ',thou ,christ hast died for me1 and livest for me2 truly ,i am ,thy slave4' ,that is the thought that will make a man bend his back to his work1 whatever it be1 and bend his will to his work1 too1 however unwelcome it may be2 and that is the thought that will stir his whole spirit to fervour and earnestness1 and thus will deliver him from the temptations to languid and perfunctory work that ever creep over us4 ,you can carry that motive--as we all know1 and as we all forget when the pinch comes--into your shop1 your study1 your office1 your mill1 your kitchen1 or wherever you go4 ',on the bells of the horses there shall be written1 ,holiness to the ,lord1' said the prophet1 and 'every bowl in ,jerusalem' may be sacred as the vessels of the altar4 ,all life may flash into beauty1 and tower into greatness1 and be smoothed out into easiness1 and the crooked things may be made straight and the rough places plain1 and the familiar and the trite be invested with freshness and wonder as of a dream1 if only we write over them1 ',for the sake of the ,master4' ,then1 whatever we do or bear1 be it common1 insignificant1 or unpleasant1 will change its aspect1 and all will be sweet4 ,here is the secret of diligence and of fervency1 ',i set the ,lord always before me4' ,,another ,,triplet ,,of ,,graces ',rejoicing in hope2 patient in tribulation2 continuing instant in prayer4'--,,romans xii4 #ab4 ,these three closely connected clauses occur1 as you all know1 in the midst of that outline of the ,christian life with which the ,apostle begins the practical part of this ,epistle4 ,now1 what he omits in this sketch of ,christian duty seems to me quite as significant as what he inserts4 ,it is very remarkable that in the twenty verses devoted to this subject1 this is the only one which refers to the inner secrets of the ,christian life4 ,paul's notion of 'deepening the spiritual life' was ',behave yourself better in your relation to other people4' ,so all the rest of this chapter is devoted to inculcating our duties to one another4 ,conduct is all-important4 ,an orthodox creed is valuable if it influences action1 but not otherwise4 ,devout emotion is valuable1 if it drives the wheels of life1 but not otherwise4 ,christians should make efforts to attain to clear views and warm feelings1 but the outcome and final test of both is a daily life of visible imitation of ,jesus4 ,the deepening of spiritual life should be manifested by completer1 practical righteousness in the market-place and the street and the house1 which non-,christians will acknowledge4 ,but now1 with regard to these three specific exhortations here1 ,i wish to try to bring out their connection as well as the force of each of them4 ,i4 ,so ,i remark first1 that the ,christian life ought to be joyful because it is hopeful4 ,now1 ,i do not suppose that many of us habitually recognise it as a ,christian duty to be joyful4 ,we think that it is a matter of temperament and partly a matter of circumstance4 ,we are glad when things go well with us4 ,if we have a sunny disposition1 and are naturally light-hearted1 all the better2 if we have a melancholy or morose one1 all the worse4 ,but do we recognise this1 that a ,christian who is not joyful is not living up to his duty2 and that there is no excuse1 either in temperament or in circumstances1 for our not being so1 and always being so8 ',rejoice in the ,lord alway1' says ,paul2 and then1 as if he thought1 ',some of you will be thinking that that is a very rash commandment1 to aim at a condition quite impossible to make constant1' he goes on--'and1 to convince you that ,i do not say it hastily1 ,i will repeat it--and again ,i say1 rejoice4' ,brethren1 we shall have to alter our conceptions of what true gladness is before we can come to understand the full depth of the great thought that joy is a ,christian duty4 ,the true joy is not the kind of joy that a saying in the ,old ,testament compares to the 'crackling of thorns under a pot1' but something very much calmer1 with no crackle in it2 and very much deeper1 and very much more in alliance with 'whatsoever things are lovely and of good report1' than that foolish1 short-lived1 and empty mirth that burns down so soon into black ashes4 ,to be glad is a ,christian duty4 ,many of us have as much religion as makes us sombre1 and impels us often to look upon the more solemn and awful aspects of ,christian truth1 but we have not enough to make us glad4 ,i do not need to dwell upon all the sources in ,christian faith and belief1 of that lofty and imperatively obligatory gladness1 but ,i confine myself to the one in my text1 ',rejoicing in hope4' ,now1 we all know--from the boy that is expecting to go home for his holidays in a week1 up to the old man to whose eye the time-veil is wearing thin--that hope1 if it is certain1 is a source of gladness4 ,how lightly one's bosom's lord sits upon its throne1 when a great hope comes to animate us6 how everybody is pleasant1 and all things are easy1 and the world looks different6 ,hope1 if it is certain1 will gladden1 and if our ,christianity grasps1 as it ought to do1 the only hope that is absolutely certain1 and as sure as if it were in the past and had been experienced1 then our hearts1 too1 will sing for joy4 ,true joy is not a matter of temperament1 so much as a matter of faith4 ,it is not a matter of circumstances4 ,all the surface drainage may be dry1 but there is a well in the courtyard deep and cool and full and exhaustless1 and a ,christian who rightly understands and cherishes the ,christian hope is lifted above temperament1 and is not dependent upon conditions for his joys4 ,the ,apostle1 in an earlier part of this same letter1 defines for us what that hope is1 which thus is the secret of perpetual gladness1 when he speaks about 'rejoicing in hope of the glory of ,god4' ,yes1 it is that great1 supreme1 calm1 far off1 absolutely certain prospect of being gathered into the divine glory1 and walking there1 like the three in the fiery furnace1 unconsumed and at ease2 it is that hope that will triumph over temperament1 and over all occasions for melancholy1 and will breathe into our life a perpetual gladness4 ,brethren1 is it not strange and sad that with such a treasure by our sides we should consent to live such poor lives as we do8 ,but remember1 although ,i cannot say to myself1 ',now ,i will be glad1' and cannot attain to joy by a movement of the will or direct effort1 although it is of no use to say to a man--which is all that the world can ever say to him--',cheer up and be glad1' whilst you do not alter the facts that make him sad1 there is a way by which we can bring about feelings of gladness or of gloom4 ,it is just this--we can choose what we will look at4 ,if you prefer to occupy your mind with the troubles1 losses1 disappointments1 hard work1 blighted hopes of this poor sin-ridden world1 of course sadness will come over you often1 and a general grey tone will be the usual tone of your lives1 as it is of the lives of many of us1 broken only by occasional bursts of foolish mirth and empty laughter4 ,but if you choose to turn away from all these1 and instead of the dim1 dismal1 hard present1 to sun yourselves in the light of the yet unrisen sun1 which you can do1 then1 having rightly chosen the subjects to think about1 the feeling will come as a matter of course4 ,you cannot make yourselves glad by1 as it were1 laying hold of yourselves and lifting yourselves into gladness1 but you can rule the direction of your thoughts1 and so can bring around you summer in the midst of winter1 by steadily contemplating the facts--and they are present facts1 though we talk about them collectively as 'the future'--the facts on which all ,christian gladness ought to be based4 ,we can carry our own atmosphere with us2 like the people in ,italy1 who in frosty weather will be seen sitting in the market-place by their stalls with a dish of embers1 which they grasp in their hands1 and so make themselves comfortably warm on the bitterest day4 ,you can bring a reasonable degree of warmth into the coldest weather1 if you will lay hold of the vessel in which the fire is1 and keep it in your hand and close to your heart4 ,choose what you think about1 and feelings will follow thoughts4 ,but it needs very distinct and continuous effort for a man to keep this great source of ,christian joy clear before him4 ,we are like the dwellers in some island of the sea1 who1 in some conditions of the atmosphere1 can catch sight of the gleaming mountain-tops on the mainland across the stormy channel between4 ,but thick days1 with a heavy atmosphere and much mist1 are very frequent in our latitude1 and then all the distant hills are blotted out1 and we see nothing but the cold grey sea1 breaking on the cold1 grey stones4 ,still1 you can scatter the mist if you will4 ,you can make the atmosphere bright2 and it is worth an effort to bring clear before us1 and to keep high above the mists that cling to the low levels1 the great vision which will make us glad4 ,brethren1 ,i believe that one great source of the weakness of average ,christianity amongst us to-day is the dimness into which so many of us have let the hope of the glory of ,god pass in our hearts4 ,so ,i beg you to lay to heart this first commandment1 and to rejoice in hope4 ,,ii4 ,now1 secondly1 here is the thought that life1 if full of joyful hope1 will be patient4 ,i have been saying that the gladness of which my text speaks is independent of circumstances1 and may persist and be continuous even when externals occasion sadness4 ,it is possible--,i do not say it is easy1 ,god knows it is hard--,i do not say it is frequently attained1 but ,i do say it is possible--to realise that wonderful ideal of the ,apostle's ',as sorrowful1 yet always rejoicing4' ,the surface of the ocean may be tossed and fretted by the winds1 and churned into foam1 but the great central depths 'hear not the loud winds when they call1' and are still in the midst of tempest4 ,and we1 dear brethren1 ought to have an inner depth of spirit1 down to the disturbance of which no surface-trouble can ever reach4 ,that is the height of attainment of ,christian faith1 but it is a possible attainment for every one of us4 ,and if there be that burning of the light under the water1 like ',greek fire1' as it was called1 which many waters could not quench--if there be that persistence of gladness beneath the surface-sorrow1 as you find a running stream coming out below a glacier1 then the joy and the hope1 which co-exist with the sorrow1 will make life patient4 ,now1 the ,apostle means by these great words1 'patient' and 'patience1' which are often upon his lips1 something more than simple endurance4 ,that endurance is as much as many of us can often muster up strength to exercise4 ,it sometimes takes all our faith and all our submission simply to say1 ',i opened not my mouth1 because thou didst it2 and ,i will bear what thine hand lays upon me4' ,but that is not all that the idea of ,christian 'patience' includes1 for it also takes in the thought of active work1 and it is perseverance as much as patience4 ,now1 if my heart is filled with a calm gladness because my eye is fixed upon a celestial hope1 then both the passive and active sides of ,christian 'patience' will be realised by me4 ,if my hope burns bright1 and occupies a large space in my thoughts1 then it will not be hard to take the homely consolation of good ,john ,newton's hymn and say-- ',though painful at present1 ',twill cease before long2 ,and then1 oh1 how pleasant ,the conqueror's song6' ,a man who is sailing to ,america1 and knows that he will be in ,new ,york in a week1 does not mind1 although his cabin is contracted1 and he has a great many discomforts1 and though he has a bout of sea-sickness4 ,the disagreeables are only going to last for a day or two4 ,so our hope will make us bear trouble1 and not make much of it4 ,and our hope will strengthen us1 if it is strong1 for all the work that is to be done4 ,persistence in the path of duty1 though my heart be beating like a smith's hammer on the anvil1 is what ,christian men should aim at1 and possess4 ,if we have within our hearts that fire of a certain hope1 it will impel us to diligence in doing the humblest duty1 whether circumstances be for or against us2 as some great steamer is driven right on its course1 through the ocean1 whatever storms may blow in the teeth of its progress1 because1 deep down in it1 there are furnaces and boilers which supply the steam that drives the engines4 ,so a life that is joyful because it is hopeful will be full of calm endurance and strenuous work4 ',rejoicing in hope2 patient1' persevering in tribulation4 ,,iii4 ,lastly1 our lives will be joyful1 hopeful1 and patient1 in proportion as they are prayerful4 ',continuing instant'--which1 of course1 just means steadfast--'in prayer4' ,paul uttered a paradox when he said1 ',rejoice in the ,lord alway1' as he said long before this verse1 in the very first letter that he ever wrote1 or at least the first which has come down to us4 ,there he bracketed it along with two other equally paradoxical sayings4 ',rejoice evermore2 pray without ceasing2 in everything give thanks4' ,if you pray without ceasing you can rejoice without ceasing4 ,but can ,i pray without ceasing8 ,not if by prayer you mean only words of supplication and petition1 but if by prayer you mean also a mental attitude of devotion1 and a kind of sub-conscious reference to ,god in all that you do1 such unceasing prayer is possible4 ,do not let us blunt the edge of this commandment1 and weaken our own consciousness of having failed to obey it1 by getting entangled in the cobwebs of mere curious discussions as to whether the absolute ideal of perfectly unbroken communion with ,god is possible in this life4 ,at all events it is possible to us to approximate to that ideal a great deal more closely than our consciences tell us that we ever yet have done4 ,if we are trying to keep our hearts in the midst of daily duty in contact with ,god1 and if1 ever and anon in the press of our work1 we cast a thought towards ,him and a prayer1 then joy and hope and patience will come to us1 in a degree that we do not know much about yet1 but might have known all about long1 long ago4 ,there is a verse in the ,old ,testament which we may well lay to heart3 ',they cried unto ,god in the battle1 and ,he was entreated of them4' ,well1 what sort of a prayer do you think that would be8 ,suppose that you were standing in the thick of battle with the sword of an enemy at your throat1 there would not be much time for many words of prayer1 would there8 ,but the cry could go up1 and the thought could go up1 and as they went up1 down would come the strong buckler which ,god puts between ,his servants and all evil4 ,that is the sort of prayer that you1 in the battle of business1 in your shops and counting-houses and warehouses and mills1 we students in our studies1 and you mothers in your families and your kitchens1 can send up to heaven4 ,if thus we 'pray without ceasing1' then we shall 'rejoice evermore1' and our souls will be kept in patience and filled with the peace of ,god4 ,,still ,,another ,,triplet ',distributing to the necessity of saints2 given to hospitality4 #ad4 ,bless them which persecute you3 bless1 and curse not4 #ae4 ,rejoice with them that do rejoice1 and weep with them that weep4'--,,romans xii4 #ac-ae4 ,in these verses we pass from the innermost region of communion with ,god into the wide field of duties in relation to men4 ,the solitary secrecies of rejoicing hope1 endurance1 and prayer unbroken1 are exchanged for the publicities of benevolence and sympathy4 ,in the former verses the ,christian soul is in 'the secret place of the ,most ,high'2 in those of our text he comes forth with the light of ,god on his face1 and hands laden with blessings4 ,the juxtaposition of the two suggests the great principles to which the morality of the ,new ,testament is ever true--that devotion to ,god is the basis of all practical helpfulness to man1 and that practical helpfulness to man is the expression and manifestation of devotion to ,god4 ,the three sets of injunctions in our text1 dissimilar though they appear1 have a common basis4 ,they are varying forms of one fundamental disposition--love2 which varies in its forms according to the necessities of its objects1 bringing temporal help to the needy1 meeting hostility with blessing1 and rendering sympathy to both the glad and the sorrowful4 ,there is1 further1 a noteworthy connection1 not in sense but in sound1 between the first and second clauses of our text1 which is lost in our ,english ,version4 ',given to hospitality' is1 as the ,revised margin shows1 literally1 pursuing hospitality4 ,now the ,greek1 like the ,english word1 has the special meaning of following with a hostile intent1 and the use of it in the one sense suggests its other meaning to ,paul1 whose habit of 'going off at a word1' as it has been called1 is a notable feature of his style4 ,hence1 this second injunction1 of blessing the persecutors1 comes as a kind of play upon words1 and is obviously occasioned by the verbal association4 ,it would come more appropriately at a later part of the chapter1 but its occurrence here is characteristic of ,paul's idiosyncrasy4 ,we may represent the connection of these two clauses by such a rendering as3 ,pursue hospitality1 and as for those who pursue you1 bless1 and curse not4 ,we may look at these three flowers from the one root of love4 ,i4 ,love that speaks in material help4 ,we have here two special applications of that love which ,paul regards as 'the bond of perfectness1' knitting all ,christians together4 ,the former of these two is love that expresses itself by tangible material aid4 ,the persons to be helped are 'saints1' and it is their 'needs' that are to be aided4 ,there is no trace in the ,pauline ,epistles of the community of goods which for a short time prevailed in the ,church of ,jerusalem and which was one of the causes that led to the need for the contribution for the poor saints in that city which occupied so much of ,paul's attention at ,corinth and elsewhere4 ,but1 whilst ,christian love leaves the rights of property intact1 it charges them with the duty of supplying the needs of the brethren4 ,they are not absolute and unconditioned rights1 but are subject to the highest principles of stewardship for ,god1 trusteeship for men1 and sacrifice for ,christ4 ,these three great thoughts condition and limit the ,christian man's possession of the wealth1 which1 in a modified sense1 it is allowable for him to call his own4 ,his brother's need constitutes a first charge on all that belongs to him1 and ought to precede the gratification of his own desires for superfluities and luxuries4 ,if we 'see our brother have need and shut up our bowels of compassion against him' and use our possessions for the gratification of our own whims and fancies1 'how dwelleth the love of ,god in us8' ,there are few things in which ,christian men of this day have more need for the vigorous exercise of conscience1 and for enlightenment1 than in their getting1 and spending1 and keeping money4 ,in that region lies the main sphere of usefulness for many of us2 and if we have not been 'faithful in that which is least1' our unfaithfulness there makes it all but impossible that we should be faithful in that which is greatest4 ,the honest and rigid contemplation of our own faults in the administration of our worldly goods1 might well invest with a terrible meaning the ,lord's tremendous question1 ',if ye have not been faithful in that which is another's1 who shall give you that which is your own8' ,the hospitality which is here enjoined is another shape which ,christian love naturally took in the early days4 ,when believers were a body of aliens1 dispersed through the world1 and when1 as they went from one place to another1 they could find homes only amongst their own brethren1 the special circumstances of the time necessarily attached special importance to this duty2 and as a matter of fact1 we find it recognised in all the ,epistles of the ,new ,testament as one of the most imperative of ,christian duties4 ',it was the unity and strength which this intercourse gave that formed one of the great forces which supported ,christianity4' ,but whilst hospitality was a special duty for the early ,christians1 it still remains a duty for us1 and its habitual exercise would go far to break down the frowning walls which diversities of social position and of culture have reared between ,christians4 ,,ii4 ,the love that meets hostility with blessing4 ,there are perhaps few words in ,scripture which have been more fruitful of the highest graces than this commandment4 ,what a train of martyrs1 from primitive times to the ,chinese ,christians in recent years1 have remembered these words1 and left their legacy of blessing as they laid their heads on the block or stood circled by fire at the stake6 ,for us1 in our quieter generation1 actual persecution is rare1 but hostility of ill-will more or less may well dog our steps1 and the great principle here commended to us is that we are to meet enmity with its opposite1 and to conquer by love4 ,the diamond is cut with sharp knives1 and each stroke brings out flashing beauty4 ,there are kinds of wood which are fragrant when they burn2 and there are kinds which show their veining under the plane4 ,it is a poor thing if a ,christian character only gives back like a mirror the expression of the face that looks at it4 ,to meet hate with hate1 and scorn with scorn1 is not the way to turn hate into love and scorn into sympathy4 ,indifferent equilibrium in the presence of active antagonism is not possible for us4 ,as long as we are sensitive we shall wince from a blow1 or a sarcasm1 or a sneer4 ,we must bless in order to keep ourselves from cursing4 ,the lesson is very hard1 and the only way of obeying it fully is to keep near ,christ and drink in ,his spirit who prayed ',father1 forgive them1 for they know not what they do4' ,,iii4 ,love that flows in wide sympathy4 ,of the two forms of sympathy which are here enjoined1 the former is the harder4 ,to 'rejoice with them that do rejoice' makes a greater demand on unselfish love than to 'weep with them that weep4' ,those who are glad feel less need of sympathy than do the sorrowful1 and envy is apt to creep in and mar the completeness of sympathetic joy4 ,but even the latter of the two injunctions is not altogether easy4 ,the cynic has said that there is 'something not wholly displeasing in the misfortunes of our best friends'2 and1 though that is an utterly worldly and unchristian remark1 it must be confessed not to be altogether wanting in truth4 ,but for obedience to both of these injunctions1 a heart at leisure from itself is needed to sympathise2 and not less needed is a sedulous cultivation of the power of sympathy4 ,no doubt temperament has much to do with the degree of our obedience2 but this whole context goes on the assumption that the grace of ,god working on temperament strengthens natural endowments by turning them into 'gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us4' ,though we live in that awful individuality of ours1 and are each1 as it were1 is landed in ourselves 'with echoing straits between us thrown1' it is possible for us1 as the result of close communion with ,jesus ,christ1 to bridge the chasms1 and to enter into the joy of a brother's joy4 ,he who groaned in ,himself as ,he drew near to the grave of ,lazarus1 and was moved to weep with the weeping sisters1 will help us1 in the measure in which we dwell in ,him and ,he in us1 that we too may look 'not every man on his own things1 but every man also on the things of others4' ,on the whole1 love to ,jesus is the basis of love to man1 and love to man is the practical worship of ,christianity4 ,as in all things1 so in the exhortations which we have now been considering1 ,jesus is our pattern and power4 ,he ,himself communicates with our necessities1 and opens ,his heart to give us hospitable welcome there4 ,he ,himself has shown us how to meet and overcome hatred with love1 and hurt with blessing4 ,he shares our griefs1 and by sharing lessens them4 ,he shares our joys1 and by sharing hallows them4 ,the summing up of all these specific injunctions is1 ',let that mind be in you which was also in ,christ ,jesus4' ,,still ,,another ,,triplet ',be of the same mind one toward another4 ,set not your mind on high things1 but condescend to things that are lowly4 ,be not wise in your own conceits4'--,romans xii4 #af 7,r4,v474 ,we have here again the same triple arrangement which has prevailed through a considerable portion of the context4 ,these three exhortations are linked together by a verbal resemblance which can scarcely be preserved in translation4 ,in the two former the same verb is employed3 and in the third the word for 'wise' is cognate with the verb found in the other two clauses4 ,if we are to seek for any closer connection of thought we may find it first in this--that all the three clauses deal with mental attitudes1 whilst the preceding ones dealt with the expression of such2 and second in this--that the first of the three is a general precept1 and the second and third are warnings against faults which are most likely to interfere with it4 ,i4 ,we note1 the bond of peace4 ',be of the same mind one toward another4' ,it is interesting to notice how frequently the ,apostle in many of his letters exhorts to mutual harmonious relations4 ,for instance1 in this very ,epistle he invokes 'the ,god of patience and of comfort' to grant to the ,roman ,christians 'to be of the same mind with one another according to ,christ ,jesus1' and to the ,corinthians1 who had their full share of ,greek divisiveness1 he writes1 ',be of the same mind1 live in peace1' and assures them that1 if so1 'the ,god of love and peace will be with them'2 to his beloved ,philippians he pours out his heart in beseeching them by 'the consolation that is in ,christ ,jesus1 and the comfort of love1 and the fellowship of the ,spirit--' that they would 'fulfil his joy1 that they be of the same mind1 having the same love1 being of one accord1 of one mind'2 whilst to the two women in that ,church who were at variance with one another he sends the earnest exhortation 'to be of the same mind in the ,lord1' and prays one whom we only know by his loving designation of 'a true yokefellow1' to help them in what would apparently put a strain upon their ,christian principle4 ,for communities and for individuals the cherishing of the spirit of amity and concord is a condition without which there will be little progress in the ,christian life4 ,but it is to be carefully noted that such a spirit may co-exist with great differences about other matters4 ,it is not opposed to wide divergence of opinion1 though in our imperfect sanctification it is hard for us to differ and yet to be in concord4 ,we all know the hopelessness of attempting to make half a dozen good men think alike on any of the greater themes of the ,christian religion2 and if we could succeed in such a vain attempt1 there would still be many an unguarded door through which could come the spirit of discord1 and the half-dozen might have divergence of heart even whilst they profess identity of opinion4 ,the true hindrances to our having 'the same mind one toward another' lie very much deeper in our nature than the region in which we keep our creeds4 ,the self-regard and self-absorption1 petulant dislike of fellow-,christians' peculiarities1 the indifference which comes from lack of imaginative sympathy1 and which ministers to the ignorance which causes it1 and a thousand other weaknesses in ,christian character bring about the deplorable alienation which but too plainly marks the relation of ,christian communities and of individual ,christians to one another in this day4 ,when one thinks of the actual facts in every corner of ,christendom1 and probes one's own feelings1 the contrast between the apostolic ideal and the ,church's realisation of it presents a contradiction so glaring that one wonders if ,christian people at all believe that it is their duty 'to be of the same mind one toward another4' ,the attainment of this spirit of amity and concord ought to be a distinct object of effort1 and especially in times like ours1 when there is no hostile pressure driving ,christian people together1 but when our great social differences are free to produce a certain inevitable divergence and to check the flow of our sympathy1 and when there are deep clefts of opinion1 growing deeper every day1 and seeming to part off ,christians into camps which have little understanding of1 and less sympathy with1 one another4 ,even the strong individualism1 which it is the glory of true ,christian faith to foster in character1 and which some forms of ,christian fellowship do distinctly promote1 works harm in this matter2 and those who pride themselves on belonging to ',free churches1' and standing apart from creed-bound and clergy-led communities1 are specially called upon to see to it that they keep this exhortation1 and cultivate 'the unity of the ,spirit in the bond of peace4' ,it should not be necessary to insist that the closest mutual concord amongst all believers is but an imperfect manifestation1 as all manifestations in life of the deepest principles must be1 of the true oneness which binds together in the most sacred unity1 and should bind together in closest friendship1 all partakers of the one life4 ,and assuredly the more that one life flows into our spirits1 the less power will all the enemies of ,christian concord have over us4 ,it is the ,christ in us which makes us kindred with all others in whom ,he is4 ,it is self1 in some form or other1 that separates us from the possessors of like precious faith4 ,when the tide is out1 the little rock-pools on the shore lie separated by stretches of slimy weeds1 but the great sea1 when it rushes up1 buries the divisions1 and unites them all4 ,our ,christian unity is unity in ,christ1 and the only sure way 'to be of the same mind one toward another' is1 that 'the mind which was in ,christ ,jesus be in us also4' ,,ii4 ,the divisive power of selfish ambition4 ',set not your mind on high things1 but condescend to things that are lowly4' ,the contrast here drawn between the high and the lowly makes it probable that the latter as well as the former is to be taken as referring to 'things' rather than persons4 ,the margin of the ,revised ,version gives the literal rendering of the word translated 'condescend4' ',to be carried away with1' is metaphorically equivalent to surrendering one's self to2 and the two clauses present two sides of one disposition1 which seeks not for personal advancement or conspicuous work which may minister to self-gratulation1 but contentedly fills the lowly sphere1 and 'the humblest duties on herself doth lay4' ,we need not pause to point out that such an ideal is dead against the fashionable maxims of this generation4 ,personal ambition is glorified as an element in progress1 and to a world which believes in such a proverb as 'devil take the hindmost1' these two exhortations can only seem fanatical absurdity4 ,and yet1 perhaps1 if we fairly take into account how the seeking after personal advancement and conspicuous work festers the soul1 and how the flower of heart's-ease grows1 as ,bunyan's shepherd-boy found out1 in the lowly valley1 these exhortations to a quiet performance of lowly duties and a contented filling of lowly spheres1 may seem touched with a higher wisdom than is to be found in the arenas where men trample over each other in their pursuit of a fame 'which appeareth for a little time1 and then vanisheth away4' ,what a peaceful world it would be1 and what peaceful souls they would have1 if ,christian people really adopted as their own these two simple maxims4 ,they are easy to understand1 but how hard they are to follow4 ,it needs scarcely be noted that the temper condemned here destroys all the concord and amity which the ,apostle has been urging in the previous clause4 ,where every man is eagerly seeking to force himself in front of his neighbour1 any community will become a struggling mob2 and they who are trying to outrun one another and who grasp at 'high things1' will never be 'of the same mind one toward another4' ,but1 we may observe that the surest way to keep in check the natural selfish tendency to desire conspicuous things for ourselves is honestly1 and with rigid self-control1 to let ourselves be carried away by enthusiasm for humble tasks4 ,if we would not disturb our lives and fret our hearts by ambitions that1 even when gratified1 bring no satisfaction1 we must yield ourselves to the impulse of the continuous stream of lowly duties which runs through every life4 ,but1 plainly as this exhortation is needful1 it is too heavy a strain to be ever carried out except by the power of ,christ formed in the heart4 ,it is in ,his earthly life that we find the great example of the highest stooping to the lowest duties1 and elevating them by taking them upon ,himself4 ,he did not 'strive nor cry1 nor cause ,his voice to be heard in the streets4' ,thirty years of that perfect life were spent in a little village folded away in the ,galilean hills1 with rude peasants for the only spectators1 and the narrow sphere of a carpenter's shop for its theatre4 ,for the rest1 the publicity possible would have been obscurity to an ambitious soul4 ,to speak comforting words to a few weeping hearts2 to lay ,his hands on a few sick folk and heal them2 to go about in a despised land doing good1 loved indeed by outcasts and sinners1 unknown by all the dispensers of renown1 and consciously despised by all whom the world honoured--that was the perfect life of the ,incarnate ,god4 ,and that is an example which ,his followers seem with one consent to set aside in their eager race after distinction and work that may glorify their names4 ,the difficulty of a faithful following of these precepts1 and the only means by which that difficulty can be overcome1 are touchingly taught us in another of ,paul's ,epistles by the accumulation of motives which he brings to bear upon his commandment1 when he exhorts by the tender motives of 'comfort in ,christ1 consolation of love1 fellowship of the ,spirit1 and tender mercies and compassions1 that ye fulfil my joy1 being of the same mind1 of one accord2 doing nothing through faction or vainglory1 but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself4' ,as the pattern for each of us in our narrow sphere1 he holds forth the mind that was in ,christ ,jesus1 and the great self-emptying which he shrank not from1 'but being in the form of ,god counted it not a prize to be on an equality with ,god1 but1 being found in fashion as a man1 ,he humbled ,himself1 becoming obedient even unto death4' ,,iii4 ,the divisive power of intellectual self-conceit4 ,in this final clause the ,apostle1 in some sense1 repeats the maxim with which he began the series of special exhortations in this chapter4 ,he there enjoined 'every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think'2 here he deals with one especial form of such too lofty thinking1 viz4 intellectual conceit4 ,he is possibly quoting the ,book of ,proverbs 7iii4 #g71 where we read1 ',be not wise in thine own eyes1' which is preceded by1 ',lean not to thine own understanding2 in all thy ways acknowledge ,him'2 and is followed by1 ',fear the ,lord and depart from evil'2 thus pointing to the acknowledgment and fear of the ,lord as the great antagonist of such over-estimate of one's own wisdom as of all other faults of mind and life4 ,it needs not to point out how such a disposition breaks ,christian unity of spirit4 ,there is something especially isolating in that form of self-conceit4 ,there are few greater curses in the ,church than little coteries of superior persons who cannot feed on ordinary food1 whose enlightened intelligence makes them too fastidious to soil their dainty fingers with rough1 vulgar work1 and whose supercilious criticism of the unenlightened souls that are content to condescend to lowly ,christian duties1 is like an iceberg that brings down the temperature wherever it floats4 ,that temper indulged in1 breaks the unity1 reduces to inactivity the work1 and puts an end to the progress1 of any ,christian community in which it is found2 and just as its predominance is harmful1 so the obedience to the exhortation against it is inseparable from the fulfilling of its sister precepts4 ,to know ourselves for the foolish creatures that we are1 is a mighty help to being 'of the same mind one toward another4' ,who thinks of himself soberly and according to the measure of faith which ,god hath dealt to him will not hunger after high things1 but rather prefer the lowly ones that are on a level with his lowly self4 ,the exhortations of our text were preceded with injunctions to distribute material help1 and to bestow helpful sympathy4 ,the tempers enjoined in our present text are the inward source and fountain of such external bestowments4 ,the rendering of material help and of sympathetic emotion are right and valuable only as they are the outcome of this unanimity and lowliness4 ,it is possible to 'distribute to the necessity of saints' in such a way as that the gift pains more than a blow2 it is possible to proffer sympathy so that the sensitive heart shrinks from it4 ,it was 'when the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul' that it became natural to have all things common4 ,as in the aurora borealis1 quivering beams from different centres stream out and at each throb approach each other till they touch and make an arch of light that glorifies the winter's night1 so1 if ,christian men were 'of the same mind toward one another1' did not 'set their minds on high things1 but condescended to things that were lowly1 and were not wise in their own conceits1' the ,church of ,christ would shine forth in the darkness of a selfish world and would witness to ,him who came down 'from the highest throne in glory' to the lowliest place in this lowly world1 that ,he might lift us to ,his own height of glory everlasting4 ,,still ,,another ,,triplet ',render to no man evil for evil4 ,take thought for things honourable in the light of all men4 #ah4 ,if it be possible1 as much as in you lieth1 be at peace with all men4'--,,romans xii4 #ag1 #ah 7,r4,v474 ,the closing words of this chapter have a certain unity in that they deal principally with a ,christian's duty in the face of hostility and antagonism4 ,a previous injunction touched on the same subject in the exhortation to bless the persecutors2 but with that exception1 all the preceding verses have dealt with duties owing to those with whom we stand in friendly relations4 ,such exhortations take no cognisance of the special circumstances of the primitive ,christians as 'lambs in the midst of wolves'2 and a large tract of ,christian duty would be undealt with1 if we had not such directions for feelings and actions in the face of hate and hurt4 ,the general precept in our text is expanded in a more complete form in the verses which follow the text1 and we may postpone its consideration until we have to deal with them4 ,it is one form of the application of the 'love without hypocrisy' which has been previously recommended4 ,the second of these three precepts seems quite heterogeneous1 but it may be noticed that the word for 'evil' in the former and that for 'honourable1' in these closely resemble each other in sound1 and the connection of the two clauses may be partially owing to that verbal resemblance2 whilst we may also discern a real link between the thoughts in the consideration that we owe even to our enemies the exhibition of a life which a prejudiced hostility will be forced to recognise as good4 ,the third of these exhortations prescribes unmoved persistence in friendly regard to all men4 ,dealing then1 in this sermon only1 with the second and third of these precepts1 and postponing the consideration of the first to the following discourse1 we have here the counsel that ,i4 ,hostility is to be met with a holy and beautiful life4 ,the ,authorised ,version inadequately translates the significant word in this exhortation by 'honest4' ,the ,apostle is not simply enjoining honesty in our modern1 narrow sense of the word1 which limits it to the rendering to every man his own4 ,it is a remarkable thing that 'honest1' like many other words expressing various types of goodness1 has steadily narrowed in signification1 and it is very characteristic of ,england that probity as to money and material goods should be its main meaning4 ,here the word is used in the full breadth of its ancient use1 and is equivalent to that which is fair with the moral beauty of goodness4 ,a ,christian man then is bound to live a life which all men will acknowledge to be good4 ,in that precept is implied the recognition of even bad men's notions of morality as correct4 ,the ,gospel is not a new system of ethics1 though in some points it brings old virtues into new prominence1 and alters their perspective4 ,it is further implied that the world's standard of what ,christians ought to be may be roughly taken as a true one4 ,christian men would learn a great deal about themselves1 and might in many respects heighten their ideal1 if they would try to satisfy the expectations of the most degraded among them as to what they ought to be4 ,the worst of men has a rude sense of duty which tops the attainments of the best4 ,christian people ought to seek for the good opinion of those around them4 ,they are not to take that opinion as the motive for their conduct1 nor should they do good in order to be praised or admired for it2 but they are to 'adorn the doctrine1' and to let their light shine that men seeing their good may be led to think more loftily of its source1 and so to 'glorify their ,father which is in heaven4' ,that is one way of preaching the ,gospel4 ,the world knows goodness when it sees it1 though it often hates it1 and has no better ground for its dislike of a man than that his purity and beauty of character make the lives of others seem base indeed4 ,bats feel the light to be light1 though they flap against it1 and the winnowing of their leathery wings and their blundering flight are witnesses to that against which they strike4 ,jesus had to say1 ',the world hateth ,me because ,i testify of it that the deeds thereof are evil4' ,that witness was the result of ,his being 'the ,light of the world'2 and if ,his followers are illuminated from ,him1 they will have the same effect1 and must be prepared for the same response4 ,but none the less is it incumbent upon them to 'take thought for things honourable in the sight of all men4' ,this duty involves the others of taking care that we have goodness to show1 and that we do not make our goodness repulsive by our additions to it4 ,there are good people who comfort themselves when men dislike them1 or scoff at them1 by thinking that their religion is the cause1 when it is only their own roughness and harshness of character4 ,it is not enough that we present an austere and repellent virtue2 the fair food should be set on a fair platter4 ,this duty is especially owing to our enemies4 ,they are our keenest critics4 ,they watch for our halting4 ,the thought of their hostile scrutiny should ever stimulate us1 and the consciousness that ,argus-eyes are watching us1 with a keenness sharpened by dislike1 should lead us not only to vigilance over our own steps1 but also to the prayer1 ',lead me in a plain path1 because of those who watch me4' ,to 'provide things honest in the sight of all men' is a possible way of disarming some hostility1 conciliating some prejudice1 and commending to some hearts the ,lord whom we seek to imitate4 ,,ii4 ,be sure that1 if there is to be enmity1 it is all on one side4 ',as much as in you lieth1 be at peace with all4' ,these words are1 ,i think1 unduly limited when they are supposed to imply that there are circumstances in which a ,christian has a right to be at strife4 ,as if they meant3 ,be peaceable as far as you can2 but if it be impossible1 then quarrel4 ,the real meaning goes far deeper than that4 ',it takes two to make a quarrel1' says the old proverb2 it takes two to make peace also1 does it not8 ,we cannot determine whether our relations with men will be peaceful or no2 we are only answerable for our part1 and for that we are answerable4 ',as much as lieth in you' is the explanation of 'if it be possible4' ,your part is to be at peace2 it is not your part up to a certain point and no further1 but always1 and in all circumstances1 it is your part4 ,it may not be possible to be at peace with all men2 there may be some who will quarrel with you4 ,you are not to blame for that1 but their part and yours are separate1 and your part is the same whatever they do4 ,be you at peace with all men whether they are at peace with you or not4 ,don't you quarrel with them even if they will quarrel with you4 ,that seems to me to be plainly the meaning of the words4 ,it would be contrary to the tenor of the context and the teaching of the ,new ,testament to suppose that here we had that favourite principle1 ',there is a point beyond which forbearance cannot go1' where it becomes right to cherish hostile sentiments or to try to injure a man4 ,if there be such a point1 it is very remarkable that there is no attempt made in the ,new ,testament to define it4 ,the nearest approach to such definition is 'till seventy times seven1' the two perfect numbers multiplied into themselves4 ,so ,i think that this injunction absolutely prescribes persistent1 patient peacefulness1 and absolutely proscribes our taking up the position of antagonism1 and under no circumstances meeting hate with hate4 ,it does not follow that there is never to be opposition4 ,it may be necessary for the good of the opponent himself1 and for the good of society1 that he should be hindered in his actions of hostility1 but there is never to be bitterness2 and we must take care that none of the devil's leaven mingles with our zeal against evil4 ,there is no need for enlarging on the enormous difficulty of carrying out such a commandment in our daily lives4 ,we all know too well how hard it is2 but we may reflect for a moment on the absolute necessity of obeying this precept to the full4 ,for their own souls' sakes ,christian men are to avoid all bitterness1 strife1 and malice4 ,let us try to remember1 and to bring to bear on our daily lives1 the solemn things which ,jesus said about ,god's forgiveness being measured by our forgiveness4 ,the faithful1 even though imperfect1 following of this exhortation would revolutionise our lives4 ,nothing that we can only win by fighting with our fellows is worth fighting for4 ,men will weary of antagonism which is met only by the imperturbable calm of a heart at peace with ,god1 and seeking peace with all men4 ,the hot fire of hatred dies down1 like burning coals scattered on a glacier1 when laid against the crystal coldness of a patient1 peaceful spirit4 ,watch-dogs in farmhouses will bark half the night through because they hear another barking a mile off4 ,it takes two to make a quarrel2 let me be sure that ,i am never one of the two6 ,,still ,,another ,,triplet ',dearly beloved1 avenge not yourselves1 but rather give place unto wrath3 for it is written1 ,vengeance is mine2 ,i will repay1 saith the ,lord4 #bj4 ,therefore if thine enemy hunger1 feed him3 if he thirst1 give him drink2 for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head4 #ba4 ,be not overcome of evil1 but overcome evil with good4'--,,romans xii4 #ai-ba4 ,the natural instinct is to answer enmity with enmity1 and kindliness with kindliness4 ,there are many people of whom we think well and like1 for no other reason than because we believe that they think well of and like us4 ,such a love is really selfishness4 ,in the same fashion1 dislike1 and alienation on the part of another naturally reproduce themselves in our own minds4 ,a dog will stretch its neck to be patted1 and snap at a stick raised to strike it4 ,it requires a strong effort to master this instinctive tendency1 and that effort the plainest principles of ,christian morality require from us all4 ,the precepts in our text are in twofold form1 negative and positive2 and they are closed with a general principle1 which includes both these forms1 and much more besides4 ,there are two pillars1 and a great lintel coping them1 like the trilithons of ,stonehenge4 ,i4 ,we deal with the negative precept4 ',avenge not yourselves1 beloved1 but give place unto wrath4' ,do not take the law into your own hands1 but leave ,god's way of retribution to work itself out4 ,by avenging1 the ,apostle means a passionate redress of private wrongs at the bidding of personal resentment4 ,we must note how deep this precept goes4 ,it prohibits not merely external acts which1 in civilised times are restrained by law1 but1 as with ,christian morality1 it deals with thoughts and feelings1 and not only with deeds4 ,it forbids such natural and common thoughts as ',i owe him an ill turn for that'2 ',i should like to pay him off4' ,a great deal of what is popularly called 'a proper spirit' becomes extremely improper if tested by this precept4 ,there is an eloquent word in ,german which we can only clumsily reproduce1 which christens the ugly pleasure at seeing misfortune and calls it 'joy in others' disasters4' ,we have not the word2 would that we had not the thing6 ,a solemn reason is added for the difficult precept1 in that frequently misunderstood saying1 ',give place unto wrath4' ,the question is1 ,whose wrath8 ,and1 plainly1 the subsequent words of the section show that it is ,god's4 ,that quotation comes from ,deuteronomy xxxii4 #ce4 ,it is possibly unfortunate that 'vengeance' is ascribed to ,god2 for hasty readers lay hold of the idea of passionate resentment1 and transfer it to ,him1 whereas ,his retributive action has in it no resentment and no passion4 ,nor are we to suppose that the thought here is only the base one1 they are sure to be punished1 so we need not trouble4 ,the ,apostle points to the solemn fact of retribution as an element in the ,divine government4 ,it is not merely automatically working laws which recompense evil by evil1 but it is the face of the ,lord which is inexorably and inevitably set 'against them that do evil4' ,that recompense is not hidden away in the future behind the curtain of death1 but is realised in the present1 as every evil-doer too surely and bitterly experiences4 ',vengeance is mine1 ,i will repay1 saith the ,lord4' ,god only has the right to recompense the ungodly and the sinner as well as the righteous4 ,dwelling in such a system as we do1 how dares any one take that work into his hands8 ,it requires perfect knowledge of the true evil of an action1 which no one has who cannot read the heart2 it requires perfect freedom from passion2 it requires perfect immunity from evil desert on the part of the avenger2 in a word1 it belongs to ,god1 and to ,him alone4 ,we have nothing to do with apportioning retribution to desert1 either in private actions or in the treatment of so-called criminals4 ,in the latter our objects should be reformation and the safety of society4 ,if we add to these retribution1 we transcend our functions4 ,,ii4 ,take the positive1--,follow ,god's way of meeting hostility with beneficence4 ,the hungry enemy is to be fed1 the thirsty to be given drink2 and the reason is1 that such beneficence will 'heap coals of fire upon his head4' ,the negative is not enough4 ,to abstain from vengeance will leave the heart unaffected1 and may simply issue in the cessation of all intercourse4 ,the reason assigned sounds at first strange4 ,it is clear that the 'coals of fire' which are to be heaped on the head are meant to melt and soften the heart1 and cause it to glow with love4 ,there may be also included the burning pangs of shame felt by a man whose evil is answered by good4 ,but these are secondary and auxiliary to the true end of kindling the fire of love in his alienated heart4 ,the great object which every ,christian man is bound to have in view is to win over the enemy and melt away misconceptions and hostility4 ,it is not from any selfish regard to one's own personal ease that we are so to act1 but because of the sacred regard which ,christ has taught us to cherish for the blessing of peace amongst men1 and in order that we may deliver a brother from the snare1 and make him share in the joys of fellowship with ,god4 ,the only way to burn up the evil in his heart is by heaping coals of kindness and beneficence on his head4 ,and for such an end it becomes us to watch for opportunities4 ,we have to mark the right moment1 and make sure that we time our offer for food when he is hungry and of drink when he thirsts2 for often mal-a-propos offers of kindness make things worse4 ,such is ,god's way4 ,his thunderbolts we cannot grasp1 ,his love we can copy4 ,of the two weapons mercy and judgment which ,he holds in ,his hand1 the latter is emphatically ,his own2 the former should be ours too4 ,,iii4 ,in all life meet and conquer evil with good4 ,this last precept1 ',be not overcome of evil1 but overcome evil with good1' is cast into a form which covers not only relations to enemies1 but all contact with evil of every kind4 ,it involves many great thoughts which can here be only touched4 ,it implies that in all our lives we have to fight evil1 and that it conquers1 and we are beaten when we are led to do it4 ,it is only conquered by being transformed into good4 ,we overcome our foes when we win them to be lovers4 ,we overcome our temptations to doing wrong when we make them occasions for developing virtues2 we overcome the evil of sorrow when we use it to bring us nearer to ,god2 we overcome the men around us when we are not seduced by their example to evil1 but attract them to goodness by ours4 ,evil is only thus transformed by the positive exercise of goodness on our part4 ,we have seen this in regard to enemies in the preceding remarks4 ,in regard to other forms of evil1 it is often better not to fight them directly1 but to occupy the mind and heart with positive truth and goodness1 and the will and hands with active service4 ,a rusty knife shall not be cleaned so effectually by much scouring as by strenuous use4 ,our lives are to be moulded after the great example of ,him1 who at almost the last moment of ,his earthly course said1 ',be of good cheer3 ,i have overcome the world4' ,jesus seeks to conquer evil in us all1 and counts that ,he has conquered it when ,he has changed it into love4 ,,love ,,and ,,the ,,day ',owe no man anything1 but to love one another3 for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law4 #i4 ,for this1 ,thou shalt not commit adultery1 ,thou shalt not kill1 ,thou shalt not steal1 ,thou shalt not bear false witness1 ,thou shalt not covet2 and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying1 namely1 ,thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself4 #aj4 ,love worketh no ill to his neighbour3 therefore love is the fulfilling of the law4 #aa4 ,and that1 knowing the time1 that now it is high time to awake out of sleep3 for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed4 #ab4 ,the night is far spent1 the day is at hand3 let us therefore cast off the works of darkness1 and let us put on the armour of light1 #ac4 ,let us walk honestly1 as in the day2 not in rioting and drunkenness1 not in chambering and wantonness1 not in strife and envying3 #ad4 ,but put ye on the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 and make not provision for the flesh1 to fulfil the lusts thereof4'--,,romans xiii4 #h-ad4 ,the two paragraphs of this passage are but slightly connected4 ,the first inculcates the obligation of universal love2 and the second begins by suggesting1 as a motive for the discharge of that duty1 the near approach of 'the day4' ,the light of that dawn draws ,paul's eyes and leads him to wider exhortations on ,christian purity as befitting the children of light4 ,i4 ,verses #h-aj set forth the obligation of a love which embraces all men1 and comprehends all duties to them4 ,the ,apostle has just been laying down the general exhortation1 ',pay every man his due' and applying it especially to the ,christian's relation to civic rulers4 ,he repeats it in a negative form1 and bases on it the obligation of loving every man4 ,that love is further represented as the sum and substance of the law4 ,thus ,paul brings together two thoughts which are often dealt with as mutually exclusive1--namely1 love and law4 ,he does not talk sentimentalisms about the beauty of charity and the like1 but lays it down1 as a 'hard and fast rule1' that we are bound to love every man with whom we come in contact2 or1 as the ,greek has it1 'the other4' ,that is the first plain truth taught here4 ,love is not an emotion which we may indulge or not1 as we please4 ,it is not to select its objects according to our estimate of their lovableness or goodness4 ,but we are bound to love1 and that all round1 without distinction of beautiful or ugly1 good or bad4 ',a hard saying2 who can hear it8' ,every man is our creditor for that debt4 ,he does not get his due from us unless he gets love4 ,note1 further1 that the debt of love is never discharged4 ,after all payments it still remains owing4 ,there is no paying in full of all demands1 and1 as ,bengel says1 it is an undying debt4 ,we are apt to weary of expending love1 especially on unworthy recipients1 and to think that we have wiped off all claims1 and it may often be true that our obligations to others compel us to cease helping one2 but if we laid ,paul's words to heart1 our patience would be longer-breathed1 and we should not be so soon ready to shut hearts and purses against even unthankful suitors4 ,further1 ,paul here teaches us that this debt 7debitum1 'duty'7 of love includes all duties4 ,it is the fulfilling of the law1 inasmuch as it will secure the conduct which the law prescribes4 ,the ,mosaic law itself indicates this1 since it recapitulates the various commandments of the second table1 in the one precept of love to our neighbour 7,lev4 xix4 #ah74 ,law enjoins but has no power to get its injunctions executed4 ,love enables and inclines to do all that law prescribes1 and to avoid all that it prohibits4 ,the multiplicity of duties is melted into unity2 and that unity1 when it comes into act1 unfolds into whatsoever things are lovely and of good report4 ,love is the mother tincture which1 variously diluted and manipulated1 yields all potent and fragrant draughts4 ,it is the white light which the prism of daily life resolves into its component colours4 ,but ,paul seems to limit the action of love here to negative doing no ill4 ,that is simply because the commandments are mostly negative1 and that they are is a sad token of the lovelessness natural to us all4 ,but do we love ourselves only negatively1 or are we satisfied with doing ourselves no harm8 ,that stringent pattern of love to others not only prescribes degree1 but manner4 ,it teaches that true love to men is not weak indulgence1 but must sometimes chastise1 and thwart1 and always must seek their good1 and not merely their gratification4 ,whoever will honestly seek to apply that negative precept of working no ill to others1 will find it positive enough4 ,we harm men when we fail to help them4 ,if we can do them a kindness1 and do it not1 we do them ill4 ,non-activity for good is activity for evil4 ,surely1 nothing can be plainer than the bearing of this teaching on the ,christian duty as to intoxicants4 ,if by using these a ,christian puts a stumbling-block in the way of a weak will1 then he is working ill to his neighbour1 and that argues absence of love1 and that is dishonest1 shirking payment of a plain debt4 ,,ii4 ,the great stimulus to love and to all purity is set forth as being the near approach--of the day 7verses #aa-ad74 ',the day1' in ,paul's writing1 has usually the sense of the great day of the ,lord's return1 and may have that meaning here2 for1 as ,jesus has told us1 'it is not for' even inspired ,apostles 'to know the times or the seasons1' and it is no dishonour to apostolic inspiration to assign to it the limits which the ,lord has assigned4 ,but1 whether we take this as the meaning of the phrase1 or regard it simply as pointing to the time of death as the dawning of heaven's day1 the weight of the motive is unaffected4 ,the language is vividly picturesque4 ,the darkness is thinning1 and the blackness turning grey4 ,light begins to stir and whisper4 ,a band of soldiers lies asleep1 and1 as the twilight begins to dawn1 the bugle call summons them to awake1 to throw off their night-gear1--namely1 the works congenial to darkness1--and to brace on their armour of light4 ,light may here be regarded as the material of which the glistering armour is made2 but1 more probably1 the expression means weapons appropriate to the light4 ,such being the general picture1 we note the fact which underlies the whole representation2 namely1 that every life is a definite whole which has a fixed end4 ,jesus said1 ',we must work the works of ,him that sent ,me1 while it is day3 the night cometh4' ,paul uses the opposite metaphors in these verses4 ,but1 though the two sayings are opposite in form1 they are identical in substance4 ,in both1 the predominant thought is that of the rapidly diminishing space of earthly life1 and the complete unlikeness to it of the future4 ,we stand like men on a sandbank with an incoming tide1 and every wash of the waves eats away its edges1 and presently it will yield below our feet4 ,we forget this for the most part1 and perhaps it is not well that it should be ever present2 but that it should never be present is madness and sore loss4 ,paul1 in his intense moral earnestness1 in verse #ac1 bids us regard ourselves as already in 'the day1' and shape our conduct as if it shone around us and all things were made manifest by its light4 ,the sins to be put off are very gross and palpable4 ,they are for the most part sins of flesh1 such as even these ,roman ,christians had to be warned against1 and such as need to be manifested by the light even now among many professing ,christian communities4 ,but ,paul has one more word to say4 ,if he stopped without it1 he would have said little to help men who are crying out1 ',how am ,i to strip off this clinging evil1 which seems my skin rather than my clothing8 ,how am ,i to put on that flashing panoply8' ,there is but one way1--put on the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,if we commit ourselves to ,him by faith1 and front our temptations in ,his strength1 and thus1 as it were1 wrap ourselves in ,him1 ,he will be to us dress and armour1 strength and righteousness4 ,our old self will fall away1 and we shall take no forethought for the flesh1 to fulfil the lusts thereof4 ,,salvation ,,nearer '444 ,now is our salvation nearer than when we believed4'--,,romans xiii4 #aa4 ,there is no doubt1 ,i suppose1 that the ,apostle1 in common with the whole of the early ,church1 entertained more or less consistently the expectation of living to witness the second coming of ,jesus ,christ4 ,there are in ,paul's letters passages which look both in the direction of that anticipation1 and in the other one of expecting to taste death4 ',we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the ,lord1' he says twice in one chapter4 ',i am ready to be offered1 and the hour of my departure is at hand1' he says in his last letter4 ,now this contrariety of anticipation is but the natural result of what our ,lord ,himself said1 ',it is not for you to know the times and the seasons1' and no one1 who is content to form his doctrine of the knowledge resulting from inspiration from the words of ,jesus ,christ ,himself1 need stumble in the least degree in recognising the plain fact that ,paul and his brother ,apostles did not know when the ,master was to come4 ,christ ,himself had told them that there was a chamber locked against their entrance1 and therefore we do not need to think that it militates against the authoritative inspiration of these early teachers of the ,church1 if they1 too1 searched 'what manner of time the ,spirit which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand 444 the glory that should follow4' ,now1 my text is evidently the result of the former of these two anticipations1 viz4 that ,paul and his generation were probably to see the coming of the ,lord from heaven4 ,and to him the thought that' the night was far spent1' as the context says1 'and the day was at hand1' underlay his most buoyant hope1 and was the inspiration and motive-spring of his most strenuous effort4 ,now1 our relation to the closing moments of our own earthly lives1 to the fact of death1 is precisely the same as that of the ,apostle and his brethren to the coming of the ,lord4 ,we1 too1 stand in that position of partial ignorance1 and for us practically the words of my text1 and all their parallel words1 point to how we should think of1 and how we should be affected by1 the end to which we are coming4 ,and this is the grand characteristic of the ,christian view of that last solemn moment4 ',now is our salvation nearer than when we believed4' ,so ,i would note1 first of all1 what these words teach us should be the ,christian view of our own end2 and1 second1 to what conduct that view should lead us4 ,i4 ,the ,christian view of death4 ',now is our salvation nearer4' ,we have to think away by faith and hope all the grim externals of death1 and to get to the heart of the thing4 ,and then everything that is repulsive1 everything that makes flesh and blood shrink1 disappears and is evaporated1 and beneath the folds of his black garment1 there is revealed ,god's last1 sweetest1 most triumphant angel-messenger to ,christian souls1 the great1 strong1 silent ,angel of ,death1 and he carries in his hand the gift of a full salvation4 ,that is what our ,apostle rose to the rapture of beholding1 when he knew that the thought of his surviving till ,christ came again must be put away1 and when close to the last moment of his life1 he said1 ',the ,lord shall deliver me1 and save me into ,his everlasting kingdom4' ,what was the deliverance and being saved that he expected and expresses in these words8 ,immunity from punishment8 ,escape from the headsman's axe8 ,being 'delivered from the mouth of the lion1' the persecuting fangs of the bloody ,nero8 ,by no means4 ,he knew that death was at hand1 and he said1 ',he will save me'--not from it1 but through it--'into ,his everlasting kingdom4' ,and so in the words of my text we may say--though ,paul did not mean them so--as we see the distance between us1 and that certain close1 dwindling1 dwindling1 dwindling3 ',now1' as moment after moment ticks itself into the past1 'now is our salvation nearer than when we believed4' ,children1 when they are getting near their holidays1 take strips of paper1 and tear off a piece as each day passes4 ,and as we tear off the days let us feel that we are drawing closer to our home1 and that the blessedness laid up for us in it is drawing nearer to us4 ',our salvation1' not our destruction1 our fuller life1 not in any true sense of the word our 'death1' is 'nearer than when we believed4' ,but some one may say1 ',is a man not saved till after he is dead8' ,is salvation future1 not coming till after the grave8 ,no1 certainly not4 ,there are three aspects of that word in ,scripture4 ,sometimes the ,new ,testament writers treat salvation as past1 and represent a ,christian as being invested with the possession of it all at the very moment of his first faith4 ,that is true1 that whatever is yet to be evolved from what is given to the poorest and foulest sinner1 in the moment of his initial faith in ,christ1 there is nothing to be added to it4 ,the salvation which the penitent thief received on the cross is all the salvation that he was ever to get4 ,but out of it there came welling and welling and welling1 when he had passed into the region 'where beyond these voices there is peace'--there came welling out from that inexhaustible fountain which was opened in him all the fullnesses of an eternal progress in the heavens4 ,and so it is with us4 ,salvation is a past gift which we received when we believed4 ,but in another aspect1 which is also emphatically stated in ,scripture1 it is a progressive process1 and not merely a gift bestowed once for all in the past4 ,i do not dwell upon that thought1 but just remind you of a turn of expression which occurs in various connections more than once4 ',the ,lord added to the ,church daily such as were being saved1' says ,luke4 ,still more emphatically in the ,epistle to the ,corinthians1 the ,apostle puts into antithesis the two progressive processes1 and speaks of the ,gospel as being preached1 and being a savour of life unto life 'to them that are being saved1' and a savour of destruction 'to them that are being lost4' ,no moral or spiritual condition is stereotyped or stagnant4 ,it is all progressive4 ,and so the salvation that is given once for all is ever being unfolded1 and the ,christian life on earth is the unfolding of it4 ,but in another aspect still1 such as is presented in my text1 and in other parallel passages1 that salvation is regarded as lying on the other side of the flood1 because the manifestations of it there1 the evolving there of what is in it1 and the great gifts that come then1 are so transcendently above all even of our selectest experiences here1 that they are1 as it were1 new1 though still their roots are in the old4 ,the salvation which culminates in the absolute removal from our whole being of all manner of evil1 whether it be sorrow or sin1 and in the conclusive bestowal upon us of all manner of good1 whether it be righteousness or joy1 and which has for its seal 'the adoption1 to wit1 the redemption of the body1' so that body1 soul1 and spirit 'make one music as before1 but vaster1' is so far beyond the germs of itself which here we experience that my text and its like are amply vindicated4 ,and the man who is most fully persuaded and conscious that he possesses the salvation of ,god1 and most fully and blessedly aware that that salvation is gradually gaining power in his life1 is the very man who will most feel that between its highest manifestation on earth1 and its lowest in the heavens there is such a gulf as that the wine that he will drink there at the ,father's table is indeed new wine4 ,and so 'is our salvation nearer1' though we already possess it1 'than when we believed4' ,dear brethren1 if these things be true1 and if to die is to be saved into the kingdom1 do not two thoughts result8 ,the one is that that blessed consummation should occupy more of our thoughts than ,i am afraid it does4 ,as life goes on1 and the space dwindles between us and it1 we older people naturally fall into the way1 unless we are fools1 of more seriously and frequently turning our thoughts to the end4 ,i suppose the last week of a voyage to ,australia has far more thoughts in it about the landing next week than the two or three first days of beating down the ,english ,channel had4 ,i do not want to put old heads on young shoulders in this or in any other respect4 ,but sure ,i am that it does belong very intimately to the strength of our ,christian characters that we should1 as the ,psalmist says1 be 'wise' to 'consider our latter end4' ,the other thought that follows is as plain1 viz4 that that anticipation should always be buoyant1 hopeful1 joyous4 ,we have nothing to do with the sad aspects of parting from earth4 ,they are all but non-existent for the ,christian consciousness1 when it is as vigorous and ,god-directed as it ought to be4 ,they drop into the background1 and sometimes are lost to sight altogether4 ,remember how this ,apostle1 when he does think about death1 looks at it with--,i was going to quote words which may strike you as being inappropriate--'a frolic welcome'2 how1 at all events1 he is neither a bit afraid of it1 nor does he see in it anything from which to shrink4 ,he speaks of being with ,christ1 which is far better2 'absent from the body1 present with the ,lord'2 'the dissolution of the earthly house of this tabernacle'--the tumbling down of the old clay cottage in order that a stately palace of marble and precious stones may be reared upon its site2 'the hour of my departure is at hand2 ,i have finished the fight4' ,peter1 too1 chimes in with his words3 ',my exodus2 my departure1' and both of the two are looking1 if not longingly1 at all events without a tremor of the eyelid1 into the very eyeballs of the messenger whom most men feel so hideous4 ,is it not a wonderful gift to ,christian souls that by faith in ,jesus ,christ1 the realm in which their hope can expatiate is more than doubled1 and annexes the dim lands beyond the frontier of death8 ,dear friends1 if we are living in ,christ1 the thought of the end and that here we are absent from home1 ought to be infinitely sweet1 of whatever superficial terrors this poor1 shrinking flesh may still be conscious4 ,and ,i am sure that the nearer we get to our ,saviour1 and the more we realise the joyous possession of salvation as already ours1 and the more we are conscious of the expanding of that gift in our hearts1 the more we shall be delivered from that fear of death which makes men all their 'lifetime subject to bondage4' ,so ,i beseech you to aim at this1 that1 when you look forward1 the furthest thing you see on the horizon of earth may be that great ,angel of ,death coming to save you into the everlasting kingdom4 ,now1 just a word about ,,ii4 ,the conduct to which such a hope should incite4 ,the ,apostle puts it very plainly in the context1 and we need but expand in a word or two what he teaches us there4 ',and that knowing the time1 that now it is high time to awake out of sleep1 for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed4' ,to what does he refer by 'that'8 ,the whole of the practical exhortations to a ,christian life which have been given before4 ,everything that is duty becomes tenfold more stringent and imperative when we apprehend the true meaning of that last moment4 ,they tell us that it is unwholesome to be thinking about death and the beyond1 because to do so takes away interest from much of our present occupations and weakens energy4 ,if there is anything from which a man is wrenched away because he steadily contemplates the fact of being wrenched away altogether from everything before long1 it is something that he had better be wrenched from4 ,and if there be any occupations which dwindle into nothingness1 and into which a man cannot for the life of him fling himself with any thoroughgoing enthusiasm or interest1 if once the thought of death stirs in him1 depend upon it they are occupations which are in themselves contemptible and unworthy4 ,all good aims will gain greater power over us2 we shall have a saner estimate of what is worth living for2 we shall have a new standard of what is the relative importance of things2 and if some that looked very great turn out to be very small when we let that searching light in upon them1 and others which seemed very insignificant spring suddenly up into dominating magnitude--that new and truer perspective will be all clear gain4 ,the more we feel that our salvation is sweeping towards us1 as it were1 from the throne of ,god through the blue abysses1 the more diligently we shall 'work while it is called day1' and the more earnestly we shall seek1 when the ,saviour and ,his salvation come1 to be found with loins girt for all strenuous work1 and lamps burning in all the brightness of the light of a ,christian character4 ,further1 says ,paul1 this hopeful1 cheerful contemplation of approaching salvation should lead us to cast off the evil1 and to put on the good4 ,you will remember the heart-stirring imagery which the ,apostle employs in the context1 where he says1 ',the day is at hand2 let us therefore fling off the works of darkness'--as men in the morning1 when the daylight comes through the window1 and makes them lift their eyelids1 fling off their night-gear--'and let us put on the armour of light4' ,we are soldiers1 and must be clad in what will be bullet-proof1 and will turn a sword's edge4 ,and where shall steel of celestial temper be found that can resist the fiery darts shot at the ,christian soldier8 ,his armour must be 'of light4' ,clad in the radiance of ,christian character he will be invulnerable4 ,and how can we1 who have robed ourselves in the works of darkness1 either cast them off or array ourselves in sparkling armour of light8 ,paul tells us1 ',put ye on the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 and make not provision for the flesh4' ,the picture is of a camp of sleeping soldiers2 the night wears thin1 the streaks of saffron are coming in the dawning east4 ,one after another the sleepers awake2 they cast aside their night-gear1 and they brace on the armour that sparkles in the beams of the morning sun4 ,so they are ready when the trumpet sounds the reveille1 and with the morning comes the ,captain of the ,lord's host1 and with the ,captain comes the perfecting of the salvation which is drawing nearer and nearer to us1 as our moments glide through our fingers like the beads of a rosary4 ,many men think of death and fear2 the ,christian should think of death--and hope4 ,,the ,,soldier',s ,,morning-,,call ',let us put on the armour of light4'--,,romans xiii4 #ab4 ,it is interesting to notice that the metaphor of the ,christian armour occurs in ,paul's letters throughout his whole course4 ,it first appears1 in a very rudimentary form1 in the earliest of the ,epistles1 that to the ,thessalonians4 ,it appears here in a letter which belongs to the middle of his career1 and it appears finally in the ,epistle to the ,ephesians1 in its fully developed and drawn-out shape1 at almost the end of his work4 ,so we may fairly suppose that it was one of his familiar thoughts4 ,here it has a very picturesque addition1 for the picture that is floating before his vivid imagination is that of a company of soldiers1 roused by the morning bugle1 casting off their night-gear because the day is beginning to dawn1 and bracing on the armour that sparkles in the light of the rising sun4 ',that1' says ,paul1 'is what you ,christian people ought to be4 ,can you not hear the notes of the reveille8 ,the night is far spent2 the day is at hand2 therefore let us put off the works of darkness--the night-gear that was fit for those hours of slumber4 ,toss it away1 and put on the armour that belongs to the day4' ,now1 ,i am not going to ask or try to answer the question of how far this ,apostolic exhortation is based upon the ,apostle's expectation that the world was drawing near its end4 ,that does not matter at all for us at present1 for the fact which he expresses as the foundation of this exhortation is true about us all1 and about our position in the midst of these fleeting shadows round us4 ,we are hastening to the dawning of the true day4 ,and so let me try to emphasise the exhortation here1 old and threadbare and commonplace as it is1 because we all need it1 at whatever point of life's journey we have arrived4 ,now1 the first thing that strikes me is that the garb for the man expectant of the day is armour4 ,we might have anticipated something very different in accordance with the thoughts that ,paul's imagery here suggests1 about the difference between the night which is so swiftly passing1 and is full of enemies and dangers1 and the day which is going to dawn1 and is full of light and peace and joy4 ,we might have expected that he would have said1 ',let us put on the festal robes4' ,but no6 ',the night is far spent2 the day is at hand4' ,but the dress that befits the expectant of the day is not yet the robe of the feast1 but it is 'the armour' which1 put into plain words1 means just this1 that there is fighting1 always fighting1 to be done4 ,if you are ever to belong to the day1 you have to equip yourselves now with armour and weapons4 ,i do not need to dwell upon that1 but ,i do wish to insist upon this fact1 that after all that may be truly said about growth in grace1 and the peaceful approximation towards perfection in the ,christian character1 we cannot dispense with the other element in progress1 and that is fighting4 ,we have to struggle for every step4 ,growth is not enough to define completely the process by which men become conformed to the image of the ,father1 and are 'made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light4' ,growth does express part of it1 but only a part4 ,conflict is needed to come in1 before you have the whole aspect of ,christian progress before your minds4 ,for there will always be antagonism without and traitors within4 ,there will always be recalcitrant horses that need to be whipped up1 and jibbing horses that need to be dragged forward1 and shying ones that need to be violently coerced and kept in the traces4 ,conflict is the law1 because of the enemies1 and because of the conspiracy between the weakness within and the things without that appeal to it4 ,we hear a great deal to-day about being 'sanctified by faith4' ,i believe that as much as any man1 but the office of faith is to bring us the power that cleanses1 and the application of that power requires our work1 and it requires our fighting4 ,so it is not enough to say1 ',trust for your sanctifying as you have trusted for your justifying and acceptance1' but you have to work out what you get by your faith1 and you will never work it out unless you fight against your unworthy self1 and the temptations of the world4 ,the garb of the candidate for the day is armour4 ,and there is another side to that same thought1 and that is1 the more vivid our expectations of that blessed dawn the more complete should be our bracing on of the armour4 ,the anticipation of that future1 in very many instances1 in the ,christian ,church1 has led to precisely the opposite state of mind4 ,it has induced people to drop into mere fantastic sentiment1 or to ignore this contemptible present1 and think that they have nothing to do with it1 and are only 'waiting for the coming of the ,lord1' and the like4 ,paul says1 ',just because1 on your eastern horizon1 you can see the pink flush that tells that the night is gone1 and the day is coming1 therefore do not be a sentimentalist1 do not be idle1 do not be negligent or contemptuous of the daily tasks2 but because you see it1 put on the armour of light1 and whether the time between the rising of the whole orb of the sun on the horizon be long or short1 fill the hours with triumphant conflict4 ,put on the whole armour of light4' ,again1 note here what the armour is4 ,of course that phrase1 'the armour of light1' may be nothing more than a little bit of colour put in by a picturesque imagination1 and may suggest simply how the burnished steel would shine and glitter when the sunbeams smote it1 and the glistening armour1 like that of ,spenser's ,red ,cross ,knight1 would make a kind of light in the dark cave1 into which he went4 ,or it may mean 'the armour that befits the light'2 as is perhaps suggested by the antithesis 'the works of darkness1' which are to be 'put off4' ,these are works that match the darkness1 and similarly the armour is to be the armour that befits the light1 and that can flash back its beams4 ,but ,i think there is more than that in the expression4 ,i would rather take the phrase to be parallel to another of this ,apostle's1 who speaks in #bnd ,corinthians of the 'armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left4' ',light' makes the armour1 'righteousness' makes the armour4 ,the two phrases say the same thing1 the one in plain ,english1 the other in figure1 which being brought down to daily life is just this1 that the true armour and weapon of a ,christian man is ,christian character4 ',whatsoever things are true1 whatsoever things are lovely1 whatsoever things are of good report1' these are the pieces of armour1 and these are the weapons which we are to wield4 ,a ,christian man fights against evil in himself by putting on good4 ,the true way to empty the heart of sin is to fill the heart with righteousness4 ,the lances of the light1 according to the significant old ,greek myth1 slew pythons4 ,the armour is 'righteousness on the right hand and on the left4' ,stick to plain1 simple1 homely duties1 and you will find that they will defend your heart against many a temptation4 ,a flask that is full of rich wine may be plunged into the saltest ocean1 and not a drop will find its way in4 ,fill your heart with righteousness2 your lives--let them glisten in the light1 and the light will be your armour4 ,god is light1 wherefore ,god cannot be tempted with evil4 ',walk in the light1 as ,he is in the light' 444 and 'the blood of ,jesus ,christ cleanseth from all sin4' ,but there is another side to that thought1 for if you will look1 at your leisure1 to the closing words of the chapter1 you will find the ,apostle's own exposition of what putting on the armour of light means4 ',put ye on the ,lord ,jesus ,christ'--that is his explanation of putting on 'the armour of light4' ,for 'once ye were darkness1 but now are ye light in the ,lord1' and it is in the measure in which we are united to ,him1 by the faith which binds us to ,him1 and by the love which works obedience and conformity1 that we wear the invulnerable armour of light4 ,christ ,himself is1 and ,he supplies to all1 the separate graces which ,christian men can wear4 ,we may say that ,he is 'the panoply of ,god1' as ,paul calls it in ,ephesians1 and when we wear ,him1 and only in the measure in which we do wear ,him1 in that measure are we clothed with it4 ,and so the last thing that ,i would point out here is that the obedience to these commands requires continual effort4 ,the ,christians in ,rome1 to whom ,paul was writing1 were no novices in the ,christian life4 ,long ago many of them had been brought to ,him4 ,but the oldest ,christian amongst them needed the exhortation as much as the rawest recruit in the ranks4 ,continual renewal day by day is what we need1 and it will not be secured without a great deal of work4 ,seeing that there is a 'putting off' to go along with the 'putting on1' the process is a very long one4 '',tis a lifelong task till the lump be leavened4' ,it is a lifelong task till we strip off all the rags of this old self2 and 'being clothed1' are not 'found naked4' ,it takes a lifetime to fathom ,jesus2 it takes a lifetime to appropriate ,jesus1 it takes a lifetime to be clothed with ,jesus4 ,and the question comes to each of us1 have we 'put off the old man with his deeds'8 ,are we daily1 as sure as we put on our clothes in the morning1 putting on ,christ the ,lord8 ,for notice with what solemnity the ,apostle gives the master ,his full1 official1 formal title here1 'put ye on the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4' ,do we put ,him on as ,lord2 bowing our whole wills to ,him1 and accepting ,him1 ,his commandments1 promises1 providences1 with glad submission8 ,do we put on ,jesus1 recognising in ,his manhood as our ,brother not only the pattern of our lives1 but the pledge that the pattern1 by ,his help and love1 is capable of reproduction in ourselves8 ,do we put ,him on as 'the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1' who was anointed with the ,divine ,spirit1 that from the head it might flow1 even to the skirts of the garments1 and every one of us might partake of that unction and be made pure and clean thereby8 ',put ye on the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1' and do it day by day1 and then you have 'put on the whole armour of ,god4' ,and when the day that is dawning has risen to its full1 then1 not till then1 may we put off the armour and put on the white robe1 lay aside the helmet1 and have our brows wreathed with the laurel1 sheathe the sword1 and grasp the palm1 being 'more than conquerors through ,him who loved us1' and fights in us1 as well as for us4 ,,the ,,limits ,,of ,,liberty ',so then every one of us shall give account of himself to ,god4 #ac4 ,let us not therefore judge one another any more3 but judge this rather1 that no man put a stumblingblock1 or an occasion to fall1 in his brother's way4 #ad4 ,i know1 and am persuaded by the ,lord ,jesus1 that there is nothing unclean of itself3 but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean1 to him it is unclean4 #ae4 ,but if thy brother be grieved with thy meat1 now walkest thou not charitably4 ,destroy not him with thy meat1 for whom ,christ died4 #af4 ,let not then your good be evil spoken of3 #ag4 ,for the kingdom of ,god is not meat and drink2 but righteousness1 and peace1 and joy in the ,holy ,ghost4 #ah4 ,for he that in these things serveth ,christ is acceptable to ,god1 and approved of men4 #ai4 ,let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace1 and things wherewith one may edify another4 #bj4 ,for meat destroy not the work of ,god4 ,all things indeed are pure2 but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence4 #ba4 ,it is good neither to eat flesh1 nor to drink wine1 nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth1 or is offended1 or is made weak4 #bb4 ,hast thou faith8 have it to thyself before ,god4 ,happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth4 #bc4 ,and he that doubteth is damned if he eat1 because he eateth not of faith3 for whatsoever is not of faith is sin4'--,,romans xiv4 #ab-bc4 ,the special case in view1 in the section of which this passage is part1 is the difference of opinion as to the lawfulness of eating certain meats4 ,it is of little consequence1 so far as the principles involved are concerned1 whether these were the food which the ,mosaic ordinances made unclean1 or1 as in ,corinth1 meats offered to idols4 ,the latter is the more probable1 and would be the more important in ,rome4 ,the two opinions on the point represented two tendencies of mind1 which always exist2 one more scrupulous1 and one more liberal4 ,paul has been giving the former class the lesson they needed in the former part of this chapter2 and he now turns to the 'stronger' brethren1 and lays down the law for their conduct4 ,we may1 perhaps1 best simply follow him1 verse by verse4 ,we note then1 first1 the great thought with which he starts1 that of the final judgment1 in which each man shall give account of himself4 ,what has that to do with the question in hand8 ,this1 that it ought to keep us from premature and censorious judging4 ,we have something more pressing to do than to criticise each other4 ,ourselves are enough to keep our hands full1 without taking a lift of our fellows' conduct4 ,and this1 further1 that1 in view of the final judgment1 we should hold a preliminary investigation on our own principles of action1 and 'decide' to adopt as the overruling law for ourselves1 that we shall do nothing which will make duty harder for our brethren4 ,paul habitually settled small matters on large principles1 and brought the solemnities of the final account to bear on the marketplace and the meal4 ,in verse #ac he lays down the supreme principle for settling the case in hand4 ,no ,christian is blameless if he voluntarily acts so as to lay a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in another's path4 ,are these two things the same8 ,possibly1 but a man may stumble1 and not fall1 and that which makes him stumble may possibly indicate a temptation to a less grave evil than that which makes him fall does4 ,it may be noticed that in the sequel we hear of a brother's being 'grieved' first1 and then of his being 'overthrown4' ,in any case1 there is no mistake about the principle laid down and repeated in verse #ba4 ,it is a hard saying for some of us4 ,is my liberty to be restricted by the narrow scruples of 'strait-laced' ,christians8 ,yes4 ,does not that make them masters1 and attach too much importance to their narrowness8 ,no4 ,it recognises ,christ as ,master1 and all ,his servants as brethren4 ,if the scrupulous ones go so far as to say to the more liberal1 ',you cannot be ,christians if you do not do as we do' then the limits of concession have been reached1 and we are to do as ,paul did1 when he flatly refused to yield one hair's-breadth to the ,judaisers4 ,if a man says1 ,you must adopt this1 that1 or the other limitation in conduct1 or else you shall be unchurched1 the only answer is1 ,i will not4 ,we are to be flexible as long as possible1 and let weak brethren's scruples restrain our action4 ,but if they insist on things indifferent as essential1 a yet higher duty than that of regard to their weak consciences comes in1 and faithfulness to ,christ limits concession to ,his servants4 ,but1 short of that extreme case1 ,paul lays down the law of curbing liberty in deference to 'narrowness4' ,in verse #ad he states with equal breadth the extreme principle of the liberal party1 that nothing is unclean of itself4 ,he has learned that 'in the ,lord ,jesus4' ,before he was 'in ,him1' he had been entangled in cobwebs of legal cleanness and uncleanness2 but now he is free4 ,but he adds an exception1 which must be kept in mind by the liberal-minded section--namely1 that a clean thing is unclean to a man who thinks it is4 ,of course1 these principles do not affect the eternal distinctions of right and wrong4 ,paul is not playing fast and loose with the solemn1 divine law which makes sin and righteousness independent of men's notions4 ,he is speaking of things indifferent--ceremonial observances and the like2 and the modern analogies of these are conventional pieces of conduct1 in regard to amusements and the like1 which1 in themselves1 a ,christian man can do or abstain from without sin4 ,verse #ae is difficult to understand1 if the 'for' at the beginning is taken strictly4 ,some commentators would read instead of it a simple 'but' which smooths the flow of thought4 ,but possibly the verse assigns a reason for the law in verse #ac1 rather than for the statements in verse #ad4 ,and surely there is no stronger reason for tender consideration for even the narrowest scruples of ,christians than the obligation to walk in love4 ,our common brotherhood binds us to do nothing that would even grieve one of the family4 ,for instance1 ,christian men have different views of the obligations of ,sunday observance4 ,it is conceivable that a very 'broad' ,christian might see no harm in playing lawn-tennis in his garden on a ,sunday2 but if his doing so scandalised1 or1 as ,paul says1 'grieved' ,christian people of less advanced views1 he would be sinning against the law of love if he did it4 ,there are many other applications of the principle readily suggested4 ,the principle is the thing to keep clearly in view4 ,it has a wide field for its exercise in our times1 and when the ,christian brotherhood includes such diversities of culture and social condition4 ,and that is a solemn deepening of it1 ',destroy not with thy meat him for whom ,christ died4' ,note the almost bitter emphasis on 'thy1' which brings out not only the smallness of the gratification for which the mischief is done1 but the selfishness of the man who will not yield up so small a thing to shield from evil which may prove fatal1 a brother for whom ,christ did not shrink from yielding up life4 ,if ,he is our pattern1 any sacrifice of tastes and liberties for our brother's sake is plain duty1 and cannot be neglected without selfish sin4 ,one great reason1 then1 for the conduct enjoined1 is set forth in verse #ae4 ,it is the clear dictate of ,christian love4 ,another reason is urged in verses #af to #ah4 ,it displays the true character of ,christianity1 and so reflects honour on the doer4 ',your good' is an expression for the whole sum of the blessings obtained by becoming ,christians1 and is closely connected with what is here meant by the 'kingdom of ,god4' ,that latter phrase seems here to be substantially equivalent to the inward condition in which they are who have submitted to the dominion of the will of ,god4 ,it is 'the kingdom within us' which is 'righteousness1 peace1 and joy in the ,holy ,ghost4' ,what have you won by your ,christianity8 the ,apostle in effect says1 ,do you think that its purpose is mainly to give you greater licence in regard to these matters in question8 ,if the most obvious thing in your conduct is your 'eating and drinking1' your whole ,christian standing will be misconceived1 and men will fancy that your religion permits laxity of life4 ,but if1 on the other hand1 you show that you are ,christ's servants by righteousness1 peace1 and joy1 you will be pleasing to ,god1 and men will recognise that your religion is from ,him1 and that you are consistent professors of it4 ,modern liberal-minded brethren can easily translate all this for to-day's use4 ,take care that you do not give the impression that your ,christianity has its main operation in permitting you to do what your weaker brethren have scruples about4 ,if you do not yield to them1 but flaunt your liberty in their and the world's faces1 your advanced enlightenment will be taken by rough-and-ready observers as mainly cherished because it procures you these immunities4 ,show by your life that you have the true spiritual gifts4 ,think more about them than about your 'breadth1' and superiority to 'narrow prejudices4' ,realise the purpose of the ,gospel as concerns your own moral perfecting1 and the questions in hand will fall into their right place4 ,in verses #ai and #bj two more reasons are given for restricting liberty in deference to others' scruples4 ,such conduct contributes to peace4 ,if truth is imperilled1 or ,christ's name in danger of being tarnished1 counsels of peace are counsels of treachery2 but there are not many things worth buying at the price of ,christian concord4 ,such conduct tends to build up our own and others' ,christian character4 ,concessions to the 'weak' may help them to become strong1 but flying in the face of their scruples is sure to hurt them1 in one way or another4 ,in verse #ae1 the case was supposed of a brother's being grieved by what he felt to be laxity4 ,that case corresponded to the stumbling-block of verse #ac4 ,a worse result seems contemplated in verse #bj1--that of the weak brother1 still believing that laxity was wrong1 and yet being tempted by the example of the stronger to indulge in it4 ,in that event1 the responsibility of overthrowing what ,god had built lies at the door of the tempter4 ,the metaphor of 'overthrowing' is suggested by the previous one of 'edifying4' ,christian duty is mutual building up of character2 inconsiderate exercise of 'liberty' may lead to pulling down1 by inducing to imitation which conscience condemns4 ,from this point onwards1 the ,apostle first reiterates in inverse order his two broad principles1 that clean things are unclean to the man who thinks them so1 and that ,christian obligation requires abstinence from permitted things if our indulgence tends to a brother's hurt4 ,the application of the latter principle to the duty of total abstinence from intoxicants for the sake of others is perfectly legitimate1 but it is an application1 not the direct purpose of the ,apostle's injunctions4 ,in verses #bb and #bc1 the section is closed by two exhortations1 in which both parties1 the strong and the weak1 are addressed4 ,the former is spoken to in verse #bb1 the latter in verse #bc4 ,the strong brother is bid to be content with having his wider views1 or 'faith'--that is1 certainty that his liberty is in accordance with ,christ's will4 ,it is enough that he should enjoy that conviction1 only let him make sure that he can hold it as in ,god's sight1 and do not let him flourish it in the faces of brethren whom it would grieve1 or might lead to imitating his practice1 without having risen to his conviction4 ,and let him be quite sure that his conscience is entirely convinced1 and not bribed by inclination2 for many a man condemns himself by letting wishes dictate to conscience4 ,on the other hand1 there is a danger that those who have scruples should1 by the example of those who have not1 be tempted to do what they are not quite sure is right4 ,if you have any doubts1 says ,paul1 the safe course is to abstain from the conduct in question4 ,perhaps a brother can go to the theatre without harm1 if he believes it right to do so2 but if you have any hesitation as to the propriety of going1 you will be condemned as sinning if you do4 ,you must not measure your corn by another man's bushel4 ,your convictions1 not his1 are to be your guides4 ',faith' is used here in a somewhat unusual sense4 ,it means certitude of judgment4 ,the last words of verse #bc have no such meaning as is sometimes extracted from them2 namely1 that actions1 however pure and good1 done by unbelievers1 are of the nature of sin4 ,they simply mean that whatever a ,christian man does without clear warrant of his judgment and conscience is sin to him1 whatever it is to others4 ,,two ,,fountains1 ,,one ,,stream ',that we1 through patience and comfort of the ,scriptures1 might have hope4444 #ac4 ,the ,god of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing1 that ye may abound in hope4'--,,romans xv4 #d1 #ac4 ,there is a river in ,switzerland fed by two uniting streams1 bearing the same name1 one of them called the 'white1' one of them the 'grey1' or dark4 ,one comes down from the glaciers1 and bears half-melted snow in its white ripple2 the other flows through a lovely valley1 and is discoloured by its earth4 ,they unite in one common current4 ,so in these two verses we have two streams1 a white and a black1 and they both blend together and flow out into a common hope4 ,in the former of them we have the dark stream--'through patience and comfort1' which implies affliction and effort4 ,the issue and outcome of all difficulty1 trial1 sorrow1 ought to be hope4 ,and in the other verse we have the other valley1 down which the light stream comes3 ',the ,god of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing1 that ye may abound in hope4' ,so both halves of the possible human experience are meant to end in the same blessed result2 and whether you go round on the one side of the sphere of human life1 or whether you take the other hemisphere1 you come to the same point1 if you have travelled with ,god's hand in yours1 and with ,him for your ,guide4 ,let us look1 then1 at these two contrasted origins of the same blessed gift1 the ,christian hope4 ,i4 ,we have1 first of all1 the hope that is the child of the night1 and born in the dark4 ',whatsoever things1' says the ,apostle1 'were written aforetime1 were written for our learning1 that we1 through patience1'--or rather the brave perseverance--'and consolation'--or rather perhaps encouragement--'of the ,scriptures might have hope4' ,the written word is conceived as the source of patient endurance which acts as well as suffers4 ,this grace ,scripture works in us through the encouragement which it ministers in manifold ways1 and the result of both is hope4 ,so1 you see1 our sorrows and difficulties are not connected with1 nor do they issue in1 bright hopefulness1 except by reason of this connecting link4 ,there is nothing in a man's troubles to make him hopeful4 ,sometimes1 rather1 they drive him into despair2 but at all events1 they seldom drive him to hopefulness1 except where this link comes in4 ,we cannot pass from the black frowning cliffs on one side of the gorge to the sunny tablelands on the other without a bridge--and the bridge for a poor soul from the blackness of sorrow1 and the sharp grim rocks of despair1 to the smiling pastures of hope1 with all their half-open blossoms1 is builded in that ,book1 which tells us the meaning and purpose of them all2 and is full of the histories of those who have fought and overcome1 have hoped and not been ashamed4 ,scripture is given for this among other reasons1 that it may encourage us1 and so may produce in us this great grace of active patience1 if we may call it so4 ,the first thing to notice is1 how ,scripture gives encouragement--for such rather than consolation is the meaning of the word4 ,it is much to dry tears1 but it is more to stir the heart as with a trumpet call4 ,consolation is precious1 but we need more for well-being than only to be comforted4 ,and1 surely1 the whole tone of ,scripture in its dealing with the great mystery of pain and sorrow1 has a loftier scope than even to minister assuagement to grief1 and to stay our weeping4 ,it seeks to make us strong and brave to face and to master our sorrows1 and to infuse into us a high-hearted courage1 which shall not merely be able to accept the biting blasts1 but shall feel that they bring a glow to the cheek and oxygen to the blood1 while wrestling with them builds up our strength1 and trains us for higher service4 ,it would be a poor aim to comfort only2 but to encourage--to make strong in heart1 resolved in will1 and incapable of being overborne or crushed in spirit by any sorrows--that is a purpose worthy of the ,book1 and of the ,god who speaks through it4 ,this purpose1 we may say1 is effected by ,scripture in two ways4 ,it encourages us by its records1 and by its revelation of principles4 ,who can tell how many struggling souls have taken heart again1 as they pondered over the sweet stories of sorrow subdued which stud its pages1 like stars in its firmament8 ,the tears shed long ago which ,god has put 'in ,his bottle1' and recorded in ',his book1' have truly been turned into pearls4 ,that long gallery of portraits of sufferers1 who have all trodden the same rough road1 and been sustained by the same hand1 and reached the same home1 speaks cheer to all who follow them4 ,hearts wrung by cruel partings from those dearer to them than their own souls1 turn to the pages which tell how ,abraham1 with calm sorrow1 laid his ,sarah in the cave at ,macpelah2 or how1 when ,jacob's eyes were dim that he could not see1 his memory still turned to the hour of agony when ,rachael died by him1 and he sees clear in its light her lonely grave1 where so much of himself was laid2 or to the still more sacred page which records the struggle of grief and faith in the hearts of the sisters of ,bethany4 ,all who are anyways afflicted in mind1 body1 or estate find in the ,psalms men speaking their deepest experiences before them2 and the grand majesty of sorrow that marks 'the patience of ,job1' and the flood of sunshine that bathes him1 revealing the 'end of the ,lord1' have strengthened countless sufferers to bear and to hold fast1 and to hope4 ,we are all enough of children to be more affected by living examples than by dissertations1 however true1 and so ,scripture is mainly history1 revealing ,god by the record of ,his acts1 and disclosing the secret of human life by telling us the experiences of living men4 ,but ,scripture has another method of ministering encouragement to our often fainting and faithless hearts4 ,it cuts down through all the complications of human affairs1 and lays bare the innermost motive power4 ,it not only shows us in its narratives the working of sorrow1 and the power of faith1 but it distinctly lays down the source and the purpose1 the whence and the whither of all suffering4 ,no man need quail or faint before the most torturing pains or most disastrous strokes of evil1 who holds firmly the plain teaching of ,scripture on these two points4 ,they all come from my ,father1 and they all come for my good4 ,it is a short and simple creed1 easily apprehended4 ,it pretends to no recondite wisdom4 ,it is a homely philosophy which common intellects can grasp1 which children can understand1 and hearts half paralysed by sorrow can take in4 ,so much the better4 ,grief and pain are so common that their cure had need to be easily obtained4 ,ignorant and stupid people have to writhe in agony as well as wise and clever ones1 and until grief is the portion only of the cultivated classes1 its healing must come from something more universal than philosophy2 or else the nettle would be more plentiful than the dock2 and many a poor heart would be stung to death4 ,blessed be ,god6 the ,christian view of sorrow1 while it leaves much unexplained1 focuses a steady light on these two points2 its origin and its end4 ',he for our profit1 that we may be partakers of ,his holiness1' is enough to calm all agitation1 and to make the faintest heart take fresh courage4 ,with that double certitude clear before us1 we can face anything4 ,the slings and arrows which strike are no more flung blindly by an 'outrageous fortune1' but each bears an inscription1 like the fabled bolts1 which tells what hand drew the bow1 and they come with ,his love4 ,then1 further1 the courage thus born of the ,scriptures produces another grand thing--patience1 or rather perseverance4 ,by that word is meant more than simply the passive endurance which is the main element in patience1 properly so called4 ,such passive endurance is a large part of our duty in regard to difficulties and sorrows1 but is never the whole of it4 ,it is something to endure and even while the heart is breaking1 to submit unmurmuring1 but1 transcendent as that is1 it is but half of the lesson which we have to learn and to put in practice4 ,for if all our sorrows have a disciplinary and educational purpose1 we shall not have received them aright1 unless we have tried to make that purpose effectual1 by appropriating whatsoever moral and spiritual teaching they each have for us4 ,nor does our duty stop there4 ,for while one high purpose of sorrow is to deaden our hearts to earthly objects1 and to lift us above earthly affections1 no sorrow can ever relax the bonds which oblige us to duty4 ,the solemn pressure of ',i ought1' is as heavy on the sorrowful as on the happy heart4 ,we have still to toil1 to press forward1 in the sweat of our brow1 to gain our bread1 whether it be food for our bodies1 or sustenance for our hearts and minds4 ,our responsibilities to others do not cease because our lives are darkened4 ,therefore1 heavy or light of heart1 we have still to stick to our work1 and though we may never more be able to do it with the old buoyancy1 still to do it with our might4 ,it is that dogged persistence in plain duty1 that tenacious continuance in our course1 which is here set forth as the result of the encouragement which ,scripture gives4 ,many of us have all our strength exhausted in mere endurance1 and have let obvious duties slip from our hands1 as if we had done all that we could do when we had forced ourselves to submit4 ,submission would come easier if you took up some of those neglected duties1 and you would be stronger for patience1 if you used more of your strength for service4 ,you do well if you do not sink under your burden1 but you would do better if1 with it on your shoulders1 you would plod steadily along the road2 and if you did1 you would feel the weight less4 ,it seems heaviest when you stand still doing nothing4 ,do not cease to toil because you suffer4 ,you will feel your pain more if you do4 ,take the encouragement which ,scripture gives1 that it may animate you to bate no jot of heart or hope1 but still bear up and steer right onward4 ,and let the ,scripture directly minister to you perseverance as well as indirectly supply it through the encouragement which it gives4 ,it abounds with exhortations1 patterns1 and motives of such patient continuance in well-doing4 ,it teaches us a solemn scorn of ills4 ,it1 angel-like1 bears us up on soft1 strong hands1 lest we bruise ourselves on1 or stumble over1 the rough places on our roads4 ,it summons us to diligence by the visions of the prize1 and glimpses of the dread fate of the slothful1 by all that is blessed in hope1 and terrible in foreboding1 by appeals to an enlightened self-regard1 and by authoritative commands to conscience1 by the pattern of the ,master1 and by the tender motives of love to ,him to which ,he1 ,himself1 has given voice4 ,all these call on us to be followers of them who1 through faith and perseverance1 inherit the promises4 ,but we have yet another step to take4 ,these two1 the encouragement and perseverance produced by the right use of ,scripture1 will lead to hope4 ,it depends on how sorrow and trial are borne1 whether they produce a dreary hopelessness which sometimes darkens into despair1 or a brighter1 firmer hope than more joyous days knew4 ,we cannot say that sorrow produces hope4 ,it does not1 unless we have this connecting link--the experience in sorrow of a ,god-given courage which falters not in the onward course1 nor shrinks from any duty4 ,but if1 in the very press and agony1 ,i am able1 by ,god's grace1 to endure nor cease to toil1 ,i have1 in myself1 a living proof of ,his power1 which entitles me to look forward with the sure confidence that1 through all the uproar of the storm1 ,he will bring me to my harbour of rest where there is peace4 ,the lion once slain houses a swarm of bees who lay up honey in its carcase4 ,the trial borne with brave persistence yields a store of sweet hopes4 ,if we can look back and say1 ',thou hast been with me in six troubles1' it is good logic to look forward and say1 'and in seven ,thou wilt not forsake me4' ,when the first wave breaks over the ship1 as she clears the heads and heels over before the full power of the open sea1 inexperienced landsmen think they are all going to the bottom1 but they soon learn that there is a long way between rolling and foundering1 and get to watch the highest waves towering above the bows in full confidence that these also will slip quietly beneath the keel as the others have done1 and be left harmless astern4 ,the ,apostle1 in this very same letter1 has another word parallel to this1 in which he describes the issues of rightly-borne suffering when he says1 ',tribulation worketh perseverance'--the same word that is used here--'and perseverance worketh' the proof in our experience of a sustaining ,god2 and the proof in our experience of a sustaining ,god works hope4 ,we know that of ourselves we could not have met tribulation1 and therefore the fact that we have been able to meet and overcome it is demonstration of a mightier power than our own1 working in us1 which we know to be from ,god1 and therefore inexhaustible and ever ready to help4 ,that is foundation firm enough to build solid fabrics of hope upon1 whose bases go down to the centre of all things1 the purpose of ,god1 and whose summits1 like the upward shooting spire of some cathedral1 aspire to1 and seem almost to touch1 the heavens4 ,so hope is born of sorrow1 when these other things come between4 ,the darkness gives birth to the light1 and every grief blazes up a witness to a future glory4 ,each drop that hangs on the wet leaves twinkles into rainbow light that proclaims the sun4 ,the garish splendours of the prosperous day hide the stars1 and through the night of our sorrow there shine1 thickly sown and steadfast1 the constellations of eternal hopes4 ,the darker the midnight1 the surer1 and perhaps the nearer1 the coming of the day4 ,sorrow has not had its perfect work unless it has led us by the way of courage and perseverance to a stable hope4 ,hope has not pierced to the rock1 and builds only 'things that can be shaken1' unless it rests on sorrows borne by ,god's help4 ,,ii4 ,so much then for the genealogy of one form of the ,christian hope4 ,but we have also a hope that is born of the day1 the child of sunshine and gladness2 and that is set before us in the second of the two verses which we are considering1 ',the ,god of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing1 that ye may abound in hope4' ,so then1 'the darkness and the light are both alike' to our hope1 in so far as each may become the occasion for its exercise4 ,it is not only to be the sweet juice expressed from our hearts by the winepress of calamities1 but that which flows of itself from hearts ripened and mellowed under the sunshine of ,god-given blessedness4 ,we have seen that the bridge by which sorrow led to hope1 is perseverance and courage2 in this second analysis of the origin of hope1 joy and peace are the bridge by which ,faith passes over into it4 ,observe the difference3 there is no direct connection between affliction and hope1 but there is between joy and hope4 ,we have no right to say1 ',because ,i suffer1 ,i shall possess good in the future'2 but we have a right to say1 ',because ,i rejoice'--of course with a joy in ,god--',i shall never cease to rejoice in ,him4' ,such joy is the prophet of its own immortality and completion4 ,and1 on the other hand1 the joy and peace which are naturally the direct progenitors of ,christian hope1 are the children of faith4 ,so that we have here two generations1 as it were1 of hope's ancestors2--,faith produces joy and peace1 and these again produce hope4 ,faith leads to joy and peace4 ,paul has found1 and if we only put it to the proof1 we shall also find1 that the simple exercise of simple faith fills the soul with 'all joy and peace4' ,gladness in all its variety and in full measure1 calm repose in every kind and abundant in its still depth1 will pour into my heart as water does into a vessel1 on condition of my taking away the barrier and opening my heart through faith4 ,trust and thou shalt be glad4 ,trust1 and thou shalt be calm4 ,in the measure of thy trust shall be the measure of thy joy and peace4 ,notice1 further1 how indissolubly connected the present exercise of faith is with the present experience of joy and peace4 ,the exuberant language of this text seems a world too wide for anything that many professing ,christians ever know even in the moments of highest elevation1 and certainly far beyond the ordinary tenor of their lives4 ,but it is no wonder that these should have so little joy1 when they have so little faith4 ,it is only while we are looking to ,jesus that we can expect to have joy and peace4 ,there is no flashing light on the surface of the mirror1 but when it is turned full to the sun4 ,any interruption in the electric current is registered accurately by an interruption in the continuous line perforated on the telegraph ribbon2 and so every diversion of heart and faith from ,jesus ,christ is recorded by the fading of the sunshine out of the heart1 and the silencing of all the song-birds4 ,yesterday's faith will not bring joy to-day2 you cannot live upon past experience1 nor feed your souls with the memory of former exercises of ,christian faith4 ,it must be like the manna1 gathered fresh every day1 else it will rot and smell foul4 ,a present faith1 and a present faith only1 produces a present joy and peace4 ,is there1 then1 any wonder that so much of the ordinary experience of ordinary ,christians should present a sadly broken line--a bright point here and there1 separated by long stretches of darkness8 ,the gaps in the continuity of their joy are the tell-tale indicators of the interruptions in their faith4 ,if the latter were continuous1 the former would be unbroken4 ,always believe1 and you will always be glad and calm4 ,it is easy to see that this is the natural result of faith4 ,the very act of confident reliance on another for all my safety and well-being has a charm to make me restful1 so long as my reliance is not put to shame4 ,there is no more blessed emotion than the tranquil happiness which1 in the measure of its trust1 fills every trustful soul4 ,even when its objects are poor1 fallible1 weak1 ignorant dying men and women1 trust brings a breath of more than earthly peace into the heart4 ,but when it grasps the omnipotent1 all-wise1 immortal ,christ1 there are no bounds but its own capacity to the blessedness which it brings into the soul1 because there is none to the all-sufficient grace of which it lays hold4 ,observe again how accurately the ,apostle defines for us the conditions on which ,christian experience will be joyful and tranquil4 ,it is 'in believing1' not in certain other exercises of mind1 that these blessings are to be realised4 ,and the forgetfulness of that plain fact leads to many good people's religion being very much more gloomy and disturbed than ,god meant it to be4 ,for a large part of it consists in sadly testing their spiritual state1 and gazing at their failures and imperfections4 ,there is nothing cheerful or tranquillising in grubbing among the evils of your own heart1 and it is quite possible to do that too much and too exclusively4 ,if your favourite subject of contemplation in your religious thinking is yourself1 no wonder that you do not get much joy and peace out of that4 ,if you do1 it will be of a false kind4 ,if you are thinking more about your own imperfections than about ,christ's pardon1 more about the defects of your own love to ,him than about the perfection of ,his love to you1 if instead of practising faith you are absorbed in self-examination1 and instead of saying to yourself1 ',i know how foul and unworthy ,i am1 but ,i look away from myself to my ,saviour1' you are bewailing your sins and doubting whether you are a ,christian1 you need not expect ,god's angels of joy and peace to nestle in your heart4 ,it is 'in believing1' and not in other forms of religious contemplation1 however needful these may in their places be1 that these fair twin sisters come to us and make their abode with us4 ,then1 the second step in this tracing of the origin of the hope which has the brighter source is the consideration that the joy and peace which spring from faith1 in their turn produce that confident anticipation of future and progressive good4 ,herein lies the distinguishing blessedness of the ,christian joy and peace1 in that they carry in themselves the pledge of their own eternity4 ,here1 and here only1 the mad boast which is doomed to be so miserably falsified when applied to earthly gladness is simple truth4 ,here 'to-morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant4' ,such joy has nothing in itself which betokens exhaustion1 as all the less pure joys of earth have4 ,it is manifestly not born for death1 as are they4 ,it is not fated1 like all earthly emotions or passions1 to expire in the moment of its completeness1 or even by sudden revulsion to be succeeded by its opposite4 ,its sweetness has no after pang of bitterness4 ,it is not true of this gladness1 that ',hereof cometh in the end despondency and madness1' but its destiny is to 'remain' as long as the soul in which it unfolds shall exist1 and 'to be full' as long as the source from which it flows does not run dry4 ,so that the more we experience the present blessedness1 which faith in ,christ brings us1 the more shall we be sure that nothing in the future1 either in or beyond time1 can put an end to it2 and hence a hope that looks with confident eyes across the gorge of death1 to the 'shining tablelands' on the other side1 and is as calm as certitude1 shall be ours4 ,to the ,christian soul1 rejoicing in the conscious exercise of faith and the conscious possession of its blessed results1 the termination of a communion with ,christ1 so real and spiritual1 by such a trivial accident as death1 seems wildly absurd and therefore utterly impossible4 ,just as ,christ's ,resurrection seems inevitable as soon as we grasp the truth of ,his divine nature1 and it becomes manifestly impossible that ,he1 being such as ,he is--should be holden of death1' being such as it is1 so for ,his children1 when once they come to know the realities of fellowship with their ,lord1 they feel the entire dissimilarity of these to anything in the realm which is subjected to the power of death1 and to know it to be as impossible that these purely spiritual experiences should be reduced to inactivity1 or meddled with by it1 as that a thought should be bound with a cord or a feeling fastened with fetters4 ,they1 and death1 belong to two different regions4 ,it can work its will on 'this wide world1 and all its fading sweets'--but is powerless in the still place where the soul and ,jesus hold converse1 and all ,his joy passes into ,his servant's heart4 ,i saw1 not long since1 in a wood a mass of blue wild hyacinths1 that looked like a little bit of heaven dropped down upon earth4 ,you and ,i may have such a tiny bit of heaven itself lying amidst all the tangle of our daily lives1 if only we put our trust in ,christ1 and so get into our hearts some little portion of that joy that is unspeakable1 and that peace that passeth understanding4 ,thus1 then1 the sorrows of the earthly experience and the joys of the ,christian life will blend together to produce the one blessed result of a hope that is full of certainty1 and is the assurance of immortality4 ,there is no rainbow in the sky unless there be both a black cloud and bright sunshine4 ,so1 on the blackest1 thickest thunder-mass of our sorrows1 if smitten into moist light by the sunshine of joy and peace drawn from ,jesus ,christ by faith1 there may be painted the rainbow of hope1 the many-coloured1 steadfast token of the faithful covenant of the faithful ,god4 ,,joy ,,and ,,peace ,,in ,,believing ',the ,god of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing1 that ye may abound in hope1 through the power of the ,holy ,ghost4'--,,romans xv4 #ac4 ,with this comprehensive and lofty petition the ,apostle closes his exhortation to the factions in the ,roman ,church to be at unity4 ,the form of the prayer is moulded by the last words of a quotation which he has just made1 which says that in the coming ,messiah 'shall the ,gentiles hope4' ,but the prayer itself is not an instance of being led away by a word--in form1 indeed1 it is shaped by verbal resemblance2 in substance it points to the true remedy for religious controversy4 ,fill the contending parties with a fuller spiritual life1 and the ground of their differences will begin to dwindle1 and look very contemptible4 ,when the tide rises1 the little pools on the rocks are all merged into one4 ,but we may pass beyond the immediate application of these words1 and see in them the wish1 which is also a promise1 and like the exhibition of every ideal is a command4 ,this is ,paul's conception of the ,christian life as it might and should be1 in one aspect4 ,you notice that there is not a word in it about conduct4 ,it goes far deeper than action4 ,it deals with the springs of action in the individual life4 ,it is the depths of spiritual experience here set forth which will result in actions that become a ,christian4 ,and in these days1 when all around us we see a shallow conception of ,christianity1 as if it were concerned principally with conduct and men's relations with one another1 it is well to go down into the depths1 and to remember that whilst ',do1 do1 do6' is very important1 ',be1 be1 be6' is the primary commandment4 ,conduct is a making visible of personality1 and the ,scripture teaching which says first faith and then works is profoundly philosophical as well as ,christian4 ,so we turn away here from externals altogether1 and regard the effect of ,christianity on the inward life4 ,i4 ,i wish to notice man's faith and ,god's filling as connected1 and as the foundation of everything4 ',the ,god of hope fill you 444'--let us leave out the intervening words for a moment--'in believing4' ,now1 you notice that ,paul does not stay to tell us what or whom we are to believe in1 or on4 ,he takes that for granted1 and his thought is fastened1 for the moment1 not on the object but on the act of faith4 ,and he wishes to drive home to us this1 that the attitude of trust is the necessary prerequisite condition of ,god's being able to fill a man's soul1 and that ,god's being able to fill a man's soul is the necessary consequence of a man's trust4 ,ah1 brethren1 we cannot altogether shut ,god out from our spirits4 ,there are loving and gracious gifts that1 as our ,lord tells us1 ,he makes to 'fall on the unthankful and the evil4' ,his rain is not like the summer showers that we sometimes see1 that fall in one spot and leave another dry2 nor like the destructive thunderstorms1 that come down bringing ruin upon one cane-brake and leave the plants in the next standing upright4 ,but the best1 the highest1 the truly divine gifts which ,he is yearning to give to us all1 cannot be given except there be consent1 trust1 and desire for them4 ,you can shut your hearts or you can open them4 ,and just as the wind will sigh round some hermetically closed chamber in vain search for a cranny1 and the man within may be asphyxiated though the atmosphere is surging up its waves all round his closed domicile1 so by lack of our faith1 which is at once trust1 consent1 and desire1 we shut out the gift with which ,god would fain fill our spirits4 ,you can take a porous pottery vessel1 wrap it up in waxcloth1 pitch it all over1 and then drop it into mid-,atlantic1 and not a drop will find its way in4 ,and that is what we can do with ourselves1 so that although in ,him 'we live and move and have our being1' and are like the earthen vessel in the ocean1 no drop of the blessed moisture will ever find its way into the heart4 ,there must be man's faith before there can be ,god's filling4 ,further1 this relation of the two things suggests to us that a consequence of a ,christian man's faith is the direct action of ,god upon him4 ,notice how the ,apostle puts that truth in a double form here1 in order that he may emphasise it1 using one form of expression1 involving the divine1 direct activity1 at the beginning of his prayer1 and another at the end1 and so enclosing1 as it were1 within a great casket of the divine action1 all the blessings1 the flashing jewels1 which he desires his ,roman friends to possess4 ',the ,god of hope fill you 444 through the power of the ,holy ,ghost4' ,i wish ,i could find words by which ,i could bear in upon the ordinary type of the ,evangelical ,christianity of this generation anything like the depth and earnestness of my own conviction that1 for lack of a proportionate development of that great truth1 of the direct action of the giving ,god on the believing heart1 it is weakened and harmed in many ways4 ,surely ,he that made my spirit can touch my spirit2 surely ,he who filleth all things according to their capacity can ,himself enter into and fill the spirit which is opened for ,him by simple faith4 ,we do not need wires for the telegraphy between heaven and the believing soul1 but ,he comes directly to1 and speaks in1 and moves upon1 and moulds and blesses1 the waiting heart4 ,and until you know1 by your own experience rightly interpreted1 that there is such a direct communion between the giving ,god and the recipient believing spirit1 you have yet to learn the deepest depth1 and the most blessed blessedness1 of ,christian faith and experience4 ,for lack of it a hundred evils beset modern ,christianity4 ,for lack of it men fix their faith so exclusively as that the faith is itself harmed thereby1 on the past act of ,christ's death on the ,cross4 ,you will not suspect me of minimising that1 but ,i beseech you remember one climax of the ,apostle's which1 though not bearing the same message as my text1 is in harmony with it1 ',christ that died1 yea1 rather1 that is risen again1 who is even at the right hand of ,god1 who also maketh intercession for us4' ,and remember that ,christ ,himself bestows the gift of ,his ,divine ,spirit as the result of the humiliation and the agony of ,his ,cross4 ,faith brings the direct action of the giving ,god4 ,and one more word about this first part of my text3 the result of that direct action is complete--'the ,god of hope fill you' with no shrunken stream1 no painful trickle out of a narrow rift in the rock1 but a great exuberance which will pass into a man's nature in the measure of his capacity1 which is the measure of his trust and desire4 ,there are two limits to ,god's gifts to men3 the one is the limitless limit of ,god's infinitude1 the other is the working limit--our capacity--and that capacity is precisely measured1 as the capacity of some built-in vessel might be measured by a little gauge on the outside1 by our faith4 ',the ,god of hope' fills you in 'believing1' and 'according to thy faith shall it be unto thee4' ,,ii4 ,notice the joy and peace which come from the direct action of the ,god of hope on the believer's soul4 ,now1 it is not only towards ,god that we exercise trust1 but wherever it is exercised1 to some extent1 and in the measure in which the object on which it rests is discovered by experience to be worthy1 it produces precisely these results4 ,whoever trusts is at peace1 just as much as he trusts4 ,his confidence may be mistaken1 and there will come a tremendous awakening if it is1 and the peace will be shattered like some crystal vessel dashed upon an iron pavement1 but so long as a man's mind and heart are in the attitude of dependence upon another1 conceived to be dependable1 one knows that there are few phases of tranquillity and blessedness which are sweeter and deeper than that4 ',the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her'--that is one illustration1 and a hundred more might be given4 ,and if you will take that attitude of trust which1 even when it twines round some earthly prop1 is upheld for a time1 and bears bright flowers--if you take it and twine it round the steadfast foundations of the ,throne of ,god1 what can shake that sure repose8 ',joy and peace' will come when the ,christian heart closes with its trust1 which is ,god in ,christ4 ,he that believes has found the short1 sure road to joy and peace1 because his relations are set right with ,god4 ,for these relations are the disturbing elements in all earthly tranquillity1 and like the skeleton at the feast in all earthly joy1 and a man can never1 down to the roots of his being1 be at rest until he is quite sure that there is nothing wrong between him and ,god4 ,and so believing1 we come to that root of all real gladness which is anything better than a crackling of thorns under a pot1 and to that beginning of all true tranquillity4 ,joy in the ,lord and peace with ,god are the parents of all joy and peace that are worthy of the name4 ,and that same faith will again bring these two bright-winged angels into the most saddened and troubled lives1 because that faith brings right relations with ourselves4 ,for our inward strifes stuff thorns into the pillow of our repose1 and mingle bitterness with the sweetest1 foaming draughts of our earthly joys4 ,if a man's conscience and inclinations pull him two different ways1 he is torn asunder as by wild horses4 ,if a man has a hungry heart1 for ever yearning after unattained and impossible blessings1 then there is no rest there4 ,if a man's little kingdom within him is all anarchical1 and each passion and appetite setting up for itself1 then there is no tranquillity4 ,but if by faith we let the ,god of hope come in1 then hungry hearts are satisfied1 and warring dispositions are harmonised1 and the conscience becomes quieted1 and fair imaginations fill the chamber of the spirit1 and the man is at rest1 because he himself is unified by the faith and fear of ,god4 ,and the same faith brings joy and peace because it sets right our relations with other people1 and with all externals4 ,if ,i am living in an atmosphere of trust1 then sorrow will never be absolute1 nor have exclusive monopoly and possession of my spirit4 ,but there will be the paradox1 and the blessedness1 of ,christian experience1 'as sorrowful yet always rejoicing4' ,for the joy of the ,christian life has its source far away beyond the swamps from which the sour drops of sorrow may trickle1 and it is possible that1 like the fabled fire that burned under water1 the joy of the ,lord may be bright in my heart1 even when it is drenched in floods of calamity and distress4 ,and so1 brethren1 the joy and peace that come from faith will fill the heart which trusts4 ,only remember how emphatically the ,apostle here puts these two things together1 'joy and peace in believing4' ,as long as1 and not a moment longer than1 you are exercising the ,christian act of trust1 will you be experiencing the ,christian blessedness of 'joy and peace4' ,unscrew the pipe1 and in an instant the water ceases to flow4 ,touch the button and switch off1 and out goes the light4 ,some ,christian people fancy they can live upon past faith4 ,you will get no present joy and peace out of past faith4 ,the rain of this day twelve months will not moisten the parched ground of to-day4 ,yesterday's religion was all used up yesterday4 ,and if you would have a continuous flow of joy and peace through your lives1 keep up a uniform habit and attitude of trust in ,god4 ,you will get it then2 you will get it in no other way4 ,,iii4 ,lastly1 note the hope which springs from this experience of joy and peace4 ',the ,god of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing1 that ye may abound in hope4' ,here1 again1 the ,apostle does not trouble himself to define the object of the hope4 ,in this1 as in the former clause1 his attention is fixed upon the emotion1 not upon that towards which it goes out4 ,and just as there was no need to say in whom it was that the ,christian man was to believe1 so there is no room to define what it is that the ,christian man has a right to hope for4 ,for his hope is intended to cover all the future1 the next moment1 or to-morrow1 or the dimmest distance where time has ceased to be1 and eternity stands unmoved4 ,the attitude of the ,christian mind ought to be a cheery optimism1 an unconquerable hope4 ',the best has yet to be' is the true ,christian thought in contemplating the future for myself1 for my dear ones1 for ,god's ,church1 and for ,god's universe4 ,and the truest basis on which that hope can rest is the experience granted to us1 on condition of our faith1 of a present1 abundant possession of the joy and peace which ,god gives4 ,the gladder you are to-day1 if the gladness comes from the right source1 the surer you may be that that gladness will never end4 ,that is not what befalls men who live by earthly joys4 ,for the more poignant1 precious1 and1 as we faithlessly think1 indispensable some of these are to us1 the more into their sweetest sweetness creeps the dread thought3 ',this is too good to last2 this must pass4' ,we never need to think that about the peace and joy that come to us through believing4 ,for they1 in their sweetness1 prophesy perpetuity4 ,i need not dwell upon the thought that the firmest1 most personally precious convictions of an eternity of future blessedness1 rise and fall in a ,christian consciousness with the purity and the depth of its own experience of the peace and joy of the ,gospel4 ,the more you have of ,jesus ,christ in your lives and hearts to-day1 the surer you will be that whatever death may do1 it cannot touch that1 and the more ludicrously impossible it will seem that anything that befalls this poor body can touch the bond that knits us to ,jesus ,christ4 ,death can separate us from a great deal4 ,its sharp scythe cuts through all other bonds1 but its edge is turned when it is tried against the golden chain that binds the believing soul to the ,christ in whom he has believed4 ,so1 brethren1 there is the ladder--begin at the bottom step1 with faith in ,jesus ,christ4 ,that will bring ,god's direct action into your spirit1 through ,his ,holy ,spirit1 and that one gift will break up into an endless multiplicity of blessings1 just as a beam of light spilt upon the surface of the ocean breaks into diamonds in every wave1 and that 'joy and peace' will kindle in your hearts a hope fed by the great words of the ,lord3 ',peace ,i leave with you1 my peace ,i give unto you1' ',my joy shall remain in you1 and your joy shall be full1' ',he that liveth and believeth in ,me shall never die4' ,,phoebe ',i commend unto you ,phoebe our sister1 who is a servant of the ,church that is at ,cenchrea3 #b4 ,that ye receive her in the ,lord1 worthily of the ,saints1 and that ye assist her in whatsover matter she may have need of you3 for she herself hath been a succourer of many1 and of mine own self4'--,,romans xvi4 #a1 #b 7,r4,v474 ,this is an outline picture of an else wholly unknown person4 ,she1 like most of the other names mentioned in the salutations in this chapter1 has had a singular fate4 ,every name1 shadowy and unreal as it is to us1 belonged to a human life filled with hopes and fears1 plunged sometimes in the depths of sorrows1 struggling with anxieties and difficulties2 and all the agitations have sunk into forgetfulness and calm4 ,there is left to the world an immortal remembrance1 and scarcely a single fact associated with the undying names4 ,note the person here disclosed4 ,a little rent is made in the dark curtain through which we see as with an incandescent light concentrated for a moment upon her1 one of the many good women who helped ,paul1 as their sisters had helped ,paul's ,master1 and who thereby have won1 little as either ,paul or she thought it1 an eternal commemoration4 ,her name is a purely idolatrous one1 and stamps her as a ,greek1 and by birth probably a worshipper of ,apollo4 ,her ,christian associations were with the ,church at ,cenchrea1 the port of ,corinth1 of which little ,christian community nothing further is known4 ,but if we take into account the hideous immoralities of ,corinth1 we shall deem it probable that the port1 with its shifting maritime population1 was1 like most seaports1 a soil in which goodness was hard put to it to grow1 and a church had much against which to struggle4 ,to be a ,christian at ,cenchrea can have been no light task4 ,travellers in ,egypt are told that ,port ,said is the wickedest place on the face of the earth2 and in ,phoebe's home there would be a like drift of disreputables of both sexes and of all nationalities4 ,it was fitting that one good woman should be recorded as redeeming womanhood there4 ,we learn of her that she was a 'servant1' or1 as the margin preferably reads1 a 'deaconess of the ,church which is at ,cenchrea'2 and in that capacity1 by gentle ministrations and the exhibition of purity and patient love1 as well as by the gracious administration of material help1 had been a 'succourer of many4' ,there is a whole world of unmentioned kindnesses and a life of self-devotion hidden away under these few words4 ,possibly the succour which she administered was her own gift4 ,she may have been rich and influential1 or perhaps she but distributed the ,church's bounty2 but in any case the gift was sweetened by the giver's hand1 and the succour was the impartation of a woman's sympathy more than the bestowment of a donor's gift4 ,sometime or other1 and somehow or other1 she had had the honour and joy of helping ,paul1 and no doubt that opportunity would be to her a crown of service4 ,she was now on the point of taking the long journey to ,rome on her own business1 and the ,apostle bespeaks for her help from the ,roman ,church 'in whatsoever matter she may have need of you1' as if she had some difficult affair on hand1 and had no other friends in the city4 ,possibly then she was a widow1 and perhaps had had some lawsuit or business with government authorities1 with whom a word from some of her brethren in ,rome might stand her in good stead4 ,apparently she was the bearer of this epistle1 which would give her a standing at once in the ,roman ,church1 and she came among them with a halo round her from the whole-hearted commendation of the ,apostle4 ,mark the lessons from this little picture4 ,we note first the remarkable illustration here given of the power of the new bond of a common faith4 ,the world was then broken up into sections1 which were sometimes bitterly antagonistic and at others merely rigidly exclusive4 ,the only bond of union was the iron fetter of ,rome1 which crushed the people1 but did not knit them together4 ,but here are ,paul the ,jew1 ,phoebe the ,greek1 and the ,roman readers of the epistle1 all fused together by the power of the divine love that melted their hearts1 and the common faith that unified their lives4 ,the list of names in this chapter1 comprising as it does men and women of many nationalities1 and some slaves as well as freemen1 is itself a wonderful testimony of the truth of ,paul's triumphant exclamation in another epistle1 that in ,christ there is 'neither ,jew nor ,greek1 bond nor free1 male nor female4' ,the clefts have closed1 and the very line of demarcation is obliterated2 and these clefts were deeper than any of which we moderns have had experience4 ,it remains something like a miracle that the members of ,paul's churches could ever be brought together1 and that their consciousness of oneness could ever overpower the tremendous divisive forces4 ,we sometimes wonder at their bickerings2 we ought rather to wonder at their unity1 and be ashamed of the importance which we attach to our infinitely slighter mutual disagreements4 ,the bond that was sufficient to make the early ,christians all one in ,christ ,jesus seems to have lost its binding power to-day1 and1 like an used-up elastic band1 to have no clasping grip left in it4 ,another thought which we may connect with the name of ,phoebe is the characteristic place of women in ,christianity4 ,the place of woman amongst the ,jews was indeed free and honourable as compared with her position either in ,greece or ,rome1 but in none of them was she placed on the level of man1 nor regarded mainly in the aspect of an equal possessor of the same life of the ,spirit4 ,but a religion which admits her to precisely the same position of a supernatural life as is granted to man1 necessarily relegates to a subordinate position all differences of sex as it does all other natural distinctions4 ,the women who ministered to ,jesus of their substance1 the two sisters of ,bethany1 the mourners at ,calvary1 the three who went through the morning twilight to the tomb1 were but the foremost conspicuous figures in a great company through all the ages who have owed to ,jesus their redemption1 not only from the slavery of sin1 but from the stigma of inferiority as man's drudge or toy4 ,to the world in which ,paul lived it was a strange1 new thought that women could share with man in his loftiest emotions4 ,historically the emancipation of one half of the human race is the direct result of the ,christian principle that all are one in ,christ ,jesus4 ,in modern life the emancipation has been too often divorced from its one sure basis1 and we have become familiar with the sight of the 'advanced' women who have advanced so far as to have lost sight of the ,christ to whom they owe their freedom4 ,the picture of ,phoebe in our text might well be commended to all such as setting forth the most womanlike ideal4 ,she was 'a succourer of many4' ,her ministry was a ministry of help2 and surely such gentle ministry is that which most befits the woman's heart and comes most graciously to the woman's fingers4 ,phoebe then may well represent to us the ministry of succour in this world of woe and need4 ,there is ever a cry1 even in apparently successful lives1 for help and a helper4 ,man's clumsy hand is but too apt to hurt where it strives to soothe1 and nature itself seems to devolve on the swifter sympathies and more delicate perceptions of woman the joy of binding up wounded spirits4 ,in the verses immediately following our text we read of another woman to whom was entrusted a more conspicuous and direct form of service4 ,priscilla 'taught ,apollos the way of ,god more perfectly1' and is traditionally represented as being united with her husband in evangelistic work4 ,but it is not merely prejudice which takes ,phoebe rather than ,priscilla as the characteristic type of woman's special ministry4 ,we must remember our ,lord's teaching1 that the giver of 'a cup of cold water in the name of a prophet' in some measure shares in the prophet's work1 and will surely share in the prophet's reward4 ,she who helped ,paul must have entered into the spirit of ,paul's labours2 and ,he to whom all service that is done from the same motive is one in essence1 makes no difference between him whose thirsty lips drink and her whose loving hand presents the cup of cold water4 ',small service is true service while it lasts4' ,paul and ,phoebe were one in ministry and one in its recompense4 ,we may further see in her a foreshadowing of the reward of lowly service1 though it be only the service of help4 ,little did ,phoebe dream that her name would have an eternal commemoration of her unnoticed deeds of kindness and aid1 standing forth to later generations and peoples of whom she knew nothing1 as worthy of eternal remembrance4 ,for those of us who have to serve unnoticed and unknown1 here is an instance and a prophecy which may stimulate and encourage4 ',surely ,i will never forget any of their works' is a gracious promise which the most obscure and humble of us may take to heart1 and sustained by which1 we may patiently pursue a way on which there are 'none to praise and very few to love4' ,it matters little whether our work be noticed or recorded by men1 so long as we know that it is written in the ,lamb's book of life and that ,he will one day proclaim it 'before the ,father in heaven and ,his angels4' ,,priscilla ,,and ,,aquila ',greet ,priscilla and ,aquila my helpers in ,christ ,jesus2 #d4 7,who have for my life laid down their own necks3 unto whom not only ,i give thanks1 but so all the churches of the ,gentiles37 #e4 ,likewise greet the church that is in their house4'--,,romans xvi4 #c-e4 ,it has struck me that this wedded couple present1 even in the scanty notices that we have of them1 some interesting points which may be worth while gathering together4 ,now1 to begin with1 we are told that ,aquila was a ,jew4 ,we are not told whether ,priscilla was a ,jewess or no4 ,so far as her name is concerned1 she may have been1 and very probably was1 a ,roman1 and1 if so1 we have in their case a 'mixed marriage' such as was not uncommon then1 and of which ,timothy's parents give another example4 ,she is sometimes called ,prisca1 which was her proper name1 and sometimes ,priscilla1 an affectionate diminutive4 ,the two had been living in ,rome1 and had been banished under the decree of the ,emperor1 just as ,jews have been banished from ,england and from every country in ,europe again and again4 ,they came from ,rome to ,corinth1 and were1 perhaps1 intending to go back to ,aquila's native place1 ,pontus1 when ,paul met them in the latter city1 and changed their whole lives4 ,his association with them began in a purely commercial partnership4 ,but as they abode together and worked at their trade1 there would be many earnest talks about the ,christ1 and these ended in both husband and wife becoming disciples4 ,the bond thus knit was too close to be easily severed1 and so1 when ,paul sailed across the gean for ,ephesus1 his two new friends kept with him1 which they would be the more ready to do1 as they had no settled home4 ,they remained with him during his somewhat lengthened stay in the great ,asiatic city2 for we find in the first ,epistle to the ,corinthians which was written from ,ephesus about that time1 that the ,apostle sends greetings from ',priscilla and ,aquila and the ,church which is in their house4' ,but when ,paul left ,ephesus they seem to have stayed behind1 and afterwards to have gone their own way4 ,about a year after the first ,epistle to the ,corinthians was sent from ,ephesus1 the ,epistle to the ,romans was written1 and we find there the salutation to ,priscilla and ,aquila which is my text4 ,so this wandering couple were back again in ,rome by that time1 and settled down there for a while4 ,they are then lost sight of for some time1 but probably they returned to ,ephesus4 ,once more we catch a glimpse of them in ,paul's last letter1 written some seven or eight years after that to the ,romans4 ,the ,apostle knows that death is near1 and1 at that supreme moment1 his heart goes out to these two faithful companions1 and he sends them a parting token of his undying love4 ,there are only two messages to friends in the second ,epistle to ,timothy1 and one of these is to ,prisca and ,aquila4 ,at the mouth of the valley of the shadow of death he remembered the old days in ,corinth1 and the1 to us1 unknown instance of devotion which these two had shown1 when1 for his life1 they laid down their own necks4 ,such is all that we know of ,priscilla and ,aquila4 ,can we gather any lessons from these scattered notices thus thrown together8 ,i4 ,here is an object lesson as to the hallowing effect of ,christianity on domestic life and love4 ,did you ever notice that in the majority of the places where these two are named1 if we adopt the better readings1 ,priscilla's name comes first8 ,she seems to have been 'the better man of the two'2 and ,aquila drops comparatively into the background4 ,now1 such a couple1 and a couple in which the wife took the foremost place1 was an absolute impossibility in heathenism4 ,they are a specimen of what ,christianity did in the primitive age1 all over the ,empire1 and is doing to-day1 everywhere--lifting woman to her proper place4 ,these two1 yoked together in 'all exercise of noble end1' and helping one another in ,christian work1 and bracketed together by the ,apostle1 who puts the wife first1 as his fellow-helpers in ,christ ,jesus1 stands before us as a living picture of what our sweet and sacred family life and earthly loves may be glorified into1 if the light from heaven shines down upon them1 and is thankfully received into them4 ,such a house as the house of ,prisca and ,aquila is the product of ,christianity1 and such ought to be the house of every professing ,christian4 ,for we should all make our homes as 'tabernacles of the righteous1' in which the voice of joy and rejoicing is ever heard4 ,not only wedded love1 but family love1 and all earthly love1 are then most precious1 when into them there flows the ennobling1 the calming1 the transfiguring thought of ,christ and ,his love to us4 ,again1 notice that1 even in these scanty references to our two friends1 there twice occurs that remarkable expression 'the church that is in their house4' ,now1 ,i suppose that that gives us a little glimpse into the rudimentary condition of public worship in the primitive church4 ,it was centuries after the time of ,priscilla and ,aquila before circumstances permitted ,christians to have buildings devoted exclusively to public worship4 ,up to a very much later period than that which is covered by the ,new ,testament1 they gathered together wherever was most convenient4 ,and1 ,i suppose1 that both in ,rome and ,ephesus1 this husband and wife had some room--perhaps the workshop where they made their tents1 spacious enough for some of the ,christians of the city to meet together in4 ,one would like people who talk so much about 'the ,church1' and refuse the name to individual societies of ,christians1 and even to an aggregate of these1 unless it has 'bishops1' to explain how the little gathering of twenty or thirty people in the workshop attached to ,aquila's house1 is called by the ,apostle without hesitation 'the church which is in their house4' ,it was a part of the ,holy ,catholic ,church1 but it was also 'a ,church1' complete in itself1 though small in numbers4 ,we have here not only a glimpse into the manner of public worship in early times1 but we may learn something of far more consequence for us1 and find here a suggestion of what our homes ought to be4 ',the ,church that is in thy house'--fathers and mothers that are responsible for your homes and their religious atmosphere1 ask yourselves if any one would say that about your houses1 and if they could not1 why not8 ,,ii4 ,we may get here another object lesson as to the hallowing of common life1 trade1 and travel4 ,it does not appear that1 after their stay in ,ephesus1 ,aquila and his wife were closely attached to ,paul's person1 and certainly they did not take any part as members of what we may call his evangelistic staff4 ,they seem to have gone their own way1 and as far as the scanty notices carry us1 they did not meet ,paul again1 after the time when they parted in ,ephesus4 ,their gipsy life was probably occasioned by ,aquila's going about--as was the custom in old days when there were no trades-unions or organised centres of a special industry--to look for work where he could find it4 ,when he had made tents in ,ephesus for a while1 he would go on somewhere else1 and take temporary lodgings there4 ,thus he wandered about as a working man4 ,yet ,paul calls him his 'fellow worker in ,christ ,jesus'2 and he had1 as we saw1 a ,church in his house4 ,a roving life of that sort is not generally supposed to be conducive to depth of spiritual life4 ,but their wandering course did not hurt these two4 ,they took their religion with them4 ,it did not depend on locality1 as does that of a great many people who are very religious in the town where they live1 and1 when they go away for a holiday1 seem to leave their religion1 along with their silver plate1 at home4 ,but no matter whether they were in ,corinth or ,ephesus or ,rome1 ,aquila and ,priscilla took their ,lord and ,master with them1 and while working at their camel's-hair tents1 they were serving ,god4 ,dear brethren1 what we want is not half so much preachers such as my brethren and ,i1 as ,christian tradesmen and merchants and travellers1 like ,aquila and ,priscilla4 ,,iii4 ,again1 we may see here a suggestion of the unexpected issues of our lives4 ,think of that complicated chain of circumstances1 one end of which was round ,aquila and the other round the young ,pharisee in ,jerusalem4 ,it steadily drew them together until they met in that lodging at ,corinth4 ,claudius1 in the fullness of his absolute power1 said1 ',turn all these wretched ,jews out of my city4 ,i will not have it polluted with them any more4 ,get rid of them6' ,so these two were uprooted1 and drifted to ,corinth4 ,we do not know why they chose to go thither2 perhaps they themselves did not know why2 but ,god knew4 ,and while they were coming thither from the west1 ,paul was coming thither from the east and north4 ,he was 'prevented by the ,spirit from speaking in ,asia1' and driven across the sea against his intention to ,neapolis1 and hounded out of ,philippi and ,thessalonica and ,bera2 and turned superciliously away from ,athens2 and so at last found himself in ,corinth1 face to face with the tentmaker from ,rome and his wife4 ,then one of the two men said1 ',let us join partnership together1 and set up here as tent-makers for a time4' ,what came out of this unintended and apparently chance meeting8 ,the first thing was the conversion of ,aquila and his wife2 and the effects of that are being realised by them in heaven at this moment1 and will go on to all eternity4 ,so1 in the infinite complexity of events1 do not let us worry ourselves by forecasting1 but let us trust1 and be sure that the ,hand which is pushing us is pushing us in the right direction1 and that ,he will bring us1 by a right1 though a roundabout way1 to the ,city of ,habitation4 ,it seems to me that we poor1 blind creatures in this world are somewhat like a man in a prison1 groping with his hand in the dark along the wall1 and all unawares touching a spring which moves a stone1 disclosing an aperture that lets in a breath of purer air1 and opens the way to freedom4 ,so we go on as if stumbling in the dark1 and presently1 without our knowing what we do1 by some trivial act we originate a train of events which influences our whole future4 ,again1 when ,aquila and ,priscilla reached ,ephesus they formed another chance acquaintance in the person of a brilliant young ,alexandrian1 whose name was ,apollos4 ,they found that he had good intentions and a good heart1 but a head very scantily furnished with the knowledge of the ,gospel4 ,so they took him in hand1 just as ,paul had taken them4 ,if ,i may use such a phrase1 they did not know how large a fish they had caught4 ,they had no idea what a mighty power for ,christ was lying dormant in that young man from ,alexandria who knew so much less than they did4 ,they instructed ,apollos1 and ,apollos became second only to ,paul in the power of preaching the ,gospel4 ,so the circle widens and widens4 ,god's grace fructifies from one man to another1 spreading onward and outward4 ,and all ,apollos' converts1 and their converts1 and theirs again1 right away down the ages1 we may trace back to ,priscilla and ,aquila4 ,so do not let us be anxious about the further end of our deeds--viz4 their results2 but be careful about the nearer end of them--viz4 their motives2 and ,god will look after the other end4 ,seeing that 'thou knowest not which shall prosper1 whether this or that1' or how much any of them will prosper1 let us grasp all opportunities to do ,his will and glorify ,his name4 ,,iv4 ,further1 here we have an instance of the heroic self-devotion which love to ,christ kindles4 ',for my sake they laid down their own necks4' ,we do not know to what ,paul is referring3 perhaps to that tumult in ,ephesus1 where he certainly was in danger4 ,but the language seems rather more emphatic than such danger would warrant4 ,probably it was at some perilous juncture of which we know nothing 7for we know very little1 after all1 of the details of the ,apostle's life71 in which ,aquila and ,priscilla had said1 ',take us and let him go4 ,he can do a great deal more for ,god than we can do4 ,we will put our heads on the block1 if he may still live4' ,that magnanimous self-surrender was a wonderful token of the passionate admiration and love which the ,apostle inspired1 but its deepest motive was love to ,christ and not to ,paul only4 ,faith in ,christ and love to ,him ought to turn cowards into heroes1 to destroy thoughts of self1 and to make the utmost self-sacrifice natural1 blessed1 and easy4 ,we are not called upon to exercise heroism like ,priscilla's and ,aquila's1 but there is as much heroism needed for persistently ,christian life1 in our prosaic daily circumstances1 as has carried many a martyr to the block1 and many a tremulous woman to the pyre4 ,we can all be heroes2 and if the love of ,christ is in us1 as it should be1 we shall all be ready to 'yield ourselves living sacrifices1 which is our reasonable service4' ,long years after1 the ,apostle1 on the further edge of life1 looked back over it all2 and1 whilst much had become dim1 and some trusted friends had dropped away1 like ,demas1 he saw these two1 and waved them his last greeting before he turned to the executioner--',salute ,prisca and ,aquila4' ,paul's ,master is not less mindful of ,his friends' love1 or less eloquent in the praise of their faithfulness1 or less sure to reward them with the crown of glory4 ',whoso confesseth ,me before men1 him will ,i also confess before the angels in heaven4' ,,two ,,households '444 ,salute them which are of ,aristobulus' household4 #aa4 444 ,greet them that be of the household of ,narcissus1 which are in the ,lord4'--,,romans xvi4 #aj1 #aa4 ,there does not seem much to be got out of these two sets of salutations to two households in ,rome2 but if we look at them with eyes in our heads1 and some sympathy in our hearts1 ,i think we shall get lessons worth the treasuring4 ,in the first place1 here are two sets of people1 members of two different households1 and that means mainly1 if not exclusively1 slaves4 ,in the next place1 in each case there was but a section of the household which was ,christian4 ,in the third place1 in neither household is the master included in the greeting4 ,so in neither case was he a ,christian4 ,we do not know anything about these two persons1 men of position evidently1 who had large households4 ,but the most learned of our living ,english commentators of the ,new ,testament has advanced a very reasonable conjecture in regard to each of them4 ,as to the first of them1 ,aristobulus3 that wicked old ,king ,herod1 in whose life ,christ was born1 had a grandson of the name1 who spent all his life in ,rome1 and was in close relations with the ,emperor of that day4 ,he had died some little time before the writing of this letter4 ,as to the second of them1 there is a very notorious ,narcissus1 who plays a great part in the history of ,rome just a little while before ,paul's period there1 and he1 too1 was dead4 ,and it is more than probable that the slaves and retainers of these two men were transferred in both cases to the emperor's household and held together in it1 being known as ,aristobulus' men and ,narcissus' men4 ,and so probably the ,christians among them are the brethren to whom these salutations are sent4 ,be that as it may1 ,i think that if we look at the two groups1 we shall get out of them some lessons4 ,i4 ,the first of them is this3 the penetrating power of ,christian truth4 ,think of the sort of man that the master of the first household was1 if the identification suggested be accepted4 ,he is one of that foul ,herodian brood1 in all of whom the bad ,iduman blood ran corruptly4 ,the grandson of the old ,herod1 the brother of ,agrippa of the ,acts of the ,apostles1 the hanger-on of the ,imperial ,court1 with ,roman vices veneered on his native wickedness1 was not the man to welcome the entrance of a revolutionary ferment into his household2 and yet through his barred doors had crept quietly1 he knowing nothing about it1 that great message of a loving ,god1 and a ,master whose service was freedom4 ,and in thousands of like cases the ,gospel was finding its way underground1 undreamed of by the great and wise1 but steadily pressing onwards1 and undermining all the towering grandeur that was so contemptuous of it4 ,so ,christ's truth spread at first2 and ,i believe that is the way it always spreads4 ,intellectual revolutions begin at the top and filter down2 religious revolutions begin at the bottom and rise2 and it is always the 'lower orders' that are laid hold of first4 ',ye see your calling1 brethren1 how that not many wise men after the flesh1 not many mighty1 not many noble are called1' but a handful of slaves in ,aristobulus' household1 with this living truth lodged in their hearts1 were the bearers and the witnesses and the organs of the power which was going to shatter all that towered above it and despised it4 ,and so it always is4 ,do not let us be ashamed of a ,gospel that has not laid hold of the upper and the educated classes1 but let us feel sure of this1 that there is no greater sign of defective education and of superficial culture and of inborn vulgarity than despising the day of small things1 and estimating truth by the position or the intellectual attainments of the men that are its witnesses and its lovers4 ,the ,gospel penetrated at first1 and penetrates still1 in the fashion that is suggested here4 ,,ii4 ,secondly1 these two households teach us very touchingly and beautifully the uniting power of ,christian sympathy4 ,a considerable proportion of the first of these two households would probably be ,jews--if ,aristobulus were indeed ,herod's grandson4 ,the probability that he was is increased by the greeting interposed between those to the two households--',salute ,herodion4' ,the name suggests some connection with ,herod1 and whether we suppose the designation of 'my kinsman1' which ,paul gives him1 to mean 'blood relation' or 'fellow countryman1' ,herodion1 at all events1 was a ,jew by birth4 ,as to the other members of these households1 ,paul may have met some of them in his many travels1 but he had never been in ,rome1 and his greetings are more probably sent to them as conspicuous sections1 numerically1 of the ,roman ,church1 and as tokens of his affection1 though he had never seen them4 ,the possession of a common faith has bridged the gulf between him and them4 ,slaves in those days were outside the pale of human sympathy1 and almost outside the pale of human rights4 ,and here the foremost of ,christian teachers1 who was a freeman born1 separated from these poor people by a tremendous chasm1 stretches a brother's hand across it and grasps theirs4 ,the ,gospel that came into the world to rend old associations and to split up society1 and to make a deep cleft between fathers and children and husband and wife1 came also to more than counterbalance its dividing effects by its uniting power4 ,and in that old world that was separated into classes by gulfs deeper than any of which we have any experience1 it1 and it alone1 threw a bridge across the abysses and bound men together4 ,think of what a revolution it must have been1 when a master and his slave could sit down together at the table of the ,lord and look each other in the face and say ',brother' and for the moment forget the difference of bond and free4 ,think of what a revolution it must have been when ,jew and ,gentile could sit down together at the table of the ,lord1 and forget circumcision and uncircumcision1 and feel that they were all one in ,jesus ,christ4 ,and as for the third of the great clefts--that1 alas6 which made so much of the tragedy and the wickedness of ancient life--viz4 the separation between the sexes--think of what a revolution it was when men and women1 in all purity of the new bond of ,christian affection1 could sit down together at the same table1 and feel that they were brethren and sisters in ,jesus ,christ4 ,the uniting power of the common faith and the common love to the one ,lord marked ,christianity as altogether supernatural and new1 unique in the world's experience1 and obviously requiring something more than a human force to produce it4 ,will anybody say that the ,christianity of this day has preserved and exhibits that primitive demonstration of its superhuman source8 ,is there anything obviously beyond the power of earthly motives in the unselfish1 expansive love of modern ,christians8 ,alas6 alas6 to ask the question is to answer it1 and everybody knows the answer1 and nobody sorrows over it4 ,is any duty more pressingly laid upon ,christian churches of this generation than that1 forgetting their doctrinal janglings for a while1 and putting away their sectarianisms and narrowness1 they should show the world that their faith has still the power to do what it did in the old times1 bridge over the gulf that separates class from class1 and bring all men together in the unity of the faith and of the love of ,jesus ,christ8 ,depend upon it1 unless the modern organisations of ,christianity which call themselves 'churches' show themselves1 in the next twenty years1 a great deal more alive to the necessity1 and a great deal more able to cope with the problem1 of uniting the classes of our modern complex civilisation1 the term of life of these churches is comparatively brief4 ,and the form of ,christianity which another century will see will be one which reproduces the old miracle of the early days1 and reaches across the deepest clefts that separate modern society1 and makes all one in ,jesus ,christ4 ,it is all very well for us to glorify the ancient love of the early ,christians1 but there is a vast deal of false sentimentality about our eulogistic talk of it4 ,it were better to praise it less and imitate it more4 ,translate it into present life1 and you will find that to-day it requires what it nineteen hundred years ago was recognised as manifesting1 the presence of something more than human motive1 and something more than man discovers of truth4 ,the cement must be divine that binds men thus together4 ,again1 these two households suggest for us the tranquillising power of ,christian resignation4 ,they were mostly slaves1 and they continued to be slaves when they were ,christians4 ,paul recognised their continuance in the servile position1 and did not say a word to them to induce them to break their bonds4 ,the ,epistle to the ,corinthians treats the whole subject of slavery in a very remarkable fashion4 ,it says to the slave3 ',if you were a slave when you became a ,christian1 stop where you are4 ,if you have an opportunity of being free1 avail yourself of it2 if you have not1 never mind4' ,and then it adds this great principle3 ',he that is called in the ,lord1 being a slave1 is ,christ's freeman4 ,likewise he that is called1 being free1 is ,christ's slave4' ,the ,apostle applies the very same principle1 in the adjoining verses1 to the distinction between circumcision and uncircumcision4 ,from all which there comes just the same lesson that is taught us by these two households of slaves left intact by ,christianity--viz4 that where a man is conscious of a direct1 individual relation to ,jesus ,christ1 that makes all outward circumstances infinitely insignificant4 ,let us get up to the height1 and they all become very small4 ,of course1 the principles of ,christianity killed slavery1 but it took eighteen hundred years to do it4 ,of course1 there is no blinking the fact that slavery was an essentially immoral and unchristian institution4 ,but it is one thing to lay down principles and leave them to be worked in and then to be worked out1 and it is another thing to go blindly charging at existing institutions and throwing them down by violence1 before men have grown up to feel that they are wicked4 ,and so the ,new ,testament takes the wise course1 and leaves the foolish one to foolish people4 ,it makes the tree good1 and then its fruit will be good4 ,but the main point that ,i want to insist upon is this3 what was good for these slaves in ,rome is good for you and me4 ,let us get near to ,jesus ,christ1 and feel that we have got hold of ,his hand for our own selves1 and we shall not mind very much about the possible varieties of human condition4 ,rich or poor1 happy or sad1 surrounded by companions or treading a solitary path1 failures or successes as the world has it1 strong or broken and weak and wearied--all these varieties1 important as they are1 come to be very small when we can say1 ',we are the ,lord's4' ,that amulet makes all things tolerable2 and the ,christian submission which is the expression of our love to1 and confidence in1 ,his infinite sweetness and unerring goodness1 raises us to a height from which the varieties of earthly condition seem to blend and melt into one4 ,when we are down amongst the low hills1 it seems a long way from the foot of one of them to the top of it2 but when we are on the top they all melt into one dead level1 and you cannot tell which is top and which is bottom4 ,and so1 if we only can rise high enough up the hill1 the possible diversities of our condition will seem to be very small variations in the level4 ,,iii4 ,lastly1 these two groups suggest to us the conquering power of ,christian faithfulness4 ,the household of ,herod's grandson was not a very likely place to find ,christian people in1 was it8 ,such flowers do not often grow1 or at least do not easily grow1 on such dunghills4 ,and in both these cases it was only a handful of the people1 a portion of each household1 that was ,christian4 ,so they had beside them1 closely identified with them--working1 perhaps1 at the same tasks1 ,i might almost say1 chained with the same chains--men who had no share in their faith or in their love4 ,it would not be easy to pray and love and trust ,god and do ,his will1 and keep clear of complicity with idolatry and immorality and sin1 in such a pigsty as that2 would it8 ,but these men did it4 ,and nobody need ever say1 ',i am in such circumstances that ,i cannot live a ,christian life4' ,there are no such circumstances1 at least none of ,god's appointing4 ,there are often such that we bring upon ourselves1 and then the best thing is to get out of them as soon as we can4 ,but as far as ,he is concerned1 ,he never puts anybody anywhere where he cannot live a holy life4 ,there were no difficulties too great for these men to overcome2 there are no difficulties too great for us to overcome4 ,and wherever you and ,i may be1 we cannot be in any place where it is so hard to live a consistent life as these people were4 ,young men in warehouses1 people in business here in ,manchester1 some of us with unfortunate domestic or relative associations1 and so on--we may all feel as if it would be so much easier for us if this1 that1 and the other thing were changed4 ,no1 it would not be any easier2 and perhaps the harder the easier1 because the more obviously the atmosphere is poisonous1 the more we shall put some cloth over our mouths to prevent it from getting into our lungs4 ,the dangerous place is the place where the vapours that poison are scentless as well as invisible4 ,but whatever be the difficulties1 there is strength waiting for us1 and we may all win the praise which the ,apostle gives to another of these ,roman brethren1 whom he salutes as ',apelles1 approved in ,christ'--a man that had been 'tried' and had stood his trial4 ,so in our various spheres of difficulty and of temptation we may feel that the greeting from heaven1 like ,paul's message to the slaves in ,rome1 comes to us with good cheer1 and that the ,master ,himself sees us1 sympathises with us1 salutes us1 and stretches out ,his hand to help and to keep us4 ,,tryphena ,,and ,,tryphosa ',salute ,tryphena and ,tryphosa1 who labour in the ,lord4'--,,romans xvi4 #ab4 ,the number of salutations to members of the ,roman ,church is remarkable when we take into account that ,paul had never visited it4 ,the capital drew all sorts of people to it1 and probably there had been personal intercourse between most of the persons here mentioned and the ,apostle in some part of his wandering life4 ,he not only displays his intimate knowledge of the persons saluted1 but his beautiful delicacy and ingenuity in the varying epithets applied to them shows how in his great heart and tenacious memory individuals had a place4 ,these shadowy saints live for ever by ,paul's brief characterisation of them1 and stand out to us almost as clearly and as sharply distinguished as they did to him4 ,these two1 ,tryphena and ,tryphosa1 were probably sisters4 ,that is rendered likely by their being coupled together here1 as well as by the similarity of their names4 ,these names mean luxurious1 or delicate1 and no doubt expressed the ideal for their daughters which the parents had had1 and possibly indicate the kind of life from which these two women had come4 ,we can scarcely fail to note the contrast between the meaning of their names and the ,christian lives they had lived4 ,two dainty women1 probably belonging to a class in which a delicate withdrawal from effort and toil was thought to be the woman's distinctive mark1 had fled from luxury1 which often tended to be voluptuous1 and was always self-indulgent1 and had chosen the better part of 'labour in the ,lord4' ,they had become untrue to their names1 because they must be true to their ,master and themselves4 ,we may well take the lesson that lies here1 and is eminently needful to-day amidst the senseless1 and often sinful1 tide of luxury which runs so strongly as to threaten the great and eternal ,christian principle of self-denial4 ,the first thing that strikes us in looking at these salutations is the illustration which it gives of the uniting power of a common faith4 ,tryphena and ,tryphosa were probably ,roman ladies of some social standing1 and their names may indicate that they at least inherited a tendency to exclusiveness2 yet here they occur immediately after the household of ,narcissus and in close connection with that of ,aristobulus1 both of which are groups of slaves4 ,aristobulus was a grandson of ,herod the ,great1 and ,narcissus was a well-known freedman1 whose slaves at his death would probably become the property of the ,emperor4 ,other common slave names are those of ,ampliatus and ,urbanus2 and here in these lists they stand side by side with persons of some distinction in the ,roman world1 and with men and women of widely differing nationalities4 ,the ,church of ,rome would have seemed to any non-,christian observer a motley crowd in which racial distinctions1 sex1 and social conditions had all been swept away by the rising tide of a common fanaticism4 ,in it was exemplified in actual operation ,paul's great principle that in ,christ ,jesus 'there is neither ,jew nor ,greek1 male nor female1 bond nor free1 but in ,him all are one4' ,roman society in that day1 as ,juvenal shows us1 was familiar with the levelling and uniting power of common vice and immorality1 and the few sternly patriotic ,romans who were left lamented that 'the ,orontes flowed into the ,tiber'2 but such common wallowing in filth led to no real unity1 whereas1 in the obscure corner of the great city where there were members of the infant ,church gathered together1 there was the beginning of a common life in the one ,lord which lifted each participant of it out of the dreary solitude of individuality1 and imparted to each heart the tingling consciousness of oneness with all who held the one faith in the one ,lord and had received the one baptism in the one ,name4 ,that fair dawn has been shadowed by many clouds1 and the churches of to-day1 however they may have developed doctrine1 may look back with reproach and shame to the example of ,rome1 where ,tryphena and ,tryphosa1 with all their inherited1 fastidious delicacy1 recognised in the household of ,aristobulus and the household of ,narcissus 'brethren in the ,lord1' and were as glad to welcome ,jews1 ,asiatics1 ,persians1 and ,greeks1 as ,romans of the bluest blood1 into the family of ,christ4 ,the ,romish ,church of our day has lost its early grace of welcoming all who love the one ,lord into its fellowship2 and we of the ,protestant churches have been but too swift to learn the bad lesson of forbidding all who follow not with us4 ,another thought which may be suggested by ,tryphena and ,tryphosa is the blessed hallowing of natural family relations by common faith4 ,they were probably sisters1 or1 at all events1 as their names indicate1 near relatives1 and to them that faith must have been doubly precious because they shared it with each other4 ,none of the trials to which the early ,christians were exposed was more severe than the necessity which their ,christianity so often imposed upon them of breaking the sacred family ties4 ,it saddened even ,christ's heart to think that ,he had come to rend families in sunder1 and to make 'a man's foes them of his own household'2 and we can little imagine how bitter the pang must have been when family love had to be cast aside at the bidding of allegiance to ,him4 ,but though the stress of that separation between those most nearly related in blood by reason of unshared faith is alleviated in this day1 it still remains2 and that is but a feeble ,christian life which does not feel that it is drawing a heart from closest human embraces and constituting a barrier between it and the dearest of earth4 ,there is still need in these days of relaxed ,christian sentiment for the stern austerity of the law1 ',he that loveth father or mother more than ,me is not worthy of ,me'2 and there are many ,christian souls who would be infinitely stronger and more mature1 if they did not yield to the seductions of family affections which are not rooted in ,jesus ,christ4 ,but still1 though our faith ought to be far more than it often is1 the determining element in our affections and associations1 its noblest work is not to separate but to unite2 and whilst it often must divide1 it is meant to draw more closely together hearts that are already knit by earthly love4 ,its legitimate effect is to make all earthly sweetnesses sweeter1 all holy bonds more holy and more binding1 to infuse a new constraint and preciousness into all earthly relationships1 to make brothers tenfold more brotherly and sisters more sisterly4 ,the heart1 in which the deepest devotion is yielded to ,jesus ,christ1 has its capacity for devotion infinitely increased1 and they who1 looking into each other's faces1 see reflected there something of the ,lord whom they both love1 love each other all the more because they love ,him most1 and in their love to ,him1 and ,his to them1 have found a new measure for all their affection4 ,they who1 looking on their dear ones1 can 'trust they live in ,god1' will there find them 'worthier to be loved1' and will there find a power of loving them4 ,tryphena and ,tryphosa were more sisterly than ever when they clung to their ,elder ,brother4 ',there is no man that hath left brethren1 or sisters1 or mother1 or father1 for ,my sake1 but he shall receive a hundredfold more in this time1 brethren1 and sisters1 and mothers1 and in the world to come eternal life4' ,the contrast between the names of these two ,roman ladies and the characterisation of their 'labour in the ,lord' may suggest to us the most formidable foe of ,christian earnestness4 ,their names1 as we have already noticed1 point to a state of society in which the parents ideal for their daughters was dainty luxuriousness and a withdrawal from the rough and tumble of common life2 but these two women1 magnetised by the love of ,jesus1 had turned their backs on the parental ideal1 and had cast themselves earnestly into a life of toil4 ,that ideal was never more formidably antagonistic to the vigour of ,christian life than it is to-day4 ,rome1 in ,paul's time1 was not more completely honeycombed with worldliness than ,england is to-day2 and the ,english churches are not far behind the ,english 'world' in their paralysing love of luxury and self-indulgence4 ,in all ages1 earnest ,christians have had to take up the same vehement remonstrance against the tendency of the average ,christian to let his religious life be weakened by the love of the world and the things of the world4 ,the protests against growing luxury have been a commonplace in all ages of the ,church2 but1 surely1 there has never been a time when it has reached a more senseless1 sinful1 and destroying height than in our day4 ,the rapid growth of wealth1 with no capacity of using it nobly1 which modern commerce has brought1 has immensely influenced all our churches for evil4 ,it is so hard for us1 aggregated in great cities1 to live our own lives1 and the example of our class has such immense power over us that it is very hard to pursue the path of 'plain living and high thinking' in communities1 all classes of which are more and more yielding to the temptation to ostentation1 so-called comfort1 and extravagant expenditure2 and that this is a danger--we are tempted to say the danger--to the purity1 loftiness1 and vigour of religious life among us1 he must be blind who cannot see1 and he must be strangely ignorant of his own life who cannot feel that it is the danger for him4 ,i believe that for one professing ,christian whose earnestness is lost by reason of intellectual doubts1 or by some grave sin1 there are a hundred from whom it simply oozes away unnoticed1 like wind out of a bladder1 so that what was once round and full becomes limp and flaccid4 ,if ,demas begins with loving the present world1 it will not be long before he finds a reason for departing from ,paul4 ,we may take these two sisters1 finally1 as pointing for us the true victory over this formidable enemy4 ,they had turned resolutely away from the heathen ideal enshrined in their names to a life of real hard toil1 as is distinctly implied by the word used by the ,apostle4 ,what that toil consisted in we do not know1 and need not inquire2 but the main point to be noted is that their 'labour' was 'in the ,lord4' ,that union with ,christ makes labour for ,him a necessity1 and makes it possible4 ',the labour we delight in physics pain'2 and if we are in ,him1 we shall not only 'live in ,him1' but all our work begun1 continued1 and ended in ,him1 will in ,him and by ,him be accepted4 ,there is no victorious antagonist of worldly ease and self-indulgence comparable to the living consciousness of union with ,jesus and ,his life in us4 ,to dwell in the swamps at the bottom of the mountain is to live in a region where effort is impossible and malaria weakens vitality2 to climb the heights brings bracing to the limbs and a purer air into the expanding lungs1 and makes work delightsome that would have been labour down below4 ,if we are 'in the ,lord1' ,he is our atmosphere1 and we can draw from ,him full draughts of a noble life in which we shall not need the stimulus of self-interest or worldly success to use it to the utmost in acts of service to ,him4 ,they who live in the ,lord will labour in the ,lord1 and they who labour in the ,lord will rest in the ,lord4 ,,persis ',salute the beloved ,persis1 who laboured much in the ,lord4'--,,romans xvi4 #ab4 ,there are a great number of otherwise unknown ,christians who pass for a moment before our view in this chapter4 ,their characterisations are like the slight outlines in the background of some great artist's canvas3 a touch of the brush is all that is spared for each1 and yet1 if we like to look sympathetically1 they live before us4 ,now1 this good woman1 about whom we never hear again1 and for whom these few words are all her epitaph--was apparently1 judging by her name1 of ,persian descent1 and possibly had been brought to ,rome as a slave4 ,at all events1 finding herself there1 she had somehow or other become connected with the ,church in that city1 and had there distinguished herself by continuous and faithful ,christian toil which had won the affection of the ,apostle1 though he had never seen her1 and knew no more about her4 ,that is all4 ,she comes into the foreground for a moment1 and then she vanishes4 ,what does she say to us8 ,first of all1 like the others named by ,paul1 she helps us to understand1 by her living example1 that wonderful1 new1 uniting process that was carried on by means of ,christianity4 ,the simple fact of a ,persian woman getting a loving message from a ,jew1 the woman being in ,rome and the ,jew in ,corinth1 and the message being written in ,greek1 brings before us a whole group of nationalities all fused together4 ,they had been hammered together1 or1 if you like it better1 chained together1 by ,roman power1 but they were melted together by ,christ's ,gospel4 ,this ,eastern woman and this ,jewish man1 and the many others whose names and different nationalities pass in a flash before us in this chapter1 were all brought together in ,jesus ,christ4 ,if we run our eye over these salutations1 what strikes one1 even at the first sight1 is the very small number of ,jewish names2 only one certain1 and another doubtful4 ,four or five names are ,latin1 and then all the rest are ,greek1 but this woman seemingly came from further east than any of them4 ,there they all were1 forgetting the hostile nationalities to which they belonged1 because they had found ,one who had brought them into one great community4 ,we talk about the uniting influence of ,christianity1 but when we see the process going on before us1 in a case like this1 we begin to understand it better4 ,but another point may be noticed in regard to this uniting process--how it brought into action the purest and truest love as a bond that linked men4 ,there are four or five of the people commended in this chapter of whom the ,apostle has nothing to say but that they are beloved4 ,this is the only woman to whom he applies that term4 ,and notice his instinctive delicacy3 when he is speaking of men he says1 ',my beloved'2 when he is greeting ,persis he says1 'the beloved1' that there may be no misunderstanding about the 'my'--'the beloved ,persis which laboured much in the ,lord'--indicating1 by one delicate touch1 the loftiness1 the purity1 and truly ,christian character of the bond that held them together4 ,and that is no true ,church1 where anything but that is the bond--the love that knits us to one another1 because we believe that each is knit to the dear ,lord and fountain of all love4 ,what more does this good woman say to us8 ,she is an example living and breathing there before us1 of what a woman may be in ,god's ,church4 ,paul had never been in ,rome2 no ,apostle1 so far as we know1 had had anything to do with the founding of the ,church4 ,the most important ,church in the ,roman ,empire1 and the ,church which afterwards became the curse of ,christendom1 was founded by some anonymous ,christians1 with no commission1 with no supervision1 with no officials amongst them1 but who just had the grace of ,god in their hearts1 and found themselves in ,rome1 and could not help speaking about ,jesus ,christ4 ,god helped them1 and a little ,church sprang into being4 ,and the great abundance of salutations here1 and the honourable titles which the ,apostle gives to the ,christians of whom he speaks1 and many of whom he signalises as having done great service1 are a kind of certificate on his part to the vigorous life which1 without any apostolic supervision or official direction1 had developed itself there in that ,church4 ,now1 it is to be noticed that this striking form of eulogium which is attached to our ,persis she shares in common with others in the group4 ,and it is to be further noticed that all those who are1 as it were1 decorated with this medal--on whom ,paul bestows this honour of saying that they had 'laboured1' or 'laboured much in the ,lord1' are women that stand alone in the list4 ,there are several other women in it1 but they are all coupled with men--husbands or brothers1 or some kind of relative4 ,but there are three sets of women1 ,i do not say single women1 but three sets of women1 standing singly in the list1 and it is about them1 and them only1 that ,paul says they 'laboured1' or 'laboured much4' ,there is a ,mary who stands alone1 and she 'bestowed much labour on' ,paul and others4 ,then there are1 in the same verse as my text1 two sisters1 ,tryphena and ,tryphosa1 whose names mean 'the luxurious4' ,and the ,apostle seems to think1 as he writes the two names that spoke of self-indulgence3 ',perhaps these rightly described these two women once1 but they do not now4 ,in the bad old days1 before they were ,christians1 they may have been rightly named luxurious-living4 ,but here is their name now1 the luxurious is turned into the self-sacrificing worker1 and the two sisters labour in the ,lord4' ,then comes our friend ,persis1 who also stands alone1 and she shares in the honour that only these other two companies of women share with her4 ,she 'laboured much in the ,lord4' ,in that little community1 without any direction from ,apostles and authorised teachers1 the brethren and sisters had every one found their tasks2 and these solitary women1 with nobody to say to them1 ',go and do this or that1' had found out for themselves1 or rather had been taught by the ,spirit of ,jesus1 what they had to do1 and they worked at it with a will4 ,there are many things that ,christian women can do a great deal better than men1 and we are not to forget that this modern talk about the emancipation of women has its roots here in the ,new ,testament4 ,we are not to forget either that prerogative means obligation1 and that the elevation of woman means the laying upon her of solemn duties to perform4 ,i wonder how many of the women members of our ,churches and congregations deserve such a designation as that8 ,we hear a great deal about 'women's rights' nowadays4 ,i wish some of my friends would lay a little more to heart than they do1 'women's duties4' ,and now1 lastly1 the final lesson that ,i draw from this eulogium of an otherwise altogether unknown woman is that she is a model of ,christian service4 ,first1 in regard to its measure4 ,she 'laboured much in the ,lord4' ,now1 both these two words1 'laboured' and 'much1' are extremely emphatic4 ,the word rightly translated 'laboured' will appear in its full force if ,i recall to you a couple of other places in which it is employed in the ,new ,testament4 ,you remember that touching incident about our ,lord when1 being 'wearied with ,his journey1 ,he sat thus on the well4' ',wearied' is the same word as is here used4 ,then1 you remember how the ,apostle1 after he had been hauling empty nets all night in the little1 wet1 dirty fishing-boat1 said1 perhaps with a yawn1 ',master1 we have toiled all the night and caught nothing4' ,he uses the same word as is employed here4 ,such is the sort of work that these women had done--work carried to the point of exhaustion1 work up to the very edge of their powers1 work unsparing and continuous1 and not done once in some flash of evanescent enthusiasm1 but all through a dreary night1 in spite of apparent failures4 ,there is the measure of service4 ,many of us seem to think that if we say ',i am tired1' that is a reason for not doing anything4 ,sometimes it is1 no doubt2 and no man has a right so to labour as to impair his capacity for future labour1 but subject to that condition ,i do not know that the plea of fatigue is a sufficient reason for idleness4 ,and ,i am quite sure that the true example for us is the example of ,him who1 when ,he was most wearied1 sitting on the well1 was so invigorated and refreshed by the opportunity of winning another soul that1 when ,his disciples came back to ,him1 they looked at ,his fresh strength with astonishment1 and said to themselves1 ',has any man brought ,him anything to eat8' ,ay1 what ,he had to eat was work that ,he finished for the ,father1 and some of us know that the truest refreshment in toil is a change of toil4 ,it is almost as good to shift the load on to the other shoulder1 or to take a stick into the other hand1 as it is to put away the load altogether4 ,oh1 the careful limits which ,christian people nowadays set to their work for ,jesus6 ,they are not afraid of being tired in their pursuit of business or pleasure1 but in regard to ,christ's work they will let anything go to wrack and ruin rather than that they should turn a hair1 by persevering efforts to prevent it4 ,work to the limit of power if you live in the light of blessedness4 ,she 'laboured much in the ,lord1' or1 as ,jesus ,christ said about the other woman who was blamed by the people that did not love enough to understand the blessedness of self-sacrifice1 'she had done what she could4' ,it was an apology for the form of ,mary's service1 but it was a stringent demand as to its amount4 ',what she could'--not half of what she could2 not what she conveniently could4 ,that is the measure of acceptable service4 ,then1 still further1 may we not learn from ,persis the spring of all true ,christian work8 ,she 'laboured much in the ,lord1' because she was 'in ,him1' and in union with ,him there came to her power and desire to do things which1 without that close fellowship1 she neither would have desired nor been able to do4 ,it is vain to try to whip up ,christian people to forms of service by appealing to lower motives4 ,there is only one motive that will last1 and bring out from us all that is in us to do1 and that is the appeal to our sense of union and communion with ,jesus ,christ1 and the exhortation to live in ,him1 and then we shall work in ,him4 ,if you link the spindles in your mill1 or the looms in your weaving-shed1 with the engine1 they will go4 ,it is of no use to try to turn them by hand4 ,you will only spoil the machinery1 and it will be poor work that you will get off them4 ,so1 dear brethren1 be 'in the ,lord4' ,that is the secret of service1 and the closer we come to ,him1 and the more continuously1 moment by moment1 we realise our individual dependence upon ,him1 and our union with ,him1 the more will our lives effloresce and blossom into all manner of excellence and joyful service1 and nothing else that ,christian people are whipped up to do1 from lower and more vulgar motives than that1 will4 ,it may be of a certain kind of inferior value1 but it is far beneath the highest beauty of ,christian service1 nor will its issues reach the loftiest point of usefulness to which even our poor service may attain4 ,persis seems to me to suggest1 too1 the safeguard of work4 ,ah1 if she had not 'laboured in the ,lord1' and been 'in the ,lord' whilst she was labouring1 she would very soon have stopped work4 ,our ,christian work1 however pure its motive when we begin it1 has in itself the tendency to become mechanical1 and to be done from lower motives than those from which it was begun4 ,that is true about a man in my position4 ,it is true about all of us1 in our several ways of trying to serve our dear ,lord and ,master4 ,unless we make a conscience of continually renewing our communion with ,him1 and getting our feet once more firmly upon the rock1 we shall certainly in our ,christian work1 having begun in the spirit1 continue in the flesh1 and before we know where we are1 we shall be doing work from habit1 because we did it yesterday at this hour1 because people expect it of us1 because ,a1 ,b1 or ,c does it1 or for a hundred other reasons1 all of which are but too familiar to us by experience4 ,they are sure to slip in2 they change the whole character of the work1 and they harm the workers4 ,the only way by which we can keep the garland fresh is by continually dipping it in the fountain4 ,the only way by which we can keep our ,christian work pure1 useful1 worthy of the ,master1 is by seeing to it that our work itself does not draw us away from our fellowship with ,him4 ,and the more we have to do1 the more needful is it that we should listen to ,christ's voice when ,he says to us1 ',come ye yourselves apart with ,me into a solitary place1 and there renew your communion with ,me4' ,the last lesson about our work which ,i draw from ,persis is the unexpected immortality of true ,christian service4 ,how ,persis would have opened her eyes if anybody had told her that nearly #aijj years after she lived1 people in a far-away barbarous island would be sitting thinking about her1 as you and ,i are doing now6 ,how astonished she would have been if it had been said to her1 ',now1 ,persis1 wheresoever in the whole world the ,gospel is preached1 your name and your work and your epitaph will go with it1 and as long as men know about ,jesus ,christ1 your and their ,master1 they will know about you1 ,his humble servant4' ,well1 we shall not have our names in that fashion in men's memories1 but ,jesus will have your name and mine1 if we do ,his work as this woman did it1 in ,his memory4 ',i will never forget any of their works4' ,and if we--self-forgetful to the limit of our power1 and as the joyful result of our personal union with that ,saviour who has done everything for us--try to live for ,his praise and glory in any fashion1 then be sure of this1 that our poor deeds are as immortal as ,him for whom they are done1 and that we may take to ourselves the great word which ,he has spoken1 when ,he has declared that at the last ,he will confess ,his confessors' names before the angels in heaven4 ,blessed are the living that 'live in the ,lord'2 blessed are the workers that work 'in the ,lord1' for when they come to be the dead that 'die in the ,lord' and rest from their labours1 their works shall follow them4 ,a ,,crushed ,,snake ',the ,god of peace shall bruise ,satan under your feet shortly4'--,,romans xvi4 #bj4 ,there are three other ,scriptural sayings which may have been floating in the ,apostle's mind when he penned this triumphant assurance4 ',thou shalt bruise his head'2 the great first ,evangel--we are to be endowed with ,christ's power2 ',the lion and the adder thou shalt trample under foot'--all the strength that was given to ancient saints is ours2 ',behold6 ,i give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions1 and over all the power of the enemy'--the charter of the seventy is the perennial gift to the ,church4 ,echoing all these great words1 ,paul promises the ,roman ,christians that 'the ,god of peace shall bruise ,satan under your feet shortly4' ,now1 when any special characteristic is thus ascribed to ,god1 as when ,he is called 'the ,god of patience' or 'the ,god of hope1' in the preceding chapter1 the characteristic selected has some bearing on the prayer or promise following4 ,for example1 this same designation1 'the ,god of peace1' united with the other1 'that brought again from the dead the ,lord ,jesus1 that great ,shepherd of the sheep1' is laid as the foundation of the prayer for the perfecting of the readers of the ,epistle to the ,hebrews in every good work4 ,it is1 then1 because of that great name that the ,apostle is sure1 and would have his ,roman brethren to be sure1 that ,satan shall shortly be bruised under their feet4 ,no doubt there may have been some reference in ,paul's mind to what he had just said about those who caused divisions in the ,church2 but1 if there is such reference1 it is of secondary importance4 ,paul is gazing on all the great things in ,god which make ,him the ,god of peace1 and in them all he sees ground for the confident hope that ,his power will be exerted to crush all the sin that breaks ,his children's peace4 ,now the first thought suggested by these words is the solemn glimpse given of the struggle that goes on in every ,christian soul4 ,two antagonists are at hand-grips in every one of us4 ,on the one hand1 the ',god of peace1' on the other1 ',satan4' ,if you believe in the personality of the ,one1 do not part with the belief in the personality of the other4 ,if you believe that a divine power and ,spirit is ready to help and strengthen you1 do not think so lightly of the enemies that are arrayed against you as to falter in the belief that there is a great personal ,power1 rooted in evil1 who is warring against each of us4 ,ah1 brethren6 we live far too much on the surface1 and we neither go down deep enough to the dark source of the ,evil1 nor rise high enough to the radiant ,fountain of the ,good4 ,it is a shallow life that strikes that antagonism of ,god and ,satan out of itself4 ,and though the belief in a personal tempter has got to be very unfashionable nowadays1 ,i am going to venture to say that you may measure accurately the vitality and depth of a man's religion by the emphasis with which he grasps the thought of that great antagonism4 ,there is a star of light1 and there is a star of darkness2 and they revolve1 as it were1 round one centre4 ,but whilst1 on the one hand1 our ,christianity is made shallow in proportion as we ignore this solemn reality1 on the other hand1 it is sometimes paralysed and perverted by our misunderstanding of it4 ,for1 notice1 'the ,god of peace shall bruise ,satan under your feet4' ,yes1 it is ,god that bruises1 but ,he uses our feet to do it4 ,it is ,god from whom the power comes1 but the power works through us1 and we are neither merely the field1 nor merely the prize1 of the conflict between these two1 but we ourselves have to put all our pith into the task of keeping down the flat1 speckled head that has the poison gland in it4 ',the ,god of peace'--blessed be ,his ,name--'shall bruise ,satan under your feet1' but it will need the tension of your muscles1 and the downward force of your heel1 if the wriggling reptile is to be kept under4 ,turn1 now1 to the other thought that is here1 the promise and pledge of victory in the name1 the ,god of peace4 ,i have already referred to two similar designations of ,god in the previous chapter1 and if we take them in union with this one in our text1 what a wonderfully beautiful and strengthening threefold view of that divine nature do we get6 ',the ,god of patience and consolation' is the first of the linked three4 ,it heads the list1 and blessed is it that it does1 because1 after all1 sorrow makes up a very large proportion of the experience of us all1 and what most men seem to themselves to need most is a ,god that will bear their sorrows with them and help them to bear1 and a ,god that will comfort them4 ,but1 supposing that ,he has been made known thus as the source of endurance and the ,god of all consolation1 ,he becomes 'the ,god of hope1' for a dark background flings up a light foreground1 and a comforted sorrow patiently endured is mighty to produce a radiant hope4 ,the rising of the muddy waters of the ,nile makes the heavy crops of 'corn in ,egypt4' ,so the name 'the ,god of hope' fitly follows the name 'the ,god of patience and consolation4' ,then we come to the name in my text1 built perhaps on the other two1 or at least reminiscent of them1 and recalling them1 'the ,god of peace1' who1 through patience and consolation1 through hope1 and through many another gift1 breathes the benediction of ,his own great tranquillity and unruffled calm over our agitated1 distracted1 sinful hearts4 ,in connection with one of those previous designations to which ,i have referred1 the ,apostle has a prayer very different in form from this1 but identical in substance1 when he says 'the ,god of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing4' ,is not that closely allied to the promise of my text1 ',the ,god of peace shall bruise ,satan under your feet shortly'8 ,is there any surer way of 'bruising ,satan' under a man's feet than filling him 'with joy and peace in believing'8 ,what can the ,devil do to that man8 ,if his soul is saturated1 and his capacities filled1 with that pure honey of divine joy1 will he have any taste for the coarse dainties1 the leeks and the garlic1 that the ,devil offers him8 ,is there any surer way of delivering a man from the temptations of his own baser nature1 and the solicitations of this busy intrusive world round about him1 than to make him satisfied with the goodness of the ,lord1 and conscious in his daily experience of 'all joy and peace'8 ,fill the vessel with wine1 and there is no room for baser liquors or for poison4 ,i suppose that the way by which you and ,i1 dear friends1 will most effectually conquer any temptations1 is by falling back on the superior sweetness of divine joys4 ,when we live upon manna we do not crave onions4 ,so ,he 'will bruise ,satan under your feet' by giving that which will arm your hearts against all his temptations and all his weapons4 ,blessed be ,god for the way of conquest1 which is the possession of a supremer good6 ,but then1 notice how beautifully too this name1 'the ,god of peace1' comes in to suggest that even in the strife there may be tranquillity4 ,i remember in an old church in ,italy a painting of an ,archangel with his foot on the dragon's neck1 and his sword thrust through its scaly armour4 ,it is perhaps the feebleness of the artist's hand1 but ,i think rather it is the clearness of his insight1 which has led him to represent the victorious angel1 in the moment in which he is slaying the dragon1 as with a smile on his face1 and not the least trace of effort in the arm1 which is so easily smiting the fatal blow4 ,perhaps if the painter could have used his brush better he would have put more expression into the attitude and the face1 but ,i think it is better as it is4 ,we1 too1 may achieve a conquest over the dragon which1 although it requires effort1 does not disturb peace4 ,there is a possibility of bruising that slippery head under my foot1 and yet not having to strain myself in the process4 ,we may have 'peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation4' ,do you remember how the ,apostle1 in another place1 gives us the same beautiful--though at first sight contradictory--combination when he says1 ',the peace of ,god shall garrison your heart'8 ',my soul6 there is a country ,far1 far beyond the stars1 ,where stands an armed sentry1 ,all skilful in the wars4' ,and her name is ,peace1 as the poet goes on to tell us4 ,ah1 brethren6 if we lived nearer the ,lord1 we should find it more possible to 'fight the good fight of faith1' and yet to have 'our feet shod with the preparedness of the gospel of peace4' ',the ,god of peace shall bruise ,satan under your feet'2 and in bruising ,he will give you ,his peace to do it1 and ,his peace in doing it1 and in still greater measure after doing it4 ,for every struggle of the ,christian soul adds something to the subsequent depth of its tranquillity4 ,and so the name of the ,god of peace is our pledge of victory in1 and of deepened peace after1 our warfare with sin and temptation4 ,lastly1 note the swiftness with which ,paul expects that this process shall he accomplished4 ,i dare say that he was thinking about the coming of the ,lord1 when all the fighting and struggle would be over1 and that when he said ',god shall bruise him under your feet shortly1' there lay in the back of his mind the thought1 'the ,lord is at hand4' ,but be that as it may1 there is another way of looking at the words4 ,they are not in the least like our experience1 are they8 ',shortly6'--and here am ,i1 a ,christian man for the last half century perhaps2 and have ,i got much further on in my course8 ,have ,i brought the sin that used to trouble me much down1 and is my character much more noble1 ,christ-like1 than it was long years ago8 ,would other people say that it is8 ,instead of 'shortly' we ought to put 'slowly' for the most of us4 ,but1 dear friend1 the ideal is swift conquest1 and it is our fault and our loss1 if the reality is sadly different4 ,there are a great many evils that1 unless they are conquered suddenly1 have very small chance of ever being conquered at all4 ,you never heard of a man being cured of his love of intoxicating drink1 for instance1 by a gradual process4 ,the serpent's life is not crushed out of it by gradual pressure1 but by one vigorous stamp of a nervous heel4 ,but if my experience as a ,christian man does not enable me to set to my seal that this text is true1 the text itself will tell me why4 ,it is 'the ,god of peace' that is going to 'bruise ,satan4' ,do you keep yourself in touch with ,him1 dear friend8 ,and do you let ,his powers come uninterruptedly and continuously into your spirit and life8 ,it is sheer folly and self-delusion to wonder that the medicine does not work as quickly as was promised1 if you do not take the medicine4 ,the slow process by which1 at the best1 many ,christian people 'bruise ,satan under their feet1' during which he hurts their heels more than they hurt his head1 is mainly due to their breaking the closeness and the continuity of their communion with ,god in ,jesus ,christ4 ,but1 after all1 it is ,heaven's chronology that we have to do with here4 ',shortly1' and it will be 'shortly1' if we reckon by heavenly scales of duration4 ,weeping may endure for a night1 but joy cometh in the morning4 ',the ,lord will help her1 and that right early4' ',the ,lord is at hand4' ,when we get yonder1 ah6 how all the long years of fighting will have dwindled down1 and we shall say 'the ,lord did help me1 and that right early1' and though there may have been more than threescore years and ten of fighting1 that1 while we were in the thick of it1 did not seem to come to much1 we shall then look back and say3 ',yes1 ,lord1 it was but for a moment1 and it has brought me to the undying day of ,eternal ,peace4' ,,tertius ',i1 ,tertius1 who write the epistle1 salute you in the ,lord4'--,,romans xvi4 #bb 7,r4,v474 ,one sometimes sees in old religious pictures1 in some obscure corner1 a tiny kneeling figure1 the portrait of the artist4 ,so ,tertius here gets leave to hold the pen for a moment on his own account1 and from ,corinth sends his greeting to his unknown brethren in ,rome4 ,apparently he was a stranger to them1 and needed to introduce himself4 ,he is never heard of before or since4 ,for one brief moment he is visible1 like a star of a low magnitude1 shining out for a moment between two banks of darkness and then swallowed up4 ,judging by his name1 he was probably a ,roman1 and possibly had some connection with ,italy1 but clearly was a stranger to the ,church in ,rome4 ,we do not know whether he was a resident in ,corinth1 where he wrote this epistle1 or one of ,paul's travelling companions4 ,probably he was the former1 as his name never recurs in any of ,paul's letters4 ,one can understand the impulse which led him for one moment to come out of obscurity and to take up personal relations with those who had so long enjoyed his pen4 ,he would fain float across the deep gulf of alienation a thread of love which looked like gossamer1 but has proved to be stronger than centuries and revolutions4 ,this humble and modest greeting is an expression of a sentiment which the world may smile at1 but which1 being 'in the ,lord1' partakes of immortality4 ,no doubt the world's hate drove more closely together all the disciples in primitive times2 but the yearning of ,tertius for some little corner in the love of his ,roman brethren might well influence us to-day4 ,there ought to be an effort of imagination going out towards unknown brethren4 ,christian love is not meant to be kept within the limits of sight and personal knowledge2 it should overleap the narrow bounds of the communities to which we belong1 and expatiate over the whole wide field4 ,the great ,shepherd has prescribed for us the limits to the very edge of which our ,christian love should consciously go forth1 and has rebuked the narrowness to which we are prone1 when ,he has said1 ',other sheep ,i have which are not of this fold4' ,we are all too prone to let identities of opinion and of polity1 or even the accident of locality1 set bounds to our consciousness of brotherhood2 and the example of this little gush of affection1 that reaches out a hand across the ocean and grasps the hands of unknown partakers in the common life of the one ,lord1 may well shame us out of our narrowness1 and quicken us into a wide perception and deepened feeling towards all who in every place call up ,jesus ,christ as their ,lord--'both their ,lord and ours4' ,another lesson which we may learn from ,tertius' characterisation of himself is the dignity of subordinate work towards a great end4 ,his office as amanuensis was very humble1 but it was quite as necessary as ,paul's inspired fervour4 ,it is to him that we owe our possession of the ,epistle2 it is to him that ,paul owed it that he was able to record in imperishable words the thoughts that welled up in his mind1 and would have been lost if ,tertius had not been at his side4 ,the power generated in the boilers does its work through machines of which each little cog-wheel is as indispensable as the great shafts4 ,members of the body which seem to be 'more feeble1 are necessary4' ,every note in a great concerted piece of music1 and every instrument1 down to the triangle and the little drum in the great orchestra1 is necessary4 ,this lesson of the dignity of subordinate work needs to be laid to heart both by those who think themselves to be capable of more important service1 and by those who have to recognise that the less honourable tasks are all for which they are fit4 ,to the former it may preach humility1 the latter it may encourage4 ,we are all very ignorant of what is great and what is small in the matter of our ,christian service1 and we have sometimes to look very closely and to clear away a great many vulgar misconceptions before we can clearly discriminate between mites and talents4 ',we know not which may prosper1 whether this or that'2 and in our ignorance of what it may please ,god to bring out of any service faithfully rendered to ,him1 we had better not be too sure that true service is ever small1 or that the work that attracts attention and is christened by men 'great' is really so in ,his eyes4 ,it is well to have the noble ambition to 'desire earnestly the greater gifts1' but it is better to 'follow the more excellent way1' and to seek after the love which knows nothing of great or small1 and without which prophecy and the knowledge of all mysteries1 and all conspicuous and all the shining qualities profit nothing4 ,we can discern in ,tertius' words a little touch of what we may call pride in his work4 ,no doubt he knew it to be subordinate1 but he also knew it to be needful2 and no doubt he had put all his strength into doing it well4 ,no man will put his best into any task which he does not undertake in such a spirit4 ,it is a very plain piece of homely wisdom that 'what is worth doing at all is worth doing well4' ,without a lavish expenditure of the utmost care and effort1 our work will tend to be slovenly and unpleasing to ,god1 and man1 and to ourselves4 ,we may be sure there were no blots and bits of careless writing in ,tertius' manuscript1 and that he would not have claimed the friendly feelings of his ,roman brethren1 if he had not felt that he had put his best into the writing of this epistle4 ,the great word of ,king ,david has a very wide application4 ',i will not take that which is thine for the ,lord1 nor offer burnt offerings without cost4' ,tertius' salutation may suggest to us the best thing by which to be remembered4 ,all his life before and after the hours spent at ,paul's side has sunk in oblivion4 ,he wished to be known only as having written the ,epistle4 ,christian souls ought to desire to live chiefly in the remembrance of those to whom they have been known as having done some little bit of work for ,jesus ,christ4 ,we may well ask ourselves whether there is anything in our lives by which we should thus wish to be remembered4 ,all our many activities will sink into silence2 but if the stream of our life1 which has borne along down its course so much mud and sand1 has brought some grains of gold in the form of faithful and loving service to ,christ and men--these will not be lost in the ocean1 but treasured by ,him4 ,what we do for ,jesus and to spread the knowledge of ,his name is the immortal part of our mortal lives1 and abides in ,his memory and in blessed results in our own characters1 when all the rest that made our busy and often stormy days has passed into oblivion4 ,all that we know of ,tertius who wrote this ,epistle is that he wrote it4 ,well will it be for us if the summary of our lives be something like that of his6 ,,quartus ,a ,,brother ',quartus a brother4'--,,romans xvi4 #bc4 ,i am afraid very few of us read often1 or with much interest1 those long lists of names at the end of ,paul's letters4 ,and yet there are plenty of lessons in them1 if anybody will look at them lovingly and carefully4 ,there does not seem much in these three words2 but ,i am very much mistaken if they will not prove to be full of beauty and pathos1 and to open out into a wonderful revelation of what ,christianity is and does1 as soon as we try to freshen them up into some kind of human interest4 ,it is easy for us to make a little picture of this brother ,quartus4 ,he is evidently an entire stranger to the ,church in ,rome4 ,they had never heard his name before3 none of them knew anything about him4 ,further1 he is evidently a man of no especial reputation or position in the ,church at ,corinth1 from which ,paul writes4 ,he contrasts strikingly with the others who send salutations to ,rome4 ',timotheus1 my work-fellow'--the companion and helper of the ,apostle1 whose name was known everywhere among the ,churches1 heads the list4 ,then come other prominent men of his more immediate circle4 ,then follows a loving greeting from ,paul's amanuensis1 who1 naturally1 as the pen is in his own hand1 says3 ',i1 ,tertius1 who wrote this epistle1 salute you in the ,lord4' ,then ,paul begins again to dictate1 and the list runs on4 ,next comes a message from ',gaius mine host1 and of the whole ,church'--an influential man in the community1 apparently rich1 and willing1 as well as able1 to extend to them large and loving hospitality4 ,erastus1 the chamberlain or treasurer of the city1 follows--a man of consequence in ,corinth4 ,and then1 among all these people of mark1 comes the modest1 quiet ,quartus4 ,he has no wealth like ,gaius1 nor civic position like ,erastus1 nor wide reputation like ,timothy4 ,he is only a good1 simple1 unknown ,christian4 ,he feels a spring of love open in his heart to these brethren far across the sea1 whom he never met4 ,he would like them to know that he thought lovingly of them1 and to be lovingly thought of by them4 ,so he begs a little corner in ,paul's letter1 and gets it2 and there1 in his little niche1 like some statue of a forgotten saint1 scarce seen amidst the glories of a great cathedral1 ',quartus a brother' stands to all time4 ,the first thing that strikes me in connection with these words is1 how deep and real they show that new bond of ,christian love to have been4 ,a little incident of this sort is more impressive than any amount of mere talk about the uniting influence of the ,gospel4 ,here we get a glimpse of the power in actual operation in a man's heart1 and if we think of all that this simple greeting presupposes and implies1 and of all that had to be overcome before it could have been sent1 we may well see in it the sign of the greatest revolution that was ever wrought in men's relations to one another1 ,quartus was an inhabitant of ,corinth1 from which city this letter was written4 ,his ,roman name may indicate ,roman descent1 but of that we cannot be sure4 ,just as probably he may have been a ,greek by birth1 and so have had to stretch his hand across a deep crevasse of national antipathy1 in order to clasp the hands of his brethren in the great city4 ,there was little love lost between ,rome1 the rough imperious conqueror1 and ,corinth1 prostrate and yet restive under her bonds1 and nourishing remembrances of a freedom which ,rome had crushed1 and of a culture that ,rome haltingly followed4 ,and how many other deep gulfs of separation had to be bridged before that ,christian sense of oneness could be felt6 ,it is impossible for us to throw ourselves completely back to the condition of things which the ,gospel found4 ,the world then was like some great field of cooled lava on the slopes of a volcano1 all broken up by a labyrinth of clefts and cracks1 at the bottom of which one can see the flicker of sulphurous flames4 ,great gulfs of national hatred1 of fierce enmities of race1 language1 and religion2 wide separations of social condition1 far profounder than anything of the sort which we know1 split mankind into fragments4 ,on the one side was the freeman1 on the other1 the slave2 on the one side1 the ,gentile1 on the other1 the ,jew2 on the one side1 the insolence and hard-handedness of ,roman rule1 on the other1 the impotent1 and therefore envenomed1 hatred of conquered peoples4 ,and all this fabric1 full of active repulsions and disintegrating forces1 was bound together into an artificial and unreal unity by the iron clamp of ,rome's power1 holding up the bulging walls that were ready to fall--the unity of the slave-gang manacled together for easier driving4 ,into this hideous condition of things the ,gospel comes1 and silently flings its clasping tendrils over the wide gaps1 and binds the crumbling structure of human society with a new bond1 real and living4 ,we know well enough that that was so1 but we are helped to apprehend it by seeing1 as it were1 the very process going on before our eyes1 in this message from ',quartus a brother4' ,it reminds us that the very notion of humanity1 and of the brotherhood of man1 is purely ,christian4 ,a world-embracing society1 held together by love1 was not dreamt of before the ,gospel came2 and since the ,gospel came it is more than a dream4 ,if you wrench away the idea from its foundation1 as people do who talk about fraternity1 and seek to bring it to pass without ,christ1 it is a mere piece of ,utopian sentiment--a fine dream4 ,but in ,christianity it worked4 ,it works imperfectly enough1 ,god knows4 ,still there is some reality in it1 and some power4 ,the ,gospel first of all produced the thing and the practice1 and then the theory came afterwards4 ,the ,church did not talk much about the brotherhood of man1 or the unity of the race2 but simply ignored all distinctions1 and gathered into the fold the slave and his master1 the ,roman and his subject1 fair-haired ,goths and swarthy ,arabians1 the worshippers of ,odin and of ,zeus1 the ,jew and the ,gentile4 ,that actual unity1 utterly irrespective of all distinctions1 which came naturally in the train of the ,gospel1 was the first attempt to realise the oneness of the race1 and first taught the world that all men were brethren4 ,and before this simple word of greeting could have been sent1 and the unknown man in ,corinth felt love to a company of unknown men in ,rome1 some profound new impulse must have been given to the world2 something altogether unlike any of the forces hitherto in existence4 ,what was that8 ,what should it be but the story of ,one who gave ,himself for the whole world1 who binds men into a unity because of ,his common relation to them all1 and through whom the great proclamation can be made3 ',there is neither ,jew nor ,greek1 there is neither bond nor free1 there is neither male nor female1 for ye are all one in ,christ ,jesus4' ,brother ,quartus' message1 like some tiny flower above-ground which tells of a spreading root beneath1 is a modest witness to that mighty revolution1 and presupposes the preaching of a ,saviour in whom he and his unseen friends in ,rome are one4 ,so let us learn not to confine our sympathy and the play of our ,christian affection within the limits of our personal knowledge4 ,we must go further a-field than that4 ,like this man1 let us sometimes send our thoughts across mountains and seas4 ,he knew nobody in the ,roman ,church1 and nobody knew him1 but he wished to stretch out his hand to them1 and to feel1 as it were1 the pressure of their fingers in his palm4 ,that is a pattern for us4 ,let me suggest another thing4 ,quartus was a ,corinthian4 ,the ,corinthian ,church was remarkable for its quarrellings and dissensions4 ,one said1 ',i am of ,paul1 and another1 ,i of ,apollos1 and ,i of ,cephas1 and ,i of ,christ4' ,i wonder if our friend ,quartus belonged to any of these parties8 ,there is nothing more likely than that he had a much warmer glow of ,christian love to the brethren over there in ,rome than to those who sat on the same bench with him in the upper room at ,corinth4 ,for you know that sometimes it is true about people1 as well as about scenery1 that 'distance lends enchantment to the view4' ,a great many of us have much keener sympathies with 'brethren' who are well out of our reach1 and whose peculiarities do not jar against ours1 than with those who are nearest4 ,i do not say ,quartus was one of these1 but he may very well have been one of the wranglers in ,corinth who found it much easier to love his brother whom he had not seen than his brother whom he had seen4 ,so take the hint1 if you need it4 ,do not let your ,christian love go wandering away abroad only1 but keep some for home consumption4 ,again1 how simply1 and with what unconscious beauty1 the deep reason for our ,christian unity is given in that one word1 a ',brother4' ,as if he had said1 ,never mind telling them anything about what ,i am1 what place ,i hold1 or what ,i do4 ,tell them ,i am a brother1 that will be enough4 ,it is the only name by which ,i care to be known2 it is the name which explains my love to them4 ,we are brethren because we are sons of one ,father4 ,so that favourite name1 by which the early ,christians knew each other1 rested upon and proclaimed the deep truth that they knew themselves to be all partakers of a common life derived from one ,parent4 ,when they said they were brethren1 they implied1 ',we have been born again by the word of ,god1 which liveth and abideth for ever4' ,the great ,christian truth of regeneration1 the communication of a divine life from ,god the ,father1 through ,christ the ,son1 by the ,holy ,spirit1 is the foundation of ,christian brotherhood4 ,so the name is no mere piece of effusive sentiment1 but expresses a profound fact4 ',to as many as received ,him1 to them gave ,he power to become the sons of ,god1' and therein to become the brethren of all ,his sons4 ,that is the true ground of our unity1 and of our obligation to love all who are begotten of ,him4 ,you cannot safely put them on any other footing4 ,all else--identity of opinion1 similarity of practice and ceremonial1 local or national ties1 and the like--all else is insufficient4 ,it may be necessary for ,christian communities to require in addition a general identity of opinion1 and even some uniformity in government and form of worship2 but if ever they come to fancy that such subordinate conditions of visible oneness are the grounds of their spiritual unity1 and to enforce these as such1 they are slipping off the real foundation1 and are perilling their character as ,churches of ,christ4 ,the true ground of the unity of all ,christians is here3 ',have we not all one ,father8' ,we possess a kindred life derived from ,him4 ,we are a family of brethren because we are sons4 ,another remark is1 how strangely and unwittingly this good man has got himself an immortality by that passing thought of his4 ,one loving message has won for him the prize for which men have joyfully given life itself1--an eternal place in history4 ,wheresoever the ,gospel is preached there also shall this be told as a memorial of him4 ,how much surprised he would have been if1 as he leaned forward to ,tertius hurrying to end his task and said1 ',send my love too1' anybody had told him that that one act of his would last as long as the world1 and his name be known for ever6 ,and how much ashamed some of the other people in the ,new ,testament would have been if they had known that their passing faults--the quarrel of ,euodia and ,syntyche for instance--were to be gibbeted for ever in the same fashion6 ,how careful they would have been1 and we would be1 of our behaviour if we knew that it was to be pounced down upon and made immortal in that style6 ,suppose you were to be told--,your thoughts and acts to-morrow at twelve o'clock will be recorded for all the world to read--you would be pretty careful how you behaved4 ,when a speaker sees the reporters in front of him1 he weighs his words4 ,well1 ,quartus' little message is written down here1 and the world knows it4 ,all our words and works are getting put down too1 in another ,book up there1 and it is going to be read out one day4 ,it does seem wonderful that you and ,i should live as we do1 knowing that all the while that ,god is recording it all4 ,if we are not ashamed to do things1 and let ,him note them on ,his tablets that they may be for the time to come1 for ever and ever1 it is strange that we should be more careful to attitudinise and pose ourselves before one another than before ,him4 ,let us then keep ever in mind 'those pure eyes and perfect witness of the all-judging' ,god4 ,the eternal record of this little message is only a symbol of the eternal life and eternal record of all our transient and trivial thoughts and deeds before ,him4 ,let us live so that each act1 if recorded1 would shine with some modest ray of true light like brother ,quartus' greeting1 and let us seek that1 like him1--all else about us being forgotten1 position1 talents1 wealth1 buried in the dust1--we may be remembered1 if we are remembered at all1 by such a biography as is condensed into these three words4 ,who would not wish to be embalmed1 so to speak1 in such a record8 ,who would not wish to have such an epitaph as this8 ,a sweet fate to live for ever in the world's memory by three words which tell his name1 his ,christianity1 and his brotherly love6 ,so far as we are remembered at all1 may the like be our life's history and our epitaph6 ,,expositions ,,of ,,holy ,,scripture ,,alexander ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d41 ,litt4,d4 ,,corinthians 7,to ,,ii ,corinthians1 ,chap4 ,v7 ,,contents ,,calling ,,on ,,the ,,name 7#a ,,cor4 i4 #b7 ,,perishing ,,or ,,being ,,saved 7#a ,,cor4 i4 #ah7 ,,the ,,apostle',s ,,theme 7#a ,,cor4 ii4 #b7 ,,god',s ,,fellow-,,workers 7#a ,,cor4 iii4 #i7 ,,the ,,testing ,,fire 7#a ,,cor4 iii4 #ab1 #ac7 ,,temples ,,of ,,god 7#a ,,cor4 iii4 #af7 ,,death1 ,,the ,,friend 7#a ,,cor4 iii4 #ba1 #bb7 ,,servants ,,and ,,lords 7#a ,,cor4 iii4 #ba-bc7 ,,the ,,three ,,tribunals 7#a ,,cor4 iv4 #c1 #d7 ,,the ,,festal ,,life 7#a ,,cor4 v4 #h7 ,,forms ,,versus ,,character 7#a ,,cor4 vii4 #ai1 ,,gal4 v4 #f1 ,,gal4 vi4 #ae1 ,r4,v47 ,,slaves ,,and ,,free 7#a ,,cor4 vii4 #bb7 ,,the ,,christian ,,life 7#a ,,cor4 vii4 #bd7 ',,love ,,buildeth ,,up' 7#a ,,cor4 viii4 #a-ac7 ,,the ,,sin ,,of ,,silence 7#a ,,cor4 ix4 #af1 #ag7 ,a ,,servant ,,of ,,men 7#a ,,cor4 ix4 #ai-bc7 ,,how ,,the ,,victor ,,runs 7#a ,,cor4 ix4 #bd7 ',,concerning ,,the ,,crown' 7#a ,,cor4 ix4 #be7 ,,the ,,limits ,,of ,,liberty 7#a ,,cor4 x4 #bc-cc7 ',,in ,,remembrance ,,of ,,me' 7#a ,,cor4 xi4 #bd7 ,,the ,,universal ,,gift 7#a ,,cor4 xii4 #g7 ,,what ,,lasts 7#a ,,cor4 xiii4 #h1 #ac7 ,,the ,,power ,,of ,,the ,,resurrection 7#a ,,cor4 xv4 #c1 #d7 ,,remaining ,,and ,,falling ,,asleep 7#a ,,cor4 xv4 #f7 ,,paul',s ,,estimate ,,of ,,himself 7#a ,,cor4 xv4 #aj7 ,,the ,,unity ,,of ,,apostolic ,,teaching 7#a ,,cor4 xv4 #aa7 ,,the ,,certainty ,,and ,,joy ,,of ,,the ,,resurrection 7#a ,,cor4 xv4 #bj7 ,,the ,,death ,,of ,,death 7#a ,,cor4 xv4 #bj1 #ba2 #ej-eh7 ,,strong ,,and ,,loving 7#a ,,cor4 xvi4 #ac1 #ad7 ,,anathema ,,and ,,grace 7#a ,,cor4 xvi4 #ba-bd7 ,,god',s ,,yea2 ,,man',s ,,amen 7#b ,,cor4 i4 #bj1 ,r4,v47 ,,anointed ,,and ,,stablished 7#b ,,cor4 i4 #ba7 ,,seal ,,and ,,earnest 7#b ,,cor4 i4 #bb7 ,,the ,,triumphal ,,procession 7#b ,,cor4 ii4 #ad1 ,r4,v47 ,,transformation ,,by ,,beholding 7#b ,,cor4 iii4 #ah7 ,,looking ,,at ,,the ,,unseen 7#b ,,cor4 iv4 #ah7 ,,tent ,,and ,,building 7#b ,,cor4 v4 #a7 ,,the ,,patient ,,workman 7#b ,,cor4 v4 #e7 ,,the ,,old ,,house ,,and ,,the ,,new 7#b ,,cor4 v4 #h7 ,,pleasing ,,christ 7#b ,,cor4 v4 #i7 ,,the ,,love ,,that ,,constrains 7#b ,,cor4 v4 #ad7 ,,the ,,entreaties ,,of ,,god 7#b ,,cor4 v4 #bj7 ,i4 ,,corinthians ,,calling ,,on ,,the ,,name ',all that in every place call upon the name of ,jesus ,christ our ,lord1 both theirs and ours4'--#a ,,cor4 i4 #b4 ,there are some difficulties1 with which ,i need not trouble you1 about both the translation and the connection of these words4 ,one thing is quite clear1 that in them the ,apostle associates the church at ,corinth with the whole mass of ,christian believers in the world4 ,the question may arise whether he does so in the sense that he addresses his letter both to the church at ,corinth and to the whole of the churches1 and so makes it a catholic epistle4 ,that is extremely unlikely1 considering how all but entirely this letter is taken up with dealing with the especial conditions of the ,corinthian church4 ,rather ,i should suppose that he is simply intending to remind 'the ,church of ,god at ,corinth 444 sanctified in ,christ ,jesus1 called to be saints1' that they are in real1 living union with the whole body of believers4 ,just as the water in a little land-locked bay1 connected with the sea by some narrow strait like that at ,corinth1 is yet part of the whole ocean that rolls round the world1 so that little community of ,christians had its living bond of union with all the brethren in every place that called upon the name of ,jesus ,christ4 ,whichever view on that detail of interpretation be taken1 this phrase1 as a designation of ,christians1 is worth considering4 ,it is one of many expressions found in the ,new ,testament as names for them1 some of which have now dropped out of general use1 while some are still retained4 ,it is singular that the name of ',christian1' which has all but superseded all others1 was originally invented as a jeer by sarcastic wits at ,antioch1 and never appears in the ,new ,testament1 as a name by which believers called themselves4 ,important lessons are taught by these names1 such as disciples1 believers1 brethren1 saints1 those of the way1 and so on1 each of which embodies some characteristic of a follower of ,jesus4 ,so this appellation in the text1 'those who call upon the name of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1' may yield not unimportant lessons if it be carefully weighed1 and to some of these ,i would ask your attention now4 ,i4 ,first1 it gives us a glimpse into the worship of the primitive ,church4 ,to 'call on the name of the ,lord' is an expression that comes straight out of the ,old ,testament4 ,it means there distinctly adoration and invocation1 and it means precisely these things when it is referred to ,jesus ,christ4 ,we find in the ,acts of the ,apostles that the very first sermon that was preached at ,pentecost by ,peter all turns upon this phrase4 ,he quotes the ,old ,testament saying1 ',whosoever shall call on the name of the ,lord shall be saved1' and then goes on to prove that 'the ,lord1' the 'calling on whose ,name' is salvation1 is ,jesus ,christ2 and winds up with ',therefore let all the house of ,israel know assuredly that ,god hath made that same ,jesus1 whom ye have crucified1 both ,lord and ,christ4' ,again we find that ,ananias of ,damascus1 when ,jesus ,christ appeared to him and told him to go to ,paul and lay his hands upon him1 shrank from the perilous task because ,paul had been sent to 'bind them that call upon the name of the ,lord1' and to persecute them4 ,we find the same phrase recurring in other connections1 so that1 on the whole1 we may take the expression as a recognised designation of ,christians4 ,this was their characteristic1 that they prayed to ,jesus ,christ4 ,the very first word1 so far as we know1 that ,paul ever heard from a ,christian was1 ',lord ,jesus6 receive my spirit4' ,he heard that cry of calm faith which1 when he heard it1 would sound to him as horrible blasphemy from ,stephen's dying lips4 ,how little he dreamed that he himself was soon to cry to the same ,jesus1 ',lord1 what wilt thou have me to do8' and was in after-days to beseech ,him thrice for deliverance1 and to be answered by sufficient grace4 ,how little he dreamed that1 when his own martyrdom was near1 he too would look to ,jesus as ,lord and righteous ,judge1 from whose hands all who loved ,his appearing should receive their crown6 ,nor only ,paul directs desires and adoration to ,jesus as ,lord2 the last words of ,scripture are a cry to ,him as ,lord to come quickly1 and an invocation of ,his 'grace' on all believing souls4 ,prayer to ,christ from the very beginning of the ,christian ,church was1 then1 the characteristic of believers1 and ,he to whom they prayed1 thus1 from the beginning1 was recognised by them as being a ,divine ,person1 ,god manifest in the flesh4 ,the object of their worship1 then1 was known by the people among whom they lived4 ,singing hymns to ,christus as a god is nearly all that the ,roman proconsul in his well-known letter could find to tell his master of their worship4 ,they were the worshippers--not merely the disciples--of one ,christ4 ,that was their peculiar distinction4 ,among the worshippers of the false gods they stood erect2 before ,him1 and ,him only1 they bowed4 ,in ,corinth there was the polluted worship of ,aphrodite and of ,zeus4 ,these men called not on the name of these lustful and stained deities1 but on the name of the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,and everybody knew whom they worshipped1 and understood whose men they were4 ,is that true about us8 ,do we ,christian men so habitually cultivate the remembrance of ,jesus ,christ1 and are we so continually in the habit of invoking ,his aid1 and of contemplating ,his blessed perfections and sufficiency1 that every one who knew us would recognise us as meant by those who call on the name of the ,lord ,jesus ,christ8 ,if this be the proper designation of ,christian people1 alas6 alas6 for so many of the professing ,christians of this day1 whom neither bystanders nor themselves would think of as included in such a name6 ,further1 the connection here shows that the divine worship of ,christ was universal among the churches4 ,there was no 'place' where it was not practised1 no community calling itself a church to whom ,he was not the ,lord to be invoked and adored4 ,this witness to the early and universal recognition in the ,christian communities of the divinity of our ,lord is borne by an undisputedly genuine epistle of ,paul's4 ,it is one of the four which the most thorough-going destructive criticism accepts as genuine4 ,it was written before the ,gospels1 and is a voice from the earlier period of ,paul's apostleship4 ,hence the importance of its attestation to this fact that all ,christians everywhere1 both ,jewish1 who had been trained in strict monotheism1 and ,gentile1 who had burned incense at many a foul shrine1 were perfectly joined together in this1 that in all their need they called on the name of ,jesus ,christ as ,lord and brought to ,him1 as divine1 adoration not to be rendered to any creatures4 ,from the day of ,pentecost onwards1 a ,christian was not merely a disciple1 a follower1 or an admirer1 but a worshipper of ,christ1 the ,lord4 ,,ii4 ,we may see here an unfolding of the all-sufficiency of ,jesus ,christ4 ,note that solemn accumulation1 in the language of my text1 of all the designations by which ,he is called1 sometimes separately and sometimes unitedly1 the name of 'our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4' ,we never find that full title given to ,him in ,scripture except when the writer's mind is labouring to express the manifoldness and completeness of our ,lord's relations to men1 and the largeness and sufficiency of the blessings which ,he brings4 ,in this context ,i find in the first nine or ten verses of this chapter1 so full is the ,apostle of the thoughts of the greatness and wonderfulness of his dear ,lord on whose name he calls1 that six or seven times he employs this solemn1 full designation4 ,now1 if we look at the various elements of this great name we shall get various aspects of the way in which calling on ,christ is the strength of our souls4 ',call on the name of--the ,lord4' ,that is the ,old ,testament ,jehovah4 ,there is no mistaking nor denying1 if we candidly consider the evidence of the ,new ,testament writings1 that1 when we read of ,jesus ,christ as ',lord1' in the vast majority of cases1 the title is not a mere designation of human authority1 but is an attribution to ,him of divine nature and dignity4 ,we have1 then1 to ascribe to ,him1 and to call on ,him as possessing1 all which that great and incommunicable ,name certified and sealed to the ,jewish ,church as their possession in their ,god4 ,the ,jehovah of the ,old ,testament is our ,lord of the ,new4 ,he whose being is eternal1 underived1 self-sufficing1 self-determining1 knowing no variation1 no diminution1 no age1 ,he who is because ,he is and that ,he is1 dwells in ,his fulness in our ,saviour4 ,to worship ,him is not to divert worship from the one ,god1 nor is it to have other gods besides ,him4 ,christianity is as much monotheistic as ,judaism was1 and the law of its worship is the old law--,him only shalt thou serve4 ,it is the divine will that all men should honour the ,son1 even as they honour the ,father4 ,but what is it to call on the name of ,jesus8 ,that name implies all the sweetness of ,his manhood4 ,he is our ,brother4 ,the name ',jesus' is one that many a ,jewish boy bore in our ,lord's own time and before it2 though1 afterwards1 of course1 abhorrence on the part of the ,jew and reverence on the part of the ,christian caused it almost entirely to disappear4 ,but at the time when ,he bore it it was as undistinguished a name as ,simeon1 or ,judas1 or any other of ,his followers' names4 ,to call upon the name of ,jesus means to realise and bring near to ourselves1 for our consolation and encouragement1 for our strength and peace1 the blessed thought of ,his manhood1 so really and closely knit to ours2 to grasp the blessedness of the thought that ,he knows our frame because ,he ,himself has worn it1 and understands and pities our weakness1 being ,himself a man4 ,to ,him whom we adore as ,lord we draw near in tenderer1 but not less humble and prostrate1 adoration as our brother when we call on the name of the ,lord ,jesus1 and thus embrace as harmonious1 and not contradictory1 both the divinity of the ,lord and the humanity of ,jesus4 ,to call on the name of ,christ is to embrace in our faith and to beseech the exercise on our behalf of all which ,jesus is as the ,messiah1 anointed by ,god with the fulness of the ,spirit4 ,as such ,he is the climax1 and therefore the close of all revelation1 who is the long-expected fruition of the desire of weary hearts1 the fulfilment1 and therefore the abolition1 of sacrifice and temple and priesthood and prophecy and all that witnessed for ,him ere ,he came4 ,we further call on the name of ,christ the ,anointed1 on whom the whole fulness of the ,divine ,spirit dwelt in order that1 calling upon ,him1 that fulness may in its measure be granted to us4 ,so the name of the ,lord ,jesus ,christ brings to view the divine1 the human1 the ,messiah1 the anointed ,lord of the ,spirit1 and ,giver of the divine life4 ,to call on ,his name is to be blessed1 to be made pure and strong1 joyous and immortal4 ',the name of the ,lord is a strong tower1 the righteous runneth into it and is safe4' ,call on ,his name in the day of trouble and ye shall be heard and helped4 ,,iii4 ,lastly1 this text suggests what a ,christian life should be4 ,we have already remarked that to call on the name of ,jesus was the distinctive peculiarity of the early believers1 which marked them off as a people by themselves4 ,would it be a true designation of the bulk of so-called ,christians now8 ,you do not object to profess yourself a ,christian1 or1 perhaps1 even to say that you are a disciple of ,christ1 or even to go the length of calling yourself a follower and imitator4 ,but are you a worshipper of ,him8 ,in your life have you the habit of meditating on ,him as ,lord1 as ,jesus1 as ,christ1 and of refreshing and gladdening dusty days and fainting strength by the living water1 drawn from the one unfailing stream from these triple fountains8 ,is the invocation of ,his aid habitual with you8 ,there needs no long elaborate supplication to secure ,his aid4 ,how much has been done in the ,church's history by short bursts of prayer1 as ',lord1 help me6' spoken or unspoken in the moment of extremity6 ',they cried unto ,god in the battle4' ,they would not have time for very lengthy petitions then1 would they8 ,they would not give much heed to elegant arrangement of them or suiting them to the canons of human eloquence4 ',they cried unto ,god in the battle'2 whilst the enemy's swords were flashing and the arrows whistling about their ears4 ,these were circumstances to make a prayer a 'cry'2 no composed and stately utterance of an elegantly modulated voice1 nor a languid utterance without earnestness1 but a short1 sharp1 loud call1 such as danger presses from panting lungs and parched throats4 ,therefore the cry was answered1 'and ,he was entreated of them4' ',lord1 save us1 we perish6' was a very brief prayer1 but it brought its answer4 ,and so we1 in like manner1 may go through our warfare and work1 and day by day as we encounter sudden bursts of temptation may meet them with sudden jets of petition1 and thus put out their fires4 ,and the same help avails for long-continuing as for sudden needs4 ,some of us may have to carry lifelong burdens and to fight in a battle ever renewed4 ,it may seem as if our cry was not heard1 since the enemy's assault is not weakened1 nor our power to beat it back perceptibly increased4 ,but the appeal is not in vain1 and when the fight is over1 if not before1 we shall know what reinforcements of strength to our weakness were due to our poor cry entering into the ears of our ,lord and ,brother4 ,no other 'name' is permissible as our plea or as recipient of our prayer4 ,in and on the name of the ,lord we must call1 and if we do1 anything is possible rather than that the promise which was claimed for the ,church and referred to ,jesus1 in the very first ,christian preaching on ,pentecost1 should not be fulfilled--',whosoever shall call on the name of the ,lord shall be saved4' ',in every place4' ,we may venture to subject the words of my text to a little gentle pressure here4 ,the ,apostle only meant to express the universal characteristics of ,christians everywhere4 ,but we may venture to give a different turn to the words1 and learn from them the duty of devout communion with ,christ as a duty for each of us wherever we are4 ,if a place is not fit to pray in it is not fit to be in4 ,we may carry praying hearts1 remembrances of the ,lord1 sweet1 though they may be swift and short1 contemplations of ,his grace1 ,his love1 ,his power1 ,his sufficiency1 ,his nearness1 ,his punctual help1 like a hidden light in our hearts1 into all the dusty ways of life1 and in every place call on ,his name4 ,there is no place so dismal but that thoughts of ,him will make sunshine in it2 no work so hard1 so commonplace1 so prosaic1 so uninteresting1 but that it will become the opposite of all these if whatever we do is done in remembrance of our ,lord4 ,nothing will be too hard for us to do1 and nothing too bitter for us to swallow1 and nothing too sad for us to bear1 if only over all that befalls us and all that we undertake and endeavour we make the sign of the ,cross and call upon the name of the ,lord4 ,if 'in every place' we have ,him as the object of our faith and desire1 and as the ,hearer of our petition1 in 'every place' we shall have ,him for our help1 and all will be full of ,his bright presence2 and though we have to journey through the wilderness we shall ever drink of that spiritual rock that will follow us1 and that ,rock is ,christ4 ,in every place call upon ,his name1 and every place will be a house of ,god1 and a gate of heaven to our waiting souls4 ,,perishing ,,or ,,being ,,saved ',for the preaching of the ,cross is to them that perish foolishness2 but unto us which are saved it is the power of ,god4'--#a ,,cor4 i4 #ah4 ,the starting-point of my remarks is the observation that a slight variation of rendering1 which will be found in the ,revised ,version1 brings out the true meaning of these words4 ,instead of reading 'them that perish' and 'us which are saved1' we ought to read 'them that are perishing1' and 'us which are being saved4' ,that is to say1 the ,apostle represents the two contrasted conditions1 not so much as fixed states1 either present or future1 but rather as processes which are going on1 and are manifestly1 in the present1 incomplete4 ,that opens some very solemn and intensely practical considerations4 ,then ,i may further note that this antithesis includes the whole of the persons to whom the ,gospel is preached4 ,in one or other of these two classes they all stand4 ,further1 we have to observe that the consideration which determines the class to which men belong1 is the attitude which they respectively take to the preaching of the ,cross4 ,if it be1 and because it is1 'foolishness' to some1 they belong to the catalogue of the perishing4 ,if it be1 and because it is1 'the power of ,god' to others1 they belong to the class of those who are in process of being saved4 ,so1 then1 we have the ground cleared for two or three very simple1 but1 as it seems to me1 very important thoughts4 ,i4 ,i desire1 first1 to look at the two contrasted conditions1 'perishing' and 'being saved4' ,now we shall best1 ,i think1 understand the force of the darker of these two terms if we first ask what is the force of the brighter and more radiant4 ,if we understand what the ,apostle means by 'saving' and 'salvation' we shall understand also what he means by 'perishing4' ,if1 then1 we turn for a moment to ,scripture analogy and teaching1 we find that that threadbare word 'salvation1' which we all take it for granted that we understand1 and which1 like a well-worn coin1 has been so passed from hand to hand that it scarcely remains legible--that well-worn word 'salvation' starts from a double metaphorical meaning4 ,it means either--and is used for both--being healed or being made safe4 ,in the one sense it is often employed in the ,gospel narratives of our ,lord's miracles1 and it involves the metaphor of a sick man and his cure2 in the other it involves the metaphor of a man in peril and his deliverance and security4 ,the negative side1 then1 of the ,gospel idea of salvation is the making whole from a disease1 and the making safe from a danger4 ,negatively1 it is the removal from each of us of the one sickness1 which is sin2 and the one danger1 which is the reaping of the fruits and consequences of sin1 in their variety as guilt1 remorse1 habit1 and slavery under it1 perverted relation to ,god1 a fearful apprehension of penal consequences here1 and1 if there be a hereafter1 there1 too4 ,the sickness of soul and the perils that threaten life1 flow from the central fact of sin1 and salvation consists1 negatively1 in the sweeping away of all of these1 whether the sin itself1 or the fatal facility with which we yield to it1 or the desolation and perversion which it brings into all the faculties and susceptibilities1 or the perversion of relation to ,god1 and the consequent evils1 here and hereafter1 which throng around the evil-doer4 ,the sick man is healed1 and the man in peril is set in safety4 ,but1 besides that1 there is a great deal more4 ,the cure is incomplete till the full tide of health follows convalescence4 ,when ,god saves1 ,he does not only bar up the iron gate through which the hosts of evil rush out upon the defenceless soul1 but ,he flings wide the golden gate through which the glad troops of blessings and of graces flock around the delivered spirit1 and enrich it with all joys and with all beauties4 ,so the positive side of salvation is the investiture of the saved man with throbbing health through all his veins1 and the strength that comes from a divine life4 ,it is the bestowal upon the delivered man of everything that he needs for blessedness and for duty4 ,all good conferred1 and every evil banned back into its dark den1 such is the ,christian conception of salvation4 ,it is much that the negative should be accomplished1 but it is little in comparison with the rich fulness of positive endowments1 of happiness1 and of holiness which make an integral part of the salvation of ,god4 ,this1 then1 being the one side1 what about the other8 ,if this be salvation1 its precise opposite is the ,scriptural idea of 'perishing4' ,utter ruin lies in the word1 the entire failure to be what ,god meant a man to be4 ,that is in it1 and no contortions of arbitrary interpretation can knock that solemn significance out of the dreadful expression4 ,if salvation be the cure of the sickness1 perishing is the fatal end of the unchecked disease4 ,if salvation be the deliverance from the outstretched claws of the harpy evils that crowd about the trembling soul1 then perishing is the fixing of their poisoned talons into their prey1 and their rending of it into fragments4 ,of course that is metaphor1 but no metaphor can be half so dreadful as the plain1 prosaic fact that the exact opposite of the salvation1 which consists in the healing from sin and the deliverance from danger1 and in the endowment with all gifts good and beautiful1 is the ,christian idea of the alternative 'perishing4' ,then it means the disease running its course4 ,it means the dangers laying hold of the man in peril4 ,it means the withdrawal1 or the non-bestowal1 of all which is good1 whether it be good of holiness or good of happiness4 ,it does not mean1 as it seems to me1 the cessation of conscious existence1 any more than salvation means the bestowal of conscious existence4 ,but he who perishes knows that he has perished1 even as he knows the process while he is in the process of perishing4 ,therefore1 we have to think of the gradual fading away from consciousness1 and dying out of a life1 of many things beautiful and sweet and gracious1 of the gradual increase of distance from ,him1 union with whom is the condition of true life1 of the gradual sinking into the pit of utter ruin1 of the gradual increase of that awful death in life and life in death in which living consciousness makes the conscious subject aware that he is lost2 lost to ,god1 lost to himself4 ,brethren1 it is no part of my business to enlarge upon such awful thoughts1 but the brighter the light of salvation1 the darker the eclipse of ruin which rings it round4 ,this1 then1 is the first contrast4 ,,ii4 ,now note1 secondly1 the progressiveness of both members of the alternative4 ,all states of heart or mind tend to increase1 by the very fact of continuance4 ,life is a process1 and every part of a spiritual being is in living motion and continuous action in a given direction4 ,so the law for the world1 and for every man in it1 in all regions of his life1 quite as much as in the religious1 is ',to him that hath shall be given1 and he shall have abundance4' ,look1 then1 at this thought of the process by which these two conditions become more and more confirmed1 consolidated1 and complete4 ,salvation is a progressive fact4 ,in the ,new ,testament we have that great idea looked at from three points of view4 ,sometimes it is spoken of as having been accomplished in the past in the case of every believing soul--',ye have been saved' is said more than once4 ,sometimes it is spoken of as being accomplished in the present--',ye are saved' is said more than once4 ,and sometimes it is relegated to the future--',now is our salvation nearer than when we believed1' and the like4 ,but there are a number of ,new ,testament passages which coincide with this text in regarding salvation as1 not the work of any one moment1 but as a continuous operation running through life1 not a point either in the past1 present1 or future1 but a continued life4 ,as1 for instance1 ',the ,lord added to the ,church daily those that were being saved4' ,by one offering ,he hath perfected for ever them that are being sanctified4 ,and in a passage in the ,second ,epistle to the ,corinthians1 which1 in some respects1 is an exact parallel to that of my text1 we read of the preaching of the ,gospel as being a 'savour of ,christ in them that are being saved1 and in them that are perishing4' ,so the process of being saved is going on as long as a ,christian man lives in this world2 and every one who professes to be ,christ's follower ought1 day by day1 to be growing more and more saved1 more fully filled with that ,divine ,spirit1 more entirely the conqueror of his own lusts and passions and evil1 more and more invested with all the gifts of holiness and of blessedness which ,jesus ,christ is ready to bestow upon him4 ,ah1 brethren6 that notion of a progressive salvation at work in all true ,christians has all but faded away out of the beliefs1 as it has all but disappeared from the experience1 of hosts of you that call yourselves ,christ's followers1 and are not a bit further on than you were ten years ago2 are no more healed of your corruptions 7perhaps less so1 for relapses are dangerous7 than you were then--have not advanced any further into the depths of ,god than when you first got a glimpse of ,him as loving1 and your ,father1 in ,jesus ,christ--are contented to linger1 like some weak band of invaders in a strange land1 on the borders and coasts1 instead of pressing inwards and making it all your own4 ,growing ,christians--may ,i venture to say8--are not the majority of professing ,christians4 ,and1 on the other side1 as certainly1 there are progressive deterioration and approximation to disintegration and ruin4 ,how many men there are listening to me now who were far nearer being delivered from their sins when they were lads than they have ever been since6 ,how many in whom the sensibility to the message of salvation has disappeared1 in whom the world has ossified their consciences and their hearts1 in whom there is a more entire and unstruggling submission to low things and selfish things and worldly things and wicked things1 than there used to be6 ,i am sure that there are not a few among us now who were far better1 and far happier1 when they were poor and young1 and could still thrill with generous emotion and tremble at the ,word of ,god1 than they are to-day4 ,why6 there are some of you that could no more bring back your former loftier impulses1 and compunction of spirit and throbs of desire towards ,christ and ,his salvation1 than you could bring back the birds' nests or the snows of your youthful years4 ,you are perishing1 in the very process of going down and down into the dark4 ,now1 notice1 that the ,apostle treats these two classes as covering the whole ground of the hearers of the ,word1 and as alternatives4 ,if not in the one class we are in the other4 ,ah1 brethren6 life is no level plane1 but a steep incline1 on which there is no standing still1 and if you try to stand still1 down you go4 ,either up or down must be the motion4 ,if you are not more of a ,christian than you were a year ago1 you are less4 ,if you are not more saved--for there is a degree of comparison--if you are not more saved1 you are less saved4 ,now1 do not let that go over your head as pulpit thunder1 meaning nothing4 ,it means you1 and1 whether you feel or think it or not1 one or other of these two solemn developments is at this moment going on in you4 ,and that is not a thought to be put lightly on one side4 ,further1 note what a light such considerations as these1 that salvation and perishing are vital processes--'going on all the time1' as the ,americans say--throw upon the future4 ,clearly the two processes are incomplete here4 ,you get the direction of the line1 but not its natural termination4 ,and thus a heaven and a hell are demanded by the phenomena of growing goodness and of growing badness which we see round about us4 ,the arc of the circle is partially swept4 ,are the compasses going to stop at the point where the grave comes in8 ,by no means4 ,round they will go1 and will complete the circle4 ,but that is not all4 ,the necessity for progress will persist after death2 and all through the duration of immortal being1 goodness1 blessedness1 holiness1 ,godlikeness1 will1 on the one hand1 grow in brighter lustre2 and on the other1 alienation from ,god1 loss of the noble elements of the nature1 and all the other doleful darknesses which attend that conception of a lost man1 will increase likewise4 ,and so1 two people1 sitting side by side here now1 may start from the same level1 and by the operation of the one principle the one may rise1 and rise1 and rise1 till he is lost in ,god1 and so finds himself1 and the other sink1 and sink1 and sink1 into the obscurity of woe and evil that lies beneath every human life as a possibility4 ,,iii4 ,and now1 lastly1 notice the determining attitude to the ,cross which settles the class to which we belong4 ,paul1 in my text1 is explaining his reason for not preaching the ,gospel with what he calls 'the words of man's wisdom1' and he says1 in effect1 ',it would be of no use if ,i did1 because what settles whether the ,cross shall look foolishness to a man or not is the man's whole moral condition1 and what settles whether a man shall find it to be the power of ,god or not is whether he has passed into the region of those that are being saved4' ,so there are two thoughts suggested which sound as if they were illogically combined1 but which yet are both true4 ,it is true that men perish1 or are saved1 because the ,cross is to them respectively 'foolishness' or 'the power of ,god'2 and the other thing is also true1 that the ,cross is to them 'foolishness1' or 'the power of ,god' because1 respectively1 they are perishing or being saved4 ,that is not putting the cart before the horse1 but both aspects of the truth are true4 ,if you see nothing in ,jesus ,christ1 and ,his death for us all1 except 'foolishness1' something unfit to do you any good1 and unnecessary to be taken into account in your lives--oh1 my friends6 that is the condemnation of your eyes1 and not of the thing you look at4 ,if a man1 gazing on the sun at twelve o'clock on a ,june day1 says to me1 ',it is not bright1' the only thing ,i have to say to him is1 ',friend1 you had better go to an oculist4' ,and if to us the ,cross is 'foolishness1' it is because already a process of 'perishing' has gone so far that it has attacked our capacity of recognising the wisdom and love of ,god when we see them4 ,but1 on the other hand1 if we clasp that ,cross in simple trust1 we find that it is the power which saves us out of all sins1 sorrows1 and dangers1 and 'shall save us' at last 'into ,his heavenly kingdom4' ,dear friends1 that message leaves no man exactly as it found him4 ,my words1 ,i feel1 in this sermon1 have been very poor1 set by the side of the greatness of the theme2 but1 poor as they have been1 you will not be exactly the same man after them1 if you have listened to them1 as you were before4 ,the difference may be very imperceptible1 but it will be real4 ,one more1 almost invisible1 film1 over the eyeball2 one more thin layer of wax in the ear2 one more fold of insensibility round heart and conscience--or else some yielding to the love2 some finger put out to take the salvation2 some lightening of the pressure of the sickness2 some removal of the peril and the danger4 ,the same sun hurts diseased eyes1 and gladdens sound ones4 ,the same fire melts wax and hardens clay4 ',this ,child is set for the rise and fall of many in ,israel4' ',to the one ,he is the savour of life unto life2 to the other ,he is the savour of death unto death4' ,which is ,he1 for ,he is one of them1 to you8 ,,the ,,apostle',s ,,theme ',i determined not to know anything among you1 save ,jesus ,christ1 and ,him crucified4'--#a ,,cor4 ii4 #b4 ,many of you are aware that to-day ,i close forty years of ministry in this city--,i cannot say to this congregation1 for there are very1 very few that can go back with me in memory to the beginning of these years4 ,you will bear me witness that ,i seldom intrude personal references into the pulpit1 but perhaps it would be affectation not to do so now4 ,looking back over these long years1 many thoughts arise which cannot be spoken in public4 ,but one thing ,i may say1 and that is1 that ,i am grateful to ,god and to you1 dear friends1 for the unbroken harmony1 confidence1 affection1 and forbearance which have brightened and lightened my work4 ,of its worth ,i cannot judge2 its imperfections ,i know better than the most unfavourable critic2 but ,i can humbly take the words of this text as expressive1 not1 indeed1 of my attainments1 but of my aims4 ,one of my texts1 on my first ,sunday in ,manchester1 was ',we preach ,christ and ,him crucified1' and ,i look back1 and venture to say that the noble words of this text have been1 however imperfectly followed1 my guiding star4 ,now1 ,i wish to say a word or two1 less personal perhaps1 and yet1 as you can well suppose1 not without a personal reference in my own consciousness4 ,i4 ,note here first1 then1 the ,apostolic theme--,jesus ,christ and ,him crucified4 ,now1 the ,apostle1 in this context1 gives us a little autobiographical glimpse which is singularly and interestingly confirmed by some slight incidental notices in the ,book of the ,acts4 ,he says1 in the context1 that he was with the ,corinthians 'in weakness and in fear and in much trembling1' and1 if we turn to the narrative1 we find that a singular period of silence1 apparent abandonment of his work and dejection1 seems to have synchronised with his coming to the great city of ,corinth4 ,the reasons were very plain4 ,he had recently come into ,europe for the first time and had had to front a new condition of things1 very different from what he had found in ,palestine or in ,asia ,minor4 ,his experience had not been encouraging4 ,he had been imprisoned in ,philippi2 he had been smuggled away by night from ,thessalonica2 he had been hounded from ,berea2 he had all but wholly failed to make any impression in ,athens1 and in his solitude he came to ,corinth1 and lay quiet1 and took stock of his adversaries4 ,he came to the conclusion which he records in my text2 he felt that it was not for him to argue with philosophers1 or to attempt to vie with ,sophists and professional orators1 but that his only way to meet ,greek civilisation1 ,greek philosophy1 ,greek eloquence1 ,greek self-conceit1 was to preach ',christ and ,him crucified4' ,the determination was not come to in ignorance of the conditions that were fronting him4 ,he knew ,corinth1 its wealth1 its wickedness1 its culture1 and knowing these he said1 ',i have made up my mind that ,i will know nothing amongst you save ,jesus ,christ and ,him crucified4' ,so1 then1 this ,apostle's conception of his theme was--the biography of a ,man1 with especial emphasis laid on one act in ,his history--,his death4 ,christianity is ,christ1 and ,christ is ,christianity4 ,his relation to the truth that ,he proclaimed1 and to the truths that may be deducible from the story of ,his life and death1 is altogether different from the relation of any other founder of a religion to the truths that he has proclaimed4 ,for in these you can accept the teaching1 and ignore the teacher4 ,but you cannot do that with ,christianity2 ',i am the ,way1 and the ,truth1 and the ,life'2 and in that revealing biography1 which is the preacher's theme1 the palpitating heart and centre is the death upon the ,cross4 ,so1 whatever else ,christianity comes to be--and it comes to be a great deal else--the principle of its growth1 and the germ which must vitalise the whole1 lie in the personality and the death of ,jesus ,christ4 ,that is not all4 ,the history of the life and the death want something more to make them a gospel4 ,the fact1 ,i was going to say1 is the least part of the fact2 as in some vegetable growths1 there is far more underground than above4 ,for1 unless along with1 involved in1 and deducible from1 but capable of being stated separately from1 the external facts1 there is a certain commentary or explanation of them3 the history is a history1 the biography is a biography1 the story of the ,cross is a touching narrative1 but it is no gospel4 ,and what was ,paul's commentary which lifted the bare facts up into the loftier region8 ,this--as for the person1 ,jesus ,christ 'declared to be the son of ,god with power'--as for the fact of the death1 'died for our sins according to the ,scriptures4' ,let in these two conceptions into the facts--and they are the necessary explanation and presupposition of the facts--the ,incarnation and the ,sacrifice1 and then you get what ,paul calls 'my gospel1' not because it was his invention1 but because it was the trust committed to him4 ,that is the ,gospel which alone answers to the facts which he deals with2 and that is the ,gospel which1 ,god helping me1 ,i have for forty years tried to preach4 ,we hear a great deal at present1 or we did a few years ago1 about this generation having recovered ,jesus ,christ1 and about the necessity of going 'back to the ,christ of the ,gospels4' ,by all means1 ,i say1 if in the process you do not lose the ,christ of the ,epistles1 who is the ,christ of the ,gospels1 too4 ,i am free to admit that a past generation has wrapped theological cobwebs round the gracious figure of ,christ with disastrous results4 ,for it is perfectly possible to know the things that are said about ,him1 and not to know ,him about whom these things are said4 ,but the mistake into which the present generation is far more likely to fall than that of substituting theology for ,christ1 is the converse one--that of substituting an undefined ,christ for the ,christ of the ,gospels and the ,epistles1 the ,incarnate ,son of ,god1 who died for our salvation4 ,and that is a more disastrous mistake than the other1 for you can know nothing about ,him and ,he can be nothing to you1 except as you grasp the ,apostolic explanation of the bare facts--seeing in ,him the ,word who became flesh1 the ,son who died that we might receive the adoption of sons4 ,i would further point out that a clear conception of what the theme is1 goes a long way to determine the method in which it shall be proclaimed4 ,the ,apostle says1 in the passage which is parallel to the present one1 in the previous chapter1 ',we preach ,christ crucified'2 with strong emphasis on the word 'preach4' ',the ,jew required a sign'2 he wanted a man who would do something4 ,the ,greek sought after wisdom2 he wanted a man who would perorate and argue and dissertate4 ,paul says1 ',no6' ',we have nothing to do4 ,we do not come to philosophise and to argue4 ,we come with a message of fact that has occurred1 of a ,person that has lived4' ,and1 as most of you know1 the word which he uses means in its full signification1 'to proclaim as a herald does4' ,of course1 if my business were to establish a set of principles1 theological or otherwise1 then argumentation would be my weapon1 proofs would be my means1 and my success would be that ,i should win your credence1 your intellectual consent1 and conviction4 ,if ,i were here to proclaim simply a morality1 then the thing that ,i would aim to secure would be obedience1 and the method of securing it would be to enforce the authority and reasonableness of the command4 ,but1 seeing that my task is to proclaim a living ,person and a historical fact1 then the way to do that is to do as the herald does when in the market-place he stands1 trumpet in one hand and the ,king's message in the other--proclaim it loudly1 confidently1 not 'with bated breath and whispering humbleness1' as if apologising1 nor too much concerned to buttress it up with argumentation out of his own head1 but to say1 ',thus saith the ,lord1' and to what the ,lord saith conscience says1 ',amen4' ,brethren1 we need far more1 in all our pulpits1 of that unhesitating confidence in the plain1 simple proclamation1 stripped1 as far as possible1 of human additions and accretions1 of the great fact and the great ,person on whom all our salvation depends4 ,,ii4 ,so let me ask you to notice the exclusiveness which this theme demands4 ',nothing but1' says ,paul4 ,i might venture to say--though perhaps the tone of the personal allusions in this sermon may seem to contradict it--that this exclusiveness is to be manifested in one very difficult direction1 and that that is1 the herald shall efface himself4 ,we have to hold up the picture2 and if ,i might take such a metaphor1 like a man in a gallery who is displaying some masterpiece to the eyes of the beholders1 we have to keep ourselves well behind it2 and it will be wise if not even a finger-tip is allowed to steal in front and come into sight4 ,one condition1 ,i believe1 of real power in the ministration of the ,gospel1 is that people shall be convinced that the preacher is thinking not at all about himself1 but altogether about his message4 ,you remember that wonderfully pathetic utterance from ,john the ,baptist's stern lips1 which derives much additional pathos and tenderness from the character of the man from whom it came1 when they asked him1 ',who art thou8' and his answer was1 ',i am a ,voice4' ,i am a ,voice2 that is all6 ,ah1 that is the example6 ,we preach not ourselves1 but ,christ ,jesus as ,lord4 ,we must efface ourselves if we would proclaim ,christ4 ,but ,i turn to another direction in which this theme demands exclusiveness1 and ,i revert to the previous chapter where in the parallel portion to the words of my text1 we find the ,apostle very clearly conscious of the two great streams of expectation and wish which he deliberately thwarted and set at nought4 ',the ,jews require a sign--but we preach ,christ crucified4 ,the ,greeks seek after wisdom1' but again1 'we preach ,christ crucified4' ,now1 take these two4 ,they are representations1 in a very emphatic way1 of two sets of desires and mental characteristics1 which divide the world between them4 ,on the one hand1 there is the sensuous tendency that wants something done for it1 something to see1 something that sense can grasp at2 and so1 as it fancies1 work itself upwards into a higher region4 ',the ,jew requires a sign'--that is1 not merely a miracle1 but something to look at4 ,he wants a visible sacrifice2 he wants a priest4 ,he wants religion to consist largely in the doing of certain acts which may be supposed to bring1 in some magical fashion1 spiritual blessings4 ,and ,paul opposes to that1 ',we preach ,christ crucified4' ,brethren1 the tendency is strong to-day1 not only in those parts of the ,anglican communion where sacramentarian theories are in favour1 but amongst all sections of the ,christian ,church1 in which there is obvious a drift towards more ornate ritual1 and aesthetic services1 as means of attracting to church or chapel1 and as more important than proclaiming ,christ4 ,i am free to confess that possibly some of us1 with our ,puritan upbringing and tendency1 too much disregard that side of human nature4 ,possibly it is so4 ,but for all that ,i profoundly believe that if religion is to be strong it must have a very1 very small infusion of these external aids to spiritual worship1 and that few things more weaken the power of the ,gospel that ,paul preached than the lowering of the flag in conformity with desires of men of sense1 and substituting for the simple glory of the preached ,word the meretricious1 and in time impotent1 and always corrupting1 attractions of a sensuous worship4 ,further1 ',the ,greeks seek after wisdom4' ,they wanted demonstration1 abstract principles1 systematised philosophies1 and the like4 ,paul comes again with his ',we preach ,christ and ,him crucified4' ,the wisdom is there1 as ,i shall have to say in a moment1 but the form that it takes is directly antagonistic to the wishes of these wisdom-seeking ,greeks4 ,the same thing in modern guise besets us to-day4 ,we are called upon1 on all sides1 to bring into the pulpit what they call an ethical gospel2 putting it into plain ,english1 to preach morality1 and to leave out ,christ4 ,we are called upon1 on all sides1 to preach an applied ,christianity1 a social gospel--that is to say1 largely to turn the pulpit into a ,sunday supplement to the daily newspaper4 ,we are asked to deal with the intellectual difficulties which spring from the collision of science1 true or false1 with religion1 and the like4 ,all that is right enough4 ,but ,i believe from my heart that the thing to do is to copy ,paul's example1 and to preach ,christ and ,him crucified4 ,you may think me right or you may think me wrong1 but here and now1 at the end of forty years1 ,i should like to say that ,i have for the most part ignored that class of subjects deliberately1 and of set purpose1 and with a profound conviction1 be it erroneous or not1 that a ministry which listens much to the cry for 'wisdom' in its modern forms1 has departed from the true perspective of ,christian teaching1 and will weaken the churches which depend upon it4 ,let who will turn the pulpit into a professor's chair1 or a lecturer's platform1 or a concert-room stage or a politician's rostrum1 ,i for one determine to know nothing among you save ,jesus ,christ and ,him crucified4 ,,iii4 ,lastly1 observe the all-sufficient comprehensiveness which this theme secures4 ,paul says 'nothing but'2 he might have said 'everything in4' ,for ',jesus ,christ and ,him crucified' covers all the ground of men's needs4 ,no doubt many of you will have been saying to yourselves whilst you have been listening1 if you have been listening1 to what ,i have been saying1 ',ah6 old-fashioned narrowness2 quite out of date in this generation4' ,brethren1 there are two ways of adapting one's ministry to the times4 ,one is falling in with the requirements of the times1 and the other is going dead against them1 and both of these methods have to be pursued by us4 ,but the exclusiveness of which ,i have been speaking1 is no narrow exclusiveness4 ,paul felt that1 if he was to give the ,corinthians what they needed1 he must refuse to give them what they wanted1 and that whilst he crossed their wishes he was consulting their necessities4 ,that is true yet1 for the preaching that bases itself upon the life and death of ,jesus ,christ1 conceived as ,paul had learned from ,jesus ,christ to conceive them1 that ,gospel1 whilst it brushes aside men's superficial wishes1 goes straight to the heart of their deep-lying universal necessities1 for what the ,jew needs most is not a sign1 and what the ,greek needs most is not wisdom1 but what they both need most is deliverance from the guilt and power of sin4 ,and we all1 scholars and fools1 poets and common-place people1 artists and ploughmen1 all of us1 in all conditions of life1 in all varieties of culture1 in all stages of intellectual development1 in all diversities of occupation and of mental bias1 what we all have in common is that human heart in which sin abides1 and what we all need most to have is that evil drop squeezed out of it1 and our souls delivered from the burden and the bondage4 ,therefore1 any man that comes with a sign1 and does not deal with the sin of the human heart1 and any man that comes with a philosophical system of wisdom1 and does not deal with sin1 does not bring a ,gospel that will meet the necessities even of the people to whose cravings he has been aiming to adapt his message4 ,but1 beyond that1 in this message of ,christ and ,him crucified1 there lies in germ the satisfaction of all that is legitimate in these desires that at first sight it seems to thwart4 ',a sign8' ,yes1 and where is there power like the power that dwells in ,him who is the ,incarnate might of omnipotence8 ',wisdom8' ,yes1 and where is there wisdom1 except 'in ,him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge'8 ,let the ,jew come to the ,cross1 and in the weak ,man hanging there1 he will find a mightier revelation of the power of ,god than anywhere else4 ,let the ,greek come to the ,cross1 and there he will find wisdom and righteousness1 sanctification and redemption4 ,the bases of all social1 economical1 political reform and well-being1 lie in the understanding and the application to social and national life1 of the principles that are wrapped in1 and are deduced from1 the ,incarnation and the ,sacrifice of ,jesus ,christ4 ,we have not learned them all yet4 ,they have not all been applied to national and individual life yet4 ,i plead for no narrow exclusiveness1 but for one consistent with the widest application of ,christian principles to all life4 ,paul determined to know nothing but ,jesus1 and to know everything in ,jesus1 and ,jesus in everything4 ,do not begin your building at the second-floor windows4 ,put in your foundations first1 and be sure that they are well laid4 ,let the ,sacrifice of ,christ1 in its application to the individual and his sins1 be ever the basis of all that you say4 ,and then1 when that foundation is laid1 exhibit1 to your heart's content1 the applications of ,christianity and its social aspects4 ,but be sure that the beginning of them all is the work of ,christ for the individual sinful soul1 and the acceptance of that work by personal faith4 ,dear friends1 ours has been a long and happy union but it is a very solemn one4 ,my responsibilities are great2 yours are not small4 ,let me beseech you to ask yourselves if1 with all your kindness to the messenger1 you have given heed to the message4 ,have you passed beyond the voice that speaks1 to ,him of whom it speaks8 ,have you taken the truth--veiled and weakened as ,i know it has been by my words1 but yet in them--for what it is1 the word of the living ,god8 ,my occupancy of this pulpit must in the nature of things1 before long1 come to a close1 but the message which ,i have brought to you will survive all changes in the voice that speaks here4 ',all flesh is grass 444 the ,word of the ,lord endureth for ever4' ,and1 closing these forty years1 during a long part of which some of you have listened most lovingly and most forbearingly1 ,i leave with you this1 which ,i venture to quote1 though it is my ,master's word about ,himself1 ',i judge you not2 the word which ,i have spoken unto you1 the same shall judge you in the last day4' ,,god',s ,,fellow-,,workers ',labourers together with ,god4'--#a ,,cor4 iii4 #i4 ,the characteristic ,greek tendency to factions was threatening to rend the ,corinthian ,church1 and each faction was swearing by a favourite teacher4 ,paul and his companion1 ,apollos1 had been taken as the figureheads of two of these parties1 and so he sets himself in the context1 first of all to show that neither of the two was of any real importance in regard to the ,church's life4 ,they were like a couple of gardeners1 one of whom did the planting1 and the other the watering2 but neither the man that put the little plant into the ground1 nor the man that came after him with a watering-pot1 had anything to do with originating the mystery of the life by which the plant grew4 ,that was ,god's work1 and the pair that had planted and watered were nothing4 ,so what was the use of fighting which of two nothings was the greater8 ,but then he bethinks himself that that is not quite all4 ,the man that plants and the man that waters are something after all4 ,they do not communicate life1 but they do provide for its nourishment4 ,and more than that1 the two operations--that of the man with the dibble and that of the man with the watering-pot--are one in issue2 and so they are partners1 and in some respects may be regarded as one4 ,then what is the sense of pitting them against each other8 ,but even that is not quite all2 though united in operation1 they are separate in responsibility and activity1 and will be separate in reward4 ,and even that is not all2 for1 being nothing and yet something1 being united and yet separate1 they are taken into participation and co-operation with ,god2 and as my text puts it1 in what is almost a presumptuous phrase1 they are 'labourers together with ,him4' ,that partnership of co-operation is not merely a partnership of the two1 but it is a partnership of the three--,god and the two who1 in some senses1 are one4 ,now whilst this text is primarily spoken in regard to the apostolic and evangelistic work of these early teachers1 the principle which it embodies is a very wide one1 and it applies in all regions of life and activity1 intellectual1 scholastic1 philanthropic1 social4 ,where-ever men are thinking ,god's thoughts and trying to carry into effect any phase or side of ,god's manifold purposes of good and blessing to the world1 there it is true4 ,we claim no special or exclusive prerogative for the ,christian teacher4 ,every man that is trying to make men understand ,god's thought1 whether it is expressed in creation1 or whether it is written in history1 or whether it is carven in half-obliterated letters on the constitution of human nature1 every man who1 in any region of society or life1 is seeking to effect the great designs of the universal loving ,father--can take to himself1 in the measure and according to the manner of his special activity1 the great encouragement of my text1 and feel that he1 too1 in his little way1 is a fellow-helper to the truth and a fellow-worker with ,god4 ,but then1 of course1 according to ,new ,testament teaching1 and according to the realities of the case1 the highest form in which men thus can co-operate with ,god1 and carry into effect ,his purposes is that in which men devote themselves1 either directly or indirectly1 to spreading throughout the whole world the name and the power of the ,saviour ,jesus ,christ1 in whom all ,god's will is gathered1 and through whom all ,god's blessings are communicated to mankind4 ,so the thought of my text comes appropriately when ,i have to bring before you the claims of our missionary operations4 ,now1 the first way in which ,i desire to look at this great idea expressed in these words1 is that we find in it ,i4 ,a solemn thought4 ',labourers together with ,god4' ,cannot ,he do it all ,himself8 ,no4 ,god needs men to carry out ,his purposes4 ,true1 on the ,cross1 ,jesus spoke the triumphant word1 ',it is finished6' ,he did not thereby simply mean that ,he had completed all ,his suffering2 but ,he meant that ,he had then done all which the world needed to have done in order that it should be a redeemed world4 ,but for the distribution and application of that finished work ,god depends on men4 ,you all know1 in your own daily businesses1 how there must be a middleman between the mill and the consumer4 ,the question of organising a distributing agency is quite as important as any other part of the manufacturer's business4 ,the great reservoir is full1 but there has to be a system of irrigating-channels by which the water is carried into every corner of the field that is to be watered4 ,christian men individually1 and the ,church collectively1 supply--may ,i call it the missing link8--between a redeeming ,saviour and the world which ,he has redeemed in act1 but which is not actually redeemed1 until it has received the message of the great ,redemption that is wrought4 ,the supernatural is implanted in the very heart of the mass of leaven by the ,incarnation and ,sacrifice of ,jesus ,christ2 but the spreading of that supernatural revelation is left in the hands of men who work through natural processes1 and who thus become labourers together with ,god1 and enable ,christ to be to single souls1 in blessed reality1 what ,he is potentially to the world1 and has been ever since4 ,he died upon the ,cross4 ',it is finished4' ,yes--because it is finished1 our work begins4 ,let me remind you of the profound symbolism in that incident where our ,lord for once appeared conspicuously1 and almost ostentatiously1 before ,israel as its true ,king4 ,he had need--as ,he ,himself said--of the meek beast on which ,he rode4 ,he cannot pass1 in ,his coronation procession1 through the world unless ,he has us1 by whom ,he may be carried into every corner of the earth4 ,so 'the ,lord has need' of us1 and we are 'fellow-labourers with ,him4' ,but this same thought suggests another point4 ,we have here a solemn call addressed to every ,christian man and woman4 ,do not let us run away with the idea that1 because here the ,apostle is speaking in regard to himself and ,apollos1 he is enunciating a truth which applies only to ,apostles and evangelists4 ,it is true of all ,christians4 ,my knowledge of and faith in ,jesus ,christ as my own personal ,saviour impose upon me the obligation1 in so far as my opportunities and capacities extend1 thus to co-operate with ,him in spreading ,his great ,name4 ,every ,christian man1 just because he is a ,christian1 is invested with the power--and power to its last particle is duty--and is1 therefore1 burdened with the honourable obligation to work for ,god4 ,there is such a thing as 'coming to the help of the ,lord1' though that phrase seems to reverse altogether the true relation4 ,it is the duty of every ,christian1 partly because of loyalty to ,jesus1 and partly because of the responsibility which the very constitution of society lays upon every one of us1 to diffuse what he possesses1 and to be a distributing agent for the life that he himself enjoys4 ,brethren6 there is no possibility of ,christian men or women being fully faithful to the ,saviour1 unless they recognise that the duty of being a fellow-labourer with ,god inevitably follows on being a possessor of ,christ's salvation2 and that no ,apostle1 no official1 no minister1 no missionary1 has any more necessity laid upon him to preach the ,gospel1 nor pulls down any heavier woe on himself if he is unfaithful1 than has and does each one of ,christ's servants4 ,so 'we are fellow-labourers with ,god4' ,alas6 alas6 how poorly the average ,christian realises--,i do not say discharges1 but realises--that obligation6 ,brethren1 ,i do not wish to find fault1 but ,i do beseech you to ask yourselves whether1 if you are ,christians1 you are doing anything the least like what my text contemplates as the duty of all ,christians4 ,may ,i say a word or two with regard to another aspect of this solemn call8 ,does not the thought of working along with ,god prescribe for us the sort of work that we ought to do8 ,we ought to work in ,god's fashion1 and if we wish to know what ,god's fashion is1 we have but to look at ,jesus ,christ4 ,we ought to work in ,jesus ,christ's fashion4 ,we all know what that involved of self-sacrifice1 of pain1 of weariness1 of utter self-oblivious devotion1 of gentleness1 of tenderness1 of infinite pity1 of love running over4 ',the master's eye makes a good servant4' ,the ,master's hand working along with the servant ought to make the servant work after the ,master's fashion4 ',as ,my ,father hath sent ,me1 so send ,i you4' ,if we felt that side by side with us1 like two sailors hauling on one rope1 'the ,servant of the ,lord' was toiling1 do you not think it would burn up all our selfishness1 and light up all our indifference1 and make us spend ourselves in ,his service8 ,a fellow-labourer with ,god will surely never be lazy and selfish4 ,thus my text has in it1 to begin with1 a solemn call4 ,it suggests ,,ii4 ,a signal honour4 ,suppose a great painter1 a ,raphael or a ,turner1 taking a little boy that cleaned his brushes1 and saying to him1 ',come into my studio1 and ,i will let you do a bit of work upon my picture4' ,suppose an aspirant1 an apprentice in any walk of life1 honoured by being permitted to work along with some one who was recognised all over the world as being at the very top of that special profession4 ,would it not be a feather in the boy's cap all his life8 ,and would he not think it the greatest honour that ever had been done him that he was allowed to co-operate1 in however inferior a fashion1 with such an one8 ,jesus ,christ says to us1 ',come and work here side by side with ,me1' ,but ,christian men1 plenty of them1 answer1 ',it is a perpetual nuisance1 this continual application for money6 money6 money6 work6 work6 work6 ,it is never-ending1 and it is a burden6' ,yes1 it is a burden1 just because it is an honour4 ,do you know that the ,hebrew word which means 'glory' literally means 'weight'8 ,there is a great truth in that4 ,you cannot get true honours unless you are prepared to carry them as burdens4 ,and the highest honour that ,jesus ,christ gives to men when ,he says to them1 not only ',go work to-day in ,my vineyard1' but ',come1 work here side by side with ,me1' is a heavy weight which can only be lightened by a cheerful heart4 ,is it not the right way to look at all the various forms of ,christian activity which are made imperative upon ,christian people1 by their possession of ,christianity as being tokens of ,christ's love to us8 ,do you remember that this same ,apostle said1 ',unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given1 that ,i should preach the unsearchable riches of ,christ8' ,he could speak about burdens and heavy tasks1 and being 'persecuted but not forsaken1' almost crushed down and yet not in despair1 and about the weights that came upon him daily1 'the care of all the churches1' but far beneath all the sense of his heavy load lay the thrill of thankful wonder that to him1 of all men in the world1 knowing as he did better than anybody else could do his own imperfection and insufficiency1 this distinguishing honour had been bestowed1 that he was made the ,apostle to the ,gentiles4 ,that is the way in which the true man will always look at what the selfish man1 and the half-and-half ,christian1 look at as being a weight and a weariness1 or a disagreeable duty1 which is to be done as perfunctorily as possible4 ,one question that a great many who call themselves ,christians ask is1 ',with how little service can ,i pass muster8' ,ah1 it is because we have so little of the ,spirit of ,christ in us that we feel burdened by ,his command1 ',go ye into all the world1' as being so heavy2 and that so many of us--,i leave you to judge if you are in the class--so many of us make it criminally light if we do not ignore it altogether4 ,i believe that1 if it were possible to conceive of the duty and privilege of spreading ,christ's name in the world being withdrawn from the ,church1 all ,his real servants would soon be yearning to have it back again4 ,it is a token of ,his love2 it is a source of infinite blessings to ourselves2 'if the house be not worthy1 your peace shall return to you again4' ,and now1 lastly1 we have suggested by this text ,,iii4 ,a strong encouragement4 ',fellow-labourers with ,god'--then1 ,god is a ,fellow-labourer with us4 ,the co-operation works both ways1 and no man who is seeking to spread that great salvation1 to distribute that great wealth1 to irrigate some little corner of the field by some little channel that he has dug1 needs to feel that he is labouring alone4 ,if ,i am working with ,god1 ,god is working with me4 ,do you remember that most striking picture which is drawn in the verses appended to ,mark's ,gospel1 which tells how the universe seemed parted into two halves1 and up above in the serene the ,lord 'sat on the right hand of ,god1' while below1 in the murky and obscure1 'they went everywhere preaching the ,word4' ,the separation seems complete1 but the two halves are brought together by the next word--',the ,lord also1' sitting up yonder1 'working with them' the wandering preachers down here1 'confirming the words with signs following4' ,ascended on high1 entered into ,his rest1 having finished ,his work1 ,he yet is working with us1 if we are labourers together with ,god4 ,if we turn to the last book of ,scripture1 which draws back the curtain from the invisible world which is all filled with the glorified ,christ1 and shows its relations to the earthly militant church1 we read no longer of a ,christ enthroned in apparent ease1 but of a ,christ walking amidst the candlesticks1 and of a ,lamb standing in the midst of the ,throne1 and opening the seals1 launching forth into the world the sequences of the world's history1 and of the ,word of ,god charging ,his enemies on ,his white horse1 and behind ,him the armies of ,god following4 ,the workers who labour with ,god have the ascended ,christ labouring with them4 ,but if ,god works with us1 success is sure4 ,then comes the old question that ,gideon asked with bitterness of heart1 when he was threshing out his handful of wheat in a corner to avoid the oppressors1 ',if the ,lord be with us1 wherefore is all this come upon us8 ,will any one say that the progress of the ,gospel in the world has been at the rate which its early believers expected1 or at the rate which its own powers warranted them to expect8 ,certainly not4 ,and so it comes to this1 that whilst every true labourer has ,god working with him1 and therefore success is certain1 the planter and the waterer can delay the growth of the plant by their unfaithfulness1 by not expecting success1 by not so working as to make it likely1 or by neutralising their evangelistic efforts by their worldly lives4 ,when ,jesus ,christ was on earth1 it is recorded1 ',he could there do no mighty works because of their unbelief1 save that ,he laid ,his hands on a few sick folk and healed them4' ,a faithless ,church1 a worldly ,church1 a lazy ,church1 an unspiritual ,church1 an un-,christlike ,church--which1 to a large extent1 is the designation of the so-called ,church of to day--can clog ,his chariot-wheels1 can thwart the work1 can hamper the ,divine ,worker4 ,if the ,christians of ,manchester were revived1 they could win ,manchester for ,jesus4 ,if the ,christians of ,england lived their ,christianity1 they could make ,england what it never has been but in name--a ,christian country4 ,if the ,church universal were revived1 it could win the world4 ,if the single labourer1 or the community of such1 is labouring 'in the ,lord1' their labour will not be in vain2 and if they thus plant and water1 ,god will give the increase4 ,,the ,,testing ,,fire ',now if any man build upon this foundation gold1 silver1 precious stones1 wood1 hay1 stubble3 #ac4 ,every man's work shall be made manifest3 for the day shall declare it1 because it shall be revealed by fire2 and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is4'--#a ,,cor4 iii4 #ab1 #ac4 ,before ,i enter upon the ideas which the words suggest1 my exegetical conscience binds me to point out that the original application of the text is not exactly that which ,i purpose to make of it now4 ,the context shows that the ,apostle is thinking about the special subject of ,christian teachers and their work1 and that the builders of whom he speaks are the men in the ,corinthian ,church1 some of them his allies and some of them his rivals1 who were superimposing upon the foundation of the preaching of ,jesus ,christ other doctrines and principles4 ,the 'wood1 hay1 stubble' are the vapid and trivial doctrines which the false teachers were introducing into the ,church4 ,the 'gold1 silver1 and precious stones' are the solid and substantial verities which ,paul and his friends were proclaiming4 ,and it is about these1 and not about the ,christian life in the general1 that the tremendous metaphors of my text are uttered4 ,but whilst that is true1 the principles involved have a much wider range than the one case to which the ,apostle applies them4 ,and1 though ,i may be slightly deflecting the text from its original direction1 ,i am not doing violence to it1 if ,i take it as declaring some very plain and solemn truths applicable to all ,christian people1 in their task of building up a life and character on the foundation of ,jesus ,christ2 truths which are a great deal too much forgotten in our modern popular ,christianity1 and which it concerns us all very clearly to keep in view4 ,there are three things here that ,i wish to say a word about--the patchwork building1 the testing fire1 the fate of the builders4 ,i4 ,first1 the patchwork structure4 ',if any man build upon this foundation gold1 silver1 precious stones1 wood1 hay1 stubble4' ,in the original application of the metaphor1 ,paul is thinking of all these teachers in that church at ,corinth as being engaged in building the one structure--,i venture to deflect here1 and to regard each of us as rearing our own structure of life and character on the foundation of the preached and accepted ,christ4 ,now1 what the ,apostle says is that these builders were1 some of them1 laying valuable things like gold and silver and costly stones--by which he does not mean jewels1 but marbles1 alabasters1 polished porphyry or granite1 and the like2 sumptuous building materials1 which were employed in great palaces or temples--and that some of them were bringing timber1 hay1 stubble1 reeds gathered from the marshes or the like1 and filling in with such trash as that4 ,that is a picture of what a great many ,christian people are doing in their own lives--the same man building one course of squared and solid and precious stones1 and topping them with rubbish4 ,you will see in the walls of ,jerusalem1 at the base1 five or six courses of those massive blocks which are the wonders of the world yet2 well jointed1 well laid1 well cemented1 and then on the top of them a mass of poor stuff1 heaped together anyhow2 scamped work--may ,i use a modern vulgarism8--'jerry-building4' ,you may go to some modern village1 on an ancient historic site1 and you will find built into the mud walls of the hovels in which the people are living1 a marble slab with fair carving on it1 or the drum of a great column of veined marble1 and on the top of that1 timber and clay mixed together4 ,that is the type of the sort of life that hosts of ,christian people are living4 ,for1 mark1 all the builders are on the foundation4 ,paul is not speaking about mere professed ,christians who had no faith at all in them1 and no real union with ,jesus ,christ4 ,these builders were 'on the foundation'2 they were building on the foundation1 there was a principle deep down in their lives--which really lay at the bottom of their lives--and yet had not come to such dominating power as to mould and purify and make harmonious with itself the life that was reared upon it4 ,we all know that that is the condition of many men1 that they have what really are the fundamental bases of their lives1 in belief and aim and direction2 and which yet are not strong enough to master the whole of the life1 and to manifest themselves through it4 ,especially it is the condition of some ,christian people4 ,they have a real faith1 but it is of the feeblest and most rudimentary kind4 ,they are on the foundation1 but their lives are interlaced with the most heterogeneous mixty-maxty of good and evil1 of lofty1 high1 self-sacrificing thoughts and heavenward aspirations1 of resolutions never carried out into practice2 and side by side with these there shall be meannesses1 selfishnesses1 tempers1 dispositions all contradictory of the former impulses4 ,one moment they are all fire and love1 the next moment ice and selfishness4 ,one day they are all for ,god1 the next day all for the world1 the flesh1 and the devil4 ,jacob sees the open heavens and the face of ,god and vows2 to-morrow he meets ,laban and drops to shifty ways4 ,peter leaves all and follows his ,master1 and in a little while the fervour has gone1 and the fire has died down into grey ashes1 and a flippant servant-girl's tongue leads him to say ',i know not the man4' ',gold1 silver1 precious stones1' and topping them1 'wood1 hay1 stubble6' ,the inconsistencies of the ,christian life are what my text1 in the application that ,i am venturing to make of it1 suggests to us4 ,ah1 dear friends6 we do not need to go to ,jacob and ,peter2 let us look at our own hearts1 and if we will honestly examine one day of our lives1 ,i think we shall understand how it is possible for a man1 on the foundation1 yet to build upon it these worthless and combustible things1 'wood1 hay1 stubble4' ,we are not to suppose that one man builds only 'gold1 silver1 precious stones4' ,there is none of us that does that4 ,and we are not to suppose that any man who is on the foundations has so little grasp of it1 as that he builds only 'wood1 hay1 stubble4' ,there is none of us who has not intermingled his building1 and there is none of us1 if we are ,christians at all1 who has not sometimes laid a course of 'precious stones4' ,if your faith is doing nothing for you except bringing to you a belief that you are not going to hell when you die1 then it is no faith at all4 ',faith without works is dead4' ,so there is a mingling in the best1 and--thank ,god6--there is a mingling of good with evil1 in the worst of real ,christian people4 ,,ii4 ,note here1 the testing fire4 ,paul points to two things1 the day and the fire4 ',the day shall declare it1' that is the day on which ,jesus ,christ comes to be the ,judge2 and it1 that is 'the day1' 'shall be revealed in fire2 and the fire shall test every man's work4' ,now1 it is to be noticed that here we are moving altogether in the region of lofty symbolism1 and that the metaphor of the testing fire is suggested by the previous enumeration of building materials1 gold and silver being capable of being assayed by flame2 and 'wood1 hay1 stubble' being combustible1 and sure to be destroyed thereby4 ,the fire here is not an emblem of punishment2 it is not an emblem of cleansing4 ,there is no reference to anything in the nature of what ,roman ,catholics call purgatorial fires4 ,the allusion is simply to some stringent and searching means of testing the quality of a man's work1 and of revealing that quality4 ,so then1 we come just to this1 that for people 'on the foundation1' there is a ,day of revelation and testing of their life's work4 ,it is a great misfortune that so-called ,evangelical ,christianity does not say as much as the ,new ,testament says about the judgment that is to be passed on 'the house of ,god4' ,people seem to think that the great doctrine of salvation1 'not by works of righteousness which we have done1 but by ,his mercy1' is1 somehow or other1 interfered with when we proclaim1 as ,paul proclaims1 speaking to ,christian people1 ',we must be manifested before the judgment seat of ,christ1' and declares that ',every man will receive the things done in his body1 according to that he has done1 whether it be good or bad4' ,paul saw no contradiction1 and there is no contradiction4 ,but a great many professing ,christians seem to think that the great blessing of their salvation by faith is1 that they are exempt from that future revelation and testing and judgment of their acts4 ,that is not the ,new ,testament teaching4 ,but1 on the contrary1 ',whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap1' was originally said to a church of ,christian people4 ,and here we come full front against that solemn truth1 that the ,lord will 'gather together ,his saints1 those that have made a covenant with ,him by sacrifice1 that ,he may judge ,his people4' ,never mind about the drapery1 the symbolism1 the expression in material forms with which that future judgment is arranged1 in order that we may the more easily grasp it4 ,remember that these pictures in the ,new ,testament of a future judgment are highly symbolical1 and not to be interpreted as if they were plain prose2 but also remember that the heart of them is this1 that there comes for ,christian people as for all others1 a time when the light will shine down upon their past1 and will flash its rays into the dark chambers of memory1 and when men will--to themselves if not to others--be revealed 'in the day when the ,lord shall judge the secrets of men according to my ,gospel4' ,we have all experience enough of how but a few years1 a change of circumstances1 or a growth into another stage of development1 give us fresh eyes with which to estimate the moral quality of our past4 ,many a thing1 which we thought to be all right at the time when we did it1 looks to us now very questionable and a plain mistake4 ,and when we shift our stations to up yonder1 and get rid of all this blinding medium of flesh and sense1 and have the issues of our acts in our possession1 and before our sight--ah6 we shall think very differently of a great many things from what we think of them now4 ,judgment will begin at the house of ,god4 ,and there is the other thought1 that the fire which reveals and tests has also in it a power of destruction4 ,gold and silver will lose no atom of their weight1 and will be brightened into greater lustre as they flash back the beams4 ,the timber and the stubble will go up in a flare1 and die down into black ashes4 ,that is highly metaphorical1 of course4 ,what does it mean8 ,it means that some men's work will be crumpled up and perish1 and be as of none effect1 leaving a great1 black sorrowful gap in the continuity of the structure1 and that other men's work will stand4 ,everything that we do is1 in one sense1 immortal1 because it is represented in our final character and condition1 just as a thin stratum of rock will represent forests of ferns that grew for one summer millenniums ago1 or clouds of insects that danced for an hour in the sun4 ,but whilst that is so1 and nothing human ever dies1 on the other hand1 deeds which have been in accordance1 as it were1 with the great stream that sweeps the universe on its bosom will float on that surface and never sink4 ,acts which have gone against the rush of ,god's will through creation will be like a child's go-cart that comes against the engine of an express train--be reduced1 first1 to stillness1 all the motion knocked out of them1 and then will be crushed to atoms4 ,deeds which stand the test will abide in blessed issue for the doer1 and deeds which do not will pass away in smoke1 and leave only ashes4 ,some of us1 building on the foundation1 have built more rubbish than solid work1 and that will be ',cast as rubbish to the void ,when ,god has made the pile complete4' ,,iii4 ,so1 lastly1 we have here the fate of the two builders4 ,the one man gets wages4 ,that is not the bare notion of salvation1 for both builders are conceived of as on the foundation1 and both are saved4 ,he gets wages4 ,yes1 of course6 ,the architect has to give his certificate before the builder gets his cheque4 ,the weaver1 who has been working his hand-loom at his own house1 has to take his web to the counting-house and have it overlooked before he gets his pay4 ,and the man who has built 'gold1 silver1 precious stones1' will have--over and above the initial salvation--in himself the blessed consequences1 and unfold the large results1 of his faithful service2 while the other man1 inasmuch as he has not such work1 cannot have the consequences of it1 and gets no wages2 or at least his pay is subject to heavy deductions for the spoiled bits in the cloth1 and for the gaps in the wall4 ,the ,apostle employs a tremendous metaphor here1 which is masked in our ,authorised ,version1 but is restored in the ,revised4 ',he shall be saved1 yet so as' 7not 'by' but7 'through fire'2 the picture being that of a man surrounded by a conflagration1 and making a rush through the flames to get to a place of safety4 ,paul says that he will get through1 because down below all inconsistency and worldliness1 there was a little of that which ought to have been above all the inconsistency and the worldliness--a true faith in ,jesus ,christ4 ,but because it was so imperfect1 so feeble1 so little operative in his life as that it could not keep him from piling up inconsistencies into his wall1 therefore his salvation is so as through the fire4 ,brethren1 ,i dare not enlarge upon that great metaphor4 ,it is meant for us professing ,christians1 real and imperfect ,christians--it is meant for us2 and it just tells us that there are degrees in that future blessedness proportioned to present faithfulness4 ,we begin there where we left off here4 ,that future is not a dead level2 and they who have earnestly striven to work out their faith into their lives shall 'summer high upon the hills of ,god4' ,one man1 like ,paul in his shipwreck1 shall lose ship and lading1 though 'on broken pieces of the ship' he may 'escape safe to land'2 and another shall make the harbour with full cargo of works of faith1 to be turned into gold when he lands4 ,if we build1 as we all may1 'on that foundation1 gold and silver and precious stones1' an entrance 'shall be ministered unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our ,lord and ,saviour ,jesus ,christ'2 whilst if we bring a preponderance of 'wood1 hay1 stubble1' we shall be 'saved1 yet so as through the fire4' ,,temples ,,of ,,god ',know ye not that ye are the temple of ,god8'--#a ,,cor4 iii4 #af ,the great purpose of ,christianity is to make men like ,jesus ,christ4 ,as ,he is the image of the invisible ,god we are to be the images of the unseen ,christ4 ,the ,scripture is very bold and emphatic in attributing to ,christ's followers likeness to ,him1 in nature1 in character1 in relation to the world1 in office1 and in ultimate destiny4 ,is ,he the anointed of ,god8 ,we are anointed--,christs in ,him4 ,is ,he the ,son of ,god8 ,we in ,him receive the adoption of sons4 ,is ,he the ,light of the world8 ,we in ,him are lights of the world too4 ,is ,he a ,king8 ,a ,priest8 ,he hath made us to be kings and priests4 ,here we have the ,apostle making the same solemn assertion in regard to ,christian men1 ',know ye not that ye are'--as your ,master1 and because your ,master is--'that ye are the temple of ,god1 and that the ,spirit of ,god dwelleth in you8' ,of course the allusion in my text is to the whole aggregate of believers--what we call the ,catholic ,church1 as being collectively the habitation of ,god4 ,but ,god cannot dwell in an aggregate of men1 unless ,he dwells in the individuals that compose the aggregate4 ,and ,god has nothing to do with institutions except through the people who make the institutions4 ,and so1 if the ,church as a whole is a ,temple1 it is only because all its members are temples of ,god4 ,therefore1 without forgetting the great blessed lesson of the unity of the ,church which is taught in these words1 ,i want rather to deal with them in their individual application now2 and to try and lay upon your consciences1 dear brethren1 the solemn obligations and the intense practical power which this ,apostle associated with the thought that each ,christian man was1 in very deed1 a temple of ,god4 ,it would be very easy to say eloquent things about this text1 but that is no part of my purpose4 ,i4 ,let me deal1 first of all1 and only for a moment or two1 with the underlying thought that is here--that every ,christian is a dwelling-place of ,god4 ,now1 do not run away with the idea that that is a metaphor4 ,it was the outward temple that was the metaphor4 ,the reality is that which you and ,i1 if we are ,god's children in ,jesus ,christ1 experience4 ,there was no real sense in which that ,mighty ,one whom the ,heaven of ,heavens cannot contain1 dwelt in any house made with hands4 ,but the ,temple1 and all the outward worship1 were but symbolical of the facts of the ,christian life1 and the realities of our inward experience4 ,these are the truths whereof the other is the shadow4 ,we use words to which it is difficult for us to attach any meaning1 when we talk about ,god as being locally present in any material building2 but we do not use words to which it is so difficult to attach a meaning1 when we talk about the ,infinite ,spirit as being present and abiding in a spirit shaped to hold ,him1 and made on purpose to touch ,him and be filled by ,him4 ,all creatures have ,god dwelling in them in the measure of their capacity4 ,the stone that you kick on the road would not be there if there were not a present ,god4 ,nothing would happen if there were not abiding in creatures the force1 at any rate1 which is ,god4 ,but just as in this great atmosphere in which we all live and move and have our being1 the eye discerns undulations which make light1 and the ear catches vibrations which make sound1 and the nostrils are recipient of motions which bring fragrance1 and all these are in the one atmosphere1 and the sense that apprehends one is utterly unconscious of the other1 so ,god's creatures1 each through some little narrow slit1 and in the measure of their capacity1 get a straggling beam from ,him into their being1 and therefore they are4 ,but high above all other ways in which creatures can lie patent to ,god1 and open for the influx of a ,divine ,indweller1 lies the way of faith and love4 ,whosoever opens his heart in these divinely-taught emotions1 and fixes them upon the ,christ in whom ,god dwells1 receives into the very roots of his being--as the water that trickles through the soil to the rootlets of the tree--the very ,godhead ,himself4 ',he that is joined to the ,lord is one spirit4' ,that ,god shall dwell in my heart is possible only from the fact that ,he dwelt in all ,his fulness in ,christ1 through whom ,i touch ,him4 ,that ,temple consecrates all heart-shrines2 and all worshippers that keep near to ,him1 partake with ,him of the ,father that dwelt in ,him4 ,only remember that in ,christ ,god dwelt completely1 all 'the fulness of the ,godhead bodily' was there1 but in us it is but partially2 that in ,christ1 therefore1 the divine indwelling was uniform and invariable1 but in us it fluctuates1 and sometimes is more intimate and blessed1 and sometimes ,he leaves the habitation when we leave ,him2 that in ,christ1 therefore1 there was no progress in the divine indwelling1 but that in us1 if there be any true inhabitation of our souls by ,god1 that abiding will become more and more1 until every corner of our being is hallowed and filled with the searching effulgence of the all-pervasive ,light4 ,and let us remember that ,god dwelt in ,christ1 but that in us it is ,god in ,christ who dwells4 ,so to ,him we owe it all1 that our poor hearts are made the dwelling-place of ,god2 or1 as this ,apostle puts it1 in other words conveying the same idea1 ',ye are built upon the foundation of the ,apostles and prophets1 ,jesus ,christ ,himself being the chief ,corner-stone2 in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth 444 for a habitation of ,god through the ,spirit4' ,,ii4 ,now then1 turning from this underlying idea of the passage1 let us look1 for a moment1 at some of the many applications of which the great thought is susceptible4 ,i remark1 then1 in the second place1 that as temples all ,christians are to be manifesters of ,god4 ,the meaning of the ,temple as of all temples was1 that there the indwelling ,deity should reveal ,himself2 and if it be true that we ,christian men and women are1 in this deep and blessed reality of which ,i have been speaking1 the abiding places and habitations of ,god1 then it follows that we shall stand in the world as the great means by which ,god is manifested and made known1 and that in a two-fold way2 to ourselves and to other people4 ,the real revelation of ,god to our hearts must be ,his abiding in our hearts4 ,we do not learn ,god until we possess ,god4 ,he must fill our souls before we know ,his sweetness4 ,the answer that our ,lord made to one of ,his disciples is full of the deepest truth4 ',how is it1' said one of them in his blundering way1 'how is it that ,thou wilt manifest ,thyself to us8' ,and the answer was1 ',we will come and make ,our abode with him4' ,you do not know ,god until1 if ,i might so say1 ,he sits at your fireside and talks with you in your hearts4 ,just as some wife may have a husband whom the world knows as hero1 or sage1 or orator1 but she knows him as nobody else can2 so the outside1 and if ,i may so say1 the public character of ,god is but the surface of the revelation that ,he makes to us1 when in the deepest secrecy of our own hearts ,he pours ,himself into our waiting spirits4 ,o brethren6 it is within the curtains of the ,holiest of all that the ,shekinah flashes2 it is within our own hearts1 shrined and templed there1 that ,god reveals ,himself to us1 as ,he does not unto the world4 ,and then1 further1 ,christian men1 as the temples and habitations of ,god1 are appointed to be the great means of making ,him known to the world around4 ,the eye that cannot look at the sun can look at the rosy clouds that lie on either side of it1 and herald its rising2 their opalescent tints and pearly lights are beautiful to dim vision1 to which the sun itself is too bright to be looked upon4 ,men will believe in a gentle ,christ when they see you gentle4 ,they will believe in a righteous love when they see it manifesting itself in you4 ,you are 'the secretaries of ,god's praise1' as ,george ,herbert has it4 ,he dwells in your hearts that out of your lives ,he may be revealed4 ,the pictures in a book of travels1 or the diagrams in a mathematical work1 tell a great deal more in half a dozen lines than can be put into as many pages of dry words4 ,and it is not books of theology nor eloquent sermons1 but it is a ,church glowing with the glory of ,god1 and manifestly all flushed with ,his light and majesty1 that will have power to draw men to believe in the ,god whom it reveals4 ,when explorers land upon some untravelled island and meet the gentle inhabitants with armlets of rough gold upon their wrists1 they say there must be many a gold-bearing rock of quartz crystal in the interior of the land4 ,and if you present yourselves1 ,christian men and women1 to the world with the likeness of your ,master plain upon you1 then people will believe in the ,christianity that you profess4 ,you have to popularise the ,gospel in the fashion in which go-betweens and middlemen between students and the populace popularise science4 ,you have to make it possible for men to believe in the ,christ because they see ,christ in you4 ',know ye not that ye are the temples of the living ,god8' ,let ,his light shine from you4 ,,iii4 ,i remark again that as temples all ,christian lives should be places of sacrifice4 ,what is the use of a temple without worship8 ,and what kind of worship is that in which the centre point is not an altar8 ,that is the sort of temple that a great many professing ,christians are4 ,they have forgotten the altar in their spiritual architecture4 ,have you got one in your heart8 ,it is but a poor1 half-furnished sanctuary that has not4 ,where is yours8 ,the key and the secret of all noble life is to yield up one's own will1 to sacrifice oneself4 ,there never was anything done in this world worth doing1 and there never will be till the end of time1 of which sacrifice is not the centre and inspiration4 ,and the difference between all other and lesser nobilities of life1 and the supreme beauty of a true ,christian life is that the sacrifice of the ,christian is properly a sacrifice--that is1 an offering to ,god1 done for the sake of the great love wherewith ,he has loved us4 ,as ,christ is the one true ,temple1 and we become so by partaking of ,him1 so ,he is the one ,sacrifice for sins for ever1 and we become sacrifices only through ,him4 ,if there be any lesson which comes out of this great truth of ,christians as temples1 it is not a lesson of pluming ourselves on our dignity1 or losing ourselves in the mysticisms which lie near this truth1 but it is the hard lesson--,if a temple1 then an altar2 if an altar1 then a sacrifice4 ',ye are built up a spiritual house1 a holy priesthood1 that ye may offer spiritual sacrifices1 acceptable to ,god'--sacrifice1 priest1 temple1 all in one2 and all for the sake and by the might of that dear ,lord who has given ,himself a bleeding ,sacrifice for the sins of the whole world1 that we might offer a ,eucharistic sacrifice of thanks and praise and self-surrender unto ,him1 and to ,his ,father ,god4 ,,iv4 ,and1 lastly1 this great truth of my text enforces the solemn lesson of the necessary sanctity of the ,christian life4 ',the temple of ,god1' says the context1 'the temple of ,god is holy1 which 7holy persons7 ye are4' ,the plain first idea of the temple is a place set apart and consecrated to ,god4 ,hence1 of course1 follows the idea of purity1 but the parent idea of 'holiness' is not purity1 which is the consequence1 but consecration or separation to ,god1 which is the root4 ,and so in very various applications1 on which ,i have not time to dwell now1 this idea of the necessary sanctity of the ,temple is put forth in these two letters to the ,corinthian ,church4 ,corinth was a city honeycombed with the grossest immoralities2 and hence1 perhaps1 to some extent the great emphasis and earnestness and even severity of the ,apostle in dealing with some forms of evil4 ,but without dwelling on the details1 let me just point you to three directions in which this general notion of sanctity is applied4 ,there is that of our context here ',know ye not that ye are the temple of ,god8 ,if any man destroy the temple of ,god1 him shall ,god destroy1 for the temple of ,god is holy1 and such ye are4' ,he is thinking here mainly1 ,i suppose1 about the devastation and destruction of this temple of ,god1 which was caused by schismatical and heretical teaching1 and by the habit of forming parties1 'one of ,paul1 one of ,apollos1 one of ,cephas1 one of ,christ1' which was rending that ,corinthian ,church into pieces4 ,but we may apply it more widely than that1 and say that anything which corrupts and defiles the ,christian life and the ,christian character assumes a darker tint of evil when we think that it is sacrilege--the profanation of the temple1 the pollution of that which ought to be pure as ,he who dwells in it4 ,christian men and women1 how that thought darkens the blackness of all sin6 ,how solemnly there peals out the warning1 ',if any man destroy or impair the temple1' by any form of pollution1 'him' with retribution in kind1 'him shall ,god destroy4' ,keep the temple clear2 keep it clean4 ,let ,him come with ,his scourge of small cords and ,his merciful rebuke4 ,you ,manchester men know what it is to let the money-changers into the sanctuary4 ,beware lest1 beginning with making your hearts 'houses of merchandise1' you should end by making them 'dens of thieves4' ,and then1 still further1 there is another application of this same principle1 in the second of these ,epistles4 ',what agreement hath the temple of ,god with idols8' ',ye are the temple of the living ,god4' ,christianity is intolerant4 ,there is to be one image in the shrine4 ,one of the old ,roman ,stoic ,emperors had a pantheon in his palace with ,jesus ,christ upon one pedestal and ,plato on the one beside ,him4 ,and some of us are trying the same kind of thing4 ,christ there1 and somebody else here4 ,remember1 ,christ must be everything or nothing6 ,stars may be sown by millions1 but for the earth there is one sun4 ,and you and ,i are to shrine one dear ,guest1 and one only1 in the inmost recesses of our hearts4 ,and there is another application of this metaphor also in our letter4',know ye not that your body is the temple of the ,holy ,ghost which is in you8' ,christianity despises 'the flesh'2 ,christianity reverences the body2 and would teach us all that1 being robed in that most wonderful work of ,god's hands1 which becomes a shrine for ,god ,himself if ,he dwell in our hearts1 all purity1 all chastisement and subjugation of animal passion is our duty4 ,drunkenness1 and gluttony1 lusts of every kind1 impurity of conduct1 and impurity of word and look and thought1 all these assume a still darker tint when they are thought of as not only crimes against the physical constitution and the moral law of humanity1 but insults flung in the face of the ,god that would inhabit the shrine4 ,and in regard to sins of this kind1 which it is so difficult to speak of in public1 and which grow unchecked in secrecy1 and are ruining hundreds of young lives1 the words of this context are grimly true1 ',if any man defile the temple of ,god1 him shall ,god destroy4' ,i speak now mainly in brotherly or fatherly warning to young men--did you ever read this1 ',his bones are full of the iniquities of his youth1 which shall lie down with him in the dust'8 ',know ye not that ye are the temple of ,god8' ,and so1 brethren1 our text tells us what we may all be4 ,there is no heart without its deity4 ,alas6 alas6 for the many listening to me now whose spirits are like some of those ,egyptian temples1 which had in the inmost shrine a coiled-up serpent1 the mummy of a monkey1 or some other form as animal and obscene4 ,oh6 turn to ,christ and cry1 ',arise1 ,o ,lord1 into ,thy rest1 ,thou and the ark of ,thy strength4' ,open your hearts and let ,christ come in4 ,and before ,him1 as of old1 the bestial ,dagon will be found1 dejected and truncated1 lying on the sill there2 and all the vain1 cruel1 lustful gods that have held riot and carnival in your hearts will flee away into the darkness1 like some foul ghosts at cock-crow4 ',if any man hear ,my voice and open the door ,i will come in4' ,and the glory of the ,lord shall fill the house4 ,,death1 ,,the ,,friend '444 ,all things are yours 444 death4'--#a ,,cor4 iii4 #ba1 #bb4 ,what ,jesus ,christ is to a man settles what everything else is to ,him4 ,our relation to ,jesus determines our relation to the universe4 ,if we belong to ,him1 everything belongs to us4 ,if we are ,his servants1 all things are our servants4 ,the household of ,jesus1 which is the whole ,creation1 is not divided against itself1 and the fellow-servants do not beat one another4 ,two bodies moving in the same direction1 and under the impulse of the same force1 cannot come into collision1 and since 'all things work together1' according to the counsel of ,his will1 'all things work together for good' to ,his lovers4 ,the triumphant words of my text are no piece of empty rhetoric1 but the plain result of two facts--,christ's rule and the ,christian's submission4 ',all things are yours1 and ye are ,christ's1' so the stars in their courses fight against those who fight against ,him1 and if we are at peace with ,him we shall 'make a league with the beasts of the field1 and the stones of the field1' which otherwise would be hindrances and stumbling-blocks1 'shall be at peace with' us4 ,the ,apostle carries his confidence in the subservience of all things to ,christ's servants very far1 and the words of my text1 in which he dares to suggest that 'the ,shadow feared of man' is1 after all1 a veiled friend1 are hard to believe1 when we are brought face to face with death1 either when we meditate on our own end1 or when our hearts are sore and our hands are empty4 ,then the question comes1 and often is asked with tears of blood1 ,is it true that this awful force1 which we cannot command1 does indeed serve us8 ,did it serve those whom it dragged from our sides2 and in serving them1 did it serve us8 ,paul rings out his ',yes'2 and if we have as firm a hold of ,paul's ,lord as ,paul had1 our answer will be the same4 ,let me1 then1 deal with this great thought that lies here1 of the conversion of the last enemy into a friend1 the assurance that we may all have that death is ours1 though not in the sense that we can command it1 yet in the sense that it ministers to our highest good4 ,that thought may be true about ourselves when it comes to our turn to die1 and1 thank ,god1 has been true about all those who have departed in ,his faith and fear4 ,some of you may have seen two very striking engravings by a great1 though somewhat unknown artist1 representing ,death as the ,destroyer1 and ,death as the ,friend4 ,in the one case he comes into a scene of wild revelry1 and there at his feet lie1 stark and stiff1 corpses in their gay clothing and with garlands on their brows1 and feasters and musicians are flying in terror from the cowled ,skeleton4 ,in the other he comes into a quiet church belfry1 where an aged saint sits with folded arms and closed eyes1 and an open ,bible by his side1 and endless peace upon the wearied face4 ,the window is flung wide to the sunrise1 and on its sill perches a bird that gives forth its morning song4 ,the cowled figure has brought rest to the weary1 and the glad dawning of a new life to the aged1 and is a friend4 ,the two pictures are better than all the poor words that ,i can say4 ,it depends on the people to whom he comes1 whether he comes as a destroyer or as a helper4 ,of course1 for all of us the mere physical facts remain the same1 the pangs and the pain1 the slow torture of the loosing of the bond1 or the sharp agony of its instantaneous rending apart4 ,but we have gone but a very little way into life and its experiences1 if we have not learnt that identity of circumstances may cover profound difference of essentials1 and that the same experiences may have wholly different messages and meanings to two people who are equally implicated in them4 ,thus1 while the physical fact remains the same for all1 the whole bearing of it may so differ that ,death to one man will be a ,destroyer1 while to another it is a ,friend4 ,for1 if we come to analyse the thoughts of humanity about the last act in human life on earth1 what is it that makes the dread darkness of death1 which all men know1 though they so seldom think of it8 ,i suppose1 first of all1 if we seek to question our feelings1 that which makes ,death a foe to the ordinary experience is1 that it is like a step off the edge of a precipice in a fog2 a step into a dim condition of which the imagination can form no conception1 because it has no experience1 and all imagination's pictures are painted with pigments drawn from our past4 ,because it is impossible for a man to have any clear vision of what it is that is coming to meet him1 and he cannot tell 'in that sleep what dreams may come1' he shrinks1 as we all shrink1 from a step into the vast ,inane1 the dim ,unknown4 ,but the ,gospel comes and says1 ',it is a land of great darkness1' but ',to the people that sit in darkness a great light hath shined4' ',our knowledge of that life is small1 ,the eye of faith is dim4' ,but faith has an eye1 and there is light1 and this we can see--,one face whose brightness scatters all the gloom1 ,one ,person who has not ceased to be the ,sun of ,righteousness with healing in ,his beams1 even in the darkness of the grave4 ,therefore1 one at least of the repellent features which1 to the timorous heart1 makes ,death a foe1 is gone1 when we know that the known ,christ fills the ,unknown4 ,then1 again1 another of the elements1 as ,i suppose1 which constitute the hostile aspect that ,death assumes to most of us1 is that it apparently hales us away from all the wholesome activities and occupations of life1 and bans us into a state of apparent inaction4 ,the thought that death is rest does sometimes attract the weary or harassed1 or they fancy it does1 but that is a morbid feeling1 and much more common in sentimental epitaphs than among the usual thoughts of men4 ,to most of us there is no joy1 but a chill1 in the anticipation that all the forms of activity which have so occupied1 and often enriched1 our lives here1 are to be cut off at once4 ',what am ,i to do if ,i have no books8' says the student4 ',what am ,i to do if ,i have no mill8' says the spinner4 ',what am ,i to do if ,i have no nursery or kitchen8' say the women4 ,what are you to do8 ,there is only one quieting answer to such questions4 ,it tells us that what we are doing here is learning our trade1 and that we are to be moved into another workshop there1 to practise it4 ,nothing can bereave us of the force we made our own1 being here2 and 'there is nobler work for us to do' when the ,master of all the servants stoops from ,his ,throne and says3 ',thou hast been faithful over a few things1 ,i will make thee ruler over many things2 have thou authority over ten cities4' ,then the faithfulness of the steward will be exchanged for the authority of the ruler1 and the toil of the servant for a share in the joy of the ,lord4 ,so another of the elements which make ,death an enemy is turned into an element which makes it a friend1 and instead of the separation from this earthly body1 the organ of our activity and the medium of our connection with the external universe being the condemnation of the naked spirit to inaction1 it is the emancipation of the spirit into greater activity4 ,for nothing drops away at death that does not make a man the richer for its loss1 and when the dross is purged from the silver1 there remains 'a vessel unto honour1 fit for the ,master's use4' ,this mightier activity is the contribution to our blessedness1 which ,death makes to them who use their activities here in ,christ's service4 ,then1 still further1 another of the elements which is converted from being a terror into a joy is that ,death1 the separator1 becomes to ,christ's servants ,death1 the uniter4 ,we all know how that function of death is perhaps the one that makes us shrink from it the most1 dread it the most1 and sometimes hate it the most4 ,but it will be with us as it was with those who were to be initiated into ancient religious rites4 ,blindfolded1 they were led by a hand that grasped theirs but was not seen1 through dark1 narrow1 devious passages1 but they were led into a great company in a mighty hall4 ,seen from this side1 the ministry of ,death parts a man from dear ones1 but1 oh6 if we could see round the turn in the corridor1 we should see that the solitude is but for a moment1 and that the true office of ,death is not so much to part from those beloved on earth as to carry to1 and unite with1 ,him that is best ,beloved in the heavens1 and in ,him with all ,his saints4 ,they that are joined to ,christ1 as they who pass from earth are joined1 are thereby joined to all who1 in like manner1 are knit to ,him4 ,although other dear bonds are loosed by the bony fingers of the ,skeleton1 his very loosing of them ties more closely the bond that unites us to ,jesus1 and when the dull ear of the dying has ceased to hear the voices of earth that used to thrill it in their lowest whisper1 ,i suppose it hears another ,voice that says3 ',when thou passest through the fire ,i will be with thee1 and through the waters they shall not overflow thee4' ,thus the ,separator unites1 first to ,jesus1 and then to 'the general assembly and ,church of the first-born1' and leads into the city of the living ,god1 the pilgrims who long have lived1 often isolated1 in the desert4 ,there is a last element in ,death which is changed for the ,christian1 and that is that to men generally1 when they think about it1 there is an instinctive recoil from ,death1 because there is an instinctive suspicion that after ,death is the ,judgment1 and that1 somehow or other--never mind about the drapery in which the idea may be embodied for our weakness--when a man dies he passes to a state where he will reap the consequences of what he has sown here4 ,but to ,christ's servant that last thought is robbed of its sting1 and all the poison sucked out of it1 for he can say3 ',he that died for me makes it possible for me to die undreading1 and to pass thither1 knowing that ,i shall meet as my ,judge ,him whom ,i have trusted as my ,saviour1 and so may have boldness before ,him in the ,day of ,judgment4' ,knit these four contrasts together4 ,death as a step into a dim unknown versus ,death as a step into a region lighted by ,jesus2 ,death as the cessation of activity versus ,death as the introduction to nobler opportunities1 and the endowment with nobler capacities of service2 ,death as the separator and isolator versus ,death as uniting to ,jesus and all ,his lovers2 ,death as haling us to the judgment-seat of the adversary versus ,death as bringing us to the tribunal of the ,christ2 and ,i think we can understand how ,christians can venture to say1 ',all things are ours1 whether life or death' which leads to a better life4 ,and now let me add one word more4 ,all this that ,i have been saying1 and all the blessed strength for ourselves and calming in our sorrows which result therefrom1 stand or fall with the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ4 ,there is nothing else that makes these things certain4 ,there are1 of course1 instincts1 peradventures1 hopes1 fears1 doubts4 ,but in this region1 and in regard to all this cycle of truths1 the same thing applies which applies round the whole horizon of ,christian ,revelation--if you want not speculations but certainties1 you have to go to ,jesus ,christ for them4 ,there were many men who thought that there were islands of the sea beyond the setting sun that dyed the western waves1 but ,columbus went and came back again1 and brought their products--and then the thought became a fact4 ,unless you believe that ,jesus ,christ has come back from 'the bourne from which no traveller returns1' and has come laden with the gifts of 'happy isles of ,eden' far beyond the sea1 there is no certitude upon which a dying man can lay his head1 or by which a bleeding heart can be staunched4 ,but when ,he draws near1 alive from the dead1 and says to us1 as ,he did to the disciples on the evening of the day of ,resurrection1 ',peace be unto you1' and shows us ,his hands and ,his side1 then we do not only speculate or think a future life possible or probable1 or hesitate to deny it1 or hope or fear1 as the case may be1 but we know1 and we can say3 ',all things are ours 444 death' amongst others4 ,the fact that ,jesus ,christ has died changes the whole aspect of death to ,his servant1 inasmuch as in that great solitude he has a companion1 and in the valley of the shadow of death sees footsteps that tell him of ,one that went before4 ,nor need ,i do more than remind you how the manner of our ,lord's death shows that ,he is ,lord not only of the dead but of the ,death that makes them dead4 ,for ,his own tremendous assertion1 ',i have power to lay down ,my life1 and ,i have power to take it again1' was confirmed by ,his attitude and ,his words at the last1 as is hinted at by the very expressions with which the ,evangelists record the fact of ,his death3 ',he yielded up ,his spirit1' ',he gave up the ghost1' ',he breathed out ,his life4' ,it is confirmed to us by such words as those remarkable ones of the ,apocalypse1 which speak of ,him as 'the ,living ,one1' who1 by ,his own will1 'became dead4' ,he died because ,he would1 and ,he would die because ,he loved you and me4 ,and in dying1 ,he showed ,himself to be1 not the ,victim1 but the ,conqueror1 of the ,death to which ,he submitted4 ,the ,jewish king on the fatal field of ,gilboa called his sword-bearer1 and the servant came1 and ,saul bade him smite1 and when his trembling hand shrank from such an act1 the king fell on his own sword4 ,the ,lord of life and death summoned ,his servant ,death1 and ,he came obedient1 but ,jesus died not by ,death's stroke1 but by ,his own act4 ,so that ,lord of ,death1 who died because ,he would1 is the ,lord who has the keys of death and the grave4 ,in regard to one servant ,he says1 ',i will that he tarry till ,i come1' and that man lives through a century1 and in regard to another ,he says1 ',follow thou ,me1' and that man dies on a cross4 ,the dying ,lord is ,lord of ,death1 and the living ,lord is for us all the ,prince of ,life4 ,brethren1 we have to take ,his yoke upon us by the act of faith which leads to a love that issues in an obedience which will become more and more complete1 as we become more fully ,christ's4 ,then death will be ours1 for then we shall count that the highest good for us will be fuller union with1 a fuller possession of1 and a completer conformity to1 ,jesus ,christ our ,king1 and that whatever brings us these1 even though it brings also pain and sorrow and much from which we shrink1 is all on our side4 ,it is possible--may it be so with each of us6--that for us ,death may be1 not an enemy that bans us into darkness and inactivity1 or hales us to a judgment-seat1 but the ,angel who wakes us1 at whose touch the chains fall off1 and who leads us through 'the iron gate that opens of its own accord1' and brings us into the ,city4 ,,servants ,,and ,,lords ',all things are yours2 #bb4 ,whether ,paul1 or ,apollos1 or ,cephas1 or the world1 or life1 or death1 or things present1 or things to come2 all are yours2 #bc4 ,and ye are ,christ's4'--#a ,,cor4 iii4 #ba-bc4 ,the ,corinthian ,christians seem to have carried into the ,church some of the worst vices of ,greek--and ,english--political life4 ,they were split up into wrangling factions1 each swearing by the name of some person4 ,paul was the battle-cry of one set2 ,apollos of another4 ,paul and ,apollos were very good friends1 their admirers bitter foes--according to a very common experience4 ,the springs lie close together up in the hills1 the rivers may be parted by half a continent4 ,these feuds were all the more detestable to the ,apostle because his name was dragged into them2 and so he sets himself1 in the first part of this letter1 with all his might1 to shame and to argue the ,corinthian ,christians out of their wrangling4 ,this great text is one of the considerations which he adduces with that purpose4 ,in effect he says1 ',to pin your faith to any one teacher is a wilful narrowing of the sources of your blessing and your wisdom4 ,you say you are ,paul's men4 ,has ,apollos got nothing that he could teach you8 and may you not get any good out of brave brother ,cephas8 ,take them all2 they were all meant for your good4 ,let no man glory in individuals4' ,that is all that his argument required him to say4 ,but in his impetuous way he goes on into regions far beyond4 ,his thought1 like some swiftly revolving wheel1 catches fire of its own rapid motion2 and he blazes up into this triumphant enumeration of all the things that serve the soul which serves ,jesus ,christ4 ',you are lords of men1 of the world of time1 of death1 of eternity2 but you are not lords of yourselves4 ,you belong to ,jesus1 and in the measure in which you belong to ,him do all things belong to you4' ,i4 ,i think1 then1 that ,i shall best bring out the fulness of these words by simply following them as they lie before us1 and asking you to consider1 first1 how ,christ's servants are men's lords4 ',all things are yours1 ,paul1 ,apollos1 ,cephas4' ,these three teachers were all lights kindled at the central ,light1 and therefore shining4 ,they were fragments of ,his wisdom1 of ,him that spoke2 varying1 but yet harmonious1 and mutually complementary aspects of the one infinite ,truth had been committed to them4 ,each was but a part of the mighty whole1 a little segment of the circle ',they are but broken lights of ,thee1 ,and ,thou1 ,o ,lord6 art more than they4' ,and in the measure1 therefore1 in which men adhere to ,christ1 and have taken ,him for theirs2 in that measure are they delivered from all undue dependence on1 still more from all slavish submission to1 any single individual teacher or aspect of truth4 ,to have ,christ for ours1 and to be ,his1 which are only the opposite sides of the same thing1 mean1 in brief1 to take ,jesus ,christ for the source of all knowledge of moral and religious truth4 ,his ,word is the ,christian's creed1 ,his ,person and the truths that lie in ,him1 are the fountains of all our knowledge of ,god and man4 ,to be ,christ's is to take ,him as the master who has absolute authority over conduct and practice4 ,his commandment is the ,christian's duty2 ,his pattern the ,christian's all-sufficient example2 ,his smile the ,christian's reward4 ,to be ,christ's is to take ,him for the home of our hearts1 in whose gracious and sweet love we find all sufficiency and a rest for our seeking affections4 ,and so1 if ye are ,his1 ,paul1 ,apollos1 ,cephas1 all men are yours2 in the sense that you are delivered from all undue dependence upon them2 and in the sense that they subserve your highest good4 ,so the true democracy of ,christianity1 which abjures swearing by the words of any teacher1 is simply the result of loyal adherence to the teaching of ,jesus ,christ4 ,and that proud independence which some of you seek to cultivate1 and on the strength of which you declare that no man is your master upon earth1 is an unwholesome and dangerous independence1 unless it be conjoined with the bowing down of the whole nature1 in loyal submission1 to the absolute authority of the only lips that ever spoke truth1 truth only1 and truth always4 ,if ,christ be our ,master1 if we take our creed from ,him1 if we accept ,his words and ,his revelation of the ,father as our faith and our objective religion1 then all the slavery to favourite names1 all the taking of truth second-hand from the lips that we honour1 all the partisanship for one against another which has been the shame and the ruin of the ,christian ,church1 and is working untold mischiefs in it to-day1 are ended at once4 ',one is your ,master1 even ,christ4' ',call no man ,rabbi6 upon earth2 but bow before ,him1 the ,incarnate and the ,personal ,truth4' ,and in like manner they who are ,christ's are delivered from all temptations to make men's maxims and practices and approbation the law of their conduct4 ,society presses upon each of us2 what we call public opinion1 which is generally the clatter of the half-dozen people that happen to stand nearest us1 rules us2 and it needs to be said very emphatically to all ,christian men and women--,take your law of conduct from ,his lips1 and from nobody else's4 ',they say4 ,what say they8 ,let them say4' ,if we take ,christ's commandment for our absolute law1 and ,christ's approbation for our highest aim and all-sufficient reward1 we shall then be able to brush aside other maxims and other people's opinions of us1 safely and humbly1 and to say1 ',with me it is a very small matter to be judged of you1 or of man's judgment4 ,he that judgeth me is the ,lord4' ,the envoy of some foreign power cares very little what the inhabitants of the land to which he is ambassador may think of him and his doings2 it is his sovereign's good opinion that he seeks to secure4 ,the soldier's reward is his commander's praise1 the slave's joy is the master's smile1 and for us it ought to be the law of our lives1 and in the measure in which we really belong to ,christ it will be the law of our lives1 that 'we labour that1 whether present or absent1 we may be pleasing to ,him4' ,so1 brethren1 as teachers1 as patterns1 as objects of love which is only too apt to be exclusive and to master us1 we can only take one another in subordination to our supreme submission to ,christ1 and if we are ,his1 our duty1 as our joy1 is to count no man necessary to our wellbeing1 but to hang only on the one ,man1 whom it is safe and blessed to believe utterly1 to obey abjectly1 and to love with all our strength1 because ,he is more than man1 even ,god manifest in the flesh4 ,,ii4 ,and now let us pass to the next idea here1 secondly1 ,christ's servants are the lords of 'the world4' ,that phrase is used here1 no doubt1 as meaning the external material universe4 ,these creatures around us1 they belong to us1 if we belong to ,jesus ,christ4 ,that man owns the world who despises it4 ,there are plenty of rich men in ,manchester who say they possess so many thousand pounds4 ,turn the sentence about and it would be a great deal truer--the thousands of pounds possess them4 ,they are the slaves of their own possessions1 and every man who counts any material thing as indispensable to his wellbeing1 and regards it as the chiefest good1 is the slave-servant of that thing4 ,he owns the world who turns it to the highest use of growing his soul by it4 ,all material things are given1 and1 ,i was going to say1 were created1 for the growth of men1 or at all events their highest purpose is that men should1 by them1 grow4 ,and therefore1 as the scaffolding is swept away when the building is finished1 so ,god will sweep away this material universe with all its wonders of beauty and of contrivance1 when men have been grown by means of it4 ,the material is less than the soul1 and he is master of the world1 and owns it1 who has got thoughts out of it1 truth out of it1 impulses out of it1 visions of ,god out of it1 who has by it been led nearer to his divine ,master4 ,if ,i look out upon a fair landscape1 and the man who draws the rents of it is standing by my side1 and ,i suck more sweetness1 and deeper impulses1 and larger and loftier thoughts out of it than he does1 it belongs to me far more than it does to him4 ,the world is his who from it has learned to despise it1 to know himself and to know ,god4 ,he owns the world who uses it as the arena1 or wrestling ground1 on which1 by labour1 he may gain strength1 and in which he may do service4 ,antagonism helps to develop muscle1 and the best use of the outward frame of things is that we shall take it as the field upon which we can serve ,god4 ,and now all these three things--the contempt of earth1 the use of earth for growing souls1 and the use of earth as the field of service--all these things belong most truly to the man who belongs to ,christ4 ,the world is ,his1 and if we live near ,him and cultivate fellowship with ,him1 and see ,his face gleaming through all the ,material1 and are led up nearer to ,him by everything around us1 then we own the world and wring the sweetness to the last drop out of it1 though we may have but little of that outward relation to its goods which short-sighted men call possessing them4 ,we may solve the paradox of those who1 'having nothing1 yet have all1' if we belong to ,christ the ,lord of all things1 and so have co-possession with ,him of all ,his riches4 ,,iii4 ,further1 my text tells us1 in the third place1 that ,christian men1 who belong to ,jesus ,christ1 are the lords and masters of 'life and death4' ,both of these words are here used1 as it seems to me1 in their simple1 physical sense1 natural life and natural death4 ,you may say1 ',well1 everybody is lord of life in that sense4' ,yes1 of course1 in a fashion we all possess it1 seeing that we are all alive4 ,but that mysterious gift of personality1 that awful gift of conscious existence1 only belongs1 in the deepest sense1 to the men who belong to ,jesus ,christ4 ,i do not call that man the owner of his own life who is not the lord of his own spirit4 ,i do not see in what1 except in the mere animal sense in which a fly1 or a spider1 or a toad may be called the master of its life1 that man owns himself who has not given up himself to ,jesus ,christ4 ,the only way to get a real hold of yourselves is to yield yourselves to ,him who gives you back ,himself1 and yourself along with ,him4 ,the true ownership of life depends upon self-control1 and self-control depends upon letting ,jesus ,christ govern us wholly4 ,so the measure in which it is true of me that ',i live2 yet not ,i1 but ,christ liveth in me1' is the measure in which the lower life of sense really belongs to us1 and ministers to our highest good4 ,and then turn to the other member of this wonderful antithesis1 'whether life or death4' ,surely if there is anything over which no man can become lord1 except by sinfully taking his fate into his own hands1 it is death4 ,and yet even death1 in which we seem to be abjectly passive1 and by which so many of us are dragged away reluctantly from everything that we care to possess1 may become a matter of consent and therefore a moral act4 ,animals expire2 a ,christian man may yield his soul to his ,saviour1 who is the ,lord both of the dead and of the living4 ,if thus we feel our dependence upon ,him1 and yield up our lives to ,him1 and can say1 ',living or dying we are the ,lord's1' then we may be quite sure that death1 too1 will be our servant1 and that our wills will be concerned even in passing out of life4 ,still more1 if you and ,i1 dear brethren1 belong to ,jesus ,christ1 then death is our fellow-servant who comes to call us out of this ill-lighted workshop into the presence of the ,king4 ,and at ,his magic cold touch1 cares and toils and sorrows are stiffened into silence1 like noisy streams bound in white frost2 and we are lifted clean up out of all the hubbub and the toil into eternal calm4 ,death is ours because it fulfils our deepest desires1 and comes as a messenger to paupers to tell them they have a great estate4 ,death is ours if we be ,christ's4 ,,iv4 ,and lastly1 ,christ's servants are the lords of time and eternity1 'things present or things to come4' ,our ,apostle's division1 in this catalogue of his1 is rhetorical rather than logical2 and we need not seek to separate the first of this final pair from others which we have already encountered in our study of the words1 but still we may draw a distinction4 ,the whole mass of 'things present1' including not only that material universe which we call the world1 but all the events and circumstances of our lives1 over these we may exercise supreme control4 ,if we are bowing in humble submission to ,jesus ,christ1 they will all subserve our highest good4 ,every weather will be right2 night and day equally desirable2 the darkness will be good for eyes that have been tired of brightness and that need repose1 the light will be good4 ,the howling tempests of winter and its white snows1 the sharp winds of spring and its bursting sunshine2 the calm steady heat of ,june and the mellowing days of ,august1 all serve to ripen the grain4 ,and so all 'things present1' the light and the dark1 the hopes fulfilled and the hopes disappointed1 the gains and the losses1 the prayers answered and the prayers unanswered1 they will all be recognised1 if we have the wisdom that comes from submission to ,jesus ,christ's will1 as being ours and ministering to our highest blessing4 ,we shall be their lords too inasmuch as we shall be able to control them4 ,we need not be 'anvils but hammers4' ,we need not let outward circumstances dominate and tyrannise over us4 ,we need not be like the mosses in the stream1 that lie whichever way the current sets1 nor like some poor little sailing boat that is at the mercy of the winds and the waves1 but may carry an inward impulse like some great ocean-going steamer1 the throb of whose power shall drive us straight forward on our course1 whatever beats against us4 ,that we may have this inward power and mastery over things present1 and not be shaped and moulded and made by them1 let us yield ourselves to ,christ1 and ,he will help us to rule them4 ,and then1 all 'things to come1' the dim1 vague future1 shall be for each of us like some sunlit ocean stretching shoreless to the horizon2 every little ripple flashing with its own bright sunshine1 and all bearing us onwards to the great ,throne that stands on the sea of glass mingled with fire4 ,then1 my brother1 ask yourselves what your future is if you have not ,christ for your ,friend4 ',i backward cast mine eye ,on prospects drear2 ,and forward though ,i cannot see1 ,i guess and fear4' ,so ,i beseech you1 yield yourselves to ,jesus ,christ1 ,he died to win us4 ,he bears our sins that they may be all forgiven4 ,if we give ourselves to ,him who has given ,himself to us1 then we shall be lords of men1 of the world1 of life and death1 of time and eternity4 ,in the old days conquerors used to bestow upon their followers lands and broad dominions on condition of their doing suit and service1 and bringing homage to them4 ,christ1 the ,king of the universe1 makes ,his subjects kings1 and will give us to share in ,his dominion1 so that to each of us may be fulfilled that boundless and almost unbelievable promise3 ',he that overcometh shall inherit all things4' ',all are yours if ye are ,christ's4' ,,the ,,three ,,tribunals ',but with me it is a very small thing that ,i should be judged of you1 or of man's judgment3 yea1 ,i judge not mine own self4 #d4 ,for ,i know nothing by myself2 yet am ,i not hereby justified2 but he that judgeth me is the ,lord4'--#a ,,cor4 iv4 #c1 #d4 ,the ,church at ,corinth was honeycombed by the characteristic ,greek vice of party spirit4 ,the three great teachers1 ,paul1 ,peter1 ,apollos1 were pitted against each other1 and each was unduly exalted by those who swore by him1 and unduly depreciated by the other two factions4 ,but the men whose names were the war-cries of these sections were themselves knit in closest friendship1 and felt themselves to be servants in common of one ,master1 and fellow-workers in one task4 ,so ,paul1 in the immediate context1 associating ,peter and ,apollos with himself1 bids the ,corinthians think of 'us' as being servants of ,christ1 and not therefore responsible to men2 and as stewards of the mysteries of ,god1 that is1 dispensers of truths long hidden but now revealed1 and as therefore accountable for correct accounts and faithful dispensation only to the ,lord of the household4 ,being responsible to ,him1 they heeded very little what others thought about them4 ,being responsible to ,him1 they could not accept vindication by their own consciences as being final4 ,there was a judgment beyond these4 ,so here we have three tribunals--that of man's estimates1 that of our own consciences1 that of ,jesus ,christ4 ,an appeal lies from the first to the second1 and from the second to the third4 ,it is base to depend on men's judgments2 it is well to attend to the decisions of conscience1 but it is not well to take it for granted that1 if conscience approve1 we are absolved4 ,the court of final appeal is ,jesus ,christ1 and what ,he thinks about each of us4 ,so let us look briefly at these three tribunals4 ,i4 ,first1 the lowest--men's judgment4 ',with me it is a very small thing that ,i should be judged of you1' enlightened ,christians that you are1 or by the outside world4 ,now1 ,paul's letters give ample evidence that he was keenly alive to the hostile and malevolent criticisms and slanders of his untiring opponents4 ,many a flash of sarcasm out of the cloud like a lightning bolt1 many a burst of wounded affection like rain from summer skies1 tell us this4 ,but ,i need not quote these4 ,such a character as his could not but be quick to feel the surrounding atmosphere1 whether it was of love or of suspicion4 ,so1 he had to harden himself against what naturally had a great effect upon him1 the estimate which he felt that people round him were making of him4 ,there was nothing brusque1 rough1 contemptuous in his brushing aside these popular judgments4 ,he gave them all due weight1 and yet he felt1 ',from all that this lowest tribunal may decide1 there are two appeals1 one to my own conscience1 and one to my ,master in heaven4' ,now1 ,i suppose ,i need not say a word about the power which that terrible court which is always sitting1 and which passes judgment upon every one of us1 though we do not always hear the sentences read1 has upon us all4 ,there is a power which it is meant to have4 ,it is not good for a man to stand constantly in the attitude of defying whatever anybody else chooses to say or to think about him4 ,but the danger to which we are all exposed1 far more than that other extreme1 is of deferring too completely and slavishly to1 and being far too subtly influenced in all that we do by1 the thought of what ,a1 ,b1 or ,c1 may have to say or to think about it4 ',the last infirmity of noble minds1' says ,milton about the love of fame4 ,it is an infirmity to love it1 and long for it1 and live by it4 ,it is a weakening of humanity1 even where men are spurred to great efforts by the thought of the reverberation of these in the ear of the world1 and of the honour and glory that may come therefrom4 ,but not only in these higher forms of seeking after reputation1 but in lower forms1 this trembling before1 and seeking to conciliate1 the tribunal of what we call 'general opinion1' which means the voices of the half-dozen people that are beside us and know about us1 besets us all1 and weakens us all in a thousand ways4 ,how many men would lose all the motive that they have for living reputable lives1 if nobody knew anything about it8 ,how many of you1 when you go to ,london1 and are strangers1 frequent places that you would not be seen in in ,manchester8 ,how many of us are hindered1 in courses which we know that we ought to pursue1 because we are afraid of this or that man or woman1 and of what they may look or speak8 ,there is a regard to man's judgment1 which is separated by the very thinnest partition from hypocrisy4 ,there is a very shadowy distinction between the man who1 consciously or unconsciously1 does a thing with an eye to what people may say about it1 and the man who pretends to be what he is not for the sake of the reputation that he may thereby win4 ,now1 the direct tendency of ,christian faith and principle is to dwindle into wholesome insignificance the multitudinous voice of men's judgments4 ,for1 if ,i understand at all what ,christianity means1 it means centrally and essentially this1 that ,i am brought into loving personal relation with ,jesus ,christ1 and draw from ,him the power of my life1 and from ,him the law of my life1 and from ,him the stimulus of my life1 and from ,him the reward of my life4 ,if there is a direct communication between me and ,him1 and if ,i am deriving from ,him the life that ,he gives1 which is 'free from the law of sin and death1' ,i shall have little need or desire to heed the judgment that men1 who see only the surface1 may pass upon me1 and upon my doings1 and ,i shall refer myself to ,him instead of to them4 ,those who can go straight to ,christ1 whose lives are steeped in ,him1 who feel that they draw all from ,him1 and that their actions and character are moulded by ,his touch and ,his ,spirit1 are responsible to no other tribunal4 ,and the less they think about what men have to say of them the stronger1 the nobler1 the more ,christ-like they will be4 ,there is no need for any contempt or roughness to blend with such a putting aside of men's judgments4 ,the velvet glove may be worn upon the iron hand4 ,all meekness and lowliness may go with this wholesome independence1 and must go with it unless that independence is false and distorted4 ',with me it is a very small thing to be judged of you1 or of man's judgment1' need not be said in such a tone as to mean ',i do not care a rush what you think about me'2 but it must be said in such a tone as to mean ',i care supremely for one approbation1 and if ,i have that ,i can bear anything besides4' ,let me appeal to you to cultivate more distinctly1 as a plain ,christian duty1 this wholesome independence of men's judgment4 ,i suppose there never was a day when it was more needed that men should be themselves1 seeing with their own eyes what ,god may reveal to them and they are capable of receiving1 and walking with their own feet on the path that fits them1 whatsoever other people may say about it4 ,for the multiplication of daily literature1 the way in which we are all living in glass houses nowadays--everybody knowing everything about everybody else1 and delighting in the gossip which takes the place of literature in so many quarters--and the tendency of society to a more democratic form give the many-headed monster and its many tongues far more power than is wholesome1 in the shaping of the lives and character and conduct of most men4 ,the evil of democracy is that it levels down all to one plane1 and that it tends to turn out millions of people1 as like each other as if they had been made in a machine4 ,and so we need1 ,i believe1 even more than our fathers did1 to lay to heart this lesson1 that the direct result of a deep and strong ,christian faith is the production of intensely individual character4 ,and if there are plenty of angles in it1 perhaps so much the better4 ,we are apt to be rounded by being rubbed against each other1 like the stones on the beach1 till there is not a sharp corner or a point that can prick anywhere4 ,so society becomes utterly monotonous1 and is insipid and profitless because of that4 ,you ,christian people1 be yourselves1 after your own pattern4 ,and whilst you accept all help from surrounding suggestions and hints1 make it 'a very small thing that you be judged of men4' ,and you1 young men1 in warehouses and shops1 and you1 students1 and you1 boys and girls1 that are budding into life1 never mind what other people say4 ',let thine eyes look right onwards1' and let all the clatter on either side of you go on as it will4 ,the voices are very loud1 but if we go up high enough on the hill-top1 to the secret place of the ,most ,high1 we shall look down and see1 but not hear1 the bustle and the buzz2 and in the great silence ,christ will whisper to us1 ',well done6 good and faithful servant4' ,that praise is worth getting1 and one way to get it is to put aside the hindrance of anxious seeking to conciliate the good opinion of men4 ,,ii4 ,note the higher court of conscience4 ,our ,apostle is not to be taken here as contradicting what he says in other places4 ',i judge not mine own self1'--yet in one of these same letters to the ,corinthians he says1 ',if we judged ourselves we should not be judged4' ,so that he does not mean here that he is entirely without any estimate of his own character or actions4 ,that he did in some sense judge himself is evident from the next clause1 because he goes on to say1 ',i know nothing against myself4' ,if he acquitted himself1 he must previously have been judging himself4 ,but his acquittal of himself is not to be understood as if it covered the whole ground of his life and character1 but it is to be confined to the subject in hand--viz4 his faithfulness as a steward of the mysteries of ,god4 ,but though there is nothing in that region of his life which he can charge against himself as unfaithfulness1 he goes on to say1 ',yet am ,i not hereby justified8' ,our absolution by conscience is not infallible4 ,i suppose that conscience is more reliable when it condemns than when it acquits4 ,it is never safe for a man to neglect it when it says1 ',you are wrong6' ,it is just as unsafe for a man to accept it1 without further investigation1 when it says1 ',you are right6' ,for the only thing that is infallible about what we call conscience is its sentence1 ',it is right to do right4' ,but when it proceeds to say ',this1 that1 and the other thing is right2 and therefore it is right for you to do it1' there may be errors in the judgment1 as everybody's own experience tells them4 ,the inward judge needs to be stimulated1 to be enlightened1 to be corrected often4 ,i suppose that the growth of ,christian character is very largely the discovery that things that we thought innocent are not1 for us1 so innocent as we thought them4 ,you only need to go back to history1 or to go down into your own histories1 to see how1 as light has increased1 dark corners have been revealed that were invisible in the less brilliant illumination4 ,how long it has taken the ,christian ,church to find out what ,christ's ,gospel teaches about slavery1 about the relations of sex1 about drunkenness1 about war1 about a hundred other things that you and ,i do not yet know1 but which our successors will wonder that we failed to see6 ,inquisitor and martyr have equally said1 ',we are serving ,god4' ,surely1 too1 nothing is more clearly witnessed by individual experience1 than that we may do a wrong thing1 and think that it is right4 ',they that kill you will think that they do ,god service4' ,so1 ,christian people1 accept the inward monition when it is stern and prohibitive4 ,do not be too sure about it when it is placable and permissive4 ',happy is he that condemneth not himself in the thing which he alloweth4' ,there may be secret faults1 lying all unseen beneath the undergrowth in the forest1 which yet do prick and sting4 ,the upper floors of the house where we receive company1 and where we1 the tenants1 generally live1 may be luxurious1 and sweet1 and clean4 ,what about the cellars1 where ugly things crawl and swarm1 and breed1 and sting8 ,ah1 dear brethren6 when my conscience says to me1 ',you may do it1' it is always well to go to ,jesus ,christ1 and say to ,him ',may ,i8' ',search me1 ,o ,god1 and 444 see if there be any wicked way in me1' and show it to me1 and help me to cast it out4 ',i know nothing against myself2 yet am ,i not hereby justified4' ,,iii4 ,lastly1 note the supreme court of final appeal4 ',he that judgeth me is the ,lord4' ,now it is obvious that 'the ,lord' here is ,christ1 both because of the preceding context and because of the next verse1 which speaks of ,his coming4 ,and it is equally obvious1 though it is often unnoticed1 that the judgment of which the ,apostle is here speaking is a present and preliminary judgment4 ',he that judgeth me'--not1 'will judge1' but now1 at this very moment4 ,that is to say1 whilst people round us are passing their superficial estimates upon me1 and whilst my conscience is excusing1 or else accusing me--and in neither case with absolute infallibility--there is another judgment1 running concurrently with them1 and going on in silence4 ,that calm eye is fixed upon me1 and sifting me1 and knowing me4 ,that judgment is not fallible1 because before ,him 'the hidden things' that the darkness shelters1 those creeping things in the cellars that ,i was speaking about1 are all manifest2 and to ,him the 'counsels of the heart1' that is1 the motives from which the actions flow1 are all transparent and legible4 ,so ,his judgment1 the continual estimate of me which ,jesus ,christ1 in ,his supreme knowledge of me1 has1 at every moment of my life--that is uttering the final word about me and my character4 ,his estimate will dwindle the sentences of the other two tribunals into nothingness4 ,what matter what his fellow-servants say about the steward's accounts1 and distribution of provisions1 and management of the household8 ,he has to render his books1 and to give account of his stewardship1 only to his lord4 ,the governor of a ,crown ,colony may attach some importance to colonial opinion1 but he reports home2 and it is what the people in ,downing ,street will say that he thinks about4 ,we have to report home2 and it is the ,king whom we serve1 to whom we have to give an account4 ,the gladiator1 down in the arena1 did not much mind whether the thumbs of the populace were up or down1 though the one was the signal for his life and the other for his death4 ,he looked to the place where1 between the purple curtains and the flashing axes of the lictors1 the emperor sate4 ,our ,emperor once was down on the sand ,himself1 and although we are 'compassed about with a cloud of witnesses1' we look to the ,christ1 the supreme ,arbiter1 and take acquittal or condemnation1 life or death1 from ,him4 ,that judgment1 persistent all through each of our lives1 is preliminary to the future tribunal and sentence4 ,the ,apostle employs in this context two distinct words1 both of which are translated in our version 'judge4' ,the one which is used in these three clauses1 on which ,i have been commenting1 means a preliminary examination1 and the one which is used in the next verse means a final decisive trial and sentence4 ,so1 dear brethren1 ,christ is gathering materials for ,his final sentence2 and you and ,i are writing the depositions which will be adduced in evidence4 ,oh6 how little all that the world may have said about a man will matter then6 ,think of a man standing before that great white throne1 and saying1 ',i held a very high place in the estimation of my neighbours4 ,the newspapers and the reviews blew my trumpet assiduously4 ,my name was carved upon the plinth of a marble statue1 that my fellow-citizens set up in honour of my many virtues1'--and the name was illegible centuries before the statue was burned in the last fire6 ,brother6 seek for the praise from ,him1 which is praise indeed4 ,if ,he says1 ',well done1 good and faithful servant1' it matters little what censures men may pass on us4 ,if ,he says1 ',i never knew you1' all their praises will not avail4 ',wherefore we labour that1 whether present or absent1 we may be well-pleasing to ,him4' ,,the ,,festal ,,life ',therefore let us keep the feast1 not with old leaven 444 but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth4'--#a ,,cor4 v4 #h4 ,there had been hideous immorality in the ,corinthian ,church4 ,paul had struck at it with heat and force1 sternly commanding the exclusion of the sinner4 ,he did so on the ground of the diabolical power of infection possessed by evil1 and illustrated that by the very obvious metaphor of leaven1 a morsel of which1 as he says1 'will leaven the whole lump1' or1 as we say1 'batch4' ,but the word 'leaven' drew up from the depths of his memory a host of sacred associations connected with the ,jewish ,passover4 ,he remembered the sedulous hunting in every ,jewish house for every scrap of leavened matter2 the slaying of the ,paschal ,lamb1 and the following feast4 ,carried away by these associations1 he forgets the sin in the ,corinthian ,church for a moment1 and turns to set forth1 in the words of the text1 a very deep and penetrating view of what the ,christian life is1 how it is sustained1 and what it demands4 ',wherefore1' says he1 'let us keep the feast 444 with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth4' ,that 'wherefore' takes us back to the words before it1 ,and what are these8 ',christ our ,passover is sacrificed for us'2 therefore--because of that sacrifice1 to us is granted the power1 and on us is laid imperatively the obligation1 to make life a festival and to purge ourselves4 ,now1 in the notion of a feast1 there are two things included--joy and plentiful sustenance4 ,so there are three points here1 which ,i have already indicated--what the ,christian life is1 a festival2 on what it is sustained1 the ,paschal ,sacrifice2 what it demands1 scrupulous purging out of the old leaven4 ,i4 ,the ,christian life ought to be a continual festival4 ,the ,christian life a feast8 ,it is more usually represented as a fight1 a wrestle1 a race2 and such metaphors correspond1 as it would appear1 far more closely to the facts of our environment1 and to the experiences of our hearts1 than does such a metaphor as this4 ,but the metaphor of the festival goes deeper than that of the fight or race1 and it does not ignore the strenuous and militant side of the ,christian life4 ,no man ever lived a more strenuous life than ,paul2 no man had heavier tasks1 and did them more cheerily2 no man had a sterner fight and fought it more bravely4 ,there is nothing soft1 ,epicurean1 or oblivious of the patent sad facts of humanity in the declaration that after all1 beneath all1 above all1 central to all1 the ,christian life is a glad festival1 when it is the life that it ought to be4 ,but you say1 ',ah6 it is all very well to call it so2 but in the first place1 continual joy is impossible in the presence of the difficulties1 and often sadnesses1 that meet us on our life's path2 and1 in the second place1 it is folly to tell us to pump up emotions1 or to ignore the occasions for much heaviness and sorrow of heart4' ,true2 but1 still1 it is possible to cultivate such a temper as makes life habitually joyful4 ,we can choose the aspect under which we by preference and habitually regard our lives4 ,all emotion follows upon a preceding thought1 or sensible experience1 and we can pick the objects of our thoughts1 and determine what aspect of our lives to look at most4 ,the sky is often piled with stormy1 heaped-up masses of blackness1 but between them are lakes of calm blue4 ,we can choose whether we look at the clouds or at the blue4 ,these are in the lower ranges2 that fills infinite spaces1 upwards and out to the horizon4 ,these are transient1 eating themselves away even whilst we look1 and black and thunderous as they may be1 they are there but for a moment--that is perennial4 ,if we are wise1 we shall fix our gaze much rather on the blue than on the ugly cloud-rack that hides it1 and thus shall minister to ourselves occasions for the noble kind of joy which is not noisy and boisterous1 'like the crackling of thorns under a pot1' and does not foam itself away by its very ebullience1 but is calm like the grounds of it2 still1 like the heaven to which it looks2 eternal1 like the ,god on whom it is fastened4 ,if we would only steadfastly remember that the one source of worthy and enduring joy is ,god ,himself1 and listen to the command1 ',rejoice in the ,lord1' we should find it possible to 'rejoice always4' ,for that thought of ,him1 ,his sufficiency1 ,his nearness1 ,his encompassing presence1 ,his prospering eye1 ,his aiding hand1 ,his gentle consolation1 ,his enabling help will take the sting out of even the bitterest of our sorrows1 and will brace us to sustain the heaviest1 otherwise crushing burdens1 and greatly to 'rejoice1 though now for a season we are in heaviness through manifold temptations4' ,the ,gulf ,stream rushes into the northern hemisphere1 melts the icebergs and warms the ,polar seas1 and so the joy of the ,lord1 if we set it before us as we can and should do1 will minister to us a gladness which will make our lives a perpetual feast4 ,but there is another thing that we can do2 that is1 we can clearly recognise the occasions for sorrow in our experience1 and yet interpret them by the truths of the ,christian faith4 ,that is to say1 we can think of them1 not so much as they tend to make us sad or glad1 but as they tend to make us more assured of our possession of1 more ardent in our love towards1 and more submissive in our attitude to1 the all-ordering ,love which is ,god4 ,brethren1 if we thought of life1 and all its incidents1 even when these are darkest and most threatening1 as being what it and they indeed are1 ,his training of us into capacity for fuller blessedness1 because fuller possession of ,himself1 we should be less startled at the commandment1 ',rejoice in the ,lord always1' and should feel that it was possible1 though the figtree did not blossom1 and there was no fruit in the vine1 though the flocks were cut off from the pastures1 and the herds from the stall1 yet to rejoice in the ,god of our salvation4 ,rightly understood and pondered on1 all the darkest passages of life are but like the cloud whose blackness determines the brightness of the rainbow on its front4 ,rightly understood and reflected on1 these will teach us that the paradoxical commandment1 ',count it all joy that ye fall into divers temptations1' is1 after all1 the voice of true wisdom speaking at the dictation of a clear-eyed faith4 ,this text1 since it is a commandment1 implies that obedience to it1 and therefore the realisation of this continual festal aspect of life1 is very largely in our own power4 ,dispositions differ1 some of us are constitutionally inclined to look at the blacker1 and some at the brighter1 side of our experiences4 ,but our ,christianity is worth little unless it can modify1 and to some extent change1 our natural tendencies4 ,the joy of the ,lord being our strength1 the cultivation of joy in the ,lord is largely our duty4 ,christian people do not sufficiently recognise that it is as incumbent on them to seek after this continual fountain of calm and heavenly joy flowing through their lives1 as it is to cultivate some of the more recognised virtues and graces of ,christian conduct and character4 ,secondly1 we have here-- ,,ii4 ,the ,christian life is a continual feeding on a sacrifice4 ',christ our ,passover is sacrificed for us4 ,wherefore let us keep the feast4' ,it is very remarkable that this is the only place in ,paul's writings where he articulately pronounces that the ,paschal ,lamb is a type of ,jesus ,christ4 ,there is only one other instance in the ,new ,testament where that is stated with equal clearness and emphasis1 and that is in ,john's account of the ,crucifixion1 where he recognises the fact that ,christ died with limbs unbroken1 as being a fulfilment1 in the ,new ,testament sense of that word1 of what was enjoined in regard to the antitype1 'a bone of him shall not be broken4' ,but whilst the definite statement which precedes my text that ,christ is 'our ,passover1' and 'sacrificed for us' as such1 is unique in ,paul's writings1 the thought to which it gives clear and crystallised expression runs through the whole of the ,new ,testament4 ,it underlies the ,lord's ,supper4 ,did you ever think of how great was the self-assertion of ,jesus ,christ when ,he laid ,his hand on that sacredest of ,jewish rites1 which had been established1 as the words of the institution of it say1 to be 'a perpetual memorial through all generations1' brushed it on one side1 and in effect1 said3 ',you do not need to remember the ,passover any more4 ,i am the true ,paschal ,lamb1 whose blood sprinkled on the doorposts averts the sword of the destroying ,angel1 whose flesh1 partaken of1 gives immortal life4 ,remember ,me1 and this do in remembrance of ,me4' ,the ,lord's ,supper witnesses that ,jesus thought ,himself to be what ,paul tells the ,corinthians that ,he is1 even our ,passover1 sacrificed for us4 ,but the point to be observed is this1 that just as in that ancient ritual1 the lamb slain became the food of the ,israelites1 so with us the ,christ who has died is to be the sustenance of our souls1 and of our ,christian life4 ',therefore let us keep the feast4' ,feed upon ,him2 that is the essential central requirement for all ,christian life1 and what does feeding on ,him mean8 ',how can this man give us his flesh to eat8' said the ,jews1 and the answer is plain now1 though so obscure then4 ,the flesh which ,he gave for the life of the world in ,his death1 must by us be taken for the very nourishment of our souls1 by the simple act of faith in ,him4 ,that is the feeding which brings not only sustenance but life4 ,christ's death for us is the basis1 but it is only the basis1 of ,christ's living in us1 and ,his death for me is of no use at all to me unless ,he that died for me lives in me4 ,we feed on ,him by faith1 which not only trusts to the ,sacrifice as atoning for sin1 but feeds on it as communicating and sustaining eternal life--',christ our ,passover is sacrificed for us1 wherefore let us keep the ,feast4' ,again1 we keep the feast when our minds feed upon ,christ by contemplation of what ,he is1 what ,he has done1 what ,he is doing1 what ,he will do2 when we take ,him as 'the ,master-light of all our seeing1' and in ,him1 ,his words and works1 ,his ,passion1 ,resurrection1 ,ascension1 ,session as ,sovereign at the right hand of ,god1 find the perfect revelation of what ,god is1 the perfect discovery of what man is1 the perfect disclosure of what sin is1 the perfect prophecy of what man may become1 the ,light of light1 the answer to every question that our spirits can put about the loftiest verities of ,god and man1 the universe and the future4 ,we feed on ,christ when1 with lowly submission1 we habitually subject thoughts1 purposes1 desires1 to ,his authority1 and when we let ,his will flow into1 and make plastic and supple1 our wills4 ,we nourish our wills by submitting them to ,jesus1 and we feed on ,him when we not only say ',lord6 ,lord6' but when we do the things that ,he says4 ,we feed on ,christ1 when we let ,his great1 sacred1 all-wise1 all-giving1 all satisfying love flow into our restless hearts and make them still1 enter into our vagrant affections and fix them on ,himself4 ,thus when mind and conscience and will and heart all turn to ,jesus1 and in ,him find their sustenance1 we shall be filled with the feast of fat things which ,he has prepared for all people4 ,with that bread we shall be satisfied1 and with it only1 for the husks of the swine are no food for the ,father's son1 and we 'spend our money for that which is not bread1 and our labour for that which satisfieth not1' if we look anywhere else than to the ,paschal ,lamb slain for us for the food of our souls4 ,,iii4 ,the ,christian life is a continual purging out of the old leaven4 ,i need not remind you how vivid and profoundly significant that emblem of leaven1 as applied to all manner of evil1 is4 ,but let me remind you how1 just as in the ,jewish ,ritual1 the cleansing from all that was leavened was the essential pre-requisite to the participation in the feast1 feeding on ,jesus ,christ1 as ,i have tried to describe it1 is absolutely impossible unless our leaven is cleansed away4 ,children spoil their appetites for wholesome food by eating sweetmeats4 ,men destroy their capacity for feeding on ,christ by hungry desires1 and gluttonous satisfying of those desires with the delusive sweets of this passing world4 ,but1 my brother1 your experience1 if you are a ,christian man at all1 will tell you that in the direct measure in which you have been drawn away into paltering with evil1 your appetite for ,christ and your capacity for gazing upon ,him1 contemplating ,him1 feeding on ,him1 has died out4 ,there comes a kind of constriction in a man's throat when he is hungering after lesser good1 especially when there is a tinge of evil in the supposed good that he is hungering after1 which incapacitates ,him from eating the bread of ,god1 which is ,jesus ,christ4 ,but let us remember that absolute cleansing from all sin is not essential1 in order to have real participation in ,jesus ,christ4 ,the ,jew had to take every scrap of leaven out of his house before he began the ,passover4 ,if that were the condition for us1 alas6 for us all2 but the effort after purity1 though it has not entirely attained its aim1 is enough4 ,sin abhorred does not prevent a man from participating in the ,bread that came down from heaven4 ,then observe1 too1 that for this power to cleanse ourselves1 we must have had some participation in ,christ1 by which there is given to us that new life that conquers evil4 ,in the words immediately preceding my text1 the ,apostle bases his injunction to purge out the old leaven on the fact that 'ye are unleavened4' ,ideally1 in so far as the power possessed by them was concerned1 these ,corinthians were unleavened1 even whilst they were bid to purge out the leaven4 ,that is to say1 be what you are2 realise your ideal1 utilise the power you possess1 and since by your faith there has been given to you a new life that can conquer all corruption and sin1 see that you use the life that is given4 ,purge out the old leaven because ye are unleavened4 ,one last word--this stringent exhortation1 which makes ,christian effort after absolute purity a ,christian duty1 and the condition of participation in the ,paschal ,lamb1 is based upon that thought to which ,i have already referred1 of the diabolical power of infection which ,evil possesses4 ,either you must cast it out1 or it will choke the better thing in you4 ,it spreads and grows1 and propagates itself1 and works underground through and through the whole mass4 ,a water-weed got into some of our canals years ago1 and it has all but choked some of them4 ,the slime on a pond spreads its green mantle over the whole surface with rapidity4 ,if we do not eject ,evil it will eject the good from us4 ,use the implanted power to cast out this creeping1 advancing evil4 ,sometimes a wine-grower has gone into his cellars1 and found in a cask no wine1 but a monstrous fungus into which all the wine had1 in the darkness1 passed unnoticed4 ,i fear some ,christian people1 though they do not know it1 have something like that going on in them4 ,it is possible for us all to keep this perpetual festival4 ,to live in1 on1 for1 ,jesus ,christ will give us victory over enemies1 burdens1 sorrows1 sins4 ,we may1 if we will1 dwell in a calm zone where no tempests rage1 hear a perpetual strain of sweet music persisting through thunder peals of sorrow and suffering1 and find a table spread for us in the presence of our enemies1 at which we shall renew our strength for conflict1 and whence we shall rise to fight the good fight a little longer1 till we sit with ,him at ,his table in ,his ,kingdom1 and 'eat1 and live for ever4' ,,forms ,,versus ,,character ',circumcision is nothing1 and uncircumcision is nothing1 but the keeping of the commandments of ,god4'--#a ,,cor4 vii4 #ai4 ',for in ,jesus ,christ neither circumcision availeth anything1 nor uncircumcision1 but faith which worketh by love4'--,,gal4 v4 #f4 ',for neither is circumcision anything1 nor uncircumcision1 but a new creature4'--,,gal4 vi4 #af 7,r4,v474 ,the great controversy which embittered so much of ,paul's life1 and marred so much of his activity1 turned upon the question whether a heathen man could come into the ,church simply by the door of faith1 or whether he must also go through the gate of circumcision4 ,we all know how ,paul answered the question4 ,time1 which settles all controversies1 has settled that one so thoroughly that it is impossible to revive any kind of interest in it2 and it may seem to be a pure waste of time to talk about it4 ,but the principles that fought then are eternal1 though the forms in which they manifest themselves vary with every varying age4 ,the ,ritualist--using that word in its broadest sense--on the one hand1 and the ,puritan on the other1 represent permanent tendencies of human nature2 and we find to-day the old foes with new faces4 ,these three passages1 which ,i have read1 are ,paul's deliverance on the question of the comparative value of external rites and spiritual character4 ,they are remarkable both for the identity in the former part of each and for the variety in the latter4 ,in all the three cases he affirms1 almost in the same language1 that 'circumcision is nothing1 and uncircumcision is nothing1' that the ,ritualist's rite and the ,puritan's protest are equally insignificant in comparison with higher things4 ,and then he varies the statement of what the higher things are1 in a very remarkable and instructive fashion4 ,the 'keeping of the commandments of ,god1' says one of the texts1 is the all-important matter4 ,then1 as it were1 he pierces deeper1 and in another of the texts 7,i take the liberty of varying their order7 pronounces that 'a new creature' is the all-important thing4 ,and then he pierces still deeper to the bottom of all1 in the third text1 and says the all-important thing is 'faith which worketh by love4' ,i think ,i shall best bring out the force of these words by dealing first with that emphatic threefold proclamation of the nullity of all externalism2 and then with the singular variations in the triple statement of what is essential1 viz4 spiritual conduct and character4 ,i4 ,first1 the emphatic proclamation of the nullity of outward rites4 ',circumcision is nothing1 and uncircumcision is nothing1' say two texts4 ',circumcision availeth nothing1 and uncircumcision availeth nothing1' says the other4 ,it neither is anything nor does anything4 ,did ,paul say that because circumcision was a ,jewish rite8 ,no4 ,as ,i believe1 he said it because it was a rite2 and because he had learned that the one thing needful was spiritual character1 and that no external ceremonial of any sort could produce that4 ,i think we are perfectly warranted in taking this principle of my text1 and in extending it beyond the limits of the ,jewish rite about which ,paul was speaking4 ,for if you remember1 he speaks about baptism1 in the first chapter of the ,first ,epistle to the ,corinthians1 in a precisely similar tone and for precisely the same reason1 when he says1 in effect1 ',i baptized ,crispus and ,gaius and the household of ,stephanas1 and ,i think these are all4 ,i am not quite sure4 ,i do not keep any kind of record of such things2 ,god did not send me to baptize1 ,he sent me to preach the ,gospel4' ,the thing that produced the spiritual result was not the rite1 but the truth1 and therefore he felt that his function was to preach the truth and leave the rite to be administered by others4 ,therefore we can extend the principle here to all externalisms of worship1 in all forms1 in all churches1 and say that in comparison with the essentials of an inward ,christianity they are nothing and they do nothing4 ,they have their value4 ,as long as we are here on earth1 living in the flesh1 we must have outward forms and symbolical rites4 ,it is in ,heaven that the seer 'saw no temple4' ,our sense-bound nature requires1 and thankfully avails itself of1 the help of external rites and ceremonials to lift us up towards the ,object of our devotion4 ,a man prays all the better if he bow his head1 shut his eyes1 and bend his knees4 ,forms do help us to the realisation of the realities1 and the truths which they express and embody4 ,music may waft our souls to the heavens1 and pictures may stir deep thoughts4 ,that is the simple principle on which the value of all external aids to devotion depends4 ,they may be helps towards the appreciation of divine truth1 and to the suffusing of the heart with devout emotions which may lead to building up a holy character4 ,there is a worth1 therefore--an auxiliary and subordinate worth--in these things1 and in that respect they are not nothing1 nor do they 'avail nothing4' ,but then all external rites tend to usurp more than belongs to them1 and in our weakness we are apt to cleave to them1 and instead of using them as means to lift us higher1 to stay in them1 and as a great many of us do1 to mistake the mere gratification of taste and the excitement of the sensibilities for worship4 ,a bit of stained glass may be glowing with angel-forms and pictured saints1 but it always keeps some of the light out1 and it always hinders us from seeing through it4 ,and all external worship and form have so strong a tendency to usurp more than belongs to them1 and to drag us down to their own level1 even whilst we think that we are praying1 that ,i believe the wisest man will try to pare down the externals of his worship to the lowest possible point4 ,if there be as much body as will keep a soul in1 as much form as will embody the spirit1 that is all that we want4 ,what is more is dangerous4 ,all form in worship is like fire1 it is a good servant but it is a bad master1 and it needs to be kept very rigidly in subordination1 or else the spirituality of ,christian worship vanishes before men know2 and they are left with their dead forms which are only evils--crutches that make people limp by the very act of using them4 ,now1 my dear friends1 when that has happened1 when men begin to say1 as the people in ,paul's time were saying about circumcision1 and as people are saying in this day about ,christian rites1 that they are necessary1 then it is needful to take up ,paul's ground and to say1 ',no6 they are nothing6' ,they are useful in a certain place1 but if you make them obligatory1 if you make them essential1 if you say that grace is miraculously conveyed through them1 then it is needful that we should raise a strong note of protestation1 and declare their absolute nullity for the highest purpose1 that of making that spiritual character which alone is essential4 ,and ,i believe that this strange recrudescence--to use a modern word--of ceremonialism and aesthetic worship which we see all round about us1 not only in the ranks of the ,episcopal ,church1 but amongst ,nonconformists1 who are sighing for a less bare service1 and here and there are turning their chapels into concert-rooms1 and instead of preaching the ,gospel are having ',services of ,song' and the like--that all this makes it as needful to-day as ever it was to say to men3 ',forms are not worship4 ,rites may crush the spirit4 ,men may yield to the sensuous impressions which they produce1 and be lapped in an atmosphere of aesthetic emotion1 without any real devotion4' ,such externals are only worth anything if they make us grasp more firmly with our understandings and feel more profoundly with our hearts1 the great truths of the ,gospel4 ,if they do that1 they help2 if they are not doing that1 they hinder1 and are to be fought against4 ,and so we have again to proclaim to-day1 as ,paul did1 ',circumcision is nothing1' 'but the keeping of the commandments of ,god4' ,then notice with what remarkable fairness and boldness and breadth the ,apostle here adds that other clause3 'and uncircumcision is nothing4' ,it is a very hard thing for a man whose life has been spent in fighting against an error1 not to exaggerate the value of his protest4 ,it is a very hard thing for a man who has been delivered from the dependence upon forms1 not to fancy that his formlessness is what the other people think that their forms are4 ,the ,puritan who does not believe that a man can be a good man because he is a ,ritualist or a ,roman ,catholic1 is committing the very same error as the ,ritualist or the ,roman ,catholic who does not believe that the ,puritan can be a ,christian unless he has been 'christened4' ,the two people are exactly the same1 only the one has hold of the stick at one end1 and the other at the other4 ,there may be as much idolatry in superstitious reliance upon the bare worship as in the advocacy of the ornate2 and many a ,nonconformist who fancies that he has 'never bowed the knee to ,baal' is as true an idol-worshipper in his superstitious abhorrence of the ritualism that he sees in other communities1 as are the men who trust in it the most4 ,it is a large attainment in ,christian character to be able to say with ,paul1 ',circumcision is nothing1 and my own favourite point of uncircumcision is nothing either4 ,neither the one side nor the other touches the essentials4' ,,ii4 ,now let us look at the threefold variety of the designation of these essentials here4 ,in our first text from the ,epistle to the ,corinthians we read1 ',circumcision is nothing1 and uncircumcision is nothing1 but the keeping of the commandments of ,god4' ,if we finished the sentence it would be1 'but the keeping of the commandments of ,god is everything4' ,and by that 'keeping the commandments1' of course1 the ,apostle does not mean merely external obedience4 ,he means something far deeper than that1 which ,i put into this plain word1 that the one essential of a ,christian life is the conformity of the will with ,god's--not the external obedience merely1 but the entire surrender and the submission of my will to the will of my ,father in ,heaven4 ,that is the all-important thing2 that is what ,god wants2 that is the end of all rites and ceremonies2 that is the end of all revelation and of all utterances of the divine heart4 ,the ,bible1 ,christ's mission1 ,his passion and death1 the gift of ,his ,divine ,spirit1 and every part of the divine dealings in providence1 all converge upon this one aim and goal4 ,for this purpose the ,father worketh hitherto1 and ,christ works1 that man's will may yield and bow itself wholly and happily and lovingly to the great infinite will of the ,father in heaven4 ,brethren6 that is the perfection of a man's nature1 when his will fits on to ,god's like one of ,euclid's triangles superimposed upon another1 and line for line coincides4 ,when his will allows a free passage to the will of ,god1 without resistance or deflection1 as light travels through transparent glass2 when his will responds to the touch of ,god's finger upon the keys1 like the telegraphic needle to the operator's hand1 then man has attained all that ,god and religion can do for him1 all that his nature is capable of2 and far beneath his feet may be the ladders of ceremonies and forms and outward acts1 by which he climbed to that serene and blessed height1 ',circumcision is nothing1 and uncircumcision is nothing1 but the keeping of ,god's commandments is everything4' ,that submission of will is the sum and the test of your ,christianity4 ,your ,christianity does not consist only in a mere something which you call faith in ,jesus ,christ4 ,it does not consist in emotions1 however deep and blessed and genuine they may be4 ,it does not consist in the acceptance of a creed4 ,all these are means to an end4 ,they are meant to drive the wheel of life1 to build up character1 to make your deepest wish to be1 ',father6 not my will1 but ,thine1 be done4' ,in the measure in which that is your heart's desire1 and not one hair's-breadth further1 have you a right to call yourself a ,christian4 ,but1 then1 ,i can fancy a man saying3 ',it is all very well to talk about bowing the will in this fashion2 how can ,i do that8' ,well1 let us take our second text--the third in the order of their occurrence--',for neither circumcision is anything1 nor uncircumcision1 but a new creature4' ,that is to say1 if we are ever to keep the will of ,god we must be made over again4 ,ay6 we must6 ,our own consciences tell us that2 the history of all the efforts that ever we have made--and ,i suppose all of us have made some now and then1 more or less earnest and more or less persistent--tells us that there needs to be a stronger hand than ours to come into the fight if it is ever to be won by us4 ,there is nothing more heartless and more impotent than to preach1 ',bow your wills to ,god1 and then you will be happy2 bow your wills to ,god1 and then you will be good4' ,if that is all the preacher has to say1 his powerless words will but provoke the answer1 ',we cannot4 ,tell the leopard to change his spots1 or the ,ethiopian his skin1 as soon as tell a man to reduce this revolted kingdom within him to obedience1 and to bow his will to the will of ,god4 ,we cannot do it4' ,but1 brethren1 in that word1 'a new creature1' lies a promise from ,god2 for a creature implies a creator4 ',it is ,he that hath made us1 and not we ourselves4' ,the very heart of what ,christ has to offer us is the gift of ,his own life to dwell in our hearts1 and by its mighty energy to make us free from the law of sin and death which binds our wills4 ,we may have our spirits moulded into ,his likeness1 and new tastes1 and new desires1 and new capacities infused into us1 so as that we shall not be left with our own poor powers to try and force ourselves into obedience to ,god's will1 but that submission and holiness and love that keeps the commandments of ,god1 will spring up in our renewed spirits as their natural product and growth4 ,oh6 you men and women who have been honestly trying1 half your lifetime1 to make yourselves what you know ,god wants you to be1 and who are obliged to confess that you have failed1 hearken to the message3 ',if any man be in ,christ1 he is a new creature1 old things are passed away4' ,the one thing needful is keeping the commandments of ,god1 and the only way by which we can keep the commandments of ,god is that we should be formed again into the likeness of ,him of whom alone it is true that ',he did always the things that pleased' ,god4 ,and so we come to the last of these great texts3 ',in ,christ ,jesus1 neither circumcision availeth anything1 nor uncircumcision1 but faith which worketh by love4' ,that is to say1 if we are to be made over again1 we must have faith in ,christ ,jesus4 ,we have got to the root now1 so far as we are concerned4 ,we must keep the commandments of ,god2 if we are to keep the commandments we must be made over again1 and if our hearts ask how can we receive that new creating power into our lives1 the answer is1 by 'faith which worketh by love4' ,paul did not believe that external rites could make men partakers of a new nature1 but he believed that if a man would trust in ,jesus ,christ1 the life of that ,christ would flow into his opened heart1 and a new spirit and nature would be born in him4 ,and1 therefore1 his triple requirements come all down to this one1 so far as we are concerned1 as the beginning and the condition of the other two4 ',neither circumcision does anything1 nor uncircumcision1 but faith which worketh by love1' does everything4 ,he that trusts ,christ opens his heart to ,christ1 who comes with ,his new-creating ,spirit1 and makes us willing in the day of ,his power to keep ,his commandments4 ,but faith leads us to obedience in yet another fashion1 than this opening of the door of the heart for the entrance of the new-creating ,spirit4 ,it leads to it in the manner which is expressed by the words of our text1 'worketh by love4' ,faith shows itself living1 because it leads us to love1 and through love it produces its effects upon conduct4 ,two things are implied in this designation of faith4 ,if you trust ,christ you will love ,him4 ,that is plain enough4 ,and you will not love ,him unless you trust ,him4 ,though it lies wide of my present purpose1 let us take this lesson in passing4 ,you cannot work yourself up into a spasm or paroxysm of religious emotion and love by resolution or by effort4 ,all that you can do is to go and look at the ,master and get near ,him1 and that will warm you up4 ,you can love if you trust4 ,your trust will make you love2 unless you trust you will never love ,him4 ,the second thing implied is1 that if you love you will obey4 ,that is plain enough4 ,the keeping of the commandments will be easy where there is love in the heart4 ,the will will bow where there is love in the heart4 ,love is the only fire that is hot enough to melt the iron obstinacy of a creature's will4 ,the will cannot be driven4 ,strike it with violence and it stiffens2 touch it gently and it yields4 ,if you try to put an iron collar upon the will1 like the demoniac in the ,gospels1 the touch of the apparent restraint drives it into fury1 and it breaks the bands asunder4 ,fasten it with the silken leash of love1 and a 'little child' can lead it4 ,so faith works by love1 because whom we trust we shall love1 and whom we love we shall obey4 ,therefore we have got to the root now1 and nothing is needful but an operative faith1 out of which will come all the blessed possession of a transforming ,spirit1 and all sublimities and noblenesses of an obedient and submissive will4 ,my brother6 ,paul and ,james shake hands here4 ,there is a 'faith' so called1 which does not work4 ,it is dead6 ,let me beseech you1 none of you to rely upon what you choose to call your faith in ,jesus ,christ1 but examine it4 ,does it do anything8 ,does it help you to be like ,him8 ,does it open your hearts for ,his ,spirit to come in8 ,does it fill them with love to that ,master1 a love which proves itself by obedience8 ,plain questions1 questions that any man can answer2 questions that go to the root of the whole matter4 ,if your faith does that1 it is genuine2 if it does not1 it is not4 ,and do not trust either to forms1 or to your freedom from forms4 ,they will not save your souls1 they will not make you more ,christ-like4 ,they will not help you to pardon1 purity1 holiness1 blessedness4 ,in these respects neither if we have them are we the better1 nor if we have them not are we the worse4 ,if you are trusting to ,christ1 and by that faith are having your hearts moulded and made over again into all holy obedience1 then you have all that you need4 ,unless you have1 though you partook of all ,christian rites1 though you believed all ,christian truth1 though you fought against superstitious reliance on forms1 you have not the one thing needful1 for 'in ,christ ,jesus neither circumcision availeth anything1 nor uncircumcision1 but faith which worketh by love4' ,,slaves ,,and ,,free ',he that is called in the ,lord1 being a servant1 is the ,lord's free man3 likewise also he that is called1 being free1 is ,christ's servant4'--#a ,,cor4 vii4 #bb4 ,this remarkable saying occurs in a remarkable connection1 and is used for a remarkable purpose4 ,the ,apostle has been laying down the principle1 that the effect of true ,christianity is greatly to diminish the importance of outward circumstance4 ,and on that principle he bases an advice1 dead in the teeth of all the maxims recognised by worldly prudence4 ,he says1 in effect1 ',mind very little about getting on and getting up4 ,do ,god's will wherever you are1 and let the rest take care of itself4' ,now1 the world says1 ',struggle1 wriggle1 fight1 do anything to better yourself4' ,paul says1 ',you will better yourself by getting nearer ,god1 and if you secure that--art thou a slave8 care not for it2 if thou mayest be free1 use it rather2 art thou bound to a wife8 seek not to be loosed2 art thou loosed8 seek not to be bound2 art thou circumcised8 seek not to be uncircumcised2 art thou a ,gentile8 seek not to become in outward form a ,jew4' ,never mind about externals3 the main thing is our relation to ,jesus ,christ1 because in that there is what will be compensation for all the disadvantages of any disadvantageous circumstances1 and in that there is what will take the gilt off the gingerbread of any superficial and fleeting good1 and will bring a deep-seated and permanent blessing4 ,now1 ,i am not going to deal in this sermon with that general principle1 nor even to be drawn aside to speak of the tone in which the ,apostle here treats the great abomination of slavery1 and the singular advice that he gives to its victims2 though the consideration of the tone of ,christianity to that master-evil of the old world might yield a great many thoughts very relevant to pressing questions of to-day4 ,but my one object is to fix upon the combination which he here brings out in regard to the essence of the ,christian life2 how that in itself it contains both members of the antithesis1 servitude and freedom2 so that the ,christian man who is free externally is ,christ's slave1 and the ,christian man who is outwardly in bondage is emancipated by his union with ,jesus ,christ4 ,there are two thoughts here1 the application in diverse directions of the same central idea--viz4 the slavery of ,christ's free men1 and the freedom of ,christ's slaves4 ,and ,i deal briefly with these two now4 ,i4 ,first1 then1 note how1 according to the one-half of the antithesis1 ,christ's freed men are slaves4 ,now1 the way in which the ,new ,testament deals with that awful wickedness of a man held in bondage by a man is extremely remarkable4 ,it might seem as if such a hideous piece of immorality were altogether incapable of yielding any lessons of good4 ,but the ,apostles have no hesitation whatever in taking slavery as a clear picture of the relation in which all ,christian people stand to ,jesus ,christ their ,lord4 ,he is the owner and we are the slaves4 ,for you must remember that the word most inadequately rendered here1 'servant' does not mean a hired man who has1 of his own volition1 given himself for a time to do specific work and get wages for it2 but it means 'a bond-slave1' a chattel owned by another4 ,all the ugly associations which gather round the word are transported bodily into the ,christian region1 and there1 instead of being hideous1 take on a shape of beauty1 and become expressions of the deepest and most blessed truths1 in reference to ,christian men's dependence upon1 and submission to1 and place in the household and the heart of1 ,jesus ,christ1 their ,owner4 ,and what is the centre idea that lies in this metaphor1 if you like to call it so8 ,it is this3 absolute authority1 which has for its correlative--for the thing in us that answers to it--unconditional submission4 ,jesus ,christ has the perfect right to command each of us1 and we are bound to bow ourselves1 unreluctant1 unmurmuring1 unhesitating1 with complete submission at ,his feet4 ,his authority1 and our submission1 go far1 far deeper than the most despotic sway of the most tyrannous master1 or than the most abject submission of the most downtrodden slave4 ,for no man can coerce another man's will1 and no man can require more1 or can ever get more1 than that outward obedience which may be rendered with the most sullen and fixed rebellion of a hating heart and an obstinate will4 ,but ,jesus ,christ demands that if we call ourselves ,christians we shall bring1 not our members only as instruments to ,him1 in outward surrender and service1 but that we shall yield ourselves1 with our capacities of willing and desiring1 utterly1 absolutely1 constantly to ,him4 ,the founder of the ,jesuits laid it down as a rule for his ,order that each member of it was to be at the master's disposal like a corpse1 or a staff in the hand of a blind man4 ,that was horrible4 ,but the absolute putting of myself at the disposal of another's will1 which is expressed so tyrannously in ,loyola's demand1 is the simple duty of every ,christian1 and as long as we have recalcitrating wills1 which recoil at anything which ,christ commands or appoints1 and perk up their own inclinations in the face of ,his solemn commandment1 or that shrink from doing and suffering whatsoever ,he imposes and enjoins1 we have still to learn what it means to be ,christ's disciples4 ,dear brethren1 absolute submission is not all that makes a disciple1 but1 depend upon it1 there is no discipleship worth calling by the name without it4 ,so ,i come to each of you with ,his message to you3--,down on your faces before ,him6 ,bow your obstinate will1 surrender yourselves and accept ,him as absolute1 dominant ,lord over your whole being6 ,are you ,christians after that pattern8 ,being freemen1 are you ,christ's slaves8 ,it does not matter what sort of work the owner sets his household of slaves to do4 ,one man is picked out to be his pipe-bearer1 or his shoe-cleaner2 and1 if the master is a sovereign1 another one is sent off1 perhaps1 to be governor of a province1 or one of his council4 ,they are all slaves2 and the service that each does is equally important4 ',all service ranks the same with ,god3 ,there is no last nor first4' ,what does it matter what you and ,i are set to do8 ,nothing4 ,and1 so1 why need we struggle and wear our hearts out to get into conspicuous places1 or to do work that shall bring some revenue of praise said glory to ourselves8 ',play well thy part2 there all the honour lies1' the world can say4 ,serve ,christ in anything1 and all ,his servants are alike in ,his sight4 ,the slave-owner had absolute power of life and death over his dependants4 ,he could split up families2 he could sell away dear ones2 he could part husband and wife1 parent and child4 ,the slave was his1 and he could do what he liked with his own1 according to the cruel logic of ancient law4 ,and ,jesus ,christ1 the ,lord of the household1 the ,lord of providence1 can say to this one1 ',go6' and he goes into the mists and the shadows of death4 ,and ,he can say to those who are most closely united1 ',loose your hands6 ,i have need of one of you yonder4 ,i have need of the other one here4' ,and if we are wise1 if we are ,his servants in any real deep sense1 we shall not kick against the appointments of ,his supreme1 autocratic1 and yet most loving ,providence1 but be content to leave the arbitrament of life and death1 of love united or of love parted1 in ,his hands1 and say1 ',whether we live we are the ,lord's1 or whether we die we are the ,lord's2 living or dying we are ,his4' ,the slave-owner owned all that the slave owned4 ,he gave him a little cottage1 with some humble sticks of furniture in it2 and a bit of ground on which to grow his vegetables for his family4 ,but he to whom the owner of the vegetables and the stools belonged owned them too4 ,and if we are ,christ's servants1 our banker's book is ,christ's1 and our purse is ,christ's1 and our investments are ,christ's2 and our mills1 and our warehouses1 and our shops and our businesses are ,his4 ,we are not ,his slaves1 if we arrogate to ourselves the right of doing what we like with ,his possessions4 ,and1 then1 still further1 there comes into our ,apostle's picture here yet another point of resemblance between slaves and the disciples of ,jesus4 ,for the hideous abominations of the slave-market are transferred to the ,christian relation1 and defecated and cleansed of all their abominations and cruelty thereby4 ,for what immediately follows my text is1 ',ye are bought with a price4' ,jesus ,christ has won us for ,himself4 ,there is only one price that can buy a heart1 and that is a heart4 ,there is only one way of getting a man to be mine1 and that is by giving myself to be his4 ,so we come to the very vital1 palpitating centre of all ,christianity when we say1 ',he gave ,himself for us1 that ,he might acquire to ,himself a people for ,his possession4' ,thus ,his purchase of ,his slave1 when we remember that it is the buying of a man in his inmost personality1 changes all that might seem harsh in the requirement of absolute submission into the most gracious and blessed privilege4 ,for when ,i am won by another1 because that other has given him or her whole self to me1 then the language of love is submission1 and the conformity of the two wills is the delight of each loving will4 ,whoever has truly been wooed into relationship with ,jesus1 by reflection upon the love with which ,jesus grapples him to ,his heart1 finds that there is nothing so blessed as to yield one's self utterly and for ever to ,his service4 ,the one bright point in the hideous institution of slavery was1 that it bound the master to provide for the slave1 and though that was degrading to the inferior1 it made his life a careless1 child-like1 merry life1 even amidst the many cruelties and abominations of the system4 ,but what was a good1 dashed with a great deal of evil1 in that relation of man to man1 comes to be a pure blessing and good in our relation to ,him4 ,if ,i am ,christ's slave1 it is ,his business to take care of ,his own property1 and ,i do not need to trouble myself much about it4 ,if ,i am ,his slave1 ,he will be quite sure to find me in food and necessaries enough to get ,his tale of work out of me2 and ,i may cast all my care upon ,him1 for ,he careth for me4 ,so1 brethren1 absolute submission and the devolution of all anxiety on the ,master are what is laid upon us1 if we are ,christ's slaves4 ,,ii4 ,then there is the other side1 about which ,i must say1 secondly1 a word or two2 and that is1 the freedom of ,christ's slaves4 ,as the text puts it1 ',he that is called1 being a servant1 is the ,lord's freedman4' ,a freedman was one who was emancipated1 and who therefore stood in a relation of gratitude to his emancipator and patron4 ,so in the very word 'freedman' there is contained the idea of submission to ,him who has struck off the fetters4 ,but1 apart from that1 let me just remind you1 in a sentence or two1 that whilst there are many other ways by which men have sought1 and have partially attained1 deliverance from the many fetters and bondages that attach to our earthly life1 the one perfect way by which a man can be truly1 in the deepest sense of the word and in his inmost being1 a free man is by faith in ,jesus ,christ4 ,i do not for a moment forget how wisdom and truth1 and noble aims and high purposes1 and culture of various kinds have1 in lower degrees and partially1 emancipated men from self and flesh and sin and the world1 and all the other fetters that bind us4 ,but sure ,i am that the process is never so completely and so assuredly effected as by the simple way of absolute submission to ,jesus ,christ1 taking ,him for the supreme and unconditional ,arbiter and ,sovereign of a life4 ,if we do that1 brethren1 if we really yield ourselves to ,him1 in heart and will1 in life and conduct1 submitting our understanding to ,his infallible ,word1 and our wills to ,his authority1 regulating our conduct by ,his perfect pattern1 and in all things seeking to serve ,him and to realise ,his presence1 then be sure of this1 that we shall be set free from the one real bondage1 and that is the bondage of our own wicked selves4 ,there is no such tyranny as mob tyranny2 and there is no such slavery as to be ruled by the mob of our own passions and lusts and inclinations and other meannesses that yelp and clamour within us1 and seek to get hold of us and to sway4 ,there is only one way by which the brute domination of the lower part of our nature can be surely and thoroughly put down1 and that is by turning to ,jesus ,christ and saying to ,him1 ',lord6 do ,thou rule this anarchic kingdom within me1 for ,i cannot govern it myself4 ,do ,thou guide and direct and subdue4' ,you can only govern yourself and be free from the compulsion of your own evil nature when you surrender the control to the ,master1 and say ever1 ',speak1 ,lord6 for ,thy slave hears4 ,here am ,i1 send me4' ,and that is the only way by which a man can be delivered from the bondage of dependence upon outward things4 ,i said at the beginning of these remarks that my text occurred in the course of a discussion in which the ,apostle was illustrating the tendency of true ,christian faith to set man free from1 and to make him largely independent of1 the varieties in external circumstances4 ,christian faith does so1 because it brings into a life a sufficient compensation for all losses1 limitations1 and sorrows1 and a good which is the reality of which all earthly goods are but shadows4 ,so the slave may be free in ,christ1 and the poor man may be rich in ,him1 and the sad man may be joyful1 and the joyful man may be delivered from excess of gladness1 and the rich man be kept from the temptations and sins of wealth1 and the free man be taught to surrender his liberty to the ,lord who makes him free4 ,thus1 if we have the all-sufficient compensation which there is in ,jesus ,christ1 the satisfaction for all our needs and desires1 we do not need to trouble ourselves so much as we sometimes do about these changing things round about us4 ,let them come1 let them go2 let the darkness veil the light1 and the light illuminate the darkness2 let summer and winter alternate2 let tribulation and prosperity succeed each other2 we have a source of blessedness unaffected by these4 ,ice may skin the surface of the lake1 but deep beneath1 the water is at the same temperature in winter and in summer4 ,storms may sweep the face of the deep1 but in the abyss there is calm which is not stagnation4 ,so he that cleaves to ,christ is delivered from the slavery that binds men to the details and accidents of outward life4 ,and if we are the servants of ,christ1 we shall be set free1 in the measure in which we are ,his1 from the slavery which daily becomes more oppressive as the means of communication become more complete1 the slavery to popular opinion and to men round us4 ,dare to be singular2 take your beliefs at first hand from the ,master4 ,never mind what fellow-slaves say4 ,it is ,his smile or frown that is of importance4 ',ye are bought with a price2 be not servants of men4' ,and so1 brethren1 'choose you this day whom ye will serve4' ,you are not made to be independent4 ,you must serve some thing or person4 ,recognise the narrow limitations within which your choice lies1 and the issues which depend upon it4 ,it is not whether you will serve ,christ or whether you will be free4 ,it is whether you will serve ,christ or your own worst self1 the world1 men1 and ,i was going to add1 the flesh and the devil4 ,make your choice4 ,he has bought you4 ,you belong to ,him by ,his death4 ,yield yourselves to ,him1 it is the only way of breaking your chains4 ,he that doeth sin is the servant of sin4 ',if the ,son make you free1 ye shall be free indeed1' and not only free2 for the ,king's slaves are princes and nobles1 and 'all things are yours1 and ye are ,christ's4' ,they who say to ,him ',o ,lord6 truly ,i am ,thy servant1' receive from ,him the rank of kings and priests to ,god1 and shall reign with ,him for ever4 ,,the ,,christian ,,life ',brethren1 let every man1 wherein he is called1 therein abide with ,god4'--#a ,,cor4 vii4 #bd4 ,you find that three times within the compass of a very few verses this injunction is repeated4 ',as ,god hath distributed to every man1' says the ,apostle in the seventeenth verse1 'as the ,lord hath called every one1 so let him walk4 ,and so ordain ,i in all the churches4' ,then again in the twentieth verse1 ',let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called4' ,and then finally in our text4 ,the reason for this emphatic reiteration is not difficult to ascertain4 ,there were strong temptations to restlessness besetting the early ,christians4 ,the great change from heathenism to ,christianity would seem to loosen the joints of all life1 and having been swept from their anchorage in religion1 all external things would appear to be adrift4 ,it was most natural that a man should seek to alter even the circumstances of his outward life1 when such a revolution had separated him from his ancient self4 ,hence would tend to come the rupture of family ties1 the separation of husband and wife1 the ,jewish convert seeking to become like a ,gentile1 the ,gentile seeking to become like a ,jew2 the slave trying to be free1 the freeman1 in some paroxysm of disgust at his former condition1 trying to become a slave4 ,these three cases are all referred to in the context--marriage1 circumcision1 slavery4 ,and for all three the ,apostle has the same advice to give--',stop where you are4' ,in whatever condition you were when ,god's invitation drew you to ,himself--for that1 and not being set to a 'vocation' in life1 is the meaning of the word 'called' here--remain in it4 ,and then1 on the other hand1 there was every reason why the ,apostle and his co-workers should set themselves1 by all means in their power1 to oppose this restlessness4 ,for1 if ,christianity in those early days had once degenerated into the mere instrument of social revolution1 its development would have been thrown back for centuries1 and the whole worth and power of it1 for those who first apprehended it1 would have been lost4 ,so you know ,paul never said a word to encourage any precipitate attempts to change externals4 ,he let slavery--he let war alone2 he let the tyranny of the ,roman ,empire alone--not because he was a coward1 not because he thought that these things were not worth meddling with1 but because he1 like all wise men1 believed in making the tree good and then its fruit good4 ,he believed in the diffusion of the principles which he proclaimed1 and the mighty ,name which he served1 as able to girdle the poison-tree1 and to take the bark off it1 and the rest1 the slow dying1 might be left to the work of time4 ,and the same general idea underlies the words of my text4 ',do not try to change1' he says1 'do not trouble about external conditions2 keep to your ,christian profession2 let those alone1 they will right themselves4 ,art thou a slave8 ,seek not to be freed4 ,art thou circumcised8 ,seek not to be uncircumcised4 ,get hold of the central1 vivifying1 transmuting influence1 and all the rest is a question of time4' ,but1 besides this more especial application of the words of my text to the primitive times1 it carries with it1 dear brethren1 a large general principle that applies to all times--a principle1 ,i may say1 dead in the teeth of the maxims upon which life is being ordered by the most of us4 ,our maxim is1 ',get on6' ,paul's is1 ',never mind about getting on1 get up6' ,our notion is--',try to make the circumstances what ,i would like to have them4' ,paul's is--',leave circumstances to take care of themselves1 or rather leave ,god to take care of the circumstances4 ,you get close to ,him1 and hold ,his hand1 and everything else will right itself4' ,only he is not preaching stolid acquiescence4 ,his previous injunctions were--',let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called4' ,he sees that that may be misconceived and abused1 and so1 in his third reiteration of the precept1 he puts in a word which throws a flood of light upon the whole thing--',let every man wherein he is called therein abide4' ,yes1 but that is not all--'therein abide with ,god6' ,ay1 that is it6 not an impossible stoicism2 not hypocritical1 fanatical contempt of the external4 ,but whilst that gets its due force and weight1 whilst a man yields himself in a measure to the natural tastes and inclinations which ,god has given him1 and with the intention that he should find there subordinate guidance and impulse for his life1 still let him abide where he is called with ,god1 and seek to increase his fellowship with ,him1 as the main thing that he has to do4 ,i4 ,thus we are led from the words before us first to the thought that our chief effort in life ought to be union with ,god4 ',abide with ,god1' which1 being put into other words1 means1 ,i think1 mainly two things--constant communion1 the occupation of all our nature with ,him1 and1 consequently1 the recognition of ,his will in all circumstances4 ,as to the former1 we have the mind and heart and will of ,god revealed to us for the light1 the love1 the obedience of our will and heart and mind2 and our ,apostle's precept is1 first1 that we should try1 moment by moment1 in all the bustle and stir of our daily life1 to have our whole being consciously directed to and engaged with1 fertilised and calmed by contact with1 the perfect and infinite nature of our ,father in heaven4 ,as we go to our work again to-morrow morning1 what difference would obedience to this precept make upon my life and yours8 ,before all else1 and in the midst of all else1 we should think of that ,divine ,mind that in the heavens is waiting to illumine our darkness2 we should feel the glow of that uncreated and perfect ,love1 which1 in the midst of change and treachery1 of coldness and of 'greetings where no kindness is1' in the midst of masterful authority and unloving command1 is ready to fill our hearts with tenderness and tranquillity3 we should bow before that ,will which is absolute and supreme indeed1 but neither arbitrary nor harsh1 which is 'the eternal purpose that ,he hath purposed in ,himself' indeed1 but is also 'the good pleasure of ,his goodness and the counsel of ,his grace4' ,and with such a ,god near to us ever in our faithful thoughts1 in our thankful love1 in our lowly obedience1 with such a mind revealing itself to us1 and such a heart opening its hidden storehouses for us as we approach1 like some star that1 as one gets nearer to it1 expands its disc and glows into rich colour1 which at a distance was but pallid silver1 and such a will sovereign above all1 energising1 even through opposition1 and making obedience a delight1 what room1 brethren1 would there be in our lives for agitations1 and distractions1 and regrets1 and cares1 and fears--what room for earthly hopes or for sad remembrances8 ,they die in the fruition of a present ,god all-sufficient for mind1 and heart1 and will--even as the sun when it is risen with a burning heat may scorch and wither the weeds that grow about the base of the fruitful tree1 whose deeper roots are but warmed by the rays that ripen the rich clusters which it bears4 ',let every man1 wherein he is called1 therein abide with ,god4' ,and then1 as a consequence of such an occupation of the whole being with ,god1 there will follow that second element which is included in the precept1 namely1 the recognition of ,god's will as operating in and determining all circumstances4 ,when our whole soul is occupied with ,him1 we shall see ,him everywhere4 ,and this ought to be our honest effort--to connect everything which befalls ourselves and the world with ,him4 ,we should see that ,omnipotent ,will1 the silent energy which flows through all being1 asserting itself through all secondary causes1 marching on towards its destined and certain goal1 amidst all the whirl and perturbation of events1 bending even the antagonism of rebels and the unconsciousness of godless men1 as well as the play of material instruments1 to its own purposes1 and swinging and swaying the whole set and motion of things according to its own impulse and by the touch of its own fingers4 ,such a faith does not require us to overlook the visible occasions for the things which befall us1 nor to deny the stable laws according to which that mighty will operates in men's lives4 ,secondary causes8 ,yes4 ,men's opposition and crime8 ,yes4 ,our own follies and sins8 ,no doubt4 ,blessings and sorrows falling indiscriminately on a whole community or a whole world8 ,certainly4 ,and yet the visible agents are not the sources1 but only the vehicles of the power1 the belting and shafting which transmit a mighty impulse which they had nothing to do in creating4 ,and the antagonism subserves the purposes of the rule which it opposes1 as the blow of the surf may consolidate the sea-wall that it breaks against4 ,and our own follies and sins may indeed sorrowfully shadow our lives1 and bring on us pains of body and disasters in fortune1 and stings in spirit for which we alone are responsible1 and which we have no right to regard as inscrutable judgments--yet even these bitter plants of which our own hands have sowed the seed1 spring by ,his merciful will1 and are to be regarded as ,his loving1 fatherly chastisements--sent before to warn us by a premonitory experience that 'the wages of sin is death4' ,as a rule1 ,god does not interpose to pick a man out of the mud into which he has been plunged by his own faults and follies1 until he has learned the lessons which he can find in plenty down in the slough1 if he will only look for them6 ,and the fact that some great calamity or some great joy affects a wide circle of people1 does not make its having a special lesson and meaning for each of them at all doubtful4 ,there is one of the great depths of all-moving wisdom and providence1 that in the very self-same act it is in one aspect universal1 and in another special and individual4 ,the ordinary notion of a special providence goes perilously near the belief that ,god's will is less concerned in some parts of a man's life than in others4 ,it is very much like desecrating and secularising a whole land by the very act of focussing the sanctity in some single consecrated shrine4 ,but the true belief is that the whole sweep of a life is under the will of ,god1 and that when1 for instance1 war ravages a nation1 though the sufferers be involved in a common ruin occasioned by murderous ambition and measureless pride1 yet for each of the sufferers the common disaster has a special message4 ,let us believe in a divine will which regards each individual caught up in the skirts of the horrible storm1 even as it regards each individual on whom the equal rays of ,his universal sunshine fall4 ,let us believe that every single soul has a place in the heart1 and is taken into account in the purposes of ,him who moves the tempest1 and makes ,his sun to shine upon the unthankful and on the good4 ,let us1 in accordance with the counsel of the ,apostle here1 first of all try to anchor and rest our own souls fast and firm in ,god all the day long1 that1 grasping ,his hand1 we may look out upon all the confused dance of fleeting circumstances and say1 ',thy will is done on earth'--if not yet 'as it is done in heaven1' still done in the issues and events of all--and done with my cheerful obedience and thankful acceptance of its commands and allotments in my own life4 ,,ii4 ,the second idea which comes out of these words is this--,such union with ,god will lead to contented continuance in our place1 whatever it be4 ,our text is as if ,paul had said1 ',you have been called in such and such worldly circumstances4 ,the fact proves that these circumstances do not obstruct the highest and richest blessings4 ,the light of ,god can shine on your souls through them4 ,since then you have such sacred memorials associated with them1 and know by experience that fellowship with ,god is possible in them1 do you remain where you are1 and keep hold of the ,god who has visited you in them4' ,if once1 in accordance with the thoughts already suggested1 our minds have1 by ,god's help1 been brought into something like real1 living fellowship with ,him1 and we have attained the wisdom that pierces through the external to the ,almighty will that underlies all its mazy whirl1 then why should we care about shifting our place8 ,why should we trouble ourselves about altering these varying events1 since each in its turn is a manifestation of ,his mind and will2 each in its turn is a means of discipline for us2 and through all their variety a single purpose works1 which tends to a single end--'that we should be partakers of ,his holiness'8 ,and that is the one point of view from which we can bear to look upon the world and not be utterly bewildered and over-mastered by it4 ,calmness and central peace are ours2 a true appreciation of all outward good and a charm against the bitterest sting of outward evils are ours2 a patient continuance in the place where ,he has set us is ours--when by fellowship with ,him we have learned to look upon our work as primarily doing ,his will1 and upon all our possessions and conditions primarily as means for making us like ,himself4 ,most men seem to think that they have gone to the very bottom of the thing when they have classified the gifts of fortune as good or evil1 according as they produce pleasure or pain4 ,but that is a poor1 superficial classification4 ,it is like taking and arranging books by their bindings and flowers by their colours4 ,instead of saying1 ',we divide life into two halves1 and we put there all the joyful1 and here all the sad1 for that is the ruling distinction'--let us rather say1 ',the whole is one1 because it all comes from one purpose1 and it all tends towards one end4 ,the only question worth asking in regard to the externals of our life is--,how far does each thing help me to be a good man8 how far does it open my understanding to apprehend ,him8 how far does it make my spirit pliable and plastic under ,his touch8 how far does it make me capable of larger reception of greater gifts from ,himself8 what is its effect in preparing me for that world beyond8' ,is there any other greater1 more satisfying1 more majestic thought of life than this--the scaffolding by which souls are built up into the temple of ,god8 ,and to care whether a thing is painful or pleasant is as absurd as to care whether the bricklayer's trowel is knocking the sharp corner off a brick1 or plastering mortar on the one below it before he lays it carefully on its course4 ,is the building getting on8 ,that is the one question that is worth thinking about4 ,you and ,i write our lives as if on one of those manifold writers which you use4 ,a thin filmy sheet here1 a bit of black paper below it2 but the writing goes through upon the next page1 and when the blackness that divides two worlds is swept away there1 the history of each life written by ourselves remains legible in eternity4 ,and the question is--,what sort of autobiography are we writing for the revelation of that day1 and how far do our circumstances help us to transcribe fair in our lives the will of our ,god and the image of our ,redeemer8 ,if1 then1 we have once got hold of that principle that all which is--summer and winter1 storm and sunshine1 possession and loss1 memory and hope1 work and rest1 and all the other antitheses of life--is equally the product of ,his will1 equally the manifestation of ,his mind1 equally ,his means for our discipline1 then we have the amulet and talisman which will preserve us from the fever of desire and the shivering fits of anxiety as to things which perish4 ,and1 as they tell of a ,christian father who1 riding by one of the great lakes of ,switzerland all day long1 on his journey to the ,church ,council that was absorbing his thoughts1 said towards evening to the deacon who was pacing beside him1 ',where is the lake8' so you and ,i1 journeying along by the margin of this great flood of things when wild storms sweep across it1 or when the sunbeams glint upon its blue waters1 'and birds of peace sit brooding on the charmed wave1' will be careless of the changeful sea1 if the eye looks beyond the visible and beholds the unseen1 the unchanging real presences that make glory in the darkest lives1 and 'sunshine in the shady place4' ',let every man1 wherein he is called1 therein abide with ,god4' ,,iii4 ,still further1 another thought may be suggested from these words1 or rather from the connection in which they occur1 and that is--,such contented continuance in our place is the dictate of the truest wisdom4 ,there are two or three collateral topics1 partly suggested by the various connections in which this commandment occurs in the chapter1 from which ,i draw the few remarks ,i have to make now4 ,and the first point ,i would suggest is that very old commonplace one1 so often forgotten1 that after all1 though you may change about as much as you like1 there is a pretty substantial equipoise and identity in the amount of pain and pleasure in all external conditions4 ,the total length of day and night all the year round is the same at the ,north ,pole and at the ,equator--half and half4 ,only1 in the one place1 it is half and half for four-and-twenty hours at a time1 and in the other1 the night lasts through gloomy months of winter1 and the day is bright for unbroken weeks of summer4 ,but1 when you come to add them up at the year's end1 the man who shivers in the ice1 and the man who pants beneath the beams from the zenith1 have had the same length of sunshine and of darkness4 ,it does not matter much at what degrees between the ,equator and the ,pole you and ,i live2 when the thing comes to be made up we shall be all pretty much upon an equality4 ,you do not get the happiness of the rich man over the poor one by multiplying twenty shillings a week by as many figures as will suffice to make it up to #aj1jjj a year4 ,what is the use of such eager desires to change our condition1 when every condition has disadvantages attending its advantages as certainly as a shadow2 and when all have pretty nearly the same quantity of the raw material of pain and pleasure1 and when the amount of either actually experienced by us depends not on where we are1 but on what we are8 ,then1 still further1 there is another consideration to be kept in mind upon which ,i do not enlarge1 as what ,i have already said involves it--namely1 that whilst the portion of external pain and pleasure summed up comes pretty much to the same in everybody's life1 any condition may yield the fruit of devout fellowship with ,god4 ,another very remarkable idea suggested by a part of the context is--,what is the need for my troubling myself about outward changes when in ,christ ,i can get all the peculiarities which make any given position desirable to me8 ,for instance1 hear how ,paul talks to slaves eager to be set free3 ',for he that is called in the ,lord1 being a servant1 is the ,lord's freeman3 likewise also he that is called1 being free1 is ,christ's servant4' ,if you generalise that principle it comes to this1 that in union with ,jesus ,christ we possess1 by our fellowship with ,him1 the peculiar excellences and blessings that are derivable from external relations of every sort4 ,to take concrete examples--if a man is a slave1 he may be free in ,christ4 ,if free1 he may have the joy of utter submission to an absolute master in ,christ4 ,if you and ,i are lonely1 we may feel all the delights of society by union with ,him4 ,if surrounded and distracted by companionship1 and seeking for seclusion1 we may get all the peace of perfect privacy in fellowship with ,him4 ,if we are rich1 and sometimes think that we were in a position of less temptation if we were poorer1 we may find all the blessings for which we sometimes covet poverty in communion with ,him4 ,if we are poor1 and fancy that1 if we had a little more just to lift us above the grinding1 carking care of to-day and the anxiety of to-morrow1 we should be happier1 we may find all tranquillity in ,him4 ,and so you may run through all the variety of human conditions1 and say to yourself--,what is the use of looking for blessings flowing from these from without8 ,enough for us if we grasp that ,lord who is all in all1 and will give us in peace the joy of conflict1 in conflict the calm of peace1 in health the refinement of sickness1 in sickness the vigour and glow of health1 in memory the brightness of undying hope1 in hope the calming of holy memory1 in wealth the lowliness of poverty1 in poverty the ease of wealth2 in life and in death being all and more than all that dazzles us by the false gleam of created brightness6 ,and so1 finally--a remark which has no connection with the text itself1 but which ,i cannot avoid inserting here--,i want you to think1 and think seriously1 of the antagonism and diametrical opposition between these principles of my text and the maxims current in the world1 and nowhere more so than in this city4 ,our text is a revolutionary one4 ,it is dead against the watchwords that you fathers give your children--'push1' 'energy1' 'advancement1' 'get on1 whatever you do4' ,you have made a philosophy of it1 and you say that this restless discontent with a man's present position and eager desire to get a little farther ahead in the scramble1 underlies much modern civilisation and progress1 and leads to the diffusion of wealth and to employment for the working classes1 and to mechanical inventions1 and domestic comforts1 and ,i don't know what besides4 ,you have made a religion of it2 and it is thought to be blasphemy for a man to stand up and say--',it is idolatry6' ,my dear brethren1 ,i declare ,i solemnly believe that1 if ,i were to go on to the ,manchester ,exchange next ,tuesday1 and stand up and say--',there is no ,god1' ,i should not be thought half such a fool as if ,i were to go and say--',poverty is not an evil per se1 and men do not come into this world to get on but to get up--nearer and liker to ,god4' ,if you1 by ,god's grace1 lay hold of this principle of my text1 and honestly resolve to work it out1 trusting in that dear ,lord who 'though ,he was rich yet for our sakes became poor1' in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred you will have to make up your minds to let the big prizes of your trade go into other people's hands1 and be contented to say--',i live by peaceful1 high1 pure1 ,christ-like thoughts4' ',he that needs least1' said an old heathen1 'is nearest the gods'2 but ,i would rather modify the statement into1 ',he that needs most1 and knows it1 is nearest the gods4' ,for surely ,christ is more than mammon2 and a spirit nourished by calm desires and holy thoughts into growing virtues and increasing ,christlikeness is better than circumstances ordered to our will1 in the whirl of which we have lost our ,god4 ',in everything by prayer and supplication1 with thanksgiving1 let your requests be made known to ,god1 and the peace of ,god and the ,god of peace shall keep your hearts and minds in ,christ ,jesus4' ',,love ,,buildeth ,,up' ',now1 as touching things offered unto idols1 we know that we all have knowledge4 ,knowledge puffeth up1 but charity edifieth4 #b4 ,and if any man think that he knoweth any thing1 he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know4 #c4 ,but if any man love ,god1 the same is known of him4 #d4 ,as concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols1 we know that an idol is nothing in the world1 and that there is none other ,god but one4 #e4 ,for though there be that are called gods1 whether in heaven or in earth1 7as there be gods many1 and lords many17 #f4 ,but to us there is but one ,god1 the ,father1 of whom are all things1 and we in ,him2 and one ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 by whom are all things1 and we by ,him4 #g4 ,howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge3 for some1 with conscience of the idol unto this hour1 eat it as a thing offered unto an idol2 and their conscience being weak is defiled4 #h4 ,but meat commendeth us not to ,god3 for neither1 if we eat1 are we the better2 neither1 if we eat not1 are we the worse4 #i4 ,but take heed1 lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak4 #aj4 ,for if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple1 shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols2 #aa4 ,and through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish1 for whom ,christ died8 #ab4 ,but when ye sin so against the brethren1 and wound their weak conscience1 ye sin against ,christ4 #ac4 ,wherefore1 if meat make my brother to offend1 ,i will eat no flesh while the world standeth1 lest ,i make my brother to offend4'--#a ,,cor4 viii4 #a-ac4 ,it is difficult for us to realise the close connection which existed between idol-worship and daily life4 ,something of the same sort is found in all mission fields4 ,it was almost impossible for ,christians to take any part in society and not seem to sanction idolatry4 ,would that ,christianity were as completely interwoven with our lives as heathen religions are into those of their devotees6 ,paul seems to have had referred to him a pressing case of conscience1 which divided the ,corinthian ,church1 as to whether a ,christian could join in the usual feasts or sacrifices4 ,his answer is in this passage4 ,the longest way round is sometimes the shortest way home4 ,the ,apostle begins far away from the subject in hand by running a contrast between knowledge and love1 and setting the latter first4 ,but his contrast is very relevant to his purpose4 ,small questions should be solved on great principles4 ,the first principle laid down by ,paul is the superiority of love over knowledge1 the bearing of which on the question in hand will appear presently4 ,we note that there is first a distinct admission of the ,corinthians' intelligence1 though there is probably a tinge of irony in the language ',we know that we all have knowledge4' ',you ,corinthians are fully aware that you are very superior people4 ,whatever else you know1 you know that1 and ,i fully recognise it4' ,the admission is followed by a sudden1 sharp comment1 to which the ,corinthians' knowledge that they knew laid them open4 ,swift as the thrust of a spear comes flashing ',knowledge puffeth up4' ,puffed-up things are swollen by wind only1 and the more they are inflated the hollower and emptier they are2 and such a sharp point as ,paul's saying shrivels them4 ,the statement is not meant as the assertion of a necessary or uniform result of knowledge1 but it does put plainly a very usual result of it1 if it is unaccompanied by love4 ,it is a strange1 sad result of superior intelligence or acquirements1 that it so often leads to conceit1 to a false estimate of the worth and power of knowing1 to a ridiculous over-valuing of certain acquirements1 and to an insolent contempt and cruel disregard of those who have them not4 ,paul's dictum has been only too well confirmed by experience4 ',love builds up1' or 'edifies4' ,probably the main direction in which that building up is conceived of as taking effect1 is in aiding the progress of our neighbours1 especially in the religious life4 ,but the tendency of love to rear a fair fabric of personal character is not to be overlooked4 ,in regard to effect on character1 the palm must be given to love1 which produces solid excellence far beyond what mere knowledge can effect4 ,further1 that pluming one's self on knowledge is a sure proof of ignorance4 ,the more real our acquirements1 the more they disclose our deficiencies4 ,all self-conceit hinders us from growing intellectually or morally1 and intellectual conceit is the worst kind of it4 ,very significantly1 love to ,god1 and not the simple emotion of love without reference to its object1 is opposed to knowledge2 for love so directed is the foundation of all excellence1 and of all real love to men4 ,love to ,god is not the antithesis of true knowledge1 but it is the only victorious antagonist of the conceit of knowing4 ,very significantly1 too1 does ,paul vary his conclusion in verse #c by saying that the man who loves ,god 'is known of ,him1' instead of1 as we might have expected1 'knows ,him4' ,the latter is true1 but the statement in the verse puts more strongly the thought of the man's being an object of ,god's care4 ,in regard1 then1 to their effects on character1 in producing consideration and helpfulness to others1 and in securing ,god's protection1 love stands first1 and knowledge second4 ,what has all this to do with the question in hand8 ,this1 that if looked at from the standpoint of knowledge1 it may be solved in one way1 but if from that of love1 it will be answered in another4 ,so1 in verses #d-f1 ,paul treats the matter on the ground of knowledge4 ,the fundamental truth of ,christianity1 that there is one ,god1 who is revealed and works through ,jesus ,christ1 was accepted by all the ,corinthians4 ,paul states it here broadly1 denying that there were any objective realities answering to the popular conceptions or poetic fancies or fair artistic presentments of the many gods and lords of the ,greek pantheon1 and asserting that all ,christians recognise one ,god1 the ,father1 from whom the universe of worlds and living things has origin1 and to whom we as ,christians specially belong1 and one ,lord1 the channel through whom all divine operations of creation1 providence1 and grace flow1 and by whose redeeming work we ,christians are endowed with our best life4 ,if a believer was fully convinced of these truths1 he could partake of sacrificial feasts without danger to himself1 and without either sanctioning idolatry or being tempted to return to it4 ,no doubt it was on this ground that an idol was nothing that the laxer party defended their action in eating meat offered to idols2 and ,paul fully recognises that they had a strong case1 and that1 if there were no other considerations to come in1 the answer to the question of conscience submitted to him would be wholly in favour of the less scrupulous section4 ,but there is something better than knowledge2 namely1 love4 ,and its decision must be taken before the whole material for a judgment is in evidence4 ,therefore1 in the remainder of the chapter1 ,paul dwells on loving regard for brethren4 ,in verse #g1 he reminds the 'knowing' ,corinthians that new convictions do not obliterate the power of old associations4 ,the awful fascination of early belief still exercises influence4 ,the chains are not wholly broken off4 ,every mission field shows examples of this4 ,every man knows that habits are not so suddenly overcome1 that there is no hankering after them or liability to relapse4 ,it would be a dangerous thing for a weak believer to risk sharing in an idol feast2 for he would be very likely to slide down to his old level of belief1 and ,zeus or ,pallas to seem to him real powers once more4 ,the considerations in verse #g would naturally be followed by the further thoughts in verse #i1 etc4 ,but1 before dealing with these1 ,paul interposes another thought in verse #h1 to the effect that partaking of or abstinence from any kind of food will not1 in itself1 either help or hinder the religious life4 ,the bearing of that principle on his argument seems to be to reduce the importance of the whole question1 and to suggest that1 since eating of idol sacrifices could not be called a duty or a means of spiritual progress1 the way was open to take account of others' weakness as determining our action in regard to it4 ,a modern application may illustrate the point4 ,suppose that a ,christian does not see total abstinence from intoxicants to be obligatory on him4 ,well1 he cannot say that drinking is so1 or that it is a religious duty1 and so the way is clear for urging regard to others' weakness as an element in the case4 ,that being premised1 ,paul comes to his final point2 namely1 that ,christian men are bound to restrict their liberty so that they shall not tempt weaker brethren on to a path on which they cannot walk without stumbling4 ,he has just shown the danger to such of partaking of the sacrificial feasts4 ,he now completes his position by showing1 in verse #aj1 that the stronger man's example may lead the weaker to do what he cannot do innocently4 ,what is harmless to us may be fatal to others1 and1 if we have led them to it1 their blood is on our heads4 ,the terrible discordance of such conduct with our ,lord's example1 which should be our law1 is forcibly set forth in verse #aa1 which has three strongly emphasised thoughts--the man's fate--he perishes2 his relation to his slayer--a brother2 what ,christ did for the man whom a ,christian has sent to destruction--died for him4 ,these solemn thoughts are deepened in verse #ab1 which reminds us of the intimate union between the weakest and ,christ1 by which ,he so identifies ,himself with them that any blow struck on them touches ,him4 ,there is no greater sin than to tempt weak or ignorant ,christians to thoughts or acts which their ignorance or weakness cannot entertain or do without damage to their religion4 ,there is much need for laying that truth to heart in these days4 ,both in the field of speculation and of conduct1 ,christians1 who think that they know so much better than ignorant believers1 need to be reminded of it4 ,so ,paul1 in verse #ac1 at last answers the question4 ,his sudden turning to his own conduct is beautiful4 ,he will not so much command others1 as proclaim his own determination4 ,he does so with characteristic vehemence and hyperbole4 ,no doubt the liberal party in ,corinth were ready to complain against the proposal to restrict their freedom because of others' weakness2 and they would be disarmed1 or at least silenced1 and might be stimulated to like noble resolution1 by ,paul's example4 ,the principle plainly laid down here is as distinctly applicable to the modern question of abstinence from intoxicants4 ,no one can doubt that 'moderation' in their use by some tempts others to use which soon becomes fatally immoderate4 ,the ,church has been robbed of promising members thereby1 over and over again4 ,how can a ,christian man cling to a 'moderate' use of these things1 and run the risk of destroying by his example a brother for whom ,christ died8 ,,the ,,sin ,,of ,,silence ',for though ,i preach the ,gospel1 ,i have nothing to glory of3 for necessity is laid upon me2 yea1 woe is unto me1 if ,i preach not the ,gospel6 #ag4 ,for if ,i do this thing willingly1 ,i have a reward4'--#a ,,cor4 ix4 #af1 #ag4 ,the original reference of these words is to the ,apostle's principle and practice of not receiving for his support money from the churches4 ,gifts he did accept2 pay he did not4 ,the exposition of his reason is interesting1 ingenuous1 and chivalrous4 ,he strongly asserts his right1 even while he as strongly declares that he will waive it4 ,the reason for his waiving it is that he desires to have somewhat in his service beyond the strict line of his duty4 ,his preaching itself1 with all its toils and miseries1 was but part of his day's work1 which he was bidden to do1 and for doing which he deserved no thanks nor praise4 ,but he would like to have a little bit of glad service over and above what he is ordered to do1 that1 as he ingenuously says1 he may have 'somewhat to boast of4' ,in this exposition of motives we have two great principles actuating the ,apostle--one1 his profound sense of obligation1 and the other his desire1 if it might be1 to do more than he was bound to do1 because he loved his work so much4 ,and though he is speaking here as an apostle1 and his example is not to be unconditionally transferred to us1 yet ,i think that the motives which actuated his conduct are capable of unconditional application to ourselves4 ,there are three things here4 ,there is the obligation of speech1 there is the penalty of silence1 and there is the glad obedience which transcends obligation4 ,i4 ,first1 mark the obligation of speech4 ,no doubt the ,apostle had1 in a special sense1 a 'necessity laid upon' him1 which was first laid upon him on that road to ,damascus1 and repeated many a time in his life4 ,but though he differs from us in the direct supernatural commission which was given to him1 in the width of the sphere in which he had to work1 and in the splendour of the gifts which were entrusted to his stewardship1 he does not differ from us in the reality of the obligation which was laid upon him4 ,every ,christian man is as truly bound as was ,paul to preach the ,gospel4 ,the commission does not depend upon apostolic dignity4 ,jesus ,christ1 when ,he said1 ',go ye into all the world1 and preach the ,gospel to every creature1' was not speaking to the eleven1 but to all generations of ,his ,church4 ,and whilst there are many other motives on which we may rest the ,christian duty of propagating the ,christian faith1 ,i think that we shall be all the better if we bottom it upon this1 the distinct and definite commandment of ,jesus ,christ1 the grip of which encloses all who for themselves have found that the ,lord is gracious4 ,for that commandment is permanent4 ,it is exactly contemporaneous with the duration of the promise which is appended to it1 and whosoever suns himself in the light of the latter is bound by the precept of the former4 ',lo6 ,i am with you alway1 even to the end of the world1' defines the duration of the promise1 and it defines also the duration of the duty4 ,nay1 even the promise is made conditional upon the discharge of the duty enjoined4 ,for it is to the ,church 'going into all the world1 and preaching the ,gospel to every creature1' that the promise of an abiding presence is made4 ,let us remember1 too1 that1 just because this commission is given to the whole ,church1 it is binding on every individual member of the ,church4 ,there is a very common fallacy1 not confined to this subject1 but extending over the whole field of ,christian duty1 by which things that are obligatory on the community are shuffled off the shoulders of the individual4 ,but we have to remember that the whole ,church is nothing more than the sum total of all its members1 and that nothing is incumbent upon it which is not in their measure incumbent upon each of them4 ,whatsoever ,christ says to all1 ,he says to each1 and the community has no duties which you and ,i have not4 ,of course1 there are diversities of forms of obedience to this commandment2 of course1 the restrictions of locality and the other obligations of life1 come in to modify it2 and it is not every man's duty to wander over the whole world doing this work4 ,but the direct work of communicating to others who know it not the sweetness and the power of ,jesus ,christ belongs to every ,christian man4 ,you cannot buy yourselves out of the ranks1 as they used to be able to do out of the militia1 by paying for a substitute4 ,both forms of service are obligatory upon each of us4 ,we all1 if we know anything of ,christ and ,his love and ,his power1 are bound1 by the fact that we do know it1 to tell it to those whom we can reach4 ,you have all got congregations if you would look for them4 ,there is not a ,christian man or woman in this world who has not somebody that he or she can speak to more efficiently than anybody else can4 ,you have your friends1 your relations1 the people with whom you are brought into daily contact1 if you have no wider congregations4 ,you cannot all stand up and preach in the sense in which ,i do so4 ,but this is not the meaning of the word in the ,new ,testament4 ,it does not imply a pulpit1 nor a set discourse1 nor a gathered multitude2 it simply implies a herald's task of proclaiming4 ,everybody who has found ,jesus ,christ can say1 ',i have found the ,messiah1' and everybody who knows ,him can say1 ',come and hear1 and ,i will tell what the ,lord hath done for my soul4' ,since you can do it you are bound to do it2 and if you are one of 'the dumb dogs1 lying down and loving to slumber1' of whom there are such crowds paralysing the energies and weakening the witness of every ,church upon earth1 then you are criminally and suicidally oblivious of an obligation which is a joy and a privilege as much as a duty4 ,oh1 brethren6 ,i do want to lay on the consciences of all you ,christian people this1 that nothing can absolve you from the obligation of personal1 direct speech to some one of ,christ and ,his salvation4 ,unless you can say1 ',i have not refrained my lips1 ,o ,lord6 ,thou knowest1' there frowns over against you an unfulfilled duty1 the neglect of which is laming your spiritual activity1 and drying up the sources of your spiritual strength4 ,but1 then1 besides this direct effort1 there are the other indirect methods in which this commandment can be discharged1 by sympathy and help of all sorts1 about which ,i need say no more here4 ,jesus ,christ's ideal of ,his ,church was an active propaganda1 an army in which there were no non-combatants1 even although some of the combatants might be detailed to remain in the camp and look after the stuff1 and others of them might be in the forefront of the battle4 ,but is that ideal ever fulfilled in any of our churches8 ,how many amongst us there are who do absolutely nothing in the shape of ,christian work6 ,some of us seem to think that the voluntary principle on which our ,nonconformist churches are largely organised means1 ',i do not need to do anything unless ,i like4 ,inclination is the guide of duty1 and if ,i do not care to take any active part in the work of our church1 nobody has anything to say4' ,no man can force me1 but if ,jesus ,christ says to me1 ',go6' and ,i say1 ',i had rather not1' ,jesus ,christ and ,i have to settle accounts between us4 ,the less men control1 the more stringent ought to be the control of ,christ4 ,and if the principle of ,christian obedience is a willing heart1 then the duty of a ,christian is to see that the heart is willing4 ,a stringent obligation1 not to be shuffled off by any of the excuses that we make1 is laid upon us all4 ,it makes very short work of a number of excuses4 ,there is a great deal in the tone of this generation which tends to chill the missionary spirit4 ,we know more about the heathen world1 and familiarity diminishes horror4 ,we have taken up1 many of us1 milder and more merciful ideas about the condition of those who die without knowing the name of ,jesus ,christ4 ,we have taken to the study of comparative religion as a science1 forgetting sometimes that the thing that we are studying as a science is spreading a dark cloud of ignorance and apathy over millions of men4 ,and all these reasons somewhat sap the strength and cool the fervour of a good many ,christian people nowadays4 ,jesus ,christ's commandment remains just as it was4 ,then some of us say1 ',i prefer working at home6' ,well1 if you are doing all that you can there1 and really are enthusiastically devoted to one phase of ,christian service1 the great principle of division of labour comes in to warrant your not entering upon other fields which others cultivate4 ,but unless you are thus casting all your energies into the work which you say that you prefer1 there is no reason in it why you should do nothing in the other direction4 ,jesus ,christ still says1 ',go ye into all the world4' ,then some of you say1 ',well1 ,i do not much believe in your missionary societies4 ,there is a great deal of waste of money about them4 ,a number of things there are that one does not approve of4 ,i have heard stories about missionaries being very idle1 very luxurious1 and taking too much pay1 and doing too little work4' ,well1 be it so6 ,very probably it is partly true2 though ,i do not know that the people whose testimony is so willingly accepted1 to the detriment of our brethren in foreign lands1 are precisely the kind of people that should talk much about self-sacrifice and luxurious living1 or whose estimate of ,christian work is to be relied upon4 ,i fancy many of them1 if they walked about the streets of an ,english town1 would have a somewhat similar report to give1 as they have when they walk about the streets of an ,indian one4 ,but be that as it may1 does that indictment draw a wet sponge across the commandment of ,jesus ,christ8 or can you chisel out of the stones of ,sinai one of the words written there1 by reason of the imperfections of those who are seeking to obey them8 ,surely not6 ,christ still says1 ',go ye into all the world6' ,i sometimes venture to think that the day will come when the condition of being received into1 and retained in1 the communion of a ,christian church will be obedience to that commandment4 ,why1 even bees have the sense at a given time of the year to turn the drones out of the hives1 and sting them to death4 ,i do not recommend the last part of the process1 but ,i am not sure but that it would be a benefit to us all1 both to those ejected and to those retained1 that we should get rid of that added weight that clogs every organised community in this and other lands--the dead weight of idlers who say that they are ,christ's disciples4 ,whether it is a condition of church membership or not1 sure ,i am that it is a condition of fellowship with ,jesus ,christ1 and a condition1 therefore1 of health in the ,christian life1 that it should be a life of active obedience to this plain1 imperative1 permanent1 and universal command4 ,,ii4 ,secondly1 a word as to the penalty of silence4 ',woe is me if ,i preach not the ,gospel4' ,i suppose ,paul is thinking mainly of a future issue1 but not exclusively of that4 ,at all events1 let me point you1 in a word or two1 to the plain penalties of silence here1 and to the awful penalties of silence hereafter4 ',woe is me if ,i preach not the ,gospel4' ,if you are a dumb and idle professor of ,christ's truth1 depend upon it that your dumb idleness will rob you of much communion with ,jesus ,christ4 ,there are many ,christians who would be ever so much happier1 more joyous1 and more assured ,christians if they would go and talk about ,christ to other people4 ,because they have locked up ,god's word in their hearts it melts away unknown1 and they lose more than they suspect of the sweetness and buoyancy and assured confidence that might mark them1 for no other reason than because they seek to keep their morsel to themselves4 ,like that mist that lies white and dull over the ground on a winter's morning1 which will be blown away with the least puff of fresh air1 there lie doleful dampnesses1 in their sooty folds1 over many a ,christian heart1 shutting out the sun from the earth1 and a little whiff of wholesome activity in ,christ's cause would clear them all away1 and the sun would shine down upon men again4 ,if you want to be a happy ,christian1 work for ,jesus ,christ4 ,i do not lay that down as a specific by itself4 ,there are other things to be taken in conjunction with it1 but yet it remains true that the woe of a languid ,christianity attaches to the men who1 being professing ,christians1 are silent when they should speak1 and idle when they should work4 ,there is1 further1 the woe of the loss of sympathies1 and the gain of all the discomforts and miseries of a self-absorbed life4 ,and there is1 further1 the woe of the loss of one of the best ways of confirming one's own faith in the truth--viz4 that of seeking to impart it to others4 ,if you want to learn a thing1 teach it4 ,if you want to grasp the principles of any science1 try to explain it to somebody who does not understand it4 ,if you want to know where1 in these days of jangling and controversy1 the true1 vital centre of the ,gospel is1 and what is the essential part of the revelation of ,god1 go and tell sinful men about ,jesus ,christ who died for them2 and you will find out that it is the ,cross1 and ,him who died thereon1 as dying for the world1 that is the power which can move men's hearts4 ,and so you will cleave with a closer grasp1 in days of difficulty and unsettlement1 to that which is able to bring light into darkness and to harmonise the discord of a troubled and sinful soul4 ,and1 further1 there is the woe of having none that can look to you and say1 ',i owe myself to thee4' ,oh1 brethren6 there is no greater joy accessible to a man than that of feeling that through his poor words ,christ has entered into a brother's heart4 ,and you are throwing away all this because you shut your mouths and neglect the plain commandment of your ,lord4 ,ay6 but that is not all4 ,there is a future to be taken into account1 and ,i think that ,christian people do far too little realise the solemn truth that it is not all the same then whether a man has kept his ,master's commandments or neglected them4 ,i believe that whilst a very imperfect faith saves a man1 there is such a thing as being 'saved1 yet so as through fire1' and that there is such a thing as having 'an abundant entrance ministered unto us into the everlasting kingdom4' ,he whose life has been very slightly influenced by ,christian principle1 and who has neglected plain1 imperative duties1 will not stand on the same level of blessedness as the man who has more completely yielded himself in life to the constraining power of ,christ's love1 and has sought to keep all ,his commandments4 ,heaven is not a dead level4 ,every man there will receive as much blessedness as he is capable of1 but capacities will vary1 and the principal factor in determining the capacity1 which capacity determines the blessedness1 will be the thoroughness of obedience to all the ordinances of ,christ in the course of the life upon earth4 ,so1 though we know1 and therefore dare say1 little about that future1 ,i do beseech you to take this to heart1 that he who there can stand before ,god1 and say1 ',behold6 ,i and the children whom ,god hath given me' will wear a crown brighter than the starless ones of those who saved themselves1 and have brought none with them4 ',some on boards1 and some on broken pieces of the ship1 they all came safe to land4' ,but the place where they stand depends on their ,christian life1 and of that ,christian life one main element is obedience to the commandment which makes them the apostles and missionaries of their ,lord4 ,,iii4 ,lastly1 note the glad obedience which transcends the limits of obligation4 ',if ,i do this thing willingly ,i have a reward4' ,paul desired to bring a little more than was required1 in token of his love to his ,master1 and of his thankful acceptance of the obligation4 ,the artist who loves his work will put more work into his picture than is absolutely needed1 and will linger over it1 lavishing diligence and care upon it1 because he is in love with his task4 ,the servant who seeks to do as little as he can scrape through with without rebuke is actuated by no high motives4 ,the trader who barely puts as much into the scale as will balance the weight in the other is grudging in his dealings2 but he who1 with liberal hand1 gives 'shaken down1 pressed together1 and running over' measure1 gives because he delights in the giving4 ,and so it is in the ,christian life4 ,there are many of us whose question seems to be1 ',how little can ,i get off with8 how much can ,i retain8'--many of us whose effort is to find out how much of the world is consistent with the profession of ,christianity1 and to find the minimum of effort1 of love1 of service1 of gifts which may free us from obligation4 ,and what does that mean8 ,it means that we are slaves4 ,it means that if we durst we would give nothing1 and do nothing4 ,and what does that mean8 ,it means that we do not care for the ,lord1 and have no joy in our work4 ,and what does that mean8 ,it means that our work deserves no praise1 and will get no reward4 ,if we love ,christ we shall be anxious1 if it were possible1 to do more than ,he commands us1 in token of our loyalty to the ,king1 and of our delight in the service4 ,of course1 in the highest view1 nothing can be more than necessary4 ,of course ,he has the right to all our work2 but yet there are heights of ,christian consecration and self-sacrifice which a man will not be blamed if he has not climbed1 and will be praised if he has4 ,what we want1 if ,i might venture to say so1 is extravagance of service4 ,judas may say1 ',to what purpose is this waste8' but ,jesus will say1 ,he 'hath wrought a good work on ,me1' and the fragrance of the ointment will smell sweet through the centuries4 ,so1 dear brethren1 the upshot of the whole thing is1 ,do not let us do our ,christian work reluctantly1 else it is only slave's work1 and there is no blessing in it1 and no reward will come to us from it4 ,do not let us ask1 ',how little may ,i do8' but ',how much can ,i do8' ,thus1 asking1 we shall not offer as burnt offering to the ,lord that which doth cost us nothing4 ,on ,his part ,he has given the commandment as a sign of ,his love4 ,the stewardship is a token that ,he trusts us1 the duty is an honour1 the burden is a grace4 ,on our parts let us seek for the joy of service which is not contented with the bare amount of the tribute that is demanded1 but gives something over1 if it were possible1 because of our love to ,him4 ,they who thus give to ,jesus ,christ their all of love and effort and service will receive it all back a hundredfold1 for the ,master is not going to be in debt to any of ,his servants1 and ,he says to them all1 ',i will repay it1 howbeit ,i say not unto thee how thou owest unto ,me even thine own self besides4' ,a ,,servant ,,of ,,men ',for though ,i be free from all men1 yet have ,i made myself servant unto all1 that ,i might gain the more4 #bj4 ,and unto the ,jews ,i became as a ,jew1 that ,i might gain the ,jews2 to them that are under the law1 as under the law1 that ,i might gain them that are under the law2 #ba4 ,to them that are without law1 as without law1 7being not without law to ,god1 but under the law to ,christ17 that ,i might gain them that are without law4 #bb4 ,to the weak became ,i as weak1 that ,i might gain the weak3 ,i am made all things to all men1 that ,i might by all means save some4 #bc4 ,and this ,i do for the gospel's sake1 that ,i might be partaker thereof with you4'--#a ,,cor4 ix4 #ai-bc4 ,paul speaks much of himself1 but he is not an egotist4 ,when he says1 ',i do so and so1' it is a gracious way of enjoining the same conduct on his readers4 ,he will lay no burden on them which he does not himself carry4 ,the leader who can say ',come' is not likely to want followers4 ,so1 in this section1 the ,apostle is really enjoining on the ,corinthians the conduct which he declares is his own4 ,the great principle incumbent on all ,christians1 with a view to the salvation of others1 is to go as far as one can without untruthfulness in the direction of finding points of resemblance and contact with those to whom we would commend the ,gospel4 ,there is a base counterfeit of this apostolic example1 which slurs over distinctive beliefs1 and weakly tries to please everybody by differing from nobody4 ,that trimming to catch all winds never gains any4 ,mr4 ,facing-both-ways is not a powerful evangelist4 ,the motive of becoming all things to all men must be plainly disinterested1 and the assimilation must have love for the souls concerned and eagerness to bring the truth to them1 and them to the truth1 legibly stamped upon it1 or it will be regarded1 and rightly so1 as mere cowardice or dishonesty4 ,and there must be no stretching the assimilation to the length of either concealing truth or fraternising in evil4 ,love to my neighbour can never lead to my joining him in wrongdoing4 ,but1 while the limits of this assumption of the colour of our surroundings are plainly marked1 there is ample space within these for the exercise of this eminently ,christian grace4 ,we must get near people if we would help them4 ,especially must we identify ourselves with them in sympathy1 and seek to multiply points of assimilation1 if we would draw them to ,jesus ,christ4 ,he ,himself had to become man that ,he might gain men1 and ,his servants have to do likewise1 in their degree4 ,the old story of the ,christian teacher who voluntarily became a slave1 that he might tell of ,christ to slaves1 has in spirit to be repeated by us all4 ,we can do no good by standing aloof on a height and flinging down the ,gospel to the people below4 ,they must feel that we enter into their circumstances1 prejudices1 ways of thinking1 and the like1 if our words are to have power4 ,that is true about all ,christian teachers1 whether of old or young4 ,you must be a boy among boys1 and try to show that you enter into the boy's nature1 or you may lecture till doomsday and do no good4 ,paul instances three cases in which he had acted1 and still continued to do so1 on this principle4 ,he was a ,jew1 but after his conversion he had to 'become a ,jew' by a distinct act2 that is1 he had receded so far from his old self1 that he1 if he had had only himself to think of1 would have given up all ,jewish observances4 ,but he felt it his duty to conciliate prejudice as far as he could1 and so1 though he would have fought to the death rather than given countenance to the belief that circumcision was necessary1 he had no scruple about circumcising ,timothy2 and1 though he believed that for ,christians the whole ancient ritual was abolished1 he was quite willing1 if it would smooth away the prejudices of the 'many thousands of ,jews who believed1' to show1 by his participation in the temple worship1 that he 'walked orderly1 keeping the law4' ,if he was told ',you must1' his answer could only be ',i will not'2 but if it was a question of conciliating1 he was ready to go all lengths for that4 ,the category which he names next is not composed of different persons from the first1 but of the same persons regarded from a somewhat different point of view4 ',them that are under the law' describes ,jews1 not by their race1 but by their religion2 and ,paul was willing to take his place among them1 as we have just observed4 ,but he will not do that so as to be misunderstood1 wherefore he protests that in doing so he is voluntarily abridging his freedom for a specific purpose4 ,he is not 'under the law'2 for the very pith of his view of the ,christian's position is that he has nothing to do with that ,mosaic law in any of its parts1 because ,christ has made him free4 ,the second class to whom in his wide sympathies he is able to assimilate himself1 is the opposite of the former--the ,gentiles who are 'without law4' ,he did not preach on ,mars' ,hill as he did in the synagogues4 ,the many-sided ,gospel had aspects fitted for the ,gentiles who had never heard of ,moses1 and the many-sided ,apostle had links of likeness to the ,greek and the barbarian4 ,but here1 too1 his assimilation of himself to those whom he seeks to win is voluntary2 wherefore he protests that he is not without law1 though he recognises no longer the obligations of ,moses' law1 for he is 'under or1 rather1 in law to ,christ4' ',the weak' are those too scrupulous-conscienced ,christians of whom he has been speaking in chapter viii4 and whose narrow views he exhorted stronger brethren to respect1 and to refrain from doing what they could do without harming their own consciences1 lest by doing it they should induce a brother to do the same1 whose conscience would prick him for it4 ,that is a lesson needed to-day as much as1 or more than1 in ,paul's time1 for the widely different degrees of culture and diversities of condition1 training1 and associations among ,christians now necessarily result in very diverse views of ,christian conduct in many matters4 ,the grand principle laid down here should guide us all1 both in regard to fellow-,christians and others4 ,make yourself as like them as you honestly can2 restrict yourself of allowable acts1 in deference to even narrow prejudices2 but let the motive of your assimilating yourself to others be clearly their highest good1 that you may 'gain' them1 not for yourself but for your ,master4 ,verse #bc lays down ,paul's ruling principle1 which both impelled him to become all things to all men1 with a view to their salvation1 as he has been saying1 and urged him to effort and self-discipline1 with a view to his own1 as he goes on to say4 ',for the ,gospel's sake' seems to point backward2 'that ,i may be a joint partaker thereof points forward4 ,we have not only to preach the ,gospel to others1 but to live on it and be saved by it ourselves4 ,,how ,,the ,,victor ,,runs ',so run1 that ye may obtain4'--#a ,,cor4 ix4 #bd4 ',so run4' ,does that mean ',run so that ye obtain8' ,most people1 ,i suppose1 superficially reading the words1 attach that significance to them1 but the 'so' here carries a much greater weight of meaning than that4 ,it is a word of comparison4 ,the ,apostle would have the ,corinthians recall the picture which he has been putting before them--a picture of a scene that was very familiar to them2 for1 as most of us know1 one of the most important of the ,grecian games was celebrated at intervals in the immediate neighbourhood of ,corinth4 ,many of the ,corinthian converts had1 no doubt1 seen1 or even taken part in them4 ,the previous portion of the verse in which our text occurs appeals to the ,corinthians' familiar knowledge of the arena and the competitors1 ',know ye not that they which run in a race run all1 but one receiveth the prize8' ,he would have them picture the eager racers1 with every muscle strained1 and the one victor starting to the front2 and then he says1 ',look at that panting conqueror4 ,that is how you should run4 ,so run--'meaning thereby not1 ',run so that you may obtain the prize1' but ',run so' as the victor does1 'in order that you may obtain4' ,so1 then1 this victor is to be a lesson to us1 and we are to take a leaf out of his book4 ,let us see what he teaches us4 ,i4 ,the first thing is1 the utmost tension and energy and strenuous effort4 ,it is very remarkable that ,paul should pick out these ,grecian games as containing for ,christian people any lesson1 for they were honeycombed1 through and through1 with idolatry and all sorts of immorality1 so that no ,jew ventured to go near them1 and it was part of the discipline of the early ,christian ,church that professing ,christians should have nothing to do with them in any shape4 ,and yet here1 as in many other parts of his letters1 ,paul takes these foul things as patterns for ,christians4 ',there is a soul of goodness in things evil1 if we would observantly distil it out4' ,it is very much as if ,english preachers were to refer their people to a racecourse1 and say1 ',even there you may pick out lessons1 and learn something of the way in which ,christian people ought to live4' ,on the same principle the ,new ,testament deals with that diabolical business of fighting4 ,it is taken as an emblem for the ,christian soldier1 because1 with all its devilishness1 there is in it this1 at least1 that men give themselves up absolutely to the will of their commander1 and are ready to fling away their lives if he lifts his finger4 ,that at least is grand and noble1 and to be imitated on a higher plane4 ,in like manner ,paul takes these poor racers as teaching us a lesson4 ,though the thing be all full of sin1 we can get one valuable thought out of it1 and it is this--,if people would work half as hard to gain the highest object that a man can set before him1 as hundreds of people are ready to do in order to gain trivial and paltry objects1 there would be fewer stunted and half-dead ,christians amongst us4 ',that is the way to run1' says ,paul1 'if you want to obtain4' ,look at the contrast that he hints at1 between the prize that stirs these racers' energies into such tremendous operation and the prize which ,christians profess to be pursuing4 ',they do it to obtain a corruptible crown'--a twist of pine branch out of the neighbouring grove1 worth half-a-farthing1 and a little passing glory not worth much more4 ,they do it to obtain a corruptible crown2 we do not do it1 though we professedly have an incorruptible one as our aim and object4 ,if we contrast the relative values of the objects that men pursue so eagerly1 and the objects of the ,christian course1 surely we ought to be smitten down with penitent consciousness of our own unworthiness1 if not of our own hypocrisy4 ,it is not even there that the lesson stops1 because we ,christian people may be patterns and rebukes to ourselves4 ,for1 on the one side of our nature we show what we can do when we are really in earnest about getting something2 and on the other side we show with how little work we can be contented1 when1 at bottom1 we do not much care whether we get the prize or not4 ,if you and ,i really believed that that crown of glory which ,paul speaks about might be ours1 and would be all sufficing for us if it were ours1 as truly as we believe that money is a good thing1 there would not be such a difference between the way in which we clutch at the one and the apathy which scarcely cares to put out a hand for the other4 ,the things that are seen and temporal do get the larger portion of the energies and thoughts of the average ,christian man1 and the things that are unseen and eternal get only what is left4 ,sometimes ninety per cent4 of the water of a stream is taken away to drive a milldam or do work1 and only ten per cent4 can be spared to trickle down the half-dry channel and do nothing but reflect the bright sun and help the little flowers and the grass to grow4 ,so1 the larger portion of most lives goes to drive the mill-wheels1 and there is very little left1 in the case of many of us1 in order to help us towards ,god1 and bring us closer into communion with our ,lord4 ',run' for the crown as eagerly as you 'run' for your incomes1 or for anything that you really1 in your deepest desires1 want4 ,take yourselves for your own patterns and your own rebukes4 ,your own lives may show you how you can love1 hope1 work1 and deny yourselves when you have sufficient inducement1 and their flame should put to shame their frost1 for the warmth is directed towards trifles and the coldness towards the crown4 ,if you would run for the incorruptible prize of effort in the fashion in which others and yourselves run for the corruptible1 your whole lives would be changed4 ,why6 if ,christian people in general really took half--half8 ay6 a tenth part of--the honest1 persistent pains to improve their ,christian character1 and become more like ,jesus ,christ1 which a violinist will take to master his instrument1 there would be a new life for most of our ,christian communities4 ,hours and hours of patient practice are not too much for the one2 how many moments do we give to the other8 ',so run1 that ye obtain4' ,,ii4 ,the victorious runner sets ,christians an example of rigid self-control4 ,every man that is striving for the mastery is 'temperate in all things4' ,the discipline for runners and athletes was rigid4 ,they had ten months of spare diet--no wine--hard gymnastic exercises every day1 until not an ounce of superfluous flesh was upon their muscles1 before they were allowed to run in the arena4 ,and1 says ,paul1 that is the example for us4 ,they practise this rigid discipline and abstinence by way of preparation for the race1 and after it was run they might dispense with the training4 ,you and ,i have to practise rigid abstinence as part of the race1 as a continuous necessity4 ,they did not abstain only from bad things1 they did not only avoid criminal acts of sensuous indulgence2 but they abstained from many perfectly legitimate things4 ,so for us it is not enough to say1 ',i draw the line there1 at this or that vice1 and ,i will have nothing to do with these4' ,you will never make a growing ,christian if abstinence from palpable sins only is your standard4 ,you must 'lay aside' every sin1 of course1 but also 'every weight' ,many things are 'weights' that are not 'sins'2 and if we are to run fast we must run light1 and if we are to do any good in this world we have to live by rigid control and abstain from much that is perfectly legitimate1 because1 if we do not1 we shall fail in accomplishing the highest purposes for which we are here4 ,not only in regard to the gross sensual indulgences which these men had to avoid1 but in regard to a great deal of the outgoings of our interests and our hearts1 we have to apply the knife very closely and cut to the quick1 if we would have leisure and sympathy and affection left for loftier objects4 ,it is a very easy thing to be a ,christian in one aspect1 inasmuch as a ,christian at bottom is a man that is trusting to ,jesus ,christ1 and that is not hard to do4 ,it is a very hard thing to be a ,christian in another aspect1 because a real ,christian is a man who1 by reason of his trusting ,jesus ,christ1 has set his heel upon the neck of the animal that is in him1 and keeps the flesh well down1 and not only the flesh1 but the desires of the mind as well as of the flesh1 and subordinates them all to the one aim of pleasing ,him4 ',no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life' if his object is to please ,him that has called him to be a soldier4 ,unless we cut off a great many of the thorns1 so to speak1 by which things catch hold of us as we pass them1 we shall not make much advance in the ,christian life4 ,rigid self-control and abstinence from else legitimate things that draw us away from ,him are needful1 if we are so to run as the poor heathen racer teaches us4 ,,iii4 ,the last grace that is suggested here1 the last leaf to take out of these racers' book1 is definiteness and concentration of aim4 ',i1 therefore1' says the ,apostle1 'so run not as uncertainly4' ,if the runner is now heading that way and now this1 making all manner of loops upon his path1 of course he will be left hopelessly in the rear4 ,it is the old fable of the ,grecian mythology transplanted into ,christian soil4 ,the runner who turned aside to pick up the golden apple was disappointed of his hopes of the radiant fair4 ,the ship1 at the helm of which is a steersman who has either a feeble hand or does not understand his business1 and which therefore keeps yawing from side to side1 with the bows pointing now this way and now that1 is not holding a course that will make the harbour first in the race4 ,the people that to-day are marching with their faces towards ,zion1 and to-morrow making a loop-line to the world1 will be a long time before they reach their terminus4 ,i believe there are few things more lacking in the average ,christian life of to-day than resolute1 conscious concentration upon an aim which is clearly and always before us4 ,do you know what you are aiming at8 ,that is the first question4 ,have you a distinct theory of life's purpose that you can put into half a dozen words1 or have you not8 ,in the one case1 there is some chance of attaining your object2 in the other one1 none4 ,alas6 we find many ,christian people who do not set before themselves1 with emphasis and constancy1 as their aim the doing of ,god's will1 and so sometimes they do it1 when it happens to be easy1 and sometimes1 when temptations are strong1 they do not4 ,it needs a strong hand on the tiller to keep it steady when the wind is blowing in puffs and gusts1 and sometimes the sail bellies full and sometimes it is almost empty4 ,the various strengths of the temptations that blow us out of our course are such that we shall never keep a straight line of direction1 which is the shortest line1 and the only one on which we shall 'obtain1' unless we know very distinctly where we want to go1 and have a good strong will that has learned to say ',no6' when the temptations come4 ',whom resist steadfast in the faith4' ',i therefore so run1 not as uncertainly1' taking one course one day and another the next4 ,now1 that definite aim is one that can be equally pursued in all varieties of life4 ',this one thing ,i do' said one who did about as many things as most people1 but the different kinds of things that ,paul did were all1 at bottom1 one thing4 ,and we1 in all the varieties of our circumstances1 may keep this one clear aim before us1 and whether it be in this way or in that1 we may be equally and at all times seeking the better country1 and bending all circumstances and all duty to make us more like our ,master and bring us closer to ,him4 ,the ,psalmist did not offer an impossible prayer when he said3 ',one thing have ,i desired of the ,lord1 that will ,i seek after1 that ,i may dwell in the house of the ,lord all the days of my life1 to behold the beauty of the ,lord and to enquire in ,his temple4' ,was ,david in 'the house of the ,lord' when he was with his sheep in the wilderness1 and when he was in ,saul's palace1 and when he was living with wild beasts in dens and caves of the earth1 and when he was a fugitive1 hunted like a partridge upon the mountains8 ,was he always in the ,lord's house8 ,yes6 ,at any rate he could be4 ,all that we do may be doing ,his will1 and over a life1 crowded with varying circumstances and yet simplified and made blessed by unvarying obedience1 we may write1 ',this one thing ,i do4' ,but we shall not keep this one aim clear before our eyes1 unless we habituate ourselves to the contemplation of the end4 ,the runner1 according to ,paul's vivid picture in another of his letters1 forgets the things that are behind1 and stretches out towards the things that are before4 ,and just as a man runs with his body inclining forward1 and his eager hand nearer the prize than his body1 and his eyesight and his heart travelling ahead of them both to grasp it1 so if we want to live with the one worthy aim for ours1 and to put all our effort and faith into what deserves it all--the ,christian race--we must bring clear before us continually1 or at least with the utmost frequency1 the prize of our high calling1 the crown of righteousness4 ,then we shall run so that we may1 at the last1 be able to finish our course with joy1 and dying to hope with all humility that there is laid up for us a crown of righteousness4 ',,concerning ,,the ,,crown' ',they do it to obtain a corruptible crown1 but we are incorruptible4'--#a ,,cor4 ix4 #be4 ,one of the most famous of the ,greek athletic festivals was held close by ,corinth4 ,its prize was a pine-wreath from the neighbouring sacred grove4 ,the painful abstinence and training of ten months1 and the fierce struggle of ten minutes1 had for their result a twist of green leaves1 that withered in a week1 and a little fading fame that was worth scarcely more1 and lasted scarcely longer4 ,the struggle and the discipline were noble2 the end was contemptible4 ,and so it is with all lives whose aims are lower than the highest4 ,they are greater in the powers they put forth than in the objects they compass1 and the question1 ',what is it for8' is like a douche of cold water from the cart that lays the clouds of dust in the ways4 ,so1 says ,paul1 praising the effort and contemning the prize1 ',they do it to obtain a corruptible crown4' ,and yet there was a soul of goodness in this evil thing4 ,though these festivals were indissolubly intertwined with idolatry1 and besmirched with much sensuous evil1 yet he deals with them as he does with war and with slavery2 points to the disguised nobility that lay beneath the hideousness1 and holds up even these low things as a pattern for ,christian men4 ,but ,i do not mean here to speak so much about the general bearing of this text as rather to deal with its designation of the aim and reward of ,christian energy1 that 'incorruptible crown' of which my text speaks4 ,and in doing so ,i desire to take into account likewise other places in ,scripture in which the same metaphor occurs4 ,i4 ,the crown4 ,let me recall the other places where the same metaphor is employed4 ,we find the ,apostle1 in the immediate prospect of death1 rising into a calm rapture in which imprisonment and martyrdom lose their terrors1 as he thinks of the 'crown of righteousness' which the ,lord will give to him4 ,the ,epistle of ,james1 again1 assures the man who endures temptation that 'the ,lord will give him the crown of life which ,he has promised to all them that love ,him4' ,the ,lord ,himself from heaven repeats that promise to the persecuted ,church at ,smyrna3 ',be thou faithful unto death1 and ,i will give thee a crown of life4' ,the elders cast their crowns before the feet of ,him that sitteth upon the throne4 ,the ,apostle ,peter1 in his letter1 stimulates the elders upon earth to faithful discharge of their duty1 by the hope that thereby they shall 'receive a crown of righteousness that fadeth not away4' ,so all these instances taken together with this of my text enable us to gather two or three lessons4 ,it is extremely unlikely that all these instances of the occurrence of the emblem carry with them reference1 such as that in my text1 to the prize at the athletic festivals4 ,for ,peter and ,james1 intense ,jews as they were1 had probably never seen1 and possibly never heard of1 the struggles at the ,isthmus and at ,olympus and elsewhere4 ,the ,book of the ,revelation draws its metaphors almost exclusively from the circle of ,jewish practices and things4 ,so that we have to look in other directions than the arena or the racecourse to explain these other uses of the image4 ,it is also extremely unlikely that in these other passages the reference is to a crown as the emblem of sovereignty1 for that idea is expressed1 as a rule1 by another word in ,scripture1 which we have ,anglicised as 'diadem4' ,the 'crown' in all these passages is a garland twisted out of some growth of the field4 ,in ancient usage roses were twined for revellers2 pine-shoots or olive branches for the victors in the games2 while the laurel was 'the meed of mighty conquerors'2 and plaited oak leaves were laid upon the brows of citizens who had deserved well of their country1 and myrtle sprays crowned the fair locks of the bride4 ,and thus in these directions1 and not towards the wrestling ground or the throne of the monarch1 must we look for the ideas suggested by the emblem4 ,now1 if we gather together all these various uses of the word1 there emerge two broad ideas1 that the 'crown' which is the ,christian's aim symbolises a state of triumphant repose and of festal enjoyment4 ,there are other aspects of that great and dim future which correspond to other necessities of our nature1 and ,i suppose some harm has been done and some misconceptions have been induced1 and some unreality imported into the idea of the ,christian future1 by the too exclusive prominence given to these two ideas--victorious rest after the struggle1 and abundant satisfaction of all desires4 ,that future is other and more than a festival2 it is other and more than repose4 ,there are larger fields there for the operation of powers that have been trained and evolved here4 ,the faithfulness of the steward is exchanged1 according to ,christ's great words1 for the authority of the ruler over many cities4 ,but still1 do we not all know enough of the worry and turbulence and strained effort of the conflict here below1 to feel that to some of our deepest and not ignoble needs and desires that image appeals8 ,the helmet that pressed upon the brow even whilst it protected the brain1 and wore away the hair even whilst it was a defence1 is lifted off1 and on unruffled locks the garland is intertwined that speaks victory and befits a festival4 ,one of the old prophets puts the same metaphor in words imperfectly represented by the ,english translation1 when he promises 'a crown' or a garland 'for ashes'--instead of the symbol of mourning1 strewed grey and gritty upon the dishevelled hair of the weepers1 flowers twined into a wreath--'the oil of joy for mourning1' and the festival 'garment of praise' to dress the once heavy spirit4 ,so the satisfaction of all desires1 the accompaniments of a feast1 in abundance1 rejoicing and companionship1 and conclusive conquest over all foes1 are promised us in this great symbol4 ,but let us look at the passages separately1 and we shall find that they present the one thought with differences1 and that if we combine these1 as in a stereoscope1 the picture gains solidity4 ,the crown is described in three ways4 ,it is the crown of 'life1' of 'glory' and of 'righteousness4' ,and ,i venture to think that these three epithets describe the material1 so to speak1 of which the wreath is composed4 ,the everlasting flower of life1 the radiant blossoms of glory1 the white flower of righteousness2 these are its components4 ,i need not enlarge upon them1 nor will your time allow that ,i should4 ,here we have the promise of life1 that fuller life which men want1 'the life of which our veins are scant1' even in the fullest tide and heyday of earthly existence4 ,the promise sets that future over against the present1 as if then first should men know what it means to live3 so buoyant1 elastic1 unwearied shall be their energies1 so manifold the new outlets for activity1 and the new inlets for the surrounding glory and beauty2 so incorruptible and glorious shall be their new being4 ,here we live a living death2 there we shall live indeed2 and that will be the crown1 not only in regard to physical1 but in regard to spiritual1 powers and consciousness4 ,but remember that all this full tide of life is ,christ's gift4 ,there is no such thing as natural immortality2 there is no such thing as independent life4 ,all ,being1 from the lowest creature up to the loftiest created spirit1 exists by one law1 the continual impartation to it of life from the fountain of life1 according to its capacities4 ,and unless ,jesus ,christ1 all through the eternal ages of the future1 imparted to the happy souls that sit garlanded at ,his board the life by which they live1 the wreaths would wither on their brows1 and the brows would melt away1 and dissolve from beneath the wreaths4 ',i will give him a crown of life4' ,it is a crown of 'glory1' and that means a lustrousness of character imparted by radiation and reflection from the central light of the glory of ,god4 ',then shall the righteous blaze out like the sun in the ,kingdom of ,my ,father4' ,our eyes are dim1 but we can at least divine the far-off flashing of that great light1 and may ponder upon what hidden depths and miracles of transformed perfectness and unimagined lustre wait for us1 dark and limited as we are here1 in the assurance that we all shall be changed into the 'likeness of the body of ,his glory4' ,it is a crown of 'righteousness4' ,though that phrase may mean the wreath that rewards righteousness1 it seems more in accordance with the other similar expressions to which ,i have referred to regard it1 too1 as the material of which the crown is composed4 ,it is not enough that there should be festal gladness1 not enough that there should be calm repose1 not enough that there should be flashing glory1 not enough that there should be fulness of life4 ,to accord with the intense moral earnestness of the ,christian system there must be1 emphatically1 in the ,christian hope1 cessation of all sin and investiture with all purity4 ,the word means the same thing as the ancient promise1 ',thy people shall be all righteous4' ,it means the same thing as the latest promise of the ascended ,christ1 ',they shall walk with ,me in white4' ,and it sets1 ,i was going to say1 the very climax and culmination on the other hopes1 declaring that absolute1 stainless1 infallible righteousness which one day shall belong to our weak and sinful spirits4 ,these1 then1 are the elements1 and on them all is stamped the signature of perpetuity4 ,the victor's wreath is tossed on the ashen heap1 the reveller's flowers droop as he sits in the heat of the banqueting-hall2 the bride's myrtle blossom fades though she lay it away in a safe place4 ,the crown of life is incorruptible4 ,it is twined of amaranth1 ever blossoming into new beauty and never fading4 ,,ii4 ,now look1 secondly1 at the discipline by which the crown is won4 ,observe1 first of all1 that in more than one of the passages to which we have already referred great emphasis is laid upon ,christ as giving the crown4 ,that is to say1 that blessed future is not won by effort1 but is bestowed as a free gift4 ,it is given from the hands which have procured it1 and1 as ,i may say1 twined it for us4 ,unless ,his brows had been pierced with the crown of thorns1 ours would never have worn the garland of victory4 ,jesus provides the sole means1 by ,his work1 by which any man can enter into that inheritance2 and ,jesus1 as the righteous ,judge who bestows the rewards1 which are likewise the results1 of our life here1 gives the crown4 ,it remains for ever the gift of ,his love4 ',the wages of sin is death1' but we rise above the region of retribution and desert when we pass to the next clause--'the gift of ,god is eternal life1' and that 'through ,jesus ,christ4' ,whilst1 then1 this must be laid as the basis of all1 there must also1 with equal earnestness and clearness1 be set forth the other thought that ,christ's gift has conditions1 which conditions these passages plainly set forth4 ,in the one1 which ,i have read as a text1 we have these conditions declared as being twofold--protracted discipline and continuous effort4 ,the same metaphor employed by the same ,apostle1 in his last dying utterance1 associates his consciousness that he had fought the good fight and run his race1 like the pugilists and runners of the arena1 with the hope that he shall receive the crown of righteousness4 ,james declares that it is given to the man who endures temptation1 not only in the sense of bearing1 but of so bearing as not thereby to be injured in ,christian character and growth in ,christian life4 ,peter asserts that it is the reward of self-denying discharge of duty4 ,and the ,lord from heaven lays down the condition of faithfulness unto death as the necessary pre-requisite of ,his gift of the crown of life4 ,in two of the passages there is included1 though not precisely on the level of these other requirements1 the love of ,him and the love of ',his appearing1' as the necessary qualifications for the gift of the crown4 ,so1 to begin with1 unless a man has such a love to ,jesus ,christ as that he is happy in ,his presence1 and longs to have ,him near1 as parted loving souls do2 and1 especially1 is looking forward to that great judicial coming1 and feeling that there is no tremor in his heart at the prospect of meeting the ,judge1 but an outgoing of desire and love at the hope of seeing his ,saviour and his ,friend1 what right has he to expect the crown8 ,none4 ,and he will never get it4 ,there is a test for us which may well make some of us ask ourselves1 ,are we ,christians1 then1 at all8 ,and then1 beyond that1 there are all these other conditions which ,i have pointed out1 which may be gathered into one--strenuous discharge of daily duty and continual effort after following in ,christ's footsteps4 ,this needs to be as fully and emphatically preached as the other doctrine that eternal life is the gift of ,god4 ,all manner of mischiefs may come1 and have come1 from either of these twin thoughts1 wrenched apart4 ,but let us weave them as closely together as the stems of the flowers that make the garlands are twined1 and feel that there is a perfect consistency of both in theory1 and that there must be a continual union of both1 in our belief and in our practice4 ,eternal life is the gift of ,god1 on condition of our diligence and earnestness4 ,it is not all the same whether you are a lazy ,christian or not4 ,it does make an eternal difference in our condition whether here we 'run with patience the race that is set before us1 looking unto ,jesus4' ,we have to receive the crown as a gift2 we have to wrestle and run1 as contending for a prize4 ,,iii4 ,and now1 lastly1 note the power of the reward as motive for life4 ,paul says roundly in our text that the desire to obtain the incorruptible crown is a legitimate spring of ,christian action4 ,now1 ,i do not need to waste your time and my own in defending ,christian morality from the fantastic objection that it is low and selfish1 because it encourages itself to efforts by the prospect of the crown4 ,if there are any men who are ,christians--if such a contradiction can be even stated in words--only because of what they hope to gain thereby in another world1 they will not get what they hope for2 and they would not like it if they did4 ,i do not believe that there are any such2 and sure ,i am1 if there are1 that it is not ,christianity that has made them so4 ,but a thought that we must not take as a supreme motive1 we may rightly accept as a subsidiary encouragement4 ,we are not ,christians unless the dominant motive of our lives be the love of the ,lord ,jesus ,christ2 and unless we feel a necessity1 because of loving ,him1 to aim to be like ,him4 ,but1 that being so1 who shall hinder me from quickening my flagging energies1 and stimulating my torpid faith1 and encouraging my cowardice1 by the thought that yonder there remain rest1 victory1 the fulness of life1 the flashing of glory1 and the purity of perfect righteousness8 ,if such hopes are low and selfish as motives1 would ,god that more of us were obedient to such low and selfish motives6 ,now it seems to me1 that this spring of action is not as strong in the ,christians of this day as it used to be1 and as it should be4 ,you do not hear much about heaven in ordinary preaching4 ,i do not think it occupies a very large place in the average ,christian man's mind4 ,we have all got such a notion nowadays of the great good that the ,gospel does in society and in the present1 and some of us have been so frightened by the nonsense that has been talked about the 'other-worldliness' of ,christianity--as if that was a disgrace to it--that it seems to me that the future of glory and blessedness has very largely faded away1 as a motive for ,christian men's energies1 like the fresco off a neglected convent wall4 ,and ,i want to say1 dear brethren1 that ,i believe1 for my part1 that we suffer terribly by the comparative neglect into which this side of ,christian truth has fallen4 ,do you not think that it would make a difference to you if you really believed1 and carried always with you in your thoughts1 the thrilling consciousness that every act of the present was registered1 and would tell on the far side yonder8 ,we do not know much of that future1 and these days are intolerant of mere unverifiable hypotheses4 ,but accuracy of knowledge and definiteness of impression do not always go together1 nor is there the fulness of the one wanted for the clearness and force of the other4 ,though the thread which we throw across the abyss is very slender1 it is strong enough1 like the string of a boy's kite1 to bear the messengers of hope and desire that we may send up by it1 and strong enough to bear the gifts of grace that will surely come down along it4 ,we cannot understand to-day unless we look at it with eternity for a background4 ,the landscape lacks its explanation1 until the mists lift and we see the white summits of the ,himalayas lying behind and glorifying the low sandy plain4 ,would your life not be different2 would not the things in it that look great be wholesomely dwindled and yet be magnified2 would not sorrow be calmed1 and life become 'a solemn scorn of ills1' and energies be stimulated1 and all be different1 if you really 'did it to obtain an incorruptible crown8' ,brethren1 let us try to keep more clearly before us1 as solemn and blessed encouragement in our lives1 these great thoughts4 ,the garland hangs on the goal1 but 'a man is not crowned unless he strive according to the laws' of the arena4 ,the laws are two--,no man can enter for the conflict but by faith in ,christ2 no man can win in the struggle but by faithful effort4 ,so the first law is1 ',believe on the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1' and the second is1 ',hold fast that thou hast2 let no man take thy crown4' ,,the ,,limits ,,of ,,liberty ',all things are lawful for me1 but all things are not expedient3 all things are lawful for me1 but all things edify not4 #bd4 ,let no man seek his own1 but every man another's wealth4 #be4 ,whatsoever is sold in the shambles1 that eat1 asking no question for conscience sake4 #bf4 ,for the earth is the ,lord's1 and the fulness thereof4 #bg4 ,if any of them that believe not bid you to a feast1 and ye be disposed togo1 whatsoever is set before you eat1 asking no question for conscience sake4 #bh4 ,but if any man say unto you1 ,this is offered in sacrifice unto idols1 eat not for his sake that shewed it1 and for conscience sake3 for the earth is the ,lord's and the fulness thereof3 #bi4 ,conscience1 ,i say1 not thine own1 but of the other3 for why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience8 #cj4 ,for if ,i by grace be a partaker1 why am ,i evil spoken of for that for which ,i give thanks8 #ca4 ,whether therefore ye eat1 or drink1 or whatsoever ye do1 do all to the glory of ,god4 #cb4 ,give none offence1 neither to the ,jews1 nor to the ,gentiles1 nor to the church of ,god3 #cc4 ,even as ,i please all men in all things1 not seeking mine own profit1 but the profit of many1 that they may be saved4'--#a ,,cor4 x4 #bc-cc4 ,this passage strikingly illustrates ,paul's constant habit of solving questions as to conduct by the largest principles4 ,he did not keep his 'theology' and his ethics in separate water-tight compartments1 having no communication with each other4 ,the greatest truths were used to regulate the smallest duties4 ,like the star that guided the ,magi1 they burned high in the heavens1 but yet directed to the house in ,bethlehem4 ,the question here in hand was one that pressed on the ,corinthian ,christians1 and is very far away from our experience4 ,idolatry had so inextricably intertwined itself with daily life that it was hard to keep up any intercourse with non-,christians without falling into constructive idolatry2 and one very constantly obtruding difficulty was that much of the animal food served on private tables had been slaughtered as sacrifices or with certain sacrificial rites4 ,what was a ,christian to do in such a case8 ,to eat or not to eat8 ,both views had their vehement supporters in the ,corinthian church1 and the importance of the question is manifest from the large space devoted to it in this letter4 ,in chapter viii4 we have a weighty paragraph1 in which one phase of the difficulty is dealt with--the question whether a ,christian ought to attend a feast in an idol temple1 where1 of course1 the viands had been offered as sacrifices4 ,but in chapter x4 ,paul deals with the case in which the meat had been bought in the flesh-market1 and so was not necessarily sacrificial4 ,paul's manner of handling the point is very instructive4 ,he envelops1 as it were1 the practical solution in a wrapping of large principles2 verses #bc1 #bd precede the specific answer1 and are general principles2 verses #be-cj contain the practical answer2 verses #ca-cc and verse #a of the next chapter are again general principles1 wide and imperative enough to mould all conduct1 as well as to settle the matter immediately in hand1 which1 important as it was at ,corinth1 has become entirely uninteresting to us4 ,we need not spend time in elucidating the specific directions given as to the particular question in hand further than to note the immense gift of saving common-sense which ,paul had1 and how sanely and moderately he dealt with his problem4 ,his advice was--',don't ask where the joint set before you came from4 ,if you do not know that it was offered1 your eating of it does not commit you to idol worship4' ,no doubt there were ,corinthian ,christians with inflamed consciences who did ask such questions1 and rather prided themselves on their strictness and rigidity2 but ,paul would have them let sleeping dogs lie4 ,if1 however1 the meat is known to have been offered to an idol1 then ,paul is as rigid and strict as they are4 ,that combination of willingness to go as far as possible1 and inflexible determination not to go one step farther1 of yieldingness wherever principle does not come in1 and of iron fixedness wherever it does1 is rare indeed1 but should be aimed at by all ,christians4 ,the morality of the ,gospel would make more way in the world if its advocates always copied the 'sweet reasonableness' of ,paul1 which1 as he tells us in this passage1 he learned from ,jesus4 ,as to the wrapping of general principles1 they may all be reduced to one--the duty of limiting ,christian liberty by consideration for others4 ,in the two verses preceding the practical precepts1 that duty is stated with reference entirely to the obligations flowing from our relationship to others4 ,we are all bound together by a mystical chain of solidarity4 ,since every man is my neighbour1 ,i am bound to think of him and not only of myself in deciding what ,i may do or refrain from doing4 ,i must abstain from lawful things if1 by doing them1 ,i should be likely to harm my neighbour's building up of a strong character4 ,i can1 or ,i believe that ,i can1 pursue some course of conduct1 engage in some enterprise1 follow some line of life1 without damage to myself1 either in regard to worldly position1 or in regard to my religious life4 ,be it so1 but ,i have to take some one else into account4 ,will my example call out imitation in others1 to whom it may be harmful or fatal to do as ,i can do with real or supposed impunity8 ,if so1 ,i am guilty of something very like murder if ,i do not abstain4 ',what harm is there in betting a shilling8 ,i can well afford to lose it1 and ,i can keep myself from the feverish wish to risk more4' ,yes1 and you are thereby helping to hold up that gambling habit which is ruining thousands4 ',i can take alcohol in moderation1 and it does me no harm1 and ,i can go to a prayer-meeting after my dinner and temperate glass1 and ,i am within my ,christian liberty in doing so4' ,yes1 and you take part thereby in the greatest curse that besets our country1 and are1 by countenancing the drink habit1 guilty of the blood of souls4 ,how any ,christian man can read these two verses and not abstain from all intoxicants is a mystery4 ,they cut clean through all the pleas for moderate drinking1 and bring into play another set of principles which limit liberty by regard to others' good4 ,surely1 if there was ever a subject to which these words apply1 it is the use of alcohol1 the proved cause of almost all the crime and poverty on both sides of the ,atlantic4 ,to the ,christians who plead their 'liberty' we can only say1 ',happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth4' ,the same general considerations reappear in the verses following the specific precept1 but with a difference4 ,the neighbour's profit is still put forth as the limiting consideration1 but it is elevated to a higher sacredness of obligation by being set in connection with the 'glory of ,god' and the example of ,christ4 ',do all to the glory of ,god4' ,to put the thought here into modern ,english--,could you ask a blessing over a glass of spirits when you think that1 though it should do you no harm1 your taking it may1 as it were1 tip some weak brother over the precipice8 ,can you drink to ,god's glory when you know that drink is slaying thousands body and soul1 and that hopeless drunkards are made by wholesale out of moderate drinkers8 ',give no occasion of stumbling'2 do not by your example tempt others into risky courses4 ,and remember that 'neighbour' 7verse #bd7 resolves itself into ',jews' and ',greeks' and the ',church of ,god'--that is1 substantially to your own race and other races--to men with whom you have affinities1 and to men with whom you have none4 ,a ,christian man is bound to shape his life so that no man shall be able to say of him that he was the occasion of that one's fall4 ,he is so bound because every man is his neighbour4 ,he is so bound because he is bound to live to the glory of ,god1 which can never be advanced by laying stumbling-blocks in the way for feeble feet4 ,he is so bound because1 unless ,christ had limited ,himself within the bound of manhood1 and had sought not ,his own profit or pleasure1 we should have had neither life nor hope4 ,for all these reasons1 the duty of thinking of others1 and of abstaining1 for their sakes1 from what one might do1 is laid on all ,christians4 ,how do they discharge that duty who will not forswear alcohol for their neighbour's sake8 ',,in ,,remembrance ,,of ,,me' ',this do in remembrance of ,me4'--#a ,,cor4 xi4 #bd4 ,the account of the institution of the ,lord's ,supper1 contained in this context1 is very much the oldest extant narrative of that event4 ,it dates long before any of the ,gospels1 and goes up1 probably1 to somewhere about five and twenty years after the ,crucifixion4 ,it presupposes a previous narrative which had been orally delivered to the ,corinthians1 and1 as the ,apostle alleges1 was derived by him from ,christ ,himself4 ,it is intended to correct corruptions in the administration of the rite which must have taken some time to develop themselves4 ,and so we are carried back to a period very close indeed to the first institution of the rite1 by the words before us4 ,no reasonable doubt can exist1 then1 that within a very few years of our ,lord's death1 the whole body of ,christian people believed that ,jesus ,christ ,himself appointed the ,lord's ,supper4 ,i do not stay to dwell upon the value of a rite contemporaneous with the fact which it commemorates1 and continuously lasting throughout the ages1 as a witness of the historical veracity of the alleged fact2 but ,i want to fix upon this thought1 that ,jesus ,christ1 who cared very little for rites1 who came to establish a religion singularly independent of any outward form1 did establish two rites1 one of them to be done once in a ,christian lifetime1 one of them to be repeated with indefinite frequency1 and1 as it appears1 at first repeated daily by the early believers4 ,the reason why these two1 and only these two1 external ordinances were appointed by ,jesus ,christ was1 that1 taken together1 they cover the whole ground of revealed fact1 and they also cover the whole ground of ,christian experience4 ,there is no room for any other rites1 because these two1 the rite of initiation1 which is baptism1 and the rite of commemoration1 which is the ,lord's ,supper1 say everything about ,christianity as a revelation1 and about ,christianity as a living experience4 ,not only so1 but in the simple primitive form of the ,lord's ,supper there is contained a reference to the past1 the present and the future4 ,it covers all time as well as all revelation and all ,christian experience4 ,for the past1 as the text shows us1 it is a memorial of one ,person1 and one fact in that ,person's life4 ,for the present1 it is the symbol of the ,christian life1 as that great sixth chapter in ,john's gospel sets forth2 and for the future1 it is a prophecy1 as our ,lord ,himself said on that night in the upper chamber1 ',till ,i drink it new with you in ,my ,father's kingdom1' and as the ,apostle in this context says1 ',till ,he come4' ,it is to these three aspects of this ordinance1 as the embodiment of all essential ,christian truth1 and as the embodiment of all deep ,christian experience1 covering the past1 the present1 and the future1 that ,i wish to turn now4 ,i do not deal so much with the mere words of my text as with this threefold significance of the rite which it appoints4 ,i4 ,so then1 first1 we have to think of it as a memorial of the past4 ',do this1' is the true meaning of the words1 not 'in remembrance of ,me1' but something far more sweet and pathetic--'do this for the remembering of ,me4' ,the former expression is equal to ',do this because you remember4' ,the real meaning of the words is1 ',do this in case you forget'2 do this in order that you may recall to memory what the slippery memory is so apt to lose--the impression of even the sweetest sweetness1 of the most loving love1 and the most self-abnegating sacrifice1 which ,he offered for us4 ,there is something to me infinitely pathetic and beautiful in looking at the words not only as the commandment of the ,lord1 but as the appeal of the ,friend1 who wished1 as we all do1 not to be utterly forgotten by those whom ,he cared for and loved2 and who1 not only because their remembrance was their salvation1 but because their forgetfulness pained ,his human heart1 brings to their hearts the plaintive appeal3 ',do not forget ,me when ,i am gone away from you2 and even if you have no better way of remembering ,me1 take these poor symbols1 to which ,i am not too proud to entrust the care of ,my memory1 and do this1 lest you forget ,me4' ,but1 dear brethren1 there are deeper thoughts than this1 on which ,i must dwell briefly4 ',in remembrance of ,me'--,jesus ,christ1 then1 takes up an altogether unique and solitary position here1 and into the sacredest hours of devotion and the loftiest moments of communion with ,god1 intrudes ,his personality1 and says1 ',when you are most religious1 remember ,me2 and let the highest act of your devout life be a thought turned to ,myself4' ,now1 ,i want you to ask1 is that thought diverted from ,god8 ,and if it is not1 how comes it not to be8 ,i want you honestly to ask yourselves this question--what did ,he think about ,himself who1 at that moment1 when all illusions were vanishing1 and life was almost at its last ebb1 took the most solemn rite of ,his nation and laid it solemnly aside and said3 ',a greater than ,moses is here2 a greater deliverance is being wrought'3 ',remember ,me4' ,is that insisting on ,his own personality1 and making the remembrance of it the very apex and shining summit of all religious aspiration--is that the work of one about whom all that we have to say is1 ,he was the noblest of men8 ,if so1 then ,i want to know how ,jesus ,christ1 in that upper chamber1 founding the sole continuous rite of the religion which ,he established1 and making its heart and centre the remembrance of ,his own personality1 can be cleared from the charge of diverting to ,himself what belongs to ,god only1 and how you and ,i1 if we obey ,his commands1 escape the crime of idolatry and man-worship8 ',do this in remembrance1'--not of ,god--'in remembrance of ,me1' 'and let memory1 with all its tendrils1 clasp and cleave to ,my person4' ,what an extraordinary demand6 ,it is obscuring ,god1 unless the ',me' is ,god manifest in the flesh4 ,then1 still further1 let me remind you that in the appointment of this solitary rite as ,his memorial to all generations1 ,jesus ,christ ,himself designates one part of ,his whole manifestation as the part into which all its pathos1 significance1 and power are concentrated4 ,we who believe that the death of ,christ is the life of the world1 are told that one formidable objection to our belief is that ,jesus ,christ ,himself said so little during ,his life about ,his death4 ,i believe ,his reticence upon that question is much exaggerated1 but apart altogether from that1 ,i believe also that there was a necessity in the order of the evolution of divine truth1 for the reticence1 such as it is1 because1 whatsoever might be possible to ,moses and ,elias1 on the ,mount of ,transfiguration1 ',his decease which ,he should accomplish at ,jerusalem1' could not be much spoken about in the plain till it had been accomplished4 ,but1 apart from both of these considerations1 reflect1 that whether ,he said much about ,his death or not1 ,he said something very much to the purpose about it when ,he said ',do this in remembrance of ,me4' ,it is not ,his personality only that we are to remember4 ,the whole of the language of the institution of the ritual1 as well as the form of the rite1 and its connection with the ancient passover1 and its connection with the new covenant into connection with which ,christ ,himself brings it1 all point to the significance in ,his eyes of ,his death as the ,sacrifice for the world's sin4 ,wherefore 'the body' and 'the blood' separately remembered1 except to indicate death by violence8 ,wherefore the language 'the body broken for you'2 'the blood shed for many for the remission of sins8' ,wherefore the association with the ,passover sacrifice8 ,wherefore the declaration that 'this is the blood of the ,covenant1' unless all tended to the one thought--,his death is the foundation of all loving relationships possible to us with ,god2 and the condition of the remission of sins--the ,sacrifice for the whole world8' ,this is the point that ,he desires us to remember2 this is that which ,he would have live for ever in our grateful hearts4 ,i say nothing about the absolute exclusion of any other purpose of this memorial rite4 ,if it was the mysterious thing that the superstition of later ages has made of it1 how1 in the name of common-sense1 does it come that not one syllable1 looking in that direction1 dropped from ,his lips when ,he established it8 ,surely ,he1 in that upper chamber1 knew best what ,he meant1 and what ,he was doing when ,he established the rite2 and ,i1 for my part1 am contented to be told that ,i believe in a poor1 bald ,zwinglianism1 when ,i say with my ,master1 that the purpose of the ,lord's ,supper is simply the commemoration1 and therein the proclamation1 of ,his death4 ,there is no magic1 no mystery1 no 'sacrament' about it4 ,it blesses us when it makes us remember ,him4 ,it does the same thing for us which any other means of bringing ,him to mind does4 ,it does that through a different vehicle4 ,a sermon does it by words1 the ,communion does it by symbols4 ,that is the difference to be found between them4 ,and away goes the whole fabric of superstitious ,christianity1 and all its mischiefs and evils1 when once you accept the simple ',remember4' ,christ told us what ,he meant by the rite when ,he said ',do this in remembrance of ,me4' ,,ii4 ,and now one word or two more about the other particulars which ,i have suggested4 ,the past1 however sweet and precious1 is not enough for any soul to live upon4 ,and so this memorial rite1 just because it is memorial1 is a symbol for the present4 ,that is taught us in the great chapter--the sixth of ,john's ,gospel--which was spoken long before the institution of the ,lord's ,supper1 but expresses in words the same ideas which it expresses by material forms4 ,the ,christ who died is the ,christ who lives1 and must be lived upon by the ,christian4 ,if our relation to ,jesus ,christ were only that ',once in the end of the ages ,he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of ,himself'2 and if we had to look back through lengthening vistas of distance and thickening folds of oblivion1 simply to a historical past1 in which ,he was once offered1 the retrospect would not have the sweetness in it which it now has4 ,but when we come to this thought that the ,christ who was for us is also the ,christ in us1 and that ,he is not the ,christ for us unless ,he is the ,christ in us2 and ,his death will never wash away our sins unless we feed upon ,him1 here and now1 by faith and meditation1 then the retrospect becomes blessedness4 ,the ,christian life is not merely the remembrance of a historical ,christ in the past1 but it is the present participation in a living ,christ1 with us now4 ,he is near each of us that we may make ,him the very food of our spirits4 ,we are to live upon ,him4 ,he is to be incorporated within us by our own act4 ,this is no mysticism1 it is a piece of simple reality4 ,there is no ,christian life without it4 ,the true life of the believer is just the feeding of our souls upon ,him1--our minds accepting1 meditating upon1 digesting the truths which are incarnated in ,jesus2 our hearts feeding upon the love which is so tender1 warm1 stooping1 and close2 our wills feeding upon and nourished by the utterance of ,his will in commandments which to know is joy and to keep is liberty2 our hopes feeding upon ,him who is our ,hope1 and in whom they find no chaff and husks of peradventures1 but the pure wheat of ',verily6 verily ,i say unto you'2 the whole nature thus finding its nourishment in ,jesus ,christ4 ,you are ,christians in the measure in which the very strength of your spirits1 and sustenance of all your faculties1 are found in loving communion with the living ,lord4 ,remember1 too1 that all this communion1 intimate1 sweet1 sacred1 is possible only1 or at all events is in its highest forms and most blessed reality1 possible only1 to those who approach ,him through the gate of ,his death4 ,the feeding upon the living ,christ which will be the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever1 must be a feeding upon the whole ,christ4 ,we must not only nourish our spirits on the fact that ,he was incarnated for our salvation1 but also on the truth that ,he was crucified for our acceptance with ,god4 ',he that eateth ,me1 even he shall live by ,me1' has for its deepest explanation1 ',he that eateth ,my flesh and drinketh ,my blood hath eternal life4' ,my friends1 what about the hunger of your souls8 ,where is it satisfied8 ,with the swine's husks1 or with the ',bread of ,god which came down from ,heaven8' ,,iii4 ,now1 lastly1 that rite which is a memorial and a symbol is also a prophecy4 ,in the original words of the institution our ,lord ,himself makes reference to the future2 'till ,i drink it new with you in ,my ,father's kingdom4' ,and in the context here1 the ,apostle provides for the perpetual continuance1 and emphasises the prophetic aspect1 of the rite1 by that word1 'till ,he come4' ,his death necessarily implies ,his coming again4 ,the ,cross and the ,throne are linked together by an indissoluble bond4 ,being what it is1 the death cannot be the end4 ,being what ,he is1 if ,he has once been offered to bear the sins of many1 so ,he must come the second time without sin unto salvation4 ,the rite1 just because it is a rite1 is the prophecy of a time when the need for it1 arising from weak flesh and an intrusive world1 shall cease4 ',they shall say no more1 ,the ark of the covenant of the ,lord2 at that time they shall call ,jerusalem the throne of the ,lord4' ,there shall be no temple in that great city1 because the ,lord ,god ,almighty and the ,lamb are the ,temple thereof4 ,so all external worship is a prophecy of the coming of the perfect time1 when that which is perfect being come1 the external helps and ladders to climb to the loftiest shall be done away4 ,but more than that1 the memorial and symbol is a prophecy4 ,that upper chamber1 with its troubled thoughts1 its unbidden tears1 starting to the eyes of the half-understanding listeners1 who only felt that ,he was going away and the sweet companionship was dissolved1 may seem to be but a blurred and a poor image of the better communion of heaven4 ,but though on that sad night the ,master bore a burdened heart1 and the servants had but partial apprehension and a more partial love2 though ,he went forth to agonise and to die1 and they went forth to deny and to betray1 and to leave ,him alone1 still it was a prophecy of ,christ's table in ,his kingdom4 ,heaven is to be a feast4 ,that representation promises society to the solitary1 rest to the toilers1 the oil of joy for mourning1 and the full satisfaction of all desires4 ,that heavenly feast surpasses indeed the antitype in the upper chamber1 in that there the ,master ,himself partook not1 and yonder we shall sup with ,him and ,he with us1 but is prophetic in that1 as there ,he took a towel and girded ,himself and washed the disciples' feet1 so yonder ,he will come forth ,himself and serve them4 ,the future is unlike the prophetic past in that 'we shall go no more out'2 there shall be no sequences of sorrow1 and struggle1 and distance and ignorance2 but like it in that we shall feast on ,christ1 for through eternity the glorified ,jesus will be the ,bread of our spirits1 and the fact of ,his past sacrifice the foundation of our hopes4 ,so1 dear brethren1 though our external celebration of this rite be dashed1 as it always is1 with much ignorance and with feeble faith2 and though we gather round this table as the first generation of ,israelites did round the passover1 of which it is the successor1 with staff in hand and loins girded1 and have to eat it often with bitter herbs mingled1 and though there be at our sides empty places1 yet even in our clouded and partial apprehension1 and in the imperfections of this outward type1 we may see a gracious shadow of what is waiting for us when we shall go no more out1 and all empty places shall be filled1 and the bitter herbs shall be changed for the asphodel of ,heaven and the sweet flowerage round the throne of ,god1 and we shall feast upon the ,christ1 and in the loftiest experience of the utmost glories of the ,heavens1 shall remember the bitter ,cross and agony as that which has bought it all4 ',this do in remembrance of ,me4' ,may it be a symbol of our inmost life1 and the prophecy of the ,heaven to which we each shall come6 ,,the ,,universal ,,gift ',the manifestation of the ,spirit is given to every man to profit withal4'--#a ,,cor4 xii4 #g4 ,the great fact which to-day#a commemorates is too often regarded as if it were a transient gift1 limited to those on whom it was first bestowed4 ,we sometimes hear it said that the great need of the ,christian world is a second ,pentecost1 a fresh outpouring of the ,spirit of ,god and the like4 ,such a way of thinking and speaking misconceives the nature and significance of the first ,pentecost1 which had a transient element in it1 but in essence was permanent4 ,the rushing mighty wind and the cloven tongues of fire1 and the strange speech in many languages1 were all equally transient4 ,the rushing wind swept on1 and the house was no more filled with it4 ,the tongues flickered into invisibility and disappeared from the heads4 ,the hubbub of many languages was quickly silent4 ,but that which these things but symbolised is permanent2 and we are not to think of ,pentecost as if it were a sudden gush from a great reservoir1 and the sluice was let down again after it1 but as if it were the entrance into a dry bed1 of a rushing stream1 whose first outgush was attended with noise1 but which thereafter flows continuous and unbroken4 ,if churches or individuals are scant of that gift1 it is not because it has not been bestowed1 but because it has not been accepted4 ,my text tells us two things3 it unconditionally and broadly asserts that every ,christian possesses this great gift--the manifestation is given to every man2 and then it asserts that the gift of each is meant to be utilised for the good of all4 ',the manifestation is given to every man to profit withal4' ,i4 ,let me1 then1 say a word or two1 to begin with1 about the universality of this gift4 ,now1 that is implied in our ,lord's own language1 as commented upon by the ,evangelist4 ,for ,jesus ,christ declared that this was the standing law of ,his kingdom1 to be universally applied to all its members1 that ',he that believeth on ,him1 out of him shall flow rivers of living water'2 and the ,evangelist's comment goes on to say1 ',this spake ,he of the ,spirit which they that believe on ,him should receive4' ,there is the condition and the qualification4 ,wherever there is faith1 there the ,spirit of ,god is bestowed1 and bestowed in the measure in which faith is exercised4 ,so1 then1 in full accordance with such fundamental principles in reference to the gift of the ,spirit of ,god1 comes the language of my text1 and of many another text to which ,i cannot do more than refer4 ,but let me just quote one or two of them1 in order that ,i may make more emphatic what ,i believe a great many ,christian people do not realise as they ought--viz4 that the gift of ,god's ,holy ,spirit is not a thing to be desired1 as if it were not possessed or confined to select individuals1 or manifested by exceptional and lofty attainments1 but is the universal heritage of the whole ,christian ,church4 ',know ye not that ye are the temple of the ,holy ,ghost8' ',we have all been made to drink into one ,spirit1' says ,paul again1 in the immediate context4 ',if any man have not the ,spirit of ,christ1 he is none of ,his1' says he1 unconditionally4 ,and in many other places the same principle is laid down1 a principle which ,i believe the ,christian ,church to-day needs to have recalled to its consciousness1 that it may be quickened to realise it in its experience far more than is the case at present4 ,let me remind you1 too1 that that universality of the gifts of the ,divine ,spirit is implied in the very conception of what ,christ's work1 in its deepest and most precious aspects to us1 is4 ,for we are not to limit1 as a great many so-called earnest evangelical teachers and believers do--we are not to limit ,his work to that which is effected when a man first becomes a ,christian--viz4 pardon and acceptance with ,god4 ,god forbid that ,i should ever seem to underrate that great initial gift on which everything else must be built4 ,but ,i am not underrating it when ,i say1 ',let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith1' and the 'proportion of faith' has been violated1 and the perspective and completeness of ,christian truth1 and of ,christ's gifts1 have been1 alas6 to a very large extent distorted because ,christian people1 trained in what we call the evangelical school1 have laid far too little emphasis on the fact that the essential gift of ,christ to ,his people is not pardon1 nor acceptance1 nor justification1 but life2 and that forgiveness1 and altered relationship to ,god1 and assurance of acceptance with ,him1 are all preliminaries4 ,they are1 if ,i may recur to a figure that ,i have already employed1 the preparing of the channel1 and the taking away of the obstacles that block its mouth1 in order to the inrush of the flood of the river of the water of life4 ,this life that ,christ gives is the result of the gift of the ,spirit4 ,so ',if any man have not the ,spirit of ,christ he is none of ,his4' ,the life is the gift considered from our side1 and the ,spirit is the gift considered from the divine side4 ',every man that hath the ,son hath life'2 because the law of the ,spirit of life in ,christ has made him free from the law of sin and death4 ,so you see if that is true--and ,i for my part am sure that it is--then all that vulgar way of looking at the influences of the ,holy ,spirit upon men1 as if they were confined to certain exceptional people1 or certain abnormal and extraordinary and elevated acts1 is swept away4 ,it is not the spasmodic1 the exceptional1 the rare1 not the lofty or transcendentally ,christlike acts or characters that are alone the manifestation of the ,spirit4 ,nor is this gift a thing that a man can discover as distinct from his own consciousness4 ,the point where the river of the water of life comes into the channel of our spirits lies away far up1 near the sources1 and long before the stream comes into sight in our own consciousness1 the blended waters have been inseparably mingled1 and flow on peacefully together4 ',the ,spirit beareth witness with our spirits'2 and you are not to expect that you can hear two voices speaking1 but it is one voice and one only4 ,now1 that universality of this divine gift underlies the very constitution of the ,christian ,church4 ',where the ,spirit of the ,lord is there is liberty1' said ,paul4 ,it is because each ,christian man has access to the one ,source of illumination and of truth and righteousness and holiness1 that no ,christian man is to become subject to the dominion of a brother4 ,and it is because on the servants and on the handmaidens has been poured out1 in these days1 ,god's ,spirit and they prophesy1 that all domination of classes or individuals1 and all stiffening of the free life of ,god's ,church by man-made creeds1 are contrary to the very basis of its existence1 and an attack on the dignity of each individual member of the ,church4 ',ye have an unction from the ,holy ,one' is said to all ,christian people--and 'ye need not that any man teach you1' still less that any man1 or body of men1 or document framed by men1 should be set up as normal and authoritative over ,christ's free people4 ,still further1 and only one word--,let me remind you of what ,i have already said1 and what is only too sadly true1 that this grand universality of the ,spirit's gift to all ,christian people does not fill1 in the mind of the ordinary ,christian man1 the place that it ought1 and it does not fill it1 therefore1 in his experience4 ,i say no more upon that point4 ,,ii4 ,and now let me say a word1 secondly1 about the many-sidedness of this universal gift4 ,one of the reasons why ,christian people as a whole do not realise the universality as they ought is1 as ,i have already suggested in a somewhat different connection1 because they limit their notions far too much of what the gift of ,god's ,spirit is to do to men4 ,we must take a wider view of what that ,spirit is meant to effect than we ordinarily take1 before we understand how real and how visible its universal manifestations are4 ,take a leaf out of the ,old ,testament4 ,the man who made the brass-work for the ,tabernacle was 'full of the ,spirit of ,god4' ,the poets who sung the ,psalms1 in more than one place1 declare of themselves that they1 too1 were but the harps upon which the divine finger played4 ,samson was capable of his rude feats of physical strength1 because 'the ,spirit of ,god was upon him4' ,art1 song1 counsel1 statesmanlike adaptation of means to ends1 and discernment of proper courses for a nation1 such as were exemplified in ,joseph and in ,daniel1 are1 in the ,old ,testament1 ascribed to the ,spirit of ,god1 and even the rude physical strength of the simple-natured and sensuous athlete is traced up to the same source4 ,but again1 we see another sphere of the ,spirit's working in the manifestations of it in the experience of the primitive ,church4 ,these are1 as we all know1 accompanied with miracles1 speaking with tongues and working wonders4 ,the signs of that ,spirit in those days were visible and audible4 ,as ,i said1 when the river first came into its bed1 it came like the tide in ,morecambe ,bay1 breast-high1 with a roar and a rush4 ,but it was quiet after that4 ,in the context we have a whole series of manifestations of this ,divine ,spirit1 some of them miraculous and some being natural faculties heightened1 but all concerned with the ,church as a society1 and being for the benefit of the community4 ,but there is another class4 ,if you turn to the ,epistle to the ,galatians1 you will find a wonderful list there of what the ,apostle calls 'the fruit of the ,spirit1' beginning with 'love1 joy1 peace4' ,these are all moral and religious1 bearing upon personal experience and the completeness of the individual character4 ,now1 let us include all these aspects in our conception of the fruit of the ,spirit's working on men--the secular1 if we may use that word1 as exhibited in the ,old ,testament2 the miraculous1 as seen in the first days of the ,church2 the ecclesiastical1 if we may so designate the endowments mentioned in the context1 and the purely personal1 moral1 and religious emotions and acts4 ,the plain fact is that everything in a ,christian's life1 except his sin1 is the manifestation of that ,divine ,spirit1 from whom all good thoughts1 counsels1 and works do proceed4 ,he is the ',spirit of adoption1' and whenever in my heart there rises warm and blessed the aspiration ',abba6 ,father6' it is not my voice only1 but the voice of that ,divine ,spirit4 ,he is the ,spirit of intercession2 and whenever in my soul there move yearning desires after infinite good1 child-like longings to be knit more closely to ,him1 that1 too1 is the voice of ,god's ,spirit2 and our prayers are then 'sweet1 indeed1 when ,he the ,spirit gives by which we pray4' ,in like manner1 all the variety of ,christian emotions and experiences is to be traced to the conjoint operation of that ,divine ,spirit as the source1 and my own spirit as influenced by1 and the organ of1 the ,spirit of ,god4 ,if ,i may take a very rough illustration1 there is a story in the ,old ,testament about a king1 to whom were given a bow and arrow1 with the command to shoot4 ,the prophet's hand was laid on the king's weak hand1 and the weak hand was strengthened by the touch of the other2 and with one common pull they drew back the string and the arrow sped4 ,the king drew the bow1 but it was the prophet's hand grasping his wrist that gave him strength to do it4 ,and that is how the ,spirit of ,god will work with us if we will4 ,,iii4 ,finally1 consider the purpose of all the diverse manifestations of the one universal gift4 ',to profit withal'--for his own good who possesses it1 and for the good of all the rest of his brethren4 ,now1 that involves two plain things4 ,there have been people in the ,christian ,church who have said1 ',we have all the ,spirit1 and therefore we do not need one another4' ,there may be isolation1 and self-sufficiency1 and a host of other evils coming in1 if we only grasp the thought1 ',the manifestation of the ,spirit is given to every man1' but they are all corrected if we go on and say1 'to profit withal4' ,for every one of us has something1 and no one of us has everything2 so1 on the one hand1 we want each other1 and1 on the other hand1 we are responsible for the use of what we have4 ,you get the life1 not in order that you may plume yourself on its possession1 nor in order that you may ostentatiously display it1 still less in order that you may shut it up and do nothing with it2 but you get the life in order that it may spread through you to others4 ',the least flower with a brimming cup may stand1 ,and share its dew-drop with another near4' ,we each have the life that ,god's grace may fructify through us to all4 ,power is duty2 endowment is obligation2 capacity prescribes work4 ',the manifestation of the ,spirit is given to every man to profit withal4' ,you can regulate the flow4 ,you have the sluice2 you can shut it or open it4 ,i have said that the condition1 and the only condition1 of possessing the fulness of ,god's ,spirit is faith in ,jesus ,christ4 ,therefore1 the more you trust the more you have1 and the less your faith the less the gift4 ,you can get much or little1 according to the greatness or the smallness1 the fixity or the transiency1 of your desires4 ,if you hold the empty cup with a tremulous hand1 the precious liquid will not be poured into it--for some of it will be spilt--in the same fulness as it would be if you held it steadily4 ,it is the old story--the miraculous flow of the oil stopped when the widow had no more pots and vessels to bring4 ,the reason why some of us have so little of that ,divine ,spirit is because we have not held out our vessels to be filled4 ,you can diminish the flow by ignoring it1 and that is what a host of so-called ,christian people do nowadays4 ,you can diminish it by neglecting to use the little that you have for the purpose for which it was given you4 ,does anybody profit by your spiritual life8 ,do you profit much by it yourselves8 ,has it ever been of the least good to anybody else in the world8 ',the manifestation of the ,spirit is given to' you1 if you are a ,christian man or woman1 more or less4 ,and if you shut it up1 and do never an atom of good with it1 either to yourselves or to anybody else1 of course it will slip away2 and1 sometime or other1 to your astonishment1 you will find that the vessels are empty1 and that the ,spirit of the ,lord has departed from you4 ',grieve not the ,holy ,spirit of ,god1 whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption4' ,footnote #a3 ,whitsunday4 ,,what ,,lasts ',whether there be prophecies1 they shall fail2 whether there be tongues1 they shall cease2 whether there be knowledge1 it shall vanish away4 #ac4 ,and now abideth faith1 hope1 charity1 these three4444'--#a ,,cor4 xiii4 #h1 #ac4 ,we discern the run of the ,apostle's thought best by thus omitting the intervening verses and connecting these two4 ,the part omitted is but a buttress of what has been stated in the former of our two verses2 and when we thus unite them there is disclosed plainly the ,apostle's intention of contrasting two sets of things1 three in each set4 ,the one set is 'prophecies1 tongues1 knowledge'2 the other1 'faith1 hope1 charity4' ,there also comes out distinctly that the point mainly intended by the contrast is the transiency of the one and the permanence of the other4 ,now1 that contrast has been obscured and weakened by two mistakes1 about which ,i must say a word4 ,with regard to the former statement1 ',whether there be prophecies1 they shall fail2 whether there be tongues1 they shall cease1' that has been misunderstood as if it amounted to a declaration that the miraculous gifts in the early ,church were intended to be of brief duration4 ,however true that may be1 it is not what ,paul means here4 ,the cessation to which he refers is their cessation in the light of the perfect ,future4 ,with regard to the other statement1 the abiding of faith1 hope1 charity1 that1 too1 has been misapprehended as if it indicated that faith and hope belonged to this state of things only1 and that love was the greatest of the three1 because it was permanent4 ,the reason for that misconception has mainly lain in the misunderstanding of the force of ',now1' which has been taken to mean 'for the present1' as an implied contrast to an unspoken 'then'2 just as in the previous verse we have1 ',now we see through a glass1 then face to face4' ,but the 'now' in this text is not1 as the grammarians say1 temporal1 but logical4 ,that is1 it does not refer to time1 but to the sequence of the ,apostle's thought1 and is equivalent to 'so then4' ',so then abideth faith1 hope1 charity4' ,the scope of the whole1 then1 is to contrast the transient with the permanent1 in ,christian experience4 ,if we firmly grasped the truth involved1 our estimates would be rectified and our practice revolutionised4 ,i4 ,i ask this question--,what will drop away8 ,paul answers1 'prophecies1 tongues1 knowledge4' ,now these three were all extraordinary gifts belonging to the present phase of the ,christian life4 ,but inasmuch as these gifts were the heightening of natural capacities and faculties1 it is perfectly legitimate to enlarge the declaration and to use these three words in their widest signification4 ,so understood1 they come to this1 that all our present modes of apprehension and of utterance are transient1 and will be left behind4 ',knowledge1 it shall cease1' and as the ,apostle goes on to explain1 in the verses which ,i have passed over for my present purpose1 it shall cease because the perfect will absorb into itself the imperfect1 as the inrushing tide will obliterate the little pools in the rocks on the seashore4 ,for another reason1 the knowledge1 the mode of apprehension belonging to the present1 will pass--because here it is indirect1 and there it will be immediate4 ',we shall know face to face1' which is what philosophers mean by intuition4 ,here our knowledge 'creeps from point to point1' painfully amassing facts1 and thence1 with many hesitations and errors1 groping its way towards principles and laws4 ,here it is imperfect1 with many a gap in the circumference2 or like the thin red line on a map which shows the traveller's route across a prairie1 or like the spider's thread in the telescope1 stretched athwart the blazing disc of the sun--'but then face to face4' ,incomplete knowledge shall be done away2 and many of its objects will drop1 and much of what makes the science of earth will be antiquated and effete4 ,what would the hand-loom weaver's knowledge of how to throw his shuttle be worth in a weaving-shed with a thousand looms8 ,just so much will the knowledges of earth be when we get yonder4 ,modes of utterance will cease4 ,with new experiences will come new methods of communication4 ,as a man can speak1 and a beast can only growl or bark1 so a man in heaven1 with new experiences1 will have new methods of communication4 ,the comparison between that mode of utterance which we now have1 and that which we shall then possess1 will be like the difference between the old-fashioned semaphore1 that used to wave about clumsy wooden arms in order to convey intelligence1 and the telegraph4 ,think1 then1 of a man going into that future life1 and saying ',i knew more about ,sanscrit than anybody that ever lived in ,europe'2 ',i sang sweet songs'2 ',i was a past master in philology1 grammars1 and lexicons'2 ',i was a great orator4' ',tongues shall cease'2 and the modes of utterance that belonged to earth1 and all that holds of them1 will drop away1 and be of no more use4 ,if these things are true1 brethren1 with regard even to the highest form of these high and noble things1 how much more and more solemnly true are they with regard to the aims and objects which most of us have in view8 ,they will all drop away1 and we shall be left1 stripped of what1 for most of us1 has made the whole interest and activity of our lives4 ,,ii4 ,what will last8 ',so then1 abideth these three1 faith1 hope1 love4' ,when ,paul takes three nouns and couples them with a verb in the singular1 he is not making a slip of the pen1 or committing a grammatical blunder which a child could correct4 ,but there is a great truth in that piece of apparent grammatical irregularity2 for the faith1 the hope1 and the love1 for which he can only afford a singular verb1 are thereby declared to be in their depth and essence one thing1 and it1 the triple star1 abides1 and continues to shine4 ,the three primitive colours are unified in the white beam of light4 ,do not correct the grammar1 and spoil the sense1 but discern what he means when he says1 ',now1 abideth faith1 hope1 love4' ,for this is what he means1 that the two latter come out of the former1 and that without it they are nought1 and that it without them is dead4 ,faith breeds ,hope4 ,there is the difference between earthly hopes and ,christian people's hopes4 ,our hopes1 apart from the revelation of ,god in ,jesus ,christ1 are but the balancing of probabilities1 and the scale is often dragged down by the clutch of eager desires4 ,but all is baseless and uncertain1 unless our hopes are the outcome of our faith4 ,which1 being translated into other words1 is just this1 that the one basis on which men can rest--ay6 even for the immediate future1 and the contingencies of life1 as well as for the solemnities and certainties of heaven--any legitimate and substantial hope is trust in ,jesus ,christ1 ,his word1 ,his love1 ,his power1 and for the heavenly future1 in ,his ,resurrection and present glory4 ,a man who believes these things1 and only that man1 has a rock foundation on which he can build his hope4 ,faith1 in like manner1 is the parent of ,love4 ,paul and ,john1 diverse as they are in the whole cast of their minds1 the one being speculative and the other mystical1 the one argumentative and the other simply gazing and telling what he sees1 are precisely agreed in regard to this matter4 ,for1 to the ,apostle of ,love1 the foundation of all human love towards ,god is1 ',we have known and believed the love that ,god hath to us1' and ',we love ,him because ,he first loved us1' and to ,paul the first step is the trusting reception of the love of ,god1 'commended to us' by the fact that 'whilst we were yet sinners ,christ died for us1' and from that necessarily flows1 if the faith be genuine1 the love that answers the sacrifice and obeys the ,beloved4 ,so faith1 hope1 love1 these three are a trinity in unity1 and it abideth4 ,that is the main point of our last text4 ,let me say a word or two about it4 ,i have said that the words have often been misunderstood as if the 'now' referred only to the present order of things1 in which faith and hope are supposed to find their only appropriate sphere4 ,but that is clearly not the ,apostle's meaning here1 for many reasons with which ,i need not trouble you4 ,the abiding of all three is eternal abiding1 and there is a heavenly as well as an earthly form of faith and hope as well as of love4 ,just look at these points for a moment4 ',faith abides1' says ,paul1 yonder1 as here4 ,now1 there is a common saying1 which ,i suppose ninety out of a hundred people think comes out of the ,bible1 about faith being lost in sight4 ,there is no such teaching in ,scripture4 ,true1 in one aspect1 faith is the antithesis of sight4 ,true1 ,paul does say ',we walk by faith1 not by sight4' ,but that antithesis refers only to part of faith's significance4 ,in so far as it is the opposite of sight1 of course it will cease to be in operation when 'we shall know even as we are known' and 'see ,him as ,he is4' ,but the essence of faith is not in the absence of the person trusted1 but the emotion of trust which goes out to the person1 present or absent4 ,and in its deepest meaning of absolute dependence and happy confidence1 faith abides through all the glories and the lustres of the heavens1 as it burns amidst the dimnesses and the darknesses of earth4 ,for ever and ever1 on through the irrevoluble ages of eternity1 dependence on ,god in ,christ will be the life of the glorified1 as it was the life of the militant1 ,church4 ,no millenniums of possession1 and no imaginable increases in beauty and perfectness and enrichment with the wealth of ,god1 will bring us one inch nearer to casting off the state of filial dependence which is1 and ever will be1 the condition of our receiving them all4 ,faith 'abides4' ,hope 'abides4' ,for it is no more a ,scriptural idea that hope is lost in fruition1 than it is that faith is lost in sight4 ,rather that ,future presents itself to us as the continual communication of an inexhaustible ,god to our progressively capacious and capable spirits4 ,in that continual communication there is continual progress4 ,wherever there is progress there must be hope4 ,and thus the fair form1 which has so often danced before us elusive1 and has led us into bogs and miry places and then faded away1 will move before us through all the long avenues of an endless progress1 and will ever and anon come back to tell us of the unseen glories that lie beyond the next turn1 and to woo us further into the depths of heaven and the fulness of ,god4 ,hope 'abides4' ,love 'abides4' ,i need not1 ,i suppose1 enlarge upon that thought which nobody denies1 that love is the eternal form of the human relation to ,god4 ,it1 too1 like the mercy which it clasps1 'endureth for ever4' ,but ,i may remind you of what the ,apostle does not explain in our text1 that it is greater than its linked sisters1 because whilst faith and hope belong only to a creature1 and are dependent and expectant of some good to come to themselves1 and correspond to something which is in ,god in ,christ1 the love which springs from faith and hope not only corresponds to1 but resembles1 that from which it comes and by which it lives4 ,the fire kindled is cognate with the fire that kindles2 and the love that is in man is like the love that is in ,god4 ,it is the climax of his nature2 it is the fulfilling of all duty2 it is the crown and jewelled clasp of all perfection4 ,and so 'abideth faith1 hope1 love1 and the greatest of these is love4' ,,iii4 ,lastly1 what follows from all this8 ,first1 let us be quite sure that we understand what this abiding love is4 ,i dare say you have heard people say ',ah6 ,i do not care much about ,paul's theology4 ,give me the thirteenth chapter of the first ,epistle to the ,corinthians4 ,that is beautiful2 that praise of ,love2 that comes home to men4' ,yes1 very beautiful4 ,are you quite sure that you know what ,paul means by 'love'8 ,i do not use the word charity1 because that lovely word1 like a glistening meteor that falls upon the earth1 has a rust1 as it were1 upon its surface that dims its brightness very quickly4 ,charity has come to mean an indulgent estimate of other people's faults2 or1 still more degradingly1 the giving of money out of your pockets to other people's necessities4 ,these are what the people who do not care much about ,paul's theology generally suppose that he means here4 ,but these do not exhaust his meaning4 ,paul's notion of love is the response of the human love to the divine1 which divine is received into the heart by simple faith in ,jesus ,christ4 ,and his notion of love which never faileth1 and endureth all things1 and hopeth all things1 is love to men1 which is but one stream of the great river of love to ,god4 ,if we rightly understand what he means by love1 we shall find that his praise of love is as theological as anything that he ever wrote4 ,we shall never get further than barren admiration of a beautiful piece of writing1 unless our love to men has the source and root to which ,paul points us4 ,again1 let us take this great thought of the permanence of faith1 hope1 and love as being the highest conception that we can form of our future condition4 ,it is very easy to bewilder ourselves with speculations and theories of another life4 ,i do not care much about them4 ,the great gates keep their secret well4 ,few stray beams of light find their way through their crevices4 ,the less we say the less likely we are to err4 ,it is easy to let ourselves be led away1 by turning rhetoric into revelation1 and accepting the symbols of the ,new ,testament as if they carried anything more than images of the realities4 ,but far beyond golden pavements1 and harps1 and crowns1 and white robes1 lies this one great thought that the elements of the imperfect1 ,christlike life of earth are the essence of the perfect1 ,godlike life in heaven4 ',now abide these three1 faith1 hope1 love4' ,last of all1 let us shape our lives in accordance with these certainties4 ,the dropping away of the transient things is no argument for neglecting or despising them2 for our handling of them makes our characters1 and our characters abide4 ,but it is a very excellent argument for shaping our lives so as to seek first the first things1 and to secure the permanent qualities1 and so to use the transient as that it shall all help us towards that which does not pass4 ,what will a ,manchester man that knows nothing except goods and office work1 and knows these only in their superficial aspect1 and not as related to ,god1 what1 in the name of common-sense1 will he do with himself when he gets into a world where there is not a single ledger1 nor a desk1 nor a yard of cloth of any sort8 ,what will some of us do when1 in like manner1 we are stripped of all the things that we have cared about1 and worked for1 and have made our aims down here8 ,suppose that you knew that you were under sailing orders to go somewhere or other1 and that at any moment a breathless messenger might appear and say1 ',come along6 we are all waiting for you'2 and suppose that you never did a single thing towards getting your outfit ready1 or preparing yourself in any way for that which might come at any moment1 and could not but come before very long4 ,would you be a wise man8 ,but that is what a great many of us are doing2 doing every day1 and all day long1 and doing that only4 ',he shall leave them in the midst of his days1' says a grim text1 'and at his latter end shall be a fool4' ,what will drop8 ,modes of apprehension1 modes of utterance1 occupations1 duties1 relationships1 loves2 and we shall be left standing naked1 stripped1 as it were1 to the very quick1 and only as much left as will keep our souls alive4 ,but if we are clothed with faith1 hope1 love1 we shall not be found naked4 ,cultivate the high things1 the permanent things2 then death will not wrench you violently from all that you have been and cared for2 but it will usher you into the perfect form of all that you have been and done upon earth4 ,all these things will pass1 but faith1 hope1 love1 'stay not behind nor in the grave are trod1' but will last as long as ,christ1 their ,object1 lives1 and as long as we in ,him live also4 ,,the ,,power ,,of ,,the ,,resurrection ',i delivered unto you first of all that which ,i also received1 how that ,christ died for our sins according to the ,scriptures2 #d4 ,and that ,he was buried1 and that ,he rose again the third day according to the ,scriptures4'--#a ,,cor4 xv4 #c1 #d4 ,christmas day is probably not the true anniversary of the ,nativity1 but ,easter is certainly that of the ,resurrection4 ,the season is appropriate4 ,in the climate of ,palestine the first fruits of the harvest were ready at the ,passover for presentation in the ,temple4 ,it was an agricultural as well as a historical festival2 and the connection between that aspect of the feast and the ,resurrection of our ,lord is in the ,apostle's mind when he says1 in a subsequent part of this chapter1 that ,christ is 'risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept4' ,in our colder climate the season is no less appropriate4 ,the 'life re-orient out of dust' which shows itself to-day in every bursting leaf-bud and springing flower is ,nature's parable of the spring that awaits man after the winter of death4 ,no doubt1 apart from the ,resurrection of ,jesus1 the yearly miracle kindles sad thoughts in mourning hearts1 and suggests bitter contrasts to those who sorrow1 having no hope1 but the grave in the garden has turned every blossom into a smiling prophet of the ,resurrection4 ,and so the season1 illuminated by the event1 teaches us lessons of hope that 'we shall not all die4' ,let us turn1 then1 to the thoughts naturally suggested by the day1 and the great fact which it brings to each mind1 and confirmed thereafter by the miracle that is being wrought round about us4 ,i4 ,first1 then1 in my text1 ,i would have you note the facts of ,paul's gospel4 ',first of all 444 ,i delivered' these things4 ,and the 'first' not only points to the order of time in the proclamation1 but to the order of importance as well4 ,for these initial facts are the fundamental facts1 on which all that may follow thereafter is certainly built4 ,now the first thing that strikes me here is that1 whatever else the system unfolded in the ,new ,testament is1 it is to begin with a simple record of historical fact4 ,it becomes a philosophy1 it becomes a religious system2 it is a revelation of ,god2 it is an unveiling of man2 it is a body of ethical precepts4 ,it is morals and philosophy and religion all in one2 but it is first of all a story of something that took place in the world4 ,if that be so1 there is a lesson for men whose work it is to preach it4 ,let them never forget that their business is to insist upon the truth of these great1 supernatural1 all-important1 and fundamental facts1 the death and the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ4 ,they must evolve all the deep meanings that lie in them2 and the deeper they dig for their meanings the better4 ,they must open out the endless treasures of consolation and enforce the omnipotent motives of action which are wrapped up in the facts2 but howsoever far they may carry their evolving and their application of them1 they will neither be faithful to their ,lord nor true stewards of their message unless1 clear above all other aspects of their work1 and underlying all other forms of their ministry1 there be the unfaltering proclamation--'first of all1' midst of all1 last of all--'how that ,christ died for our sins according to the ,scriptures1' and 'that ,he was raised again according to the ,scriptures4' ,note1 too1 how this fundamental and original character of the gospel which ,paul preached1 as a record of facts1 makes short work of a great deal that calls itself 'liberal ,christianity' in these days4 ,we are told that it is quite possible to be a very good ,christian man1 and reject the supernatural1 and turn away with incredulity from the story of the ,resurrection4 ,it may be so1 but ,i confess that it puzzles me to understand how1 if the fundamental character of ,christian teaching be the proclamation of certain facts1 a man who does not believe those facts has the right to call himself a ,christian4 ,note1 further1 how there is an element of explanation involved in the proclamation of the facts which turns them into a gospel4 ,mark how 'that ,christ died1' not ,jesus4 ,it is a great truth1 that the man1 our ,brother1 ,jesus1 passed through the common lot1 but that is not what ,paul says here1 though he often says it4 ,what he says is that ',christ died4' ,christ is the name of an office1 into which is condensed a whole system of truth1 declaring that it is ,he who is the ,apex1 the ,seal1 and ultimate ,word of all divine revelation4 ,it was the ,christ who died2 unless it was so1 the death of ,jesus is no gospel4 ',he died for our sins4' ,now1 if the ,apostle had only said ',he died for us1' that might conceivably have meant that1 in a multitude of different ways of example1 appeal to our pity and compassion and the like1 ,his death was of use to mankind4 ,but when he says ',he died for our sins1' ,i take leave to think that that expression has no meaning1 unless it means that ,he died as the expiation and sacrifice for men's sins4 ,i ask you1 in what intelligible sense could ,christ 'die for our sins' unless ,he died as bearing their punishment and as bearing it for us8 ,and then1 finally1 ',he died and rose 444 according to the ,scriptures1' and so fulfilled the divine purposes revealed from of old4 ,to the fact that a man was crucified outside the gates of ,jerusalem1 'and rose again the third day1' which is the narrative1 there are added these three things--the dignity of the ,person1 the purpose of ,his death1 the fulfilment of the divine intention manifested from of old4 ,and these three things1 as ,i said1 turn the narrative into a ,gospel4 ,so1 brethren1 let us remember that1 without all three of them1 the death of ,jesus ,christ is nothing to us1 any more than the death of thousands of sweet and saintly men in the past has been1 who may have seen a little more of the supreme goodness and greatness than their fellows1 and tried in vain to make purblind eyes participate in their vision4 ,do you think that these twelve fishermen would ever have shaken the world if they had gone out with the story of the ,cross1 unless they had carried along with it the commentary which is included in the words which ,i have emphasised8 ,and do you suppose that the type of ,christianity which slurs over the explanation1 and so does not know what to do with the facts1 will ever do much in the world1 or will ever touch men8 ,let us liberalise our ,christianity by all means1 but do not let us evaporate it2 and evaporate it we surely shall if we falter in saying with ,paul1 ',i declare1 first of all1 that which received1' how that the death and resurrection were the death and resurrection of the ,christ1 'for our sins1 according to the ,scriptures4' ,these are the facts which make ,paul's gospel4 ,,ii4 ,now ,i ask you to look1 in the second place1 at what establishes the facts4 ,we have here1 in this chapter1 a statement very much older than our existing written gospels4 ,this epistle is one of the four letters of ,paul which nobody that ,i know of--with some quite insignificant exceptions in modern times--has ever ventured to dispute4 ,it is admittedly the writing of the ,apostle1 written before the gospels1 and in all probability within five-and-twenty years of the date of the ,crucifixion4 ,and what do we find alleged by it as the state of things at its date8 ,that the belief in the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ was the subject of universal ,christian teaching1 and was accepted by all the ,christian communities4 ,its evidence to that fact is undeniable2 because there was in the early ,christian ,church a very formidable and large body of bitter antagonists of ,paul's1 who would have been only too glad to have convicted him1 if they could1 of any misrepresentation of the usual notions1 or divergence from the usual type of teaching4 ,so we may take it as undeniable that the representation of this chapter is historically true2 and that within five-and-twenty years of the death of ,jesus ,christ every ,christian community and every ,christian teacher believed in and proclaimed the fact of the ,resurrection4 ,but if that be so1 we necessarily are carried a great deal nearer the ,cross than five-and-twenty years2 and1 in fact1 there is not1 between the moment when ,paul penned these words and the day of ,pentecost1 a single chink in the history where you can insert such a tremendous innovation as the full-fledged belief in a resurrection coming in as something new4 ,i do not need to dwell at all upon this other thought1 that1 unless the belief that ,jesus ,christ had risen from the dead originated at the time of ,his death1 there would never have been a ,church at all4 ,why was it that they did not tumble to pieces8 ,take the nave out of the wheel and what becomes of the spokes8 ,a dead ,christ could never have been the basis of a living ,church4 ,if ,he had not risen from the dead1 the story of ,his disciples would have been the same as that which ,gamaliel told the ,sanhedrim was the story of all former pseudo-,messiahs such as that man ,theudas4 ',he was slain1 and as many as followed him were dispersed and came to naught4' ,of course6 ,the existence of the ,church demands1 as a pre-requisite1 the initial belief in the ,resurrection4 ,i think1 then1 that the contemporaneousness of the evidence is sufficiently established4 ,what about its good faith8 ,i suppose that nobody1 nowadays1 doubts the veracity of these witnesses4 ,anybody that knows an honest man when he sees him1 anybody that has the least ear for the tone of sincerity and the accent of conviction1 must say that they may have been fanatics1 they may have been mistaken1 but one thing is clear as sunlight1 they were not false witnesses for ,god4 ,what1 then1 about their competency8 ,their simplicity1 their ignorance1 their slowness to believe1 their stupor of surprise when the fact first dawned upon them1 which they tell not with any idea of manufacturing evidence in their own favour1 but simply as a piece of history1 all tend to make us certain that there was no play of a morbid imagination1 no hysterical turning of a wish into a fact1 on the part of these men4 ,the sort of things which they say that they saw and experienced are such as to make any such supposition altogether absurd4 ,there are long conversations1 appearances appealing to more than one sense1 appearances followed by withdrawals1 sometimes in the morning1 sometimes in the evening1 sometimes at a distance1 as on the mountain1 sometimes close by1 as in the chamber1 to single souls and to multitudes4 ,fancy five hundred people all at once smitten with the same mistake1 imagining that they saw what they did not see6 ,miracles may be difficult to believe1 they are not half so difficult to believe as absurdities4 ,and this modern explanation of the faith in the ,resurrection ,i venture respectfully to designate as absurd4 ,but there is one other point to which ,i would like to turn for a moment2 and that is that little clause in my text that ',he was buried4' ,why does ,paul introduce that amongst his facts8 ,possibly in order to affirm the reality of ,christ's death2 but ,i think for another reason4 ,if it be true that ,jesus ,christ was laid in that sepulchre1 a stone's throw outside the city gate1 do you not see what a difficulty that fact puts in the way of disbelief or denial of ,his ,resurrection8 ,if the grave--and it was not a grave1 remember1 like ours1 but a cave1 with a stone at the door of it1 that anybody could roll away for entrance--if the grave was there1 why1 in the name of common-sense1 did not the rulers put an end to the pestilent heresy by saying1 ',let us go and see if the body is there'8 ,modern deniers of the ,resurrection may fairly be asked to front this thought--,if ,jesus ,christ's body was in the sepulchre1 how was it possible for belief in the ,resurrection to have been originated1 or maintained8 ,if ,his body was not in the grave1 what had become of it8 ,if ,his friends stole it away then they were deceivers of the worst type in preaching a resurrection2 and we have already seen that that hypothesis is ridiculous4 ,if ,his enemies took it away1 for which they had no motive1 why did they not produce it and say1 ',there is an answer to your nonsense4 ,there is the dead man4 ,let us hear no more of this absurdity of ,his having risen from the dead'8 ',he died 444 according to the ,scriptures1 and ,he was buried4' ,and the angels' word carries the only explanation of the fact which it proclaims1 ',he is not here--,he is risen4' ,i take leave to say that the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ is established by evidence which nobody would ever have thought of doubting unless for the theory that miracles were impossible4 ,the reason for disbelief is not the deficiency of the evidence1 but the bias of the judge4 ,,iii4 ,and now ,i have no time to do more than touch the last thought4 ,i have tried to show what establishes the facts4 ,let me remind you1 in a sentence or two1 what the facts establish4 ,i by no means desire to suspend the whole of the evidence for ,christianity on the testimony of the eyewitnesses to the ,resurrection4 ,there are a great many other ways of establishing the truth of the ,gospel besides that1 upon which ,i do not need to dwell now4 ,but1 taking this one specific ground which my text suggests1 what do the facts thus established prove8 ,well1 the first point to which ,i would refer1 and on which ,i should like to enlarge1 if ,i had time1 is the bearing of ,christ's ,resurrection on the acceptance of the miraculous4 ,we hear a great deal about the impossibility of miracle and the like4 ,it upsets the certainty and fixedness of the order of things1 and so forth1 and so forth4 ,jesus ,christ has risen from the dead2 and that opens a door wide enough to admit all the rest of the ,gospel miracles4 ,it is of no use paring down the supernatural in ,christianity1 in order to meet the prejudices of a quasi-scientific scepticism1 unless you are prepared to go the whole length1 and give up the ,resurrection4 ,there is the turning point4 ,the question is1 ,do you believe that ,jesus ,christ rose from the dead1 or do you not8 ,if your objections to the supernatural are valid1 then ,christ is not risen from the dead2 and you must face the consequences of that4 ,if ,he is risen from the dead1 then you must cease all your talk about the impossibility of miracle1 and be willing to accept a supernatural revelation as ,god's way of making ,himself known to man4 ,but1 further1 let me remind you of the bearing of the ,resurrection upon ,christ's work and claims4 ,if ,he be lying in some forgotten grave1 and if all that fair thought of ,his having burst the bands of death is a blunder1 then there was nothing in ,his death that had the least bearing upon men's sin1 and it is no more to me than the deaths of thousands in the past4 ,but if ,he is risen from the dead1 then the ,resurrection casts back a light upon the ,cross1 and we understand that ,his death is the life of the world1 and that 'by ,his stripes we are healed4' ,but1 further1 remember what ,he said about ,himself when ,he was in the world--how ,he claimed to be the ,son of ,god2 how ,he demanded absolute obedience1 implicit trust1 supreme love1 how ,he identified faith in ,himself with faith in ,god--and consider the ,resurrection as bearing on the reception or rejection of these tremendous claims4 ,it seems to me that we are brought sharp up to this alternative--,jesus ,christ rose from the dead1 and was declared by the ,resurrection to be the ,son of ,god with power2 or ,jesus ,christ has not risen from the dead--and what then8 ,then ,he was either deceiver or deceived1 and in either case has no right to my reverence and my love4 ,we may be thankful that men are illogical1 and that many who reject the ,resurrection retain reverence1 genuine and deep1 for ,jesus ,christ4 ,but whether they have any right to do so is another matter4 ,i confess for myself that1 if ,i did not believe that ,jesus ,christ had risen from the dead1 ,i should find it very hard to accept1 as an example of conduct1 or as religious teacher1 a man who had made such great claims as ,he did1 and had asked from me what ,he asked4 ,it seems to me that ,he is either a great deal more1 or a great deal less1 than a beautiful saintly soul4 ,if ,he rose from the dead ,he is much more2 if ,he did not1 ,i am afraid to say how much less ,he is4 ,and1 finally1 the bearing of the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ upon our own hopes of the future may be suggested4 ,it teaches us that life has nothing to do with organisation1 but persists apart from the body4 ,it teaches us that a man may pass from death and be unaltered in the substance of his being2 and it teaches us that the earthly house of our tabernacle may be fashioned like unto the glorious house in which ,he dwells now at the right hand of ,god4 ,there is no other absolute proof of immortality than the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ4 ,if we accept with all our hearts and minds ,paul's ,gospel in its fundamental facts1 we need not fear to die1 because ,he has died1 and by dying has been the death of death4 ,we need not doubt that we shall live again1 because ,he was dead and is alive for ever more4 ,this ,samson has carried away the gates on ,his strong shoulders1 and death is no more a dungeon but a passage4 ,if we rest ourselves upon ,him1 then we can take up1 for ourselves and for all that are dear to us and have gone before us1 the triumphant song1 ',o ,death1 where is thy sting8' ',thanks be to ,god1 which giveth us the victory through our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4' ,,remaining ,,and ,,falling ,,asleep ',after that ,he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once2 of whom the greater part remain unto this present1 but some are fallen asleep4'--#a ,,cor4 xv4 #f4 ,there were1 then1 some five-and-twenty years after the ,resurrection1 several hundred disciples who were known amongst the churches as having been eyewitnesses of the risen ,saviour4 ,the greater part survived2 some1 evidently a very few1 had died4 ,the proportion of the living to the dead1 after five-and-twenty years1 is generally the opposite4 ,the greater part have 'fallen asleep'2 some1 a comparatively few1 remain 'unto this present4' ,possibly there was some divine intervention which supernaturally prolonged the lives of these witnesses1 in order that their testimony might be the more lasting4 ,but1 be that as it may1 they evidently were men of mark1 and some kind of honour and observance surrounded them1 as was very natural1 and as appears from the fact that ,paul here knows so accurately 7and can appeal to ,his fellow-,christians' accurate knowledge7 the proportion between the survivors and the departed4 ,we read of one of them in the ,acts of the ,apostles at a later date than this1 one ,mnason1 an 'original disciple4' ,so we get a glimpse into the conditions of life in the early ,church1 interesting and of value in an evidential point of view4 ,but my purpose at present is to draw your attention to the remarkable language in which the ,apostle here speaks of the living and the dead amongst these witnesses4 ,in neither case does he use the simple1 common words 'living' or 'dead'2 but in the one clause he speaks of their 'remaining1' and in the other of their 'falling asleep'2 both phrases being significant1 and1 as ,i take it1 both being traced up to the fact of their having seen the risen ,lord as the cause why their life could be described as a 'remaining1' and their death as a 'falling asleep4' ,in other words1 we have here brought before us1 by these two striking expressions1 the transforming effect upon life and upon death of the faith in a risen ,lord1 whether grounded on sight or not4 ,and it is simply to these two points that ,i desire to turn now4 ,i4 ,first1 then1 we have to consider what life may become to those who see the risen ,christ4 ',the greater part remain until this present4' ,now the word remain is no mere synonym for living or surviving4 ,it not only tells us the fact that the survivors were living1 but the kind of life that they did live4 ,it is very significant that it is the same expression as our ,lord used in the profound prophetic words1 ',if ,i will that he tarry till ,i come1 what is that to thee8' ,now we are told in ,john's ,gospel that 'that saying went abroad amongst the brethren1' and inasmuch as it was a matter of common notoriety in the early ,church1 it is by no means a violent supposition that it may be floating in ,paul's memory here1 and may determine his selection of this remarkable expression 'they remain1' or 'they tarry1' and they were tarrying till the ,master came4 ,so1 then1 ,i think if we give due weight to the significance of the phrase1 we get two or three thoughts worth pondering4 ,one of them is that the sight of a risen ,christ will make life calm and tranquil4 ,fancy one of these #ejj brethren1 after that vision1 going back to his quiet rural home in some little village amongst the hills of ,galilee4 ,how small and remote from ,him1 and unworthy to ruffle or disturb the heart in which the memory of that vision was burning1 would seem the things that otherwise would have been important and distracting6 ,the faith which we have in the risen ,christ ought to do the same thing for us1 and will do it in the measure in which there shines clearly before that inward eye1 which is our true means of apprehending ,him1 the vision which shone before the outward gaze of that company of wondering witnesses4 ,if we build our nests amidst the tossing branches of the world's trees1 they will sway with every wind1 and perhaps be blown from their hold altogether by such a storm as we all have sometimes to meet4 ,but we may build our nests in the clefts of the rock1 like the doves1 and be quiet1 as they are4 ,distractions will cease to distract1 and troubles will cease to agitate1 and across the heaving surface of the great ocean there will come a ,form beneath whose feet the waves smooth themselves1 and at whose voice the winds are still4 ,they who see ,christ need not be troubled4 ,the ship that is empty is tossed upon the ocean1 that which is well laden is steady4 ,the heart that has ,christ for a passenger need not fear being rocked by any storm4 ,calmness will come with the vision of the ,lord1 and we shall abide or 'remain1' for there will be no need for us to flee from this ,refuge to that1 nor shall we be driven from our secure abode by any contingencies4 ',he that believeth shall not make haste4' ,it is a good thing to cultivate the disposition that says about most of the trifles of this life1 ',it does not much matter'2 but the only way to prevent wholesome contempt of the world's trivialities from degenerating into supercilious indifference is1 to base it upon ,christ1 discerned as near us and bestowing upon us the calmness of ,his risen life4 ,make ,him your scale of importance1 and nothing will be too small to demand and be worthy of the best efforts of your work1 but nothing will be too great to sweep you away from the serenity of your faith4 ,again1 the vision of the risen ,christ will also lead to patient persistence in duty4 ,if we have ,him before us1 the distasteful duty which ,he sets us will not be distasteful1 and the small tasks1 in which great faithfulness may be manifested1 will cease to be small4 ,if we have ,him before us we have in that risen ,christ the great and lasting ,example of how patient continuance in well-doing triumphs over the sorrows that it bears1 by and in patiently bearing them1 and is crowned at last with glory and honour4 ,the risen ,christ is the ,pattern for the men who will not be turned aside from the path of duty by any obstacles1 dangers1 or threats4 ,the risen ,christ is the signal ,example of glory following upon faithfulness1 and of the crown being the result of the ,cross4 ,the risen ,christ is the manifest ,helper of them that put their trust in ,him2 and one of the plainest lessons and of the most imperative commands which come from the believing gaze upon that ,lord who died because ,he would do the will of the ,father1 and is throned and crowned in the heavens because ,he died1 is--,by patient continuance in well-doing let us commit the keeping of our souls to ,him3 and abide in the calling wherewith we are called4 ,and1 again1 the sight of the risen ,christ leads to a life of calm expectancy4 ',if ,i will that ,he tarry till ,i come' conveys that shade of meaning4 ,the ,apostle was to wait for the ,lord from ,heaven1 and that vision which was given to these #ejj men sent them home to their abodes to make all the rest of their lives one calm aspiration for1 and patient expectation of1 the return of the ,lord4 ,these primitive ,christians expected that ,jesus ,christ would come speedily4 ,that expectation was disappointed in so far as the date was concerned1 but after nineteen centuries it still remains true that all vigorous and vital ,christian life must have in it1 as a very important element of its vitality1 the onward look which ever is anticipating1 which often is desiring1 and which constantly is confident of1 the coming of the ,lord from ,heaven4 ,the ,resurrection has for its consequences1 its sequel and corollary1 first the ,ascension2 then the long tract of time during which ,jesus ,christ is absent1 but still in divine presence rules the world2 and1 finally1 ,his coming again in that same body in which the disciples saw ,him depart from them4 ,and no ,christian life is up to the level of its privileges1 nor has any ,christian faith grasped the whole articles of its creed1 except that which sets in the very centre of all its visions of the future that great thought--,he shall come again4 ,questions of chronology have nothing to do with that4 ,it stands there before us1 the certain fact1 made certain and inevitable by the past facts of the ,cross and the ,grave and ,olivet4 ,he has come1 ,he will come2 ,he has gone1 ,he will come back4 ,and for us the life that we live in the flesh ought to be a life of waiting for ,god's ,son from ,heaven1 and of patient1 confident expectancy that when ,he shall be manifested we also shall be manifested with ,him in glory4 ,so much1 then1 for life--calm1 persistent in every duty1 and animated by that blessed and far-off1 but certain1 hope1 and all of these founded upon the vision and the faith of a risen ,lord4 ,what have fears and cares and distractions and faint-heartedness and gloomy sorrow to do with the eyes that have beheld the ,christ1 and with the lives that are based on faith in the risen ,lord8 ,,ii4 ,so1 secondly1 consider what death becomes to those who have seen ,christ risen from the dead4 ',some are fallen asleep4' ,now that most natural and obvious metaphor for death is not only a ,christian idea1 but is found1 as would be expected1 in many tongues1 but yet with a great and significant difference4 ,the ,christian reason for calling death a sleep embraces a great deal more than the heathen reason for doing so1 and in some respects is precisely the opposite of that1 inasmuch as to most others who have used the word1 death has been a sleep that knew no waking1 whereas the very pith and centre of the ,christian reason for employing the symbol are that it makes our waking sure4 ,we have here what the act of dying and the condition of the dead become by virtue of faith in the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ4 ,they have 'fallen asleep4' ,the act of dying is but a laying one's self down to rest1 and a dropping out of consciousness of the surrounding world4 ,it is very remarkable and very beautiful that the new ,testament scarcely ever employs the words dying and death for the act of separating body and spirit1 or for the condition either of the spirit parted from the body1 or of the body parted from the spirit4 ,it keeps those grim words for the reality1 the separation of the soul from ,god2 and it only exceptionally uses them for the shadow and the symbol1 the physical fact of the parting of the man from the house which here he has dwelt in4 ,but the reason why ,christianity uses these periphrases or metaphors1 these euphemisms for death1 is the opposite of the reason why the world uses them4 ,the world is so afraid of dying that it durst not name the grim1 ugly thing4 ,the ,christian1 or at least the ,christian faith1 is so little afraid of death that it does not think such a trivial matter worth calling by the name1 but only names it 'falling asleep4' ,even when the circumstances of that dropping off to slumber are painful and violent1 the ,bible still employs the term4 ,is it not striking that the first martyr1 kneeling outside the city1 bruised by stones and dying a bloody death1 should have been said to fall asleep8 ,if ever there was an instance in which the gentle metaphor seemed all inappropriate it was that cruel death1 amidst a howling crowd1 and with fatal bruises1 and bleeding limbs mangled by the heavy rocks that lay upon them4 ,but yet1 'when he had said this he fell asleep4' ,if that be true of such a death1 no physical pains of any kind make the sweet word inappropriate for any4 ,we have here not only the designation of the act of dying1 but that of the condition of the dead4 ,they are fallen asleep1 and they continue asleep4 ,how many great thoughts gather round that metaphor on which it is needless for me to try to dilate6 ,they will suggest themselves without many words to you all4 ,there lies in it the idea of repose4 ',they rest from their labours4' ,sleep restores strength1 and withdraws a man at once from effort on the outer world1 and from communication from it4 ,we may carry the analogy into that unseen world4 ,we know nothing about the relations to an external universe of the departed who sleep in ,jesus4 ,it may be that1 if they sleep in ,him1 since ,he knows all1 they1 through ,him1 may know1 too1 something--so much as ,he pleases to impart to them--of what is happening here4 ,and it may even be that1 if they sleep in ,him1 and ,he wields the energies of ,omnipotence1 they1 through ,him1 may have some service to do1 even while they wait for their house which is from heaven4 ,but there is no need for1 nor profit in1 such speculations4 ,it is enough that the sweet emblem suggests repose1 and that in that sleep there are folded around the sleepers the arms of the ,christ on whose bosom they rest1 as an infant does on its first and happiest home--its mother's breast4 ,but then1 besides that1 the emblem suggests the idea of continuous and conscious existence4 ,a man asleep does not cease to be a man2 a dead man does not cease to live4 ,it has often been argued from this metaphor that we are to conceive of the space between death and the resurrection as being a period of unconsciousness1 but the analogies seem to me to be in the opposite direction4 ,a sleeping man does not cease to know himself to be1 and he does not cease to know himself to be himself4 ,that mysterious consciousness of personal identity survives the passage from waking to sleep1 as dreams sufficiently show us4 ,and1 therefore1 they that sleep know themselves to be4 ,and1 finally1 the emblem suggests the idea of waking4 ,sleep is a parenthesis4 ,if the night comes1 the morning comes4 ',if winter comes1 can spring be far behind8' ,they that sleep will awake1 and be satisfied when they 'awake with ,thy likeness4' ,and so these three things--repose1 conscious1 continuous existence1 and the certainty of awaking--all lie in that metaphor4 ,now1 then1 the risen ,christ is the only ground of such hope1 and faith in ,him is the only state of mind which is entitled to cherish it4 ,nothing proves immortality except that open grave4 ,every other foundation is too weak to bear the weight of such a superstructure4 ,the current of present opinion shows1 ,i think1 that neither metaphysical nor ethical arguments for the future life will stand the force of the disintegrating criticism which is brought to bear upon that hope by the fashionable materialism of this generation4 ,there is one barrier that will resist that force1 and only one1 and that is the historical facts that ,jesus ,christ died1 and that ,jesus ,christ has risen again4 ,he rose2 therefore death is not the end of individual existence4 ,he rose2 therefore life beyond the grave is possible for humanity4 ,he rose2 therefore ,his sacrifice for the world's sin is accepted1 and ,i may be delivered from my guilt and my burden4 ,he rose2 therefore ,he is declared to be the ,son of ,god with power4 ,he rose2 therefore we1 if we trust ,him1 may partake in ,his ,resurrection and in some reflection of ,his glory4 ,the old ,greek architects were often careless of the solidity of the soil on which they built their temples1 and so1 many of them have fallen in ruins4 ,the ,temple of ,immortality can be built only upon the rock of that proclamation--,jesus ,christ is risen from the dead4 ,and we1 dear brethren1 should have all our hopes founded upon that one fact4 ,so then1 for us1 the calm1 peaceful passage from life into what else is the great darkness is possible on condition of our having beheld the risen ,lord4 ,these witnesses of whom my text speaks1 ,paul would suggest to us1 laid themselves quietly down to sleep1 because before them there still hovered the memory of the vision which they had beheld4 ,faith in the risen ,christ is the anchor of the soul in death1 and there is nothing else by which we can hold then4 ,as the same ,apostle1 in one of his other letters1 puts it1 the belief that ,christ is risen is not only the irrefragable ground of our hope that we1 too1 shall rise1 but has the power to change the whole aspect of our death4 ,did you ever observe the emphasis with which ,he says1 ',if we believe that ,jesus died and rose again1 even so them also which sleep in ,jesus will ,god bring with ,him8' ,his death was death indeed1 and faith in it softens ours to sleep4 ,he bore the reality that we might never need to know it1 and if our poor hearts are resting upon that dear ,lord1 then the flames are but painted ones and will not burn1 and we shall pass through them1 and no smell of fire will be upon us1 and all that will be consumed will be the bonds which bind us4 ,he has abolished death4 ,the physical fact remains1 but all which to men makes the idea of death is gone if we trust the risen ,lord4 ,so that1 between two men dying under precisely the same circumstances1 of the same disease1 in adjacent beds in the same hospital1 there may be such a difference as that the same word cannot be applied to the experiences of both4 ,my dear friends1 we have each of us to pass through that last struggle2 but we may make it either a quiet going to sleep with a loved ,face bending over our closing eyes1 like a mother's over her child's cradle1 and the same ,face meeting us when we open them in the morning of heaven2 or we may make it a reluctant departure from all that we care for1 and a trembling advance into all from which conscience and heart shrink4 ,which is it going to be to you8 ,the answer depends upon that to another question4 ,are you looking to that ,christ that died and is alive for evermore as your life and your salvation8 ,do you hold fast that ,gospel which ,paul preached1 'how that ,christ died for our sins according to the ,scriptures1 and that ,he was buried1 and that ,he rose again the third day1 according to the ,scriptures'8 ,if you do1 life will be a calm1 persevering1 expectant waiting upon ,him1 and death will be nothing more terrible than falling asleep4 ,,paul',s ,,estimate ,,of ,,himself ',by the grace of ,god ,i am what ,i am3 and ,his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain4'--#a ,,cor4 xv4 #aj4 ,the ,apostle was1 all his life1 under the hateful necessity of vindicating his character and ,apostleship4 ,thus here1 though his main purpose in the context is simply to declare the ,gospel which he preached1 he is obliged to turn aside in order to assert1 and to back up his assertion1 that there was no sort of difference between him and the other recognised teachers of ,christian truth4 ,he was forced to do this by persistent endeavours in the ,corinthian ,church to deny his ,apostleship1 and the faithfulness of his representation of the ,christian verities4 ,the way in which he does it is eminently beautiful and remarkable4 ,he fires up in vindication of himself2 and then he checks himself4 ',by the grace of ,god ,i am'--and he is going to say what he is1 but he bethinks himself1 as if he had reflected2 ',no6 ,i will leave other people to say what that is4 ,by the grace of ,god ,i am--what ,i am1 whatever that be4 ,and all that ,i have to say is that ,god made me1 and that ,i helped ,him4 ,for the grace of ,god which was bestowed upon me was not in vain4 ,you ,corinthians may judge what the product is4 ,i tell you how it has come about4' ,so there are thoughts here1 ,i think1 well worth our pondering and taking into our hearts and lives4 ,i4 ,first1 as to the one power that makes men4 ',by the grace of ,god ,i am what ,i am4' ,now that word 'grace' has got to be worn threadbare1 and to mean next door to nothing1 in the ears and minds of a great many continual hearers of the ,gospel4 ,but ,paul had a very definite idea of what he meant by it2 and what he meant by it was a very large thing1 which we may well ponder for a moment as being the only thing which will transform and ennoble character and will produce fruit that a man need not be ashamed of4 ,the grace of ,god1 in ,paul's use of the words1 which is the scriptural use of them generally1 implies these two things which are connected as root and product--the active love of ,god1 in exercise towards us low and sinful creatures1 and the gifts with which that love comes full charged to men4 ,these two things1 which at bottom are one1 love and its gifts1 are all1 in the ,apostle's judgment1 gathered up and stored1 as in a great storehouse1 in ,jesus ,christ ,himself1 and through ,him are made accessible to us1 and brought to bear upon us for the ennobling of our natures1 and the investing of us with graces and beauties of character1 all strange to us apart from these4 ,now it seems to me that these two things1 which come from one root1 are the precise things which you and ,i need in order to make us nobler and purer and more ,godlike men than otherwise we could ever become4 ,for what is it that men need most for noble and pure living8 ,these two things precisely--motive and power to carry out the dictates of conscience4 ,every man in the world knows enough of duty and of right to be a far nobler man than any man in the world is4 ,and it is not for want of clear convictions of duty1 it is not for want of recognised models and patterns of life1 that men go wrong2 but it is because there are these two things lacking1 motives for nobler service1 and power to do and be what they know they ought to be4 ,and precisely here ,paul's gospel comes in1 ',by the grace of ,god ,i am what ,i am4' ,that grace1 considered in its two sides of love and of giving1 supplies all that we want4 ,it supplies motives4 ,there is nothing that will bend a man's will like the recognition of divine love which it is blessedness to come in contact with1 and to obey4 ,you may try to sway him by motives of advantage and self-interest1 and to thunder into his ears the pealing words of duty and right and 'ought1' and there is no adequate response4 ,you cannot soften a heart by the hammers of the law4 ,you cannot force a man to do right by brandishing before him the whip that punishes doing wrong4 ,you cannot sway the will by anything but the heart2 and when you can touch the deepest spring it moves the whole mass4 ,you have seen some ponderous piece of machinery1 which resists all attempts of a puny hand laid upon it to make it revolve4 ,but down in one corner is a little hidden spring4 ,touch that and with majestic slowness and certainty the mighty mass turns4 ,you know those rocking-stones down in the south of ,england2 tons of weight poised upon a pin point1 and so exquisitely balanced that a child's finger rightly applied may move the mass4 ,so the whole man is made mobile only by the touch of love2 and the grace that comes to us1 and says1 ',if ye love ,me1 keep ,my commandments'--is1 as ,i believe1 the sole motive which will continuously and adequately sway the rebellious1 self-centred wills of men1 to obedience resulting in nobility of life4 ,the other aspect of this same great word is1 in like manner1 that which we need4 ,what men want is1 first of all1 the will to be noble and good2 and1 second1 the power to carry out the will4 ,it is ,god that worketh in us both the willing and the doing4 ,i venture to affirm that there is no power known1 either to thinkers1 or philanthropists1 or doctrinaires1 or strivers after excellence in the world--no power known and available which will lift a life to such heights of beauty and self-sacrificing nobility1 as will the power that comes to us by communication of the grace that is in ,jesus ,christ4 ,i am perpetually trying to insist1 dear brethren1 upon this one thought1 that the communication of actual new life is the central gift of the ,gospel2 and this new life it is1 this nature endowed with new desires1 hopes1 aims1 capacities1 which alone will lift the whole man into unwonted heights of beauty and serenity4 ,it is the grace of ,god1 the gift of ,his ,divine ,spirit who will dwell with all of us1 if we will1 which alone can be trusted to make men good4 ,and now1 if that be true1 what follows8 ,surely this1 that for all you who have1 in any measure1 caught a glimpse of what you ought to be1 and have been more or less vainly trying to realise your ideal1 and reach your goal1 there is a better way than the way of self-centred and self-derived and self-dependent effort4 ,there is the way of opening your hearts and spirits to the entrance and access of that great power1 the grace of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 which will do in us and for us all that we know we ought to do1 and yet feel hampered and hindered in performing4 ,oh1 dear friends6 there are many of you1 ,i believe1 who have more or less spasmodically and interruptedly1 but with a continual recurrence to the effort1 sought to plant your feet firmly in the paths of righteousness1 and have more or less failed4 ,listen to this ,gospel1 and accept it1 and put it to the proof4 ,the love of ,god which is in ,christ ,jesus1 and the life which that love brings in its hands1 for all of us who will trust it1 will dwell in you if you will1 and mould you into ,his own likeness1 and the law of the spirit of life which was in ,christ ,jesus will make us free from the law of sin and death4 ,all noble living is a battle4 ,can you and ,i1 with our ten thousand1 meet him that cometh against us with his twenty1 the temptations of the world and of its ,prince8 ,send for the reinforcements1 and ,jesus ,christ will come and teach your hands to war and your fingers to fight4 ,all noble life is self-denial1 coercion1 restraint2 and can my poor1 feeble hands apply muscular force enough to the brake to keep the wheels clogged1 and prevent them from whirling me downhill into ruin8 ,let ,him come and put ,his great gentle hand on the top of yours1 and that will enable you to scotch the wheels1 and make self-denial possible4 ,all noble life is a building up by slow degrees from the foundation4 ,and can you and ,i complete the task with our own limited resources1 and our own feeble strengths8 ,will not 'all that pass by begin to mock' us and say1 ',this man began to build and was not able to finish'8 ,that is the epitaph written over all moralities and over all lives which1 catching some glimpse of the good and the true and the noble1 have tried1 apart from ,christ1 to reproduce them in themselves4 ,frightful gaps1 and an unfinished1 however fair structure end them all4 ,go to ,him4 ',his hand hath laid the foundation of the house1 ,his hand shall also finish it4' ,he who is ,himself the foundation-stone is also the headstone of the corner1 which is brought forth with shouting of ',grace6 ,grace unto it6' ,i need not1 ,i suppose1 linger to remind you what important and large lessons these thoughts carry1 not only for men who are trying to work at the task of mending and making their own characters1 but on the larger scale1 for all who seek to benefit and elevate their fellows4 ,brethren1 it is not for me to depreciate any workers who1 in any department1 and by any methods1 seek1 and partially effect1 the elevation of humanity4 ,but ,i should be untrue to my own deepest convictions1 and unfaithful to the message which ,god's providence has given it to me as my life's task to proclaim1 if ,i did not declare that nothing will truly re-form humanity1 society1 the nation1 the city1 except that which re-creates the individual3 'the grace of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ' entering into their midst4 ,,ii4 ,and so1 secondly1 and very briefly1 notice the lesson we get here as to how we should think of our own attainments4 ,i have already pointed out that there are two beautiful touches in my text4 ,the ,apostle traces everything that he is1 in his character and in his ,christian standing and in his ,apostolic work and success1 to that grace that has come down upon him1 and clothed his nakedness with so glorious a garment4 ,and then1 in addition to that1 he modestly1 and with a fine sense of dignity1 refrains from parading his attainments or his achievements1 and says1 ',it is not for me to estimate what ,i am2 it is for you to do it4' ,true1 indeed1 in the next verse he does set forth1 in very lofty language1 his claims to be in nothing behind the very chiefest of the ,apostles1 and 'to have laboured more abundantly than they all4' ,but still the spirit of that humble and yet dignified silence runs through the whole context4 ',by the grace of ,god ,i am--what ,i am4' ,well1 then1 it is not necessary for a man to be ignorant1 or to pretend that he is ignorant1 of what he can do4 ,we hear a great deal about the unconsciousness of genius4 ,there is a partial truth in it2 and possibly the highest examples of power and success1 in any department of mental or intellectual effort1 are unaware of their achievements and stature4 ,but if a man can do a certain kind of service there is no harm whatever in his recognising the fact that he can do it4 ,the only harm is in his thinking that because he can1 he is a very fine fellow1 and that the work itself is a great work2 and so setting himself up above his brethren4 ,there is a vast deal of hypocrisy in what is called unconsciousness of power4 ,most men who have been chosen and empowered to do a great work for ,god or for men1 in any department1 have been aware that they could do it4 ,but the less we think about ourselves1 in any way1 the better4 ,the more entire our recognition of the influx of grace on which we depend for keeping our reservoir full1 the less likelihood there will be of touchy self-assertion1 the less likelihood of the misuse of the powers that we have4 ,if we are to do much for ,god1 if we are to keep what we have already attained1 if we are to make our own lives sweet and beautiful1 if we are to be invested with any increase of capacity1 or led to any higher heights of nobleness and ,christlikeness1 we must copy1 and make a conscious effort to copy1 these two things1 which marked the ,apostle's estimate of himself--a distinct recognition that we are only reservoirs and nothing more--',what hast thou that thou hast not received8 ,why then dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it8'--and a humble waiving aside of the attempt to determine what it is that we are4 ,for however clearly a man may know his own powers and achievements1 it is hard for him to estimate the relations of these to his whole character4 ,so1 dear brethren1 although it is a very homely piece of advice1 and may seem to be beneath the so-called dignity of the pulpit1 let me venture just to remind you that self-conceit is no disease peculiar to the ten-talented people1 but is quite as rife1 if not a good deal rifer1 among those with one talent4 ,they are very humble when it comes to work1 and are quite contented to wrap the one talent up in a napkin then2 but when it comes to self-assertion1 or what they expect to receive of recognition from others1 they need to be reminded quite as much as their betters in endowment--',by the grace of ,god ,i am what ,i am4' ,,iii4 ,and so1 lastly1 one word about the responsibility for our co-operation with the grace1 in order to the accomplishment of its results4 ',the grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain1' says ,paul4 ',not ,i1 but the grace of ,god which was with me1 and so ,i laboured more abundantly than they all4' ,that is to say1 ,god in ,his giving love2 ,christ with ,his ever out-flowing ,spirit1 move round our hearts1 and desire to enter4 ,but the grace1 the love1 the gifts of the love may all be put away by our unfaithfulness1 by our non-receptivity1 by our misuse1 and by our negligence4 ,paul yielded himself to the grace that was brought to work upon him4 ,have you yielded yourselves8 ,paul said1 ',by the grace of ,god ,i am what ,i am4' ,he could not have said that1 could he1 if he had known that the most part of what he was was dead against ,god's will and purpose8 ,has ,god anything to do with making you what you are1 or has it been the devil that has had the greater share in it8 ,this man1 because he knew that he had submitted himself to the often painful1 searching1 crucifying1 self-restraining and stimulating influences of the ,gospel and ,spirit of ,christ1 could say1 ',god's grace has made me what ,i am1 and ,i helped ,him to make me4' ,and can you say anything like that8 ,take your life4 ,in how many of its deeds has there been present the consciousness of ,god and ,his love8 ,take your character4 ,how much of it has been shot through and through1 so to speak1 by the fiery darts of that cleansing1 warming1 consuming grace of ,god8 ,are you daily being baptized in that ,spirit1 searched by that ,spirit1 condemned by that grace8 ,is it the grace of ,god1 or nature and self and the world and the flesh that have made you what you are8 ,oh1 brethren ,i let us cultivate the sense of our need of this divine help1 for it does not come where men do not know how weak they are1 and how much they want it4 ,the mountain tops are high1--yes6 and they are dry2 there is no water there4 ,the rivers run in the green valleys deep down4 ',god resisteth the proud1 and giveth grace to the humble4' ,let us see that we open our hearts to the reception of these quickening and cleansing influences1 for it is possible for us to cover ourselves over with such an impenetrable covering that that grace cannot pass through it4 ,let us see to it that we keep ourselves in close contact with the foundation of all this grace1 even ,jesus ,christ ,himself1 by desire1 by faith1 by love1 by communion1 by meditation1 by approximation1 by sympathy1 by service4 ,and let us see that we use the grace that we possess4 ',for to him that hath shall be given1 and from him that hath not'--not possessing in any real sense because not utilising for its appointed purpose--'shall be taken away even that he hath4' ,wherefore1 brethren1 ,i 'beseech you that ye receive not the grace of ,god in vain4' ,,the ,,unity ,,of ,,apostolic ,,teaching ',whether it were ,i or they1 so we preach1 and so ye believed4'--#a ,,cor4 xv4 #aa4 ,party spirit and faction were the curses of ,greek civic life1 and they had crept into at least one of the ,greek churches--that in the luxurious and powerful city of ,corinth4 ,we know that there was a very considerable body of antagonists to ,paul1 who ranked themselves under the banner of ,apollos or of ,cephas i4e4 ,peter4 ,therefore1 ,paul1 keenly conscious that he was speaking to some unfriendly critics1 hastens in the context to remove the possible objection which might be made1 that the ,gospel which he preached was peculiar to himself1 and proceeds to assert that the whole substance of what he had to say to men1 was held with unbroken unanimity by the other apostles4 ',they' means all of them2 and 'so' means the summary of the ,gospel teaching in the preceding verses4 ,now1 ,paul would not have ventured to make that assertion1 in the face of men whom he knew to be eager to pick holes in anything that he said1 unless he had been perfectly sure of his ground4 ,there were broad differences between him and the others4 ,but their partisans might squabble1 as is often the case1 and the men1 whose partisans they were1 be unanimous4 ,there were differences of individual character1 of temper1 and of views about certain points of ,christian truth4 ,but there was an unbroken front of unanimity in regard to all that lies within the compass of that little word which covers so much ground--',so we preach4' ,now1 ,i wish to turn to that outstanding fact--which does not always attract the attention which it deserves--of the absolute identity of the message which all the apostles and primitive teachers delivered1 and to seek to enforce some of the considerations and lessons which seem to me naturally to flow from it4 ,i4 ,first1 then1 ,i ask you to think of the fact itself--the unbroken unanimity of the whole body of ,apostolic teachers4 ,as ,i have said1 there were wide differences of characteristics between them1 but there was a broad tract of teaching wherein they all agreed4 ,let me briefly gather up the points of unanimity1 the contents of the one ,gospel1 which every man of them felt was his message to the world4 ,i may take it all from the two clauses in the preceding context1 'how that ,christ died for our sins according to the ,scriptures1 and that ,he was buried1 and that ,he rose again the third day according to the ,scriptures4' ,these are the things about which1 as ,paul declares1 there was not the whisper of a dissentient voice4 ,there is the vital centre which he declares every ,christian teacher grasped as being the essential of his message1 and in various tones and manners1 but in substantial identity of content1 declared to the world4 ,now1 what lies in it8 ,the ,person spoken of--the ,christ1 and all that that word involves of reference to the ancient and incomplete ,revelation in the past1 its shadows and types1 its prophecies and ceremonies1 its priesthood and its sacrifices2 with all that it involves of reference to the ancient hopes on which a thousand generations had lived1 and which either are baseless delusions1 or are realised in ,jesus--the ,person whom all the ,apostles proclaimed was ,one anointed from ,god as ,prophet1 ,priest1 and ,king2 who had come into the world to fulfil all that the ancient system had shadowed by sacrifice1 temple1 and priest1 and was the ,monarch of ,israel and of the world4 ,and not only were they absolutely unanimous in regard to the ,person1 but they were unbrokenly consentient in regard to the facts of ,his life1 ,his death1 and ,his ,resurrection4 ,but the proclamation of the external fact is no gospel4 ,you must add the clause 'for our sins1' and then the record1 which is a mere piece of history1 with no more good news in it than the record of the death of any other martyr1 hero1 or saint1 starts into being truly the good news for the world4 ,the least part of a historical fact is the fact2 the greatest part of it is the explanation of the fact1 and the setting it in its place in regard to other facts1 the exhibition of the principles which it expresses1 and of the conclusions to which it leads4 ,so the bare historical declaration of a death and a resurrection is transmuted into a gospel1 by that which is the most important part of the ,gospel1 the explanation of the meaning of the fact--',he died for our sins4' ,if redemption from sin through the death of a ,person is the fundamental conception of the ,gospel for the world1 then it is clear that1 for such a purpose1 a divine nature in the ,person is wanted4 ,your notion of what ,christ came to do will determine your notion of who ,he is4 ,if you only recognise that ,his work is to teach1 or to show in exercise a fair human character1 then you may rest content with the lower notion of ,his nature which sees in ,him but the foremost of the sons of men4 ,but if we grasp 'died for our sins1' then for such a task the incarnation of the ,eternal ,son of ,god is the absolute pre-requisite4 ,still further1 our text brings out the contents of this gospel as being the declaration of the ,resurrection4 ,on that ,i need not here and now dwell at any length4 ,but these are the points1 the ,person1 the two facts1 death and resurrection1 and the great meaning of the death--viz4 the expiation for the world's sins3 these are the things on which the whole of the primitive teachers of the ,apostolic ,church had one voice and one message4 ,now1 ,i do not suppose that ,i need spend any time in showing to you how the extant records bear out1 absolutely1 this contention of the ,apostle's4 ,i need only remind you how the opposition that was waged against him--and it was a very vigorous and a very bitter opposition--from a section of the ,church1 had no bearing at all upon the question of what he taught1 but only upon the question of to whom it was to be taught4 ,the only objection that the so-called ,judaising party in the early ,church had against ,paul and his preaching1 was not the ,gospel that he declared1 but his assertion that the ,gentile nations might enter into the ,church through faith in ,jesus ,christ1 without passing through the gate of circumcision4 ,depend upon it1 if there had been any1 even the most microscopic1 divergence on his part from the general1 broad stream of ,christian teaching1 the sleepless1 keen-eyed1 unscrupulous enemies that dogged him all his days would have pounced upon it eagerly1 and would never have ceased talking about it4 ,but not one of them ever said a word of the sort1 but allowed his teaching to pass1 because it was the teaching of every one of the apostles4 ,if ,i had time1 or if it were necessary1 it would be easy to point you to the records that we have left of the ,apostolic teaching1 in order to confirm this unbroken unanimity4 ,i do not need to spend time on that4 ,proof-texts are not worth so much as the fact that these doctrines are interwoven into the whole structure of the ,new ,testament as a whole--just as they are into ,paul's letters4 ,but ,i may gather one or two sayings1 in which the substance of each writer's teaching has been concentrated by himself4 ,for instance1 ,peter speaks about being 'redeemed by the precious blood of ,christ as of a ,lamb without blemish and without spot1' and declares that ',he ,himself bare our sins in ,his own body on the tree4' ,john comes in with his doxology3 ',unto ,him that loved us1 and loosed us from our sins in ,his own blood'2 and it is his pen that records how in the heavens there echoed 'glory and honour and thanks and blessing1 for ever and ever1 to the ,lamb that was slain1 and has redeemed us unto ,god by ,his blood4' ,the writer of the ,epistle to the ,hebrews1 steeped as he is in ceremonial and sacrificial ideas1 and having for his one purpose to work out the thought that ,jesus ,christ is all that the ancient ritual1 sacerdotal and sacrificial system shadows and foretells1 sums up his teaching in the statement that ,christ having come1 a high priest of good things to come1 'through ,his own blood1 entered in1 once for all1 into the holy place1 having obtained eternal redemption for us4' ,there were limits to the unanimity1 as ,i have already said4 ,paul and ,peter had a great quarrel about circumcision and related subjects4 ,the ,apostolic writings are wondrously diverse from one another4 ,peter is far less constructive and profound than ,paul4 ,paul and ,peter are both untouched with the mystic wisdom of the ,apostle ,john4 ,but1 in regard to the facts that ,i have signalised1 the divinity1 the person of ,jesus ,christ1 ,his death and ,resurrection1 and the significance to be attached to that death1 they are absolutely one4 ,the instruments in the orchestra are various1 the tender flute1 the ringing trumpet1 and many another1 but the note they strike is the same4 ',whether it were ,i or they1 so we preach4' ,,ii4 ,now1 let me ask you to consider the only explanation of this unanimity4 ,time was when the people1 who did not believe in ,christ's divinity and sacrificial death1 tortured themselves to try and make out meanings for these epistles1 which should not include the obnoxious doctrines4 ,that is nearly antiquated4 ,i suppose that there is nobody now1 or next to nobody1 who does not admit that1 right or wrong1 ,paul1 ,peter1 ,john--all of them--teach these two things1 that ,christ is the ,eternal ,son of the ,father1 and that ,his death is the ,sacrifice for the world's sin4 ,but they say that that is not the primitive1 simple teaching of the ,man of ,nazareth2 and that the unanimity is a unanimity of misapprehension of1 and addition to1 ,his words and to the drift of ,his teaching4 ,now1 just think what a huge--,i was going to say--inconceivability that supposition is4 ,for there is no point1 say from the time at which the ,apostle who wrote the words of my text1 which was somewhere about the year #ef or #eg ,a4,d41--there is no point between that period1 working backwards through the history of the ,church to the ,crucifixion1 where you can insert such a tremendous revolution of teaching as this4 ,there is no trace of such a change4 ,peter's earliest speeches1 as recorded in ,acts1 are in some important respects less developed doctrinally than are the epistles1 but ,christ's ,messiahship1 death1 and ,resurrection1 with which is connected the remission of sins1 are as clearly and emphatically proclaimed as at any later time4 ,so these points of the ,apostolic testimony were preached from the first1 and1 if in preaching them1 the witnesses perverted the simple teaching of the ,carpenter of ,nazareth1 and ascribed to ,him a character which ,he had not claimed1 and to ,his death a power of which ,he had not dreamed1 they did so at the very time when the impressions of ,his personality and teaching were most recent and strong4 ,it seems to me1 apart altogether from other considerations1 that such a right-about-face movement on the part of the early teachers of ,christianity1 is an absolute impossibility1 regard being had to the facts of the case1 even if you make much allowance for possible errors in the record4 ,but ,i would make another remark4 ,if misapprehension came in1 if these men1 in their unanimous declaration of ,christ's death as the ,sacrifice for sin1 were not fairly representing the conclusions inevitable from the facts of ,christ's life and death1 and from ,his own words1 is it not an odd thing that the same misapprehension affected them all8 ,when people misconceive a teacher's doctrine1 they generally differ in the nature of their misconceptions1 and split into sections and parties4 ,but here you have to account for the fact that every man of them1 with all their diversity of idiosyncrasy and character1 tumbled into the same pit of error1 and that there was not one of them left sane enough to protest4 ,does that seem to be a likely thing8 ,and what about the worth of the teacher's teaching1 that did not guard its receivers from such absolute misapprehension as that8 ,if the whole ,church unanimously mistook everything that ,jesus ,christ had said to them1 and unwarrantably made out of ,him what they did1 on this hypothesis1 ,i do not think that there is much left to honour or admire in a teacher1 whose teaching was so ambiguous1 as that it led all that received it into such an error as that into which1 by the supposition1 they fell4 ,no1 brethren2 they were one1 because their ,gospel was the only possible statement of the principles that underlay1 and the conclusions that flowed from1 the plain facts of the life and the teaching of ,jesus ,christ4 ,i am not going to spend time in quoting ,his own words4 ,i can only refer to one or two of them very succinctly4 ',destroy this ,temple1 and in three days ,i will raise it up4' ',as ,moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness1 even so must the ,son of ,man be lifted up4' ',my flesh is the bread which ,i will give for the life of the world4' ',the ,son of ,man came not to be ministered unto1 but to minister1 and to give ,his life a ransom for many4' ',this is ,my body broken for you2 take1 eat1 in remembrance of ,me4' ',this is ,my blood1 shed for many for the remission of sins2 this do ye1 as often as ye drink it1 in remembrance of ,me4' ,what possible explanation1 doing justice to these words1 is there1 except ',jesus ,christ died for our sins according to the ,scriptures'8 ,and how could men who had heard them with their own ears1 and with their own eyes had seen ,him risen from the dead and ascending into heaven1 do otherwise than eagerly1 enthusiastically1 at the cost of all1 and with unhesitating voice of unbroken unanimity1 'so preach'8 ,i quite admit that in ,christ's teaching in the gospels you will not find the articulate drawing out into doctrinal statement of the principles that underlay1 and the conclusions that flow from1 the historical fact of ,christ's propitiatory death4 ,i do not wonder at that1 nor do ,i admit that it is any argument against the truth of the divine revelation which is made in these doctrinal statements1 to allege that we find nothing corresponding to them in ,jesus ,christ's own words4 ,the silence is not as absolute as is alleged1 as the quotations which ,i have made1 and which might have been multiplied1 do distinctly enough show4 ,even if it were more absolute than it is1 the silence is by no means unintelligible4 ,christ had to offer the ,sacrifice before the ,sacrifice could be preached4 ,he ,himself warned ,his disciples against accepting ,his own words prior to the ,cross1 as the conclusive and ultimate revelation4 ',i have many things to say unto you1 but you cannot carry them now4' ,there was need that the ,cross should be a fact before it was evolved into a doctrine4 ,and so ,i venture to say that the unanimity of the preaching is only explicable on the ground of that preaching in both its parts--its assertion of ,jesus' ,messiahship and of ,his propitiatory death--being the repetition on the housetop of the lessons which they had heard in the ear from ,him4 ,,iii4 ,note1 briefly1 the lesson from this unanimity4 ,let us distinctly apprehend where is the living heart of the ,gospel--that it is the message of redemption by the incarnation and sacrifice of the ,son of ,god4 ,there follows from that incarnation and sacrifice all the great teaching about the work of the ,divine ,spirit in men1 dwelling in them for evermore4 ,but the beginning of all is1 ',christ died for our sins according to the ,scriptures4' ,and1 brethren1 that message meets1 as nothing else meets1 the deepest needs of every human soul4 ,it is able1 as nothing else is able1 to open out into a whole encyclopdia and universe of wisdom and truth and power4 ,if we strike it out of our conception of ,christianity1 or if we obscure it as being the very palpitating centre of the whole1 then feebleness will creep over the ,christianity that is minus a ,cross1 or does not see in it the ,sacrifice for the world's sin4 ,you may cast overboard the sails to lighten the ship4 ,if you do1 she lies a log on the waters4 ,and if1 for the sake of meeting new phases of thought1 ,christian churches tamper with this central truth1 they have flung away their means of progress and of power4 ,let me say again1 and in a word only1 that the considerations that ,i have been trying to submit to you in this sermon1 show us the limits within which the modern cry of ',back to the ,christ of the ,gospels1' is right1 and where it may be wrong4 ,i believe that in former days1 and to some extent in the present day1 we evangelical teachers have too much sometimes talked rather about the doctrines than about the ,person who is the doctrines4 ,and if the cry of ',back to the ,christ' means1 ',do not talk so much about the ,atonement and ,propitiation2 talk about the ,christ who atones1' then1 with all my heart1 ,i say1 ',amen6' ,but put the ,person in the foreground1 the living-loving1 the dying-loving1 the risen-loving ,christ1 put ,him in the foreground4 ,but if it is implied1 as ,i am afraid it is often implied1 that the ,christ of the ,gospels is one and the ,christ of the epistles is another1 and that to go back to the ,christ of the gospels means to drop 'died for our sins according to the ,scriptures1' and to retain only the non-miraculous1 moral and religious teachings that are recorded in the three first gospels1 then ,i say that it is fatal for the ,church1 and it is false to the facts1 for the ,christ of the epistles is the ,christ of the gospels3 the difference only being that in the one you have the facts1 and in the other you have their meaning and their power4 ,so1 lastly1 let this text teach us what we ourselves have to do with this unanimous testimony4 ',so we preach1 and so ye believed4' ,brother6 ,do you believe so8 ,that is to say1 is your conception of the ,gospel the mighty redemptive agency which is wrought by the ,incarnate ,son of ,god1 who was crucified for our offences1 and rose that we might live1 and is glorified that we1 too1 may share ,his glory8 ,is that your ,gospel8 ,but do not be content with an intellectual grasp of the thing4 ',so ye believed' means a great deal more than ',i believe that ,christ died for our sins4' ,it means ',i believe in the ,christ who did die for my sins4' ,you must cast yourself as a sinful man on ,him2 and1 so casting1 you will find that it is no vain story which is commended to us by all these august voices from the past1 but you will have in your own experience the verification of the fact that ,he died for our sins1 in your own consciousness of sins forgiven1 and new love bestowed2 and so may turn round to ,paul1 the leader of the chorus1 and to all the apostolic band1 and say to them1 ',now ,i believe1 not because of thy saying1 but because ,i have seen ,him1 and myself heard ,him4' ,,the ,,certainty ,,and ,,joy ,,of ,,the ,,resurrection ',but now is ,christ risen from the dead 444 the first fruits of them that slept4'--#a ,,cor4 xv4 #bj4 ,the ,apostle has been contemplating the long train of dismal consequences which he sees would arise if we only had a dead ,christ4 ,he thinks that he1 the ,apostle1 would have nothing to preach1 and we1 nothing to believe4 ,he thinks that all hope of deliverance from sin would fade away4 ,he thinks that the one fact which gives assurance of immortality having vanished1 the dead who had nurtured the assurance have perished4 ,and he thinks that if things were so1 then ,christian men1 who had believed a false gospel1 and nourished an empty faith1 and died clinging to a baseless hope1 were far more to be pitied than men who had had less splendid dreams and less utter illusions4 ,then1 with a swift revulsion of feeling1 he turns away from that dreary picture1 and with a change of key1 which the dullest ear can appreciate1 from the wailing minors of the preceding verses1 he breaks into this burst of triumph4 ',now'--things being as they are1 for it is the logical 'now1' and not the temporal one--things being as they are1 ',christ is risen from the dead1 and that as the first fruits of them that slept4' ,part of the ceremonial of the ,passover was the presentation in the ,temple of a barley sheaf1 the first of the harvest1 waved before the ,lord in dedication to ,him1 and in sign of thankful confidence that all the fields would be reaped and their blessing gathered4 ,there may be some allusion to that ceremony1 which coincided in time with the ,resurrection of our ,lord1 in the words here1 which regard that one solitary ,resurrection as the early ripe and early reaped sheaf1 the pledge and the prophecy of the whole ingathering4 ,now there seem to me1 in these words1 to ring out mainly two things--an expression of absolute certainty in the fact1 and an expression of unbounded triumph in the certainty of the fact4 ,and if we look at these two things1 ,i think we shall get the main thoughts that the ,apostle would impress upon our minds4 ,i4 ,the certainty of ,christ's ,resurrection4 ',now is ,christ risen1' says he1 defying1 as it were1 doubt and negation1 and basing himself upon the firm assurance which he possesses of that historical fact4 ',ah6' you say1 'seeing is believing2 and he had evidence such as we can never have4' ,well6 let us see4 ,is it possible for us1 nineteen centuries nearly after that day1 to catch some echo of this assured confidence1 and in the face of modern doubts and disbeliefs1 to reiterate with as unfaltering assurance as that with which they came from his glowing lips1 the great words of my text8 ,can we1 logically and reasonably1 as men who are guided by evidence and not by feeling1 stand up before the world1 and take for ours the ancient confession3 ',i believe in ,jesus ,christ1 ,his only ,son1 our ,lord1 who suffered under ,pontius ,pilate1 was crucified1 dead1 and buried4 ,the third day ,he rose again from the dead'8 ,i think we can4 ,the way to prove a fact is by the evidence of witnesses4 ,you cannot argue that it would be very convenient1 if such and such a thing should be true2 that great moral effects would follow if we believed it was true1 and so on4 ,the way to do is to put people who have seen it into the witness-box1 and to make sure that their evidence is worth accepting4 ,and at the beginning of my remarks ,i wish to protest1 in a sentence1 against confusing the issues about this question of the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ in that fashion which is popular nowadays1 when we are told that miracle is impossible1 and therefore there has been no ,resurrection1 or that death is the end of human existence1 and that therefore there has been no ,resurrection4 ,that is not the way to go about ascertaining the truth as to asserted facts4 ,let us hear the evidence4 ,the men who brush aside the testimony of the ,new ,testament writers1 in obedience to a theory1 either about the impossibility of the supernatural1 or about the fatal and final issues of human death1 are victims of prejudice1 in the strictest meaning of the word2 and are no more logical than the well-known and proverbial reasoner who1 when told that facts were against him1 with sublime confidence in his own infallibility1 is reported to have said1 ',so much the worse for the facts4' ,let us deal with evidence1 and not with theory1 when we are talking about alleged facts of history4 ,so then1 let me remind you that1 in this chapter from which my text is taken1 we have a record of the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ1 older than1 and altogether independent of1 the records contained in the gospels1 which are all subsequent in date to it2 that this ,epistle to the ,corinthians is one of the four undisputed ,epistles of the ,apostle1 which not the most advanced school of modern criticism has a word to say against2 that1 therefore1 this chapter1 written1 at the latest1 some seven and twenty years after the date of the ,crucifixion1 carries us up very close to that event2 that it shows that the ,resurrection was universally believed all over the ,church1 and therefore must have then been long believed2 that it enables us to trace the same belief as universal1 and in undisputed possession of the field among the churches1 at the time of ,paul's conversion1 which cannot be put down at much more than five or six years after the ,crucifixion1 and that so we are standing in the presence of absolutely contemporaneous testimony4 ,this is not a case in which a belief slowly and gradually grew up4 ,whether we accept the evidence or not1 we are bound to admit that it is strictly contemporaneous testimony to the fact of ,christ's ,resurrection4 ,and the witnesses are reliable and competent1 as well as contemporaneous4 ,the old belief that their testimony was imposture is dead long ago2 as1 indeed1 how could it live8 ,it would be an anomaly1 far greater than the ,resurrection1 to believe that these people1 ,mary1 ,peter1 ,john1 ,paul1 and all the rest of them1 were conspirators in a lie1 and that the fairest system of morality and the noblest consecration that the world has ever seen1 grew up out of a fraud1 like flowers upon a dunghill4 ,that theory will not hold water2 and even those who will not accept the testimony have long since confessed that it will not4 ,but the ,apostle1 in my context1 seems to think that that is the only tenable alternative to the other theory that the witnesses were veracious1 and ,i am disposed to believe that he is right4 ,he says1 ',if ,christ be not risen1 then1 are we' the utterly impossible thing of 'false witnesses to ,god1' devout perjurers1 as the phrase might be paraphrased3 men who are lying to please ,god4 ,if ,christ be not risen1 they have sworn to a thing that they know to be untrue1 in order to advance ,his cause and ,his kingdom4 ,if that theory be not accepted1 there is no other about these men and their message that will hold water for a minute1 except the admission of its truth4 ,the fashionable modern one1 that it was hallucination1 is preposterous4 ,hallucinations that five hundred people at once shared6 ,hallucinations that lasted all through long talks1 spread at intervals over more than a month6 ,hallucinations that included eating and drinking1 speech and answer2 the clasp of the hand and the feeling of the breath6 ,hallucinations that brought instruction6 ,hallucinations that culminated in the fancy that a gathered multitude of them saw ,him going up into heaven6 ,the hallucination is on the other side1 ,i think4 ,they have got the saddle on the wrong horse when they talk about the ,apostolic witnesses being the victims of hallucination4 ,it is the people who believe it possible that they should be who are so4 ,the old argument against miracles used to say that it is more consonant with experience that testimony should be false1 than that a miracle should be true4 ,i venture to say it is a much greater strain on a man's credulity1 to believe that such evidence is false than that such a miracle1 so attested1 is true4 ,and ,i1 for my part1 venture to think that the reasonable men are the men who listen to these eye-witnesses when they say1 ',we saw ,him rise'2 and echo back in answer the triumphant certitude1 ',christ is risen indeed6' ,there is another consideration that ,i might put briefly4 ,a very valuable way of establishing facts is to point to the existence of other facts1 which indispensably require the previous ones for their explanation4 ,let me give you an illustration of what ,i mean4 ,i believe in the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ1 amongst other reasons1 because ,i do not understand how it was possible for the ,church to exist for a week after the ,crucifixion1 unless ,jesus ,christ rose again4 ,why was it that they did not all scatter8 ,why was it that the spirit of despondency and the tendency to separation1 which were beginning to creep over them when they were saying3 ',ah6 it is all up6 ,we trusted that this had been ,he1' did not go on to their natural issue8 ,how came it that these people1 with their ,master taken away from the midst of them1 and the bond of union between them removed1 and all their hopes crushed did not say3 ',we have made a mistake1 let us go back to ,gennesareth and take to our fishing again1 and try and forget our bright illusions'8 ,that is what ,john the ,baptist's followers did when he died4 ,why did not ,christ's do the same8 ,because ,christ rose again and re-knit them together4 ,when the ,shepherd was smitten1 the flock would have been scattered1 and never drawn together any more1 unless there had been just such a thing as the ,resurrection asserts there was1 to reunite the dispersed and to encourage the depressed4 ,and so ,i say1 ,christianity with a dead ,christ1 and a ,church gathered round a grave from which the stone has not been rolled away1 is more unbelievable than the miracle1 for it is an absurdity4 ,then there is another thing that ,i would say in a word4 ,let me put an illustration to explain what ,i mean4 ,suppose1 after the execution of ,king ,charles ,i41 in some corner of the country a ,pretender had sprung up and said1 ',i am the ,king6' the way to end that would have been for the ,puritan leaders to have taken people to ,st4 ,george's ,chapel1 and said1 ',look6 there is the coffin1 there is the body1 is that the king1 or is it not8' ,jesus ,christ was said to have risen again1 within a week of the time of ,his death4 ,the rulers of the nation had the grave1 the watch1 the stone1 the seal4 ,they could have put an end to the pestilent nonsense in two minutes1 if it had been nonsense1 by the simple process of saying1 ',go and look at the tomb1 and you will see ,him there4' ,but this question has never been answered1 and never will be--,what became of that sacred corpse if ,jesus ,christ did not rise again from the dead8 ,the clumsy lie that the rulers told1 that the disciples had stolen away the body1 was only their acknowledgment that the grave was empty4 ,if the grave were empty1 either ,his servants were impostors1 which we have seen it is incredible that they were1 or the ,christ was risen again4 ,and so1 dear brethren1 for many other reasons besides this handful that ,i have ventured to gather and put before you1 and in spite of the prejudices of modern theories1 ,i lift up here once more1 with unfaltering certitude1 the glad message which ,i beseech you to accept3 ',christ is risen1 the first fruits of them that slept4' ,,ii4 ,so much1 then1 for the first point in this passage4 ,a word or two about the second--the triumph in the certitude of that ,resurrection4 ,as ,i remarked at a previous point of this discourse1 the ,apostle has been speaking about the consequences which would follow from the fact that ,christ was not raised4 ,if we take all these consequences and reverse them1 we get the glad issues of ,his ,resurrection1 and understand why it was that this great burst of triumph comes from the ,apostle's lips4 ,and though ,i must necessarily treat this part of my subject very inadequately1 let me try to gather together the various points on which1 as ,i think1 our ,easter gladness ought to be built4 ,first1 then1 ,i say1 the risen ,christ gives us a complete ,gospel4 ,a dead ,christ annihilates the ,gospel4 ',if ,christ be not risen1' says the ,apostle1 'our preaching1' by which he means not the act but the substance of his preaching1 'is vain4' ,or1 as the word might be more accurately rendered1 'empty4' ,there is nothing in it2 no contents4 ,it is a blown bladder2 nothing in it but wind4 ,what was ,paul's 'preaching'8 ,it all turned upon these points--that ,jesus ,christ was the ,son of ,god2 that ,he was ,incarnate in the flesh for us men2 that ,he died on the ,cross for our offences2 that ,he was raised again1 and had ascended into ,heaven1 ruling the world and breathing ,his presence into believing hearts2 and that ,he would come again to be our ,judge4 ,these were the elements of what ,paul called 'his ,gospel4' ,he faces the supposition of a dead ,christ1 and he says1 ',it is all gone6 ,it is all vanished into thin air4 ,i have nothing to preach if ,i have not a ,cross to preach which is man's deliverance from sin1 because on it the ,son of ,god hath died1 and ,i only know that ,jesus ,christ's sacrifice is accepted and sufficient1 because ,i have it attested to me in ,his rising again from the dead4' ,dear brethren1 on the fact of the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ is suspended everything which makes the ,gospel a gospel4 ,strike that out1 and what have you left8 ,some beautiful bits of moral teaching1 a lovely life1 marred by tremendous mistakes about ,himself and ,his own importance and ,his relation to men and to ,god2 but you have got nothing left that is worth calling a gospel4 ,you have the cross rising there1 gaunt1 black1 solitary2 but1 unless on the other side of the river you have the ,resurrection1 no bridge will ever be thrown across the black gulf1 and the ,cross remains 'dead1 being alone4' ,you must have a ,resurrection to explain the ,cross1 and then the ,life and the ,death tower up into the manifestation of ,god in the flesh and the propitiation for our sins4 ,without it we have nothing to preach which is worth calling a gospel4 ,again1 a living ,christ gives faith something to lay hold of4 ,the ,apostle here in the context twice says1 according to the ,authorised ,version1 that a dead ,christ makes our faith 'vain4' ,but he really uses two different words1 the former of which is applied to 'preaching1' and means literally 'empty1' while the latter means 'of none effect' or 'powerless4' ,so there are two ideas suggested here which ,i can only touch with the lightest hand4 ,the risen ,christ puts some contents1 so to speak1 into my faith2 ,he gives me something for it to lay hold of4 ,who can trust a dead ,christ1 or who can trust a human ,christ8 ,that would be as much a blasphemy as trusting any other man4 ,it is only when we recognise ,him as declared to be the ,son of ,god1 and that by the ,resurrection from the dead1 that our faith has anything round which it can twine1 and to which it can cleave4 ,that living ,saviour will stretch out ,his hand to us if we look to ,him1 and if ,i put my poor1 trembling little hand up towards ,him1 ,he will bend to me and clasp it4 ,you cannot exercise faith unless you have a risen ,saviour1 and unless you exercise faith in ,him your lives are marred and sad4 ,again1 if ,christ be dead1 our faith1 if it could exist1 would be as devoid of effect as it would be empty of substance4 ,for such a faith would be like an infant seeking nourishment at a dead mother's breast1 or men trying to kindle their torches at an extinguished lamp4 ,and chiefly would it fail to bring the first blessing which the believing soul receives through and from a risen ,christ1 namely1 deliverance from sin4 ,if ,he whom we believed to be our sacrifice by ,his death and our sanctification by ,his life has not risen1 then1 as we have seen1 all which makes ,his death other than a martyr's vanishes1 and with it vanish forgiveness and purifying4 ,only when we recognise that in ,his ,cross explained by ,his ,resurrection1 we have redemption through ,his blood1 even the forgiveness of sins1 and by the communication of the risen life from the risen ,lord possess that new nature which sets us free from the dominion of our evil1 is faith operative in setting us free from our sins4 ,so1 dear friends1 the risen ,christ gives us something for faith to lay hold of1 and will make it the hand by which we grasp ,his strong hand1 which lifts us 'out of the horrible pit and the miry clay1 and sets our feet upon a rock4' ,but if ,he lie dead in the grave your faith is vain1 because it grasps nothing but a shadow2 and it is vain as being purposeless2 you are yet in your sins4 ,the last thought is that the risen ,christ gives us the certitude of our ,resurrection4 ,i do not for a moment mean to say that1 apart from the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ1 the thought1 be it a wish or a dread1 of immortality1 has not been found in men1 but there is all the difference in the world between forebodings1 aspirations1 wishes it were so1 fears that it might be so1 and the calm certitude that it is so4 ,many men talked about a western continent1 but ,columbus went there and came back again1 and that ended doubt4 ,many men before1 and apart from ,jesus1 have cherished thoughts of an immortal life beyond the grave1 but ,he has been there and returned4 ,and that1 and1 as ,i believe1 that only puts the doctrine of immortality upon an irrefragable foundation2 and we can say1 ',now1 ,i know that there is that land beyond4' ,they tell us that death ends everything4 ,modern materialism1 in all its forms1 asserts that it is the extinction of the personality4 ,jesus ,christ died1 and went through it1 and came out of it the same1 and ,i will trust ,him4 ,brethren1 the set of opinion amongst the educated and cultured classes in ,england1 and all over ,europe1 at this moment1 proves to anybody who has eyes to see1 that for this generation1 rejection of immortality will follow certainly on the rejection of ,jesus ,christ4 ,and for ,england to-day1 as for ,greece when ,paul sent his letter to ,corinth1 the one light of certitude in the great darkness is the fact that ,jesus ,christ hath died1 and is risen again4 ,if you will let ,him1 ,he will make you partakers of ,his own immortal life4 ',the first fruits of them that slept' is the pledge and the prophecy of all the waving abundance of golden grain that shall be gathered into the great husbandman's barns4 ,the ,apostle goes on to represent the resurrection of 'them that are ,christ's' as a consequence of their union to ,jesus4 ,he has conquered for us all4 ,he has entered the prison-house and come forth bearing its iron gates on ,his shoulders1 and henceforth it is not possible that we should be holden of it4 ,there are two resurrections--one1 that of ,christ's servants1 one that of others4 ,they are not the same in principle--and1 alas1 they are awfully different in issue4 ',some shall wake to everlasting life1 and some to shame and everlasting contempt4' ,let me beseech you to make ,jesus ,christ the life of your dead souls1 by humble1 penitent trust in ,him4 ,and then1 in due time1 ,he will be the life of your transformed bodies1 changing these into the likeness of the body of ,his glory1 'according to the working whereby ,he is able even to subdue all things unto ,himself4' ,,the ,,death ,,of ,,death ',but now is ,christ risen from the dead1 and become the first-fruits of them that slept4 #ba4 ,for since by man came death1 by man came also the resurrection of the dead4444 #ej4 ,now this ,i say1 brethren1 that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of ,god2 neither doth corruption inherit incorruption4 #ea4 ,behold1 ,i shew you a mystery2 ,we shall not all sleep1 but we shall all be changed1 #eb4 ,in a moment1 in the twinkling of an eye1 at the last trump1 7for the trumpet shall sound27 and the dead shall be raised incorruptible1 and we shall be changed4 #ec4 ,for this corruptible must put on incorruption1 and this mortal must put on immortality4 #ed4 ,so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption1 and this mortal shall have put on immortality1 then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written1 ,death is swallowed up in victory4 #ee4 ,o death1 where is thy sting8 ,o grave1 where is thy victory8 #ef4 ,the sting of death is sin2 and the strength of sin is the law4 #eg4 ,but thanks be to ,god1 which giveth us the victory1 through our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 #eh4 ,therefore1 my beloved brethren1 be ye stedfast1 unmoveable1 always abounding in the work of the ,lord1 forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the ,lord4'--#a ,,cor4 xv4 #bj1 #ba2 #ej-eh4 ,this passage begins with the triumphant ringing out of the great fact which changes all the darkness of an earthly life without a heavenly hope into a blaze of light4 ,all the dreariness for humanity1 and all the vanity for ,christian faith and preaching1 vanish1 like ghosts at cock-crow1 when the ,resurrection of ,jesus rises sun-like on the world's night4 ,it is a historical fact1 established by the evidence proper for such1--namely1 the credible testimony of eye-witnesses4 ,they could attest ,his rising1 but the knowledge of the worldwide significance of it comes1 not from testimony1 but from revelation4 ,those who saw ,him risen join to declare3 ',now is ,christ risen from the dead1' but it is a higher ,voice that goes on to say1 'and become the first-fruits of them that slept4' ,that one ,man risen from the grave was like the solitary sheaf of paschal first-fruits1 prophesying of many more1 a gathered harvest that will fill the great ,husbandman's barns4 ,the ,resurrection of ,jesus is not only a prophecy1 showing1 as it and it alone does1 that death is not the end of man1 but that life persists through death and emerges from it1 like a buried river coming again flashing into the light of day1 but it is the source or cause of the ,christian's resurrection4 ,the oneness of the race necessitated the diffusion through all its members of sin and of its consequence--physical death4 ,if the fountain is poisoned1 all the stream will be tainted4 ,if men are to be redeemed from the power of the grave1 there must be a new personal centre of life2 and union with ,him1 which can only be effected by faith1 is the condition of receiving life from ,him1 which gradually conquers the death of sin now1 and will triumph over bodily death in the final resurrection4 ,it is the resurrection of ,christians that ,paul is dealing with4 ,others are to be raised1 but on a different principle1 and to sadly different issues4 ,since ,christ's ,resurrection assures us of the future waking1 it changes death into 'sleep1' and that sleep does not mean unconsciousness any more than natural sleep does1 but only rest from toil1 and cessation of intercourse with the external world4 ,in the part of the passage1 verses #ej to #eh1 the ,apostle becomes1 not the witness or the reasoner1 as in the earlier parts of the chapter1 but the revealer of a 'mystery4' ,that word1 so tragically misunderstood1 has here its uniform scriptural sense of truth1 otherwise unknown1 made known by revelation4 ,but before he unveils the mystery1 ,paul states with the utmost force a difficulty which might seem to crush all hope1--namely1 that corporeity1 as we know it1 is clearly incapable of living in such a world as that future one must be4 ,to use modern terms1 organism and environment must be adapted to each other4 ,a fish must have the water1 the creatures that flourish at the poles would not survive at the equator4 ,a man with his gross earthly body1 so thoroughly adapted to his earthly abode1 would be all out of harmony with his surroundings in that higher world1 and its rarified air would be too thin and pure for his lungs4 ,can there be any possibility of making him fit to live in a spiritual world8 ,apart from revelation1 the dreary answer must be ',no4' ,but the 'mystery' answers with ',yes4' ,the change from physical to spiritual is clearly necessary1 if there is to be a blessed life hereafter4 ,that necessary change is assured to all ,christians1 whether they die or 'remain till the coming of the ,lord4' ,paul varies in his anticipations as to whether he and his contemporaries will belong to the one class or the other2 but he is quite sure that in either case the indwelling ,spirit of ,jesus will effect on living and dead the needful change4 ,the grand description in verse #eb1 like the parallel in #a ,thessalonians iv4 #af1 is modelled on the account of the theophany on ,sinai4 ,the trumpet was the signal of the ,divine ,presence4 ,that last manifestation will be sudden1 and its startling breaking in on daily commonplace is intensified by the reduplication3 ',in a moment1 in the twinkling of an eye4' ,with sudden crash that awful blare of 'loud1 uplifted angel trumpet' will silence all other sounds1 and hush the world4 ,the stages of what follows are distinctly marked4 ,first1 the rising of the dead changed in passing through death1 so as to rise in incorruptible bodies1 and then the change of the bodies of the living into like incorruption4 ,the former will not be found naked1 but will be clothed with their white garments2 the latter will1 as it were1 put on the glorious robes above the 'muddy vesture of decay1' or1 more truly1 will see the miracle of these being transfigured till they shine 'so as no fuller on earth could white them4' ,the living will witness the resurrection of the dead2 the risen dead will witness the transformation of the living4 ,then both hosts will be united1 and1 through all eternity1 'live together1' and that 'with ,him4' ,paul evidently expects that he and the ,corinthians will be in the latter class1 as appears by the 'we' in verse #eb4 ,he1 as it were1 points to his own body when he says1 recurring to his former thought of the necessity of harmony between organism and environment1 'this corruptible must put on incorruption4' ,here 'corruption' is used in its physical application1 though the ethical meaning may be in the background4 ,the ,apostle closes his long argument and revelation with a burst1 almost a shout1 of triumph4 ,glowing words of old prophets rush into his mind1 and he breathes a new1 grander meaning into them4 ,isaiah had sung of a time when the veil over all nations should be destroyed 'in this mountain1' and when death should be swallowed up for ever2 and ,paul grasps the words and says that the prophet's loftiest anticipations will be fulfilled when that monster1 whose insatiable maw swallows down youth1 beauty1 strength1 wisdom1 will himself be swallowed up4 ,hosea had prophesied of ,israel's restoration under figure of a resurrection1 and ,paul grasps his words and fills them with a larger meaning4 ,he modifies them1 in a manner on which we need not enlarge1 to express the great ,christian thought that death has conquered man but that man in ,christ will conquer the conqueror4 ,with swift change of metaphor he represents death as a serpent1 armed with a poisoned sting1 and that suggests to him the thought1 never far away in his view of man1 that death's power to slay is derived from--or1 so to say1 concentrated in--sin2 and that at once raises the other equally characteristic and familiar thought that law stimulates sin1 since to know a thing to be forbidden creates in perverse humanity an itching to do it1 and law reveals sin by setting up the ideal from which sin is the departure4 ,but just as the tracks in ,paul's mind were well worn1 by which the thought of death brought in that of sin1 and that of sin drew after it that of law1 so with equal closeness of established association1 that of law condemnatory and slaying1 brought up that of ,christ the all-sufficient refuge from that gloomy triad--,death ,sin1 ,law4 ,through union with ,him each of us may possess ,his immortal risen life1 in which ,death1 the engulfer1 is himself engulfed2 ,death1 the conqueror1 is conquered utterly and for ever2 ,death1 the serpent1 has his sting drawn1 and is harmless4 ,that participation in ,christ's life is begun even here1 and ,god 'giveth us the victory' now1 even while we live outward lives that must end in death1 and will give it perfectly in the resurrection1 when 'they cannot die any more1' and death itself is dead4 ,the loftiest ,christian hopes have close relation to the lowliest ,christian duties1 and ,paul's triumphant song ends with plain1 practical1 prose exhortations to steadfastness1 unmovable tenacity1 and abundant fruitfulness1 the motive and power of which will be found in the assurance that1 since there is a life beyond1 all labour here1 however it may fail in the eyes of men1 will not be in vain1 but will tell on character and therefore on condition through eternity4 ,if our peace does not rest where we would fain see it settle1 it will not be wasted1 but will return to us again1 like the dove to the ark1 and we shall 'self-enfold the large results of' labour that seemed to have been thrown away4 ,,strong ,,and ,,loving ',watch ye1 stand fast in the faith1 quit you like men1 be strong4 #ad4 ,let all your things be done with charity4'--#a ,,cor4 xvi4 #ac1 #ad4 ,there is a singular contrast between the first four of these exhortations and the last4 ,the former ring sharp and short like pistol-shots2 the last is of gentler mould4 ,the former sound like the word of command shouted from an officer along the ranks2 and there is a military metaphor running all through them4 ,the foe threatens to advance2 let the guards keep their eyes open4 ,he comes nearer2 prepare for the charge1 stand firm in your ranks4 ,the battle is joined2 'quit you like men'--strike a man's stroke--'be strong4' ,and then all the apparatus of warfare is put away out of sight1 and the captain's word of command is softened into the ,christian teacher's exhortation3 ',let all your deeds be done in charity4' ,for love is better than fighting1 and is stronger than swords4 ,and yet1 although there is a contrast here1 there is also a sequence and connection4 ,no doubt these exhortations1 which are ,paul's last word to that ,corinthian ,church on whom he had lavished in turn the treasures of his manifold eloquence1 indignation1 argumentation1 and tenderness1 reflected the deficiencies of the people to whom he was speaking4 ,they were schismatic and factious to the very core1 and so they needed the exhortation to be left last in their ears1 as it were1 that everything should be done in love4 ,they were ill-grounded in regard to the very fundamental doctrines of the faith1 as all ,paul's argumentation about the resurrection proves1 and so they needed to be bidden to 'stand fast in the faith4' ,their slothful carelessness as to the discipline of the ,christian life1 and their consequent feebleness of grasp of the ,christian verities1 made them loose-braced and weak in all respects1 and incapacitated them for vigorous warfare4 ,thus1 we see a picture in these injunctions of the sort of community that ,paul had to deal with in ,corinth1 which yet he called a ,church of saints1 and for which he loved and laboured4 ,let me then run over and try to bring out the importance and mutual connection of what ,i may call this drill-book for the ,christian warfare1 which is the ,christian life4 ',watch ye4' ,that means one of two things certainly1 probably both--,keep awake1 and keep your eyes open4 ,our ,lord used the same metaphor1 you remember1 very frequently1 but with a special significance4 ,on ,his lips it generally referred to the attitude of expectation of ,his coming in judgment4 ,paul uses sometimes the figure with the same application1 but here1 distinctly1 it has another4 ,as ,i said1 there is the military idea underlying it4 ,what will become of an army if the sentries go to sleep8 ,and what chance will a ,christian man have of doing his devoir against his enemy1 unless he keeps himself awake1 and keeps himself alert8 ,watchfulness1 in the sense of always having eyes open for the possible rush down upon us of temptation and evil1 is no small part of the discipline and the duty of the ,christian life4 ,one part of that watchfulness consists in exercising a very rigid and a very constant and comprehensive scrutiny of our motives4 ,for there is no way by which evil creeps upon us so unobserved1 as when it slips in at the back door of a specious motive4 ,many a man contents himself with the avoidance of actual evil actions1 and lets any kind of motives come in and out of his mind unexamined4 ,it is all right to look after our doings1 but 'as a man thinketh in his heart1 so is he4' ,the good or the evil of anything that ,i do is determined wholly by the motive with which ,i do it4 ,and we are a great deal too apt to palm off deceptions on ourselves to make sure that our motives are right1 unless we give them a very careful and minute scrutiny4 ,one side of this watchfulness1 then1 is a habitual inspection of our motives and reasons for action4 ',what am ,i doing this for8' is a question that would stop dead an enormous proportion of our activity1 as if you had turned the steam off from an engine4 ,if you will use a very fine sieve through which to strain your motives1 you will go a long way to keeping your actions right4 ,we should establish a rigid examination for applicants for entrance1 and make quite sure that each that presents itself is not a wolf in sheep's clothing4 ,make them all bring out their passports4 ,let every vessel that comes into your harbour remain isolated from all communication with the shore1 until the health officer has been on board and given a clean bill4 ',watch ye1' for yonder1 away in the dark1 in the shadow of the trees1 the black masses of the enemy are gathered1 and a midnight attack is but too likely to bring a bloody awakening to a camp full of sleepers4 ,my text goes on to bring the enemy nearer and nearer and nearer4 ',watch ye'--and if1 not unnoticed1 they come down on you1 'stand fast in the faith4' ,there will be no keeping our ranks1 or keeping our feet--or at least1 it is not nearly so likely that there will be--unless there has been the preceding watchfulness4 ,if the first command has not been obeyed1 there is small chance of the second's being so4 ,if there has not been any watchfulness1 it is not at all likely that there will be much steadfastness4 ,just as with a man going along a crowded pavement1 a little touch from a passer-by will throw him off his balance1 whereas if he had known it was coming1 and had adjusted his poise rightly1 he would have stood against thrice as violent a shock1 so1 in order that we may stand fast1 we must watch4 ,a sudden assault will be a great deal less formidable when it is a foreseen assault4 ',stand fast in the faith4' ,i take it that this does not mean 'the thing that we believe1' which use of the word 'faith' is the ecclesiastical1 but not the ,new ,testament meaning4 ,in ,scripture1 faith means not the body of truths that we believe1 but the act of believing them4 ,this further command tells us that1 in addition to our watchfulness1 and as the basis of our steadfastness1 confidence in the revelation of ,god in ,jesus ,christ will enable us to keep our feet whatever comes against us1 and to hold our ground1 whoever may assault us4 ,but remember that it is not because ,i have faith that ,i stand fast1 but because of that in which ,i have faith4 ,my feet may be well shod--and it used to be said that a soldier's shoes were of as much importance in the battle as his musket--my feet may be well shod1 but if they are not well planted upon firm ground ,i never shall be able to stand the collision of the foe4 ,so then1 it is not my grasp of the blessed truth1 ,god in ,christ my ,friend and ,helper1 but it is that truth which ,i grasp at1 that makes me strong4 ,or1 to put it into other words1 it is the foothold1 and not the foot that holds it1 that ensures our standing firm4 ,only there is no steadfastness communicated to us from the source of all stability1 except by way of our faith1 which brings ,christ into us4 ',watch ye2 stand fast in the faith4' ,the next two words of command are very closely connected1 though not quite identical4 ',quit you like men4' ,play a man's part in the battle2 strike with all the force of your muscles4 ,but the ,apostle adds1 'be strong4' ,you cannot play a man's part unless you are4 ',be strong'--the original would rather bear 'become strong4' ,what is the use of telling men to 'be strong'8 ,it is a waste of words1 in nine cases out of ten1 to say to a weak man1 ',pluck up your courage1 and show strength4' ,but the ,apostle uses a very uncommon word here1 at least uncommon in the ,new ,testament1 and another place where he uses it will throw light upon what he means3 ',strengthened with might by ,his ,spirit in the inner man4' ,then is it so vain a mockery to tell a poor1 weak creature like me to become strong1 when you can point me to the source of all strength1 in that ',spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind'8 ,we have only to take our weakness there to have it stiffened into strength2 as people put bits of wood into what are called 'petrifying wells' which infiltrate into them mineral particles1 that do not turn the wood into stone1 but make the wood as strong as stone4 ,so my manhood1 with all its weakness1 may have filtered into it divine strength1 which will brace me for all needful duty1 and make me 'more than conqueror through ,him that loved us4' ,then1 it is not mockery and cruelty1 vanity and surplusage to preach ',quit you like men2 be strong1 and be a man'2 because if we will observe the plain and not hard conditions1 strength will come to us according to our day1 in fulfilment of the great promises3 ',my grace is sufficient for thee2 and ,my strength is made perfect in weakness4' ,and now we have done with the fighting words of command1 and come to the gentler exhortation3 ',let all your things be done in charity4' ,that was a hard lesson for these ,corinthians who were splitting themselves into factions and sects1 and tearing each other's eyes out in their partisanship for various ,christian teachers4 ,but the advice has a much wider application than to the suppression of squabbles in ,christian communities4 ,it is the sum of all commandments of the ,christian life1 if you will take love in its widest sense1 in the sense1 that is1 in which it is always used in ,paul's writings4 ,we cut it into two halves1 and think of it as sometimes meaning love to ,god1 and sometimes love to man4 ,the two are inseparably inter-penetrated in the ,new ,testament writings2 and so we have to interpret this supreme commandment in the whole breadth and meaning of that great word ,love4 ,and then it just comes to this1 that love is the victor in all the ,christian warfare4 ,if we love ,god1 at any given moment1 consciously having our affection engaged with ,him1 and our heart going out to ,him1 do you think that any evil or temptation would have power over us8 ,should we not see them as they are1 to be devils in disguise8 ,in the proportion in which ,i love ,god ,i conquer all sin4 ,and at the moment in which that great1 sweet1 all-satisfying light floods into my soul1 ,i see through the hollowness and the shams1 and detect the ugliness and the filth of the things that otherwise would be temptations4 ,if you desire to be conquerors in the ,christian fight1 remember that the true way of conquest is1 as another ,apostle says1 ',keep yourselves in the love of ,god4' ',let all your things be done in charity4' ,and1 further1 how beautifully the ,apostle here puts the great truth that we are all apt to forget1 that the strongest type of human character is the gentlest and most loving1 and that the mighty man is not the man of intellectual or material force1 such as the world idolises1 but the man who is much because he loves much4 ,if we would come to supreme beauty of ,christian character1 there must be inseparably manifested in our lives1 and lived in our hearts1 strength and love1 might and gentleness4 ,that is the perfect man1 and that was the union which was set before us1 in the highest form1 in the ',strong ,son of ,god1 ,immortal ,love1' whom we call our ,saviour1 and whom we are bound to follow4 ,his soldiers conquer as the ,captain of their salvation has conquered1 when watchfulness and steadfastness and courage and strength are all baptized in love and perfected thereby4 ,,anathema ,,and ,,grace ',the salutation of me ,paul with mine own hand4 #bb4 ,if any man love not the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 let him be ,anathema ,maran-atha4 #bc4 ,the grace of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ be with you4 #bd4 ,my love be with you all in ,christ ,jesus4'--#a ,,cor4 xvi4 #ba-bd4 ,terror and tenderness are strangely mingled in this parting salutation1 which was added in the great characters shaped by ,paul's own hand1 to the letter written by an amanuensis4 ,he has been obliged1 throughout the whole epistle1 to assume a tone of remonstrance abundantly mingled with irony and sarcasm and indignation4 ,he has had to rebuke the ,corinthians for many faults1 party spirit1 lax morality1 toleration of foul sins1 grave abuses in their worship even at the ,lord's ,supper1 gross errors in opinion in the denial of the ,resurrection4 ,and in this last solemn warning he traces all these vices to their fountainhead--the defect of love to ,jesus ,christ--and warns of their fatal issue4 ',let him be ,anathema4' ,but he will not leave these terrible words for his last4 ,the thunder is followed by gentle rain1 and the sun glistens on the drops2 ',the grace of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ be with you all4' ,nor for himself will he let the last impression be one of rebuke or even of warning4 ,he desires to show that his heart yearns over them all2 so he gathers them all--the partisans2 the poor brother that has fallen into sin2 the lax ones who1 in their misplaced tenderness1 had left him in his sin2 the misguided reasoners who had struck the ,resurrection out of the articles of the ,christian creed--he gathers them all into his final salutation1 and he says1 ',take and share my love--though ,i have had to rebuke--amongst the whole of you4' ,is not that beautiful8 ,and does not the juxtaposition of such messages in this farewell go deeper than the revelation of ,paul's character8 ,may we not see1 in these terrible and tender thoughts thus inextricably intertwined and braided together1 a revelation of the true nature both of the terror and the tenderness of the ,gospel which ,paul preached8 ,it is from that point of view that ,i wish to look at them now4 ,i4 ,i take first that thought--the terror of the fate of the unloving4 ,now1 ,i must ask you for a moment's attention in regard to these two untranslated words4 ,anathema ,maran-atha4 ,the first thing to be noticed is that the latter of them stands independently of the former1 and forms a sentence by itself1 as ,i shall have to show you presently4 ',anathema' means an offering1 or a thing devoted2 and its use in the ,new ,testament arises from its use in the ,greek translation of the ,old ,testament1 where it is employed for persons and things that1 in a peculiar sense1 were set apart and devoted to ,god4 ,in the story of the conquest of ,canaan1 for instance1 we read of ,jericho and other places1 persons1 or things that were1 as our version somewhat unfortunately renders it1 'accursed1' or as it ought rather to be rendered1 'devoted1' or 'put under a ban4' ,and this 'devotion' was of such a sort as that the things or persons devoted were doomed to destruction4 ,all the dreadful things that were done in the ,conquest were the consequences of the persons that endured them being thus 'consecrated1' in a very dreadful sense1 or set apart for ,god4 ,the underlying idea was that evil things brought into contact with ,him were necessarily destroyed with a swift destruction4 ,that being the meaning of the word1 it is clear that its use in my text is distinctly metaphorical1 and that it suggests to us that the unloving1 like those cities full of uncleanness1 when they are brought into contact with the infinite love of the coming ,judge1 shrivel up and are destroyed4 ,the other word ',maran-atha1' as ,i said1 is to be taken as a separate sentence4 ,it belongs to the dialect1 which was probably the vernacular of ,palestine in the time of ,paul1 and to which belong1 for the most part1 the other untranslated words that are scattered up and down the ,gospels1 such as ',aceldama1' ',ephphatha1' and the like4 ,it means 'our ,lord comes4' ,why ,paul chose to use that untranslated scrap of another tongue in a letter to a ,gentile ,church we cannot tell4 ,perhaps it had come to be a kind of watchword amongst the early ,jewish ,christians1 which came naturally to his lips4 ,but1 at any rate1 the use of it here is distinctly to confirm the warning of the previous clause1 by pointing to the time at which that warning shall be fulfilled4 ',if any man love not the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 let him be devoted and destroyed4 ,our ,lord comes4' ,the only other thing to be noticed by way of introduction is that this first clause is not an imprecation1 nor any wish on the part of the ,apostle1 but is a solemn prophetic warning 7acquiesced in by every righteous heart7 of that which will certainly come4 ,the significance of the whole may be gathered into one simple sentence--,the coming of the ,lord of ,love is the destruction of the unloving4 ',our ,lord comes4' ,paul's ,christianity gathered round two facts and moments--one in the past1 ,christ has come2 one in the future1 ,christ will come4 ,for memory1 the coming by the cradle and the ,cross2 for hope1 the coming on ,his throne in glory2 and between these two moments1 like the solid piers of a suspension bridge1 the frail structure of the ,present hangs swinging4 ,in this day men have lost their expectation of the one1 and to a large extent their faith in the other4 ,but we shall not understand ,scripture unless we seek to make as prominent in our thoughts as on its pages that second coming as the complement and necessary issue of the first4 ,it stands stamped on every line4 ,it colours all the ,new ,testament views of life4 ,it is used as a motive for every duty1 and as a magnet to draw men to ,jesus ,christ by salutary dread4 ,there is no hint in my text about the time of the ,lord's coming1 no disturbing of the solemnity of the thought by non-essential details of chronology1 so we may dismiss these from our minds4 ,the fact is the same1 and has the same force as a motive for life1 whether it is to be fulfilled in the next moment or thousands of years hence1 provided only that you and ,i are to be there when ,he comes4 ,there have been many comings in the past1 besides the comings in the flesh4 ,the days of the ,lord that have already appeared in the history of the world are not few4 ,one characteristic is stamped upon them all1 and that is the swift annihilation of what is opposed to ,him4 ,the ,bible has a set of standing metaphors by which to illustrate this thought of the ,coming of the ,lord--a flood1 a harvest when the ears are ripe for the sickle1 the waking of ,god from slumber1 and the like2 all suggesting similar thoughts4 ,the day of the ,lord1 the coming of the ,lord1 will include and surpass all the characteristics which these lesser and premonitory judgment days presented in miniature4 ,i do not enlarge on this theme4 ,i would not play the orator about it if ,i could2 but ,i appeal to your consciences1 which1 in the case of most of us1 not only testify of right and wrong1 but of responsibility1 and suggest a judge to whom we are responsible4 ,and ,i urge on each1 and on myself1 this simple question3 ,have ,i allowed its due weight on my life and character to that watchword of the ancient church--,maran-atha1 'our ,lord cometh'8 ,now1 the coming of the ,lord of ,love is the annihilation of the unloving4 ,the destruction implied in ,anathema does not mean the cessation of ,being1 but a death which is worse than death1 because it is a death in life4 ,suppose a man with all his past annihilated1 with all its effort foiled and crushed1 with all its possessions evaporated and disappeared1 and with his memory and his conscience stung into clear-sighted activity1 so that he looks back upon his former self and into his present self1 and feels that it is all waste and chaos1 would not that fulfil the word of my text--',let him be ,anathema'8 ,and suppose that such a man1 in addition to these thoughts1 and as the root and the source of them1 had ever the quivering consciousness that he was and must be in the presence of an unloved ,judge2 have you not there the naked bones of a very dreadful thing1 which does not need any tawdry eloquence of man to make it more solemn and more real8 ,the unloving heart is always ill at ease in the presence of ,him whom it does not love4 ,the unloving heart does not love1 because it does not trust1 nor see the love4 ,therefore1 the unloving heart is a heart that is only capable of apprehending the wrathful side of ,christ's character4 ,it is a heart devoid of the fruits of love which are likeness and righteousness1 'without which no man shall see the ,lord1' nor stand the flash of the brightness of ,his coming4 ,so there is no cruelty nor arbitrariness in the decree that the heart that loves not1 when brought into contact with the infinite ,lord of ,love1 must find in the touch death and not life1 darkness and not light1 terror and not hope4 ,notice that ,paul's negation is a negation and not an affirmation4 ,he does not say 'he that hateth1' but 'he that doth not love4' ,the absence of the active emotion of love1 which is the child of faith1 the parent of righteousness1 the condition of joy in ,his presence1 is sufficient to ensure that this fate shall fall upon a man4 ,i durst not enlarge4 ,i leave the truth on your hearts4 ,,ii4 ,secondly1 notice the present grace of the coming ,lord4 ',our ,lord cometh4 ,the grace of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ be with you all4' ,these two things are not contradictory1 but we often deal with them as if they were4 ,and some men lay hold of the one side of the antithesis1 and some men lay hold of the other1 and rend them apart1 and make antagonistic theories of ,christianity out of them4 ,but the real doctrine puts the two together and says there is no terror without tenderness1 and there is no tenderness without terror4 ,if we sacrifice the aspects of the divine nature1 as revealed to us in the gentle ,christ1 which kindle a wholesome dread1 we have1 all unwittingly1 robbed the aspects of the divine nature1 which warm in us a gracious love1 of their power to inflame and to illuminate4 ,you cannot have love which is anything nobler than facile good nature and unrighteous indifference1 unless you have along with it aspects of ,god's character and government which ought to make some men afraid4 ,and you cannot keep these latter aspects from being exaggerated and darkened into a ,moloch of cruelty1 unless you remember that1 side by side with them1 or rather underlying them and determining them1 are aspects of the divine nature to which only child-like confidence and calm beatific returns of love do rightly respond4 ,the terror of the ,lord is a garb which our sins force upon the love of the ,lord1 and when the one is presented it brings with it the other4 ,never should they be parted in our thoughts or in our teaching4 ,note what that present grace is4 ,it is a tenderness which gathers into its embrace all these imperfect1 immoral1 lax1 heretical people in ,corinth1 as well as everywhere else--',the grace of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ be with you all4' ,there were men in that church that said1 ',i am of ,paul1 ,i of ,apollos1 ,i of ,cephas1 ,i of ,christ4' ,there were men in that church that had defiled their souls and their flesh1 and corrupted the community1 and blasphemed the name of ,christ by such foul1 sensual sin as was 'not even named among the ,gentiles4' ,there were men in that church so dead to all the sanctities even of the communion-table as that1 with the bread between their teeth and the wine-cup in their hands1 one was hungry and another drunken4 ,there were men in that church1 whose ,christianity was so anomalous and singularly fragmentary that they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead4 ,and yet ,paul flings the great rainbow1 as it were1 of ,christ's enclosing love over them all4 ,and surely the love which gathers in such people leaves none outside its sweep2 and the tenderness which stoops from heaven to pity1 to pardon1 to cleanse such is a tenderness to which the weakest1 saddest1 sinfullest1 foulest of the sons of men may confidently resort4 ,let nothing rob you of this assurance1 that ,christ1 the coming ,lord1 is present with us all1 and with all our weak and wicked brethren1 in the full condescension of ,his all-embracing1 all-hoping1 all-forgetting1 and all-restoring love4 ,all that we need1 in order to get its full sunshine into our hearts1 is that we trust ,him utterly1 and1 so trusting1 love ,him back again with that love which is the fulfilling of the ,law and the crown of the ,gospel4 ,,iii4 ,and now1 lastly1 note the tenderness1 caught from the ,master ,himself1 of the servant who rebukes4 ,this last message of love from the ,apostle himself1 in verse #bd1 is quite anomalous4 ,there is no other instance in his letters where he introduces himself and his own love at the end1 after he has pronounced solemn benediction commending to ,christ's grace4 ,but here1 as if he had felt that he must leave an impression of himself on their minds1 which corresponded to the impression of his ,master that he desired to leave1 he deviates from his ordinary habit1 and makes his last word a personal word--',my love be with you all in ,christ ,jesus4' ,rebuke is the sign of love4 ,sharp condemnation may be the language of love4 ,plain warning of possible evils is the simple duty of love4 ,so ,paul folds all whom he has been rebuking in the warm embrace of his proffered love1 which was the very cause of his rebuke4 ,the healing balm of this closing message was to be applied to the wounds which his keen edged words had made1 and to show that they were wounds by a surgeon1 not by a foe4 ,in effect1 this parting smile of love says1 ',i am not become your enemy because ,i tell you the truth2 ,i show my love to you by the plainness and roughness of my words4' ,generalise that1 free it from its personal reference1 and it just comes to this3 ,there never was a shallower sneer than the sneer which is cast at ,christianity1 as if it were harsh1 'ferocious1' or unloving1 when it preaches the terror of the ,lord4 ,no6 rather1 because the ,gospel is a ,gospel1 it must speak plainly about death and destruction to the unloving4 ,the danger signal is not to be blamed for a collision1 which it is hoisted to avert2 and it is a strange sign of an unfeeling and unsympathetic1 or of a harsh and gloomy system1 that it should tell men where they are driving1 in order that they may never reach the miserable goal4 ',knowing1 therefore1 the terror of the ,lord1 we persuade men4' ,and when people say to us preachers1 ',is that your ,gospel1 a ,gospel that talks about everlasting destruction from the presence of the ,lord at the glory of ,his coming--is that your ,gospel8' ,we can only answer1 ',yes1 it is6 ,because1 so to talk1 may by ,god's mercy1 secure that some who hear shall never know anything of the wrath1 save the hearing of it with the ear1 and may1 by the warning of it1 be drawn to the ,rock of ,ages for safety and shelter from the storm4' ,therefore1 dear friends1 the upshot of all that ,i have been feebly trying to say is just this2 let us lay hold with all our hearts1 and by simple faith1 of the present grace of the coming1 loving ,lord and ,judge4 ,you can do it4 ,it is your only hope to do it4 ,have you done it8 ,if so1 then you may lift up your heads to the throne1 and be glad1 as those who know that their ,friend and ,deliverer will come at last1 to help1 to bless1 to save4 ,if not1 dear friend1 take the warning1 that not to love is to be shrivelled like a leaf in the flame1 at that coming which is life to them that love1 and destruction to all besides4 ',herein is our love made perfect1 that we may have boldness before ,him in the day of judgment4' ,,ii4 ,,corinthians ,,god',s ,,yea2 ,,man',s ,,amen ',for how many soever be the promises of ,god1 in ,him is the yea3 wherefore also through ,him is the ,amen4'--#b ,,cor4 i4 #bj 7,r4,v474 ,this is one of the many passages the force and beauty of which are1 for the first time1 brought within the reach of an ,english reader by the alterations in the ,revised ,version4 ,these are partly dependent upon the reading of the text and partly upon the translation4 ,as the words stand in the ,authorised ,version1 'yea' and 'amen' seem to be very nearly synonymous expressions1 and to point substantially to the same thing--viz4 that ,jesus ,christ is1 as it were1 the confirmation and seal of ,god's promises4 ,but in the ,revised ,version the alterations1 especially in the pronouns1 indicate more distinctly that the ,apostle means two different things by the 'yea' and the 'amen'4 ,the one is ,god's voice1 the other is man's4 ,the one has to do with the certainty of the divine revelation1 the other has to do with the certitude of our faith in the revelation4 ,when ,god speaks in ,christ1 ,he confirms everything that ,he has said before1 and when we listen to ,god speaking in ,christ1 our lips are1 through ,christ1 opened to utter our assenting ',amen' to ,his great promises4 ,so1 then1 we have the double form of our ,lord's work1 covering the whole ground of ,his relations to man1 set forth in these two clauses1 in the one of which ,god's confirmation of ,his past revelations by ,jesus ,christ is treated of1 and in the other of which the full and confident assent which men may give to that revelation is set before us4 ,i deal1 then1 with these two points--,god's certainties in ,christ1 and man's certitudes through ,christ4 ,now these two things do not always go together4 ,we may be very certain1 as far as our persuasion is concerned1 of a very doubtful fact1 or we may be very doubtful1 as far as our persuasion is concerned1 of a very certain fact4 ,we speak about truths or facts as being certain1 and we ought to mean by that1 not how we think about them1 but what they are in the evidence on which they rest4 ,a certain truth is a truth which has its evidence irrefragable2 and the only fitting attitude for men1 in the presence of a certain truth1 is to have a certitude of the truth4 ,and these two things are1 our ,apostle tells us1 both given to us in and through ,jesus ,christ4 ,let me deal1 then1 with these two sides4 ,i4 ,first1 ,god's certainties in ,christ4 ,of course the original reference of the text is to the whole series of great promises given in the ,old ,testament4 ,these1 says ,paul1 are sealed and confirmed to men by the revelation and work of ,jesus ,christ1 but it is obvious that the principle which is good in reference to them is good on a wider field4 ,i venture to take that extension1 and to ask you to think briefly about some of the things that are made for us indubitably certain in ,jesus ,christ4 ,and1 first of all1 there is the certainty about ,god's heart4 ,everywhere else we have only peradventures1 hopes1 fears1 guesses more or less doubtful1 and roundabout inferences as to ,his disposition and attitude towards us4 ,as one of the old divines says somewhere1 ',all other ways of knowing ,god are like the bended bow1 ,christ is the straight string4' ,the only means by which1 indubitably1 as a matter of demonstration1 men can be sure that ,god in the heavens has a heart of love towards them is by ,jesus ,christ4 ,for consider what will make us sure of that4 ,nothing but facts2 words are of little use1 arguments are of little use4 ,a revelation1 however precious1 which simply says to us1 ',god is ,love' is not sufficient for our need4 ,we want to see love in operation if we are to be sure of it1 and the only demonstration of the love of ,god is to witness the love of ,god in actual working4 ,and you get it--where8 ,on the ,cross of ,jesus ,christ4 ,i do not believe that anything else irrefragably establishes the fact for the yearning hearts of us poor men who want love1 and yet cannot grope our way in amidst the mysteries and the clouds in providence and nature1 except this--',herein is love1 not that we loved ,god1 but that ,he loved us1 and sent ,his ,son to be the propitiation for our sins4' ,the question may arise in some minds1 ,is there any need for proving ,god's love8 ,the question never arose except within the limits of ,christianity4 ,it is only men who have lived all their lives in an atmosphere saturated by ,christian sentiment and conviction that ever come to the point of saying1 ',we do not want historical revelation to prove to us the fact of a loving ,god4' ,they would never have fancied that they did not need the revelation unless1 unconsciously to themselves1 and indirectly1 all their thoughts had been coloured and illuminated by the revelation that they profess they reject4 ,god as ,love is 'our dearest faith1 our ghastliest doubt1' and the only way to make absolutely certain of the fact that ,his heart is full of mercy to us is to look upon ,him as ,he stands revealed to us1 not merely in the words of ,christ1 for1 precious as they are1 these are the smallest part of ,his revelation1 but in the life and in the death which open for us the heart of ,god4 ,remember what ,he said ,himself1 not ',he who hath listened to ,me1 doth understand the ,father1' but ',he that hath seen ,me hath seen the ,father4' ',in ,him is yea1' and the hopes and shadowy fore-revelations of the loving heart of ,god are confirmed by the fact of ,his life and death4 ,god establishes1 not 'commends' as our translation has it1 ',his love towards us in that whilst we were yet sinners ,christ died for us4' ,further1 in ,him we have the certainty of pardon4 ,every deep heart-experience amongst men has felt the necessity of having a clear certainty and knowledge about forgiveness4 ,men do not feel it always4 ,a man can skate over the surface of the great deeps that lie beneath the most frivolous life1 and may suppose1 in his superficial way of looking at things1 that there is no need for any definite teaching about sin and the mode of dealing with it4 ,but once bring that man face to face1 in a quiet hour1 with the facts of his life and of a divine law1 and all that superficial ignoring of evil in himself and of the dread of punishment and consequences1 passes away4 ,i am sure of this1 that no religion will ever go far and last long and work mightily1 and lay a sovereign hand upon human life1 which has not a most plain and decisive message to preach in reference to pardon4 ,and ,i am sure of this1 that one reason for the comparative feebleness of much so-called ,christian teaching in this generation is just that the deepest needs of a man's conscience are not met by it4 ,in a religion on which the whole spirit of a man may rest itself1 there must be a very plain message about what is to be done with sin4 ,the only message which answers to the needs of an awakened conscience and an alarmed heart is the old-fashioned message that ,jesus ,christ the ,righteous has died for us sinful men4 ,all other religions have felt after a clear doctrine of forgiveness1 and all have failed to find it4 ,here is the divine ',yea6' ,and on it alone we can suspend the whole weight of our soul's salvation4 ,the rope that is to haul us out of the horrible pit and the miry clay had much need to be tested before we commit ourselves to it4 ,there are plenty of easygoing superficial theories about forgiveness predominant in the world to-day4 ,except the one that says1 ',in whom we have redemption through ,his blood1 even the forgiveness of sin1' they are all like the rope let down into the dark mine to lift the captives beneath1 half of the strands of which have been cut on the sharp edge above1 and when the weight hangs on to it1 it will snap4 ,there is nothing on which a man who has once learned the tragical meaning and awful reality and depth of the fact of his transgression can suspend his forgiveness1 except this1 that ',christ has died1 the just for the unjust1 to bring us unto ,god4' ',in ,him the promise is yea4' ,and1 again1 we have in ,christ divine certainties in regard to life4 ,we have in ,him the absolutely perfect pattern to which we are to conform our whole doings4 ,and so1 notwithstanding that there may1 and will still be many uncertainties and much perplexity1 we have the great broad lines of morals and of duty traced with a firm hand1 and all that we need to know of obligation and of perfectness lies in this--,be like ,jesus ,christ6 ,so the solemn commandments of the ethical side of ,divine ,revelation1 as well as the promises of it1 get their 'yea' in ,jesus ,christ1 and ,he stands the ,law of our lives4 ,we have certainties for life1 in the matter of protection1 guidance1 supply of all necessity1 and the like1 treasured and garnered in ,jesus ,christ4 ,for ,he not only confirms1 but fulfils1 the promises which ,god has made4 ,if we have that dear ,lord for our very own1 and ,he belongs to us as ,he does belong to them who love ,him and trust ,him1 then in ,him we have in actual possession these promises1 how many soever they be1 which are given by ,god's other words4 ,christ is ,protean1 and becomes everything to each man that each man requires4 ,he is1 as it were1 'a box where sweets compacted lie4' ',in ,him are hid all the treasures1' not only of wisdom and knowledge1 but of divine gifts1 and we have but to go to ,him in order to have that which at each moment as it emerges1 we most require4 ,as in some of those sunny islands of the ,southern ,pacific1 one tree supplies the people with all that they need for their simple wants1 fruit for their food1 leaves for their houses1 staves1 thread1 needles1 clothing1 drink1 everything--so ,jesus ,christ1 this ,tree of ,life1 is ,himself the sum of all the promises1 and1 having ,him1 we have everything that we need4 ,and1 lastly1 in ,christ we have the divine certainties as to the ,future over which1 apart from ,him1 lie cloud and darkness4 ,as ,i said about the revelation of the heart of ,god1 so ,i say about the revelation of a future life--a verbal revelation is not enough4 ,we have enough of arguments2 what we want is facts4 ,we have enough of man's peradventures about a future life1 enough of evidence more or less valid to show that it is 'probable1' or 'not inconceivable1' or 'more likely than not1' and so on and so on4 ,what we want is that somebody shall cross the gulf and come back again1 and so we get in the ,resurrection of ,christ the one fact on which men may safely rest their convictions of immortality1 and ,i do not think that there is a second anywhere4 ,on it alone1 as ,i believe1 hinges the whole answer to the question--',if a man die1 shall he live again8' ,this generation is brought1 in my reading of it1 right up to this alternative--,christ's ,resurrection1--or we die like the brutes that perish4 ',all the promises of ,god in ,him are yea4' ,,ii4 ,and now a word as to the second portion of my text--viz4 man's certitudes1 which answer to ,god's certainties4 ,the latter are in ,christ1 the former are through ,christ4 ,now it is clear that the only fitting attitude for professing ,christians in reference to these certainties of ,god is the attitude of unhesitating affirmation and joyful assent4 ,certitude is the fitting response to certainty4 ,there should be some kind of correspondence between the firmness with which we grasp1 the tenacity with which we hold1 the assurance with which we believe1 these great truths1 and the rock-like firmness and immovableness of the evidence upon which they rest4 ,it is a poor compliment to ,god to come to ,his most veracious affirmations1 sealed with the broad seal of ,his ,son's life and death1 and to answer with a hesitating ',amen1' that falters and almost sticks in our throat4 ,build rock upon rock4 ,be sure of the certain things4 ,grasp with a firm hand the firm stay4 ,immovably cling to the immovable foundation2 and though you be but like the limpet on the rock hold fast by the ,rock1 as the limpet does2 for it is an insult to the certainty of the revelation1 when there is hesitation in the believer4 ,i need not dwell for more than a moment upon the lamentable contrast which is presented between this certitude1 which is our only fitting attitude1 and the hesitating assent and half belief in which so many professing ,christians pass their lives4 ,the reasons for that are partly moral1 partly intellectual4 ,this is not a day which is favourable to the unhesitating avowal of convictions in reference to an unseen world1 and many of us are afraid of being called narrow1 or dogmatisers1 and think it looks like breadth1 and liberality1 and culture1 and ,i know not what1 to say ',well6 perhaps it is1 but ,i am not quite sure2 ,i think it is1 but ,i will not commit myself4' ,all the promises of ,god1 which in ,him are yea1 ought through ,him to get from us an ',amen4' ,there is a great deal that will always be uncertain4 ,the firmer our convictions1 the fewer will be the things that they grasp2 but1 if they be few1 they will be large1 and enough for us4 ,these truths certified in ,christ concerning the heart of ,god1 the message of pardon1 the law for life1 the gifts of guidance1 defence1 and sanctifying1 the sure and certain hope of immortality--these things we ought to be sure about1 whatever borderland of uncertainty may lie beyond them4 ,the ,christian verb is 'we know1' not 'we hope1 we calculate1 we infer1 we think1' but 'we know4' ,and it becomes us to apprehend for ourselves the full blessedness and power of the certitude which ,christ has given to us by the certainties which he has brought us4 ,i need not speak about the blessedness of such a calm assurance1 about the need of it for power1 for peace1 for effort1 for fixedness in the midst of a world and age of change4 ,but ,i must1 before ,i close1 point you to the only path by which that certitude is attainable4 ',through ,him is the amen4' ,he is the ,door4 ,the truths which ,he confirms are so inextricably intertwined with ,himself that you cannot get them and put away ,him4 ,christ's relation to ,christ's ,gospel is not the relation of other teachers to their words4 ,you may accept the words of a ,plato1 whatever you think of the ,plato who spoke the words4 ,but you cannot separate ,christ and ,his teaching in that fashion1 and you must have ,him if you are to get it4 ,so1 faith in ,him1 the intellectual acceptance of ,him1 as the authoritative and infallible ,revealer1 the bowing down of heart and will to ,him as our ,commander and our ,lord1 the absolute trust in ,him as the foundation of all our hope and the source of all our blessedness--that is the way to certitude1 and there is no other road that we can take4 ,if thus we keep near ,him1 our faith will bring us the present experience and fulfilment of the promises1 and we shall be sure of them1 because we have them already4 ,and whilst men are asking1 ',do we know anything about ,god8 ,is there a ,god at all8 ,is there such a thing as forgiveness8 ,can anybody find anywhere absolute rules for his life8 ,is there anything beyond the grave but mist and darkness8' we can say1 ',one thing ,i know1 ,jesus ,christ is my ,saviour1 and in ,him ,i know ,god1 and pardon1 and duty1 and sanctifying1 and safety1 and immortality2 and whatever is dark1 this1 at least1 is sun-clear4' ,get high enough up and you will be above the fog2 and while the men down in it are squabbling as to whether there is anything outside the mist1 you1 from your sunny station1 will see the far-off coasts1 and haply catch some whiff of perfume from their shore1 and see some glinting of a glory upon the shining turrets of 'the city that hath foundations4' ,we have a present possession of all the promises of ,god2 and whoever doubts their certitude1 the man who knows himself a son of ,god by faith1 and has experience of forgiveness and guidance and answered prayer and hopes whose 'sweetness yieldeth proof that they were born for immortality1' knows the things which others question and doubt4 ,so live near ,jesus ,christ1 and1 holding fast by ,his hand1 you may lift up your joyful ',amen' to every one of ,god's ',yeas4' ,for in ,him we know the ,father1 in ,him we know that we have the forgiveness of sins1 in ,him we know that ,god is near to bless and succour and guide1 and in ,him 'we know that1 though our earthly house were dissolved1 we have a building of ,god4' ,wherefore we are always confident2 and when the ,voice from ,heaven says ',yea6' our choral shout may go up ',amen6 ,thou art the faithful and true witness4' ,,anointed ,,and ,,stablished ',now ,he which stablisheth us with you in ,christ1 and hath anointed us1 is ,god4'--#b ,,cor4 i4 #ba4 ,the connection in which these words occur is a remarkable illustration of the ,apostle's habit of looking at the most trivial things in the light of the highest truths4 ,he had been obliged1 as the context informs us1 to abandon an intended visit to ,corinth4 ,the miserable crew of antagonists1 who yelped at his heels all his life1 seized this change of purpose as the occasion for a double-barrelled charge4 ,they said he was either fickle and infirm of purpose1 or insincere1 and saying ',yea' with one side of his mouth and ',nay' with the other4 ,he rebuts this accusation with apparently quite disproportionate vehemence and great solemnity4 ,he points in the context to the faithfulness of ,god1 to the firm ,gospel which he had preached1 to ,god's great ',yea6' as his answer4 ,he says in effect1 ',how could ,i1 with such a word burning in my heart1 move in a region of equivocation and double-dealing2 or how could ,i1 whose whole being is saturated with so firm and stable a ,gospel1 be unreliable and fickle8 ,the message must make the messenger like itself4 ,communion with a faithful ,god must make faith-keeping men2 the certainties of ,god's ,yea1 and the certitudes of our ,amen1 must influence our characters4' ,and so to suppose that a man1 influenced by ,christianity1 is a weak1 double-dealing1 unsteadfast man is a contradiction in terms4 ,in the text he carries his argument a step further1 and points1 not only to the power of the ,gospel to steady and confirm1 but also to the fact that ,god ,himself communicates to the believing soul ,christian stability by the anointing which ,he bestows4 ,so1 then1 we have in these words the declaration that inflexible1 immovable steadfastness is a mark of a ,christian1 and that this ,christian steadfastness1 without which there is no ,christianity worth the naming1 is a direct gift from ,god ,himself by means of that great anointing which ,he confers upon men4 ,to that thought1 in one or two of its aspects1 ,i ask your attention4 ,i4 ,notice the deep source of this ,christian steadfastness4 ,the language of the original1 carefully considered1 seems to me to bear this interpretation1 that the 'anointing' of the second clause is the means of the 'establishing' of the first--that is to say1 that ,god confers ,christian steadfastness of character by the bestowment of the unction of ,his ,divine ,spirit4 ,now notice how deep ,paul digs in order to get a foundation for a common virtue4 ,there are many ways by which men may cultivate the tenacity and steadfastness of purpose which ought to mark us all4 ,much discipline may be brought to bear in order to secure that2 but the text says that the deepest ground upon which it can be rested is nothing less divine and solemn than this1 the actual communication to men1 to feeble1 vacillating1 fluctuating wills1 and treacherous1 wayward1 wandering hearts1 of the strength and fixedness which are given by ,god's own ,spirit4 ,i suppose ,i need not remind you that from beginning to end of ,scripture1 'anointing' is taken as the symbol of the communication of a true divine influence4 ,the oil poured on the head of prophet1 priest1 and king was but the expression of the communication to the recipient of a divine influence which fitted him as well as designated him1 for the office that he filled4 ,and although it is aside from my present purpose1 ,i may just1 in a sentence1 point to the felicity of the emblem4 ,the flowing oil smoothes the surface upon which it is spread1 supples the limbs1 and is nutritive and illuminating2 thus giving an appropriate emblem of the secret1 silent1 quickening1 nourishing1 enlightening influences of that ,spirit which ,god gives to all ,his sons4 ,and inasmuch as here this oil of the ,divine ,spirit is stated as being the true ground and basis of ,christian steadfastness1 it is obvious that the anointing intended cannot be that of mere designation to1 and inspiration for1 apostolic or other office1 but must be the universal possession of all ,christian men and women4 ',ye1' says another ,apostle1 speaking to the whole democracy of the ,christian ,church1 and not to any little group of selected aristocrats therein--'ye have an unction from the ,holy ,one1' and every man and woman who has a living grasp of the living ,christ1 receives from ,him this great gift4 ,then1 notice further that this anointing by a ,divine ,spirit1 which is a true source of life to those that possess it1 is derived from1 and parallel with1 ,christ's anointing4 ,we use the word ',christ' as a proper name1 and forget what it means4 ,the ',christ' is the ,anointed ,one4 ,and do you think that it was a mere accident1 or the result of a scanty vocabulary1 which compelled the ,apostle1 in these two contiguous clauses1 to use cognate words when he said3--',he that establisheth us with you in the ,anointed1 and hath anointed us1 is ,god'8 ,did he not mean to say thereby1 ',each of you in a very true sense1 if you are a ,christian1 is a ,christ'8 ,you1 too1 are anointed2 you1 too1 are ,god's ,messiahs4 ,on you in a measure the same ,spirit rests which dwelt without measure in ,him4 ,the chief of ,christ's gifts to the ,church is the gift of ,his own life4 ,all ,his brethren are anointed with the oil that was poured upon ,his head1 even as the oil upon ,aaron's locks percolated to the very skirts of his garments4 ,being anointed with the anointing which was on ,him1 all ,his people may claim an identity of nature1 may hope for an identity of destiny1 and are bound to a prolongation of part of ,his function and a similarity of character4 ,if ,he by that anointing was made ,prophet1 ,priest1 and ,king for the world1 all ,his children partake of these offices in subordinate but real fashion1 and are prophets to make ,god known to men1 priests to offer up spiritual sacrifices1 and kings at least over themselves1 and1 if they will1 over a world which obeys and serves those that serve and love ,god4 ,ye are anointed--',messiahs' and ',christs1' by derivation of the life of ,jesus ,christ4 ,and if these things be true1 it is plain enough how this divine unction1 which is granted to all ,christians1 lies at the root of steadfastness4 ,we talk a great deal about the gentleness of ,christ2 we cannot celebrate it too much1 but we may forget that it is the gentleness of strength4 ,we do not sufficiently mark the masculine features in that character1 the tremendous tenacity of will1 the inflexible fixedness of purpose1 the irremovable constancy of obedience in the face of all temptations to the contrary4 ,the figure that rises before us is that of the ,christ yearning over weaklings far oftener than it is that of the ,christ with knitted brow1 and tightened lips1 and far-off gazing eye1 'steadfastly setting ,his face to go to ,jerusalem1' and followed as ,he pressed up the rocky road from ,jericho1 by that wondering group1 astonished at the rigidity of purpose that was stamped on ,his features4 ,that ,christ gives us ,his ,spirit to make us tenacious1 constant1 righteously obstinate1 inflexible in the pursuit of all that is lovely and of good report1 like ,himself4 ,that ,divine ,spirit will cure the fickleness of our natures2 for our wills are never fixed till they are fixed in obedience1 and never free until they elect to serve ,him4 ,that ,divine ,spirit will cure the wandering of our hearts and bind us to ,himself4 ,it will lift us above the selfish and cowardly dependence on externals and surroundings1 men and things1 in which we are all tempted to live4 ,we are all too like aneroid barometers1 that go up and down with every variation of a foot or two in our level1 but if we have the ,spirit of ,christ dwelling in us1 it will cut the bonds that bind us to the world1 and give us possession of a deeper love than can be sustained by1 or is derived from1 these superficial sources4 ,the true possession of the ,divine ,spirit1 if ,i might use such a metaphor1 sets a man on an insulating stool1 and all the currents that move round about him are powerless to reach him4 ,if we have that ,divine ,spirit within us1 it will give us an experience of the preciousness and the truth1 the certitude and the sweetness1 of ,christ's ,gospel1 which will make it impossible that we should ever cast away the confidence which has such 'recompense of reward4' ,no man will be surely bound to the truth and person of ,christ with bonds that cannot be snapped1 except he who in his heart has the knowledge of ,him which is possession1 and by the gift of the ,divine ,spirit is knit to ,jesus ,christ4 ,so1 dear friends1 whilst the world is full of wise words about steadfastness1 and exalts determination of character and fixity of purpose1 rightly1 as the basis of much good1 our ,gospel comes to us poor1 light1 thistledown creatures1 and lets us see how we can be steadfast and settled by being fastened to a steadfast and settled ,christ4 ,when storms are raging they lash light articles on deck to holdfasts4 ,let us lash ourselves to the abiding ,christ1 and we1 too1 shall abide4 ,,ii4 ,in the next place1 notice the aim or purpose of this ,christian steadfastness4 ',he stablisheth us with you in ,christ1' or as the original has it even more significantly1 into or 'unto ,christ4' ,now that seems to me to imply two things--first1 that our steadfastness1 made possible by our possession of that ,divine ,spirit1 is steadfastness in our relations to ,jesus ,christ4 ,we are established in reference or in regard to ,him4 ,in other words1 what ,paul here means is1 first1 a fixed conviction of the truth that ,he is the ,christ1 the ,son of ,god1 the ,saviour of the world1 and my ,saviour4 ,that is the first step4 ,men who are steadfast without their intellect guiding and settling the steadfastness are not steadfast1 but obstinate and pigheaded4 ,we are meant to be guided by our understandings1 and no fixity is anything better than the immobility of a stone1 unless it be based upon a distinct and whole-brained intellectual acceptance of ,jesus ,christ as the ,all-in-all for us1 for life and death1 for inward and outward being4 ,paul means1 next1 a steadfastness in regard to ,christ in our trust and love4 ,surely if from ,him there is for ever streaming out an unbroken flow of tenderness1 there should be ever on our sides an equally unbroken opening of our hearts for the reception of ,his love1 and an equally uninterrupted response to it in our grateful affection4 ,there can be no more damning condemnation of the vacillations and fluctuations of ,christian men's affections than the steadfastness of ,christ's love to them4 ,he loves ever2 ,he is unalterable in the communication and effluence of ,his heart4 ,surely it is most fitting that we should be steadfast in our devotion and answering love to ,him4 ,and ,paul means not only fixedness of intellectual conviction and continuity of loving response1 but also habitual obedience1 which is always ready to do ,his will4 ,so we should answer ,his ',yea6' with our ',amen6' and having an unchanging ,christ to rest upon1 we should rest upon ,him unchanging4 ,the broken1 fluctuating affections and trusts and obediences which mark so much of the average ,christian life of this day are only too sad proofs of how scant our possession of that ,spirit of steadfastness must be supposed to be4 ,god's ',yea' is answered by our faltering ',amen'2 ,god's truth is hesitatingly accepted2 ,god's love is partially returned2 ,god's work is slothfully and negligently done4 ',be ye steadfast1 unmovable1 always abounding in the work of the ,lord4' ,another thought is suggested by these words--viz4 that such steadfastness as we have been trying to describe has for its result a deeper penetration into ,jesus ,christ and a fuller possession of ,him4 ,the only way by which we can grow nearer and nearer to our ,lord is by steadfastly keeping beside ,him4 ,you cannot get the spirit of a landscape unless you sit down and gaze1 and let it soak into you4 ,the cheap tripper never sees the lake4 ,you cannot get to know a man until you summer and winter with him4 ,no subject worth studying opens itself to the hasty glance4 ,was it not ,sir ,isaac ,newton who used to say1 ',i have no genius1 but ,i keep a subject before me'8 ',abide in ,me2 as the branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine1 no more can ye except ye abide in ,me4' ,continuous1 steadfast adhesion to ,him is the condition of growing up into ,his likeness1 and receiving more and more of ,his beauty into our waiting hearts4 ',wait on the ,lord2 wait1 ,i say1 on the ,lord4' ,,iii4 ,lastly1 notice the very humble and commonplace sphere in which the ,christian steadfastness manifests itself4 ,it was nothing of more importance than that ,paul had said he was going to ,corinth1 and did not1 on which he brings all this array of great principles to bear4 ,from which ,i gather just this thought1 that the highest gifts of ,god's grace and the greatest truths of ,god's ,word are meant to regulate the tiniest things in our daily life4 ,it is no degradation to the lightning to have to carry messages4 ,it is no profanation of the sun to gather its rays into a burning glass to light a kitchen fire with4 ,and it is no unworthy use of the ,divine ,spirit that ,god gives to ,his children1 to say it will keep a man from hasty and precipitate decisions as to little things in life1 and from chopping and changing about1 with a levity of purpose and without a sufficient reason4 ,if our religion is not going to influence the trifles1 what is it going to influence8 ,our life is made up of trifles1 and if these are not its field1 where is its field8 ,you may be quite sure that1 if your religion does not influence the little things1 it will never influence the great ones4 ,if it has not power enough to guide the horses when they are at a slow1 sober walk1 what do you think it will do when they are at a gallop and plunging8 ',he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much4' ,so let us see to two things--first1 that all our religion is worked into our life1 for only so much of it as is so inwrought is our religion--and1 second1 that all our life is brought under the sway of motives derived from our religion3 for only in proportion as it is1 will it be pure and good4 ,and as regards this special virtue and prime quality of steadfastness and fixedness of purpose1 you can do no good in the world without it4 ,unless a man can hold his own1 and turn an obstinate negative to the temptations that lie thick about him1 he will never come to any good at all1 either in this life or in the next4 ,the basis of all excellence is a wholesome disregard of externals1 and the cultivation of a strong self-reliant and self-centred1 because ,god-trusting and ,christ-centred1 will4 ,and ,i tell you1 especially you young men and women1 if you want to do or be anything worth doing or being1 you must try to get your natures hardened into being 'steadfast1 unmovable4' ,there is only one infallible way of doing it1 and that is to let the 'strong ,son of ,god' live in you1 and in ,him to find your strength for resistance1 your strength for obedience1 your strength for submission4 ',i have set the ,lord always before me2 because ,he is at my right hand1 ,i shall not be moved4' ,there are two types of men in the world4 ,the one has his emblem in the chaff1 rootless1 with no hold1 swept out of the threshing-floor by every gust of wind4 ,that the picture of many whose principles lie at the mercy of the babble of tongues round about them1 whose rectitude goes at a puff of temptation1 like the smoke out of a chimney when the wind blows2 who have no will for what is good1 but live as it happens4 ,the other type of man has his emblem in the tree1 rooted deep1 and therefore rising high1 with its roots going as far underground as its branches spread in the blue1 and therefore green of leaf and rich of fruit ',we are made partakers of ,christ if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence1 steadfast until the end4' ,,seal ,,and ,,earnest ',who hath also sealed us1 and given the earnest of the ,spirit in our hearts4'--#b ,,cor4 i4 #bc4 ,there are three strong metaphors in this and the preceding verse--'anointing1' 'sealing1' and 'giving the earnest'--all of which find their reality in the same divine act4 ,these three metaphors all refer to the same subject1 and what that subject is is sufficiently explained in the last of them4 ,the 'earnest' consists of 'the ,spirit in our hearts1' and the same explanation might have been appended to both the preceding clauses1 for the 'anointing' is the anointing of the ,spirit1 and the 'seal' is the seal of the ,spirit4 ,further1 these three metaphors all refer to one and the same act4 ,they are not three things1 but three aspects of one thing1 just as a sunbeam might be regarded either as the source of warmth1 or of light1 or of chemical action4 ,so the one gift of the one ,spirit1 'anoints1' 'seals1' and is the 'earnest4' ,further1 these three metaphors all declare a universal prerogative of ,christians4 ,every man that loves ,jesus ,christ has the ,spirit in the measure of his faith1' and if any man have not the ,spirit of ,christ he is none of ,his4' ,i4 ,note the first metaphor in the text--the 'seal' of the ,spirit4 ,a seal is impressed upon a recipient material made soft by warmth1 in order to leave there a copy of itself4 ,now it is not fanciful1 nor riding a metaphor to death1 when ,i dwell upon these features of the emblem in order to suggest their analogies in ,christian life4 ,the ,spirit of ,god comes into our spirits1 and by gentle contact impresses upon the material1 which was intractable until it was melted by the genial warmth of faith and love1 the likeness of ,himself1 but yet so as that prominences correspond to the hollows1 and what is in relief in the one is sunk in the other4 ,expand that general statement for a moment or two4 ,the effect of all the divine indwelling1 which is the characteristic gift of ,christ to every ,christian soul1 is to mould the recipient into the image of the divine inhabitant4 ,there is in the human spirit--such are its dignity amidst its ruins1 and its nobility shining through its degradation--a capacity of receiving that image of ,god which consists not only in voluntary and intelligent action and the consciousness of personal being1 but in the love of the things that are fair1 and in righteousness1 and true holiness4 ,his ,spirit1 entering into a heart1 will make that heart wise with its own wisdom1 strong with some infusion of its own strength1 gracious with some drops of its own grace1 gentle with some softening from its own gentleness1 holy with some purity reflected from its own transcendent whiteness4 ,the ,spirit1 which is life1 moulds the heart into which it enters to a kindred1 and1 therefore1 similar life4 ,there are1 however1 characteristics in this 'seal' of the ,spirit which are not so much copies as correspondences4 ,that is to say1 just as what is convex in the seal is concave in the impression1 and vice vers1 so1 when that ,divine ,spirit comes into our spirits1 its promises will excite faith1 its gifts will breed desire2 to every bestowment there will answer an opening receptivity4 ,recipient love will correspond to the love that longs to dispense1 the sense of need to the divine fulness and sufficiency1 emptiness to abundance1 prayers to promises2 the cry ',abba6 ,father'6 the yearning consciousness of sonship1 to the word ',thou art ,my ,son'2 and the upward eye of aspiration and petition1 and necessity1 and waiting1 to the downward glance of love bestowing itself4 ,the open heart answers to the extended hand1 and the seal which ,god's ,spirit impresses upon the heart that is submitted to it1 has the two-fold character of resemblance in moral nature and righteousness1 and of correspondence as regards the mysteries of the converse between the recipient man and the giving ,god4 ,then1 mark that the material is made capable of receiving the stamp1 because it is warmed and softened4 ,that is to say1 faith must prepare the heart for the sanctifying indwelling of that ,divine ,spirit4 ,the hard wax may be struck with the seal1 but it leaves no trace4 ,god does not do with man as the coiner does with his blanks1 put them cold into a press1 and by violence from without stamp an image upon them1 but ,he does as men do with a seal1 warms the wax first1 and then1 with a gentle1 firm touch1 leaves the likeness there4 ,so1 brother6 learn this lesson3 if you wish to be good1 lie under the contact of the ,spirit of righteousness1 and see that your heart is warm4 ,still further1 note that this aggregate of ,christian character1 in likeness and correspondence1 is the true sign that we belong to ,god4 ,the seal is the mark of ownership1 is it not8 ,where the broad arrow has been impressed1 everybody knows that that is royal property4 ,and so this seal of ,god's ,divine ,spirit1 in its effects upon my character1 is the one token to myself and to other people that ,i belong to ,god1 and that ,he belongs to me4 ,or1 to put it into plain ,english1 the best reason for any man's being regarded as a ,christian is his possession of the likeness and correspondence to ,god which that ,divine ,spirit gives4 ,likeness and correspondence1 ,i say1 for the one class of results is the more open for the observation of the world1 and the other class is of the more value for ourselves4 ,i believe that ,christian people ought to have1 and are meant by that ,divine ,spirit dwelling in them to have1 a consciousness that they are ,christians and ,god's children1 for their own peace and rest and joy4 ,but you cannot use that in demonstration to other people2 you may be as sure of it as you will1 in your inmost hearts1 but it is no sign to anybody else4 ,and1 on the other hand1 there may be much of outward virtue and beauty of character which may lead other people to say about a man3 ',that is a good ,christian man1 at any rate1' and yet there may be in the heart an all but absolute absence of any joyful assurance that we are ,christ's1 and that ,he belongs to us4 ,so the two facts must go together4 ,correspondence1 the spirit of sonship which meets ,his taking us as sons1 the faith which clasps the promise1 the reception which welcomes bestowment1 must be stamped upon the inward life4 ,for the outward life there must be the manifest impress of righteousness upon my actions1 if there is to be any real seal and token that ,i belong to ,him4 ,god writes ,his own name upon the men that are ,his4 ,all their goodness1 their gentleness1 patience1 hatred of evil1 energy and strenuousness in service1 submission in suffering1 with whatsoever other radiance of human virtue may belong to them1 are really ',his mark6' ,there is no other worth talking about1 and to you ,christian men ,i come and say1 ,be very sure that your professions of inward communion and happy consciousness that you are ,christ's are verified to yourself and to others by a plain outward life of righteousness like the ,lord's4 ,have you got that seal stamped upon your lives1 like the hall-mark that says1 ',this is genuine silver1 and no plated ,brummagem stuff'8 ,have you got that seal of a visible righteousness and every-day purity to confirm your assertion that you belong to ,christ8 ,is it woven into the whole length of your being1 like the scarlet thread that is spun into every ,admiralty cable as a sign that it is ,crown property8 ,god's seal1 visible to me and to nobody else1 is my consciousness that ,i am ,his2 but that consciousness is vindicated and delivered from the possibility of illusion or hypocrisy1 only when it is checked and fortified by the outward evidence of the holy life which the ,spirit of ,god has wrought4 ,further1 this sealing1 which is thus the token of ,god's ownership1 is also the pledge of security4 ,a seal is stamped in order that there may be no tampering with what it seals2 that it may be kept safe from all assaults1 thieves1 and violence4 ,and in the metaphor of our text there is included this thought1 too1 which is also of an intensely practical nature4 ,for it just comes to this--our true guarantee that we shall come at last into the sweet security and safety of the perfect state is present likeness to the indwelling ,spirit and present reception of divine grace4 ,the seal is the pledge of security1 just because it is the mark of ownership4 ,when1 by ,god's ,spirit dwelling in us1 we are led to love the things that are fair1 and to long after more possession of whatever things are of good report1 that is like ,god's hoisting ,his flag upon a newly-annexed territory4 ,and is ,he going to be so careless in the preservation of ,his property as that ,he will allow that which is thus acquired to slip away from ,him8 ,does ,he account us as of so small value as to hold us with so slack a hand8 ,but no man has a right to rest on the assurance of ,god's saving him into the heavenly kingdom1 unless ,he is saving him at this moment from the devil and his own evil heart4 ,and1 therefore1 ,i say the ,christian character1 in its outward manifestations and in its sweet inward secrets of communion1 is the guarantee that we shall not fall4 ,rest upon ,him1 and ,he will hold you up4 ,we are 'kept by the power of ,god unto salvation1' and that power keeps us and that final salvation becomes ours1 'through faith4' ,,ii4 ,now1 secondly1 turn to the other emblem1 that 'earnest' which consists in like manner 'of the ,spirit4' ,the 'earnest1' of course1 is a small portion of purchase-money1 or wages1 or contract-money1 which is given at the making of a bargain1 as an assurance that the whole amount will be paid in due time4 ,and1 says the ,apostle1 this seal is also an earnest4 ,it not only makes certain ,god's ownership and guarantees the security of those on whom it is impressed1 but it also points onwards to the future1 and at once guarantees that1 and to a large extent reveals the nature of it4 ,so1 then1 we have here two thoughts on which ,i touch4 ,the ,christian character and experience are the earnest of the inheritance1 in the sense of being its guarantee1 inasmuch as the experiences of the ,christian life here are plainly immortal4 ,the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ from the dead is the objective and external proof of a future life4 ,the facts of the ,christian life1 its aspirations1 its communion1 its clasp of ,god as its very own1 are the subjective and inward proofs of a future life4 ,as a matter of fact1 if you will take the ,old ,testament1 you will see that the highest summits in it1 to which the hope of immortality soared1 spring directly from the experience of deep and blessed communion with the living ,god4 ,when the ,psalmist said ',thou wilt not leave my soul in ,sheol2 neither wilt ,thou suffer ,thy ,holy ,one to see corruption1' he was speaking a conviction that had been floated into his mind on the crest of a great wave of religious enjoyment and communion4 ,and1 in like manner1 when the other ,psalmist said1 ',thou art the strength of my heart1 and my portion for ever1' he was speaking of the glimpse that he had got of the land that was very far off1 from the height which he had climbed on the ,mount of fellowship with ,god4 ,and for us1 ,i suppose that the same experience holds good4 ,howsoever much we may say that we believe in a future life and in a heaven1 we really grasp them as facts that will be true about ourselves1 in the proportion in which we are living here in direct contact and communion with ,god4 ,the conviction of immortality is the distinct and direct result of the present enjoyment of communion with ,him1 and it is a reasonable result4 ,no man who has known what it is to turn himself to ,god with a glow of humble love1 and to feel that he is not turning his face to vacuity1 but to a ,face that looks on him with love1 can believe that anything can ever come to destroy that communion4 ,what have faith1 love1 aspiration1 resignation1 fellowship with ,god1 to do with death8 ,they cannot be cut through with the stroke that destroys physical life1 any more than you can divide a sunbeam with a sword4 ,it unites again1 and the impotent edge passes through and has effected nothing4 ,death can shear asunder many bonds1 but that invisible bond that unites the soul to ,god is of adamant1 against which his scythe is in vain4 ,death is the grim porter that opens the door of a dark hole and herds us into it as sheep are driven into a slaughter-house4 ,but to those who have learned what it is to lay a trusting hand in ,god's hand1 the grim porter is turned into the gentle damsel1 who keeps the door1 and opens it for light and warmth and safety to the hunted prisoner that has escaped from the dungeon of life4 ,death cannot touch communion1 and the consciousness of communion with ,god is the earnest of the inheritance4 ,it is so for another reason also4 ,all the results of the ,divine ,spirit's sealing of the soul are manifestly incomplete1 and as manifestly tend towards completeness4 ,the engine is clearly working now at half-speed4 ,it is obviously capable of much higher pressure than it is going at now4 ,those powers in the ,christian man can plainly do a great deal more than they ever have done here1 and are meant to do a great deal more4 ,is this imperfect ,christianity of ours1 our little faith so soon shattered1 our little love so quickly disproved1 our faltering resolutions1 our lame performances1 our earthward cleavings--are these things all that ,jesus ,christ's bitter agony was for1 and all that a ,divine ,spirit is able to make of us8 ,manifestly1 here is but a segment of the circle1 in heaven is the perfect round2 and the imperfections1 so far as life is concerned1 in the work of so obviously divine an ,agent1 cry aloud for a region where tendency shall become result1 and all that it was possible for ,him to make us we shall become4 ,the road evidently leads upwards1 and round that sharp corner where the black rocks come so near each other and our eyesight cannot travel1 we may be sure it goes steadily up still to the top of the pass1 until it reaches 'the shining table-lands whereof our ,god ,himself is ,sun and ,moon1' and brings us all to the city set on a hill4 ,and1 further1 that divine seal is the earnest1 inasmuch as itself is part of the whole4 ,the truest and the loftiest conception that we can form of heaven is as being the perfecting of the religious experience of earth4 ,the shilling or two1 given to the servant in old-fashioned days1 when he was hired1 is of the same currency as the balance that he is to get when the year's work is done4 ,the small payment to-day comes out of the same purse1 and is coined out of the same specie1 and is part of the same currency of the same kingdom1 as what we get when we go yonder and count the endless riches to which we have fallen heirs at last4 ,you have but to take the faith1 the love1 the obedience1 the communion of the highest moments of the ,christian life on earth1 and free them from all their limitations1 subtract from them all their imperfections1 multiply them to their superlative possibility1 and endow them with a continual power of growth1 and stretch them out to absolute eternity1 and you get heaven4 ,the earnest is of a piece with the inheritance4 ,so1 dear brethren1 here is a gift offered for us all1 a gift which our feebleness sorely needs1 a gift for every timid nature1 for every weak will1 for every man1 woman1 and child beset with snares and fighting with heavy tasks1 the offer of a reinforcement as real and as sure to bring victory as when1 on that day when the fate of ,europe was determined1 after long hours of conflict1 the ,prussian bugles blew1 and the ,english commander knew that 7with the fresh troops that came on the field7 victory was made certain4 ,so you and ,i may have in our hearts the ,spirit of ,god1 the spirit of strength1 the spirit of love and of a sound mind1 the spirit of adoption1 the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of ,him1 to enlighten our darkness1 to bind our hearts to ,him1 to quicken and energise our souls1 to make the weakest among us strong1 and the strong as an angel of ,god4 ,and the condition on which we may get it is this simple one which the ,apostle lays down2 ',after that ye believed1 ye were sealed with that ,holy ,spirit of promise1 which is the earnest of our inheritance4' ,the ,christ1 who is the ,lord and ,giver of the ,spirit1 has shown us how its blessed influences may be ours when1 on the great day of the feast1 ,he stood and cried with a voice that echoes across the centuries1 and is meant for each of us1 ',if any man thirsts1 let him come unto ,me and drink4 ,he that believeth in ,me1 out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water4 ,this spake ,he of the ,spirit which they that believe or ,him should receive4' ,,the ,,triumphal ,,procession ',thanks be unto ,god1 which always leadeth us in triumph in ,christ and maketh manifest through us the savour of ,his knowledge in every place4'--#b ,,cor4 ii4 #ad 7,r4,v47 ,i suppose most of us have some knowledge of what a ,roman ,triumph was1 and can picture to ourselves the long procession1 the victorious general in his chariot with its white horses1 the laurelled soldiers1 the sullen captives1 with suppressed hate flashing in their sunken eyes1 the wreathing clouds of incense that went up into the blue sky1 and the shouting multitude of spectators4 ,that is the picture in the ,apostle's mind here4 ,the ,revised ,version correctly alters the translation into ',thanks unto ,god which always leadeth us in triumph in ,christ4' ,paul thinks of himself and of his coadjutors in ,christian work as being conquered captives1 made to follow their ,conqueror and to swell ,his triumph4 ,he is thankful to be so overcome4 ,what was deepest degradation is to him supreme honour4 ,curses in many a strange tongue would break from the lips of the prisoners who had to follow the general's victorious chariot4 ,but from ,paul's lips comes irrepressible praise2 he joins in the shout of acclamation to the ,conqueror4 ,and then he passes on to another of the parts of the ceremonial4 ,as the wreathing incense appealed at once to two senses1 and was visible in its curling clouds of smoke1 and likewise fragrant to the nostrils1 so says ,paul1 with a singular combination of expression1 ',he maketh manifest1' that is visible1 the savour of ,his knowledge4 ,from a heart kindled by the flame of the divine love there will go up the odour of a holy life visible and fragrant1 sweet and fair4 ,and thus all ,christians1 and not ,christian workers only in the narrower sense of the word1 who may be doing evangelistic work1 have set before them in these great words the very ideal and secret of their lives4 ,there are three things here1 on each of which ,i touch as belonging to the true notion of a ,christian life--the conquered captive2 that captive partaking in the triumph of his ,conqueror2 and the conquered captive led as a trophy and a witness to the ,conqueror's power4 ,these three things1 ,i think1 explain the ,apostle's thoughts here4 ,let me deal with them now4 ,i4 ,first then1 let us look at that thought of all ,christians being in the truest sense conquered captives1 bound to the chariot wheels of ,one who has overcome them4 ,the image implies a prior state of hostility and alienation4 ,now1 do not let us exaggerate1 let us take ,paul's own experience4 ,he is speaking about himself here2 he is not talking doctrine1 he is giving us autobiography1 and he says1 ',i was an enemy1 and ,i have been conquered4' ,what sort of an enemy was he8 ,well6 ,he says that before he became a ,christian he lived a pure1 virtuous1 respectable life4 ,he was a man 'as touching the righteousness which is in the law1 blameless4' ,observant of all relative duties1 sober1 temperate1 chaste2 no man could say a word against him2 he knew nothing against himself4 ,his conscience acquitted him of wrong3 ',i thought ,i ought to do many things1' as ,i did them4 ,and yet1 looking back from his present point of view upon a life thus adorned with many virtues1 pure from all manifest corruption1 to a large extent regulated by conscientious and religious motives of a kind1 he says1 ',notwithstanding all that1 ,i was an enemy4' ,why8 ,because the retrospect let him see that his life was barren of the deepest faith and the purest love4 ,and so ,i come to some of my friends here now1 and ,i say to you1 ',change the name1 and the story is true about you1' respectable people1 who are trying to live pure and righteous lives1 doing all duties that present themselves to you with a very tolerable measure of completeness and abominating and trying to keep yourselves from the things that your consciences tell you are wrong1 yet needing to be conquered1 in the deepest recesses of your wills and your hearts1 before you become the true subjects of the true ,king4 ,i do not want to exaggerate1 nor to say of the ordinary run of people who listen to us preachers1 that they commit manifest sins1 'gross as a mountain1 open1 palpable4' ,some of you do1 no doubt1 for1 in every hundred people1 there are always some whose lives are foul and whose memories are stained and horrible2 but the run of you are not like that4 ,and yet ,i ask you1 has your will been bowed and broken1 and your heart overcome and conquered by this mighty ,prince1 the ,prince of ,peace1 the ,prince of ,life8 ,unless it has1 for all your righteousness and respectability1 for all your outward religion and real religiousness of a sort1 you are still hostile and rebellious1 in your inmost hearts4 ,that is the basis of the representation of my text4 ,what else does it suggest8 ,it suggests the wonderful struggle and victory of weaponless love4 ,as was said about the first ,christian emperor1 so it may be said about the great ,emperor in the heavens1 ',in hoc signo vinces6' ,by this sign thou shalt conquer4 ,for ,his only weapon is the ,cross of ,his ,son1 and ,he fights only by the manifestation of infinite love1 sacrifice1 suffering1 and pity4 ,he conquers as the sun conquers the thick-ribbed ice by raying down its heat upon it1 and melting it into sweet water4 ,so ,god in ,christ fights against the mountains of man's cold1 hard sinfulness and alienation1 and by the warmth of ,his own radiation turns them all into rivers that flow in love and praise4 ,he conquers simply by forbearance and pity and love4 ,and what more does this first part of my text say to us8 ,it tells us1 too1 of the true submission of the conquered captive2 how we are conquered when we perceive and receive ,his love2 how there is nothing else needed to win us all for ,him except only that we shall recognise ,his great love to us4 ,this picture of the triumph comes with a solemn appeal and commandment to every one of us professing ,christians4 ,think of these men1 dragged at the conqueror's chariot-wheels1 abject1 with their weapons broken1 with their resistance quelled1 chained1 yoked1 haled away from their own land1 dependant for life or death on the caprice of the general who rode before them there4 ,it is a picture of what you ,christian men and women are bound to be if you believe that ,god in ,christ has loved you as we have been saying that ,he does4 ,for abject submission1 unconditional surrender1 the yielding up of our whole will to ,him1 the yielding of all our possessions as ,his vassals--these are the duties that are correspondent to the facts of the case4 ,if we are thus won by infinite love1 and not our own1 but bought with a price1 no conquered king1 dragged at an emperor's chariot-wheels1 was ever half as absolutely and abjectly bound to be his slave1 and to live or die by his breath1 as you are bound to your ,master4 ,you are ,christians in the measure in which you are the captives of ,his spear and of ,his bow2 in the measure in which you hold your territories as vassal kings1 in the measure in which you say1 stretching out your willing hands for the fetters1 ',lord6 here am ,i1 do with me as ,thou wilt4' ',i am not mine own2 be ,thou my will1 my ,emperor1 my ,commander1 my all4' ,loyola used to say1 as the law of his order1 that every man that became a member of the ,society of ,jesus was to be like as a staff in a man's hand1 or like as a corpse4 ,it was a blasphemous and wicked claim1 but it is but a poor fragmentary statement of the truth about those of us who enter the real ,society of ,jesus1 and put ourselves in ,his hands to be wielded as ,his staff and ,his rod1 and submit ourselves to ,him1 not as a corpse1 but yield yourselves to our ,christ 'as those that are alive from the dead4' ,,ii4 ,now we have here1 as part of the ideal of the ,christian life1 the conquered captives partaking in the triumph of their general4 ,two groups made up the triumphal procession--the one that of the soldiers who had fought for1 the other that of the prisoners who had fought against1 the leader4 ,and some commentators are inclined to believe that the ,apostle is here thinking of himself and his fellows as belonging to the conquering army1 and not to the conquered enemy4 ,that seems to me to be less probable and in accordance with the whole image than the explanation which ,i have adopted4 ,but be that as it may1 it suggests to us this thought1 that in the deepest reality in that ,christian life of which all this metaphor is but the expression1 they who are conquered foes become conquering allies4 ,or1 to put it into other words--to be triumphed over by ,christ is to triumph with ,christ4 ,and the praise which breaks from the ,apostle's lips suggests the same idea4 ,he pours out his thanks for that which he recognises as being no degradation but an honour1 and a participation in his ,conqueror's triumph4 ,we may illustrate that thought1 that to be triumphed over by ,christ is to triumph with ,christ1 by such considerations as these4 ,this submission of which ,i have been speaking1 abject and unconditional1 extending to life and death1 this submission and captivity is but another name for liberty4 ,the man who is absolutely dependent upon ,jesus ,christ is absolutely independent of everything and everybody besides1 himself included4 ,that is to say1 to be ,his slave is to be everybody else's master1 and when we bow ourselves to ,him1 and take upon us the chains of glad obedience1 and life-deep as well as life-long consecration1 then ,he breaks off all other chains from our hands1 and will not suffer that any others should have a share with ,him in the possession of ,his servant4 ,if you are ,his servants you are free from all besides2 if you give yourselves up to ,jesus ,christ1 in the measure in which you give yourselves up to ,him1 you will be set at liberty from the worst of all slaveries1 that is the slavery of your own will and your own weakness1 and your own tastes and fancies4 ,you will be set at liberty from dependence upon men1 from thinking about their opinion4 ,you will be set at liberty from your dependence upon externals1 from feeling as if you could not live unless you had this1 that1 or the other person or thing4 ,you will be emancipated from fears and hopes which torture the men who strike their roots no deeper than this visible film of time which floats upon the surface of the great1 invisible abyss of ,eternity4 ,if you have ,christ for your ,master you will be the masters of the world1 and of time and sense and men and all besides2 and so1 being triumphed over by ,him1 you will share in ,his triumph4 ,and again1 we may illustrate the same principle in yet another way4 ,such absolute and entire submission of will and love as ,i have been speaking about is the highest honour of a man4 ,it was a degradation to be dragged at the chariot-wheels of conquering general1 emperor1 or consul--it broke the heart of many a barbarian king1 and led some of them to suicide rather than face the degradation4 ,it is a degradation to submit ourselves1 even as much as many of us do1 to the domination of human authorities1 or to depend upon men as much as many of us do for our completeness and our satisfaction4 ,but it is the highest ennobling of humanity that it shall lay itself down at ,christ's feet1 and let ,him put ,his foot upon its neck4 ,it is the exaltation of human nature to submit to ,christ4 ,the true nobility are those that 'come over with the ,conqueror4' ,when we yield ourselves to ,him1 and let ,him be our ,king1 then the patent of nobility is given to us1 and we are lifted in the scale of being4 ,all our powers and faculties are heightened in their exercise1 and made more blessed in their employment1 because we have bowed ourselves to ,his control4 ,and so to be triumphed over by ,christ is to triumph with ,christ4 ,and the same thought may be yet further illustrated4 ,that submission which ,i have been speaking about so unites us to our ,lord that we share in all that belongs to ,him and thus partake in ,his triumph4 ,if in will and heart we have yielded ourselves to ,him1 he that is thus joined to the ,lord is one spirit1 and all 'mine is ,thine1 and all ,thine is mine4' ,he is the ,heir of all things1 and all things of which ,he is the ,heir are our possession4 ',all things are yours1 and ye are ,christ's4' ,thus ,his dominion is the dominion of all that love ,him1 and ,his heritage is the heritage of all those that have joined themselves to ,him2 and no sparkle of the glory that falls upon ,his head but is reflected on the heads of ,his servants4 ,the 'many crowns' that ,he wears are the crowns with which ,he crowns ,his followers4 ,thus1 my brother1 to be overcome by ,god is to overcome the world1 to be triumphed over by ,christ is to share in ,his triumph2 and he over whom ,incarnate ,love wins the victory1 like the patriarch of old in his mystical struggle1 conquers in the hour of surrender2 and to him it is said3 ',as a prince thou hast power with ,god and hast prevailed4' ,,iii4 ,lastly1 a further picture of the ideal of the ,christian life is set before us here in the thought of these conquered captives being led as the trophies and the witnesses of ,his overcoming power4 ,that idea is suggested by both halves of our verse4 ,both the emblem of the ,apostle as marching in the triumphal procession1 and the emblem of the ,apostle as yielding from his burning heart the fragrant visible odour of the ascending incense1 convey the same idea1 viz4 that one great purpose which ,jesus ,christ has in conquering men for ,himself1 and binding them to ,his chariot wheels1 is that from them may go forth the witness of ,his power and the knowledge of ,his name4 ,that opens very wide subjects for our consideration which ,i can only very briefly touch upon4 ,let me just for an instant dwell upon some of them4 ,first1 the fact that ,jesus ,christ1 by ,his ,cross and ,passion1 is able to conquer men's wills1 and to bind men's hearts to ,him1 is the highest proof of ,his power4 ,it is an entirely unique thing in the history of the world4 ,there is nothing the least like it anywhere else4 ,the passionate attachment which this dead ,galilean peasant is able to evoke in the hearts of people all these centuries after ,his death1 is an unheard of and an unparalleled thing4 ,all other teachers 'serve their generations by the will of ,god1' and then their names become speedily less and less powerful1 and thicker and thicker mists of oblivion wrap them round until they disappear4 ,but time has no power over ,christ's influence4 ,the bond which binds you and me to ,him nineteen centuries after ,his death is the very same in quality as1 and in degree is often far deeper and stronger than1 the bond which united to ,him the men that had seen ,him4 ,it stands as an unique fact in the history of the world1 that from ,christ of ,nazareth there rays out through all the ages the spiritual power which absolutely takes possession of men1 dominates them and turns them into ,his organs and instruments4 ,this generation prides itself upon testing all things by an utilitarian test1 and about every system says3--',well1 let us see it working4' ,and ,i do not think that ,christianity need shrink from the test4 ,with all its imperfections1 the long procession of holy men and women who1 for nineteen centuries1 have been marching through history1 owning ,christ as their ,conqueror1 and ascribing all their goodness to ,him1 is a witness to ,his power to sway and to satisfy men1 the force of whose testimony it is hard to overthrow4 ,and ,i would like to ask the simple question3 ,will any system of belief or of no belief1 except the faith in ,christ's atoning sacrifice1 do the like for men8 ,he leads through the world the train of ,his captives1 the evidence of ,his conquests4 ,and then1 further1 let me remind you that out of this representation there comes a very stimulating and solemn suggestion of duty for us ,christian people4 ,we are bound to live1 setting forth whose we are1 and what ,he has done for us4 ,just as the triumphal procession took its path up the ,appian ,way and along the side of the ,forum to the altar of the ,capitol1 wreathed about by curling clouds of fragrant incense1 so we should march through the world encompassed by the sweet and fragrant odour of ,his name1 witnessing for ,him by word1 witnessing for ,him by character1 speaking for ,him and living like ,him1 showing in our life that ,he rules us1 and professing by our words that ,he does2 and so should manifest ,his power4 ,still further1 ,paul's thanksgiving teaches us that we should be thankful for all opportunities of doing such work4 ,christian men and women often grudge their services and grudge their money1 and feel as if the necessities for doing ,christian work in the world were rather a burden than an honour4 ,this man's generous heart was so full of love to his ,prince that it glowed with thankfulness at the thought that ,christ had let him do such things for ,him4 ,and ,he lets you do them if you will4 ,so1 dear friends1 it comes to be a very solemn question for us4 ,what part are we playing in that great triumphal procession8 ,we are all of us marching at ,his chariot wheels1 whether we know it or not4 ,but there were two sets of people in the old triumph4 ,there were those who were conquered by force and unconquered in heart1 and out of their eyes gleamed unquenchable malice and hatred1 though their weapons were broken and their arms fettered4 ,and there were those who1 having shared in the commander's fight1 shared in his triumph and rejoiced in his rule4 ,and when the procession reached the gate of the temple1 some1 at any rate1 of the former class were put to death before the gates4 ,i pray you to remember that if we are dragged after ,him reluctantly1 the word will come3 ',these1 mine enemies1 which would not that ,i should reign over them1 bring hither and slay them before ,me4' ,whereas1 on the other hand1 for those who have yielded heart and soul to ,him in love and submission born of the reception of ,his great love1 the blessed word will come3 ',he that overcometh shall inherit all things4' ,which of the two parts of the procession do you belong to1 my friend8 ,make your choice where you shall march1 and whether you will be ,his loyal allies and soldiers who share in ,his triumph1 or ,his enemies1 who1 overcome by ,his power1 are not melted by ,his love4 ,the one live1 the other perish4 ,,transformation ,,by ,,beholding ',we all1 with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the ,lord1 are changed into the same image4'--#b ,,cor4 iii4 #ah4 ,this whole section of the ,epistle in which our text occurs is a remarkable instance of the fervid richness of the ,apostle's mind1 which acquires force by motion1 and1 like a chariot-wheel1 catches fire as it revolves4 ,one of the most obvious peculiarities of his style is his habit of 'going off at a word4' ,each thought is1 as it were1 barbed all round1 and catches and draws into sight a multitude of others1 but slightly related to the main purpose in hand4 ,and this characteristic gives at first sight an appearance of confusion to his writings4 ,but it is not confusion1 it is richness4 ,the luxuriant underwood which this fertile soil bears1 as some tropical forest1 does not choke the great trees1 though it drapes them4 ,paul's immediate purpose seems to be to illustrate the frank openness which ought to mark the ministry of ,christianity4 ,he does this by reference to the veil which ,moses wore when he came forth from talking with ,god4 ,there1 he says in effect1 we have a picture of the ,old ,dispensation--a partial revelation1 gleaming through a veil1 flashing through symbols1 expressed here in a rite1 there in a type1 there again in an obscure prophecy1 but never or scarcely ever fronting the world with an unveiled face and the light of ,god shining clear from it4 ,christianity is1 and ,christian teachers ought to be1 the opposite of all this4 ,it has1 and they are to have1 no esoteric doctrines1 no hints where plain speech is possible1 no reserve1 no use of symbols and ceremonies to overlay truth1 but an intelligible revelation in words and deeds1 to men's understandings4 ,it and they are plentifully to declare the thing as it is4 ,but he gets far beyond this point in his uses of his illustration4 ,it opens out into a series of contrasts between the two revelations4 ,the veiled ,moses represents the clouded revelation of old4 ,the vanishing gleam on his face recalls the fading glories of that which was abolished2 and then1 by a quick turn of association1 ,paul thinks of the veiled readers in the synagogues1 copies1 as it were1 of the lawgiver with the shrouded countenance2 only too significant images of the souls obscured by prejudice and obstinate unbelief1 with which ,israel trifles over the uncomprehended letter of the old law4 ,the contrast to all this lies in our text4 ,judaism had the one lawgiver who beheld ,god1 while the people tarried below4 ,christianity leads us all1 to the mount of vision1 and lets the lowliest pass through the fences1 and go up where the blazing glory is seen4 ,moses veiled the face that shone with the irradiation of ,deity4 ,we with unveiled face are to shine among men4 ,he had a momentary gleam1 a transient brightness2 we have a perpetual light4 ,moses' face shone1 but the lustre was but skin deep4 ,but the light that we have is inward1 and works transformation into its own likeness4 ,so there is here set forth the very loftiest conception of the ,christian life as direct vision1 universal1 manifest to men1 permanent1 transforming4 ,i4 ,note then1 first1 that the ,christian life is a life of contemplating and reflecting ,christ4 ,it is a question whether the single word rendered in our version 'beholding as in a glass1' means that1 or 'reflecting as a glass does4' ,the latter seems more in accordance with the requirements of the context1 and with the truth of the matter in hand4 ,unless we bring in the notion of reflected lustre1 we do not get any parallel with the case of ,moses4 ,looking into a glass does not in the least correspond with the allusion1 which gave occasion to the whole section1 to the glory of ,god smiting him on the face1 till the reflected lustre with which it glowed became dazzling1 and needed to be hid4 ,and again1 if ,paul is here describing ,christian vision of ,god as only indirect1 as in a mirror1 then that would be a point of inferiority in us as compared with ,moses1 who saw ,him face to face4 ,but the whole tone of the context prepares us to expect a setting forth of the particulars in which the ,christian attitude towards the manifested ,god is above the ,jewish4 ,so1 on the whole1 it seems better to suppose that ,paul meant 'mirroring1' than 'seeing in a mirror4' ,but1 whatever be the exact force of the word1 the thing intended includes both acts4 ,there is no reflection of the light without a previous reception of the light4 ,in bodily sight1 the eye is a mirror1 and there is no sight without an image of the thing perceived being formed in the perceiving eye4 ,in spiritual sight1 the soul which beholds is a mirror1 and at once beholds and reflects4 ,thus1 then1 we may say that we have in our text the ,christian life described as one of contemplation and manifestation of the light of ,god4 ,the great truth of a direct1 unimpeded vision1 as belonging to ,christian men on earth1 sounds strange to many of us4 ',that cannot be1' you say2 'does not ,paul himself teach that we see through a glass darkly8 ,do we not walk by faith and not by sight8 ,no man hath seen ,god at any time1 nor can see ,him2 and besides that absolute impossibility1 have we not veils of flesh and sense1 to say nothing of the covering of sin spread over the face of all nations1 which hide from us even so much of the eternal light as ,his servants above behold1 who see ,his face and bear ,his name on their foreheads8' ,but these apparent difficulties drop away when we take into account two things--first1 the object of vision1 and second1 the real nature of the vision itself4 ,as to the former1 who is the ,lord whose glory we receive on our unveiled faces8 ,he is ,jesus ,christ4 ,here1 as in the overwhelming majority of instances where ,lord occurs in the ,new ,testament1 it is the name of the manifested ,god our brother4 ,the glory which we behold and give back is not the incomprehensible1 incommunicable lustre of the absolute divine perfectness1 but that glory which1 as ,john says1 we beheld in ,him who tabernacled with us1 full of grace and truth2 the glory which was manifested in loving1 pitying words and loveliness of perfect deeds2 the glory of the will resigned to ,god1 and of ,god dwelling in and working through the will2 the glory of faultless and complete manhood1 and therein of the express image of ,god4 ,and as for the vision itself1 that seeing which is denied to be possible is the bodily perception and the full comprehension of the ,infinite ,god2 that seeing which is affirmed to be possible1 and actually bestowed in ,christ1 is the beholding of ,him with the soul by faith2 the immediate direct consciousness of ,his presence the perception of ,him in ,his truth by the mind1 the feeling of ,him in ,his love by the heart1 the contact with ,his gracious energy in our recipient and opening spirits4 ,faith is made the antithesis of sight4 ,it is so1 in certain respects4 ,but faith is also paralleled with and exalted above the mere bodily perception4 ,he who believing grasps the living ,lord has a contact with ,him as immediate and as real as that of the eyeball with light1 and knows ,him with a certitude as reliable as that which sight gives4 ',seeing is believing1' says sense2 ',believing is seeing' says the spirit which clings to the ,lord1 'whom having not seen' it loves4 ,a bridge of perishable flesh1 which is not myself but my tool1 connects me with the outward world4 ,it never touches myself at all1 and ,i know it only by trust in my senses4 ,but nothing intervenes between my ,lord and me1 when ,i love and trust4 ,then ,spirit is joined to spirit1 and of ,his presence ,i have the witness in myself4 ,he is the light1 which proves its own existence by revealing itself1 which strikes with quickening impulse on the eye of the spirit that beholds by faith4 ,believing we see1 and1 seeing1 we have that light in our souls to be 'the master light of all our seeing4' ,we need not think that to know by the consciousness of our trusting souls is less than to know by the vision of our fallible eyes2 and though flesh hides from us the spiritual world in which we float1 yet the only veil which really dims ,god to us--the veil of sin1 the one separating principle--is done away in ,christ1 for all who love ,him2 so as that he who has not seen and yet has believed1 has but the perfecting of his present vision to expect1 when flesh drops away and the apocalypse of the heaven comes4 ,true1 in one view1 ',we see through a glass darkly'2 but also true1 ',we all1 with unveiled face1 behold and reflect the glory of the ,lord4' ,then note still further ,paul's emphasis on the universality of this prerogative--',we all4' ,this vision does not belong to any select handful2 does not depend upon special powers or gifts1 which in the nature of things can only belong to a few4 ,the spiritual aristocracy of ,god's ,church is not the distinction of the law-giver1 the priest or the prophet4 ,there is none of us so weak1 so low1 so ignorant1 so compassed about with sin1 but that upon our happy faces that light may rest1 and into our darkened hearts that sunshine may steal4 ,in that ,old ,dispensation1 the light that broke through clouds was but that of the rising morning4 ,it touched the mountain tops of the loftiest spirits3 a ,moses1 a ,david1 an ,elijah caught the early gleams2 while all the valleys slept in the pale shadow1 and the mist clung in white folds to the plains4 ,but the noon has come1 and1 from its steadfast throne in the very zenith1 the sun1 which never sets1 pours down its rays into the deep recesses of the narrowest gorge1 and every little daisy and hidden flower catches its brightness1 and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof4 ,we have no privileged class or caste now2 no fences to keep out the mob from the place of vision1 while lawgiver and priest gaze upon ,god4 ,christ reveals ,himself to all ,his servants in the measure of their desire after ,him4 ,whatsoever special gifts may belong to a few in ,his ,church1 the greatest gift belongs to all4 ,the servants and the handmaidens have the ,spirit1 the children prophesy1 the youths see visions1 the old men dream dreams4 ',the mobs1' 'the masses1' 'the plebs1' or whatever other contemptuous name the heathen aristocratic spirit has for the bulk of men1 makes good its standing within the ,church1 as possessor of ,christ's chiefest gifts4 ,redeemed by ,him1 it can behold ,his face and be glorified into ,his likeness4 ,not as ,judaism with its ignorant mass1 and its enlightened and inspired few--we all behold the glory of the ,lord4 ,again1 this contemplation involves reflection1 or giving forth the light which we behold4 ,they who behold ,christ have ,christ formed in them1 as will appear in my subsequent remarks4 ,but apart from such considerations1 which belong rather to the next part of this sermon1 ,i touch on this thought here for one purpose--to bring out this idea--that what we see we shall certainly show4 ,that will be the inevitable result of all true possession of the glory of ,christ4 ,the necessary accompaniment of vision is reflecting the thing beheld4 ,why1 if you look closely enough into a man's eye1 you will see in it little pictures of what he beholds at the moment2 and if our hearts are beholding ,christ1 ,christ will be mirrored and manifested on our hearts4 ,our characters will show what we are looking at1 and ought1 in the case of ,christian people1 to bear ,his image so plainly1 that men cannot but take knowledge of us that we have been with ,jesus4 ,this ought to lead all of us who say that we have seen the ,lord1 to serious self-questioning4 ,do beholding and reflecting go together in our cases8 ,are our characters like those transparent clocks1 where you can see not only the figures and hands1 but the wheels and works8 ,remember that1 consciously and unconsciously1 by direct efforts and by insensible influences on our lives1 the true secret of our being ought to come1 and will come1 forth to light4 ,the convictions which we hold1 the emotions that are dominant in our hearts1 will mould and shape our lives4 ,if we have any deep1 living perception of ,christ1 bystanders looking into our faces will be able to tell what it is up yonder that is making them like the faces of the angels--even vision of the opened heavens and of the exalted ,lord4 ,these two things are inseparable--the one describes the attitude and action of the ,christian man towards ,christ2 the other the very same attitude and action in relation to men4 ,and you may be quite sure that1 if little light comes from a ,christian character1 little light comes into it2 and if it be swathed in thick veils from men1 there must be no less thick veils between it and ,god4 ,nor is it only that our fellowship with ,christ will1 as a matter of course1 show itself in our characters1 and beauty born of that communion 'shall pass into our face1' but we are also called on1 as ,paul puts it here1 to make direct conscious efforts for the communication of the light which we behold4 ,as the context has it1 ,god hath shined in our hearts1 that we might give the light of the knowledge of the glory of ,god in the face of ,christ ,jesus4 ,away with all veils6 ,no reserve1 no fear of the consequences of plain speaking1 no diplomatic prudence regulating our frank utterance1 no secret doctrines for the initiated6 ,we are to 'renounce the hidden things of dishonesty4' ,our power and our duty lie in the full exhibition of the truth4 ,we are only clear from the blood of men when we1 for our parts1 make sure that if any light be hid1 it is hid not by reason of obscurity or silence on our parts1 but only by reason of the blind eyes1 before which the full-orbed radiance gleams in vain4 ,all this is as true for every one possessing that universal prerogative of seeing the glory of ,christ1 as it is for an ,apostle4 ,the business of all such is to make known the name of ,jesus1 and if from idleness1 or carelessness1 or selfishness1 they shirk that plain duty1 they are counteracting ,god's very purpose in shining on their hearts1 and going far to quench the light which they darken4 ,take this1 then1 ,christian men and women1 as a plain practical lesson from this text4 ,you are bound to manifest what you believe1 and to make the secret of your lives1 in so far as possible1 an open secret4 ,not that you are to drag into light before men the sacred depths of your own soul's experience4 ,let these lie hid4 ,the world will be none the better for your confessions1 but it needs your ,lord4 ,show ,him forth1 not your own emotions about ,him4 ,what does the ,apostle say close by my text8 ',we preach not ourselves1 but ,christ ,jesus the ,lord4' ,self-respect and reverence for the sanctities of our deepest emotions forbid our proclaiming these from the house-tops4 ,let these be curtained1 if you will1 from all eyes but ,god's1 but let no folds hang before the picture of your ,saviour that is drawn on your heart4 ,see to it that you have the unveiled face turned towards ,christ to be irradiated by ,his brightness1 and the unveiled face turned towards men1 from which shall shine every beam of the light which you have caught from your ,lord4 ',arise6 shine1 for thy light is come1 and the glory of the ,lord is risen upon thee6' ,,ii4 ,notice1 secondly1 that this life of contemplation is therefore a life of gradual transformation4 ,the brightness on the face of ,moses was only skin-deep4 ,it faded away1 and left no trace4 ,it effaced none of the marks of sorrow and care1 and changed none of the lines of that strong1 stern face4 ,but1 says ,paul1 the glory which we behold sinks inward1 and changes us as we look1 into its own image4 ,thus the superficial lustre1 that had neither permanence nor transforming power1 becomes an illustration of the powerlessness of law to change the moral character into the likeness of the fair ideal which it sets forth4 ,and1 in opposition to its weakness1 the ,apostle proclaims the great principle of ,christian progress1 that the beholding of ,christ leads to the assimilation to ,him4 ,the metaphor of a mirror does not wholly serve us here4 ,when the sunbeams fall upon it1 it flashes in the light1 just because they do not enter its cold surface4 ,it is a mirror1 because it does not drink them up1 but flings them back4 ,the contrary is the case with these sentient mirrors of our spirits4 ,in them the light must first sink in before it can ray out4 ,they must first be filled with the glory1 before the glory can stream forth4 ,they are not so much like a reflecting surface as like a bar of iron1 which needs to be heated right down to its obstinate black core1 before its outer skin glows with the whiteness of a heat that is too hot to sparkle4 ,the sunshine must fall on us1 not as it does on some lonely hill-side1 lighting up the grey stones with a passing gleam that changes nothing1 and fades away1 leaving the solitude to its sadness2 but as it does on some cloud cradled near its setting1 which it drenches and saturates with fire till its cold heart burns1 and all its wreaths of vapour are brightness palpable1 glorified by the light which lives amidst its mists4 ,so must we have the glory sink into us before it can be reflected from us4 ,in deep inward beholding we must have ,christ in our hearts1 that ,he may shine forth from our lives4 ,and this contemplation will be gradual transformation4 ,there is the great principle of ,christian morals4 ',we all beholding 444 are changed4' ,the power to which is committed the perfecting of our characters lies in looking upon ,jesus4 ,it is not the mere beholding1 but the gaze of love and trust that moulds us by silent sympathy into the likeness of ,his wondrous beauty1 who is fairer than the children of men4 ,it was a deep1 true thought which the old painters had1 when they drew ,john as likest to his ,lord4 ,love makes us like4 ,we learn that even in our earthly relationships1 where habitual familiarity with parents and dear ones stamps some tone of voice or look1 or little peculiarity of gesture1 on a whole house4 ,and when the infinite reverence and aspiration which the ,christian soul cherishes to its ,lord are superadded1 the transforming power of loving contemplation of ,him becomes mighty beyond all analogies in human friendship1 though one in principle with these4 ,what a marvellous thing that a block of rude sandstone1 laid down before a perfect marble1 should become a copy of its serene loveliness just by lying there6 ,lay your hearts down before ,christ4 ,contemplate ,him4 ,love ,him4 ,think about ,him4 ,let that pure face shine upon heart and spirit1 and as the sun photographs itself on the sensitive plate exposed to its light1 and you get a likeness of the sun by simply laying the thing in the sun1 so ,he will 'be formed in1 you4' ,iron near a magnet becomes magnetic4 ,spirits that dwell with ,christ become ,christ-like4 ,the ,roman ,catholic legends put this truth in a coarse way1 when they tell of saints who have gazed on some ghastly crucifix till they have received1 in their tortured flesh1 the copy of the wounds of ,jesus1 and have thus borne in their body the marks of the ,lord4 ,the story is hideous and gross1 the idea beneath is ever true4 ,set your faces towards the ,cross with loving1 reverent gaze1 and you will 'be conformed unto ,his death1' that in due time you may 'be also in the likeness of ,his ,resurrection4' ,dear friends1 surely this message--',behold and be like'--ought to be very joyful and enlightening to many of us1 who are wearied with painful struggles after isolated pieces of goodness1 that elude our grasp4 ,you have been trying1 and trying1 and trying half your lifetime to cure faults and make yourselves better and stronger4 ,try this other plan4 ,let love draw you1 instead of duty driving you4 ,let fellowship with ,christ elevate you1 instead of seeking to struggle up the steeps on hands and knees4 ,live in sight of your ,lord1 and catch ,his ,spirit4 ,the man who travels with his face northwards has it grey and cold4 ,let him turn to the warm south1 where the midday sun dwells1 and his face will glow with the brightness that he sees4 ',looking unto ,jesus' is the sovereign cure for all our ills and sins4 ,it is the one condition of running with patience 'the race that is set before us4' ,efforts after self-improvement which do not rest on it will not go deep enough1 nor end in victory4 ,but from that gaze will flow into our lives a power which will at once reveal the true goal1 and brace every sinew for the struggle to reach it4 ,therefore1 let us cease from self1 and fix our eyes on our ,saviour till ,his image imprints itself on our whole nature4 ,such transformation1 it must be remembered1 comes gradually4 ,the language of the text regards it as a lifelong process4 ',we are changed'2 that is a continuous operation4 ',from glory to glory'2 that is a course which has well-marked transitions and degrees4 ,be not impatient if it be slow4 ,it will take a lifetime4 ,do not fancy that it is finished with you4 ,life is not long enough for it4 ,do not be complacent over the partial transformation which you have felt4 ,there is but a fragment of the great image yet reproduced in your soul1 a faint outline dimly traced1 with many a feature wrongly drawn1 with many a line still needed1 before it can be called even approximately complete4 ,see to it that you neither turn away your gaze1 nor relax your efforts till all that you have beheld in ,him is repeated in you4 ,likeness to ,christ is the aim of all religion4 ,to it conversion is introductory2 doctrines1 devout emotion1 worship and ceremonies1 churches and organisations are valuable as auxiliary4 ,let that wondrous issue of ,god's mercy be the purpose of our lives1 and the end as well as the test of all the things which we call our ,christianity4 ,prize and use them as helps towards it1 and remember that they are helps only in proportion as they show us that ,saviour1 the image of whom is our perfection1 the beholding of whom is our transformation4 ,,iii4 ,notice1 lastly1 that the life of contemplation finally becomes a life of complete assimilation4 ',changed into the same image1 from glory to glory4' ,the lustrous light which falls upon ,christian hearts from the face of their ,lord is permanent1 and it is progressive4 ,the likeness extends1 becomes deeper1 truer1 every way perfecter1 comprehends more and more of the faculties of the man2 soaks into him1 if ,i may say so1 until he is saturated with the glory2 and in all the extent of his being1 and in all the depth possible to each part of that whole extent1 is like his ,lord4 ,that is the hope for heaven1 towards which we may indefinitely approximate here1 and at which we shall absolutely arrive there4 ,there we expect changes which are impossible here1 while compassed with this body of sinful flesh4 ,we look for the merciful exercise of ,his mighty working to 'change the body of our lowliness1 that it may be fashioned like unto the body of ,his glory'2 and that physical change in the resurrection of the just rightly bulks very large in good men's expectations4 ,but we are somewhat apt to think of the perfect likeness of ,christ too much in connection with that transformation that begins only after death1 and to forget that the main transformation must begin here4 ,the glorious1 corporeal life like our ,lord's1 which is promised for heaven1 is great and wonderful1 but it is only the issue and last result of the far greater change in the spiritual nature1 which by faith and love begins here4 ,it is good to be clothed with the immortal vesture of the resurrection1 and in that to be like ,christ4 ,it is better to be like ,him in our hearts4 ,his true image is that we should feel as ,he does1 should think as ,he does1 should will as ,he does2 that we should have the same sympathies1 the same loves1 the same attitude towards ,god1 and the same attitude towards men4 ,it is that ,his heart and ours should beat in full accord1 as with one pulse1 and possessing one life4 ,wherever there is the beginning of that oneness and likeness of spirit1 all the rest will come in due time4 ,as the spirit1 so the body4 ,the whole nature must be transformed and made like ,christ's1 and the process will not stop till that end be accomplished in all who love ,him4 ,but the beginning here is the main thing which draws all the rest after it as of course4 ',if the ,spirit of ,him that raised up ,jesus from the dead dwell in you1 ,he that raised up ,christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies1 by ,his ,spirit that dwelleth in you4' ,and1 while this complete assimilation in body and spirit to our ,lord is the end of the process which begins here by love and faith1 my text1 carefully considered1 adds a further very remarkable idea4 ',we are all changed1' says ,paul1 'into the same image4' ,same as what8 ,possibly the same as we behold2 but more probably the phrase1 especially 'image' in the singular1 is employed to convey the thought of the blessed likeness of all who become perfectly like ,him4 ,as if he had said1 ',various as we are in disposition and character1 unlike in the histories of our lives1 and all the influences that these have had upon us1 differing in everything but the common relation to ,jesus ,christ1 we are all growing like the same image1 and we shall come to be perfectly like it1 and yet each retain his own distinct individuality4' ',we being many are one1 for we are all partakers of one4' ,perhaps1 too1 we may connect with this another idea which occurs more than once in ,paul's ,epistles4 ,in that to the ,ephesians1 for instance1 he says that the ,christian ministry is to continue1 till a certain point of progress has been reached1 which he describes as our all coming to 'a perfect man4' ,the whole of us together make a perfect man--the whole make one image4 ,that is to say1 perhaps the ,apostle's idea is1 that it takes the aggregated perfectness of the whole ,catholic ,church1 one throughout all ages1 and containing a multitude that no man can number1 to set worthily forth anything like a complete image of the fulness of ,christ4 ,no one man1 even raised to the highest pitch of perfection1 and though his nature be widened out to perfect development1 can be the full image of that infinite sum of all beauty2 but the whole of us taken together1 with all the diversities of natural character retained and consecrated1 being collectively ,his body which ,he vitalises1 may1 on the whole1 be a not wholly inadequate representation of our perfect ,lord4 ,just as we set round a central light sparkling prisms1 each of which catches the glow at its own angle1 and flashes it back of its own colour1 while the sovereign completeness of the perfect white radiance comes from the blending of all their separate rays1 so they who stand round about the starry throne receive each the light in his own measure and manner1 and give forth each a true and perfect1 and altogether a complete1 image of ,him who enlightens them all1 and is above them all4 ,and whilst thus all bear the same image1 there is no monotony2 and while there is endless diversity1 there is no discord4 ,like the serene choirs of angels in the old monk's pictures1 each one with the same tongue of fire on the brow1 with the same robe flowing in the same folds to the feet1 with the same golden hair1 yet each a separate self1 with his own gladness1 and a different instrument for praise in his hand1 and his own part in that 'undisturbed song of pure content1' we shall all be changed into the same image1 and yet each heart shall grow great with its own blessedness1 and each spirit bright with its own proper lustre of individual and characteristic perfection4 ,the law of the transformation is the same for earth and for heaven4 ,here we see ,him in part1 and beholding grow like4 ,there we shall see ,him as ,he is1 and the likeness will be complete4 ,that ,transfiguration of our ,lord 7which is described by the same word as occurs in this text7 may become for us the symbol and the prophecy of what we look for4 ,as with ,him1 so with us2 the indwelling glory shall come to the surface1 and the countenance shall shine as the light1 and the garments shall be 'white as no fuller on earth can white them4' ,nor shall that be a fading splendour1 nor shall we fear as we enter into the cloud1 nor1 looking on ,him1 shall flesh bend beneath the burden1 and the eyes become drowsy1 but we shall be as the ,lawgiver and the ,prophet who stood by ,him in the lambent lustre1 and shone with a brightness above that which had once been veiled on ,sinai4 ,we shall never vanish from ,his side1 but dwell with ,him in the abiding temple which ,he has built1 and there1 looking upon ,him for ever1 our happy souls shall change as they gaze1 and behold ,him more perfectly as they change1 for 'we know that when ,he shall appear we shall be like ,him1 for we shall see ,him as ,he is4' ,,looking ,,at ,,the ,,unseen ',while we look not at the things which are seen1 but at the things which are not seen4'--#b ,,cor4 iv4 #ah4 ,men may be said to be divided into two classes1 materialists and idealists1 in the widest sense of those two words4 ,the mass care for1 and are occupied by1 and regard as really solid good1 those goods which can be touched and enjoyed by sense4 ,the minority--students1 thinkers1 men of ideas1 moralists1 and the like--believe in1 and care for1 impalpable spiritual riches4 ,everybody admits that the latter class is distinctly the higher4 ,now it is from no disregard to the importance and reality of that broad distinction that ,i insist1 to begin with1 that it is not the antithesis which is in the ,apostle's mind here4 ,his notion of 'the things that are seen' and 'the things that are not seen' is a much grander and wider one than that4 ,by 'the things that are seen' he means the whole of this visible world1 with all its circumstances and relations1 and by 'the things that are not seen' he means the realities beyond the stars4 ,he means the same thing that we mean when we talk in a much less true and impressive contrast about the present and the future4 ,to him the 'things that are not seen' are present instead of being1 as we weakly and foolishly christen them1 'the future state4' ,and it makes all the difference whether we think of that august realm as lying far away ahead of us1 or whether we feel that it is1 as it is1 in very deed1 all round about us1 and pressing in upon us1 only that 'the veil'--that is to say1 our 'flesh'--has come between us and it4 ,do not habitually think of these two sets of objects according to that misleading distinction 'present' and 'future1' but think of them rather as 'the things that are seen1' and 'the things that are not seen4' ,i4 ,now1 first1 ,i wish to say a word or two about what such a look will do for us4 ,paul's notion is1 as you will see if you look at the context1 that if we want to understand the visible1 or to get the highest good out of the things that are seen1 we must bring into the field of vision 'the things that are not seen4' ,the case with which he is dealing is that of a man in trouble4 ,he talks about light affliction which is but for a moment1 working out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory1 'while we look at the things which are not seen4' ,but the principle on which that statement is made1 of course1 has its widest application to all sorts and conditions of human life4 ,and the thought that emerges from it directly is that only when we take the 'things that are not seen' into account1 and make them the standard and the scale by which we judge all things1 do we understand 'the things that are seen4' ,that triumphant paradox of the ,apostle's about the heavy burdens that pressed upon him and his brethren1 lifelong as these burdens were1 which yet he calls 'light' and 'but for a moment' is possible only when we open the shutter of the dungeon which we fancied was the whole universe1 and look out on to the fair land that stretches beyond4 ,a man who has seen the ,himalayas will not be much overwhelmed by the height of ,helvellyn4 ,they who look out into the eternities have the true measuring rod and standard by which to estimate the duration and intensity of the things that are present4 ,we are all tempted to do as villagers in some little hamlet do--think that their small local affairs are the world's affairs1 and mighty1 until they have been up to ,london and seen the scale of things there4 ,if you and ,i would let the steady light of ,eternity1 and the sustaining pressure of the 'exceeding weight of glory' pour into our minds1 we should carry with us a standard which would bring down the greatness1 dwindle the duration1 lighten the pressure1 of the most crushing sorrow1 and would set in its true dimensions everything that is here4 ,it is for want of that that we go on as we do1 calculating wrongly what are the great things and what are the small things4 ,when1 like some of those prisoners in the ,inquisition1 the heavy iron weights are laid upon our half-crushed hearts1 we are tempted to shriek1 ',oh1 these will be my death6' instead of taking in that great vision which1 as it makes all earthly riches dross1 so it makes all crushing burdens and blows of sorrow light as a feather4 ,but1 on the other hand1 do not let us forget that this same standard which thus dwindles1 also magnifies the small1 and in a very solemn sense1 makes eternal the else fleeting things of this life4 ,for there is nothing that makes this present existence of ours so utterly contemptible1 insignificant1 and transitory1 as to block out of our sight its connection with ,eternity4 ,and there is nothing which so lifts the commonplace into the solemn1 and invests with everlasting and tremendous importance everything that a man does here1 as to feel that it all tells on his condition away beyond there4 ,the shafting is on this side of the wall1 but the work that it does is through the wall there1 in the other chamber2 and you do not understand the cranks and the wheels here unless you know that they go through the partition and are doing something there beyond4 ,if you shut out ,eternity from our life in time1 then it is an inexplicable riddle2 and ,i1 for my part1 would venture to say that in that case1 the men who answer the question1 ',is life worth living8' with a distinct negative1 are wise4 ,it is a tale told by an idiot1 'full of sound and fury1 signifying nothing1' unless the light of 'the things not seen' flashes and flares in upon it4 ,further1 this look of which my text speaks is the condition on which ,time prepares for ,eternity4 ,the ,apostle is speaking about the effect of affliction in making ready for us an eternal weight of glory1 and he says that is done while1 or on condition that during the suffering1 we are looking steadfastly towards the 'things that are not seen4' ,but no outward circumstances or events can prepare a weight of glory for us hereafter1 unless they prepare us for the glory4 ,affliction works for us that blessed result1 in the measure in which it fits us for that result4 ,and so you will find that1 only a verse or two after my text1 ,paul1 using the same very significant and emphatic verb1 writes inverting the order of things1 and says ',he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is ,god4' ,so that working the thing for us1 and working us for the thing1 are one and the same process4 ,or1 to put it into plain ,english1 our various duties and circumstances here will prepare the glory of ,eternity for us if they prepare us for the glory of ,eternity4 ,but only in the measure in which these outward things do thus shape and mould our characters do they work out for us 'an exceeding weight of glory4' ,it is often thought that a man has been so miserable here that ,god is sure to give him future blessedness to recompense him4 ,well6 'that depends4' ,if he has used his miserableness as he will use it when he lets the light of 'the things not seen' in upon it1 then1 certainly1 it will work out for him the blessed results4 ,but if he does not1 then1 as certainly1 it will not4 ,whilst there are many ways by which character is hammered and moulded and shaped into that which is fit to be clothed upon with the glory that is yonder1 one of the foremost of these is the passing through things temporal with a continual regard to the things that are eternal4 ,if you want to understand to-day you must bring ,eternity into the account1 and if you want to use to-day you must use it with the light of the eternal world full upon it4 ,the sum of it all is1 brethren1 that the things seen cannot be estimated in their true character1 unless they are regarded in immediate connection with the things that are unseen2 and that the things seen will only prepare an eternal weight of glory for us when they prepare us for an eternal weight of glory4 ,,ii4 ,and so1 ,i note that this look at the things not seen is only possible through ,jesus ,christ4 ,he is the only window which opens out and gives the vision of that far-off land4 ,i1 for my part1 believe that1 if ,i might use such a metaphor1 ,he is the ,columbus of the ,new ,world4 ,men believed1 and argued1 and doubted about the existence of it across the seas there1 until a man went1 and came back again1 and then went to found a new city yonder4 ,and men hoped for immortality1 and believed after a fashion--some of them--in a future life1 and dreaded that it might be true1 and discussed and debated whether it was1 but doubt clouded all minds1 until ,one1 our ,brother1 went away into the darkness1 and came back again1 in most respects as ,he had gone1 and then departed once more to make ready a city in which all who love ,him should finally dwell1 and to which you and ,i may be sure that we shall emigrate4 ,it is only in ,jesus ,christ that the look which my text enjoins is possible4 ,for not only has ,he given a certitude so that we need now not to say ',we think1 we hope1 we fear1 we are pretty well sure1 that there must be a life beyond1' but we can say ',we know4' ,not only has ,he done this1 but also in ,him and ,his life of glory at ,god's right hand in heaven1 is summed up all that we really can know about that future4 ,we look into the darkness in vain2 we look at ,him1 and1 our knowledge1 though limited1 is blessed4 ,all other adumbrations of a life beyond must necessarily be cast into the metaphorical forms or the negative symbols in which the ,new ,testament abounds4 ,we may speak of golden pavements1 and thrones1 and harps1 and the like4 ,we may say3 ',no night there1 no sighing1 nor weeping1 no burdened hearts1 no toil1 no pain1 for the former things are passed away4' ,but a future life which is all described in metaphors1 and a future life of which we know only that it is the negation of the disagreeables and limitations of the present1 is but a poor affair4 ,here is the positive truth1 ',to him that overcometh will ,i grant to sit with ,me on ,my throne4' ',we shall be like ,him1 for we shall see ,him as ,he is4' ,and beyond that nearness to ,christ1 blessed communion with ,christ1 likeness to ,christ1 royalty derived from ,christ1 ,i think we neither know nor need to know anything about that life4 ,not only is ,he our sole medium of knowledge and ,himself the revelation of our heaven1 but it is only by ,him that man's thoughts and desires are drawn to1 and find themselves at home in1 that tremendous thought of immortality4 ,i know not how it may be with you1 but ,i am not ashamed to confess that to me the idea of eternal continuance of my conscious being is an awful thought1 rather depressing and bewildering than delighting and attractive4 ,i1 for my part1 do not believe that men generally do grapple to their hearts1 with any gratitude or joy1 that solemn belief of immortal life unless they feel that it is life with1 and in1 and like1 ,jesus ,christ4 ',to depart' is dreary1 and it is only when we can say 'and to be with ,christ' that it becomes distinctly 'far better4' ,he is1 if ,i may so say1 at once telescope and star4 ,by ,him we see ,him2 we see1 seeing ,him1 that the things that are unseen all cluster round ,himself and become blessed4 ,,iii4 ,and now1 lastly1 this look should be habitual with all ,christian people4 ,paul takes it for granted that every ,christian man is1 as the habitual direction of his thoughts1 looking towards those 'things that are not seen4' ,the original shows that even more distinctly than our translation1 but our translation shows it plainly enough4 ,he does not say 'works for us an exceeding weight of glory for1' but 'while' we look1 as if it were a matter of course4 ,he took it for granted as to these ,corinthians4 ,i wonder if he would be warranted in taking it for granted about us8 ,note what sort of a look it is which produces these blessed effects4 ,the word which the ,apostle employs here is a more pointed one than the ordinary one for 'seeing4' ,it is translated in other places in the ,new ,testament1 ',mark' them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample1 and the like4 ,and it implies a concentrated1 protracted effort and interested gaze4 ,a man1 standing on the deck of a ship1 casts a languid eye for a moment out on to the horizon1 and sees nothing4 ,a keen-eyed sailor by his side shades his eyes with his hand1 and shuts out cross-lights1 and looks1 and peers1 and keeps his eyes steady1 and he sees the filmy outline of the mountain land4 ,if you look for a minute1 not much caring whether you see anything or not1 and then turn away1 and get your eye dazzled with all those vulgar1 crude1 high colours round about you here on earth1 it is very little that you will see of 'the things that are not seen4' ,concentrated attention1 and a steadfast look1 are wanted to make the invisible visible4 ,you have to alter the focus of your eye if you are to see the thing that is afar off4 ,there has to be a positive shutting out of all other things1 as is emphatically taught in the text by putting first the not looking at 'the things that are seen4' ,here they are pressing in upon our eyeballs1 all round us1 insisting on being looked at1 and unless we resolutely avert our eyes1 we shall not see anything else4 ,they monopolise us unless we resist the intrusive appeals that they make to us4 ,we are like men down in some fertile valley1 surrounded by rich vegetation1 but seeing nothing beyond the green sides of the glen4 ,we have to go up to the hill-top if we are to look out over the flashing ocean1 and behold afar off the towers of the mother city across the restless waves4 ,brethren1 unless you shut out the world you will never see the things that are not seen4 ,now1 as ,i have said1 the ,apostle regards this conscious effort at bringing ourselves into touch1 in mind and heart and faith1 with 'the things that are not seen' as being a habitual characteristic of ,christian men4 ,i am very much afraid that the present generation of ,christian people do not1 in anything like the degree in which they should1 recreate and strengthen themselves with the contemplation which he here recommends4 ,it seems to me1 for instance1 that we do not hear nearly as much in pulpits about the life beyond the grave as we used to do when ,i was a boy4 ,and1 though ,i confess ,i speak from limited knowledge1 it seems to me that these great motives which lie in the thought of ,eternity and our place there1 are by no means as prominent in the minds of the ,christian people of this generation as they used to be4 ,partly1 ,i suppose1 that arises from the wholesome emphasis which has been given of late years to the present day1 and this-side-the grave effects of ,christianity1 upon character and life4 ,partly it arises1 ,i think1 from the half-consciousness of being surrounded by an atmosphere of scepticism and unbelief as to a future life1 and from the most unwise1 inexpedient1 and cowardly yielding to the temptation to say very little about the distinctive features of ,christianity1 and to dwell rather upon those which are sure to be recognised by even unbelieving people4 ,and it comes1 too1 from the lack of faith1 which1 again1 it tends mightily to increase4 ,oh1 dear brethren6 our consciences tell us what different people we should be if habitually there shone before us that great1 solemn issue to which we are all tending4 ,variations in the atmosphere there will always be1 and sometimes the distant outlines will be clearer and sharper than at others1 and the colours will shine out more distinctly4 ,but surely it should not be that our vision of the ,eternal should be like the vision that dwellers amongst the mountains have of the summits4 ,they say that some of the great peaks of the world are swathed in mist all day long1 and that only for a few moments in the morning1 or for a brief space in the evening1 does the solemn summit gleam rosy in the light4 ,and that1 ,i am afraid1 is very much like the degree in which most of us look at 'the things that are not seen' and so we are feeble1 and we do not understand 'the things that are not seen'2 and we do not get the good out of them4 ,dear brethren1 let us turn away our eyes from the gauds that we can see1 and open the eyes of our spirits on the things that are1 the things where ,christ is1 sitting at the right hand of ,god4 ,surely1 surely1 it is madness that when two sets of objects are before us1 the one lasting for a moment1 and then dying down into black nothingness1 and the other shining on for ever2 and when our 'look' settles whether we shall share the fate of the one or of the other1 we should choose to gaze with all our eyes and hearts at the perishable and turn away from the permanent4 ,surely1 if it is true that the things which are seen are temporal1 common-sense1 and a reasonable regard for our own well-being1 bid us look at the eternal 'things which are not seen1' since only so can the light and the momentary afflictions1 joys1 sorrows1 or circumstances1 work out for us1 and work us for 'a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory4' ,,tent ,,and ,,building ',for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved1 we have a building of ,god1 an house not made with hands1 eternal in the heavens4'--#b ,,cor4 v4 #a4 ,knowledge and ignorance1 doubt and certitude1 are remarkably blended in these words4 ,the ,apostle knows what many men are not certain of2 the ,apostle doubts as to what all men now are certain of4 ',if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved'--there is surely no if about that4 ,but we must remember that the first ,christians1 and the ,apostles with them1 did not know whether they might not survive till the coming of ,christ2 and so not die1 but 'be changed4' ,and this possibility1 as appears from the context1 is clearly before the ,apostle's mind4 ,such a limitation of his knowledge is in entire accordance with our ,lord's own words1 ',it is not for you to know the times and the seasons1' and does not in the smallest degree derogate from his authority as an inspired teacher4 ,but his certitude is as remarkable as his hesitation4 ,he knows--and he modestly and calmly affirms the confidence1 as possessed by all believers--that1 in the event of death coming to him or them1 he and they have a mansion waiting for their entrance2 a body of glory like to that which ,jesus already wears4 ,i4 ,so my text mainly sets before us very strikingly the ,christian certitude as to the final future4 ,i need not dwell1 ,i suppose1 upon that familiar metaphor by which the relation of man to his bodily environment is described as that of a man to his dwelling-place4 ,only ,i would desire1 in a word1 to emphasise this as being the first of the elements of the blessed certitude in which ,christian people may expatiate--the clear1 broad distinction between me and my physical frame4 ,there is no more connection1 says ,paul1 between us and the organisation in which we at present dwell than there is between a man and the house that he inhabits4 ',the foolish senses crown' ,death and call him lord2 but the ,christian's certitude firmly draws the line1 and declares that the man1 the whole personality1 is undisturbed by anything that befalls his residence2 and that he may pass unimpaired from one house to another1 being in both the self-same person4 ,and that is something to keep firm hold of in these days when we are being told that life and consciousness are but a function of organisation1 and that if the one be annihilated the other cannot persist4 ,no2 though all illustrations and metaphors must necessarily fail1 the two which lie side by side here in my text and its context are far truer than that pseudo-science--which is not science at all1 but only inference from science--which denies that the man is one thing and his house altogether another4 ,then again1 note1 as part of the elements of this ,christian certitude1 the blessed thought that a body is part of the perfection of manhood4 ,no mere dim1 ghostly future1 where consciousness somehow persists1 without environment or tools to act upon an outer world1 completes the idea of ,god in reference to man4 ,but the old trinity is the eternal trinity for humanity1 body1 soul1 and spirit4 ,corporeity1 with all that it means of definiteness1 with all that it means of relation to an external universe1 is the perfection of manhood4 ,to dwell naked1 as the ,apostle says in the context1 is a thing from which man shudderingly recoils2 and it is not to be his final fate4 ,let us take this as no small gain in reference to our conceptions of a future--the emphatic drawing into light of that thought that for his perfection man requires body1 soul1 and spirit4 ,and now1 if we turn for a moment to the characteristics of the two conditions with which my text deals1 we get some familiar enough but yet great and strengthening thoughts4 ,the 'earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved1' or1 more correctly1 retaining the metaphor of the house1 is to be pulled down--and in its place there comes a building of ,god1 a 'house not made with hands1 eternal in the heavens4' ,now the contrast that is drawn here1 whilst it would run out into a great many other particulars1 about which we know nothing1 and therefore had better say nothing1 revolves in the ,apostle's mind mainly round these two 'earthly' as contrasted with 'in the heavens'2 and 'tabernacle1' or tent1 as contrasted1 first of all with a 'building1' and then with the predicate 'eternal4' ,that is to say1 the first outstanding difference which arises before the ,apostle as blessed and glorious1 is the contrast between the fragile dwelling-place1 with its thin canvas1 its bending poles1 its certain removal some day1 and the permanence of that which is not a 'tent1' but a 'building' which is 'eternal4' ,involved in that is the thought that all the limitations and weaknesses which are necessarily associated with the perishableness of the present abode are at an end for ever4 ,no more fatigue1 no more working beyond the measure of power1 no more need for recuperation and repose2 no more dread of sickness and weakness2 no more possibility of decay1 ',it is sown in corruption2 it is raised in incorruption'--neither 'can they die any more4' ,whether that be by reason of any inherent immortality1 or by reason of the uninterrupted flow into the creature of the immortal life of ,christ1 to whom he is joined1 is a question that need not trouble us now4 ,enough for us that the contrast between the ,bedouin tent--which is folded up and carried away1 and nothing left but the black circle where the cheerful hearth once glinted amidst the sands of the desert--and the stately mansion reared for eternity1 is the contrast between the organ of the spirit in which we now dwell and that which shall be ours4 ,and the other contrast is no less glorious and wonderful4 ',the earthly house of this tent' does not merely define the composition1 but also the whole relations and capacities of that to which it refers4 ,the 'tent' is 'earthly'1 not merely because1 to use a kindred metaphor1 it is a 'building of clay1' but because1 by all its capacities1 it belongs to1 corresponds with1 and is fitted only for1 this lower order of things1 the seen and the perishable4 ,and1 on the other hand1 the 'mansion' is in 'the heavens1' even whilst the future tenant is a nomad in his tent4 ,that is so1 because the power which can create that future abode is 'in the heavens4' ,it is so called in order to express the security in which it is kept for those who shall one day enter upon it4 ,and it is so1 further1 to express the order of things with which it brings its dwellers into contact4 ',flesh and blood cannot inherit the ,kingdom of ,god2 neither doth corruption inherit incorruption4' ,that future home of the spirit will be congruous with the region in which it dwells2 fitted for the heavens in which it is now preserved4 ,and thus the two contrasts--adapted to the perishable1 and itself perishable1 belonging to the eternal and itself incorruptible--are the two which loom largest before the ,apostle's mind4 ,let no man say that such ideas of a possible future bodily frame are altogether inconsistent with all that we know of the limitations and characteristics of what we call matter4 ',there is one flesh of beasts and another of birds1' says ,paul2 'there is one glory of the sun and another of the moon4' ,and his old-fashioned argument is perfectly sound to-day4 ,do you know so fully all the possibilities of creation as that you are warranted in asserting that such a thing as a body which is the fit organ of the spirit1 and is incorruptible like the heavens in which it dwells1 is an impossibility8 ,surely the forms of matter are sufficiently varied to make us chary in asserting that other forms are impossible1 to which there may belong1 as characteristics1 even these glorious ones of my text4 ,the old story of the king in the tropics1 who laughed to scorn some one who told him that water could be turned into a solid1 may well be quoted in this connection4 ,let us be less confident that we know all that is to be known in regard to the sweep of ,god's creative power2 and let us thankfully accept the teaching by which we1 too1 in all our ignorance1 may be able to say1 ',we know that 444 we have a building of ,god 444 eternal in the heavens4' ,now there is only one more remark that ,i wish to make about this part of my subject2 and it is this1 that the teaching of my text and its context casts great light--and ,i think by many people much-needed light--on what the resurrection of the dead means4 ,that doctrine has been weighted with a great many incredibilities and ,i venture to say absurdities1 by well-meaning misconceptions and exaggerations4 ,we have heard grand platitudes about 'the scattered dust being gathered from the four winds of heaven1' and so on1 but the teaching of my text is that the contrast between the present physical frame and the future bodily environment is utter and complete2 and that resurrection does not mean the assuming again of the body that is left behind and done with1 but the reinvestiture of the man with another body4 ,and so the ,scriptural phrase is1 not 'the resurrection of the body1' but 'the resurrection of the dead4' ,it is a house 'in the heavens4' ,it comes 'from heaven4' ,we leave the tent4 ,life and thought 444 have gone away1 side by side1 ,leaving doors and windows wide2 ,careless tenants they6 ,and they may well be careless1 because in the heavens they have another mansion1 incorruptible and glorious4 ,we leave the 'tent'2 we enter the 'building4' ,there is nothing here of some germ of immortality being somehow extricated from the ruins1 and fostered into glorious growth4 ,or1 to take another metaphor of the context1 we strip off the garment and are naked2 and then we are clothed with another garment and are not found naked4 ,the resurrection of the dead is the clothing of the spirit with the house which is from heaven4 ,and there is as much difference between the two habitations as there is between the grim1 solid architecture of northern peoples1 amidst snow and ice1 needed to resist the blasts1 and to keep the life within in an ungenial climate1 and the light1 graceful dwellings of those who walk in an atmosphere of perpetual sunshine in the tropics1 as there is between the close-knit and narrow-windowed and narrow-doored abode in which we now have to pass our days1 and that large house1 with broad windows that take in a mightier sweep and new senses that have relation with new qualities in the world then around us4 ,therefore let us1 whilst we grope in the dark here1 and live in a narrow hovel in a back street1 look forward to the time when we shall dwell on the sunny heights in the great pavilion which ,god prepares for them that love ,him4 ,,ii4 ,and now note1 again1 how we come to this certitude4 ,my text is very significantly followed by a 'for1' which gives the reason of the knowledge in a very remarkable manner4 ',we know1 444 for in this we groan1 earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house1 which is from heaven4' ,now that singular collocation of ideas may be set forth thus--whatever longing there is in a ,christian1 ,god-inspired soul1 that longing is a prophecy of its own fulfilment4 ,we know that there is a house1 because of the yearning1 which is deepest and strongest when we are nearest ,god1 and likest what ,he would have us to be--the yearning to be 'clothed upon with our house which is from heaven4' ,that is a truth that goes a long way2 though to enlarge on it is irrelevant to our present purpose4 ,it has its limitations1 as is obvious from the context1 in which are human elements which are not destined to be gratified1 mingled with the yearning1 which is of ,god1 and which is destined to be satisfied4 ,but this at least we may firmly hold by1 that just because ,god will not put men to confusion intellectually1 and does not let them entertain uncherished--still less ,himself foster and excite--longings which ,he does not mean to gratify1 a ,christian yearning for immortality is1 to the man who feels it1 a declaration that immortality is sure for him4 ',delight thyself in the ,lord1 and ,he shall give thee the desires of thine heart4' ,whatsoever1 in touching ,him1 we do deeply long for may have blended with it human elements1 which will be dispersed unsatisfied1 but the substance of it is a prophecy of its own fulfilment4 ,and as surely as the stork in the heavens1 flying southward1 will reach the sunny lands which draw it from the grim northern winter1 so surely may a man say1 ',i know that ,i have a house in heaven1 because ,i long for it1 and shrink from being found naked4' ,of course such longing1 such aspiration and revulsion are no proofs of a fact except there be some fact which changes them1 from mere vague desires1 and makes these solid certainties4 ,and such a fact we have in that which is the only proof that the world has received1 of the persistence of life through death and the continuance of personal identity unchanged by the grave1 and that is the ,resurrection of ,jesus ,christ from the dead4 ,our faith in immortality does not depend merely on our own subjective desires and longings1 but these desires and longings are quickened1 confirmed1 and certified by this great fact that ,jesus ,christ has risen from the dead2 and therefore we know that the yearnings in us are not in vain4 ,so we come to this certitude1 first1 by reason of his experience2 and1 second1 by reason of the longings which that experience fosters if it does not kindle1 within our hearts4 ,and let no man take exception to the ,apostle's word here1 'we know1' or tell us that ',knowledge is of the things we see4' ,that is true1 and not true4 ,it is true in regard to what arrogates to itself the name of science4 ,and we are willing to admit the limitation if the men who insist upon it will1 on their sides1 admit that there are other sources of certitude than so-called 'facts1' by which they mean merely material facts4 ,if it is meant to assert that we are less sure of the love of ,god1 of immortality1 than we are of the existence of this piece of wood1 or that flame of gas2 then ,i humbly venture to say that there is another region of facts than those which are appreciable by sense2 that the evidence upon which we rest our certitude of immortal blessedness is quite as valid1 quite as true1 quite as able to bear the weight of a leaning heart as anything that can be produced1 in the nature of evidence1 for the things round us4 ,it is not1 ',we fancy1 we believe1 we hope1 we are pretty nearly sure1' but it is ',we know 444 that we have a building of ,god4' ,,iii4 ,lastly1 note what this certitude does4 ,the ,apostle tells us by the 'for' which lies at the beginning of my text1 and makes it a reason for something that has preceded1 and what has preceded is this1 ',we look not at the things which are seen1 but at the things which are not seen4' ,that is to say1 such a joyous1 calm certitude draws men's thoughts away from this shabby and transitory present1 and fixes them on the solemn majesties of that eternal future4 ,yes6 and nothing else will4 ,take away the idea of resurrection1 and the remaining idea of immortality is a poor1 shadowy1 impotent thing4 ,there is no force in it2 there is no blessedness in it2 there is nothing in it for a man to lay hold of4 ,and1 as a matter of fact1 there is no vivid faith in a future life without belief in the resurrection and bodily existence of the perfected dead4 ,and we shall not let our thoughts willingly go out thither unless our own personal wellbeing there is very sure to us4 ,when we know that for us individually there is that house waiting for us to enter into it1 when the ,lord comes1 then we shall not be unwilling to turn our hearts and our desires thither4 ,we look at the things which are not seen1 for we know that we have a house eternal4 ,and such a certitude will also make a man willing to accept the else unwelcome necessity of leaving the tent1 and for a while doing without the mansion4 ,it is that which the ,apostle is speaking of in subsequent verses1 on which ,i cannot enter now4 ,he says--and therein speaks a universal experience--that men recoil from the idea of having to lay aside this earthly body and be 'naked4' ,but we know that we have that glorious mansion waiting for us1 and that till the day comes when we enter upon it we may be lapt in ,christ instead1 and1 in that so-called intermediate state1 may have ,him to surround us1 ,him to be to us the medium by which we come into connection with anything external1 and so can contentedly go away from our home in the body2 and go to our home in ,christ4 ',wherefore1 we are always confident1 and willing rather to be absent from the body1 and to be at home with the ,lord4' ,oh1 brethren6 do we think of our future thus8 ,if we do1 then let us lay to heart the final words of our teacher in this part of his letter3 ',wherefore we make it our aim1 whether at home or absent1 to be well-pleasing unto ,him4' ,,the ,,patient ,,workman ',now ,he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is ,god4'--#b ,,cor4 v4 #e4 ,these words penetrate deep into the secrets of ,god4 ,they assume to have read the riddle of life4 ,to ,paul everything which we experience1 outwardly or inwardly1 is from the divine working4 ,life is to him no mere blind whirl1 or unintelligent play of accidental forces1 nor is it the unguided result of our own or of others' wills1 but is the slow operation of the great ,workman4 ,paul assumes to know the meaning of this protracted process1 that it all has one design which we may know and grasp and further4 ,and he believes that the clear perception of the divine purpose1 and the habit of looking at everything as contributing thereto1 will be a magic charm against all sorrow1 doubt1 despondency1 or fear1 for he adds1 ',therefore we are always confident4' ,so let us try to follow the course of thought which issues in such a blessed gift as that of a continual1 courageous outlook1 and buoyant though grave lightheartedness1 because we discern what ,he means ',who worketh all things according to the counsel of ,his own will4' ,i4 ,the first thought here is1 ,god's purpose in all ,his working2 ',he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is ,god4' ,what is that 'self-same thing'8 ,to understand it we must look back for a moment to the previous context4 ,the ,apostle has been speaking about the instinctive reluctance which even good men feel at prospect of dying and 'putting off the earthly house of this tabernacle4' ,he distinguishes between three different conditions in which the human spirit may be--dwelling in the earthly body1 stripped of that1 and 'clothed with the house which is from ,heaven1' and to this last and highest state he sees that for him and for his brethren there were two possible roads4 ,they might reach it either through losing the present body1 in the act of death1 and passing through a period of what he calls nakedness2 or they might attain it by being 'superinvested1' as it were1 with the glorious body which was to come to saints with ,christ when ,he came2 and so slip on1 as it were1 the wedding garment over their old clothes1 without having to denude themselves of these4 ,and he says that deep in the ,christian heart there lay reluctance to take the former road and the preference for the latter4 ,his longing was that that which is mortal might be 'swallowed up of life1' as some sand-bank in the tide-way may be gradually covered and absorbed by the rejoicing waters4 ,and then he says1 ',now ,he that hath wrought us for this very thing1 is ,god4' ,of course it is impossible that he can mean by this 'very thing' the second of the roads by which it was possible to reach the ultimate issue1 because he did not know whether his brethren and he were to die or to be changed4 ,he speaks in the context about death as a possible contingency for himself and for them1--',if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved1' and so on4 ,therefore we must suppose that 'the self-same thing' of which he is thinking as the divine purpose in all ,his dealings with us1 is not the manner in which we may attain that ultimate condition1 but the condition itself which1 by one road or another1 ,god's children shall attain4 ,or1 in other words1 the highest aim of the divine love in all its dealings with us ,christian men1 is not merely a blessed spiritual life1 but the completion of our humanity in a perfect spirit dwelling in a glorified body4 ,corporeity--the dwelling in a body by which the pure spirit moves amidst pure universes--is the highest end of ,god's will concerning us4 ,that glorified body is described in our context in wonderful words1 which it would take me far too long to do more than just touch upon4 ,here we dwell in a tent1 there we shall dwell in a building4 ,here in a house made with hands1 a corporeal frame derived from parents by material transmission and intervention2 there we shall dwell in a building of which ,god is the maker4 ,here we dwell in a crumbling clay tenement1 which rains dissolve1 which lightning strikes1 and winds overthrow1 and which finally lies on the ground a heap of tumbled ruin4 ,there we dwell in a building1 ,god's direct work1 eternal1 and knowing no corruption nor change4 ,here we dwell in a body congruous with1 and part of1 the perishable earthly world in which it abides1 and with which it stands in relation2 there we dwell in a house partaking of the nature of the heavens in which it moves1 a body that is the fit organ of a perfect spirit4 ,and so1 says ,paul1 the end of what ,god means with us is not stated in all its wonderfulness1 when we speak of spirits imbued with ,his wisdom and surcharged with ,his light and perfectness1 but when we add to that the thought of a fitting organ in which these spirits dwell1 whereby they can come into contact with an external universe1 incorruptible1 and so reach the summit of their destined completeness4 ',the house not made with hands1' eternal1 the building of ,god in the ,heavens1 is the end that ,god has in view for all ,his children4 ,,ii4 ,so1 then1 secondly1 note the slow process of the ,divine ,workman4 ,the ,apostle employs here a very emphatic compound term for 'hath wrought4' ,it conveys not only the idea of operation1 but the idea of continuous and somewhat toilsome and effortful work1 as if against the resistance of something that did not yield itself naturally to the impulse that ,he would bestow4 ,like some sculptor with a hard bit of marble1 or some metallurgist who has to work the rough ore till it becomes tractable1 so the loving1 patient1 ,divine ,artificer is here represented as labouring long and earnestly with a somewhat obstinate material which can and does resist ,his loving touch1 and yet going on with imperturbable and patient hope1 by manifold touches1 here a little and there a little1 all through life preparing a man for ,his purpose4 ,the great ,artificer toils at ,his task1 'rising early' and working long1 and not discouraged when ,he comes upon a black vein in the white marble1 nor when the hard stone turns the edge of ,his chisels4 ,now ,i would have you notice that there lies in this conception a very important thought1 viz4 ,god cannot make you fit for heaven all at a jump1 or by a simple act of will4 ,that is not ,his way of working4 ,he can make a world so1 ,he cannot make a saint so4 ,he can speak and it is done when it is only a universe that has to be brought into being2 or ,he can say1 ',let there be light1' and light springs at ,his word4 ,but ,he cannot say1 and ,he does not say1 ,let there be holiness1 and it comes4 ,not so can ,god make man meet for the 'inheritance of the saints in light4' ,and it takes ,him all ,his energies1 for all a lifetime1 to prepare ,his child for what ,he wants to make of him4 ,there is another thought here1 which ,i can only touch1 and that is that ,god cannot give a man that glorified body of which ,i have been speaking1 unless the man's spirit is ,christlike4 ,he cannot raise a bad man at the resurrection with the body of ,his glory4 ,by the necessities of the case it is confined to the purified1 because it corresponds to their inward spiritual being4 ,it is only a perfect spirit that can dwell in a perfect body4 ,you could not put a bad man1 ,godless and ,christless1 into the body which will be fit for them whom ,christ has changed first of all in heart and spirit into ,his own likeness4 ,he would be like those hermit crabs that you see on the beach who run into any kind of a shell1 whether it fits them or not1 in order to get a house4 ,there are two principles at work in the resurrection of the dead4 ,the glorified body is not the physical outcome of the material body here1 but is the issue and manifestation1 in visible form1 of the perfect and ,christlike spirit4 ,some shall rise to glory and immortality1 some to shame and everlasting contempt4 ,if we are to stand at the last with the body of our humiliation changed into a body of glory1 we must begin by being changed in the spirit of our mind4 ,as the mind is1 so will the body be one day4 ,but1 passing from such thoughts as these1 and remembering that the ,apostle here is speaking only about ,christian people1 and the divine operations upon them1 we may still extend the meaning of this significant word 'wrought' somewhat further1 and ask you just to consider1 and that very briefly1 the three-fold processes which1 in the divine working1 terminate in1 and contemplate1 this great issue4 ,god has wrought us for it in the very act of making us what we are4 ,human nature is an insoluble enigma1 if this world is its only field4 ,amidst all the waste1 the mysterious waste1 of creation1 there is no more profligate expenditure of powers than that which is involved in giving a man such faculties and capacities1 if this be the only field on which they are to be exercised4 ,if you think of what most of us do in this world1 and of what it is in us to be1 and to do1 it is almost ludicrous to consider the disproportion4 ,all other creatures fit their circumstances2 nothing in them is bigger than their environment4 ,they find in life a field for every power4 ,you and ,i do not4 ',the foxes have holes1 and the birds of the air have roosting-places4' ,they all correspond to their circumstances1 but we have an infinitude of faculty lying half dormant in each of us1 which finds no work at all in this present world4 ,and so1 looking at men as they are with eternity in their hearts1 with natures that go reaching out towards infinity1 the question comes up3 ',wherefore hast ,thou made all men in vain8 ,what is the use of us1 and why should we be what we are1 if there is nothing for us except this poor present8' ,god1 or whoever made us1 has made a mistake2 and strangely enough1 if we were not made1 but evolved1 evolution has worked out faculties which have no correspondence with the things around them4 ,life and man are an insoluble enigma except on one hypothesis1 and that is that this is a nursery-ground1 and that the plants will be pricked out some day1 and planted where they are meant to grow4 ,the hearts that feel after absolute and perfect love1 the spirits that can conceive the idea of an infinite goodness1 the dumb desires1 the blank misgivings that wander homeless amidst the narrowness of this poor earth1 all these things proclaim that there is a region where they will find their nutriment and expatiate1 and when we look at a man we can only say1 ,he that hath wrought him for an infinite world1 and an endless communion with a perfect good1 is ,god4 ,still further1 another field of the divine operation to this end is in what we roughly call 'providences4' ,what is the meaning of all this discipline through which we are passed1 if there is nothing to be disciplined for8 ,what is the good of an apprenticeship if there is no journeyman's life to come after it1 where the powers that have been slowly acquired shall be nobly exercised upon broader fields8 ,why should men be taken1 as it were1 and1 like the rough iron from the ground1 ',be heated hot with hopes and fears1 ,and plunged in baths of hissing tears1 ,and battered with the shocks of doom1' if1 after all the process1 the polished shaft is to be broken in two1 and tossed away as rubbish8 ,if death ends faculty1 it is a pity that the faculty was so patiently developed4 ,if ,god is educating us all in ,his school1 and then means that1 like some wastrel boys1 we should lose all our education as soon as we leave its benches1 there is little use in the rod1 and little meaning in the training4 ,brethren6 life is an insoluble riddle unless the purpose of it lie yonder1 and unless all this patient training of our sorrows and our gladnesses1 the warmth that expands and the cold that contracts the heart1 the light that gladdens and the darkness that saddens the eye and the spirit1 are equally meant for training us for the perfect life of a perfect soul moving a perfect body in a perfect universe4 ,here is a pillar in some ancient hall that has fallen into poor hands1 and has had a low roof thrown across the centre of the chamber at half its height4 ,in the lower half there is part of a pillar that means nothing2 ugly1 bare1 evidently climbing1 and passing through the aperture1 and away above yonder is the carved capital and the great entablature that it carries4 ,who could understand the shaft unless he could look up through the aperture1 and see the summit8 ,and who can think of life as anything but a wretched fragment unless he knows that all which begins here runs upwards into the room above1 and there finds its explanation and its completion8 ,but there is the third sphere of the divine operation4 ,as in creation and in providence1 so in all the work and mystery of our redemption1 this is the goal that ,god has in view4 ,it was not worth ,christ's while to come and die1 if nothing more was to come of it than the imperfect reception of ,his blessings and gifts which the noblest ,christian life in this world presents4 ,the meaning and purpose of the ,cross1 the meaning and purpose of all the patient dealings of ,his whispering ,spirit1 are that we shall be like our ,divine ,lord in spirit first1 and in body afterwards4 ,and everything about the experiences of a true ,christian spirit is charged with a prophecy of immortality4 ,i have not time to dwell upon one point gathered from the context1 that ,i intended to have insisted upon1 viz4 that the very desires which ,god's good ,spirit works in a believing soul are themselves confirmations of their own fulfilment4 ,but if you notice at your leisure the verses that precede my text1 you will find that the ,apostle adduces the groanings of 'earnest desire to be clothed with our house which is from ,heaven1' as a proof that we have 'a building of ,god1 a house not made with hands4' ,that is to say1 every longing in a ,christian heart when it is most filled with that ,spirit1 and most in contact with ,god1 and which is the answer of that heart to a promise of ,christ--every such longing carries with it the assurance of its own fulfilment4 ,he that hath wrought it has wrought it in order that the desire may fit us for its answer1 and that the open mouth may be ready for the abundant filling which ,his grace designs4 ,he works upon us1 therefore1 by making us desire a gift1 and then ,he gives that which ,he desires4 ,so let us cherish these longings1 not for the accident of escaping death1 nor as choosing the path by which we shall reach the blessed issue1 but longing for that great issue itself2 and try to keep more distinct and clear before all our minds this thought1 ',god means for me the participation in ,christ's glorified ,manhood1 and my attaining of that ,manhood is the end that ,he has in view in all that ,he does with me4' ,,iii4 ,so ,i must say one word about the last thought that is here1 and that is the certainty and the confidence4 ',therefore we are always confident1' says the ,apostle4 ',he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is ,god4' ,then we may be sure that as far as ,he is concerned1 the work will not be suspended nor vain4 ,this man does not begin to build and is unable to finish4 ,this workman has infinite resources1 an unchanging purpose1 and infinite long-suffering4 ,he will complete ,his task4 ,in the quarries of ,egypt you will find gigantic stones1 half-dressed1 and intended to have been transported to some great temple4 ,but there they lie1 the work incomplete1 and they never carried to their place4 ,there are no half-polished stones in ,god's quarries4 ,they are all finished where they lie1 and then borne across the sea1 like ,hiram's from ,lebanon1 to the ,temple on the hill4 ,it is a certainty that ,god will finish ,his work2 and since ',he that hath wrought us is ,god1' we may be sure that ,he will not stop till ,he has done4 ,but it is a certainty that you can thwart4 ,it is an operation that you can counterwork4 ,the potter in ,jeremiah's parable was making a vessel upon his wheel1 and the vessel was marred in his hand1 and did not turn out what he wanted it4 ,the meaning of the metaphor1 which has often been twisted to express the very opposite1 is that the potter's work may fail1 that the artificer may be balked1 that you can counterwork the divine dealing1 and that all ,his purpose in your creation1 in ,his providence and in ,his gift of ,his ,son for your redemption1 may come to nought as far as you are concerned4 ',i beseech you that ye receive not the grace of ,god in vain4' ',in vain have ,i smitten your children1' wailed the ,divine ,love2 'they have received no correction4' ,in vain ,god lavishes upon some of us ,his mercies1 in vain for some of us has ,christ toiled and suffered and died4 ,oh1 brother6 do not let all ,god's work on you come to nought1 but yield yourselves to it4 ,rejoice in the confidence that ,he is moulding your character1 cheerfully welcome and accept the providences1 painful as they may be1 by which ,he prepares you for heaven4 ,the chisel is sharp that strikes off the superfluous pieces of marble1 and when the chisel cuts1 not into marble1 but into a heart1 there is a pang4 ,bear it1 bear it6 and understand the meaning of the blow of the sculptor's mallet1 and see in all life the divine hand working towards the accomplishment of ,his own loving purpose4 ,then if we turn to ,him1 amid the pains of ,his discipline and the joys of ,his gifts of grace1 with recognition and acceptance of ,his meaning in them all1 and cry to ,him1 ',thy mercy1 ,o ,lord1 endureth for ever1 forsake not the work of ,thine own hands1' we may be always confident1 as knowing that 'the ,lord will perfect that which concerneth us4' ,,the ,,old ,,house ,,and ,,the ,,new ',we are confident1 ,i say1 and willing rather to be absent from the body1 and to be present with the ,lord4'--#b ,,cor4 v4 #h4 ,there lie in the words of my text simply these two things2 the ,christian view of what death is1 and the ,christian temper in which to anticipate it4 ,i4 ,first1 the ,christian view of what death is4 ,now it is to be observed that1 properly speaking1 the ,apostle is not here referring to the state of the dead1 but to the act of dying4 ,the language would more literally and accurately be rendered 'willing to go from home1 from the body1 and to go home1 to the ,lord4' ,the moment of transition of course leads to a permanent state1 but it is the moment of transition which is in view in the words4 ,i need not remind you1 ,i suppose1 that the metaphor of the home is one which has already been dwelt upon in the early part of the chapter1 where the contrast is drawn between the transitory house of 'this tent1' and the 'building of ,god1' the body of incorruption and glory which the saints at the ,resurrection day shall receive4 ,so1 then1 the ,christian view of the act of death is that it is simply a change of abode4 ,very clearly and firmly does ,paul draw the line between the man and his dwelling-place4 ,life is more than a result of organisation4 ,consciousness1 thought1 feeling1 are more than functions of matter4 ,no materialist philosopher has ever been1 or ever will be1 able to explain within the limits of his system the strange difference between the cause and the effect2 how it comes to pass that at the one end of the chain there is an impression upon a nerve1 and at the other there is pain2 how at the one end there is the throb of an inch of matter in a man's skull1 and at the other end there are thoughts that breathe and words that burn1 and that live for ever4 ,that brings us up to the edge of a gulf over which no materialist philosopher has ever been able to cast a bridge4 ,the scalpel cannot cut deep enough to solve this mystery4 ,conscience as well as instinct cry out against the theory that the worker and the tools are inseparable4 ,for such a theory reduces human actions to mechanical results1 and shatters all responsibility4 ,man is more than his dwelling-place4 ,you crush a shell on the beach with your heel1 and you slay its tiny inhabitant4 ,but you can pull down the tent1 and pluck up its pegs1 and roll up its canvas1 and put it away in a dark corner1 and the tenant is untouched4 ,the foolish senses crown ,death as last1 and lord of all4 ,but wisdom says1 ',life and thought have gone away side by side1 leaving doors and windows wide1' and that is all that has happened4 ,still further1 my text suggests that to the ,christian soul the departure from the one house is the entrance into the other4 ,the home has been the body2 the home is now to be ,jesus ,christ4 ,and very beautiful and significant with meanings1 which only experience will fully unfold1 is the representation that the ,lord ,christ ,himself assumes the place which the bodily environment has hitherto held4 ,that teaches us1 at all events1 that there is a new depth and closeness of union with ,jesus waiting the ,christian soul1 when it lays aside the separating film of flesh4 ,here the bodily organisation1 with its limitations1 necessarily shuts us off from the closeness of intercourse which is possible for a naked soul4 ,we know not how much separation may depend upon the immersing of the spirit in the fleshly tabernacle1 but this we know1 that1 though here and now1 by faith which dominates sense1 souls can live in ,christ even whilst they live in the body2 yet there shall come a form of union so much more close1 intimate1 all-pervading1 and all-encircling1 as that the present union with ,him by faith1 precious as it is1 shall be1 as the ,apostle calls it in our context1 'absence from the ,lord4' ',we have to be discharged1' says an old thinker1 'of a great deal of what we call body1 and then we shall be more truly ourselves1' and more truly united to ,him who1 if we are ,christian people at all1 is the self of ourselves and the life of our lives4 ,no man knows how close he can nestle to the bosom of ,christ when the film of flesh is rent away4 ,just as when in some crowded street of a great city some grimy building is pulled down1 a sudden daylight fills the vacant space1 and all the site that had been shut out from the sky for many years is drenched in sunshine1 so when 'the earthly house of this tabernacle' is ruinated and falls1 the light will flood the place where it stood1 and to be 'absent from the body' shall be to be 'present with the ,lord4' ,may we go a step further and suggest that1 perhaps1 in the bold metaphor of my text1 there is an answer to the questions which so often rack loving and parted hearts8 ',do the dead know aught of what affects us here8 and can they do aught but gaze on ,him1 and love1 and rest8' ,if it be that there is any such analogy as seems to be dimly shadowed in my text1 between the relation of the body on earth to the spirit that inhabits it1 and that of ,jesus ,christ to him who dwells in ,him1 and is clothed by ,him1 then it may be that1 as the flesh1 so the ,christ transmits to the spirit that has ,him for its home impressions from the outside world1 and affords a means of action upon that world4 ,christ may be1 if ,i might so say1 the sensorium of the disembodied spirit2 and ,christ may be the hand of the man who hath no other instrument by which to express himself4 ,but all that is fancy perhaps1 speculation certainly2 and yet there seems to be a shadow of a foundation for at least entertaining the possibility of such a thought as that ,jesus is the means of knowing and the means of acting to those who rest from their labours in ,him1 and dwell in peace in ,his arms4 ,but be that as it may1 the reality of a close communion and encircling by the felt presence of ,jesus ,christ1 which1 in its blessed closeness1 will make the closest communion here seem to be obscure1 is certainly declared in the words before us4 ,then this transition is regarded in my text as being the work of a moment4 ,it is not a long journey of which the beginning is 'to go from home1 from the body1' and the end is 'to go home1 to the ,lord4' ,but it is one and the same motion which1 looked at from the one side1 is departure1 and looked at from the other is arrival4 ,the old saying has it1 'there is but a step between me and death4' ,the truth is1 there is but a step between me and life4 ,the mighty angel in the ,apocalypse1 that stood with one foot on the firm land and the other on the boundless ocean1 is but the type of the spirit in the brief moment of transition1 when the consciousness of two worlds blends1 and it is clothed upon with the house which is from heaven1 in the very act of stripping off the earthly house of this tabernacle4 ,nor need ,i remind you1 ,i suppose1 in more than a sentence1 that this transition obviously leads into a state of conscious communion with ,jesus ,christ4 ,the dreary figment of an unconscious interval for the disembodied spirit has no foundation1 either in what we know of spirit1 or in what is revealed to us in ,scripture4 ,for the one thing that seems to make it probable--the use of that metaphor of 'sleeping in ,jesus'--is quite sufficiently accounted for by the notions of repose1 and cessation of outward activity1 and withdrawal of capacity of being influenced by the so-called realities of this lower world1 without dragging in the unfounded notion of unconsciousness4 ,my text is incompatible with it1 for it is absurd to say of an unconscious spirit1 clear of a bodily environment1 that it is anywhere2 and there is no intelligible sense in which the condition of such a spirit can be called being 'with the ,lord4' ,so1 then1 ,i think a momentary transition1 with uninterrupted consciousness1 which leads to a far deeper and more wonderful and blessed sense of unity with ,jesus ,christ than is possible here on earth1 is the true shape in which the act of death presents itself to the ,christian thinker4 ,and remember1 dear brethren1 that is all we know4 ,nothing else is certain--nothing but this1 'with the ,lord1' and the resulting certainty that therefore it is well with them4 ,it is enough for our faith1 for our comfort1 for our patient waiting4 ,they live in ,christ1 'and there we find them worthier to be loved1' and certainly lapped in a deeper rest4 ',blessed are the dead that die in the ,lord4' ,,ii4 ,in the next place1 note the ,christian temper in which to anticipate the transition4 ',we are always courageous1 and willing rather to leave our home in the body1 and to go home to the ,lord4' ,now ,i must briefly remind you of how the ,apostle comes to this state of feeling4 ,he has been speaking about the natural shrinking1 which belongs to all humanity1 from the act of dissolution1 considered as being the stripping off of the garment of the flesh4 ,and he has declared1 on behalf of himself and the early ,christian ,church1 his own and their personal desire that they might escape from that trial by the path which seemed possible to the early ,christians--viz4 that of surviving until the return of ,jesus ,christ from ,heaven1 when they would be 'clothed upon with the house which is from ,heaven1' without the necessity of stripping off that with which at present they are invested4 ,then he says--and this is a very remarkable thought--that just because this instinctive shrinking from death and yearning for the glorified body is so strong in the ,christian heart1 that is a sign that there is such a glorified body waiting for us4 ,he says1 'we know that if our house 444 were dissolved1 we have a building of ,god4' ,and his reason for knowing it is this1 'for in this we groan4' ,that is a bold position to say that a yearning in the ,christian consciousness prophesies its own fulfilment4 ,our desires are the prophecies of ,his gifts4 ,then1 on this certainty--which he deduces from the fact of the longing for it--on this certainty of the glorious1 ultimate body of the ,resurrection he bases his willingness expressed in the text1 to go through the unwelcome process of leaving the old house1 although he shrinks from it4 ,so1 then1 ,christian faith does not destroy the natural reluctance to put aside the old companion of our lives4 ,the old house1 though it be smoky1 dimly lighted1 and1 by our own careless keeping1 sluttish and grimy in many a corner1 yet is the only house we have ever known1 and to be absent from it is untried and strange4 ,there is nothing wrong in saying 'we would not be unclothed but clothed upon4' ,nature speaks there4 ,we may reverently entertain the same feelings which our ,pattern acknowledged1 when ,he said1 ',i have a baptism to be baptized with1 and how am ,i straitened until it be accomplished4' ,and there would be nothing sinful in repeating ,his prayer with ,his conditions1 ',if it be possible1 let this cup pass from ,me4' ,but then the text suggests to us the large ,christian possessions and hope which counterwork this reluctance1 in the measure in which we live lives of faith4 ,there is the assurance of that ultimate home in which all the transiency of the present material organisation is exchanged for the enduring permanence which knows no corruption4 ,the 'tent' is swept away to make room for the 'building4' ,the earthly house is dissolved in order that there may be reared round the homeless tenant the house eternal1 'not made with hands1' ,god's own work1 which is waiting in the heavens2 because the power that shall frame it is there4 ,not only that great hope of the 'body of ,his glory1' with which at the last all true souls shall be invested1 but furthermore1 'the earnest of the spirit1' and the blessed experiences therefrom1 resulting even here1 ought to make the unwelcome necessity less unwelcome4 ,if the firstfruits be righteousness and peace and joy of the ,holy ,ghost1 what shall the harvest be8 ,if the 'earnest1' the shilling given in advance1 be so precious1 what will the whole wealth of the inheritance which it heralds be when it is received8 ,for such reasons the transitory passage becomes less painful and unwelcome4 ,who is there that would hesitate to dip his foot into the ice-cold brook if he knew that it would not reach above his ankles1 and that a step would land him in blessedness unimagined till experienced8 ,therefore the ,christian temper is that of quiet willingness and constant courage4 ,there is nothing hysterical here1 nothing morbid1 nothing overstrained1 nothing artificial4 ,the ,apostle says3 ',i would rather not4 ,i should like if ,i could escape it4 ,it is an unwelcome necessity2 but when ,i see what ,i do see beyond1' ,i am ready4 ,since so it must be1 ,i will go1 not reluctantly1 nor dragged away from life1 nor clinging desperately to it as it slips from my hands1 nor dreading anything that may happen beyond2 but always courageous1 and prepared to go whithersoever the path may take me1 since ,i am sure that it ends in ,his bosom4 ,he is willing to go from the home of the body1 because to do that is to go home to ,christ4 ,there are other references of our ,apostle's1 substantially of the same tone as that of my text1 but with very beautiful and encouraging differences4 ,when he was nearer his end1 when it seemed to him as if the headsman's block was not very far off1 his willingness had intensified into 'having a desire to depart and to be with ,christ1 which is far better4' ,and when the end was all but reached1 and he knew that death was waiting just round the next turn in the road1 he said1 with the confidence that in the midst of the struggle would have been vainglory1 but at the end of it was a foretaste of the calm of ,heaven1 ',i have finished my course1 ,i have kept the faith2 henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness4' ,that is our model1 dear brethren1--'always courageous1' afraid of nothing in life1 in death1 or beyond1 and therefore willing to go from home from the body and to go home to the ,lord4 ,think of this man thus fronting the inevitable1 with no excitement and with no delusions4 ,remember what ,paul believed about death1 about sin1 about his own sin1 about judgment1 about hell4 ,and then think of how to him death had made its darkness beautiful with the light of ,christ's face1 and all the terror was gone out of it4 ,do you think so about death8 ,do you shrink from it8 ,why8 ,why do you not take ,paul's cure for the shrinking8 ,if you can say1 ',to me to live is ,christ1' you will have no difficulty in saying1 'and to die is gain4' ,that is the only way by which you can come to such a temper1 and then you will be willing to move from the cottage to the palace1 and to wait in peace till you are shifted again into 'the building of ,god1 the house not made with hands1 eternal in the heavens4' ,,pleasing ,,christ ',we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of ,him4'--#b ,,cor4 v4 #b4 ,we do not usually care very much for1 or very much trust1 a man's own statement of the motives of his life1 especially if in the statement he takes credit for lofty and noble ones4 ,and it would be rather a dangerous experiment for the ordinary run of so-called ,christian people to stand up and say what ,paul says here1 that the supreme design and aim towards which all their lives are directed is to please ,jesus ,christ4 ,in his case the tree was known by its fruits4 ,certainly there never was a life of more noble self-abnegation1 of more continuous heroism1 of loftier aspiration and lowlier service than the life of which we see the very pulse in these words4 ,but ,paul is not only professing his own faith1 he is speaking in the name of all his brethren4 ',we1' ought to include every man and woman who calls himself or herself a ,christian4 ,it is this setting of the will of ,jesus ,christ high up above all other commandments1 and proposing to one's self as the aim that swallows up all other aims1 that ,i may please ,him--it is this1 and not creeds1 forms1 opinions1 professions1 or even a faith that simply trusts in ,him for salvation1 that makes a true ,christian4 ,you are a ,christian in the precise measure in which ,christ's will is uppermost and exclusive in your life1 and for all your professions and your orthodoxy and your worship and your faith1 not one hair's-breadth further4 ,here is the signature and the common characteristic of all real ,christians1 ',we labour that whether present or absent we may be well-pleasing to ,him4' ,so then in looking together at these words now1 ,i take three points1 the supreme aim of the ,christian life2 the concentration of effort which that aim demands2 and the insignificance to which it reduces all external things4 ,i4 ,first1 then1 let me deal with that supreme aim of the ,christian life4 ,the word which is1 correctly enough1 rendered 'accepted1' may more literally1 and perhaps with a closer correspondence to the ,apostle's meaning1 be translated 'well-pleasing1' and the aim is this1 not merely that we may be accepted1 but that we may bring a smile into ,his face1 and some joy and complacent delight in us into ,his heart1 when ,he looks upon our doings4 ,that pleasure of ,jesus ,christ in them that 'fear ,him1 and in them that hope in ,his mercy' and do ,his will is a present emotion that fills ,his heart in looking upon ,his followers1 and it will be especially declared in the solemn1 final judgment4 ,we must keep in view both of these periods1 if we would rightly understand the sweep of the aim which ought to be uppermost in all ,christian people4 ,here and now in our present acts1 we should so live as to occasion a present sentiment of complacent delight in us1 in the heart of the ,christ who sees us here and now and always4 ,we should so live as that at that far-off future day when we shall 'all be manifested before the ,judgment-seat of ,christ1' the ,judge may bend from ,his tribunal1 and welcome us into ,his presence with a word of congratulation and an outstretched hand of loving reception4 ,set that two-fold aim before you1 ,christian men and women1 else you will fail to experience the full stimulus of this thought4 ,now such an aim as this implies a very wonderful conception of ,jesus ,christ's present relations to us4 ,it is a truth that we may minister to ,his joy4 ,it is a truth that just as really as you mothers are glad when you hear from a far-off land that your boy is doing well1 and getting on1 so ,jesus ,christ's heart fills with gladness when ,he sees you and me walking in the paths in which ,he would have us go4 ,we often think about our dear dead that they cannot know of us and our doings here1 because the sorrow that would sometimes come from the contemplation of our evil1 or of our misfortunes1 would trouble them in their serene rest4 ,we know not how that may be1 but this at least we do know1 that the ,man ,jesus ,christ1 who1 like those dear ones1 'was dead1 and is alive for evermore1' in ,his human nature has knowledge of all ,his children's failures1 as well as successes1 and is affected with some shadow of regret1 or with some reality of delight1 according as they follow or stray from the paths in which ,he would have them walk4 ,if it be so with ,him it may be so with them2 and though it be not so with them it must be so with ,him4 ,so this strange1 sweet1 tender1 and powerful thought is a piece of plain prose1 that ,christ is glad when you and ,i are good4 ,does it need any word to emphasise the force of that motive to a ,christian heart that loves the ,master8 ,surely this is the great and blessed peculiarity of all the morality of ,christianity that it has all a personal bearing and aspect1 and that just as the sum of all our duty is gathered up in the one command1 ',imitate ,christ1' so the motive for all our duty lies in ',if you love ,me1 keep ,my commandments1' and the reward which ought to stimulate more than anything besides is the one thought1 not1 of what ,i shall get because ,i am good1 but of what ,i shall give ,him by my obedience1 a joy in the heart that was stabbed through and through by sorrow for my sake4 ,that we may please ,him 'who pleased not ,himself1' is surely the grandest motive on which the pursuit of holiness1 and the imitation of ,jesus ,christ can ever be made to rest4 ,oh6 how different1 and how much more blessed such a motive and aim is than all the lower reasons for which men are sometimes exhorted and encouraged to be good6 ,what a difference it is when we say1 ',do that thing because it is right1' and when we say1 ',do that thing because you will be happier if you do1' or when we say1 ',do it because ,he would like you to do it4' ,the one is all cold and abstract4 ,to stand before a man and simply say3 ',now go and do your duty1' is a poor way of setting his feet upon a rock and establishing his goings4 ,duty is not a word that stirs men's hearts1 however it may awe their consciences4 ,it rises up before us like some goddess statuesque and serene1 with purity1 indeed1 in her deep and solemn eyes1 but with nothing appealing to our affections in her stern lineaments4 ,but when the thought of ',you ought' melts into ',for my sake1' and through the dissolving face of the cold marble goddess there shine the beloved lineaments of ,him who 'wears the ,godhead's most benignant grace1' the smile upon ,his face becomes a motive that touches all hearts4 ,transmute obligation into gratitude1 and in front of duty and appeals to self put ,christ1 and all the harshness and difficulty and burden and self-sacrifice of obedience becomes easy and a joy4 ,then let me remind you that this one supreme aim of pleasing ,jesus ,christ can be carried on through all life in every varying form1 great or small4 ,a blessed unity is given to our whole being when the little things and the big things1 the easy things and the hard things1 deeds which are conspicuous and deeds which no eye sees1 are all brought under the influence of the one motive and made co-operant to the one end4 ,drive that one steadfast aim through your lives like a bar of iron1 and it will give the lives strength and consistency--not rigidity1 because they may still be flexible4 ,nothing will be too small to be consecrated by that motive2 nothing too great to own its power4 ,you can please ,him everywhere and always4 ,the only thing that is inconsistent with pleasing ,him is the thing which1 alas6 we do at all times and should do at no time1 and that is to sin against ,him4 ,if we bear with us this as a conscious motive in every part of our day's work it will give us a quick discernment as to what is evil1 which ,i believe nothing else will so surely give4 ,if you desire life to be noble1 uniform1 dignified1 great in its minutest acts and solemn in its very trifles1 and if you would have some continual test and standard by which you can detect all spurious1 apparent virtues1 and discover lurking and masked temptations1 carry this one aim clear and high above all else1 and make it the purpose of the whole life1 to be well-pleasing unto ,him4 ,,ii4 ,now1 in the next place1 notice the concentrated effort which this aim requires4 ,the word rendered in my text 'labour' is a peculiar one1 very seldom employed in ,scripture4 ,it means1 in its most literal signification1 to be fond of honour1 or to be actuated by a love of honour2 and hence it comes1 by a very natural transition1 to mean to strive to gain something for the sake of the honour connected with it4 ,that is to say1 it not only expresses the notion of diligent1 strenuous effort1 but it reveals the reason for that diligence and strenuousness in what ,i may call 7for the word might almost be so rendered7 the ambition of being honoured by pleasing ,christ4 ,so that the 'labour' of my text covers the whole ground1 not only of the act but of its motive4 ,the concentration of effort which such an aim requires may be enforced by one or two simple exhortations4 ,first1 let me say that we ought1 as ,christian people1 to cultivate this noble ambition of pleasing ,jesus ,christ4 ,men have all got the love of approbation deep in them4 ,god put it there for a good purpose1 not that we might shape our lives so as to get others to pat us on the back1 and say1 ',well done6' but that1 in addition to the other solemn and sovereign motives for following the paths of righteousness1 we might have this highest ambition to impel us on the road4 ,and it is the duty of all ,christians to see to it that they discipline themselves so as1 in their own feelings1 to put high above all the approbation or censure of their fellows the approbation or censure of ,jesus ,christ4 ,that will take some cultivation4 ,it is a great deal easier to shape our courses so as to get one another's praise4 ,i remember a quaint saying in a ,german book4 ',an old schoolmaster tried to please this one and that one1 and it failed4 ,well1 then1 said he1 ,i will try to please ,christ4 ,and that succeeded4' ,and let me remind you that a second part of the concentration of effort which this aim requires is to strive with the utmost energy in the accomplishment of it4 ,paul did not believe that anybody could please ,jesus ,christ without a fight for it4 ,his notion of acceptable service was service which a man suppressed much to render1 and overcame much to bring4 ,and ,i urge upon you this1 dear brethren1 that with all the mob of faces round about us which shut out ,christ's face1 and with all the temptations to follow other aims1 and with the weaknesses of our own characters1 it never was1 is not1 nor ever will be1 an easy thing1 or a thing to be done without a struggle and a dead lift1 to live so as to be well-pleasing to ,him4 ,look at ,paul's metaphors with which he sets forth the ,christian life--a warfare1 a race1 a struggle1 a building up of some great temple structure1 and the like--all suggesting at the least the idea of patient1 persistent1 continuous toil1 and most of them suggesting also the idea of struggle with antagonistic forces and difficulties1 either within or without4 ,so we must set our shoulders to the wheel1 put our backs into our work4 ,do not think that you are going to be carried into the condition of conformity with ,jesus ,christ in a dream1 or that the road to heaven is a primrose path1 to be trodden in silver slippers4 ',i will not offer unto the ,lord that which doth cost me nothing1' and if you do1 it will be worth exactly what it costs4 ,there must be concentration of effort if we are to be well-pleasing to ,him4 ,but then do not forget1 on the other hand1 that deeper than all effort1 and the very spring and life of it1 there must be the opening of our hearts for the entrance of ,his life and spirit1 by the presence of which only are we well-pleasing to ,christ4 ,that which pleases ,him in you and me is our likeness to ,him4 ,according to the old ,puritan illustration1 the refiner sat by the furnace until he could see in the molten metal his own face mirrored1 and then he knew it was pure4 ,so what pleases ,christ in us is the reflection of ,himself4 ,and how can we get that likeness to ,himself except by receiving into our hearts the ,spirit that was in ,christ ,jesus1 and will dwell in us1 and will produce in us in our measure the same image that it formed in ,him8 ',work out your own salvation1' because 'it is ,god that worketh in you4' ,labour1 concentrate effort1 and above all open the heart to the entrance of that transforming power4 ,,iii4 ,lastly1 let me suggest the utter insignificance to which this aim reduces all externals4 ',we labour1' says ,paul1 'that whether present or absent1 we may be accepted4' ,what differences of condition are covered by that parenthetical phrase--'present or absent6' ,he talks about it as if it was a very small matter1 does he not8 ,and what is included in it8 ,whether a man shall be in the body or out of it2 that is to say1 whether he be alive or dead4 ,here is an aim then1 so great1 so lofty1 so all-comprehensive that it reduces the difference between living in the world and being out of it1 to a trifle4 ,and if we stand so high up that these two varieties of condition dwindle into insignificance and seem to have melted into one1 do you think that there is anything else that will be very big8 ,if the difference between life and death is dwindled and dwarfed1 what else do you suppose will remain8 ,nothing1 ,i should think4 ,so if we only1 by ,god's help1 which will be given to us if we want it1 keep this clear before us as the motive of all our life1 then all the possible alternatives of human condition and circumstance will sink into insignificance1 and from that lofty summit will 'show scarce so gross as beetles' in the air beneath our lofty station4 ,whether we be rich or poor1 solitary or beset by friends1 happy or sad1 hopeful or despairing1 young or old1 wearied or buoyant1 learned or foolish1 it matters not4 ,the one aim lifts itself before us1 and they in whose eyes shine the light of that great issue are careless of the road along which they pass4 ,do you enlist yourselves in the company that fires at the long range1 and all those that take aim at the shorter ones will seem to be very pitifully limiting their powers4 ,then remember that this same aim1 and this same result may be equally pursued and attained whether here or yonder4 ,it is something to have a course of life which runs straight along1 unbent aside1 and not cut short off1 by the change from earth to ,heaven4 ,and this felicity he only has who1 amidst things temporal and insignificant1 sees and seeks the eternal smile on the face of his unchanging ,saviour4 ,on earth1 in death1 through eternity1 such a life will be homogeneous and of a piece2 and when all other aims are hull down below the horizon1 forgotten and out of sight1 then still this will be the purpose1 and yonder it will be the accomplished purpose1 of each1 to please the ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,my dear friend1 remember that in its full meaning this aim regards the future1 and points onward to that great judgment-seat where you and ,i will certainly each of us give account of himself4 ,do you think that you will please ,christ then8 ,do you think that when that day dawns1 a smile of welcome will come into ,his eyes1 and a glow of gladness at the meeting into yours8 ,or have you cause to fear that you will 'call on the rocks and the hills to cover you from the face of ,him that sitteth on the ,throne8' ,we are all close by one another2 our voices are very audible to each other4 ,do you learn1 ,christian people1 that the first1--or at least a prime--condition of all ,christian and ,christ-pleasing life1 is a wholesome disregard of what anybody says but ,himself4 ,the old ,lacedmonians used to stir themselves to heroism by the thought3 ',what will they say of us in ,sparta8' ,the governor of some outlying ,english colony minds very little what the people that he is set to rule think about him4 ,he reports to ,downing ,street1 and it is the opinion of the ,home ,government that influences him4 ,you report to headquarters4 ,never mind what anybody else thinks of you4 ,your business is to please ,christ1 and the less you trouble yourselves about pleasing men the more you will succeed in doing it4 ,be deaf to the tittle tattle of your fellow soldiers in the ranks4 ,it is your ,commander's smile that will be your highest reward4 ',fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil1 ,but lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes1 ,and perfect witness of all-judging ,jove2 ,as he pronounces lastly on each deed1 ,of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed4' ,,the ,,love ,,that ,,constrains ',the love of ,christ constraineth us4'--#b ,,cor4 v4 #ad4 ,it is a dangerous thing to be unlike other people4 ,it is still more dangerous to be better than other people4 ,the world has a little heap of depreciatory terms which it flings1 age after age1 at all men who have a higher standard and nobler aims than their fellows4 ,a favourite term is 'mad4' ,so1 long ago they said1 ',the prophet is a fool2 the spiritual man is mad1' and1 in ,his turn1 ,jesus was said to be 'beside ,himself1' and ,festus shouted from the judgment-seat to ,paul that he was mad4 ,a great many people had said the same thing about him before1 as the context shows4 ,for the verse before my text is3 ',whether we be beside ourselves1 it is to ,god3 or whether we be sober1 it is for your cause4' ,now the former clause can only refer to other people's estimate of the ,apostle4 ,no doubt there were many things about him that gave colour to it4 ,he said that a dead ,man had appeared to him and spoken with him4 ,he said that he had been carried up into the third heaven4 ,he had a very strange creed in the judgment of the times4 ,he had abandoned a brilliant career for a very poor one4 ,he was obviously utterly indifferent to the ordinary aims of men4 ,he had a consuming enthusiasm4 ,and so the world explained him satisfactorily to itself by the short and easy method of saying1 ',insane4' ,and ,paul explained himself by the great word of my text1 ',the love of ,christ constraineth us4' ,wherever there is a life adequately under the influence of ,christ's love the results will be such as an unsympathising world may call madness1 but which are the perfection of sober-mindedness4 ,would there were more such madmen6 ,i wish to try to make one or two of them now1 by getting some of you to take for your motto1 ',the love of ,christ constraineth us4' ,i4 ,now the first thing to notice is this constraining love4 ,i need not spend time in showing that when ,paul says here ',the love of ,christ1' he means ,christ's love to him1 not his to ,christ4 ,that is in accordance with his continual usage of the expression2 and it is in accordance with facts4 ,for it is not my love to ,jesus1 but ,his love to me1 that brings the real moulding power into my life1 and my love to ,him is only the condition on which the true power acts upon me4 ,to get the fulcrum and the lever which will heave a life up to the heights you have to get out of yourselves4 ,now ,paul never saw ,jesus ,christ in this earthly life4 ,timothy1 who is associated with him in this letter1 and perhaps is one of the 'us1' never saw ,him either4 ,the ,corinthian believers whom he is addressing had1 of course1 never seen ,him4 ,and yet the ,apostle has not the slightest hesitation in taking that great benediction of ,christ's love and spreading it over them all4 ,that love is independent of time and of space2 it includes humanity1 and is co-extensive with it4 ,unturned away by unworthiness1 unrepelled by non-responsiveness1 undisgusted by any sin1 unwearied by any1 however numerous1 foiling of its attempts1 the love of ,christ1 like the great heavens that bend above us1 wraps us all in its sweetness1 and showers upon us all its light and its dew4 ,and yet1 brethren1 ,i would have you remember that whilst we thus try to paint1 in poor1 poor words1 the universality of that love1 we have to remember that it does not partake of the weakness that infects all human affections1 which are only strong when they are narrow1 and as the river expands it becomes shallow1 and loses the force in its flow which it had when it was gathered between straiter banks1 so as that a universal charity is almost akin to a universal indifference4 ,but this love that grasps us all1 this river that 'proceedeth from the ,throne of ,god and of the ,lamb1' flows in its widest reaches as deep and as impetuous in its career as if it were held within the narrowest of gorges4 ,for ,christ's universal love is universal only because it is individualising and particular4 ,we love our nation by generalising and losing sight of the individuals4 ,christ loves the world because ,he loves every man and woman in it1 and ,his grace enwraps all because ,his grace hovers over each4 ',the sun whose beams most glorious are ,despiseth no beholder1' but the rays come straight to each eyeball4 ,be sure of this3 that ,he who1 when the multitude thronged ,him and pressed ,him1 felt the tremulous1 timid1 scarcely perceptible touch of one woman's wasted finger on the hem of ,his garment1 holds each of us in the grasp of ,his love1 which is universal1 because it applies to each4 ,you and ,i have each the whole radiance of it pouring down on our heads1 and none intercepts the beams from any other4 ,so1 brethren1 let us each feel not only the love that grasps the world1 but the love that empties itself on me4 ,but there is one more remark that ,i wish to make in reference to this constraining love of ,jesus ,christ1 and that is1 that in order to see and feel it we must take the point of view that this ,apostle takes in my text4 ,for hearken how he goes on4 ',the love of ,christ constraineth us1 because we thus judge1 that if one died for all1 then all died1 and that ,he died for all1' etc4 ,that is to say1 the death of ,christ for all1 which is equivalent to the death of ,christ for each1 is the great solvent by which the love of ,god melts men's hearts1 and is the great proof that ,jesus ,christ loves me1 and thee1 and all of us4 ,if you strike out that conception you have struck out from your ,christianity the vindication of the belief that ,christ loves the world4 ,what possible meaning is there in the expression1 ',he died for all8' ,how can the fact of ,his death on a 'green hill' outside the gates of a little city in ,syria have world-wide issues1 unless in that death ,he bore1 and bore away1 the sins of the whole world8 ,i know that there have been many--and there are many to-day--who not accepting what seems to me to be the very vital heart of ,christianity--viz4 the death of ,christ for the world's sin1 do yet cherish--as ,i think illogically--yet do cherish a regard for ,him1 which puts some of us who call ourselves 'orthodox1' and are tepid1 to the blush4 ,thank ,god6 men are often better than their creeds1 as well as worse than them4 ,but that fact does not affect what ,i am saying now1 and what ,i beg you to take for what you find it to be worth1 that unless we believe that ,jesus ,christ died for all1 ,i do not know what claim ,he has on the love of the world4 ,we shall admire ,him1 we shall bow before ,him1 as the very realised ideal of humanity1 though how this one ,man has managed to escape the taint of the all-pervading evil remains1 upon that hypothesis1 very obscure4 ,but love ,him8 ,no6 ,why should ,i8 ,but if ,i feel that ,his death had world-wide issues1 and that ,he went down into the darkness in order that ,he might bring the world into the light1 then--and ,i am sure1 on the wide scale and in the long-run only then--will men turn to ,him and say1 ',thou hast died for me1 help me to live for ,thee4' ,brethren1 ,i beseech you1 take care of emptying the death of ,christ of its deepest meaning1 lest you should thereby rob ,his character of its chiefest charm1 and ,his name of its mightiest soul-melting power4 ,the love that constraineth is the love that died1 and died for all1 because it died for each4 ,,ii4 ,now let me ask you to consider the echo of this constraining love4 ,i said a moment or two ago that ,christ's love to us is the constraining power1 and that ours to ,him is but the condition on which that power works4 ,but between the two there comes something which brings that constraining love to bear upon our hearts4 ,and so notice what my text goes on to adduce as needful for ,christ's love to have its effect--namely1 'because we thus judge1' etc4 ,then my estimate1 my apprehension of the love of ,christ must come in between its manifestation and its power to grip1 to restrain1 to impel me4 ,if ,i may use such a figure1 ,he stands1 as it were1 bugle in hand1 and blows the sweet strains that are meant to set the echoes flying4 ,but the rock must receive the impact of the vibrations ere it can throw back the thinned echo of the music4 ,love must be believed and known ere it can be responded to4 ,now the only answer and echo that hearts desire is the love of the beloved heart4 ,we all know that in our earthly life4 ,love is as much a hunger to be loved as the outgoing of my own affection4 ,the two things are inseparable1 and there is nothing that repays love but love4 ,jesus ,christ wishes each of us to love ,him4 ,if it is true that ,he loves me1 then1 intertwisted with the outgoing of ,his heart towards me is the yearning that my heart may go out towards ,him4 ,dear brethren1 this is no pulpit rhetoric1 it is a plain1 simple fact1 inseparable from the belief in ,christ's love--that ,he wishes you and every soul of man to love ,him1 and that1 whatever else you bring1 lip reverence1 orthodox belief1 apparent surrender1 in the assay shop of ,his great mint all these are rejected1 and the only metal that passes the fire is the pure gold of an answering love4 ,brethren6 is that what you bring to ,jesus ,christ8 ,love seeks for love1 and our love can only be an echo of ,his4 ,he takes the beginning in everything4 ,if ,i am to love ,him back again1 ,i must have faith in ,his love to me4 ,and if that be so1 then the true way by which you1 imperfect ,christian people1 can deepen and strengthen your love to ,jesus ,christ is not so much by efforts to work up a certain warmth of sentiment and glow of affection1 as by gazing1 with believing eyes of the heart1 upon that which kindles your love to ,him4 ,if you want ice to melt1 put it out into the sunshine1 ,if you want the mirror to gleam1 do not spend all your time in polishing it4 ,carry it where it can catch the ray1 and it will flash it back in glory4 ',we love ,him because ,he first loved us4' ,our love is an echo2 be sure that you listen for the parent note1 and link yourselves by faith with that great love which has come down from ,heaven for us all4 ,but how can ,i speak about echoes and responses when ,i know that there are scores of men and women whom a preacher's words reach who would be ashamed of themselves1 and rightly1 if they exhibited the same callousness of heart and selfishness of ingratitude to some human1 partial benefactor as they are not ashamed to have exhibited all their lives to ,jesus ,christ4 ,echo8 ,yes6 your heartstrings are set vibrating fast enough whenever1 in the adjoining apartment1 an instrument is touched which is tuned to the same key as your heart4 ,pleasures1 earthly aims1 worldly gifts1 the sweetnesses of human life1 all these things set them thrilling1 and you can hear the music1 but your hearts are not tuned to answer to the note that is struck in ',he loved me and gave ,himself for me4' ,the bugle is blown1 and there is silence1 and no echo1 faint and far1 comes whispering back4 ,brethren1 we use no one else1 in whose love we have any belief1 a thousandth part so ill as we use ,jesus ,christ4 ,,iii4 ,now1 lastly1 let me say a word about the constraining influence of this echoed love4 ,its first effect1 if it has any real power in our hearts and lives1 will be to change their centre1 to decentralise4 ,look what the ,apostle goes on to say3 ',we thus judge that ,he 444 died for all1 that they which live should not live henceforth unto themselves4' ,that is the great transformation4 ,secure that1 and all nobleness will follow1 and 'whatsoever things are lovely and of good report' will come1 like doves to their windows1 flocking into the soul that has ceased to find its centre in its poor rebellious self4 ,all love derives its power to elevate1 refine1 beautify1 ennoble1 conquer1 from the fact that1 in lower degree1 all love makes the beloved the centre1 and not the self4 ,hence the mother's self-sacrifice1 hence the sweet reciprocity of wedded life1 hence everything in humanity that is noble and good4 ,love is the antagonist of selfishness1 and the highest type of love should be1 and in the measure in which we are under the influence of ,christ's love will be1 the self-surrendering life of a ,christian man4 ,i know that in saying so ,i am condemning myself and my brethren4 ,all the same1 it is true4 ,the one power that rescues a man from the tyranny of living for self1 which is the mother of all sin and ignobleness1 is when a man can say ',christ is my aim1' ',christ is my object4' ',the life that ,i live in the flesh ,i live by the faith of the ,son of ,god1 who loved me and gave ,himself for me4' ,there is no secret of self-annihilation1 which is self-transfiguration1 and1 ,i was going to say1 deification1 like that of loving ,christ with all my heart because ,he has loved me so4 ,again1 let me remind you that1 on its lower reaches and levels1 we find that all true affection has in it a strange power of assimilating its objects to one another4 ,just as a man and woman who have lived together for half a century in wedded life come to have the same notions1 the same prejudices1 the same tastes1 and sometimes you can see their very faces being moulded into likeness1 so1 if ,i love ,jesus ,christ1 ,i shall by degrees grow liker and liker to ,him1 and be 'changed into the same image1 from glory to glory4' ,again1 the love constrains1 and not only constrains but impels1 because it becomes a joy to divine and to do the will of the beloved ,christ4 ',my yoke is easy4' ,is it8 ,it is very hard to be a ,christian4 ,his requirements are a great deal sterner than others4 ,his yoke is easy1 not because it is a lighter yoke1 but because it is padded with love4 ,and that makes all service a sacrament1 and the surrender of my own will1 which is the essence of obedience1 a joy4 ,so1 dear friends1 we come here in sight of the unique and blessed characteristic of all ,christian morality1 and of all its practical exhortations1 and the ,gospel stands alone as the mightiest moulding power in the world1 just because its word is 'love1 and do as thou wilt4' ,for in the measure of thy love will thy will coincide with the will of ,christ4 ,there is nothing else that has anything like that power4 ,we do not want to be told what is right4 ,we know it a great deal better than we practise it4 ,a revelation from heaven that simply told me my duty would be surplusage4 ',if there had been a law that could have given life1 righteousness had been by the law4' ,we want a life1 not a law1 and the love of ,christ brings the life to us4 ,and so1 dear friends1 that life1 restrained and impelled by the love to which it is being assimilated1 is a life of liberty and a life of blessedness4 ,in the measure in which the love of ,christ constrains any man1 it makes for him difficulties easy1 the impossible possible1 the crooked things straight1 and the rough places plain4 ,the duty becomes a delight1 and self ceases to disturb4 ,if the love of ,god is shed abroad in a heart1 and in the measure in which it is1 that heart will be at rest1 and a great peace will brood over it4 ,then the will bows in glad submission1 and all the powers arise to joyous service4 ,we are lords of the world and ourselves when we are ,christ's servants for love's sake2 and earth and its good are never so good as when the power of ,his echoed love rules our lives4 ,do you know and believe that ,christ loves you8 ,do you know and believe that you had a place in ,his heart when ,he hung on the ,cross for the salvation of the world8 ,have you answered that love with yours1 kindled by your faith in1 and experience of1 ,his8 ,is ,his love the overmastering impulse which urges you to all good1 the mighty constraint that keeps you back from all evil1 the magnet that draws1 the anchor that steadies1 the fortress that defends1 the light that illumines1 the treasure that enriches8 ,is it the law that commands1 and the power that enables8 ,then you are blessed1 though people will perhaps say that you are mad1 whilst here2 and you will be blessed for ever and ever4 ,,the ,,entreaties ,,of ,,god ',now then we are ambassadors for ,christ1 as though ,god did beseech 444 by us3 we pray 444 in ,christ's stead1 be ye reconciled to ,god4'--#b ,,cor4 v4 #bj4 ,these are wonderful and bold words1 not so much because of what they claim for the servants as because of what they reveal of the ,lord4 ,that thought1 'as though ,god did beseech1' seems to me to be the one deserving of our attention now1 far rather than any inferences which may be drawn from the words as to the relation of preachers of the ,gospel to man and to ,god4 ,i wish1 therefore1 to try to set forth the wonderfulness of this mystery of a beseeching ,god1 and to put by the side of it the other wonder and mystery of men refusing the divine beseechings4 ,before doing so1 however1 ,i remark that the supplement which stands in our ,authorised ,version in this text is a misleading and unfortunate one4 ',as though ,god did beseech you' and 'we pray you' unduly narrow the scope of the ,apostolic message1 and confuse the whole course of the ,apostolic reasoning here4 ,for he has been speaking of a world which is reconciled to ,god1 and he finds a consequence of that reconciliation of the world in the fact that he and his fellow-preachers are entrusted with the word of reconciliation4 ,the scope of their message1 then1 can be no narrower than the scope of the reconciliation2 and inasmuch as that is world-wide the beseeching must be co-extensive therewith1 and must cover the whole ground of humanity4 ,it is a universal message that is set forth here4 ,the ,corinthians1 to whom ,paul was speaking1 are1 by his hypothesis1 already reconciled to ,god1 and the message which he has in trust for them is given in the subsequent words3 ',we then1 as workers together with ,god1 beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of ,god in vain4' ,but the message1 the pleading of the divine heart1 'be ye reconciled to ,god1' is a pleading that reaches over the whole range of a reconciled world4 ,i take then1 just these two thoughts1 ,god beseeching man1 and man refusing ,god4 ,i4 ,god beseeching man4 ,now notice how1 in my text1 there alternates1 as if substantially the same idea1 the thoughts that ,christ and that ,god pray men to be reconciled4 ',we are ambassadors on ,christ's behalf1 as though ,god did beseech you by us1 we pray on ,christ's behalf4' ,so you see1 first1 ,christ the ,pleader1 then ,god beseeching1 then ,christ again entreating and praying4 ,could any man have so spoken1 passing instinctively from the one thought to the other1 unless he had believed that whatsoever things the ,father doeth1 these also doeth the ,son likewise2 and that ,jesus ,christ is the ,representative of the whole ,deity for mankind1 so as that when ,he pleads ,god pleads1 and ,god pleads through ,him4 ,i do not dwell upon this1 but ,i simply wish to mark it in passing as one of the innumerable strong and irrefragable testimonies to the familiarity and firmness with which that thought of the divinity of ,jesus ,christ1 and the full revelation of the ,father by ,him1 was grasped by the ,apostle1 and was believed by the people to whom he spoke4 ,god pleads1 therefore ,christ pleads1 ,christ pleads1 therefore ,god pleads2 and these ,two are ,one in their beseechings1 and the voice of the ,father echoes to us in the tenderness of the ,son4 ,so1 then1 let us think of that pleading4 ,to sue for love1 to beg that an enemy will put away his enmity is the part of the inferior rather than of the superior2 is the part of the offender rather than of the offended2 is the part of the vanquished rather than of the victor2 is the part surely not of the king but of the rebel4 ,and yet here1 in the sublime transcending of all human precedent and pattern which characterises the divine dealing1 we have the place of the suppliant and of the supplicated inverted1 and ,love upon the ,throne bends down to ask of the rebel that lies powerless and sullen at ,his feet1 and yet is not conquered until his heart be won1 though his limbs be manacled1 that he would put away all the bitterness out of his heart1 and come back to the love and the grace which are ready to pour over him4 ',he that might the vengeance best have taken1 finds out the remedy4' ,he against whom we have transgressed prays us to be reconciled2 and the ,infinite ,love lowers ,himself in that lowering which is1 in another aspect1 the climax of ,his exaltation1 to pray the rebels to accept ,his amnesty4 ,oh1 dear brethren6 this is no mere piece of rhetoric4 ,what facts in the divine heart does it represent8 ,what facts in the divine conduct does it represent8 ,it represents these facts in the divine heart1 that there is in it an infinite longing for the creature's love1 an infinite desire for unity between ,him and us4 ,there are wonderful significance and beauty in the language of my text which are lost in the ,authorised ,version2 but are preserved in the ,revised4 ',we are ambassadors' not only 'for ,christ1' but 'on ,christ's behalf4' ,and the same proposition is repeated in the subsequent clause4 ',we pray you1' not merely 'in ,christ's stead1' though that is much1 but 'on ,his account1' which is more--as if it lay very near ,his heart that we should put away our enmity2 and as if in some transcendent and wonderful manner the all-perfect1 self-sufficing ,god was made glad1 and the ,master1 who is ,his image for us1 'saw of the travail of ,his soul1 and1' in regard to one man1 'was satisfied1' when the man lets the warmth of ,god's love in ,christ thaw away the coldness out of his heart1 and kindle there an answering flame4 ,an old divine says1 ',we cannot do ,god a greater pleasure or more oblige ,his very heart1 than to trust in ,him as a ,god of love4' ,he is ready to stoop to any humiliation to effect that purpose4 ,so intense is the divine desire to win the world to ,his love1 that ,he will stoop to sue for it rather than lose it4 ,such is at least part of the fact in the divine heart1 which is shadowed forth for us by that wonderful thought of the beseeching ,god4 ,and what facts in the divine conduct does this great word represent8 ,a ,god that beseeches4 ,well1 think of the tears of imploring love which fell from ,christ's eyes as ,he looked across the valley from ,olivet1 and saw the ,temple glittering in the early sunshine4 ,think of ',o ,jerusalem6 ,jerusalem6 444 how often would ,i have gathered thy children together 444 and ye would not4' ,and are we not to see in the ,christ who wept in the earnestness of ,his desire1 and in the pain of its disappointment1 the very revelation of the ,father's heart and the very action of the ,father's arm8 ',come unto me1 all ye that labour1 and are heavy laden1 and ,i will give you rest4' ,that is ,christ beseeching and ,god beseeching in ,him4 ,need ,i quote other words1 gentle1 winning1 loving8 ,do we not feel1 when looking upon ,christ1 as if the secret of ,his whole life was the stretching out imploring and welcoming hands to men1 and praying them to grasp ,his hands1 and be saved8 ,but1 oh1 brethren6 the fact that towers above all others1 which explains the whole procedure of divinity1 and is the keystone of the whole arch of revelation2 the fact which reveals in one triple beam of light1 ,god1 man1 and sin in the clearest illumination1 is the ,cross of ,jesus ,christ4 ,and if that be not the very sublime of entreaty2 and if any voice can be conceived1 human or divine1 that shall reach men's hearts with a more piercing note of pathetic invitation than sounds from that ,cross1 ,i know not where it is4 ,christ that dies1 in ,his dying breath calls to us1 and 'the blood of sprinkling speaketh better things than that of ,abel'2 inasmuch as its voice is1 ',come unto ,me1 and be ye saved1 all the ends of the earth4' ,not only in the divine facts of the life and death of ,jesus ,christ1 but in all the appeals of that great revelation which lies before us in ,scripture2 and may ,i say1 in the poor1 broken utterances of men whose harsh1 thin voices try to set themselves1 in some measure1 to the sweetness and the fulness of ,his beseeching tones--does ,god call upon you to draw close to ,him1 and put away your enmity4 ,and not only by ,his ,word written or ministered from human lips1 but also by the patient providences of ,his love ,he calls and prays you to come4 ,a mother will sometimes1 in foolish fondness1 coax her sullen child by injudicious kindness1 or1 in wise patience1 will seek to draw the little heart away from the faults that she desires not to notice1 by redoubled ingenuity of tenderness and of care4 ,and so ,god does with us4 ,when you and ,i1 who deserve--oh6 so different treatment--get1 as we do get1 daily care and providential blessings from ,him1 is not that ,his saying to us1 ',i beseech you to cherish no alienation1 enmity1 indifference1 but to come back and live in the love'8 ,when ,he draws near to us in these outward gifts of ,his mercy1 is ,he not doing ,himself what ,he has bid us to do2 and what ,he never could have bid us to do1 nor our hearts have recognised to be the highest strain of human virtue to do1 unless ,he ,himself were doing it first8 ',if thine enemy hunger1 feed him4 ,if he thirst1 give him drink2 for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head4' ,not only by the great demonstration of ,his stooping and infinite desire for our love which lies in the life and death of ,jesus ,christ1 nor only by ,his outward work1 nor by ,his providence1 but by many an inward touch on our spirits1 by many a prick of conscience1 by many a strange longing that has swept across our souls1 sudden as some perfumed air in the scentless atmosphere2 by many an inward voice1 coming we know not whence1 that has spoken to us of ,him1 of ,his love1 of our duty2 by many a drawing which has brought us nearer to the ,cross of ,jesus ,christ1 only1 alas6 in some cases that we might recoil further from it1--has ,he been beseeching1 beseeching us all4 ,brethren6 ,god pleads with you4 ,he pleads with you because there is nothing in ,his heart to any of you but love1 and a desire to bless you2 ,he pleads with you because1 unless you will let ,him1 ,he cannot lavish upon you ,his richest gifts and ,his highest blessings4 ,he pleads with you1 bowing to the level1 and beneath the level1 of your alienation and reluctance4 ,and the sum and substance of all ,his dealings with every soul is1 ',my son6 give ,me thy heart4' ',be ye reconciled to ,god4' ,,ii4 ,and now turn1 very briefly1 to the next suggestion arising from this text1 the terrible obverse1 so to speak1 of the coin3 ,man refusing a beseeching ,god4 ,that is the great paradox and mystery4 ,nobody has ever fathomed that yet1 and nobody will4 ,how it comes1 how it is possible1 there is no need for us to inquire4 ,it is an awful and a solemn power that every poor little speck of humanity has1 to lift itself up in ,god's face1 and say1 in answer to all ,his pleadings1 ',i will not6' as if the dwellers in some little island1 a mere pin-point of black1 barren rock1 jutting up at sea1 were to declare war against a kingdom that stretched through twenty degrees of longitude on the mainland4 ,so we1 on our little bit of island1 our pin-point of rock in the great waste ocean1 we can separate ourselves from the great ,continent2 or1 rather1 ,god has1 in a fashion1 made us separate in order that we may either unite ourselves with ,him1 by our willing yielding1 or wrench ourselves away from ,him by our antagonism and rebellion4 ,god beseeches because ,god has so settled the relations between ,him and us1 that that is what ,he has to do in order to get men to love ,him4 ,he cannot force them4 ,he cannot prise open a man's heart with a crowbar1 as it were1 and force ,himself inside4 ,the door opens from within4 ',behold6 ,i stand at the door and knock4' ,there is an 'if4' ',if any man open ,i will come in4' ,hence the beseeching1 hence the wail of wisdom that cries aloud and no man regards it2 of love that stands at the entering in of the city1 and pleads in vain1 and says1 ',i have called1 and ye have refused4444 ,how often would ,i have gathered 444 and ye would not4' ,oh1 brethren6 it is an awful responsibility1 a mysterious prerogative1 which each one of us1 whether consciously or no1 has to exercise1 to accept or to refuse the pleadings of an entreating ,christ4 ,and let me remind you that the act of refusal is a very simple one4 ,not to accept is to reject2 not to yield is to rebel4 ,you have only to do nothing1 to do it all4 ,there are dozens of people in our churches and chapels listening with self-satisfied unconcern1 who have all their lives been refusing a beseeching ,god4 ,and they do not know that they ever did it6 ,they say1 ',oh6 ,i will be a ,christian sometime or other4' ,they cherish vague ideas that1 somehow or other1 they are so already4 ,they have done nothing at all1 they have simply been absolutely indifferent and passive4 ,some of you have heard sermons like this so often that they produce no effect4 ',it is the right kind of thing to say4 ,it is the thing we have heard a hundred times4' ,perhaps you wonder why ,i should be so much in earnest about the matter1 and then you go outside1 and discuss me or the weather1 and forget all about the sermon4 ,and thus1 once more1 you reject ,christ4 ,it is done without knowing it2 done simply by doing nothing4 ,my brother6 do not stop your ears any more against that tender1 imploring love4 ,then let me remind you that this refusing the beseeching of ,god is the climax of all folly4 ,for consider what it is1--a man refusing his highest good and choosing his certain ruin4 ,i am afraid that people have been arguing and fighting so much of late years over disputable points in reference to the doctrine of future retribution that the indisputable fact of such retribution has lost much of its solemn power4 ,i pray you1 brethren1 to ask yourselves one question3 ,is there anything1 in the present or in the future condition of a man that is not reconciled to ,god1 which explains ,god's beseeching urgency8 ,why this energy and intensity of divine desire8 ,why this which1 if it were human only1 would be called passionate entreaty8 ,why was it needful for ,jesus ,christ to die8 ,why was it worth ,his while to bear the punishment of man's sin8 ,why should ,god and ,christ1 through all the ages1 plead with unintermittent voice8 ,there must be some explanation of it all1 and here is the explanation1 ',they that hate ,me love death4' ',be ye reconciled to ,god1' for enmity is ruin and destruction4 ,and finally1 dear friends1 this turning away from ,him that speaketh from ,heaven1 of which some of you have all your lives been guilty1 is not only supreme folly1 but it is the climax of all guilt4 ,for there can be nothing worse1 darker1 arguing a nature more averse or indifferent to the highest good1 than that ,god should plead1 and ,i should steel my heart and deafen mine ear against ,his voice4 ,the crown of a man's sin1 because it is the disclosure of the secrets of his deepest heart as loving darkness rather than light1 is turning away from the divine voice that woos us to love and to ,god4 ,oh6 there are some of you that have heard that ,voice too often to be much touched by it4 ,there are some of you too busy to attend to it1 who hear it not because of the clatter of the streets and the whir of the spindles4 ,there are some of you that are seeking to drown it in the shouts of mirth and revelry4 ,there are some of you to whom it comes muffled in the mists of doubt2 but ,i beseech you all1 look at the ,cross1 look at the ,cross6 and hear ,him that hangs there pleading with you4 ,before the battle there comes out the captain of the twenty thousand to the ,king with the ten thousand1 who in ,his loftiness is not afraid to stoop to sue for peace from the weaker power4 ,my brother6 the moment is precious2 the white flag may never be waved before your eyes again4 ,do not2 do not refuse6 or the next instant the clarion of the assault may sound1 and where will you be then8 ,it is vain for thee to rush against the thick bosses of the ,almighty buckler4 ',we beseech1 in ,christ's behalf1 be ye reconciled with ,god4'