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HUMANITY AND GOD

THE EXPOSITOR’S LIBRARY

First 50 Volumes. Cloth, 2 /- net each

The New Evangelism

Prof. Henry Drummond, F.R.s.E.
Fellowship with Christ

Rev. R. W. Dale, d.d,, ll.d.
The Jewish Temple and the Chris¬
tian Church

Rev. R. W. Dale, d.d,, ll.d.
The Ten Commandments

Rev. R. W. Dale, D.D., LL.D.
The Epistle to the Ephesians

Rev. R. W. Dale, d.d,, ll.d.
The Epistle of James

Rev. R. W. Dale, D.D., LL.D.
A Guide to Preachers

Rev. Prin. A. E. Garvie, M.A., D.D.
Modern Substitutes for Christian¬
ity Rev. P. McAdam Muir, D.D.
Ephesian Studies

Rt. Rev. Handley C. G. Moule, D.D.
Philippian Studies

Rf. Rev. Handley C. G. Moule, D.D.
CoLOssiAN Studies

Rt. Rev. Handley C. G. Moule, D.D.
Christ is All

Rt. Rev. Handley C. G. Moule, D.D.
The Life of the Master

Rev, John Watson, D.D.
The Mind of the Master

Rev. John Watson, D.D.
Heroes and Martyrs of Faith

Professor A. S. Peake, D.D,

The Teaching of Jesus Concerning
Himself

Rev. Prof, James Stalker, M.A., D.D.
Studies of the Portrait of Christ
Vol. I. Rev. George Matheson, D.D.
Studies of the Portrait of Christ
Vol, II. Rev. George Matheson, D.D.
The Fact of Christ

Rev. P. Carnegie Simpson, d.d.
The Cross in Modern Life

Rev. J. G. Greenhough, M.A.
The Unchanging Christ

Rev, Alex. McLaren, D.D., D.LITT.
The God of the Amen

Rev. Alex. McLaren, D.D., D.LiTT.
The Ascent through Christ

Rev. Principal E. Griffith Jones, B.A.
Studies on the Old Testament

Professor F. Godet, D.D.

Studies on the New Testament

Professor F. Godet, D.D.
Studies on St. Paul’s Epistles

Professor F, Godet, D.D.

Christianity in the Modern World
Rev. D. S. Cairns, m.a.
Israel’s Iron Age

Rev. Marcus Dods, d.d.
The City of God

Rev. A. M. Fairbairn, m.a., d.d., ll.d.
Christ’s Service of Love

Rev. Prof. Hugh Black, m.a., d.d.
Humanity and God

Rev. Samuel Chadwick.

The Work of Christ

Rev. Principal P. T. Forsyth, d.d.
Sidelights from Patmos

Rev. George Matheson, D.D.
The Teaching of Jesus

Rev. George Jackson, b.a.
The Miracles of Our Lord

Rev. Professor John Laidlaw, d.d.

The (^eation Story in the Light of
TO"Day Rev. Charles Wenyon, m.d.

Saints and Sinners of Hebrew His¬
tory Rev. J. G. Greenhough, M.A.

Via Sacra Rev. T. H. Darlow,

The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ
Rev. Prof. James Stalker, m.a., d.d.

Aspects of Christ

Rev. Principal W. B. Selbie, M.A.

The Resurrection of Christ

Rev. Professor James Orr, m.a., d.d.

The Doctrines of Grace

Rev. John Watson, M.A., d.d.
Cardinal Virtues

Rev. Canon W. C. E. Newbolt, M.A.
Speaking Good of His Name

Ven. Archdeacon Wilberforce, D.D.

Living Theology Archbishop Benson.
Heritage of the Spirit

Bishop Mandell Creighton.

The Knowledge of God

Bishop Walsham How.

A Devotional Comm*entary on St
Paul’s Epistles to the Colos-
sians and Thessalonians

Joseph Parker, D.D.

A Devotional Commentary on St.
Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians
Joseph Parker, D.D.

Bible Studies in Living Subjects

Rev. Ambrose Shepherd, D.D.

OTHER VOLUMES IN PREPARATION

LONDON; HODDER AND STOUGHTON.

oc>

THE EXPOSITOR’S LIBRARY

HUMANITY AND GOD

HODDER AND STOUGHTON

LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO

£ittkr and Tanner The Sehuood Printing Works Freme and London

V

TO

MY WIFE’S MOTHER

AND

MINE ALSO

BOTH OF WHOM GAVE ME OF
THEIR BEST

A PERSONAL WORD

On the first Sunday in the year 1903, a few friends
were sitting round the fire after supper talking,
as preachers will, of sermons and the work of God.
The conversation was very frank and brotherly,
and turned finally upon my own work. My
friends reproached me for ignoring their oft-
repeated entreaties that I would publish a vol¬
ume of sermons. I replied that it had been a
fixed rule of my life to regard an open door as an
essential element in a call, and for this I had no
call. Then I was asked what I would regard as
a call of God. I answered at once and without
much thought, “ An unsolicited request from
Hodder and Stoughton.” The subject dropped,
as the condition was thought unreasonable.

A PERSONAL WORD

• • •

Vlll

Within twenty-four hours the request came. No
one had communicated with the publishers ; and
there was only one answer possible.

The sermons selected were preached from notes
as a series in the regular course of my ministry;
and afterwards at the Southport Convention, and
the Northfield Conference. That explains some
omissions and some repetitions. An underlying
unity runs ^through the series, yet each sermon
had to be practically complete in itself.

It is impossible to make adequate acknowledg¬
ment of the sources of my indebtedness. I am
sure there is nothing in these pages I have not
received. Through an exceptionally busy life
I have striven to give attention to reading, and
what I have read has passed into the fibre and
substance of my work. If I have unconsciously
wronged any who have been my helpers and
teachers, I shall be sorry to have given so blun¬
dering an expression to my appreciation and
thanks.

A PERSONAL WORD ix

I send forth these sermons deeply conscious of
their limitations and imperfections. Two things
comfort me—-a sentence I read many years ago,
‘‘ A sharp spear needs no polish ; and the fact
that every one of these sermons has been blessed
of God to many souls. My only prayer concern¬
ing them is, that they may be blessed in print as
they were blessed in speech, and that Christ’s
Name may be glorified.

S. CHADWICK.

Leeds.

CONTENTS

i

PAGE

s

Humanity and God

“ Ye shall be as God.»—iii. 5.

“ Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your Heavenly
Father is perfect.”^— 5 . Matt. v. 48.

Sin and Grace ^9

“ Where sin abounded grace did abound more ex¬
ceedingly.”— Rom. V. 20.

Born of the Flesh and Born of the Spirit . . 39

“ That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that
I said unto thee, Ye must be born anew.”~ 5 . John
iii. 6, 7.

Man : Natural, Carnal, Spiritual . • • • 55

“ Now the natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him ;

XI

CONTENTS

Xll

PAGE

and he cannot know them, because they are spirit¬
ually judged.”— I Cor. ii. 14.

“ And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto
spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ.

I fed you with milk, not with meat; for ye were not
yet able to bear it: nay, not even now are ye able ;
for ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among
you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk
after the manner of man ? i Cor. iii. 1-3.

And the God of peace Himself sanctify you
wholly: and may your spirit and soul and body be
preserved entire, without blame at the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth
you, who will also do it.”-— i Thess. v. 23, 24.

The Incarnation and its Glorious Purpose . . 73

“ The Man Christ Jesus.”—i ii. 5.

“ A Man in Christ.”—2 Cor. xii. 2.

The Divine Servant « . . . . 91

“ Behold, My servant, whom I have chosen;

My beloved, in whom My soul is well pleased:

I wiU put My Spirit upon Him,

And He shall declare judgement to the Gentiles.

He shall not strive, nor cry aloud;

Neither shall any one hear His voice in the streets.

A bruised reed shall He not break,

And smoking flax shall He not quench,

TiU He send forth judgement unto victory.

And in His Name shall the Gentiles .hope.”

■— S. Matt, xii, 18-21.

CONTENTS

The Way of the Cross

“ From that time began Jesus to shew unto His
disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and
suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes,,and be killed, and the third day be raised up.’*

“ Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man
would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take
up his cross, and follow Me.”— S. Matt. xvi. 21, 24.

Xlll

PAGE

II3

The Standard Miracle ......

** That ye may know . . . the exceeding great¬
ness of His power to us-ward who believe, according
to that working of the strength of His might which
He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from
the dead.”— Eph. i. 18, 19, 20.

135

The Omnipotence of Faith

a

Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is im¬
possible, but not with God : for all things are possible
with God.”— S. Mark x. 27.

IS7

Christ’s Promise of the Spirit . , , ,

“ And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you
another Comforter, that He may be with you for ever,
even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot re¬
ceive ; for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth
Him : ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and
shall be in you.”— S. John xiv. 16, 17. (Also xiv. 25,
26; XV. 26, 27 ; xvi. 7; Acts i. 8; and S.Luke xxiv. 49.)

181

XIV

CONTENTS

PAGE

The Coming of the Spirit , « . . . 203

And when the day of Pentecost was now come,
they were all together in one place.

“ And suddenly there came from Heaven a sound
as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all
the house where they were sitting.

And there appeared unto them tongues parting
asunder, like as of fire ; and it sat upon each one of
them.

“ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit,
and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit
gave them utterance.”-—ii. 1-4.

The Spirit-filled Life ...... 225

“ Be filled with the Spirit.”— Eph. v. 18.

Christian Perfection 247

“ This we also pray for, even your perfecting.”—

2 Cor. xiii. 9.

The Church and the Kingdom • • . . 269

“ And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build My Church ; and the
gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will
give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven ;
and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be
bound in Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose
on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.”— S. Matt. xvi.

18, 19.

CONTENTS

XV

PAGE

Vicarious Faith . . . . , . .289

“ And Jesus seeing their faith saith unto the sick of
the palsy, Son, thy^ins are forgiven/’— S. Mark ii. 5.

The Extra Mile . . . . . • • 3^3

“Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for an
eye, and a tooth for a tooth :

“ But I say unto you, Resist not him that is evil:
but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek,
turn to him the other also.

“ And if any man would go to law with thee, and
take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.

“And whosoever shall compel thee to go one
mile, go with him twain.

“ Give to him that asketh thee, and from him
that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.”—

S. Matt. V. 38-42,

The Christian Benediction. 335

“ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love
of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be
with you all.”—2 Cor. xiii. 14.

HUMANITY AND GOD

** Ye shall be as God.”— Gen. iii. 5.

“ Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your Heavenly Father
perfect.”— 5 . Matt. v. 48.

HUMANITY AND GOD

Christ and Satan make their appeal to man from
the same basis. They both assume his correspon¬
dence with the Divine nature and his capacity
for Divine fellowship. God-likeness is recog¬
nised as his destiny. Satan prevailed in Eden
by assuring man that he should be as God ; Jesus
opened His ministry with the promise that His
followers should be perfect as the Father in Hea¬
ven. “ Ye shall be as God, knowing good and
evil,” whispered Satan ; Ye shall be perfect as
your Heavenly Father is perfect ” is the still
larger promise of the Son of God. This coinci¬
dence provokes the inquiry. Is it possible man can
be as God ? Is this a lie on the lips of the
Tempter, and mere hyperbole on the lips of
Jesus f

It is a presumption in favour of its

POSSIBILITY THAT IT IS ASSUMED BY SUCH OPPOSITE
PERSONALITIES AS ChRIST AND SaTAN.

Antagonism more complete than theirs it is
impossible to conceive. They are as light and

3

4

HUMANITY AND GOD

darkness, life and death, Heaven and Hell. There
is no basis of concord between them. The settled
policy and dominant motive of the Devil is to
malign and slander God ; the mission of Jesus is
to reveal and glorify God. Yet, slanderer and
revealer, maligner and glorifier take common
ground as to man’s capacity and destiny. Jesus
does not contradict the assertion of Satan, neither
does Satan challenge the assurance of Jesus. God
is represented in the Book of Genesis as endorsing
Gen. ill, 22. the statement of the Devil, saying, Behold, the
man is become as one of us, to know good and
evil,” and Christ’s promise of man’s confor¬
mity with God lies at the very foundation of
New Testament teaching. One sought the de¬
struction of man and the other his salvation, but
they both seek to prevail by appealing to his
instinctive consciousness of a Divine destiny. It
is not unreasonable, therefore, to conclude that a
basis agreed upon by such antagonists may be
accepted as real and sound. Whatever differences
there may be in motive there is a common choice
of the assumed fact that man may become as God.
The appeal of both is to man’s instinct for the
Divine.

I. In what sense may man be as God ?

There is clearly a radical difference between the
promise of Satan and that of Jesus. The scenes
of temptation in the Garden and the Wilderness

HUMANITY AND GOD

5

are the key to the Devil’s meaning. To Eve he
promised the possession of God-like knowledge ;
to Jesus, the Last Adam, he offered the possession
of God-like power. Knowledge is divine, and
power belongeth unto God. There is no wrong in
knowing, not even in knowing good and evil. The
only evil possible to knowledge is getting it by evil
means. Knowledge acquired in the path of duty
is a sacred possession, but knowledge gained by
disobedience covers with shame. It is intended
we shall know, and know even as God knows,
but the knowledge of evil that comes by the
experience of evil is a knowledge that darkens
by enlightening. As man’s eyes open to evil
by disobedience, they shut to God. Only
the pure can have knowledge of evil and live.
The words of Satan had a different meaning on
his lips from that they conveyed to the ears of
Eve. The way to knowledge is not by trans¬
gression but by obedience. It is by willing to
do that we come to know.

The proposals to Jesus offer the possession of
power that shall secure from suffering, exempt
from limitation, and exact service and homage.
If a Son of God, why hunger ? If a Son of God,
why bound by natural, limitations ? If a Son of
God, why serve and toil ? Conquer and com¬
mand ! Such a conception of Divine authority
and power assumes lawlessness in God. It

6

HUMANITY AND GOD

conceives Him as omnipotent to gratify every
desire without reserve or regard. It is not an
uncommon conception of the Divine prerogative.
God is often envied as a magician of endless
resource and power, exempt from all the limita¬
tions of law. Even Christian men covet un¬
limited wealth and flatter themselves with
imaginary philanthropies, which simply means that
if they had God’s resources they would improve
on God’s administration. We often believe that
God could do wonders if He would, and we are
quite sure we would if we could. There is no
lawlessness in Omnipotence. God is the most
law-abiding Person in His universe. The God
that can wish and it is done, does not exist outside
man’s imagination. The power of God we may
have, but that power is never capricious, lawless,
or self-glorying. The kingdoms of the world
and their glory we may possess, btit never by
bowing to the Devil and going forth to crush
and grab. These come by another way, and that
way is pointed out to us in the promise of Christ.

God-like possessions are inseparable from
God-like qualities. Ye shall be perfect ” : that
is the way to divinity’s throne. The correspon¬
dence is not in natural attributes but in moral
qualities. Perfection is through sonship, and
sonship is by spiritual affinity and moral corre¬
spondence. The promise of perfection marks

HUMANITY AND GOD

7

the climax of an ethical development which
assumes discipleship as a basis. The law is
spiritual, and evil cherished in the heart is sin.
The soul must be clean. Self-sacrifice is the law
of life, and every evil thing must be cut off and
cast away. Personal wrongs must be borne in
meekness, and a cheerful obedience must be given
to commands that may be unjustly imposed. A
generous excess over exact requirement must
mark the conduct, and beneficence must not be
restricted to merit and appreciation. These
moral qualities are necessary that we may be
sons of our Father which is in Heaven. To those
who are thus sons is this promise of perfection.
Capacity does not always attain to realisation,
but it constitutes an obligation. Correspondence
of nature demands correspondence of character.
Only they are truly sons who are sons indeed.
They shall be as God ; not in every conceivable
attribute of divinity, nor of equal excellence in
degree, but in every moral grace and glory we
shall be of one quality with Him. We shall
be righteous, merciful, and holy, even as He.

The sum of the Divine character is love, God
is love. Love also is the fulfilling of the law.
In love man finds the Divine perfection. The
Sermon on the Mount is the interpretation of
the law in the light of love. The Beatitudes set
forth the character based upon and inspired by

1 John

V. 7.

8 humanity and god

love. Love sees the spirit behind the letter and
obeys. Love sees the mercy of mercilessness in
sacrifice, and cuts off the offending limb that the
life may be saved. Love suffers all things and is
kind. Love delights to bless, and yearns most
tenderly over the least worthy. Love perfects
all things and is itself the sum of all perfection.
“ Love is of God, and every one that loveth is
begotten of God and knoweth God.” The

perfect in love are perfect with the perfection
of God.

II. The possibility of God-Likeness is guaran¬
teed IN THE CORRESPONDENCE OF NatURE BE¬
TWEEN God and man.

That correspondence lies deeper than external
similarity. It is a correspondence of Nature that
amounts to oneness with God. Many of our
difficulties have arisen from regarding the two
Natures ^ as dissimilar, if not antagonistic and
irreconcilable. We have looked upon God as
radically different from ourselves, remote from
all that was vital to our humanity, and alien to
all the instincts of our nature. He has been
feared and shunned as the one who above all
others speaks of love, but spoils our programmes
and robs us of our pleasant things. It is not
that men suspect Him of malice or mocking, but
it seems as if, from sheer lack of sympathy and
knowledge of our nature, He inevitably comes

\ HUMANITY AND GOD 9

into human life only to disturb and destroy.
Providence has come to be the invariable explana¬
tion of hardship and disappointment in trouble
and sorrow. Such conceptions need only to be
expressed to reveal how false they are. God is
not diverse and remote, much less antagonistic.
He is nigh at hand and so completely of one
nature with man that He shares his sorrow and
joy. Of His people it is said: “In all their
affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His
presence saved them : In His love and in His
pity He redeemed them ; and He bare them,
and carried them all the days of old.”

The sense of this nearness is the great lack of our
souls. We have suffered not from the intimacy but
from the remoteness of our God. To multitudes
He is little more than a shadowy presence some¬
where far away in the Heavens. They think of Him
dreamily in His glory, and seek His favours in the
hour of despair. There can be but little passion
for things in the dim distance, and no enthusiasm
for a personality wrapped in mystery and awe.
With such a conception of God, prayer in its
purest exercise is impossible. Even with earthly
friendships the length and frequency of corre¬
spondence is influenced by the distance it has to
travel. It seems impossible to write a short
letter when it has to travel six thousand miles,
and equally impossible to write very often. God

10 HUMANITY AND GOD

is to many little more than a foreign correspon¬
dent dwelling in some far-away, unknown land,
to be addressed with restraint, and sought when
in need. It makes a tremendous difference
when the soul realises that God is not far away
but nigh at hand, not a shrouded mystery but a
living personality, not an unsympathetic embodi¬
ment of power but a loving and tender Father.

Man need never be afraid of finding himself
too near to God; and nothing has done more to
keep him at a distance than the failure to realise
the oneness of God’s Nature with his own. God
made man in His own image. That image is not
in the machinery of man’s bodily organism
The man is the thinking, willing personality at
the back of all that. The power that is behind
brain, and nerve, and muscle, that is the man.
Cali him soul, spirit, or what you please, there is
the quality that constitutes manhood, and that
is the man God first made in His owr nage.
That is the man in whom lies that which is of the
very being of God. The image ” is more than
mere likeness; it is a facsimile. Jesus is the
image of God,” the very image of His sub¬
stance.” An exact and precise counterpart is
the idea it conveys, and man was created the
counterpart of God. What is man, that Thou
art mindful of him ? And the son of man, that
Thou visitest him ? For Thou hast made him

II

HUMANITY AND GOD

but little lower than God, and crownest him with
glory and honour.”

The process of creation secured his affinity
with the Creator. Man is not the result of
adaptation and fusion, but the creation of a vital
process. God breathed into him the breath of
life, and he became a living soul. This cannot
mean less than that God imparted to man of the
innermost quality of His own being, and that
imparted quality is man’s distinctive nature.*
Man and God share the same living essence and
are of one quality of nature. This does not
• mean that God is nothing more than a magnified
man or that man is a miniature God ; but it
does mean that God is all that man is, and infi¬
nitely more. Whatever is an essential quality of
manhood, man may find in his God.

Preaching one day in the open air, I quoted
the passage in Genesis about God making man
in His own image, when a man interrupted and
asked if I would accept an amendment to the
text. He suggested that to be true to the facts
of the case the passage should read : And man
said. Let us make God in our image, after our
likeness.” He denied that God was the Maker
of man, and affirmed that man was the maker of
God. The objection was greeted with applause.
It was not new. I had been accustomed to hear
it from ^secularist platforms in my youth. It

Gen. ii. 7

Rom . X. 8

S. Luke
xi. 11-13.

12 HUMANITY AND GOD

is an objection that lias tlie daring and smartness
that appeals to a crowd, and has in it just enough
truth to make it difficult to answer to an open-air
audience. So I promptly accepted the amend¬
ment and proceeded to prove he was wrong.
Anthropomorphism is not untrue. It is only
false when it imposes the limitations of humanity
upon divinity, and imparts to God the baser
things, which are not the essence but the accre¬
tions of our manhood. For, after all, there can
be no revelation of personality except through
personal consciousness. Consequently man can¬
not know God except as he finds Him within his
own personality. The word is nigh thee, in
thy mouth and in thy heart.” No man finds
God in Nature who has not first found Him in
his own soul. So the revelation of God to man
comes to us through the Man Christ Jesus. God
and man meet in the One Person. There is no
sharp dividing line. Man and God are not
diverse but one.

The definition of this relationship is completed
in the revelation of Jesus. God is our Father.
That the Fatherhood of God is not something
different from human fatherhood is evident
from His use of the one to illustrate the other.

“ Of which of you that is a father shall his son
ask a loaf, and he give him a stone .? or a fish, and
he for a fish give him a serpent ? Or if he shall ask

HUMANITY AND GOD

13

an egg, will lie give him a scorpion ? If ye then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your Heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask
Him ?” Jesus revealed God by identifying Him
with the life of man. God and man are Father and
son. Whatever the mysteries involved, father and
son must be of one nature. As the father’s very
being lives in the being of his child, so is the very
being of God in the being of man. The son pro¬
ceeds from the innermost depths of the father’s life.

Here we find bedrock. Whatever else God may
be, He is our Father and we are His children.

As the son is of the same quality of nature as the
father, so is man of one nature with God. There
may be much in the Father beyond the compre¬
hension of His child, but at any rate the child
can cling, and looking up into His face can say :

‘‘Thou art my Father and my God.” That will
do. For the rest we can wait.

This revelation comes to man in his sin. By
sin, God’s image in man is defaced but not erased.

Mercy arrested the curse which grace removed.

The Lamb of God has taken away the sin of the s.johni.^^
world. The “ much more ” of the covenant of
grace more than repeals the covenant of death.

Man’s sonship is redeemed in the blood of the
Son. The fact of sin, therefore, does not affect
the argument- It leaves the conclusion undis-

I Tim.
iii. 16.

Heb. i. 3.

14 HUMANITY AND GOD

turbed, and only exalts the wonder and glory of
God. Sin notwithstanding, the Divine element
still remains, and sin destroyed, man is raised to
conscious fellowship with the Divine nature.
The destruction of sin restores manhood to its
true level.

III. That MAN MAY BE AS GoD REACHES ITS
HIGHEST CERTAINTY IN THE FACT OF THE INCAR¬
NATION.

God has become man in the person of Jesus
Christ. In some quarters that may be challenged ;
but if there is one thing that is clear in the New
Testament, it is that Jesus and God are One.
He is God manifest in the flesh ” ; “ the

effulgence of His glory, and the very image of
His substance.’’ What light that sheds upon
the essential quality of man’s nature ! How real
must be the correspondence between God and
man, to make it possible without loss of identity
or break of continuity for God to become man !
The Son of God is truly man in every essential of
manhood, yet very God of very God. He is the
perfect example of manhood : the last Adam ;
the truly Representative Man. He is man as
man was destined to be.

We have separated the Christ from ourselves
even as. we have separated the Father, and per¬
sist in thinking and speaking of Him as removed
from us by a difference in nature. That He has

s

HUMANITY AND GOD

IS

a quality of Sonship all His own is quite true,
but He is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,
made in all things like unto His brethren. As
God is our Father, so Christ is our Brother. We
are begotten of the One Father. When we
speak of two Natures in Christ we speak of neces¬
sity the language of mystery and accommodation,
but we are certainly not warranted in dividing
the Christ against Himself. To speak of some
things as limited to His Humanity, and of others
as peculiar to His Divinity, is without warrant
and without sense There is no duality in Him.

He is one and indivisible. We have no ground
for supposing that His experience of hunger,
weariness, and suffering differed in any sense from
our own. He is touched with the feeling of our
infirmity, and was ^‘in all points tempted like as Heb.Av.is.
we are, yet without sin.’^ He was one with man.

He became man.

Between this man Christ Jesus and God there
was no antagonism. He was as truly one with
God as He was one with men. He believed and
declared Himself to be one with the Father.

Here again we have divided to our hurt. As we
have separated God from ourselves so we have
antagonised Father and Son. A false theology
has slandered and caricatured God by repre¬
senting Him as a relentless Shylock grimly exacting
extreme penalty from an innocent Son. The

iS*. John
xiv. 9, lo.

i6 HUMANITY AND GOD

result is that the Son is loved and the Father
feared. The unspoken creed of many is summed
up in the words : I love Jesus, but I fear God.”

The story is told of a Christian worker who was
shocked at the answer received from a dying
widow to the assurance of God’s fatherly care for
the widow and the fatherless. The dying woman
raised herself upon her bed and entreated :
“ Do not talk about God. I am afraid of God. I
hate God. Every hard and bitter thing in my
life has come from God.” Quietly the exhausted
woman was allowed to recover strength. Then
the Christian began to speak of Jesus. “ Ah !
yes,” said the dying woman, He’s different,
isn’t He ? He was so good and kind I like to hear
about Him. I could trust Him.” Different P
No, He is not different. And yet what that
woman said I have heard in effect a thousand
times. It seems a dreadful thing to have to say,
but it needs to be said, that Jesus is not better
than God. He is not different; they are One.
When Philip asked that they might see the
Father, Jesus answered out of a grieved heart :

Have I been so long time with you and dost
thou not know Me, Philip .? He that hath seen Me
hath seen the Father. Believest thou not that
I am in the Father and the Father in Me ? ”
No, He is not different. God is not only as good
as Jesus, but infinitely transcends all that Jesus

HUMANITY AND GOD 17

revealed of Him, for there is a glory yet to be
revealed. We have failed to catch the signifi¬
cance of the fact that the Son is the Father’s
gift to the world. He was in the Son. All that
it cost the Son to redeem the world it cost the
Father. He suffered in the suffering Son. God
was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.”
They were not in conflict, they were not dis¬
similar ; they are One.

As Christ was one with God, so we are called
to be one with Christ. Everybody admits that.
It is the one end of our calling, the ultimate
result of discipline, and the final perfection of
grace, that we shall be like Him.” But He
is God, and if He is one with God, then oneness
with Him must mean oneness with God. “ Ye,
therefore, shall be perfect as your heavenly Father
is perfect.”

IV. This must be possible because it is

NECESSARY.

Only the God-like enter Heaven. The neces¬
sity for holiness is based on the character of God.

‘‘ Ye shall be holy, for I am holy ” ; and without
holiness no man shall see the Lord.”

The change in the Revised Version has been
welcomed with a sigh of relief. The promise
seems much more hopeful than a command.
The imperativeness of that imperative perfection
made us shudder. But though the tense is

2Cor,
iv. 19.

I John
iii. 2.

I Pei.
i. 16.

Heb. xii.
14 -

2

18 HUMANITY AND GOD

altered the imperativeness remains. The pro¬
mise is a command. The promise is for present
possession and the command for immediate
obedience.

This is our high and holy calling in Christ
Jesus; this is the Divine purpose in the creation
and redemption of man ; this is the gracious and
glorious end of both providence and grace; this
is the imperative demand of the Divine character
and the condition of Divine fellowship ; this is
the crown of man’s perfection and the sum of
man’s glory, that we are partakers of the Divine
Nature and one with God in the glories of His
perfection.

%

SIN AND GRACE

19

“ Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly.”
Rom. V. 20.

so

SIN AND GRACE

Sin and grace are the two great words of the
Christian Religion. They lie at the very heart
of the Gospel of Christ. To fail in the under¬
standing of the one is to miss the meaning of
the other. Wrong views of sin always issue in
false interpretations of grace. The Epistle to
the Romans has come to be regarded as the
very core of the Gospel, because it deals so
completely with these two fundamental words.
The fifth chapter sums up the great exposi¬
tion in its broadest issues as represented in
Adam and Christ. Between these two there is a
parallel and a contrast; a parallel in the repre¬
sentative character of their works, and a con¬
trast in the operation and issues of their re¬
presentative acts. The sin of Adam involved
the whole race in ruin; the righteousness oi
Christ restored men to the justification of life.
That is the parallel. Apart from any consent
or effort, all men are involved in the curse of
the first and the atonement of the second. The
act of the one is the act of all, and the results

31

22 HUMANITY AND GOD

of the act are shared by all. The contrast is
set forth in the five times “ much more ” of
the chapter. The disobedience of Adam spread
sin over the whole race, the obedience of Christ
gathered the sins of all unto Himself. From
Paradise there went forth the stream of death ;
from Calvary there flows the river of life. The
grace of God in Christ has cancelled sin and
destroyed the works of the Devil. Grace has
abounded over sin.

The chapter sums up this teaching in five
facts about sin, five facts about Jesus Christ, and
five facts about grace.

Concerning Sin ;

That sin came through Adam’s transgression ;
that death came by sin ; that Adam’s sin in¬
volved the whole race; that this racial guilt did
not destroy any man’s personal responsibility;
that sin and death obtained universal dominion.

Concerning Christ :

That He stands to the race as its Second Re¬
presentative and Head; that He died for the un¬
godly ; that He rose again from the dead; that
the virtue of His obedience is transmitted to
those for whom He died; that through Him is
imparted the gift of grace which is His own eter¬
nal life.

Concerning Grace :

That in Christ the ungodly are justified freely

SIN AND GRACE 23

by His grace; that by fellowship with Him we
are made righteous before God; that salvation
is of grace and not of works 5 that as salvation
restores to righteousness, so by righteousness
man regains his regal dominion in life; that
grace abounds beyond the ravages of sin.

Taking the first and third of these sets of facts
we have stated the Christian doctrines of sin
and grace.

I. The Christian Doctrine of Sin.

The Bible always deals with man as a sinful
being. The fact of sin explains the process of
Divine Revelation and the whole economy of
Redemption. The Law came to make sin mani¬
fest and to correct man’s transgression. Every
part of the sacred ordinances proceeded on the
assumption of man’s guilt and his need of cleans¬
ing. If man be not sinful, the whole Scripture
is without meaning and the Gospel a delusion.
The Book that gives unique distinction to man
in his creation, tells of his transgression and
humiliation. According to its account man
failed to attain his destiny. He grasped at
divinity by forbidden means and fell from his
high estate. The bond of fellowship with the
Divine was broken, and from kinship with God
he fell to kinship with Satan. His understanding
was darkened and his heart hardened. From

24 HUMANITY AND GOD

the realm of the spirit he descended to that
of the flesh.^ The spmmetrp of his nature was
broken and its order reversed. Instead of unity
there was conflict within him. That which
should have governed became captive, and that
which was meant for service assumed control.
Confusion took the place of harmonp, and chaos
succeeded a well-ordered cosmos.

There are manp witnesses to confirm this
Scriptural account of man’s sinfulness. Every
religion deals with man as a transgressor, for
whose sin atonement must be made. Every
conception of religion begins with the fact of
sin. There is absolute unanimity in this in
every grade of religious belief and ordinance.
Not religion only, but every organisation of
human life has to begin by reckoning with sin.
Laws are passed, penalties fixed, and prisons

built, on the assumption that sin exists wherever
men are found.

The development of modern thought has
brought confirmation to many phases of Biblical
teaching about sin, that were long the sport of
unbelievers. The orthodox interpretations of
facts may still be despised, but to the facts
themselves it bears ungrudging witness. Theolo¬
gical formula appear under such scientific terms
as heredity, solidarity, and the survival of the
fittest. They teach no more than the Scriptures

SIN AND GRACE

25

have taught from the beginning, but we welcome
their testimony to the fact and operations of
sin. But if there were no other witness every
man would be able to furnish his own. I have
sinned ” is so universal, that we are driven to
the conclusion that “ All have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God.”

Many attempts are made to account for sin’s
origin in man. Some have contended that
it is inherent in nature and inseparable from
the flesh. Others urge that it is an incident of
his growth, an inevitable stage in the process
of his evolution, out of which he will grow as a
child passes beyond infantile maladies. Accord¬
ing to these there was no fall. At most it may
have been a failure to rise, but it is more than
likely the fall was a fall upward.” That is the
scientific way of falling 1 In the Scriptural
account man was made a little lower than God
and fell; in the scientific account he is made a
little higher than the brute, but is rising all the
time. In the one, sin is regarded as alien to
man’s nature, a foreign element, which is no
true part of his manhood ; in the other, it is a
necessary factor in man’s development from which
he may never hope to be entirely free.

The Bible does not concern itself with the
fall but with the fallen. It comes not to ex¬
plain but to emancipate, not to philosophise but

Rom.
iii. 23.

I John iii,

4.

26 HUMANITY AND GOD

to save. It explains only where the explanation
is deemed necessary to the salvation. The for¬
getfulness of this simplicity of Scriptural aim
leads to much confusion. Stripped of all acces¬
sories of allegorical speech^ the simple account
is that sin entered through the acceptance of
evil by the free will of man. Whatever the
circumstances, this is the inner reality—man
chose evil. There can be no other explanation
of the ultimate fact. Without the free choice
there could have been no siu. Evil can become
possessed of the quality of sin only when it is man’s
free choice. Where there is no choice there can be
no sin. After all the searching criticism of the
Genesis story, in all its essentials it stands as
the only rational and adequate explanation of
the evil that is in man, and his consequent need
of Redemption.

What is sin ?

We are on sure ground when we come to the
Scriptures for the answer as to its nature and
consequences. St. John defines sin as lawlessness.
That is the final definition. It tracks sin to its
innermost secret, and comprehends all the facts
of its manifold operations. Sin is not an act but
an attitude. The offence is not only in the trans¬
gression but in the intention ; not merely in the
violation of law but in the disposition of the heart

Christ emphasised this in the Sermon on the

SIN AND GRACE

27

Mount. Anger is murder in malice and motive.
Lust is adultery though it never pass beyond the
look of desire. The seat of sin is in the will.
Man is judged not by what he does, but by what
he wills to do. Intention determines quality.
The same words may be a term of affection
or a stinging insult. The motive makes all the
difference. A blow may be an act of friendly
playfulness or a challenge to deadly combat;
the heart at the back of the hand settles which
it is. There is many a thief who never steals.
Lawlessness may stop short of transgression but
it is the lawlessness that is sin. Man is not a
sinner because he is a transgressor ; he is a trans¬
gressor because he is a sinner. The sin of law¬
lessness precedes the act of transgression. Dis¬
obedience in act is the effect of which lawlessness
is the cause. It is not a question of any one
commandment but the disposition of the heart
to the Giver of them all.

This definition of sin explains a fact and a
passage. The fact is the variation in trans¬
gression, and the passage is James ii. 10. Sin
is the revolt of man against the authority of
God ; that is the essential fact. Different men
carry their revolt into practice by breaking
different commandments. The same man rarely,
if ever, breaks them all. Indeed men are
generally very proud of the commandments

28

HUMANITY AND GOD

Isa.
liii. 6 .

they keep, and have no sympathy with men
who are vicious on lines where they themselves
are virtuous. The drunkard will often boast
of his chastity, the immoral man is thankful he
is not a thief, and the profane swearer flatters
himself that he never lies. As a matter of
fact none have any room for boasting. That
the drunkard is not an adulterer, the immoral
man a thief, and the swearer a liar, is simply
an accident of temperament and circumstance.
When we go astray we turn “ every one to his
own Given the conditions of desire

and opportunity, the man who breaks one com¬
mandment would break any one in the De¬
calogue. The particular point at which we
trespass is a matter of small importance ; that
we should defy God’s boundary at all is the
offence. The sliding scale of society is not re¬
cognised in the judgments of Heaven. It is
the sin at the back of the sins that does the mis¬
chief ; the sin in desire, intention, and will.
Sin is lawlessness, and lawlessness is sin, whether
it assume a virtuous or a vicious form. Man is
judged not by his acts but by his heart.

This silences for ever the scorn that has been
poured on Adam’s Apple. The significance of an
act cannot be measured by the value of the thing
that gave the occasion. Moral quality is not
affected by quantity. The law is one. It is not

SIN AND GRACE

29

a succession of separate and independent pre¬
cepts, but a unit. When any one point is
broken, the whole is broken. He that is guilty
of offence in the one point is guilty of all. The
whole Decalogue is summed up in the one word
Love. The same word sums up God and
Duty. To break the least, sins against Love,
God, and Duty. Not that sin has no degrees,
nor that the man who offends only in one point
is as bad as the man who offends in all, but to
break at all is to break the whole. One leak
will sink a ship, and one sin, whatever its form,
separates the soul from God and sinks it in
degradation and death.

As sin is the sum of all sins, so death is the sum
of all its consequences. The wages of sin is
death.” That something more than physical
death is meant, is evident both from the narra¬
tive in Genesis, and in the Scriptural use of the
word. When man sinned he died. Sin is
always followed by death. Men are said to be
dead while they live. Sin slays the man made
in the Divine image. It separates him from
God in whom is his life. Guilt, disorder, and
desolation are the marks of the soul’s death.
Whatever the laws of heredity, they do not
exonerate the sinner from his guilt. God holds
the sinner responsible for his sin. Disorder
follows alienation from the true Centre of his

Rom,
vi. 23.

S. Luke
xviii. 13,

30 HUMANITY AND GOD

life : disorder within himself, and disorder in
the world. After disorder, desolation. Wicked¬
ness lays waste all things beautiful and good.
It turns Paradise into a wilderness and Heaven
into Hell. It is in the heart and in the world
as a loathsome pestilence. Sin is the most
terrible thing in God’s universe. We have all
sinned. There is none sinless among us. The
only prayer that becomes our lips is : God be
merciful to me a sinner.”

II. The Christian Doctrine of Grace.

Over against this terrible word sin, stands
the greater word Grace. This conjunction
of the two defines the limits of our con¬
sideration of the word which comprehends the
Evangelical faith. Grace goes over the trail
of sin, tracks it to its innermost recesses, destroys
its power, undoes its mischief, and turns its very
weapons to its own destruction. Grace not only
conquers, it more than conquers; it not only
abounds, it abounds more exceedingly. We
are saved by grace. What is grace ? There is
no definition of grace as there is of sin. It
defies definition. It is illimitable, infinite,
eternal. It is illustrated but never defined. In
this connexion it is the overflowing mercy of
God, without regard to merit on the one hand
or obligation on the other. We had no claim.
Our sin had forfeited every right we ever pos

SIN AND GRACE 31

sessed. God was under no obligation. We
had defied His authority, rejected His word,
and voluntarily forsaken Him for His sworn foe.
But of His mercy He saved us. God com-
mendeth His own love toward us, in that, while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Grace
redeemed, delivered, and restored man from the
curse and dominion of sin. The overtures did
not come from man but from God. From
first to last, salvation is of the grace of God.

The Method of Grace.

Grace is peculiarly associated with the media¬
torial work of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in the
sacrifice of the Cross it finds its highest expression.
Grace comes to us through Him. Sin finds its de¬
struction in His death. The Cross is meaningless
apart from sin. The Scriptures leave us in no
doubt that to save man from sin, it was necessary
that Christ should die. His death was vicarious
and sacrificial. He was The Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world.” Sin
laid the sinner under the wrath and condemna¬
tion of God. It separated from God and
destroyed the basis of fellowship, which was
identity of life. Before man could be restored,
sin’s penalty must be paid. A way must be
found by which God could be just, and the
justifier of the ungodly ; a way by which man
could be restored not only to the possibility of

Rom.

V. 8.

S. John
i. 29.

32

HUMANITY AND GOD

Gal. ii.
20 .

Rom, V

18.

2 Cor,
V. 14.

fellowship, but to moral and spiritual fitness
for it. That problem was solved in Jesus Christ
the Eternal Son of the Father. It is the
burden of the Gospel that He died for our sins.
He gathered unto Himself and bore in His own
Person the sin of the whole world. Every
sinner may look to the Cross and say, He “ loved
ME, He gave Himself up for me.”

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,

In my place condemned He stood;

Sealed my pardon with His blood,

Alleluia ! What a Saviour!

How DOES THE GRACE OF GoD OPERATE TO
THE ABOUNDING OVER SIN ?

First of all it secures the forgiveness of sin.
The race is pardoned. The obedience of Christ
was as truly representative as the sin of Adam.

So then as through one trespass the judgement
came unto all men to condemnation; ev'^-.n so
through one act of righteousness the free gift
came unto all men to justification of life.” As the
Apostle argues in the Epistle to the Corinthians,
“ One died for aU, therefore aU died.” The race
died in Christ just as truly as the race sinned in
Adam. When the First Representative sinned, all
sinned. When the Last Representative died for sin,
aU died. This truth is expounded in the next
chapter, and its full significance applied to ex¬
perience. We died in Christ, therefore we are

SIN AND GRACE

33

dead to sin; dead to its claims, dead to its
allurements, dead to its dominion. We are free
from the law of sin and death, delivered from
the curse and penalty of sin; offenders, yet
justified freely by His grace. This is the first
note of the Gospel. Be it known unto you
therefore, brethren, that through this man is
proclaimed unto you remission of sins.’’ In
whom we have our redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according
to the riches of His grace.”

The ambassadors of the Gospel of grace are
sent to proclaim the forgiveness of sin. In the
forgiveness of the race every offender is par¬
doned. Not may be, but is 1 Without ex¬
ception and without condition we are sent to
tell every sinner that Jesus Christ has made
Atonement for the world’s sin, and through
Him is preached the forgiveness of sin. That
is the Gospel, and it is for sinners. How diffi¬
cult it is to persuade men that the Good News is
not reserved for worthy and respectable people !
It is for prodigals, outcasts, wanderers; for every
one that answers the description and title of
sinner. The Lord came, not to call the right¬
eous but sinners to repentance. The Church
is sent to the same sort of people, and its one
and only message is that God for Christ’s sake
has forgiven them, and sends us to bring thera

3

j 4 cfs xliL
38.

E^h. i. 7

HUMANITY AND GOD

34

back to Him. Every barrier is removed, every
obligation met, every sin cancelled, every sinner
forgiven ; the Gospel is a message of a full, free,
and universal pardon, on no other conditions
than such as are involved in its acceptance
through Christ.

That is not heresy but sound Gospel. Then
what is the difference between a saved and an
unsaved man ? Simply this, that one has ac¬
cepted his pardon and the other has rejected
it. Personal acceptance is the only condition
of personal salvation. A man may make the
Cross of Christ of none effect, and though
racially saved, be personally lost. In the Queen’s
Jubilee year, 1887, I was in Edinburgh. Passing
over George the Fourth Bridge one day I saw
a picturesque procession of civic dignitaries
going to the old Cross near St. Giles’ Cathedral.
There was a great crowd, and I turned and
followed them. After a great fanfare of trumpets,
a Royal Proclamation was read declaring the
Queen’s forgiveness of all deserters from the
Army and Navy. I was not near enough to
hear the terms of the proclamation, but I under¬
stood that all the deserters now pardoned should
report themselves within so many days at the
nearest military or naval depot. I afterwards
met two of them going to the Castle. What
were they going for ? To be pardoi^ed ? Nay,

SIN AND GRACE 35

they were pardoned already. It had been
publicly proclaimed. They went simply to
claim the certificate of their pardon; not to
beg for it, but to claim it. Is that too strong a
word to use of the sinner’s forgiveness ? Let
St. John answer : If we confess our sins, He 1 John
is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Faithful and righteous 1 Not compassionate and
pitiful! Jesus Christ has secured for us a right
which a righteous God cannot ignore. Charles
Wesley is very bold, but not bolder than the
Apostle warrants, when he sings—

That sinner am I
Who on Jesus rely,

And come for the pardon God cannot deny.

The acceptance of pardon implies return to
allegiance, and restoration to fellowship and
service. The deserter received his certificate
and walked into his place in the ranks. He
could not accept, and walk out to lawlessness.

Even so are repentance and faith assumed in
the act of acceptance. Pardon is granted to
every sinner, and awaits only the sinner’s personal
claim.

Then as pardon abounds over guilt, so sancti¬
fication abounds over the presence and effects
of sin in the soul. Forgiveness without cleansing

H .*4

2 Cor. Ti
17.

John

7 *

36 HUMANITY AND GOD

would not cover man’s need. The work of
grace must be at least co-extensive with the
work of sin. A sacrifice at the right hand of
God secures our standing, but unless righteous¬
ness be implanted as well as imputed, we should
still be in the bondage of sin. The Christ who
laid down His life for our sins took it again,,
that He might impart it to us in the Person of
His Spirit. Christ in the Heavens justifies;
Christ in the heart saves. Where sin had its
seat His throne is established. The will is sur¬
rendered, the heart cleansed, the desire changed,
and the nature renewed. If any man be in
Christ he is a new creation.” “ The blood
of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Cleansing and Regeneration restore man’s nature
to its true order, and death' is swallowed up in
life.

The restored order in the man secures the
restoration of the true order in the world. The
new man necessitates a New Heaven and
a New Earth. Personal regeneration is followed
by social reconstruction.

Sin brought guilt, grace brings justification ;
sin separated man from God, grace brings him
nigh by the blood of Christ; sin darkened the
understanding and defiled the heart, grace
brings light and knowledge and purifies the
heart \ sin disturbed the true order of man’s

SIN AND GRACE

37

nature and defaced the Divine image within
him, grace creates him anew after the image
of God in righteousness and true holiness; sin
cursed the world, grace restores its peace and
beauty; sin brought death, grace brings the gift
of life. Wherever sin abounded, grace hath
abounded more exceedingly.

There are still the two Adams, and the
responsibility of choice still lies with man. We
may reject grace and continue in sin, or we
may renounce sin and live in grace. Every
man elects to be identified with Adam or Christ,
to choose sin or grace. No man need continue
in sin, for grace has abounded unto complete
salvation.

i

\<( ’. V ■■■

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'i''

4

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< ,

■}

.'•v :Vi

-ft-:-' . ft ft-■ '

ivftft'ft V .'-ft--:■ f

*

ffl

BORN OF THE FLESH AND BORN

OF THE SPIRIT

39

That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is
born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee
Ye must be born anew .’’—John iii. 6, 7. '

40

BORN OF THE FLESH AND BORN
OF THE SPIRIT

God is every man’s Father, but it does not follow
that every man who is God’s offspring is there¬
fore a son of God. The Fatherhood is often
interpreted as if it involved the sonship, but it
does not. Even among men, the mere fact of
physical parentage is but a small element in the
relation expressed by the words father and son.
The real meaning signifies a bond of affection and
reverence, which is not of physical origin. It is
possible to be lineally akin and spiritually alien.
Parentage may transmit nothing beyond the
essential elements of life, every mental and moral
quality being in direct antagonism to those of the
parent. There are parents that are not parents,
and sons that are not sons. Every feature of the
relationship is missing except the physical incident
of birth.

The Christ who reveals the Universal Father¬
hood of God denies the universal sonship of men.
“ As many as received Him to them gave He the
right to become children of God, even to them

41

6 '. Matt,
V. 45.

S. John

viii. 41, 44.

4 ^ HUMANITY AND GOD

that believe on His Name.’’ It was a right be¬
stowed, not a right recognised. Sonship, there¬
fore, is conditioned upon receiving Christ, We
are sons of God in virtue of our reception of Him :
sons by the adoption of grace not of law. In the
Sermon on the Mount men are exhorted to culti¬
vate certain moral qualities to this end, that ye
may be sons of your Father which is in Heaven.”
God is their Father, yet they need to become His
sons. Thus again, sonship is conditioned upon
moral and spiritual correspondence. To the
Jews, Jesus bluntly denied the claim of sonship.
They said, We have one Father, even God.”
He replied in the startling words, '' Ye are of your
father the Devil.” It is evident, therefore, that
although everything involved in Fatherhood is
completely realised in God, the conditions of
sonship are not universally realised in man. Just
as in human kinship natural relations may be
repudiated and natural instincts extinguished, so
in our Divine relationship, sonship may become
a dead letter by sinful repudiation and spiritual
alienation.

Consistently with this teaching, the New Testa¬
ment sharply divides all men into two classes, the
children of God and the children of the Devil.
These are variously described, but the classifica¬
tion never varies. There is no intermediate class.
The twofold classification is all-inclusive. Every

BORN OF THE FLESH AND SPIRIT 43

man is sheep or goat, converted or unconverted,
saved or lost, a child of light or a child of darkness,
quickened into life or dead in sin, a son of God or
a child of the Devil. Division so sharp and un¬
compromising jars upon the susceptibilities of the
easy toleration of our times. It lacks accom¬
modation, flexibility, and discrimination. Besides,
it creates embarrassments. Men of moral de¬
finiteness may be sharply divided, but there are
many who can scarcely be ranked with either the
distinctly good or the definitely bad. Are not
men after all a mixture of good and bad ? Many
of the irreligious are personally attractive, while
some religious people are decidedly repulsive.
Unspiritual men are often scrupulously moral,
while others zealous in religion are unscrupulously
lax in morality. Yet the Lord never wavers
in His judgement. He judges by the heart, and
at heart every man is of the flesh or of the Spirit.

I. This distinction Christ attributes to the

OPERATION OF THE FUNDAMENTAL AND UNIVERSAL

LAW I which is horn of the flesh is fleshy and

that which is horn of the Spirit is Spirit^

All living things come into being by birth.
Life cannot be manufactured. The processes of
fusion and adaptation can accomplish much, but
they cannot produce life. Everything short of
life can be attained. The elements of life can be
analysed and copied, the forms of life can be imi-

44 humanity and GOD

tated so perfectly that the most microscopic
examination reveals no difference, but there is no
life. The protoplasmic germ can be made up so
perfectly that it is impossible to distinguish the
natural from the artificial, but out of the one
comes life, whilst in the other there is no life.
The mysterious element eludes and baffles all
human skill. There is no life but by communica¬
tion from a living parent. Nothing lives that
does not come by the gateway of birth.

Parentage determines nature. The propaga¬
tion of every form of life is limited to its own kind.
Life carries its seed within itself; the seed it yields
is after its own kind ; to each seed is given a body
of its own. In the sphere of Nature every seed
brings forth after its own kind and no other.
This law is never transgressed. The creatures of
the sea bring forth after their kind, and every
winged fowl after its kind. That which is born
of the animal is animal; that which is born of
vegetable is vegetable ; that which is born of man
is man.

Upon this universal law Jesus bases the uni¬
versal necessity of the New Birth. The spiritual
kingdom demands a quality of being not possessed
by the natural man. Here again we touch a fun¬
damental principle. Every kingdom demands as
a condition of citizenship correspondence with its
own quality of life. The realms of music and art

BORN OF THE FLESH AND SPIRIT 45

are impossible to all who are destitute of musical
and artistic gifts. Mathematics are forbidden
ground to men who have no capacity for figures
and no power of calculation. The man born
blind is not more destitute of the sense of light
and colour than is the man utterly without con¬
ception of the things for which he has no mental
faculty. If any man would enter the kingdom of
harmony he must be musical; if he would enter
the kingdom of art he must have the soul of an
artist; if he would enter the kingdom of pure
reason he must have the gift of sequence^ order,
and relation. No kingdom is accessible without
affinity for its own peculiar nature and order of
life and service. Therefore the first demand of
a spiritual kingdom is a spiritual nature. Since

that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit/’ Jesus says,
“ Marvel not, that I said unto thee. Ye must
be born anew.” The new birth is the inevitable
necessity of universal law.

II. The natural man is disqualified for a

SPIRITUAL KINGDOM.

Man is born of the flesh and needs to be born
again of the Spirit. The term flesh is variously
used in the New Testament :

1. Of all living creatures, i Cor. xv. 39.

2. The substance of the living body. Coh ii. l ;
Z Cor. iv. II ; Gal. iv. 13

46

HUMANITY AND GOD

3. The life lived in the body. Gal. ii. 20;
Heb. V. 7.

4. Natural generation. Rom. ix. 3, 5.

5. The animal nature of man without sugges¬
tion of depravity. S. John i. 13.

6. The whole of man’s human nature. Rom.
viii. 3 ; I John iv. 2 ; i Tim. hi. 16.

7. Ethically of life lived in the power and do¬
minion of the flesh.

In its ethical sense it—

{a) Is the avenue of evil. S. Matt. xxvi. 41.
(b) Incites to sin. Rom. vii. 18 ; xiii. 14;

Gal. V. 16-21 ; Jude 23.

{c) Makes captive to sin. Rom. vii. 14-23 ;
viii. 6-8.

{d) Brings forth death. Rom. vii. 5; Gal. vi. 8.
When flesh is used as opposed to spirit, it denotes
the earthly nature of man apart from Divine in¬
fluence, and corresponds to S. Paul’s expression,
the natural man. It signifies the entire man,
sense and reason, without the Holy Spirit. This
flesh-born humanity cannot enter the kingdom
of God. Its disqualifications are Intellectual,
Emotional, and Volitional.

Christ’s condemnation of the flesh is threefold :

1. It cannot see the kingdom of God.

2. It cannot enter the kingdom of God.

3. It chooses evil and darkness rather than
goodness and light.

BORN OF THE FLESH AND SPIRIT 47

This is confirmed in the teaching of S. Paul.

“ The natural man/’ he says, receiveth not the ^ • “•

things of the Spirit of God : for thej are foolish¬
ness unto him ; and he cannot know them because
they are spiritually judged.” That is the intellec¬
tual disqualification ; they cannot see the king¬
dom of God.

Again, They that are after the flesh do mind
the things of the flesh—for the mind of the flesh is
death—^because the mind of the flesh is enmity
against God ; for it is not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can it be : and they that are
in the flesh cannot please God.” That is the
emotional disqualification; they have neither
desire nor appreciation of the things of the Spirit.

They cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Then again, writing to the Ephesians of their
unregenerate life, he says : '' Wherein aforetime “•
ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, of
the spirit that now worketh in the sons of dis¬
obedience ; among whom we also once lived in
the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh
and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as the rest.” That is the volitional
disqualification. The will enslaved to the lusts
of the flesh, captive to the Prince of the power of
the air, the unregenerate choose to live according
to the course of this world. Children of the

HUMANITY AND GOD

48

flesh are the children of wrath. The passage does
not refer to the wrath of God, although that also
ma^ be implied. It does not mean that every
child comes into the world the subject of Divine
displeasure. God is not mentioned in the whole
passage. The phrase must be interpreted as
similar expressions are interpreted. Children of
light, children of darkness, and children of dis¬
obedience, are descriptive of the manner and
quality of life. So the “ children of wrath ”
sums up in a phrase the characteristics of the life
of men dead in trespasses and sins. They are the
children of impulse, lust, and passion, following
the desires of the flesh and of the mind. AH
the features of the life of the flesh are
gathered up in another Ephesians passage. Writ¬
ing of the Gentiles who walk in the vanity of their
mind, he says, Being darkened in their under¬
standing, alienated from the life of God because
of the ignorance that is in them, because of the
hardening of their heart; who being past feeling
gave themselves up to lasciviousness, to work
all uncleanness with greediness.” Their minds
darkened, their souls alienated from God the
only source of true life, their hearts hardened;
they choose to live according to the passions and
lusts of the flesh.

These then are the marks of the flesh. It cannot
see the things of the Spirit; it has no love for God

BORN OF THE FLESH AND SPIRIT 49

or the things of His kingdom ; it does not desire
either Him or His; it chooses to live for the things
of the flesh according to the course of this world ;
it is enslaved and captive to the god of this world.
The derangement of man’s nature hy sin has
darkened his understanding, depraved his affec¬
tions, and enslaved his will. In face of these
things who can wonder that the first demand of
the kingdom of God is that man must be born
again ? The mind must be enlightened, the
heart renewed, and the will emancipated before
we can enter the kingdom of Heaven.

The NEED OF THIS NeW BiRTH IS UNIVERSAL.
If any man might have claimed exemption it was
Nicodemus. He was a man of great intellectual
refinement, deep religious sensibility, and unim¬
peachable character, yet it was to him Jesus said,
“ Marvel not, that I said unto thee, Ye must be
born anew.” Culture can never supersede con¬
version, nor can education dispense with the need
of regeneration. To the “ scientific mind ” this
also is foolishness. It resents limitation, and ridi¬
cules the idea that it cannot discover things re¬
vealed unto babes. But faculties missing at birth
cannot be afterwards supplied. Imperfect organs
may be remedied or developed, but the sense it¬
self must be born. In the birth of the flesh ”
the spiritual is potentially present, but comes to
birth only by the operation of the Spirit. A sense

4

HUMANITY AND GOD

SO

missing at birth cannot be supplied by extra culti¬
vation of others. Touch may become wonderfully
sensitive, but it cannot give sight. Hearing may
be developed to the utmost acuteness, but it can¬
not give the sense of taste or smell. Neither is
it possible to develop a spiritual faculty out of
natural endowments. Nature may be educated
to the utmost limits of its own powers, but it
cannot be educated into something of a totally
different nature. There is no process by which
a man can be developed out of a horse, or a beast
out of a bird. So between the natural and the
spiritual there is a great gulf fixed. Even Timothy
who from a child had known the Holy Scriptures
which are able to make men wise unto salvation,
is PauPs son in the Gospel, having been begotten
of him in the Spirit. It is a hard saying for men
of great natural attainments, refined sensibilities,
and a native consciousness of self-sufficiency,
that Regeneration is as necessary for them
as for the ignorant and degraded, but it is the
simple truth. All are born of the flesh and need
to be born again of the Spirit, The necessity
is fundamental, therefore universal.

III. What is it to be born of the Spirit ?

God has thrown an impenetrable veil over the
beginnings and processes of life. That we live
we know, but how we live no man can tell. Life
is evident to the consciousness, manifest to the

BORN OF THE FLESH AND SPIRIT 51

senses, but mysterious in its process. So it is
with the life that is born of the Spirit. The
wind bloweth where it listeth/^ there is the fact;
“ and thou hearest the voice thereof,’^ there is
the evidence of the fact; but knowest not
whence it cometh, and whither it goeth,” there
is the mysterious process of the fact. We know
that we have entered into a new life, but how the
Spirit of God operates upon the soul, enlighten¬
ing the mind, renewing the heart, subduing the
will, creating a new nature, belongs to the hidden
things of God. The fact we know, the results
are manifest, the method is a solemn mystery.

There are, however, some instructive negative,
and one or two positive truths revealed concerning
even the process. The children of God are born
we are told, Not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.’’ The
negatives are, that no man can become a child of
God by natural descent, “ it is not of bloods ” ;
or by any refinement, cultivation, development,
of the natural man, it is not “ of the will of
the flesh ” ; or by any aspiration, resolution,
or effort of the soul, it is not of the will of
man.” Ancestry, education, determination, avail
not to make a man a child of God. The posi¬
tive truths are, that it is a birth ; by the direct
operation of the Spirit of God, through the
agency of truth. It is a birth, not a development.

S. John
iii. 8.

.S'. John
i. 12, 13.

52

HUMANITY AND GOD

A". John
iii. 5 -

Ejh. V.

26.

Titus
iii. 5 -

I Pet. i.
22, 23.

It is the beginning of a new life, not the introduc¬
tion of the old life into new conditions. It is an
act of creation which the man is born again, a
new creature in Christ Jesus. The life is begotten
in the soul hy the Holy Spirit and the vehicle of
communication is the Word of God. Except a
man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God.’’ The water re¬
fers not to Baptism but to the truth of which Bap¬
tism is the sign. The cleansing is by the washing
of water with the Word.” Regeneration is both
a washing and a renewal. The soul is purified by
obedience to the truth, having been begotten
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorrupt¬
ible, through the Word of God.”

The nature of the change wrought in man is
indicated by its contrast with the flesh. A birth
is an emancipation and an enlargement of capacity
and opportunity. By spiritual birth man escapes
from his imprisonment within the limitations
of the fleshly life, and enters a new kingdom with
new interests and activities. The intellectual,
emotional, and volitional disqualifications dis¬
appear. Born of God he begins to know God
and to receive the things of the Spirit. His
hatred and dread of God give place to love and
fellowship. His affections, desires, and feelings
are changed from the things of the flesh to th^e
things of God. His will is emancipated. He

BORN OF THE FLESH AND SPIRIT 53

finds his freedom in surrender to the will of God,
and his delight in obedience to that will. His
derangement having ceased, his delusions dis¬
appear, and order being restored, his whole life
moves with the spontaneity of a second nature in
the spiritual kingdom. Born of the Spirit he
lives in the Spirit, walks not after the flesh but
after the Spirit, prays in the Spirit, lives, moves,
and has his being in the realm of the Spirit. The
new life Alls up the lack of the natural man, en¬
dues every faculty with its utmost possibility,
secures order and harmony throughout the whole
being, and restores life to its true relation with
God and the universe. By it man becomes a
child of God and a citizen of Heaven, which is as
far above the life of the flesh, as the life of man is
above that of the brute.

The marks of sonship are correspondence

AND CO-OPERATION.

If ye were Abraham’s children ye would do
the works of Abraham ... ye do the works of your
father ... ye are of your father the Devil, and the
lusts of your father it is your will to do.” Jesus
appealed constantly to His works as the proof
of His Sonship. The works that I do in
My Father’s name, these bear witness of
Me.” ^Mf I do not the works of My Father,
believe Me not. But if I do them, though ye
believe not Me, believe the works : that ye may

S. John viii
39, 41, 44.

S. John X.
2 S» 37 > 38 .

S_. John
xiv. lo.

}John
iii. lo.

S4 humanity and god

know and understand that the Father is in Me,
and I in the Father.’^ To Philip He said,

Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and
the Father in Me ? the words that I say unto
you I speak not from Myself : but the Father
abiding in Me doeth His works.

They that are of the flesh do the works of the
flesh. They that are of the Spirit bring forth
the fruit of the Spirit, Oneness of nature mani¬
fests itself in fellowship of sympathy, correspon¬
dence of character, and co-operation in service.
The sons of God are God-like, and the children
of the Devil bear the marks of their father. Every
man’s pedigree is declared in his conduct. “ In
this the children of God are manifest and the
children of the Devil : whosoever doeth not right¬
eousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not
his brother.” The child of God purifies himself
as He is pure, is holy for He is holy, and dwells in
love for God is love. He is born of God, dwells
in God, belongs to God, works with God, and is
like God. He has become the son of the Father
which is in Heaven.

The experiences which accompany regenera¬
tion are no essential part of the process, and vary
with conditions of temperament and education
but the fundamental necessity and the supreme
privilege of every man are, that he should be born
anew of the Spirit, and by faith in Christ become
a child of God.^

MAN : NATURAL, CARNAL,
SPIRITUAL

“ Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God ; for they are foolishness unto him : and he cannot know
them because they are spiritually judged.”—i Cor. ii. 14.

“ And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,
but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with
milk, not with meat; for ye were not able to bear it; nay, not
even now are ye able ; for ye are yet carnal: for whereas there
is among you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk
after the manner of men ? ”—i Cor. iii. 1-3.

“ And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly : and
may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without
blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He
that calleth you, who also will do it.”—l fhess. v. 23, 24.

MAN : NATURAL, CARNAL, SPIRITUAL

The Bible has its own account of man. It does
not profess to be exhaustive, scientific, or com¬
plete. It is an account consistent with its own
special purpose. Scriptural history is recorded
as the vehicle of Revelation. Whatever is
extraneous to that specific object is omitted with¬
out regard to its value to other departments of
knowledge. The purpose settles the principle of
selection. That purpose from first to last is
religious and not scientific. The story of man’s
creation is told not to furnish a complete account
of the processes by which the worlds were made,
but to make plain man’s relation to God. It
asserts the fact of the Divine origin of all created
things ; reveals God as a personality distinct
from creation, existing before all worlds, and
Himself their Creator ; and manifests the unity
of God through all the manifold operations.
The account is written for the correction of all
possible errors concerning God’s relation to the
universe. The fact of Divine origin is the answer
to the Atheistic interpretation of the world. The

67

SB HUMANITY AND GOD

distinct personality denies the theory of the
Pantheist, who regards Deity as inseparable
from the universe, all things being the sum total
of Divinity. The unity of the Creator corrects
the Polytheism of idolatry which attributes the
creation of the various elements to different
deities. It was to reveal the Unity, Personality,
and Creative Energy of God, that the Bible
account was written. It is not a scientific
treatise ; that lies outside its purpose. Neither
is it a complete history 5 it is a selection of events
with a view to a specific object.

But though the Bible is ' non-scientific it is
never un-scientific. Revealed truth can never
be out of harmony with anything that is true,
and it anticipates all ultimate developments of
truth. Every new discovery in the principles
and method of the operations of nature sheds
new light upon the revelation of the Word, and
corrects false conceptions and erroneous interpre¬
tations, but there can be no ultimate antagonism
between truth scientifically established and truth
that has come by revelation. Truth is one, and
at the last, truth discovered will confirm truth
revealed.

The philosophy of the Bible is just as specific
as its account of creation. It does not profess
to give us a complete explanation of man’s
nature, much less the complete story of his

MAN

59

development and history. In a strikingly
picturesque and simple way it sets forth his
primitive state as neither highly civilised nor
barbarously savage. He was placed in a garden
in a state of innocency and simplicity, with his
final destiny unrealised and unknown. The fact
of his probation is indicated by the simple laws
by which he was to live. Under the seductive
pressure of temptation he snatched prematurely
at his destiny and fell under sin. He was not,
however, utterly lost even as to his destiny.
Grace broke his fall. The promise of redemption
and restoration proves him redeemable. No
essential part of his nature was utterly lost. God
undertook his salvation. The story of the Scrip¬
tures is the story of man’s Redemption, Regenera¬
tion, Sanctification, and Glorification. It covers
the whole distance from his fall through sin to his
ultimate restoration through grace.

As the Biblical account of man is specific, so
is its terminology peculiar. Non-Biblical philoso¬
phies divide man into mind and matter; the
Bible divides him into flesh, soul, and spirit.
It also classifies man according to this threefold
division as Natural, Carnal, and Spiritual.
These terms are the subject of much controversy
into which we cannot now enter. Our purpose
is to understand their Biblical meaning as it
bears upon Christian life and experience.

6o

HUMANITY AND GOD

Eph. ii.

3; iv. 17*

2 Cor.
vii. I.

Flesh, Soul, Spirit.

The non-ethical use of the word flesh does not
here concern us. When S. Paul speaks of his
flesh as an active principle opposed to righteous¬
ness, he does not refer to the flesh and blood of
his natural body. The bodily organism has no
moral quality in itself. When ethical and moral
qualities are attributed to it, the term is always
figurative and special. In Pauline terminology
“ flesh ” is used to denote the principle, or the
seat of the principle, which in fallen human
nature resists the law ; which is in antagonism
with man’s higher nature which consents to the
law; and which, in the regenerate, wars against
the Spirit. The same principle is variously
described as the old man,” “ the body of
sin,” the body of the flesh,” and the body
of death.” The explanation of this evil associa¬
tion of the word is not that the flesh is the only
occasion of sin, for we read of sinful desires of
the mind ” and the defilement of the spirit,” as
well as of the lust of the flesh. But it is so largely
through the appetites and passions of the flesh
that men are tempted, that the Apostle makes
the medium the figurative representative of the
principle itself. It therefore stands for the
principle of sin in man.

What is the distinction between soul and
spirit ? Are they separate or identical ? Are

MAN

6i

they separate qualities or simply two aspects
of the non-material in man ? There are only
three passages where the words occur
together^ and in two of them the third term
occurs also. The reference in i Corinthians
XV. 45 is to the Resurrection, and indicates
the difference between Adam and Christ, one
being made unto the race a living soul, and
the other a quickening Spirit. The second
occasion is in i Thessalonians v. 23, where
the Apostle prays for their complete sancti¬
fication and entire preservation in spirit,
soul, and body, unto the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. The third is Hebrews iv. 12 :
“ For the word of God is living and active, and
sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing
even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both
joints and marrow, and quick to discern the
thoughts and intents of the heart.’^ This does
not mean that the various parts mentioned are
distinct and separable quantities, dividing soul
from spirit and joints from marrow, but that the
interpenetrating power of the Word lays bare
the true nature of every part of man.

The terms, like the term flesh, have to be
considered religiously rather than psychologically,
and there is no warrant to justify the recognition
of three distinct elements in human nature. As
flesh is used for the seat of the principle of sin, so

62 HUMANITY AND GOD

soul is the region of feeling, affection, impulse ; and
the spirit is the realm of spiritual consciousness
and the shrine of the Divine indwelling. The
terms are adopted for practical purposes, body and
soul, flesh and spirit, being interchangeable expres¬
sions for the nature of man. In soul and spirit
the one immaterial principle is distinguished as
it is related on the one hand to the world of sense
through the body, and on the other to the world
of spiritual realities. The soul comes between
the higher and the lower elements of our being,
and is common to both body and spirit. It is
the sphere of our desires and passions, the moral
quality of which is determined by their direction.
Allied with the flesh they become worldly and
sinful, controlled by the spirit they become
innocent and holy. The spirit in man is the
element which is turned to God and capable of
God. Dead or dormant in the unregenerate, it
is quickened into life by the Holy Spirit, and
when entirely possessed by Him who quickens,
man dwells in God and God in him. He knows
God, communes with God, discerns God in all
things and sees all things in Him.

A Threefold Classification,

This threefold distinction in the elements o:^
man s being leads to a threefold classification of
man s moral and spiritual character. Men are
described as Natural, Carnal, and Spiritual. The

MAN

63

Natural man or “ animal,” as it is always rendered
in the margin of the Revised Version, is the man
in whom the soul has not been quickened into
fellowship with spiritual realities. He is the
man Christ speaks of as born of the flesh,” and
whose soul lies in the sphere of sense. He has
no discernment of spiritual things and is without
the knowledge of God, and as the life of the soul
is in the knowledge of God, he is dead to the
spiritual realities for which he was created. He
is soulish, animal, sense-bound. The spiritual
man is born of the Spirit, discerns the spiritual
realities, offers spiritual sacrifices, and enjoys
spiritual fellowship. He is quickened into a new
life, is born into a new Kingdom, judges all
things by a new standard, and lives in the flesh a
new life of the Spirit.

The Natural and the Spiritual thus correspond
to those born of the flesh and those born of the
Spirit, upon which is based the decisive classifi¬
cation of the New Testament of all men into
two classes. But what of this simple division
when a third class is added ? We read of some
who were sanctified and yet not spiritual, in
Christ yet carnal, called saints and yet fleshly.
The kingdoms of the flesh and spirit are dia¬
metrically opposed, and yet the fleshly has over¬
lapped into the spiritual. The old man lives in
the new life. Regenerate men live carnal lives,

I Cor.
ii. 14 .

Ej>h. i.
3-

I Pet.
ii. 5-

I John
i. 7.

64 HUMANITY AND GOD

Wliat can tliis mean ? The Apostle does not
say they are flesh, but that they are fleshly.
There is a great difference between the earth
and things that are earthy, between ground that
is stone and soil that is stony. One is the very
nature of the thing; it is rock—solid, unrelieved
stone. The other is the incidental characteristic
of another substance ; the ground is soil but the
soil is stony. So he says of these regenerate
people, that, though they are within the realm
of the Spirit, they are fleshly rather than spiritual.
Just as some men are in the world but not far
from the Kingdom, so these people are in the
Kingdom but not far from the world. The
Corinthian Christians were born again, but were
only '' babes in Christ,” and the trend of their

lives was still after the old order rather than
the new.

That saints should be carnal seems utterly
illogical, but it is true to experience and con¬
sistent with the laws of all life that the new-born
should be babes. The new birth starts impulses
and emotions within the soul that seem to be
irresistible in their power. The whole current
of liie is reversed, the old nature is changed, a
Divine influence pervades and impels the soul.
Old things have passed away and all things be¬
come new. The old allurements are loathed, old
desires changed, and old ties broken. The

MAN

6s

whole nature is vitalised with a new energy that
sweeps the soul God-ward with a mighty sense
of unconquerable life. All things are possible
in the thrilling enthusiasm of a new-born soul.
The possibility of inward conflict or slackness
seems to be lost in the rapture of a new sense of
the Infinite. The spiritual life will surely be as
natural to the new nature as the fleshly life was
to the old. It will be instinctive, automatic,
irresistible. After a time the new man is con¬
fronted by a resurrection of the old. He has a
wiU that rebels, an old lust that revives, old
habits that clutch his soul. Regeneration is
only a birth, and a birth is but a beginning.
Things of the flesh do not retire without a con¬
test ; the new life has to fight for its existence
and to conquer before it can be supreme. Sin in
believers may be a perplexity to both believers
and unbelievers, it may be condemned as illogical
and inconsistent, but there can be no doubt of
its existence. The seventh chapter of Romans
seems impossible after the sixth, but it is the only
way to the eighth. The new life, though Divine,
needs defence, cultivation, and discipline. Babes
in Christ are beset with carnalities.

What are the Characteristics of Babes i
They live by impulse rather than by principle,
are impressed by externals, contend for non-
essentials, and are of feeble digestion. A babe

5

66 HUMANITY AND GOD

does not reason, has no idea of values, is without
sense of proportion, and must be fed with milk.
The life is soulish. The same characteristics
appear in babes of the spiritual realm. They are
dominated bp the senses and influenced bp
carnalities. It is fleshlp to walk according to the
impulse and desires of the mind. Spiritual babes
live on emotion rather than walk bp principle,
and judge bp feeling rather than bp faith!
What the soul likes counts for more than what
God wflls. When the feelings are lifted up, the
soul rejoices. What the heart desires, that it
seeks. “ I don’t like it,” or “ I do ” becomes
the unreasoning and unreasoned ground for
everp judgment and the guide for everp choice.
Born of the Spirit, thep stiU walk after the flesh.

It is the same childish element in men that
is more impressed bp externals than bp inward
realities. These “Babes” elected their rival
favourites among the Apostles according to the
judgement of the flesh. The preference for Paul,
ApoUos, or Cephas was purelp personal and selfish.
The choice was made on grounds of personal '
gratification. The preacher was preferred be¬
cause he flattered and gratified the intellectual,
emotional, or social qualities. Sugar-plums count
for much in the preferences of babes. In worship
thep are influenced bp the sensuous and spectacular
rather than bp the inward and spiritual. Ritual

MAN

67

always appeals to the nursery. The millinery,
drapery, processions, and awesomeness of ritual
impress those who have no deeper vision. It is
meet and appropriate for those who have not yet
learned that God is Spirit, and that all acceptable
worship is spiritual. The less perception there
is of the spiritual, the greater is the demand for
the perfection of the carnal. When a service
becomes a performance, it ceases to be worship.

The same dependence upon the external is
seen in their conduct. They need to have
everything carefully labelled. Spiritual men have "
an anointing of the Holy One and know all things.
They are led of the Spirit, and have no need of
minute instructions from others. But labels are
necessary for nurseries. The rule must be by
precept, an unequivocal ^^Thou shalt,^’ and an
authoritative ^^Thou shalt not.’^ They must be
told specifically what is right and what is wrong.
The things of the conscience are too deep and
perplexing for their tender minds; an over-lord
must be found to undertake for them. A
spiritual instructor is needed to supply the lack
of spiritual perception. Tutors and governors
are inseparable from our nonage.

Another mark of childishness is the readiness to
quarrel over trifles. Nothing is too trivial to
become the occasion of wrangling among children,
and one is filled with astonishment at the magni-

Heb. V.

IIj 12.

Heb. vi.

I.

I Thess
iv. 3-5.

68 HUMANITY AND GOD

tilde of the strife over trifles among grown-up
people. Sensitiveness is often only petulance
and selfishness writ large. Home and Church
are often disturbed by the petty jealousies and
wranglings of people who ought to know better.
The Church at Corinth is not the last of the
Churches to be cursed with the carnalities of its
people ; the writer to the Hebrews makes the
same complaint. Men who by their years ought
to have been teachers were still at the rudiments
of religion, without experience, without sense,
and without discrimination, babes who had to be
fed on milk. The explanation of their ungrown
condition is that they are carnal, and not spiritual.
They are babes whose mental and spiritual
faculties are undeveloped, overgrown in years
and undergrown in character. The Churches
are overstocked with overgrown babes, and cursed
with the carnalities of Spirit-born people.

From Carnal to Spiritual.

The writer to the Hebrews exhorts the babes
to cease to speak of the first principles of Christ,
and press on unto perfection.” Let childish things
be put away. The childishness can be cured only
by the carnalities being uprooted, and they can
be uprooted only by the completion of Regenera¬
tion in the Entire Sanctification of the man.
This is the Divine purpose in man’s salvation :
“ This is the will of God, even your sanctification

MAN

69

that ye abstain from fornication; that each one
of you know how to possess himself of his own
vessel in sanctification and honour, not in the
passion of lust.’’ “ God chose you from the
beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the
Spirit.’^ Entire sanctification is the complete
sanctification of the entire man. The Apostle’s
prayer for the Thessalonians is the most compre¬
hensive statement of this doctrine. It asks for an
absolute and unrestricted sanctification “ nega¬
tive and positive, perfect in whole, and perfect in
parts, at once consummate and progressive, con¬
firmed for time and for eternity.”

There is a sense in which sanctification is
entire in regeneration. It is a mistake to
imagine there can be laxity and defect in the
work of conversion. To the measure of every
man’s light the surrender to God must be without
reserve, and the cleansing of the heart from an
evil conscience is as entire as justification is com¬
plete. By one offering, He hath perfected for
ever them that are sanctified.” At conversion
we become the Lord’s and are laid upon the altar
of sanctification. That sacrifice must always be
entire. No part can be withheld if the offering
is to be acceptable, and whatever is laid upon the
altar is sanctified. No Christian can live in sin,
or knowingly withhold anything from the Lord.

Though sanctification is in this sense complete

Thess,
ii. 13.

Hei. X.
14.

HUMANITY AND GOD

70

at conversion, in the purpose of God and the
experience of the believer, much is left to be
accomplished in the nature of the sanctified.
The carnalities need to be purged out. Entire
Sanctification completes the work of Regenera¬
tion, pervading every part of the renewed nature.
The spirit is sanctified wholly; the reason is
filled with the all-pervasive presence of God
realised in the consciousness. Every faculty of
the mind is not only cleansed from defilement,
but in every part there is reflected the mind of
God. The soul is sanctified wholly; its desires
are holy, its passions clean, its thoughts pure, its
impulses God-ward, and its delight is in the will
of the Lord. The tugging of the old nature
with its evil lusts is over. The body is sanctified
wholly; its members become instruments of
righteousness; it is a temple of God, cleansed,
sanctified, and filled with the glory of His pre¬
sence. The sanctification of the parts is not a
separate process. The work is one, and is accom¬
plished in the sanctification of the man. The
parts are mentioned to set forth the completeness
and entireness of the work of God in redeemed
and sanctified man. It is entire, complete,
without restriction, and without defect. Every
part is cleansed, perfected, and pervaded with
the energy of the Divine Presence. The fleshly
is eradicated and the spiritual prevails.

MAN

71

In this state of entire sanctification the entire
man is preserved without blame. The God that
sanctifies, keeps. He that is able to do, is able
to maintain what He has done. The words of
the Apostle are chosen with the utmost care.
He does not pray that they may be kept without
fault, but without blame. Many blameless things
are faulty, and many faulty things are blameless.
A work done from purest love and to the utmost
capacity may be full of faults but entirely free
from blame. A picture is often hung in the
home that has a value apart altogether from the
judgement of the Academy. Faultless F Not by
a long way. But a pure soul put its best into it,
and soul is more than precision. Faultless ?
Nay, for though the sanctification be entire, it is
not final. The glorification is not yet. Until it
comes the spirit will be beset with limitations
and infirmities, the soul will be hampered in its
aspirations, and the body will continue to be an
imperfect instrument preventing with its weak¬
ness the will of the spirit. Not faultless, but
blameless. Without reproach, without condem¬
nation, and in all things acceptable before God !

That is the promise and possibility of grace.
The worship of man’s spirit, the desire of man’s
heart, the functions of man’s body a blameless,
perpetual sacrifice unto the Lord Most High.
Blameless, not merely according to the low ideals

72

HUMANITY AND GOD

of mortality, but in the searching light of the
eternal at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thought can climb no higher. It is exceeding
abundantly, above all we could ask or think. No
wonder the Apostle pledges the Almighty to the
task. God has called us unto this perfection, and
He also will do it. He is faithful, and cannot
fail. The prayer is a promise, and God is pledged.
When, when shall it once be ? Even here and
now the promise is ours, and the sanctifying
power waits upon our faith.

THE INCARNATION AND ITS
GLORIOUS PURPOSE

“ The Man Christ Jesus.”—i Tim. ii. 5.
“ A man in Christ.”—2 Cor. xii. 2.

74

THE INCARNATION AND ITS
^ GLORIOUS PURPOSE

The purpose of the Incarnation is summed up in
the one word Identification. In the Man Christ
Jesus, God identified Himself with the human
race and tabernacled among men ; the man in
Christ is identified with God and dwells in Him.
God manifest in the flesh is the supreme mystery,
and man made like God is the supreme glory of
the Gospel of grace. The process of Divine In¬
carnation in human flesh transcends all human
reason, but the fact is declared, and its glorious
purpose is clearly revealed.

I. The Man Christ Jesus.

The New Testament leaves no room for
doubt as to the proper humanity of Jesus Christ.
S. John in the introduction to his Gospel, says:
‘Mn the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God . . . and
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us
(and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only
begotten from the Father), full of grace and

78

6 '. John
I. H’

HUMANITY AND GOD

76

truth.” The Word that was in the beginning
became flesh, the Word that was with God dwelt
among men, the Word that was God was made
manifest, full of grace and truth.

The completest statement of the Incarnation
is S. Paul’s great word on the Renunciation:
“ Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus; who being in the form of God counted it
not a thing to be grasped, to be on an equality
with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form
of a servant, being made in the likeness of men ;
and being found in fashion as a man. He humbled
Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea,
the death of the Cross.”

This passage sets forth seven facts concerning
Jesus Christ.

1. That He was originally in the form of God.

2. That He esteemed not equality with God a
thing to be grasped.

3. That He voluntarily gave up the privileges
and prerogatives of Divinity.

4. That He exchanged the form of God for the
form of a servant.

5. That He became man.

6. That He humbled Himself unto obedience.

7. That He consented to the death of the
Cross.

The significant point of the passage is that the
rights and powers of divinity were exchanged for

THE INCARNATION

77

the limitations of humanity. The form of God
was laid aside that He might take the form of a
servant. The word translated form ” does not
mean mere shape or resemblance. There is a
difference between form and fashion ; one is the
essential and the other the apparent. The ex¬
changed form means an exchanged mode of exist¬
ence. The same Personality that had dwelt from
the beginning with God, and was God, became a
servant and lived within man’s conditions. He
had the fashion of a man, and was indistinguish¬
able in all externals from the rest of the race.
The conditions of the Heavenly state did not
overlap into the earthly. Self-emptying pre¬
ceded self-humbling. He was Man among men.
There was nothing that destroyed any human
quality, neither anything that neutralised any
human limitation. His manhood was real.

The identification of Christ with men was as
complete in extent as it was real in nature. The
first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews sets
forth seven proofs of the Divine Sonship, and the
second chapter enumerates the following seven
points of His identification with man : He de¬
scended to man’s level, took man’s nature, en¬
dured man’s temptation, died in man’s place,
conquered man’s foe, achieved, man’s victory,
and secured man’s salvation. Verse 17 sums
up the whole doctrine of His humanity in the

HUMANITY AND GOD

78

words, “ Wherefore it behoved Him in all things
to be made like unto His brethren.” The words
must be taken as they stand without limit and
without modification. “ In all things ” means
that in all respects He partook of man’s nature,
and shared man’s lot. He hungered, toiled,
wearied, suffered, and was in all things subject to
the limitations and conditions of human life.
Without exemption and without exception He
was made in all things like unto His brethren.

He differed from the rest of the race in that in
Him there was no sin. But that in no way affects
the reality of His humanity. Sin is no essential
part of manhood. The more sinful a man is the
less of a man he becomes, and the less sinful he is
the more truly is he a man. The sinlessness of
Jesus establishes His claim to the perfection of
manhood. Sinlessness does not imply ignorance
concerning sin. No man in God’s universe knows
so much about sin as the Man Christ Jesus. He
who knew no sin was made to be sin for sinful man.
He knows more of its sinfulness, its anguish, and
its woe than any other. He bore its burden, paid
its penalty, and endured its curse. By His sin¬
lessness He was separate from sinners, but His
separateness from sin makes His identification
with man the more complete. He is not only
man, but The Man : the Brother, Head, and
Representative of all.

THE INCARNATION 79

Sinlessness did not exempt him from temp¬
tation.

Made in all tilings like unto His breth¬
ren, He was “ in all points tempted like as we
are.’^ The “ in all things ’’ of Hebrews ii. 17 is
followed by the “ in all points ’’ of Hebrews iv. 15.
It must be so. If He laid aside all that was
peculiar to His Divinity, and took upon Himself
all that is common to our humanity, there could
be no escape from the temptations that assail all
mankind. So He was in all points tempted
like as we are.’’ Not in all forms. Temptation
comes to us in many ways that were impossible to
Him. He did not live in the twentieth century,
nor in the atmosphere of Western civilisation.
There were social, domestic, and industrial rela¬
tionships into which He never entered. The
forms of temptation vary with varying conditions,
but the essentials of temptation are the same in
every place and in every age. Jesus was tempted
in all points at which man is assailable. He was
tempted along every possible avenue. He was
assailed with every weapon in the Devil’s armoury.
That the temptation was real is evident from the
words, He suffered being tempted.” It was no
sham fight, no mere parade. He felt the stress
and struggle of resistance. Because He was truly
man, He was exposed to the assaults and seductions
that are the common lot of man.

8o

HUMANITY AND GOD

Acts 3C.

38.

Another thing that needs to be emphasised in
this connexion is that the Man Christ Jesus lived
His life and fulfilled His Mission, with no other
resources than those He has made possible to
every man in Him. There lurks in our thoughts
the impression that after all Jesus had advantages
and resources that are open to no other. The
Christ of miraculous birth and miraculous power
seems to command possibilities altogether ex¬
ceptional, that place Him beyond the range of
identification. One of the catch-questions of my
Sunday-school days was as to the difference be¬
tween the miracles of Christ and those of His
disciples. The answer, when we got one, in¬
variably was that the disciples wrought miracles
in the power of Christ, but Christ wrought
them by His own inherent power. But that
is just what Christ did not do. He wrought in
the power of the Holy Ghost. When He emp¬
tied Himself and took upon Him the form of, a
servant, the Father filled Him with His Spirit.
“ God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost and
with power : Who went about doing good, and
healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for
God was with Him.” What the Father gave to
the Son, the Son has given to man. The self¬
same Spirit that was in the Man Christ Jesus, is
given to every man in Christ. Within the limits
of our need, the Spirit comes to be to us, all

THE INCARNATION 8i

that He was to Jesus. The Christ had no re¬
sources that He has not made accessible to all.

This is the Man Christ Jesus. Of like nature
with ourselveSj subject to the limitations, perils,
temptations of our lot, and restricted to such re¬
sources as are now available to all men through
Him. Truly man, yet not less God. It is the
same Person in the form of a servant that from
the beginning was in the form of God,
in all points truly human, in all essentials
truly Divine. A proper Man yet truly God 1
Perfect Manhood and Perfect Deity! History
furnishes us with an instance of a prince who
voluntarily became a workman in a foreign land.
He was treated as the rest of the workers, subject
to the same regulations, without exceptional
privileges or extra supplies. The changed mode
of existence did not affect his princely rank. He
exchanged the form of a ruler for the form of a
workman, but he was as truly of royal blood in his
overalls as in his robes, as truly an heir-apparent
in the workshop as at the court. So with Christ.
The changed mode of existence did not affect His
personality. He had exchanged the position and
prerogatives of God for the conditions and limi¬
tations of man, but He was still God. He
claimed to be one with God : “ I and the Father
are One.” He was as truly God in the workshop
at Nazareth as on the Throne, But He is man.

6

S. John
X . 30.

82 HUMANITY AND GOD

The renunciation was so complete that He was
among men in all things like unto His brethren,
in all points tempted as they, yet without sin.
He is God’s ideal man. He stands before God
and man as the pattern of what God meant man
to be, and the sample of what redeemed man is
destined to become. Sinless, flawless, perfect, and
approved, the Son of God is the pledge and stan¬
dard of our salvation.

H. Man in Christ.

The Incarnation reveals the Divine intention.
When Divinity identified itself with Humanity,
it was that Humanity might be identified with
Divinity. In identifying Himself with man
Christ identified man with Himself. It seems a
startling statement, but there is no escape from
it. He became in all things like unto His bre¬
thren, that His brethren might become in all
things like unto Him. The in all things is
co-extensive. The identification is as complete
on the one side as on the other. All that the Man
Christ Jesus is by nature, the man in Christ be¬
comes by grace. The identification is as com¬
plete as the renunciation was without reserve.
In Christ man becomes as Christ, just as truly as
in the Incarnation Christ became as man. All
that Christ is we become, all that Christ has we
have, the works that Christ did we may do. The
man in Christ is one with Christ, even as Christ is
one with the Father.

THE INCARNATION 83

There are seven points of identification set forth,
in the New Testament.

1. Relationship.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the first
thing He does for the man who comes to Him is
to give him the right of sonship. He lifts man
into the same relationship with the Father as
Himself. The method is different and the degree
is different. Jesus is the only-begotten Son of
the Father, but what the Christ is by nature the
man in Christ becomes by adoption. By nature
we are aliens and strangers, enemies and rebels,
but to as many as received Him to them gave
He the right to become sons of God.’’ For ye
received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear,
but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby
we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bear-
eth witness with our spirit that we are children of
God.” The identification of the Son of God
with man has made it possible for sinful men to
become sons of God.

2. Nature.

Jesus Christ partook of man’s nature, that man
might be made a partaker of the Divine nature.
“ That through these ye may become partakers
of the Divine nature, having escaped the corrup¬
tion that is in the world by lust.” Nature is
stronger than condition. A child may be taken
from vicious surroundings, transplanted to new

6". John
i. 12.

Rom. viii.
15, 16.

2 Pet, i.

4 -

I John
iv. 17.

Rom.
viii. 17.

84 HUMANITY AND GOD

conditions, adopted into new relationships, and
given a new name, but the old nature tells. It
is easier to give a new home and a new name than
a new nature. But in the work of grace Adoption
is accompanied by Regeneration. The sons of
God are born of God. If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creation. The old nature is put off,
and a Divine nature takes its place. The Lord’s
image, defaced in Adam, is renewed in Christ.
The Son of God took hold on humanity that sin¬
ful men might take hold on His Divinity. What
a Gospel! The nature of the God-Man to be¬
come the possession of fallen and sinful men !

As He is, so are we.”

3. Possessions.

‘‘ If sons, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-
heirs with Christ.” When a man in high social
position marries a poor woman, he does not come
to her level, but lifts her to his. He does not
divest himself of all his possessions, but invests her
with all he has. She shares his name, his rank,
his wealth, his home. She becomes identified
with him. They are one. Christ calls us His
Bride. He came down to the level of our
poverty that He might lift us to the level of His
rank and wealth. We are one. He has no wealth
we do not share. All the resources of grace,
wisdom, and power are at the disposal of His own.
He withholds nothing. The riches of His glory

THE INCARNATION 85

are the inheritance of His saints. The peculiar
possessions of Jesus are His Spirit^ and the infinite
merit of His sacrifice. The Spirit He has poured
out without measure, and in the gift of His merit
is the fulness of our salvation, and our hope in
prayer. He took our poverty; we receive His
wealth.

4. Character.

Identification in relationship, nature, and pos¬
sessions, involves correspondence of character.
The end of all grace is holiness. We are made
partakers of all these privileges in Christ that we
may reflect His Spirit and reproduce His life.
There is no greater exhortation than this, Have
this mind iii you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Identification involves identity. If we are one
with Him, we must be like Him. The test of life
is its fruit. If we share His life, we shall follow in
His steps. Christ not only gave His life for us;
He imparts it to us. His life is our life. He who
died for men lives in men. It is the same Christ
that lived among men that now lives in them, and
the manifest life therefore is His. The badge and
test of a Christian is Christ-likeness.

5. Experience.

The completeness with which Jesus identifies
His people with Himself is manifest in all His
dealings with His disciples. He that receiveth
you, receiveth me.” “ If the world hateth you.

Phil. ii.

S Matt.

X. 40.

S. John

XV. 18.

86

HUMANITY AND GOD

S. John
xiv. 27.

I Cor. i.
9 -

John
ix. 4.

John

XX. 21*

ye know that it hath hated Me before it hated you.”
‘‘ It is enough that the servant be as his lord.”
In all things they might expect to share His lot
in the world, and all their afflictions He would
make His own. What was done to them would
be done to Him, so completely were they one.
They must share His experience in the world.
That, however, was not all. They should share
the peace and joy of His own soul. My peace
I give unto you ” ; “ These things have I spoken
unto you that My joy may be in you.” The very
peace that reigned in His own heart should dwell
in theirs. The very joy of Christ’s own soul
should abide in them through all adversity and
trial. The heart of the believer becomes as the
heart of his Lord. His life is our life. His peace
our peace. His joy our joy. His assurance of the
Father’s smile. His delight in the Father’s service,
His joy in the Father’s fellowship, His rest in the
Father’s will, all these are ours, for we are Christ’s,
and Christ is God’s.

6. Mission.

We are ‘‘ called into the fellowship of His Son
Jesus Christ our Lord.” That fellowship is a
fellowship of service. We are called into partner¬
ship in the work of the Son of God. He said to
His disciples, must work the works of Him

that sent Me.” His commission after His resur¬
rection was, As the Father hath sent Me,

THE INCARNATION 87

even so send I you.” Go ye . . . and
I05 I am with you.” His Mission is our
mission. His work our work. We are partners
in the same undertaking, yoke-fellows in the same
toil.

7. Reward.

They who are one with Him in service and
suffering will be one with Him in reward. The
identification is complete even to the last.
Listen 1 Here is the consummation of it all.
Here is the crowning wonder of the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ i He that overcometh, I
will give to him to sit down with Me in My
throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My
Father in His throne.” We share His very
throne. The faithful enter at last into the joy
of their Lord. In Heaven the identification is
complete, and man stands higher than the angels,
for Christ the Son of God has lifted him to the
level of His throne. What a Gospel! What a
miracle of grace! What a glorious purpose I
The Son of God in all things Son of Man, that
the sons of men may be as the Son of God.

III. Man’s life in Christ.

Identification involves correspondence. If the
man in Christ is to be one with Christ, and in all
things like Christ, the governing principles at the
root of each life must be the same ; and if the root
principles are identical, the practical manifesta-

S. Matt.
xxviii.

19, 20.

Rw. iiL

2 X.

Phil
ii. 5 .

•S'. J oh 7 i

XV. 12.

1 John
ii. 6.

Eph. xiv.
32 -

•S’. John
xiii. 15.

I Pet. ii.
20.

I John
iii. 16.

88 HUMANITY AND GOD

tions must correspond. The standard of Christ’s
life was His Father’s will, the dynamic of His life
was the Holy Spirit, and the joy of His life was the
assured approval of His Father. These are essen¬
tial to every Christ-like life : Consecration,
Pentecost, Obedience. The life is impossible
where the consecration is incomplete ; it is pos¬
sible only in the power of the Spirit; and it can
only be maintained by continual abiding in
assured and approved obedience in the will of
God. Surrender, receive, abide ! These are the
key-words of the Christ-life.

These root principles reproduce the character
of the Master. The Man Christ Jesus is the
standard and pattern in all things to the man in
Christ. In character, grace answers grace, fea¬
ture corresponds with feature, till in all things
the resemblance is complete. It is not simply a
faithful copy, but the manifestation of the one
spirit. The life is one. The life of the man in
Christ is the life of the Man Christ Jesus, who
dwells in Him. The mind that is in Him is the
mind that was in Christ. He loves as Christ
loved, walks as He walked, and forgives as Christ
forgave him. In service and suffering he takes
Christ’s example of both method and spirit.
Even the sacrificial death of Christ has its corres¬
ponding quality in the Christian life, and the man
in Christ lays down his life because the Man

THE INCARNATION 89

Christ Jesus laid down His, Sonship leads to
correspondence. We are children of God, and
because we are children we know that we shall be
like Him, even our bodies being fashioned anew
that they may be conformed to the body of His
glory.

How can a sinful man become as the sinless
Christ F By identifying himself with Christ.
The identification must be mutual, and avowed.
Christ came from Heaven to identify Himself
with man, and man must come out from the
world to identify himself with Christ. Come
out! Come unto Me 1 Identification must
be followed by mutual indwelling. Ye in Me,
and I in you.^’ “ I have been crucified with
Christ,^^ says Paul, yet I live, and yet no longer
I, but Christ liveth in me.’^ Christ-likeness is
the spontaneous expression of an indwelling life.
That which fills the heart rivets the mind, and
contemplation transforms the man.

The last word in the process is discipline. Sepa¬
ration, Indwelling, Meditation, Discipline.
Providence works to the same end as grace. And
we know that to them that love God all things work
together for good, even to them that are called
according to His purpose. For whom He fore¬
knew, He also fore-ordained to he conformed to the
image of His Son.^^ “ Beloved, now are we chil¬
dren of God, and it is not yet made manifest what

I John
iii. 2,

Phil iu.

21.

6". John
xiv. 20.

GaL ii. 20,

2 Cor. iii.

18.

Rom. viii,
28, 29.

I John
iii. 2.

HUMANITY AND GOD

90

we shall be. We know that if He shall be mani¬
fested, we shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him
even as He is.”

Sometimes in the country I have stood and
watched the village blacksmith at work, and for a
long time could not make out the use of his little
hammer. The big hammer I could understand,
but why the smith should strike in turns the anvil
and the iron puzzled me. One day I ventured
to ask for an explanation, and found that the little
hammer regulates the stroke of the big one. The
smith holds the glowing metal, turning it lest the
stroke fall too often upon the same spot, directing
the blows that they may descend at the right
moment; turning, tempering, regulating till the
metal is fashioned to the desired shape. So God
holds the soul and regulates the stroke. Some¬
times He makes the Devil His hammer-man.
Satan strikes to smash. God regulates the stroke,
and turns his malice to our perfecting, and the
Devil sweats at the task of fashioning saints into
the likeness of Christ. At the end of the day we
shall find that all life’s discipline has worked to¬
gether with grace, and that we stand complete in
our identification with the Son of the Father.
The glorious purpose will have been accom¬
plished, and we shall be like Him.

Ps. xvii. 15 I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy
likeness.”

N

THE DIVINE SERVANT

01

“ Behold, My servant whom I have chosen;

My beloved in whom My soul is well pleased :

I will put My spirit upon Him,

And He shall declare judgement to the Gentiles.

He shall not strive, nor cry aloud;.

Neither shall any one hear His voice in the streets
A bruised reed shall He not break.

And smoking flax shall He not quench.

Till He send forth judgement unto victory.

And in His Name shall the Gentiles hope.*^

— S. Matt. xii. 18-21

92

THE DIVINE SERVANT

The quotation is from the forty-second chapter
of Isaiah. In that prophecy the passage marks a
distinct stage. The burden of the prophet up to
that point had been the aloneness of God and the
unique character of His people. He is the Lord,
and there is none beside Him. All nations are
under His sovereign rule. The falseness and folly
of idolatry have been mercilessly exposed, and
Jehovah’s power over all peoples so fully demon¬
strated as to destroy Israel’s hope in her alliance
with foreign nations. He is their defence and
their hope. He has chosen Israel for His own.
In the second portion of the prophecy Jehovah
reveals the purpose of Israel’s call in His larger
purpose for the world. He unfolds a missionary
programme for the deliverance and restoration
not of Israel only, but of all. The God in whom
there is everlasting strength wiU come to the
deliverance of the captive, and to the help of the
poor and needy. Darkness shall disappear at His
coming ; He will open rivers upon bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of valleys; the wilder-

93

94

HUMANITY AND GOD

ness shall become a pool, and in the dry land shall
be springs of water ; the desert shall become a
fruitful field, and the wilderness rejoice and
blossom as a rose. All the nations of the earth
He will lead forth unto light and liberty, right¬
eousness and peace shall be established, and love
and laughter, prayer and song, shall fill the land.

This glorious programme is identified through¬
out with One who is named the Lord’s Servant.
This Servant is commissioned to carry out
the Divine purpose. The description of His
service and sufferings extends to the end of the
prophecy, and is the most precious portion of the
Old Testament Scriptures. This Servant of the
Old Testament is the Christ of the New. He
lived in the consciousness that He was the Servant
of the Lord, recognised the obligation, gloried in
the Name ; and here the prophet’s description is
directly applied to Him.

The passage is quoted in explanation of Christ’s
withdrawal from the scene of contention to a
place of seclusion, and of His injunction of silence
upon those He healed. He had come into open
conflict with the Pharisees on the question of the
Sabbath. Their religious susceptibilities were
outraged by His irreligious ways. He defied
traditional authority, and ignored the restrictions
of conventional piety. He kept company with
disreputable people who plucked ears of corn on

THE DIVINE SERVANT

95

the Sabbath day. They challenged His loyalty
to the Sabbath. He tore their plea for pious
observance to tatters, and backed His argument
by a work of healing in the Holy Temple itself
on the sacred day. The Pharisees were silenced
but not convinced. To be worsted in argument
leads to chagrin and hate rather than to convic¬
tion. They went out, and took counsel against s. Matt.
Him, how they might destroy Him. And Jesus
perceiving it withdrew from thence.’’ He would
not stay to foment strife, and retired in the hope
that elsewhere He might quietly pursue His
ministry of instruction and mercy. But He could
not be hid. Many followed Him and He healed
them all, and charged them that they should not
make Him known.” Everywhere His appearance
brought together great crowds, and was the signal
for tumult and excitement. These things were
inevitable, but He never sought them. He
shrank from sensational notoriety, and strove to
avoid conflict and uproar. In this, says the Evan¬
gelist, He realised the prophetic ideal of the
Servant of the Lord, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by Isaiah the Prophet, saying :

Behold My Servant.”

I. The Divine Servant and His Lord.

The very title arrests us, and the paradox of a
Divine Servant and His Lord seems to be a con¬
tradiction of terms. What is a servant ? We

6 *. John

X. 30.

S. Luke
xxii» 27.

96 HUMANITY AND GOD

have almost forgotten what the word implied in
the days of Christ, when service was so largely
identified with bondage ; but even yet the root
significance remains unchanged. A servant is a
person who is at the disposal of another. It may
be a voluntary or a compulsory service, but so long
as a man is a servant he exists to do the will of his
master, to carry out his plans, and represent his
interests. He has no separate will, no separate
interests, no separate programme. While he is a
servant, he is another’s possession. All that he
has of brain and muscle, nerve and heart, is laid
at the disposal of another’s will. He receives his
commands and obeys them. They may not com¬
mend themselves to his judgement, he may not
like the work assigned to him, he may think there
is a better way of doing it, but he cannot pick and
choose either the work to be done or the time
and manner of doing it. His one and only busi¬
ness is to carry out his master’s will; to refuse
obedience means to quit his service.

This title is given to Jesus. He does not re¬
pudiate it, but welcomes it with all its obliga¬
tions, and glories in its opportunities. There is
no sense of antagonism in the Son being a Servant,
and the equal being subordinate. I and the
Father are one.” ‘‘ I am in the midst of you as
He that serveth.” His first recorded speech
combines the twofold relationship in the one

THE DIVINE SERVANT 97

person : Wist ye not that I must be about My
Father’s business ? ” The Son of God and the
Servant of the Lord ! He came from His baptism,
where the Father had witnessed to His Sonship,
and opened His commission with Isaiah’s words
concerning the Servant :

“ The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He anointed Me to preach good tidings to the
poor ;

He hath sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovering of sight to the blind,

To set at liberty them that are bruised.

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

The urgency of a great mission was upon Him
when He said, We must work the works of Him
that sent Me, while it is yet day : the night cometh
when no man can work.” The consciousness of
it never left Him. He always claimed to be the
Sent of God, and He lived to do not His own will
but the will of the Father who sent Him. He
gloried both in the title and the service. The
Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but
to minister.” In the same night in which He
was betrayed. He took a towel and girded Him¬
self and washed the feet of His disciples, setting
them an example of lowly service. It is a great
mystery but a glorious fact : One with God and
yet His Servant. He had shared the Father’s
glory before the world was, He was in the begin-

7

S. Luke
ii. 49.

S, Luke
iv. 18, 19.

.S'. John
ix. 4.

S’. Matt.

XX. 28.

S'. John
xiii, 4.

HUMANITY AND GOD

98

ning with God, and was Himself God, but He
came as a Servant in all things obedient to the
Father’s will.

In all His life of ministry, Jesus Christ, as the
Servant of the Lord, was fully assured of three
things:—

1. That He was chosen of God ; Behold My
Servant whom I have chosen.”

2. That He dwelt deep in the love of the
Father ; “ My beloved.”

3. That in all things He had the approval
of God; In whom I am well pleased.” Chosen :
Beloved : Approved.

Chosen. These great certainties were the sheet
anchor of His soul and the secret of His strength.
Who can measure the strength He found in the
assurance of His Divine commission ? He was
the Sent of God. That is the conviction that in¬
spires and sustains for heroic service. The voice of
God in the soul creates the fiery prophet and trans¬
forms commonplace men and women into the
valiant of the Lord. The called are invested with
the glory and entrusted with the power of the one
who calls. The servant of the state finds his per¬
sonality identified with the glory of the empire he
represents. He is clothed with its strength and
ennobled by its glory. He speaks for the state,
stands for the state, and commands the resources
of the state, Of himself he would cpunt for little.

THE DIVINE SERVANT

99

but as the sent of an empire he becomes the em¬
bodiment of an empire. If a state commission
works such wonders in a man, what must a Divine
commission be ? Sent of God, ordained of the
Most High, commissioned of Heaven, the Servant
of the Lord is identified with the Almighty,
clothed with the glory of the Eternal, sustained by
all the resources of the Infinite.

Through all the chequered course of His min¬
istry this conviction never faltered ; the Father
had chosen and sent Him, the words He spake
were the words of His Father, the works He did
were not His own. He did all things by the
authority of God. In this He is our Exemplar.
As He was the chosen Servant of Jehovah, so also
are His own servants chosen and sent. Ye did
not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed
you.’’ As He was chosen of God, so we are chosen
and appointed of Him. “ As the Father hath
sent Me, so send I you.” He chooses His servants;
that prerogative He has never relegated to Pope,
Prelate, or Presbyter. The right is His own.
The call of man is a poor substitute for the call
of God. Chosen, called, sent of God ; with that
conviction in his soul, a man becomes strong in
the strength of Eternal Might. Even Calvary
was possible to the chosen Servant of Jehovah.

Beloved.” All through His life Jesus was
fully assured of the Father’s love. How Qfter^

S. John

XV. i6.

S. John

XX, 21.

John
iii. 35 ;

V. 20;
xvii. 24;
XV. lO

100 HUMANITY AND GOD

He falls back upon that assurance ! The Father
loveth the Son.” “ Thou lovedst Me before the
foundation of the world.” I have kept My
Father’s commandment and abide in His love,”
To know the love of the Father is to know the love
that passeth knowledge, and to reveal it unto men
was the supreme glory of His beloved Son. Twice
the Father openly declared His love, but what
was twice openly declared, was constantly assured.
He came from the bosom of the Father, and knew
that the heart of the Father never changed. How¬
ever terrible His lot, however hard His task, how¬
ever disappointing His toil, however deep His
humiliation, however faithless His friends or
bitter His enemies. He never doubted that God
loved Him. The fiercest temptation and the
darkest Gethsemane failed to disturb His confi¬
dence in the Father’s love. A child of my ac¬
quaintance said one day, “ I am glad God loves
me.” ‘‘ Yes,” said the mother, ‘‘ and are you not
glad you love Him ? ” Yes,” replied the child,
“ but I am not so sure about that.” I do not
think the child understood the significance of its
words, but out of the mouths of babes God still
perfects praise. Our love may fluctuate, be con¬
fused with our feelings, be influenced by a thousand
forces we cannot understand, till we are not quite
sure about it. But we can always be sure of the
love of God, and it is the love we trust that saves^

THE DIVINE SERVANT

101

Because it is so precious it is always the centre of
attack. The Devil is always seeking to cast doubt
upon the Father’s love. If Thou art the Son
of God.” Why ? Every man can supply Satan’s
suggestion from his own experience. Why
hunger ? Why persecution ? Why hardship F
Why affliction ? Why loss ? Jesus never swerved
from His unquestioning faith in the love of the
Father. It is the one thing we can be sure of,
and is the one thing of which we need most
to be assured. The Father loves, the child can
trust.

Approved. In whom My soul is well pleased.”
Twice God openly spoke His approval. At the
beginning of His ministry He presented Him¬
self in baptism, and God spoke out of the
Heavens : “ This is My beloved Son in whom I
am well pleased.” At the close of His ministry
He presented Himself as the Sacrificial Lamb in
the Holy Mount, and again God spake : This
is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ;
hear ye Him.” The approval thus openly avowed
was constantly assured to the consciousness of the
Son. Everybody else disapproved. At one stage
or other of His work everybody lost faith in Him.
His relatives doubted His sanity, and His enemies
said He was possessed of a devil, the Church
denounced Him, the State condemned Him, the
multitude mocked Him, His disciples forsook Him,

S. Matt.
iv. 3.

■S'. Matt.
iii. 17.

S.Matt.
xvii. 5.

102

HUMANITY AND GOD

.S'. John
viii. 29.

and an Apostle betrayed Him. He trod the
winepress alone, but God was with Him. There
was no controversy between the Servant and His
Lord. God, who had chosen Him, trusted and
approved. That is the faith that sustains. He
could say, “ He that sent Me is with Me ; He
hath not left Me alone ; for I do always the things
that are pleasing to Him.” He stood fully as¬
sured in all the will of God. He knew that all
His life was approved of the Father. With that
assurance the elect stand unmoved; though soli¬
tary, invincible ; though beset on every side, trhe
to God whether men praise or blame.

These are the three great certainties of all true
servants of Jehovah. Chosen of God, beloved of
God, approved of God. In all these things the
servant of Christ is as his Lord; chosen as He was
chosen, beloved as He was beloved, approved as
He was approved. At the back of all true service
for man there must be the realised purpose of
God, and pervading all humanitarian activities
there must be a Divine compassion. Service
without God lacks foundation, inspiration, and
permanence ; it is cut off from the only source
that can save it from selfishness and disaster.
Servants chosen, beloved, and approved of God,
are the saviours of men.

II. The S ervant’s Equipment.

Whom the Lord sends He equips; “ I will put

THE DIVINE SERVANT 103

My spirit upon Him.^^ The complete equip¬
ment of the servant is in the enduement of the
Spirit. The explanation of Christ’s earthly life
lies in three great passages : He emptied Him- “•
self ” ; He whom God hath sent speaketh the
words of God : for He giveth not the Spirit by
measure ” ; In Him dwelleth all the fulness of
the Godhead bodily.” The fulness of the God¬
head dwelt bodily in the self-emptied Christ, in
the presence of the Divine Spirit given unto Him
without measure of the Eather. The subject of
Christ’s relation to the Spirit during His earthly
ministry is full of interest and profound practical
teaching, but it is one which demands great deli¬
cacy and accuracy of thought and statement. All
themes that lead us into the inter-relations of the
Trinity are hard to be uttered 5 and yet with¬
out them it is impossible to know the great truths
of the Christian faith, or to appreciate the great-,
ness of our inheritance in Christ.

In all the work of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit
is the Personal Agent of the Godhead. He is the
sent of the Father and the Son. In Creation,
Providence, and Redemption, He is the Executive
Agent and Active Administrator. In the life of
Jesus He fulfils the same mission. At every stage
the Servant-Son works under the guidance and in
the power of the Spirit. We rarely realise the
dependence of the Christ in His earthly career

Isa, Ixi. I
and

xlviii. i6.

Heb. ix. 14,
R om. viii. 2.

104 HUMANITY AND GOD

upon the Spirit of God. The Prophet saw it
clearly enough. Not only is the promise recorded,

I will put My Spirit upon Him,” but it is
claimed by the Divine Servant of the prophecy,
‘‘The Lord God hath sent Me, and His Spirit.”
His body was prepared of the Spirit; the opening
faculties of the Child were under the control of
the Spirit; for His ministry He was baptised with
the Spirit; His teaching was by the inspiration of
the Spirit; His miracles were wrought in the
power of the Spirit; He was led of the Spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil;
and in the power of the Spirit He returned from
the wilderness to preach and heal. In all things
He was directed, enlightened, empowered by the
Spirit of God.

This is true not only of the activities of His
ministry, but also of His sacrificial death and
glorious resurrection. It was “ through the
eternal Spirit” He “offered Himself without
blemish unto God ” ; and it was by the same
Spirit He was raised from the dead. From Beth¬
lehem to Bethany, from the Incarnation to His
Ascension, the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him,
preserving, directing, equipping Him in all the
will of God. In this also, the servant of Christ
is as his Lord. As the Father gave unto Him, so
gives He unto His own. The resources of the
Spirit are ours as unreservedly as they were His.

THE DIVINE SERVANT

toj

The servants are prepared, equipped, instructed,
empowered by the Spirit for all the will of God
as truly as was the Christ Himself. He is to us
as to Him the Active Agent of the Godhead, and
holds for us all the resources of the Infinite.
Who can measure man’s possibilities in the power
of the Eternal Spirit ?

III. The Servant’s Mission.

The commission defines the work of the Ser¬
vant. He is sent to declare judgement to the
Gentiles, to send forth judgement unto victory,
and to bring the Gentiles to hope in His Name.
In a word, He came to establish judgement in the
earth. What is judgement and whose judgement
did He come to establish ? It is not judgement
in the sense of a judicial sentence, though His
coming brought judgement to both the world and
its Prince. His presence is always a judgement,
dividing, separating, condemning, or approving.
It is not of His office as Judge, however, the word
is here spoken. He came to declare judgement in
the sense of bringing the Divine standard for the
measurement of all things upon earth ; to so reveal
the Father as to establish in the midst of men
His standard of equity, righteousness, mercy, and
truth ; it means that He came to bring aU things
into line with the character of God, restore all
things to the pattern of the Divine mind, and so
make His judgement the standard of life and con-'

io6 HUMANITY AND GOD

duct that the world shall be in all things governed
according to His will. He is sent to destroy the
works of the Devil and to restore the world to
the Divine order. That is the Mission of Jesus
Christ; not to Judaise the world, but to save it;
not to proclaim a creed, but to correct the life;
not merely to reveal the truth, but to bring all
things under its dominion.

Judgement suggests law, and the Mission of
Jesus is a mission in the interest of law. He ex¬
emplified it in His life, satisfied it in His death,
and is establishing it in the world by His Spirit.
He saves that which was lost by bringing it back
within the will of God. The call to repentance
recalls man to the allegiance of an outraged law.
He poured out His soul unto death that God
might be just, and the Justifier of guilty men.
Everything that is dark and devilish, ignorant
and selfish, degrading and unjust, comes of dis¬
obedience, and Jesus seeks to restore men to the
image and character of God. That is the work
the Servant of the Lord has undertaken : to drive
wrong out of men and out of the world, and to
put right, men, nations, and the world—a task
that demands the resources of God !

The purpose of Jehovah is world-wide. There
is nothing parochial in the Almighty; The
earth is the Lord’s.” The exclusiveness of Israel
was utterly at variance with ^ the terms of the

THE DIVINE SERVANT 107

Covenant. The elect race was chosen for the
blessing of all nations, and the Servant of Jehovah
is ordained for the redemption of all peoples.
The horizon of the Messiah was the boundary of
the Universe. Beyond His Cross He saw all men
drawn unto Him. The Apostles were com¬
missioned to disciple all nations. The heathen
are His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth His possession. In Him shall the Gentiles
hope. He brings light to them that sit in dark¬
ness, liberty for all that are in bondage, and the
ministry of compassion to them that are weak.
The law of God which is the love of God, and
the love of God which is the law of love, will send
forth judgement unto victory, and make the days
upon the earth as the days that are in Heaven.

IV. The Servant's Temper and Method.

The Temper and Method of the Servant are
described as specifically as the purpose is defined.
A representative must embody in himself the
spirit of those by whom he is sent. The Lord
who sends this Servant says, '' He shall not strive,
nor cry aloud, neither shall anyone hear His voice
in the streets. A bruised reed shall He not break,
and smoking flax shall He not quench.” Such is
the character and method of the God-sent De¬
liverer. It seems woefully inadequate to the task
undertaken. Is it in this temper and by such
means the works of the Devil can be destroyed ?

io8 HUMANITY AND GOD

Can such, meekness overturn ancient systems of
falsehood ? Will the entrenched forces of organ¬
ised vice and greed ever be dislodged by the
gentleness that cares for bruised reeds and smoking
flax ? Such a mission seems to demand a trumpet-
blast, and a display of majesty and might that
would strike terror among the nations, but He
comes neither striving, nor crying, meek in spirit,
and gentle in manner, apparently more con¬
cerned about the weakness and suffering of worth¬
less people than founding an empire. John de¬
clared He would come with axe, and fan, and fire ;
but when He came. He carried neither axe, nor
fan, nor fire in his hand. When the fiery Baptist
saw Him spending His days over single reeds that
were ready to perish, he doubted whether this
could be the Christ who had come to establish a
Kingdom. And yet, this gentle Servant-Son is,
after all, but the reflection of His Lord. He
claims no originality. He simply represents the
Father ; speaks His words, does His works, obeys
His will. Patience and gentleness are not new
features in the Divine method. The ways of
Jehovah from the beginning have been marked
by pity, forbearance, and gentleness. In this the
Servant-Son is the image of the Father.

This description of Christ’s character is remark¬
able for its omissions. It is a striking list of nega¬
tives. He shall not strive, nor cry, nor lift up

THE DIVINE SERVANT

109

His voice in the streets; He will not break the
bruised reed, and the smoking wick, He will not
quench.’^ Absent features are as impressive and
instructive as the things that are present. The
Spirit instructs by a process of exclusion. The
absence of blemish implies a positive perfection.

In Him was no sin ’’ expresses the flawless per¬
fection of the Son of God, and these negatives
lead us to the perfections of His ministry.

He shall not strive.’’ He was often con¬
tending, but never contentious. He was not
given to idle controversy. He waged war, but
He was no wrangler. He never strove for per¬
sonal triumph, nor expended His zeal over trifles
and side issues. Men given to strife forget the
broad bases of truth in their zeal for points.
Shallowness is always eager to secure a point.”
They were great on points in Christ’s day ; points
of law, points of ritual, and points of conduct, but
Christ never contended for trifles. He grasped
essentials and laid bare eternal principles. The man
with a great and solemn mission does not strive.

“ He shall not cry.” He was no screamer.
In all His ministry there was nothing loud. He
might have startled, but He restrained His power.
His works were of pure beneficence and never for
advertisement. He who is sent of God can afford
to be quiet; his silence is the reserve of strength,
not the dumbness of fear.

no

HUMANITY AND GOD

Neither shall anyone hear His voice in
THE STREETS.” Jesus was hard on street religion.
He poured withering scorn on paraded piety, and
ostentatious generosity. He bade His disciples
pray in secret and give without ostentation.
When He prayed, He ascended to lonely heights,
or retired to solitary places. He sought no noto¬
riety. He did not advertise Himself. He was
meek and lowly in heart. He exalted others, but
He humbled Himself.

This marked absence of self-assertion is accom¬
panied by an equally marked absence of violence
and impatience. ‘‘ A bruised reed shall He not
BREAK, and smoking FLAX SHALL He NOT QUENCH.’'
He was patient and gentle with bruised, broken,
and disappointing people. Every expositor has
his own illustration for the bruised reed, but what¬
ever the particular instance, it means that Jesus
Christ gave special care to what others would have
broken and thrown aside. He saw possibilities of
good where others saw nothing but weakness, or
worse. The reed may have broken in His hand
and pierced Him, but He did not cast it away.
There was no haste, no bitterness, no severity in
Him toward those who had broken under the
stress and strain of life’s burden and sin. He was
fuU of pity for the bruised and despised.

Neither did He quench the smoking flax. No¬
thing is more offensive than a smoking wick. In-

THE DIVINE SERVANT

III

stead of giving light, it blinds the eyes with smoke
and stinks in the nostrils. Some Christians do not
shine, they smoke. They add offensiveness to
weakness; their virtue has smouldered into an
offence. Nothing is easier than to snuff out such
people by ridicule and contempt. But Jesus did
not quench the smoking wick. Where there was
smoke, there remained the possibility of a flame,
and He sought by patient and tender sympathy
to nurse it back into brightness and beauty. He
saw possibilities in the weakest, and potential
goodness in the worst. By His gentle patience
He makes the bent to stand erect, and the foulest
to be a clear and shining light in the world.

This is the method of Jehovah, and by it He
will save the world. The saving energy of the
Divine Presence is not in the whirlwind, neither
is it in the earthquake or the fire, but in the still
small voice. Men have always been impatient
with Jehovah. His apparent leisure seems a
crime in the presence of the world’s woe. They
are for demonstration, revolution, and rapid
movement. Their eager haste would save in
battalions, sweep continents, overturn dynasties,
and establish the kingdom of righteousness in a day.
God is never in a hurry and to Him there are no
crowds. Short cuts to dominion are of Satan,
not of God. It is not by trumpets and banners,
not by sensational demonstrations of power, but

/

112 HUMANITY AND GOD

by holy living, patient forbearance, and loving
ministry that the world will be saved. The work
may seem slow, and the method inadequate, but
the Servant of the Lord will not fail, nor be dis¬
couraged, till He have set judgement in the eartU;
and the isles shall wait for His law.

THE WAY OF THE CROSS

8

“ From that time began Jesus to shew unto His disciples, how
that He must go unto Jesusalem, and suffer many things of the
elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third
day be raised up.

“ Then said Jesus unto His disciples. If any man would come
after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow
Me.”— S. Matt. xvi. 21, 24,

lU

THE WAY OF THE CROSS

The Cross came into full view at Caesarea
Philippi. How long it had been present to
the consciousness of Jesus before that is a matter
of controversy. Some contend that the ulti¬
mate issue of His ministry was known to Him
from the beginning ; others that it was forced
upon Him by the failure of His Mission, and
never definitely accepted till the Caesarean
crisis. There can hardly be any doubt, how¬
ever, that it was known to Him from the hour
of His Baptism. His words on that occasion
show that He was not ignorant of the Messianic
teaching of the Prophets, and that He under¬
stood the far-reaching significance of that sym¬
bolic act.

Whatever Christ’s previous consciousness may
have been, there can be no doubt as to the
significance of this crisis. It marks a new de¬
parture. There is another tone in His speech,
a marked straitening of soul, and a distinct
focussing of interest and activity. From this
point He moved with a set face toward Calvary.

U6

ii6 HUMANITY AND GOD

The Cross was His one theme, and the accom¬
plishment of its Sacrifice His supreme passion.
He was girded for its Baptism. The occasion
of the crisis is instructive. There is often a
commentary in a map and an exposition in a
date. The expression, “ From that time ” marks
the two great divisions of S. Matthew’s Gospel.
In chapter iv. 17 we read, “ From that time
began Jesus to preach.” The text tells us,

‘‘ From that time began Jesus to show unto
His disciples, how that He must go unto Jeru¬
salem, and suffer ... and be killed, and the
third day be raised up.” In each, the time
marks both an end and a beginning. The first
marks the end of a preparation and testing, and
the beginning of the preaching ministry of Christ;
the second marks the end of the preaching, and
the beginning of the end.

The chapters from iv. 17 to xvi. 20 contain
the record of Christ’s preaching of the King¬
dom. Its principles are stated, expounded, and
applied; its operations explained and illus¬
trated; and its promises set forth, in parable,
miracle, argument, and instruction. At Caesarea
He tested the result of His teaching. He in¬
quired of His disciples : “ Who do men say that
I the Son of Man am ? And they said. Some
say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others,
Jeremiah or one of the Prophets.” Then came ,

THE WAY OF THE CROSS 117

the direct question, '' But who saj ye that I
am ? ’’ Peter, speaking for the rest, said, Thou
a^rt the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
Then came the gracious benediction explaining
the confession to its confessors, forecasting their
commission and power, and a charge that they
should,, tell no man that He was the Christ.
“ From that time ! ” The work of the preach¬
ing is accomplished; they have received His
message and discovered in Him the Messiah.
The theme changes from the Messiah and the
Kingdom to the Christ and the Cross. The
preaching is over, and the propitiation begins.
From that time the Cross is His theme. Having
discovered the Messiah, they must now learn
the necessity for His suffering and death, and
their own partnership in His Cross of shame.
The Cross He must bear, and it is as necessary
for the disciples as for their Lord.

1. The Cross is the one Condition of
Christian Discipleship.

The reference is not now to the Cross as an
object of faith, but as an experience of the soul.
Not that the Atonement is forgotten, or its
necessity overlooked; but the Cross which is
received by faith becomes a saving power only
as it is realised in the life. Just as the Cross
was the Christ’s only way to the Eternal priest¬
hood, so it is the disciples’ only way to realised

ii8 HUMANITY AND GOD

salvation. The Master’s rebuke of Peter brings
out the startling truth that the Cross is the
central and universal condition of the Kingdom.
The Apostle besought Jesus to spare Himself, to
escape, to turn aside from suffering and death.
Christ flung the suggestion from Him. In it
He saw the essence of worldliness and a tempta¬
tion of the devil. The wisdom of the world
is self-sparing, self-shielding, self-seeking. Sfare
thyself is the sum of its philosophy and its in¬
variable policy. The doctrine of the Kingdom
is not sfare^ but sacrifice. To shirk the Cross
is to miss the Kingdom. Not only must Jesus
go up to Jerusalem and be killed, but every
man that would come after Him must also take
up the Cross. The must is as imperative in the
one as in the other. Mediatorially the Cross of
Christ stands alone, but experimentally it is
shared by all who enter into life.

The principle is not exceptional. It is true
of all life. To spare is to die. Sacrifice is
essential to life. “ Whosoever would save his
life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his
life for My sake shall And it.” The life lost is
the life found. The peculiarity of the Christian
life is that this principle is symbolised in the
Cross. Elsewhere it is called death, and is
the inevitable condition of development. Here
it is the Cross, and it is important that the

THE WAY OF THE CROSS 119

significance of the Cross in discipleship should
be clearly defined and realised.

What does the Cross stand for ?

It is to be feared that to many the Cross
means nothing more than reluctant obedience
to disagreeable duties, or the grudging denial
of some pleasant habit. They imagine them¬
selves 'bearing the cross when prodded at the
point of conscience, or abstaining from things
earnestly desired. Such people turn their cross
into a weapon with which to afflict other people.
They are apt to parade their own virtue, and
impose their own cross upon others. Such
conceptions of cross-bearing are as Pharisaic
as they are false, and as mischievous as they
are erroneous. In the New Testament the Cross
stands for definite realities which embody the
essential features of the Christian Kingdom.
It is the sign of reproach, the altar of sacrifice,
and the expression of vicarious service.

The Cross stands first of all for the Re¬
proach and Condemnation of an Alien Power.
The Cross was not Jewish ; it was Roman. The
sting of its suffering was its shame. The physical
agony was great, but that does not account for
its abhorrence. It was hated because it was
the imposition of a foreign power, the ultimate
assertion of a pagan authority, and the con¬
demnation of a despised and hated conqueror.

120

HUMANITY AND GOD

S Luke
ix. 57-62.

Crucifixion to the Jew was tlie lowest depth,
of humiliation and shame. It was an alien
judgement pursuing him even unto death. The
disciple of Christ bears a Cross. He stands
condemned by the power of an alien. The
world hated Christ and killed Him. They
are still in antagonism. He who would be
with Christ must come out from the world and
share His reproach and condemnation. If the
world crucified Christ, it will not be more
tolerant of His followers. He warned us to
expect for ourselves the treatment it gave to
Him. Hence the first condition is the Cross.

From that time ” He drove home this truth.
Upon all who came to Him He laid the burden
of the Cross. Three candidates presented them¬
selves for discipleship. The first said, “ I will
follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest.” Jesus
said unto him, The foxes have holes, and the
birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of
Man hath not where to lay his head.” He would
have the volunteer count the cost, and the
hardship was not the heaviest part of it. What
would the world say about the sanity of a man
who followed an impoverished, unpopular, and
homeless leader ? Reflections cast upon the
balance of our mental powers are harder to bear
than pillows of stone^ To a second who begged
that he might first go and bury his father He

THE WAY OF THE CROSS 121

said, Let the dead bury their dead, follow
thou Me.” What would be the world’s judge¬
ment upon such conduct ? How many of the
kinsfolk and neighbours would understand the
motive of such lack of filial devotion ? Would
they not rather upbraid him with vanity, neglect,
and indifference ? The reproaches of the living
are sometimes harder to bear than the loss of
the dead. To a third who wished to go and
say farewell to those at home. He said, No man,
having put his hand to the plough, and looking
back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.” The
wrench of home ties is hard to sensitive and
affectionate natures, but harder still is the
suspicion of having slighted love and despised
friends. The reproach of the world! The
follower of Christ knows the burden of the
Cross. The world doubts his sanity, impugns
his motives, scorns his wisdom, and mocks his
sacrifice.

It was here the rich young Ruler found his
Cross. The Lord laid upon him the stern and
apparently prohibitive condition : ^Mf thou

X.XX» 2Ij 22i

wouldst be perfect, go, sell that thou hast, and
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure
in Heaven; and come, follow Me. But when
the young man heard the saying, he went away
sorrowful for he was one that had great pos¬
sessions.” Much has been made, and not too

122

S. Luke
xiv. 27.

John X.
17, 18.

Aetsii.

HUMANITY AND GOD

much, of the hardship of parting with great
possessions; but the greatest obstacle was not
in parting with his wealth. A soul afire with
zeal would not be captured by love of ease and
the power of wealth. What would his compeers
say of such a course ? Wealth and rank make
men sensitive of the opinion of others. For
the sake of them that sit at meat with him, many
a Herod stifles his conscience and beheads the
prophet. How could he sell his possessions at
the bidding of a homeless peasant and face the
world ? That was his Cross, and he, shrinking,
spared himself, and was lost to the Kingdom.
So it is with us all. ''Whosoever doth not
bear his own Cross, and come after Me, cannot
be My disciple.’’ The Cross is inevitable. No
man can love the world and follow Christ.

The Cross stands for a life voluntarily

SURRENDERED TO THE WILL OF GoD. From the

standpoint of the world the death of Christ
was a murder, in its eternal aspect it was a
Divine appointment, in the act of Christ it was
a voluntary sacrifice. He Himself said, " I lay
down M^y life, that I may take it again. No
man taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down
of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and
I have power to take it again.” The Apostle
Peter, speaking of the event on the Day of Pen¬
tecost, said, " Him being delivered up by the

THE WAY OF THE CROSS 123

determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and
slay.” He was a voluntary offering, not a help¬
less victim. The death of the Cross was the
last demand upon His obedience. In its agony
He endured sin’s utmost penalty, sounded the
deepest depths of human sorrow, and expe¬
rienced the heartbreak of silent mystery.
Never before had He turned to the Father with
a Why ? But, God-forsaken though He was.
He still called Him ‘‘My God,” and proved
His trust in the darkness by commending His
Spirit into His hands. He is our Exemplar.
The obedience of the Christian must be as
the obedience of Christ—voluntary, continuous,
faithful. If obedience involve suffering, loss,
mystery, then, like his Lord, he will not flinch
in the darkness nor be afraid in the silence, but
commit all things to the keeping and responsi¬
bility of the Eternal Father. This is the meaning
of the Cross : consecration, obedience, trust.

The Cross stands for Vicarious Service
AND Suffering. “ Christ died for us. He

bare our sins in His body upon the tree.

Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows . . • He was wounded ^ for ^ our
transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities;
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him,
and with His stripes we are healed.” That is

Rom, V. 8.

I Pet. ii.
24.

Isa. liii.
4-6.

I John iii.
16.

124 HUMANITY AND GOD

the explanation of the Cross. In the burden
of sin-bearing the Saviour trod the winepress
alone, and of the people there was no man with
Him ; and yet the disciple is called to the fellow¬
ship even of His Cross. The mind that inspired
the sacrifice is imparted to His followers, and
is imparted to inspire. The logic of Calvary is
this, Because He laid down His life for us, we
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
Trust in the death of Christ implies more than
a recumbency upon His merit. Belief involves
practice, and the man who believes in Christ
accepts His principle of life and follows His
example. Hence, practical compassion is the
proof of faith as of love. Faith without works is
dead. The salvation believed for is realised
in vicarious ministry. If we love as He loved,
we shall live as He lived.

If we are called to the fellowship of His suffer¬
ing, as well as to partnership in His service, the
essential features of motive and work must be
the same in us as in Him. What does that mean
in practical life ? It means that the man who
takes up the Cross and follows Christ lives in
the will of God for the service of man. As the
Son of God placed all the resources of His glory
at the disposal of man’s need, so every disciple
abandons all to God for the blessing of man.
He is God’s stev/ard, and the sphere of his

THE WAY OF THE CROSS 125

stewardship is in the sin and sorrow of the world.
He becomes a co-worker with God in Christ
Jesus. The experience of salvation leads to co¬
operation in the work of salvation. Acceptance
of the Cross is a proclamation that its bearer
stands in the midst of a sinful and burdened
world in Christ’s stead. The Cross calls to
itself the weary and heavy laden, and pledges
its bearer to lift their burdens and lead them
into the way of rest. The Christian undertakes
to be as Christ in the world, to do His work,
to minister in His Spirit, and for this he lays
all at the feet of his Lord.

This is bearing the Cross; sorrowing over
the world’s sin, bearing the world’s burden,
carrying the world’s shame, ministering to the
world’s need, laying down our life for the world’s
salvation. This is the badge and test of disciple-
ship. Have we taken up the Cross ? Have we
dared to come out from the world, antagonised
ourselves to it, and borne its reproach ? Are
we surrendered in all things to the will of God ?
Has all been placed at His disposal and con¬
secrated to His saving purpose among men ?
Have we returned to the world as Christ came
to it ? Do we weep over it, pray for it, live
for it, die for it ? It is for these the Cross
stands, and without the Cross we cannot be
Christ’s disciples.

S. Matt
vii. 1-13.

126 HUMANITY AND GOD

II. The Cross is the One Way to the
Highest in the Kingdom of God.

After Cxsarea came the Holy Mount. Jesus
took with. Him Peter, and James, and John into
a high mountain apart, and was transfigured
before them. IVIoses and Elias talked with the
transfigured Lord, and their theme was the
exodus to be accomplished at Jerusalem. They
talked about the Cross. Peter the confessor and
tempter at Csesarea was the spokesman in the
Mount, and He begged that they might build
tabernacles for their Lord and His visitants.
Then came the voice of the Father, saying,
“ This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased ; hear ye Him.” As they came down
from the Mount He charged them to tell no
man of the vision till He was risen from the
dead, as He had charged them at Caesarea to
tell no man that He was the Christ.

The Cross was the centre in that scene of
glory. As they descended He told them again
how the Son of Man must suffer and be killed,
and no rebuke fell from the lips of Peter. In
the Mount of Glory they had seen the inter¬
pretation of the Cross of shame. For six days
they had brooded in the darkness of its shadow.
For six days Peter had felt the sting of the
terrible rebuke. For six days they had dwelt
in sorrowful silence, full of perplexity and dread.

THE WAY OF THE CROSS 127

Then came the vision in which they beheld their
Lord resplendent, radiant, glorious, and the
contrast between the vision and their fore¬
bodings startled them into speech. This was
what they desired for their Master; not death,
but glory; not a Cross, but a Kingdom. It is
the old impulse to spare that prompts the desire
to stay. They all speak of the Cross. After
Peter, Moses and Elijah; and after Moses and
Elijah, God ! The representatives of law and
prophecy talk of the Cross which Peter despised,
and God bids the Apostles hear His Son. The
Cross over which earth sighed. Heaven sang.
Rejected of men it is chosen of God for the
highest expression of His glory.

The Cross is the centre of Heaven’s glory as
well as the sinner’s hope. The New Jerusalem
centres in the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Vicariousness is Heaven’s highest
law. The principle of the Cross is not contingent
upon man’s sin, though its highest manifestation
is in the sacrifice for sin. It is the eternal law
of life, and blessedness, and glory. Moses and
Elijah speak of the Cross as an Exodus ; a
way out of limitation and bondage into the
liberty of the infinite. Beneath its rugged
weight men rise, behind its stern expression they
find the secret of- peace, and through its agony
they enter into bliss. Men lie down to die

Heb. xii. 2.

S. Matt.
xvii. 24.

.S. Matt.
xviii. 1-4.

6 ". Matt.
xix. 27-29,

Matt.

XX. 20-28

128 HUMANITY AND GOD

and awake to life; they clasp a Cross and find a
crown. If any man would ascend to the heights
of true blessedness and fulness of glory, he must
take up his Cross, and bearing it follow Christ,
‘‘ who for the joy that was set before Him en¬
dured the Cross, despising the shame, and hath
sat down at the right hand of the throne of
God.” There is no way to the throne but by
way of the Cross.

How steadily Christ kept this before His
disciples as He journeyed from the Mount to
the grave ! When He might have claimed ex¬
emption from the Temple tax. He waived His
right and meekly paid, driving the Cross straight
through the spirit that grasps its right. He
answered the (question as to who should be
greatest by placing a little child in their midst,
and telling them that in the Kingdom of the
Highest the least is the greatest. To those
who had left all and followed Him He promised
that they should sit on the throne of His glory ;
in the present life there should be given them
a hundredfold, and the inheritance of eternal
life. The conditions of these thrones He set
before the sons of Zebedee, who came seeking
to secure those of greatest distinction. Their
request was not denied, but they were shown
the only way it could be granted. Thrones
lie on the other side of Christ’s cup and baptism..

THE WAY OF THE CROSS 129

They who would sit on the throne must drink
His cup, and be baptised with His baptism.

What are they ? Vicarious service in lowly
humility for others, and a life freely poured
forth as a ransom for many. The Cross !

It is always the Cross. Living to serve and dying
to save,, that is the way to thrones in His King¬
dom. His last instruction was a lesson in the
principle of the Cross. In the night in which xi.
He was betrayed He took bread, and when He
had given thanks He brake it and said, “ This is
My body, which is broken for you ; this do in •
remembrance of Me. In like manner also the
cup, after supper, saying. This cup is the New
Covenant in My blood ; this do as oft as ye drink
it in remembrance of Me.” Supper ended, John
tells us how the Saviour rose, and girding Him¬
self with a towel, He washed the feet of His
disciples. His own explanation of the act is
that He had given them an example of how the'
lordly should serve the lowly. It was a practical
demonstration of the doctrine of the Cross, and
an illustration of how that doctrine should be
applied in brotherly service. It is always the
same central theme. The Cross is not simply an
initial condition : it is the one continuous, all-
inclusive law. It is laid upon the candidate
and borne by the follower. It is the only way,
but by it the soul finds life, distinction and glory.

9

HUMANITY AND GOD

130

It is the one wa^ to true privilege, it is the one
way to true greatness, it is the one way to true
power, and it is the one way to true brotherhood.

III. The Cross is the One Way of Chris¬
tianity’s Propagation in the World.

The third scene, of which the anticipated
Cross is the centre, is in Jerusalem at the feast
of the Passover within three days of the end.
Nothing ever stirred the soul of Jesus like the
coming of the Greeks at the close of that event¬
ful day. Their presence opened to view the
great harvest of souls He had come to gather.
The hour of His glorification was at hand. Then
there fell over His exultant soul the chill shadow
of the Cross which lay between Him and the
great soul-harvest. His soul was exceedingly
troubled, the conflict of Gethsemane was upon
Him, and in His sorrow He spake with Himself
rather than to those around Him. Such speech
is always self-revealing. What did He say in
His soliloquy ? “ Verily, verily, I say unto you.

Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and
die, it abideth by itself alone ; but if it die, it
beareth much fruit. He that loveth his life
loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this
world shall keep it unto life eternal. . . . Now
is My soul troubled, and what shall I say ?
Father, save Me from this hour ? But for this
cause came I unto this hour. (This is what I

THE WAY OF THE CROSS 131

will say), Father, glorify Thy Name. There
came, therefore, a voice out of Heaven, saying,
I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.

. . . Jesus answered and said. This voice hath
not come for My sake, but for your sakes. Now
is the judgement of this world ; now shall the
prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I
be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men
unto Myself.” \

By the Cross He judged the world and con¬
quered the devil, and by the Cross He will draw
all men unto Himself. To explain the necessity
of the Cross for the salvation of the world He
takes the parable of a grain of wheat, and in the
profound mystery of its death and resurrection
finds the similitude of Himself and His work of
Redemption. Without death there can be no
fruit. Only by laying down its life can the seed
realise and propagate itself. He Himself is
the Great Reality of the parable. Like the seed,
He must die to bring forth others like Himself, and
impart to them the quality of His own life. While
unsown He abode alone, but from His grave
there came forth others possessed of His spirit
and quickened with His life. In Him was the life
of men, but that life could only be given to men
when He surrendered His own life for them.

The Cross supplies both the weapon and the
method for the conversion of the world to

132 HUMANITY AND GOD

Christ. Because Christianity is life it cannot
be imposed; it can only be imparted. Life can
only extend by propagation.. Every soul has to
be begotten. Souls born of God are begotten
of the Spirit and of the Word, and the vehicle
of quickening truth is found in living souls. It
is of a travailing Zion the children of f*'®

born. Soul begets soul. Living saints bring
dead sinners to life. The conquest of revival
waits on a quickened Church. Where there is
defectiveness of organisation or deficiency of
vitality, the Church is barren and the work of
God is hindered. When the Church is passion¬
less the world is indifferent, but an indifferent
world is impossible where the Church is im¬
passioned. So once again, it is the Gospel of the
Cross, the Cross in experience, and not the Cross
of orthodox but lifeless creeds. There is
no salvation but by blood. The heart’s blood
of the follower is needed as well as the blood
of the Lord. Silver and gold cannot save. The
soul must be poured out if souls are to be saved.
We too must die if we would not abide alone.
Every true revival begins with a revived realisa¬
tion of the Cross. Churches that are worldty,
ease-loving, and self-centred are never Mis¬
sionary. The Missionary spirit is born at Cal¬
vary. It is at the Cross the Evangel is born,
and by the Cross it prevails.

THE WAY OF THE CROSS 133

There is only one Gospel for all peoples.
The one Cross draws all men. It appeals to
the humanity which is deeper than the distinc¬
tions of race. The Cross draws the cultured
Greek, conquers the Roman warrior, and allures
the Hebrew to itself. All nations are made of
one blood, and need the one Gospel which re¬
veals the love of God, and brings to men eternal
life and delivering power. There is no saving
power in the Cross without the power that is the
outcome of its realisation in the heart, and there
is no realisation without the gift of the Holy
Ghost. The Cross is the way to Pentecost.
The Spirit was not given till the Cross was ac¬
complished and the Son of Man was glorified.
The disciple must die with Christ to be bap¬
tized with the Holy Ghost and with fire. The
Cross! The Cross! Always the Cross 1 It is
the way to God. In it, through it, by it, is
everything that saves, sanctifies, and glorifies the
soul of man. It is the way to purity, it is the
way to power, it is the way to Pentecost, it is
the way to service, it is the way to glory.

V

f

V i

i

4 .

V ‘ < . •

■- i

V .-■■ , '

/

i

THE STANDARD MIRACLE

136

/

“ That ye may "know . . . the exceeding greatness of His
power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the
strength of His might which He wrought in Christ, when He
raised Him from the dead.”— E'ph, i. i8, 19, 20.

130

THE STANDARD MIRACLE

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
is the New Testament standard of power. It is
the sample and pledge of what God can do for
man. In the Old Testament, the standard
miracle was the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt.
From Moses to Malachi the appeal was to the
Red Sea as the supreme demonstration of God’s
power to help and save. When the prophets
sought to inspire courage and confidence, they
pointed back to that mighty deliverance which
brought up their fathers from the land of bon¬
dage ; and when God renews His promise to
Israel, He takes them back to the same spot and
says, As in the days of thy coming forth out of
the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvellous
things.” In the New Testament the Red Sea
is superseded by the empty tomb, and the resur¬
rection of Jesus Christ from the dead stands at
the forefront of the Christian dispensation, as
the greatest achievement of Omnipotence, and
the standard of what God can do for them that
believe.

137

HUMANITY AND GOD

138

I. The Uniqueness of Christ’s Resurrection.

In this Ephesians’ passage, there is a remarkable
gathering up of terms to emphasise the greatness
of this act of power. Usually we conceive of
God’s works as done at the finger-tips of Omni¬
potence. There is no trace of effort, no sign of
strain, no indication of any tax upon His strength.
There can be no strain in the work of the Infinite.
But in redemption God’s resources seem to be
taxed. Infinite love may be baffled and infinite
power fail. In the work of salvation it would
seem as if the Almighty had to rally His forces
and gird His strength ; “ That ye may know the
exceeding greatness of His power, according to
that working of the strength of His might which
He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from
the dead.” The resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead reveals the might of God working
at the fulness of its strength. It is to the Chris¬
tian what the Red Sea was to Israel. When we

\

want to know what God is able to do, we go back
to the resurrection of His Son.

This crowning miracle is inclusive of all others.
It demonstrates conquest over every dominion
that affects human life. Forces natural and
spiritual, material and mental, temporal and
eternal, were all proved to be under the dominion
of the power that brought again the Lord Jesus
from the dead. All miracles were accomplished

THE STANDARD MIRACLE 139

in the one act. Christ’s miracles of healing, in
which He gave sight to the blind, hearing to the
deaf, speech to the dumb, and power to palsied
limbs, are described as mighty works and wonders
and signs ” ; in the resurrection all these were
included in the one gift of life. In the one
demonstration of power there came sight, hear-
ing, speech, strength ; every faculty was quickened
and restored. That is true in every instance
where the dead returned to life, but the resur¬
rection of Jesus differed from all other resuscita¬
tions of which we have any knowledge. His
resurrection was as unique as His death. Thrice
Jesus raised the dead. The daughter of Jairus,
the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus of
Bethany all returned to life at His call. These
returned to life mortal; they were raised to die
again. They were recalled and they returned.
Jesus was not recalled. He came out from the
region of death by a process of generation. He
is the first-begotten from the dead, and dieth no
more.

Another significant fact is that in every other
instance of resurrection, the dead returned to life
in their grave-clothes, embalmed, shrouded,
bound hand and foot. When Jesus stepped out
of the tomb He left His grave-clothes behind
Him. These had not been unwound from His
body and laid aside, but were left lying as when

140 HUMANITY AND GOD

they bound Him. The risen Christ did not take
off His grave-clothes. He emerged from them
as a butterfly emerges from its cocoon, and
stepped forth, leaving the embalming cloths as
they had bound His body lying in the tomb.
Can we wonder that when Peter and John
beheld the linen cloths thus lying, they believed ?

A new order of life had been inaugurated.
Jesus Christ is the first-begotten out of the dead.
Having died unto sin once, He dieth no more. In
Him mortality was swallowed up in life. His
resurrection body was very different from the
body of His humiliation. It had reached a
sphere superior to the material limitations of the
flesh. He seemed to move in the world with the
freedom of an unencumbered spirit. He ap¬
peared and disappeared at will, and apparently
regardless of material conditions. An order of
life was begun, the like of which had not been
seen in heaven or on earth, but which was to be
shared by all who should be planted in the
likeness of His resurrection.

Of the unique significance of the resurrection
the Scriptures leave no room for doubt. It is
God’s crowning testimony to His Son, and the
essential witness of the Christian Church. If
Christ was not raised, we have no Gospel and
no Saviour, for the Gospel of the New Testament
is the Gospel of the Resurrection. Either Jesus

THE STANDARD MIRACLE 141

Christ is declared to be the Son of God with
power in His resurrection from the dead, or His
Gospel is a cunningly devised fable. Here is the
crux of the whole matter, and the battle always
comes back to this central point. The risen
Christ is the soul and power of the Gospel, and
if He be not raised then is our faith vain, and we
are false witnesses of God. But Christ hath been
raised, and hath shown Himself alive ‘‘ by many
infallible proofs.” Paul claimed to have found
proof of it in his own experience. He had not
known Christ after the flesh, but he had seen the
Lord. Not only has his experience evidential
value of the resurrection, but the value of the
resurrection is experimental rather than polemi¬
cal. The best proof of the fact was to know the
power that produced it, and the best use that
could be made of the fact was to realise its power.

Spiritual identification is the end for which
Christ died and rose again. This is dealt with
at length in Romans vi. The meaning of that
identification is that when Christ died, we died ;
when He was buried, we were buried ; when
He rose again, we also rose with Him; when
He ascended, we ascended, and dwell with Him
in heavenly places; and when He returns we also
shall be manifested with Him in glory. The
penalty of the sinner’s guilt was paid when Christ
died upon the Cross, and the power of His

HUMANITY AND GOD

S. John

V. 24.

I John iiL
14.

Ejh. ii. I.

142

resurrection life was secured for us wlien He rose
again. Every sinner died when Christ died, and
every sinner rose when the Last Adam was made
a quickening Spirit. This identification of the
race with Christ is personally realised, when it
is personally appropriated. Salvation becomes
a personal possession to all who, by personal
faith, accept Jesus as their Representative and
Lord. The moment a man recognises his
identification with the work of Christ and accepts
his place in Him, that moment the benefits of
the Saviour’s passion are realised in his soul.
Our life springs from His grave. The same
power, that brought again the Lord Jesus from
the dead, quickens the soul of the believer into
life.

II. Spiritual Resurrection.

Regeneration is the spiritual counterpart of
the resurrection. It is a birth out of death.
‘‘ Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that heareth
My word, and believeth Him that sent Me,
hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgement,
but hath passed out of death into life.” This is
the believer’s first resurrection, and he knows that
he has passed out of death into life. Referring the
Ephesians to the resurrection experience in their
own life, the Apostle says, And you did He
quicken, when ye were dead through your
trespasses and sins.” Conversion is the standing

THE STANDARD MIRACLE

143

miracle of the power of God. It is the supreme
work of Omnipotence. God never does any¬
thing mightier or more glorious than when He
saves a soul from death, and brings it into living
fellowship with Himself. It is the demonstration
of the exceeding greatness of His power working
in the strength of His might, and nothing less
can quicken dead souls into life.

Some tell us that salvation is not a miracle, but
a natural process; that we are saved, not by the
operation of a supernatural power, but by the
ordinary processes of self-realisation and culture.
They are for the most part men who have had
no experience in seeking to save the lost. They
look out upon life through the atmosphere of an
academic world. Every teacher of theology ought
to be an evangelist. It is in evangelism specula¬
tion finds corrective, and theories their surest
test. Let every man prove his teaching in the
open field of practical work before he urges it
upon others. Social organisations that seek to
improve the conditions of life have their place.
Educational and philanthropic agencies render
valuable help, and no help is to be despised, but
there is no substitute for a New Birth. Nothing
less than the gospel of resurrection power can
save dead souls. In twenty years’ experience in
the work of salvation I have seen many experi¬
ments run their course. They began with

144 HUMANITY AND GOD

great expectations, and ended in dismal failure.
It is pathetic to see the zealous and confident
reformers return disillusioned and utterly dis¬
pirited, to confess they began at the wrong end.
Salvation must be from within. The first re¬
quisite is a new nature, and to accomplish that
demands the resources of the Infinite God.

Like the resurrection, the miracle of con¬
version includes in one act the salvation of the
whole man. Regeneration secures all elements
of reform. In it lies the solution of every kind
of redemption—social, personal, domestic, and
economic. The quickening power energises and
sanctifies every part of the man, and the changed
character soon secures improved conditions. The
solution of every problem is found when the
salvation of the man is secured. The complete¬
ness of the miracle is amazing. Like Christ,
when the sinner steps out from the region of
death, he leaves his grave-clothes behind him.
Habits are the clothes of the soul. In one act,
every evil habit of the old life is sloughed from
the soul, and left in the tomb of the dead past.
The habits of a life-time slip from him in a moment.
Others try to save men by correcting one fault
at a time, but when the power of God comes into
the soul, it renews the man in every part, and
turns him out a new creation in Christ Jesus.
Suddenly, gloriously, and permanently, God

THE STANDARD MIRACLE 145

saves men from their sins. The conquest is
immediate, complete, and abiding. That is the
power of the Gospel. It has been demonstrated
times without number. Men are dead, thrice
dead, bound hand and foot, with a great stone
rolled against the door of the tomb, and the
Devil s watchers keeping guard. Can such men
live ? One day, the Spirit that raised Jesus from
the dead goes down into that grave, and the dead
are quickened into life, old things are left behind,
the stone is rolled away, the watchers are over¬
thrown, and in the light of a glorious morning a
new-born soul steps forth into a new world and
a new life. It is Easter perpetuated in glory and
in power. <

The Spiritual Resurrection inaugurates
A New Life.

“ For if we have become united with Him Jiom. vis.
by the likeness of His death, we shall be
also by the likeness of His resurrection.” As
Jesus Christ having died to sin once, dieth no
more, but came back with a spiritual body to live
the resurrection life, so the soul, quickened by
this Divine power, enters upon a new life under
new orders, and lives by a new power. The
Christ that rose was the same Christ that was
buried, and yet how different! He seems to have
been released from the limitations of natural law.

The body of His humiliation was subject to the

10

146 HUMANITY AND GOD

ordinary conditions of mortal life ; but the body
of His resurrection rose above them. He seemed
to move through space regardless of time and
matter. At one moment in Emmaus, the next
at Jerusalem, appearing suddenly in the midst
of His disciples who sat with bolted doors, as
mysteriously vanishing when the interview was
ended, and yet in touch with all the interests of
life. This also is an allegory.

The man who lives in the power of Christ’s
resurrection is raised to a plane of life beyond
the limitations of the natural man. He lives under
a Divine law, sustained by a Divine power;
he walks according to a Divine standard, and
manifests the excellencies of the Divine character.
The life which began in a miracle is miraculously
sustained. The Christian life is impossible except
in the power of God. Just as Peter, so long as
his eye was fixed upon his Lord, maintained a
miraculous walk, so the man, who steps out upon
a new life, can maintain that walk only so long
as he is sustained by Divine power. The Chris¬
tian is called to live in the midst of earthly
conditions according to a Divine standard. Many
people think they sufficiently excuse their imper¬
fections by pleading the limitations of human
nature ; but the resurrection life is according to
the possibilities of the Divine nature, and not
according to the limitations of human nature.

THE STANDARD MIRACLE 147

Herein lies the possibility of holiness : The
Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead
dwelleth in you.” We are made partakers of
the Divine nature, and sustained by the power
that brought again the Lord Jesus from the dead.
Imputed righteousness becomes personal right¬
eousness through the power of an imparted life.
He who gave His life for us gives it to us in the
person of His Spirit. The indwelling Christ
makes aU things possible. The risen Lord brings
the fulness of abundant life to the soul. It is
not by processes of education and evolution ; it
is the gift of God. The exceeding greatness of
God’s power is pledged to the perfection of them
that believe.

In a recent work of fiction there is a weird
story of a wild man who went to live in a wild
wood, and became the companion of a wild cat.
He found it caught in a trap and released it, but
its leg was broken. The cat became the devoted
slave of its deliverer. They were inseparable,
but whenever the cat is mentioned, attention is
drawn to the fact that it trailed a limb.” If
it went hunting it went “ trailing a limb,” and
when it returned with its prey it came “ trailing
a limb.” Always and everywhere it trailed a
limb. There are many Christians like that cat.
They are delivered, but they trail a limb ; and
the one thing that always forces itself upon the

148 HUMANITY AND GOD

attention is the trailing limb. All their excel¬
lencies are forgotten in the obtrusion of one
glaring defect. A good man, but then comes the
trailing limb of uncontrolled temper, uncharit¬
able judgment, worldliness, covetousness, or
some other unhealed infirmity of the fiesh or
spirit.

Now the gospel of the resurrection comes
with a message of healing and power for^ the
trailing limb. Jesus Christ trailed no limb.
There was no part of His body that did not
receive the fulness of energy and life, and our
salvation is after the likeness of His resurrection.
His life-giving power does not stop short at each
man’s trailing limb. He brings to the soul the
gift of abundant life. He saves to the uttermost.
When He healed the sick He made them whole.
When He gave a man sight He did not send him
to buy spectacles. The maimed He healed had
no further use for crutches. Are there con¬
ditions in the spiritual sphere that baffle His
power and leave His work imperfect ? Is the
power which raised Christ from the dead inade¬
quate to restore a trailing limb ? Nay, He is
able to deliver out of the hands of all our enemies,
and His blood cleanses from all sin. He saves
men by a new creation, and not only checks the
virus in the blood, but cleanses it. The supreme
miracle is the warrant of a complete, present,

THE STANDARD MIRACLE 149

and eternal deliverance from all sin. Tlie limb
that has been trailed for a life-time need not
be trailed another hour. Here and now the
exceeding greatness of the power demonstrated
in the resurrection of Christ may be realised in
the complete deliverance of the soul from every
trace of bondage and death. The power of His
resurrection secures a full salvation, sustained
continually in the strength of His might. So
that, being raised with Him, we walk with Him
in newness of life.

III. The Power of the Spirit.

This Resurrection Power is the Power of
THE Spirit, which is the Efficient Cause in all
Christian service. “Ye shall receive power,
when the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” The
Spirit of Pentecost is the Spirit of power. The
power of Easter has become the abiding power
of Pentecost. The work of salvation in the
world is not of man, but of God. It is not in the
energy of man’s power but in the demonstration
of the Spirit that men are saved. It is the
Spirit of revival that brings dead souls to life.
In the power of the resurrection lies the only
solution of all our problems. If we cannot raise
the dead, if we cannot secure the spiritual counter¬
part of Christ’s resurrection, our work is vain.
Conversion is the foundation miracle and the
crowning seal of God in His Church. If men

Acts i. 8.

HUMANITY AND GOD

ISO

are raised from the dead, every other condition
of success is secured; if men are not raised, our
manifold activities are an empty show.

It is many years since I was first confronted
with the problem of bringing the outsider to the
house of God. I was inexperienced, and having
no idea of the magnitude and complexity of the
task, not destitute of confidence in my own
resources. My sermons were prepared with the
utmost care, and my energies were given without
stint to every form of religious and social activity.
Still, nothing was accomplished either within the
Church or without. The members were stolid
and the outsider indifferent. I grew desperate.
My resources failed, and I was driven back upon
God. A few kindred souls leagued themselves
in a covenant of prayer for a revival of God’s
work and the salvation of men. God led me by
a way that I knew not. The first answer to that
prayer was a revelation of my own heart which
led to a crisis and a baptism. This gave me a
new Bible, and through it there came a revela¬
tion of the Divine method of Christian service.
The Spirit of power came upon a united and
praying people. A call to united prayer was
sounded ; in a marvellous way old sores were
healed and breaches repaired. The Spirit of
the Lord fell upon His people, and the work
began. For weeks the story of Christ’s raising

THE STANDARD MIRACLE 151

Lazarus from the dead possessed me.. It seemed
to accomplish just the work we needed. It
brought the people. They came to see Lazarus
when they would not come to see Jesus. When
they saw Lazarus, they believed on Jesus. For
weeks we prayed that the Lord would send us a
Lazarus—a man so dead and buried in sin, that
his wickedness had become offensively notorious
and hopelessly bad. With unwearying monotony
we prayed the Lord to save the worst sinner in
the town, and He did. The man came of his own
accord and volunteered to sign the pledge. He
was a dreadful character. Everybody knew him ;
nobody ever expected he would be any better. -
So far as he could remember, he had never been
to a religious service except in gaol. He was the
terror of the neighbourhood, and did most
extraordinary things out of sheer devilry. When
he had signed the pledge, we wanted to pray
with him, but he said : “ Not this time, one
thing at once.” But we prayed hard for him.

A fortnight later he came to the service, and our
hearts nearly stood still when we saw the big,
rough fellow in his working clothes, walk down
the aisle and fling himself on his knees at the
communion-rail. He was gloriously saved.

Next morning he told all his workmates what
had happened. Then, men who before his con- '
version dared not have spoken a cross word to

152 HUMANITY AND GOD

him persecuted him most cruelly. He stood
splendidly, until one day, as they were blasting,
his bar slipped and jammed his finger. Before
he was aware an oath escaped him. The
men laughed, but only for a moment. They
released his finger, and in compassion wanted to
wrap it up. The tears were on his face, but not
for the pain. With a broken voice he said :

Nay, Fve a bigger wound than this; we’ll
have that seen to first ” ; and, surrounded by
the men who had heard him swear, he prayed
earnestly and with great simplicity for the for¬
giveness of his sin. Peace came into his soul,
and when he got up he said : It’s all right,
mates; God has forgiven me. Now we’ll have
it wrapped up.”

The news of his conversion spread like wildfire.
Hundreds came to Church to see the man Christ
had raised from the dead. When it was an¬
nounced that this man would tell the story of his
conversion, they flocked from far and near to hear
his testimony. We had been trying for months
to fill the Church without success, but when this
Lazarus stood up to speak of the things of God,
it was impossible to get near the place for the
crowd. They would not come to hear sermons;
they would not come to see Jesus; but they came
to see Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised and saved.
Hundreds were converted through that one

THE STANDARD MIRACLE 153

witness. For years lie has been a standing proof
of God’s power. He was an argument that
silenced scoffers and critics. Smug hypocrites
were offended, but the Church was filled and
sinners were saved.

This is the power the Church needs. There
is no substitute for it, and it never fails. Wher¬
ever there is a Lazarus, and the continual opera¬
tion of converting power bringing men out of
the death of sin to a life of righteousness and
purity before God, the work of the Lord will
abound. The Church languishes where there are
no conversions. Nothing but the power of the
resurrection can save our Churches. The substi¬
tution of secularisation and social activity is a
confession of failure. Let the Churches pray
souls out of their graves, if they would do the
work of God. Our most urgent need is that we
should know the exceeding greatness of His
power in the resurrection of the dead.

Christ’s Resurrection is the Pattern and
Pledge of our own Final Resurrection.

The ultimate demonstration of this power
will fashion anew the body of our humiliation,
that it may be conformed to the body of His
glory, according to the working whereby He is
able to subject all things unto Himself.” Resur¬
rection to life is the inheritance of sons. It is
sonship that supplies the scientific basis of the

Phil. iii.
21.

Rem. i. 4.

Acts ii. 24.

Rom. viii.

II.

154 HUMANITY AND GOD

resurrection. Jesus was declared to be the Son
of God with power, according to the Spirit of
holiness, by the resurrection of the dead. Death
could not retain Him. Being who He was, “ it
was not possible that He should be holden of it.
The spiritual body is possible only to spiritual
sonship. “ If the Spirit of Him that raised up
Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you. He that
raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken
also your mortal bodies through His Spirit that
dwelleth in you.”

Power is useless unless it can be applied. God
may have provided unlimited power, but unless
we can bring it into operation we may as well
be without it. Faith is the condition of applied
power. The exceeding greatness of God’s power
is to usward who believe.” How miserably
our attainments and achievements contrast with
the possibilities set forth in this standard miracle !
What weaklings and cripples we are! How
meffectual our service in grappling with the
gigantic forces of evil! Iniquity is openly
defiant, and scoffers mock at our vain formula of
traditional power. Why are we so helpless while
there are such resources of strength ? There
are non-conductors of power. The tiniest thing
may turn its current, or cut it off. So, in the life
of the soul and in the work of the Church, there
are things fatal to power. Sin is fatal to power ;

THE STANDARD MIRACLE 155

carnality is fatal to power ; worldliness is fatal
to power ; self-seeking is fatal to power ; fear of
man is fatal to power ; in a word, unbelief is
fatal to power. But the heart that is surrendered,
cleansed, sanctified, and possessed of God, realises
the infinite resources that are ours in Christ.
The man that is obedient, and claims by living
faith the abiding fulness of the Eternal Spirit,
the power of God is for him, and in him, and
through him to the resurrection of the dead.
God grant us to know “ Him and the power of
His resurrection ” !

f

/ V

1

' 'f

THE OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH

167

“ Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible,
but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”—
S. Mark X. 27.

158

THE OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH

The genius of New Testament teaching is in
its prepositions. To ignore the significance and
distinctions of such words as in^ with^ for and
through^ is to miss the essential qualities of the
Christian faith. They contain the unique truths
of Christianity, and set forth the most glorious
realities of the soul’s experience in Christ. The
core of the Gospel is that Christ died for our
sins, the dynamic of salvation is in the fact that
He lives in us, and the ultimate certainty of the
triumph of the Kingdom of God in the world is
that the indwelling Christ works through re¬
deemed and sanctified humanity by His Spirit.
Christ for us, Christ in us, Christ through us is
the ground of our hope and the assurance of our
faith.

I. Man with God.

Perhaps in no passage has a preposition been
more persistently misread than in this saying of
Christ, “ With man it is impossible, but not
with God ; for all things are possible with God.”
It is usually interpreted as if with ” were the

169

i6o HUMANITY AND GOD

equivalent of “ to.” This makes the passage
read as if Christ said, It is impossible to man, but
not to God; all things are possible to God.
Jesus did not say ‘‘ to ” but ‘‘ with ” ; and the
distinction is important. One sets forth the
contrast between man’s impotence and God’s
power. It brings to his rescue a mighty ally,
but it puts no strength into him. The impossible
is accomplished for him, not by him. The
other links the impotent man with the omni¬
potent God, and makes him strong in the strength
of God. The one finds him helpless and pro¬
vides him a great Helper ; the other imparts
power and makes man omnipotent for his task.
He receives into his own soul the very energy of
the Almighty, so that, strengthened with Divine
might in his inner man, all things become possible
to him with God. One emphasises the im¬
potence of man ; the other shows him the way
to omnipotence by which the impossible can be
made possible. With man, impossible; with
God, that is, to man with God, all things are
possible.

The subject under discussion is salvation. The
sorrowful departure of the rich young ruler, so
earnest, so eligible, so blameless, so influential, had
filled the disciples with perplexity and amaze¬
ment. If such as he are rejected, who then can
be saved ? The Master answers that salvation

OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH i6i

is impossible with. man. All the resources of
humanity at its best are inadequate for salvation ;
but in salvation we are dealing not v/ith the
resources of man but of God, and all things are
possible with God. The power that saves is not
within the command of man; it is of God.
Apart from Him salvation is impossible to all;
but with Him, to the weakest, impossibilities are
no more. Linked with Omnipotence, the strength
of man is as the strength of God. In the power
of God all things become possible to man.

This truth is frequently on the lips of Jesus.
In the preceding chapter we have the instructive
incident of the father and his demoniac child.
In the absence of Jesus he brought his lad to the
disciples and besought them to heal him. They
had been commissioned and accustomed to cast
out devils, and unconscious of any loss of power
they pronounced the usual formula, and expected
the usual result. But the evil spirit ignored
their authority and defied their commands.
Their enemies were not slow to turn their failure
to account, and to expose their humiliation.
When Jesus returned He found His crestfallen
disciples the objects of a jeering and malicious
crowd, and He at once took possession of the field.
In response to His inquiry, the father stated the
case with brutal frankness. Jesus commanded
the lad to be brought to Him. As he was being

U

162 HUMANITY AND GOD

brought, the evil spirit threw him to the ground
in violent paroxysms of agony, and he wallowed
foaming. With characteristic composure Jesus
asked how long he had been thus afflicted. The
father answered that he had suffered from being
a child, and told how he fell frequently into the
fire and into the water, imperilling his life.
Then with all the pent-up agony of a breaking
heart, he cried : “ If Thou canst do anything,
have compassion on us and help us,” That if
revealed the cause of delay. The if was not with
Christ but with the father. It was not a question
of Christ’s ability but of the father’s faith. Not
if I can do, but if thou canst believe. All things
are fossihle to him that believeth. Straightway
the father of the child cried out and said, ‘‘ I
believe ; help Thou mine unbelief.” Then Jesus
rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the lad.

When the crowd had dispersed, the disciples
came privately to Jesus and asked Him for the
explanation of their failure, saying, “ Why could

s Matt. not we cast it out ? ” and in St. Matthew’s

XU. ig, 20.

account we have this answer : And He saith
unto them. Because of your little faith : for
verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain
of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain.
Remove hence to yonder place ; and it shall
remove; and nothing shall be impossible

UNTO YOU,”

OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH 163

In Mark xi. 22—2^ we have the same teaching.
Going up to Jerusalem from Bethany, Jesus
hungered, and seeing a fig-tree in leaf. He came
to gather of its fruit. The leaves of the fig-tree
announce the presence of fruit, and are an in¬
vitation to come and eat. When He came to the
tree He'found it fruitless though full of leaves.
It mocked His hunger with a lie, and He cursed
it as He will ultimately curse every lie that mocks
man’s need. And as they passed by in the
morning, they saw the fig-tree withered away
from the roots. And Peter calling to remem¬
brance saith unto Him, Rabbi, behold, the fig-
tree which Thou cursedst is withered away.
And Jesus answering saith unto them. Have
faith in God. Verily I say unto you. Whosoever
shall say unto this mountain. Be thou taken up
and cast into the sea ; and shall not doubt in
his heart, but shall believe that what he saith
cometh to pass; he shall have it. Therefore I
say unto you. All things whatsoever ye pray and
ask for, believe that ye have received them, and
ye shall have them.” Language could not be
more explicit. Faith imparts to man a power,
that turns petition into decree.

Consistently with this teaching Christ fore¬
casts for His disciples a life full of works which
transcend all human possibility. Through faith
in His Name they were to find exemption from

Mark xvL
17, 18.

S. John
xiv. j2, 13.

Isa. xlv.

II.

Phil. iv.
13.

164 HUMANITY AND GOD

fatal perils, and to accomplisli marvellous and
miraculous things. “ These signs shall follow
them that believe : in My Name shall they cast
out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues ;
they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any
deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them ; they
shall lay hands on the sick and they shall re¬
cover.” And again : Verily, verily, I say unto
you. He that believeth on Me, the works that I
do shall he do also ; and greater works than these
shall he do ; because I go unto the Father. And
whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I
do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If ye shall ask Me anything in My name that will
I do.” So complete is the identification of
believers with Christ that His work becomes
theirs, and for all the needs of that work they
may command all the resources of eternal wisdom
and power. To them that are with God the
Lord of Hosts has said, Concerning the work
of My hands, command ye Me.” Thus the
things impossible with men become possible with
God. The Apostle Paul confirms this teaching
out of his own experience. At the close of a long
life full of peril, suffering, hardship, and heroic
service, he summed up his testimony to the power
of God in him in the memorable words : I can
do all things in Him that strengtheneth me.”

This is Christ’s teaching concerning man. He

OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH 165

never belittled human nature; that is the
Devil’s way'. Neither was He under any mis¬
apprehension as to the limitation of man’s
possibilities apart from God. Satan tempts men
to play the god with their little stock of capacity.
He tempts to self-sufficiency, and then taunts
with weakness. Jesus reveals the impossibilities
of man’s strength, and calls him to the source of
infinite power. Made but a little lower than
God, and God in Christ having taken hold of his
nature, and lifted him above the angels, man is
called into fellowship and partnership with God,
and all things are made possible to him. If this
teaching is anything but a mockery, it means that
man with God is omnipotent.

H. The ONLY Condition of this Fellowship
IN Power is Faith.

The promise is to him that believes. To faith
it is declared that nothing is impossible. Its
sphere is without limit and its resources without
reserve. Moving mountains and hurling them
into the depths of the sea is a mere incident in
its course of power. It is illimitable, irresistible,
and inexhaustible. Miracles are its normal
operations. The Scriptures attribute to faith
the power of the Infinite. This is not true of all
faith, for all faith is not all-powerful. The
disciples had faith, but it was neither of the kind
nor degree to cast out the evil spirit. Because

S. John ii.
23, 24-

S. John i.
12.

Rom. vi.

I.

Heb. xi.
2 , 39 -

166 HUMANITY AND GOD

of your little faith ” is the Master’s explanation
of their failure. There were some who believed
on His Name to whom Jesus did not trust Him¬
self. Their trust was not to be trusted ; not
that it was false, but because its strength was not
such as to warrant His confidence. There are
some who trust God whom God cannot trust.
It is the faith that commands confidence to
which all things are possible.

There are three stages of faith. There is the
faith that receives, the faith that reckons, and the
faith that risks. By the first we are justified.

As many as received Him, to them gave He the
right to become the children of God, even to
them that believe on His Name.” By the
second we are sanctified. ^‘Even so reckon ye
also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto
God in Christ Jesus.” To reckon is not to
assume what is not there, but to act upon assured
fact. If we died in Christ, we may reckon our¬
selves dead unto sin, for Christ died for sin; and
if we rose again in Him, we may reckon ourselves
alive unto God in Him. Reckoning faith is
sanctifying faith. By the third we are endued
with the gift of power. Twice in the roll of
honour among men of faith we are told that
these believers had witness borne to them.”
That is, there was given an open demonstration
of power, that testified to their faith and vindi-

/

OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH 167

Gated it. God endorsed and verified their faith
by mighty works. The one thing common to
their faith was the element of venture. They
had a vision of the unseen ; it became to them
a promise and a prophecy; they embraced and
confessed it, and put it to open proof. They
risked everything on God. Enoch walked with
God. Noah built the ark. Abraham left his
country and afterwards risked Isaac’s life in which
was the seed of the promise. Moses renounced
his position, imperilled his life, and then risked
an entire nation on the Word of the Lord.

In every age it has been the faith that risked
that moved mountains, cast out devils, and
healed the nations. That is where faith finds its
test and its triumphs; and alas ! that is where
faith so often breaks down. We can trust God
for receiving. We can trust even for sanctifying
grace : but when it comes to risk! When
obedience may mean loss of position, loss of
money, loss of home, how many there are that
shrink back. When faith involves risk of failure,
the sorrow of reproach, and the sting of ridicule,
what then ? Is not the vision of faith too often
abandoned with a sigh ? Faith that goes forward
triumphs. Seas divide at its touch and moun¬
tains move at its word. It spreads tables in the
wilderness and turns desert sands into springs of
water. Under its influence the weak become

i68

HUMANITY AND GOD

strong and the timid lose their fear. It subdues
kingdoms, works righteousness, obtains promises,
stops the mouths of lions, quenches the power
of fire, delivers from the edge of the sword, and
turns weaklings into invincible warriors, who put
to flight the armies of the alien. By it men
sing in the night, worship in caves, and pray in
prisons. Nothing can daunt them; nothing
can overcome them ; nothing can resist them.
Exultant, jubilant, triumphant, the men of
faith are the hosts of God. He is their Leader,
their Captain, their Father, and their Lord.

Faith commands God. He is pledged to its
call. He has sealed the covenant with an oath.
His word is as immutable as Himself. He
challenges man to put Him to the proof, and
the faith that ventures waxes mighty. George
Muller is the most conspicuous example of ven¬
turing faith in this generation. On the strength
of God’s promise he took two thou*sand orphan
children to house, clothe, and feed. He had no
backing but in God. Without money, social
prestige, or organisation he cast two thousand
hungry children daily upon the Word of the
Father ; and daily, God honoured his faith and
paid his bills. Never once did one of his orphans
go hungry, or a child want for any good thing.
Sometimes they went to bed with the larder
bare and the purse empty, but the breakfast was

OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH 169

always on the table at the appointed hour next
morning. George Muller told the Lord of his
need, and the Lord kept some rich man awake
till he had sent provisions for His children at the
orphanage. When we hear of such miracles
wrought by prayer, we sigh for a like faith in our
own souls. But we do not take the orphans.
We shrink from the risk; and while there is not
faith enough to risk, there will never be faith
enough to command. Jesus Christ meant what
He said, All things are possible with God.”
The man of faith is omnipotent. Being with
God, he becomes as God.

What do we mean by Omnipotence ?

The explanation of this power in man must be
the same as that given to the attribute of omni¬
potence in God. When we say all things are
possible to God, we mean all things consistent
with Himself and with the nature of that on
which He works. There is nothing of the
magician in God. He does not work by magic,
but by law. The conception of Him as a con¬
juror of infinite skill is a caricature. There is
nothing whimsical or arbitrary in His power.
He can do nothing that involves a contradic¬
tion of Himself. He cannot lie. The Judge
of all the earth must do right. There is a must
even in the Infinite. He can do nothing that
violates the rights of another. Having made

HUMANITY AND GOD

170

man what he is, God cannot infringe a single
right with which He has endowed him. He
wills that all men should be saved, but He can
compel no man to enter the Kingdom. Coercion
is inconsistent with freedom. Even the rights of
the Devil are respected.

So with man. When Jesus assures men that
all things are possible through faith, because
faith links man with God, He does not mean that
there is given him unlimited power for capricious
use. He cannot go through the world working
miracles according to every whim and desire.
It is not given to him that he may move moun¬
tains and work wonders at his will. Power is
subject to law, and is to be exercised according
to the will of God. Like Naaman, many expect
to be saved by the occult operation of some
mysterious power, and to see the work of the
Lord done in the world by some spectacular
demonstration of the supernatural. But there
is nothing capricious in all H’s ways. This
power of God in man works wherever possible
through ordinary means and by known laws.
When these are not sufficient, it works by
means that are not ordinary and by laws that
are not known; but whether the means are
ordinary or extraordinary, and the laws natural
or supernatural, the power is always limited
in its operation to things within the sphere

OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH 171

of the Divine v^ill. That is the point always
to be settled. Is it His will ? If it is, then,
for all the will of God, man with God is
omnipotent. Apart from Him the demands of
the Divine will are impossible, but “ strengthened
with all might according to His glorious power,”
all things' are possible to them that believe.
Which means that.

With God, all Man ought to be he can be,

and

With God, all Man ought to do he can do.

IV. The Impossible Demands of the King¬
dom.

The Kingdom makes impossible demands of
all men. Turn again to the case of the young
man, whose sorrowful refusal occasioned the words
of the text. He was to all appearance an ideal
seeker. He was rich without being lax in morality,
influential yet earnest, religious but not rigid.
So earnest was he, that he forgot the conven¬
tionalities of his position, and running to Jesus
knelt at His feet in the open street. He was
seeking Eternal Life. After questioning him
about his manner of life Jesus loved him, and told
him if he would be perfect and enter into that
life he sought, he must go and sell all he had,
give it to 'the poor, and follow Him. The
young man regarded the conditions as impossible.

172

HUMANITY AND GOD

and very reluctantly went away sorrowing. As
Jesus watched his retreating figure He said with
a sigh, “ How hardly shall they that have riches
enter into the Kingdom of God. And the dis¬
ciples were amazed at His words.” They had
never been taught to regard riches as a stumbling-
block to goodness. Wealth had always been
regarded as an advantage to religion and a very
considerable proof of it. Instead of being a
disqualification, it had always secured prestige
and honour ; instead of shutting out, it could
always be relied upon to secure welcome and
distinction. Indeed, the two great features of
the Kingdom present to their minds were right¬
eousness and prosperity, and it is to be feared
prosperity was the goal, and righteousness the
means to the end.

No wonder they were surprised. Jesus made
it appear that if riches are not inconsistent with
the Kingdom, they are certainly a disadvantage
and a hindrance. If we read the words without
amazement, it is because we have ceased to take
them seriously. How many are there who really
believe that riches are inimical to goodness ?
Do not multitudes of professed followers of
Jesus believe they would be better Christians

if they were only better off ” ? The plain
teaching of Jesus is that ‘‘ the better off ” we are
the more difficult shall we find the life of the

OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH 173

Kingdom. Jesus answered the surprise of His
disciples with the statement that to enter the
Kingdom for any man is no easy matter. The
words, “ for them that trust in riches,” in verse 24
should almost certainly be omitted. What He
said was : Children, how hard is it to enter
the Kingdom of God ” ! They gasped with
astonishment, and it was in answer to their
inquiry, Then who can be saved ? ” that Jesus,
looking upon them, said, With men it is im¬
possible, but not with God i for all things are
possible with God.”

Every man finds in his life that which corre¬
sponds to the young ruler’s possessions. Face to
face with Christ and seeking eternal life, the
kingdoms of the world take their final stand
upon some one barrier between the soul and
God. The last conflict is over some possession
whose roots are buried in our hearts, or some call
for which we have no strength. It may be a
habit, a passion, a companionship, an idol, we are
called to surrender ; or it may be a duty which
demands courage, a vocation that involves sacri¬
fice, a path that means crucifixion. When the
demand is made, the mind reels and the soul
shrinks sorrowfully and helplessly away, saying
over and over again, I cannot, I cannot! It is
impossible ! So it is; but not with God. With
Him whatever ought to be can be. All things

174 HUMANITY AND GOD

are possible with. God. Surrender in His strength,
step out at His command, and the impossible
shall come to be. Do not be afraid ; He is with
you. Do not argue, do not parley, do not com¬
promise. Obey. This is among the all things pos¬
sible. It can be done. Do it now. Take hold
of God, and nothing shall be impossible to you.

The Kingdom demands the Impossible in
Character as well as in its Conditions op
Entrance.

The fig-tree that Jesus cursed is a parable. The
Kingdom of Christ demands that every false and
unholy thing shall be destroyed from the root.
He did not come to regulate sin, but to destroy
it. He does not seek to control evil, but to purge
it away. Truth is required in the inward parts.
Evil must be destroyed from the root. The
Kingdom cannot tolerate any root of bitterness,
malice, or sin. In thought, desire and motive the
Christian must stand clear of sin ; in the inward
and hidden parts he must be clean. Who can
cleanse his heart out of which are the issues of life,
so that when his very roots are laid bare he can
stand before God unafraid and unashamed ? It
cannot be ! cries every man who has looked into
the deep places of his own soul. It is impossible !
Yes, with men it is impossible, but not with God.
Even this is possible with God. At His word
and by His power every false, selfishj and sinful
thing shall die at the root.

OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH 175

If our salvation is to be the accomplishment
of our own unaided powers, the task is utterly
hopeless When we look at the standard de¬
manded and think of our own weakness, we are
in despair ; but when we turn our eyes to God
and think of Him in all the glory of His wisdom,
the manifoldness of His grace, and the greatness
of His power, and remember He is with us, and
working in us to will and to do His good pleasure,
then faith exultant cries,- -

The thing impossible shall be:

AU things are possible to me.

The Impossible Service of the Kingdom.
The service of the Kingdom is as impossible
without God as is its standard of consecration
and holiness. The discomfited and baified dis¬
ciples are still with us. The demons still mock
our formulae and deride our attempts to dis¬
lodge them. Men stand helpless in the presence
of the writhing agony of wallowing and devil-torn
humanity. We are sent to deliver men from the
dominion of evil, and to destroy the forces that
wreck and rend human life. Who is sufficient
for these things ? Think of the forces devilish
and human, social and personal, arrayed against
those who seek the salvation of men. We are
sent to save men who cannot be persuaded they
are in peril; to deliver slaves who call their

176 HUMANITY AND GOD

captivity freedom ; to heal those who boast they
have no need of a physician. The call to holiness
is delivered to the sinful by nature, choice, and
desire ; and the standard of righteousness is
urged upon wills ensnared and enfeebled by sin.
The task is hopeless. Think of the missionary
inlands for millenniums wedded to idolatry. He
goes a stranger with a strange religion, without
prestige, without bribes, and without civic
protection. His avowed intention is to destroy
the religion which has been the pride and solace
of their fathers for generations, and to bring
them the God who died as a criminal on a gibbet.
There can be no compromise. To accept the
Missionary’s Christ involves the rejection of
every other god. The change is social as well
as religious. The messenger of peace brings fire
and sword. Domestic ties, social customs, and
national traditions have to be abandoned that
the Kingdom may be entered. What an under¬
taking ! We are called of God to redeem the
promise to His Son that He shall have the nation
for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of
the earth for His possession; and the only
weapons placed in our hands are mercy and
truth. Did ever man put his hand to so impos¬
sible a task ?

At home the forces of evil are scarcely less
formidable. Iniquity is entrenched behind im-

OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH 177

pregnable barriers. Social unrighteousness is
honoured and reverenced, if hy it men increase
in wealth and rise in power. Failure is the only
offence men really condemn. If a man sin on
a large enough scale and maintain the whip-hand,
he is welcomed as a demi-god. Organised evil
is buttressed by the State, patronised by the
great, and condoned by the Church. Gold is a
god, pleasure a passion, and religion an intoler¬
able restraint. The follower of Christ is sent
into the pandemonium of lust and passion, to
quench their fires and to turn men from the
delirium of insanity into the ways of virtue,
sobriety, and reason. It is a battle between duty
and desire, reason and pleasure, soul and flesh,
man and beast, God and Devil, Heaven and
Hell. Coercion is impossible ; persuasion is our
only method of war.

Let those who have striven longest and tried
hardest to turn men from sin say whether the task
is easy. It is hopeless. We have no power to lift
men to the heights of truth and goodness.
Human agencies may change the form and check
the indecencies of evil, but they cannot save. With
man the salvation of the world is impossible. It
is utterly beyond our power. But with God! Not
God without men, nor men without God I With
God all things are possible. What wonders
God-inspired men have wrought! In Africa,

12

178 HUMANITY AND GOD

Fiji, India, China and the Islands of the sea, the
messenger of God has conquered, prevailing
against sin. The Gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to every one that belieyeth. Man
with God, and God with man ; that is the secret
of power. The Divine in earthen vessels is the
invincible method of saving grace. The in¬
dwelling Spirit is the only adequate equipment
for the service of the Kingdom. It is not by
human wisdom, ingenuity, and strength we
prevail, but by the Spirit of the Lord. The
measure of the Divine in us is the measure of our
effectiveness; and the world has yet to see what
God can do with a man and by a man who is
fully surrendered to His will, and endued with
His Spirit. With God nothing is impossible;
but without Him how helpless and foolish we
are. With God ! I with God and God with
me in all the service of His will, makes the impos¬
sible possible to me. He can thresh mountains
with a worm, and with Him a worin may beat
the mountains small and make the hills as chaff.

Our Daily Calling with God.

S. Paul,writing to the Corinthians, closes the dis¬
cussion of a difficult subject with the exhortation;
“ Brethren, let each man, wherein he was called,
therein abide with God.” There were Chris¬
tians at Corinth who found their circumstances
unfavourable to holy living. One had a wife who

OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH 179

was an idolater, and another was in slavery.
They wrote to the Apostle asking if the believer
might not leave his unchristian wife, and the
slave his heathen master. The Apostle’s answer
was full of sagacity. If the unchristian partner
was willing to stay, the Christian must not for¬
sake her nor put her away. The slave was
exhorted to prove his Christianity, not by breaking
his bonds, but by proving the soul-freedom of
his new life.

In settling the local difficulty he lays down the
great and universal truth, that the Christian’s
real environment is God. He dwells in God ;
and dwelling there, it is a small matter what his
earthly surroundings may happen to be, and as
time is short, every man would do well to abide
with God where the grace of God found Him.
It may not be palatable counsel to modern minds,
but at any rate it makes it clear that with God
the divine life is not conditioned upon material
comforts and prosperity. We are all apt to
think our circumstances unfavourable to grace.
So they are. In every earthly condition there is
something hostile to spirituality. There is no
calling or lot in life where the life of Heaven is
possible with men apart from God ; but there is
no condition where it is not possible with God.
Wherever God puts us we can be just there
all He wants us to be. There is no need to

i8o

HUMANITY AND GOD

whine over our circumstances. Unbelief murmurs,
faith triumphs. Nothing can harm the soul that
abides in its lot with God. God is able to keep
wherever He locates. The darker the place the
greater the need for the light, and the fiercer the
battle the greater the glory to be won. God’s
call is always to the impossible, but He blots the
word out of the Christian’s vocabulary by making
all things possible with Him. For life and
godliness, character and service, all things are
possible with God.

I CAN DO ALL THINGS IN HiM THAT STRENG"

THENETH ME.

CHRIST’S PROMISE OF THE

SPIRIT

“ And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another
Comforter, that He may be with you for ever, even the Spirit
of truth : whom the world cannot receive ; for it beholdeth
Him not, neither knoweth Him : ye know Him; for He abideth
with you, and shall be in you.”—S. John xiv. i6, 17.

“ These things have I spoken unto you, while yet abiding
with you. But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in My name. He shall teach you all things, and
bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you.” 5 . John
xiv. 25, 26.

“ But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto
you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth
from the Father, He shall bear witness of Me ; and ye also bear
witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning.”—
S. John XV. 26, 27.

“ Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; it is expedient for you
that I go away : for if I go not away, the Comforter will not
come unto you; but if I go, I will send Him unto you.”— 5 . John
xvi. 7.

“ But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come
upon you : and ye shall be My witnesses, both in Jerusalem, and
in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth.”— Acts i. 8.

“ And behold, I send forth the promise of My Father upon
you: but tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power
from on high.”— 5 . Luke xxiv. 49.

183

CHRIST’S PROMISE OT THE SPIRIT

One of the most remarkable features of Jesus
Christ’s ministry is His silence concerning the
Holy Spirit. The occasions when He mentions
Him are exceedingly rare, and there is always in
the circumstances something that made the refer¬
ence necessary. To Nicodemus he declared the
necessity of being born of the Spirit ” if a man
would enter the Kingdom of God. Speaking of
prayer He said : ‘‘ If ye then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your children, how
much more shall your Heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask Him ? ” The blas¬
phemy which attributed His ministry of healing
to Satanic power wrung from Him the terrible
warning against the sin for which there is no for¬
giveness. In addition to these there were inci¬
dental and indirect references to the Spirit, but
no definite and explicit teaching concerning Him
till the shadow of the Cross fell upon the Saviour’s
path. And yet Jesus said to His disciples on the
eve of His departure, '‘Ye know Him, for He
abideth with you.” Though there had been a
marked absence of direct reference to the Spirit,

183

.S'. Luke
XI. 13.

S. Matt.
xii. 24-32.

kS". John
xiv. 9.

184 HUMANITY AND GOD

the whole life and ministry of Jesus had been one
continual unfolding of the person and work of the
Holy Ghost. In Him dwelt the fulness of the
Godhead. He made known the Spirit just as
truly as He revealed the Father. “ Ye know
Him ” must be placed Mde by side with the words
to Philip, He that hath seen Me, hath seen the
Father.” The life they had witnessed was a
manifestation of the Spirit as truly as it was a
revelation of the Father.

In His parting counsels Jesus spake freely of the
Spirit. In the Upper Room the most precious
words of human speech fell from His lips, and
among them is His promise and teaching con¬
cerning the Spirit. In a few pregnant sentences
He gathers up all that can ever be said of the
Spirit’s relation to the Church, the World, and
God. It is a final and complete statement of the
doctrine of the Spirit. All that follows simply
illustrates, exemplifies, and demonstrates what is
here set forth. The sayings should be studied
clause by clause, and word by word, for there is
no profounder truth in all the word of God.

Three great truths concerning the Spirit under¬
lie all the teaching of these sayings of Jesus.

I. The Spirit comes to take the place of
Jesus, to be to the disciples all that Christ
had been, and all that He would have be¬
come could He have stayed with them.

CHRIST’S PROMISE 185

2. The Spirit here promised to the disciples
is the self-same Spirit that dwelt in Christ,
and was the explanation of His life and
Ministry.

3. The Spirit comes to dwell in the disciple
as He dwelt in Christ,_that Christ may be
reproduced in him, and make him to be
in the world all that Christ would have
been had He stayed upon the earth and
lived where that disciple lives.

He comes to take the place of Christ, to
be with us as He was with Christ, to make

us to be as Christ in the world.

The Paraclete.

That the Spirit comes to take the place of
Christ is evident from the Name by which the
Christ speaks of Him. It is deplorable that our
English version mistranslates the Greek Para¬
clete by the word Comforter. Jesus did not
promise another Comforter, but another Paraclete.
This was a new name for the Spirit of God.
It had never before been applied to a
Divine Agent, but it is repeated four times in our
Lord’s parting words, and is used with a deliber¬
ateness and emphasis that mark its importance.
It is impossible to read the four passages in which
the word occurs without feeling the inadequate¬
ness of ‘‘ Comforter ” for the office He fills.
Instruction, witnessing, and conviction are not

186 HUMANITY AND GOD

usually associated with the ministry of consola¬
tion. The translation entirely misses the mark,
and is responsible for untold mischief in both
doctrine and experience; and yet it has pre¬
vailed from the days of the Fathers to the latest
Version of the Scriptures. It misrepresents the
Mission of the Spirit, has led believers to think
less of obligation than of comfort, and has associ¬
ated religion with soothing consolations rather
than with conflict. The need is not comfort, but
power. The call is not to pampered softness, but
to the hardship of service and the strain of battle.
The Holy Spirit is not given to be a nursing-
mother to fretful children, but the captain of a
mighty host full of nerve and Are. The chapter
opens with the tenderest and divinest consolation
ever spoken to sorrowing souls, but the note of
consolation soon changes to an inspiriting caU to
glorious service. The disciples found their con¬
solation not in Pentecost, but in the glory of an
Easter dawn. It was not comfort they needed,
but assurance, inspiration, guidance, strength;
and these are all promised in the Holy Ghost.

The marginal note of the Revised Version gives
Advocate and Helper as alternative translations.
Either would have been better than Comforter ;
but it is a pity Paraclete has not been naturalised
as other untranslatable words have been. The
Latin Advocate is the nearest approach to the

CHRIST’S PROMISE 187

Greek Paraclete- An advocate is a lawyer, and
while it is true that the calling of a lawyer does
not cover the whole ground of the Spirit’s mission,
it is nearer the truth to speak of the Holy Spirit
as a Lawyer than as a Comforter. The ancient
advocate -was more than a hired pleader linked
only to his client by professional ties. He was
counsellor, administrator, and representative as
well as champion and vindicator. Both Para¬
clete and Advocate mean, to call to one’s side
for help, especially against an accuser or judge.”
It is more than readiness to help. The person
called is at the command of the one who calls.
In every time of perplexity and difficulty he is the
pledged counsellor and guide. Broadly speaking,
that is the ideal position of a lawyer still. In a
Court of Justice he stands in his client’s stead,
pleads his client’s cause, defends his client’s name.
In practical matters he directs and administers
his client’s affairs in his name and in his place.
The Holy Spirit is an Advocate. He stands in
the place of Another, pleads His cause, vindicates
His Name, and administers His Kingdom.

Whose Advocate is He ? If we were asked
whose Comforter the Holy Spirit was, the imme¬
diate answer would be—Ours. The answer is
not so ready when we are asked whose Advocate
He is. The Spirit is Christ’s Advocate, not ours.
It is Christ’s place He takes, Christ’s cause He

i 88

HUMANITY AND GOD

pleads, Christ’s name He vindicates, Christ’s
Kingdom He administers. Because no one term
can contain the whole truth concerning the
Spirit, this does not cover the whole ground of
the Spirit’s work. He is our Helper given to be
with us in the place of Christ, but the Spirit does
not plead for us but in us, and His operations in
us are all in the interests of Christ’s Kingdom and
for the glory of Christ’s Name. He shall glorify
Me ” is the sum and end of His mission in the
world. The Son is our Advocate with the
Father in Heaven; and the Spirit is the Son’s
Advocate with us in the world. He is the
Representative, Interpreter, and Vindicator of
Jesus. To Him is committed the cause and
credit of the Son of God. He is Christ’s
Other Self.

It is manifest, therefore, that since the Holy
Spirit comes to take the place of Christ, He comes
to be to the believer all that Christ was to His
followers. “ The Father will send you another
Paraclete.” He had been their Paraclete, but He
was going to the Father, and another would take
His place and carry on His work. If one Para¬
clete had not gone away, the other would not have
come. He is Another, but He sustains the rela¬
tionship, and continues the Mission of the One He
succeeds. Whatever Christ was to us He will be,
whatever Christ did for us He will do. Jesus had

CHRIST’S PROMISE

189

been to His disciples Teacher, Witness, Revealer,
Defender, and Friend, and the promise concerning
the Spirit is that He shall instruct, guide, witness,
reveal, and defend.

“ He shall be in you.”

The Holy Spirit takes the place of Christ with
this difference : Christ abode with men, and the
Spirit dwells in them. The change in the pre¬
position indicates the change from one dispensa¬
tion to another. The miracle of Pentecost is
that it changed with to in. The Spirit is Christ
in us instead of Christ with us. He not only
comes to be to us all that Christ was, but to plant
Himself as the Representative of Christ at the
very seat and centre of our souls. As He dwelt
in Christ so will He dwell in us. What He did
for Christ that will He do for us. What Christ
was in the world He became by the Spirit which
was given to Him without measure. It was by
the Spirit He was born into the world ; under
the Spirit’s direction He grew to manhood in
favour with God and man; the Spirit baptised
Him for His ministry; in His wisdom He taught;
by His power He wrought mighty works; and
finally, through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself
without spot to God. The glory of Christ’s work
is not simply that He laid down His life for us,
but that He imparts to us the very Spirit in which

HUMANITY AND GOD

190

and by which He lived. It is the miracle of the
Incarnation duplicated, multiplied, and perpetu¬
ated in Christ’s believing people. For the Son
a body was prepared, but the Spirit is incarnate
in the believer, and dwells in the bodies of all that
believe. The Apostle Paul is very bold. He says,
“ Know ye not that your body is a temple of the
Holy Ghost which is in you ? ” Nothing can
constitute a Temple but an indwelling Deity.
The Spirit of God dwells in man, not as a figure
of speech, or a holy influence, or a Divine ideal,
but literally, truly, and personally He makes man’s
heart His home, the centre of His operations, and
the seat of His power.

The most striking figure of this indwelling
Divinity is found not in the New Testament, but
the Old. In the story of Gideon we are told it
was by the Spirit of the Lord coming upon him
that he became a valiant soldier and a conquering
leader of Israel. But the margin of the Revised
Version reads, ‘‘ The Spirit of the Lord clothed
Itself with Gideon.” It did not come upon him
as a garment, nor fall upon him as an anointing,
but finding Its way to the very centre of Gideon’s
being, the Spirit took possession of Gideon’s
faculties, and put on the man as a garment. He
dwelt in the man, thinking through his brains,
feeling through his soul, working with his hands.
It was thus He dwelt in Christ, and in like manner

CHRIST’S PROMISE

191

He comes to be in us. He becomes the soul of
the soul, and the life of the life. Disturbing no
faculty, destroying no part of the personality. He
dwells and works in the heart, vitalising, permeat¬
ing, sanctifying, directing, erhpowering, and firing
every part of man’s being. This is consecration ;
this is the secret of power for godliness and ser¬
vice ; this is Christianity ; to be filled, fired, and
possessed of the Spirit of God. “ The Spirit of
Christ dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not
the Spirit of Christ he is none of His.”

The trouble wuth many religious people is that
their Christianity is outside themselves. From a,
dinner to the profoundest things in the world, it
makes all the difference whether a thing is inside
or outside a man. All things are divisible into
things inside and things outside. It is the things
within that live, and thrill, and sway, him. You can
never get out of a man what is not in him before
you start. There must be poetry in a man
before you can make a poet of him, music before
you can make a musician, and art before you can
make an artist. Making is mis-named, for we
cannot make; the utmost that can be done is to
discover and guide. What a difference between
a copyist and a living soul! Precision is not life.
It is the man whose being throbs with the con¬
sciousness of an indwelling, dominating presence,
that sends forth things that live. Religion above

HUMANITY AND GOD

192

all things is an inward reality. It is not a code of
rules hung up for the guidance of life. The list
of prohibitions and permissions may be strictly
Biblical, authorised by tradition, and hall-marked
by the Elders, but it does not make a Christian.
The law of Christian living is written not on tab¬
lets and tables, but in the heart. Neither is it
an ideal of character after which men are called
to strive. A Christian is not a copyist. To set
up even Christ as an external ideal to which you
laboriously strive is pagan. It is not by imitating
Christ but by receiving Him we become Chris¬
tian. It is not Christ on the Cross, nor Christ
in Heaven, but the living Christ in the soul in the
person of His Spirit, that saves. “ He shall be
in you.” That is the greatest word and the
mightiest work of God. Sinful men the Temple
of the Living God ! Every believer is an Incar¬
nation of the Holy Ghost, a medium and a
messenger of the indwelling Divinity. The
world is sick of imitators and echoes; it wants
life, which is the life of God.

The work of the Spirit in us.

The Spirit takes up His abode in the soul to
continue the ministry and work of Christ. What
the Master had been to the disciples is indicated
in the work outlined for the Spirit, the difference
between the two being that One was with them
and the Other in them.

CHRIST’S PROMISE 193

Jesus had been their Teacher.

They called Him Rabbi and themselves disciples.
The task of instruction had been difficult and dis¬
appointing. They never understood Him, but
it is to their credit that in after years they neither
excused nor concealed their slowness of apprehen¬
sion. Their minds were steeped in the traditions of
their race, and they were constantly looking for the
wrong things. They scarcely ever spoke without
revealing the great gulf that lay between His
ideals and their own. He held them by the
charm of His personality and they followed Him,
not because they understood Him, but because
they loved Him. He was a constant wonder and
a daily mystery to them. When He talked they
listened, and went away to ask each other what
He meant. They misinterpreted both His speech
and His spirit. The leaven of the Pharisees they
mistook for bread, and blundered almost every
time they moved. Their denseness was a burden
upon Him. He called them fools and slow of
heart to believe, and sighed that after all His
pains they still failed to understand. The things
He longed to communicate He had to withhold,
because they could not receive them. As we
watch Him during those last days, the impression
is irresistible that He laid down His work as
Teacher with a sense of disappointment. They
had failed to discern so much that He had hoped
to make them see.

13

I John ii.
20,27.

194 HUMANITY AND GOD

But He laid it down with a full assurance that
what He had failed to accomplish Another would
fulfil. He was handing them over to His own
Instructor, who would dwell in them as He had
dwelt in Him. “ He shall teach you all things^ ,
and so He did. Those Apostles learned more with¬
in twenty-four hours of Pentecost than they^ had
in all the three years at the feet of Jesus. Why ?
Because Jesus was with them, and the Spirit was
in them. Every teacher knows what a difference
that makes. He tries by analogy, illustration,
argument, and repetition to get truth into the
intelligence, and if there be no answering mind
from within, it is a hopeless task. How different
when the springs of intelligence are touched from
within ! What a gulf there is between the things
we laboriously learn by rote, and the things we
know by intuition or learn under the spell of

inspiration.

God’s Spirit teaches from within. He does not
din at the senses to find a way to the conscious¬
ness : He illumines and inspires. There is no
teacher like Him. He teaches all things, brings
aU things to remembrance, and guides into all
truth. He searches the deep things of God,^ and
reveals them even unto babes. This Divine
Teacher dwells in the soul of every true follower
of Jesus. He shall be in you, and shall teach you
all things. “ Ye have,” says S. John, “ an anoint-

CHRIST’S PROMISE 195

ing from the Holy One, and ye know all things.”

And as for you, the anointing which ye received
of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any
one teach you.” This is the glorious charter of
Christian freedom. Every man may find the
Word of God within his own soul. He that wills
to find the truth has God the Spirit for his teacher
and guide. It is safer to seek the mind of the
Spirit than the judgement of men. He is the
Paraclete, Christ’s interpreter and arbiter in the
soul. Bring your questions to Him, and as God
is in the Heavens an honest heart shall not fail to
find guidance and light; questions about business
and home, amusements and work, diet and dress.
Do not make men the dividers and rulers of your
life ; bring everything to God. Lay all things
frankly and fully before Him, and wait for His
reply. Nothing is too trivial for His attention,
and nothing too complicated for His wisdom.
He is given to instruct us in the truth and to
interpret to our souls the mind and will of
God. The Sons of God are taught and led of the
Spirit.

Jesus was Witness as well as Teacher.

Truth brings error into judgement, and that
which is straight is the condemnation of all crook¬
ed things. The Servant of the Lord was sent to
declare Heaven’s judgement upon the earth; to
bring Heaven’s standard of measurement to the

196 HUMANITY AND GOD

things of the world. He witnessed against evil
and died for His testimony. The Spirit is given to
witness for Christ. The world slandered Him,
misjudged Him, condemned Him, crucified Him 5
but He took refuge in this : “ When the Para¬
clete is come ... He shall bear witness of Me ;
and ye also bear witness because ye have been with
Me from the beginning.” The Spirit vindicates
the Name of Christ and bears witness in the con¬
science for righteousness, purity, and truth. No
man need go outside his own heart if he has re¬
ceived the Spirit to find the sure word of prophecy
concerning right and wrong. The Spirit is God s
witness in the soul. The conscience bears wit¬
ness in the Holy Ghost. Jesus was the Revealer
of God to men, and the Spirit dwells in the soul
as the Revealer of Christ. He speaks not for
Himself nor from Himself, but takes of the things
of Christ and declares them unto us. No man
knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to
whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him ; and
no man can say Jesus is Lord save by the Holy
Ghost. He is the Custodian of all things be¬
longing to Christ. The secrets of the Most High
are with His Spirit, and He alone is privileged to
reveal Jesus and show us things to come. He
interprets the Word in our hand, witnesses to the
path of our feet, and lifts the veil of hidden glory
to the soul. Surely it was expedient for Jesus to

CHRIST’S PROMISE

197

go away, for by His going each receives Christ
to dwell in his own heart.

The Spirit’s Work through us.

He dwells in us that He may work through us.
He takes the place of Christ, is within us as He
was in Christ, is in the heart as Christ, and
the purpose of His indwelling is the Kingdom
and glory of Christ. The end of His work in us
is to reproduce Christ in our lives, and by us
accomplish the mission of Christ in the world.
Fellowship of Spirit results in correspondence of
temper, disposition, and character. If we have
the Spirit of Christ, we shall be like Christ. That
is the first thing the Spirit seeks to accomplish.
He comes to live in us, not to shut Himself up in
us a hermit-guest apart from our interests and
activities. He lives in our life, expresses Himself
through our powers, directs and dominates all we
have and are. Yet He is not apart, but in us and
of us; the breath of our breathing, the thought
of our thinking, the soul of our feeling, and the
life of our living. Wherein He dwells He trans¬
forms, and the standard of His glory is Jesus
Christ, so He comes to change us into the image
of our Lord. He takes nothing from any man’s
personality, destroys no man’s temperament, but
He fills each and all with the spirit of Christ.
In his own sphere and according to his capa-

198 HUMANITY AND GOD

city, every one becomes a representative of Jesus,
living His life, revealing His spirit, and doing His
work. A Christian is Christ’s man and Christ-
like.

The work of the Spirit and the work of the
believer are one, and the work of both is the
work of Christ. Christ came to teach, witness,
reveal, and save; the Spirit comes in His
place to teach, witness, reveal, and save ; and
the Christian inspired by the indwelling Spirit
is in the world “ instead of Christ ” to teach,
witness, reveal, and save. The Church is Christ s
Body indwelt by His Spirit, and sanctified
for His service. It is called to be what Christ
was and is. Every place where the Church
is planted ought to be conscious of the presence
of a living, healing, and saving Christ in its midst.
The work of the Church is to live the Christ-life,
teach His word, witness to His person and His
work, reveal the charac-ter of God and declare
the things to come, to the saving of the world.
That is our Mission : to realise Christ’s purpose
in the world. We are in the world instead of
Christ,” called to do Christ’s work. Is the
Mission being fulfilled ? The Spirit has not
failed, though there is much over which to mourn.
Notwithstanding much that is pagan, it is the
Church that holds the lamp of truth, the standard
of righteousness, and the vision of God. Through

CHRIST’S PROMISE

199

the medium of His people, Christ by His Spirit
is still the Teacher, Witness, and Revealer of God
among men, to the salvation of the world.

The Mission of all is the Mission of each.
In the sphere where we live and work it ought to
be as if Christ were in our place. He died for us,
and we live for Him. By our life and service we
have to be God’s teachers, the embodiment of
His righteousness, and the revealers of His love
and mercy. We are Christ’s epistles. His truth
finds its best expositor and advocate in Christ-
liness of temper and service. The ungodly will
never know God unless we reveal Him. It is for
us to so live in the Spirit that He may be able to
shine through us into their souls, and He will
transform us into the image of our Lord.

Every man who looks at Christ and the limita¬
tions of human life declares this life impossible
of attainment. It is certainly impossible to a
people destitute of the Holy Ghost. Churches
that are unbelieving, worldly, ease-loving, and
gold-worshipping, can never do the work of
Christ. Neither can individual Christians, who
resist the Spirit and covet the flesh, ever fulfil
the purpose of the Holy Ghost. But no natural
weakness of our own, or antagonism around us can
make it impossible, for the indwelling Spirit is
the power of God. If we fail, it is because we
hinder the Spirit’s work in our life.

200

HUMANITY AND GOD

A man who was present at a meeting manifesljly
under the influence of the Spirit was greatly moved.
Speaking with a friend some days after, he said,
“ I was never so blessed and lifted up in soul in my
life. It was like being in Heaven in that meeting.
“ But,” he went on, unfortunately I had to be
at work at six o’clock next morning, and before
eight o’clock I had come to the conclusion the
preacher did not know what he was talking about,
and I would like to know what he would say about
living a Christlike life if he had to be in our factory
at six o’clock in the morning.” The preacher
may have been ignorant of what a factory is like
at six o’clock in the morning; but whether factory
or shop, college or home, if the Gospel of this
Book does not stand the strain of a working life,
it is an idle tale and an empty dream. It is the
gospel of life for living men in all places and under
all conditions. It is not a passing emotion, but
an abiding Presence. The life is impossible to
the soul that has had no Pentecost, but it is not
impossible to the man strengthened with might
by His Spirit in the inward man.

The last word of Jesus is. Go back! Back to
the city ; back to the place of waiting, and tarry,
tarry, tarry till ye be endued with power from on
high. But the world is dying ! Let it die. But
men are hungry ! Let them hunger. But souls
are being damned ! Let them be damned, rather

CHRIST’S PROMISE

201

than go forth to attempt a Divine work without a
Divine baptism. Go back ! Back to that Upper
Room, back to your knees, back to the searching
of heart and habit, thought and life ; back to
pleading, praying, waiting, till the Spirit of the
Lord floods the soul with light, and you are en¬
dued with power from on high. Then go forth
in the power of Pentecost, and the Christ-life
shall be lived, and the works of Christ shall be
done. You shall open blind eyes, cleanse foul
hearts, break men’s fetters, and save men’s souls.
In the power of the Indwelling Spirit, miracles
become the commonplace of daily living.

J

\

‘

-

1

I

•A

' 3 .

THE COMING OF THE SPIRIT

And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were
ill together in one place.

“ And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the
rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they
were sitting.

“ And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder
like as of fire ; and it sat upon each one of them.

“ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to
speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”—
Acts ii. 1-4.

304

THE COMING OF THE SPIRIT

The words of Jesus concerning the Spirit seem
to have made but little immediate impression
upon His sorrowing disciples. Probably they
were too full of trouble to comprehend their
meaning, and too indifferent to consolation to
care to understand. Love in tears is apt to be
petulant. The suggestion of any possibility of
compensation for impending loss is resented as
an insult and a reproach. The promise that
Another should fill His place brought no comfort.
They did not want Another. To speak of a
successor was a reflection upon their devotion,
and to say the exchange would be to their ad¬
vantage could be nothing but the exaggeration
of compassion. Grief for impending loss re¬
fuses to be‘comforted. So the promise of the
Paraclete brought little light to their under¬
standing, and apparently less comfort to their
hearts. It was not until the Ascension that
their eyes were opened. The Resurrection
filled them with a great joy, but not until they
witnessed His return to the Father did they

2o6

HUMANITY AND GOD

realise the true greatness of their Lord and the
meaning of His Mission in the world. As they
beheld Him rise the mists lifted from their
understanding, and they returned to Jerusalem
not like bereaved and broken men, but rejoicing
and praising God. The vision of the opened
Heavens had given them a new conception of all
things in Heaven and on earth. Infinity had
received a new centre, for the Eternal glory was
embodied in a Person they knew; prayer had a
new meaning, for it was through a Name they
uttered with familiar afiection; faith had re¬
ceived a new basis, for it was in the Christ they
had loved and proved. For ten days they waited
with their eyes set upon the heavens where they
had seen Him disappear from their sight. With
Pentecost came the fulfilment of His word, and
the gift in which they found the complete
realisation of all that He had said.

The Day of Pentecost was an epoch-making
day. It initiated the Christian dispensation,
and like all initiating days, it was a sample day.
The method of the student is to track his way
back to origins. Until he has reached the
birth-point of his theme, his work is imperfect
and his conclusions insecure. Things are seen
at their origin in all the simplicity of their first
intention, essentials can be studied in their
completeness and order, without complication

COMING OF THE SPIRIT 207

or perversion. First days are worth, seeking
and repay the most careful study. In the first
days is found the explanation of existence, the
essential qualities of nature, and the conditions
of development. The Day of Pentecost reveals
every quality, every energy, and every condition
of the Spirit’s presence and work in the world.
That one day manifests all the forces and possi¬
bilities of all succeeding days.

Experience follows the pattern of dispensa¬
tions. Sinai and the Temple typified and
determined the life of Judaism; Pentecost
typifies and determines Christian life and ex¬
perience. Every condition necessary for the
coming of Pentecost as a dispensation has a
corresponding condition for its coming as an
individual experience. Whatever is dispensa-
tionally true is true experimentally. There is
no operation of power, no privilege of the Spirit,
no gift for service, that is not available for the
experience of those to whom the Day is the
beginning of days. The study of the broader
aspects of the question reveals the individual
relationship. Within the Day of Pentecost each
may find the conditions of his own baptism, the
possibilities of his own Christian life, and the
gifts of power for his own particular work.
Dispensational and experimental truth are
mutually conditioned. The blessings of the

5*. fokti'ni
37,38, 39
(American
Version).

208 HUMANITY AND GOD

dispensation cannot be obtained apart from
mental, moral, and spiritual conditions, which
correspond to the essential qualities of the
Dispensation. With these facts in view let
us consider concerning the Spirit:—

I. The preparation for His coming.

II. The occasion of His coming.

III. The results of His coming.

I

There was an extended and an immediate
preparation. The world had been preparing
for Pentecost from the days of Paradise. All
the movement of the Old Testament was a
march towards Pentecost. The moral and cere¬
monial order were the tutors and governors
preparing for the larger inheritance of the
Spirit. Every new development of truth, and
every progress in righteousness was another
stage in the direction of the Day of the Spirit
of God. The History of Israel and of the race
is the story of the extended preparation for
the fulness of time. The immediate prepara¬
tion was in the work of Christ: His Death,
Resurrection, and Exaltation.

“ Now on the last day, the great day of the
feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying. If any man
thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He

COMING OF THE SPIRIT 209

that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath
said, from within him shall flow rivers of living
water. But this spake He of the Spirit, which
they that believed on Him were to receive.’’
This passage tells us the source, course, and con¬
dition of , the Spirit. The Living Water is
from Christ, flows through the believer, and
is conditioned on the glorification of Jesus.

The Scriptures will be searched in vain for
Christ’s quotation. There is no passage that
even approaches to it. The explanation is
found in the method of quotation. The Scrip¬
tures were rarely quoted verbatim by Jesus and
the Apostles. They almost invariably gave the
sense rather than the letter. In this saying,
Jesus stated the teaching of the Scriptures as
symbolised at the feast which occasioned their
utterance. The feast was the Feast of Taber¬
nacles and the last day was the eighth day of
the feast. On the seven preceding days water
had been brought in a golden urn from the pool
of Siloam, and poured upon the Altar amid the
sounding of trumpets and other demonstrations
j®/* Cn the eighth day there were proces¬
sions and rejoicings, but no water was brought,
for that day celebrated the entrance of Israel
into the Land of Promise. It was on the day
when the priests brought no water that Jesus
stood where for seven days it had been poured

14

210

HUMANITY AND GOD

out, and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him
come unto Me and drink. He that believeth
on Me, as the Scripture hath said, from^ within
him shall flow rivers of living water.” The
meaning of the cry is in the significance of the
rite. Jesus declared Himself to be the fulfil¬
ment of its prophecy, and the reality of which
it was the type. The smitten rock, the stream
in the wilderness, and the river of prophetic
vision were all included in the celebration, and
Jesus identified them all with Himself and His

Mission. ^ . . .

That the Living Water refers to the Spirit is

obvious. The first reference to this river is in
the Prophet Joel whose words were quoted on
the Day of Pentecost; And it shall come to
pass in that day, that ... a fountain shall
come forth of the House of the Lord, and shall
water the valley of Shittim.” ‘ That day,
is the day of the out-poured Spirit, and the
stream of His influence shaU flow from the House
of the Lord, and water all the land of Israel even
to its uttermost borders. Ezekiel s vision of the
River is an elaboration of Joel’s prophecy. The
most significant contributions he makes are, that
the River comes not only from the House of
the Lord but from under the Altar, and that
the peculiarity of the River is its life-giving power.
Wherever it flows it brings life. Everything

COMING OF THE SPIRIT 211

shall live whithersoever the river cometh.”
It is the River of God carrying in itself the
gift of life; and the life-giving stream flows from
under the Altar—the place of death.

Zechariah completes the prophecy of Joel
and Ezekiel. “ In that day there shall be a
fountain opened to the House of David and to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin, and for un¬
cleanness.” That is Joel’s fountain opened for
the cleansing of sin as well as for the restoration
of Israel. The ultimate cause is reached at last.
Sin is the explanation of death. Life springs
from the fountain where sin is cleansed. The
cleansing and life-giving water flows east and
west from the fountain, and continues its course
through summer and winter till it covers the
world, and the Lord shall be King over all the
earth. Summers cannot dry it and winters
cannot freeze it. East and west shall it flow
continually till the world shall be encircled in
its cleansing, quickening power.

The Book closes with a vision of the River. On
the last page you find the River flowing clear
as crystal through the streets of the City of God.
It comes not from under an altar but a throne ;
but it is the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Zechariah foresaw the day when the controversy
between throne and altar would be ended. The
throne has become an altar, and the altar the

Zech . xiv
8, 9.

Zech . xiv

9 -

Rev . xxii

Zech , vi.

13-

212

HUMANITY AND GOD

true throne of power. It governs hy sacrifice,
and from the union of mercy and righteousness
comes the River of God. Its course is through
the streets of the City, cleansing, sanctifying,
nourishing, and blessing the common life of man.

This is the River with which Christ identified
Himself on the great day of the Feast. By a
picturesque and ever-growing symbolism, the
prophets had declared a Day of the Lord, when
there should come forth from God that which
would cleanse and save the world, destroying
its death, healing its woes, and satisfying its
hunger. The priest had dramatised the pro¬
phet, and in impressive ritual perpetuated his
vision. The Day is at hand. Christ declares
Himself to be the Temple, and from the place
of His death shall come the River of God. But
the hour is not yet, for His work is not yet ac¬
complished. The Spirit can only come from
the Altar, and the Sacrifice is not yet offered.
Until the Father has put His seal upon the work
of the Altar, and raised the suffering One to His
throne, the Spirit cannot come. The descent
of the Spirit waits for the Ascension of the Son.
Without Calvary there can be no Pentecost;
without the opened fountain, no living Stream.
Not till Christ was glorified could the Spirit be
given. The preparation was complete when
Christ was enthroned.

213

COMING OF THE SPIRIT
The coming of the Spirit • involved the

PREPARATION OF A PEOPLE TO RECEIVE HiM.

Here again there was an extended and an im¬
mediate preparation. The extended prepara¬
tion of the disciples covered the whole course
of Christ’s ministry and fellowship. Without
knowing it, they had come to know the Spirit
in Christ. Everything in the life, teaching, and
work of Jesus was a manifestation of the power
and method of the Spirit. As the end approached.

He prepared their minds for His coming by
definite instruction and promise. He talked with
a glow and enthusiasm of the Spirit that were
calculated to kindle their desire and expectation.
They were told of His wisdom and power, and
the wonders He would do for them exceeding
all they had seen in their Lord. Faith cometh
by hearing. After the Resurrection they seem
to have heard of little else but the wonders of
the Coming One. The last words of the ascend¬
ing Lord were words of promise concerning Him.

He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem
but to wait for the promise of the Father .

Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not ac^s
many days hence.” ‘‘Ye shall receive power
when the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” If
they had not heard they would not have ex¬
pected, and could not have received.

The final stage of their preparation was in

214 HUMANITY AND GOD

united and believing prayer. The baptism came
only to the prepared. It is sometimes assunied
that all the disciples were filled with the Spirit
on the Day of Pentecost, but we have no warrant
for any such conclusion. He came upon all
who were waiting for His coming. The one
hundred and twenty in the Upper Room were
all filled, but there were more than five hundred
disciples who were privileged to see the Risen
Lord. Where were the three hundred and
eighty ? Probably about their business attend¬
ing to the common round of life. The Holy
Ghost has always had to work with minorities.
A small group of despised people looked for
the consolation of Israel in the Coming of the
Christ, and it was a minority that at the end of
ten days were found waiting for the Holy Ghost.
For ten consecutive days they remained in
prayer. They were of one accord and in one
place. A common object drew them together,
a common expectation focussed their faith,
and focussed faith always prevails. The fact
that they continued for ten days proves both
their earnestness and their faith. They waited
earnestly for God, pleaded the promise of Christ,

and had faith in His word.

These then are the conditions of Pentecost i
the glorification of Jesus, the knowledge of the
Spirit, and the prayer of faith. These con-

COMING OF THE SPIRIT 215

ditions always precede Pentecost and always
secure it. The Spirit dwells where Christ rules.
As the Father had to exalt Jesus to the throne
before the Spirit could be given, so have we to
crown Christ King of our life, before we can
receive His Spirit. Where Christ is dishonoured
and despised there can be no Baptism. God
has made Him both Lord and Christ, and when
we follow the Father’s example, and make Him
Lord and Christ over our own life, the first
condition of Pentecost is fulfilled. If a man
wants the Spirit to fill his soul, here is the way
to possession in a nut-shell : crown and glorify
Christ. The Spirit’s work still begins at the
Altar. No sacrifice, no baptism ; no Calvary,
no Pentecost. It is useless to pray for the fire
if the altar be not prepared. We wait in vain
so long as consecration is incomplete, and there
is controversy between the altar and the throne.
Consecration is the simple recognition of the
lordship of Jesus. In that recognition is the
glorification of Jesus, for which the Spirit waits.

A few years ago a Christian man was told by
his doctor that he had heart-disease and might
die any day. It was a great surprise to him, but
they sat and talked quietly. Then the man
asked if he should give up his business. No I ”
said the doctor, I think you will die sooner if
you do ; just go on, but live with this knowledge

2i6

HUMANITY AND GOD

that you may be wanted to leave this life at any
moment.” The man went down to business,
and calling together the heads of departments
he said to them : I have been to see the doctor
this morning and he tells me I have heart-disease,
and that I may die at any moment and at any
place. I shall still come to business, but Jesus
may come at any hour to take me to Himself.
And, men, understand please, that this business
is to be conducted in the hourly expectation
that Jesus Christ is coming to fetch the master.
God bless you ! ” That is consecration. That
is crowning Christ. That is the normal attitude
of men who watch for their Lord. That is
the glorification for which the Spirit of God
waits. The rest will follow. The life thus
yielded will be led to the knowledge of His will,
and will wait in earnest and believing prayer
for the coming of power.

H

Signs are temporary; the truths they signify
are eternal. The form in which the Spirit
comes is indicative of the work He comes to do.
When he came upon Christ He came as a dove,
but when He comes to the disciples it is as wind
and fire. In Christ there was no darkness to
illumine, no sin to purge, no chaff to winnow ;
but when He comes to us it is for a great work

COMING OF THE SPIRIT 217

of purification, sanctification, and transforma¬
tion. The elect symbol of the Spirit is fire. It
is the chosen sign of the Divine Presence, from
the flaming sword at Paradise to the tongues of
flame at Pentecost. Every new epoch is ini¬
tiated by. fire. In the wilderness the Lord went
before His people in a pillar of fire. At the
dedication of the Tabernacle the fire of God
consumed the sacrifice, and filled the Sanctuary
with glory. The Shechinah light burned con¬
tinually in the Temple. John’s great note in
calling men to repentance was a fiery baptism,
and the Saviour declares He came to bring fire
upon the earth.

What is meant by fire ? The figure is woven
into our daily speech. We speak of things that
are warm, natures that are ardent, enthusiasm
that glows and kindles, and passion that burns.
Its opposite is used to express unwelcome and
repulsive things. We complain of coolness, icy
reserve, and the manner that is cold. Fire stands
for enthusiasm, rapture, and passion. The Holy
Ghost is fire. He kindles men'. The heart in
which He dwells, burns. Others have multiplied
rules and regulations for respectability and
righteousness, but the Spirit sets men ablaze
for goodness, and makes them ardent in all the
will of God. Christianity is fire. The Church
filled with the Holy Ghost is a community of

2I8

HUMANITY AND GOD

men on fire. A cold Cliurcli is a corpse. A
Christian is a man ablaze. ‘‘For a Christian to
be cold is sin.” Fire purifies, impassions, trans¬
forms. It makes all things glow with its pre¬
sence and transforms into its own likeness every¬
thing it does not destroy. There are diversi¬
ties of manifestation. Fire in different materials
shows its presence in different ways, but the end
is always either transformation or destruction.
The Spirit-filled man glows, radiates, and burns
with the fire of God.

At Pentecost the fire took shape, and sat upon
each of them a cloven tongue of flame. The
sign of Christianity is not a cross but a tongue of
fire. The fire is given for speech. The Spirit
is given for utterance, and for power to witness.
What a difference fire makes to speech ! When a
man speaks as the Spirit gives him utterance
he always has the word that is appropriate, apt,
and effective; the word that expresses the meaning
carries conviction, and captures the consent
of the will. Spirit-inspired speech is always
accompanied by the demonstration of power.
The soul on fire talks to purpose. That tongue
of fire sat on each of them without exception
and without exemption. Tongues are given for
speech. We also are Christ’s witnesses without
exception and without exemption. God ex-
pects us to speak and has provided an organ of

COMING OF THE SPIRIT 219

effective^ speech. Wherever and whenever He
wants our witness, the Spirit is ready to give
the right word, and to clothe it with power.
Fire is mightier than learning. A soul ablaze
is a better guide to effective speech than much
scholarship. It is fire that conquers the heart.
The fire still falls from Heaven. It cannot be
kindled with earthly forces. It is not of the
earth but from God. We cannot kindle it. He
must send it. Strange fires soon die out. There
is no need to warm ourselves at other men’s
fires for the Spirit fell upon all, and remained
with each. Lay the sacrifice upon the Altar,
and then, with the soul looking to God, seek in
earnest prayer and persistent faith the promise
of the Father, the baptism of Fire.

Ill

What were the immediate effects of His

COMING ?

The greatest miracle of that day was the trans¬
formation wrought in those waiting disciples.
Their fire-baptism transfigured them. It seems
incredible they could be the same men with whom
we are acquainted in the Gospels. Every part of
their nature was vitalised, invigorated, and trans¬
formed in fire. Its effect upon their knowledge was
all that Christ had promised it should be. Their
eyes were opened, their memories quickened, and

220

HUMANITY AND GOD

their minds inspired. How clear all things
appeared now that the Spirit shone upon them !
The Cross, the Resurrection, and the Kingdom
were all seen in their true meaning. Peter’s
address reveals an illumined intelligence, an apt
and accurate interpreter, an Apostle on fire.
The coming of the Spirit had turned the fisher¬
man into a teacher, orator, and evangelist. The
tongue of fire gave forth the word of wisdom
and of power. As men listened they found
their minds informed, their reasons convinced,
their souls convicted, and their wills persuaded.
The gift of knowledge was accompanied with the
gift of power. Without Pentecost, the story
of the Gospel would have been classed with
the mythologies of the world. Historical facts,
however clearly proved, could not have pre¬
vailed over the prejudice and ferocity with
which Christianity was assailed. The facts
without the power of the Spirit secured no
triumphs. All the wonders of Calvary and the
Resurrection were fully assured from Easter to
Pentecost; moreover, Christ was with them.
But those seven weeks made no converts. Facts
alone, however miraculous, however clearly
proved, have no converting and regenerating
power. Pentecost set the facts on fire, and
sent into the streets of Jerusalem one hundred
and twenty duplicates of the Resurrection of

COMING OF THE SPIRIT 221

Christ. Each was a living witness, not only
testifying to facts, but revealing and demon¬
strating them in his own person. Every wit¬
ness was himself a proof of the Resurrection.

Contrast Pentecost with the scene at the foot
of the Mount of Transfiguration. It seems
impossible that they can be the same men. Who
could have thought that the cringing and help¬
less men, who stood powerless in the presence
of a devil who dwelt in a lad little more than
a child, could ever have become the men of
Pentecost ? It was the coming of the Spirit
that transformed them.

In the American Civil War Sheridan’s army
was attacked in his absence. The camp was
routed. Men threw down their arms and fled
like scared sheep. Suddenly they stopped, formed,
turned, and drove back their foes, and cap¬
tured their artillery. What had happened to
turn frightened sheep into conquering warriors,
and a disgraceful rout into a glorious victory ?
General Sheridan had suddenly ridden into
their midst, and, immediately, his conquer¬
ing personality passed into the men and they
were changed. At Pentecost Christ came
to His own in the person of His Spirit, and
there passed into their souls the mysterious
presence of His Divine Personality. It is the
miracle of the Indwelling Divinity that sent forth

222

HUMANITY AND GOD

these fire-crowned men, God-inspired, God-em¬
powered, God-possessed. Spirit-taught and Spirit-
filled they knew all things and were full of power.

The effect upon their courage was amazing.
This ver7 Peter had turned coward and liar at
the laughing taunt of a servant-maid. At the
first contact with peril they all forsook their
Master and fled. Even after the Resurrection
they sat with bolted doors for fear of the Jews,
startled at every footstep and frightened at
shadows. Pentecost turned these men into
heroes utterly destitute of fear. Instead of
hiding in terror they stepped out into the open,
and boldly declared Jesus the crucified to be
the Son of God, the Messiah of whom the pro¬
phets spoke, and the Saviour of the world.
Without flinching they openly charged home
His murder upon the rulers, of whom but a few
days before they had sat in terror. Their
courage was the daring of a Divine consciousness,
and the fearlessness of a mighty faith. The
Holy Spirit fills men with boldness. He comes
to quaking, trembling, nervous men, and fires
them with a passion that knows no fear.

The rebound from their terror and grief was
an excited and rapturous demonstration of
joy. They were so hilarious that people said
they were drunk. The consciousness of power,
the sense of relief, the ludicrousness of their

COMING OF THE SPIRIT

223

fears, and the tingling, thrilling, glowing sense of
fire in everypart of their being intoxicated them,
and made them seem beside themselves with
delight. They were drunk, but not with wine.

What was the effect of Pentecost in the

WORLD ?

It gathered crowds who were astonished,
amazed, and perplexed with the things they saw
and heard. Some mocked and attributed it to
drink as they had attributed the Master’s works to
the Devil, but others were convinced, awakened,
saved, and added to the Church of the Living
God. That is the sample day of the Church of
Christ. Wherever there is a community of Chris¬
tians baptised with the Spirit of Fire, they leave
the Upper Room and go out proclaiming the Gos¬
pel to the people. Fire may always be relied upon
to bring a crowd. It attracts all kinds of people.
They come from every quarter speaking every
dialect of human speech. Sensational methods and
startling advertisement are unnecessary to an¬
nounce a fire; it announces itself. When the
crowd gathered, the Apostles preached. The
Apostolic sermon is a sample sermon. Every
man heard it in his own dialect. Its message was
new but it was in a language he could understand.
The Preacher appealed to the Scriptures, ex¬
plained immediate events by ancient prophecy,
and interpreted prophecy by history; he pro-

224

HUMANITY AND GOD

claimed the Gospel and witnessed to the truth
out of his own experience; he charged the
conscience, urged repentance, and pleaded
the promise. That is preaching. Men were
pricked in their hearts and sought the way of
life. Promptly they were led to Jesus and the
same day were added to His Church. That is
Pentecost. And He when He is come, will
convict the world in respect of sin, and of right¬
eousness, and of judgment.” That is the Mis¬
sion and work of the Holy Ghost in the world.

Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye

BELIEVED ?

Every man knows on which side of Pente¬
cost he lives and works. The life that is desti¬
tute of fire and power is still without its bap¬
tism. To those who would receive the fulness
of the Spirit the way is plain. The Spirit can
be given only where Christ is glorified. He
must be exalted and enthroned, for it is from the
throne of God and of the Lamb that the Spirit
comes. The word of promise must be received in
faith, and sought in believing prayer. Lay the
sacrifice upon the Altar and wait for God. The
fire of God’s presence descends upon every
prepared heart. ‘‘ He shall be in you ” filling
the soul with His life and working the works of
God in His strength, and out of the Spirit-filled
soul shall flow streams of quickening, sanctifying,
saving power.

THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE

m

“ Be filled with the Spirit.”— Eph. v. i8.

THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE

The Spirit dwells in the believer and the believer
ives in the Spirit. The Spirit finds in the be¬
liever His home, medium, and means; and the
behever finds in the Spirit his sphere and element.

e are not in tlie flesh, but in the spirit, if so
be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.” The
Spirit is the element in which the soul lives and
moves and has its being. Element must be
mutual. The element of man’s natural life is the
atmosphere, and in order to live the man must be
in the atmosphere, and the atmosphere in theman.
The element of spiritual life is the Spirit, and the
man must be in the Spirit, and the Spirit in the
man. Element is greater, wider, and larger than
the creatures that live in it; essential to them but
independent of iLem ; inexhaustible and indivis¬
ible, the whole is at the disposal of each. We
depend upon the atmosphere for our life, but we
cannot divide it, monopolise it, or exhaust it.
Every thing that breathes has all the supply of
the heavens at its disposal. If there is any short¬
age, it is because we have set some hindrance to

997

228

HUMANITY AND GOD

that which surrounds and presses upon all. So it
is with the Spirit. He fills the earth, fills the
soul, and we live in Him. All the resources that
are in Him are for the supply of each. The com¬
mand to be filled with His presence implies the
possibility of so opening the avenues of our life
that He may fill every part of our being.

Filled with the Spirit.

Every need of Spiritual life and Christian service
is supplied in the fulness of the Spirit. Christian
experience is the work of the Spirit ; begun^
nourished, developed, consummated, and glorified
by Him. Christianity is the dispensation of the
Spirit; holiness is the fruit of His indwelling;
preaching is His message spoken in the demonstra¬
tion of His power; and all Christian work depends
for its efficiency and effectiveness upon His pre¬
sence and energy. He is the executive of the
God-head, in whom resides the fulness and suffi¬
ciency of the Kingdom of God. In Him is the
supply of every need, the solution of every prob¬
lem, and the strength for every conflict. Defect
and defeat find their explanation in the absence
of His power.

Whatever the reason, there are many Christians
who do not live in the fulness of the Spirit. There
can be no doubt of their sincerity. They have
Rom.vm. received the Spirit for without Him no man can

THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE 229

be Christ’s, but they are not filled with the Spirit.
Their lives are not conspicuous for spirituality and
power, but are characterised by defeat, dissatis¬
faction, and unrest. Their experience lacks
vitality and vigour, their progress is disappointing,
and their service without enthusiasm. Faith is
unsteady, and love intermittent. The yearnings
after holiness are hindered by the lusts of the
fiesh. There is war in the members, and often
the consciousness of failure and upbraidings of
conscience. The soul braces itself repeatedly for
new endeavour and strains after its ideal, but
there is no sense of fulness and none of the ease of
power. They live, but not with an abundant
overflowing life.

The seventh chapter of Romans seems to mark
some such stage between the blessings that accom¬
pany justification and the Spirit-filled life of the
following chapters. Although salvation is poten¬
tially complete in regeneration, it is only gradually
realised in experience. The lack of fulness may
be due to lack of knowledge or of faith, but it is
frequently the result of disobedience, and failure
to follow the light. To be filled with the Spirit
is every believer’s birthright, but there are many
Esaus. Fleshly desires hinder the work of the
Spirit, and the inheritance is bartered for the
things of earth.

Roots of bitterness which defile are allowed to

230

HUMANITY AND GOD

spring up in the heart, and while these remain
there can be no experience of the fulness of the
blessing of the Gospel of Christ. An inheritance
is an obligation. The command to be filled with
the Spirit is as imperative as that to abstain from
being drunk with wine. Without it the demands
of the Christian life cannot be met. There is no
safety, efficiency, or satisfaction in anything less
than being filled with the Spirit of God,
William Arthur in The Tongue of Fire^ describing
the effects of fulness, says, “ A piece of iron is
dark and cold ; imbued with a degree of heat, it
becomes almost burning, without any change of
appearance ; imbued with a still greater degree,
its very appearance changes to that of solid fire,
and it sets fire to whatever it touches. A piece of
water without heat is solid and brittle ; gently
warmed, it flows; further heated, it mounts to the
sky. An organ filled with the ordinary degree of air
which exists everywhere is dumb ; the touch of the
player can elicit but a clicking of the keys. Throw
in not other air, but an unsteady current of the
same air, and sweet, but imperfect and uncertain
notes immediately respond to the player’s touch ;
increase the current to a fuU supply, and every
pipe swells with music. Such is the Soul without
the Holy Ghost; and such are the changes which
pass upon it when it receives the Holy Ghost, and
when it is filled with the Spirit. In the latter

THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE 231

state only is it fully imbued with, the Divine
nature, bearing in all its manifestations some plain
resemblance to its God, conveying to all on whom
it acts some impression of Him, mounting heaven¬
ward in all its movements, and harmoniously
pouring forth, from all its faculties, the praises of
the Lord.”

The command to be filled with the Spirit is
given to the Ephesians who had already received
the Baptism. The fulness of the Spirit having
been once received, there is a new filling for every
new demand. For every new call to service there
is a specific preparation and equipment. Every
new temptation and trial of our faith is met with
a new and enlarged gift of the Holy Ghost. In¬
creased demand brings increased supply, and
enlarged capacity is met with a larger fulness.
The souFs powers are possessed as they develop,
and the demands are met as they arise. The need
is to be full; and since we are commanded to be
filled with the Spirit, the responsibility for the
fulness is with man and not with God. The
Spirit fills all we open to His presence and conse¬
crate to His indwelling.

Jesus Christ is the supreme Example of the
Spirit-filled life.

To Him the Spirit was given without measure.
His life was lived in abiding surrender to the will
of the Spirit. Never was consecration so com-

HUMANITY AND GOD

132

plete or obedience so absolute. He is the ideal
and pattern of the life made possible to all by the
coming of the Spirit. We may never attain His
perfection, but we do receive from Him His own
quality of life. Our life in Christ is Christ’s life
in us. This oneness of life brings correspondence
in experience. As He is, so are we. Whatever
is characteristic of His life in the Spirit, we are
warranted in expecting will be manifest in our
own. The leading features of the Spirit’s work
in Him are marked by special mention of the
Spirit as directly connected with them, and in the
study of them we may find the distinctive marks
of the Spirit-filled life.

The Spirit-filled life is a life of conquest

OVER TEMPTATION.

The three Gospels which record the tempta¬
tion of Jesus emphasise its connexion with His
s.Matt. baptism. S. Matthew says, “ Then was Jesus led
up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
s^Marki. of the devil.” S. Mark says, And straightway
the Spirit driveth Him forth into the wilderness.
And He was in the wilderness forty days tempted
of Satan ; and He was with the wild beasts.”
s^.Luke s, Luke says, “ And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit,
returned from the Jordan, and was led by the
Spirit in the wilderness during forty days, being
tempted of the devil.” The temptation of the

THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE 233

Christ followed His baptism not only in the order
of time, but in the order of consequence.

His baptism furnished the opportunity and
the basis of the temptation. The order is
inevitable and universal. Being full of the
Spirit does not bring immunity from temptation
but exposure to it. If Jesus was tempted like
as we are, it follows we shall be tempted as
He was. Every man’s Pentecost is the signal
for Satan to gird himself. Temptation comes
to the spiritual man in its intensest and most
subtle forms. The works of the flesh are
manifest. There is no mistaking the sinful¬
ness of fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies,
wraths, factions, divisions, heresies, envyings,
drunkenness, revellings, and such like.” These
are not the temptations with which Satan assails
men filled with the Spirit. He comes to them
as an Angel of light. The newly-found con¬
sciousness furnishes the material for his evil design,
and the ground of appeal is not vice but virtue,
not flesh but spirit, not sin but self. The attack
is secret and subjective, and at the very citadel
of the soul. The subtle suggestions spring out
of the new revelation. Its reality is not denied,
but its outworking in practical life is questioned,
and its powers challenged.

If this revelation be true, what then ? What

234 HUMANITY AND GOD

is the relation of hunger, thirst, and the natural
resources of life to this new gift of power ? The
world has to be faced. Life will have to be ad¬
justed in all its bearings to the new consciousness,
and the exact privileges and limitations of the
Spirit’s work discovered. It is in this adjust¬
ment of life that Satan finds his opportunity. He
seeks to switch off the soul from the centre of
power hy diverting its trust and misdirecting its
energies. We cannot stay either at the Jordan or
in the Upper Room. Their very gifts drive us
forth to face life’s problems and fulfil its duties.
In the wilderness and the street we have to dis¬
cover the true order of the material and the spiri¬
tual, and until we face that problem we never
know how subtle and terrible temptation can be.

The exposure to temptation is the deliberate
act of the Spirit. God does not keep His saints
in cotton wool. The Spirit thrust forth the
Christ to His testing. Satan tempts to seduce,
God tests that He may prove, and He uses Satan
for our testing. In the temptation of Job God
seems to retire from the scene of conflict, but the
Spirit was with Jesus through all the forty days.
He led Him in and led Him through. The pre¬
sence of the Spirit is manifest in the discernment
of the evil in the devil’s appeals, in the answers
that met the assault, and in the power of resist¬
ance. The proposals looked innocent, devout, and

THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE 235

reasonable enough, but the Spirit laid bare the
bait and supplied the answers. The Spirit that
exposed Him secured His complete and abundant
triumph.

The first temptation in the Spirit-filled life is
the temptation of bread. The spiritual life has
to be lived in a bodily tenement and a material
world. Though we enter a spiritu<il element we
cannot dispense with material conditions. How¬
ever full a man may be of the Spirit he still needs
bread. All the needs of the natural life are repre¬
sented by bread. What are the true demands
and possibilities of the natural and supernatural
in the spiritual life ? What is its relation to the
natural demands of the flesh, the problem of bread,
and the obligations of common toil ? Is the
body to be starved in the interests of the spirit,
or is it to find a freer indulgence through the new
gift of power ? Is it to be denied in rigorous
asceticism, and disciplined by strenuous toil, or to
be indulged with bread secured without labour ?
Is the logical issue of being filled with the Spirit
a life of spare diet lived in the desert, or a life
without restraint in the ordinary ways of the
world ? These are the questions the spiritual
man is called upon to answer in the solitude of his
own soul.

The temptation is to use the gift of God for
self-gratification. Satan urges the use of the

236 HUMANITY AND GOD

power for selfish ends; to make it a means of get¬
ting bread. The Holy Spirit scrutinises motives.
For what have we sought the gift of the Spirit ?
Even when we have sought it with the purest
intention, the possession of the gift brings the
temptation to seek in it our own gratification and
satisfaction.

Self cries out against crucifixion and pleads the
new gift for itself. If a Son of God, why hunger ?
The flesh asserts its claim to first consideration.
It demands its need shall be made a first charge
in all the work and will of God. Before the called
of God go forth, its claims must be heard. What
about bread, bread, bread ?

The second temptation deals at the root with
the same question as the first. It is still self, only
at the other extreme. The temptation comes in
the discrimination between courageous faith and
reckless presumption. The first appeal was to
give self the first care, the second to give it no
care at all. If this baptism is a reality and super¬
natural power dwells within the person of the
Spirit, then live a supernatural life, ignore natural
limitations and ordinary precautions, trust and
dare ! To be filled with the Spirit brings to
some the temptation to vain-glory in the wonder
and applause of men at the greatness of their faith.
It turns them into cranks and fanatics. They
glory in the parade of power. To make occasions

THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE 237

for the parade of faith is sin. Natural means are
of God, and no man honours God by leaping
from a pinnacle when there are steps.

The third temptation is also a question of ad¬
justment. The baptism of the Spirit is a call
to service. The Spirit is given for ministering,
and to the Spirit-called and Spirit-filled worker
there comes the problem of the relative positions
of the human and the divine, the natural and the
spiritual, in the work of God. In his zeal there
is urged upon him the use of carnal weapons for
spiritual ends. The devil can always suggest
short cuts by which the world may be won and
the Cross escaped. All these,” for a mere bend
of the knee. Is it not the motive that gives the
moral quality to an act ? What harm can come
of an outward conformity for so good an end ?
Thus the very fire of the Spirit’s zeal for the king¬
dom leads men to listen to the suggestions of the
tempter, and having begun in the Spirit they end
in the flesh.

The Spirit-filled are tempted, but in the Spirit
they prevail. Their attitude in temptation is
marked by discernment, antipathy, antagonism,
and authority. They are taught of the Spirit
by whom they are led. Filled with Christ’s
Spirit they abhor sin and hate the devil, and hate
him most when he comes in the guise of sanctity
and holy zeal. Baptized into the Saviour’s

I

238 HUMANITY AND GOD

spirit they seek the destruction of the devil
and all his works; knowing that their Lord has
spoiled principalities and powers, they com¬
mand with authority the enemy of their souls.
No more shaking and fear ; no more humiliation
and defeat; the Spirit-filled are more than con¬
querors through the indwelling might of God.
They prevail in the secret places of the soul and
are kept from sins of the spirit and the mind.
The imagination is cleansed, desire purified, and
every thought brought into captivity to the obed¬
ience of Christ. The fulness of the Spirit brings
decisive, abiding, and abounding conquest over
temptation. Our defence is the all-pervading
fire of the Divine presence.

The Spirit-filled life is a life of service.

V. 14-16. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit

into Galilee i and a fame went out concerning
Him through aU the region round about. And
He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of
all, and He came to Nazareth, where He had
been brought up.”

The baptism of the Spirit is a call and equip¬
ment for service. It is still necessary to empha¬
sise the elementary truth that we are saved to
serve. M!any Christians are but half-pagans,
Theydiave a pagan conception of God, a pagan
idea of religion, and they live a pagan life labelled
with Christian names. To some, religion is a

THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE 239

luxury. Worship must be smooth, soft and sooth¬
ing, that their senses may be lulled and gratified.
Truth must excite the intellect, and Church
organisation yield to their whims and flatter their
vanity. To others, religion is a 'penance. It is a
system of self-mortification for the good of the
soul. They fill up their programme with self-
imposed crosses, denying themselves all pleasant
things, and forcing themselves to do disagreeable
things that their own righteousness may be estab¬
lished. To many, religion is an invest'ment
seeking a return with interest in this life or the
next. Christianity is not for self-indulgence, not
for self-mortification, not for self-interest, but for
service. Everything in the work of the Spirit is
preparatory and subservient to the ministry of the
kingdom of Christ.

The preparation, the call, and the equipment
for Christian service is of the Holy Ghost. Ex¬
perience is the University in which He prepares
His workers, the vision of the open heavens is His
call, and the fulness of His coming is the equip¬
ment. The new religion of humanity declares
these unnecessary for service, but its goal is not
the kingdom of God, but the kingdom of man.
For the service of God, man needs both the Divine
vision and the gift of power ; and the only ade¬
quate service of man is in the service of God.
Apart from Him there can be no accurate gauge

240 HUMANITY AND GOD

of man’s need, nor adequate resources for their
supply. There can be no salvation of man but in

the power of the Spirit of God.

This is His work. The distribution of gifts,
the appointment for service, and the enduement
of power are all with Him. His operations are
not always attended with startling results. He
does not work apart from nature’s provision, but
He possesses and vitalises every natural gift. It is
the power of God working in each for some parti¬
cular service. Sometimes there seem to be great
gaps between vision and sphere, gifts and oppor¬
tunity, but there is no caprice and nothing arbi¬
trary in the method of the Spirit. The coming
of the Spirit of Power will not make all apostles,
nor all evangelists. It will not secure for all the
same manifest results, but it will fill each to the
full limit of his powers ; it will quicken, sanctify,
and strengthen every faculty to the utmost of its
capacity, and it will make every one efficient and
effective in the work to which he is called in the
will of God. The Spirit-filled have illumination,
inspiration, and force. The Spirit instructs in
all details of policy and method, inspires the right
word in public utterance and private speech, and
invests the worker with the gift of power. Men
may not receive him, but they cannot ignore Him.
They may not be converted, but if not, they will
make haste to thrust Him beyond their border.

THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE

241

This is our one great need. In no age has the
Christian Church been so equipped on the human
side as now. The material and mental resources
for effective service were never so great. We
have great wealth, magnificent buildings, and
splendid appliances. The Churches never had
such scholarship, culture, and social influence.
All these are channels of great opportunity for the
salvation of the world, but there is no flood. The
magnificent channels carry but a dribbling stream
instead of rivers. Our need is not more Churches
and better appliances, but a universal baptism of
the Spirit of God. Material prosperity and in¬
tellectual pride are our greatest peril. When we
increase in riches and social influence we are in
danger of substituting them for the simple and
primal elements of power, and then we find it
easy to raise anything but men.

The prayer-meeting becomes impossible, the
social revives, but the spiritual dies and con¬
versions cease. The river dries up because there
is no rain in the land. What a difference a
flood-tide of the Spirit would make in our
Churches ! Spirit-filled men in the pulpit :
Spirit-filled singers in the choir : Spirit-filled men
at the door and in the aisles : Spirit-filled men in
the official meetings : Spirit-filled men at the
prayer-meeting : Spirit-filled men seeking the lost
in street and shop, home and by-way! We

i6

HUMANITY AND GOD

242

lack nothing for service but the real Christianity
which is the reign of Jesus in the fulness of the
Spirit.

The Spirit-filled life is full of joy.

Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.” “ Be not
drunken with wine wherein is riot, but be filled
with the Spirit: speaking one to another in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and mak¬
ing melody with your heart to the Lord ; giving
thanks always for all things in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father ; sub-
iecting yourselves one to another in the fear of
Christ.”

The fruit of the Spirit is joy.” He floods the
soul with light and gladness and praise. The
Spirit-filled sing and give thanks to God. Their
joy springs up from within their souls, a perpetual
fountain shimmering with light. They carry
with them a refreshing and infectious gladness,
and an abiding consciousness of] peace. A joy¬
less religion dishonours God. The man that
repines and mopes, grumbles and growls, and goes
about depressed and discouraged, is not living in
the fulness of the Spirit. When He fills the soul
it is as when men feel the tingling sensation of
wine. It thrills and exhilarates the soul with an
unspeakable sense of joy. The gladness will not
manifest itself in all people in the same way. Water
bubbles when it boils, but fat reveals its boiling

THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE 243

by being still. It is not a question of bubbling
or not bubbling ; it is a question of boiling. There
are diversities of manifestation, but all must be
filled, and being filled rejoice evermore.

We cannot be gladsome by resolution. The
conviction that we ought to be happy will never
make us happy. Joy is a fruit, the natural pro¬
duct of an inner life. There is nothing more
gruesome than soulless mirth, the hideous laughter
of- the mouth without the laughter of the eyes.
The joy of the Christian is the unconscious ripple
of the soul living in the fulness of life and light.
Make a man happy and his heart will sing, and
when the heart sings, it will find some way of mak¬
ing a joyful noise. Every revival creates a new
hymn-book. When the soul is stirred it needs
no hireling to send forth its praise.

How does the fulness of the Spirit open a foun¬
tain of joy ? Moods are not lawless. What is
the Spirit’s secret of perpetual gladness ? The
Spirit makes men glad with the consciousness of
God, and a God-like enthusiasm for out-flowing.
The soul sees God. When they stoned Stephen,
‘‘ he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up
steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God,
and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.”
He rejoiced in the exalted Christ, and the ulti¬
mate triumph of His cause. Men shout at the
sight of their King. The Spirit-filled live in a

Ac/s vii
55 -

HUMANITY AND GOD

lieb. ix.
24.

244

vision of the opened heavens, and that is why they
rejoice amid the tumults of earth. Where others
see nothing but disaster and darkness they behold
the Glory of God. Life is linked with the throne
of the Father in Christ Jesus. He can ‘‘give
thanks always for all things.” That is not cant.
What impressed the representatives of the press
at the international gathering of the Salvation
Army was the singing faces of the people. One
of them thought he had got at the secret of their
happiness in an incident, that was not in the pro¬
gramme. Standing on the main) staircase of the
hall, he saw a Salvationist coming up with a small
boy in a red jersey beside him. The boy fell.
When he was lifted to his feet tears were in his
eyes and a woeful look on his face. Taking hold
of his hand, the father said, “ Don’t cry, laddie,
say Alleluia! ” The lad looked up through his
tears and said, “ A-A-Alleluia, F-F-Father,” and
went smiling into the hall. The press-man
argued that if the religion of these people made
them say Alleluia ! through their tears, it was no
wonder they were happy. And he was right.

They rejoice because they share God’s enthus
iasm for giving. Jesus Christ “ through the
eternal spirit offered Himself without blemish
unto God ” : and in the same offering He gave
Himself for sinful man. Pentecost was followed
by an enthusiastic sale of lands, and the offering

THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE

24s

of great gifts to God for the service of men. “It
is more blessed to give than to receive.” Misers
never sing. The life that is poured forth for
others is always full of joy. With gladness it
yields to subjection that it may find occasion to
serve.

There is no life like the life filled witn the Spirit.
It is beyond the power of speech to set forth its
glory and its might. Filled with all the fulness
of God, energised and sustained by His indwelling,
more than conqueror in His strength, sharing His
ministry, rejoicing in His glory, it transcends
human power to describe ; but it is every man’s
privilege to realise it in his own soul. The Spirit
waits to enter and abide ; to take possession and
endue with life and power.

Mendelssohn once .visited the Cathedral at
Fribourg, and having heard the great organ went
into the organ loft and asked to be allowed to play
it. The old organist in jealousy for his instru¬
ment at first refused, but was at length prevailed
upon, and allowed the stranger to try what was
claimed to be the greatest organ in Europe. After
standing by in an ecstasy of delight and amaze¬
ment, he suddenly laid his hands on the shoulders
of the inspired musician and exclaimed, “ Who
are you f What is your name ? ” “ Mendels¬

sohn,” replied the player, and with tears the old
man exclaimed, “ And can it be I had so nearly

246 HUMANITY AND GOD

refused to let Mendelssohn touch this organ ? ”
The Holy Spirit asks possession of your nature
with all its possibilities and powers. Only He
can fill your life and evoke from it all its melody
and power. To be filled with the Spirit is to
live the life of God.

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION

24f

“ This we also pray for, even your perfecting.’’—2 Cor. xiii. 9,

348

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION

There is probably no subject Christian teachers
touch so reluctantly as that of Christian Per¬
fection. This is due partly to the difficulties of
definition, and partly to the fact that it lays
one open to misunderstanding. A sharp shaft
of ridicule may be more damaging than logic.
An argument can be met, but there is no answer
to a sneer, and the fear of being thought a
Pharisee has silenced many on the subject of
perfection. A still deeper reason for reluctance
is the conscious gulf that lies between the doc¬
trine and experience. It is not easy to urge
others to perfection while our own lives fall
short; and it is easy to take refuge in the differ¬
ences and inconsistencies of those who profess
it, and hold our peace. Such silence is neither
courageous nor guiltless; for while there may
be but little hope of agreement in definition,
there can be no doubt the Scriptures speak of
a perfection that is both attainable and im¬
perative.

The Scriptures command perfection, promise

249

HUMANITY AND GOD

Phil, iii.

t2.

250

perfection, and give examples of perfection.
God does not mock us with impossible com¬
mands. For every demand He makes there is
adequate grace supplied. A command is the
reverse side of a promise, and a promise the
reverse side of a command. Every obligation
is a privilege, and every privilege an obligation.
Noah, Abraham, and Job are all spoken of as
perfect before God, and S. Paul exhorts the
perfect in his Epistle to the Philippians. It
will readily be objected that these men were
far from perfect. Noah got drunk, Abraham
told lies, and Job said some bitter things in his
affliction, though he held to his integrity with
remarkable tenacity. Even S. Paul in the same
chapter where he speaks of the perfect, speaks of
himself, “ Not that I have already attained, or
am already made perfect.”

There is an imperfect perfection. All per¬
fection is relative except the perfection of God.
Christian perfection does not indicate finality
but fitness. A thing may be very imperfect as
compared with its ultimate development, and
yet be perfect in its present stage. Noah, we
are told, was perfect in his generation, and it
would be unfair to judge him by any other.
The Sermon on the Mount corrects the deliver¬
ance of Sinai, but the law of Sinai was perfect
for its time and work. A child may be perfect

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION 251

as a child, but very imperfect judged by the
manhood it will ultimately reach. In the end¬
less progression of the Christian life every goal
is a fresh starting point. Christian perfection
is neither absolute nor angelic, and to complete
the orthodox round, neither is it Adamic, but
Christian.

1. The meaning of Perfection.

Much of the difficulty concerning the subject
has arisen from a confusion of terms. There
is a perfection that is future and final, and there
is a perfection that is practical and present.
In the original Scriptures the two kinds of per¬
fection are distinguished by the use of different
words, but the English unfortunately has but
one word for both. Our conceptions of the
practical and present perfection will be simpli¬
fied if we study the word in its non-doctrinal
application. The Jewish law required of
traders, ‘‘ a perfect and just weight, a perfect
and just measure.’' That is plain enough.
Every purchaser believes in perfection behind
the counter. In the Old Testament it is said
of several kings that they did right, but not with
a perfect heart. Their righteousness fell short
of the standard measurement, and in every
case their deficiency arose from lack of moral
and spiritual qualities. The heart was divided.

Deut. XXV.

15-

Matt , iv.

21 .

Heb. xi. 3
Matt, xxi,

i6.

Gal. vi. I.
I Cor. i.

lO.

\ Thess.
iii. lo.

252 HUMANITY AND GOD

In tlie New Testament one of the words trans¬
lated perfect is used of mending nets, adjusting
worlds, arranging of harmony in music, repairing a
fault, fitting to parts, and supplying deficiencies.
The fisherman has no difficulty in understanding
perfection as applied to his nets. They must
be made fit for their purpose. The engineer
knows the need for perfection in fitting part to
part, if his machinery is to do its work. The
musician understands the necessity for balance
and proportion in the preparation of harmony.
The pedestrian needs limbs perfect in their
soundness, and must have the dislocated joint
put right if he is to walk. The whole body has
to be perfectly jointed if it is to do its work,
and nothing can be perfect while any lack re¬
mains. To make perfect, therefore, means to
make fit, to put in order, adjust, adapt, arrange,
and equip, so as to secure effectiveness and
efficiency for the result to be achieved. What¬
ever is perfect must be without deficiency,
without division, without admixture of alien
elements.

The meaning is the same when applied to
Christian life and experience. It is the ad¬
justment, cleansing, and equipment of man’s
nature for all the purposes of the life in Christ.
It is nothing more than making man fit in every
part to do the will of God. Everything that

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION 253

hinders and dislocates is taken away ; the powers
of mind, heart, and body are restored to their
true order ; and every need of grace and power
is supplied. There is no deficiency, no dis¬
order, no discord; the man of God is made
perfect for,'and in the will of God. Wesley’s
defiinition is short, simple and scriptural: Pure
love alone reigning in the heart and life^ this is
the whole of Christian ferjectionP

II. All the elements of Christian charac¬
ter ARE SET forth IN THE ScRIPTURES AS CAPABLE
OF Perfection.

The elements that make up Christian character
are Faith, Hope, Love ; and each of these may
be perfect.

I. Faith.

“ Night and day praying exceedingly that we
may see your face, and may perfect that which is
lacking in your faith.” Their faith was deficient.
It lacked something, but whatever it was in
which they fell short, it was capable of being
supplied. It is not unlikely the Apostle antici¬
pated this perfecting in the prayer, And the
God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly;
and may your spirit, and soul and body be pre¬
served entire, without blame at the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that
calleth you, who will also do it.”

I Thess.
iii. 10.

I Thess. V

23. 24-

HUMANITY AND GOD

254

Thou seest that faith wrought with His
works, and hy works was faith made perfect.”
The point common to both these passages is
that faith map be perfect. It may be made
perfect bp instruction as in the case of the
Thessalonians, or bp works as in the teaching
of S. James. Whatever the process of perfecting,
the perfect is possible. Life map be lived with¬
out doubt, without wavering, and without un¬
belief. At aU times and in all things, the heart
map be fullp assured in the truth and will of
God.

2. Hope.

“Be sober and set pour hope perfectlp on the
grace that is to be brought unto pou at the
revelation of Jesus Christ.” In verse 21, faith
and hope are joined together, but hope comes
after faith. Faith plants its feet securelp upon
the certainties of the word. It examines,
proves, and stakes everpthing upon assured truth.
It builds on the rock. Hope gives wings to the
soul. It dwells in the future. Its home is
within the veil. Though billows and darkness
be on everp side, hope soars above them all,
and out-flping the storm, dwells in the calm of
eternal dap. It is not riotous, unbridled imagina¬
tion, but a sure and certain hope born of a clear
and proved conviction of the soul. We are

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION

255

begotten “ unto a living hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inherit¬
ance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that
fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for you,
who by the power of God are guarded through
faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in
the last time.” This living hope may be set
perfectly on the grace that is to be revealed at the
revelation of Jesus Christ. An unquenchable,
eternal, perfect hope!

3. Love.

Herein is love made perfect with us, that
we may have boldness in the day of judgment :
because as He is, even so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love ; but perfect love casteth
out fear : because fear hath punishment : and he
that feareth is not made perfect in love.”

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind.”

‘‘ Above all things put on Love, which is the
bond of perfectness.”

Love made perfect! Heart, soul, and mind
cleansed from every defilement, united and
harmonised, every part enthused with holy
fervour and reverent devotion ! When love is
perfect there is no fear because there is no sense
of guilt, no unrest because no strife, no coldness

I PeU
3 - 5 *

I John iv.
17, 18.

A". Matt,
xxii. 37.

Col. iii. 14.

256 HUMANITY AND GOD

because no sin. Tbe soul made perfect in love
is delivered from all that separated it from God
and divided man’s nature against itself. It is
restored and sanctified, renewed and adjusted,
cleansed and filled with the presence of God.
Love reigns, love radiates, love inspires, love
transforms. Love is the sum of duty and the
inspiration of life.

Perfect faith; perfect hope; perfect love;
these make the perfect man in the stature of
the fulness of Christ.

This perfection is guaranteed as a definite
and present experience. It is not the consum¬
mation of the Christian life but its condition.
The perfecting of the saints at Christ’s appearing
is an altogether different matter. That is the
end of our faith ; this is its preparation for the
life of obedience in the will of God. It is the
sanctification, adjustment, and equipment of
man’s nature that he may be a fit temple of an
indwelling God, made meet for a life of holy
fellowship, and an efficient instrument for holy
service; and since the Christian life has to be
lived in the present world, the perfection is for
present experience and work. It is not final
but initiatory, not beyond the possibility of
development but essentially progressive. Surely
no man will say God is not able to cleanse per¬
fectly, renew entirely, and endue completely,

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION 257

every part of man redeemed by His grace and
surrendered to His will. We Have a Saviour
who “ is able to save to the uttermost,” and “ to
make all grace abound unto you ; that ye, having
always all sufficiency in everything may abound
unto every good work.” He is a perfect
Deliverer; Jesus Christ is a perfect Saviour, and
the Spirit is a perfect sanctifier, sustainer, and
strengthener in the heart of man. Perfection is
possible because it is the work of the perfect
and infinite God.

III. Christian Perfection experienced in
THE Heart is Manifest in the Life.

By their fruits ye shall know them.” The
perfection of faith, hope, and love bears fruit
unto perfection in the graces of the Christian
life. The fitness of machinery is proved in its
working. Th<^ professions of efficiency must be
tested by results. Does the perfecting of grace
in the soul result in perfection in the practical
out-working of the daily life ? Here again the
meaning of the term must be kept in mind.
Christian perfection does not mean faultlessness
but blamelessness. It does not mean that a
thing has reached the excellence beyond which
there is no possibility of improvement, but that
the work is perfect in motive, and perfect accord¬
ing to the capacity of the worker. That an act is

17

Heb. vii
25.

2 Cor. ix.

8 .

fas., i. 4,

258 HUMANITY AND GOD

perfect in this sense implies that it is simple in
aim, and faithful in execution. So with the
Christian graces in the man made perfect. They
lack no essential quality, and are adequate to the
strain that is put upon them. Every exercise
develops and improves them, but they are suffi¬
cient for immediate demand.

I. The First-fruit of the Three-fold Per¬
fection OF Faith, Hope, and Love, is Patience.

Let patience have its perfect work, that
ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing.”

In I Thess. i. 3, the patience of hope follows
the work of faith and the labour of love. Patience
is the child of the three graces. The secret of
patience is love, hopefulness, and confidence.
Where any one of these elements is lacking
patience will be wanting, but where these arc,
patience will have its perfect work; and surely
we have need of patience.

The Christian made perfect in faith, hope,
and love will be perfect in his patience with
God. Jonah is not the only servant of the Lord
who has got angry with his God. Neither is
the impatient zeal of James and John which would
invoke the consuming fires of heaven unknown
among us. The long-suffering forbearance of
God provokes earnest souls to impatience. The
utter absence of Divine interference with

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION 259

tragedy and suffering, and the apparent indiffer¬
ence of the Eternal to helpless anguish, Wring
the cry from the heart. Where is God ? As the
earnest reformer broods over the appalling
scenes that confront him, and listens to heart¬
breaking stories of cruelty and blood, he is driven
to wonder how God can sit in the heavens and
witness such wretchedness and suffering. The
massacre of helpless women and the butchery
of little children; treachery, bloodshed, hypo¬
crisy and devilry lie open to His omniscient gaze.
We look up to the stars from the weltering mass
of moaning humanity, and wonder why He
does not step out from the heavens, and break
the forces of wickedness in pieces. We would.
Who has not clenched his fist in the presence
of monstrous iniquity and vowed what he would
do if he were God ? He is mercifully patient
with our impatience, and when our anger is
spent, and we have sobbed out our grief He
lulls the disquieted soul to rest like a tired child.
Then faith returns to its moorings, hope spreads
its wings again, and love waits in patience for
the coming of the Lord. Though the Kingdom
of God come slowly and all things seem to
continue as they were, we know that He who
cannot lie has sworn to His Son that He shall have
the nations for His inheritance, and the utter¬
most parts of the earth for His possession; and

Ps. ii. 8

Heb. ii
8, 9.

Isa. xlii.
4 -

Jas. V

lO, II.

260 HUMANITY AND GOD

though, we see not yet all things subjected to
Hinij we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour.
In that vision faith rests, hope sings, and love
waits.

To many, patience with people is more diffi¬
cult than patience with God. Of the Messiah
it was said, ‘‘ He shall not fail nor be discouraged.’’
He was patient with weak and troublesome
people. In Him patience had its perfect work.
S. Paul speaks of patient endurance as the
crowning triumph of grace. He was often
tempted to be impatient with fickle and slow
people. Steadfast, and flaming with zeal him¬
self, he marvelled at the readiness with which
people were turned aside, and the slowness with
which they learned the things of God. There
is nothing can make us patient with trying
people except faith in them, hope for them, and
love of them.

In every lot we have need of patience. S.
James exhorts us to take the prophets “for an
example of suffering and of patience, reminding
us that we call them blessed which endured, and
have seen the end of the Lord, how that He is
full of pity, and merciful. There were times
when even men of faith could not sing. They
hanged their harps on the willows of their grief.
But they always had hope. They hung up their
harps but they did not break them, nor sell them,

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION 261

nor fling them away : they simply hung them
up till their hearts could sing again. Things are
hung up to be taken down again. You cannot
tear the music to-day, but the song will return,
and you will yet praise Him Who is the health
of your countenance and your God. In such
seasons let us hold fast the confession of our
hope that it waver not; for He is faithful that
promised.” It is in patient endurance the soul
is won and the promise received. There is no
interpreter of life’s mysteries like patience. To
them that wait upon the Lord, that do not
hurry in their impatience, there shall be given
strength, and light, and joy.

Grace will enable them to be patient under
provocation that is malicious and unjust. Read
the words of S. Peter, ‘‘ For what glory is it, if
when ye sin, and are buffeted for it, ye shall
take it patiently ? But if, when ye do well, and
suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently, this is
acceptable with God.” When people are un¬
reasonable, unjust, and ungrateful, when the
more you try the more they grumble, the perfect
life is patient even then. The crowning mark
of the perfection of the patience of the life
made perfect is in the passage : Walk worthily
of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in
every good work, and increasing in the knowledge
of God; strengthened with all power according to

Heb^ X.

23.

6 '. Luke
xxi. 19.

Heb. X.

36.

I Pet. ii.
20.

Col. i, 10,
II, 12.

262

HUMANITY AND GOD

the might of His glory, unto all fatience and
long-sufering with joy; giving thanks unto the
Father^ Patience and long-suffering with joy
and thanksgiving ! That surely is the hall-mark
of perfect patience.

C$l iv. 12.

2 Tim. iii.
16, 17.

Heb. xiii.
20, 21.

2. Perfect Obedience to the Will of God.

Holiness is the objective of grace. Adjust¬
ment and cleansing, Divine indwelling and in¬
working are all for the purpose of holiness of
heart and righteousness of life. Goodness is the
goal of all God’s working. Faith is made per¬
fect by its works; hope purifies by its vision ; and
love not only keeps the commandments but sets
them to music.

‘‘ That ye may stand perfect and fully assured
in all the will of God.”

Every Scripture inspired of God is also pro¬
fitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction which is in righteousness : that
the man of God may be complete (A.V. fer-
fect), furnished completely unto every good
work.”

‘‘ Now the God of peace, who brought again
from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep
with the blood of the eternal covenant, even
our Lord Jesus, make you perfect in every good
thing to do His will, working in us that which
is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ,

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION 263

to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.’’

Perfect and fully assured in all the will of
God ; perfect, furnished completely unto every
good work ; perfect, in every good thing to do
His will. Christian perfection means that a
man lives in the assurance of God’s approval;
that he is equipped and abounds in good works,
and that his outward life is inspired and ener¬
gised by an indwelling and inworking God.

He not only does the will of God ; he revels in it 9
it is his meat and drink. He not only abstains
from evil, he abounds in goodness. He not only
attains to holiness, but in his virtue there is the
spontaneity of life and the ease of power. Be¬
ware of all teaching of perfection divorced from
obedience. Faith that makes void the law,
hope that does not purify, and love that does not
keep the commandments, are a blasphemy and a
lie. The soul made perfect in grace dwells in
God and obeys His will. Business, friendship,
home, pleasure, and all else are adjusted to His
mind and maintained according to His pleasure.

Such perfect obedience is only possible to perfect
faith, perfect hope, and perfect love; but to
faith, hope, and love all things are possible.

3. A Perfect Tongue.

‘‘If any stumbleth not in word, the same ui.*.-
is a perfect man.”

Matt. xii.
34 , 37 -

264 HUMANITY AND GOD

“ Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no
trifle,” said Michael Angelo. Perfection in all
God’s work extends to all the minutiae of His
operations. He takes the same infinite pains
over an insect’s wing as in the making of
a planet. The test of perfection is in its
perfection of finish. The perfection of the
perfect man finds its test in his speech. The
tongue reveals the heart. It gives form and
expression to the hidden things of the soul,
‘‘ Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth
speaketh.” “ By thy words thou shalt be justi¬
fied, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”
Who can keep his tongue ? The hasty, thought¬
less, idle, false, and fiery words slip off so easily.
It is a little member, but it has tremendous
power, and is very difficult to control. It can
only be cleansed and kept from within. A clean
tongue is possible only to a clean heart, and a
perfect tongue only to a perfect man. Here,
again, salvation is in faith, hope, and charity.
Evil speaking is a special snare to those who
have received special gifts of grace. Censorious¬
ness is the besetting sin of the sanctified. A
watch, therefore, should be set upon the lips,
for no man is perfect whose tongue is not kept
from evil. Christian perfection magnifies the
grace of God that is able to keep from stumbling
in word as well as in deed.

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION

265

4. Perfect Peace.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose
mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in
Thee.”

What a promise ! Perfect peace ! Who can
fathom its depth and meaning ? And yet, it
is the natural result of adjustment, adaptation,
and power. What is peace but the stillness of
harmony, proportion, and balance ? When there
is peace it means that all the varying forces have
been so blended as to become a unit. It is the
stillness and stability which is the perfection
of energy. The earth is still because of its
velocity. Its stability is in its speed. So in
the man made perfect. His nature is unified
and harmonised with God. All the forces that
centre in the heart are so subjected, balanced,
unified, and kept, that there is unbroken, eternal,
and perfect peace. Perfect peace ! No friction,
no controversy, no strife, no shrinking, no
strain, no coercion, no condemnation ! Peace,
perfect peace ! It is a blessed, cloudless life
of unbroken harmony. Peace for all time and
all the time, so perfect that neither earth nor
Hell can disturb it, as unchanging and abiding
as the God of peace from whom it comes. This
also is the fruit of perfect faith, perfect hope,
and perfect love. Without these there can be
no peace, but where these are perfect, perfect
peace abides.

Isa, xxvi.
3 -

Heb. vii.

IQ.

Heb. 4X. 9,

Matt, xix,
21.

2 Cer, vii.

I.

266 HUMANITY AND GOD

IV. If thou wouldst be Perfect ! ”

For such a life who among the redeemed has
not sighed and prayed ? Not only for per¬
fection, which shall be ours when we see Jesus
face to face in the Father’s House, but for the
life of patience, obedience, victory, and peace
in this present life, our hearts have cried with
agony and tears. To-day the Saviour looks
and challenges us to perfection. The very

if ” assumes the possibility. He takes no low
views of the possibilities of grace. His call
is to perfection. How then may we attain unto
a life so glorious ? We must remember that
it is not by law. ‘'The law made nothing
perfect.” Neither is it by anything we offer
to God. Gifts and sacrifices cannot make the
worshipper perfect. Perfection is neither by
the law of Moses, nor by the law of the Sanc¬
tuary. It is the work and gift of God, and can
only become ours by Consecration, Cleansing,
and Indwelling.

1. ‘‘If thou wouldest be perfect, go, sell
that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou
shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come,
follow Me.”

That is the first great commandment of the
perfect life: absolute and unconditional sur¬
render of the whole life to God.

2. “ Having therefore these promises, be-

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION 267

loved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defile¬
ment of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness
in the fear of God.”

After surrender, cleansing. The Temple of
the Lord must be clean before it can be filled
with the glory of His presence.

3. Now the God of peace . . . make you
perfect in every good thing to do His will,
working in us that which is well-pleasing in His
sight, through Jesus Christ.”

‘‘ Christ liveth in me.”

After cleansing, indwelling. The life is not
the life of the perfect man, but of the perfect
Christ who dwells and works in the soul by His
Spirit. It is God’s work. “ The God of all
grace . . . shall Himself perfect, stablish,
strengthen you.” It is the work of the perfect
Worker, and everyone whom He perfects shall
be as his Master. Faithful is He that calleth
you, who will also do it,” and when He has done
it, we need not proclaim it, for perfection, above
all things, cannot be hid. ‘‘ Now the God of
peace, who brought again from the dead the
great Shepherd of the sheep, with the blood
of the eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus,
make you perfect in every good thing to do
His will, working in us that which is well¬
pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to
whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Hth. xiii.
so, 31.

Gal. ii. so.

I Pet. V.
10.

Luke vi.

40.

I These.

V . 34.

/

‘'K

\

\

t

THE CHURCH AND THE
KINGDOM

269

/

“ And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build My^ Church ; and the gates of Hades shall not
prevail against it.

“ I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven :
and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in
Heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed
in Heaven.’^— S. Matt. xvi. i8, 19.

THE CHURCH AND THE KINGDOM

Creeds are the creation of experience. They
are the expression of the truth that has been
realised in the soul. A creed repeated on the
mere authority of another is a meaningless form
utterly without value as a saving power. The
letter killeth. It is another man’s experience,
without any answering note in our own, and truth
can only quicken and save as it is experienced in
the heart. However void and dead forms of
truth may become, they were born of vital pro¬
cesses within the soul, and came into being throb¬
bing with the life-blood of the man who had been
stirred and thrilled by their power. That is why
we find every development in the revelation of
truth inseparably identified with some personality.
The truth defined and proclaimed is the truth as
it has been realised in the man to whom it was
revealed. The man stands for the faith. The
Gospel of each Apostle is the Gospel of the Christ
as revealed in him. S. Francis of Assisi stands
for brotherhood and voluntary poverty in the

HUMANITY AND GOD

272

love of God and the service of man. Martin
Luther stands for the Reformation with its Gospel
of free access to the Father. Oliver Cromwell
stands for the freedom of conscience in the wor¬
ship and service of God. George Fox stands for
the inward light in the person of the indwelling
Spirit. John Wesley stands for the consuming
passion of saving grace in Christ Jesus.

In the course of time it comes to pass that the
person who first revealed the truth is so exalted
as to obscure the very truth he once revealed. In¬
stead of being the embodiment of the truth he
becomes the substitute for it. Their followers
range themselves under their names as leaders
rather than receive their teaching. The creed
becomes a standard of orthodoxy instead of the
expression of a living faith. Then men fight for
it and fight with it, instead of living it. Men
shout the names of leaders but do not follow them.
The name of the man counts for more than the
truth, and when such is the case, it becomes neces¬
sary for the man to be eliminated that the truth
may be saved. The personality has become a
hindrance to the very truth to which it gave life
and power.

That is exactly what has happened to the teach¬
ing of Jesus in this passage. It has been obscured
by the very man who inspired it. Peter has to
be eliminated from the passage before we can get

CHURCH AND KINGDOM 273

at its real significance. He was essential to its
expression, but lie is not necessary to its interpre¬
tation. Having called it forth lie is no longer an
essential part of it, and may be removed without
loss. He belongs to the occasion rather than to
the substance of the truth. It is easy to under¬
stand the prominence given to his personality.
He was the first to confess that Jesus was the Son
of the Living God. The Christ welcomed his
confession, and greeted Peter as the first of a great
multitude who would receive the same revelation,
and make the same confession. That multitude
would constitute His Church. Peter was the
first stone in the spiritual building laid upon the
foundation-rock. He was the first, and in him
stood represented at that moment the entire
Church of Christ. In the birth-hour of His
Church, and in the presence of its first member
He defined its character, declared its mission, and
spoke of both as represented in the person of the
first confessor of His Name. It is not the per¬
sonality of Peter that is of abiding and essential
importance, but the confession he made and the
declaration it called forth. This is proved by the
rebuke which so soon followed the benediction.
The very same Apostle is addressed as a messenger
of Satan doing not the work of God but of the
devil. Peter confessing is the rock. Peter re¬
buking is a stone of stumbling. It is the truth

18

274 HUMANITY AND GOD

that is of eternal importance, not the man through

whom it comes.

The passage sets forth—

I. The Character of Christ’s Church ;

II. The Relation of the Church to the
Kingdom ;

III. The Condition of its Authority and
Power.

I

Jesus did not say He would build a Church, or
even the Church, but I will build My Church.

It is not often He speaks of anything as His own.
He speaks of “ My Father,” and after that, noth¬
ing remains to Him but His people : “ My
Sheep,” “My brethren,” “My Church.” He
spoke also of His life, His peace, and His joy, but
these were phases of experience rather than actual
possessions. In the great act of self-emptying
He surrendered all but His Father and His Church.
From the fact that His Church is retained with
the Father, we may get some glimpse of the value
He set, and still sets upon His people. They are
His peculiar possession. His only wealth, and His

eternal glory.

The Church is Christ’s by the gift of God.
s. Matt. « Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,
but My Father which is in Heaven.” T.his is in
harmony with all His references to His flock.

CHURCH AND KINGDOM

27s

No one knoweth the Son, save the Father.”
The revelation of the Son is from the Father,
even as the revelation of the Father is through
the Son.

All that which the Father giveth Me. shall
come unto'Me ; and him that cometh to Me I will
in no wise cast out.” Speaking of the protection
of His own, He said, ‘‘ My Father, which hath
given them unto Me, is greater than all, and no
one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s
hand.” In the great intercessory prayer He
speaks throughout of those who have received
eternal life as the Father’s gift to Him. I mani¬
fested Thy name unto the men whom Thou
gavest Me out of the world : Thine they were,
and Thou gavest them to Me.” I pray for
them : I pray not for the world, but for those
whom Thou hast given Me ; for they are Thine :
and all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine
are Mine : and I am glorified in them.” ‘‘ Holy
Father, keep them in Thy name which Thou hast
given Me.” Father, that which Thou hast
given Me, I will that, where I am, they also may
be with Me ; that they may behold My glory,
which Thou hast given Me.” When the Father
of glory raised Jesus Christ from the dead. He
made Him to sit at His right hand in the Heavenly
places, far above all rule, and authority, and
power, and dominion, and every name that is

S. Matt
xi. 27.

.S'. John
vi. 37-

S, John

X. 2g.

S, John
xvli. 6.

S, John
xvii. 9,1 o

S. John
xvii. II.

S. John
xviL 24.

Ejk.\.

20-23.

276 HUMANITY AND GOD

named, not only in this world, but also in that
which is to come ; and He put all things in
subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be
Head over all things to the Church which is His
body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.”
The Church is the Father’s gift to His Son.

The Church is Christ’s also by purchase and
by conquest. How can a gift be by purchase,
and how can a purchase be by conquest ? There
is no confusion in the paradox. It needs all the
terms of Scripture to set forth the whole truth,
and where they seem to conflict there is deepest
harmony. We are His by conquest, and we are
His by the will of the Father. He redeemed us
Bph. V. with His own blood. “ Christ also loved the
Church, and gave Himself up for it; that He
might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the wash¬
ing of water with the Word, that He might pre¬
sent the Church to Himself, a glorious Church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing ; but
that it should be holy and without blemish. In
the Apocalypse Jesus is declared to be in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks, the seven stars
are in His right hand, and the doxologies of the
5,6. redeemed are, “Unto Him that loveth us, and
loosed us from our sins by His blood ; and He made
us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto His God
and Father ; to Him be the glory and the domin-
ion for ever and ever, Amen.’’

CHURCH AND KINGDOM 277

It is manifest that the Church is very precious
to Jesus its Head and Lord. It is His Bride. As
the bridegroom rejoices over his bride so does
Christ rejoice over His Church. For Her He
surrendered all, giving even His life for Her pos¬
session. Upon Her He has centred His heart
with all the ardour of a lover’s passion. To Her
He has devoted all the resources of His nature,
all the wealth of His glory, and all the glory of
His triumph. The Bride is the hope and joy of
His heart as well as His glory, in the presence of
the Father and His holy angels.

The Church is His Body. All that the body
is to man the Church is to Jesus Christ. A man’s
body is the home in which he dwells, the medium
of his manifestation, and the instrument of his
will. The Church is the Body of Christ. In it
He dwells, through it He is revealed, by it He
works. No man can despise the Church who
understands its preciousness and value to Jesus
Christ. It is impossible to conceive an intimacy
more sacred or a value more rare. To despise
the Church is to wound its Lord. The Bride¬
groom is jealous for the honour of His Bride, and
His Body is vital to all His saving purpose in the
world. He is the Head of His Church. He
keeps the Roll. Each member is known by name
to Him, and each is to Him a priceless possession,
begotten of the travail of His own soul. “ My

278 HUMANITY AND GOD

Church ”— Min e ! My very own ! The gift of
the Father, the fruit of His own passion, the pur¬
chase of His own blood, loved from the founda¬
tion of the world.

The Church is a spiritual order.

Its character is revealed in Christ’s interpreta¬
tion of its first Christian confession. Peter had
made confession that Jesus was the Christ, the
Son of the living God. Jesus declared that confes¬
sion to have come, not by observation, not by tra¬
dition, not by any process of man’s reason, but by
direct revelation of the Father. The knowledge
of the Son of God comes only through revelation.
That revelation received in the heart and con¬
fessed before men, was the qualification for fellow¬
ship in His Church. All such should be added to,
and built upon this rock. Peter is Petros^ a piece
of rock, and upon this Petra the rock, Christ will
build His Church. The Church of Christ is a
community of people of like faith with Peter, who
know Christ as he had come to know Him, and
who confess Christ as he confessed Him. The
same confession dictated by authority or received
by tradition avails nothing. To call Jesus Lord
can never save. The second-hand repetition of
another man’s experience is useless. Inspired
truth stereotypes into formula. That which was
the expression of life then continues as a custom
with all the rigid correctness of death. It is not

CHURCH AND KINGDOM 279

enough, to receive the testimony from flesh and
blood, by the traditions, customs, fashions, and
authority of man. It must come by immediate
and personal revelation.

Every member of the Living Church is a Divine
creation, enlightened by the revelation of the
Father, energised by the Divine Spirit, and
builded of God into the community of Heaven-
born souls. Nothing else can constitute a claim
to membership. There must be in each, an in¬
ward witness and an open confession. This can
be accomplished by nothing less than the direct
work of God upon the soul. It is not by rites of
baptism, or of any ecclesiastical power ; neither
is it by education and refinement. The only
entrance is by the New Birth. Only the con¬
verted have a right to membership in the Church
of Christ. It is a living Temple into which only
living stones can be built. It is not of man s
building ; its Maker and Builder is God.

This community of heaven-born witnesses is
essentially Christian. It centres in Christ. It
radiates from Him. Its life is in Him. Its ener¬
gies are directed by Him. He is its Head and its
Lord. Admission is conditioned upon knowledge
of His Person and confession of His Name. It
follows, therefore, that the Church of Christ
exists for Christ. Its first function is to fulfil His
purpose, and it must always be at the disposal of

28 o

HUMANITY AND GOD

His will. It must be true to His principles, mani¬
fest His Spirit, and be governed by His purpose.
The Cliurcli can never be warranted in any depar¬
ture from His principles in the interests of policy.
The New Testament knows nothing of policy as a
motive of conduct. Christ is Lord. The Church
exists to represent and obey Him.

Some Churches have not the Christ. They are
named by His Name, but they have thrust Him
to the door. It was at the door of a Church that
Jesus said, “ Behold, I stand at the door and
knock.” Churches that misrepresent His Spirit
and despise His conditions; Churches that are
directed by human energy and controlled by
human desire; Churches that turn the House of
God into a play-house, a place of merchandise,
and a den of thieves; Churches that admit un¬
spiritual men to their communion and unchristian
men to the service of the sanctuary ; such places
have ceased to be Churches of Jesus Christ. They
may be useful centres of social life, associations for
mutual gratification, organisations for the display
of vanity, or at best a basis for educational and
philanthropic enterprise ; but they are not Chris¬
tian Churches. The Churches need to come
back to the recognition of this simple truth, that
the Church of Christ must first be Christian.

The impregnable rock of the Church is its
spiritual character. “ The gates of Hades shall not

CHURCH AND KINGDOM 281

prevail against it.” But they will try. The only
thing the devil hates is a living witness to the
Son of God. All the forces of evil are hurled
against this centre of Divine energy and power in
the soul. Whatever is of the flesh is to his mind,
but that which is of the Spirit is fatal to his power.
The Church is always assailed for its testimony.
The reality of its revelation is challenged, and the
truth of its witness denied. So long as the Church
is content to be one of many useful institutions,
to take its place among the world’s systems of
religion and philosophy, and to claim nothing for
its Lord that may not be claimed by others, the
world will not only tolerate, but patronise, frater¬
nise, and co-operate. But when Heaven is
claimed for its authority. Divinity for its Lord, and
a personal revelation for its testimony. Hell is let
loose. Wherever there is a Spirit-born witnessing
for Christ, there the forces of evil gather. The
Living Christ realised in the soul is the defence
of His Church. Not the Church of tradition,
but the Christ directly revealed of the Spirit,
dwelling in the heart, witnessed by the lips, and
demonstrated in the life. That is the impreg¬
nable rock.

It is by the omnipotence of unquenchable life
that God always prevails. In the eighteenth
century Deism held the Churches of England in
its paralysing grip and godlessness covered the

202

HUMANITY AND GOD

land. Bishop Butler routed the Deists, and in¬
fluential societies were formed for the reformation
of the people, but it was the Evangelical Revival
that rescued the Churches, and saved the nation.
In the early seventies of the last century infidelity
of the most blatant type was rampant. The sup¬
posed conclusions of science gave apparent author¬
ity to their assumptions, and with open mouth
they poured out blasphemies. Ministers of reli¬
gion and others of the Christian faith answered
them in open debate, and in the press; but it was
the Great Revival that turned their halls of
science into houses of prayer, where the Lord
they denied demonstrated Himself in the deliver¬
ance of men from the captivity of sin and death.
God’s unanswerable argument is life. “ Ye shall
know that I am the Lord, when I have opened
your graves, and caused you to come up out of
your graves.” The defence of the Church is its
life which is the gift of God. The best evidence
of Christianity is a Christian. The all-prevailing
power is the power of the Resurrection. Against
that, the gates of Hades cannot prevail.

II

The Church holds the keys of the Kingdom.

“ I will give unto thee the keys of the
Kingdom of Heaven.” The hope of the King¬
dom is greater than that of the Church. It was

CHURCH AND KINGDOM 283

for the Kingdom the prophets looked, and it was
for the Kingdom John the Baptist called men to
prepare. The Kingdom was the theme and pro¬
mise of Christ. It was of the Kingdom He taught
continually, and now that the time of His depar¬
ture is at hand. He commits to His Church the
keys of His Kingdom. To the Jew the Kingdom
of God meant a political and social order of right¬
eousness, prosperity, and peace. To Jesus it meant
the unification of Heaven and earth : the will of
God realised on earth as in Heaven. When He
says His Kingdom is not of this world He does
not mean it is not for it. The ‘‘ world ” with
which the Kingdom is ever at war is not the world
which is the sphere and object of redeeming grace,
but the world-spirit, which seeks its gratification
within the bounds of the present. The world
He came to destroy is the rule of life by the baser
instincts of the earthly and immediate ; the world
He came to save is the sum total of humanity,
the material which is to be transformed by the
energy of a new indwelling. The field is the
world,” and the world is to become the Kingdom
of God, governed by His will; the Kingdom of
Heaven realising Heaven’s life and blessedness;
the Kingdom of Christ, saved, renewed, and in¬
spired by His Spirit. It means the redemption
of the world from sin, and fear and strife, and
its restoration to righteousness, love, and peace.

284 HUMANITY AND GOD

This is the work Jesus Christ seeks to accomplish
in the world, and for which His Church is trusted
with the keys of the Kingdom.

The Keys have been the subject of endless
controversy. Their significance, their power, and
the right to their possession have agitated the
Church for centuries. It is certain, however, that
the right to admit and exclude in the Church of
Christ was not in the Master’s thoughts. They
are not the Keys of the Church but the Keys of
the Kingdom. Their bestowal defines the rela¬
tion of the Church to the Kingdom, and the kind
of power it exercises in the Kingdom. The pos¬
session of the Keys of the Kingdom cannot mean
less than the power to open the doors of the King¬
dom to the people for whom it is established. This
is what Peter did on the day of Pentecost and in
the house of Cornelius. Others also used the
Keys. Philip opened the door at Samaria, un¬
known Christians exercised the same power at
Antioch, and Paul carried the Keys into many
lands.

The Church holds the Keys. Its work is to be
accomplished not by carnal weapons but by spiri¬
tual power. The Church carries not a sword but
a bunch of keys. Its messengers are not warriors
but preachers of the Word and missionaries of the
Cross. The Kingdom waits for the Church.
Doors remain closed till the Church brings the

CHURCH AND KINGDOM 285

Key. Jesus Christ cannot extend His Kingdom
faster than His Church is prepared to go. Chris¬
tianity is not a rule that can be imposed; it is a
life that must be propagated. It is useless simply
to tell men Jesus is the Christ. There must be a
work of God in the soul, which is the work of the
Spirit. When the vitality of the Church is low
the power of the Spirit is restrained and the King¬
dom halts. When the Church is revived the
Kingdom extends. The evangelisation of the
world is in the hands of Christ’s Church, and pro¬
ceeds according to the measure of the faith, zeal,

' and sacrifice of them that believe. To the Church
is entrusted the knowledge of Christ’s Name, the
glad teachings of His grace, and the conversion of
the world; and the Christ cannot come to the
possession of His own except as the Church opens
the door.

HI

The authority of the Church is based upon

EXPERIENCE.

The Keys were given to the Apostle who had
come to the knowledge of Christ by the revelation
of the Father. He spoke for the rest and re¬
ceived the Keys as their representative. They
stiU accompany the revelation, and are continued
only to those who abide in the fellowship and
harmony of Heaven. The power of the Keys is

286

HUMANITY AND GOD

not official, but experimental. The actions and
judgements of the Church on earth are ratified
in Heaven only when they are the exercise of
Heaven’s will. The works of Christ’s Body are
the manifestation of Christ’s mind and will. The
discernment of the moral quality of things to be
bound and loosed demands a moral faculty possible
only to those in harmony with the Divine nature,
and instructed of the Divine Spirit. To repre¬
sent Heaven upon earth requires the life of
Heaven within the soul. It is as the Church
represents Christ that its voice and judgements
are endorsed by Him.

That the authority of the Church is thus con¬
ditioned upon the Living Christ indwelling and
directing its counsels and labours is evident from
the Master’s stern rebuke of Peter. The same
Apostle He had blessed with such distinction He
flung from Him with reproach. Why ? Because
he was no longer acting as the God-taught apostle,
but as the messenger of Satan. Peter is as repre¬
sentative in the second scene as in the first. The
Church needs to carefully study them both. When
the Divine testimony is the revelation of God in
the soul, the Church has the benediction of
Heaven, but when the things of men displace the
things of God, the Church ceases to be Christ’s
representative, and becomes the servant of the
devil. Worldliness unchurches the Church.

CHURCH AND KINGDOM 287

Then the power of the Keys is lost, and the judge¬
ments are not of God but of men. Minding the
things of men and not the things of God ; putting
the human before the Divine, the earthly before
the heavenly ; that is the curse and condemnation
of the Church. Such a Church shirks the Cross.
It shrinks from crucifixion, and cries even to
the Christ: Spare Thyself ! Self-sparing leads
to self-seeking, self-indulgence, self-glorification.
Saving ourselves we lose the power to save. Con¬
fession is the starting-point for the Cross. “ From
that time,” Jesus began to teach His disciples
that the Cross was the badge of discipleship, and
crucifixion the way of conquest.

The Church exists for the Kingdom. Some
day they will be one, but at present they do not
coincide. The Kingdom of God is larger than
the Christian Church, for the Church spiritual
is not identical with the boundaries of the organ¬
ised Churches, and the Kingdom of God includes
all who love righteousness and practise charity,
many of whom have never heard of Christ, but
are accepted of God. The Kingdom is not the
Church; the Church is the means for realising
the Kingdom. The Church is not an end but
an agent and an instrument. What a glorious
mission to open the prison doors to them that are
bound, and the way of life to them that sit in
darkness and the shadow of death ! The work of

288 HUMANITY AND GOD

the Church is at the gates of Hell, not one of
which can prevail against its power. What a
terrible responsibility to leave men in the agonies
of Hell when we have the Keys of deliverance !
Unclaimed continents wait for the man with the
Keys. Sin-bound souls at our doors are perishing
for the Gospel of the Son of God. The Saviour
travails for the salvation of those for whom He
died- In the Church lies the power to save the
sinner, bring in the Kingdom, and satisfy the
heart of Christ. The Keys of the Kingdom of
righteousness and peace and joy are with you;
in your hand and in your heart. For the sake of
the perishing millions and for the sake of Christ
who died for our salvation, may God revive His
Church, and hasten the coming of His Kingdom.

VICARIOUS FAITH

S89

19

“And Jesus seeing their faith saith unto the sick of the
palsy, Son, thy sins are forgiven.”— S. Mark ii. 5.

296

VICARIOUS FAITH

The healing of the man sick of the palsy is an
instance of vicarious faith. By vicarious
we mean something done for and instead of
another. It is substitutionary. The vicarious
sacrifice of Jesus Christ means that Christ suffered
in our stead, and died for our sins. So there is
a faith that is exercised in behalf of another, and
is accepted for another. This palsied man re¬
ceived both the forgiveness of his sins and the
healing of his body, through the faith of the
men who brought him. It was not simply
a co-operation of their faith with his, it was
accepted instead of his. There may have been
an element of faith in the man himself, but there
is no mention of it, and the emphasis is laid on
the faith of the men who carried him to the
feet of Jesus. Seeing their faith. He saith, not
to them, but unto the sick of the palsy, Son,
thy sins are forgiven.”

When a vital principle has been discovered
at any given point of the Scriptures, it is wonder¬
ful how it is afterwards seen to be in every

291 ^

HUMANITY AND GOD

S’. Matt .
viii. S-13.

292

part. Men are sometimes reproached for find¬
ing the Gospel in Genesis and Holiness in
Leviticus, but they find them there because
they are everywhere. So it is with vicarious
faith. That which seemed to be an exception
is discovered to be a law of the Kingdom. Of
the twenty-four miracles of healing recorded
in the Gospels, at least seven were healed en¬
tirely through the faith of others. It is not
simply the faith of the strong coming to the
help of the weak, but a faith prevailing for the
helpless apart from any faith of their own.

I. Instances of Vicarious Faith.

Recall the more conspicuous instances of the
vicarious exercise of faith, and see how true
this is.

There came to Jesus in Capernaum a cen¬
turion beseeching Him and saying. Lord, my
servant lieth in the house sick of the palsy,
grievously tormented. And He saith unto him, I
will come and heal him.” The thought of such
condescension overwhelmed the Centurion, and
he protested that he was not worthy to receive
Him under his roof, and argued from his own
authority that it was not necessary He should
come. If He would only say the word, his
servant would be healed. Jesus marvelled, and
declared that He had not found a faith so great,

VICARIOUS FAITH

293

even in Israel; and turning to the Centurion,
He said, “ Go, thy way; as thou hast believed,
so be it done unto thee. And the servant
was healed in that hour.” Whose faith healed
him ? Not the servant’s, but his master’s.
Not a word is said about the faith of the man
who was healed. It is attributed entirely to the
faith exercised vicariously for him.

On another occasion there came from Caper¬
naum to Cana of Galilee a nobleman whose
child was sick, and he besought Jesus “ that
He would come down and heal his son; for he
was at the point of death.” Instead of yielding
at once as in the case of the Centurion, He began
to reprove the spirit that cannot believe except
it see signs and wonders. Impatient of delay,
and too distressed to be interested in abstract
discussions, the father of the dying child burst
into an impassioned appeal: “ Lord, come down
ere my child die.” There was no moment to
be lost. Twenty-five miles had to be travelled,
and even now it may be too late. He did not
conceive healing to be possible without contact.
Neither the passionate appeal nor the journey
was necessary, and ‘‘Jesus saith unto him. Go
thy way, thy son liveth.” The astonished
father “ believed the word that Jesus spake unto
him, and went his way.” He rested upon the
bare word of Jesus, but as he went “ his way ”

S. John iv.
46r-54*

6'. Mark
ix. 14-29.

S. Matt.

XV. 21-28.

S. Mark
vii. 24-30.

294 HUMANITY AND GOD

he found the word confirmed by the testimony of
his servants, who declared the child to have been
healed at the very hour the word was spoken
and believed. Whose faith saved the child ?
That son was healed entirely through the faith
of the father vicariously exercised twenty-five
miles away.

There is another instance where a father’s
faith prevailed for an only child. In the in¬
cident at the foot of the Mount of Transfigura¬
tion Jesus threw back the healing of the demoniac
boy upon the faith of the father. It was not
a question of Christ’s power but of the father s
faith. “ Straightway the father of the child
cried out, and said with tears, I believe ; help
Thou mine unbelief.” Then Jesus took the lad
by the hand and lifted him up, healed. Whose
faith saved the lad ? Not his own, not the
lisciples’, but his father’s.

Still more striking is the faith of the Greek
vvoman in the district of Tyre and Sidon. Jesus
had withdrawn into that region that He might
escape from the persistent persecution of His
adversaries. He wanted to be quiet, and re¬
quested that no one should be told of His pre¬
sence : but He could not be hid. A woman
whose daughter was grievously afflicted dis¬
covered Him. She threw herself at His feet,
and cried, beseeching Him to cast the evil spirit

VICARIOUS FAITH

295

out of her daughter. “ But He answered her not
a word.” He never treated any other person ,
as He treated this woman. She got up and fol¬
lowed Him, pleading as she went, till the dis¬
ciples begged Him to grant her request and send
her away. His silence had been bad enough,
but His speech was still more discouraging,
for He said, I was not sent but unto the
lost sheep of the House of Israel.” Again she
fell at His feet, and looking up into His face
poured out her soul in one of the shortest
prayers ever uttered,* “ Lord help me.” Speak¬
ing directly to her for the first time. He said, “ It
is not meet to take the children’s bread and cast
it to the dogs.” Such a remark would have
silenced most people and sent them home
offended, but her woman’s wit turned it into an
argument, and prevailed. She answered Him,
Yea, Lord : even the dogs under the table eat
of the children’s crumbs.” “Then Jesus an¬
swered and said unto her, O woman, great is
thy faith ; be it done unto thee even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was healed from that
hour.” When she got home, she found her
daughter lying peacefully upon the bed, and the
evil spirit gone out of her. W^hose faith had
brought her healing ? It came, not through any
faith of her own, but in response to the mighty
faith of her mother.

.S'. Jama
V. 4. 15-

296 HUMANITY AND GOD

Thus we have the faith of a master prevailing
for the healing of a servant, the faith of fathers
exercised to the healing of sons, the faith of a
mother triumphing for her daughter, and the
faith of four friends blessed to the healing of a
fifth; in every instance efaith working vicariously

to the healing of another.

This vicarious faith is not confined to miracles
of healing. It runs through aU the New Testa¬
ment, and is a recognised law in the King¬
dom of grace. It lies at the very foundation of
all intercession. Take one example: Is any
among you sick ? let him call for the elders of
the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing
him with oil in the name of the Lord t and the
prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and
the Lord shall raise him up ; and if he have com¬
mitted sins, it shall be forgiven him.” What¬
ever difficulties the passage may present with
regard to Divine healing it gives a plain direction
and embodies a Divine principle. It is an
example of the vicarious operation of faith in
prayer. A number of praying men come to¬
gether to pray over a brother in need, and the
prayer of faith brings both healing and for¬
giveness to the man for whom prayer is made.
Nothing is said about the faith of the sick man.
His exercise of faith is in sending for the elders.
It is the faith of the men that pray that raises
him up.

VICARIOUS FAITH

297

These are all examples of the one great truth
that faith may be vicariously exercised, so as to
bring blessing into the life of others who may
themselves be destitute of faith.

11. The Operations of Vicarious Faith.

Vicarious faith begins by making the needs of
another its own. Fellowship of woe precedes
vicariousness in faith. The affliction of the
child is the continual grief of the parent. If
Thou canst do anything for was the plea
of the distracted father. Have mercy on
was the cry of the mother whose daughter
was grievously vexed with a devil; and when it
seemed as though her request would be denied,
the identification of the intercessor with the
sufferer becomes more manifest in the petition,
‘‘ Lord, help The mother suffered in her

child before she could believe for her deliver¬
ance. Such faith is possible only to burdened
hearts. The Sinless One carried away the world’s
sin by taking it unto Himself. He was made
sin for us. He Himself took our infirmities
and bare our diseases,” and His people enter
into the fellowship of His sufferings in the work
of salvation. There is but one way of salvation,
as there is but one Name by which men can
be saved. The followers of Christ in their
measure become the vicarious bearers of the

298 HUMANITY AND GOD

world’s sorrow and shame. In ‘Zechariah’s
vision the High Priest stood before the Lord
clothed with the filthy garments of Israel. Satan
rebuked him; but Joshua had taken the sins of
the people upon himself, and borne them upon
his own soul into the presence of Jehovah.
Vicarious faith begins in vicarious sorrow and
vicarious shame. The sins of others become a
personal burden, and the sorrows of others a
personal grief, before faith vicariously pleads
and claims. When the soul travails faith
prevails.

Vicarious faith in the work of salvation.
When Jesus saw the faith of the men who
brought their palsied friend. He did not begin
by commanding the sick man to take up his bed
and walk, but by announcing the forgiveness of
his sins. Seeing their faith. He saith to the
sick of the palsy. Son, thy sins are forgiven.”
However startling it may seem, this man received
the forgiveness of his sins through the faith of
others. Is that heresy ? Is not personal
faith the one essential condition of salvation ?
Has it not been told us from the beginning
that no man can believe another into the King¬
dom of Grace ? It is true no man can be saved
by proxy, but it is also true we are saved vicari¬
ously. Just as this palsied man was personally
assured of forgiveness through the faith of the

VICARIOUS FAITH

299

friends who brought him to Jesus, so every
saved soul is brought to the personal knowledge
of salvation through the faith of others working
on his behalf. The vicarious operation of faith is
not exceptional in salvation, but general, if not
universal. If some one had not believed for
us, it is not likely we should ever have believed
for ourselves. We were prayed for before we
began to pray for ourselves. The Christian is
begotten of God through the travail of some
believing soul. There is a human as well as
a Didne element in the process of soul-birth,
and every man’s salvation begins in the faith
of another.

Experience everywhere bears witness to the
vicarious operation of faith. The processes of
generation are shrouded in mystery, and there
are many children of God who cannot trace
their experience of regeneration to any definite
occasion or influence. Such Christians are to be
congratulated, for as a rule the beginnings of
spiritual life with them are among the unre¬
cognised and forgotten influences of childhood.
People, however, who come to the knowledge of
God in maturer years, are able to trace their
spiritual lineage, and to point out the influ¬
ences that brought them into the Kingdom.
The Apostles speak of those who owe to them
their own souls, because they were begotten

HUMANITY AND GOD

300

of them in the Gospel. So it is still. We are
brought into the experience of Saving Grace
through the faith exercised for us. It is because
we were believingly brought to the feet of Christ
by those who believed for the salvation of our
souls, we are saved.

How manifest this is in leading penitent souls
to the Saviour! Take any case of a degraded
sinner, such as every revival brings into the
Inquiry Room. For a season the Church has
sought those who live regardless of its existence,
ann whenever they are earnestly sought they
come. The Gospel, faithfully and believingly
preached, reveals the darkness of the heart,
conscience strikes terror into the soul, or tender
entreaty awakens thoughts of other days. A
Christian worker with a gentle hand seeks to lead
' the wanderer back to God, but is answered with a
wail of despair: ‘‘ No, I am too bad ; I might
have been a Christian once, but it is too late
now ; you do not know all about me or you would
not ask me. No, I am lost, it is too late, too late ;
I am too bad.” What is the answer to such a
cry ? It is nothing less than believing for the
soul that has no faith for itself. The promises
are spread forth, the assurances of the Gospel
repeated, and the believer stakes his own honour
and God’s on the possibility of immediate and
complete salvation. Persistent despair is met

VICARIOUS FAITH

301

with insistent faith until it yields to hope, and
the soul tremblingly stretches out its hands to
God. Personal faith brings salvation, but it
leans hard upon the strength of the faith that is
vicarious. The curse of sin is its despair, and
unless those who believe in God go down into
the depths, and take hold of hopeless and help¬
less men and women with a mighty faith, they
will perish in their sins.

Vicarious faith never despairs. It seeks des¬
perate cases, and delights toTring the palsied and
devil-possessed to the feet of Christ. The sad¬
dest thing in Christian workers is that they
despair so soon. Whole areas are regarded as
hopeless, and are abandoned for more favourable
districts. Individuals are given up and left
alone because it is thought to be useless to seek
their salvation. Until the Church has an un¬
daunted and unquenchable faith in the possi¬
bility of every man’s salvation, and is prepared
to go down to the depths and believe men back
to God, it will neither raise the dead nor cast
out devils. So long as the peril of the unsaved
is not felt to be a burden, and the possibility
of their salvation a certainty, devils will defy
the hosts of the Lord. I once asked a man who
had been a notorious sinner what led him first
to believe it possible for him to be a good man.

Well,” said he, ‘‘ Sister believed it, and told

302 HUMANITY AND GOD

me God could do it, so I came to believe it too.”
How like tlie Samaritans, who believed on Christ
because of the word of the woman who testified,
and then believed because they had seen and
heard for themselves. And they said to the
woman. Now we believe, not because of thy
speaking : for we have heard for ourselves, and
know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.”

Some time ago an evangelist was engaged
to conduct mission services in a godless little
town in the West. The minister, in whose
Church the services were to be held, wrote him
a doleful account of the irreligion and wicked¬
ness of the place. He had no hope that they
would be able to do much, but assured him
they would stand by him to the utmost of their
power. The missioner began his work by making
a tour of the public houses on the Saturday
night. In some he sang, in others he spoke
cheerily, and invited them to the services. He
was guest in the home of one of the leading
business places of the town. The family seemed
to consist of a woman and her daughter. One
day as he sat at tea he asked his hostess if she
were a widow. She replied, No, I wish
I was,” and proceeded to tell him the sad
story of drunkenness, debauchery, and cruelty
that had cursed their home for five yand twent
years.

VICARIOUS FAITH 303

When she had finished, he asked, Do you
pray for him?” ‘‘No,” she said; “I have
given up, it is no use.” Turning to the daughter,
he asked her the same question, and she said,
“ No, I never pray for my father.” “ Then,”
he said, “ if you don’t, I must. If I pray for
him, will you say Amen ? ” Reluctantly they
agreed. The three knelt there and then at
the table and the missioner poured out his soul
in earnest prayer for the lost soul of that house.
When he had finished, there was no Amen. He
prayed again, and there was no response. He
prayed a third time, until their hearts melted
in the conscious presence of God, and a subdued
Amen was heard. They parted in silence. That
night the wretched husband could not sleep.
Within four days he came drunk to the service,
and before the end of the mission was mightily
saved. The miracle of his conversion filled the
town with wonder, for he had been notorious in
his sin. Whose faith saved him ? His relatives
had given him up. The Church had abandoned
him. He had long despaired of himself. Whose
faith prevailed on his behalf ?

III. Vicarious Faith is the Foundation of
ALL Prevailing Intercession.

How often the Apostle Paul entreats the

S. Matt.
xviii. 19.

304 HUMANITY AND GOD

prayers of his spiritual children! In one place
he is confronted with a closed door, and is for¬
bidden to preach the Gospel to souls that are
perishing, and he requests the prayers of God s
people that the door may be opened. In another
case there is an open door, but there are many
adversaries, and he asks them to pray that the
Word of the Lord may have free course and be
glorified. What is such prayer but the vicarious
operation of faith ? Churches at his request
pray and believe in his behalf. They believe,
and it comes to pass.

The power of such prayer may be gathered
from the promise of Christ to His people.
‘‘ Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall
agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall
ask, it shall be done for them of My Father
which is in Heaven.” Could any promise be
more absolute ? And yet the condition expressed
in the agreement of two disciples goes deeper
than at first appears. There is nothing arbitrary
or mechanical in the conception. It is more
than a mere contract; it is an agreement of
soul. The word in the Greek means ^ to sound
together like the answering note in musical
instruments.” A note struck on the piano will
call forth a response from whatever is tuned to
the same pitch. In wireless telegraphy, the
sound wave travels through the ether till it meets

VICARIOUS FAITH

30s

its answering note that can read its mystery, and
receive its message. Such agreement assumes
that the two have been brought into harmony
by a common intelligence for a common purpose.
We cannot pray and believe to order. Neither
faith nor prayer is at the bidding of authority. We
cannot believe merely because we are told we
ought to believe, and that we shall be damned
if we do not. Faith is possible only where the
truth finds an answering note in the soul.
Neither is there anything arbitrary in prayer.
It is possible to pray only as the Spirit inspires
in the soul correspondence to the will of God.
He awakens the desire, creates the hunger,
and directs the petition. When two souls are
yielded to His absolute control, they find them¬
selves in harmony with each other because both
are in obedience to His will. Soul answers
soul, sympathetic hearts find themselves in
agreement, and together they plead at the Father’s
throne. To such agreement the promise never
fails. Volumes might be written of the wonders
wrought in answer to the united prayers of souls
unified by the Holy Ghost, and not one case can
be found where such prayer has been offered
in vain.

One such occasion I can never forget. At the
Southport Convention of 1896 the leaders met
under the shadow of a great sorrow. Its Presi-

20

3 o6 humanity and GOD

dent had been ill for most of the year, and had
come to the Convention in great bodily weak¬
ness. He had completely lost his voice, and had
not spoken in anything more than a whisper for
months. Doctors with one consent declared
he could never preach again. At one of the
daily meetings of the speakers for prayer, with¬
out any arrangement or request, the prayers
centred in the President. With one consent
prayer was made that he might be restored,
and that his voice might return. Within
twenty-four hours he addressed an assembly of
nearly two thousand people, and has continued
to preach unto this day.

The wonderful revivals that have swept over
the earth from time to time have been traced
to a similar fellowship of prayer. Believers
simultaneously burdened with the sins of the
Church and the world have been drawn together,
and agreed to give themselves to earnest inter¬
cession for the revival of God’s work. The
great revival in Ireland began with a few young
men meeting early in the morning for prayer,
because they felt the unutterable burden of
perishing souls. In South Africa two young
men left \a. Church one Sunday night full of
grief because sinners were not converted. They
sobbed out their burdened souls before God, and
agreed to meet daily for prayer. The spirit

VICARIOUS FAITH 307

of prayer spread among the people, and hun¬
dreds of souls were turned to God. The Church,
of which I was the first pastor, was built in answer
to the continual prayer of a few people, and God
brought a lonely widow more than twelve
thousand miles to build it. Vicarious faith!
It moves Omnipotence for the blessing and
salvation of people who may be at the ends of
the earth.

The Centurion’s child was healed twenty-five
miles away in the hour his father prayed. What¬
ever the explanation of the mystery of prayer,
such coincidences are common in the lives
of people who pray. Testimonies innumerable
are borne to this twofold operation of the
Spirit. At one place a soul in need pleading
at the throne of grace, in another, a person
ignorant of the need prompted to supply it.
People moved to rise in the night or retire in the
day to pray for others, have found afterwards
that such persons were in special peril or in
urgent need. There is not a follower of Christ
who lives under the guidance of the Spirit, who
has not experience of such blessings brought
vicariously to others.

Faith reaches the perfection of its power in
vicarious exercise. It seems in its concern for
others to attain a Divine quality and to command
Divine power. So long as it is centred upon

HUMANITY AND GOD

308

personal interests it is held in leash, but when it
gets away from self, and is baptized with the
God-like spirit of vicariousness, it rises to the
fulness of its power, and commands the re¬
sources of the Eternal.

Doubtless some will say, surely there are
limitations to this faith. If by limitations is
meant conditions, then there are limitations.
That for which faith is exercised must be in
the will of God, and must be assured to the soul
by the Spirit of God. The God who spake
the promise and gives the faith understands all
the mystery of the human will and the opera¬
tion of natural law. The operation of Divine
Sovereignty and the freedom of the human
will are not irreconcilable to the wisdom of
God. Our responsibility is not in the explana¬
tion of mystery, but in obedience to obligation
and privilege. It is God’s part to explain ; it
is ours to obey. The one thing common in
all the examples where vicarious faith availed
is the absence of resistance on the part of those
who received the blessing. When men cease
to resist and consent to receive, faith’s triumph
is achieved. How far the Spirit can influence
the will, where lies the exact limit of man’s
freedom and God’s power, no man can tell, but
of this we are assured, that God never fails to
fulfil a promise sealed to the faith of His child.

VICARIOUS FAITH

309

IV. The Lessons of the incident to Chris¬
tian Workers.

The story of the man sick of the palsy abounds
in valuable suggestions to those who are seeking
to bring the hopeless and helpless to Jesus.
Their work was beset with difficulties, as such
work always is, and to watch their faith overcome
them will do much to direct zeal and sustain
faith. The first difficulty was with the man.
He was palsied and unable to walk. If ever
he was to be brought, he would have to be carried.
One man’s sympathy, determination, and faith
were unequal to the task. What was impossible
to one was possible to the united effort of four.
One man’s interest secured the help of three
more. Faith binds men and unites their powers
for a common purpose. Instead of brooding over
the indifference and unbelief of the many, it
seeks the fellowship and co-operation of those
like-minded ; instead of spending itself in criti¬
cism, it girds itself for its appointed task.
It does not wait for the consent and applause
of men, neither does it exhaust itself in discussion
and scheming; it sees the work and does it,
leaving others to discuss and criticise. Faith
works, and vicarious faith works as well as be¬
lieves for the blessing and salvation of others.

The real difficulties of these four men began
when they got their man to the Church door.

HUMANITY AND GOD

310

When they reached the house where Jesus was
the way was blocked ; and in many places it is
still blocked. The difficulty is not to get the
harlot, the social leper, and the outcast to come
where Jesus is, but to get the people who are
gathered about His Name to receive them.
The house to which they came was blocked
because it was full, but there are many Churches
empty enough inside, that are blocked in the
door-way against the disreputable. The sinner’s
way to Christ is often blocked by good people—
people who are interested in the Master’s word
and zealous for the Master’s Name; people
who pray earnestly for the salvation of men,
and yet hinder their coming. In many places
the greatest hindrance to Christian work is in
Christian people. To be opposed from within is
a severe trial to earnest faith. When you have
succeeded in getting the man to come, and
instead of being welcomed he is snubbed, it
takes a more than ordinary supply of grace to be
cheerful and civil. What is the use of praying
and toiling to find the lost, while there are people
in the Churches who would rather see them
damned than let them share their pew ? It is
because the Church whines over the lost and
scorns them, that the world refuses to believe
its hypocrisies, and treats it with open contempt.

What is the duty of the earnest worker in the

VICARIOUS FAITH

311

presence of such a spirit ? Follow the example
of these men. They stuck to their task. Any
weakling can resign ; the man of faith holds on.
Such men stiffen their backbone and hold their
tongue. Do not argue with people that do
nothing but sit and criticise. Keep your mind
on your task and your eye on the Master. If
one way fails, go quietly round and try another.
Exhaust every ordinary and legitimate method
to get your man to Christ. When all the ordi¬
nary ways have been proved impossible then
make a new one. Tear up the roof, make a new
departure; never mind tradition and criticism ;
do something costly, disturbing, and • startling,
rather than let souls laid upon your heart go
down to perdition. Love is inventive, and faith
persistent. The Church is saved by the irregu¬
larities of its men of faith. The Pharisees were
angry but Christ was pleased. He commended
their faith and honoured it. - Others would have
admired their courage, applauded their inven¬
tiveness, praised their perseverance, and com¬
mended the social and economic value of their
work, but the thing that was precious to Jesus
was their faith. The man who brings men in
faith to Christ wins the approval of God. Every
problem of human life finds its solution there.
Healing follows forgiveness, and individual re¬
generation is the only way to social salvation.

312

HUMANITY AND GOD

What a reward these men had ! They saw
the man they had brought made happy and
strong. The man they had brought with his back
on his bed went out with his bed on his back
praising and glorifying God. He was a happy
man that day, but his happiness was as nothing
to the happiness of the men who had believed
for him and brought him. Christ had vindi¬
cated their faith, and set His seal upon the
methods others had condemned. That was
great cause for rejoicing ; but greater still was
the joy of saving a brother. He who saves a
soul drinks the very wine of God. We never
know what the joy of the Lord is like till we
have brought a lost soul to the feet of Jesus.
Personal faith brings personal salvation, but
vicarious faith brings salvation to others; and
in this also it is more blessed to give than to
receive. The supreme test of faith is not its
personal benefit but its vicarious power.

THE EXTRA MILE

313

“ Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a
tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you. Resist not him that is
evil: but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to
him the other also. And if any man would go to law with thee,
and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And who¬
soever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him twain.
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow
of thee turn not thou away.”— S. Matt. v. 38-42.

THE EXTRA MILE

These sayings of Jesus have been the cause of
much difficulty to the Christian conscience.
No man obeys them ; and yet no earnest Christian
is quite at ease in ignoring them. In the estima¬
tion of Christ they are of vital importance, for
they are the very qualities that give proof of
sonship, and distinguish His followers from the
rest of the world. Christians are to be known
by the things in their life that are in excess of
the claims of law, civilisation, and duty. Others
demand restitution, recognition, and apprecia¬
tion. The Christian resists not wrong, returns
good for evil, and reflects the Divine character in
the persistence of unappreciated goodness. These
extras ’’ are the distinguishing marks of Chris¬
tianity, and declare men to be sons of the Father
which is in Heaven. If this is the estimate
Christ puts upon these things, no follower of
Christ can ignore them, and it is important we
should understand and obey them.

S. Matthew’s Gospel is the Gospel of the

315

3 i6 humanity and GOD

Kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount is the
manifesto of the King. It first sets forth the
character of the citizen, and then proceeds to
adjust the old order to the new life. We under¬
stand perfectly His treatment of the old law.
There He teaches us that obedience to the letter
is not enough. Sin is a question of spirit rather
than action. Its offence is in the motive, not in
the transgression ; in the attitude, not in the
act. Hatred is murder, a lustful look is adultery,
and extravagance of speech is of the Evil One.
God judges by the heart. That is clear.

Then we come to those precepts which are in
excess of law, and set forth the Christian’s spirit
in social life, and define his attitude to social
wrongs. Resist not evil; turn the other cheek
to the smiter ; submit to injustice rather than go
to law ; yield to the oppressor even in excess of
his demand ; give to the beggar, and to the
borrower, lend ; love your enemies; pray for
persecutors; and do good to the evil and un¬
thankful. Everything short of this is common
civility and natural obligation. For those who are
sons of God, the way of perfection is in the things
that exceed the natural moralities of men, and
the common civilities of polite society. It is the
extras that make the Christian. The world looks for
them. Mr. John Morley, in his Life of Gladstone^
after speaking of certain phases of his life which

THE EXTRA MILE 317

sprang from his Christian convictions, says,
There was no worldly wisdom in it. But, then,
what are pofle Christians for ?

Now, we are asked, did Jesus mean what He
said ? If He did, where are the Christians ? If
He did not, then what did He mean ?

I. The Interpretation of the Christian
Extra.

There is no doubt that the literal interpreta¬
tion is the easiest and simplest. There is no real
difficulty about turning the other cheek, giving
your cloak to the man who steals your coat, going
a second ‘mile with the man who compels you to
go the first. For the most part, the occasions
for obedience in these things are exceedingly
rare. Face-slapping, robbery, and compulsion
are not common in a free country. Most people
would go through life without ever being required
to turn the other cheek. Even in giving and
lending, literal obedience to the letter would not
be difficult. Christian people would gladlv sur¬
render every possession if assured it was the will
of God ; but when they had given all, they would
have placed themselves beyond the possibility of
obedience. Men would still ask, and they would
have nothing left to give. It is not the desire
to shirk a difficult task that has led to the rejection
of a literal interpretation of these words. The

6’. Matt.
xviii. 15-;

318 HUMANITY AND GOD

Master has just been insisting upon obedience,
not to the letter, but to the spirit of the law.
Does He take away one letter to establish another ?
Is it not still an insistence upon the true spirit,
beyond the region of law in the realm of social
duty ? Just as obedience to law must go beyond r
the letter to motive, affection, and desire, so our
recognition of social duty must go beyond the
exactions of society, the compulsions of necessity,
and the civilities of custom. The Christian
must be peaceable, inoffensive, meek, benevolent,
trustful.

The difficulty of a literal interpretation is its
inconsistency with Christ’s other teaching, and
His own example. He gave explicit directions to
His disciples concerning their duty to people
who wronged them, And if thy brother sin
against thee, go, shew him his fault between thee
and him alone : if he hear thee, thou hast gained
thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take with
thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two
witnesses or three every word may be established.
And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the
Church : and if he refuse to hear the Church
also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and
the publican.” Obedience to these instructions
would save the Church much heart-burning and
strife : but such obedience is very definite resis¬
tance of evil. It challenges the wrong-doer,

THE EXTRA MILE

319

examines the offence, and punishes the offender.
There are more ways of resistance than by force ;
and in these directions of Christ the whole
weight of the influence and authority of the
Church is brought to bear upon the wrong-doer.

It is contrary to Christ’s own example. He
resisted evil, attacked wrong-doers, and when
smitten did not turn the other cheek. When He
went up to Jerusalem, He found the House of
Prayer turned into a house of merchandise and
a den of thieves. He made a scourge of small
cords, and cast all out of the Temple, both sheep
and oxen. He scattered the money of the
traffickers, and overthrew their tables. On another
occasion He drove them out, stopped the service,
and refused to let any man carry a vessel through
the Temple. That is more than passive resist¬
ance ; it is a vigorous aggression. In the Judge¬
ment HaU of Caiaphas one of the officers ‘‘ struck
Jesus with his hand, saying, “ Answerest Thou the
High Priest so ? ” Jesus did not turn the other
cheek. He challenged the smiter. ‘‘ If I have
spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well,
why smitest thou Me ? ” He did not answer
force with force, blow with blow, but He exposed
and rebuked the wrong, and certainly did not
fulfil the letter of His own sayings.

The true interpretation is found in Christ’s
method of teaching. He taught by metaphor.

S, John ii.
13-17.

6 '. Mark

xi. 15-17*

S. John
xviii. 22, 23.

320

HUMANITY AND GOD

allegory, parable, and proverb; and each of
these methods has its own law of interpretation.
The command to cut off the right hand and
pluck out the offending eye is manifestly meta¬
phorical. It is a strong figure of speech, by which
He teaches that nothing is to be spared to bring
misused faculties into subjection to righteousness
and holiness. When surgery is essential to life,
there must be no hesitation. From metaphor
He passes to proverb, and gives short proverbial
directions on the Christian’s manner of hfe, in
the presence of the wrongs and needs of the
world. Resist not evil is the general principle,
and it is followed by specific occasions which
illustrate its apphcation.

Proverbs have a province and method all their
own. “ They embody,” says Bishop Gore, a
principle of common, but not universal, applica¬
tion, in an absolute and extreme form.” Conse¬
quently they have an appearance of mutual
contradiction. Every proverb may be challenged
by another proverb that flatly contradicts it, and
yet both are true. Look at one or two. “ Take
care of the pence, and the pounds will take care
of themselves.” Be mindful of the trifles, and
the great things will not need much attention.
But in caring for pence men lose the capacity for
dealing with pounds. They become pettifogging,
absorbed in trifles, and ingenious in things of no

THE EXTRA MILE , 321

value. So there come such proverbs as: Penny
wise, pound foolish,” and “ Spoiling a ship for
a pen’orth of paint.” Settle the great funda¬
mentals and broad principles, and leave details
to fall naturally into place. Take another pro¬
verb : Look before you leap,” which means.
Never try to jump a ditch till you have measured
it; never undertake anything till you have
calculated all the forces, and cotinted all the
difficulties. Very good advice ; but the people
who are always measuring ditches never jump
any. It is wonderful what critics they become,
but they lose their capacity for initiative and
enterprise. They can discover impossibilities
but they never accomplish anything. So the
proverb Nothing venture, nothing have ” goes
right in the teeth of this prudent wisdom. Instead
of stopping to measure the ditch, shut your eyes
and jump. Better miss your j^mp than lose the
capacity for daring. Take another : “ Absence
makes the heart grow fonder.” It is delightful
to think that through all the days of absence the
heart’s fires are kindling ; but if that were the
whole truth, the longer the absence the greater
would be the love, and return would probably
remind us of another proverb : “ Out of sight,
out of mind.” This contradictoriness of pro¬
verbs is due to their limitation of truth and
absoluteness of form. They state a general but

322 HUMANITY AND GOD

not universal principle, as if it were the whole
truth. Each speaks with authority, making no
allowance for limitation or exception.

Christ’s proverbs are no exception to this
peculiarity. What does He say ? Resist not
evil.” That is simple, absolute, complete. It
recognises no limitations and makes no allowance
for exceptions. Yet Christ’s own teaching and
example show us that there are both limitations
and exceptions. It is a principle of general but
not universal application; and it is necessary to
determine the extent of its obligation. To
deduct from it a doctrine of absolute and universal
non-resistance is to pervert its teaching, and to
exalt the letter above the spirit. So long as the
wrong is personal and private, it is a Christian s
duty to bear it in the spirit of meekness; but when
it is wrong done to others for whom we are
responsible, resistance becomes a duty. If a
man’s child is in peril through the mad freak of
human fiends, is he to stand by with placid
patience and see it outraged and murdered ? Is
it not his duty to strike for his child ? If non-
resistance were absolute, there would be an end
of discipline, civilisation, and organised life :
anarchy would be rampant and destruction
inevitable.

The prohibition against going to law is a sound
rule of life. It is a man’s wisdom, generally

THE EXTRA MILE 323

speaking, to keep clear of litigation. S. Paul
condemns the Corinthians because they took
their contentions before the civil court. But is
a man never to resort to law ? Can we live and
enjoy the social and civic privileges of a com¬
munity, and ignore its obligations ? Even
though we may forgive an offence against our own
property, have we no responsibility to our neigh¬
bours ? Are we at liberty to turn loose upon
society men who will plunder its property and
imperil its security ? There are times when the
plain duty of a Christian is to hand a law-breaker
over to law. Does the command to give and to
lend impose indiscriminate charity as a Christian
duty ? Ought we to give to every one that
asks, and lend to every man that would borrow ?
One of the curses of the land is the indiscriminate
charity of good people. The Scriptural rule is,
“ If any will not work, neither let him eat,”
and it is no part of a Christian’s duty to provide
for men too lazy to work. What it does mean
is that possessions are to be held in stewardship
for God, and at the disposal of a brother’s need.
‘‘ Whoso hath the world’s goods, and beholdeth
his brother in need, and shutteth up his com¬
passion from him, how doth the love of God
abide in him ? ”

Exceptions do not excuse a rule, but prove it.
Care must be taken lest in turning from the

3 Thess. iiL

ICk.

I John ill.
17

324 HUMANITY AND GOD

letter we lose also the spirit. These coinmands
are binding. The follower of Christ must be
a man of peace, meekly enduring wrong, suffer¬
ing loss, enduring hardship, full of compassion
and simple faith. A contentious spirit, full of
wrangling, always on the defence, is not Christian. ^
Going to law as a rule is neither seemly nor wise.
Good must be returned for eyil, for only by
good can evil be overcome, and our business is
not the punishment of sinners but their salvation.
Our service must not be grudgingly rendered,
but cheerfully and in excess of necessity. Our
^ stewardship must be a reality, and the needs of
the unfortunate supplied, hoping for all, and
despairing of none. Such was the life of our
Lord, and such also must be ours.

II. The Example of the Extra Mile.

Let us look at the command concerning the
extra mile as an example of the spirit of the
Christian life. “Whosoever shall compel thee
to go one mile, go with him twain.” The
reference is to public transport service. Roman
troops had power to requisition able-bodied men.
Marching through a district, they could compel
a man to act as porter or guide within a certain
area or limit. Such service was not popular.
The Government was alien and hated. Often
the demand was inconvenient as well as laborious,

THE EXTRA MILE

325

and was apt to be rendered in a reluctant and
complaining spirit. Christ’s command is that
even when service is compulsory and unreason¬
able it should not be rendered in a sullen and
slavish spirit, but readily, cheerfully, and in
excess of the demand. Such compulsions are
happily far removed from the modern conditions
of life. There remain but few occasions when
we can be impressed into unwilling service in
the interests of the State. But compulsory
service is still with us. In every life there are
circumstances that force to unwelcome tasks.
Every man has duties that are undertaken not of
choice but of necessity. They are the measured
mile we are compelled to travel, and the Master
says they are not to be undertaken in a spirit of
angry rebellion or sullen repining, to be growled
at and groaned under, but in a spirit of cheerful¬
ness that is ready to give double the demand.
Compulsions are to be regarded as opportunities,
and the drudgeries of life as elect angels whose
compulsion is of God. Thus life is to be stripped
of its irksomeness, its sullen spirit is to be lost in
cheerfulness, and its hardships in the spirit of
enthusiasm. The bitterness of the first mile is
to be cured by adding a second.

The Christian religion is not the religion

OF THE MEASURED MILE.

It was the religion of the Pharisee. With him

326 HUMANITY AND GOD

everything was measured, and with scrupulous
care he sought to meet its exact demands. It
was a religion of law expressed in hard and fast
regulations, to which he gave a cold and calculat¬
ing obedience down to the utmost minutiae of life.
Jesus hated the Pharisee’s religion. He abhorred
its slavish spirit, its mechanical exactness, its
measured precision, and said of it : Except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of
the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise
enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” The
measured mile made the Pharisee; it is the
extra mile that makes the Christian. The yard¬
stick is broken in the Kingdom of Heaven; its
religion is that which revels in excess of legal
demands, and delights in obedience without
measure.

All virtue begins with the excess of

NECESSITY.

There can be no virtue in compulsory obed¬
ience. If a thing is done because it cannot be
helped, what reward is there ? If obedience
is yielded only to force, what merit is there in
obedience ? If the march is at the point of
a bayonet, there is no room to boast over the
marching. If we trot only to escape the
prod, it is hardly reasonable to speak of the
necessity as a virtue. The value and precious¬
ness of virtue are in its voluntariness. There is

THE EXTRA MILE 327

no virtue in necessity, no religion in compulsion,
no credit in obedience that has no choice. That
principle underlies all the relationships of life.
There is nothing precious anywhere till the
region beyond necessity and compulsion has
been reached. In service it is the extra that
tells. So long as service scrupulously measures
its mile its wages are its reward. At the stroke
of the clock the hireling fleeth because he is a
hireling. He may be conscientious, exact, and
scrupulous in the discharge of his duty, but the
day you can dispense with him you will dismiss
him. It is the service not in the contract that
makes it precious; service rendered not for
pay, but under the inspiration of love. The
sacredness of toil begins where the compulsion
of wages ends.

It is the same in friendship. There is a
measured mile of propriety, self-respect, and
social obligation. It is regulated hy the demands
of society for civility, courtesy, and etiquette.
The less real the friendliness, the more frigid and
careful is the observance of its rules. We never
take liberties with strangers. Friendship that
is always exact and under constraint has neither
worth nor soul. True friendship begins where
the compulsion of propriety ends, and con¬
ventionalities are lost in the freedom of mutual
enthusiasm and affection. Second-mile friend-

328 HUMANITY AND GOD

ship is the most precious thing in the world. It
does not consider exactions, but leaps with joy
to every opportunity of service. Must is lost in
may, and sacrifice is its highest joy.

If this be true in things human, how much
more must it be true in things divine ? In
religion, above all, it is true that its value and
preciousness are in its freedom and spontaneity.
So long as ought and must are the forces behind
our worship and service, it is profitless to us and
an abomination to God. While God is regarded
as a hard Master, exacting His due with merciless
precision, we shall find in religion neither joy nor
power. The test is in the extra mile. Many
keep their religion at the irreducible minimum.
They pray as much as they must to escape being
lost, go to worship as much as they are obliged
for the maintenance of their religious respecta¬
bility, and give no more than is necessary to save
their reputation. God hates the irreducible
minimum, and scorns the gift brought out of
necessity, and for the sake of reputation.
He keeps His eye on the extra. He loves
hilarity in worship and service. The grudging
spirit and compulsory service He will not have.
Temple-treading, studied attitudes, and polished
platitudes He abominates as mockery and hypo¬
crisy. He seeks soul, not machinery ; the love
of sons, not the cringing obedience of slaves.

THE EXTRA MILE 3^9

There is no way of reaching the Second
Mile except over the first.

We cannot begin at the second; it is a continua¬
tion of the first, and the first must be done before
the second can be begun. Spontaneity and delight
are reached through fidelity to the compulsions
and necessities of duty. The servants in the Par-
able of the Talents did not enter into the joy of
their Lord until they had proved their faithfulness
to the obligations of their trust. They had toiled
with no other incentive than a good conscience,
and the hope of commendation when their Lord
should return. The way to the paradise of
joy is by the rugged path of duty. It is the re¬
ward of discipline and perseverance. It is so in
everything. There is often a toilsome stage of
drudgery about half way across the measured
mile. When Joash, King of Israel, came to see
the dying prophet, he was commanded to take
bow and arrows and shoot out of the window
facing eastwards ; then he was commanded to
take the arrows and smite upon the ground. He
smote thrice, and stayed. The dying Elisha
was wroth with him for stopping at the third
stroke instead of going on to the sixth. We are
not told how many strokes are necessary for
complete conquest, but we usually manage to
stop half way. One, is struck with enthusiasm;
two, from a sense of duty; three, of necessity;

S. Matt.
xxiii. 23.

330 HUMANITY AND GOD

and then we seek an excuse to stop. Most
people fail about half way ; they stop short of
mastery, and never find the ease and joy of
efficiency sustained by enthusiasna. Who does
not know the drudgery stage in music, where
unmusical scales have to be practised by the
hour ? In languages there is the dreary toil of
irregular forms and the technique of idioms.
The artist and the nurse, the tradesman and the
professor, the soldier and the scholar, have all to
go over the measurements, regulations, and com¬
pulsions of the initiatory mile. The religion of
the Pharisee was good as far as it went; its fault
was that it did not go far enough. “Ye tithe
mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone
the weightier matters of the law, judgment,
and mercy, and faith : but these ye ought to
have done, and not to have left the other undone.”

Never shirk an irksome task. “ The surest
way to escape a difficulty is to face it plump.”
The man who will not master the things that are
hard to him, can never come to skill and delight
in his task. It is through the compulsions of the
first mile we reach the joys of the second. We
must learn to obey law if we would be free, and
to serve if we would be fit to rule. Duty is the
first word, though it is not the last.

The spirit in which the first mile is travelled
will decide whether we ever walk the second. If

THE EXTRA MILE .

331

the mile of necessity is accomplished at the
point of the bayonet, the moment the point is
withdrawn the march will end. The traveller
that is rebellious and reluctant will never go an
extra yard.

The Second Mile is reached by doubling the
first. Whatever the exaction of a difficult or
irksome task, double it. If it demands an hour
as a minimum, give it two ; if three strokes will
just do it, give it six. One day I sat reading in
the corner of a room where a girl was brought,
pouting, for her music practice. She was com¬
pelled to play for an hour every day. The piano
was opened, after much trouble the stool was
adjusted, and, limp and listless, she began her
task. Every few minutes she stopped to look at
the clock, and twice went to see if it had not
stopped. The moment the hour struck, bang
went the piano and away she scampered. Clerks
and workmen leave their tasks often with a
similar sigh of relief. Such never get to the
Second Mile. They spend all their days in
the incompetence and joyless drudgery of the
first.

The same rule holds in religion and morals.
Perfection, power, and joy are found in the
voluntary excess of legal exaction. The man
who doubles what is generally acknowledged to
be sufficient is the man who discovers the secret

HUMANITY AND GOD

33 ^

of holy and happy religion. If for prayer and
meditation an hour is necessary, add a second
and you shall have power with God and prevail.
If giving a tenth is duty that taxes the generous
instincts of the soul, double it, and giving will
become a delight. By exceeding the measure the
sense of exaction is lost. Adding the voluntary
to the compulsory delivers the soul from the
necessity for compulsion. That is the way to
lose the duty in the joy.

In this way the spirit of the Second Mile is
anticipated in the first. Hard work done for
pleasure is never a burden. Recreation would
be toil if it were compulsory. By the same law
compulsion may become delight, and drudgery
a pleasure, if - undertaken in a free spirit, and
inspired by a great motive. The spirit of conse¬
cration that accepts all duties as in the Father’s
will, all drudgery as opportunity, and all exaction
as privilege, will turn repining into gladness, and
set the Decalogue to music.

This is the spirit of the Children of God.
Not a resentful, contentious spirit, striving for
its rights, and repining over its wrongs; not a
mechanical or grudging obedience to the exac¬
tions of unwelcome duty, without exhilaration,
graciousness, or power; not a hard, unsympa¬
thetic, unbelieving greed in the presence of
misfortune and want; but a spirit that suffers

I

333

THE EXTRA MILE

meekly, serves cheerfully, and ministers joyfully
is the spirit of the Christian life. This is the
only religion that either God or man beheves in i
and the only religion by which the world can
be saved.

THE CHRISTIAN BENEDICTION

I

“ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.”—
2 Corinthians xiii. 14.

the CHRISTIAN BENEDICTION

This threefold invocation is familiarly known
as the Christian Benediction. The Old Testa¬
ment form of blessing was authorised to be used
in the assemblies of Israel, but there is nothing to .
indicate that these words were ever intended for
regular use in the gatherings of the Christian
Church. They have been chosen for universal
use because of their appropriateness j for they are
both a confession of the Christian faith, and a
declaration of Christian privilege. The Bene¬
diction of the New Covenant marks a great ad¬
vance upon that of the Old. And the Lord ,,
spake unto Moses, saying. Speak unto Aaron and
unto his sons, saying. On this wise ye shall bless
the children of Israel; ye shall say unto them ;

The Lord bless thee and keep thee :

‘‘ The Lord make His face to shine upon thee,
and be gracious unto thee :

The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee,
and give thee peace :

'' So shall they put my name upon the children
of Israel; and I will bless them.”

337

22

338 HUMANITY AND GOD

In that Name put upon the children of Israel,
everything is omitted that makes the Name of
God distinctively Christian. There is no men¬
tion of the Divine Fatherhood, the Divine Son,
or the Divine Spirit. Neither is there any men¬
tion of the love of God, the grace of Christ, or the
communion of the Holy Ghost. ^ It conveys no
sense of nearness, but gives the impression that
God is remote, transcendental, and majestic, who
graciously condescends to bless Israel His people.
The Christian Benediction brings God near m
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love
of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost.
It sets forth,—

L The Christian Doctrine of God.

II. The Christian Realisation of God.

III. The Christian Manifestation of God.

L

The revelation of God was necessarily a slow
development. To gird at the imperfections and
limitations of the Old Testament is to misunder¬
stand the nature of the revelation, and to ignore
the only possible method of education. The
revelation was to the consciousness of the Nation,
and had to be accommodated to the moral and
spiritual capacity of the people. The coming of
Christ waited for the fulness of time, and as with

THE CHRISTIAN BENEDICTION 339

Christ, so with truth. The God of discrimi¬
nation sent forth His light and truth as men were
prepared to receive it. There are those who
cannot understand why the Sermon on the Mount
was not preached at Sinai, and why the world was
kept waiting for ages for the Gospel of Christ.
They are'perplexed because the Scriptures repre¬
sent God associated with things that shock our
moral sense, and forget that the revelation of
God came through the troubled history of an
ancient people. God could only reveal as they were
able to bear. Even Jesus had to close His ministry
with many things unspoken, because the disciples
could not receive them. The history of Israel
is virtually the history of the educational process,
by which they came to the knowledge of God.
He declared Himself in mighty deeds rather
than in words; through long ages He chastened
them, and sent His prophets to interpret His
name through their experience. Thus, slowly
and through much tribulation, they came to know
the Lord.

The first thing to be learned was the falseness
of Polytheism and Idolatry. They came out from
a land that worshipped an elaborate system of
deities, and were surrounded by worshippers of
false gods. The heathen multiplied gods accord¬
ing to their fears. The snare of Israel was idol¬
atry. Every new crisis renewed the temptation

HUMANITY AND GOD

Deui, vl. 4.

Exod. XX. "
2-5.

Jsa- vi.

340

to establish deities like other nations. An in¬
visible God lacked location and tangibility.
Spiritual worship makes demands of a high order
on the intelligence and moral powers of the wor¬
shipper, and it is not surprising that Israel was so
ready to lapse into the worship of idols. The one
great declaration to the delivered people, therefore,
was, “ Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one
Lord.” The two first commandments aimed at
the preservation of the people from false gods and
idolatry. ‘‘ I am the Lord thy God . . . Thou
shalt have none other gods beside Me. Thou
shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor the
likeness of any form that is in heaven above, or
that is in the earth beneath, r that is in the water
under the earth : thou shalt not bow down thy¬
self unto them nor serve them.” It took Israel
thousands of years to learn the lesson of those two
commandments. The one great truth of the
Old Testament revelation i§ the unity of God.

When this was achieved, there came into view
indications of distinctions within the one God.
The use of the plural pronoun may not be a con¬
clusive argument, but taken in conjunction with
other considerations it is at least significant and
suggestive. In Isaiah’s vision it would be hazard¬
ous to base a doctrine of primary importance upon
the Seraphim’s threefold ascription of praise, but
when the cleansed soul of the Prophet hears “ the

THE CHRISTIAN BENEDICTION 341

voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and
who will go for Us ? ”, it is calculated to provoke
inquiry as to the meaning of the change from the
singular to the plural number. Still more sug¬
gestive is the presence in the Old Testament of a
Godlike being, distinct from Jehovah, to whom is
attributed the qualities and operations of Divin¬
ity. The Angel of Jehovah, the Son of God, and
the Divine Wisdom have each the attributes of
God. These are glimmerings of the fuller reve¬
lation, but their meaning was not known till they
were interpreted in the light of Christian truth.

Every Old Testament saint was Unitarian.

The Christian revelation comes to us through
Jesus Christ. The communication of the truth
concerning God is no longer confined to the
prompting of men’s minds, but is revealed in the
Person of the Son of God. He came to reveal the
Father, and declared that only He could reveal
Him. At the close of His ministry He claimed to
have accomplished His Mission. He said to
Philip, He that hath seen iVIe, hath seen the
Father ” ; and to God He said, ‘‘ I glorified Thee S. John
on the earth, having accomplished the work which ’
Thou hast given Me to do. ... I manifested Thy
Name . . . and I made known unto them Thy
Name.” That manifestation involves a Trinity
of Persons in the One God. The word Trinity
is not found in the Scriptures, nor is the doctrine

HUMANITY AND GOD

S. John

X. 34-

S Matt.
Hi. 17.

342

of the Trinity formally stated. The Scriptures
do not systematise doctrine ; they furnish data
and leave the work of systematising to others.
But the Trinity lies at the foundation of all New
Testament teaching. Jesus claimed to be equal
with God, and spoke of the Spirit as Personal and
^Divine, and yet there are not three Gods, but One.
The Apostles everywhere proclaim His doctrine,
and recognise the threefold distinction in the
Persons of the One God. The equal Deity of
the Son and Spirit with the Father is the mystery
and the glory of the Gospel they preach.

The Benediction stands closely linked with the
Baptism of Jesus and the Baptismal formula He
gave to His disciples.

John the Baptist came preaching repentance
toward God, faith in a Coming One who should
take away the sin of the world, and in the Holy
Ghost who should be given by the Son of God.
When Jesus came to be baptized of him in Jordan,
S. John recognised Him as the Son of God,”
by the Spirit descending and abiding upon Him.
At the same moment the Father bare witness, say¬
ing, ‘‘ This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.” The Father gave, and the Son received
the Holy Ghost. The Father in the Heavens
declared the Divine Sonship of the Christ, and the
Spirit proceeding from the Father to the Son,
afterward to be also the gift of the Son, is equally

THE CHRISTIAN BENEDICTION 343

a Person, and equally Divine with the Father and
the Son.

Christ’& reception of the Spirit was the call and
ec^uipment of God for His Messianic ministry.

As He was sent, so He sends. “ As the Father
hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He
had said this. He breathed on them and saith unto
them. Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” All autho-
rity hath been given unto IVle in Heaven and on • ®
earth. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all
the nations, baptizing them into the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
Baptism into the Name means baptism unto God,
and the Name of God in the new covenant is
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This is the cul¬
mination of Christ’s teaching concerning God.

He ordained it for all time to be the initiating

confession of faith for all who would enter His
kingdom. It is the formula with which all be
lievers are to be received into the fellowship of
Christ, and like all such formulae it sets forth the
fundamental doctrine of the Christian ecclesia.
It is the basis of all Christian doctrine and the
universal confession of the Christian faith. I
believe in God the Father . . . and in^ Jesus
Christ His only Son our Lord ... I believe in
the Holy Ghost.” Three Persons, One God. ^

In the Benediction S.Paul invokes the Trinity
as the Source of Grace, Love, and Commu-

344

HUMANITY AND GOD

nion. Its unique features must not be over¬
looked. The order is unusual; and the Names
used are unusual. He places the Son before the
Father. He does not speak of them as Son, Father,
and Spirit, but as the Lord Jesus Christ, God, and
the H0I7 Ghost. The explanation of these things
is found in the fact that this is not a Doxology,
not primarily a confession of faith, but a Bene¬
diction. A Doxology is an ascription of praise;
a Benediction is a word of blessing. One ascends
from the heart of man to God, the other descends
from God to man. Consequently the Benedic¬
tion does not approach the subject from the
standpoint of theology, but of experience. It is
not concerned with definition, nor does it con¬
template the glory of God in the absoluteness
of His Deity, but it sets Him forth as He is
realised in the soul. The process is in this order.
We come to the knowledge of God through Jesus
Christ, and the Spirit is the gift of both the Fathei
and the Son. It is through the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ we come to the knowledge of the love
of God, and it is by grace and love we enter into
the life of communion with the Holy Ghost. No
other order is possible. To sinful men there can
be no love apart from grace, and fellowship is im¬
possible without love. God is always revealed
as He is involved in His relation to the world and
the human race, and here He is revealed as He

THE CHRISTIAN BENEDICTION 345

becomes known to the soul in the process of sal¬
vation through faith in His name. The Chris¬
tian knows God only in and through the Man
Christ Jesus. He thinks of God in the terms of
Christ, comes to God through the grace of Christ,
and lives in fellowship with God through the
Spirit of Christ.

II

This Benediction sums up the blessings of
Christian privilege in the three great words of the
Gospel —Grace : Love : Communion.

These three gifts of God are attributed to
different Persons in the Trinity. Grace is attri¬
buted to our Lord Jesus Christ, Love to God, and
Communion to the Holy Ghost. There is a dis¬
tinction of functions as well as of Persons in the
Godhead. Each takes precedence in His own
peculiar work, and there seem to be distinct
limitations in the operation of each. We cannot
trace the limits, and must be careful lest we
divide to our hurt, and conceive of God as Three
and not One. Each belongs to All. Grace is of
God and of the Spirit as well as of the Son. Love
is of the Son and of the Spirit as well as of the
Father. Our communion is with the Father and
the Son as well as with the Spirit. Grace, Love,
and Communion are of the One God, as Father,
Son, Spirit is the One Name of God. But in

HUMANITY AND GOD

346

the economy of Redemption, Grace comes to us
through. Jesus, Love is of the Father, and Com¬
munion by the Holy Ghost. These distinctions
interpret Christian experience, and are necessary
to its existence.

Hhe grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.^^ The word
grace is S. Paul’s token in every Epistle. Eight
of them close with the Benediction, “ The grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you,” sometimes
varying the form to with your spirit.” The
fuller Benediction is the development of what is
involved in the abiding of grace. It leads to the
consciousness of love and the life of communion ;
it is the great word of the Gospel of Christ. It
is more than mercy and greater than love. Jus¬
tice demands integrity, mercy is the ministry of
pity, love seeks correspondence, appreciation and
responsiveness, but grace demands no merit; it
flows unrestrained and undeserved upon those
who have no goodness to plead, and no claim to
advance. Grace seeks the unfit and the unworthy.
It is love, mercy, and compassion stretching out
towards the guilty, ungracious and rebellious. It
is the only hope for sinful men. If salvation come
not by grace, it can never be ours. Without grace,
there can be no reconciliation, no pardon, no
peace. We are saved by grace. “ God com-
mendeth His own love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Re-

THE CHRISTIAN BENEDICTION 347

demption originated in that disposition of the
Divine mind. It was by the grace of God Jesus
Christ tasted death for every man, and it is to the
same grace every man owes his salvation. It be¬
gins in grace, is continued in grace, and is per¬
fected in grace. At no stage is it of works; it is
a gift of God, the outflowing of His grace.

In the New Testament use of the word it passes
from an attribute of the Divine character to an
active energy in the soul. At the Throne of
Grace we ‘‘ find grace to help us in time of need.” Hcb,\v, 16,
The heart is stablished by grace,” and by grace '

‘‘ we may offer service well-pleasing to God.” 28.

It is in the grace that is in Christ Jesus ” that
we And our strength, and we are assured of its
sufficiency for endurance as well as for service
« My grace is sufficient for thee.” We are com-
manded to grow in the grace and knowledge iii-
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” These
passages afl speak of the Divine influence in the
soul as the operation of grace, and regard that
which has its source in the grace of God as the
working power of salvation. Grace pardons the
guilty, restores the fallen, delivers the captive,
sanctifies the sinner, sustains and perfects the

believer. ^ t

This grace is always connected with ‘ our Lord

Jesus Christ.” He is the manifestation of God,

full of grace and truth. Grace is His glory. The

348 HUMANITY AND GOD

love of God is revealed to men in the grace of
Christ, and the grace of God will be for ever the
grace of Christ. That is why His Name takes
precedence in the form of blessing. It is by the
grace He brings that every other gift of God
becomes possible to men. Love is without mean¬
ing for us apart from grace, and fellowship is im¬
possible without a basis of love. This is the
reason also for the choice of the human and not
the Divine name of our Lord. The manifesta¬
tion of grace is through the Man Christ Jesus.
It is made known to us in His life of sinless obedi¬
ence, His ministry of compassion. His suffering
and death. It is through the grace of God em¬
bodied and revealed in Christ that we come to
the knowledge of the Father.

And the love of Qod.^^ It does not invoke the
love of the Father, but of God. He is contem¬
plated in the completeness of His Being, and the
Name is used which includes all relationships. The
Christian revelation concerning Him is that He
is Love. From everlasting to everlasting God is
Love. Does not the fact of Eternal Love involve
personal subjects and objects of love within the
Godhead ? Is it possible to conceive of love
absolutely unrelated ? It was Eternal Love that
gave the gift of the Eternal Son. Love was be-
hind grace, and grace made way for love. Christ
brings us to the Father, and makes known to us the

THE CHRISTIAN BENEDICTION 349

love of God. “ Love could not flow to u$ save
through the grace of atonement; and the grace
of atonement could not flow to us save through
the love of God.” Realisation of the love of God
in the redeeming work of grace brings the con¬
scious experience of the love of God to the soul.
The love ,of God is shed abroad in the heart
through the Holy Ghost. The general love of
God for the world becomes through faith a per¬
sonal and conscious possession. The barriers of
the soul disappear, all sense of distance and alien¬
ation is lost, every shrinking fear and haunting
dread is cast out, and the heart finds its rest and
home in God. It is useless to attempt to define
or describe the consciousness of love, for it passeth
knowledge. It cannot be known except through
personal experience. The secret of love is revealed
only to love. Every one that receives the grace
knows the love. “ And we know and have believed
the love which God hath in us. God is love ; and
he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God
abideth in him.” Love is peculiarly attributed
to God, as grace is associated with Jesus Christ,
though it is of the love of Christ it is said that
“ it passeth knowledge,” and God is called the
God of grace.

^^And the communion of the Holy Ghost.^^ Grace
leads to love, and love opens the way to com¬
munion. As grace is through Jesus Christ and

Rom. V 5.

I John iv.
16.

HUMANITY AND GOD

350

love is of God, so communion is with the Holy
Ghost. The Spirit is the gift of both the Father
and the Son, and is Himself the Giver of each.
xCor.^. 3 . No man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy
Rom. T. 5. Spirit ” ; and if ‘‘ the love of God hath been shed
abroad in our hearts,” it is ‘^through the Holy
Ghost which was given unto us.” The Spirit is
always' revealed as the immediate Agent in the
communication of God to the soul. It is He who
convicts and converts, assures and inspires, equips
and strengthens. In the Christian kingdom He is
the Paraclete, who abides with us for ever. His
abiding presence in the soul is the result of ac¬
cepted grace and realised love. The end of
Redemption is realised in conscious communion
with God through the Holy Ghost.

Communion is a great word. It means Com¬
panionship, Partnership, Co-operation. Com¬
munion is heart to heart fellowship, where with¬
out speech soul blends with soul. Company
does not make companionship, it is the subtle
consciousness of affinity and mutual love that
gives the sense of intimacy. But it is more than
companionship. The word implies a common
possession ; a mutual proprietorship as well as
mutual affection. The communion of the Holy
Ghost means partnership with Him. We share
with Him the things of God. We are joint-
possessors with Him of the wisdom, power, and

THE CHRISTIAN. BENEDICTION 351

glory of God. He associates us in all things with
Himself. Every resource of the Infinite He
brings without reserve to the commonwealth of
God. We are partners in the work of the Spirit
as well as in His possessions. Salvation is the
work of both man and God. Man works out his
own salvation, but the Spirit works in him both
the willing and the doing of the Divine good plea¬
sure. The work of the kingdom is the united
work of redeemed men and the Spirit of God.
We are workers together with Him. He clothes
Himself with men, takes possession of their
powers, directs their energies, and through them
works mightily in the world for the destruction
of sin and the glory of Christ. He is with us in
the secret experiences of the heart, our Com¬
panion, Helper, and Friend ; we are with Him
in the participation of every gift of God, and in
active co-operation in the glorious work of sal¬
vation.

This is the Benediction of God to man : Grace,
Love, Communion. Grace through Jesus Christ,
love from God, and communion with the Holy
Ghost. This is the order of the Divine process.
Through Christ to God and through both to the
abiding Presence of the Spirit; through grace to
love, and through love to the life of Divine com¬
munion.

352

HUMANITY AND GOD

«S. John xiv.

17, 23.

Ill

In what sense and to what end may the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and
the communion of the Holy Ghost be said to be
with us ? It cannot mean less than a conscious
personal Presence. The invocation cannot seek
grace, love, and communion as gifts apart from the
Persons, in whom alone they are to be found.
Neither grace, love, nor communion can have any
reality apart from personality. We cannot give
love and withhold ourselves ; there cannot be
communion without mutual exchange. The
prayer cannot be for anything less than for the
conscious presence of God in the soul. Jesus
teaches that the Father, Son, and Spirit are all
equally present in the soul of the believer.
Speaking of the Spirit He says, ‘‘ He abideth with
you, and shall be in you ” ; of Himself and the
Father He saith, If a man love Me, he will
keep My word : and My Father will love him,
and We will come unto him and make our abode
with him.” The Personality is neither lost nor
confused. They come distinctly as Father, Son,
and Spirit, but One Lord. Jesus dwells in man
the source of all grace, God abides in him the
spring and perfection of all love, and the Holy
Spirit communes with him and energises for all

THE CHRISTIAN BENEDICTION 353

the will of God. Man is indwelt of the Triune
God and dwells in Him.

What is the purpose of this Indwelling ? It
is by this Divine Presence in the soul that the
work of man’s salvation is accomplished. God
cannot save man from a distance. Salvation
must come from within; and God, and Christ,
and the Holy Spirit achieve man’s restoration to
holiness and fellowship by coming and dwelling
in his heart. Grace, love, and communion save
from within. They bring provision for every
need. Grace covers the whole area of sin. It
pardons the past, and delivers the sinner from his
sin. There is no habit or condition over which
grace cannot prevail. The love of God assured
to the soul meets every problem of Providence.
Faith can always wait for love that is consciously
assured. Communion with the Spirit brings every
needful gift for service and for prayer. There is
no want of the life, nor no hunger of the heart
that is not met, in the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the communion
of the Holy Ghost. If these abide with us, we
shaU never fail nor want for any good thing.

The purpose is more than personal. God
dwells in men that they may become one with
Himself : like Him in mind and heart, like Him
in character and purpose, like Him in spirit and
work. The Christian reflects his God. The

23

fo M

354

HUMANITY AND GOD

I Pei. IT.
lO.

Cor . ix.

z John iii.
z^

z John iv.
ao, ai.

qualities he finds in Him, he manifests in himselL
The recipients of grace become “ stewards of the
manifold grace of God.” It is given for minister¬
ing as well as for perfecting. “ God is able to make
all grace abound unto you ; that ye having always
all-sufficiency in everything may abound unto
every good work.” The grace by which Jesus
Christ tasted death for every man is intended to
produce a like spirit of sacrifice in us. “ Because
He laid down His life for us, we ought to lay down
our lives for the brethren.” If the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ be with us, it will work in us as
it worked in Him. They that know the love of
God must live the life of love. If we say the Love
of God is with us and we walk contrary to love,
we are liars, and know not the truth. The God
of love dwells in us that we may live the life of
Godlike love. So it is also with the communion
of the Spirit. He does not share with us His
riches that we may hoard them, or endue us with
His power that we may spend it on ourselves.
The companionship, partnership, and co-opera¬
tion into which He brings us is intended to send
us forth with like privileges to others. The
threefold Benediction is to abide with us that its
threefold grace may be manifested in us, and
the presence of its Three-One God demonstrated
through us. All are included in the blessing, and
none are omitted from the purpose.

THE CHRISTIAN BENEDICTION 355

The Benediction defines the mission of the
Church of God. It is a brotherhood by the grace
of Christ, living in the love of God, and realising
the spirit of communion in the H0I7 Ghost. Its
symbol is a simple meal of commemoration,,
'which celebrates the supreme act of grace and
looks forward to its final triumph in the return of
its Lord. It is a family gathering of the Brother¬
hood of Christ where all other considerations
disappear. They dwell in the love of God, and
from the beginning the reality of both the grace
and love has been demonstrated in the spirit of
loving and practical fellowship. Grace, love, and
communion are the signs of the Divine Presence
in the Christian Church.

The message of the Church to the world is the
message of the Benediction. Its gospel is a gospel
of grace to the lost; the burden of its message is
the love of God ; and it calls all men to the com¬
munion of the Spirit and the fellowship of them
that believe. It brings its Good Tidings to the
worthless and the unfit. Others preach the doc¬
trine of self-righteousness and self-reliance ; we
preach a doctrine of grace which brings uttermost
salvation to the uttermost sinners. Grace, Love,
Fellowship ! The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God, and the communion of the
Holy Ghost; that is the Gospel and the power
by which the world is to be restored and saved.

HUMANITY AND GOD

356

Man finds his destiny in an Indwelling Divinity,
and in the practice of the Divine qualities of
Grace, Love, and Communion. This is man’s way
to his destined divinity: The grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the com¬
munion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

Butler and Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frame, and London.